Ashaninka volume 16

How fun it was tonight to watch the baby ducklings follow their mother around the yard!  Also to watch the roosters and chickens wandering around.  The puppy, the little cat, the bats and the numerous bugs!  It is such fun for animal loving kids!

The air was filled with excitement as we planned our big Christmas party, to which the entire Ashaninka community is invited (all 70 families).  There will be around 120 kids and we are going to have the traditional paneton, which is Peruvian sweet bread, a must have at Christmas and hot chocolate, made the Peruvian way!  I have made many huge pots of this hot chocolate over the years but never over an open fire.  Our Ashaninka friends cook each day outside, using fire wood.  So, this will be fun and new, making hot chocolate on a blazing hot day, over a hot, hot fire!  I wonder if the taste will be affected by the smoke, I'm sure it will be.  Can't wait to taste it.  Each child will bring his own cup, mug or bowl and there will be a gift for every child.

We will play games, we will sing and we will share Jesus with all gathered.  This is an opportunity like none other.  We have not met the great majority of this community and we can't wait to meet them.  I hope we will be accepted with all of our foreign-ness.  Please, please pray that the seed will be planted in many hearts on this day (the 22nd of December) and that this will open the door wide for us to go back and revisit the ones we will meet for the first time.

Tonight, Ernan came.  He is a 9 year old boy who lives an hour up the side of the mountain and walks this hour every morning to school and every evening home from school!  He was shy but he stayed and listened to the story of Joseph.  The Bible repeats "But God was with Joseph" throughout his story, even in the worst of circumstances.  The kids repeated over and over - "But God was with Joseph", "But God was with Joseph".  As He is with us, every minute of every day.

A Christmas tree's journey

Brent's and my second Christmas together as a married couple found us counting pennies and unable to afford a Christmas tree.  Our first Christmas had been spent with family so we didn't really feel the loss or necessarily want a tree.  This year I did.  Some dear friends found out we didn't have one and were just aghast at the thought, so they generously gave us a check with enough to buy a huge, gorgeous artificial tree, and also gobs of ornaments and decorations.  The tree touched the ceiling in our little apartment and was bigger than any of our furniture!  I sat for hours and just looked at that tree, it was beautiful and decorated exactly how I had dreamed it would be!

The following year, we enjoyed the same tree.  The year after that, we were traveling on deputation to go to Cuba so the tree and fixin's were all stored.  The following Christmas, we were in Cuba and bought ourselves a sad, scrawny little tree and decorated it with sad, scrawny little ornaments.  The following year, we were with my parents and heading back to Cuba.  The following two Christmases we used our sad little tree in Cuba and were thankful for it.  The next year, we came to Peru and actually shipped our precious tree and set it up in our even smaller apartment in Lima.  Oh, how happy I was to have that tree again!  It survived storage well and was as lovely as before for the next 2 years.  The following year, we were in the U.S. with my parents once again and the tree was stored.  The next 4 years in Lima we were able to fully enjoy our great tree, used the same ornaments and added new ones each year.  A couple years ago, we spent Christmas in Texas in our own home, so we bought ourselves a small, not too scrawny tree and new ornaments.  We called it our furlough tree.  We are now back in Peru and last Christmas got our dear faithful tree out of the musty, dusty storage room and set it up, still with some of the original ornaments.  It is showing some age but is just as beautiful as ever.  

This Christmas, we are here in the jungle of Peru and once again, big green is stored and we have bought ourselves a small, scrawny little tree and some new ornaments.  I was a little sad, but the thought of digging all of our Christmas paraphernalia out and stuffing it into the back of our car and bringing it here, to set up in our even smaller apartment......just didn't seem right.  So now we have our Pichanaki tree and my sadness disappeared as soon as my Lucas started dancing around and saying how pretty it was!  My perspective was made right once again.  After all, it's only a tree.  Christmas isn't about trees and life isn't about having what we desire.  I love that tree and all of its trimmings and I'll never forget D & D who gave us the money for it.  I love the journey of my life more, though, and that tree will just have to wait until we're ready to pull it out again!

Now I need to go plug the Christmas tree lights in and enjoy our Pichanaki tree!

Thanksgiving 2011

T ~ Three amazing children, each a unique gift from God
H ~ Husband of integrity and love
A ~ Andes mountains outside of my window
N ~ New mercy every morning
K ~ Kindness from the heart
S ~ Silliness and laughter
G ~ God's faithfulness and power
I ~ Invitation at my heart's door to come and sup
V ~ Voices of children joined in song
I ~ Interest in me by a true friend
N ~ New beginnings
G ~ Growing in grace

Ashaninka volume 15

Tonight was a night of firsts.  Lydia is 40 years old and has never seen a Bible in her own dialect, Ashaninka.  We have been talking about finding some Bibles for a while and were surprised tonight when Emely came, proudly carrying an Ahaninka New Testament someone had given her mom.  Lydia started reading it immediately.  I couldn't believe how big some of the words were, some with more than 20 letters in them!  Lydia used it to follow along in Matthew where Brent was reading in Spanish.  She said she was going to pepare herself by reading it and comparing it to Spanish and try again to share the Gospel with her family.  She is also excited to read it to her mother, who does not speak Spanish.

Another first for Lydia tonight was when her 2 year old little girl, Katerine, climbed a large orange tree!  Our study was interrupted by a call for help and we all ran over and there was tiny little Katerine, way up in the tree.  She was stuck but didn't seem the least bit scared.  Her mother, however, was!  Giant Brent was able to reach her and get her down and everyone was happy.

Also a first for the 3 adults was that the "Lord's Prayer" is only a model given to us by Jesus, not an exact prayer we need to repeat over and over every day.  The Catholic church teaches people to repeat this prayer, either as a way to show your desperateness to get something or your sincerity in repentence.  The idea that it is a prayer Jesus used to teach us how to pray and not a magic prayer, was new to them.  I think they understood.

A first for me was to learn that if anyone in this communtiy is caught stealing, child or adult, he is beat with a thorny vine from a certain tree.  The thorns were described as needles that release a poison that numbs you as it goes in.  Yikes!  Safe to assume thieves are as uncommon there as are doors and windows!

Not a first for us, but still so sweet, were the kids picking fruit off the trees and offering it to us as a gift.  They never want us to leave empty handed and it just shows their heart of thankfulness and humility.

Church janitors

I can remember the church janitors from every church I've ever attended!  Church janitors often have a thankless job, but oh, so important and necessary.  I appreciate their job much more now that Brent, the kids and I have the big job of keeping our rented church facilities clean!

Our rented space is on a dirt road so it is constantly dusty.  The wonderful roof that was constructed by our friends from Lima and Texas has several considerable leaks so when it rains, there is plenty of water to mop up.  We like to have soda and/or snacks almost every time we meet, so there are inevitably stains, glops or crushed chips on the floor.  When we hand out candy to the kids, probably 10 wrappers make it into the trash and we have found chewed gum in every conceivable place.  Then there are the two bathrooms.  There is usually evidence of a rat friend or two, and other......stuff to clean up.

I am so proud of our kids, who are really a huge help and have hammered nails, scrubbed toilets, swept, mopped, painted, cleaned 80 chairs from top to bottom, picked up trash, sanded......on and on I could go, and all of this in extremely hot conditions.  They are such a blessing to us and I know God sees their service and will reward them for it.

Mostly, I am just so thankful for the men and women who's job it is to keep our churches clean and in order.  I remember the O'Mears in Kennesaw, GA, an elderly couple who volunteered their time to clean our large church building.  Take a minute and thank your church janitor this week!

Ashaninka volume 14

We forgot repellent tonight.  Yep, the mosquitos were happy.  Tomorrow we really need to go get yellow fever vaccines, been putting it off.....

Kelly, our 15 year old friend who received Christ recently is on our hearts this week.  She goes to high school in Pichanaki so she takes a moto taxi (a motorcycle with a covered seat on the back ~ there are hundreds of them here, they are the main mode of transport) every day to and from school, and has to buy two uniforms and all of her school supplies to be able to study there.  I have wondered where this money comes from.  Her family lives on selling their produce and her dad's night watchman job, which pays very little.  We learned that she is "sponsored" by a Catholic nun.  To receive her "allowance" from this lady, Kelly must attend Catholic studies and do chores at the church.  She really wants to leave this, but won't be able to go to school otherwise.  We are praying for wisdom to know how to help her.

I had such fun handing out brand new dresses to all the little girls tonight!  Oh how I wish I could have given them each ten dresses and new clothes for all the boys too.  A group of ladies in the U.S. has a sewing ministry and they make dresses by the hundreds and send them to children who need them.  I was able to get 20 of them and make 15 girls smile.  A heartfelt thanks to the ladies who made the dresses, God knows who you are!

Something I love about these people is their thankfulness.  The kids learn early to say thank you and to share.  They are the most unselfish people I've met.  It is such a pleasure to work with them and have them for our friends.

Pure Joy International

Pure Joy International is a ministry to missionary wives around the world.  I had the privilege of attending their Lima retreat last month and it was excellent.  Pure Joy International is made up of a group of women who love the Lord with all their hearts, have the desire to serve Him and let Him use their gifts and talents, and who have a heart for missions.  They raise financial support from churches and treat 50 missionary wives to a free 3 day retreat.  Not only is it all inclusive and very relaxing for us, they travel with a music team and several teachers and counselors.  They also come, after having spent hours in prayer for each one of us, by name.

This time was such a treat and such a challenge to me personally!  The teachers were well prepared and vulnerably shared from their hearts.  It was really cool to meet another Miriam Ruth and especially to be challenged by her to memorize books of the Bible.  She was a special blessing to me.  Another blessing was hearing Sharon Smith share.  She and her husband were missionaries in Ecuador for 30 years and are now working in the BBFI home office.  These women are human and faulty just like everyone else, but have allowed God to work in a wonderful way through them.

The theme of this retreat was "Take Off The Mask".  What an important message for us women!  Wearing a mask of happiness doesn't make us happy.  Wearing a mask of importance doesn't make us important.  Wearing a mask of a perfect marriage does nothing to change reality.  Wearing a mask of kindness in public does not make us a kind person.  Wearing any mask is silly, really.  We may fool others, but we know what is in our heart and so does God.  It's also likely that we're not really fooling as many people as we think we are.  May we all be real, transparent and vulnerable.  Masks are for Halloween!

God gave me a most special gift at the end of this retreat.  My name and others were called and we were asked to go to the back of the room.  I had no idea what for.  When a lady handed me a huge stack of cards and said these were from my home church, I burst into tears and just couldn't believe it.  First of all, someone from Pure Joy had taken the time to contact my church, Central Baptist, and explain that I was going to be in Lima, etc.  Then someone at Central had to pass the word to those who wanted to send cards, collect them all and mail them to AR where they were packed in someone's luggage and brought to Lima and handed to me.  These cards meant the world to me.  For me, that was the highlight.  Thank you, Central friends!