A Tribute to Santos…

Our hearts are broken to pass on this news. Santos who has been part of our lives here for over two decades died last week from Covid. We are really devastated and honestly still trying to grasp the reality of what happened so suddenly and so shockingly. Please pray for his family. This is a very very hard time, it is unimaginable. We want to take some time to memorialize Santos…

If you ever came to work with Open Hearts Ministries, you definitely saw Santos around. He was Mr. Buzbee’s main guy and oversaw pretty much everything. If you had the chance to meet Santos, you almost 100% walked away laughing whether you spoke Spanish or not. He was just that kind of character. He would stick a nick-name on you, tap you on the shoulder and walk away, toss a lime at you from across the way and blame it on a 6 year old standing next to him. Ah man, I remember in the early days here at Quinta Havilah, we used to have wars with all the fruit. Santos was left handed and could hit a guy running full speed at thirty yards with a line drive to the side of the head. I can still see the fruit exploding now. We had so much fun together back then. Santos watched all of Krista’s younger siblings grow up their entire lives and was like the always present Tio for them. He was here for the birth of all of our children.

Santos’ hand print is on every building here at Quinta Havilah. He started with Mr. Buzbee when there was nothing on this land. There are lots and lots of memories of building with friends who visited and with construction crews. Santos was a work horse, a man’s man, his hands were tools. We built over 50 homes together here in Nicaragua. I can distinctly remember him not having a trowel and just using his hand to throw mud and lay the concrete for bricks. This is gonna sound crazy but I saw him nail in a nail with his hand once, no joke! It must have been a rotten piece of wood or something, but he knocked that nail right through and my eyes got really big and he laughed at me. Many people were blessed by his hard work and his strong hands.

Santos always answered his phone and always came whenever we called. It didn’t matter if it was the middle of the night, on the weekend or the holidays. If a water pipe blew up, or the well stopped working, or the power was out again because a squirrel blew up the transformer…Santos would come. He would call the right guys and things would get fixed. That was a constant refrain around here…. “Call Santos”.

It doesn’t feel real, and tears are falling as I try to type. We will remember Santos always for the fun guy he was, for the good he did, and for the ways he helped us. Jesus’ promises of eternal life don’t alway hit home when you are going through the normal ins and outs of life. But when tragedy happens, oh our souls cling to the promises of Jesus. Santos is resting in paradise next to his Savior who invited him in just as he is. Our hearts will hurt for a long time. We will remember the good times. Rest in Peace Don Santos.

As hard as this is for our families, we know it is 1000% harder for Santos’ family. He leaves behind his wife Patricia, his sons Santito and Moises, and his grand children. His younger son is in 10th grade and as you can imagine this is incredibly hard for him. Patricia was telling me how his grandson would always wait for him because he was the one that gave them cookies and lolipops. Patricia and Santos built a life together for over 25 years. The void and loss they are feeling is so incredibly hard….Please pray for them.

Santos was the sole provider for his family. We want to honor him by helping his family. He was so proud of what a good student Moises is, so we want to help see them through without having to change schools because of finances. We want to support Patricia as she tries to settle in to a new life without Santos. We just want to be there for them. Many of you have asked for ways you can help his family…thank you!

If you would like to donate to their family we know it will be a huge help in the hardest of times. You can write a check by clicking here, use paypal button or the NCF button below.