Travel With Me To "El Tortuguero"

The day had arrived where I had the opportunity to travel with the A/G superintendent of Nicaragua (Brother Saturnino). I arrived with my backpack, bug spray, 2½ gallons of water, and of course some TP. As we head out of town, it dawns on me that it is truly just Brother Saturnino, his wife, and myself in his truck. My mind quickly races to find topics I could talk about in Spanish. I’m so use to having Kendra with me to help fill the time with talking, that after 2 hours of straight Spanish, I was done. I think I used up all the Spanish that was in me…I think I even threw in some Taco Bell Spanish to make it last longer. Around that time, Brother Saturnino turned on the radio and I was thinking, "thank you Jesus" because my mind needed some down time. I believe Brother Saturnino was thinking the same thing from listening to me speak Spanish.

Around the third hour, we stopped to get gas and have the oil changed. As I was waiting, I went over to a little boy at the gas station to pass the time and to change up my speaking partner (Hey, the boy had no idea that I was reusing the Spanish I just used in the truck).

When it was time to get back on the road, I went over to Brother Saturnino and told him that I wanted to pay for it. He was like, “Are you sure?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “Do you really know what you are saying?” I said, “Yes, I really do want to pay for this.” Just then, he started laughing and told me that I said that I wanted to hit him, NOT pay for him. So be careful how you say the Spanish verbs “pagar” and “pegar.”

Around one hour later, just after it got dark outside, we suddenly stopped on the side of the road. As brother Saturnino turns off the truck, he said, “It’s time for dinner.” I thought to myself, ok…where? Not too far from the road was a church and the pastor came out with his family to greet us and take us to their home for dinner. It was a normal pastor’s home here with both dirt floors and cement floors. Slabs of wood and some corrugated steel sheets make up the walls and roof. They cooked over wood and used an outhouse. The whole house was no more then 400 sq feet. They sat the three of us down in the dark with just a little light coming from one of the other rooms. They gave us a huge bowl of something and then just stood and watched us. At that moment, I was wondering what I was eating and trying to talk to them in Spanish at the same time. I did however come to a conclusion that it is better to just eat and not think about it.

Back in the truck, but this time, the pastor and his wife had joined us. We go another 3 hours but now we are traveling on a very, very rocky, dirt road through the mountains at night. We arrived at this small pueblo looking for a place to sleep. After stopping at 4 different places, we found it. For $4, I got a cot in a small 8x8 room that had a mosquito net over it. This place also included a complementary outhouse with a door you have to hold shut if you wanted it shut and the use of buckets for your shower. So at 5 am, I woke up and grabbed a bucket and found the place to fill it up (all in the dark because I forgot my flashlight) and headed towards the place to take the shower. I found out that morning that I am a two-bucket person.

After breakfast at the home of someone in that pueblo (rice & beans and a slice of cake...don’t ask), we headed further into the mountains. You see, “El Tortuguero” is a pueblo in the “Bluefield region” of Nicaragua and you can only get there by 4x4 during dry season. During raining seasons, you must go by boat. Well, it’s dry season, so we traveled 5 more hours through the mountains on a very bad rocky/dirt trails. We passed through 6 small riverbeds and had to open up around 50 barbed-wire fences. Along the way, we picked up 5 more people.

We finally arrived at “El Tortuguero”! I’m almost a foot taller than everyone else and with 10 people in the truck with all our belongings, I was ready to undo the pretzel position I was in…not to mention the 8 times I hit my head because of the rocky terrain.

I grabbed my belongings and crossed over a walking suspension bridge. We walked addition 2 miles through town to get to the church. Around 100 people greeted us. They were made up of pastors and church leaders who came from all around the “El Tortuguero” area for 2 days of special services. Directly after greeting us, they took us into the pastor’s home and fed us grilled chicken and rice (Not bad, but they used every part of that chicken). From there, they took us to the platform of the church where they had special seats ready for us. The presbyter of that region gets up and introduces Brother Saturnino to everyone and he greets the people. As I was sitting there, I knew I was next, so my mind starts racing once again because I wanted to make a good first impression. But I was not ready for what I heard. The presbyter starts talking about me to the people about how this was a special moment and how they have been waiting a long time for this. He said to the people that I was the first missionary to come to their area. Well, that just left me speechless and stunned for a bit. I just thought I was being Brother Saturnino’s shadow for a few days and it turned out that I was one of the first “gringos” in that pueblo ever and actually the first A/G missionary that came out, as far as they can remember.

We had four special services in the next 2 days and it was truly wonderful to be able to worship along side my new friends in Nicaragua and see God move in their lives. I had the opportunity to preach in Spanish at one of them. I think it was a 15 minute message (1/6 the time they are used to). I also had the privilege of sitting in on a pastor’s meeting. During that meeting, the 10+ pastors all expressed a great need for our family to come out and help them train up leaders to do youth and children ministries. They have never had training and their young people are leaving their churches. Needless to say, I left that meeting with a deeper burden to help them reach their young people.

I found myself during meal times being the center attraction. It didn’t matter how old they were or what position they held at their churches, when I received food, it drew a crowd. They would all surround me, 5 and even 6 deep, just to watch me eat their food. By God’s grace I was able to eat the food that ranged from different parts from pigs that was really, really hard to tear and chew with my teeth, to a fresh, beefy rib soup from a bull they slaughter hours before, to a “nice” cow brain soup for breakfast.

I also had the great experience of singing to the kids in English. If you know me, I’m so bad, I don’t even sing in the shower. But what does a missionary do when around 50 people, young and old, surround me and a kid starts to sing to me and then pleads for me to sing to them in English. I think I found that more difficult than eating the food.

One time between services, I was asked to take a walk with some adult leaders from the church in “El Tortuguero.” Before I knew it, it turned into around a dozen people showing me off to the city people (because I was truly one of the first gringos to come to their village). There was this awesome young man of God who was basically telling me things about his city…it turns out that he was the “tax collector” for the city. At one stop, I was introduced to a man in a store…he left the store with us and joined us in greeting the people as we continued to tour the village. It turned out that he was 2^nd in charge of the city. I must admit, I felt like I was C-3PO in the movie “Return of the Jedi” with the Ewoks in their tree village.

When it was time to head home, we were all together saying our goodbyes and when I turned around to start to make the walk back to the bridge, I realized that I was left behind by Brother Saturnino. All the towns people began to cheer loudly (as if I was going to stay)…it was a special moment and funny moment all in one. Don’t worry, I caught up to Brother Saturnino at his truck and was somewhat relieved to learn that only 7 people would be in the truck on the way back, however, we did add a live lamb and a huge bag of beans. I also learned on the way home that everytime we stopped to drop off someone, we had to go inside and have coffee together before continueing on.

It was truly a priceless experience in all ways. It was great for me to learn the culture and language better. The relationships built with the pastors in that region were and will be the beginning of great things for the Lord in days ahead. There are great needs, but we serve an even greater God. I’m praying for people (teams) that will come to Nicaragua and experience missions in a unique way by partnering with these churches and helping us train them in youth and children ministries. They want to have a conference just for that sole purpose in March of 2010 during dry season when we can access the village. It will truly be a “missions” experience and it won’t be for everyone, but it WILL be worth it.