UpdateI have not written anything for a while and so much has happened over the past few weeks, it is hard to decide what to write about. Since my last blog I have witnessed a riot in my visiting area between the police and locals trying to squat on already owned land (don’t worry, didn’t take any pepper spray to the eyes), have taken two rounds of antibiotics, have pulled worms out of my feet, got a fungus on my tongue, sat in a outhouse all day after taking a natural laxative in an attempt to get rid of my parasites, helped out with a neighbor after he ate rat poison and tried to commit suicide, accidently kissed a woman, experienced a mild earthquake, got forced to shove my face into a cake for my birthday, had a fake birthday party (got confused on the date, but had already bought a cake), pranked a fellow SMs room really good, learned more about cultural differences and communication after having a blow-up with my visiting partner, have been helping out with a two week evangelistic series (did a presentation on sugar one night too…felt like such a hypocrite!), have decided to start a fashion trend with my bright blue poncho/rain boots due to the start of rainy season, have downed a series of fruit drinks with raw eggs in them without throwing them back up (gotta love Peruvian hospitality), have been getting schooled while playing volleyball with a bunch of kids, and most importantly have learned a lot more about why I believe what I believe spiritually…all the while continuing on with my English lessons/health visits.
So…I guess I am going to write about two especially important lessons I have learned recently…First of all, I want to share something that I learned about witnessing.
Lesson 1It was five PM and I, as well as my partner in crime, José, had just finished a visit that had honestly lasted forever. We were definitely behind on our visits, but that was nothing new. Since working in Peru with other Peruvians, I have found that being late is a part of life (at times it has been frustrating enough to make me vow to be early to everything the rest of my life when I get back to the States). Anyways, I was slightly disappointed because I had missed out on an opportunity to play volleyball and beyond that was beginning to wonder if we were going to finish all of our visits before ten PM.
As we were rushing to our next house, we ran into a 15 year-old boy that we had been trying to catch for about two weeks. We had seriously visited his house at all hours of the day from eight in the morning until nine at night and every time his mom had told us that he was not there. Therefore, I had pretty much decided that this teenager was obviously trying to avoid us. Time to move on, right? But nope, Jose persisted on with stopping at the house with no luck until now. Well, the boy’s mom and sisters were about to head out to town, but the mom grabbed her son and shoved him toward us, and took off. The boy looked corned, but invited us into the house. I was for sure that our visit was going to be a short pointless one, it was clear to me that this boy did not want to talk to us.
As Jose and I squished into our too small colorful plastic kids’ chairs, the boy started off saying that he had a problem. That was it! Now I realized why he permitted us to talk to him, he had some kind of health problem and wanted me to give him free meds. But I was surprised when he started talking about his addiction to Playstation. I had to keep myself from breaking out into a smile…wow, never thought we would be dealing with that in a third-world country! Anyways, the boy went talking with Jose and really began opening up about a lot of things from what his plans were for the future, to his relationship with his dad, to spiritual matters. During the visit a small earthquake hit which shook us around for a minute, but it was totally overshadowed by my amazement in the situation. Here I had pretty much given up on this boy, but with Jose’s perseverance we had really a neat opportunity to witness to this boy.
I am the type of person who does not like bugging anyone for anything. I like to be self sufficient and I hate doing things where I am asking people to assist me. Therefore, I hate door to door work, which is one of the things that have been a growing experience for me since being down here. I never like asking people if they want visits because I feel like some just say yes to be polite or whatever. So whenever I start to get the slightest vibe that someone does not want me to visit anymore, I drop them. After having this experience though, I have realized the importance of perseverance.
Not too long ago, my grandpa e-mailed me a great Bible verse. In Galatians 6:9, it says “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Keys words…”if we do not give up.” Sometimes it just takes longer for some people to come around, but it does not mean that God is not working at their hearts. As Christians, with the mission of bringing the gospel to others, we need to remember that God can use us on great ways if we are patient. Thanks God for the reminder that in a world of instant gratification where no one wants to make others feel uncomfortable, that boldness and perseverance is necessary.
Lesson 2I have been an Adventist my entire life. I grew up singing The Trees are Gently Swaying and loved Pathfinders. I never had one of those amazing experiences where I left the church, but then came back after studying our doctrines and realizing that our church is the true church of Christ. Many would say that this is a great thing because I never had to experience many of the harmful things of the world, but this has also been somewhat of a handicap to me. Because I have always been in the church, I have never been forced to think through many of our doctrines. Many things I have just always accepted because they are what I have been taught, but when it comes down to it, there are many things that I really don’t know why I believe them.
Therefore, as we have been studying many of our churches beliefs with families I have been learning a lot. There have been several times when I was visiting with Jose, that I have heard him say something and not been quite sure if I believed quite the same as him, but didn’t have any Bible verses to back up my beliefs. This has been great on getting me to think through things and talk to the others in our group about our fundamentals. It makes me wonder how many people in the church are just like me. They claim to be Adventists, but they really don’t know why. We spend so much time focusing on those that know nothing about our church that we don’t spend much time nurturing those within the church.
The other day I was in someone’s house giving a Bible study with Jose. I had passed out a bunch of copies of pictures for the kids in the house to color while we studied with the parents. One of the little girls made herself comfortable next to me on a bench. All she had to color with was one red colored pencil, and as she started, she leaned over to me and asked what she should color. I pointed to a Bible character’s robe, and that is when she asked a funny question. She wanted to know if she should color it red. I told her that yep, that would be a good color, and she continued on. After she finished that though, once again, she asked me what to color next and when I pointed out another object, she once again asked what color. I continued to be more amused, as she asked every time if it was okay to color the selected item red. Red was obviously the only option and she was really good at coloring, but she continually wanted my approval and guidance. She wasn´t afraid to look stupid or unexperienced in order to make her picture look good.
This little girl got me thinking. As a Christian I need to learn to be more like her. Sometimes, I think we are afraid to ask others in the church questions because we feel that we should know everything by now. The facts should be so obvious to us by this point in time in our lives, we are experienced Adventists, right? I need to be more like this child and not be afraid to look to others in the church and to God for guidance. We should never reach a point in our Christian walk where we feel to proud to ask for wisdom. In James 1:5 it says, ¨If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.¨ Definately a verse that I hope to tape to my tent wall as a constant reminder!
