Last but not Least

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.

~~~~

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.

~~~~

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.

Shocking culture

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!

The Perfect Distractions

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!

A Last Sunday

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.

Word Nerd

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.”

Read the rest of the article...

Flitting Beauty

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.

Days of Grace

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).

Album #1:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=134282&l=2ec3f&id=857665789

Album #2:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=134601&l=37f3d&id=857665789

Ruins! Finally!

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).

Training the Trainers

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!

Starting off right

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!

¿Qué tal Lima?

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 a cloistered 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.

Ingredients

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.

PROJECT ALLIANCE

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.

Thank you!

Let the Little Ones...

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
.

Food & Friends

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!

2 days, 50 people, 6 languages

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.

The kids were pretty awesome too:

Best Christmas Present Ever

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!

My Coworker's Story

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.

Peruvian Navidad

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: