What is Productive?

Productive, according to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, can be defined as "having the quality or power of producing especially in abundance." 

Producing in abundance. 

But producing what, exactly? 

At the beginning of February, a group came to the Nehemiah Center from Innerkip, Ontario. It was the first split-purpose group that I had coordinated. Part of the group was going to help replace the Nehemiah Center's roof, and the other group was going to do more "relational" activities like learn about the Christian education organization the church supports, organize children's activities and visit homes to pray for and evangelize to people. However, they didn't have set teams. Each evening, there was an open invitation for the "relational activities" for the next day, and those who wanted to stay and work on the roof project could. I had told the Nicaraguan roofer that I thought he would have 5-7 people working each day. The team started out with most of the men (7 total) wanting to work on the roof, but as the week went on, more and more started going to the church activities. The last work day, only 3 people stuck around the Nehemiah Center for the entire day.

One of the more "work-oriented" team members said that he figured he could always work on roofs or construction since that was his job in Canada, but he couldn't always visit people in their homes to pray for them. He chose what he thought would be a more transformative experience. 

This surprised me because I had mentally prepared myself for the work component of this team since I usually coordinate strictly relational (friendship) trips. In the past, I had a pretty negative view of these teams, but I have come to appreciate them more during my years in Nicaragua. Instead of simply focusing on work and how much could be accomplished, these team members were also looking to create relationships with the Nicaraguan roofers and get involved with the church activities. They even invited the Nicaraguan roofing team to a birthday party for one of the team members one night, and they all had a great time.

Since I work in a more relationally-oriented program, I often hear church leaders say that one of the biggest push-backs they hear about the Church Friendship Program is that people don't understand the concept of the trips. "What will we do?" they question. People want to produce something, see the effects of what they do with their hands, appreciate what they have done with their own eyes.

It's harder to do that when you're building relationships. A person's smile might grow wider, or their trust might be deeper, but those are things that are hard to measure. Nonetheless, this team chose to emphasize the abundance of relationships, and they measured the productivity of their time in the goals they met, like praying out loud in a group or checking in with people they had met in past years. For them, these relationships that were created certainly lead to a productive trip!

In this season of COVID19 with social distancing and isolation, the parameters of "productive" have shifted for most people. Perhaps we can't meet with pastors or clients like we used to. Perhaps instead of going to the office every day after a specific morning routine we mix things up more. Perhaps our training or teaching needs to be online without as much feedback as we are used to. Perhaps we feel like we aren't making any progress in our tasks.

Perhaps we need to change our expectations of being productive.

Now is also a time when people need relationships more than ever. Perhaps it's time to focus on a different type of productivity. How can we reach out to make our relationships with God, each other, and ourselves richer, deeper, and more life-giving? What can you do to produce relationships in abundance today?

Significant Impact

This year at the Nehemiah Center (NC) we are trying to up our game on evaluation and monitoring, so we started asking teams to fill out evaluations. Yes, this used to be done, but somewhere in the busyness and upheaval of life, no one reminded me that written evaluations were a thing so they fell by the wayside. However, we started written evaluations for teams again this year. Besides being encouraging as far as how we were doing our work, there were some cool questions included. One of the thought questions was "what significantly impacted you during this trip?"

Here are some answers that have stuck out to me, taken anonymously from four different groups.

What significantly impacted you during this trip?

• The meetings with Nehemiah Center (NC) partners, ministries, ministry workers and community connections. 
• In order to pray we need to dream, like Paul praying his dreams in Ephesians 1:15-20
• Great times of prayer
• Encouraging signs of God's work in Nicaragua, even through pain and suffering
• The church service was powerful, especially as the congregation prayed for us
• all the various talks, seeing and hearing about the effects of the 2018 crisis
• Great opportunity to learn about Nicaraguan culture and how the NC is helping motivate churches to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ. This has become even more important following the social unrest that occurred in 2018.
• Feeling God's Spirit this week
• The staff at the NC and their walk with Christ 
• Seeing Nicaragua's beauty and remembering its Creator
• The way the team prayed for the NC staff
• The love and passion for Jesus and God in all the people, but mostly the power of prayer
• Seeing our friends again and how they missed us
• Seeing the youth in some of the churches start to take on leadership roles
• The closeness of everyone; we genuinely cared about each other and prayed sincerely
• Watching friendship continue to develop and grow; memories from previous trips were shared and relationships were deepened
• The Holy Spirit moving in the people on the team and staff, being focused on prayer and seeking God's direction for all decisions was the most impactful
• Praying in our own language together [at the same time] aloud
• Hearing the pastors preach at their churches and the community event service
• learning about the poverty attitude. I didn't see it last time, and so when all the kids had to get in a line [but wouldn't because they kept pushing to the front], it was just shocking to me how it affects everything for them, all the way to their mentalities
• Painting the prayer room

Wow! It's so cool to read these testimonies. I get to be part of this work in people's lives, and I am grateful to God for what He is showing people who come to Nicaragua and what He does in all of our lives. To Him be the glory!

Discovering Talent

Listening to presentations about the Nehemiah Center programs

The first group that visited Nicaragua came from southern Ontario, Canada from January 15-24 to learn more about the Nehemiah Center and work on the roof replacement project. This church had raised the larger part of the funds necessary to replace the thatch roof over the rancho area as well as the tile roof in the office complex. They felt especially satisfied to be able to unload the new materials themselves.

Unloading new roofing materials

There was one team member who couldn't participate in physical labor or painting, but she wanted to minister to the people at the office and help in any way that she could. We suggested she could teach the ladies how to bake things, pray with staff and practice English with the young people. Not all of our plans worked out the way we envisioned, partly because of lack of communication and partly because of lack of structure; however, Gertie was a blessing to the people at the Nehemiah Center. Some ladies learned how to make new recipes for cookies or cakes. The kitchen staff learned a new casserole recipe. Program coordinators were prayed for and remembered. And the kids? They liked having something to do when they were hanging out after school with Gertie, practicing English, baking, or doing crafts.

Saraí is in the green shirt, interpreting for a puppet show

One of biggest things that impacted me from Gertie's time with the Nehemiah Center was finding out that one of the teenage daughters of a couple working at the Nehemiah Center was really good at English! When Saraí was around, Gertie sent the translator away. This young woman, whom I have watched grow up but never really interacted with, has proven to be a leader, translator, and good with kids and languages. She not only helped Gertie a lot with the other kids, but when we needed someone for a day a month later for a community event with another group, Saraí jumped into translating puppet shows on the fly, organizing kids for crafts and helping out in all sorts of ways. It was incredible to witness the gifts God has given her and find this resource so close to us at the Nehemiah Center!

Saraí directing the kids in a game of parachute