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| Worship Service on June 23, 2019, in Heredia |
More Nicaraguan families in Heredia
Several Nicaraguan families and individuals that choose to seek refuge in Costa Rica are warmly welcomed by the local Christians who gladly share their resources while the newcomers secure their refugee status, solve special issues and find a job to survive on their own.
The situation in Nicaragua has been very critical during the last 15 months. Hostilities in this country include indiscriminate attacks from paramilitary groups on innocent bystanders, as it happened a year ago to a relative of Juan García Valle, who was reduced to a wheelchair after a bullet broke part of his spine. As a result of the unstable social environment, many Nicaraguan Christians see themselves forced to move out of their country to look for conditions where they can thrive and move on with their lives. Since Heredia is only 4 hours away by bus from the Nicaraguan border, many of them end up in this city where they look for their relatives and friends who had settled earlier. Then the first thing they do is look for a place to worship, and that is where they choose us.
The churches in Heredia and San Rafael have developed an attitude of solidarity and generosity towards the Nicaraguan brethren who honor us with their visit. When they show up in our meetings we immediately interview them to find out how they are doing. The conversation usually ends up in plans to visit them. When the visit is carried out we find out that they have already found shelter with relatives or friends who had migrated earlier. There has been a couple of exceptions when a local member of the church shared a room and his table with one of them. We have seen ourselves personally involved in looking for ways to help them out. When we do this, we find them in marginalized and somewhat dangerous settlements around Heredia.
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| A Marginalized Settlement Around Heredia |
Some of them have special issues, like Leopoldina, 55, who has a 30 year old daughter with Down Syndrome. Leopoldina is a brave lady, who struggles everyday to make it through the day, but she never misses services. She even expresses her gratitude by bringing tortillas with cheese for the church to enjoy at the coffee break between Sunday school and the Worship Service. Another one is Sandra, 20, who was converted in Nicaragua after she found out she was three months pregnant with her second child. Eventually, when she was in Costa Rica, she gave birth to her baby while living in a workers barrack in a coffee plantation in Heredia. She was picking coffee beans with a baby in her belly! While she was going through the process of giving birth, the whole church in Heredia, kept an eye on her, making sure she had everything she needed. Later on, her relatives came to her rescue and took her to the province of Alajuela, where the church members are taking care of her.
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| Sandra and her two kids today |
Being able to survive on their own in a foreign country can be very disheartening for immigrants. The unemployment rate is already high for Costa Rican citizens. If they find a job it would be a low paying temporary job, in the construction sector, or other industries where unskilled labour is required. There was a family for whom we bought food for a two weeks period. I went to their "home" recently, and as I sat down with them, the head of the family told me that he wished we had helped him with merchandise for him to sell in the city. Now we know. He does not want to be helped forever, he wants to make it on his own, and he seems to be good at making a living by peddling merchandise on the streets of Heredia or San José. We know of Nicaraguan members who attend San Rafael who do this and have been successful making a decent living.
The Nicaraguan brothers and sisters are here because they have been forced to leave their country due to the bad economic, and social conditions created by the political instability. The churches in Heredia and San Rafael have been blessed by their presence and through them these churches have been given the opportunity of putting into practice the Lord's words when he said, "I was hungry, and you fed me."
