nicaraguamission.ca

Why short term mission trips?

We assert that the Great Commission to take the Gospel to all nations is the task of all believers. We Canadian Lutherans are not just responsible for evangelizing our neighbourhoods, but every neighbourhood. While this commission is primarily carried out through our Synod’s Mission Department, there is work enough for everyone under that umbrella- “the harvest is ripe, and the labourers are few”, our Lord reminded us. As members of LC-C congregations, we are also charged with oversight of the mission through focused prayer and our synodical conventions.

To do this well, we believe it is important that many of us see with our own eyes what is being done to spread the Good News beyond our borders on our behalf. Short term mission projects can accomplish many things if they are well planned and coordinated, but even more importantly, they connect North American Christians with the mission field in a very personal way. Friendships are made; the mission becomes my mission. I’m no longer helping the unknown masses- I’m helping my friends in Christ who are close to me, but happen to live far away. It has been my observation that when natural disasters have come to these poor countries, it is the people who have been on mission trips to these places who are first to assist, usually without even being asked. Where our heart is, there our treasure will be also.

Sometimes we help most by just caring enough to go to places like Nicaragua. A number of times on mission trips, I’ve been asked by nationals why I came to their country. That gave me a chance to witness or, since my Spanish is poor, have a Nicaraguan church member speak of Christ’s love on my behalf to that person. These witnessing opportunities, which are rare in Canada, seem to abound there. It’s also a very refreshing experience to be with vibrant, enthusiastic group of new believers in a rapidly growing church body. I believe it is as close as I will ever come to experiencing what it must have been like to be with the early Christians we read about in the Book of Acts.

We have much to offer Nicaragua believers, too. More than just money and things, we North American Lutherans have a wealth of experience as longtime followers of Jesus, and some wisdom, too, probably more than we realize. New Nicaragua believers have few local older brothers and sisters as examples of faith, so they typically have many questions for mission team members about the Christian life.

Wouldn’t it be better to just send the money to missions that I would spend on a mission trip?

In some cases, perhaps so. Mission work requires lots of funding. Natural disasters happen much too often in 3rd world countries; the poor must be helped in Jesus’ name; missionaries and their families must be provided for. Still, even after giving generously to missions, many of us have been blessed by our gracious God with money enough to still travel to warm climates for needed rest and some sightseeing. Why not include a mission activity with the touring and sunbathing? Nicaragua is a beautiful and inexpensive country with warm and friendly people. You will almost certainly return home spiritually as well as physically refreshed from such a trip. Nothing is more uplifting than making a real difference in the lives of others.

What is the Nicaragua Coordinating Committee?

We are a group of Lutheran Church-Canada pastors and church members from Southern Ontario congregations who have been personally involved in numerous mission trips to Nicaragua assisting our Church’s Nicaragua Mission. Our collective experience has convinced us of the need for better sharing of information about, and coordination of, short-term mission trips and other projects to Nicaragua by LC-C and LC-MS congregations. After obtaining the approval and cooperation of Dr. Ralph Mayan, President Emeritus and Mission Director of Lutheran Church- Canada, Ian Adnams, LC-C Communications Director, and Mission Coordinator Roberto Acuna Rivera, we have established this website as a “communication crossroads” for all involved in our Lutheran Mission in Nicaragua. Future projects by the Nicaragua Coordinating Committee will follow the same basic mandate to assist by aiding communication and encouraging cooperation in this important and exciting work.

What is the purpose of this website?

The phrase that comes to mind remembering all the many congregational mission trips we know of that have gone to Nicaragua over the past few years is- “Praise God! But does the right hand even know what the left hand is doing?” The thing we are most certain of is that there’s a lot of good happening we don’t know about. If we don’t know, many others don’t either. If others don’t know about a mission trip, they can’t pray for it, contribute to it, or join it. As a Synod, we are pledged to “walk together”; surely that does not mean limiting congregations’ efforts to reach out personally into Nicaragua and other mission areas, but it does imply that we communicate and coordinate our efforts for maximum effectiveness. This is a huge challenge because we dwell in different parts of a huge country. There have reportedly been mission trips that our Mission Director in Winnipeg didn’t know about; some Nicaraguan mission sites have been helped by a good number of short-term trips, while there are missionaries in other places who have yet to see even one team in their community. There have been trips that carried out projects that closely matched the priorities of the Nicaraguan Mission, and others that had nothing to do with the plans of the Nicaraguan church and mission. These are problems we believe this site can, with your help, begin to address.

Why Nicaragua? 

The Gospel must indeed go to all nations, and there are wonderful mission projects and organizations in many lands we should not forget; but our efforts bear the most fruit when we can prayerfully see where the Holy Spirit is working strongly and help. Our God has done great things in Nicaragua through Missionary Arguello and others, and new opportunities are being identified all the time.  We “up North” can have a direct hand in making exciting things happen there for the Lord Jesus because we have the resources they do not yet have. For the cost of putting an elevator in a church in Canada, for example, we can provide an entire church to a group of Lutherans in Nicaragua who have no worship place of their own, and who cannot afford one. That’s an exciting opportunity. There is also much good that can be done with social ministry programs in this very poor country. The local Nicaaguan Lutheran pastors and missionaries are very good at identifying social needs in their communities and working with mission teams to carry them out- and compassion is always connected to the Gospel.  

Some places in the world are, unfortunately, not safe for mission groups. Nicaragua is not one of those places. There are, of course unsafe places in the country, like anywhere in the world; but churchworkers and mission coordinator Roberto Carlo Rivera take their responsibility for mission team visitors very seriously, as do all our brothers and sisters there. They are always around watching out for us and available to assist. If you go on a mission trip to Nicaragua, the most dangerous part of it will be the trip to and from the airport in Canada.

The best reason for taking a mission trip to Nicaragua, though, is to meet and make friends with Nicaraguan Lutherans. They are wonderful!