Since i got here a week and a half ago, the question has been asked to me, and i've asked it of myself (maybe you are also wondering): "Why am i here?". My experiences among the poor, especially in San Diego, Tijuana, and Mexico City, and the hundreds of conversations these experiences have sparked, the dozens of books these experiences have led me to read, the new understanding of who God is and what it means to be a follower of Jesus that these experiences have led me to, convince me that for me to follow God means being with God's poor in Tegucigalpa. In the summer of 2008, after spending six weeks working with an organization called Servant Partners in a "slum" of about a million people in Mexico City through InterVarsity's Global Urban Trek, i, along with other college students, committed to respond to perhaps the most dire and immediate need facing humanity today, the incredible growth of slums all over the world, by spending at least 2 years after college in service to the urban poor. I was attracted to Central America largely because of the region's experience of civil war, violence, and genocide in its recent history and its current struggle against neoliberal economic policies that threaten democracy and harm the poor.
My own country has played and continues to play a terrible role in the suffering and poverty of this region. As someone who believes that the message of generosity, forgiveness, simplicity, and peace found in the gospel of Jesus opposes the message of property, retribution, prosperity, and coercion found in the gospel of the American empire, i feel that Central America, a collection of "banana republics" both dependent upon and suffering under the economic and military policies of the United States, is the right place for me to work for God's kingdom.
After traveling for six months in Central America and meeting different people and organizations working among the poor all over Central America, i ultimately decided to work with Ministerios Cristianos de Mayordomia in Nueva Suyapa, a colonia of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. MCM has been working in this colonia of 40,000-50,000 people for almost 20 years. They currently have an elementary and high school of about 900 students, a microloan program serving almost 1,000 clients, a community gardening program involving more than 250 women, programs to combat domestic violence, a dental clinic, a summer camp, daycares for single working mothers, and other projects. In a community where 60% of people live on less that $1/day and 60% of households are led by a single mother, MCM's programs, aimed to empower the poor to struggle for their liberation from social, economic, political, and spiritual oppression, have had an encouraging impact in the community of Nueva Suyapa, though there is much work left to do. The fact that MCM seeks to care for and transform the whole community and the whole person in many different areas, including education, health, economic opportunities, care for the environment, violence reduction, and spiritual growth, led me to want to join their work here.
I will be working with volunteers who come for various lengths of time either as individuals or in groups. I will help place volunteers in housing and in projects and help them familiarize themselves with life in Nueva Suyapa and work in MCM. I'll also do communications work with partners and donors, as well as contribute stories for the website, newsletters, or other media.
So why am i here? I'm here to be faithful, not to be effective. I'm here not because my presence and work here will change things, but because i wish to be faithful to my belief that it is possible for things to change, and that if those who follow Jesus truly seek to follow the gospel of good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, sight for the blind, release for the oppressed, the year of the Lord's favor, that things will change, certainly not in two years, certainly not in three, probably not in my lifetime, but someday. I'm here through a small, hesitant, uncertain, but promising step of faith.
Over the coming years you will probably often find the words of Henri Nouwen within this blog (including in the title). Here are a few words of his to end: "True ministry goes far beyond the giving of gifts. It requires the giving of self. That is the way of him who did not cling to his privileges but emptied himself to share our struggles. When God's way becomes known to us, and practiced by us, hope emerges..."
