May 14, 2007

Thoughts after three years of delegations

Dear Friends,

Now that I am back for my second three-year term in Nicaragua working with CEPAD, I stopped to remember some of the different groups I have worked with. They have come from all over the United States and now Canada. They have ranged in size from four to thirty five people, and in age from youth groups to groups where the average age makes me feel young (at 63.)

Some are people who have been coming to Nicaragua for 15 or 20 years, others have had to apply for a passport for the first time in their lives. Some are very familiar with the history of Nicaragua and the U.S. involvement here, others don’t even know about the revolution here 28 years ago that overthrew a 44-year dictatorship. Some are dedicated to coming here to “help the poor Nicaraguans,” others are coming to learn about a different culture, or simply to share time and experiences with Nicaraguan friends of many years.

I’ve worked with five medical groups who have come to offer their special knowledge to the people of Nicaragua. The most valuable member was a doctor who asked the local health worker to be at his side whenever he was seeing patients. He was careful not to shake the confidence that people had in their local health worker, explaining that “next week, he is going to be the only one here and the people have to trust him.” Other medical groups have not been so open to working with the local health workers, and because of this prior experience, some local health workers have refused to work with incoming international medical brigades.

I’ve worked with dozens of groups that wanted build things, and for several years before moving to Nicaragua I led such groups myself. It is easy to think that our North American ways of building things are the best, the easiest, the sturdiest, etc. But some things are built differently here in Central America. When I was young I worked with my uncle who was a masonry contractor. He never laid concrete blocks the way that we do here, and probably would have argued against it. On the other hand, my uncle never built buildings for an earthquake-prone area, and these folks recognize that possibility in every building they build. Some of these groups have been very helpful, following the directions of the Nicaraguan builders. Others have tried to argue and change these ways, and ended up doing work that had to be redone after they left.

Members of a delegation help a campesino turn his compost pile.

Incoming groups should realize that Nicaraguans don’t need help to build their buildings. The average Nicaraguan knows more about building than does the average participant in our delegations and is more accustomed to working long hours in the sun. And yet, for many people, the work is more important than the experience. Some groups complain about spending time learning about Nicaragua, about the local health or educational systems, or about the larger work of CEPAD when they’d rather be working. How do we explain that the “work” is useful but not essential, and that it’s the relationship that’s essential?

We have been receiving a growing number of college student and youth groups—five this year and at least three in 2008. These groups come primarily to learn, to experience a different culture, and to focus on the ways that their young lives are growing in a direction that will (in the hopes of their leaders) lead them away from more consumerism and into a life of greater concern for the poor of the world and greater awareness of the wondrous diversity of culture and experience that God has given us. It has been a joy to me to have students writing back saying things like, “I’ve changed my major because of this experience.” Or “My faith has grown since my time in Nicaragua.”

Many groups come to visit their long-term partners. CEPAD facilitates 17 (and the number grows each year) such partnerships, some of them in existence for almost 20 years. Many people return year after year to the same community, see the same people, worship in the same churches, and share whatever problems their partners are facing at the time.  Some of these have resulted in a series of short-term actions, others have resulted in a long-term plan, such as helping a community fight the illegal logging of virgin forest in their area or building and staffing a school.

These partnerships don’t focus on projects or money. They focus on knowing each other and caring for each other. There are dozens of U.S. families with prayer-partner families in Nicaragua. Here in CEPAD we translate many letters that share a list of prayer concerns, both personal and of the whole church. When the granddaughter of a pastor in San Carlos drowned last year, several churches in the United States prayed for the family, and our office forwarded more than a dozen letters of condolence. When visitors came this year, they didn’t need for a translator to interpret the hugs and tears. It’s amazing to see the touch of personal concern across barriers of language, culture, and distance.

God has given us a world of great and wonderful variety. I am privileged to see that in both the varied cultures of the United States and Nicaragua. I am also privileged to see it in the variety of groups who come here as God’s people from North America try to figure out how they can best join hands with God’s people in Nicaragua. My hope is that you will continue to pray for us in CEPAD and for those who come searching for ways to put their faith to work in their everyday lives. May we all continue learning and growing in this way.

Doug Orbaker

The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 58