Fun in Managua
Trip Start
Jun 16, 2005
1
21
46
Trip End
Aug 2006
Managua,
Nicaragua
Monday, September 26, 2005
Well, I now have my first new stamps in my passport. We all made it through the border ok on Friday, though our resident Colombian, Sergio, got questioned pretty thoroughly. The two gringas made it through without getting searched, of course. Interesting to see such obvious discrimination, since in the US it's usually covered pretty well.
The ordination today was really neat, at least for the first couple of hours. By hour 3, I'm pretty sure everyone was ready to go, but we hadn't started communion yet. And, of course, we had to sing all the songs with the Barney setting on the keyboard. Whatever. Nicaraguan folk tunes just don't sound good with synthesizer, and we didn't have a guitar player, so what are you going to do? And, these things tend to be long-winded here
Briner and Junie
. Under a tin roof, in the middle of the day in Managua. Like I said, though, it was a really incredible experience, especially since this ordination was part of the birth of a new Lutheran church here.Let me share some history below:
It was a Lutheran ordination, and from what I've figured out, IELNIC (Iglesia Evangelica Luterana de Nicaragua) has split off from the Lutheran synod recognized by the ELCA because of political issues. Here's the short version of the story, since I have Jennifer sitting right here:
A woman named Victoria was named president of Iglesia Luterana Fe y Esperanza (ILFE). Since her election, church positions have tended to be filled by family members and friends, church properties have been in her name, and church leaders who disagree with her have found themselves fired. These same church leaders who were fired, who at the same time were attending seminary, found their scholarships revoked because the ILFE said that they would withdraw their funding if these students continued to receive scholarships. The German Protestant Church has been supporting missions in Nicaragua for about 20 years, and has brought groups to do mission work here
chunchera 1
. They've donated a lot of money to build churches and support local programs, but this money has often been mismanaged -- these churches have never been built (there's one in Batahola Sur, but not in Pochocuape, and there was supposed to be a school in Pochocuape as well that was never built). So, it has to do a lot with mismanagement of funds and with low levels of transparency and accountability. So, the founding members of the new church, IELNIC, were previous church workers in the ILFE who were fired for questioning authority. With the support of several previous German missionaries and their congregations, this church has been able to form. The ordination was conducted without a bishop because there was only one in all of Central America, Bishop Medardo in El Salvador. When the IELNIC contacted Medardo to have him preside over the ordination, he refused to even consider their request and Victoria was named Bishop of Nicaragua. He basically said, deal with your own bishop. Every attempt was made to do so.
Members of the ILFE did come to the ordination today, but not Victoria.
We had a workshop yesterday to both talk about Luther's writings on ordination in the Book of Concord, and also to discuss the structure of this new church (kind of a synod assembly). We talked about his section on having a group of elders from the church who were conferring the rite of ordination onto the pastors, and the congregation's right to choose their pastor -- not top-down, but bottom-up. So, there was a group of elders to ordain these four new pastors, as well as Costa Rican, Argentine, German, US, and Cuban pastors, who also participated in the laying on of hands, etc
Chunchera 2
. And now, I'm going to stick around an extra day to help Jennifer organize the ISL bodega here in Nicaragua. The poor people who live in this house (who also own an internet cafe, woo-hoo) are absolutely surrounded by ISL chunches (the Nicaraguan word for stuff) -- dental equipment, medicine, etc. That all needs to get put away. I'm good at organizing and cleaning as long as it's not my own house. =)
That's all for now. I have so far had really good gallo pinto (literally painted rooster, meaning beans, rice, and onions) at every meal -- amazing how it never gets old!
Peace,
Elizabeth
