LIMAAAAA
I am officially in Lima. Well actually about two hours outside of Lima, in Lurin.
We are at the pastor's house right now-It was his daughter's birthday andwe had a pinata and cake. So we're excited. We were all sitting around watching the daughter and her friends do the pinata, trying to hold ourselves back while they all ran for the candy, but when Lindsey yelled "THERE"S GUM!" we all pushed the kids aside and went for the gum like our lives depended on it. All this to say, gum is hard to come by in these parts, but right now I am chewing some so I'm set for today.
Things have been going well here, our team is working well together,the church was really prepared to have us here and planned a lot for us to do, and the kids love having us here. It's been so cool to see what theyre doing here, with the church and they have a feeding center that gives kids food during the day in between school sessions(sponders from churches in the Us "adopt" kids to pay for their food to keep it running) and there are missionaries living here from a Calvary Chapel in Ft. Lauderdale. Actually the church we are with here is a Calvary Chapel church so I love seeing the dove behind the pulpit and when the pastor wears a Hawaiian shirt I am REALLY at home. They sing a lot of the same worship songs as churches in the states, but of course in Spanish so it's been fun to learn those.
Living situations are hard here though - we do have matresses, and we eat a LOT (they watch you to make sure you eat everything, because they really do express love and hospitality through serving food), and we scoped out where they have Coke Zero (hard to find Diet soda), so we're figuring it out. But overall its very poor, with dirt roads, brick houses, dogs running around everywhere, dead dogs in the street, cockroaches, lots of mosquitos, its really hot, and we cant drink the water so if we forget to buy enough we kind of just have to deal with being thirsty and dehydrated. So as you can tell, its been tough living here, and we all miss Pichilemu, the base, the other half of our DTS class which is in Argentina right now, but overall things are good here.
We've been doing a lot of evangelism and the people are really responsive to us especially because we stand out so much and are different. We had dramas in the plaza last night and people stayed around talking to us all over the park for almost two hours after, we gave lots of people information about the church here, played with the kids forever and prayed with some people, too. God is definitely working here, even if it seems slow sometimes. I can't imagine how these missionaries gave up so much to live here, taking cold saltwater showers with water from the ocean, walking around in the dirt all the time (someday I will post a picture of our feet, I have never been so dirty), being so poor here and still seeing so much need here. Some of the kids don't eat any meals during the day except the ones they get from the feeding center. But the church has already changed the community, one family at a time, and are building up the youth group in the church so they are seeing some fruit.
Today we went to the beach and it made me feel more at home, yet more homesick at the same time. Miss everyone! Please keep praying for us, we need it:
-for UNITY - we are nothing if we aren't unified. the enemy is using any tactic he can to tear down our team or wedge between us, but we are praying a lot for unity and living together 24/7 has been hard but God is the glue, so it's stronger!
-for open doors for evangelism - for the peoples' hearts here, for tirelessness
-to see things here through God's eyes, for perserverance
-for tough stomachs (we eat chicken and rice every day, which is fine but sometimes we have cow stomach and we have to eat it, some people have gotten pretty sick so pray God will give us tough stomachs!)
-for the church here, the missionaries living here, protection over my family back home :)
love you all, thanks for reading and being here with me in spirit in Lima
Monday, March 30, 2009
Monday, March 9, 2009
Well....
So here's some more updates.
- The base is busting at the seams: we have two DTS's back from outreaches, a Counseling School about to start, an English school and then my DTS is about to head out next week, so the base is super full right now. Which I love! We are hearing about all the other outreaches, where they went, the miracles that happened, the crazy stuff they ate.. it's getting us excited! The past week God has done some amazing stuff here with our team - I think God provided for about five people who didnt have any money for the outreach, freed them of job obligations at home, worked on their parents' hearts so they would have their blessing to go on outreach instead of go back to school right away... we feel like God is testing our faith a little bit every day as if we are products in a factory being tested before being shipped out to actually be used. But we still have quite a few people here with no money, or who don't think they can go. One week left. More than enough time for a few more miracles.
-We had a HUGE swim meet this weekend with over 400 people from all over Chile competing. I was an official timer (why do they trust me so much? they gave me so much power over these poor Chileans' destinies), and it was so cool to see the base filled with new faces. One funny part of the story is that my new friend Cody, who is the younger brother of my friend Caitlin from Reality in SB, came to the meet too. He is studying in Santiago and randomly came to the base to help out on weekends he has off, and he convinced one of his friends from school to compete in the meet with him. They happen to be on the Stanford swim team, and Cody's friend happens to be Peter Marshall, who placed fourth in the US Olympic tryouts and held five world records in swimming last year. So we had an Olympian competing, and the Chileans went nuts for him of course (it was so entertaining to watch all the Chileans crowd around this really tall, really white guy who speaks ZERO Spanish, asking him to sign their speedos and swim caps), which was a cool opportunity to give him the mic and let him preach... he would announce a record he had broken, they would all go crazy cheering, he would say the Olympic-level achievements he's made, they would all scream... then he said "Yeah God has blessed me for sure. I've had the opportunity to achieve many of my goals. But I wanna ask you a question... can you tell me who held the world record for tehe 50-meter backstroke last year? Or five years ago?" And all 400 people went silent. He said, "I didnt think so. That stuff fades, the only thing that will last is your relationship with Jesus Christ"... it was an awesome weekend of hard work and welcoming tons of new people to the base, but in the end those five minutes of Peter giving the glory to the Lord was what it was all about. And I didn't have to swim in this meet, thank God!
-God has been doing some intense healing and work through our classes these past couple of weeks. Some topics have been: pride and humility, service, relationships, spiritual parenting, worship and praise, spiritual gifts, identity... here are some of the things that stuck out most to me:
*The only way we can know our true identity is to know who God truly is. Then we can rest in how He created us to be, what His purpose is for us, where we're headed. It's so freeing!
*Spiritual gifts are just one grape on the whole cluster of ministry... their purpose is service to Christ and to the body, not for our glory or to be our "church credentials". But the grape cluster should be flavorful, multi-branched and enjoyable for others, grapes arent made just to look pretty - you eat them! Serve where you are, with what you have, and your service will have purpose and fulfillment. If you're not serving (reflecting Jesus) in the church (His house), why are you there? To sit there and look pretty? Get up.
*Humility is part of your true identity in Christ because He is the personification of humility. Pride is the opposite of humility, so pride is reflecting the opposite of Jesus, so pride really reflects the character of the enemy. You can't have pride in any form (even false/fake humility) and be reflecting Jesus at the same time. It's literally impossible. Are you reflecting the perfect Creator of heaven and earth who died for you, or the devil who is just a bully with no true power? Your actions will speak for themselves.
-God has really been pouring out his mercy and blessings on us - the first half of the DTS was kind of where God breaks you open, you see how much you need to be healed, he cuts out the wound you kept putting band-aids on and it hurts so badly to see it for what it is, but the second half has been when he heals it deeper, pours out goodness and peace and the more we are seeing who He is, the more we trust Him to really cut out and heal our wounds. Then he can give us pretty, new hearts that He can actually use.
-Love is definitely in the air here. We have two new couples in my DTS alone, who are under strict probation since you're not allowed to date during the DTS (which I think is a good rule- this time is for seeking the Lord, not a husband/wife), not to mention all the leaders who are either engaged or reuniting after one was on outreach... its pretty crazy to see all thse multi-cultural marriages and couples (this base has seen 56 inter-cultural marriages since it's existence 15 yrs ago!). It comes with it's own set of problems and complexities to work through, but I love seeing their ministries as a couple go beyond the barriers cultures and languages usually present. Of course on the outside it seems impossible when a Korean girl and a Brazilian guy start falling in love, to the world it's insanity and will never work, you have to overcome differences in your languages, your cultures, your families, raising your children, balancing your families and parents' influence, your church upbringing.... But I say, whatever, God is
bigger. Get over it. All the half-and-half kids running around here are so cute too!
-I think I am a little bit in the second and third stages of cultural adapation: the Honeymoon Phase where you're still draped in the safety and comfort of your own country's flag while admiring everything about the new culture is transitioning a little bit into Culture Shock phase. That's when you have to give up some of your own culture, take off your flag more to actually take on the flag and culture of the new place, and of course there are bound to be clashes. Some examples: there are so many little differences in the way cultures ask to borrow things! some cultures here just take it without asking, some are offended if you even ask, some are offended if you DO ask and don't consider everything they have as yours (its saying youre not family, you're strangers), some consider everything of yours belongs to them too... I could go into detail about the historical background and cultural context that shapes each culture to have those concepts about borrowing and sharing, but basically this is just one example of cultural contexts that we're all learning to work through as we live together, study together, do everything together 24/7. Another is the way different cultures follow rules, prepare meals, clean (you would be shocked if I told you the way some of these people "clean" here. seriously, you have to use a different towel to dry the dishes. you can't use the one you cleaned the bathroom floor with. i know it's a crazy concept, but I am going to put my foot down about this one), sleeping habits, thinking about family and friendship, asking questions, obeying authority, speaking up if you need help... the list goes on and on.
And then basically the third phase of cultural adapation is the Working Phase, when you have to put in the time somewhere, learn the language, study the history, learn the customs, and give up a part of your culture to make room for absorbing all this new identity of the new culture. We are a little bit in this phase, but living in such a multi-cultural base makes the Culture Shock and Working Phases a bit softer, because everyone is adapting together to many culture (you're not alone, we have translators, everyone is in the same boat, you're not thrown completely into a new culture all at once and totally submerged in it, it's like baby steps), but it also makes it more difficult and complicated (you're adapting to 45 different cultures at once, hearing so many languages all the time). I am loving the tension an challenege of it all, and I truly believe you have to give up a little bit of your culture to gain the amazing new perspectives from a different culture. It's worth it. It sounds so corny, but you really will learn so much more from someone different from you than you can ever teach them. A lot of Americans come in with this cultural superiority or clinging to their culture, and you really have to shed a lot of that if you want to be embraced here and if you want to embrace the new place as well. To paraphrase a quote by somebody that I saw somewhere this one time someplace, "Life is a book; if you're living it without travelling to different places and sharing in different cultures, you are only reading one page."
Ok this has been long enough. Thanks again for all the loving emails and prayer :)
- The base is busting at the seams: we have two DTS's back from outreaches, a Counseling School about to start, an English school and then my DTS is about to head out next week, so the base is super full right now. Which I love! We are hearing about all the other outreaches, where they went, the miracles that happened, the crazy stuff they ate.. it's getting us excited! The past week God has done some amazing stuff here with our team - I think God provided for about five people who didnt have any money for the outreach, freed them of job obligations at home, worked on their parents' hearts so they would have their blessing to go on outreach instead of go back to school right away... we feel like God is testing our faith a little bit every day as if we are products in a factory being tested before being shipped out to actually be used. But we still have quite a few people here with no money, or who don't think they can go. One week left. More than enough time for a few more miracles.
-We had a HUGE swim meet this weekend with over 400 people from all over Chile competing. I was an official timer (why do they trust me so much? they gave me so much power over these poor Chileans' destinies), and it was so cool to see the base filled with new faces. One funny part of the story is that my new friend Cody, who is the younger brother of my friend Caitlin from Reality in SB, came to the meet too. He is studying in Santiago and randomly came to the base to help out on weekends he has off, and he convinced one of his friends from school to compete in the meet with him. They happen to be on the Stanford swim team, and Cody's friend happens to be Peter Marshall, who placed fourth in the US Olympic tryouts and held five world records in swimming last year. So we had an Olympian competing, and the Chileans went nuts for him of course (it was so entertaining to watch all the Chileans crowd around this really tall, really white guy who speaks ZERO Spanish, asking him to sign their speedos and swim caps), which was a cool opportunity to give him the mic and let him preach... he would announce a record he had broken, they would all go crazy cheering, he would say the Olympic-level achievements he's made, they would all scream... then he said "Yeah God has blessed me for sure. I've had the opportunity to achieve many of my goals. But I wanna ask you a question... can you tell me who held the world record for tehe 50-meter backstroke last year? Or five years ago?" And all 400 people went silent. He said, "I didnt think so. That stuff fades, the only thing that will last is your relationship with Jesus Christ"... it was an awesome weekend of hard work and welcoming tons of new people to the base, but in the end those five minutes of Peter giving the glory to the Lord was what it was all about. And I didn't have to swim in this meet, thank God!
-God has been doing some intense healing and work through our classes these past couple of weeks. Some topics have been: pride and humility, service, relationships, spiritual parenting, worship and praise, spiritual gifts, identity... here are some of the things that stuck out most to me:
*The only way we can know our true identity is to know who God truly is. Then we can rest in how He created us to be, what His purpose is for us, where we're headed. It's so freeing!
*Spiritual gifts are just one grape on the whole cluster of ministry... their purpose is service to Christ and to the body, not for our glory or to be our "church credentials". But the grape cluster should be flavorful, multi-branched and enjoyable for others, grapes arent made just to look pretty - you eat them! Serve where you are, with what you have, and your service will have purpose and fulfillment. If you're not serving (reflecting Jesus) in the church (His house), why are you there? To sit there and look pretty? Get up.
*Humility is part of your true identity in Christ because He is the personification of humility. Pride is the opposite of humility, so pride is reflecting the opposite of Jesus, so pride really reflects the character of the enemy. You can't have pride in any form (even false/fake humility) and be reflecting Jesus at the same time. It's literally impossible. Are you reflecting the perfect Creator of heaven and earth who died for you, or the devil who is just a bully with no true power? Your actions will speak for themselves.
-God has really been pouring out his mercy and blessings on us - the first half of the DTS was kind of where God breaks you open, you see how much you need to be healed, he cuts out the wound you kept putting band-aids on and it hurts so badly to see it for what it is, but the second half has been when he heals it deeper, pours out goodness and peace and the more we are seeing who He is, the more we trust Him to really cut out and heal our wounds. Then he can give us pretty, new hearts that He can actually use.
-Love is definitely in the air here. We have two new couples in my DTS alone, who are under strict probation since you're not allowed to date during the DTS (which I think is a good rule- this time is for seeking the Lord, not a husband/wife), not to mention all the leaders who are either engaged or reuniting after one was on outreach... its pretty crazy to see all thse multi-cultural marriages and couples (this base has seen 56 inter-cultural marriages since it's existence 15 yrs ago!). It comes with it's own set of problems and complexities to work through, but I love seeing their ministries as a couple go beyond the barriers cultures and languages usually present. Of course on the outside it seems impossible when a Korean girl and a Brazilian guy start falling in love, to the world it's insanity and will never work, you have to overcome differences in your languages, your cultures, your families, raising your children, balancing your families and parents' influence, your church upbringing.... But I say, whatever, God is
bigger. Get over it. All the half-and-half kids running around here are so cute too!
-I think I am a little bit in the second and third stages of cultural adapation: the Honeymoon Phase where you're still draped in the safety and comfort of your own country's flag while admiring everything about the new culture is transitioning a little bit into Culture Shock phase. That's when you have to give up some of your own culture, take off your flag more to actually take on the flag and culture of the new place, and of course there are bound to be clashes. Some examples: there are so many little differences in the way cultures ask to borrow things! some cultures here just take it without asking, some are offended if you even ask, some are offended if you DO ask and don't consider everything they have as yours (its saying youre not family, you're strangers), some consider everything of yours belongs to them too... I could go into detail about the historical background and cultural context that shapes each culture to have those concepts about borrowing and sharing, but basically this is just one example of cultural contexts that we're all learning to work through as we live together, study together, do everything together 24/7. Another is the way different cultures follow rules, prepare meals, clean (you would be shocked if I told you the way some of these people "clean" here. seriously, you have to use a different towel to dry the dishes. you can't use the one you cleaned the bathroom floor with. i know it's a crazy concept, but I am going to put my foot down about this one), sleeping habits, thinking about family and friendship, asking questions, obeying authority, speaking up if you need help... the list goes on and on.
And then basically the third phase of cultural adapation is the Working Phase, when you have to put in the time somewhere, learn the language, study the history, learn the customs, and give up a part of your culture to make room for absorbing all this new identity of the new culture. We are a little bit in this phase, but living in such a multi-cultural base makes the Culture Shock and Working Phases a bit softer, because everyone is adapting together to many culture (you're not alone, we have translators, everyone is in the same boat, you're not thrown completely into a new culture all at once and totally submerged in it, it's like baby steps), but it also makes it more difficult and complicated (you're adapting to 45 different cultures at once, hearing so many languages all the time). I am loving the tension an challenege of it all, and I truly believe you have to give up a little bit of your culture to gain the amazing new perspectives from a different culture. It's worth it. It sounds so corny, but you really will learn so much more from someone different from you than you can ever teach them. A lot of Americans come in with this cultural superiority or clinging to their culture, and you really have to shed a lot of that if you want to be embraced here and if you want to embrace the new place as well. To paraphrase a quote by somebody that I saw somewhere this one time someplace, "Life is a book; if you're living it without travelling to different places and sharing in different cultures, you are only reading one page."
Ok this has been long enough. Thanks again for all the loving emails and prayer :)
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