Beth, Baptism and Piranha

This probably won’t get posted today, Sunday, because the internet is not working but I have to write now while it is all so fresh in my mind. Mil Palmeras held baptisms today out at the SAMAIR base in Cashibo. It rained most of the day and was very hot, humid, and overcast. I began the day by teaching Sunday school for the first time in Spanish. It went well (at least I think so) and I chuckled through half of it as I really took into account my surroundings. We were meeting outside under a large mango tree. Usually this provides shade from the sun but today it actually provided shelter from the rain for 20 people. We had a good time and learned about being a new creation in Christ – good start to the day. (Uncle Peter, I’ll have you know that ‘coffee and tea’ can be played very well in Spanish – I played that game with my class while we waited for parents. They had a blast. Thanks for teaching me how to play.)

It continued to rain as we packed our picnic and set out for Cashibo. All of the people in attendance filled the float plane hangar (the plane was conveniently anchored out in the water out of harm’s way) and we had a great time of fellowship and lunch. After I had eaten Christian introduced me to a new friend. His name is Arturo and he recently chose to follow Christ. He was baptized today. His wife and 4 kids were there. I had met their younger son, Oscar, in Sunday school that morning. His wife, Jenny, recently gave birth tp their youngest and she is not a Christ follower. I had never met her before, as she never comes to church and I have yet to visit the restaurant they own . . . she is a lovely woman and I look forward to getting to know her and her story better. It was so touching to hear Arturo share before being baptized about how Christ has changed his life. He was in tears.

After a few others shared their stories of how Christ had changed their lives the 20+ people being baptized  headed for the water with a huge crowd following behind. Among those making their way to the water’s edge was our beautiful middle-child, Elizabeth. Three years ago she informed me that she wanted to make God her God and wanted to know how to be “a Christian”. I told her to simply tell God what she had told me because I couldn’t have said it better. She has been waiting to be baptized . . .not sure why. Our older two waited, too. Lots of people do. There is no precedent for that in scripture. Believe and be baptized . . . . simple. This came up in conversation and Bethie said she could see no reason to not be baptized so she did it. We are very proud of her for showing her faith like she did today.
To make the baptism even more memorable, 3 of the 4 pastors doing the baptizing were bitten by piranha. One actually had to smack the fish because it wouldn’t let go of his toe (if you look carefully at the pictures of Beth being baptized you will notice Joel on the left making faces at Marshall, who also got bit, and reaching for his foot). Another had to come out of the water because his finger was sliced wide open (you can catch Miguel in another photo throwing the fish off his finger). Chano, a friend of ours, and his mom were baptized together and Chano received a nasty bite on his finger as well. When the baptism was over, a lot of kids jumped in the water. All the movement in the water, the overcast skies, and now the blood; made the piranha very hungry. Shortly after going in a little kid came out bawling with blood pouring from his toe. Needless to say we skipped on our plans for a swim and told to kids to stay on shore. Changed lives and a lake full of piranhas . . . not a day easily forgotten.

A Day in the Life . . . I

Well, we have now been here a little over 3 months. I feel capable, now, to tell you about life here in the jungle. First and foremost, it is hot. Not just any old hot – sticky sweaty hot. I think that is the first thing anyone says when disembarking a plane here, “Wow, it is really hot here. You think you are prepared for it but it is amazing how overwhelming it feels to get off the plane and walk into that wall of heat. Fortunately, however, once you walk to you mototaxi you feel quite comfortable, unless of course you still have on the jeans and sweater you had been wearing to keep warm an hour and a half earlier while in Lima.
I would love to walk through a week with us so you get a good idea of what our life is like here but I guess that is the first thing to understand – we never seem to do the same thing – even scheduled events look different every week. Everything here runs on Peruvian time (which is just a nice way of saying everyone is always late to everything and it is normal and acceptable.) People seem to constantly be coming and going through our home or we are in someone else’s. Flexibility is a must and no matter how hard I try to plan out the hours of my day dinner time always seems to arrive without fair warning.
Our main focus over the last three months has been “orientation”. It is a lot of work just figuring where to buy stuff, remembering that everything is closed between 1 and 3p.m. People here take 2 to 3 hours for lunch. Their big meal of the day is eaten between 1 and 2 and taking a siesta is not uncommon. Truthfully, in this heat in the middle of the day, with the heat it is hard to stay awake in the middle of the day. We have spent a lot of time with leaders in ECMP (Mil Palmeras Church) trying to get to know them but they have been gracious enough to be a part of our cultural orientation. A lot of the culture we learned in Arequipa is very regional and specific to the mountains. Pucallpa is the jungle – here almost anything goes.

More to follow . . . . .

We Are Still Here

Sorry it has been so long since I’ve let you in on life down here. I need to be sure to update more often because the longer I wait the harder it is to describe all that has been going on.
Some days are so terrible and I want to leave – I don’t want to write on those days because I know I would be very negative.
Some days are amazing and I love it here – I don’t write on those days either because I would be overly optimistic.
Today is a good day to write because it had good, bad, frustration and peace . . . all in the same day.
We are keeping very busy with meetings, getting to know the core group of leaders at the church, understanding Peruvian culture as it is in Pucallpa (very different from the mountains), and keeping our house clean and food on the table.
Christian still feels hindered in ministry due to his Spanish but really it is coming along. Today a 17 year-old college girl came over to practice her English. Her name is Naysha. Her dad owns a small dirt track and restaurant just outside of town (at km 13) and also a garage pretty close to our house. She is very sweet and she spent close to 4 hours at the house with our family. She is very open about who she is, her family, and religion – hoping next time we can talk more pointedly about Christ. Half of her time with us was speaking English and the other half was Spanish with Christian. I am excited to see how this friendship will grow.
In the last month Christian and the kids purchased the first of what I am sure will be many motorcycles. Christian, unfortunately, had to take his bike apart to fix some things and he found a hole in the engine case . . . . not good, but not the end of the world. The kid’s bike is just right for Gabe and Emma. Emma just learned how to use the clutch and loves to ride (especially now that her good friend/neighbor, Mimi, just got the same kind of bike this week and they can ride together.) Gabe hopped right on and picked up where he left off. He can’t wait to race. He and his friend Oli have already built a track right near the house, out behind the school. He loves to ride. It is so good to be in a place where they can get their bike out and go. The younger three are still looking for a bike – I am sure one will come along soon.
We still have days we want to pack up and leave but we now are at a place where we would miss many things about Pucallpa . . . .that is good we have a connection. Still I wonder at times, “Why does God want us here?’ – but He is faithful to reveal just a little at a time the answer to that question. We are no one special or extraordinary – just Christ followers that make mistakes and love God. Our prayer is that HE would be glorified through our family and that others would see HIM through us . . . (not just our red VW or cute gringo kids).

Sanity Check

We spent last weekend in Lima with our friends the Dillons. It was a lot of fun. They came down from Huaraz and we spent 4 days together in the pseudo-normalcy of Lima. Christian and I planned this mini-vacation during our first 3 weeks in Pucallpa. That was a very rough time. As Christian explained to someone the other day – “The tickets to Lima are what kept us from buying tickets to Miami and beyond.” We were desperate for a break and cheap tickets to Lima seemed like a good solution. The greatest part about our long week-end (besides the Dillions, por supuesto) was the fact that now, 2 months after purchasing the tickets, leaving Pucallpa was hard. We had things to here and it got in the way of our “normal life”. For now we belong in Pucallpa. God is faithful to remind us that He brought us here – never would we have chosen this place. So glad God knows best.

Sickness and Salad

Some of you know that lettuce is to be avoided in this country . . .I got VERY sick from it in Arequipa, but when you have had 3 salads in the past year you might do something foolish like buy lettuce and try again. I made the best, let me rephrase that, the closest thing to taco salad I could yesterday. It was so good and definitely satisfied a craving many of us had. Unfortunately today Beth is throwing up, others have stomach aches and several have diarrhea. I am not positive it was the lettuce (I washed it twice and I am feeling fine) but you can be sure we won’t do that again anytime soon. Maybe again next year right before our annual dose of amoeba medicine. (Post Script: Just found out several friends have had a virus lately involving fever, headaches and nausea . . . . it was probably that . . . . maybe I will try lettuce again sooner than later. That salad was good.)

The Bible – More Relavant than We Think

After being here in Peru for just over a year, It’s amazing how much the Bible has come to life for me (Christian). In America the stories of poverty, donkeys, farming, neighbors and markets all seemed theoretical. It is hard for the average middleclass person to relate to a lot of the situations in which Jesus ministered. Here, and in most of the world, people live lives a lot like what we read about in the Bible.
Today we went and visited a leper at his home. It was something that I never expected to do. A few weeks ago Julio got to translate to this man in the hospital that his leprosy had advanced to the point that there is no hope of a cure. As you can imagine he was devastated. Julio shared that even though there is no hope physically; Jesus came and died so that we could have hope for salvation and a life with him forever. This man prayed a prayer of tears for Jesus to forgive him and save him. It is a awful and beautiful story isn’t it?
On the way to his house in a friend’s mototaxi we stopped at the market and bought him some basic cheap groceries. We got to his house, a 15’ x 15’ room with a corrugated roof. He was much less gruesome than you would think. While there, it hit me that lepers are real people with real lives and personalities, not just caricatures in the Bible or a movie. I found myself feeling a mixture of respectful pity and envy. I in no way envy his position now but I truly am envious that he will be able to meet our creator sooner than me.
We plan on continuing to keep in touch with him. But it was an amazing privilege to be used by God in a small way which allowed me to experience the Bible being lived out. I hope that God will continue to show me and you that the American experience is a blessing that can keep us from really being able to relate to His word.