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Managua for Easter

April 20, 2009 | posted by Lars under nicaragua, reflections

On Holy Saturday, we made ride against the winds off Lake Managua to the capital of Nicaragua.  I had called Efrain Hernandez, the pastor of the Brethren in Christ church we were planning to stay with in Managua, but was only able to leave a message, so we set off across the city with the Managua-style directions we had (”go two blocks south from the hardware store on the north highway…”).  About two-thirds of the way to the neighborhood where the church is located, a taxi driver yelled out of his vehicle at us, telling us to wait for him to turn around.  Accustomed to having people yell at us, we disregarded the incident, laughing that if we wanted to talk with a taxi driver, we could hang around.  Several blocks later, a car pulled up beside us and the driver told us through the passenger-side window, “I am Pastor Efrain, from the church.  Follow me; I’ll lead you to the church.”  We needed that taxi driver more than we thought, and spent several days with him and his church.

With our arrival in Managua, we marked a significant point in our journey - with 3 months and around 3,750 miles behind us and the same ahead, we celebrated being at the midpoint of our journey to Asunción.  However, while I know the fact at some level, I don’t feel like I’m halfway to Asunción.  Not that I know what biking halfway to Paraguay feels like, but at this point, it just feels like I’ve been biking for a really long time.  (As a bit of a celebration of the milestone (no pun intended!), though, Jon & I split a half-gallon of Neapolitan ice cream for a snack the next day in the saddle, pulling on Appalachian Trail thru-hiker tradition.  I guess that means we’re really are closer to the end than the beginning…)

The day after we arrived, the church gathered for an Easter Resurrection Service at 5:00 a.m., culminating a week of preaching and prayer meetings with a similar, highly amplified service.  Still in a bit of a morning stupor from too little sleep after a day of biking, I wondered to myself whether the disciples could really comprehend what had happened when Jesus came among them on that first Resurrection Day.  the whiplash of emotions seems so incredibly dramatic, it would leave anyone in a daze.  What were their thoughts during those days, when Jesus appeared to them, ate breakfast with them, taught them?  While skepticism and pain surely turned to joy, so much of that time seems to point ahead to the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church.

It’s easy to see the parallel of the crucifixion and resurrection as a midpoint in God’s story of redemption.  It’s rather apparent that we live in a world that still endures pain in many ways; but we also have an image of God’s way of interacting with us, in Christ.  So, it seems that in moving from Lent into the season of Easter, we’ve been freed from waiting… in order to wait.  This time, though, we set our eyes on Pentecost, remembering the coming of the Holy Spirit, which fills and moves the people of God.  It seems like a theme to me - waiting, prayer, hurting, waiting, prayer, healing, waiting, prayer, action, repeat.  Maybe someday I’ll begin to understand that, and to live it well.