PATRICK'S PEOPLE: Rev. Arensman performed musical ministry

Last year Rev. Kevin Arensman helped build a house for a poor family in Santa Emilia, Nicaragua. This year he went to a village called Chacraseca and traded his construction tools for a guitar.

It was a happy change for the pastor of the First Christian Church, who is the first to admit that he is not a construction expert.

“I could hand them bricks, haul things and mix sand and concrete, and that was useful,” Rev. Arensman said. “This time I was with a group from the United Church of the Valley in Temecula Valley, Calif. Our main focus was to lead a music camp for children and it was a wonderful experience. This time was more fulfilling to me.”

Through partnership with JustHope, the organization which was also building homes in Santa Emilia,  the California church has been conducting a summer music camp for the children of Chacraseca for the past five years. They also pay for a music teacher in the village school.

“That seems like a lot, until you learn that $50 a month is a living wage for a teacher in Chacraseca,” Rev. Arensman said. “Nicaragua is the second poorest country in the western hemisphere. Only Haiti is poorer. Nicaragua has a lot of political issues that make it difficult for them to thrive.”

He said that Santa Emilia is a village in the mountains that had grown up around a coffee plantation, while Chacraseca  is on the Pacific coast.

“It was not as hot as here, only about 90 degrees while it was 100 here,” Rev.  Arensman said. “But the humidity was worse than southeast Kansas, probably around 90 percent.”

His role was to teach guitar to three teenage boys, which fit well with his passion for music.

“My prayer and study for the last six months has led me to believe that God wants me to use the passion and gifts he has given me to enhance the quality of life for  others,” Rev. Arensman said. “This mission trip opportunity came up at the same time.”

He has been doing an open mic night at Wheat State Pizza for the last five years, and plans to  re-start a guitar club at the  First Christian Church.

“We have a committee in place and empowered to develop an after-school music program,” Rev. Arensman said.

It was in May, he said, that he began realizing that he wanted to go on the music camp mission. The trip was June 22-July 3.

“I tracked down an acoustic electric guitar, got it for a good prize and took it with me,” Rev. Arensman said. “I used it for the music lessons, and then left it for the school. The school had no guitar, and we didn’t know of one in the village.”

He recalled one occasion when he was walking through the schoolyard in Chacraseca and found himself swarmed by children.

“They wanted me to play something, but I got down on my knees and let them strum songs on the guitar,” Rev. Arensman said. “They didn’t enjoy it any more than I did. It was a wonderful moment among wonderful moments.”

He said that he worked with a woman who had taught music in schools for more than 30 years.

“I got to help her, and I learned some basics of music myself that I hadn’t picked up in my education,” he said. “At the end of the camp there was a presentation, and my three boys and I played a simple song.”

The group did build a house in Chacraseca while Rev. Arensman was there.

“I only worked one day on the house,” he said.

After that was two days of sightseeing, including a visit to a volcano that had exploded in April.

“We had to back into the parking lot so that we could make a hasty exit if it started to go again, and we had to wear hard hats,” Rev. Arensman said. “They would only allow us to stay five minutes by the crater because there was still so much gas coming out.”

Less exciting but very pleasant was Laguna Apoyo, a presumably extinct volcano that had collapsed and formed a clear, beautiful lake.

“We were able to stay at a four-star resort, with meals, for $7,” Rev. Arensman said.

But an even better and much more important part of the trip was the relationships he and the others built with the people of Chacraseca.  

“We hope we’re raising them up and giving them opportunities to have a better quality of life, but it’s amazing to see the level  of joy they have, how happy they are with so little,” Rev. Arensman said. “We say that we’re depressed in southeast Kansas, but we don’t know what struggle is.”

He added that there is much the Americans can do to benefit the villagers, but probably more they can do to benefit us by providing a different perspective on life.

“For them, life is not about having more stuff, the way it is here,” Rev. Arensman said.

But he enjoyed the chance to do a little shopping before he left Nicaragua, especially for one of the nation’s most noted products.

“I brought back some coffee beans so I can grind my own good Nicaraguan coffee,” Rev. Arensman said.