It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry. ~Albert Einstein
Instead of information overload, our teaching style is to provide people the opportunity to connect with and learn new information, and to be challenged to apply it and change. At least that's the goal!
Have you ever ended a story with a question? I think that means the storyteller is looking for a reaction from the audience. Maybe it's even an invitation into the story. I've been thinking about a story that ends that way about a missionary who only went a third of the way that God told him to go.
This guy was called by God (as in God actually talked to him) to go to a city on "the other side of the world" to tell them that God loves them and wanted to save them from the destruction they were facing. The only problem being that this guy's nation was practically a sworn enemy with this people group, and so he wasn't too excited to go. Once he finally got there, he showed up, did only one day of travel instead of the 3 that God asked him to do in order to reach everybody, and then sulked in the desert outside the city while they all converted. Yes, he was so opposed to these guys that he got mad that they didn't die.
Then God asks the question which ends the story: "...Ninevah has more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well. Should I not be concerned about that great city?"
Maybe the biggest point in this story is about God's compassion, especially in comparison to Jonah's ethnocentric bad attitude. But I also think it's about cows.
A while ago, I was reading in the local newspaper about the evacuation of the area around an erupting volcano here in Costa Rica: Turrialba. The story mentioned that about 300 cows were also being evacuated (photo left). Of course the reason for this was that livestock are the livelihood of many people living in that rural community. So evacuating people but letting the families' incomes be destroyed made no sense.
Caring about what the people you love care about is natural. At least it seems like it would be. But we sometimes get caught up in the theological chicken-or-the-egg question: Do we meet people's needs or tell them about Jesus? A friend reminded me this week of one of my favorite St. Francis of Assisi quotes: "Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words."
A bunch of Quechua Bible translators also reminded me of this when we were writing out their plans for the next 5 years and they reminded me that as well as finishing the Old Testament translation, they wanted to help reduce the percentage of the kids in their state who were dying before they were 5 years old (at that point it was about 40%).
God loves cows because they are life sustaining to the people He loves (and there's nothing better than fresh cow's milk, let me tell you). One of my prayers is that I'll have that same all-encompassing love for the people He puts in my life.
(Continuing on the cow theme, here's a photo of me gesturing wildly at a small herd of cows outside Coronado, Costa Rica. I have a thing for cows, after falling in love in Peru with Shumaq, the nicest dairy cow you'll ever meet.)
You have probably already heard that a massive 7.3 earthquake hit Haiti yesterday. Because of the types of structures people live and work in as well as a general lack of access to medical care, thousands are expected to die. There is also high risk for infections and water contaminations leading to more deaths. You CAN help in several ways:
1. Pray. One suggestion is to pray on the hour, every hour, for the rescue efforts and for healing. Pray for God to open doors for every salvation, both physical and spiritual.
2. Give. I recommend giving through any reputable agency, but personally know that Medical Teams International (where I used to work) has experience in Haiti and has 2 teams ready to go and provide emergency medical care to the wounded. I have even met two of the doctors that leave tomorrow. MTI will responsibly use your dollars as only 3% of donations are used for overhead. The rest goes directly to the field. In a situation like this $10, 20 or $50 will make an impact.
Today I start working out of the central Wycliffe office for the Americas, located in Moravia, a suburb of San José, Costa Rica. Even though it was not named for the Moravia in the Czech Republic, I'm always reminded of those Moravian missionaries famous for their uninterrupted, round-the-clock prayer service that lasted for 100 years.
Here's a bit from Wikipedia on these guys: The first missionaries were sent out when there were only 300 inhabitants in Herrnhut. Within 30 years of their beginning, the [Moravian] church sent hundreds of Christian missionaries to many parts of the world, including the Caribbean, North and South America, the Arctic, Africa, and the Far East. They were also the first to send lay people (rather than clergy) as missionaries, the first Protestant denomination to minister to slaves, and the first Protestant presence in many countries.
The current motto of the Moravian church is: "In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; and in all things, love". That's what I was thinking about as I was driving to work today, where a bunch of people from a bunch of cultures, traditions and languages are working together to see that everyone has access to the Words of God in their language and an opportunity to receive His love for them.
This is a drawing made from the description of a Moravian missionary in order to document the indigenous culture in which they were living in Newfoundland. I love the kid popping out of the boot. Source here.
On December 11, I graduated from language school! (There I am with the Costa Rican flag.) I am grateful for having had the chance to improve my Spanish before jumping into more hands-on training of ministry leaders. I feel more confident...even though I'm even more aware of the mistakes I still make. :) God did so much more in my life in the past 8 months than teach me Spanish. Doesn't He always makes the journey more interesting than the destination?
Probably because of the "bad luck" of being classmates with the president of the student body, I was asked to give the student speech at graduation. I won't print the whole thing here, but I ended with this poem (which I modified from the internet). This sounds a bit like what's in my head these days--a big mess of Spanglish!
TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE NAVIDAD
‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the casa Not a creature was stirring. I wondered, “Que pasa?”
I was hanging the stockings with mucho cuidado
In hopes that old Santa would feel muy obligado
To bring all the children, both buenos y malos,
A nice batch of dulces and other regalos.
The children and I were asleep in our camas,
Some in long underwear, some in pijamas When out in the yard, there arose such a grito
That I jumped to my feet like a frightened cabrito.
I ran to the window and looked out afuera,
And who in the world do you think that it era?
Saint Nick on a sleigh and a big red sombrero
Came dashing along, like a crazy bombero.
And pulling his sleigh, instead of venados,
Were eight little burros, approaching volados.
I watched as they came, and this quaint little hombre
Was shouting and whistling and calling by nombre: "Ay, Pancho! Ay, Pepe! Ay, Cuca! Ay, Beto!
Ay, Chato! Ay, Chopo! Maruca y Nieto!"
Then, standing erect with his hand on his pecho,
He flew to the top of our very own techo.
With his round little belly like a bowl of jalea
He struggled to squeeze down our old chimenea.
Then, huffing and puffing, and a little cansado
He picked up a bag that looked so pesado.
He filled all the stockings with lovely regalos,
For none of the niños had been very malos.
Then chuckling along, seeming very contento,
He turned like a flash and was gone like the viento.
And I heard him exclaim -- and this is verdad --
"Merry Christmas to all! y Feliz Navidad!"
Christmas Greetings from La Carpio! For the past few months, I've been spending Thursday afternoons in a part of San José called La Carpio with a pile of awesome kids between 1-18? years old. Every year there is a Christmas party and we planned this year's party expecting 150 kids. Around 500 showed up! Here's the link to pictures of the party and the children I'm loving more every week:
Learning to laugh at myself was a big part of my time in Peru...and it continues! Language errors can be embarrassing, even harmful, but most of all they are forgivable, and often hysterical! I thought I'd share a few of the funny ones here on my blog.
Last week in class, we learned how to describe when someone picks up a habit. I had to come up with a sentence in Spanish and then translate it into English. "Mi hermano le ha dado por fumar," was fine (and not actually true), but when I tried to translate it into English, I made everyone laugh. Fumar is "smoking" in Spanish and my brain couldn't quite jump to English entirely. So I somehow kept a half-Spanish accent on the last word and said, "My brother started'fooming'." If I had pronounced it "fyuming" I could have said, all in proper English, "My brother started fuming," but that would have meant something different entirely.
The verb "fumar" always makes me smile because of a story my friends tell about one of the former SIL Peru directors. Police often stop foreigners in Peru and sometimes it's hard to get out of the situation without losing a little cash. But in order for the transaction to occur, the foreigner has to at least speak a little Spanish. My friend used that last bit to to his advantage when he was stopped by a cop (for doing nothing wrong). When the cop asked him to roll down the window and started to question him, my friend (who is fluent in Spanish) looked up at him quizzically and said, "Uh...no...uh...no fumar español." No, my friend didn't smoke Spanish. :) The cop just waived him away.
Running around the muddy yard, the 10 or so kids didn't seem to mind playing tag eternally, until one kid said, "This time you're 'La Llorona'!" I didn't understand what he meant and had never heard the term, so I asked him to explain it to me.
"While we are sleeping, the bad, old lady comes to steal us out of our beds!"
"She lives down there!" another one added, pointing to the basement, gated off with iron.
I'm really into in-the-moment teaching opportunities and realized this was one of them. I needed God's help. I looked into the wide eyes of the kids staring up at me, equally hopeful of and terrified at the prospect of me chasing them, pretending to be La Llorona.
"Is there anyone who can stop La Llorona? Anyone stronger?"
The kids were unanimous: "No way!"
I looked puzzled. "Are you sure?"
One sturdy, young kid with a penchant for biting me instead of hugging me shouted, "God is!!"
I looked up and out at the rest of the kids. "Really?" I asked. "Is God stronger than La Llorona?"
By this time they had caught on: "YES!!" They shouted in unison.
"If the bad, old lady shows up, do you know how to ask God to help you?" My eyes panned the small crowd.
No one had an answer.
I shouted mine: "En el nombre de Dios, vayase!"
Heads perked up.
"Say it together!"
"In the name of God, get out of here!", the kids shouted in unison. (Okay, I realized later I should have taught them "In the name of JESUS, get out of here!" so I'll make that adjustment the next time we play!)
We were ready to test it out. I backed into the far corner of the yard and waited. They scattered...a few brave ones tiptoeing as close as they dared in the few seconds just before I...started moving toward them...lifting my hands as if to grab someone...but before I could take more than two steps, the kids shouted, almost in unison:
"EN EL NOMBRE DE DIOS, VAYASE!"
I clapped my hands over my ears and shrank back in horror. I fled back to my corner and looked up, shocked, at the kids. "You stopped me! How did you do that??"
They were thrilled to explain that now they all knew how to stop La Llorona!
A few turns later (and no one got tired of this game!), someone said, "We should all be laying down, because she only comes at night, to grab us out of our beds." There was something awfully sweet and sad about how truly scared those kids were as they lay down on the ground and peeked up at me, probably wondering if their short prayer was really going to work when they were in a more vulnerable position. And it did! You should have seen their faces as they realized that calling on Jesus to save them could stop the scariest person they could think of.
I know kids all around the world have stories of the "bogeyman" who is coming to get them. How awesome to be reminded that it only takes a few words to banish the strongest negative force we might encounter.
One Halloween we had a all-night vigil at a liturgical church I was attending. (Basically, we prayed and sang all night.) I left my shift around 10.30pm and as I walked down the steps to a lower parking area, I looked up at the small but towering church. There were sparse, autumn-shorn branches breaking across the building's vertical lines. It was a cloudy night with an almost-full moon. The scene was painted with every shade of gray and black. At the top of the church, spike-like crosses soared, looking even more menacing than that imposing sky--but in a strong, True way. I wondered: Do we worship a more ominous Good?
Three friends and I decided it was about time I took my "new" wheels for a ride. It was a new experience for me to be able to just jump in the car in a foreign country and go where I wanted. (I haven't owned a car in 3 years!) We spent a Saturday in a neighboring city, Cartago, driving through fields and herds of cattle to also reach the nearby volcano. Here are a few pics (most of them mine, but I give props to Ryan M. for the good ones).
Thank goodness there's more to life than studying!
Most of these students in my first trimester have moved on to the mission field. Only the Sears and I have stayed for a second trimester: Seth is in a blue shirt in the back and Andrea is sitting on the left.
Our school (The Spanish Language Institute) is dedicated to training people heading to serve God in Spanish-speaking countries, so there are a lot of joyful goodbyes throughout the year. Goodbye to friends who are leaving...
...and holding on to those that are staying a while longer!
After 90 days my tourist visa was set to run out, so my friends Seth and Andrea and I planned a morning at the immigration office. I was in business mode at 7am, needing to do a few things before we met up at the park by my house to head downtown.
I walked down the hill from my house to the park, which is practically empty that early in the morning. As I turned away from my normal route to school, I noticed a kid in a black hoodie. He stood out in my mind since there had been a series of robberies around the school by someone dressed the same.
I wasn't paying much attention to him until I realized he was walking in a trajectory that would cross his path with mine, and he would get there before me. I sped up because it felt a little weird...and so did he.
So I sped up a little more (and so did he) and soon I was sprinting down the sidewalk, my wheeled backpack swinging behind me, a few feet off the ground. I was approaching a cross street with cars that careen down the hill without regard, but I didn't care. At that point, I would probably have told you I'd rather be hit by a car than be robbed--as a matter of principle. :) Without looking, I charged into the street. The drivers are pretty gracious here so no one hit me. (Maybe the chase that was going on made them want to help me?)
While running through oncoming traffic (just 2 lanes--not that exciting), I started praying: "Lord, where should I go, especially if this guy DOES have bad intentions?"
I headed straight for the 24-hr mini-mart. I was probably out of breath when I got to the checkout stand and told the clerk I was feeling a little nervous. Maybe that's why she didn't understand me. :) I was hoping someone who knew the neighborhood would scope out the situation for me and make sure everything was cool. Finally, she says that her manager will meet me outside. A few minutes later, a burly tank of a guy is at the store opening, gesturing with his finger that I should join him outside. Could this be the manager?
I cautiously obey him, noticing again that the kid in the hoodie is still hanging out just across the street from the store, watching us. The man explains he owns the store and asks me if there's anyway he can be of assistance.
I use vague, non-accusatory terms to describe the situation since I really can't guarantee that this kid really was trying to rob me, since he never caught up with me(!).
The man glances at me and asks, "Why did you pick my store to run into for safety?" I start to say something about asking God for help (why not be honest and share?), and he quickly looks disappointed.
In a few seconds, he rallies and with his chest thrust a little more forward says, "Obviously, everyone has told you about me. Why else would you come to ME for help?"
I fumble around a bit and come up with, "I hear your store is wonderful and I've been shopping there a few times!"
This is NOT what he is after, so he leans in and continues, "Everyone knows who I am. During the guerrita (little war), I saved this neighborhood. Now everyone knows that it stays safe because I scare the bad guys away. Do you REALLY not know who I am?"
All I can do is repeat that I'm glad to meet him so he continues, "They all know who I am, the good guys and the bad guys. I am...(I swear there was a pause)...The Russian." Feeling like I may have just met a superhero or a character from The Godfather, I say, "Nice to meet you."
"My name is Alex."
"Great to meet you Alex, I'm Amy."
"I'm from Russia originally."
Thinking quickly, I respond, "My grandmother was from Czechoslovakia."
Alex beams. "Prague is beautiful! We are practically neighbors!"
Now that we have bonded, he tells me the story (As if I had a choice. My eye is still on the hooded teen, leaning against a tree across the street, reading a newspaper!?):
"There was a war here. Bullet holes in every store front." He gestures broadly with his thick, muscular, hairy arms--not an exaggeration.
Alex tells me how 8 years ago this place was overrun with gangs, shooting matches, and generally un-safe conditions. He owned a business and the gangs were making life difficult, so he and his son took matters into their own hands.
As he describes the artillery they used, the attack on their store and the shoot-out that followed, he raises an imaginary gun and takes aim at, you guessed it, the hooded teen across the street, still watching us. Ha!!
The Russian had to go to court because he was guilty of killing 3 people, but he was acquitted since it was in self-defense.
It didn't end there. There were other gun battles, knife fights, and he shoves up his sleeves and a pant-leg to show me the scars.
He tells me, "You are safe now because you know The Russian. I am always here and I always have mi amiguita (my little girlfriend) with me." And he reaches down and pats his pants pocket where I now see the outline of a gun.
I thank him and tell him we are all grateful he's around. My friends show up, wondering who this guy is. We are ready to leave for immigration, but he has one more request. He wants me to memorize his phone number so I can always call him if something happens. He'll show up and take care of it.
The kid with the hooded sweatshirt is gone by the time I leave.
I doubt I'll be calling The Russian, but I think meeting him made my month.
Sidenote: I just had to look up The Russian on wikipedia, because I knew I'd heard the term before. If an artistdrew a dramatic version of MY Russian, it wouldn't look much different from this one of the Marvel Comics supervillain from The Punisher:
NEW= Blog design Team Role Country Resolution to start up blogging again!
At our Wycliffe International meetings for the Americas a week and a half ago, they showed us a video that might help us better understand the kind of ministry environment we find ourselves in. I'm sure you've experienced something a bit like this.
Praise God for Iva May and her 5 hours of teaching this past week during our spiritual emphasis week at the Spanish school where I'm studying it. I think my favorite quote of hers was "If you make it, you will take it", referring to schemes we come up with to "help" God with His "Plan A" for our lives. Thing is, God has no Plan B and He has PROMISED to accomplish His Plan A. His promises are not like those that we humans make and try to fulfill, it's His very nature to accomplish what He promises. The great temptation is to hear a promise of God, be in a waiting-for-fulfillment period, and try to "help" God accomplish His goal by scheming up a Plan B. And you know where you'll end up! (If you don't, take a look at the stories in Bible and you'll find some Plan B's...it's not pretty!)
As a result of these talks, I've been studying God's promises (well, I'll be honest, they have been finding me--thanks, Holy Spirit) and it's amazing how tied they are to His Great Love for us. It seems that's WHY He promises anything to us, because of His unwavering Love.
Here's another awesome tidbit from the week, with thanks to Dr. Seuss for the original.
Green Eggs And I AM By Elizabeth Wallace
My seminary course in Trinitarianism included several class lectures on "I AM" in the Bible. I wrote the following piece to fulfill the assignment of a creative project having to do with the Trinity.
I have wondered if Jesus had come at a different time how he would have communicated with His children. The following is a result of two greats in my life coming together: God, the ultimate lover of my soul, and Dr. Seuss, who had a love of the simple things of life. If Dr. Seuss had written theology books, instead of classics such as Green Eggs and Ham, I think it would have gone a little something like this.
Green Eggs And I AM
My name? I AM.
I am I AM, I AM I am.
I AM here, I AM there, I am I AM everywhere.
Father, Son, and Spirit are we. We are one, but we are three.
I AM here, I AM there, I am I AM everywhere.
One in Three and Three in One, Jesus is God, Jesus is Son.
Spirit's Power, Father's Plan, Nail scars in the Son's pierced hands.
"What," you exclaim, "How can that be?" Shhhh, my child, just rest in me.
I will not be put in a box. I will not let you worship an ox.
I created it all-the family, the mountain, the tree- We created it all, so you could grasp the "we."
I will call you here and there, And I will go with you everywhere.
I AM here, I AM there. I am I AM everywhere.
Confused, uncertain, and having doubt? Give up now, you won't figure it out.
Father, Son, and Spirit are we. We are one, but we are three.
Adonai, Yahweh, Savior, Friend- The aspects of me never end.
I will not be defined by just one name, But I will love you just the same
So what should you do? How should you react? Learn enough truth to guard against attack.
Then let go of questions like "Why?" And raise your voice in praise toward the sky.
Never to leave is my promise to you. Stay focused, listen to me, and follow through.
Wherever I lead, wherever you go, I'll be there, too, just continue to grow.
I am I AM, I AM I am
On a train In the rain In a box With a fox On a boat With a goat
Anywhere, everywhere you may go, I am I AM is all you need to know.
If Jesus were Tico (Costa Rican), I think He would have attended Saturday's conference. I'll fill in the details in my next email update, but I can tell you now there was a lot of singing, learning, praying, and dedicating of lives to reach those who haven't heard...yet. And there was one gringa from the USA who made these weird hand signs...or is she trying to poke out Silvana's eye? We're not sure...
My first week in Costa Rica, I headed to Walmart to buy a few things no other stores had. The store is officially called "Hipermás" here, but they can't fool me! I was dragging my heels to shop there but later I found out that before Walmart was allowed to enter Costa Rica, they had to agree to a list of things so they couldn't take advantage of the situation or the people here. Employees at Hipermás have it good. I think mom and pop shops are probably still suffering because of the mega-store, but now I feel better for buying a fan there!
That day, I found the things I was looking for, well, most of them, and took a pit stop while my friend watched our cart. In the bathroom, out of nowhere, my nose started bleeding--hardcore. I've never had a nosebleed before and didn't know what to do. I had wads of TP holding the gusher in and had my nose in the air (for all the right reasons). A lady stopped me at the sink. "Are you okay? Here, you need a cold compress, let me get some toilet paper." She wadded up a bunch and splashed some water on it.
As she held it up to my forehead, she said "And now we need to ask Jesus to heal you," all matter-of-fact. Before I could respond (and she was not concerned about whether or not I agreed!) she started to pray, "Jesus, we know you can reach down and touch your daughter here and heal her immediately. Please do that for your glory." I was smiling and praying with her and she seemed encouraged when she looked up at me, so she continued, "Holy Spirit, heal and protect your daughter, that you love, so she can continue to live for you."
The nosebleed stopped immediately. She patted me on the back, told me I would be fine and that Jesus would take care of me, and told me again that He was good. I agreed and she went out the swinging bathroom door. I threw away the toilet paper compress and followed her out. I kind of had a suspicion that she wouldn't be anywhere in sight and sure enough, in the big, open, empty hallway, there was no one. My friend was the only person coming toward me. "Are you okay?" she called out. "Yes, but did you see anyone out here?" "No," she replied, and that confirmed it for me. Angels can look like well-dressed Costa Rican grandmas, right?
No one can convince me that I suffer much as a missionary, because I really enjoy a lot about Latin American life and culture! As you move into another culture, one of the first things you might notice is the food, so I'll start there! I feel I need to point out that I believe I have successfully executedmy duty as Nathan's auntie to introduce him to classic foods by bring Cheetos into his life! You can't get those in Peru, so there were several bags of Cheetos at my goodbye party at the airport. You can tell that Nathan enjoys them as much as I do if you check out his orange-y, cheesy fingers and smile! My travel from Portland to Peru took 24 hours, and part of that was a 5-hour layover in San Jose, Costa Rica. Yes, I was heading to Costa Rica the subsequent week to start language shchool, but my cheaptickets.com itinerary just happened to take me through San Jose on the way to Peru! I landed in the international airport in Costa Rica at 5am, bleary-eyed from the all-night flight. I dragged my bags into the tiny food court where I found...Burger King! I'm not a fan of fast food, but this was a fun introduction to Costa Rican food. If you want breakfast at Burger King in Costa Rica you get: gallo pinto (rice & beans), egg, and coffee. It can also come with tortillas for a little extra. Yummy!
Once in Lima, Peru (for 4 full days), I managed to indulge in a few Peruvian classics. Those are "chifles" on the left: thin, crispy, salty banana chips, and that's "cancha" on the right, which is toasted corn (think really natural corn nuts).
As a special treat, my friend Deborah and I met at Mangos, which has a lot of my favorite Peruvian dishes, and is perched inside a cliff overlooking the Pacific ocean. God does a good job of taking care of His loved ones, doesn't He?
Something exciting is afoot at Wycliffe. It's possible that someone in your generation or the generation of your children will start work on the last language needing a Bible translation! Check out these facts from the Last Languages Campaign and read more by clicking on the links below.
For God loved the world so much that He gave His one and only son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 (NLT).
You just did something that nearly 200 million people cannot do. You read God's Word in the language you've most likely spoken from infancy — the language you understand best and that touches your heart. Read more.
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These remaining language communities are located in countries with high birthrates. That means millions of additional lives, will be touched over several generations, with the gospel.
Sadly, the mortality rate indicates 2.4 million people in these communities will die each year without hearing or reading God’s Word. Read more.
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Forty percent of the current language projects have been started within the past eight years. But so much remains to be done. Numbers don’t tell the whole story. It is about entire communities, and about making a difference for eternity. Read more.
My Aunt Julie asked me for some observations when I first got back to the States six weeks ago. Now that I’m back online I thought I’d post a few here. You have probably had a culture “shock” moment or two, even if you've never left the States (one of the great things about living in a melting pot). It would be fun to hear them if you want to post them here in response to this blog!
Being back in the States means seeing Katie and Nathan almost every week. It means seeing my grandparents who just moved to Eugene from Santa Cruz (great timing for me!). It means going out to tea with my mom at her favorite cafe instead of having a “virtual tea time” over our computers. It means spending a morning showing pictures to the group of women from my Portland church who pray for me every month. It means experiencing autumn for the first time in 2 years. lt means eating at my favorite taco spots. (There’s no Mexican food in Peru!)
It also means missing warm weather, fish, and tropical fruit. It means not getting 10 hugs a day or more. It means not eating dinner at 9pm with the rest of the country. It means not being challenged daily to make myself understood. It means less physical and cultural adventures.
But there are cultural adventures here too! My aunt had asked about culture shock. Here was my response: “I have been enjoying myself so much I hadn't noticed too much. But today I got really overwhelmed, so I can describe that. It's VERY overwhelming to go shopping. We have so many wonderful options here at the healthy supermarkets (like New Seasons) that I spent the first few trips to the store oohing and aahing over yummy healthy treats like sparkling pomegranate juice(!). But the store today was Fred Meyer, a big Target-like store. It was so hard to find anything, and I found myself walking up and down the aisles several times looking for one small thing, thinking that it would have been faster to shop at three or four tiny little stores like I do in Peru, instead of trying to navigate this small city! :) (There are some tougher cultural issues related to shopping, but I'll write another blog on that later.)
I'm also laughing at myself a lot (something I learned how to do in Peru!) because I do all sorts of inappropriate things in this culture. Like talking to everyone in the stores. I just think everyone wants to have a conversation with me, and find out what I’m up to and why I'm here. In Peru, I would be chatting with each storekeeper, the person on the bus next to me, the person in line at the deli. People are friendly, but I also stand out and make an instant conversation starter. In the States, I’m run-of-the-mill and while I really like being incognito again I miss all the interactions themselves.
Probably my biggest faux pas is hugging everyone. The door opens, someone walks in, and right away I’m hugging them, and probably air-kissing them if I don’t catch myself in time. I’ve made folks very happy who are from other countries, but I've made some North Americans jump. The strangest thing to me is that I can’t remember NOT hugging everyone in greeting! I was frustrated when I realized it wasn’t culturally appropriate--which I guess is a bit of culture shock! Next time you see me, feel free to give me a hug in greeting--and make my day!
So I haven't been blogging since I got back to the States. I'm sorry to be out of touch with those of you who keep up with me here! I'll be posting now that I've got a computer again (mine died almost as soon as I got off the plane here). But the most wonderful distraction(s) have been my niece and nephew who have been the joy of this first month of my short time in the States. As you can see we're pretty happy to be hanging out together. Stay tuned for more on "re-entering" the US culture!
I was pretty happy that the worship team at my church in Huánuco let me join them my final Sunday in town. At the Saturday afternoon practice, I get bombarded by a host of new songs (in Spanish of course). I take notes furiously and then head home to search for the songs on iTunes. If I buy and then listen to the new songs all Saturday night, and Sunday morning while getting ready for church, I'm usually roughly ready to sing them in front of church! Or at least to sing "La, la la" to the right tune. :)
After the singing, the pastors surprised me by asking me to share with the church about my move to Lima (where I'll return after I visit the States this fall). They thanked my friends and church in the States (Cedar Mill Bible Church) for their donations which helped us purchase monitors for my Huánuco church this year. I was really touched as Pastor Juan prayed over me with the congregation.
After the service, the worship team had fun taking pictures with a friend's camera (mine is broken, hence the lack of blog entries lately!). But it was bittersweet, knowing it was my last ordinary Sunday in Huánuco for me. How wonderful to make such sweet connections with people that it means our departures will be at least a little bit bitter. I think my first prayer request when I moved to Huánuco 19 months ago was for friendships. Praise God for a lot of answers to that request.
Here's a little fun with words in honor of my last week in Huánuco. I can't claim any special proficiency in lexicography, but am always up for a game of Dictionary!
When I asked Ammon Shea, the man who read the O.E.D., if he wanted to play a game of Dictionary sometime, he did me the favor of pretending I was sane.
“Do you have a specific dictionary in mind?” he wondered. “I would prefer Webster’s Third, if only because of all the bad blood between that edition and The Times.”
Bad blood?
It turns out that in 1961, when Webster’s Third was published, this newspaper ran a scathing editorial about it. “A passel of double-domes at the G. & C. Merriam Company joint in Springfield, Mass.,” it began, “have been confabbing and yakking for twenty-seven years — which is not intended to infer that they have not been doing plenty work — and now they have finalized Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged, a new edition of that swell and esteemed word book.”
Then it twisted the dagger: “Those who regard the foregoing paragraph as acceptable English will find the new Webster’s is just the dictionary for them.”
I had a visitor the other day. This butterfly spent over half an hour on the poinsettia tree outside my kitchen window. The most gorgeous detail in the smallest of places: a butterfly's wings. How often I forget the loving hand of the Creator, His penchant for beauty and art.
I spent 10 days at the end of June on a ministry trip through the northwest corner of the state of Huánuco and into the state of Ancash (which was a dream come true). Want to see more pictures? Glance through them here on Facebook (even if you don't have an account).
Pretty much since I arrived in Huánuco, I've been hoping to visit the Incan ruins at Huánuco Pampa, and so I took the trip up the hill for part of one afternoon while in La Unión. The taxi driver ended up being my companion, despite offers from everyone else in the car. I was glad for a second guide, one that you have to tip, who showed up at the ruins. Wandering around a high plain exploring ruins is better with two strangers than one.
Huánuco Viejo is a temple-fortress on the Incan "royal highway" between Cusco and Quito. Mmm, don't have many of those in Eugene, Oregon, do we? At every ancient site I've visited in Peru, there is evidence of how closely the culture is tied with astronomy. Usually angles are lined up so the sun shines through just so on winter solstice. I thought that was the case here, but actually this is just a small viewer in the temple that lines up with each of the doorways through which the Inca would have walk to reach the temple from his home.
Peru's natural, rugged beauty is complemented by its fascinating cultures, including those that we only know about through their ruins. I feel privileged to have the chance to visit such culturally important sites when I can. Even more importantly, I'm glad to hear that so many of my Peruvian friends have visited these sites, at least those nearby, as well. They have an incredible heritage!
The puma design marked a lot of the corners and tops of buildings and doorways here. You can see how closely the stones fit together. Sacsayhuaman's stones (in Cusco) have an even tighter fit so maybe they were just learning at Huánuco Viejo, hee hee.
This puma is perched at top corner of a staircase.
All of my Peruvian friends really chuckle at the picture below, but I LOVE these little huts that folks build in their fields to house them as they guard their crops, usually their family's main income. I want one! To go with my cow (long story).
Victoria, as you can tell from the photo above, is a power-house. She's been in ministry most of her life, currently serving in a church where her brother is the pastor. But she was in a slump spiritually when she heard about the training that was teaching Quechua women to teach the Bible to others. She attended the year-long course last year and credits it being a part of God's plan to equip her for an expanding ministry. This year she is part of the teaching team leading the workshops and giving the opportunity for growth in ministry to other Quechua women.
Our teaching team makes these lessons as learner-centered as possible. Group work allows for a lot of interaction, often allowing members of different churches, denominations and towns to get to know each other. It's pretty exciting!
In a culture where you don't want to be the odd-person out, where community identity is infinitely more important than individuality, writing your answers to questions on paper to present to the larger group is a stretch for these ladies...and it's worth it. The workshop participants get to learn from each other as well as from the teachers, who are learning a new educational strategy: Make learning possible, instead of feeding answers to their students.
One of the biggest distractions in class can be kids, who tag along with mom if no one else can watch them for the two-day long workshops. On Friday there were 3 kids making enough fuss that I eventually realized I'd be more useful keeping them occupied outside the one-room church. By Saturday morning there were 7 kids waiting for me. And by the end of that day, the neighborhood kids had found out where the fun was! I counted 14 kids making up games with me, singing songs we could remember, and telling stories. The best part was that I got to share the reason for lasting joy as we laughed and played together: Jesus in our lives and hearts!
It's midday, but the light is bright and clean like the early morning sun. I'd been traveling since 7 AM on the bus, heading into the countryside for the second Women of the Bible workshop this year. Arriving in La Union, I find my way to a pollería and order something off the menu. For 3 soles ($1 USD) I get to choose from a range of meals, all starting off with a huge bowl of soup which could be my whole meal itself. After truly enjoying every bit of lamb with beans and rice, I run into Vickie, Efegenia and Victoria on the street, the ladies I was hoping to meet up with. We headed up to the Assemblies of God church (in the photo above).
Our first order of business is to throw some sheep skins, yes sheep skins!, on the wood plank floor of the second story of the church. We then unfold mantas, or blankets, to make up our beds. It doesn't take very long until we are flopped down, laughing, all tired from our long journeys.
It's moments like these where cultural differences fall off like dead skin and we thrive in our similarities. It doesn't take long to make connections cross-culturally, especially when we're related by the blood of Christ. We had a great weekend together!
Although it seems I spend a little of each month in Lima, our capital city, I'm not usually site-seeing and don't take many pictures. But I'd love to share some of the sites with you, so here is a little tour I took with some friends I babysat for a weekend with my friend Clare.
After visiting the catacombs under the San Francisco church (a must-do in Lima), we walked the few blocks to the main plaza, or Plaza de Armas. I like the ornate brown "boxes" which extending off many buildings, designed to give acloistered nun, or any woman, a view of the street's activity without revealing herself.
Every city is designed around the main plaza. I forget how gorgeous this one is. It still has the feel of a plaza, being bordered on all four sides by important buildings. A number of the streets leading to it are pedestrian only, so there's a lot less traffic than you'd expect. Maybe the amoured cars and machine-gun-carrying troops help discourage lollygagging as well. Of course our tour included a stop at an ice cream shop, and then we walked down a beautiful street that used to be under a canopy made of glass. After it shattered in an earthquake, they left the framing in place so the street still feels unique. They call this Postcard Alley because that's pretty much all you can buy here.
I'm not a detail-oriented person, but it only takes a few tries in a ministry project before you figure out what are the essential ingredients. A basic one is funding. While we can generate our own resources in ministry, often the Body of Christ must get involved to make things happen. It's the way it was meant to be! How did Christ support His ministry? How should we support ours? How do we involve others? These were the questions we asked and started to answer at the Funding Workshop held in Lima a few weeks ago.
Leaders of indigenous associations came from all over Peru. We listened, talked, learned, discussed, and then retaught basic principles of funding projects shared by a friend from World Vision. We spent time on the internet looking at possible partners. Computers and the internet are new to many of these leaders so the learning curve was steep, but we made good progress.
At one moment in particular I was struck by how overwhelmed we can be by many things in life, and how quickly we forget to cry out to the Lord for help. He's not just God of the great traumas or great blessings, He's Lord of all, and deeply desires to be involved in every detail of our lives.
Can we even call out to Him to help us when we get stuck while searching for a web page? Does He care like that?
I just think about how much I want to help my friends when they run into something that overwhelms them, and I know that is just a shadow of the great love of God for each of us.
I started singing with my church worship team 4 months ago. I was amazed that they are responsible to raise funds for whatever they need, their microphones, instruments, and outfits. Next up on the project list are stage monitors, which allow those of us on stage to hear what we're singing and playing. (Our church is large and made of concrete and most of the sound never gets back to the front of the room where we're standing.)
Fundraisers are usually bake sales, where you can by a papa rellena, a stuffed potato, for 1 sol, which is about 30 cents. I started doing the math and realized it would take a lot of papas rellenas to raise around $700, which what we estimate it will cost to provide monitors for our church.
Then I realized what a great opportunity this was to give my U.S. friends the chance to help out my Peruvian friends. And there are a lot of you musicians who know just what I'm talking about regarding the monitors!
Any size gift will be a big help to the project. Just think: a gift of $5 equals 15 papas rellenas, and donating $20 is equivalent to purchasing 60! I'll be in Lima in the middle of April, so I hope to see enough funds come in so we can purchase these then.
Click here to donate through PayPal or to mail a check.
One of the most mind-blowing things to me is the variety of opportunities for service here. Did I miss all of them in the States? Is there something about being a "missionary" that leads people to tell you about their ministries and invite you to work with them? Am I just more attuned?
I enjoy expanding my understanding of the ways others are serving. When my friend Deedra came down we made a point to visit the girls' home my friends started. We even took along a tiny keyboard (thanks, Smiths!)....
While we can't serve in every capacity, we are called to listen and follow. And we can be confident that He will lead. "The mind of a man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps." Proverbs 16:9 .
Two of my friends decided it was time I learned how to make my favorite Peruvian dish, Ají de Gallina. So they came over last Friday and we cooked together for a few hours, one of my favorite things to do.
Ají de Gallina literally means Pepper of the Hen and the idea is that you can use your oldest, toughest bird, simmer it in this spicy yet creamy sauce, and get a fantastic result. It's served over rice and potatoes, with hardboiled egg and olives as condiments. As an added plus, we made a refresco, or drink, out of apple, cocona, and maracuya. Peruvian food is certainly not a hardship!
Two weekends ago we had over 50 people working together here in Huánuco from 6 distinct languages. We had to use Spanish to communicate. Female ministry leaders (and a few guys) came to share and learn about the Women of the Bible project. In the picture above are members of the Huamalíes team I traveled with a few times last year. Their team is expanding as they bring new leaders on board for this year's round of workshops. They helped introduce this Bible teacher training program to ministry leaders from other Quechua language groups. It was thrilling to watch these Quechua women trainers learn from each other, share experiences, hopes, and frustrations, and spend hours in prayer for their ministries and each other.
Riding on the back of a motorcycle is one of the closest things to perfection for me. So when Larry asked Christmas morning 2006, if I wanted to go for a ride, I knew this might be the best present I´d ever receive. We took the back roads up to Sacsayhuamán, one of the most beautiful ruins in Peru. And then back down again for Christmas Day festivities. That's held me over for a year or so, but it's about time again!
Wycliffe USA's home page is featuring a story I wrote about Pali, one of the trainers for the Women of the Bible project. Check it out by clicking here.
Looking for my Lima church's Christmas play, some friends and I stumbled into an Episcopalian service. It was a beautiful church, and these windows depicting the early life of Christ were done by a local artist.
The play charmingly included lots of child actors, and the story described the U.N. searching hard for world peace when there was only news of war...eventually finding it only in Jesus Christ. I really liked the Peruvian Baby Jesus.
(The girl in red, black, and white, is a classic take on the criolla culture, originating with Africans who were taken here by force, and now have made a huge impact on Peruvian culture, especially along the coast.)
Jan, Ruth, and I went down the Lima coastline for lunch one day. If the drop off and highway weren't dramatic enough, the restaurant with this view is called "El Salto de Fraile", literally "The Jump of the Friar" and has a coinciding folktale of a love-sick (of course) monk who jumps to his death. The tiring job of recreating the jump falls to this strapping young man:
Early Sunday morning I peeked out of my little dirt floor room, and found the courtyard humming with activity. These ladies peeled 400 POUNDS of potatoes to feed 100 people. Yes, that's the Quechua estimate: It will take 4 pounds of potatoes per person to keep everyone happy.
I also appreciated this lady's work, sweeping the dirt. That's not something you see everyday in my home town. You could actually see the difference!
Around 10:30, we started heading to the church for the graduation ceremony. It was scheduled for 10 a.m., but everyone knows that's just a goal. The service will start when everyone is ready. (My kind of place!)
Almost as soon as we started, Jan began to honor the trainers who had dedicated so much of their past year to these workshops. Each came forward to receive a gift of appreciation and we prayed over them.
The groups from each of the 3 workshop locations shared songs of praise. These ladies from Pachas couldn't have been more exuberant!
Plays were created, well, produced, out of the lessons. My favorite was supposed to be describing Job's wife, but instead focused in a very Quechua-like manner on the animals that Job owned, lost, and then regained. In this dramatic moment, the ox-driver is trying to control her "animals". Don't ask me where Job's wife ended up in this scene. (Actually I think she's on the right, helping control the oxen!)
This girl of 13 recited many, many memory verses in Quechua. She is also a star pupil, teaching these Bible lessons to men, women, and children in her church. Their level of hunger for Bible study doesn't seem to mind that this workbook is geared toward women!
Victoria shared about the "hardness" in her heart that softened when she heard of this class and started studying the Word of God in Quechua. Her smile alone tells how her heart is now.
After introductions, dramas, testimonies, memory verses, and a message, finally it was time to graduate. Felix, Bruce, and Polly joined with others to help pass out the certificates. These ladies were the "stars" of the show.
After the ceremony, we feasted together to celebrate the moment. It didn't take long for 400 pounds of potatoes, 50 pounds of onions, and 25 pounds of hot yellow peppers to disappear! Jan and Ernestina even made a three layer chocolate cake (two of them!) complete with chocolate frosting.
It was hard for me to come down from this all-day high, but the ladies had to jump on buses quickly to get home before dark, and the cooks and local folks were ready for their weekly volleyball game just an hour later. A good way to end this great day!
I spent most of the workshop last weekend looking into faces like these.
As you can imagine, we had a lot of fun together!
While moms were studying, we went outside to play with, well...whatever we could find. I was so impressed with their resourcefulness, I started keeping track of how long we played with things I would have just passed by. Kayla and I played with one rock for over an hour. Another day, 3 girls played with a loop of rope for close to 3 hours! It's amazing how much fun you can have, even without Tickle Me Elmo. ;)
People who work with kids overseas will tell you that kids are the same everywhere. Same basic needs, same desire for your undivided attention. That was true of this bunch of kids...as well as the fact that a child's affection can melt your heart faster than anything. Kids don't seem to mind the occasional language barrier either.
Come along with me on a trip to Pachas, one of the Quechua villages that held the 5th in a series of 5 workshops on the Women of the Bible this past weekend. We'll take the Bensons' truck, pack the back full of supplies for the workshop and the following graduation day, and drive about 6 hours out into the countryside. The road will be bouncy and the other drivers will be unpredictable, but around every curve will be breathtaking views of the hills and valleys of the Andes.
Now we're traveling from up from about 6,000 to around 11,000 feet. The air is getting thinner and it's chilly all day long, unless you're standing directly in the sun. We slow down for herds of sheep and goats, as well as the occasional donkey. This one has an albino baby!
Now that we've reached Pachas, we're driving up to the church, unloading all of our stuff, and parking the truck down by one of the participants homes near the plaza. Every town in Peru has a central plaza, or town square, and this one happens to have a bell tower too.
We are staying the next few nights in these rooms on the church property. The trainers are getting together tonight to adjust their lesson plans, to account for the absence of their leader hasn't been able to make it due to her late-stage pregnancy.
I am having fun reconnecting with Kayla, my 8 year-old friend, whose mom is on the teaching team. We are playing with my camera and telling Bible stories. Her mom has done a great job training her, because when Í try and translate what Jesus says from English to Spanish, she always has a correction for me. She remembers the Bible verse and my translations aren't that great yet!
Tomorrow morning, we'll all get up as soon as the sun rises, and start the first day of the workshop. But for now, it's time to snuggle under layers of wool blankets and get some sleep.
I've now been to La Loma twice. Last Sunday, 3 of my Peruvian girlfriends and I took a taxi out of Huánuco 30 minutes into the countryside. Turn left up a hill, drive through a little town, and you'll find La Loma, a beautiful retreat center where you can eat a fabulous 4 course Peruvian meal, wander around the gorgeous grounds, and even spend the night. After lunch we walked up the hill to the Quechua town of Conchamarca and visited the local church. By far the highlight for me was the hour we spent listening to a local man talk about how God rescued him and keeps giving him opportunities to share that same gift with others. It felt like a piece of heaven, sitting around recounting stories of God's great love, meeting others who've experienced the same. One day those conversations won't have to end!
Some of you know that "The Princess Bride" is one of my favorite movies. I'm mostly a fan of Inigo Montoya's quest for the 6 fingered man who killed his father, but if ROUS's want to make a comeback, I'm all for it. The photo below was taken by a friend while visiting the high jungle city of Tingo Maria. They were looking in another direction, when her sister said, "What is THAT?" She whipped out her camera to catch this shot. We're all still wondering many things, not the least of which is, who taught that Rodent Of Unusual Size how to HOLD ON to a person on a bicycle?!!
I lift up my eyes to the hills--Where does my help come from?
This verse from Psalm 121 has always been one of my favorites. When I think of this verse, I find myself looking up at the hills around my hometown(s), and imagining God coming over one of the mountaintops, down into the valley of my life to rescue me.
I wonder what Israel thought of this verse when David wrote it. When they looked up to the hills around their home, were they wondering if those hills would provide safety from attackers? Would they think of strength coming from alliances made over those hills?
Living in the Andes, the superlative of hills and valleys, I can lift my eyes up to the mountains any moment of the day. In fact, they are hard to avoid. (The view above is from my yard. These hills circle 360 degrees around Huanuco.)
Quechua people groups make their homes on these mountains, up to many thousands of feet higher than where I live. What do they think of when they lift their eyes up to the hills? Maybe because of their majesty and awe-someness, maybe because of their danger and intimidation, maybe because people control others through fear, maybe because of evil... for whatever reason, Quechua cultures traditionally fear and worship the mountains around them.
They believe that a mountain has the power to protect them from falling or the power to throw them off the mountain. Mountain spirits are believed to be responsible for landslides and failing crops. Sacrifices and other acts of worship are considered essential to appease the spirits of the mountains. To this day, many Quechua people fear the mountains and do whatever they can to keep themselves safe. Pastors struggle to pray only to God, worrying that they might anger the mountains that they've always prayed to.
When one of my Quechua friends looks up to the hills and asks "Where does my help come from?", the answer given in the rest of the Psalm 121 is life-changing:
My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip-- he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD watches over you-- the LORD is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all harm-- he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
In the Peruvian jungle, there are dozens of ethnic groups, and in the first part of October, I got to facilitate at a workshop for Christian leaders from 6 of those groups. I can't explain how cool it was, turning to your right and meeting someone from a culture and language so beautiful and so different from your own, and then turning to your left and meeting someone from yet another completely different culture. Then, standing behind him, is someone from a third...and this keeps on going around the room. I was also kind of star struck because these guys hail from people groups I have only read about, deep in the heart of the Amazon region. You know, the kind where you have to swing your machete to clear a path to walk through the jungle.
Missions has been a mostly foreign-led effort here for decades. Now the Peruvian church is growing and sending missionaries themselves, even within their own country. Instead of depending on an overseas agency and staff, the three organizations at this workshop were 100% local folks. They are self-starting and self-supporting, and their goal is to reach their "neighbors" for the Lord and to see those communities transformed because of Christ.
Here in the Amazon, reaching out to a neighboring people group can take more effort and sacrifice than a trip out of the country. It often takes days of strenuous travel, learning an unrelated language, and being prepared to face dangers from drug traffickers and other smugglers. Venturing to Africa might actually be easier, but these guys are getting it done!
Our workshop was designed to help each organization solidify their vision and then plot a course of action which will allow them to see their ultimate goal (hopefully God's ultimate goal!) realized in the communities they serve. To teach this "results-based management" style, we used a lot of practical analogies and examples, including an illustration involving the wheelbarrows below and lots of splashing water--no one complained about that in the over 100 degree weather!
I was a facilitator for the group MINAP, Misión Integrál Nativa de la Amazonía Peruana (which translates to the Holistic Native Mission of the Peruvian Amazon). They are the first missionary-sending agency run by leaders indigenous to the Amazon. At our table alone, we represented 5 distinct cultures and languages, but that didn't stop us from working together, getting a huge amount of planning done, and seeing God move as we sought Him throughout the process. Here's a picture of us on the last day and you can see their organizational plan laid out on the board behind us. Please pray today that God would continue to empower and provide for the ministry of MINAP.
Weather: Hot and sticky like you forgot to leave the fogged up bathroom after your shower
Flora & Fauna: Even within the city limits of Pucallpa, the largest city around, it's lush and green, and there are butterflies, birds, free-roaming pigs, and sounds in the night that I could never identify.
Surprising fact: Peru is 2/3 jungle, the popularity of the Andes leading to the assumption that Peru is mostly mountainous. Streets: 1/2 paved, the other half are red dirt roads - "Pucallpa means 'red dirt'" and it is red, everywhere!
Transportation: Mostly by moto-taxi, half motorcycle, half covered backseat, that lets the red dust in, but not the sun
Languages: Dozens of people groups and languages separated by hard-to navigate Amazonian rain forest
People: Even more warm and friendly, lots of music, flowers, offers of help, low crime rates, but struggles with poverty, familial abuse, and justice (just my opinion)
Why was I there? I got to facilitate at a workshop for the leaders of 3 indigenous missions groups. More on that in my next blog.
I was so glad to see Portland, Oregon, out my airplane window on September 10th. I still can't believe home is only a plane ride away. It was agift to spend time with my family, and visit churches and friends during my two weeks in the Northwest. Of course time with niece Katie, who is such a big girlnow, was one of the highlights! We went to the zoo and were both excited to see the elephants up close.
Of course there wasn't time for everything and everyone, but I had a rich time with every person I was lucky enough to see. I had the chance to meet with a missions group at my church, share at a recruiting event, and spend time with the "family" I have at the church I grew up in.
Getting to hang outin person with friends was something I really had been looking forward to. A group of girlfriends threw a tea party, and we all had tons of fun over 5 gourmet courses and many, many pots of tea.
I spent my last few days in Colorado, spending time with my dear friend, Deedra. We took a drive up into the mountains on 1 of the 2 peak days per year to see the aspen turning. What great timing by God! I felt His hand of direction and provision throughout this trip.
Five of us packed ourselves and our gear and the teaching materials into the Bensons' truck. We were headed to the 3rd round of workshops, happening simultaneously in 3 towns far into the country, all training women to teach the Word. In 4 days, we traveled from Huánuco to each different location, all several hours apart along unpaved gravel roads. It may have been dusty but it was beautiful!
In each small town, women came from all around to advance their understanding of Scripture and how to teach other women.
They studied the Word:
Learned teaching techniques:
Worked in small groups:
And enjoyed activity times together:
What a blessing it was to hear of the progress each is making in her own teaching "practicuum". Every trainee's homework is to teach the Bible lessons herself before returning to the next workshop. We were excited to hear stories of women who are teaching multiple classes. One girl of 12(!) is teaching men, women, and children in her church. Another lady approached Jan thanking her for giving her the opportunity to read, learn, teach, and promote the Gospel in Quechua, the only language many of her women friends speak.
Women of all ages, like the girls below, are hearing the Good News, learning how to study the Bible, and growing in their ability to teach. Praise God and pray for this effort.
The Huánuco “region” is one of the seven poorest regions of Perú. I don’t know if it’s #1 or #7. In these seven regions:
“66% of children under five suffer from chronic malnutrition, 79% of households have no piped water, 94% percent lack sewerage, and 94% of families use wood as their cooking fuel.”
Sadly, this data is right on. (Source here.)This is what life is like for the women and their families that we were visiting last weekend during the most recent Women of the Bible workshops. While leaving the last town, we stopped to snap this photo of a little girl waiting for her mom and big sister:
“Clean water
and health care
and school
and food
and tin roofs and cement floors,
all of these things should constitute a set of basics that people must have as birthrights.”
The Huaylas New Testament was dedicated at the beginning of August in the city of Huaraz. Most of you probably have already heard about the dedication because you get my email updates. If you'd like to start getting my (monthly) emails, just let me know!
We started the dedication day with a march (photo above), something most memorable occasions begin with here in Peru. There were around 2,500 people at the ceremony which included the presentation of the New Testament hot off the press. Carrying in a box of books might not look glamorous, but after hearing the stories of the sacrifices and joys since 1964 when this project started, it was an exciting moment.
But the story of God's Word in this part of the world is just beginning, because having the Bible in their own language is a turning point for many of the churches and believers in this area. They are excited to read and study the Bible themselves and many have a heart to share the Good News with their neighbors and even the world. These ladies below are sharing a song of praise as part of the celebration.
The celebration continued with a cuy lunch and a local music festival. That's guinea pig I'm eating, a delicacy here! Doesn't that make you want to come for a visit?
Updated August 27. An 8.0 earthquake occurred off the southern coast of Peru late Wednesday night, August 15. Authorities are reporting over 500 dead and over 1000 injured. Already impoverished areas are suffering the greatest loss of life, health, and property. 85% of the homes in the town of Pisco, nearest the epicenter, have been destroyed, as well as 1/4 of the buildings in the nearest large town of Ica.
While we are fine here in Huánuco, we are praying for our brothers and neighbors to the south who are hurting. Please pray for the injured, for those who have lost family or property and for protection from after-shocks. You can find out more in this story from cnn.com, and can give through a reputable relief and development agency (that I used to work for) by clicking here. You can also give to the Peru Earthquake Relief fund that we will use to provide aid to those in need. Just ask me for the details.
The best thing you can do is pray. Here are some ideas of what to pray for:
Pray that people would receive the comfort and health in the person of Christ and through the love shown them through the relief effort.
Pray for wisdom for the government and organizations as they strive to meet the needs of the people. Pray that relief would be deployed quickly and effectively.
Pray that people will be patient and calm and have wisdom in how to care for their families and communities.
Pray for healing for those that are injured.
Pray for the families of those that have died. Pray they receive comfort and peace from God and from those around them.
Pray that cities and communities can come together to build again, interpersonally and structurally.
Praise God for the response from those here in Peru and around the world. People are contributing food, clothes, water, and money daily. Pray that these supplies will make it safely to their destination and into the hands of those that most need it.
At 22, 204 feet, Huascarán (Wahs-kah-RAHN) is the highest mountain in Peru. You can see the orange trunk of a queñal tree in the foreground. They are believed to grow at a higher altitude than any other tree.
While in Huaraz for a Bible dedication, we spent an afternoon at Lake Llanganuco, which sits at 12,464 feet on Mt. Huascaran.
My home city, Huánuco, is surrounded on all sides by the foothills of the Andes. They rise higher and higher to the west, peaking at the continental divide and then plummeting quickly to the coast.Last Monday, several friends from church, a guy from San Diego who grew up here, an intern from Belgium, and I hiked up one of those foothills.What a view!
Just behind us in the picture below is the mouth of the cave we had come to explore.
The initial drop is almost straight down, aided at the end by a rickety wooden ladder, which you can see in the upper right corner of the photo below.
Most of our group continued on to slide down crevices and see how far into the earth they could go.Another girl and I were satisfied to hang out in the main level of the cave with the local kids that decided to be our tour guides. Peru is a hiker/climber’s paradise, and it was fun to get outside and see some of the “neighborhood”.
Above: Celine climbing through the angled crevices. All photos thanks to Peter & Celine.
Sometimes waiting for God, trusting, feels like dropping little pebbles of faith down a shaft so deep you can't hear them 'clink' when they reach the bottom. It's dark and unclear and we don't really know what's on the other side. As I prayed last night about the future, I had that image come to mind...and immediately it was replaced with another, braver, bolder, more accurate(?) image.
Maybe waiting on God is more like being a little kid who really, really wants to go swimming on a hot, sticky summer day. I've got my swimsuit on and I'm at the edge of a pool, straining against my "Dad" who is holding me back. I'm wriggling and almost fighting Him, wanting to jump in--Now! But Dad knows better. He's waiting for the perfect time to give me what I want. See, I'm too young to understand, but the pool isn't full yet, and if I jumped in right now, the fun would be over real fast.
Sometimes waiting on God feels like we're hanging out in a black hole, but He knows our needs, dreams, and silly little wants, and He can't wait to give them to us...at just the right time.
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
I spent a week in June at this building outside Lima, helping with a management workshop for three Quechua organizations. We were teaching planning strategies that help focus the resources and activities of an organization on meeting its ultimate vision.
Most Quechua people are well-acquainted with farming so they appreciated this analogy: A farmer doesn't get distracted by unnecessary irrigation projects or on building up his supply of an unusable fertilizer. His goal is also not to grow crops for their own sake. His sights are set on improving his family's well-being through nutritional food and income. Results-based management aims to direct the gaze of an organization on its ultimate goal, and in doing so, align its projects and resources to meet that goal.
Being the facilitator for this group from central Peru was an adventure (see photos below). We crossed a few language and cultural gaps and had a good week creating plans for their organization. They are running many diverse development programs, as well as planting churches and starting a translation of the Old Testament, having finished a New Testament several years ago. Having worked in development for several years, their holistic, grass-roots programs were very exciting for me to hear about.
I am really enjoying helping add capacity to the local Quechua organizations in the area of strategic planning. I'm grateful that I received so much valuable experience while at my last job in the States! It's exciting to pass on techniques and ideas so these amazing ministries can be even more effective into the future.
Most likely you can't come to visit in person, but I can show you around a little bit through pictures! We'll start by turning right onto this street (photo left), where I walk by my church everyday on the way to my office. On the roof, you can see their white sign with blue lettering. I'm so grateful for the 3 Peruvian amigas God has blessed me with through my church! One of them helps me with my English, another works near by, and I'm helping the third with her linguistics studies. Having good friends in a new country seems crucial, and I know I'm blessed to have them in my life. Then we turn right again at this street where my office is, along with other SIL staff and JAWCA (photo right). We're in the little green building on the left side of the street by the parked car. The two vehicles in the street are moto-taxis-- basically a motorcycle in the front with a seat over two wheels in the back. You can fit up to 3 people if you squeeze and can travel anywhere in town for only a sol (about 30 cents).
And here's my office, complete with a Nalgene bottle, a Monet print (thanks Jan!), and a map of all the languages of Peru. I am so grateful for the laptop that I was able to bring with me to Peru. It travels back and forth to work with me and also allows me to stay in touch with all of you. Many people's gifts made that possible--Thank you!
Of course there's more to this city then the few blocks around my work and home. I'll keep taking pictures to share with you here. It's great that we can keep in touch a little through the web!
I'm not that great with plant names, but I definitely didn't recognize the tall tree/bush outside my kitchen window...until it blossomed! Below is a picture of my apartment (on the left), and the 2 poinsettia bushes/trees that grow outside(!). The Smiths, translators for another nearby Quechua language, live in the house to the right. Because you don't see much green in the streets of Huánuco, I really enjoy the beautiful landscaping on our property.
I had heard so much about Machu Picchu that I assumed I would be underwhelmed when I finally visited--boy, was I wrong! It was my third trip to Cusco and this time I finally made it all the way to Machu Picchu with my friend Karen who was visiting from the States. It felt surreal, like a different world. Aside from the fact that you are walking in and around ancient Incan ruins, Machu Picchu is set high up into the clouds so you almost think you're in heaven. Since only one of the original Seven Wonders of the World still exists, they are holding a world-wide online vote to elect the "New 7 Wonders". Click HERE to cast your vote (for Machu Picchu!).
Somehow I managed to not have had a pachamanca meal until we got to Marias. This was quite an accomplishment, because Quechua make pachamanca every chance they get. This pachamanca was in celebration of Amador's birthday. While you can order pachamanca at some restaurants, and recreos (like outdoor community centers) will serve it to you on Sundays, the best pachamanca is made out in nature by friends and family.
First, find a big open space to cook and eat, and then dig a whole in the ground. Start a fire and heat up rocks until they are are really, really hot. Meanwhile you slaughter and marinate a pig. (I'll spare you the picture, but it was pretty impressive.)
Then you remove the rocks, and pile potatoes into the hole-->
Layer hot rocks on top of those and layer more rocks over anything else you want to add: sweet potatoes, yucca, big fat beans still in their pod, and humitas, the sweet, tamale-like corn "cake" repacked into corn husks.
Next, layers of straw, cardboard(!) and dirt are piled over the food:
Then everybody hangs out for an hour or two while the whole thing cooks. Jan brought a Women of the Bible workbook and everyone enjoyed coloring and reading the stories. I loved playing with the kids. Some of us took a nap after all that labor.
Finally it's time to unpack the layers of rocks and food and dig in! It was all really good, and the pig had a really nice flavor, but I ate too many humitas to eat much of anything else!
I liked how someone's sheep wandered up the hill to sneak a few bites.
I was blessed for my first pachamanca to be with such a wonderful family. I am really grateful for their hospitality and the fun we had together. We had a perfect view from our little hilltop as we laughed, sang, and ate together. Check out the traditional Quechua style I've got going on!
A few weeks ago, Bruce, Jan and I traveled to the village of Marías where they lived for many years. Dozens of people throughout the town came up to us, greeting the Bensons and welcoming me--that's the blessing of revisiting the Benson's old home town. We were able to set Amador up with the computer and software he needs to begin working with me on the Huamalies Dictionary. We also celebrated his birthday with a pachamanca with his extended family, including the fun-loving kids below. (More on pachamancalater!) The weekend was packed, but I loved every minute of getting to know these beautiful people and their culture a little bit better.
I had many reminders that I was in a part of the world much different from where I grew up. As we were driving out of town we met workers on the Benson's former street that were installing street lamps for the first time. (We had used flashlights the night before to make our way down the street.) The computer we set up in Amador's home is the first computer in the village. While many of the things I noticed are just differences and not needs in the community, villages like Marías are home to many families without access to hygenic latrines, clean water, medical care, and affordable, healthy food. We CAN play a role in meeting our neighbor's need, as commanded by Christ. (Matthew 25:40 and Luke 10:25-37) A friend of mine in Sudan just posted a link to a world map graphic that describes some of the reality I experienced in Marías. If the world's population were reduced to 100 people, what would our world look like on a small scale? Click on "The Miniature Earth" to find out.
I never thought I'd get to spend more than 1 night in the jungle (remember Tingo Maria a few weeks ago?). Then I got invited to attend a New Testament dedication on the Chambira River, deep in the northern Amazon region of Peru. What an honor! We flew from Lima to Iquitos on Easter Sunday morning and traveled by boat for 2 days to reach the Urarina village of Nueva Esperanza. For two days we were docked at the village, spending time with the Urarina, dedicating the New Testament, and participating in the first church service in this village.
It had been 10 years since Ron and Phyllis had been able to visit the home of the Urarina. The story of their almost 60 years with the Urarina, recovery from life-theatening illnesses and accidents, and the sacrifice of their Urarina translators demonstrate how this New Testament and this dedication trip were miracles not accomplished by human hands.
Scroll through more of my pictures for more of the Amazon and the Bible dedication by CLICKING HERE. (Clicking on the first picture will let you see it a little larger and give you the caption too.)
"Coca-Yes! Hunger-No!" Today there was another march in front of my house, which is on the main street at one end of town. The cocaleros are threatening to block roads and bridges in reaction to government policy changes regarding their crops. Cocaleros are farmers who grow coca, and while coca can be made into cocaine, it is legal to grow and sell in large quantities here. Around 60,000 families in Peru depend on their coca crops to survive. The new president of Peru is cracking down on these farmers, most likely because they are an easier target than those who illegally make and sell cocaine. Pray for peace and provision for the families in Peru for whom this crop is their livelihood. (For more information, check out this BBC News article.)
I learned a lot of new words recently. Facilitating a strategic planning workshop for 3 days with JAWCA maxed out my Spanish and then taught me a whole lot more. Talk about learning through immersion! We had a good time (see the "action" shot of small group work above) and these Quechua leaders inspired me as they defined their work and made plans for the next 3-10 years. I'm glad I'll be around a bit longer to see how things work out! If you would like to be involved, please stop right now and pray that God will fulfill JAWCA's dreams and plans to see the Word of God change lives in the language communities around Huanuco. Your prayers are effective!
Last weekend I spent my first night in the jungle! Traveling down the eastern slope of the Andes, we reached Tingo Maria in just 3 hours.
We spent about 30 minutes waiting for these two bus drivers who were nose to nose in the middle of landslide debris. I heard that's not very long to wait for someone to back up. Ironically they were from the same bus company, but neither driver felt he should be the one to move. You can imagine that nobody gets very far down the road when cars are line d up single file yet facing both directions!
Emily and Katie, two friends who work with Paz y Esperanza (see blog about the River Swing), came with the Bensons and I. It was a great break from "the routine", which doesn't feel much like a routine yet. :) I'll post more jungle pix and stories soon!
I first met these four CEFMA graduates when I took a Quechua grammer class my first week in Huanuco. A few Fridays ago, they graduated from the CEFMA program, which is 3 summers long, and prepares them for service in missions here or around the world. The theme was from Hudson Taylor's life, which is really exciting for me because my greatest dream for these people groups is to see them reaching the world for Christ! Everyone wore the traditional dress from their area. (Check out the 2 different styles and colors of hats the women are wearing. Hats and the patterns and colors of clothes are among the clues you can use to know what part of the Andes someone is from, even before they open their mouth. Just in case you are wondering, no one ever thinks I might be from around here, and they usually guess correctly that I'm from the States!)
2 weeks ago we held the next in a series of workshops for 14 Huamalies Quechua women. They are being trained in adult education and Bible study, and will be teaching workshops for another 60 women over the next 6 months. These 60 women are leaders in their churches and they will be teaching at least another 500 women between now and December. What a great chance to empower these women to teach and train others! It's also thrilling to know that, for the first time, these hundreds of women will get to study the Bible in their own language!
Photos: Jan leading a lesson planning session; Bottom left: Keila, a new friend!; Bottom right: Celestina practicing teaching
Yes, that’s me, out over the river!I’m riding in what they call a “river swing”.Really it’s a metal chair on a pulley system, so the guy across the river can haul people over to his side of the river.I had taken a bus to a spot about 30 minutes out of Huánuco, where my friend Elena and I got off.We shimmied down the hillside to the river swing, Elena in heels!Once across the river, we crossed a few fields and then reached our destination: the Paz y Esperanza camp.It’s basically a retreat center for this group that works toward justice and restoration for those that have been abused-- physically, emotionally, or politically (i.e., restitution from the years of terrorism).
During the summer (Dec-Feb in Peru), they hold camps for different age groups where kids to adults can play, let down their guard and hopefully grow.I enjoyed seeing the age group for this week (adolescents) playing with each other, sneaking into the swimming pool, working on art projects…and was moved when I heard that they had all started the week-long camp pretty shy and withdrawn.
The trip back home was the most eventful part though.We’d picked the day of a transportation strike to visit the camp, so once we’d hiked back to the river, crossed it on the river swing, clamored back up the hillside, we couldn’t find a bus to catch.We waited and waited, hoping.After my friend started talking about needing to stay near this one home we’d seen and not walking down the road (which I was thinking would be more fun than standing around), I realized we probably didn’t want to be out on a rural highway alone at night.
Since the sun had already set, we decided to go into high gear.Our only hope: hitchhiking.I rolled up my sleeves so my blindingly white skin had the best chance of literally blinding drivers off the road. ;)After waiving, jumping and miming our problem to 20 different drivers, we were getting desperate.The truck that finally stopped?I think I almost pulled it off the road myself.Our angels of mercy were seven guys heading back from a day of work in a big, beat-up farm truck.I was glad for a chatty, native-Peruvian companion, and that God held back the rain until just after we got inside the truck!
Amador’s one year-old hadn’t had his hair cut since birth.The last day of our class together, he and his wife asked the Bensons and me to be the child’s godparents—the first ones to cut his hair!We sat out on the Bensons’ front lawn and took turns playing barber.This is made all the more tricky by the fact that traditionally the baby is breastfed during the “ceremony” so he’ll stay still!Be sure to aim your scissors correctly! (It's my turn as barber in the photo below.)
This godparent haircutting means we are now family to this beautiful baby.Godparents (madrinos) are an integral part of several events in a person's life: first haircut, dedication, first communion, graduations, a wedding. While I probably don't know exactly what I signed up for, I am honored to be one of this baby's godmothers!
What a blessing! My first week in Huanuco, Jan Benson and Amador Tucto, (far left) with whom I'll be making the dictionary, taught a class on Quechua grammer. The class was at a training center for young people who want to be involved in missions in the Andes! We spent several hours each day studying Quechua, learning about its grammer, its similarities and differences from other languages in the world, and how the different Quechua languages developed. It was great training for me!
I really enjoyed the other students, and we all loved the "grammer game" in the photo below. Quechua languages utilize really long words, compared to languages like English, and here we had to work together to combine our parts of words to make one Quechua word.
That looks like a really long word, but it's actually kinda small for a Quechua language!
We took this picture of me at the highest point of the highest pass we crossed on our drive from Lima to Huanuco: 16,000 feet! (15,855 to be exact) That's about 1,000 feet higher than the tallest peak of the Colorado Rockies!
Trust me, in that thin air, I just barely made up the little incline to that sign! :) We traveled along at close to this heighth for about 90 min. Below are a few more pictures from the trip. I've put 20 in a photo album. If you'd like to see it click here: Photo Album. You have to put in an email address and password, but it's worth it. I recommend the slideshow!
Most of these boxes are Ticuna New Testaments which are being wrapped in plastic to be sent by truck on Monday from Lima in the west, across the Andes, to Pucallpa in the jungle, and then by barge to Iquitos on the Amazon River, where they can be shared with Ticuna speakers. Another New Testament here is headed for the northern Andes, and a third is going to the Central Andes, close to where I will work. I love the backpack and clipboard lying on the boxes...it shows how every-day this is, but it's not taken lightly. How incredible that we get to be part of this kind of work! Thanks for "coming with me"!
SATURDAY A music group is being formed of different SIL and Wycliffe missionaries who are traveling from all over Peru to attend a week of conference meetings just outside Lima. We will practice all day Saturday to prepare for the coming week of services. I am so excited to be able to play the piano with this group!
NEXT WEEK The annual SIL conference lasts from Sunday through Saturday. It's a full week with a packed schedule, morning through evening. I'm glad for the chance to continue to get to know this organization, which has been in Peru for 60 years!
LAST WEEK OF JANUARY I'll be in Lima for one more week, continuing to take Spanish lessons and finish my orientation. At the end of January I'll be moving to Huanuco, my new home, where I'll begin to work with the Bensons. I'm grateful to have been in Lima, learning from the SIL Lima office, and exploring this city, but I really can't wait for this final step to my "permanent" home.
(Incredible traditional Peruvian dancing, sometimes with scissors! :>)
Standing on a random mound in the Sacred Valley, I took a few photos to try and make this panoramic shot. I mention the randomness, because this is the kind of view and beauty that is around every corner in this valley, which runs from a few miles out of Cusco northwest towards Machu Picchu. The Incas(1197 A.D. to 1592) believed that the Urubamba river flowing through the valley reflects the Milky Way. (p.s. These are just the foothills of the Andes!)
In the center of Cusco is the Plaza de Armas (every town has a central plaza). On Christmas Eve , the plaza is packed with vendors and buyers preparing for the Navidad (Christmas) celebration, which starts with a big dinner at midnight on Christmas! I went down to the plaza for a few hours with a couple friends, to get into the spirit of Navidad. Above are some of the sights. Some will appreciate the fact that the pile of food in front of the Quechua lady with the white hat (bottom left) includes guinea pig, a delicacy in Peru.
See that bit of white? Especially in the far corner of the yard? That's our White Christmas! We had a flash thunder/jungle-rain/sleet storm last night at our White Elephant Party, and ended up with a yard that made us gringos think of our perfect Christmas: a white one!
Ok, so I admit it, I'm in love. No, it's not a guy - it's these mountains!! You can find many great shots of the Andes on Google Images, but here's my favorite that I took on the plane heading to Cusco, 11,000 feet up from Lima (sea level). The Bensons, who I'll work with in Huanuco, invited me to join them for their Christmas plans - 5 days in Cusco with several other families who work with SIL. We flew in yesterday. Our 1st plane was grounded because of weather, the 2nd because of mechanical problems, and then our luggage was "missing" for 30 min. Well, we found it, so it all ended well. I'll be here until Wednesday--a wonderful chance to relax after an eventful month!
Meet Irma, my brilliant Spanish tutor! She has been a wealth of information, not just about the language, but about life and culture in Peru. We end up talking about spiritual things too, which is exciting. She is a blessing.
Last Monday I moved into the Peruvian home I’ll live in until the end of January and started Spanish lessons.Things settled down and that I felt like I was getting into a routine.
But on Wednesday I developed a rash (from eating mango skin--not recommended for anyone!) and I had to go to the ER on Thursday morning.The IV drugs they gave me didn’t seem have any effect, so I was admitted to the hospital. Two days later, things were looking much better. I was recovering well, but they still wanted to keep me for observation while they dropped the dosage of the drugs they had me on.So it’s Tuesday evening and I was only just discharged this afternoon! I am so grateful to get back to what I now call “regular” life in Lima, Peru!
The San Felipe hospital was a small, local, very nice place with a great staff.They were very patient with my little-but-growing Spanish, and it really was a good chance to learn a lot more.
My plans have changed for this week and I’ll not be going to Huanuco to the women’s training week. But this means I'll be here in Lima, now able to attend some SIL meetings and connect with two people (regarding the dictionary project) who I thought I was going to miss.We lay the plans, and God directs our steps! "In his a heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." (Proverbs 16:9)
Please pray for complete healing and strengthening.Thank you for your prayers ALL of the time.Don’t hold back if you feel a prompting to pray – it is probably because there is stuff going on that I haven’t been able share with you.Pray even if you don’t know what for!
God is not silent, and He chooses lots of ways to show you that He cares and is watching over you.
Sometimes in the littlest things: Like finding out that Peruvians have a tradition of buying MY FAVORITE CHRISTMAS FOOD, Panettone, and eating it in on Christmas Eve. I had to hold myself back from stuffing one of these giant, Italian bread/cakes into my suitcase as I left the States, only to find every store in Lima is stocked with these - some relocating whole aisles of groceries to make room to carry a large-enough supply of Panettone for the month of December.
Sometimes in very big things: Like, after planning to meet your friend Heather in Lima at the beginning of December (she's down here visiting her brother and sister-in-law), you RUN INTO HER in a city of 7 million people. Yes, run into her ON THE STREET IN LIMA!! Her sister-in-law recognized the lady I was with, and called out to her. It felt like it took Heather and I a couple of seconds to realize what was going on!
My new SIL friends know how to celebrate! I had a birthday lunch on Sunday afternoon, and a birthday dinner on Monday evening! They made me feel so special and welcome. I have to gush about the plate (above) from dinner: look at all the veggies! That's chicken on the left (honey chicken, to be exact) and there rest is all from the garden! Wow. There's also a corn appetizer on the small plate - In Peru, they call all corn "choclo" (not "maiz"), and most of the corn here is large, white, and sweet. It's delicious! What a great birthday gift from the Lord, to get to know new people, new food, and this new city.
One week ago I landed in Lima! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers, and for all of the encouragement that's gotten me this far. It's amazing to be here! Sometimes I can't believe I haven't just gotten lost in some part of the States that I don't recognize. Lima is a very large city: 7 million people. The people and the food are fabulous. There are a million little differences, some easy, some frustrating, but I'm enjoying getting to know my new surroundings.
Here is my new favorite bush! I don't know what the name is, but I'll add it once I've learned it in my Spanish lessons!
Seriously! Everything I took to Peru fit into these 4 suitcases. I was pretty impressed. I had to ditch the purse at the airport (2 carry-ons means 2 carry-ons on American: no extra purse!)
I can't remember how much it all weighed, but it was close to 225 pounds. It's cheaper to take it with you on the plane than to mail it to Peru, but it was still pretty expensive! I'm glad I'm here for over a year - less wouldn't seem worth it. :)
I'll be living out of these suitcases for another week before I move in with the Peruvian family I'll stay with for 2 months. Thank you to the Wycliffe Boutique where I got one for free and to Beth, who gave me an old-school hard case one that has been wonderful. Thx to Target and TJ Maxx for the other cheap, but wheeled pieces that have been so nice! Mom, can you believe that $18 backpack has lasted through 2 trips to Peru!
Lucky me, I get to babysit Baby Katie tonight for the last time before I leave for Peru in *6* days! Here's the two of us at lunch after church on Sunday. She's 8 months old and has 7 teeth. I guess I can leave her in the care of her two wonderful parents, but I sure am going to miss her!
Sunday, I was introduced to my home church in Portland as a missionary candidate. This is a blessing to me and a step forward towards becoming a commissioned missionary with Cedar Mill Bible Church! Here I am sharing my story with the church body:
Leaving my home in Portland is bittersweet. How nostalgic can you be when heading into a ministry that you've been preparing for and dreaming of for years? But it's healthy to be in the moment, and right now I'm feeling the sad part of this goodbye.Clockwise from upper left: Union Station, Ladd's Addition, St. John's Bridge, local color
Jose (not his real name) a Quechua man in his 40's, has been helping the Bensons on the Huamalies Quechua translation for over a decade. 9 months ago, he left his family behind in the village where he lives, and has been receiving linguistic training at the SIL center in Lima. Jose will finish his year of training just as I finish my 2 months of Spanish language learning in Lima, and we'll be able to start working on the Huamalies dictionary once I move to Huanuco. Please pray for our ability to work together, and for my preparation to facilitate this project.
I'm riding in a car with a friend, her sister and her niece, and the whole time the niece (affectionately nicknamed "Porkchop") is crying--that wet, sloppy sobbing that calms to a few snorts, and then she remembers what she was doing and picks up again. Nothing is wrong--she just doesn't want to be in the car seat one whole row behind her mama.
Well, I'm in the know, and it's all good: we're heading downtown to meet her other aunt for lunch, and Porkchop is going to be so happy, so well-loved-on and well-fed. But Porkchop doesn't have the capacity to grasp that at 9 months. So, she keeps on with the sloshy sobbing and we get to giggle and coo at her to try and calm her down.
Even in that moment, I knew this was the perfect picture of where I'm at. During this waiting time before Peru, I catch myself sniffling and whining, wishing I was "there yet". Yes, I do have more perspective than Porkchop because I've learned about the love of my heavenly Father, and I have the adult faculties to understand the concepts of preparation and journeying. But, this picture works for me because, on a grander scale, God knows where I'm going and why, and He is ultimately responsible to get me there in one piece...and it's really His show once I get there. God is growing in me the faith in Him that I'm convinced Porkchop should have in her mother. And I can't wait 'til I get "there".
I have to admit I wasn't really prepared for how overwhelming it would be to visit the Wycliffe USA headquarters in Orlando, and the SIL and Wycliffe International headquarters in Dallas (see pic above). I guess I forgot for a bit how much the mission and vision of Wycliffe is the same as what God has given me - to see the Word of God heard and understood by every person. I didn't prepare myself for how intense it would feel to be right in the middle of a huge work God is doing to get His written Word to the people of the world still waiting for it. If you can stop and visit either of these centers, I recommend it. Through art, displays, museums, hands-on activities, and media presentations, they tell the story of the need for Bible Translation and how God is enabling us to meet it. (Find out more at http://www.wycliffe.org/wbt-usa/home.htm)
Wed-Fri: Finalize car settlement details, train on computer software for dictionary, catch up on emails
Sat 9/9-Mon 9/18: In Florida and Texas for Wycliffe orientation and visiting SIL Headquarters and GIAL (Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics), meeting with Linguistics Advisor at University of Texas at Austin
9/19: Start packing, Schedule goodbye/missions info gatherings, Finish immunizations, Etc!
10/15: Target Departure Date!
Falls in the Cascades from our all-school trip this summer
I think I've officially entered the last phase of leaving my "normal" life. It's surprisingly okay at times, and then really overwhelming. I guess that's to be expected. I don't mind so much not having a permanent home, but I struggle with not knowing how God is going to provide for my finances. I am actually excited about being lost in a new city, not speaking the language fluently yet, and trying new foods and new ways of interacting with the world. But I do wonder how it will be to try and stay in touch with friends in the States, and even American culture in general. Will I be one of the long-haired, long-skirted super-missionaries I admire but am a little scared of becoming? Will I know what happens on the next season of Lost? More importantly, will the Quechua people I'll be working with be able to understand me and God's love through me?
Here was God's answer to my musings this morning. Maybe He will put your musing to rest as well with this truth: Phil. 4:19 And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
For SIL folks: Just for the fun of it, here's a snapshot of yesterday afternoon in the office. For the rest of you: Don't worry if this doesn't make much sense to you...that means you're normal!
I'm sitting at the table in the sociolinguistics office cubicle, looking out the window. The phonetics department are practicing back velar tonal vowels behind me, low, high, low high. The survey class and their prof and TA are having a meeting to my right, quietly discussing something I don't understand. :) Morph and Syn over my left shoulder is laughing about something, well at least MaryAnne is. LACL is up to something too--actually I just checked and it's James, the TA, talking with a student. He caught me smiling and lowered his voice. I'm a pretty pathetic observer, disturbing my subjects like that. Paul (Academic Coordinator) and Kevin (Anthropology) are working quietly (as usual - which is surprising to me given Kevin's dramatic outbursts at times). And the Business Office is running at it's typical low hum. By the front doors, the staff mailboxes are overflowing a bit. Some of us haven't checked them for days and they're brimming with reminders. I'll finish packing up the cards, notes, and CD's people have been handing me to mail to our staff member Bekah, who had to go home sick last week. We miss her!
Thank you to everyone who is making it possible for me to be here. It's a privilege and a joy!
How do you tell the story of what God has done in your life? I was trying to figure out what to share at the Oregon SIL chapel, when God answered: tell My story in your life - and use music to help you do it. What a great idea! :)
So last week, I shared "My Life in God's Story, or God's Story in My Life--THE SOUNDTRACK". I sat at the baby grand piano on stage and talked through the various times and ways God has interacted with me and taught me about Himself. Interspersed were songs that allowed us to praise and worship in response. Here are the songs we sang, as well as the themes they related to in my life.
Knowing You - Theme song of my talk I Lift My Eyes Up - Learning to turn on Him while growing up There I None Like You - Trusting that He cares for the suffering in the world Take Me In (to the Holy of Holies)--> Hosanna (in the Highest) - Learning about the fear of God (His Majesty, in addition to His friendship) Psalm 52:8-9 - Knowing who I am in Him, even if my exterior is weak or sick Galations 2:20-21 - Dying to myself and Christ living in me Empty Me - " " Living Water - " "
I led my final lecture for the summer this past Monday, on Endangered Languages. I'll put some stuff here soon about that subject (one of my big passions). Here are some pics of class.
Two of my new, dear friends at Oregon SIL. MaryAnne, in the middle is working in Africa, and Rebekah, on the left, just finished a year of working with Wycliffe Dinner Theater, which travels the country sharing the story of Bible translation through drama. We get to pray, laugh, sing, walk, and of course talk together. What a blessing they've been to me!
Please pray for the 24 students in my class and for the over 50 students studying at Oregon SIL this summer.
Many like Jessica (not her real name) are still looking for what the next step will be in here life. I have committed to Jessica to pray with her over the summer, and listen with her for God's voice and direction.
Others, like John and Janelle (not their real names) have come here from Asia, and will have their first child after they return there at the end of the summer. They are wondering how God will use them into the future that area in that area.
Sharon (another pseudonym) is from a local Native American tribe and is learning about linguistics in order to see her language revitalized. I'm praying she will be inspired by the vision that we have for this kind of work because of Jesus - He loves her language and culture!
What an incredible evening! Bruce and Jan Benson were visiting Eugene, Oregon, for one more day when I drove down from Portland on Tuesday evening. They are the couple doing translation work that I will be supporting in Peru. My parents hosted dinner for all of us on Wednesday, and we spent several hours telling stories, sharing visions, and marveling over how God has brought us together "for such a time as this".
Sometimes when I tell people I'm moving to Peru for 2 years, I share the story in terms that any non-religious person could easily buy into. There are social justice benefits to a language development work that every person can appreciate. But after Wednesday night, I haven't been able to hold it all in! I want to share with everyone what GOD is doing! I have been excited about this idea of working with the Quechua, and the reality of it is really overwhelming. As I learn more about how I can help, and the experiences and training I will receive, it reminds me of when a friend describes meeting the man they are going to marry. That perfect timing, the perfectly aligned goals and interests, the complementing strengths.
The players in this drama number in the tens of thousands (80,000 Quechua speak just one of six languages in the area), but God has been leading us together for "such a time as this". It's humbling, scary, and exciting to be part of God's grand story, but it's the call of a lifetime!
I can hardly believe it! I'm stacking boxes up to move to my storage unit on Saturday, and may not see most of the stuff in them for 2 years. It's an odd and exciting thing to be removed from one's possessions.
If you're in town and would like to help me move, I could use a few more people on Saturday (June 3) from 10-12, lunch included! Let me know if you can make it.
It's a little scary thinking about learning another language (Spanish) and then starting to work with yet another (Huamalies Quechua). And it's exciting too because I really love languages. I love the way they work differently, sound differently, and reflect different cultures.
But learning Spanish - learning it really well - was troubling me. I had to keep giving up control of how much I would learn and when - something I wanted to spend a lot of time on, and I haven't been able to. I'm doing a little Spanish self-study now and hope to take a class this summer while at SIL, but it has been weighing on my mind.
But then came my Spanish lunch last week. My old Latin America department at Northwest Medical Teams all went out for lunch together to speak ONLY Spanish, and invited anyone to join them. While we were chatting (I was only able to put simple sentences together), I started getting a lot of great feedback! My old boss (and good friend) was even saying how amazing it was that God was preparing me so well for Peru! Now that's what I call giving glory to God!
It's true, He does prepare us for the road He takes us down. For example, I have a friend who is supporting three of her friends going through cancer right now. I don't have what it takes to go through that, but God is giving to her what she needs right now. And He's doing the same for me. And for you! Glory to God!
There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations--these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit--immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.
Well, it probably won't be daily, but for those of you who'd like a window into this adventure as it unfolds weekly, check back here for stories from every day life.
"Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither." C. S. Lewis
DAILY LINGO: The Urban Dictionary defines "lingo" as "an individual's dictionary". Here are a few words from my life, but I'm hoping that some of them come from the Words of Life I need daily from God. His Words, my daily Bread. That's my daily lingo.
(Continuing on the cow theme, here's a photo of me gesturing wildly at a small herd of cows outside Coronado, Costa Rica. I have a thing for cows, after falling in love in Peru with Shumaq, the nicest dairy cow you'll ever meet.)
Thank goodness there's more to life than studying!
Our school (The Spanish Language Institute) is dedicated to training people heading to serve God in Spanish-speaking countries, so there are a lot of joyful goodbyes throughout the year. Goodbye to friends who are leaving...
Sidenote: I just had to look up The Russian on wikipedia, because I knew I'd heard the term before. If an artist drew a dramatic version of MY Russian, it wouldn't look much different from this one of the Marvel Comics supervillain from The Punisher:
Praise God for Iva May and her 5 hours of teaching this past week during our spiritual emphasis week at the Spanish school where I'm studying it. I think my favorite quote of hers was "If you make it, you will take it", referring to schemes we come up with to "help" God with His "Plan A" for our lives. Thing is, God has no Plan B and He has PROMISED to accomplish His Plan A. His promises are not like those that we humans make and try to fulfill, it's His very nature to accomplish what He promises. The great temptation is to hear a promise of God, be in a waiting-for-fulfillment period, and try to "help" God accomplish His goal by scheming up a Plan B. And you know where you'll end up! (If you don't, take a look at the stories in Bible and you'll find some Plan B's...it's not pretty!)
My first week in Costa Rica, I headed to Walmart to buy a few things no other stores had. The store is officially called "Hipermás" here, but they can't fool me! I was dragging my heels to shop there but later I found out that before Walmart was allowed to enter Costa Rica, they had to agree to a list of things so they couldn't take advantage of the situation or the people here. Employees at Hipermás have it good. I think mom and pop shops are probably still suffering because of the mega-store, but now I feel better for buying a fan there!
Something exciting is afoot at Wycliffe. It's possible that someone in your generation or the generation of your children will start work on the last language needing a Bible translation! Check out these facts from the Last Languages Campaign and read more by clicking on the links below. 
(one of the great things about living in a melting pot). It would be fun to hear them if you want to post them here in response to this blog! 
It also means missing warm weather, fish, and tropical fruit. It means not getting 10 hugs a day or more. It means not eating dinner at 9pm with the rest of the country. It means not being challenged daily to make myself understood. It means less physical and cultural adventures.
everyone in the stores. I just think everyone wants to have a conversation with me, and find out what I’m up to and why I'm here. In Peru, I would be chatting with each storekeeper, the person on the bus next to me, the person in line at the deli. People are friendly, but I also stand out and make an instant conversation starter. In the States, I’m run-of-the-mill and while I really like being incognito again I miss all the interactions themselves.
So I haven't been blogging since I got back to the States. I'm sorry to be out of touch with those of you who keep up with me here! I'll be posting now that I've got a computer again (mine died almost as soon as I got off the plane here). But the most wonderful distraction(s) have been my niece and nephew who have been the joy of this first month of my short time in the States. As you can see we're pretty happy to be hanging out together. Stay tuned for more on "re-entering" the US culture!
I was pretty happy that the worship team at my church in Huánuco let me join them my final Sunday in town. At the Saturday afternoon practice, I get bombarded by a host of new songs (in Spanish of course). I take notes furiously and then head home to search for the songs on iTunes. If I buy and then listen to the new songs all Saturday night, and Sunday morning while getting ready for church, I'm usually roughly ready to sing them in front of church! Or at least to sing "La, la la" to the right tune. :)
After the singing, the pastors surprised me by asking me to share with the church about my move to Lima (where I'll return after I visit the States this fall). They thanked my friends and church in the States (Cedar Mill Bible Church) for their donations which helped us purchase monitors for my Huánuco church this year. I was really touched as Pastor Juan prayed over me with the congregation.
When I asked Ammon Shea, the man who read the O.E.D., if he wanted to play a game of Dictionary sometime, he did me the favor of pretending I was sane. 
Pretty much since I arrived in Huánuco, I've been hoping to visit the Incan ruins at Huánuco Pampa, and so I took the trip up the hill for part of one afternoon while in La Unión. The taxi driver ended up being my companion, despite offers from everyone else in the car. I was glad for a second guide, one that you have to tip, who showed up at the ruins. Wandering around a high plain exploring ruins is better with two strangers than one.
Huánuco Viejo is a temple-fortress on the Incan "royal highway" between Cusco and Quito. Mmm, don't have many of those in Eugene, Oregon, do we? At every ancient site I've visited in Peru, there is evidence of how closely the culture is tied with astronomy. Usually angles are lined up so the sun shines through just so on winter solstice. I thought that was the case here, but actually this is just a small viewer in the temple that lines up with each of the doorways through which the Inca would have walk to reach the temple from his home.
Peru's natural, rugged beauty is complemented by its fascinating cultures, including those that we only know about through their ruins. I feel privileged to have the chance to visit such culturally important sites when I can. Even more importantly, I'm glad to hear that so many of my Peruvian friends have visited these sites, at least those nearby, as well. They have an incredible heritage!
Victoria, as you can tell from the photo above, is a power-house. She's been in ministry most of her life, currently serving in a church where her brother is the pastor. But she was in a slump spiritually when she heard about the training that was teaching Quechua women to teach the Bible to others. She attended the year-long course last year and credits it being a part of God's plan to equip her for an expanding ministry. This year she is part of the teaching team leading the workshops and giving the opportunity for growth in ministry to other Quechua women. 
Our teaching team makes these lessons as learner-centered as possible. Group work allows for a lot of interaction, often allowing members of different churches, denominations and towns to get to know each other. It's pretty exciting!
In a culture where you don't want to be the odd-person out, where community identity is infinitely more important than individuality, writing your answers to questions on paper to present to the larger group is a stretch for these ladies...and it's worth it. The workshop participants get to learn from each other as well as from the teachers, who are learning a new educational strategy: Make learning possible, instead of feeding answers to their students.
One of the biggest distractions in class can be kids, who tag along with mom if no one else can watch them for the two-day long workshops. On Friday there were 3 kids making enough fuss that I eventually realized I'd be more useful keeping them occupied outside the one-room church. By Saturday morning there were 7 kids waiting for me. And by the end of that day, the neighborhood kids had found out where the fun was! I counted 14 kids making up games with me, singing songs we could remember, and telling stories. The best part was that I got to share the reason for lasting joy as we laughed and played together: Jesus in our lives and hearts!
It's midday, but the light is bright and clean like the early morning sun. I'd been traveling since 7 AM on the bus, heading into the countryside for the second Women of the Bible workshop this year. Arriving in La Union, I find my way to a pollería and order something off the menu. For 3 soles ($1 USD) I get to choose from a range of meals, all starting off with a huge bowl of soup which could be my whole meal itself. After truly enjoying every bit of lamb with beans and rice, I run into Vickie, Efegenia and Victoria on the street, the ladies I was hoping to meet up with. We headed up to the Assemblies of God church (in the photo above).
Our first order of business is to throw some sheep skins, yes sheep skins!, on the wood plank floor of the second story of the church. We then unfold mantas, or blankets, to make up our beds. It doesn't take very long until we are flopped down, laughing, all tired from our long journeys.
It's moments like these where cultural differences fall off like dead skin and we thrive in our similarities. It doesn't take long to make connections cross-culturally, especially when we're related by the blood of Christ. We had a great weekend together!
Although it seems I spend a little of each month in Lima, our capital city, I'm not usually site-seeing and don't take many pictures. But I'd love to share some of the sites with you, so here is a little tour I took with some friends I babysat for a weekend with my friend Clare. 
Every city is designed around the main plaza. I forget how gorgeous this one is. It still has the feel of a plaza, being bordered on all four sides by important buildings. A number of the streets leading to it are pedestrian only, so there's a lot less traffic than you'd expect. Maybe the amoured cars and machine-gun-carrying troops help discourage lollygagging as well.
Of course our tour included a stop at an ice cream shop, and then we walked down a beautiful street that used to be under a canopy made of glass. After it shattered in an earthquake, they left the framing in place so the street still feels unique. They call this Postcard Alley because that's pretty much all you can buy here.
Leaders of indigenous associations came from all over Peru. We listened, talked, learned, discussed, and then retaught basic principles of funding projects shared by a friend from World Vision. We spent time on the internet looking at possible partners. Computers and the internet are new to many of these leaders so the learning curve was steep, but we made good progress.
At one moment in particular I was struck by how overwhelmed we can be by many things in life, and how quickly we forget to cry out to the Lord for help. He's not just God of the great traumas or great blessings, He's Lord of all, and deeply desires to be involved in every detail of our lives.
Can we even call out to Him to help us when we get stuck while searching for a web page? Does He care like that?
I started singing with my church worship team 4 months ago. I was amazed that they are responsible to raise funds for whatever they need, their microphones, instruments, and outfits. Next up on the project list are stage monitors, which allow those of us on stage to hear what we're singing and playing. (Our church is large and made of concrete and most of the sound never gets back to the front of the room where we're standing.)
Then I realized what a great opportunity this was to give my U.S. friends the chance to help out my Peruvian friends. And there are a lot of you musicians who know just what I'm talking about regarding the monitors!
One of the most mind-blowing things to me is the variety of opportunities for service here. Did I miss all of them in the States? Is there something about being a "missionary" that leads people to tell you about their ministries and invite you to work with them? Am I just more attuned?
While we can't serve in every capacity, we are called to listen and follow. And we can be confident that He will lead. "The mind of a man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps." Proverbs 16:9
Two of my friends decided it was time I learned how to make my favorite Peruvian dish, Ají de Gallina. So they came over last Friday and we cooked together for a few hours, one of my favorite things to do.
Ají de Gallina literally means Pepper of the Hen and the idea is that you can use your oldest, toughest bird, simmer it in this spicy yet creamy sauce, and get a fantastic result. It's served over rice and potatoes, with hardboiled egg and olives as condiments. As an added plus, we made a refresco, or drink, out of apple, cocona, and maracuya. Peruvian food is certainly not a hardship!
Two weekends ago we had over 50 people working together here in Huánuco from 6 distinct languages. We had to use Spanish to communicate. Female ministry leaders (and a few guys) came to share and learn about the Women of the Bible project. In the picture above are members of the Huamalíes team I traveled with a few times last year. Their team is expanding as they bring new leaders on board for this year's round of workshops. They helped introduce this Bible teacher training program to ministry leaders from other Quechua language groups. It was thrilling to watch these Quechua women trainers learn from each other, share experiences, hopes, and frustrations, and spend hours in prayer for their ministries and each other.
Looking for my Lima church's Christmas play, some friends and I stumbled into an Episcopalian service. It was a beautiful church, and these windows depicting the early life of Christ were done by a local artist.
The play charmingly included lots of child actors, and the story described the U.N. searching hard for world peace when there was only news of war...eventually finding it only in Jesus Christ. I really liked the Peruvian Baby Jesus.
The groups from each of the 3 workshop locations shared songs of praise. These ladies from Pachas couldn't have been more exuberant!
Plays were created, well, produced, out of the lessons. My favorite was supposed to be describing Job's wife, but instead focused in a very Quechua-like manner on the animals that Job owned, lost, and then regained. In this dramatic moment, the ox-driver is trying to control her "animals". Don't ask me where Job's wife ended up in this scene. (Actually I think she's on the right, helping control the oxen!)
This girl of 13 recited many, many memory verses in Quechua. She is also a star pupil, teaching these Bible lessons to men, women, and children in her church. Their level of hunger for Bible study doesn't seem to mind that this workbook is geared toward women!
Victoria shared about the "hardness" in her heart that softened when she heard of this class and started studying the Word of God in Quechua. Her smile alone tells how her heart is now.
As you can imagine, we had a lot of fun together!
People who work with kids overseas will tell you that kids are the same everywhere. Same basic needs, same desire for your undivided attention. That was true of this bunch of kids...as well as the fact that a child's affection can melt your heart faster than anything. Kids don't seem to mind the occasional language barrier either.
Now we're traveling from up from about 6,000 to around 11,000 feet. The air is getting thinner and it's chilly all day long, unless you're standing directly in the sun. We slow down for herds of sheep and goats, as well as the occasional donkey. This one has an albino baby!
Now that we've reached Pachas, we're driving up to the church, unloading all of our stuff, and parking the truck down by one of the participants homes near the plaza. Every town in Peru has a central plaza, or town square, and this one happens to have a bell tower too.
We are staying the next few nights in these rooms on the church property. The trainers are getting together tonight to adjust their lesson plans, to account for the absence of their leader hasn't been able to make it due to her late-stage pregnancy.
I am having fun reconnecting with Kayla, my 8 year-old friend, whose mom is on the teaching team. We are playing with my camera and telling Bible stories. Her mom has done a great job training her, because when Í try and translate what Jesus says from English to Spanish, she always has a correction for me. She remembers the Bible verse and my translations aren't that great yet!
I've now been to La Loma twice. Last Sunday, 3 of my Peruvian girlfriends and I took a taxi out of Huánuco 30 minutes into the countryside. Turn left up a hill, drive 
through a little town, and you'll find La Loma, a beautiful retreat center where you can eat a fabulous 4 course Peruvian meal, wander around the gorgeous
grounds, and even spend the night. After lunch we walked up the hill to the Quechua town of Conchamarca and visited the local church. By far the highlight for me was the hour we spent listening to a local man talk about how God rescued him and keeps giving him opportunities to share that same gift with others. It felt like a piece of heaven, sitting around recounting stories of God's great love, meeting others who've experienced the same. One day those conversations won't have to end!
It was my birthday Tuesday and the ladies surprised me with a full-blown birthday tea instead of the cake and hot drinks I was expecting. 
What a great time we had! Sandra, Sara and Ana came from church; Jan, Martie, and Marilyn from the missionary community; and 4 new friends as well! 
Missions has been a mostly foreign-led effort here for decades. Now the Peruvian church is growing and sending missionaries themselves, even within their own country. Instead of depending on an overseas agency and staff, the three organizations at this workshop were 100% local folks. They are self-starting and self-supporting, and their goal is to reach their "neighbors" for the Lord and to see those communities transformed because of Christ.
Our workshop was designed to help each organization solidify their vision and then plot a course of action which will allow them to see their ultimate goal (hopefully God's ultimate goal!) realized in the communities they serve. To teach this "results-based management" style, we used a lot of practical analogies and examples, including an illustration involving the wheelbarrows below and lots of splashing water--no one complained about that in the over 100 degree weather!
I was a facilitator for the group MINAP, Misión Integrál Nativa de la Amazonía Peruana (which translates to the Holistic Native Mission of the Peruvian Amazon). They are the first missionary-sending agency run by leaders indigenous to the Amazon. At our table alone, we represented 5 distinct cultures and languages, but that didn't stop us from working together, getting a huge amount of planning done, and seeing God move as we sought Him throughout the process. Here's a picture of us on the last day and you can see their organizational plan laid out on the board behind us. Please pray today that God would continue to empower and provide for the ministry of MINAP.
Weather: Hot and sticky like you forgot to leave the fogged up bathroom after your shower
People: Even more warm and friendly, lots of music, flowers, offers of help, low crime rates, but struggles with poverty, familial abuse, and justice (just my opinion)
I was so glad to see Portland, Oregon, out my airplane window on September 10th. I still can't believe home is only a plane ride away. It was a gift to spend time with my family, and visit churches and friends during my two weeks in the Northwest. 
Of course time with niece Katie, who is such a big girl now, was one of the highlights! We went to the zoo and were both excited to see the elephants up close.
Getting to hang out in person with friends was something I really had been looking forward to. A group of girlfriends threw a tea party, and we all had tons of fun over 5 gourmet courses and many, many pots of tea.
In each small town, women came from all around to advance their understanding of Scripture and how to teach other women.
Learned teaching techniques:
Worked in small groups:
And enjoyed activity times together:
What a blessing it was to hear of the progress each is making in her own teaching "practicuum". Every trainee's homework is to teach the Bible lessons herself before returning to the next workshop. We were excited to hear stories of women who are teaching multiple classes. One girl of 12(!) is teaching men, women, and children in her church. Another lady approached Jan thanking her for giving her the opportunity to read, learn, teach, and promote the Gospel in Quechua, the only language many of her women friends speak.
“Clean water
The Huaylas New Testament was dedicated at the beginning of August in the city of Huaraz. Most of you probably have already heard about the dedication because you get my email updates. If you'd like to start getting my (monthly) emails, just let me know!
But the story of God's Word in this part of the world is just beginning, because having the Bible in their own language is a turning point for many of the churches and believers in this area. They are excited to read and study the Bible themselves and many have a heart to share the Good News with their neighbors and even the world. These ladies below are sharing a song of praise as part of the celebration.
The celebration continued with a cuy lunch and a local music festival. That's guinea pig I'm eating, a delicacy here! Doesn't that make you want to come for a visit? 
The best thing you can do is pray. Here are some ideas of what to pray for:
At 22, 204 feet, Huascarán (Wahs-kah-RAHN) is the highest mountain in Peru. You can see the orange trunk of a queñal tree in the foreground. They are believed to grow at a higher altitude than any other tree.
The initial drop is almost straight down, aided at the end by a rickety wooden ladder, which you can see in the upper right corner of the photo below.
I spent a week in June at this building outside Lima, helping with a management workshop for three Quechua organizations. We were teaching planning strategies that help focus the resources and activities of an organization on meeting its ultimate vision.
Most Quechua people are well-acquainted with farming so they appreciated this analogy: A farmer doesn't get distracted by unnecessary irrigation projects or on building up his supply of an unusable fertilizer. His goal is also not to grow crops for their own sake. His sights are set on improving his family's well-being through nutritional food and income. Results-based management aims to direct the gaze of an organization on its ultimate goal, and in doing so, align its projects and resources to meet that goal.
Being the facilitator for this group from central Peru was an adventure (see photos below). We crossed a few language and cultural gaps and had a good week creating plans for their organization. They are running many diverse development programs, as well as planting churches and starting a translation of the Old Testament, having finished a New Testament several years ago. Having worked in development for several years, their holistic, grass-roots programs were very exciting for me to hear about.
My team with their graduation certificates.
Most likely you can't come to visit in person, but I can show you around a little bit through pictures! We'll start by turning right onto this street (photo left), where I walk by my church everyday on the way to my office. On the roof, you can see their white sign with blue lettering. I'm so grateful for the 3 Peruvian amigas God has blessed me with through my church! One of them helps me with my English, another works near by, and I'm helping the third with her linguistics studies. Having good friends in a new country seems crucial, and I know I'm blessed to have them in my life.
And here's my office, complete with a Nalgene bottle, a Monet print (thanks Jan!), and a map of all the languages of Peru. I am so grateful for the laptop that I was able to bring with me to Peru. It travels back and forth to work with me and also allows me to stay in touch with all of you. Many people's gifts made that possible--Thank you!
I had heard so much about Machu Picchu that I assumed I would be underwhelmed when I finally visited--boy, was I wrong! It was my third trip to Cusco and this time I finally made it all the way to Machu Picchu with my friend Karen who was visiting from the States. It felt surreal, like a different world. Aside from the fact that you are walking in and around ancient Incan ruins, Machu Picchu is set high up into the clouds so you almost think you're in heaven. Since only one of the original Seven Wonders of the World still exists, they are holding a world-wide online vote to elect the "New 7 Wonders". Click HERE to cast your vote (for Machu Picchu!).
First, find a big open space to cook and eat, and then dig a whole in the ground. Start a fire and heat up rocks until they are are really, really hot. Meanwhile you slaughter and marinate a pig. (I'll spare you the picture, but it was pretty impressive.)
Finally it's time to unpack the layers of rocks and food and dig in! It was all really good, and the pig had a really nice flavor, but I ate too many humitas to eat much of anything else!
I never thought I'd get to spend more than 1 night in the jungle (remember Tingo Maria a few weeks ago?). Then I got invited to attend a New Testament dedication on the Chambira River, deep in the northern Amazon region of Peru. What an honor! We flew from Lima to Iquitos on Easter Sunday morning and traveled by boat for 2 days to reach the Urarina village of Nueva Esperanza. For two days we were docked at the village, spending time with the Urarina, dedicating the New Testament, and participating in the first church service in this village.
"Coca-Yes! Hunger-No!" Today there was another march in front of my house, which is on the main street at one end of town. The cocaleros are threatening to block roads and bridges in reaction to government policy changes regarding their crops. Cocaleros are farmers who grow coca, and while coca can be made into cocaine, it is legal to grow and sell in large quantities here. Around 60,000 families in Peru depend on their coca crops to survive. The new president of Peru is cracking down on these farmers, most likely because they are an easier target than those who illegally make and sell cocaine. Pray for peace and provision for the families in Peru for whom this crop is their livelihood. (For more information, check out this BBC News article.)
I learned a lot of new words recently. Facilitating a strategic planning workshop for 3 days with JAWCA maxed out my Spanish and then taught me a whole lot more. Talk about learning through immersion! We had a good time (see the "action" shot of small group work above) and these Quechua leaders inspired me as they defined their work and made plans for the next 3-10 years. I'm glad I'll be around a bit longer to see how things work out! If you would like to be involved, please stop right now and pray that God will fulfill JAWCA's dreams and plans to see the Word of God change lives in the language communities around Huanuco. Your prayers are effective!
Last weekend I spent my first night in the jungle! Traveling down the eastern slope of the Andes, we reached Tingo Maria in just 3 hours.
We spent about 30 minutes waiting for these two bus drivers who were nose to nose in the middle of landslide debris. I heard that's not very long to wait for someone to back up. Ironically they were from the same bus company, but neither driver felt he should be the one to move. You can imagine that nobody gets very far down the road when cars are line d up single file yet facing both directions!
I first met these four CEFMA graduates when I took a Quechua grammer class my first week in Huanuco. A few Fridays ago, they graduated from the CEFMA program, which is 3 summers long, and prepares them for service in missions here or around the world. The theme was from Hudson Taylor's life, which is really exciting for me because my greatest dream for these people groups is to see them reaching the world for Christ! Everyone wore the traditional dress from their area. (Check out the 2 different styles and colors of hats the women are wearing. Hats and the patterns and colors of clothes are among the clues you can use to know what part of the Andes someone is from, even before they open their mouth. Just in case you are wondering, no one ever thinks I might be from around here, and they usually guess correctly that I'm from the States!)
2 weeks ago we held the next in a series of workshops for 14 Huamalies Quechua women. They are being trained in adult education and Bible study, and will be teaching workshops for another 60 women over the next 6 months. These 60 women are leaders in their churches and they will be teaching at least another 500 women between now and December. What a great chance to empower these women to teach and train others! It's also thrilling to know that, for the first time, these hundreds of women will get to study the Bible in their own language!
Yes, that’s me, out over the river! I’m riding in what they call a “river swing”. Really it’s a metal chair on a pulley system, so the guy across the river can haul people over to his side of the river. I had taken a bus to a spot about 30 minutes out of Huánuco, where my friend Elena and I got off. We shimmied down the hillside to the river swing, Elena in heels! Once across the river, we crossed a few fields and then reached our destination: the Paz y Esperanza camp. It’s basically a retreat center for this group that works toward justice and restoration for those that have been abused-- physically, emotionally, or politically (i.e., restitution from the years of terrorism).
What a blessing! My first week in Huanuco, Jan Benson and Amador Tucto, (far left) with whom I'll be making the dictionary, taught a class on Quechua grammer. The class was at a training center for young people who want to be involved in missions in the Andes! We spent several hours each day studying Quechua, learning about its grammer, its similarities and differences from other languages in the world, and how the different Quechua languages developed. It was great training for me!
That looks like a really long word, but it's actually kinda small for a Quechua language!
Most of these boxes are Ticuna New Testaments which are being wrapped in plastic to be sent by truck on Monday from Lima in the west, across the Andes, to 
Me & my Peruvian family! I lived with Sonja & Milagros (left to right) for these first two months in Lima.
Here I am all decked out in the color Peruvians traditionally wear to celebrate the New Year: YELLOW!
Meet Irma, my brilliant Spanish tutor! She has been a wealth of information, not just about the language, but about life and culture in Peru. We end up talking about spiritual things too, which is exciting. She is a blessing.
The IV drugs they gave me didn’t seem have any effect, so I was admitted to the hospital. Two days later, things were looking much better. I was recovering well, but they still wanted to keep me for observation while they dropped the dosage of the drugs they had me on. So it’s Tuesday evening and I was only just discharged this afternoon! I am so grateful to get back to what I now call “regular” life in 
One week ago I landed in Lima! Thank you for your thoughts and prayers, and for all of the encouragement that's gotten me this far. It's amazing to be here! Sometimes I can't believe I haven't just gotten lost in some part of the States that I don't recognize. Lima is a very large city: 7 million people. The people and the food are fabulous. There are a million little differences, some easy, some frustrating, but I'm enjoying getting to know my new surroundings. 
Seriously! Everything I took to Peru fit into these 4 suitcases. I was pretty impressed. I had to ditch the purse at the airport (2 carry-ons means 2 carry-ons on American: no extra purse!)
Clockwise from upper left: Union Station, Ladd's Addition, St. John's Bridge, local color
I have to admit I wasn't really prepared for how overwhelming it would be to visit the Wycliffe USA headquarters in Orlando, and the SIL and Wycliffe International headquarters in Dallas (see pic above). I guess I forgot for a bit how much the mission and vision of Wycliffe is the same as what God has given me - to see the Word of God heard and understood by every person. I didn't prepare myself for how intense it would feel to be right in the middle of a huge work God is doing to get His written Word to the people of the world still waiting for it. If you can stop and visit either of these centers, I recommend it. Through art, displays, museums, hands-on activities, and media presentations, they tell the story of the need for Bible Translation and how God is enabling us to meet it. (Find out more at http://www.wycliffe.org/wbt-usa/home.htm)
Falls in the Cascades from our all-school trip this summer
Dinner with Jan and Bruce Benson, with whom I'll be working in Peru.
