I don’t really know where this is going to go exactly, but I have been thinking about a lot of hard stuff recently. I need to ask some tough questions and it is my hope that I will receive some feedback from this post. Be it more tough questions or
whatever, I hope to hear back from you all and maybe gain some wisdom in all of this.
We arrived here in Jinotepe, Nicaragua several days ago. And while my team will only be here for less than a week before moving on to Costa Rica, we have not wasted any time and have really jumped head first into ministry here. Focused in extremely poor neighborhoods called the barrios, our ministry mainly consists of meeting with the people and making house visits with those who live in this area. The first day we visited the barrios, I was simply in awe of the conditions these people live in … rows and rows of run-down shacks. Lots of barbed wire. Children running barefoot through the dirty streets. It was a lot to take in.
To add to this, we visited the town dump immediately after. Situated in between two of the larger barrios, the dump was what I would call a
vast burning
wasteland. As you enter the property, you are walking over the thousands of layers of trash that have been compacted over the course of many years. As you walk further in, you come to a large ravine where the most recent trash is dumped into the river below and then sorted through. Many people make their livings in this ravine as they search for things that might be of use to them – for some, it is fabric to re-sew into new garments … for others, it is copper or tin to resale and make some money … for many other families, however, they merely search through the garbage for literally
anything that they can reuse in their household. Finally, after the trash is thoroughly sifted through, workers set the trash on fire.
After praying for a bit with the team and wandering around the premises, I basically had to sit down for awhile. The smell of the burning trash and the fumes that rose from that place were too much for me to handle … and I was only there for a half an hour. It could be that I’ve never seen anything like this before, but my initial question was “Why?” Yes, a little bit of “Why, God?” …. but even more than that … “Why isn’t anything being done?”
I fully believe that what we were doing in the barrios and the dump that day was a
good thing. We prayed for many people and shared the love of Christ with even more than that. I do
not want to negate that fact. But a small portion of me says
right after that, “But what
REALLY are we going to do?” What are we going to do about the toxic fumes the people breathe every day? What are we going to do about the filth and disease-ridden
trash that is polluting their countryside and very neighborhood? What are we going to do about the children who are playing in the dump instead of being able to attend school? I fully believe that the cross has the power to draw people out of the depths of the pit and give them abundant life, even in a place like that dump. But I wonder if there is something
more that we should be doing?
Nicaragua is listed as the 2nd poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. In a place like Nicaragua, people truly need to hear the good news of the gospel. But is that the
only responsibility of the church and of God’s people? Do we really simply stop there once their soul has been “saved?” The good news is that I know that the team staying here in Jinotepe the rest of the month will
not stop there. I know that each of those team members has a heart to meet
every need of the people here in this community. But my challenge
now is to the rest of the Body of Christ – whether here in Nicaragua or back at home – will we truly take action and attempt to fight (insert your pick here: poverty, homelessness, pollution, genocide, world hunger, social injustice, etc.),
wherever it might be?
What steps are being done to fight these things? I mean
really fight these things – not just contribute to a couple of charities or go on a short term mission trip every now and then. Do we even have eyes to
see these problems? Or … are our eyes on ourselves? Or even on the
inside of our own church walls? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to knock the church … I believe too many people settle for
complaining about the church instead of
becoming the church that they hope and dream for. But I am asking for a true reflection – that we would really be able to look deep within ourselves and see how we are practically addressing these issues.
For those of you who have not read Shane Claiborne’s
Irresistible Revolution, I highly recommend it. So many of my thoughts here have been influenced not only by his book, but also by his life and the work he is doing to truly bring about the Kingdom of God. In
Irresistible, Claiborne discusses the need to honestly look at the
source of the problems in our world. He basically says that for too long, the church has merely settled for
caring for the victims of the world’s problems. He states, “As long as we uncritically manage the collateral damage … the world can continue to produce victims.” He goes on to compare this to a flooded toilet – “when it starts to pour out water, you don’t just start cleaning up the mess. You also have to shut off the water that is causing the flood.”
So … What
really is the answer? I’m still working through that question, but I do like Claiborne’s thoughts on the issue … “
We need converts in the best sense of the word, people who are marked by the renewing of their minds and imaginations, who no longer conform to the pattern that is destroying our world.
What the world needs is people who believe so much in another world that they cannot help but begin enacting it now.”
So where am I going with all of this? Not sure. Where and how do we begin to face the world’s problems? Not sure. And more immediately, how do we begin to face the problems here in the city of Jinotepe? What
really can we do? If we truly are the hands and feet of the Lord,
what
do we do??? Again … not sure. At this point, I think I’m only left with one thing – tough questions. If any of you have answers for me, I would love to hear them. After all, I don’t want to get stuck on all the questions and never really get to the answers. Heck, I’m even open for suggestions or burning criticisms as well. I would like to hear it all. Until then, blessings to you all.
