Nicaragua Trip 2010

It’s been several days since I’ve written. Access to a computer was a bit of a challenge in Leon and now we are back in Managua on our last full day. I don’t think I can do service to this whole trip in these few lines, so let me just say that I think the trip has been a great success. We deepened our relationship with our sister church. We immersed ourselves in their lives. We got extremely close to our host families, some of whom we had met before and some of whom were brand new members of the church. Jean Lubke lead a truly remarkable teacher training session for three days. The teachers raved about the new tools they have at their hands and the reframing of the methodology of education. They are all talking about when to do the next session. We ate great food and were overwhelmed by the traditional Nicaraguan hospitality. We really felt (and feel) like part of their families. Just before we left, we heard that Pastor Teodoro’s mother Gladys Duarte is in renal failure. If she was able to get dialysis (she may not even be a candidate) it would cost US$45 per session. The challenges of just health care access is an international issue. We assured them of our prayers that would extend beyond the borders of their town and country. Please keep Gladys, Teodoro and their family in your prayers. As we left Leon, we all wept for the end of this trip. We also wept in thanksgiving for the window into each other’s lives and the feeling that we are each somehow changed by our encounter. I know I will look at my own relative material abundance with new perspective. I will also miss their depth of Spirit, creativity, music, dance and laughter. I’ll miss sitting out on the front step of Teodoro and Mercedes’ home and having spending a warm evening talking with neighbors and watching the world go by. I find it so much more pleasurable than sitting in front of a TV. It occurs to me that we depend on a lot of our entertainment to be given to us our bought, be it on TV in theater, on the computer. In Nicaragua, they often made their own entertainment. I find that at times my creative muscles have atrophied in comparison. So tomorrow, we transition back to the US and I find myself excited to find new ways to be creative, to be loving, to express care and to never take anything for granted. In fact, I think I’ll recognize grace a bit more—especially because I have seen it so clearly this past week. Blessings and Peace, Doug Donley

Read More...

We arrived safely in the arms of our friends and families in our sister church in Leon. The reception was everything that we'd be anticipating since we said farewell to them a year and a half ago. Leon is a much prettier, safer city than Managua. The houses are small, but built of safe materials. I am lived with Lesbia (who lived with me), her husband Cairo, sons Francisco (22) and Lesbert (15), and daughter Belen (10) (translated is Bethlehem). Belen gave up her bedroom for me for the week. I had my own bathroom with a shower that in the mornings had leaves and sometimes lemons from the tree! The house has an open courtyard in the back where they have fruit trees grown (lemon, starfruit, and something else). My Spanish returned slowly (verbs were still hard), but all was well. Our families were so wonderful, and we all learned to be flexible and live on "Nica time". Leon was wonderful - what an amazing change from Managua. Still huge poverty, but a beautiful colonial city with amazing friendly communities. The homes are concrete painted bright colors (like an southern with beautiful carved wood doors and beautiful ironwork at the windows and doors. The training was received amazingly well. The teachers quickly latched onto each idea and implemented them with a creativity that wildly surpassed my expectations. Beth Myers (Rochester) was a fabulous helper. The gratitude we received from the teachers was beyond words. We know that their entire instruction will now be different. Our sister church is a wonderful warm place. We just expanded our UBC family south. The faces, the colors, the SOUNDS, the food - all wonderful. We have one more day in Managua when we are going to see another volcano - but this one up close - and one more market full of the wonderful works of Nicaraguan artisans. Then home to you all! More stories will come with the hundreds of pictures I've taken. Doug was right - this place gets under your skin.

Read More...

Amanda, Rebecca and Doug here: We arrived in Leon and were welcomed by our many church friends. They had a worship service for us when we arrived on Sunday afternoon which was an exercise in contrasts. In the morning we worshipped at First Baptist Managua. We all sang in the large choir and we even sang some on our own. The worship was inspiring and relatively formal in a beautiful new church building. The afternoon worship service in Leon was loud and spirited. The building is much smaller and quite a bit older. Both churches welcomed us with open arms. This afternoon, we painted a mural on the wall of the church symbolizing our connectedness. The mural had two people shaking hands with the flags of Nicaragua and Minnesota draped over each arm. The flags flowed into a lake which they said symbolized baptism and the land of 10,000 lakes. Above the hands was a rainbow, two mountains and a dove representing the spirit. What a way to start out! Tomorrow, Jean begins her amazing teacher training. We look forward to a great week.

Read More...

Hello All! Writing from Managua, Nicaragua! We have only been here for two full days and feel as if it has been much longer! The weather is beautiful, nice breeze, not as hot as August of 2008! Already our experiences have been intense as we experienced the Nemagon Camp on the first day. Frustrating and upsetting, not much has changed for them. We told them of the many letters sent out on their behalf. They expressed their gratitude for our work on letter writing and said {Anything is possible under God| --forgive the strange typos as the keyboard is unfamiliar-- They told us they could tell we are people with good hearts--that we came back and requested to meet with them on our first full day. They are, at this time, terribly impatient with the 17 year struggle and uncomfortably faced with their continued suffering with looming mortality coming closer for many of them. In the dialogue, the Vice President pressed us for what more we could do for them. Could we get a meeting with Daniel Ortega again--(can't find the question mark) We are praying about this. Deidre

Read More...

In the mornings, the compound grounds are swept clearing dirt and fallen leaves from the dry ground. *The grounds-keeper watering the plants at the church was wearing a "Wawa team" T-shirt!) After another wonderful meal, we headed to the Baptist compound where the First Baptist Church of Managua and the Baptist Hospital reside - the work of Gustavo Parajon. We had a Sunday School lesson in English from the Eugene Peterson version of Romans 14 - an appropriate message as we venture into new worlds. We need to remember to not judge what is one "someone else's plate." During the service, we sat and sang with the choir, sang our own set of 3 pieces, and participated to the best of our ability. When the choir noticed that we didn't know the hymns they sang from memory, they gave us their hymnals. They handed us their Bibles so we could join in the readings. At the "sign of peace" they hugged and kissed us as if we were friends visiting from the next city, not countries away. They sang with such a beautiful sound! Loud, solid, and melodious! Now on to Leon.

Read More...