The Answer to a Mother's Prayer

Imagine raising your children in a home you patch together with whatever supplies you can find—crushed cans, scraps of wood, zinc sheets or plastic.

When it rains, the dirt floors quickly morph into knee-high muddy water. And the blazing sun beats down on your black-tarp roof, creating an oven in which you sleep.

This is the place your family takes shelter, but it’s really not secure at all. Someone could easily walk in and steal whatever little belongings you have, and then what? It must all feel so hopeless.   

This was the poverty we saw in one village in Nicaragua; a scene that the mothers described again and again as we visited their homes.   

But we witnessed something astonishingly beautiful happen for a number of these families.   

A Wonderful Gift

You, the friends and partners of Joyce Meyer Ministries, provided 22 families with brand new homes and enough land to grow fruit trees and a garden.  

Thanks to your support, and with the help of several partnering organizations, each family now has a latrine, access to electricity, sturdy walls and a roof, windows, locking doors, a breezy porch and solid floors.  

There was also a genuine sense of ownership, as the families helped to build the homes under the direction of a skilled foreman.  

And at the time, they didn’t know which house would become theirs, so they built each one as if it was their own while getting to know their neighbors in the process.  

Lifting A Burden

Verónica Flores is a widow who had health issues for years that prevented her from working outside the home. Her daughter Clara Mercedes left school so she could support her mom and sisters as well as her siblings’ children.  

Eight months pregnant with her first baby, Clara worked at a restaurant nearly seven days a week to earn a wage that barely covered their expenses. Owning a home would help ease a huge burden for their family.  

“I feel very thankful because we’ve been renting houses and we have been living very bad because of that,” Verónica said, pointing out leaks in the house they had been renting.  

Prayers Answered

Clara said she was holding back tears of joy when she picked up the keys to their new house at the dedication ceremony.  

To her, the home meant she’d have the chance to give her daughter a better life, perhaps the chance to go to school.  

The house—selected for them through a drawing—was a stone’s throw from the place they were renting. Verónica said it’s the very home she asked God for in her prayers.  

“Every night I’ve been praying for God to provide me with a house, and God blessed me and gave me the house that I wanted,” Verónica said, smiling.  

Safety Concerns

Miriam Santana and her daughter, Jesenia, hadn’t had a permanent home in many years. Instead they moved frequently from place to place in search of shelter.  

The home they had been renting was merely a frame, and Miriam saved up the money for tarps so she could enclose the space.  

Her biggest concern had been that people would come in and steal their belongings.  

“It’s just plastic,” Miriam said. “Somebody can just cut it and get things we have … and take them away.”   

Her new home brings stability and security to their situation, and that was a magnificent answer to her prayers.  

“I want to say, ‘Thank you, oh Lord, that I was able to receive what I have been praying for,’” she said.  

These families and so many others saw God’s fervent love for them through each need that was met, and that is nothing short of amazing.  

From the bottom of our hearts, we are so grateful for your help in sharing Christ in such a practical and life-altering way.  

You are helping change lives for good and encouraging families in their walk with God.

Updated: October 2022