By Grace Thornton
The Alabama Baptist
Roland Brown said up until recently, his church felt “very, very safe” traveling to Nicaragua on missions trips.
But his team was there in April when protests began against President Daniel Ortega, sparking the worst political unrest the country has seen since the 1980s.
“We smelled the smoke, saw the gunfire and saw the tires burning in the streets,” said Brown, pastor of Golden Springs Baptist Church, Anniston, in Calhoun Baptist Association.
More than 200 people have died in the violence so far. In mid-June, pro-government forces killed an evangelical pastor and his family after he refused to let them shoot from the family’s balcony, according to Evangelical Focus, a European news site.
At least 14 more people reportedly died in clashes over the weekend of July 7, according to the BBC.
Because of the continuing unrest, some missions agencies are choosing to suspend their trips to the Central American country. Alabama churches also are weighing how to proceed with missions trips they had planned there.
Scotty Goldman, director of the office of global missions for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions (SBOM), said churches trying to decide what to do in situations of unrest should:
1. Keep in close contact with people on the ground.
Sometimes the media will make things seem worse or more widespread than they are, he said.
For example, when Ukraine faced an invasion in the far eastern side of the country a few years ago, it seemed from the news that the whole country was affected, Goldman said.
“Our teams in western Ukraine didn’t experience any difference at all,” he said.
But other times people on the ground may affirm that teams can’t safely come.
That’s the case with Roland Brown’s missions partner in Nicaragua. Not only did he recommend Golden Springs not go forward with plans for a fall trip at the moment, he decided it was time for him to get his family out of the country too.
“He feels it’s beyond the normal tension,” Brown said. “He loves those people. For him to get to the place where he feels he needs to leave — it breaks my heart.”
2. Consider the threat level.
In addition to listening to the advice of locals, check with the U.S. State Department and see what their recommendations are for travel to the country, Goldman said.
Then with all of that information in mind, consider your own team and how they might handle the threat level, he said.
“Sometimes depending on the situation, it may depend on who is on your team whether you should go or not,” he said. “For instance, if it’s most of the team’s first or second trip, or first time to the country, it may not be a good idea to go. But if it’s a team that has been there multiple times and knows the country well, it may be more possible to go.”
Adam Brown, missions and education pastor for Southside Baptist Church in Etowah Baptist Association, said his church decided to postpone its planned trip to Nicaragua as unrest escalated.
“We have had a team that has consistently gone for the past several years. We’re hoping to go back but we’re not really able to set a date right now,” he said. “It really just depends on the situation there. Some parts (of the area) seemed OK, but we didn’t feel comfortable with the situation around the airport. If we are going to err on one side, we decided we are going to err on the side of caution.”
3. Consider security training.
If you do decide at any point to go to a country where there might be threats, consider getting personalized security training for your team, Goldman said.
The SBOM now partners with a security company to provide training for any Alabama Baptist missions team — training personalized to the team and location of the trip, Goldman said.
“We’ve changed the way we’re doing that. It used to be more of a one-size-fits-all kind of crisis training. Now the company researches threats in the particular area and tailors the training to that specific team,” he said.
The training is done via webinar and lasts between two and a half and three hours, Goldman said.
“The advantage of having the training is that it helps you know what to say or do so if you get in a situation you know what to do and we can respond accordingly,” he said.
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To schedule training for your team, call the SBOM office of global missions at 1-800-264-1225, ext. 387, at least one month before your trip, Goldman said.
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