Building community ties by example

Jennifer K Mahal

Juan Pablo Rios works as a car and truck mechanic to support his

wife and three children while serving as pastor of First Church of

Christ in Acahualinca, Nicaragua. Sylvia Zeledon de Morales took over

as pastor of the Central Primitive Church after her husband, also a

minister, retired.

Victor Manuel Icabalzeta, pastor of Rey de Reyes y Senor de

Senores Church, ministers to 750 people in Nicaragua with the help of

three other pastors. Juanita Peralta de Lezama of La Resurreccion

struggles daily to feed 200 children and babies when she only has the

resources for 80.

All four Pentecostal-Charismatic pastors have been sharing their

stories with members of St. Mark Presbyterian Church this week as

part of a program to build community ties between the Newport Beach

church and Nicaragua ministries.

“We are in a partnership with them, not in a relationship where we

give and they take,” Pastor Gary Collins said of working with CEPINO,

a group that consists of 15 pastors in the poverty-stricken country.

“We’re looking for the transformation of their community, not just

benefits to a few.”

This is the second time in the eight years of St. Mark’s history

with CEPINO that pastors have visited Newport Beach. Members of the

church try to go to Nicaragua every two years. The last trip was in

July.

The goal of the program, said Edward Kwon, St. Mark Nica Covenant

Committee member, is not to throw money at the problems faced by

Nicaraguan communities and pastors, but to help them see the

possibilities of what can be accomplished working with the system

they have. The Nica Covenant Committee works on Nicaraguan concerns.

“For instance, when I first went there, there was no taxi, no

police, no bus service,” Kwon said. “There is now, because these

pastors have learned to become more and more involved in their

community.”

Part of that learning happens when the pastors come to Newport

Beach to participate in the daily workings of St. Mark. Though there

are the obligatory sightseeing tours and trips to Disneyland, most of

the pastors’ time is taken up with prayer meetings, Bible study and

other church business.

On Wednesday morning, the pastors attended Women’s Bible Study.

Eleven women of St. Mark -- including Charlotte Marcella, who

translated most of the meeting -- gathered with Pastor Collins to

welcome the visitors and hear their stories in between studying

Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

Though language was a challenge, it proved not to be too much of a

problem. The four pastors contributed Bible readings and commentary

to the session. When Psalm 23 became a topic, Zeledon de Morales read

“The Lord is My Shepherd” in Spanish. When Icabalzeta asked how

people St. Marks thought of sinners, Collins answered “As people who,

like us, need the grace of God.”

“I feel like a foreigner to all of you,” Zeledon de Morales said,

during discussion of a study question in which churchgoers describe

their church to a stranger. “But with hospitality and the love of

God, I will be able to feel less of a stranger. Now, in the moment, I

know you all.”

Many said that seeing the strength of the Nicaraguan pastors’

faith in the face of all they have to overcome has been inspiring.

“We have a tendency to think we don’t have enough time,” Kwon

said, “yet their whole day is occupied with survival. But they still

are able to be in church, participate and work with their family.

It’s been enlightening for us.”