Estelí: Land of cool nights

Several weekends ago we traveled 2 hours north to the city of Estelí. There we visited with the Castillo family, the future inlaws of our colleague Lydell. Estelí is in an agriculturally rich region; the surrounding area produces much of Nicaragua's rice, coffee, tobacco, and onions. They receive quite a bit of rain, and the temperatures are cooler because of higher altitude. After nearly a month and a half of sweltering temps here in Managua (see our friend Pamela's blog post for another perspective on Managua heat), we were grateful to get away. And wow, we slept well. We actually used a sheet at night and did not wake up already sweating. "Why do we live in Managua?"we wondered.

The Castillo family showed us fantastic Estelian hospitality. We ate well (rice & beans, good cheese, chicken-cheeseball soup) and had a great time laughing together. We also went to church with them and got our tails wooped in an all-church "sword-drill" match. We thought we knew our Bibles, but oh no...these folks were fast, and we didn't stand a chance!

Here are a few favorite photos...

Misioneros: Teaching and Learning

We had the opportunity on Saturday to bring some of our reflections/questions about "missions" to a group at the Nicaraguan Brethren in Christ Biblical Institute. We were ostensibly leading a workshop, but it's likely we learned more from them and they benefited more from one another.

Here are some highlights:
-Borrowing an idea from Luke Keefer, we compiled a list of consequences of sin (violence, hunger, sickness, broken families, etc.). When it came to listing "poverty," people had piercing and perceptive questions about what that word means. And shouldn't wealth be included too?

-One participant commented, "We believe that the gospel/salvation is holistic (not merely spiritual, but also physical and economic), but how do we communicate that without falling into a prosperity gospel (which is common here)--that God is going to give people wealth--it's a fine line . . . "

-A holistic picture of "conversion" as "turning"--with several examples from the Old Testament.

-It was really good for our Spanish too. We learned, for instance, that it's very hard to say 'Nebuchadnezzar' in Spanish (our homework is to practice this name 10 times).

On our bookshelves

A community that reads is a community that progresses

You might think that in the midst of this time of life, we don't have much time to read. Well, as it's turned out, we've been reading like crazy! We're continuing our pattern of reading good fiction out loud to each other, which has recently included Philip Gulley, John Grisham, The Red Tent, and Stones from the River. We're also slowly working our way up through Spanish literature, having graduated to "chapter books" (Harry Potter #1 for Alan and La Teleraña de Carlota/Charlotte´s Web for Beth). Beth has memorized La Mochila de Dora (The adventures of Dora the Explorer) from having read it to neighborhood kids about a million times. By the way, if you want to help us augment our collection of books for our neighborhood :), here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/1J4QJAVK7ENUY/

Alan has lots of opportunities to read in preparation for his classes, including stuff by John Paul Lederach and John Driver, as well as reading about liberation theology from one of the sources, Gustavo Gutierrez. Beth is trying to wade through various books and articles on Nicaraguan history, politics, and current events. She just finished The Death of Ben Linder and a pamphlet called The Relevance of Anabaptist Nonviolence in Nicaragua Today--2 contrasting ideas about US citizen involvement when there is injustice perpetrated by our government. We have both been enjoying articles in the journal Mission Focus, as well as trying to read some Spanish articles on the theme of "mission." This has been partly out of our own interest, and partly because on Saturday we are leading a discussion with the Brethren in Christ Biblical Institute on the theme of "A vocabulary of God´s mission." The Secret Message of Jesus (by Brian McLaren) and Called to Question (by Joan Chittister) have also been a part of our thoughts and conversations recently. For the most part, we continue to recommend Brian McLaren--he synthesizes and makes accessible the thoughts of lots of good thinkers in this book (though we found the chapter on the peaceable kingdom pretty anticlimactic after the provocative, prophetic tone of most of the book).

We have been able to appreciate the gift of communication in lots of ways through this experience. Sometimes after a day of using all our mental efforts to communicate our ideas to people in Spanish, it is extremely refreshing to write and converse freely about theological concepts in our native language. We are glad to be doing this together.

Commemoration

This past week has included several opportunities to stop and reflect, commemorate and celebrate.

-We have been here 6 months . . . hard to believe! On Sunday we had a bunch of friends over who have helped us transition into Nicaraguan life.

-This week marked 20 years since the death of Ben Linder, a community development worker from the States who was working here in the 80s and was killed in an attack by the Contras (funded by the US) during the war. This has brought to the surface many interesting conversations about solidarity, which we may share with you here sometime. In the meantime, if you're interested you can find more information on Ben Linder at www.casabenlinder.org.

-Happy International Day of the Worker! We found ourselves in the middle of a labor rally this morning en route to the zoo with some friends.

(Translation: Organized and mobilized, building the power of the people. Question: How can we participate in empowering people . . . especially as it comes to them having work?)