Visit from my coordinator

My coordinator, Bibiana, came for a site visit a few weeks ago. What a wonderful opportunity to learn from her! Above you see three Brazilians from a group working in Berisso expanding on their vision of community transformation and where they see CHE fitting in with that. One of the challenges of this bright, dedicated group is that almost all of them are studying at university and/or employed, leaving them less time for ministry in the community.

Bibiana is my "coordinator" rather than my "supervisor" since LifeWind has a non-hierarchical organizational structure. In turn I "coordinate" CHE ministry in Argentina, working alongside of (not over) local teams. Here we are listening to Horacio describe his vision and passion for Baradero. A great discussion followed about how CHE and church-planting/growth can actually be one thing (not two) if a vision for holistic transformation, multiplication, and development -- rather than relief -- is adopted by the church. Very exciting!

Above you see Bibiana with the Baradero team: Silvia and Horacio, Nora, Marisa and Alejandro.

Yesterday's Trip

I went to Berisso yesterday, a city of 80,000 on the outskirts of the capital city of the province of Buenos Aires, La Plata. Above you see Paulinho, Aryany, and Reberson, three Brazilians who have intentionally moved to a slum in Berisso, seeking its transformation. Here they are in Reberson and Aryany's house. We were going over the map they'd made of the community and discussing how they can continue to get to know the people in the neighborhood, especially the adults. They already know most of the children, that's a lot easier!

Reberson is planning to start medical school next year (here they do a combination of undergrad with medical school, so it would be the start of university for him). You can see on the table the $10 otoscope that he bought at a market, we were trying to see how it worked.

Well, Aryany went off to school and Reberson "made lunch." (Meaning, he went down the street and bought pizza and baked it in the oven.) Here you see the way Brazilians eat pizza, which Reberson told me he thought was American! Paulinho is adding ketchup...

And Reberson is adding mayonnaise. Actually, he ended up adding mayo, ketchup, and mustard to his pizza.

It's kind of chilly in their house so we kept our coats on. Aryany just moved to Argentina in December after marrying Reberson, and it's been difficult for her to adjust to the cold. Her poor fingers are swollen and red from being too chilled. But they are both 1) young and 2) filled with love for the people there. They have such a hope for the people in that community. I love this part of my job, where I get to meet with people who share this vision of the Kingdom of God, and I get to encourage them, help them define the vision they have for their communities, and teach them tools to hopefully achieve that vision.

This is a house that Mision Puente was renting until the owners came back. It's right next door to Reberson and Aryany's place. "El Quincho" means the type of building you see below, and is the name of their church.

This is the church, built behind the house you saw above. They started construction nearly two years ago, and short-term teams from Brazil come frequently to add to it.

What a pretty house! Reberson and Aryany were supposed to live in the house next door, and had done some pretty major renovations to it. Thankfully they've now finished most of the inside work on their current house (read: plumbing and gas) and in the last few weeks they painted and added the window boxes!
Reberson standing in his front yard, with the neighborhood behind him. You can see some of the drainage issues they are facing -- last year they tried to get the neighbors involved in working on this issue since it affects them all. It didn't work so well. Next year hopefully they will have a committee of locally-recognized leaders and perhaps they will have success?

Waiting in line for the bus that you see pulling in at the La Plata terminal. I got a seat this time!

Flu, Elections, Randomness

My soccer buddy Ezequiel.

Random musings:

I was in La Plata yesterday, accompanying a team of Brazilian missionaries that have started implementing the CHE principles. They told me about a little five-year-old boy, Dylan, that comes to play at their church plant/soccer field. The other day he said, "I need help setting up a house." When asked why, he said, "I need to move out on my own. My Dad doesn't love me." A few minutes later he poked his head in at the window of the house we were meeting in, which is next to the church and where the young married couple Reberson and Aryany live. He hung out with us for most of the rest of the meeting, alternating standing next to the two men in the meeting. Five years old.

Infections with the influenza A (H1N1) virus are overwhelming the medical system in Argentina. In the southern hemisphere it is also winter, and therefore also the typical flu season with A (H1N1) added on top. Some hospitals have stopped all elective surgeries, and one hospital has been designated exclusively for flu cases. The majority of the cases have been in Buenos Aires.

Big elections are coming up on Sunday, although not presidential. In my cell group we prayed for peace on Monday, as chaos is predicted depending on the outcome. See this story in the BBC news. It is also predicted that schools, churches, malls, and movie theaters will close after the elections due to the flu outbreak.

Senator Sanford's affair is big news in Argentina since his partner in crime is Argentine. Here's how yesterday's paper categorized South Carolina, "More than 90% of the inhabitants of the state are Protestant, in large part Evangelical. They live austere lives, normally arising at dawn -- in one of the e-mails Sanford says he gets up at 4:30 am - they go to church and pray before they eat."

So, when people ask me about Argentine culture, I hem and haw. How to explain things? How to know if after only a year and a half I even understand things here? When getting up early in the morning automatically means "austerity", how can we be sure we're even speaking the same language?

The view from my balcony at sunset, nice and autumnal.

Vision Seminar

Reberson and Silvia in Berisso

Well, I've facilitated my first Vision Seminar, and I hope they're all like this one! A Brazilian mission agency, Proyecto Puente had made contact with us a few months ago. Reberson had taken a TOT in Brazil and had been spreading the word about CHE. Paulinho is a Brazilian missionary with Proyecto Puente who has been helping people fix up their precarious housing, helping individuals get treatment for alcohol abuse, and working with teenagers and youth at an open-air church in the slum of Berisso, the city his wife comes from. Berisso is just outside of La Plata, the capital of the province of Buenos Aires (the city of Buenos Aires itself is autonomous).

Horacio and Silvia and I drove down to La Plata on Saturday to find a room full of 28 people from nine organizations, including three pastors from different churches and several mission and development organizations. Some are doing relief work with feeding centers or construction, others are working with refugees and immigrants, others church-planting, still others doing betterment work like school tutoring. All of them want to see lasting change in their communities. It was so exciting, because most of them didn't know each other before Saturday, and yet they engaged really quickly. I love the participatory, fun learning style we use!
The above picture is an exercise we did to introduce the topic of worldview. We talk about how the importance of recognizing our own worldview, the worldview of the people we serve, and also the Biblical worldview. It's crucial to not impose our own worldview as if it's God's, but we can't refrain from doing so if we're not in tune with the differences. (This teaching comes from Darrow Miller of Harvest International.)

This picture is one of the groups explaining the difference between relief and development. Relief is necessary in crisis situations, but is dangerous when done outside of a crisis. Development involves local resources and leads to empowerment, maintains people's dignity, and brings lasting change.

We were asked to come and facilitate a Training of Trainers there, "as soon as possible but when the weather gets better so that people will come, like September." Several of the organizations committed to sending people to the TOT. Very fun!

Travel

Yet another stunning scene in Villa Giardino, Cordoba Province.

Wow, has this been a month of travel! I leave tomorrow morning for a weekend in Rosario, the third largest city in Argentina. I will be checking out possibilities for a program there and hanging out with Ayelen, a young woman that came to our training last September.

On Monday evening I leave for the Latin American Regional Council in Miami, Florida. In addition to LifeWind's staff from Latin America and the Caribbean there will be people from the different NGOs with which we work. I'm looking forward to it! However, I still don't have my return flight booked, through a series of circumstances. I am still considering going to the Cleveland, Ohio area afterwards to speak with some churches, but the opportunities there are still not concrete.

Today I met with some Brazilians that have started a project in an urban area called Berisso, which is 40 km from Buenos Aires. Yet again, I've met a group of people who have great ideas and are working in a barrio with a desire to do sustainable, holistic work but lack structure. We've already set a date for a Vision Seminar with them! The vision seminar is the first step towards starting a CHE program. It is usually a three-hour seminar with people from various local groups, NGOs, and churches who are interested in or already working in the surrounding area. Out of this vision seminar will hopefully develop a group who will take the Training of Training course (TOT).

Silvia (from Baradero) and Nora (from the Libertador Church who also goes to Baradero to volunteer) and I met at the downtown train station. We each came from three different train lines and then took the subway for our meeting with the group working in Berisso. It was my first time on the subway here. I really think I need the excuse of some visitors in order to do some serious scoping of the city!

Recently I've written a lot about my challenges. One of the things I've really enjoyed about this new job has been the slower pace. Because I travel so much, I have a lot of time to reflect. In addition, because Buenos Aires is so large even a trip within the city can take all day. For example, I was gone for six hours for a 2 1/2 hour meeting. This may not sound like fun to you, but one of my on-going struggles has been trying to squeeze too much into my day. I had already improved drastically from the mid-90s, when every possible minute had a meeting, class, volunteer activity, or one of my two or three jobs penciled in, but I still was not living the way I desired. Here I find it's just impossible to do too much, so I just can't! (Of course, as I write this it's 11:45 pm and my internet connection just started working, so I really could send those expense reports now....)