A Church is Built on a Hill

Please note: forgive me if I omitted photos or remembrances of importance - this can only be a snapshot of this experience... there was so much to tell that I was bound to miss something! Out of the hundreds of photos taken and journal entries written, this is merely my narrative and my impressions... feel free to add comments to enrich his collection!

Una iglesia se contruye en una colina

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:13-16 NIV

En español…
Ustedes son la sal de la tierra. Pero si la sal se vuelve insípida, ¿cómo recobrará su sabor? Ya no sirve para nada, sino para que la gente la deseche y la pisotee. Ustedes son la luz del mundo. Una ciudad en lo alto de una colina no puede esconderse. Ni se enciende una lámpara para cubrirla con un cajón. Por el contrario, se pone en la repisa para que alumbre a todos los que están en la casa. Hagan brillar su luz delante de todos, para que ellos puedan ver las buenas obras de ustedes y alaben al Padre que está en el cielo.

Friday February 16th, the team officially checked in for duty - ready for a good week of honest work! Just a short bus ride from our hotel in town, the Caribbean Dream, along a variety of roads up a long hill lies the home for the new church in Bluefields. From the street a narrow path leads us to the site... one would never know this church was there as about 1/4 mile down, the road heads downward... I did mention that this church is being built on a hill... and quite a hill it is! Rigo says the church will get its name from the congregation... it will not be known necessarily as the Conservative Baptist Church of Bluefields. For those of us who worked on the Llanos and Altos de Santa Maria sites just outside of Guatemala City, you might remember that Llanos was called Oasis de Alabanza, or Oasis of Praise... I imagine that the congregation of this community of believers will come up with something appropriate!

We arrived just in time for lunch and we spent a bit of time scoping out the lay of the land. Tucked underneath the racks for rebar, plumbing and lumber were hammocks - this is where the men stayed every night -they along with the women who cooked for us every day! We were humbled by their accommodations while they served us!

The amount of time and effort it took to prepare meals for our team and other workers which totaled close to 60 at one time is staggering. I will be forever humbled by the gift of service rendered by "las hermanas de lac cocina", led by Claudia Reyes, Rigo's wife! We also want to thank Marta, Marta's mother Yolanda and also Carla... we ate like kings all week and we deeply appreciated it! As soon as we were served breakfast, they diligently cleaned up and began preparations for the lunch. Same thing for dinner for those left at the work site.

Claudia and her sisters in Christ (hermanas en Cristo) also were introduced to a sewing ministry opportunity by a team led by Rusty Turrell. The women found time and space to begin their projects - we brought "kits" for pillows and bags for the women to make... eventually, they will teach pastor's wives to make to sell to support their ministries... awesome stuff!

We quickly found out that Rigo's vision of the church was a grand one. This photo shows Rigo at the beginning of the week praying and pondering over this work site. The building will house Pastor William alongside the sanctuary which is followed by another section that can be multi purpose - classrooms or maybe an area for home industry commerce to support the ministry of the church. Rigo says that the largest church so far in Chinandega only receives $ 50.00 per month - hardly enough to keep the electricity going, let alone a pastor, so any alternative means to create some positive cash flow is going to be encouraged.

In order to make cement and wash dishes, you need water - which comes from a manual well which is about 1/4 mile away from the site. Not sure of the exact amount used, but it was in the 1,000's of gallons... hoisted from earthen wells by the bucket full and transported in either 5 gallon jugs and 2 gallon buckets. You could see any combination of adults and kids and little children fetching water during most of the day... when the call for "¡mas agua!" came, we responded!

The housing conditions around the well we used humbled me tremendously... the space that large family would live in was so far removed from the comfort where I am typing this blog. This was a typical home near the well site... it was hard to tell, but it seemed like at least 4 children lived there... dirt floors and hammocks for beds. I cannot imagine what this must be like in the rainy season - which begins in late April.

Right next to the well was a thatched roof hut that was use to wash laundry - this was better than the conditions far below the work site, where women washed clothes on rocks next to a small water hole fed by a spring.

A real marvel started to emerge right there in the trenches... the engineering necessary for constructing such a building on such a site. Many thanks to Dave Leahy and Jim Odell (aka "Pinky" and "The Brain") for their experience, insights and abilities to translate Rigo's vision into reality. To the left are the "blueprints" for the building... the rest remained safe and intact in Dave & Jim's minds! The sanctuary will hold 200 people in a stadium seating set up - fully utilizing the natural slope of the land to create a wonderful place to worship God! The Nicarguan believers however showed us that the church is much more than the building, didn't they? That story will remain with us forever!

The first team picture since our arrival in BluefieldsThe many work site tasks...

Excavating a 12' deep x 13' wide septic system cauldron hole - all by hand in thick red Nicaraguan clay - quite a feat for the first part of the week.

The process of digging trenches and column footers was another mammoth undertaking - good thing we had many strong folks to handle this as the site got a nickname "Blue Rocks" because of the abundance of boulders just below the surface! When a pick axe handle would break... just a short trot to a nearby tree with a machete would solve the dilemma... however, after going through 4-5 saplings, the new handles were made of steel pipe welded to the pick axe! Not sure if it was a Binford, but it along with youthful muscle proved to be a worthy opponent to the Bluefields terrain!

The building was very large - 125' x 45' with two "super columns, made of 6 rods of 1/2" rebar in the middle that would hold a 55' welded steel truss that will eventually hold the roof of the sanctuary. The truss was totally fabricated on site by hermanos David and Lester... and painted by many but the most famous group was "Equipo Verde"... buen trabjao on that project!

Rebar had to be formed and tied into columns and supports - aside from the super columns, there were three sizes of these - Mike Najjar, our fearless leader on site finally admitted that there was no end to how many columns and supports we needed - his last request was, "make them until you leave - you will not make too many!"

Laying block was a daily routine for many Nicaraguan brothers... these men worked all day long for meals and the equivalent of $ 10.00 per day... humbling isn't it? Real progress was noted by the amount of new walls going up - new walls meant many loads of cement... the cry for "la mezcla es listo" meant "mas baldes"... meaning more buckets! The only way to efficiently transport cement around the site was to respond to call for "bucket brigade!" and leave what you were doing to assist in this effort... sometimes the distance required to transport the cement used just about everyone on the site... including kids to transport the empties to keep things moving. It was quite a sight to see! There still remains a crew of Nicaraguans that are working towards completion of Pastor William's home so there is a safe, rain-proof dwelling for him... praise God!

One burning questions was floating around the site from the beginning.... "How will we install this truss that hermanos David and Lester are welding? Many theories were discussed during breaks and back at the hotel... but the real answer emerged the last day... down the hill came a crane that saved the day - the best investment we could have made... special thanks for Eric Wilson for being the driving force - as we watched the truss being laid into position, we all realized this was too large a task for our team... thank God no one was hurt in the process!

When the truss was secured, we sat on the hillside and worshipped our Lord and Savior with our brothers and sisters in Christ - Aleleuia! ¡Él Señor es digno de nuestra alabanza!

Up the Escondido River to Bluefields

Encima del rio Escondido a Bluefields

Our morning on Friday February 16th began around 5:30 AM as we strolled and rolled our gear a couple blocks down to the docks along the on the Escondido River just outside the town of El Rama. We loaded three boats with passengers & gear and a fourth with the most of our baggage and headed due east towards Bluefields. The excitement and anticipation of arriving in Bluefields sustained us over the past 36 hours... now God was going to show another facet of His creation and we were all ears and eyes!

Here is the mode of transportation we used on the river - passenger boats on the way to Bluefields had canopies... powered by either 175 or 200 Yamaha V6 engines - did we move! An alternative would have been to take a ferry that can take over 6 hours to travel what took us only 1-1/2 hours... I guess we had the need for speed - it was a real blast!

We saw many beautiful sights along the way... the morning mist was rising from the Escondido River and as the heat began to build up, the mist swirled in very unusual patterns just above the water. Along the way were banana groves... plush forests of very large old growth trees... small villages of 3-5 thatch roofed homes... definitely a fishing and farming center for many. And every once in a while, we would see a small white church building with a cross on it - we wondered what life must be like serving God along the banks of the snake-like river.

One of younger members is an expert bird watcher and I am sure he was taking notes at the many waterfowl... great white herons, snowy egrets and kingfishers were amongst the many we saw. No alligators or crocodiles... although it seemed like a perfect place for them!

A couple of blocks away from the hustle and bustle of the fishing docks in Bluefields was our "home away from home"... the Caribbean Dream Hotel. All things considered, we had pretty nice accommodations... about a 20 minute drive to the work site via bus. We were told we must consider that the streets at night are not safe for single people to simply stroll about, so the rule was groups of 3 or more with a male adult present could leave the hotel compound. For the most part, we ventured out in groups of 10+ as we did want to explore!

Drug traffic and high unemployment can create a scenario that would risk the safety, so we were also cautioned to stay with a 2-3 block area around the hotel. No one really had any issues, so we thank God for that provision of safety.

Our team is a wonderful cross section of ages, professions and interests... just getting to know each other better was one of the many gifts of this trip. I know we all will treasure the friendships started and and developed over these 12 days!

We had time to unpack... get acquainted with the hotel, then we loaded on a bus in two teams... all by our given number at the beginning of the trip. We would have roll call at check points along the way for the entire trip. Sometimes the bus trip selection was done by dividing odd and even numbers... sometimes 1-22 went first, then 23-44 went first... Mike mixed things up to keep it interesting and fair.

Snow, Sleet, Freezing Rain - We Made It!

Sorry for the post trip reporting - the Internet access was not great plus our days were very busy with work on-site, team building and well deserved sleep! Here is an account of our departure... enjoy!

Wednesday evening, February 14th - 30" of snow, closed interstates, planes, trains, buses and speed boats... gotta love how God provided safe travel for us from Oneonta to Bluefields Nicaragua!

The reports of the snowstorm of the decade began to roll in... the morning was pretty tame... school was called off and as the day progressed, that decision proved to be a real smart one! Lee Ann and I went our cross country skiing, as we have been snow deprived for much of the winter until this point. It was snowing very hard in the late morning... some reports were as high as 4" an hour! I brought my cell phone with me in case there were any updates about our departure and Steve Reed from Partnership Ministries called me... he said "are you folks going to be able to make it out?" I stopped and looked over Riddell State Park and said, "Steve, it is really snowing hard... this is going be a great adventure!" Little did we all know how much of an adventure it was really going to be!

During the day, we stayed in touch with Delta Airlines and our WONDERFUL travel agent, Beth Greenhill of Mission Trip Airfare in Roswell, GA (http://missiontripairfare.com/). Cannot say anything but praises for her abilities and attention to details as we ventured south to Philadelphia for our flight to Nicaragua. Delta Airlines was saying all along, "as long as the airport is open, it is the responsibility of the passengers to make it to their flights"... so, we were determined to make our way regardless of the conditions... if God could lead the Israelites out of bondage, a trip to Philly would be a walk in the park! Beth kept in touch all night long with us and Delta and the Philadelphia Airport… if you are traveling with a group of 10 or more… give Beth a call – you will not be disappointed!

We emailed the team to make it to Oneonta by 9:00 PM as we wanted to leave as early as possible to make our 6:00 Am flight on Thursday. If we tried to leave any earlier, it would have been impossible... the snow was piling up so fast that many roads including the interstates were open only to emergency vehicles... many towns and county roads were closed. Our team of 44 was able to assemble - even though some came from as far as Lansing and Cobleskill! So, at 9:15, we headed south for our trek to Nicaragua! The ride in NY state was uneventful… the NY highway teams are top notch – smooth sailing for us… that was until we got into PA – the roads were less maintained… the passing lane was full of ice and snow for most of the way. Our biggest obstacle was in I-81… the road was closed at Scranton and we got caught in it. Stopped like a parking lot and the time was ticking away… it looked very bleak for us as we prayed and pondered how we could ever make it in time… it was approaching 2:00 AM and we needed to get to Philly by 4:00… would be a piece of cake on a dry day, but this day was different.

We passed Clarks Summit and the intersection of I-380/84 and the we were faced with a stand still traffic back up. As far as the eye could see, there was a parking lot of mostly trucks, with their parking lights on, stopped for who knew how long – reports from other drivers were that the road would not open up until 6:00 AM. After we got back from our trip, we heard that the mess wasn’t fully cleared until the following Saturday… but God proved His ability to tuned what looked impossible to be possible! Two of our team bundled up, left the bus and began to tap on windows of surrounding trucks… very long story short is that the trucks began to move back and forth to allow us enough room to snake through the sea of parked buses. Oh, yeah, did I mention it was COLD… at this time, it was in the single digits with 20-30 mph winds!

Time for more kudos… our driver, Dirk Gantvoort is truly a gift from God… all that know him know that he wanted to be on this trip… it was bittersweet enough for him to offer his services and leave us. His driving abilities and the fact he stay awake and alert to deliver us safely was something I will never forget.

Special thanks, too to Three Springs Ministries of Morris, PA (http://www.threespringsministries.org/) for allowing us the use of their bus to transport our team in one vehicle… we had figured it would have take 15+ minivans to transport 44 of us and the 70+ pieces of baggage… could you imagine that armada getting stuck in that mess!

Once we bobbed and weaved through the traffic to get off an exit, we managed to get back on I-81 North to Clarks Summit… however, most of the exits northbound were completely snowplowed closed… we could not exit until about 15 miles north to u-turn and head south again. Once on I-476 south, the travel turned somewhat routine to our fearless driver, Dirkules. All along Beth Greenhill gave me updates via cell phone… she also alerted Delta that in fact were in transit… might make it by 5:30 if we were lucky… she said “do what you can, I will keep in touch”… we made great time from there – the snowstorm headed from south the northeast, so below the tunnel below Jim Thorpe, it was much easier to cruise down the highway. By the grace of God, we made it into Philadelphia Airport at 4:45… 45 minutes before the cutoff to ensure a timely departure… that would be simple for a single passenger… we now had to process 44 team members and the baggage… special thanks to the Delta crew that received us… I ma sure we stressed the system pretty well. We cleared security without any issues and we were on our way.

The flight from Philly to Atlanta was a smooth one… that is until we began our descent into the Atlanta Airport… just about a few hundred feet from touch down, the plane abruptly pulled up and we aborted our landing… once we corrected ourselves and banked hard to circle around for a second attempt, the pilot came over the PA and announced “that’s what happens when someone is in your runway!”… so, God wasn't finished with our team yet – He had plans for us… and He was going to deliver us to Bluefields! Because of this little “sky dance”, our connection went from rushed to “vamos… we gotta go!” We made it for our final jet leg to Managua… a collective sigh of relief from all of us as we sat back one more time and anticipated the end of this long journey.

We arrived in Managua, greeted by our hermanos and hermanas Rigo, Claudia, Mike, Lesly, Eric, Gloria, Carla, Marta and Yolanda… then boarded another bus – destination El Rama, about 4-1/2 hours east southeast through spectacular Nicaraguan Landscapes to where the road ends… and a well deserved rest stop and 5 hours sleep – at 6:00 AM Friday, we had to be at the docks along the Escondido River for a 1-1/2 hour boat ride to Bluefields.

That was just the first 24 hours of a 12 day trip… stay tuned for another report from the work site in Bluefields! We want to thank all of our prayer and financial partners... without your faithful support, this trip might not have had the impact it did... we carried your prayers with us and I believe it sustained us through many obstacles.

Only in God is our soul at rest... Amen!

Bendicidos Hermanos y Hermanas

Bendicidos Hermanos y Hermanas

Sorry it has taken me so long to get online... I had trouble connecting and taking the time to get to a computer. A single story would do injustice to the whole experience, but I will give you one that I feel really spoke to my heart.

One day, after breakfast, I was overlooking the work site and into the Escondido River basin. It is an awesome site for a church! Rigoberto came over to me and put his hand on my shoulders. He said to me It is beautiful isn´t it? Can anyone who is here not believe that this is not the work of God?¨ His vision to evangelize Nicaragua is so huge... he sees this church as a community center... a training center... possibly an outlet for some sort of commerce to support the church. But Rigo´s vision is for the entire nation of Nicaragua... it is humbling to be in his presence.

Then, the pastor of this new church, William came over and we shared as much as we could in my broken Spanish. He said to Rigo... ës mas pequeño¨... meaning it is too small... Rigo said ¨no mas pequeño¨... the church can hold 200 people... William dreams of a church of 1,000! I am in awe of the faith in the people we have met. Their dependence on God is inspiring!

Stay tuned for more updates... right now, I cannot upload photos, but I will once I get home. Thanks for your prayers along the way. I did mention a prayer request in an email today - we are installing a large roof truss Friday - it will take engineering and manpower... please pray that we can get this accomplished without any issues.

Snow, Sleet, Freezing Rain - We Are Still Going!

The full team will be assembled at the "Big House" in Oneonta tonight at 10:00. It has been snowing like crazy in upstate New York but we have a skillful driver, Dirkules from Three Springs Ministries - many thanks to Steve Occhino and the rest of the Three Springs staff and Board of Directors for allowing us to be transported together in one vehicle!

Please pray for us as we travel - we have quite a combination of modes of transportation along the way... bus to Philly Airport, plane to Atlanta then Managua, bus to Rama, the boat to the final destination, Bluefields. We will arrive in Bluefields sometime Friday AM... stay tuned!

Juntos Para El Señor

Our trip’s theme is Juntos Para El Señor, which translated means "Together for God".

Ecclesiastes 4:12 states "Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." As we "intertwine" with God and the national church in Nicaragua, we are part of a wonderful thing that neither we or the nationals could do alone. We have been working side by side with Partnership Ministries in Central America since 1998. Their philosophy of encouraging, enabling and allowing nationals to lead and direct work projects has produced much fruit. We may have technological and other advantages over the local Nicaraguan, Guatemalan or Honduran, but we lack the ability to be truly effective because we are not part of their culture.

Many mainstream churches have constructed numerous church buildings in the Third World that are now abandoned or poorly utilized because they lacked the grassroots participation of the local clergy and people. The church is much more than a building - what a concept, eh? By partnering with national leadership and organizations, we can bring together the best of both our worlds. North America churches surely have the financial resources desperately needed in the Third World, but if the church is to survive, it needs to have a solid foundation of national leaders.

My first trip to Central America in 2002 told me quite a bit about my faith in God - that I had a tendency to be more self reliant than I ought to be. The spreading of the Gospel of Jesus in Central America far exceeds what we see in our towns and cities in the United States. The brothers and sisters in Christ I have met demonstrated to me that faith in God is real and daily apparent - that their existence is truly a direct result of the Grace of God. Grace is a concept that is truly woven into the hearts of the believers in both the churches we visited - Altos de Santa Maria and Llanos de Santa Maria.

The Christian love we will experience in the Third World churches far surpasses anything our church can muster... its purity and genuineness is quite unique. Oh, sure we prepare meals for the housebound, ill and the mourning, but that is a result of an event. These Third World churches do this daily - they may not have what we have (wealth & material possessions), but they share it all the time! Maybe we could learn from our brothers and sisters in Christ!

Reflection Questions

As we approach our departure, let us reflect on how God can use us to glorify Him while we are in Nicaragua.

What can I learn about myself?

What can I learn about God?

What can I learn about the people of God, about the church, about community?

What can I learn about how culture affects the way we live and understand the Gospel?

What can I learn about justice, economics, poverty and politics?

What can I learn about discipleship?

What can I learn about a globally appropriate lifestyle?

What can I learn about my own vocation?