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Dear Friends,
Some of you have been asking about my recent mission trip to Nicaragua, so I have attempted to write about it for you. It was the trip of a lifetime -- not like a vacation to an exotic port or tropical island where you go to experience things that the world has to offer. It was like a glimpse of the past and the future where God reveals a different piece of His majestic creation.
We started in Managua and spent a full day and two nights there, staying at the Provadenic training center. The accommodations were lovely, but we didn’t realize that until we got back from the field. The training center is used by the community health promoters when they are in town for training and by the Provadenic and CEPAD work brigades before and after they are in the field. While in Managua, we took a tour to the Ebenezer Farm, a mission farm that trains farmers in animal husbandry and agricultural practices. They had goat, rabbit, and fowl programs where they seed the community and train farmers in good farm and herd practices. Also, they have pig, earthworm, and agricultural research programs.
After our orientation and acclimatization in Managua, we were off to Sabanagrande. The five-hour ride up the Pan-American highway and dirt roads revealed devastation still from Hurricane Mitch, which dumped about seven feet of water on the mountains a year and a half ago. The shore area of Lake Managua was still covered by water. A few house foundations were covered by water also. However, the most telling sites were the river beds that had areas 50 feet to each side where the now calm waters had previously scraped away all the soil, trees, and vegetation like a giant bulldozer, leaving only large rocks and boulders in place. This scene repeated over and over at the larger rivers and the small, trickling creeks. Of course, the bridges were newly rebuilt except a few that were still non-existent.
The community of Sabanagrande is a rural farming and ranching village with 81 houses, 115 families, and about 400 people. It has never had electricity and has had no running water since the floods and mud slides of Hurricane Mitch ruined the water source and damaged some of the pipes. Those without private wells, which was most of the community, existed by hauling water from the river and with cisterns. The community has an elementary school, a children’s dining hall, and the clinic. I stayed in the dental office of the clinic for the week. Life in the village was simple but hard, and reminded me of the old West. Some of the ranchers had horses and it was not uncommon to see them riding up or down the road. Almost all families had chickens in the yard, and many had turkeys, pigs, dogs, and cattle too. A few had goats and rabbits. Our cook’s family had a pet kitten and parrot. The children in the village were all healthy, but were smaller, skinnier, and stronger than kids I’m used to seeing. The older children go in to town, Pueblo Nuevo, to attend school. A bus company came daily at 6:30AM to the village, and returned at about 4:30PM. The junior high school aged kids would always show up back in the village around lunch time, though, well ahead of the bus. The ride to town was about half an hour, but given the condition of the road, the walk probably wasn’t too much longer -- less than an hour. The boys wore a white shirt to school and the girls, a white shirt and blue uniform skirt.
One of our tasks was to dig wells for the community. These wells will be used to fill-in until the water system can be replaced and in emergencies afterwards. Our presence there may have also spurred the community into thinking harder about how to replace the old water system. In four days, we dug one well to 4.5 meters. The locals estimate that this well needs another meter or two before it hits the water. The other well hit water at about 8 feet. We got that well down to about 3.5 meters, but had to stop before it was completed because we couldn’t bail the water out of it fast enough and couldn’t get a hand pump or a long enough siphon. Hopefully, the community will have these wells working in the next month or so. The locals knew much more about digging wells by hand than we did and were hard workers. We learned a great deal about common knowledge, not to mention communications without a verbal language, during our stay.
One of our other tasks was sowing good will and God’s love on the community and learning the culture and situation of the peoples of Nicaragua to communicate it back to all of you. I take it on faith that we exceeded our goals in this assignment. The people were kind and loving. They perceived us, I believe, as friends, and no one held ill feelings toward us for our culture or the United States’ involvement in the Contra war. In the village, we were an oddity and curiosity to the kids. They perceived us as brawny giants and friends. I had a very hard time telling about God’s love because of the language barrier. Instead, I had to show God’s love as best as I could, mostly by playing and interacting with the kids. I taught them how to catch pebbles off of their elbows, and learned a new game, outlawed here I’m sure, where two teams of boys compete by lining up head to butt, forming a line of backs which the other team jumps onto, as one would a horse, from a full run. After the whole team has gotten on to the backs of the others, part of the line collapses and everyone argues over who won. It was great fun, but due to my size, I was only allowed to play the part of the horses and not the riders. The girls liked to play volleyball. All had a great time playing catch with balls, Frisbees, and a football. The little kids played Pato-Pato-Pato-Ganso (Duck-Duck-Goose) just as I’ve seen dozens of times here.
On Sunday, we attended the Baptist church in the little town of Pueblo Nuevo. While our cultures may be very different, I felt completely at home worshipping in their devotional service. They sang beautiful hymns, some of which were recognizable by the tune and most not. The sound bellowed out into the street for a block. They read from the Bible and had a great bible study that would have been meaningful to any of us. Someday, I pray, we can all worship together in heaven without the language barrier. After church service, while walking in town, the Catholic church had a parade. Jesus was carried high on a throne through the streets while the priest led singing and a band played. Bottle rockets announced that Jesus was coming at every street corner. Between the loud music at the Baptist church and the parade with band and bottle rockets, Pueblo Nuevo was more on-fire for Jesus than many of our cities. Then, on Friday, we were doubly blessed, because the Baptist church came out to the village to worship with us. We had practiced a hymn in Spanish for them. We knew what the translation was and it seemed they understood the Spanish that we were singing. What a beautiful congregation and worship service!
On our way back to Managua for a day of rest before we flew back home, we heard of the earthquake in Masaya. Ray Schellinger-Gutierrez, American Baptist missionary to Central America, was in Managua preparing to return from furlough. It was great to meet him and talk with a missionary "at work," but he had the unfortunate job of telling us about the earthquake and that a few people had died and numerous houses were destroyed. I only wish that I had met him in happier circumstances.
Words and pictures cannot adequately describe my experience in Nicaragua. I can only say that I love the peoples of Nicaragua as God loves them all. They have had to live through political turmoil and natural disasters that we cannot comprehend. Yet, for the most part, they have remained proud, loving independence and liberty, and many still seeking God in the midst of unemployment, large national debt, economic immaturity, and continuing natural disasters and uncertain government. Pray with me that they will all seek God regardless of their condition in the future.
May God’s Grace and Peace be with you, too.
Neil Durst