Sensory Overload

I have to admit that part of me is glad that ethnic food week is coming to an end. Last night was Thai food and I do it wasn’t quite like Thai food at home. I wasn’t a fan. I couldn’t quite clear my plate but I’m not revealing my secret of how I got around that rule. Tonight we had East Indian food, which was spicy and fantastic! I think that is enough food talk for now.

This week has been incredibly busy. Yesterday’s sessions stretched from 9am until after 10pm. We had a lot of really intense time with our teams but some of the bonding feels a little bit forced. In our second session yesterday we were asked to take time to identify the masks that we commonly wear. After those were identified, we broke into our teams and then confessed those… I’m glad they know what I hide behind, but do they know my favorite color? Team dynamics are coming together but I wonder what things will look like when we’re actually out and about in Peru. We ended our long day with a foot washing and nothing quite fosters intimacy like that. There’s something incredibly special about picking up the servant’s towel for someone, looking them in the eye, and praying for them.

Today wasn’t quite as intense as yesterday but still quite full. The man came back who spoke on evangelism. We learned that his wife is a soul saver! We had time to ask him questions and I feel like he still danced around answering things; he always had a kitschy little story or rhyme as an example of what to tell people to bring them to Christ. He also taught us how to explain the gospel to other people and we got to practice on each other. Unfortunately, neither Brianna nor I could save each other so we may be doomed… At the end we still weren’t sold on his opinion of evangelism but neither was he sold on our side of the story. Maybe none of us were being as mutual and open as we’re claiming Christians should be?

When It Rains... It Snows

I think I’m finally beginning to acclimate to the weather here (but that doesn’t make me any less excited to move to a warmer climate). Today was quite the snow, at least according to the Californian. I opened our door this morning and was shocked to see a couple inches of snow on the ground and it was still falling. The snow continued through the morning and some more fell this afternoon. As cold as it was, I have to admit that it was beautiful. It’s just such a testament of God’s love to see such beauty like that. There was a perfect white blanket covering everything… definitely not something I’m used to experiencing. All in all we got about 4 or 5 inches of snow and I managed to escape the day without a snowball fight.

On an entirely different note, tonight was day 2 of our ethnic meals. One of the girls is from South Texas so she made tostadas for dinner tonight. It was a lot like home, so not much to write home about on that.

Ethnic Food Day 1—Egyptian

This week we’re doing something pretty fun. Each night for dinner we’re eating foods from other cultures and there are a few rules:

1. You must put some of everything on your plate (No “no thank you helpings” are allowed)
2. You must eat everything that’s on your plate

So far, so good. One of our Trek interns went to Egypt last year so for tonight she made us a dish that had rice, lentils, and pasta in it. The we added garbanzo beans, sweet onions, and then a tomato sauce. Everything is mixed together ad we dug in. We also had tomoatos and cucumbers, SonJa said those were served with every meal.

Over dinner SonJa gave us a lecture on how important food is in other cultures. She kept telling us stories about how people would just continually feed them even if they were stuffed. Luke, the Trek director, was telling us about how when he was in India when they would refuse second helpings people would ask if they didn’t like India. It’s crazy to see what a role food plays in different cultures.

I Can't Wait to Be Old

A frail lady comes up to Darlene and in a German accent says, “Are you smiling at me? Because when I see someone smiling at me I just have to hug them!” And without waiting for a reply she wraps her arms around Darlene’s waist in a long embrace. When she sees me smiling at the situation she says, “You too?” I can’t help but grin and say “Yes, me too” as we hug. She looks over at Brianna, who is a little less sure of the situation and says, “You too?” She timidly says “sure” and receives a hug from the lady who didn’t even tell us her name.

This was my second Sunday going to Clearbrook MB for church. I can’t say that I’ve ever attended a drier church… but they’re doing something so right there, I am blown away by how loving the people.

This is a bit of a bizarre place. When you walk in people are staring, mostly because your hair still has natural color and you don’t need assistance to get to a pew. At the same time you feel a little bit like you stepped back in time, there are a few other young people around but they all look like they walked out of another decade. They’re all in suits and long dresses, women have their hair tied back in buns and the men have some pretty sweet side parts (they must be practicing for their future come over)… but all in all, welcome to the 1960’s.

The preaching is a bit everywhere… I wonder if the congregation was tracking with the pastor? The dear man who preached this morning, I was seriously worried that he might fall over in the middle of his sermon: he was just so frail. There are hymnals and an organ, the church choir is pretty cool and every week there are numerous prayer requests for those who are ill and have passed away. This church has a unique ministry when it comes to funerals and grieving.

But after the service ends, everyone files into the foyer to hug, shake hands, and talk. Everyone knows who we are as soon as we say we’re part of the trek program. One woman told us about how her and her husband started the MBMSI ministry in Berlin. Another woman who is 86 years old told me about how she came over after the war with no English but a lot of faith; she spent many years praying and finally got her family over to Canada with her. Everyone asks where we’re going and tells us that they are praying for us. They love us and don’t know us… They pray for us constantly… They are Church in the best sense of the word.

Evange- Uh Oh

This morning we had a session on evangelism… what a way to start a day. I was a bit skeptical going into the session and as it turned out I had to bite my tongue quite a few times because I didn’t feel like my thoughts were well thought through enough to not sound rude. I understand that I don’t know the exact context that this man was coming from and I understand that he’s from a different generation than I am but I really didn’t agree with a lot of what he had to say.

He told us that he learned evangelism from a man who used the four spiritual laws. That immediately sent up some red flags in my mind. Also, he didn’t seem to imply that a technique like that was out dated. He talked a lot about talking to people on the street and “winning souls”, he kept mentioning how he wished we could go out into the highways and byways and try it ourselves. The whole group pushed back against a lot of what he was saying but it didn’t seem to slow him down any.

He told us story after story about how people brought others to the Lord through tracts and conversations… Sally May has saved eight million people that way. Anytime someone is keeping count of how many people they’ve “saved” is a huge problem. It’s reducing a person’s identity to another notch on a spiritual belt.

He didn’t say anything about mutuality and when I brought up the word it seemed like something foreign to him. Personally, I don’t see where people get the audacity to knock on someone’s door and tell them that they’re not living well. It takes a relationship, it takes trust… you can’t just get someone to say a sinner’s prayer and then walk away without the intent to disciple them.

The best part about this is that he’s coming back next week. If he wants us to knock on doors, I may come down with a headache. That’s something that I just can’t do.

The Morning of Decisions

I feel like I hardly slept at all last night. I tossed and turned and had wild dreams about being sent to crazy locations. This morning was the morning. Everyone was a little on edge and it’s safe to say that all of us had blood pressure that was a bit higher than normal. We didn’t know how John was going to do it, but one way or another we were going to find out our teams.

We filed into the Great Room at a few minutes before nine and just sat down on the couch waiting to hear what the verdict was. Peru? Japan? As far as any of us were concerned it was a 50% chance either way. John joked about not telling us teams until tomorrow, we all threaten him, the he flips a page on a large pad of paper and there it was… the list we had been waiting for.

I’m going to Peru… Lima, Peru! I’m incredibly excited because I know that this decision was not mine to make but God’s hand was in the middle of the process. To be entirely honest, I was trying to prepare myself for Japan. For some reason I thought that I wasn’t going to get one of the spots on the team and that I had to come to peace with going somewhere else. It’s wonderful to see how God both calls and answers.

I’m really excited about my whole team. They are all marvelous people and all seeking after God. None of us have great Spanish skills but hopefully God will provide. Once we get there, part of our weekly routine will be studying with a Spanish tutor. We’re also hoping that we will be placed with host families so that our language skills will improve faster and we will get a better taste of Peruvian culture. We’re going to be teaching ESL, helping with youth and children’s ministry, helping with Sunday morning services, and serving at a home for women and children who are affected by HIV.

This was really a moment for me to feel affirmed in hearing God speak through other people in sometimes really unexpected ways. It’s so easy to justify things according to our own desires and not take into account how God is truly moving. It seemed that every time I would go into Galen’s office he would tell me how much I would love Lima and talking with Mike and having him call out my desire to go to Peru before I mentioned it. This was a good reminder that I don’t serve a logical God, at least not logical like I feel He should be, but I am sure blessed by Him.

From top to bottom: me; Lisa from Cannelburg, Indiana; Sarah from Williams Lake, BC; Roxy from Chilliwack, BC; Dave from St. Catherines, Ontario; and Breanne from Surey, BC... this is my team!

Ignorance Isn't Bliss... But Neither Is Being Informed.

I just got back from an Amnesty International Film Festival that was being held at a local university. It was a last minute and rushed decision to go but I’m glad Amy, Darlene, and I got the opportunity. Darlene and I watched three films, Amy missed the second one.

The first was about Afghanistan and it was told from the perspective of three women. It spoke a lot to the oppression of women, the American bombings, and the need to flee to Pakistan. One of the women was a doctor and she wasn’t married… I can’t imagine what it would be like to be her. We saw the refugee camps that are in Pakistan because of the unjust leaders that are in power.

The second was about women in Saudi Arabia, their oppression and the leaps that they are making to reach equality. A lot of the documentary was about women who are working. There is a very small percentage or women who have jobs and the ones who do get paid about half as much as men. Even when the women are working, they’re forced to be covered and they cannot work in the same room as men. It seems that women are slowly gaining equality but they are still not allowed to vote or drive a car. The Prince of Saudi Arabia employs a women but he does not require them to be covered, as women are required to be outside of the house or in front of men who are not immediate family according to the laws. There seems to be something off about the prince, he only hires beautiful women among other things.

The third film we watched was on the war in Burma, how the military has taken over the country, imprisoned their elected leader, and the military troops are destroying entire villages of people. There were points made like Britain is one of the largest financial contributors to the situation in Burma. Another factor is the French and the Americans who are getting natural gas from Burma and the military uses forced labor to build, guard, and maintain the pipelines. The film on Burma predated the protests of the monks.

It’s so hard to swallow so much of this. Sometimes it makes me feel a bit ill to be a North American knowing that my country has been, at the very least, financially responsible for so much mass injustice. As a North American, How do I deal with this? As a Christian, how do I deal with these issues. What needs to take place for people to become aware of what is actually going on in the world?

Today one of our sessions was on bearing burdens. In light of what I heard today, how are we as Christians called to bear the burdens of injustice in our world? Do we just hand them over to God and go about our merry way? Do we hold on to them as a way of remembering bringing forth change? Is there a happy medium, can we both hand things over to God and still feel the same importance or searching after justice and shalom?

If you want the names of the films, I can get them, the paper is currently downstairs.

Ikea Run!

Today we spent the afternoon at Ikea. We all fell in love with the cute dishes and the beautiful living room set-ups and the general coziness of a home. It made me so excited to have my own place to live next year. I’m so stoked to live in Tower with Jenn and the other wonderful girls who will live with us. I wonder if I’ll feel like a real adult then… when I’m renting a house.

I’m among the oldest in the Trek group and sometimes it makes for an interesting dynamic. For a lot of the girls this is the first time they’ve moved out of their parents’ home. Part of me can’t imagine this being the first step into the “real world” but at the same time this really isn’t the “real world” at all… This is such a safe and open environment. We’re constantly together: learning, eating, cleaning, working, and sometimes even sleeping. It’s really a cool way to be experiencing community; I hope this provides a good growing up and a good transition point for a lot of these girls.

God Give Me Joy!

Today on our schedule it was marked, “Day Trip… Caving? Hiking?” Today in the weather forecast was a large storm. Great…

This morning at about 10am, through the doors of The Mark Centre came the man who was leading our excursion and some interns in a program that he runs. We chat for a while, we sing together, we pack our lunches, and we hit the road… while it’s raining. We drive a little over an hour in some direction and get out of the cars into the snow and begin hiking… while it’s raining. We explore some old tunnels that have previously been used for railroads but are currently abandoned... while it’s raining. Needless to say I was cold, wet, and not the most cheerful person in this group. I kept stepping in puddles that soaked through my shoes, the tunnels kept dripping on me, and my hood was not very functional. It sure doesn’t rain like that in the central valley and if it does outdoor plans get canceled. I kept repeating to myself “God give me joy”. Once I finally embraced my surroundings I was able to take in the beauty of the nature I was being surrounded by regardless of the rain. There were running streams, beautiful tall trees, and mossy rocks everywhere and everything had a dusting of snow left on it.

Shortly after I embraced where I was, we piled back into the vans because now we were going to explore some caves. I have to admit my attitude was quite a bit better. My friend Sarah and I laughed and joked as we followed the trail and then we entered the mouth of the cave. There were about twenty people and two flashlights. Regardless of your division skills, you should realize that the ratio of people to flashlights was certainly not in our favor. But we trudged on anyhow and I quite enjoyed my brief stint as a spelunker

The rest of my evening was spent reading. We’ve been assigned to read The Life You’ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg. It’s a book on spiritual disciples that we have to finished in a little less than a week. I started the book today and I got through all the chapters or introduction and the first chapter that was about a specific discipline was all about joy and celebration. I loved the quote from Lewis Smedes that says, “To miss out on joy is to miss out on the reason for your existence.” I love seeing God move so clearly and seeing how my entire day is tied together and not by accident.

Reclaiming God's Word As a Narrative

Last night we sat around as a group (twelve trekers and the Mark Centre Intern, Elli) and we read the entire book of Mark. One person would read a chapter and then another… what a beautiful way to dive deep into scripture. So often we forget that the Bible is meant to be a story, a letter, a whole piece of literature rather that something to be dissected chapter by chapter and verse by verse.

There is something so beautiful about looking at scripture the way it was meant to be read. It’s funny that we think we can just pick a chapter or a section, read that, and then go on to something else. I don’t know anyone who starts a book in the middle and then doesn’t read more than a page or two before skipping to another section. I suppose if we all made it a habit to read more books in such a confusing way then we would all be finishing a lot fewer books. Maybe there’s a correlation to why I know I don’t pick up my bible enough. If I’m not looking at is as a whole piece of literature then I’m not seeing it for what it is. If I’m dissecting something with a pseudo regard to context then I’m clearly doing a great injustice to something that is intended to be part of a greater picture.