Neighbors/Vecin@s

Well, we really are binge bloggers, aren´t we? We don´t post for awhile, then get up 3 or 4. We were thinking that you haven´t really had the opportunity to see pictures of many of the people who are part of our daily lives. Here are some photos of our neighbors.

While everything's new, we might as well...

As you can imagine, everything is new for us here in Nicaragua. The language is new. The climate is new. The cities, streets, landmarks, directions, all new. So is the food.

So we decided, what the heck, since we’re already learning so many new things, why not add a few more. And so we have.

Since arriving here in Nicaragua, I (Alan) have learned how to drive stick shift. No, I never learned how to drive it in the US. But here in Nicaragua, why not? After a few lessons with Lydell, one of our fellow MCCers, I’ve got the hang of it enough to drive around Managua. I’ve even done some non-city driving. Off-roading is being dishonest, because there was a road. But this particular dirt road was unlike anything I’ve ever driven before. Fortunately, for that experience, I had a former off-road driving instructor in the truck with me. He was a very helpful ‘non-anxious presence’ and only once did I have to roll back down one particularly steep hill. Now, should you choose to come visit us in Nicaragua, I can drive the truck to meet you at the airport.

I (Beth) have been learning the guitar. I had toyed around with it at various other times in my life, but when I found a guitar in the MCC office here, I decided to work at it more in earnest. So, with the help of many Nicaraguan teachers along the way, I can put chords together and play enough to accompany worship songs, as well as singing times with our neighbor kids. It's a good musical outlet for us, since we aren't part of a music group and don't have many opportunities to play piano. I've been delighted to find that this process has really helped me to view chord structures, keys, rhythms, and playing "by ear" in a new way. I am no virtuoso, but if you come visit us in Nicaragua, I might be persuaded to lead us in a round of "Todo poderoso" o "Tu Nombre Levantaré." :)

Material Resources, Part 2

Back in October we made a post about visiting the Material Resources Center in Pennsylvania. Now we are experiencing the flip side of material aid. This week, I (Beth) drove the truck out to the warehouse where Angela and I met up with 15-20 volunteers from the Anabaptist churches and other partner organizations to unload the container of stuff from Akron. "Stuff" including everything from 100 bales of clothing to thousands of health kits, newborn kits, and sewing kits (modeled by one of the volunteers in the photo below) to a sink/stove/refrigerator unit.



There are many wonderful aspects of material aid. For example, several truckfuls of hard-to-find medical supplies went to a nursing school, so that people from rural communities can have better access to training and resources in more remote areas. I also enjoyed seeing the Nicaraguan churches working together in this process of unloading and distributing the resources. But to be perfectly honest, I'm having a lot of questions about material aid here in Nicaragua.


- One of our ultimate goals is for the Nicaraguan economy to grow and become healthy and independent so that all people can work, eat, clothe themselves, and be educated. Why are we sending things that could be produced or bought within the Nicaraguan economy? Are we fighting against ourselves?


- Irony: all the social comissions of the churches have sewing schools as an income generation project for women, so they had requested fabric. Instead of fabric, clothes arrived. Everyone was thankful, and the clothes are high quality and will be used. But how can the sewing schools compete with free clothing? How are they going to make money?



- Will the resources make it outside Managua? (Most of the material we gave to the churches probably won't. It is just too expensive and time-consuming to coordinate transporting it all. There is not the infrastructure, even though the most impoverished communities are in rural areas)


- How much of material aid is a feel-good boost for the people who give it, and how much is contributing to the goals of accompanying and empowering communities to be sustainable and break cycles of poverty, dependency, and injustice?


- How do we help to encourage this conversation when so much of it is related to very complicated economic, social, and psychological factors?

Through all these questions, God is at work. People are donating and working in material resources because they want to be connected to people in need around the world. People here are compassionately serving their communities and excited to share with them resources and love.

Misioneros, Part 3

Our last post focused on motives for being ‘on mission.’ But so we don’t get ahead of ourselves, it’s worth asking the question, “What is the mission?”

Looking at Gen. 1, we find a clue for God’s mission in the world. God creates humanity in the image of God (v. 26), after which God says, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it” (v. 28). We humans were created in God’s image to be God’s image. And God’s desire was that we be images of God in the whole world, wherever we are, representing the Creator.

Adam & Eve’s fall distorts the image of God in humanity, a distortion that continues to infect us. Instead of seeing God’s image reflected in our humanity, often we see pain, violence, and brokenness.

Yet in spite of our brokenness, we are still created in God’s image. The life and work of Christ have redeemed us to reflect God’s image as imitators of Christ. And God’s original mission of Gen. 1 has not gone away: be God’s image in the world.

This, then, is the mission for all Christ-followers. There are not some Christians who are called to participate in God’s mission and others who are not. The mission is for everyone because we’re all created in God’s image. Where there is a person, there is the possibility of seeing God’s image. And where there is a believer, there is a person participating in God’s mission by reflecting God’s image. --Alan

Misioneros: Motives

We've been thinking some about motives and motivations lately. One of the questions that complements "What is a missionary?" is "Why be a missionary?" For all of us involved in God's mission (i.e. the Church), this is an important question - why do we do what we do? And for us, as we've relocated ourselves to another place and are often referred to vocationally as "missionaries", these questions of motivation are close.

Henri Nouwen lists lots of reasons that people decide to be "missioners"--which he defines here as people working in Christian/humanitarian work in a cross-cultural setting. Escaping our home culture, looking for adventure, breaking away from family, experiencing an urge to help the poor, searching for self-affirmation, having an intellectual interest in another culture . . . there are more.

Even more challenging for us is Nouwen's warning about the two most damaging motives: guilt and the desire to save. Compassion and guilt are deceptively similar--one often slips into the place of the other. Seeing extreme poverty is hard, especially when we think about our material wealth. The inevitable feelings of guilt can drive us to "compassionate" service, but these motivations can be dangerous. The guilt won't go away and can lead to burnout because "we're never doing enough."

The desire to save, whether it be saving people from poverty or saving their souls, can also be a detrimental motive. Mainly, who are we to save anyone? It's God that does the saving, not us. To assume that we can save others, whether from physical or spiritual problems, is arrogant--and even idolatrous--on our parts. And it harms human relationships, where one person is set up as the 'savior' while the recipient becomes dependent on former, when both are just humans in need of saving.

We will always have mixed motives, but we like Nouwen's reminder: "The issue is not to have perfectly motivated missioners, but missioners who are willing to be purified again and again as they struggle to find their true vocation in life." Humility and the willingness to be shaped by God are the most important characteristics for all of us seeking to live God's mission!

We would love to hear your thoughts and comments on this topic!

Island Vacation

After five months here in Nicaragua, we decided it was time for a little vacation. So we took a long weekend to Ometepe, a volcanic island that sits in the middle of Lake Nicaragua (see the map below). We hiked the inactive volcano, a difficult but beautiful adventure through a cloud forest, and we were rewarded with a spectacular view of a lagoon that fills the crater (photo included here).

But most of all, we enjoyed the peace and quiet. Here are some photos of our trip - the active volcano, Concepción (we did not climb this one), a sunset over the lake, and a shot of us in the cloud forest.