PBA Update
Nicaragua
2001

Dear Friends,

Again this year I was blessed to be one of the lay missionaries to represent the Pittsburgh Baptist Association on a trip to Nicaragua, Central America. The trip was exciting, heart breaking, fun, challenging, and Spiritual-walk enhancing all at the same time. Twelve people representing four churches of the PBA experienced the trip. We formed a diverse, complementary team in a short time before the trip and performed exceptionally well as a group. The trip was similar to last year's, but even the veterans learned new things and experienced the blessings of the short-term mission trip.

As usual, our trip started in Managua. We toured the Ebenezer Ranch mission farm, which now has a small web site (http://www.ranchoebenezer.org/) and continues its ministry of helping Nicaraguan farmers. Chico, the director of the ranch, was evangelistic and enthusiastic about the farm and its mission. They have programs in education, small animal husbandry, and ecologically sound agricultural production. We also got to worship at the First Baptist Church of Managua on Sunday. The church building that last year was just steel beams and footers had turned into a beautiful, modern worship center with a cross built into the ceiling and stained glass windows behind the choir. The real treat, however, was the hand bell choir from Topeka, Kansas that was touring Nicaragua and performed the special music in the morning service. After church, we loaded up the trucks and headed for Tapasle, a village of approximately 600 people about an hour or so drive from the city of Matagalpa.

Our tasks while in Tapasle were to help build the new clinic, teach a children's Bible school, and help the local farmers with their crops. During the week, the header that goes on top of the bricks and holds the roof was completed on the clinic. Also, the inside floor and porch were flattened in preparation for pouring the floor concrete. Progress seems to go so slow, but hopefully we were able to help the building and show our support to the effort. Concerning Bible school for the children, we hope that God was pleased with our efforts there, too. We had a good, large group of students and used some bilingual children's Bible stories plus craft-making items that we brought. The children were eager to learn and had an easy time memorizing the colorful "Jelly Bean Prayer." Creativity seemed a little harder for them than the average Vacation Bible School student here. Nonetheless, I still saw many beautiful butterflies (mariposas) and fish (pescados) during the "God created everything" and "Jesus feeds 5000" craft times. Finally, I can tell you that farming is hard work! For the most part, farming was the only occupation in Tapasle. Coffee, bananas/plantains, sugar cane, yucca, corn, fruit trees, and rice were the major crops. It was obvious that farming would not make the Nicaraguans rich. It is hoped we helped a few local farmers keep ahead of the jungle that was fighting for their crops. Of course, these things were our tasks, but not our mission. In reality, our mission was to show God's love to the village of Tapasle and to all of the people of Nicaragua. Only in time will we know how well we did on our mission.

Like last year, I personally had a harder time with my mission than I expected because of the language issue. James (1:26) tells us to tame our tongues, and there is no better help than a different language. Therefore, I had to try my best to show love through actions when I couldn't find the right foreign words. Playing games with the kids worked. I taught a few of the primary school children a new matching game that I designed "on-the-fly." The game had to be easy enough to not tax my fledgling Spanish. The middle-aged kids returned the favor and taught me one of their card games. Manuel and I played this game for hours. Hopefully he enjoyed playing cards with me as much as I enjoyed his company. Manuel was just one of the many new friends I had the pleasure of sharing some time. During the week, we did get to worship with our brothers and sisters. On Monday night, service was at the Catholic church. On Tuesday, the Assemblies of God church came up and we had services in the grass. Finally, on Thursday night we worshipped at the Assemblies of God church. What a glorious time it was to see that God is the same even though the culture and environment are different.

Words and pictures do not do the experience of being a short-term lay missionary justice. When specifically asked, Dr. Parajón said the three largest physical needs that we could supply were coming on the short-term mission trips, funding a micro credit union in a rural community, or trying to fund an entire community clinic. Maybe you could do one of these and have your own experience? They don't take very much talent, and a lending "bank" only needs about $1,000 capital. Clinics, of course, are a bit more expensive at just about $10,000. Baptists are making a big difference in Nicaragua, and here is one statistic that I will remember most from this year: rural communities where PROVADENIC has clinics have a lower infant mortality rate than we have in the United States. This is no less than a miracle, and in some way I feel connected to it just because I love the people that I met in Nicaragua -- simply because God does.