HURRICANE MITCH 
HURRICANE MITCH Focus on Nicaragua
Stepping into the final year of the millenium would seem to bear a special responsibility for us as Christians. Rather then how we'll open the 21st chapter of Christianity, the more significant question is how will we be remembered as we close a thousand years of church history. Instead of some of the excesses of personal pleasure that have stained the Christian witness of late, it would seem likely that the Father would prefer a statement of commitment and sacrifice befitting the Lordship and memory of His Son.
Hurricane Mitch has been
a personal odyssey for me. The refugee camps, the disaster sites, the testimonies
of the victims themselves, and the leading of the Lord, have all left me
with the spiritual wind knocked out of my sails. Questioning my last 25
years, since becoming a Christian, I've tried to examine every aspect of
my ministry and life in Christ. After the high hopes as a young man working
on the 1500 home housing project in Guatemala, and I then watched as it
turned into just one more slum area.
A black plastic tent refugee camp is the new home for over two thousand Nicaraguan families whose slum housing on the shores of Lake Managua disappeared under Hurricane Mitch flood waters. The government gave each family a tiny plot on what was farm land just two months ago. There’s no electricty, no sanitation, very little running water, and barely any basic services. Most of the families, often with large families, were among the poorest in the capital city of Managua. A few escaped the rising waters with some belongings, but many have little more than the clothes on their backs.
Ministering in prisons, hospitals, in parks, homes, street corners, and market places, speaking in small churches, to large congregations, in conferences, decades of counseling and sharing God's word, I've enjoyed some major accomplishments, and endured some massive failures. All the time wondering, "How does one know, in any of the initial phases, is this really from the Lord?"
Now Mitch blows in. After all the pondering, all I come up with is "You could miss it Bob! It's your choice." My only conclusion is, "I don't want to miss it".
If all things under heaven and upon the earth are subject to the control and will of the Lord, then all natural disasters have purpose and meaning. The cost, both in our eyes and in the understanding of the Lord, is quite high. The death and sorrow left in the wake of Mitch, is providing an exceedingly narrow door for the Gospel to enter into the lives of many people. The relief and development efforts are simply vehicles by which we may better express the fullness of God's love. Two scriptures keep returning to the forefront:
"Woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel" and "For I determined not to know one thing among you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
The sanctity of the Mitch situation is that the opening of the heart has been through grief and upheaval. If the Lord provides us with the means to meet some of the physical needs, the effort must be accompanied with the balsam of the truth of God. Otherwise, we are what are known in the disaster circles ), the international relief agencies), as the "crisis jockeys". Ride in, shoot off some bullets of compassion and mercy, and ride off to the next emergency.
Every need we meet must be divorced from the acceptance of the gospel. Just as Jesus fed the five thousand, but not as payment for listening, simply out of the mercy of His heart. So with the medicine and building materials, we're not purchasing anyone's allegiance, but we're neither shrinking from our responsibility to present, as clear as we are able, the truth of man's condition and the reason why the death of Christ was God's solution.
The following are some leanings in considering the task:
It appears we will be able
to install the water system for the 450 families at the extreme backside
of Managua's major refugee camp, Nueva Vida (New Life). The rest of the
camp has water faucets positioned every 200 ft along the dirt streets.
These in the rear sector have none, and so must carry water great distances.
Due to rivalry in Nueva Vida, those of sector 3 are in some cases being
refused access to the water supply. We may also be able to purchase 15
acres of land adjacent to sector 3 to begin an experimental agricultural
project. This would to provide employment by growing vegetables. Presently
unemployment is probably around 90%. 
Inadequate
water supplies forces refugees in the Managua’s Nueva Vida camp to get
their drinking and washing supply where they can find it. Some of the most
recently opened family sites are far from existing emergency water lines.
This has prompted Verbo Nicaragua Director Bob Trolese to begin a project
to bring running water into every area of the camp so that residents won’t
be more than a football field away from a public faucet.
Children will be a major concern of ours. We have just taken in three children and their mother to our Casa Bernabe orphanage. Mitch affected their little village, but more then even the severe malnutrition of the children, it's obvious that their condition is critical and perhaps, sadly, permanent. In all the areas we're working in attention will be given first of all to infants and nursing mothers.
In Posoltega, where the Casitas
volcano þooded over creating a mudslide that covered six villages
and destroyed the crops of many more, we will be directly working to relocate
at least one of these villages and put into place an agricultural development
program. Though in the spotlight due to the spectacular nature of the catastrophe,
these refugees are still in the temporary compounds; schools and other
public buildings.
Hurricane Mitch’s constant rainfall filled the Casitas
volcano crater, broke down its south wall, and swept across unsuspecting
Nicaraguan villages and farms burying over two thousand people under mud
and sand. The riverbed in front of this house at least 10 miles from the
Volcano is—incredibly—nine feet higher than it was before floods deposited
sand in the river and over surrounding farmlands.
In the central mountain range
of Nicaragua in the little town of Las Maderas, and in the some of the
small rural communities outside of Ciudad Dario, housing and development
projects are being drawn up. We've sent numerous medical teams into that
area, and are finding extremely sub-standard (even for 3rd world Latin
America) living conditions. The massive development taking place in Managua
is absolutely unknown in the rural areas. All medical and social services
are beyond their reach.. . 
When a Verbo-coordinated American medical
team showed up at a Managua, Nicaragua, refugee camp with a chest full
of hundreds of donated eyeglasses, it was a sight for the sore eyes of
Hurricane Mitch disaster victims. With the Team’s help, most people found
glasses at or near their prescription needs. People who had lost almost
everything in the floods rejoiced at being able to see clearly, some of
them for the first time in many years as they hadn’t had the money to buy
glasses as their sight began to weaken.
In these towns, literacy, malnutrition, crop introduction, adequate housing, even transportation are all considerations when we speak of the necessary development that might free their children from abject poverty. However in all of our outreaches, touching these people with the love of Christ is the priority. On Dec. 24th, after our group finished distributing packages of food in one of the mountain communities, a deacon from the Verbo Church preached the gospel and many accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
Vision, as the child of Hope, is the most powerful force given to men. If we can teach people to rely upon the author of every good and creative thought born in the hearts of men, total transformation is then a feasible reality. Thank you so much for your prayers and concern for both Nicaragua, and the victims of the hurricane. The Lord is faithful.
Faith and Works, is sometimes not letting the right hand know what the left hand is doing. Teaching a man to fish is surely better then simply giving him a one-night fish dinner. But best of all is introducing them to the Creator of the seas and to Him that divided the waters and the firmament. The hearts of many have been opened, "I don't want to miss it".
Bob Trolese
As of Nov. 12, floods
and mudslides throughout Central America had been blamed for over 10,500
deaths in Mitch's wake, with over 11,000 still missing. The heaviest flooding
has stricken areas of Honduras and Nicaragua, with estimates of nearly
3 million people affected or displaced.
Our churches there are at
work collecting food, clothing and supplies to minister to needs where
we can. Our churches in the U.S. are also actively working to gather and
send supplies to the homelands of many of the church members.
Though Guatemala suffered pretty
heavily, they are stabilizing there and it seems the need elsewhere is
the most urgent. Our VERBO
Churches in Guatemala are beginning to raise up teams to go into Honduras
to help out.
Specifically we plan
to target one of the towns destroyed by the Casitas volcano northwest of
Managua, and members from our churches there will make an ongoing project
of supplying needed items. We want to actually help people to rebuild their
homes and their lives, but this time, to make sure their foundation is
the Lord Jesus Christ!
Just as we started in
Guatemala nearly 23 years ago, what begins now as mercy mission in these
countries will bring lasting and reproducing fruit for God's kingdom!
The four Verbo churches
in Nicaragua are mobilizing to help disaster victims. Verbo Nicaragua director
Bob Trolese, a veteran leader of Christian disaster relief and reconstruction
efforts in Central America
over the last 20 years, plans to target one of
the hardest hit villages with clothes, food, medicine. Cleanup volunteers
will help victims get back on their feet.
Visiting the doctor isn’t always the most appealing activity for a small child, but the mom is happy that a Verbo Ministries-sponsored floodwaters.medical team visited the Nueva Vida refugee camp on the outskirts of the Nicaraguan capital city of Managua. Doctors, nurses, and a dentist brought basic care and medicines to Hurricane Mitch victims who lost homes and belongings to record high.
Meanwhile, Bob's team
will begin planning a long-term rebuilding program, as well as developing
a ministry to provide for the victims' spiritual needs. Please remember
that though the disaster victims need immediate help, it sometimes takes
years to rebuild. Too often they are forgotten after the initial needs
for food and shelter are provided.
Please join with us for
the long haul so that the victims can rebuild their lives with the love
of Jesus expressed in practical ways.Use
this link to make a donation now!
Read Bob's Nov. 5th letter describing current conditions and further plans for involvement and service.
The U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) makes the following recommendation, "Unsolicited commodity donations often place an unnecessary burden on relief workers and local governments to store, transport and distribute supplies to those affected populations in need. In the interest of effective coordination of such public response we encourage concerned citizens to provide monetary donations to appropriate organizations."
USA Today Story of Mitch's Destructive Path