News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
A child drinks from a rehabilitated well in Nicaragua. photo provided
A large contingent of volunteers, including 20 from Sisters, worked for a week in Nicaragua. photo provided
Some 20 Sisters Country residents journeyed to Nicaragua last month in an effort to change lives. They came home finding that the trip had changed them.
The trip was a missionary effort organized by Mike Silva International (MSI). Silva, who serves as pastor of Sisters Community Church, has, since 1994, operated an international ministry that provides services to the impoverished and brings thousands together in evangelical festivals. Silva, who speaks Spanish and Portuguese, has a special passion for the people and cultures of Latin America.
The ministry offers training and educational services; medical aid; food and clothing distribution; fresh water projects, along with large-scale evangelical festivals that feature regionally popular music acts with free admission. There's a big "kids zone," making the festivals appealing to families.
"I don't think people really understand the size and impact of MSI," said Susan Sandberg of Sisters, who went on the Nicaragua trip. "I didn't have a clue either... Everything is so organized; you're busy constantly."
The 20 from Sisters were part of a 70-person contingent from across the U.S. They spent the entire week reaching out to some of the poorest of the poor in Nicaragua. Some of their most significant experiences were when they distributed food; rehabilitated a well in a remote village; visited orphanages and schools for the disabled; and visited House of Hope, a home for girls who have been rescued out of the sex trade.
"Some parts were very sad," Sandberg said. "For me, the shelter for the women, that was hard. The school-kids were great."
For Cindy Bell, the well project was a highlight.
"It was such a privilege to be there to see the wells.
MSI had supplied the materials, and the local neighborhood folks built them.
As we were turning around to leave, I noticed three large yellow school buses - and remembered that Jack, a 10-year-old boy from Sisters Community Church, had raised enough funds for 56 school buses to carry children from outlying areas to the festival.
Not only were the buses crammed with kids, but there were adults, even grandparents, squished into them as well! When we walked from the hotel to the festival grounds, bus after bus pulled up and people piled out, flooding into the field where this was.
I was astounded that God had used one young boy's heart to catch the vision - and I was seeing the results with my own eyes!"
The two-night city-wide evangelical festival drew 180,000 people, packed shoulder to shoulder to hear the gospel and enjoy music.
Blanche Tadlock has had previous experience on missionary trips; her husband was an evangelist. She went to Nicaragua, she said, because she "wanted to labor in sharing the gospel."
Such work is an eye-opener for Americans who often have no real understanding of the way people live in developing nations.
"Until you see it, you don't know the depth of what we have," Tadlock said.
The experience was profound for a 20-year-old Sisters woman who accompanied Tadlock on the venture. Tadlock reported that the young woman returned with a real sense of purpose and a desire to do more of this work.
That's a common response, according to Silva. These trips provide "exposure and transformation" to those who participate, he says.
"The way life is here (in America) - that is not the way the rest of the world is," he said.
Simply understanding that, and recognizing the blessings of the American standard of living has value, Silva believes.
"If every American believed it was a privilege to be born here, to live here, life in America would be different," he said. "That's all it would take."
He would like to see every teenager get an opportunity to experience service travel overseas.
The trip also builds awareness of an often "invisible" Hispanic community right here at home, Silva noted.
"Our dream is to sort of build a bridge between Sisters and Latin America," Silva said.
Cindy Bell knows the trip made a big difference in her own life.
"It was a truly complete and unique experience that I'll never forget," she said. "I've been looking for God in all the little places ever since I've come back."
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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