단기 선교를 마치고 - 마커스 리웅
Back at home. Comfortable. Running water, electricity, no longer a need for heavy bug spray and sunscreen. Comfortable. Tomorrow I will not need to wake up to a day of body breaking labor under 90 degree sun rays and 95 percent humidity. No drenching sweat. My jeans do not stick to me like a wet napkin. No cement in my hair, blisters on the palms of my hand, and dirt blackening my body. When I am thirsty, I will drink, and when I am hungry, I will eat. I have the leisure to turn on my TV or browse the internet when I am bored. I watch sports, food networks and sitcoms. Just days ago, I was watching the rain soak a newly cemented wall in a homeless clinic and dirt loosened, to floor a church, turn into mud. Just yesterday I was watching a dear friend wash the feet of a drug addict.
My team and I spent our first days in Managua, Nicaragua. Later in the week we went to Chinandega, and returned to Managua for our final days. I could sit here and try to find thesaurus-inspired words to paint a picture of what we experienced there in Nicaragua, but I do not think that would do justice to Nicaragua nor to the experiences we encountered there. Nicaragua and its people has been a great blessing to me and my team. As I sit here, a week after our trip, at a local coffee shop with my coffee in hand, I can't help but think how things were so different back in Nicaragua. It's sad to question, but I wonder if my experiences working along side Nicaragua's people and living in its conditions, will result in a mere passing phase in life. I pray not. I can only hope that as great as my heart has been touched by these experiences, I will continue to not only remember how grateful we should be to have a roof to sleep under, but also for the people we meet in our lives. I need to remember the valuable lesson that warmness and generosity should not be decided by circumstances but by the mere decision to be warm and generous.
In Managua, Nicaragua we spent most of our time helping out at a homeless center called "El Centro Esperanza" located in an area named El Mercado Oriental. The center was started by Reverend Mathew Jun. Two years ago, he moved his family out of the states to serve in Nicaragua. Aside from running the homeless center that provides for mainly drug addicts, alcoholics and prostitutes, Reverend Jun focuses much of his time networking churches in the states to do mission work for churches in Nicaragua. Our team still continues to pray for his family and his ministry. At his homeless center, jobs were broken up into four sections: cooking and feeding, washing feet and cutting hair, carpentry, and cementing. I, along with another team member, found ourselves spending most of our time cementing walls for an addition to the center, a new health clinic. Our primary tool, next to the wheel barrel and shovel, was a spade. After some odd hours and me butchering the pronunciation every time, I was finally able to refer to the tool as what sounded like "cuchara de albanero." With the sweltering heat and cement hardening in my hair and around my eyes, learning the Spanish words and phrases helped passed the time, surprisingly, with ease. Conversation with the locals. Salatiel, heading the cementing operation, Gustavo, Jose and a couple others were quite determined to teach me every time I asked to learn a word or phrase. Even though much of our conversations consisted of "Como?" and "Que?" it didn't matter what we were talking about. What mattered most was that we were enjoying each others company, sharing laughs while toiling and sweating for the same immediate purpose. We wanted these walls up. Getting each additional wall up meant that my team was working hard and serving a part of our purpose; to Gustavo and Jose it meant that they were one step closer to being able to receive aid from the clinic. Gustavo, Jose and several others, still heavily addicted to inhaling the fumes of industrial glue, voluntarily labored with us because they believed in the project. Conversations, amongst us, usually carried an air of familiarity. The conversations themselves had a fragrance of friendship, or in another light, openness, honesty, and brotherhood.
I remember an early conversation with Gustavo and our very last before my team left Nicaragua; both of which were incited by the very common question " Como estas" or "how are you?" The early response resembled hope and passion. He told me that God has been good and having met Jesus he is less addicted to glue. He also said that working on the clinic has kept him a bit more preoccupied. When I asked him this same question our final day working at the center, he told me that he was feeling really upset. He was distraught that as our team was working so hard on the clinic and at the center, he was still enslaved by the glue. He walked out almost immediately with a small glass bottle of glue in his hand held up to his mouth. At this point it is difficult not to sympathize with Gustavo and other addicts. A twenty cent bottle of glue is a means of escape from hunger, physical and mental pain. At that moment it briefly nullified the guilt Gustavo felt watching our team work. Although, I do not want to believe that these addicts are lost hopes, it would be almost self righteous and ignorant to think that I could convince anyone of them out of their addiction. Only God's love and grace could save them from an addiction that began at the age of five; only his nourishment could eliminate the need for a drug to distract a man from hunger. We were at the center for only several days to plant seeds and cultivate hearts but God is the ultimate giver of life that will change hearts and change lives. (I still think about Gustavo, Jose, Salatiel and the many others we encountered. I hope that God will bless them as much as God has blessed us through them).
Our team's other project was near Chinandega. A three and a half hour drive away from Managua, we arrived at Pastor Luis's home, a local pastor at a small village.
Right across the dirt road laid four long cement walls and a new zinc roof connecting each of them. Under the roof, laid about half a dozen wooden pews lined in two rows facing one side of the otherwise empty church. There was no pulpit, no bibles, powerpoint or speakers. No windows nor doors have yet been built. The flooring was made of dirt and cement rubble. It did not matter that the church did not have stain glass windows, air conditioning or top of the line sound equipment. In this place, a passionate pastor shouted the word of God and worship did not rely on a particular place of worship but rather on the heart of worship. One is not to say that comfortable seating or a good sound system to preserve the vocal cords of our pastors isn't nice, but we are all too seldom reminded that sometimes true worship can only be found when all else is stripped away.
"La Iglesia Apostolico" is the name of this Church. In Chinandega, we spent most of our days at this church site. The morning half dedicated to vacation bible school and the latter half was spent on building the flooring for the church. This church had recently received funds from donations from churches in the states, hence the new sturdy roof and its enlargement. The networking was due to the help of Reverend Jun. Vacation bible school. Communicating to the children in Spanish, even with the help of our translators, Rae and Joy, was difficult. Aside from this challenge, the greater challenge was getting the word out to the children. Without the luxury of sending out mail, whether electronically or by postage, our outreach consisted of a group of us treading through the village with one team member on the guitar, and the rest of singing Christian children's songs in Spanish. As we trekked down the dirt roads from home to home, passing oxen, piglets, and chickens, our "band" brought great curiosity to the locals. Our group of thirteen quadrupled in size after about an hour or two.
Our mission trip shared this quality; something that that did not begin with much, later turned out to have a great significance. A team of thirteen people left the comforts of their homes to an unfamiliar territory, not really knowing what to expect. Prior to leaving, I thought God to move in great ways beyond what had been planned in our itinerary. Although, there was no significant addition to our plans, God still moved drastically. The hearts of each of our team members have been extremely touch; our lives have been put into a different perspective. In a way, life seems richer now. Gratitude for sun in the morning and air to breathe are the details we fail to recognize when we become too busy with our own lives.
In Nicaragua we were doing God's work. We fed, we cleaned and we built. But beyond preparing food and building foundation, God brought us to Nicaragua to bring His hope. This hope is not a hope in other humans but a more reliable hope, a hope in God. We became the mere instruments used in God's ministry. 1 Corinthians 3:9 states that we are God's fellow laborers with Him, i.e. He calls us to partner with Him in his ministry. In Nicaragua, as fellow laborers we helped in building His Church and loving his people. God used us to exemplify his love and to extend hope to those not only broken physically and financially but also those broken in spirit. In return, God blessed us by giving us a renewed spirit, a richer view on life, and a truer heart of worship. When the cell phones, computers and the comfort of life were briefly stripped away, worship through acts of service began to follow with humility, compassion and deep love. The new perspective on life is one that gives a greater fullness to loving your neighbor and God's people. I believe that I can speak on the behalf of our whole team, in saying that God has touched our hearts in ways we have never expected nor imagined. We were in Nicaragua for only a week and, in us, Nicaragua has planted seeds and cultivated hearts of warmness and generosity. Now, it is in God who we rely on, to continue to change our lives and increase our hearts with the same love and compassion daily. It is easy to be warm and generous under circumstances of emotional times, but as a valuable lesson taken from the people of Nicaragua, mere decision and not circumstance is what shows the true heart of a person .
My team and I spent our first days in Managua, Nicaragua. Later in the week we went to Chinandega, and returned to Managua for our final days. I could sit here and try to find thesaurus-inspired words to paint a picture of what we experienced there in Nicaragua, but I do not think that would do justice to Nicaragua nor to the experiences we encountered there. Nicaragua and its people has been a great blessing to me and my team. As I sit here, a week after our trip, at a local coffee shop with my coffee in hand, I can't help but think how things were so different back in Nicaragua. It's sad to question, but I wonder if my experiences working along side Nicaragua's people and living in its conditions, will result in a mere passing phase in life. I pray not. I can only hope that as great as my heart has been touched by these experiences, I will continue to not only remember how grateful we should be to have a roof to sleep under, but also for the people we meet in our lives. I need to remember the valuable lesson that warmness and generosity should not be decided by circumstances but by the mere decision to be warm and generous.
In Managua, Nicaragua we spent most of our time helping out at a homeless center called "El Centro Esperanza" located in an area named El Mercado Oriental. The center was started by Reverend Mathew Jun. Two years ago, he moved his family out of the states to serve in Nicaragua. Aside from running the homeless center that provides for mainly drug addicts, alcoholics and prostitutes, Reverend Jun focuses much of his time networking churches in the states to do mission work for churches in Nicaragua. Our team still continues to pray for his family and his ministry. At his homeless center, jobs were broken up into four sections: cooking and feeding, washing feet and cutting hair, carpentry, and cementing. I, along with another team member, found ourselves spending most of our time cementing walls for an addition to the center, a new health clinic. Our primary tool, next to the wheel barrel and shovel, was a spade. After some odd hours and me butchering the pronunciation every time, I was finally able to refer to the tool as what sounded like "cuchara de albanero." With the sweltering heat and cement hardening in my hair and around my eyes, learning the Spanish words and phrases helped passed the time, surprisingly, with ease. Conversation with the locals. Salatiel, heading the cementing operation, Gustavo, Jose and a couple others were quite determined to teach me every time I asked to learn a word or phrase. Even though much of our conversations consisted of "Como?" and "Que?" it didn't matter what we were talking about. What mattered most was that we were enjoying each others company, sharing laughs while toiling and sweating for the same immediate purpose. We wanted these walls up. Getting each additional wall up meant that my team was working hard and serving a part of our purpose; to Gustavo and Jose it meant that they were one step closer to being able to receive aid from the clinic. Gustavo, Jose and several others, still heavily addicted to inhaling the fumes of industrial glue, voluntarily labored with us because they believed in the project. Conversations, amongst us, usually carried an air of familiarity. The conversations themselves had a fragrance of friendship, or in another light, openness, honesty, and brotherhood.
I remember an early conversation with Gustavo and our very last before my team left Nicaragua; both of which were incited by the very common question " Como estas" or "how are you?" The early response resembled hope and passion. He told me that God has been good and having met Jesus he is less addicted to glue. He also said that working on the clinic has kept him a bit more preoccupied. When I asked him this same question our final day working at the center, he told me that he was feeling really upset. He was distraught that as our team was working so hard on the clinic and at the center, he was still enslaved by the glue. He walked out almost immediately with a small glass bottle of glue in his hand held up to his mouth. At this point it is difficult not to sympathize with Gustavo and other addicts. A twenty cent bottle of glue is a means of escape from hunger, physical and mental pain. At that moment it briefly nullified the guilt Gustavo felt watching our team work. Although, I do not want to believe that these addicts are lost hopes, it would be almost self righteous and ignorant to think that I could convince anyone of them out of their addiction. Only God's love and grace could save them from an addiction that began at the age of five; only his nourishment could eliminate the need for a drug to distract a man from hunger. We were at the center for only several days to plant seeds and cultivate hearts but God is the ultimate giver of life that will change hearts and change lives. (I still think about Gustavo, Jose, Salatiel and the many others we encountered. I hope that God will bless them as much as God has blessed us through them).
Our team's other project was near Chinandega. A three and a half hour drive away from Managua, we arrived at Pastor Luis's home, a local pastor at a small village.
Right across the dirt road laid four long cement walls and a new zinc roof connecting each of them. Under the roof, laid about half a dozen wooden pews lined in two rows facing one side of the otherwise empty church. There was no pulpit, no bibles, powerpoint or speakers. No windows nor doors have yet been built. The flooring was made of dirt and cement rubble. It did not matter that the church did not have stain glass windows, air conditioning or top of the line sound equipment. In this place, a passionate pastor shouted the word of God and worship did not rely on a particular place of worship but rather on the heart of worship. One is not to say that comfortable seating or a good sound system to preserve the vocal cords of our pastors isn't nice, but we are all too seldom reminded that sometimes true worship can only be found when all else is stripped away.
"La Iglesia Apostolico" is the name of this Church. In Chinandega, we spent most of our days at this church site. The morning half dedicated to vacation bible school and the latter half was spent on building the flooring for the church. This church had recently received funds from donations from churches in the states, hence the new sturdy roof and its enlargement. The networking was due to the help of Reverend Jun. Vacation bible school. Communicating to the children in Spanish, even with the help of our translators, Rae and Joy, was difficult. Aside from this challenge, the greater challenge was getting the word out to the children. Without the luxury of sending out mail, whether electronically or by postage, our outreach consisted of a group of us treading through the village with one team member on the guitar, and the rest of singing Christian children's songs in Spanish. As we trekked down the dirt roads from home to home, passing oxen, piglets, and chickens, our "band" brought great curiosity to the locals. Our group of thirteen quadrupled in size after about an hour or two.
Our mission trip shared this quality; something that that did not begin with much, later turned out to have a great significance. A team of thirteen people left the comforts of their homes to an unfamiliar territory, not really knowing what to expect. Prior to leaving, I thought God to move in great ways beyond what had been planned in our itinerary. Although, there was no significant addition to our plans, God still moved drastically. The hearts of each of our team members have been extremely touch; our lives have been put into a different perspective. In a way, life seems richer now. Gratitude for sun in the morning and air to breathe are the details we fail to recognize when we become too busy with our own lives.
In Nicaragua we were doing God's work. We fed, we cleaned and we built. But beyond preparing food and building foundation, God brought us to Nicaragua to bring His hope. This hope is not a hope in other humans but a more reliable hope, a hope in God. We became the mere instruments used in God's ministry. 1 Corinthians 3:9 states that we are God's fellow laborers with Him, i.e. He calls us to partner with Him in his ministry. In Nicaragua, as fellow laborers we helped in building His Church and loving his people. God used us to exemplify his love and to extend hope to those not only broken physically and financially but also those broken in spirit. In return, God blessed us by giving us a renewed spirit, a richer view on life, and a truer heart of worship. When the cell phones, computers and the comfort of life were briefly stripped away, worship through acts of service began to follow with humility, compassion and deep love. The new perspective on life is one that gives a greater fullness to loving your neighbor and God's people. I believe that I can speak on the behalf of our whole team, in saying that God has touched our hearts in ways we have never expected nor imagined. We were in Nicaragua for only a week and, in us, Nicaragua has planted seeds and cultivated hearts of warmness and generosity. Now, it is in God who we rely on, to continue to change our lives and increase our hearts with the same love and compassion daily. It is easy to be warm and generous under circumstances of emotional times, but as a valuable lesson taken from the people of Nicaragua, mere decision and not circumstance is what shows the true heart of a person .
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