Receiving Better Than Serving?

During our time in Aucayacu, we as a Peruvian/American team made and served lunch to the people of Barrio Primero de Mayo. Those that cooked the Estofado de Pollo had many firsts: seeing el mercado Peruano, de-feathering chickens, sorting rice, and cooking in pots big enough for children to play in!

Everyone in the neighborhood was invited although not everyone was there. I decided to make the rounds and make sure everyone knew we were about to serve lunch. I found many people still in their homes and invited them and anyone else who was there. While running from house to house, I found Vicki and her children on the road. Vicki lives in the chozitas at the end of the road. About a year ago, her as well as about 12 other families decided to invade the land and put up their own shack to live in. I reminded her about the luncheon and she said she was heading that way. She said there were others from the chozitas that wanted to partake in the lunch, but felt ashamed. Even she said she was worried that if she showed up, people would not give her any lunch and would ask her to leave. I made sure a chair was added to the table so that she had a place to sit and a plate in front of her.

Those that ate the delicious lunch tried so hard to insist that we sit and eat...we were the invitados and they were supposed to serve us. Adults filled the tables and they were given full plates and glasses of refreshing cocona juice. The children waited patiently (as patiently as they could!) for their turn to sit and partake in the meal the Americans cooked. This may have been the first time the people in this neighborhood were served instead of serving others. At every house we went to visit, they brought out something to eat or drink. But, it is not common that they be the ones served...the idea was radically foreign to them.

As we sang a song the final day, I was reminded of the fact that accepting the sacrifice of Christ's death means receiving something and not doing anything. It means someone else did something for you. I wonder if that fact is difficult for them to comprehend. I wonder if the mere fact that they cannot earn or do this for themselves is hard to accept. Sure, they believe in God, but that is so often because they go to church and do what is right. What happens when the relationship becomes personal. What happens when they receive that revelation of righteousness - the fact that God loves them SO MUCH that He sent His Son to die for them so that His sacrifice would ransom them from the impending death that would correspond with their sin.

This lunch was only a start. It is our desire that they comprehend the sacrifice of Christ not only in fact, but by faith.

Lessons In Waiting

Although I was not actually in Lima to feel the earthquake that shook Peru last week, I did feel some of its effects as we traveled from the jungle back to Lima. Instead of a simple 12 hour bus ride, at about 4am, our bus was detained. I stuck my head out the window into the bitter cold and the dark of the madrugada. Once I saw a man who worked for the bus line I asked why we (along with all the rest) were stopped. "No hay pase!" He said the earthquake had caused some rocks to fall which were being cleaned up and implied we would be on our way soon. When the bus began to move within just a few minutes I was relieved...until we stopped again in just a few miles.

The next SEVENTEEN hours were more of the same: stopping, going for a few meters, stopping again. We got off the bus to look around and stretch our legs and ate granola bars to our hearts content. Through those hours, we passed by many small rock slides and after 17 hours got to the main landslide which was said to have been a mountain which had slipped from its heights. They had tried to clean it for a good portion of the day but reoccurring aftershocks were said to cause a continual flow of falling rocks. By the time we drove through it, they had partially cleaned one lane for the miles and miles and miles of traffic to flow through.

As someone who has lived in Peru a number of years now, I have learned not to become to ruffled by circumstances that are beyond my control. Me being upset would not make the workers clean faster, the bus driver drive more aggressively or food appear out of the sky. I watched the US team that was with us and they were troopers right along with us. By the end of this adventure, I realized that they now can comprehend the way of life here a bit better. I told them that they can pray for us in a new way now that they have experienced not only the joys of ministry but also the difficulties.

When you pray for the missionaries you support, don't just pray for their fruitful ministry and happy heart...pray for them as they face a way of life that is very different than yours. This very way of life can cause stress and discomfort if one does not adapt. Pray for missionaries to adapt to their country of ministry so that they might be even more effective.

We are not in control. God is.