Letter from Carlos Cardenas Martinez in Nicaragua
May 2007
The saying is sure. I desire that you insist on these things, so that those who have come to believe in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works; these things are excellent and profitable to everyone.
-Titus 3:8
Sisters and Brothers,
I write this letter from the Council of Evangelical Churches of Nicaragua (CEPAD) with my best wishes for all.
With joy and confidence renewed by the events we are living through in Latin American, we see that God’s promise of “life with fullness” is coming into being, little by little, when we join our forces and our gifts for the afflicted.
It is spring in Nicaragua. In our tropical culture, it is not easy to associate the spring with changes. The spring that North Americans speak is for us a reference the transformation that takes place at distant latitudes. For us, it is a metaphor that invites us to new and encouraging visions, a bridge between the darkness of poverty and the light of justice.
The entire country follows with great attention the announced course to peace, the construction of hope for the poor, and promises of reconciliation and work. The government has announced the return of the society to its spiritual roots, calling us to love each other. Nobody can deny that we are living a new moment history in which Nicaraguans must face the future with confidence, without losing sight of the lessons of the past. There seems to be in Nicaragua a willingness continue the historical work toward peace and reconciliation, with justice.
But what is going on all around the world? Alarming news comes to us. The world is changing at a dizzying pace, the environment is threatened, we feel less safe. On TV we see displaced persons abandoning their homes because of military conflicts. Livelihoods are destroyed by “natural” disasters. The causes of these disasters are often attributed to nature rather than to human agency. The media do not stop to consider how the unlimited and unrestricted accumulation of power and capital (greed) multiplies the impact of disasters, causing greater loss of life and property.
Today we know that global warming is caused by human action. We need a new alignment of forces—not a new model of geopolitical authority, but a new attitude to defend and protect the life of the planet.
Since my return from Toronto in February 2006, when I began my new job in CEPAD as PC(USA) mission co-worker, I have been worried about these issues because of the potential consequences. I tried to build community at my job, and in my relationships with people, I explored other ways to understand the issues. I was pretty good in bonding with communities, but on the ground I confess that I was blind. I was expecting to get at the issues in textbook fashion.
I exerted too much effort in understanding the abstract idea of community—which has a specific common territory, a history, a cultural inheritance, a common faith, a population with challenges and its institutions to overcome them, including churches—that I couldn’t see the community itself!I realized that if we don’t feel what the rest of the community feels, if we don’t confront the realities that community members confront, then we’re not part of the community. I realized that while I was a Presbyterian Disaster Assistance contract employee (before becoming a mission co-worker), I had already bonded with a larger regional community—the Central American humanitarian community. In it are representatives of churches, ecumenical entities, NGOs, and governments. Many are professional social workers with mandates, values, and principles. All are committed to improving the lot of poor people in the region.
This community consists of people who work for the Nicaraguan Lutheran Church, Medical Christian Action (MCA), CEPAD, the Interchurch Center of Theological and Social Studies (CIEETS), Norwegian Church Aid, the Lutheran World Relief, Christian Aid, and others. All are part of the Action By Churches Together network (ACT) in Nicaragua.
The challenge of this community is nurture a new type of awareness about disasters—known in the lingo as a “risk management” approach—which sees disasters as social constructions. In other words, we study how people live on flood plains or beneath dangerously deforested hillsides, and see how to prevent loss of life in a disaster. This approach requires major efforts in education and training for the implantation of a culture of disaster prevention.
In 2006 the Alliance ACT Central America took a big step toward a community-based psychosocial approach, which prepares to meet the needs of people affected by a disaster. This approach recognizes that the emotional needs of people after a disaster are given little attention compared to the material needs. Communities affected by disaster or conflict have a special resilience that allows them to organize collectively to meet psychosocial needs using the resources of the community.
ACT Nicaragua participated in the writing of a national strategic plan for risk management and contributed to a new law on disaster prevention and mitigation. In Guatemala, we began a process of theological reflection on the occurrence of disasters from the perspective of the gospel and in this way encouraged churches to take active part in the mitigation and prevention of disaster effects.
Every country plays a part in the regional strategic plan. For example, ACT Honduras produces educational material accessible for low-literacy groups, and its advocacy process on public policy has led it to coordinate with the official government entity that manages disasters.
ACT Nicaragua develops efforts with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance to prepare rapid response teams, while in El Salvador a school to develop leadership in risk management has been created.
I hope that this quick overview of the process in which we are engaged has been of some interest. I beg you to keep us in your prayers, asking for wisdom and humility to consolidate these efforts in a close relationship with local communities.
God Bless you all,
Carlos Cardenas M.
The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 58
