Uff!

A horse show at an estancia -- more pictures to come of this lovely day I had when Bill and Annie were hosting some friends and invited me along.

When is anger righteous versus self-righteous? When do you say something and when do you walk away?

I've been getting attachments of PowerPoint shows in e-mails for a few years now, and now that I live in a Spanish-speaking country I get them in two languages! Some make a few good points or say something sweet, but there is a disturbing trend: for years both the secular ones and some "Christian" ones have written at the end a chain mail-type message which states that I will receive luck if I forward it to a certain number of people. I just opened one up and happened to disagree with most of it. Then it ended with a message I've seen before, both in Spanish and English, which means that someone thought it was worthwhile to translate. It's all the more menacing and sinister because this time "luck" is not behind it but an all-powerful God:

It's curious that when you re-send this you won't send it to many people on your contact list because you're not sure what their beliefs are or what they will think of you if you send it. It's curious that we worry more about what others think of us than what God thinks of us. Re-send this posting if you think it's worth it. If not, get rid of it..."nobody" will know you did it.

This message reminds me of a guest preacher who spoke at church a few weeks ago. I disagreed with the majority of his sermon. But then, as he was closing, it got a lot worse. He started saying that he was sure that some of us were preparing to vilify him at home. We could go ahead and do so, but we would be rejecting God because this was God's message.

I love Jesus, but I've never been a fan of the Christian sub-culture although I recognize that I'm connected to it and a part of it in some ways. Thankfully, it's becoming increasingly more common to hear the two differentiated. But how does this work when you're a missionary? I'm used to trying to fit into other cultures and sub-cultures, I've tried to do it everywhere I've moved. But unlike many other missionary "jobs" I'm not just working with unchurched folks but I work with lots of churches too. So here's the real question: if I deal with the above and eat lard and have patience with machismo, do I get to wear my nose-ring? :-) After all, I'm in a city of 12 million right now, and it's not uncommon.....

Pep Talk

Breakfast with most of "Team Baradero." You can see the typical breakfast drinks (tea and mate) and food (all simple carbs), plus my mandarin orange. I've decided it's okay to shock people at breakfast by eating fruit. They told me they could see how it might be a good idea to have fruit in the morning, but certainly not when it's cold. :-)

So, the past few days have been kind of hard. I've had a bunch of things to get done at home: figure out more of my continuing medical education which I last worked on in October, send e-mails to a bunch of new contacts here in Argentina, work on my quarterly reports (how is it that time again?), develop an organizational system at home now that I'm seeing how the work is going (where does one buy a filing box?), confirm upcoming trips to Baradero and Rosario, etc. None of these things sounds particularly exciting, but they are things that need to get done. But I kind of got into a funk, and found it really hard to focus Monday and Tuesday.

Grace is something I don't really understand. It comes when I least expect it, and can be overwhelming, especially when I recognize it as coming straight from God. The concept of "will power" I also don't really understand, since it's possible to be very strong in some areas of my life and not in others. I don't really think that's will power, though, just strength and weakness, or sin strongholds, lack of surrender, or something else.

I had an excellent weekend, which makes the bad days this week seem particularly hard. Saturday I got some things done at home, then went to my friends' Annie and Bill's for tea with a missionary named Luis who is supported by their daughter's church. Two of Annie and Bill's daughters also came over at different times with their husbands and children. We had an excellent talk and it turns out Luis used to work with Gabriel, my contact in Salta. Luis currently works in the province of Neuquen, the "Austria" of Argentina (mountains, lakes, etc.). He's got some great projects with church plants, school tutoring, feeding centers. We talked about CHE and if it could be useful to them, and I think it definitely could be, particularly with the Mapuche Indian communities they serve.

I stayed for pizza with several members of the family, then for a movie with Bill and Annie. Sunday I spoke at church about our projects and a new fundraiser we're starting there for their missionary couple to be able to go to our Nicaraguan internship in October. I was then invited for lunch with Bill, Annie, and Lidia, and Lidia and I ended our time with tea while our hosts took a siesta. Then I went running (see previous post). All in all an excellent weekend, filled with new ministry contacts, more involvement in my local church, and family meals. And did I mention the running?

Anyway, I'm not going to answer any questions about grace in this post. I only know that it was not will power that helped me to run on Sunday, nor was it lack of same that made my days on Monday and Tuesday so gloomy and non-functional. It wasn't me being flexible that made it relatively easy to start eating meat again last September after more than two decades, and it's not me being picky that makes it hard again now. I think I was given extra grace last September so that I would see God's hand in my move here.

So, I wanted a pep talk today. I chose an inspirational conversation from Dodgeball where the main character unexpectedly encounters Lance Armstrong at the Las Vegas Airport. I also listened to this Semisonic song, which I hadn't heard since way back in the early 90s in my concert-going days, back when they were named "Pleasure" and they opened every show with it. Listen to one or both, and I think you'll get pepped up like I did!

I don't want you to think I'm not being "spiritual,"(here I go with my Greek dichotomous thinking, separating the spiritual from the non-spiritual) since I did also learn from the Hebrew scriptures. Two days ago I read the book of Micah, and at first felt frustrated and guilty at one of the passages, normally a favorite of mine: What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? See, I wasn't doing much of anything worthwhile that day. But then I read on about the character of God and what God does: Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance? He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Heating up bread that was in the freezer and the previous day's empanadas and pizza, the old-fashioned way, on a wood burning stove! Yes, that is a slice of ham on one piece of pizza and a whole olive, pit included, on the other.

Wow!

Background: I ran three times in April, once in May, and not at all in June or July until...

I ran all the way around the "Hipodromo" today without stopping -- 3.3 miles (5.3 km)! Woo-hoo! I haven't done that since I was in my 20s. My brother runs ultra-marathons, and tells me that it's the first 3 miles that are the most difficult. I keep hoping that I'll hit my stride now that I'm in my late-30s, and actually become a runner. Hmm....

And a shout out to Jenny (again) for the I-Pod and the OC Supertones and Semisonic for the inspirational running tunes.

Questions

Walter, Bill, and Eduardo. This picture makes me laugh because they look so serious, but they were telling jokes at the time!

There's a lot in this world that I don't understand.

Two days ago a dear friend of Annie and Bill's, Eduardo, was killed in a car accident along with his wife and their two sons. Their daughter is in the hospital in serious condition. I didn't know him very well, and I hadn't met his family. I met him at a two-day meeting in March and he stayed at my house with two others one night awaiting a return flight to Paraguay. He was one of those people you liked instantly -- funny, genuinely interested in others, deeply spiritual. Annie and Bill had just spent five weeks with him in Mexico when Eduardo flew up there to help with the Franklin Graham Festival. Eduardo and Sandra were in their 40s, and had moved to Paraguay a few years ago for ministry. They were on their way back to their hometown in Argentina for vacation when the accident happened.

I believe that God doesn't cause evil to happen, since that would be against God's nature. But God clearly allows it to happen. Will we ever know why? What will happen to Damaris, the nearly-15-year-old girl who is the only survivor of their immediate family? How will she make it through this ordeal physically? Spiritually?

My friend Nora said yesterday that she doesn't know where to go anymore with the 12- to 14-year-olds she teaches on Sundays. Most of them don't believe there is any point to prayer since God knows what we need anyway. Also, they've noticed that if they talk over problems with their friends they receive an immediate, clear answer, which does not happen when they talk to God. To me these are great quandaries to have. I mean, if I'm honest I have these same struggles, but I choose to live with the "creative tension" and continue to pray. I've always said that one of the things I loved about my years as a youth minister was that the youth didn't sugar-coat or deny their doubts like many adults do.

Lunch Guests

(I hope to have pictures for this post soon!)

Sunday was great fun! It started off with an unexpected walk with my friends' dog Renta. I had walked to Bill and Annie's since they had offered me a ride to church but they were running late. So Renta and I went for a walk a couple of times around the block (the second time was to return with a bag to pick up the "presents" she'd left for the neighbors!). I've missed her since I've been either been sick with a cold or traveling and haven't been walking or running lately.

Horacio and Silvia were officially commissioned for their work in Baradero at the Libertador Church yesterday. The pastor gave a short sermon and was followed by Silvia's brother-in-law, who works with COMIBAN (Cooperacion Misionera Iberoamericana), who spoke on the call to missions. He said a lot of things that were very encouraging to me: doubt is a normal part of the process, both on the part of the "go-ers" and the "senders". He noted that two verses prior to where we read of Jesus sending the disciples out into the world "some doubted" (Matthew 28:17). However, doubt does not preclude obedience. Silvia gave thanks to people who have been an encouragement to her through the years and we were reminded that they have been wanting and waiting to take this step for thirty years. Horacio told us about a message he had heard recently about seeds: we can look at an orange seed as something to throw away, seeing it as a small thing, or we can see its potential to become an orange tree. He said that their work in Baradero is to see the potential inside everyone for transformation.

After church there was a nice time of fellowship -- there was no adult Sunday School and we all stood around talking for over an hour (this is not difficult to do here, being very much a part of the culture). Marisa and Alejandro and their daughter Nadia had come from Baradero for the weekend and came over to my place for lunch after church. It was really fun to get to know them better.

Fun related cultural fact: in Spanish there is actually a word that means to sit around the table talking after a meal, the sobremesa. To me this implies that a word is needed for this activity, which shows how important it is to the culture.

Vision Seminar

Maria Teresa shares her group's thoughts on relief vs. development.

A small group separates different statements of belief into "Biblical" or "non-Biblical" in a lesson on worldview.

We had a vision seminar at the La Lucila Baptist Church on Saturday. We had a great turn-out despite the date being chosen poorly for two of the churches we had originally intended to have come. They were holding other critical trainings that day, so we are re-scheduling with them. There were 19 people plus the four of us who facilitated the training, and once again they came from several churches including the host church which is already committed to using our tools and beginning to plan the first Training of Trainers (TOT).

Gaby led a session for the first time, which is great practice since as one of our trainers for Baradero she will be teaching the future CHEs in this style. We use a participatory technique designed for adult learners and those with little formal education, called LePSAS. This acronym stands for:

• Learner-centered: encourages everyone to contribute to the discussion, facilitator stays at the same level as the participants.
  
• Problem-posing: uses a single, specific, solvable problem to start discussion.
  
• Self-discovery: the learner discovers a portion of the answer to the problem.
  
• Action-oriented: the participants come up with a specific solution for the problem posed.
  
• Spirit-guided: inward transformation is needed before permanent outward behavior can occur.
  

Even though this group was well-educated (most with a high school degree and some with college or advanced degrees) this technique makes for fun, interesting interaction which leads to practical results.

Forgiveness and Strength

Remember that famous black and white photo from the Vietnam War with the young naked girl screaming after a napalm attack? She provided yesterday's NPR "This I Believe" segment about her faith journey and how she learned how to forgive. If you click on the link you'll see the famous photo and you can read or listen to her powerful story.

In Baradero on Saturday seven kids took a running leap in their faith journeys and committed their lives to following Jesus. One of them, Ester (not her real name), is a 16-year-old girl who has a beautiful four-month-old son. She is living in her boyfriend's parents' home and her "mother-in-law" is deeply involved with the local curandero, or spiritual/folk healer. Please pray for strength and courage for these kids as they become "free for God and neighbor....[that] the 'fullness of Christ' be re-created, the image of God be restored in [their] lives and relationships" (Bosch, see below). Many of these kids have experienced physical and sexual abuse, have either left or are seriously tempted to leave school, and live in communities with rampant alcoholism and violence.

I've been reading David Bosch's Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. After he spends 12 remarkably succinct (!) pages defining "mission as evangelism" he concludes with the following definition of evangelism: That dimension and activity of the church's mission which, by word and deed and in the light of particular conditions and a particular context, offers every person and community, everywhere, a valid opportunity to be directly challenged to a radical reorientation of their lives, a reorientation which involves such things as deliverance from slavery to the world and its powers; embracing Christ as Savior and Lord; becoming a living member of his community, the church; being enlisted into his service of reconciliation, peace, and justice on earth; and being committed to God's purpose of placing all things under the rule of Christ.

Some of the group that meets weekly for prayer in Baradero plus three of Ines' children.

Personal blood drive

Recoleta Cemetery in downtown Buenos Aires -- I spent the national holiday two weeks ago being a "tourist" with my house guests.

Interesting e-mail I got from my local church last week: one of the church members was in the hospital and they were requesting blood donors. After donating you would get a piece of paper that showed you had donated for the patient. I don't know how this works, perhaps you can't receive blood without having donors replace it for you?

The requirements are listed below in Spanish. It says that you must have fasted from food and milk for eight hours prior to donation. They do recommend that you drink water, pop, juice, coffee, tee, or mate with sugar before donating. It sounds like they're thinking you might throw up during donation?

It also says you must be between 18- and 65-years-old. For the American Red Cross you must be at least 17, but some states will let you donate at 16. There is no upper age limit as long as you are healthy.

Los requisitos son:

Mayores de 18 y menores de 65 Años.
Peso Superior a 50 Kg.
Sin fiebre, resfrio, tos, etc. al momento de dar.
No haber sufrido Hepatitis, Paludismo, Sífilis, Brucelosis, Tuberculosis o inyecciones de vacunas en los últimos 2 meces.
No estar embarazada. Estando con período menstrual se puede donar sangre.

Se deben presentar con 8Hs. De ayuno de sólidos y Leche.
Se Recomienda tomar agua, bebidas gaseosas, jugos de frutas, café, té, mate, con azúcar antes de dar

The police prepare to protect the Casa Rosada, the presidential building, in downtown Buenos Aires. A protest march about the farm crisis passed by the square as we were there. Thankfully there was no violence and we saw the police pack up to leave.

Women and Men

Carol and Chris, two of my recent house guests, riding a beautiful ancient-looking subway car in Buenos Aires as we toured the city on the recent national holiday.

Women and Men: remember the They Might be Giants song?

I've read some great books on women and the church in the past 15 years, including Gilbert Bilezikian's Beyond Sex Roles: What the Bible says about a Women's Place in Church and Family, Rebecca Merrill Groothuis' Good News for Women: A Biblical Picture of Gender Equality, and Kari Torjesen Malcolm's Women at the Crossroads: A Path Beyond Feminism and Traditionalism which makes the point that as Christians we should not be concerned about our rights to any church office but rather should be focused on completing God's call in our lives.

I recently had the privilege of hosting two women who are working in different capacities on the next Lausanne Congress which will take place in Cape Town, South Africa in 2010. I met a few of the attendees of a planning conference in Buenos Aires, and was struck by the near-complete absence of women there. This event, combined with the fact that I currently attend a church where I am served communion each Sunday by men only and where I hear frequently about the husband being the "priest" of the home led me to search for Christians for Biblical Equality on the web and become a member. Their recent e-publication mentioned Lausanne, and so I looked into their papers.

There is an excellent, thorough, Lausanne "occasional paper" that addresses this issue. Among other things it states,

"The question of women being empowered along with men to minister to the whole church is an issue of church governance and an assessment of the Biblical stance. It is not an issue which reduces in any way the gospel message and those who take one view or another cannot be criticised on the grounds that Biblical authority has been ignored. Rather, it is a matter of interpretation of the passages that leads us in different directions. Both those who take the position that women should not be in a leadership role and those who grant women leadership respect the authority of the Scriptures and yet both groups advance the gospel message with great passion and devotion."

To me that is critical, and in some e-mails I exchanged recently with a friend on this topic I realized that this is why I almost never engage in discussion with other Christians on this topic and many political subjects . I hide behind not wanting to cause "my brother to stumble" or not wanting to engage in "useless arguments" and shift the focus off of our unity in Christ, when the real reason is that it is so hurtful to have it assumed (as when political subjects are discussed) that my understanding of Scripture reflects less of a reverence and belief for the Bible being the inspired word of God.

Unrelated fun facts:

• Did you know that Tropicana makes orange juice with added sugar? I don't usually drink juice, preferring to eat fruit instead. For some reason today I decided to buy juice and when I tasted it thought that it was rather sweet -- yup, the ingredients are orange juice and sugar. Who would have thought?

• Most Argentines I know get their deodorant from a giant aerosol bottle, not a solid or roll-on. I just bought one just for fun, especially since I couldn't find any solids and the roll-on I bought here wasn't terribly effective. The aerosol says that it doesn't contribute to the destruction of the ozone layer, so it must be aerosolized without CFCs?

• Kumquats are a common fruit around here. My colleagues, Horacio and Silvia, have a kumquat tree in their yard and I've picked off the fruit and eaten just the skin (the inside is very bitter). Last week Silvia made a dessert with syrup and kumquats -- yummy and not too sweet! Click on the picture to see the beautiful fruit.