Nicaragua and Beyond!

Well I am on my third day back in country after a whirlwind 7 day tour of Central, North Central, Central West and Southern Nicaragua (basically everything but the rain forest and the East Coast departments).  I am always still amazed at the life of Nicaragua.  Yes, it is  a third world country like so many others but it has its own unique characteristics.

One of my favorite things is to watch the eyes of new missionaries the first time that they see a man walking, an ox pulling a cart, a laden mule, a bicycle, a motorcyle, a bus, an auto and a man on horseback all on the same road at the same time.  It makes it even more fun when you throw in a herd of cattle being driven from field to field or market.

Nicaragua is much like a land that time forgot, then remembered, then forgot, then remembered....

There are entire towns without phone service but with a cell tower in the middle of the square.  There is DSL Internet service for those with phone lines but there is not reliable electrical service. It is as if the country missed whole series of technological evolution and jumped ahead to the results of what they missed.

We really went into the bush for a few days but, in the bush or in the cities, the story was the same:  wild contradictions of advanced technology and starvation and lack of social structure.  It reminds me much of our lives when we don't get all of what God has provided for us and end up so spiritually strong in one aspect with vacancies in two or three areas that should support that strength.

Thank the Lord that we can be full and strong in certain things even when we have not learned others.  However, much like Nicaragua, we may find ourselves spiritually unable to recover if the primary system fails because there is no backup developed and maintained over years of preparation.

Nicaragua is a beautiful country with wonderful people and tremendous blessings but Nicaragua is still poor, impoverished and troubled.  Let us not be the same spiritually.