Mission
ON OMOPETE
Marie Maniré Chapman
T e x t :
Photos: Don Rutledge
O mopete is its name but “ the Val ley of the Shadow of Death” would be a more accurate de scription of this volcanic island in Lake Nicaragua. Once the volcano Concepcion erased a whole city on the island with its red-hot liquid rock and today the volcano still rumbles ominously. It is a common place sight to see the sky darkened by smoke and ash. And sometimes boulders the size of a house come hurtling down the volcano’s steep slopes. It’s a place of uneasiness for the natives . . . and for the foreign mis sionaries who serve there. Central American Mission’s Don Gardner has been working among the island’s 11,000 inhabitants for a little over three years. He shares their problems of trying to raise vegetables in the ash-encrusted soil; of fighting the ticks, the humid heat, the lack of roads . . . and the rum
child who overheard the threats rushed to warn Garcia. The godly man stepped off the trail for a few moments, poured out his heart to God in supplication for protection and then proceeded on his way. Slowly he walked on, until he could even see his enemy waiting. He continued walking and in shame the man lowered the gun and slunk away, never to annoy Garcia again. Garcia kept doggedly at his hum ble ministry for 30 years before he got his first church built. And de spite threats and persecution this faithful servant of the Lord contin ued to give out the Word even when in his declining years he could only trudge along for a few steps and then stop to rest before proceeding another few steps. Garcia died in 1955. Today there are four native churches and some 200 believers under the watchful eye of Missionary Gardner.
bling volcano that towers above them with an ever-present uneasi ness. The first Protestant witness on the island was in 1904 when a Dutchman, traveling with a Central American Mission worker, sold a few Bibles. Ten years later, Savas Garcia arrived from the Nicaraguan mainland. Throwing a saddlebag over his shoulders he started down the trail giving Christian literature to those who would accept it. What he found was not encouraging. Op position was strong, and at times malicious. One man would repeat edly accept a tract, then stand with in sight of Garcia and deliberately cut it to shreds with his machete, cursing the colporteur. This went on until one day the man laid plans to kill Garcia. Crouching behind a tree along the jungle path, the man waited with his shotgun leveled for action. A
Gardner on the Island's standard mode of transportation. A t right, Garcia's son bringing folks to church.
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