Spring has sprung!

Going out to the Delta on Saturday it was obvious that spring is here -- the weeping willows have beautiful light green leaves coming out and there are more flowering plants and trees than before. Winter was still relatively green here, though -- the hibiscus and bougainvillea stayed flowering and the eucalyptus trees keep their leaves.
An ideal moment in the Delta -- the older kids helping the younger ones. The latest youngster to come to the feeding center is little Alex, 20 months old. Of course, ideally they would actually be eating this lunch at home with their families, so we've got a ways to go to see lasting development rather than relief projects here.

Little Kevin (no longer the "baby" at the feeding center) and Erica, with whom I put together some puzzles.

This is Anne, who went to high school with my supervisor's husband back in Nova Scotia! She stayed with me this past week and took the photos of the kids you see above. She's off traveling for awhile but will be back this week.

El Delta

Kevin and his older friend (name?) singing "Happy Birthday."

Today I went to the Delta again. I looked at my schedule book and it's been three months since I've been out there, with all the travel I've been doing elsewhere. I had asked Monica and Daniel, the couple in charge of the Saturday trips, what I could bring. They decided that I should plan to teach something. Not wanting to steal a lesson from our CHE program (we still don't have trainers for this area yet), I prepared something on David and Goliath, including a game we did back when I was a youth pastor. We also talked a little bit about hygiene.

The group was smaller than usual -- 20 or so kids weren't there, for different reasons. One family that has 9 children didn't come because the mother is now working on Saturdays and she doesn't want the children to leave the house while she's gone. The church/feeding center is just across the creek from her house (visible from there). So that the kids don't cook without their mom (good, since that's dangerous) but also don't go hungry, Monica has asked if one of the girls can come to the church to pick up food.

Vanina and Mariela in El Delta. Vanina was really into cuddling today.

When I first arrived today I starting tutoring a girl at math. She'd been given a crazy assignment -- here's an example:

4 + 8 - {[3 - 4 + (- 2 - 5) + 14] - [6 + (8 + 3 - 12)] + 4 - 10} + {8 - 17 + [(- 6 + 2) - 5] - 12} + 4

Now, I ask you, what's that point of that? Way too long and confusing. Even if it weren't confusing, Alejandra didn't have the slightest understanding of negative numbers. The simple sum of "- 2 - 3" threw her completely off. She tried to do most of the counting on her fingers.

I haven't written much about schools here. I don't know a lot yet except that I keep hearing, "They're a disaster." Now, Argentines criticize their own country freely, so I take this comment with a grain of salt. I recently heard, "God made a beautiful and varied country, Argentina. Then He went and filled it with Argentines." The self-critiquing of Argentina is so pronounced that in church I have heard pastors suggest that people speak to bless their country, not curse it.

What does any of the above have to do with my job? Well, I'm mostly just getting to know Monica and Daniel and the folks that live in the Delta, along with the other volunteers that come out. We have a "vision seminar" planned for the first week of July, and from there we are hoping that many will attend the next Training of Trainers (TOT) and begin a CHE program there. Pastor Daniel attended our urban TOT in September, and is really motivated.

Anyway, that's all for today -- I'm exhausted from running around with kids all day!

Ups and Downs

Warning: fairly personal posting ahead.

I've had lots of ups and downs recently. Within the last week there were days of great events alternating with days of inner turmoil and messiness. Today was a great day. I had been running recently from relating fully with God -- you know how it is, giving a little but not all. I prayed, read the Bible, asked forgiveness, but I continued to run errands when I sensed I needed to be worshiping. In fact, in the past few weeks I've really sensed a need to rest in the love of God. Thankfully, due to my deaf ears, God kept raising the volume.

Two days ago I read John 15, including verse 9 where Jesus says: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love." The author of the Bible study I'm doing notes two huge messages. One, Jesus loves us with the same love with which God loved him (i.e. a lot) and two, we are told to "abide," rest, dwell, live in that love.

Yadda yadda yadda I said. I'll get to that soon.

Frustrated with some poor choices I'd made, I opened the book of encouraging notes my church had written and read one which reminded me to "fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of your faith...so that you may not grow weary and lose heart." I half-heartedly thanked God for the message and moved on, continuing with my self-condemnation.

Then my friend Erin wrote on her blog about my home church's women's conference this past weekend, and its focus on"God's extravagant love." Okay, okay, just let me get a few more things done first, or feel sorry for myself and nap, whatever.

Then another friend wrote to me that she had flipped past a radio station which talked about "working so hard to please HIM that you miss out on HIS love." She told me that maybe I "should just stop and let God love [me]." This is a good friend of mine, although we think very differently on spiritual topics -- for example, she doesn't have a church background nor does she go to church nor, as far as I know, does she routinely listen to Christian radio.

Right, pretty important if God's working this hard to get through to me. Just let me finish my expense reports, then tomorrow morning I'll get serious about it.

I woke up today and after spending a few hours praying, and more to go, I realized I probably wasn't going to get any of the work done that I had planned. But what a great day.

Sebastian in El Delta

Towards the end of the day I had to go to a friend's house to feed and walk her dog. I kicked back a little at her house to keep the dog company, and read from Corrie ten Boom's Not Good if Detached. If you're not familiar with Corrie ten Boom, she is a Dutch woman who spent nearly a year in prisons, labor camps, and a concentration camp for her work during World War II helping Jewish people escape from the Nazis. Out of her entire family, she was the only survivor. A week before her sister died in the concentration camp she told Corrie, "We have a message for the world. From experience we can now tell that a child of God can never go so deep into darkness that he will not always find beneath him the everlasting arms that uphold him."

I could go on to quote the whole book, it's fabulous. Pick up a copy at your local used book store today. I will content myself with quoting the reason she wrote it: "In this third book I have included some things I have learned through meeting a great variety of people around the world, but more of the things He has taught me who said, 'Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.' Connected with Him in His love, I am more than conqueror; without Him, I am nothing. Like some railway tickets in America, I am 'Not good if detached'."

Evelin in El Delta

Encouragement

Soccer in the Delta -- can you find the ball? Click on the image to make it bigger.

The day I was commissioned at my home church they gave me a book filled with pages of encouraging notes from the congregation. I brought this with me to Argentina, and last week on a day I was discouraged I opened it and read some of the notes. One anonymous note said, "We will be praying for you every day. You are not alone. Psalm 115." What does Psalm 115 say?

Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!

This is not about me, but about something much bigger and beyond me.

O Israel, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield. You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield. The LORD has remembered us; he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel, he will bless the house of Aaron, he will bless those who fear the LORD, both the small and the great.

I've been reading the Bible chronologically this year, and so have recently read about how trustworthy God is to keep the plans and promises that God has made, rescuing the Israelites from Egypt and providing for them in the desert. God alone is our help and our shield, not the people we work with or organizations or anything else we want to trust in.

The heavens are the LORD's heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man.

God has allowed us time on the earth in part to work for justice for all people and peace with God and harmony with our neighbor and with the earth. I have a purpose and a call, as we all do.

Today at the Libertador Church the history of their work in Baradero and the work for holistic community transformation was announced. The bulletin cover says, "Come on over to Baradero and help us..." which was what was asked of the church in 1999. The cover goes on to say: Today we begin to live together a faith experience. God is challenging the Libertador Church to look for the lost and needy. And then it quotes Romans 10: 14-15, "But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?" We prayed over Silvia and Horacio as they begin their year seeking to move to Baradero full-time to bring lasting change the people in that area. I get to walk alongside them in this process. What a privilege, and what perfect timing for me to be here!

Samila at the feeding center in the Delta

Martin, who was seated next to Samila

My life, part 2

Mariela, the girl on on the left, asked for this picture to be taken with me but then put on a very serious face! The women seen in the background is Mariel, a member of the local community who lives part-time in the city and is going to run the clothing sale I'll mention at the end of this post.

Okay, the "job" part of my current life. If you get my newsletter, you saw in November the following description of my job: the CHE programs developed by LifeWind lead to individual and community transformation in all aspects of life: spiritual, physical, emotional, vocational. The job description for my role as CHE facilitator is in part to:

• Mentor local CHE programs in assigned areas to ensure sustainability and quality.
• Implement expansion of CHE programs in assigned area by initiating relationships with new workers, organizations, or churches which are interested in developing a holistic community development program.
• Correspond and meet regularly with the local CHE team leaders for mentoring, mutual guidance, spiritual encouragement, and continuing accountability.
• Plan and facilitate Vision Seminars and Training of Trainers (TOTs).

So, what does that mean right now? Well, I'm in Argentina because there are several groups and individuals that have been working in poor areas (rural and urban) and want to start more holistic development work. See my February 10 post on the work in el Delta for an example of such an invitation. LifeWind International is in nearly 80 countries, but up until now has not had any complete programs in Argentina or Uruguay. So I am here to walk alongside of the people that are ready to work for change in their communities.

What does that mean? In this phase, it means I meet with people, either in formal meetings or by accompanying them where they are working. The past two Saturdays I spent on the island in el Delta helping serve food to the kids, getting to know both the volunteers and the people in the community, and meeting about future projects. For example, they receive donations of clothing from Spain and in the past have given them away in the community. They recently recognized that it is better to sell things for a small amount of money both so that the goods are appreciated and to treat the recipients with dignity. We discussed some details of the upcoming sale, which was of course first approved by the Spanish donors!

In the photo below are Vanina and Alejandra in el Delta:

Transportation

Above are two boats that are similar to the one I'm on that will take me to the islands in the Delta.
You can see above that the boats are used to transport quite a bit of luggage along with the passengers. The group I go with brings food for the children and water for cooking and drinking.

The captain's chair -- he moves it forward once we start going, of course!

I am really glad not to have a car right now, for a lot of reasons. Most of you know that I love public transportation in general, and it has been really nice to be in a city again (the biggest one I've ever lived in!). Without a car I don't have to worry about parking, insurance, etc. Also, people here are talking a lot about the latest statistics on January 2008 car fatalities, and there's talk of the police getting more serious about enforcing traffic laws. The US State Department's website notes that:

Traffic accidents are the primary threat to life and limb in Argentina. Pedestrians and drivers should exercise caution. Drivers frequently ignore traffic laws and vehicles often travel at excessive speeds. The rate and toll of traffic accidents has been a topic of much media attention over the past year....[D]rivers in Argentina tend to be very aggressive, especially in the capital city of Buenos Aires, and frequently ignore traffic regulations.

The Clarin (an Argentine paper) agrees -- there are double the traffic fatalities (percentage-wise) in Argentina compared to the U.S., and 2007 surpassed 2006. Most of the Argentines I know here are really frustrated by the situation. The upside of the death-talk is that compared to other South American countries the homicide rate here is much lower: 1/4 that of Venezuela and Columbia, 1/3 of Brazil, and 1/2 that of Ecuador.

So with that and many other reasons I am glad to use public transportation! One just has to be careful crossing the street, since despite the large numbers of pedestrians I see here, cars always have the right-of-way (de facto, at least).

A snapshot of my day, or how I got to a meeting: I walked five blocks to the bus stop, then waited for my bus until a woman came along and told us that the line was on strike today. (She'd waited 1 1/2 hours!) So, since I had no idea how else to get to my destination, I went to a telephone center and called the church. Thankfully, the woman who answered the phone lives near me and knew of three other bus lines. So, I walked 1/2 a block to another bus stop (stops in busy areas are for one or two bus lines only, and so each line's stop can be 30 feet apart or so from the previous one -- this works well since the buses run so frequently and several arrive at once). Then it was a quick 20-minute ride and a four block walk to the church office. And I was still 15 minutes early!

El Delta

A flower growing in the mud

Yesterday I went to an island called Las Rosas, which is in the delta of the Rio de la Plata. To get there I hopped on the train (six blocks from my house) to the opposite end of the line from downtown, then I took a boat about 45 minutes, then walked through mud barefoot to my destination. Why barefoot? Well, this area gets flooded frequently, sometimes every few days, and therefore the houses are all on stilts. Two days before my arrival the water was up to the level of the third step of the houses, and so the day I went the ground was still muddy. Okay, but still, why barefoot? Well, I didn't have rubber boots like my companions, and my flip-flops kept getting stuck in the mud. So barefoot was the method suggested to me, and it turned out to be much easier and rather fun! (And yes, I know that in some parts of the world this is the perfect way to get some fun parasites, but I was assured it is not so in this area.)
Besides, for the most part the kids we met there go barefoot. Here's some proof -- my feet and a boy's foot and an adorable kitten:


A church in the La Lucila neighborhood of Buenos Aires has been coming to this area for years. One of the church members came to our training (TOT1) last September, and since has become one of the pastors of the church. The entire church is now talking about changing to their work in the Delta from relief and "betterment" to development. They currently do mostly relief work, providing lunch for the children of the surrounding area:
They provide milk and an afternoon snack:
They also do some betterment work, such as tutoring. Yesterday there was no tutoring since the kids are still on summer break, but a youth group had come out and taught a Bible story (Joseph, his dreams, and his family difficulties) and had the kids do a project.
They tell me that the children are promoted from grade to grade regardless of performance, and many of them cannot read well. Similar to Baradero, this area has a lot of family violence (I got to hear some) and alcoholism. Below you can see the building that the church constructed four years ago to be the church on Thursday nights and the tutoring and feeding center on Saturdays. In the front you can see the creek, or canal, which is what floods. It is so skinny that you are seeing the width of it in that photo. Nonetheless, boats use the canal when there is adequate water and so all bridges built must be very tall. There are significant problems with people getting around in the area as there are very few bridges.
I can't remember the name of the boy below since we only talked briefly. I do remember two of his sisters, Laura and Mariela (just to prove that I do remember some!) quite well since we worked on an alphabet project together. He brought these two puppies out to show me. His neighbor's dog had six puppies in all, three dark and three light.
Below is the family I went with, Pastor Daniel, his wife Monica, and their youngest son Mateo. Monica is a kindergarten teacher and is thus very skilled to lead the tutoring. They go out to El Delta every week, and Daniel often goes on Thursdays to lead the church service. They are also responsible for organizing the other volunteers who come once or twice a month, and every-other-month special events like the youth group that came yesterday. Amazing.