Home Again...with some Perspective

It is good to be home again. From my last posting a week ago you might remember that Nathan Wright, Interim Pastor of the Clinton Heights Community Congregational Church UCC, in Hudson Mohawk Association, and I traveled to Managua, Nicaragua over this past (long) weekend. We went on behalf of the NY Conference Commission on the Global Church to re-establish our Global Partner Church covenant with Mision Cristiana.

We saw and did a great deal in the 3 1/2 days that we were actually in-country. We visited a cattle farm in the northern part of the country, established by the church and sponsored with gifts from Common Global Ministries. We worshipped and/or attended bible studies in 5 churches, visited two other churches under construction, and met with the Executive Council of Mision Cristiana to negotiated and sign the covenant. In addition we visited an active volcano and climbed into a nearby volcanic cave and even did a little shopping. We were very busy!

Along the way we met and came to know several new colleagues and friends. Some of these will be joining the Commission for Mission Possible Two, an overnight mission event planned for November 2-3 at Christ the King Retreat Center in Syracuse. We are in the process of planning a schedule that will include additional time for the Nicaraguan delegation to visit churches across the conference over a 10 day span.

Now, about the "Perspective". Michael Caine, my conference staff colleague in the Southeast Region who spent his sabbatical in Nicaragua, called my this morning to welcome me back home. He greeted me with the question, "So how does it feel to be rich and privileged?" Indeed! There's nothing like traveling to a country like Nicaragua to remind any but the most hard-hearted North American of how wealthy and privileged almost all of us are.

Nicaragua is the 2nd poorest country in the western hemisphere (after Haiti). Our immediate impression of the national condition of poverty was in the condition of the roads on our way up to the northern frontier town of Waslala (Don't look for it on the map of Nicaragua in your generic Atlas. You won't find it!). Nine hours from Managua over pot-holed, washboarded, washed-out dirt roads through the mountains.

The poverty really hits home, though, when riding through Managua itself. Mision Cristiana specifically seeks to minister to the poorest of the poor, not just to "bring them to Jesus", but to advocate on their behalf for a better life.

We visited one such congregation in a neighborhood that was so desperately poor, I felt the tears coming within the first block. The church is "planted" on the edge of a dirty, garbage-filled creek bed. It's so close to the bank of this creek that each rainfall causes yet another crack in the floor. Stilll, we were greeted warmly by the 30 or so worshippers. They each came to us and shook our hands, thanking us for coming, offering their prayers for us and wishing us God's blessing!

So, yes, I'm glad to be home...my modest home by our standards...a palace by their's. Now this is not the first bit of international poverty that I've witnessed. I've been to Honduras (the 3rd poorest country in our hemisphere) and to South Africa, Swaziland and Mozambique and seen poverty there, too. Somehow, it hit me hardest this past weekend. Perhaps, it is because this was the most recent time, I don't know. But it has effected me deeply.

And so, I will admit that the greatest privilege of all is to have met people whose primary mission is to the poor. I respect their courage...courage that I cannot begin to approach even in my imagination. I am happy that our Conference is now associated with them in their mission and very proud that our Common Global Ministries is supporting their work.

Blessings,

Rick Cowles