This Thanksgiving, remember the poor / Hurricane Otto

Today, on Thanksgiving, we ask that you remember the poor (Gal 2:10). Hurricane Otto (category 2) is expected to affect vulnerable regions along the eastern coast of Nicaragua and Costa Rica. In addition to concerns of destruction and flooding, many farmers are just weeks from harvest time.

MCC team members are safe in Managua, which is expecting the storm to have weakened by the time it reaches the west coast later today.

Hoy, en el día de Acción de Gracias, pedimos que se acuerden de los pobres (Gal 2:10). El huracán Otto (categoría 2) afectará a regiones vulnerables en la costa atlántica de Nicaragua y Costa Rica. Junto con preocupaciones sobre destrucción e inundaciones, además muchos productores están a pocas semanas de su cosecha.

Miembros del equipo de CCM están seguros en Managua, donde se espera que la tormenta habrá perdido fuerza cuando llegue a la costa del oeste más tarde hoy.

Reuters: Hurricane Otto nears Nicaragua, Costa Rica forcing mass evacuations

Dear child, yet within the womb

Today Nicaraguans, or those with confidence in the political process, are headed to polling stations for elections, which includes who will be president for the next 5 years.  Daniel Ortega, this time with his wife as vice president, is likely headed into his third consecutive term since his return to office in 2006.  In the 80s, he was "Coordinator" after the Sandinista revolution for 5 years, and then a term of President, before losing to Violeta Barrios de Chamorro in 1990.

There is speculation that the election process opened up late after pressure from the United States' proposed legislation to limit investing from the US in Nicaragua if there were not steps toward a fairer democracy (the Nicaragua Investment Conditionality Act, with the handy nickname NICA Act).

It's nice for the U.S. to be concerned about democratic processes in other parts of the world. At the same time, it appears that much of the world is concerned with the democratic process in the United States, which has been a reality show that has landed two very unpopular, and one highly inexperienced candidate (to say the least) at the top of the ticket.

Over these last few months there have been some movements that have fanned the flames of xenophobic nationalism, in the US and abroad: the Trump campaign, responses to refugees, and the Brexit vote, for example.

With this swimming in my head, it dawned on me that the baby we are expecting will be born beyond his/her parents' nation's borders, and it will likely be some time before he/she becomes fully acquainted with the settings that are most familiar to the rest of his/her family.  So this song comes out of a sense that, as with any baby's birth, there is a new opportunity to understand Family and Community and how we belong to one another around the globe.


Dear child, yet within the womb
Derrick Charles

Dear child, yet within the womb
Let me tell you a story just a year old
of your mother, father, sister, and brother
who held onto the wings of a great bird
came to live in another land
struggled to understand
but sitting and listening would hear God's heart
beating in our new neighbors' hearts

And now you're to join us
You'll have a place with us
and a place with brothers and sisters near and far
For God's kingdom knows no borders
God's kingdom is a union of hearts

Dear child, yet within the womb
Let me tell you a story 500 years old
when citizen meant Christian, and infant baptism meant citizen
and believers gathered to read and understand the word
breaking ties with the state
joining a community of faith
water over Blaurock on his knees
choosing to follow the Prince of Peace


Dear child, yet within the womb
Let me tell you a story 2000 years old
of Jesus, child refugee, and rejected in his home town in Galilee
said the Kingdom of heaven is coming
welcomed the helpless and the poor
said that's who God's kingdom is for
Drinking from the Samaritan woman's well,
said our holy mountains are too small, God's love is for all