Blazing Bushes: Stories from Nicaragua
By Caroline Dean
July 24, 2011
Exodus 2: 23-3: 12
ter a long time the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out, and their cry for help rose up to God. God heard their groaning, and remembered God's covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God looked upon the Israelites, and took notice of them.
“Moses was keeping the flock of his
father-in-law Jethro, he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a
bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses
said, ‘I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see
why the bush is not burned up.' When
the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the
bush, ‘Moses, Moses!' And Moses said, ‘Here I am.' Then God said, ‘Come no
closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are
standing is holy ground. I am the God of
your father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.' And then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
“Then
the Lord said, ‘I know the sufferings of my people, and I have come down to
deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a
good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey. The cry of the
Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them.
So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of
Egypt.' But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I
that I should go to Pharaoh, and
bring the Israelites out of Egypt?' God said, ‘I will be with you.”
Today we will read story of Moses
and God's burning bush alongside some of the stories from our recent trip to
Nicaragua. And so let me begin with some
background on our trip.
[At this point Rev Dean spoke extemporaneously for a few minutes
about the recent trip, covering (1) who went, (2) JHC –
clinic, micro-lending, organic cotton farming, spinning plant co-op,
many more programs oriented around fighting poverty in a poor city
outside Managua, Nicaragua's capital – refugee camp, flooding,
… (3) Inhijambia, and (4) Journal Entries.]
Let us pray: Loving God, may the words
of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable unto you –
and may you continue to open our hearts to learn from and serve with communities
in Nicaragua. Amen.
It
is tempting to identify with the hero in a story. And our hero today is Moses. How can Moses'
story, and the image of a “blazing bush” help us reflect on our experiences in
Nicaragua?
Just like, Moses “turned aside” from
his familiar path to witness the burning bush, each individual on our team
decided to “turn aside” and leave his or her “every day life” to embark on a
journey to Nicaragua. In Nicaragua, we
often found ourselves out of our comfort zones – climbing up a steep mountain
on a tractor or witnessing extreme poverty. We were far from our normal life routine. And we found that this practice of “turning
aside” from the ordinary and stepping out of the familiar is a spiritual
practice and a catalyst to encounter “burning bushes” in our own lives.
On our journey, like Moses' journey,
we found ourselves experiencing “burning bush moments” that inspired us to work
for the liberation of the people of Nicaragua, just as Moses was inspired to work
for the liberation of the people of Israel from their bondage in Egypt.
On several occasions, sensing the
intensity of an experience or the vulnerability of a situation, I like Moses
who hid his face from God in fear, was tempted to “hide my face.” Sometimes “burning bush moments” that inspire are
overwhelming, and yes, even frightening!
On one specific occasion we were
visiting an abandoned building that we called the “Charcoal Building” to
witness one of Inhijambia's tutoring programs in the
center of a massive market. In this
“charcoal building” the mentors hold literacy and math lessons for adults who
cannot participate in their regular programs, which are mostly geared towards
children. A lot of these adults and
older teens are extremely impoverished, and they live in the harsh reality of
the streets. These people live in
communities riddled with the symptoms of extreme poverty: AIDS, prostitution,
sniffing glue, abuse, and the list goes on. Situations of abuse, neglect and addiction are present in America and
all over the world; however, in this context these horrible realities are
rampant. It is a struggle to describe
the scene in the burnt-out building because it had such emotional impact, and
it is simply “other-worldly” considering our own setting. I will instead read you a journal entry from
one of our students that captures the scene while also maintaining the struggle
to describe it…
She writes, “I don't want to write
about our experience at the market today, because I don't want to cheapen
it. I don't want to describe the poverty
we saw, we smelled, we felt, because I don't want anyone to read this and
wince, and imagine it, and feel bad, and move on. The reality of the market we saw deserves
more than a “wince” moment. And frankly,
nothing but witnessing it can possibly do it justice.
On another note, the unlikely
happiness we witnessed today was unexpected considering (their situation). Literacy lessons are a party in a
burnt-building. Smiles abound; we were
welcomed and hugged. Hope is in the air
in this place that you cannot imagine.”
In this scene, my reaction was that
it was “awkward” for a bunch of gringos to come into this space, stand in a
line, and stare at people. I found
myself turning my eyes away from the literacy lesson to watch a baby puppy, and
two children playing in the dirt to give myself a break from the realities of
this scene. That evening, I
shared my feelings with the group. And
one of our adults gave me another perspective. She shared that a lot of people in poverty in Nicaragua often feel
invisible; the poorest are not even
counted in the official census of their government. And so our mere presence with them that day,
as we witnessed their joy at an opportunity for education and a tiny glimpse of
their suffering, may have simply helped them to feel heard and seen by
Nicaragua and by the rest of the world.
In moments like these,
I like Moses felt like asking “who am
I” - “who are we” to help these people in such deep poverty? This problem is overwhelming and the pain of
this community is unimaginable. Where do
we even start?
And so like Moses, our team
committed to turn aside from our daily lives to be present with these
communities. We experienced inspiration
from “burning bushes” to work for liberation in Nicaragua. And like Moses we also felt humbled by these
“blazing bush moments” that overwhelmed us at times. But again, it is easy to identify with the
hero of the story. And it is much harder
to identify with the ones in Pharaoh's court, or an Egyptian slave owner, or even
Pharaoh himself.
And while these may be helpful
reflections about our roles on the trip to Nicaragua, the truth is that in this
story, we are NOT Moses, we are
not the heroes.
Let's remember that Moses was an
Israelite working for the liberation of his
own people. He knew their oppression
first hand; he had been exiled from his family and his country because he chose
to defend Israel when two Egyptians were beating an Israelite man. Moses' story gives him credibility among his
people. He is fighting for his own
liberation, just as he fights for theirs.
In Nicaragua, we had many “blazing
bush” moments when we felt inspired to fight for liberation. However, we quickly realized that
we have no idea what we are doing. Or at least we felt that our ideas and
actions must be tempered with extreme
humility. The real “heroes” of this
story, the ones who have the courage to confront Pharaoh and work tirelessly
towards freedom, are the ones who are native Nicaraguans.
At Inhijambia we witnessed the work
of the “promotoras.” The “promotoras” are former “street kids” who
have worked their way through the program and now it is their job to mentor
other kids who live on the streets. They
have the credibility and the experience to say to the children, “you can do
this, you can get off of sniffing glue, you can leave your boyfriend, you can
fight for a better future.” They say
this with confidence and integrity because they have done it themselves.
And so we found out quickly that it
is our role to come alongside the “heroes” who are fighting for the liberation
of their country, to give them some strength, to fight with them, to learn from
them, to witness their stories and gather others who can give them resources
and fund miracles.
But lastly, I wonder what is the
role of God in all of this heroic work
for liberation? God calls all of us to
step out of our daily lives to learn and serve in situations like
Nicaragua. God puts “blazing bushes” in
our paths and calls our names to inspire us to work for liberation. God hears the cries of those who are
suffering and cries out against oppression. God uses people, like Moses, the
“promotoras,” and gringos to serve among those who
are suffering. God works among people and through people towards the liberation of us all. And God also promises that he will go with
us. God will send us signs of her
presence and give us courage on the way.
On this trip, God taught us a lot
about committing to something and the spiritual practice of “sticking
together.” Genesis, a co-op of women and
men who work with the Jubilee House, have worked building a magnificent
spinning plant for over four years now. They have put in their “sweat equity” to build the physical structure
and the Jubilee House helps to fund their efforts. When the plant is finished
it will be owned by the women and the men who built it. They will be the owners
and the workers. But the “catch” is that they do not get paid
a single day's wage until the plant is up and running. Unfortunately, in the past year a “business
man” in the states who sold them machinery for the plant, that would mark the
completion of this intense process, has swindled them. When the machinery was finally delivered to
Nicaragua—after months of delay—they discovered that it was broken and
worthless. Another journal article
helped us process the commitment and sacrifice of the Genesis community: The girls wrote:
“The three main themes we took away
from our visit with the Genesis Spinning Co-Op were patience, faith and
perseverance. I saw patience in all of the women and men because even after 4 (and a
half) years they were still working and waiting for what they all wanted.
I saw faith in the Genesis group because even though they still are
working to get the machines (that) they need, they haven't lost faith. The Vice President (of the organization) said
that they have worked all that they can and that it's up to God how to help
them (now), which really opened my eyes and made me feel inspired to think and
dream like that.
Finally, these women represented perseverance. It (takes) true passion, character and
strength to not give up when it comes to what is most important to you. We will be forever grateful for having met
such amazing people.”
These women have committed to give
their lives to this project. And the
Jubilee House has committed to “stick” with the Genesis community through thick
and thin. This faithful commitment is a
reflection of God's love and steadfast faithfulness – among those who could
easily be angry at God or declare that God has abandoned them – God is instead their rock and their hope for
the future.
Again, this journal entry about the
Genesis community reinforces the truth that we are not the heroes, but we did
have the sacred privilege of gathering together to hear first-hand from two
small courageous communities that “burn bushes” all over Nicaragua to cry out
for a better future.
May God bless and keep the Jubilee
House and Inhijambia – may God's light break through on the days when they are
tempted to give up – and may God's hope give them strength for each day. And may God bless this Christ Church
community and help us to understand our role as we support them on their
journey. Amen.
