by Les | Aug 30, 2022 | Click Date to Respond
A visit to La Pimienta, Nicaragua – part 1 of 3
Job 5:9-10, He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. He provides rain for the earth, he sends water on the countryside.
Following Hurricane Mitch’s havoc across Nicaragua in 1998, American Baptist short-term mission teams began heading south nearly monthly to offer assistance. The country is 60% the size of the state of Kansas and suffered over 11,000 deaths, more than a half-million homeless and nearly one billion dollars in damages. The clean up efforts continued for years and was the reason I found myself in the back of a truck while traveling north along the Pan American Highway on April 28, 2000.
Traveling with me were our driver/interpreter, Julieta, and eight other volunteers. It took the ten of us nearly five hours to reach La Pimienta due to damaged roads, courtesy of the hurricane, and the need to drive across shallow rivers where bridges once stood.
Our trip to La Pimienta was six months into their dry season making it possible to drive through the shallow rivers. Julieta told us that only one more team of volunteers would travel to La Pimienta before the wet season prevented return trips until bridges were replaced.
As we neared the community we departed the paved roadway and journeyed over dirt roads. During the dry months vehicle tires had ground the dirt into a fine dust that climbed three inches up the side of the truck tires.
Reaching the high sided bank of the Rio Negro (Black River), Julieta stopped and asked us to hang on tightly. It was necessary for us to ford the river that lay a few yards below the road level. Felled trees had been placed into the river bank to provide tire traction and it was a bouncy ride into the shallow Rio Negro. On the far side was a shallow sloping bank and the road into La Pimienta.
Our dry season trip to Nicaragua introduced me to never before experienced weather. Each day we were there the temperature exceeded 100 degrees. While such temperatures are not uncommon in Kansas the absence of humidity was a new experience. Not once while we were there did we feel moisture on our bodies. The air was so devoid of humidity that the sweat evaporated as quickly as it formed.
The hills to the east had been charred from a fire that had at some time occurred. Elsewhere stood small clumps of grass or hearty weeds for the skinny cattle to munch as they wandered from one to the other.
The community, having relocated following the hurricane’s flooding, possessed a shared hand dug well. The well had adequate water for the community’s drinking and cooking needs but little more. To bathe we would have to wear our swimming suits and hike several hundred yards to the swimming hole of the Rio Queso (Cheese River). The deepest water that we found was a little over four feet deep.
At the latitude we were visiting the sun sets early all year long. It would be fully dark by 6:30 PM but the sun’s absence did little to suppress the heat. As the sun peeked over the hills in the morning the overnight temperature had not dropped below 80 degrees.
The slightly cooler morning temperatures had a more noticeable impact on the inhabitants of the community than it did our team. Stepping outside of the medical clinic, where we slept each night, we found the local women wearing shawls upon their shoulders and some men wearing warm hats. They were unaccustomed to the cooler temperature.
While in La Pimienta we laid concrete block walls for newly constructed homes and assisted with framing the roof supports of other new homes. Concrete would be mixed on swept ground and carried to the bricklayers a shovel full at a time. Adding a bit of water to the mixed concrete was often done because of the excessive evaporation.
Our team’s recollection of La Pimienta is that of a hot, dry and dusty place. A place of sparse vegetation; where the ribs of livestock showed through their sides for lack of adequate fodder.
Shortly after our return home we sent photos of La Pimienta to the leader of the mission team that would follow us. His emailed reply was that they would prepare for desert-like conditions.
Then the rains fell.
The following team arrived in Nicaragua only a couple of weeks into the rainy season. The photos that their team emailed us revealed an unimaginable transformation.
After very few rainfalls the soil around La Pimienta had burst forth with new life. Instead of the dead and dying vegetation that our team had witnessed; their photos revealed a tapestry of green grasses and multicolored flowers. The touch of the rain had transformed the desert into a landscape of amazing beauty.
Our God is the master of transformation. He can make new life spring forth from where life seemed abandoned. He can invigorate people who are spiritually indifferent, filling them with a fire for his purpose. Only God can make those who are lost, found anew in his spirit.
This is what it is to experience God; it is the making of all things fresh and new.
Experience God and be transformed.
by Les | Aug 23, 2022 | Click Date to Respond
Romans 8:28, And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God.
It was a mid April afternoon when our two children, Mika, and Andrea ventured outside to build a snowman in the wet late season snow. Mika was our exchange student from Japan and Andrea was an exchange student from Brazil who was living with a host family nearby. Being a late season snow it was perfect for packing.
As the first ball of snow grew larger in diameter the debate began. Our children thought the ball was large enough and wanted to begin working on the second of three balls of snow for the snowman. Mika was surprised and said that in Japan they made the body from one large ball of snow and then put a second ball on top as its head. Meanwhile,
Andrea stood to one side and said nothing about the number of balls or their size.
As the three continued to discuss how the snowman would be built, Mika turned to Andrea and asked how many balls of snow they used to make snowmen in Brazil. Andrea’s eyes grew big in surprise and exclaimed, “Mika, we don’t have snow in Brazil.”
Andrea’s response was enough to get everyone laughing and it was decided to build an American snowman since it was American snow.
The four young folks, coming from three different cultures, having different experiences and expectations, were able to work together and accomplish their goal. That is how a church should be.
Every person who attends a church, any church, has different experiences, expectations and abilities. Sometimes our past experiences and expectations bump against that of another and debate begins. Debate is often a good thing because it allows us to grow in understating and often gives insights not previously considered. However, when one or more parties insist that their opinion is the only one worth being considered; debate fails.
When new things come our way it is more helpful to consider the possibilities they offer than it is to reject them because they are different or not the way we have done things before.
by Les | Aug 15, 2022 | Click Date to Respond
1 John 5:14-15 RSV, And this is the confidence which we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the request made of him.
In the summer of 1990 Helen and I were returning home with two exchange students in the car with us. Mika and Yuko were both from the Soshin Girls High School in Yokohama, Japan. Mika was living with us and Yuko was living with Roy and Wilma Engle at the time.
Our car was in need of being washed so we pulled into a car wash; the self-service type where you use a high pressure hose and wand to wash your car.
As I pulled the high pressure wand from its sleve Helen asked me to wait. She said that the two girls wanted to wash the car for us; a new event to remember in their American adventure.
Before the quarters were dropped into the coin slot we showed the girls how to operate the wand and warned them of the amount of pressure that would be exerted by the device. Their response was an expression of typical teenager eagerness; impatient to get things going. We explained again that they needed to ready themselves for the wand’s pressure before pulling the wand’s trigger.
I dropped a couple of quarters into the device’s slot and turned the selection knob to wash. The hum of the pump began and Helen and I began backing away. Yuko, taking her turn first, pointed the washing wand at the car and pulled the trigger on the handle. We watched as she was forced backwards a couple of small steps and then saw the water climb up the washing bay’s wall towards the ceiling. As the spray of soapy water began moving across the ceiling she released the trigger and the flow stopped; but not before both girls were damp from the spray that had fallen back towards them. There was a moment of quiet surprise followed by joyous as they rapidly exchanged words in Japanese.
Better understanding the power of the washer wand the two young ladies began taking turns washing the car. We probably could have saved a couple of quarters had I washed the car myself but it was much more entertaining watching them.
Despite being told, Mika and Yuko were unprepared for the amount of force that is expelled by a car wash wand. They had to experience the sudden rush of power to fully appreciate it.
A number of Bible verses tell us of the power of prayer. Mark 11:24 tells us that we can pray and believe we will receive. Romans 8:26 says that the Spirit helps us in our weakness. And in Psalm 66:19, it says that God attended to David’s prayers.
The Bible tells of many who prayed and that their prayers were answered. So why is it that when prayer is answered today so many are surprised? It is as though many do not believe that their prayers will be answered.
Perhaps it is necessary for many of us to personally experience our prayers being answered powerfully. Like the two young ladies with the car wash wand, we are taken back by the reality of the wonderous force that prayer is.
Earlier this year I shared a time when I experienced a power response to a prayer. I wasn’t prepared for a rapid response from a very brief prayer that I had uttered. It would seem that God had to prove his power to me as well.
Addendum: Having mentioned Shoshin Girls High School, Yokohama, Japan, in this story I should share that the school was founded by the wife of an American Baptist missionary during the 1870s. She thought it unfair that boys were being educated but young women were not.
by Les | Aug 2, 2022 | Click Date to Respond
Isaiah 43:1b, “I have summoned you by name; you are mine.”
In 2007 I was in Nicaragua with a mission team sponsored by Park Avenue Baptist Church, El Dorado. The folks at Park Avenue always planned to provide a one day Vacation Bible School (VBS) while in Nicaragua and this trip was no exception. We visited a recently constructed one room church where people had gathered for the event. We were told that the church had been built with funds provided by First Baptist Church, Topeka, KS.
As with any VBS there were Bible stories to be shared, a book in Spanish to be read to the children, duck, duck, goose to be played, snacks to be shared and, of course, crayons with photocopied sheets to be colored upon.
While the VBS was ongoing I was taking photos of the people who had gathered. One of the young people who was coloring was a fourteen year old girl who, as I crouched to take a photo of her and her friend, looked up at me. Since she was looking at me I asked her what her name was. She responded that her name was Arelys (Ah-ray-lys). While I was still beside Arelys I asked another mission team member to take our photo.
Over the next 30 to 40 minutes the young lady several times approached me and asked me to repeat her name. For some reason it was important to Arelys that I would not forget her name.
There is someone who knows our name. He knew us before we were formed in the womb and he knows how many hairs are upon our heads. He is aware of our greatest fears and seeks to comfort us and call us his own. In Him there is nothing to fear for we are precious to him.
Supplementary:
I looked the name Arelys up on the Internet and learned that her Spanish name comes from a Hebrew root word meaning “the voice of God”.
by Les | Jul 18, 2022 | Click Date to Respond
Psalm 42:5, Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.
As Pastor Dick was speaking a couple of weeks ago some thoughts came to my mind. One of the thoughts was about something once said about Helen and I, which we were later told about.
Some college aged Japanese had come to our home for dinner. Helen and our children had met a young lady a few days earlier and she said that she was attempting to find a host family for her cousin who wished to have an American home stay to improve her English. Helen invited Yuki (Yu-ke), her cousin Norie (Nor-E-A) and Yuki’s boyfriend, Yoshi (Yo-she), to join us for dinner so we could discuss the possibility. We had a pleasant time and agreed to host Norie for a few months.
Yuki later told us about their conversation after having left our place. Yuki mentioned she thought that Helen and Les were Christians. Yoshi flatly answered that we were not. Yuki asked him why he thought that and Yoshi replied, “They are too happy”.
I have always considered that statement to be one of the nicest things anyone ever said about us. Still, it is disquieting that Yoshi had previously met enough unhappy or despondent acting Christians that he thought it to be normal.
As Pastor Dick said during his July 10th message, being a Christian is a serious matter; a matter that we need to be mindful of as we go about our daily lives. Still, having accepted Christ into our hearts should be cause to be overjoyed. Knowing Christ is a freedom to wear a smile and warmly interact with others, Christian and non-Christian alike.
We are free to exercise the gifts that the Spirit has placed within us. We are free to ignore those who seem to have ‘the spiritual gift of discouragement’ and still warmly accept them while praying for them to have a change of heart. We are free to act positively while recalling the words of Ephesians 5:8-10, “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light (for the fruit of the light consist in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord.”
I have often thought that one of the joys in Christ comes from exercising the gift that the Spirit has bestowed upon us. The gifts exist to build up, to encourage and to comfort the church. The church is a body of believers, a group of Christ minded people who congregate for the purpose of worship and service. Using the gifts bestowed upon us is a blessing to both ourselves and to others.
