What have I learned?
I write this for missionaries or Christians, who come to places in their life where the Lord has closed the doors and it seems our life as we have known it, must change. This can happen when we lose our job, home, or a close family member. The details can vary, but the way you find God's will in those circumstances is how we learn to come to a better understanding of God's character.
During the last 3 ½ months (January to mid April 2011) at our mission station here in Nicaragua, Central America, we have faced some unique problems. For the first time in 2 ½ years, our airplane has been shut down by the government. They have given no reason, just failed to renew our permissions to fly in the country. During that time, we seriously and prayerfully evaluated many aspects of our life and work in the mission field. As months rolled by with no permission, we put everything on the table for the Lord, requesting his guidance. Our options varied from liquidating our mission and go home to work in America, to relocation, to just closing down our aviation program and staying here. Whenever you are faced with obstacles, you always slow down and seek the Lord's will. Complicating this, our truck engine went out 3 months before we lost permissions for the airplane. When people came to us for medical emergencies, we had to tell them we couldn't transport them. That was hard, but we know the Lord is in control. Then the same thing happened to the plane and I had to tell the hospital and remote villages when they called with pregnant girls in trouble and major emergencies I couldn't fly. After a few days of them calling and pleading with us, we turned off our emergency communication radios. Why did God put us in this situation? When we first moved here we had no truck or plane, the same thing, but then people didn't ask us for transport. Now that we had transported people for a few years, the people had grown to depend on our help. We have no backup, and they have no backup. In most situations there was no other transportation and the people died.
As I tell everyone who asks us how we are funded, "We're volunteers, and that is nice because we are not tied into any length of time. As long as we are needed, we will stay." So now our useful life might have seemed to end, why stay longer? We examined our usefulness without the airplane, and found that even though our mission was currently centered around it, we had a lot of things we could do without it. The infrastructure we had built up over the last 5 years living here is a tremendous amount to just leave. One test we have always used in our mission work or projects, is that the Lord will provide the money for what he wants us to do. If he does not provide it, we will go back to America and work. Through this whole time that the truck and plane weren't working, our finances from many donors kept coming in as regularly as when we were flying. To us, this meant the Lord was telling us that we were suppose to continue in mission work. Maybe change something, but to move home and shut down did not seem to be His plan.
So as the weeks rolled on, we examined our past carefully to see if the Lord was trying to tell us to change. One thing we saw from examining our past 5 years here, is the longevity of our work here after we are gone. There are only a few things that will continue after we leave. One of those is education: both spiritual and secular. Evangelism classes to train elders and lay-pastors, better sermons in church, classes about how electricity, hurricanes, and how engines work – education is something that will change lives for the better. Lives brought to Christ will make a lasting difference. While we have supplied clean water, health and housing to many people, these will not have the lasting impact that education will have on their future. Our time here is limited, not just because of the stability of the country, but because we won't live forever. People may or may not take over from us in this place, but years from now, what remains here in this small part of the world we touch, will be lives God has changed. Children who grow up better because of parenting classes, and a thirst for education passed onto the younger generation. Humanitarian aid is a necessary thing, but combined with education it will have a much farther reaching influence. When we get our truck, we are planning on starting mobile classes with our projector, sound system, and generator. We plan to develop some classes and go to villages and give 1 hour to ½ day classes in health, religion, science, and several other areas.
In the middle of April we simultaneously got permission to fly for 2011 and also a specialized team from America came and erected a communication tower so we can communicate with remote villages for emergencies. We are only a few thousand dollars short of getting a replacement truck – the Lord is blessing. We will continue our work with renewed vigor and a focus closer directed to a longer lasting impact.
We know harder times than this will likely come, but we pray that each time trials come; we are able to learn from them and continue on the road that God lays out before us. Just like the old classic Pilgrims Progress, we will face many trials, and each has a unique lesson. There are two roads – and the road we are taking is the narrow one.
Wings Over Nicaragua Mission
www.wingsovernicaragua.org
info@wingsovernicaragua.org
Reaching the Miskito Indians with Aviation and Medical Work
