…which is translated…

Hultner Estrada

The word “incarnation” provoked a restlessness among the participants.  In fact, some even left the workshop because they thought the Nehemiah Center was promoting beliefs in “reincarnation.”

This story happened a few years ago here in Nicaragua.  A course on Street Psalms Series was being shared and the facilitator spoke about the price Jesus paid to get close to humanity and… “now we are called to incarnate Christ in our communities,” repeated the teacher.  But the participants didn’t seem to understand.                                                    

Image:  "In the begining"

Sculptor: Mike Chapman

The truth is, I myself, with more than 10 years of pastoral youth ministry didn’t understand either.  It wasn’t until the facilitator directed us to the passage in John 1:14 that I began to discover the meaning: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth,” recites the text.  When we talk about the incarnation of the Son of God, we are talking about the mysterious process through which the eternal and infinite Creator of the universe took on a body of flesh.

As the theologian Juan Stam explains, the term “flesh” implies not just our biological nature, but also our vulnerability and even our inclination toward sin.  And that is the human nature that the eternal Word wanted to take on to be born among us.  He was not born with some privileged human nature, immune to the temptation and anxieties of our human lives like some species of “Superman” or a divine angel that only appeared to be human.  He was truly human.

But what does it mean to “incarnate Christ” in our community?  “The Word not only became flesh, but He also lived among us,” explained the facilitator to me.

Jesus didn’t come for a short time or just for an event, but he came to stay among us for more than three decades.  He came to walk in our streets, to put up with the dust, the mosquitos, the scarcity, the heat, the thirst, and the hunger.  He came to live among us, to listen to our conversations, to participate in the synagogues, to visit us in our illness, to get involved in the lives of the people day and night.  “And for that decision to live among us, we were able to discover his glory, his grace, and his truth,” the facilitator told me.

It was on that occasion that I realized that if we want people to see the glory, grace, and truth of God through us, than it is more valuable if we spend time with them, if we walk together, if we share life together, and that we don’t make ourselves superior and distance ourselves from the reality that they are living in.  Essentially, we want to go to the places where they are, just as the Son of God did since the first nativity when he became flesh as Immanuel… “which is translated: God with us” (Matthew 1:23).

A Friendly Church

Hultner Estrada
Bethany Beachum

When Maria Pilar talks about her community, she does it with joy.  Her neighborhood, “David Andino,” is a very typical community in Chinandega, the city of second most economic importance in Nicaragua.

This neighborhood also has many of the symptoms of insecurity, violence, dysfunctional families and community division, but Maria Pilar sees beyond these.  “We have many victories to celebrate”, she expresses joyfully.

For the last two years, Maria Pilar and five of her neighbors, have been involved with the Strategy for Urban Transformation (ETU), a training program that is using the local church to contribute to community transformation by means of a combination of evangelism, discipleship, and development based in the use of local resources and building cooperation among neighbors.

Maria Pilar sums it up this way, “Through ETU, God has taught us how we can help our community, both physically and spiritually.  We have been able to establish friendships with various people in the community that we never knew before.”

“Friendship” is a word that Maria uses often, but it is the term that best describes her work in the neighborhood.  From her home, she has begun teaching handicrafts to young women.  “We have a beautiful group of people who have learned to make handicrafts and sell their own products themselves, generating income for their households,” she shares.

Photo: María del Pilar (center) and her handicrafts class

For Maria and the ETU team, however, the most valuable part has been the camaraderie that has developed among the neighbors as a result of the arts and craft classes.  The community now has a stronger affinity with the church.  “This last semester we have met on several occasions with the leadership of the neighborhood to share the topics of Leadership, Community Service, Domestic Violence, Marriage Problems, and HIV-AIDS.  Also, we are developing roundtable discussions to promote healthy relationship within the family,” adds Maria.

What is happening in the neighborhood of David Andino is a small example of what can happen when the church reaches out to the community, taking small steps to help people flourish.  Beyond just growing new relationships among neighbors, the church allows God to add people that he wants to belong to its reach.  As Maria explains, “We celebrate the fact that two people have accepted our Lord Jesus as Savior and that others are visiting our church and small groups.”

Maria finishes her testimony asking for prayer for the members of the ETU team in the neighborhood of David Andino in Chinandega, “That the Holy Spirit would accompany us, illuminate us, give us patience, give us time, and above all, the disposition to work as a team, that God would touch the hearts and minds of those in our barrio and allow us to advance in the transformation of individuals.”