Nursing Students Do International Missions

A frequent volunteer herself on international missions, Dr. Connie Peterson often serves as a faculty advisor to nursing students on mission trips.

On one trip to Nicaragua, Peterson and nursing students helped build houses for Habitat for Humanity, which fit perfectly with Concordia’s academic goal of students  “becoming responsibly engaged in the world.”

“As a nurse with a professional interest in international health, I think volunteering for Habitat work is valuable in growing my cultural competence,” says Peterson. “And as a Christian, I feel called to put my faith to work in a country that so desperately needs help rebuilding from natural disasters.”

Peterson and her students found they gained much more than they could ever give.

Nicaraguans might be disconnected economically with the world, yet the people express a closeness to God that is tangible.

“The people are uneducated but they speak multiple languages,” says Peterson. “They are extremely poor in material possessions and yet they are the most hospitable strangers I have ever met.”

The students discovered Nicaraguans express their joy about living in their music, their laughter and their faith.

“After working together, we formed connections between our ‘two worlds’ that will survive for a lifetime,” says Peterson, who wrote the following poem honoring her new Nicaraguan friends that was previously published in the "Journal of Christian Nursing," January 2007, V.24 #1, p. 32:

Nicaragua: El Segundo Madre de mi Corazon
(“The second mother of my heart”)

We call them poor because they have no things.
They call us poor because we live without faith.
We call them underprivileged because they have no money.
They call us underprivileged because we have no time for our families.

We say their country is “third world.”
They say we all live in the same world.
We ask, “Where is God?”
They say, “Jesus Cristo esta aqui.”

Here in the red dust born of the hot sun,
Here with the donkeys and bare feet in the potholed streets,
Here in the golden pineapple juice dripping from sticky sweet chins,
Here I the walnut brown skin of the beloved faces,
Jesus Cristo esta aqui.

Here in the Spanish hymns and Creole drumbeats,
Here in the corrugated tins and concrete bunkers,
Here in the mangoes, bananas, beans, and crooked smiles,
Here in the eyes of his children,
Jesus Cristo esta aqui.

Here in the mothers beating their clothes white on stones,
Here in the sweat of the hammer and the spade.
Here in the waves crashing on forgotten beaches.
Here in the proud people of the land.
Jesus Cristo esta aqui.

Jesus Cristo esta aqui.
We will wait until he comes again.
Esta list?
We are ready.

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