Nicaragua Post-Trip Reflection

My cross-cultural ministry just ceased! Not exactly.

Upon my arrival, I realized that my ministry was in a revolution! It immediately jumped from a relationship oriented to a task oriented. My mind simply froze. My emotion swells. What can I do? Well, I definitely got to re-evaluate my life as my cross-cultural ministry continues here.

Several goals:
-Jumpstart ASL "hang-out" small group for the springtime without any specific time or place to continue cross-cultural ministry in DC between two worlds.
-Advertise about Deaf Awareness event (for info, check noahbuchholz.com) and start to prepare a short, 15 min or so, presentation about Nicaragua coffeehouse where the funds will go to.
-Reunite with Nicaragua team for a dinner
-Look for any opportunity to continue learning Spanish in literacy
-Start to plan the next trip to Central America. I'm praying about taking a bus from Guatemala after a week mission trip toward Nicaragua to stay there for 1-2 months (July-August) to be able to continue advocating the Deaf there.

"His love is like a hurricane, I am a tree [not knowing what to do], bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy"

Ministering Cross-Culturally

"When Micronesians get together to work, their social interaction is just as important to them as getting the job done. Unfortunately, many task-oriented missionaries fail to comprehend or accept such a value. As a consequence, they end up rejecting the very people to whom they feel called to minister." -Ministering Cross-Culturally

I love those Micronesians! They valued the people more than the success. That's what Jesus did. But he didn't value only the people, he also valued the time. In fact, he missed a meal due to busyness that his disciples had to tell him to get away from the people. What did Jesus say? He told them that they need to get away and find food to feed them instead of sending the hungry people away. Jesus didn't stop interacting with the people, but he didn't pause his task either. He valued both equally. Are we a task-oriented or a person-oriented?

Well, I'm seasonal task-oriented and seasonal person-oriented. When I faced the relationship barriers, I became task-oriented person. When I lacked the time of solitude or was filled with new people, I became person-oriented person. In fact, I think I've been person-oriented person for past 3 weeks in Nicaragua, I admit that I carried the Bible with me a lot in hope to catch up with my fromgardentocity.com reading plan. I've been lagging a book behind for the first time! And I think that means I just passed the test as a missionary.

"If we are not meeting people and loving them through interaction, we have lost sight of the Great Commission and our activities lose significance."

Who do you think you need to interact within your mission field?

Escuela Cristiana de Sordos en Nicaragua

"The Word became flesh and lived for a while among us" (John 1:14). Jesus was a learner of language and culture. Therefore, I must be unAmericanized. To be unAmericanized, I have to hang out with the students, teachers, and leaders a lot to learn more about them just like how Jesus hanged out with us to be among us. I ate with them breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I talked with them during their free times. I joined staff for their morning meetings. I aided mathematic teacher and study hall supervisor. I went to church on Wednesday night with the students. I blogged some details of what I learned here.

Free times:

There are blue and yellow Gallaudet Intramural jerseys, that lived in Nicaragua for a year, on those boys. I learned that they sew some jersey to make them smaller and fitting. Last year, Jon Vaughan, athletic trainer at Gallaudet University, went on board with the last year team to provide some athletic equipments. The first thing we noticed was that the brand new soccer ball didn't exist anymore. Where was it? After few questions, I learned that the ball went out of the boundary over the fence, probably at the nighttime. Therefore, they couldn't retrieve it and barely play soccer games with the flattened ball, but they didn't care. Monday to Thrusday, they played after the breakfast- 6:30 AM to 7:30AM, during the 30 min recess- 9:15 AM to 9:45 AM, 15 min recess- 3:15 PM to 3:30 PM or during their free time- 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM. They go to bed at 8-9 PM and get up at around 4:45-5:30 AM from either on the top of the bunk or below. Whenever they are not playing, they will sit in the cafe or outside to chat or to simply enjoy the sun. Few of them will stay in the cafe to watch the non-captioned television news. Few of them would sneak out beyond the fence to grab some mangoes from the tree nearby and wash them before sharing them with everyone. Even they gave some to me and I munched some and then spit the skin out. I also heard few stories about worms within some mangoes on the dark spots. We don't need any knives to eat. We pretty much ate beans and rice for all meals along with some meat and sides, and we had mangoes for the afternoon snacks along with some purchases from the snack booth.

Leaders:

Escuela Cristiana de Sordos en Nicaragua have several wonderful Deaf leaders who led the kids in the school, especially Janeth and Genaro. In the picture, Janeth wore the traditional Nicaraguan Costume, dressed on long embroidered white dress and red ribbons, to dance along with the rhythm of the music. Genaro, seeing that everybody wanted him to dance, relcultantly joined the rhythm. He's a comedian and a storyteller who will make one laugh till the face turns red or entice one into his story as if one's watching a movie.

Janeth is currently taking some courses on Saturday to become a certified teacher and she aims to enroll in an university after this. She's a hard-worker. Beside the class, during the week, she's volunteering her time as a dorm and study hall supervisor at the school and as a teacher aide for the kindergarten- non-paid. She also teach the LSN (Nicaragua Sign Language) to the Assembly of God missionaries at the missionary school nearby the school (under the same Assembly of God board) once a month or so. She has the heart of the teacher and she is pursuing it. She is the one who patiently taught me some LSN before I came to Nicaragua with the team, enabling us to communicate with the students efficiently.

Genaro is currently a high school student at the school despite of his age. He was enrolled in the school when he was already an adult in 1998 when the school was founded. He knew how to joke about his age and strive to break himself away from the restrictions. Some rules are exception for him, he also supervise the students even though he's a student himself as well. He works at the school library in the mornings, except Wednesdays when he had to take high school classes. All high schoolers take classes in the afternoons, so he was able to work when his classmates do their homework. His heart beats for the evangelism. Part-time job, school, and responsibilities tarry his dreams. He waits and prays patiently before he is able to fully pursue his dreams someday. As of now, he would grab every opportunity to get out of Managua during the weekends to do the evangelism. He showed me some of his visually artistic-evangelistic works on the posters that are being rolled and stacked into his office like the scrolls.
One of them illustrate the verse in John 1:29, "the next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!'" in espanol (Juan 1:29) and the artwork.

Students:

It's easy for us to fall in love with them! They are very patient with everybody. They are butterflies around the team, they will try to talk to any visitors and welcome them to the school even those who don't know any signing language. They reminded me of Watoto who came to National Community Church on the Valentine Day in 2009. I think it was the best Valentine Day I ever had beside the 2011 Valentine Day with the El Camino in Nicaragua.

I just learned that there are 111 students enrolled as of now and only 10 of them are hearing. Unlike America, Nicaragua allowed some hearing students to enroll into the Deaf school. There are only 40 students living in dorm, the rest went home after school on the bus at 12:30 PM for K-6 and 5:30 PM for 7-10. They don't have 11th and 12th grade as of now, but they plan to add 11th grade to the school next year. As the result, the math teacher doesn't have the 10th grade math textbook, to work effectively with the math teacher, I had to grab the 9th grade book and look for some 10th grade work that was being taught in the 9th grade book as well to plan the lesson. With the insufficient funds, they couldn't buy the 10th grade curriculum.

Nicaragua Team's Valentine with El Camino

"We ought to be someone who wraps a towel around our waist to wash dishes at the home of someone. We ought to be someone who hang out with someone of different culture, of different language, of different personality and career or of different age. We ought to be someone who sympathetically weep and laugh with someone. We are part of the community even in a country that is distant from our own or even in a language that is unknown to us."
-2011 Nicaragua trip, Kari =)

2011 Nicaragua mission trip is the era of where we all experienced the characteristics of a true missionary El Camino, "the Way", as a team. The Twelve saw how Jesus wrapped the towel around his waist to wash their feet, talked with Samaritan, embraced the children, formed the team of the uneducated or the rejected people, wept when he saw the others weeping for Lazarus, and wandered into every unknown places to bless the others. El Camino demonstrated Love.

On February 14th, twelve of us landed in Nicaragua for a special Valentine Week with El Camino as we abandoned our homes, families, and friends to follow El Camino. We met two missionaries, Matt and Eva Barlow, who welcomed some of us into their home and some into the hotel. Our discomfort begins. How may we share our lodging? How may we communicate effectively? How may we connect with one another? Our questions were eclipsed by our servitude in Christ.

For 7 days, we get together to:
-Eat meals together and share some of our thoughts and devotions.
-Hammer and paint the coffeehouse, La Puerta.
-Hang out with the Deaf kids at Escuela Cristiana De Sordos de las Asambleas de Dios, and paint some walls.
-Go on a few wonderful field trips: on the boat, see the volanco, and shop!

The unique characteristics of the Twelve:
-Have a deaf pastor from the team preach at a hearing church with interpreter and teach the people how to sign "Gloria a Dio" on Wednesday night.
-Have a Deaf ministry leader from the team preach in Nicaragua signs at a deaf church on Sunday afternoon even though she wasn't fluent in it yet.
-Have a multilingual person from the team speak in French to someone staying at our hotel to encourage the guy.
-Have three interpreters from the team intepret the languages surrounding us: American Sign Language to spoken English and spoken Espanol to spoken English.
-Have one Phd. "spy" from the team who sneaks out to learn more about the education system and etc.
-Have three non-signers blooming into a pee-wee ASL and Nicaragua signers, playing some pranks with non-voicers.
-Have two wonderful leaders from the team dealing with all of us, crazies, and make wonderful things happen!

Reliable Leaders Carry Out Untitled Duty (2 Tim 1-2)

"So my son, throw yourself into this work for Christ. Pass on what you heard from me - the whole congregation saying Amen! - to reliable leaders who are competent to teach others. When the going gets rough, take it on the chin with the rest of us, the way Jesus did. A soldier on duty doesn't get caught up in making deals at the marketplace. He concentrates on carrying out orders. An athlete who refuses to play by the rules will never get anywhere. It's the diligent farmer who gets the produce. Think it over. God will make it plain."

Diligent is characterized by steady, earnest, and energetic effort. There is so much more for us than to just exist, more than simply getting up and eat and do our daily thing and go to bed and do that until we die. There is nothing as dangerous as becoming complacent. When we began to get ourselves settled, Paul is telling us, "Think it over. God will make it plain." Think over what Paul is trying to tell us through his writing, his holy calling!

The soldier, in Paul's writing, must have had an amazing undivided attention! He roamed into the marketplace without making any deals. He carried out his duty. He didn't ask the people about how he should do his duty. He just went and do it!

In National Community Church service last night, I was able to witness few reliable leaders carrying out Paul's writing. The scene replayed in my mind throughout the night. The scene begins when our campus pastor called all Nicaragua mission team to the platform to pray over us. Naturally, I hated to see anyone being left out, I asked the interpreter to step aside to join the team since he's part of the team. He suddenly stopped interpreting to join us as I began to think about the interpreting situation. My mind stopped processing when a reliable leader from the congregation suddenly stepped up. She didn't care about the people's opinion. She saw the need. She came forward to fulfill her duty as a leader. She filled in the position that is not titled to her. But it had been titled to her at this moment. This moment came beautifully in front of our eyes. God took care of it through the Body of Christ.

It's not about our title and our position in the church. As His soldiers, we are to carry out the duty by concentrating on the integrity.

A Deaf Worshipper in A Megachurch's Band (Rev 19-22)

"The voice of a great multitude like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, 'Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure'" -Rev 19

With a missing sense, a Deaf person increased other remaining senses. Therefore sight, touch, smell, and taste increased. In fact, there's a study where it was seen that the auditory pathways in the brain rewired to the visual. In the same way, it was seen that the blind people's visual pathways were rewired to the auditory and the remaining senses. Thus, our brains were rewired to worship God in an unique way! Unique voice within a great multitude. Of many waters or of might peals of thunder.

As a deaf worshipper in a megachurch, I found it hilarious that some people might think that my lipreading skills have been improving! It's partly true. However most of them overlooked the fact that my brain were rewired to other senses to absorb the cultivating worshipping environment and experiences. Without the auditory, I had to look at several details within the environments such as:

-Lead worshippers' lips
-Other few singers' lips (whenever the leader stopped singing), I often messed up when the leader stopped to sing. It took me a long time to realized that I have to survey other singers' lips to be sure that the song had ceased.
-Slideshows on the television screen, I can only lipread few words or whenever the singer will move their lips clearly and big. I hugely depend on the screen to provide me the correct words. Sometimes I will sign the several words before I realized that the production team clicked on the wrong slideshow, forcing me to throw a glance over my shoulder at an interpreter to see where I had sidetracked. Then I will finish the wrong line before jumping back into the band.
-Platform floor's vibration, it's where my sense of touch had increased. The size of my signing and the space of my movement paralleled to how much I felt the vibration. The more I feel it, the more I sway my body and sign bigger naturally without thinking. To dance along with the music.
-The volume of the music, I have some auditory. Whenever they turned their volume up, I could hear some words and music instruments. Sometimes I learned to distinguish the difference between some sounds such as hearing "Glory to God" three times, my favorite! Knowing that they will repeat the phase, I could let my sight and touch senses to relax as I rely on my hearing.
-ASL interpreter, I sometimes lost my focus after my brain have been rewiring to different sense according to different needs within the worshipping experience at the moment. My last choice was to relax my eyes on ASL interpreter in front of me to retrace my focus. After that, I get back up and strive again! Once a while, our lead worshipper would add something so I shifted my body to face the interpreter, stopping my swaying, to copy the interpreter or reinterpret.

Whoa! There are several details that a Deaf worshipper will need to look into for a 15-30 minutes of worshipping! Just like how God heard a great multitude of voice like the roar of many waters and the sound of mighty peals of thunder. All of those details weaved into an image of His bride made herself ready.

Life-Long Illuminations (Rev 10-12)

I love how God's working in and through us daily! His revelations are life-long illuminations. John received the revelations. We received His revelations through the book of Revelation. Some revelations are clear and proceeding, some aren't and some are being withheld.

John was about to write the revelation as he had done. But this time the angel told John "Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down." It was to be kept until the due time. God probably wanted John to seal it up until we all shall meet John in His kingdom to hear about what he had sealed up. We are here to be part of His-story. His life-long story. The book of Revelation are proceeding just like how a twelve years old girl processed her dream throughout her life.

A waking twelve years old girl saw an unfamiliar light. She got up from her bed to see what it was. She encountered her father, who's also exploring. Suddenly, the light disappeared! We looked around us to see where the light may come from. We weren't wearing any watches. Nothing came from the windows. Where else would the light come from. There's no physic comprehension of this 9-in illuminating circle moving and disappearing.
Twelve hours later, the father asked the girl, "Did you dream about something last night?" She told him about her dream. And he shared his. In some ways, their dream had some connections although their dreams are located in absolutely different places and settings. Both dreams included the mother carrying the grocery.
With no illumination. We both cased our dreams out. Seven years later, that girl grew up into a young Gallaudetian. Her dream reappeared in her first college year. She began to question the interpretation of her dream. What does the dream meant? Why am I here at Gallaudet? Why am I the only one person who is away from her family. The situation is very similiar to what the father and the girl had dreamed about. Her father included the mother, the brother and himself in his dream while her dream included only herself until her mother appeared only to rush herself into the cabin, leaving her daughter alone on the fort tree.
Four years later, with partly illumination, she tossed and turned in her bed for two nights on Easter weekend. She felt God calling her out of something. She resisted and questioned this. Did it truly come from God? She did it anyway. Then someone suggested a program. She googled it up. No. She once interned at Deaf Missions for eight weeks. That was enough. Yet another night of tossing and turning. She surfed into the site once again. Oh that's it! She applied.
Several weeks later, she and her girlfriends drove the car. She looked up from her deep thoughts and exclaimed. The "Protege" Car was in her face. Her friend took out her camera and missed the shot. We hunted the car until I finally captured it. We were one second to the failure as we stopped at the red light to allow the car escape from us. She held the captured frame in her hand. She later set it as her desktop to remind her of this unexpected divine encounter. The word, Protege, struck her head. What does it mean? She looked it up, "one who is protected or trained or whose career is futhered by a person of experience, prominence, or influence". She thought that it just sounded like a tree house. Way cool!
One year later, she realized that the dream is still proceeding. Still defining. Still illuminating.

The book of Revelation is still proceeding. Twelve hours. Seven years. Four years. Several weeks. One year. It doesn't matter how long it takes us to illuminate every areas of the book. But we shall receive the luminous flux per page, or per iota and dot, throughout our life.