Nicaragua and Guatemala

It is so tempting to list one after the next the similarities and differences between Nicaragua and Guatemala… the people, the history, the presence of the Lutheran Church.

The Lutheran Church of Faith and Hope in Nicaragua will have its 15th anniversary this summer. They have a lot to celebrate. 42 parishes, 30 some lay pastors… mostly women, a female Bishop. They were born amidst the refugees from the war in El Salvador and the now Bishop Victoria Cortez came to Nicaragua in 1983 to work with the refugees… and was later asked by them to stay. The ILAG in Guatemala began in 1991… it also had some of its roots amidst the refugees from El Salvador. In Guatemala however the peace was not signed until 1996 and the majority of the people who make up our membership did not return from refugee camps until about this same time.

So even though both countries share this same isthmus their histories, their cultures, their peoples and even how they express their Lutheran confession cannot be expected to be mirror images of the other. Just as the mountains and “cooler” weather of Guatemala City give way to much flatter ocean landscape of Managua, the two churches express their liberty to worship in the manner that fits their people in different ways. In each, I have heard the freeing and binding of the Word given to the people… even while in Nicaragua the politics of the day were discussed with equal attention as was given to the church service.

Our Freedom… and our temptation.

Allow each to be unique. To be the part of the Body of Christ that they are, and not compare and contrast to the other parts of the Body… after all you cannot compare the right ear to the left eye… or the lungs to the heart. Allow each to be who they are resting in our trust of whose we are… we are members of the Body of Christ. Children of the same Heavenly Father.