Thursday, March 4 – Sunday, March 14, 2010
Cost: $1250
($100 deposit due as soon as possible, but no later than January 1, 2010)
Full payment due January 15, 2010

You are invited to consider participating in the second Oregon Synod Awareness trip to Nicaragua. Members of the synod global mission committee have been exploring closer ties to the church in Nicaragua for some time now, especially following a visit from Bishop Victoria Cortez to our Global Mission Event in 2008.

This is an awareness trip, not a vacation/tourist trip. It is designed to allow participants to learn about the church there, about life in Nicaragua. We will stay in a former refugee camp ( now serving as a retreat center), visit local communities and stay overnight in people’s homes. An excursion to the coffee region in the north is planned in order to see developmental work around fair trade production sponsored by Lutheran World Relief. We will also be visiting several of the local ministries and schools of the church in Nicaragua.

Some sightseeing may include a trip to Lake Nicaragua, the old colonial city of Granada, the Masaya volcano, local handicraft markets, and the Pacific coast.
Participants should expect very basic accommodations (no hotels), simple but good food, poor but very generous people, and an enthusiastic spirituality within a church full of children and young people. We will be going there not to do for, but to learn from, the people there and to be with them for awhile. We are going to build relationships, rather than to work on a specific project. This is what they ask of us just now. “Come and visit us; let’s get to know each other”, Bishop Cortez invited us. “We will see what develops from there.”

We will aim to include 8-10 people on this trip, who upon return will be willing to advocate for a continuing relationship with the church in Nicaragua and tell the story in word and pictures around the synod.

Application Process:
Download PDF application form
Applications should be received by the deposit due ASAP. They will be reviewed by Synod Global Mission Committee representatives and prospective participants notified shortly afterwards.

If you are interested please contact:
Pr. Nick Doversberger
Zoar Lutheran Church, 190 SW 3rd, Canby, OR 97013
Tel: 503-266-4061
FAX: 503-263-1736
Email: ndovers @juno.com