How do you disciple 300 families who are in “limbo,” whose lives are is a state of suspension?

Near Tipitapa, Nicaragua, hundreds of refugees wait, internally displaced by war and natural disaster. They wait for the government to assign them a piece of land to call their own, land where they can build a little house and plant a garden. They have no safe water, no electricity and no security.

In response to advocacy of the Church of the Nazarene, the Nicaragua government has opened a two-room school to educate six grades. About 105 children are enrolled, but attendance averages about 50 percent on any given day. It is hard to go to school when parents have no work, round-trip bus fare to the nearest town costs $1 (USD), and the children have one set of clothes and no shoes. Hunger, dehydration and a dirty body are the price of waiting for a piece of land to call “home.”

With such overwhelming needs, what is the role of the church? How do you disciple the destitute?

Nicaragua is hurting. Six million people live in a 50,000-square mile area, but much of the country is forested mountains with no roads or access. It takes 24 hours to drive to the Atlantic coast over narrow mountain roads that are frequently washed out. The country has 50 percent unemployment; the economy has been devastated by many years turmoil. Investors have fled the country.

Earlier this month I spent seven days in Nicaragua as part of a medical and ministry team to war refugees and disaster displacees. The government has promised to give thousands of these homeless families five to 15 acres each on which to build a house and earn a living. These promises were first made 12 years ago and so far 17 groups of up to 300 families have been given land --10 miles or more from the nearest town, lacking electricity or water other than stagnant ponds and private wells.

Tipitapa is the closest town to this resettlement area. Thousands of acres of flat land that was previously growing sugar cane is now open grassland. Four years ago the Church of the Nazarene in Tipitapa started a mission among the families of Villa Japon that have been camping on open land, waiting for their land assignment, some for as long as 11 years. People have "camped” for years without even an outhouse. Their little one-room shacks are made of eucalyptus branches, cardboard, plastic sheeting and anything else they can salvage from the city dump.

The local Nazarene church is just a frame with metal roof, enclosed with flattened plastic milk cartons. They are renailed when wind or kids punch holes in the walls. The floor is hard dirt.

Our team of 13 included three doctors, several nurses, a pastor and several helpers. The primary objective was to hold medical clinics and treat the sick. But we found so much more that needed doing.

The team was joined by two Nicaraguan Nazarene doctors. In three days they saw and treated over 600 patients. One man said, “I have been waiting 11 years for my land and no one has ever brought doctors or medicine to us…only the Nazarenes.”

Registered nurses registered, weighed, measured the blood pressure and took the temperature of every patient before he or she saw a doctor. People waited for hours; 100 families were scheduled for each day and some brought four or five children. Almost everyone was malnourished and dehydrated; skin problems were prevalent due to infrequent bathing. Poverty, hunger and lack of safe water had an effect on each one. Many children had never seen a doctor before.

A Hispanic church on the Mid-Atlantic District (Owings Mills Latin American First Church of the Nazarene) sent $300 with me for special needs, and their gift funded a meal for everyone on Sunday. Pastor Marling planned “paella” (rice with chicken and other meats) and sandwiches for 300 people.

The promise of a hot meal on Sunday brought many people. They came early and packed the church for a two-hour worship service. The team invested $258 in 25 adult and 25 children’s chairs -- a pleasant surprise for many who were used to standing through the services.

Pastor Erik Gernand of Real Life Church of the Nazarene in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, U.S., was prepared to preach on the paralyzed man lowered through the roof by his four friends. He used the story of the paralyzed man to exemplify the overwhelming and crippling needs experienced by the people of Villa Japon. It was a daily struggle for the man, and it is for them, just to stay alive as they hope for something good to happen.

Jesus amazed the crowd after the paralyzed man had been lowered through the roof by saying, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.” Notwithstanding the paralyzed man's obviously urgent physical need, and all of the economic and social limitations that came with it, Jesus went directly to the most important issue of all: his soul and his salvation.  And so must we. Villa Japon urgently needs food, water, shelter, income, education and many other things, but first of all, they need forgiveness of sin and a new relationship with Jesus Christ. There begins the discipleship for people who are destitute.

Pastor Erik had practiced the words of Jesus in Spanish, and proclaimed them with power: “Amigo, tus pecados te son perdonados. Yes, we brought doctors and medicine, and chairs and a hot lunch, but most of all we came to bring Jesus, who can forgive your sins and heal your body. Would you like to have Jesus forgive your sins today?”

Over 15 people raised their hands to accept forgiveness for their sins and Pastor Marling prayed for them.

The Sunday morning service was primarily for adults, but after lunch over 100 children gathered in the nearby public school for a puppet show and biblical message by the team. Carrie Fiedler, of Yakima, Washington, U.S., brought everything including 300 small hand puppets for the children to make and take home.

The Murfreesboro congregation denied themselves Christmas gifts to raise $6,650 to drill a water well and install a windmill and water tank on the church property at Villa Japon. But land title issues had delayed the project. Due to widespread dehydration in the community, the team authorized $900 of their well money to be used for immediate purchase of water from a private well for three months to serve 40 of the neediest families. Each family will receive an average of 25 gallons a day of potable water for drinking, cooking and bathing infants and small children. The land title for the church property was expected to be received May 20, so the church well project could begin almost immediately.

Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations…” To "go" includes prayer, giving, informing, involving and sending, but sometimes you have to go yourself. Thirteen disciples spent five days with the people of Villa Japon, El Timal, and their lives will never be the same. By God’s grace, neither will the lives of the people they served in Jesus’ name.