Life in a Dead Land: Flowering Through Obstacles

A letter from Justin Sundberg serving in Nicaragua

September 2016

Greetings friends,

Autumn and I have had the Zika virus recently. The rash covering our bodies was impressive! All four kids missed school over a two-week period. Renee continues to battle a confirmed case of fibromyalgia. Yet we are doing well. We returned to Nicaragua from our brief summer Stateside visit energized and inspired by your commitment to us and to the Council of Protestant Churches of Nicaragua (CEPAD), our partner organization. Thank you! And we are happy to share once again with you a recent story of hope. In this case, a couple named Erasmo and Leonor, whose lives are blooming in a parched land.

Erasmo and Leonor are the people I know best in the villages

Leonor with mint and passion fruit hanging in background

in which CEPAD works. Until recently their community had little to make life anything but brutally hard. I last saw Erasmo in March when I visited his home in Las Huertas, a Sahara-like parched land north of Managua. Its name is sadly ironic because “Las Huertas” means “The Gardens.” When I first saw this community I thought, “Why bother? Nothing can be done with this land.”

But in this barren landscape my friends have a small oasis of nourishing and colorful vegetation. Erasmo explained to me that CEPAD had demonstrated a water harvest system to capture and maintain water. So he built his own. His water source has created beautiful vegetable plants and fruit trees, providing healthy produce for his family of four. Some of his neighbors have done the same, collectively redeeming the community’s name of “The Gardens.”

Leonor and Erasmo have a great relationship. I’ve seen it firsthand. Nevertheless, Leonor still assumes the stereotypical “woman’s work,” preparing food and washing the clothes and dishes. But Erasmo was happy to have Leonor go to CEPAD’s headquarters in Managua for a two-day handicraft workshop to learn to make paper flowers. Another woman from her region would also have participated but her husband didn’t want her to attend. So she stayed home.

How does CEPAD work to change the patriarchy it confronts? Among other things, it creates programs that serve women only and that give them a chance to gather and learn together.

By making flowers and other handicrafts, like jewelry and piñatas, women begin to contribute a small income stream to the family. Our handicrafts program also serves to create beauty and merriment for birthdays, holidays and school promotions. I have seen the bare walls of the homes of people in the countryside. People living there value being able to hang a family picture or something else to add a touch of color. And I have seen how piñatas are the central moment of fun in birthday celebrations for young and old alike.

But the best outcome of this female-centered program is about how women are built up. These are extraordinary women. On the morning of the second day of the workshop we reflected on the life of Joshua. Joshua is the biblical character who had the great lifelong challenge of leading the Israelites into the Promised Land and eventually dividing up and parceling out the land.

The women in the workshop made lightening-fast connections from this biblical story to their lives. In rapid succession they shared their inspiring reflections:

Zeneida from Quebrada Honda said, “This story and this workshop have helped us to have a positive mindset, one where we only look ahead.”

Maria Felix from Bramadero II shared, “Joshua did not look at obstacles as insuperable. Neither should we!”

Aracely from Jiquelite declared, “We should be brave and move ahead!”

Magdalena Sanchez

Magdalena from El Naranjo reasoned, “We are capable, we have children.”

Marta from El Obraje credited God: “We are creative and innovative as humans, leaning into God; Jehovah goes before us, too.”

And Yahaira from Nueva Guinea pulled together all that CEPAD could ever hope that a person might believe: “God will be with us, but we have to work, we need to be creative.”

Leonor from Las Huertas said it even more powerfully: “Whatever you put yourself to, you can achieve. With God’s help, we can help our community members to learn what we’ve learned.”

Finally, regarding the full 1.5-day flower-making workshop, Ligia from Las Mercedes exclaimed: “The learning has been good. It’s a labor of patience and love. We have a new understanding. It’s another happiness in our life and we will return to share all this with our community.”

Marta Lorena Delgadillo

2017 is already slated to be full of visits from you and your churches. Thank you for your prayers and for your financial support and for your heart for Nicaragua. Thank you for helping to give birth to the visions and convictions of Zeneida, Maria Felix, Aracely, Magdalena, Marta, Yahaira, Leonor and Ligia.

Please continue to pray for us, for the work of CEPAD. Each text, email and phone call we receive from you is a gift. And your financial partnership is something for which we are profoundly grateful. We welcome your continued giving this year, in all of its manifestations.

Justin