| Doug Orbaker
Apdo Postal CJ-176
Ciudad Jardin
Managua, Nicaragua
Email: Doug Orbaker
Doug was appointed in January 2004 to serve in Nicaragua with
CEPAD, the Council of Evangelical Churches in Nicaragua. As delegations
coordinator, Doug develops the programs carried out by the many
“mission teams” that go to Nicaragua to work with
and learn from Nicaraguans.
Since he first began to organize and lead groups to Central America
after Hurricane Mitch in October 1998, Doug saw that short-term
service wasn’t primarily about getting things accomplished.
“I tried to develop these groups not just to work,”
he writes, “but to learn of the cultures and histories that
have created such poverty, and to live in friendship with the
people with whom we work. These experiences of different culture
and language have always been a source of joy for me.
“The only thing of which
I am certain is that God is calling me to service in Latin America.
I believe we most often feel God at work through the words and
deeds of other people. I have felt God’s love in the way
that the Christians in Nicaragua and Honduras have overridden
their fears to respond to the disaster created by Hurricane Mitch.
I have heard God speak in the testimonies of faith of people whose
lives have been stripped of everything except their faith, and
in the voice of those who have risked their lives for their freedom.”
Except for the period from 1989 to 1994 when he was synod associate
in the Synod of the Covenant, Doug has served the church as a
pastor throughout his career. Immediately prior to his appointment
as a mission co-worker, Doug was pastor of First Presbyterian
Church, Coudersport, Pennsylvania (1995 – 2003). He was
pastor of Cranston Memorial Presbyterian Church in New Richmond,
Ohio, from 1972 to 1989, and pastor of Condit United Presbyterian
Church in Sunbury, Ohio, from 1968 to 1972. |
