Who's truly poor?

A few weeks ago my wife and I traveled to LaGrange County to visit a friend and explore the non-profit organization she co-founded. After visiting her, we sat down with the organizations co-founder to learn more about her and her heart for those in the LaGrange community. During that conversation, the basic idea behind the organization was summed up with the thought, "People who are hurting aren't going to go to church so we need to go to them." My wife and I were impressed by these two young women who decided to roll up their sleeves, go out into their community, and be the church. While we finished our coffee, I jotted that thought down not knowing that in a few short weeks my wife and I, along with our mission team, would be called upon to be the church for a hurting people in Central America.  

Our trial by fire came today, June 18th, 2013, when our team boarded a rickety old bus and traveled out to the El Caminante neighborhood in Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua. The El Caminante neighborhood has a level of poverty not seen within the Michiana area. In El Caminante, the streets are a red dirt and in such bad shape that if you closed your eyes you would surely think you were driving across the surface of the moon. Unemployment is the flavor of the day, feral dogs run amuck, and children--sometimes naked--roam freely about the dirt trails without supervision. 

There are no city services to remove the trash, the sewage, or the seemingly endless standing water that procures during the country's rainy season. Yes, it sounds like a frightful place, especially for a family mission experience. However, in the reality of their plight, the people of El Caminante have a level of faith and hospitality which, like their poverty, is unmatched within the United States.

Today, I was prepared to meet a foreign people, provide them with a sack of food goods, and say a short prayer over their household. Game, set, match. Right? Well, life never goes so simply. The reality of my situation was that I wasn't prepared for the people of El Caminante to ask us inside their home, repeatedly, in order to pray over their sick and dying relatives. I wasn't prepared to meet a people with a faith so rich that I thought I might have to file for spiritual bankruptcy. I wasn't prepared for a blind, elderly gentleman to bless our team then sing us a song while he played an accordion before he would allow us to pray for him let alone provide him with the sack of food goods. Each family we engaged with today treated us like a member of their family. The people of El Caminante didn't just open their home to us. They entrusted us with their heart and bared the longings of their soul. 

In closing, I want to say that the people of Puerto Cabezas know how to do community and they do it well. They do not have much in the way of physical things but what they do have, a infinite amount of faith in our Risen Lord, is worth more than its weightin gold. And so it is, we are all children of the same God. Brothers and sisters in Christ; each of us being created in His image. As a people, we may be separated by a landmass or an ocean; however, none of us are ever separated from the love of Christ.

- Chris and Sarah Slager