Now Accepting Book Donations!

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email me at librarymission@gmail.com

Planning Ahead

Last weekend I had a mini-meeting with David Zinn, outreach pastor at Ginger Creek. We discussed some things, which I will share with you here. You may have noticed the sidebar which clearly states our intention to start a partner library in Pochocuape. For those of you who don’t know where/what that is, Pochocuape is the nickname for a rural mountain community in Managua, Nicaragua. This is the location of the compound, built by Perry Brown, that contains a clinic, school, church, feeding center, and more.

Why make “two” libraries? La Chureca is closely connected with Pochocuape, as Perry Brown works with Maria. Since I’m believing for hundreds–if not thousands–of donated books, then there needs to be somewhere to store them once they are in Nicaragua. Pochocuape, since it is very safe, would make the perfect storage facility for the books that are waiting their turn to be read in La Chureca. And what better way is there to store them than a way in which they are being used? Kind of like a mobile library, the books in La Chureca would be circulated at different times, allowing for a smaller and more manageable collection that can be frequently updated, and thus more interesting.

Another thing I learned were some plans for December and January. It’s my church’s goal (as of now) to bring up Perry and Maria those months, respectively. Once they are in town I will have a chance to be in a meeting with them and figure out more logistics. Until then, we hope to send several books to Maria with the mission trip in January. Then she can introduce the idea of a library, inform them on how one works, and generally generate interest. This will give her a testing period to discover things she needs to run the library that wouldn’t have been thought of otherwise.

We hope to have the whole thing in full swing by summertime.

Community Interests & Goals

That books I’ve been reading–as well as other documents–about starting small libraries have given me some great things to think about. One of these is community interests. For example, a fishing village would likely be interested in materials relating to fish or fishing, but not those on raising crops in the desert. Libraries are wonderful sources of both entertainment and information. However, it’s my job right now to make sure that they get the information they would find useful, and the entertainment they would find entertaining. Once we have someone down in Nicaragua that I can talk to, it will give me a better idea of what specific materials will be worthwhile to have in La Chureca. There will understandably be limited space.

For now it is hard to say what materials, specifically, are needed. The best thing to say would be children’s books, because the ideas used in them are fairly universal, and reference materials such as encyclopedias because they enhance the classroom experience. Books that are more generic, versus specialized, are better. You can get some ideas by the books that I’ve picked up from library book sales by going to the LibraryThing account linked on the right side. It’s pretty hard to go wrong when it comes to children’s books. However, it’s a good thing to keep pictures in mind: kids in Nicaragua would probably like to see pictures of kids that look like themselves.

This leads me to the topic of goals. I have written down goals that will assist me in writing a good mission statement. Here’s what I can up with…

Goals:
-to improve lives through the provision of enriching resources.
-to make the people feel valuable and loved
-to generate enthusiasm for reading
-to provide tools that will help them improve their future in more ways than one
-to nurture interests and hobbies that will make them more valuable members of their society
–not to change their culture, but rather to give them access to more of it

Sources in Nicaragua

Hello again! I’m mentioned  the need to get in contact with Maria several times before. Well, I haven’t yet, but I have good news. I was recently informed by someone helping me with this that we have some people from our church who will be living in Nicaragua. While I do not know the exact date, I believe it is somewhere around a month from now that a family will be moving down there for four months. Also, a leader in our youth group will likely be down there for some time.. All of these people are interested in helping. This is incredibly encouraging because they can help firsthand with any issues that arise, while promptly communicating back to us about anything that is needed.

62 Books

It’s official, folks. We have 62 books. A couple weeks ago at those two library book sales is when I found most of them. Around ten are some that I got for myself a while ago, but decided to donate instead. (After all, they will be read much more over there than by me!)

Here is the LibraryThing account that I promised you.

Sorry for the lack of posts these past couple days. I’ve been up to things, but nothing so noteworthy or groundbreaking to mention. I will say that I’ve had some more people offer help, though. =] Have a wonderful day!

Pre-Nicaragua Storage and Cataloguing

I got the go-ahead to store the collected books at my church. Since the first couple batches will be going down there with our mission teams, it makes the most sense to keep them there anyway. I may have mentioned before that I am a book lover and my sister owns tons of books: take into account the fact that I don’t have a big house, and you can see why I’m thrilled there is somewhere else to store these! I expect to be getting a large number of donations in the upcoming months, so this was an important step.

Before I bring them there I am going to catalog all the books. I’ll keep a copy there, and a copy with me. I will create a librarything.com account as well, and that will be linked on the sidebar shortly.

Please keep praying for God to guide me and my friend as we are working on these projects!

Other Goals

I mentioned earlier that a friend of mine is planning to do something pretty exciting in Nicaragua, as well. (He’s actually that guy with the backpack in the picture a couple posts below.) What he wants to do is work with OLPC–One Laptop Per Child–and get some for Pochocuape. Like my goal with the library is to start at La Chureca and branch off to Pochocuape, his goal is to start in Pochocuape, and branch of to La Chureca. For many reasons, his decision is sound. I’m going to be helping him in any way that I can, so I hope you will as well. I’ll keep you posted. Right now he’s planning and collecting information before asking for project approval from both OLPC and our church.

Check out this video.