Life (con’t)

 

Ok, so I’m a little late with my posts, but I’m trying to catch up. 

The week of the delivery (see below) was pretty heavy; I felt like I witnessed the entire cycle of life.  In addition to the delivery, I saw everything from mangy kids with pinworms to elderly women suffering under the pangs of depression, anxiety, and a tumultuous life.  If that weren’t enough, two of my students lost family members that week; one lost a close cousin in a violent robbery in Lima just days after his grandmother pasted away.

But I also went to Gerver and Bertha’s wedding, where their three children were baptized as part of the service; covenant and sacrament are rarely so vividly illustrated in one day.

I am reminded of the humanity of life and the earthiness of the covenant.  I am reminded of Death, our last and greatest enemy, and the resurrection of Christ.  Victory is on my mind, and a longing for the New Heaven and New Earth.

So please pray for my students and my friends.  Trujillo is not an easy place to forget about death.  Providence brought me to a friend’s house this morning for a chat; he told me that a neighbor committed suicide in front of his house just days ago. 

life

“For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you,when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.”

  I love this anthropomorphism. I imagine God stooped down on his haunches, his knuckles white from gripping the large wooden needles, his large fingers skillfully and deliberately at work, his brow furrowed and sweaty.  He finishes his work, looks it over, and admires it.  No blemishes, not even a spot.  He ties up the ends and bites off the excess yarn with his teeth.  He looks up, smiles, and reveals his newest creation – a new human life, an image of God on earth…a baby!

  I witnessed the earthly manifestation of this miracle some weeks ago in our medical clinic while translating for some North American doctors. 

  I walked into the makeshift delivery room below the church after lunch just minutes before the mother gave birth.  The midwives had anticipated the birth to come around 7pm, but the baby wanted out much sooner.  However, life is not like walking through an open door.  The baby exited, but the Lord had not yet given it breath.

 I watched and prayed and translated for what seemed like hours as the nurses tried to make this newborn baby breathe and cry, but breath was not coming.  They spanked and suctioned and the bundle of flesh remained inanimate.  The babe turned blue, but life delayed. 

 And then it breathed it’s first breath and I saw it.  I saw life come to this child as the Lord brought breath to it’s lungs and color to it’s body. 

 And again I imagine the Lord busily knitting, shewing us away with the back of his hand.  “Not yet, I’m almost finished.”  But when the baby breathed, I knew it.  It is the Lord that gives life and breath.  It belongs to him, and no other.  And I saw the finished project, squirming and crying, wrapped in blankets and resting in my arms.  Praise the Lord, the giver of life.

low country skrimp boil

Smoked sausage, red new potatoes, corn on the cob, toasted baguette, warm garlic butter, sweet tea, and lots of unpeeled shrimp. 

The low country cousine has finally reached the costal dessert of Trujillo, Peru –  I’m almost home. 

Saturday night, we hosted a Low Country Shrimp Boil, a.k.a. “Frogmore Stew,” to appreciate our Peruvian professors and give them a chance to experience some southern cookin’.  With swing jazz playing in the background (and a little kitchen dancing afterwards) I felt like I was in Charleston, SC again.  I’m almost home.

Take a look at the pics.

Earthquake in Ica

 

By now most of you have heard of the earthquake that struck Ica, Peru last Wednesday, leaving hundreds dead, more than a thousand wounded, and many others homeless, jobless, or hungry. 

From the church here in Trujillo, Jaime Avellaneda, Jose Madrid, and Clara Lee are traveling this weekend to the villages surrounding the southern cities of Ica and Pisco to distribute emergency items to some of the most needy victims in the area.  Due to recent disturbances in Ica - incuding the assault and robbery of several aid workers – this could be a dangerous trip.  Please include their health and safety in your prayers for the victims of this natural disaster.

If you would like to help, please go here for information.

Santiago and Saraúz

Whew… I’m finally back to work in Trujillo, wiping my brow after many days abroad.

I spent most of the last week of July in Santiago de Chile with the purpose of renewing my passport, touring the city, seeing green, leafy trees for the first time in months, and visitng a university mission. 

Once I returned to Tujillo, I had one day to celebrate my birthday before heading out again on a mission trip to the highlands.  I narrowly escaped having the traditional egg cracked on my head, and due to a delayed flight from Santiago, the crew of singers outside my door on the eve of my birthday was forced to give up and wait another day to sing “Feliz Cumpleaños.”  Nevertheless, I had my face shoved into a chocolate cake after being offered the honorary “First Bite.”

A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and I got on a bus with 16 coastal Peruvians bound for the highlands.

Six hours to Cajamarca by bus, four hours to Celedín by combi (15 passenger van that holds up to 32 people), and another three hours to Saraúz, our final destination.  Four of the thirteen hours were spent singing loud spanish hymns and alabanzas; three were spent praying the brakes wouldn’t burn out and send us plummeting over the edge of the threatening roadside precipices. 

After the first day spent in Saraúz, an agrarian mountain village lacking modern amenities like running water and electricity, I was keenly aware of the chasmic difference in cultures - only not that of my own.  Though speaking the same language and wearing hte same skin, the technologically savy, cell phone-clad Trujillanos from the city were at a stark contrast with the corn-husking, straw hat-wearing locals.  

The Trujillanos I saw walking out of the forrest/garden, arms full of vegetables, yelling, “I found avocadoes!”, were almost too much for a campesino like myself to handle.  However, after a week of drinking lukewarm water from a creek and eating milk and rice for breakfast, much had been accomplished.  Our last day was accompanied with many departing tears, and the church we visited had been revived.  I was nearly astounded.

We hitched a ride back to Celendín on a truck full of firewood, papayas, and breast-feeding mothers.  Perhaps that was quite an experience in itself, but by that time, my Western notion of personal space and comfort was put aside by a bubbling sack of live chickens and a milk-thirsty babe whose mother was comfortably riding in my lap, so it’s hard to say.  At any rate, we were glad to arrive in Cajamarca and subsequent Incan hot springs after a week in the highlands.

This is the congregation of the Iglesia Evangélica Presbiteriana del Perú in Saraúz, along with a few city-dwelling missionaires and myself. 

click here for more photos.

morning prayers, confession

Dearly beloved [brethren],
				the Scripture moveth us in sundry places to acknowledge
				and confess our manifold sins and wickedness;
				[and that we should not dissemble nor cloak them before
				the face of almighty God our heavenly Father;
				but confess them with an humble, lowly, penitent and
				obedient heart;
				to the end that we may obtain forgiveness of the same
				by his infinite goodness and mercy.
				And although we ought at all times humbly to acknowledge
				our sins before God;
				yet ought we most chiefly so to do,
				when we assemble and meet together
				to render thanks for the great benefits that we have
				received at his hands,
				to set forth his most worthy praise,
				to hear his most holy word,
				and to ask those things which are requisite and necessary,
				as well for the body as the soul.]
				Wherefore I pray and beseech you,
				as many as are here present,
				to accompany me with a pure heart, and humble voice,
				unto the throne of the heavenly grace… Click here to continue.

despididas, cumpleaños, pollo, etc.

Among other things, we’ve had our fair share of goodbyes and birthdays here at SALI.  The notoriously dubbed  “old school interns” have all returned to the States, and the “new school interns” are in full swing, leaving only enough time for them to settle in before they too make their way home at the end of the summer; those of us left behind will continue to labor for that day to come which will take us across the metaphorical Jordan River and transplant us once again on domestic soil for a new dose of culture shock, stateside.

As for my part, I’ve grown weary of saying goodbye and have vowed never to attend a despidida for anyone here for less than six months.   Birthdays, however, cannot go uncelebrated here in Peru, and of late, seem to be as common as goodbyes.

We recently celebrated Clara Lee’s birthday at Roky’s, a classy chicken/karaoke/dance hall/children’s playground hotspot on Larco Avenue here in Trujillo.  Those of you who have visited Trujillo may remember it for the bright lights, smoke (from the grill, of course), and moat that surround it.

Below is a picture from the celebration.  Chase and I shared a roasted chicken, and as you can see from the carnage and facial expressions, it was quite a treat.  Later, we sang karaoke.  The hit of the night was when Pepe Bateman sang the musical pride of German nationalism, Edel Weiss.

And here´s one with Clara (she’s smiling in the back left).

…and it will be a memorial to the LORD

I’ve been greatly encouraged recently by a debate between Douglas Wilson and Christopher Hitchens hosted on Christianity Today’s website.  And not just because the truth is brought to light,  but in the way Wilson graciously calls Hitchens to repentance and abundant living.

Wilson has maintained that Christianity is good for the world because Jesus died for the life of the world.  Here is a quote from part 5 of the debate regarding evidence for his position:

Actually, I believe I can present evidence for what I know. But evidence comes to us like food, and that is why we say grace over it. And we are supposed to eat it, not push it around on the plate—and if we don’t give thanks, it never tastes right. But here is some evidence for you, in no particular order. The engineering that went into ankles. The taste of beer. That Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, just like he said. A woman’s neck. Bees fooling around in the flower bed. The ability of acorns to manufacture enormous oaks out of stuff they find in the air and dirt. Forgiveness of sin. Storms out of the North, the kind with lightning. Joyous laughter (diaphragm spasms to the atheistic materialist). The ocean at night with a full moon. Delta blues. The peacock that lives in my yard. Sunrise, in color. Baptizing babies. The pleasure of sneezing. Eye contact. Having your feet removed from the miry clay, and established forever on the rock. You may say none of this tastes right to you. But suppose you were to bow your head and say grace over all of it. Try it that way.

If you want to read the whole debate, go here .

big rocks, llamas, and family

As a discipline of regular posting, I thought I’d give a former episode that previously went unblogged.

My brother Drew (the stately one in the background without the fur) came down with a group from New Covenant PCA in Anderson, SC.   After they left, Drew and I traveled down to Cusco and Machu Picchu for a couple of days to see one of the modern seven wonders of the world.

It was a great being able to see some familiar faces and spend some time with Drew in the Southern Andes.

Back in the Saddle

Well, here we go.

After a lengthy hietus, I’ve decided to start blogging again.  As some of you already know, I recently made the decision to postpone seminary for another year and extend my stay here in Peru.  I’ll continue to work with the San Agustín Language Institute in some capacity, but focus my ministry on the university students that attend the RUF here.

I hope to post some pictures, anecdotes, and thoughts as the year unfolds.  ‘Til later.