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!

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:

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.

Women of the Bible graduate!

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!

Hasta Pachas

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.