Annual Ministry update, 2014

A letter from Justin and Renée Sundberg serving in Nicaragua

April 2015

Dear Friends in Mission,

Renée and I hope that this annual ministry update will fill you with thanksgiving.  You have a wonderful commitment to us, to Presbyterian World Mission (PWM), and to CEPAD.  You have done much, given much and, in many cases, for a long time. Thank you so much!

CEPAD is. . . .
A Nicaraguan Christian development organization with a decades-long history of success in community empowerment, agricultural advancement, pastoral training and spiritual transformation.
It greatly values and depends on facilitating partnerships between U.S. churches and its rural Nicaraguan communities.

We want you to see anew how God moves in this joint venture, our working together to build God’s Realm.  We want to show you how Presbyterian World Mission is faithful and thoughtful and seeks to identify and address the root causes of poverty in Nicaragua.  We want to paint a picture of how God works through our partnership to grow us and to create capable, problem-solving and emboldened communities.
And, finally, we want you to know how critical your support is of us as mission co-workers.  We invite you to an even deeper involvement in 2015 and 2016.  Please continue to give your time … in visits to Nicaragua to build life and deepen relationships that mutually transform.  Continue to give financially.  Finally, continue to pray … pray like lives count on it.  God is renewing us, co-journeyers and carriers of God’s hope to Nicaragua and to each other.

God’s Heart for Nicaragua
We know that God loves people whose trials are many.  In the Old Testament we see how God makes special provision for the widow and the orphan, and in the New Testament we see how Jesus cares for those in difficult circumstances.  Presbyterian World Mission shares this love and this conviction.  Its partnership with CEPAD is strategic since Nicaraguans face many steep hurdles, from lack of clean and sufficient amounts of water to access to quality education and basic health services.  But we have found Nicaraguans have great hearts for God in all circumstances.  We have so much to learn from them.

Sure and Steady Rudder
Presbyterian World Mission is faithful and thoughtful.  The month of training we received for new mission co-workers in January 2014, along with the subsequent training and support we regularly receive, has been first-rate.  And PWM’s understanding of mission and the practical encouragement and support it provides energize us daily.

God is at work.   There are so many stories to tell, so many powerful examples of how God is moving through us all.  Here are three we would like to share.

“I thank my God every time I remember you” Philippians 1:3

Story 1: Emboldened Leaders

Margarita, a beautiful smile and compelling voice.

I (Justin) will never forget when I was translating for Margarita, a leader in Mirazul, a community southwest of Managua.  At one point I didn’t hear her begin to speak and when she finished what she wanted to say, after a too-long pause, she said loudly, “Who is translating for me?”  I was impressed by her question.  She was not upset, nor was she rude in her insistence that someone interpret for her.  She had something important to share and she was anxious for it to be communicated.  How unusual it is for an economically impoverished woman in Nicaragua to be in leadership and to be so convinced of her voice and contribution.  But this woman has been a part of the community leadership team in a village in which CEPAD had worked for five years.  Margarita and her community are now vital actors addressing their community needs.

CEPAD’s staff seeks balanced leadership among men and women because when women are in leadership, health proliferates in every area.  Elevating the role of women is naturally reinforced when you, as North Americans, come and share life with your Nicaraguan brothers and sisters.  You model shared leadership and this is keenly noticed!

Story 2:  Celebrate the Impact (a by-the-numbers account)
In CEPAD’s 5-year cycle that just concluded:

We trained 172 farmers:

• Who in turn each trained more than 10 others in organic agricultural techniques
• And we installed irrigation systems to combat climate change

We empowered 315 women by:

• Providing info on their rights to respond to domestic violence
• Giving 5,000 livestock animals to improve their economic opportunities
• Extending $21,000 in microloans to start 90 small businesses

We trained 423 youth leaders ages 7-12 in areas of:

• Leadership
• Arts
• Sports
• Drug and abuse prevention

In total, we directly reached more than 2,000 men, women and youth.  In turn, they trained their neighbors, creating communities with better economies, stronger, more hopeful families, able to effect change on their own.  And through the Radio CEPAD ministry, tens of thousands throughout the country tune in daily to CEPAD’s Christian radio programming and music.

Story 3:  A Second Chance
Our favorite story from this past year illustrates the longing of our partner communities to forge a new future and how deeply they believe that CEPAD is key to this.   A group from our home church in Seattle, University Presbyterian, joined us for a visit last October.  We spent an hour in the community of Santa Josefina in the Matagalpa region.  And our worlds were turned upside down.  A young woman, Giner, shared with us about her failed attempt to go to secondary school.  Rather than bemoan her loss of opportunity, with humble determination she described a new future she longs to create for her younger friends and family, one where secondary school is a viable option.

Giner signed up to be a community volunteer and leader to be trained by CEPAD.  “I want to extract the juice [from CEPAD],” Giner said.  Another way to render her inspiring statement,“quiero sacar el jugo,” would be, “I want to squeeze every drop [out of this CEPAD training opportunity].”  She hungers to better the lot of younger community members and gain skills to mentor and disciple other youth.

We, along with our PC(USA) mission co-worker predecessors, have accompanied scores of teams in Nicaragua from U.S. Presbyterian congregations.  In some cases your churches have entered into a formal covenant relationship with CEPAD or the communities in which it works.  We have watched as you have poured yourselves out in relationship with your friends here, praying with them, providing scholarships for students, funding clean water solutions, supporting small business opportunities, and the list goes on and on.  The ripple effects include the deepening of our faith and the strengthening of discipleship journeys.  The relationships you have formed with each other have propelled you to be God’s hands and feet in our world.  The apostle Paul, in Thessalonians, says, “So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our very own selves, because you have become very dear to us.”

Thank you again for helping so beautifully to extend God’s precious and peaceable global neighborhood in Nicaragua, returning to do the same in your families and churches.  And thank you again for continuing to partner with us.

Mil gracias y Dios les bendiga,
Justin and Renée

The 2015 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 65