This is a newsletter from Cindy Hoover, a Covenant
Missionary (and friend of ours and many others from
Bethany and CCC) in Mexico. Seems like there's a lot of
things we can assist with and maybe have her speak when
she's home in June.
RT
From: Cindy Hoover <cjhoover@spersaoaxaca.com.mx>
Subject: Missionary Newsletter--Cindy Hoover--April 2002
Date: Wed, 03 Apr 2002 19:30:01 -0600
Oaxacan Wonderings (Wanderings?) from Cindy Hoover – April 2002
Greetings again from Oaxaca. I’ve thought of writing many times over
the past months…. but it’s hard to know how to express the many
experiences and emotions that go along with adjusting to a new culture
and lifestyle and finding my niche in ministry. Since in my last (long
ago) newsletter I spoke of the sights and sounds of Oaxaca, I thought
maybe I’d try to explain a little of the ministry I am involved with
here in Oaxaca.
As the emphasis in Covenant mission shifts more and more to partnership
with and enabling of local Christians, medical ministry is taking on new
forms. While I am a physician, I am not licensed to practice in Mexico,
and acute care medicine is not my main focus. Of course I do end up
"seeing" patients on an informal basis—such is life. But the emphasis
is not to create a medical care system, but rather to enable the church
to access what is either already in place or what is the government’s
responsibility in health care, as well as to enable the church to help
develop a locally appropriate and sustainable system of preventive and
curative medicine, showing God’s love for all of life, physical and
spiritual. But what does that mean?
Before I answer that, I’d like to look at the story of the miracle of
the feeding of the 5000—this is where I usually start when making first
contact in a community. In the various accounts of this miracle, Jesus
has been teaching and healing a large multitude of people and it’s
getting late in the day and is time for dinner, but this has been an
impromptu gathering in a rather isolated place, so there is no ready
access to food or prior planning for this. Jesus looks at the crowd,
and has compassion on them. He then tells the disciples to feed the
crowd. Jesus sees the need, has compassion, and tells his disciples to
do something about it. But the disciples are at a loss. They mention
spending great sums of money to address the situation. They suggest
sending them off elsewhere to get what they need. But Jesus rejects
these solutions and tells them to feed the crowd. It would appear that
the community resources consisted solely of 5 loaves of bread and 2
fish, not nearly enough to do any good. But Jesus tells them to bring
these resources to him. He holds them in his hands and prays over them,
then gives them back to the disciples—they still are going to be the
ones who feed the crowd, but with the resources blessed by Jesus and
made sufficient for the need. And all the people ate, with much
leftover besides. And God’s goodness and love and concern for all of
life was known in practical and tangible ways.
In many ways, I see this miracle as the pattern for holistic ministry,
and in my case, holistic community health ministry. Working as a
community of faith, we need to be listening to God and aware of what he
is seeing as needs in the community and where he wishes to show
compassion. And as in the story of the miracle, he wishes to use his
followers to do this. He could have just made enough food out of
nothing, but instead, he wanted them to find what they had as resources
and entrust them to him to bless and make sufficient. So we need to
look for the community resources. The disciples first thought of
pouring "outside" money into the situation, but that would not be
sustainable in the long run as each new need was seen. Instead, they
needed to find the resources from within that God could multiply. So
the resources go from the disciples to Jesus and back to the disciples
to distribute freely to all, no matter what their lifestyle, their
beliefs, etc…. All were given food freely without condition. And so we
look for our community resources, our community strengths, knowing that
in themselves they seem insufficient. We give them to God. We pray for
him to make them more than enough and to give us wisdom in their use.
Then we distribute freely, showing the unconditional love of God.
In practical terms, this doesn’t appear nearly as miraculous as the
results of this story. For me, it means looking at indicators of
health—things like access to water, cement floors in houses instead of
dirt floors, access to an assortment of foods to provide balanced
nutrition, actual presence of public health clinics with immunization
programs, ability to get to the hospital, etc…. When Jesus looks at the
community, what does he see and where does he wish to show compassion?
In the community of Guardado, a squatters’ community that was built on
the dump (though I’m told the right term is reclaimed landfill) and
which is just 20 minutes outside of the city of Oaxaca, we’re starting
to look at housing, which though it does not appear to be a medical
item, definitely impacts health when it is inadequate. When Jesus looks
at this community, he sees partial houses with uneven dirt floors, no
water, no electricity, no shade (which is vitally important in the
afternoon here). I’m helping the local Covenant church in this
community and Fuentes Libres, a Oaxacan Covenant development group, to
look and see where Jesus wishes to show compassion. We’re talking about
taking what little resources there are, praying, and going about doing
what is needed not just for the church members but for the community, to
show the love of Jesus. And in this case, we’re beginning to look at
cement floors as a way to improve hygiene as we wait for the water
supply to be brought in by the government and for electricity to
arrive. What are the resources Guardado has? Well, there is a
government program to help some, but someone has to organize this—just
like the disciples organizing the distribution. And possibly we’ll be
able to use work groups and develop ongoing sister relationships between
the community of Guardado and some US churches. I don’t know yet how
God will work in this situation, but we are praying and listening and
trying to follow where Jesus leads. And in other communities, this will
look completely different, as the needs and resources are different.
This doesn’t mean I don’t have dreams and ideas of what I’d love to do.
I’m intrigued with the idea of developing medicinal gardens in the more
remote mountain villages to grow plants that have proven over time to be
beneficial in various medical situations. These communities don’t have
the economic base to support a traditional pharmacy and buy expensive
medicines….. but maybe they could form a pharmacy that carries what
nature doesn’t directly provide, and help the community access the
wisdom of the ages of the curanderos (indigenous healers), but without
the superstition and "magic" that goes with it. I dream of churches
taking up community health and wellness as a part of the Christian
life—not in a legalistic don’t drink, don’t smoke way, but as a way to
show the transforming power of God in life. I dream of basic hygiene,
adequate sanitation, potable water, healthy children growing to be
healthy adults, and a knowledge that God cares about all of life,
physical and spiritual. And I’m giving those dreams to God as my
resources, and asking where and how he’d like to distribute those……
Vamos a ver (we’ll see).
So no finished stories yet, but God’s faithfulness works over time and
little by little we see where he’s leading us and hopefully are faithful
in entrusting him with our resources and receiving them back from him to
use to his glory.
While I’m exploring all of this, I would appreciate your prayers for:
1. Wisdom in choosing communities to visit and to work with.
2. Safety in my travels (and that my Jeep arrives soon).
3. A growing understanding of the various indigenous cultures.
4. Continually improving communication.
5. Good health and protection when in less than optimal situations.
6. Nurturing of friendships and relationships with both Oaxacans as well
as with other expatriates.
7. Upcoming workgroups from Orlando FL (April/May), Princeton IL (June),
and the Covenant Women's Ministry group (July).
8. Travels in June to the US to attend the FEAST (for spiritual R&R) as
well as some itineration and camp visits.
9. Expediting of the visa process so I have my FM3 resident visa before
I travel to the US.
10. That I be looking to God to bless the resources and lead in this
work, rather than just relying on my education and experience.
As always, thanks for your support and prayers. They mean more than you
can know to me. If you wish to participate financially in the support
of my ministry, either in general or for extra budgetary needs in the
development work in Oaxaca, you can send checks to:
Department of World Mission
Evangelical Covenant Church
5101 North Francisco Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60625
Please include a note that says that this is either:
1. For the support of Cindy Hoover, account # 5141-1010-67-10 (there are
two Hoovers in the Department, so it is important to include my first
name)
2. For development work in Oaxaca by Cindy Hoover.
And if your church does not have an ongoing relationship with a Covenant
missionary and you would like to explore that possibility, please
contact me at <cjhoover@spersaoaxaca.com.mx> so we can discuss this.
Again thank you for your love, support, and prayers.
Que Dios les bendiga.
"Declare God’s glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all
the peoples. For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise." (Psalm
96:3,4)