So, in case you haven’t heard, my team’s ministry this month is called Unsung Heroes, which means that we are going around Nicaragua to find new potential ministry contacts for Adventures In Missions (AIM), our parent organization, to potentially partner with in the future. One of the places AIM asked us to go to was this island in Lake Nicaragua called Ometepe. So, 1 of my team members was sick and the team decided to split up, with 4 going to Ometepe and 3 staying back at the first ministry contact we found (I’ll be blogging about them soon cause they are amazing). I was part of the group that went to Ometepe. So, a little background, we have no contact at Ometepe and we were going for essentially 1 full day and 2 nights. We are flying blind… but the island is pretty sweet cause it’s essentially 2 islands (that are connected by a strip of land making it technically 1 island), each with a volcano in the center and towns surrounding each volcano. The day before we leave we find out that there were mudslides off of one of the volcanos the previous week. It was safe, but travel could be tough. Quite frankly, we didn’t know what to expect and words don’t really do it justice, nor does the video I made which there’s a link for at the bottom of this blog but I will try to make sense of everything.
First things first, we met this tour guide when we first got to the island who said he was a Christian and would take us around in the afternoon of our one full day and show us some ministries, help us meet pastors, etc. We had no idea what to expect and he said he would take us to some of the areas effected by the mudslides, but it would be tough to traverse some of the area.
So, the next day, it would’ve been Tuesday, we meet with this tour guide at 2 PM and he starts taking us around the island. At first it’s pretty smooth sailing, it’s nice brick-paved road; flat, smooth, we’re just moving right along, chatting a bit about the island but mostly enjoying the scenery. Slowly the road starts getting dirtier and there are some rocks next to it that look a little out of place. Then, all of a sudden the road is a rocky, dirt road like you’d find in African villages (probably any village, but Africa is my personal point of reference having spent 7 weeks there). It’s super bumpy and slow going and I soon realize that this road is supposed to be nice brick as well but the brick was either washed away or covered by debris from the landslide. Having never seen the island before, I had no point of reference for what it should look like but I quickly realized this was not normal. So, we met a pastor and started going around to some places and discussing the mudslide.
I’ll try to describe how I felt because it’s still pretty had for me. It just all kinda broke me, the fact that these people lost everything or very nearly everything. Their property doesn’t even have any value anymore because any future mudslides have a place to run down the volcano. The ruts have Been made, the water and debris now has routes to run it’s destructive course down the mountain side In future rainstorms. Not to mention that many places we saw had anywhere from a few inches to few feet of mud and debris on top of the ground, I mean, one house we saw originally had 2 meter high ceilings or so. When we saw it the house maybe had 4.5 ft ceilings because there Was over a foot of mud and debris In the house. It was ridiculous. Trees and fences were knocked down, roads we’re covered or completely torn up, pipes in the ground were completely exposed and likely damaged, it was so bad. I couldn’t believe it. I still can’t. The worst part is there is almost no relief help. Ministries don’t really exist on the island. It’s mostly tourism if anything, but in reality the island is probably more of a beautiful, secluded hideaway. I felt helpless. I wanted to give, I wanted to help, but there was nothing I could do. We saw a school that had been transformed into a makeshift refugee center for probably 50-100 people, but that was only a small area of those affected. I really want to cry, to stay and help, to give what I can, but I have no time and there is no one I could give money to because there are no relief organizations there. I was talking with Jason, one of my teammates, throughout the day and two things I told him were, it’s sad how little coverage this natural disaster has gotten. We heard about it from the couple we were staying with the previous 3 days and I checked it out online and found some really small time article and maybe a couple blogs on it. However, the first night on Ometepe, there was an earthquake and the earthquake Was pretty big, like 7.3, about 50 miles off the coast of El Salvador, but it did pretty minimal damage and it had all sorts of news articles about it, foreign and American (Reuters, CBS San Francisco, CNN, etc.). I understood that the earthquake was gonna get more coverage because we track earthquakes, not mudslides, but the fact this mudslide did so much damage and I experienced the damage and almost no one, even in Nicaragua, knows about it, it made me sad, a little confused and frustrated and I wonder how much happens in the world we don’t know about… too much. Cause the damage wasn’t “catastrophic”, it didn’t kill a ton of people, might not have killed anyone, and it only did damage to a few towns on an Island of 40000 inhabitants, so probably 1000 people, maybe, at this point I’m just guessing. There’s way more who are indirectly affected, but those directly affected who lost a lot is probably around 1000 people, which is a lot, but compared to some tsnamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, famines, genocides, etc., it’s a drop In the bucket. I didn’t even get to really talk with more than a couple people affected by the landslide, but my heart broke for all the people I saw. Along with that, the 2nd thing I mentioned to Jason was that I am helpless to do anything. I wanna help but I can’t do anything and it sucks. But, BUT, I may be small, insignificant, and unable to help, but I serve a big God who can do anything and can make miracles happen. If this island is going to get cleaned up, God is going to have to help out and make it happen because it is some pretty serious damage and devastation.
I felt, and still feel, so helpless. But I guess what I realized is that I can’t ever lose hope In God and His power over all situations, and not just power, but that God lives In tomorrow as well as today, orchestrating and working in future events before they even happen. God is already working In the tragedy of the mudslide and He is already in future clean up efforts on the island that He might be known and glorified. I guess my prayer for the island as I type this is that the island might be joined together in the name of Christ by this tragedy, that people may come to know and believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and that the believers on the island may unify rather than being so separate like they are now. May this tragedy unify the church on the island and bring God glory.
“The beauty we enjoy sometimes brings disaster to those nearest it”
