Politics

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The elections are getting closer and the political traffic is picking up. I am working on getting a credential from the Carter Center in order to be a volunteer election monitor. The other night, the PLC—one of the major parties in Nicaragua—held a parade in support of its candidate (Rizo). The vehicles flowed past my house for an hour honking and waving flags. It was annoying, but also exciting to see a democratic tradition, taking root in Nicaragua. It’s been just over a decade since the first relatively fair elections. The system is still corrupt and open to manipulation, but it is much better than the century of dictatorship that prevailed before the elections in the early 1990’s.

The Pentecostal people here are just as split as the broader public. Pentecostal people support different candidates and make a point of showing their political allegiances in public. Almost everyone has some indication on their house or clothes showing who they support.

GW Bush is very unpopular even with many Pentecostals and Evangelicals. I have had several people ask me why the churches in America support Bush. I try and explain the “wedge issue” politics of Abortion and Homosexuality, but most keep going back to his foreign policy saying to me that he doesn’t seem very Christian from this side of the border. I don’t disagree, so I usually don’t put up much of a fight, but it’s interesting to see the difference in perception between Pentecostals in Nicaragua and the US.

Chicken and Web Design

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My dad is coming to Nicaragua on Thursday. I told some of the local pastors and it looks as if his five days here will be filled up with offers to preach at churches all over the area. My dad does a lot of traveling, but he doesn’t often head to far south. So this is going to be an interesting experience for both of us.

I took some of the boys from the church out to the grand opening of a fast food chicken restaurant last night. It’s called Tip-Top and it would remind you of a KFC or Popeye’s Chicken in the United States. We sat around a table on the patio and discussed how they could get a website for their church. The project is going to cost 200 dollars and I’m going to donate some of the money myself. However, if there are others how would like to help the Granada UPC get a website I’m sure they would appreciate it.

San Marcos

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District 2 Seminario


On Sunday I traveled to San Marcos a small town in the highlands to the west of Managua. I went with the leaders from the church in Granada. We left at 7AM and took a bus two hours down country roads past farms and clusters of shacks. The mini bus we rode theoretically seats 15, but on both the trip there and back more than twenty persons were packed in. The “wrangler” as I call them—the one who waves passengers aboard and takes their money—had to leave the side door ajar and hang out of the van in order to accommodate the extreme number of passengers. I sat sandwiched between a young boy and his grandmother, unable to move, my legs tingling from the lack of circulation. This two-hour bus ride cost me about one dollar and several hours of discomfort. We reached the small church in San Marcos just minutes before the service began and I rushed down for a coke and a piece of bread at the corner store. It cost me 25 cents and I returned to the store under the impression they had undercharged me, but they were kind to explain that things are half the price in San Marcos compared to the tourist cities in which I had been traveling.

The leadership seminar appeared to me to be a typical Pentecostal service, loud and boisterous people sang, danced, and spoke in tongues. There were two teachers who taught on “A Better Way” and “Listening to the Spirit”. It was bible teaching in an old fashion Pentecostal sense. Calling it a Seminario seemed a bit out of place, it functioned much like any other Pentecostal rally. This service was just for leaders and almost all the pastors from around the district came in order to take part in the service. I was greeted from the pulpit between the sermons and was welcomed as a brother from the United States. I was invited afterwards to eat rice, beans, soup and chicken with the pastors in the open air dining area behind the sanctuary. They asked me questions about the UPC in the United States, about my travels and education and reason for being in Nicaragua. I was comforted by their warm welcome and I asked several questions of my own, about their politics and church organization.

After service was over I walked up the street to Aver Maria University (the most expensive in Nicaragua). Dominos owner and Catholic philanthropist Tom Monaghan founded it almost ten years ago. He has set up a number of similar Universities throughout the US and in foreign countries, voicing his commitment to traditional catholic beliefs and a desire to create an academic presence for conservative catholic faith. This well manicured campus gated off from the dirty streets of San Marcos looked like a western oasis set in an out of the way village in Western Nicaragua. I spent a few minutes poking around and I headed back towards home.