The Orthodox Christian experience is given to us as an uninterrupted project, as an unfinished reality. Since we struggle until the end of our lives with the help and consolation of God, starting from this spiritual reality, the life of the Holy Hierarch Nicholas of Myra in Lycia never stops impacting us, since it generates strength, a willingness, and an effort toward Heavenly riches, riches that must be shared in concrete acts with the less favored.

This is why our Spanish-speaking Orthodox mission in Nicaragua, in the company of the whole Church, has shared a word of encouragement with the children of the poor community and their families on the feast of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. These children have managed to be direct witnesses not only of humanitarian need, but of a constant desire: the presence of a God Who enlists them and Who is manifested through His Church: the Orthodox Church.

Priest Daniel Valle from Misión San Juan de Shanghai y San Francisco in Matagalpa, and his Matushka Maria, with the support of the faithful ‒ adults, youths, and children ‒ after celebrating Divine Liturgy, shared a reflection on the life of St. Nicholas, and then toys and clothes were delivered to the children of the neighborhood of Sadrach Zeledón, Matagalpa’s mayor.

The children have shown how "only they know how to do it" with their love and gratitude in the middle of the surprising joy of the community experience. We continue to ask our Lord through the intercession of the Ever-Virgin Mother of God, of St. John of Shanghai & San Francisco, of St. Nicholas of Myra, and of all the saints, that God in Trinity illumine the reality of our mission work and bring His will to a happy end.

Priest Daniel Valle