Saturday Post -- 21/05/16

Last weekend, a group of pastors and church leaders (including myself, Craig) in the company of the eminent Eduardo Rojas, decamped to a remote location for a second spin of the Langham Preaching wheel.

Miguel

If, like me, you know your films, you’ll be aware that sequels very rarely tend to live up to their progenitors (with the notable exceptions of Toy Story 2, The Godfather Part Two, and, of course, The Empire Strikes Back). That was decidedly not the case with Langham: Level 2 (Revenge of the Bedbugs?), which both built, and improved, upon 2015’s gains. Not only that, but after a year of quite literally preaching at each other, by now the whole group was well used to the Langham modus operandi, and so, like any good follow-up, we were free to ditch any introductions and hit the ground running.

Nowhere was this more evident than in our final task: the inevitable preparation and preaching of a sermon. Last year, we were given a full two days’ notice; this time round, a mere two hours.

Eduardo in action.

After Level 1’s introduction to expository preaching in general, Level 2 centres on the New Testament, and Eduardo opted to look at the parables of Luke with us, with a particular focus on the Pharisee and the Publican, the Good Samaritan, and the Two Builders (on which we preached). If you know the gospels well, you’ll know that Luke is rich in parables, many of which are unique to the evangelist. We spent a good deal of time over the first couple of days thinking about what a parable is, seeing that there is so much more to them than simply being ‘illustrative’.

Mary

The focus on the parables also subtly reinforced some of the preaching principles introduced in Level 1. Langham Preaching programmes place great emphasis on both identifying cultural nuances in world of the passage, and communicating the force of these in terminology that people in the contemporary setting would appreciate. Most of the parables are set in and around Palestine of Jesus’ day – i.e., they’re chock-full of such cultural quirks – and demonstrate the power of communicating theological truths in a way that a contemporary audience would understand.

The study of the parables also gave Eduardo a platform from which to introduce a slightly different form of preaching. A narrative text lends itself to a narrative sermon style, and he preached twice in this way; for example, while teaching the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, he assumed the role of a listening Pharisee, i.e., one of those ‘who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else’ (Luke 18:9). The other sermon was delivered in the third-person, while maintaining the narrative tone. While this was something of a departure for most (including myself), there was at no point a sense that the truth of the passage was being somehow diluted. The group itself was not asked to deliver a narrative sermon over the weekend (I guess I’ll have to save my first-person Esther sermon series for another time), but we gave the notion plenty of thought in workshops, including a five-minute exercise in which we told each other the parable of the Good Samaritan from a first- and third-person perspective.

Occasional visitors were welcome.

The big constant from last year (aside from the bedbugs) was the preaching task at the end of the weekend, in which each of the three groups was required to prepare a sermon, to be delivered by one of its members. My group included a Langham rookie, 25-year-old seminary student Ignacio; generally, Langham HQ prefer the groups to not take on new members after the initial conference, but an exception was made for Ignacio given his experience to date. He preached his very first sermon (on the Two Builders), and literally knocked it out the park, as Jamie Redknapp might have put it. If you’ll excuse the pun, it’s fair to say he left the experience with solid foundations upon which to build.

Ignacio

Personally, Level 2 proved to be a timely encouragement. Around this time last year, it’s fair to say I was still riding the Cornhill wave when it came to my preaching, and my chief Langham joy was in seeing others get the expository preaching bug. Of late, however, I’ve felt a slight staleness, and particularly when it comes to getting the message across in terms that people can truly appreciate and apply in their day-to-day lives. I’ve often thought that, for all that we live in a very close-knit – and very Bolivian – community, Amanda and I are often at something of a disadvantage when it comes to truly understanding the lives of Bolivian families, due simply to our ethnicity and, if we’re honest, relative wealth.

For me, then, the most stimulating – and challenging – exercise, was one in which, as a group, we spent 30 minutes listing the various issues that individuals face in Trinidad, Bolivia, on personal, familial, church and societal scales. It was instructive to note how many of these were touched on by the parables (though that was sheer coincidence). I have taken a note of these lists, and hope to refer to them frequently in my future sermon preparation.

My good buddy (and fellow Trinidad coordinator), Cristian

As ever, Eduardo was keen to stress the dangers of becoming mere eventistas, and the hard work now begins as we resume our monthly meetings (in which one person preaches and the others give constructive feedback), starting in early June. We hope this is one follow-up that will not disappoint.

Langham Trinidad. Booyah.

Prayer

• Another great encouragement of Level 2 was simply spending time with each other. The majority of those in the group are the sort of people I’d only see at our meetings, yet they are great, godly people. We sometimes feel our lack of deep friendships here in Trinidad. Perhaps there is scope here; prayer appreciated.
• Wouldn’t you know it? Craig is due to give a sermon tomorrow on Psalm 62. Barely a week gone, and an opportunity to preach what he’s practised.
• Pray for Trinidad as a city. There is a pretty deplorable situation going on right now, with the government withholding salaries for municipal workers for several months (it has been speculated that this is due to Trinidad’s delivering a ‘no’ vote in February’s referendum; we can’t know for sure, but it would not be surprising). This is causing a great squeeze in all kinds of sectors; crime is on the increase; and it has touched one individual in our church, a sewage worker, directly. Pray that common sense would prevail. 

Praise

• For a great Langham weekend, and a great platform established for the year ahead.
• Give thanks for the work of Paul and Aaron, our Brass Tacks volunteers, who this weekend conclude their six-week building and maintenance work at Fundación Totaí. They have been a great help, not just with tools in hand, but also the Bible (Paul stepped in and preached last weekend while all the regular candidates were away at Langham). Their journey home to the UK begins on Tuesday, if you could remember that in your prayers. 

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 16/05/15

My time last year at Cornhill Scotland yielded several benefits: practical tools to aid me as a preacher; deep and meaningful fellowship four days a week; a piece of paper with my name on it. But better than all of these was that at 32 years of age, I finally learned how to read the Bible.

Indeed, I was struck pretty early on by the realisation that, though I obviously regarded the Bible as a unique text, my approach to it was often uniquely stupid!

Behind any text, whether it be a WhatsApp message, a newspaper report, or a journal article, the writer is attempting to convey a meaning. I may come away from it with a range of thoughts as to what I may do with this information -- indeed, I may even disagree with it -- but I have no right to decide for myself the meaning that was being conveyed. So, if Amanda asks me to pick up some lettuce on the way home, I may have wished the message said 'ribeye steak', but if I turn up at home with aforementioned cow-cut, I won't get away with saying, "this is what lettuce means for me".

And yet, this is precisely what we as Christians so often do with a text we supposedly regard with such esteem as to consider it 'God's word'. "I think this means," or, "What this is saying to me", are phrases with which we have become all too comfortable in Bible study groups. As a young man, in evangelical circles, I was often encouraged to read the Bible "to find out what God was saying to me today". To which thinking, the venerable Dick Lucas has replied, "It wasn't written to you, stupid".

(to which I would also add, "It wasn't written about you"; if the Bible is God's self-revelation, then it follows that the enriching information we seek is primarily about him, and not me)

None of this, of course, is to say that the Bible is not 'living and active', or that all Scripture is not 'useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness'. Rather, what I learned at Cornhill is that, if anything, we blunt the Bible's message to us today by losing sight of what the likes of Moses, Isaiah, Mark and Paul were conveying, in the Spirit, to their original readers.

Respecting the Bible book and its author by, for example, investigating the cultural context, picking up on repeated words and phrases, giving consideration to the structure of the text as a whole, is an infinitely rewarding task. You will think again about asking to have 1 Corinthians 13 read out at your wedding when your realise that Paul was demonstrating how genuine love stood in stark contrast to the wretched behaviour of the supremely arrogant Christians at Corinth. 

And yet, I can well understand how we have come to such a point. For one thing, it demonstrates just how firm a grip post-modernism now has on our thinking. And, more practically speaking, such an approach necessarily demands of us time, effort and brain-power.

Which is why, though generally buoyed by my studies last year, I had some reservations at the back of my mind about helping people here to read the Bible in a more responsible way. This is not a culture which generally encourages people to engage with information; the range of material available for reading is limited and expensive anyway. And though Trinidad is relatively relaxed as a city, young people in particular are now armed with smartphones and assume that their gratification will be increasingly instantaneous; not exactly fertile ground for encouraging in-depth study.

However, I am becoming increasingly convinced that my supposedly well-founded doubts did not so much reflect my experience of life in Bolivia as my lack of faith in Scripture's trans-national sufficiency, and the Holy Spirit's 'translation' work across cultures.

Because, since coming back, having given these matters renewed emphasis in our preaching, teaching and other discipleship strands, we have seen a tremendously positive response from the church, with our brothers and sisters taking pleasure in attending to a need that they may not have realised existed (just like me last year); such enthusiasm is natural, as to do so is to begin to understand the meaning of the truth (John 17:17). 

This was evidenced on Thursday evening as I began the series of twice-monthly studies in the Spanish translation of 'Dig Deeper' (here's the Amazon link: it's well worth your time and your tenner) which, in a nutshell, teaches principles I learned at Cornhill in a concise and easy-to-read fashion. Each chapter furnishes the reader with a 'tool' to apply to their reading of a Biblical text (such as author's purpose, structure or genre), with a simple explanation as to its application. 

Thursday's session was very much introductory, as we began to consider the pitfalls of reading the Bible subjectively, and then think about what it means for us for the Bible to be both a divine and human book. And the turnout well exceeded my expectations, with double the numbers we would normally get at our Bible study (I would reiterate my suspicion of the numbers-game in church; I share such information to reflect the passion that exists in the church for this topic, something for which I am thankful). And judging by the several absentees who have approached me in the last couple of days asking for the relevant photocopies so that they can catch up, the response from the attendees has been very positive.

So we'd appreciate your continued prayers as we seek to establish such principles at the core of our Bible reading in church, and please give thanks with us, too, as in re-discovering Scripture's awesome sufficiency, we echo these fine words of Timothy Dudley-Smith:

Lord, for that word, the word of life which fires us,

speaks to our hearts and sets our souls ablaze,

teaches and trains, rebukes us and inspires us:

Lord of the word, receive your people's praise.

Prayer

• For Amanda, who tonight will be teaching the youth about Jacob, with a particular emphasis on what Hebrews 11 has to say about the old scallywag.

Praise

• Amanda has had another really encouraging week of staff interviews, with further opportunities to get to know the personnel better, disciple the believers, and share something of Jesus with the rest.

Finally, we will, God-willing, be in Cochabamba next weekend, visiting friends and enjoying a few days out of Trinidad. The blog, therefore, will be getting a well-earned rest (not so sure about its authors), but expect normal service to be resumed -- hopefully with pictures -- on the 30th.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post - 03/08/2013

When we left for Bolivia three-and-a-half years ago (says Amanda), I had absolutely no interest in ears, noses or throats. I knew we were coming to a ministry with a health focus in ENT, but I thought I would be doing other stuff; other stuff being this vague imaginary concept I had. Well, I tell you that 42 months on, my knowledge of ears has more than quintupled (new word). I mean, that probably wasn't a really hard feat because before coming to Bolivia all I knew was that people should have two ears and that ears were for hearing and balance, oh, and that ear infections are not pleasant. 

If anyone has been following this blog since we arrived here, they will remember a course I took in April 2010 that the Foundation ran. It was the intermediate level course in Primary Ear and Hearing Care. I was terrified because, well, the course was in Spanish and I had been in the country for four months. I studied ridiculously hard and practically memorized the manual, using my trusty English/Spanish dictionary, and was graciously allowed to write the answers to the Spanish exam in English. All's well that ends well; and I did just that on my exam. 

Well, the Foundation has since run that course at least once a year over the past three years and I have thankfully been able to watch from the sidelines as I smile while other poor people sweat through that exam. This year, however, the Foundation decided to run the intermediate course again, immediately followed by the advanced version. I was asked if I was going to participate. I felt that as I currently work in Audiology, it would be very unprofessional of me to say, "Nah, don't really want to." But I knew I was just too busy to study for it like I did the last time. I looked our admin staff directly in their eyes and said, "Is there an exam for the advanced course?" I was assured there wasn't, so I thought, "Sure... why not?" 

The Foundation has been in quite the tizzy the last couple of weeks getting everything ready for this course. For the first time it was decided to go big or go home... instead of advertising by word of mouth and invitation letters and holding the course on the Foundation's own premises (which are a bit out of the way for a lot of people), we (well... "we" in the collective sense, I was not involved in the decision) booked the auditorium at the big hospital in the centre of town, and the time was moved from the afternoon to the evening, when more people are free. Furthermore, the advertising campaign was significantly more aggressive. There was a lot of trepidation because we needed at least more than 25 to make the course viable, the ultimate dream was 50 people... and in true Bolivian fashion the week before the course there were about 5-10 people registered. There were some truly nail-biting times recently around these parts. Everyone was involved to try and make it the best it could be; even I spent my share of time sticking stickers on things and stringing string through things.

The basic and intermediate course was held from Monday to Wednesday evening this past week (with the famed exam on the Wednesday night) and the advanced course was Thursday and Friday evening. Yeah... I only had to go for two nights!!! God was really good, because the numbers were amazing; everyone showing up on the night to register... there were 52 people registered for the whole programme and ten more for the advanced course (and they had to send people away because the auditorium was not big enough). There were some birthing pains, as with all big events, and it took some  time for the participants to realise that they actually needed to attend and not just pay for the course if they wanted to receive credit, which really goes against the grain in the course-taking culture here (we actually had someone in La Paz who called to register and who wanted to send us the fee and then we were to send them their certificate... without them ever setting foot in the auditorium, let alone the city). Oh, and that they needed to achieve a 70 or above on the exam if they wanted to continue with the advanced portion. Uh-oh!!!!

So I showed up at 6pm on Thursday night for Day 1 of the advanced course. The women behind me asks Georgina, one of the coordinators of the course and a personal friend (who, remember, had assured me there was no exam) if there was going to be a second exam for the advanced portion. And Georgina in all seriousness says, "Si!" And I say, "No..." and she says, "Si..." and we go on like that for quite a while. She really had me going and I was tempted to get up and leave as I had no idea when I was going to be able to review the intermediate material, let alone study the new material... but she finally starts laughing. Phew!!!

The course was four hours each night and as my lift to and from the course was the people running the course, I crawled into bed on Thursday night closer to 11:30. And I was mad at the world when I had to get up on Friday morning, but I definitely felt it was worth it. Maricarmen, the Audiologist who used to work at the Foundation, but now lives in La Paz, and who flew back to be part of the course, assured me that as I work in Audiology currently, the advanced material would not be difficult for me. But, I really did learn new things and when Dr. Lopez went through the mechanics of dizziness and vertigo, (something I did not understand at all) I felt enlightened. Very interesting stuff... and on Friday morning when I had a patient with dizziness who had been sent for a hearing test, I actually said to the patient, "I understand why you're here." 

Friday was good as well, although a lot more clinical, and when Dr. Lopez continually asked which antibiotics we would prescribe in specific situations I had to keep mentally repeating, "No idea... no idea... no idea..." But the best part of Friday night was that all the people involved in the running of the course, and two of us from the Foundation that participated in the course, all went out for dinner afterwards. The course finished at 10pm and that's when we went out to eat... I was still eating my steak at midnight last night and crawled into bed about 12:45. I am a party animal. I am also ridiculously tired... so maybe a poor excuse for a party animal. 

Anyways, other things happened this week... like Craig leading the Bible study on Exodus 28 (the priestly garments), and KC and I starting to plan the material for the Sex & Relationships portion of the youth group curriculum, but that was minor stuff next to my party-animal experiences. Please come back next Saturday if you want to hear about priestly garments and the importance of abstinence before marriage. I cannot wait. 

Prayer

• Youth Leaders are having a planning meeting on Sunday afternoon; please pray for guidance as we finish discussing prayer and move on to relationships.
• We are sending our good audiometer that we use daily in Audiology to La Paz to be calibrated; please pray that it arrives safely and returns safely as well.
• Craig as he prepares and finishes Exodus 28 next Thursday.

Praise

• A very interesting and useful course these past two days and the success the Foundation had in running it.
• That we were able to furnish our second bedroom before the arrival of Amanda's mom and aunts at the end of the month.
• Mayerlin, for whose family we've been asking prayer, attended the course as well and passed her exam. I (Amanda) was especially encouraged to see that commitment from her in her attendance and attention to the material.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 29/09/12

Football school coach Luis Savaraín "San" Oniava at work this week. 

Another week of civil action by educational workers (a three-day walkout to show solidarity with the country’s striking miners – how very noble) put paid to much of the schools work this week. Plenty of time freed up, then, to attend to other matters, such as the latest update for FT’s supporters, which I wrote and sent out this week – on which note, if you’d like a copy of the newsletter, or to add your name to the e-mailing list, get in touch.

As missionaries we also took advantage of the quieter working week by meeting together as a team, something which, regrettably, had fallen by the wayside over recent months. Indeed, we had made a commitment in the new year to meet every couple of weeks to pray together, so it really was high time we convened. Over the past few years, as its separate volumes have been published, I’ve been delving into Alastair Campbell’s intriguing diaries of his time working under Tony Blair, and something that frequently comes to the surface is a sense of cabinet ministers – who, through the media lens, appear largely united behind the Prime Minister and his agenda – in practice becoming increasingly lost in the business and bureaucracy of their individual departments and attendant Sir-Humphreys. Funnily enough, our experience here as missionaries is not without parallels (minus the Sir-Humphreys, thanks goodness). Though we are, in theory, united by a sense of purpose which many of our fellow workers at FT lack – particularly our non-Christian colleagues – we are, at the same time, deeply embedded in FT’s four main areas of service. In that respect, one can very quickly lose sight of that united purpose if one is not careful – and it is therefore of vital importance that we meet as regularly as possible to bear one another’s burdens.

So it was great this week to dedicate a morning to just that purpose, giving equal weight in our discussions to our roles in the church. Indeed, speaking of church, Amanda came away from the meeting with a whole new job! KC and she had been discussing the need for greater co-ordination of the youth programme. The church’s youth meetings largely go off without a hitch. However, with all of us on the youth committee deeply committed elsewhere (not unlike the missionary team situation, truth be told) there is a sense in which we fly by the seat of our pants, getting from one Saturday to the next.

For a long time, we’ve sensed a need for enhanced strategic planning, particularly when it comes to special events and fundraisers for the end-of-year camp (run jointly with other youth groups in town). One idea knocked around earlier this year, to give an illustrative example, was to make and sell a meal (a very common way of raising money here) every two to three months, with the proceeds going towards helping the young people, many from poor families, pay for camp. We managed one such fundraiser early this year but quickly lost sight of the long-term goal.

What KC and Amanda will do in the next few months, then, is look at next year’s calendar and plan the group’s activities accordingly, not only around fundraising events, but also special, one-off meetings and trips. The Olympics-themed activity, which came to a close last week, highlighted the boost that an incentive-based scheme can bring to proceedings (the young people were divided into three teams and competed for the gold, silver and bronze ‘medals’ – in reality, three exceedingly good cakes baked by Amanda and co-leader Mariana) and they’ll be looking into taking a similar tack, but over a full year rather than a few weeks.

Returning to the present, we start a new, four-week series with the youth tonight in Daniel, a book whose relevance to youth ministry is, to me, blindingly obvious, as we read of these exiles in a foreign land, the at times suffocating pressures they came under to conform, and, through it all, the awesome robustness of their faith – the three rebels’ cry of defiance in verses 17 and 18 of chapter three a sobering inspiration to all of us who count the cost. The lessons of Daniel have especial relevance in this culture, where, alas, peer and familial pressure to follow the crowd are largely indistinguishable. It will be a particular privilege to introduce this book to the several teenagers in attendance who have never had meaningful Sunday School contact. In any case, I’ll be kicking things off tonight with a focus on chapter one and the episode not otherwise known as Diet-gate.

Here's our house as it stood on Thursday, with work beginning on the,
sadly necessary, surrounding wall. Work on the roof should hopefully
begin soon -- recent blockades have frustrated progress on that front.

Prayer

• For improved time-management and self-discipline from ourselves as missionaries as we seek to meet more regularly to support one another.
• For Amanda and KC, that God would infuse them with a vision for 2013’s youth programme.
• For the young people as they begin to reflect upon the challenges of Daniel tonight. 

Praise

• For our meeting this week as missionaries.
• For the Lord’s faithfulness in protecting the youth group – indeed, our numbers have grown considerably in recent weeks – when we’ve been distracted.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 14/07/12

When I think of summers in Canada (yes, this is Amanda typing) I think of summer camp. I think of two to three weeks at overnight Bible camp in July going straight into day camps at our church in August. I remember being a camper for years and then as I got older receiving more and more responsibility and becoming a counsellor. I love camp. I always thought it was weird how much I loved  camp, considering I was quite an insecure person and meeting new people all the time was difficult and nerve-wracking. But somehow, every summer, I made new friends and loved summer camp. I was never a big fan of the sports time and I hated the all-camp game of capture the flag. I used to loiter behind some building pretending to be guarding it. It got worse when I was a counsellor and had to actually make an effort to do something during the game. I used to secretly hope some kid would receive a minor injury and I would have to sit out with them. Never really happened though. But, despite this, I loved camp. 

My first experience with camp in Bolivia was quite a wake-up call, mainly because it was in Spanish and I had only been here five months. It was awkward to not be so involved and just watch from the sidelines and I clearly remember being challenged to teach one of the verses and the kids looking a bit confused due to my rough Spanish. That was in 2010. I have not participated in a day camp since then due to my work in health until this past week and you'll be glad to hear that my experience was completely different. If anything, my enjoyment of it and involvement in it reminded me a lot more of years at camp in Canada. 

So, this past week was the 5-Day Club that the Sports department at the Foundation runs during the 2-week winter school break. Various other members of staff were asked to be support staff and lead small groups, including Craig and I. However, the 5-Day Club sadly became the 4-Day Club when a civil protest was announced for Tuesday the 10th and no-one was allowed to work that day. Every day of the week we looked at a Bible story that taught us how we can react to Jesus -- we can celebrate, love, follow, believe and talk about Jesus. There were also accompanying memory verses and crafts as well as sports and games. One of the crafts which I thought was great was a card with John 3:16 written inside. The theme for the day was following Jesus and they heard the story of the last supper and betrayal of Jesus. The kids were challenged to take these cards that they'd made and show them to as many people as possible. Every person who read the verse in the card was to put their signature on the card and the next day they were to show their small group leader how many people they had shared the verse with. The kids got right into it and we hope that some of the families from which these kids come got the chance to hear a bit about what their children were learning at the 5-Day Club. 

Craig led the music every day and developed an alter ego named Choco Loco (Crazy White Guy), a rock star who talked in such a gruff voice I was worried he might be a chain-smoker. But the younger kids especially loved it and shouted "Choco Loco" all over the place. He also supported the games session for the younger kids and led the small group for the boys of 12 years and older. I, along with Elizabeth, led the small group for the girls of 12 years and older and was really encouraged with such a large group. By the end of the week there were at least 4 girls who came regularly who previously did not have any contact with our church and we're praying that they decide to come out to the girls' Bible study and youth group. I also helped support the older kids' games time... I realised how much more I enjoyed games time when I could lead and support and no one was forcing me to play. 

I also really enjoyed the fellowship among all the leaders. It felt good to be surrounded by a group of people who love God and are devoted to sharing Jesus and His sacrifice to others. As you'll know from previous blogs, working in health at the Foundation does not necessarily mean working with other Christians and I found it so refreshing to work closely alongside believers with a united goal. We're praying as leaders that these kids (there were 82 on the last day), choose to come to the Saturday Bible Club and church as well. We pray that we will continue to develop friendships with them and get a chance to see where a lot of them are in their personal walk with God. 

From helping at the Club, I have realised the importance of long-term involvement with people here. If a child were to attend a day camp in Canada coming from a non-Christian family there is a good chance that this child will not know who Jesus is or the major events of his life, death and resurrection. They will probably not have read the Bible and will not understand the concept of salvation. However, working in a Catholic culture is a very different thing. I would say that the majority of the kids know who Jesus is, recognise him as the Son of God, recognise the Bible as the Word of God and know that Jesus died and rose again. Sounds great, but the majority of these kids will have been taught salvation by works over and over and over again, and in 5 (really 4) days you cannot sort through who knows and believes what, and undo the teaching of salvation by works. 

In my small group I asked the girls to put up their hands if they attended a church; all of them did. About half of them attend the church that we attend and work in, and so I asked the other girls where they attend and the answer was the Catholic church down the road. These girls knew all the answers to the questions from the Bible stories that they heard, they probably didn't learn anything overtly new during the 5 Day Club and they probably think that we're on the same page as us leaders. In 4 days, with little one-on-one contact I had little opportunity to learn if we are actually on the same page. I would love to think that we are, but experience would teach me that we're probably not... that salvation by faith, not by works and works as an evidence of one's faith are probably still an obstacle in their minds, and that they think they are saved through their first communion and infant baptism. All I can do is pray that they are interested enough to keep coming out, so I get the chance to know them better and talk about these things with them. 

Prayer

• For the 100 or so children who came at least once during the week and who heard the Good News at the 5-Day Club.
• For Craig as he preaches on Psalm 32 tomorrow at church.

Praise

• For the opportunity to reach so many children in the last week.
• For  the safe arrival of Mark Morris, whom west-of-Scotlanders may know as the assistant pastor at Calderwood Baptist Church in East Kilbride. Mark, who was here as a volunteer way back in 2004-5, arrived here on Monday for a three-week stay, only to break his toe on the football pitch on the same day! He is recovering well but obviously can't get around much, so pray that he will nonetheless feel the benefit of the trip -- at the very least, he's been a great encouragement.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 23/06/12

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!    

Romans 11:33

Thursday being Aymara New Year and all (the winter solstice is a holiday which nobody in this part of Bolivia could care less for -- but, hey, 'tis a holiday), I headed out with some friends for a spot of fishing. A meagre three bite-sized piranhas constituted my catch, but I had slightly better luck with the camera.

This discerning capyvara only frequents the drinking
establishments where there are birds to be found.

For this part of Bolivia, that's a very green tree.

Ranchers at work. 

A tiddler and a small fish.

As the Incas celebrate their New Year, I've had occasion of late to chew over 2012's half-term report. As regular readers will know, the year thus far has had its fair share of challenges. The seemingly interminable issues regarding our house and sundry land complications, and the emotional stress of family planning, have re-surfaced time and again. Rare has been the week in which we did not have some kind of psychological break from either of these matters.

Thankfully, in the face of such challenges, our marriage has held up remarkably and is stronger for the experiences. And our resolve to not get bitter about all of it has largely stood fast. We count our blessings and rejoice.

Some days, however, are easier than others, and we are oftentimes led to wonder where this is all going, what's the bigger picture. Does it even exist? Mercifully, God has used a ministry opportunity to address some of these issues in a mighty way.

Over the past few weeks, with the usual participants otherwise occupied, I've stepped in to chair the Bible studies on Thursday evenings at church. After two years (!) we have finally reached the end of our study in Genesis and I was instructed to simply move on into Exodus, where, in the early chapters at least, the Genesis narrative simply continues.

And as I've re-considered these passages, I have been reminded that God is indeed at work -- and emphatically so. These verses can be simply yet conclusively summed up in three words: God is faithful. Consider the following:

• On the face of it, Joseph's brothers sold him to Egypt. In fact, God sent him there to save Egypt and, as it turned out, Israel too.
• The language used in Exodus 1 to describe the affliction of the Israelites is precisely that used by God when revealing his plan for Israel to Abraham centuries earlier, in Genesis 15:13. Thus, the eagle-eyed Hebrew reader immediately recognises that in the midst of man's sordid schemes, God remains very much in the driving seat.
• While the Pharaoh 'who knew not Joseph' of the early chapters of Exodus obsessed over wiping out Israel's male population, God in fact used 'the weaker sex' to completely undermine a king. (am I alone in detecting a prominent strain of gallows humour in Exodus 1?)
• And while we're on the subject, Pharaoh couldn't even keep his own daughter under control, adopting Hebrew boys and what-not. 
• Finally, Moses' complaints at the burning bush that he is not cut out for leadership are seriously undermined not only by his lack of faith but in his life experiences. As Stephen reminds the Council in Acts 7:22, Moses, in his youth, was primed for officialdom. And where did this take place? At the very heart of Egyptian power. Egypt was unwittingly footing the bill for surely the most humiliating moment in its history.

A common thread uniting all of these processes is that the initial, faltering steps were taken many, many years before the true extent of the situation was made visible. And from this I draw great strength. We don't know what will take place tomorrow, let alone next week, and infinitely moreso in this culture than in our Western upbringings. But more than we can ask or imagine is currently being, and has already been, accomplished.

Prayer

• Our fifth anniversary is the 7th of July and, to celebrate, we've decided to treat ourselves to a long weekend at a favourite hotel in Santa Cruz. However, we're going a week in advance so that we can cross paths with Malcolm & Liz McGregor. Old friends of the Murdoch half of my family, Malcolm is SIM's International Director and we're excited about meeting them next weekend. We are planning to leave on Thursday evening and return to Trinidad on Wednesday morning, however, there have been a slew of road blockades over the past week. Please pray that we will be able to travel.
• While in Santa Cruz, we'll also be paying a visit to the clinic and meeting Emilixy (the girl from our church who was recently, and very suddenly, forced to move to Santa Cruz due to her father's incarceration). Pray for these weightier matters.

Praise

• Last Sunday's afternoon of service with the youth group was a great success, with the church gutted out and, God-willing, the youth leaving the big clean-up with a better idea of what it means to serve the church. Please pray that a seed might have been planted in their hearts.
• For the Lord's reminders this week, through his Word, that he has an unfathomably great plan for us.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

P.S. No post next weekend but our newsletter should be on its way soon. Let us know your email address if you'd like a copy.

Saturday Post -- 12/05/12

We're back home in Trinidad now, delaying our return till Wednesday, under doctor's orders.

Amanda is recovering well from her surgery. She was discharged, as expected, on Sunday lunchtime and has spent most of her time since then resting (with the exception of a brief shift on Thursday morning in audiology -- not a great idea!).

On Tuesday, we had our post-surgery sit-down with the doctor and it all boils down to one crucial fact: we can't get pregnant by traditional means. This leaves us with a decision to make as to whether we pursue non-traditional methods of conception, and based on the diagnosis, the doctor believes this is a decision we need to make sooner rather than later.

Tuesday could have been a day of real emotional devastation for us. But we faced the appointment with calmness, considered its implications in a composed manner, and went to bed that night with an overwhelming sense of peace, that God is in control and that he has a great plan for our life as a couple and as a family. I share this not to draw attention to our emotional fortitude (would that we had it!), but rather to the very real impact of your prayers for us over the past week as friends and family. We felt truly 'uplifted' throughout and it is our own prayer that God will draw near to you all in a similar vein in whatever trials you currently face.

Since coming back, my stints behind the desk have been as few as they have been brief, with a lot of bureaucracy still to sift through for our land purchase. Thankfully, things are just about there now and we met our architect yesterday, who is raring to go on the house. 

You may remember my band-mate and work colleague Wilson Menacho, with whom I have been meeting once a week for the past couple of months to pray together. Wilson, who is not much younger than me, is the father of two young children, and someone who has increasingly grown in confidence over the past few months, not least due to his capable chairing of the musical slots at church. Unlike a lot of guys in this culture, he takes his faith seriously and reads his Bible with reflection, evidenced by the devotional times he has chaired with us as his fellow band-mates.

A few weeks ago, as youth leaders, we were drawing up the teaching schedule for the following two months, and it became clear to us that this would be a great opportunity to invite Wilson to contribute and encourage him in his growth. So, tonight, Wilson will be speaking on the theme of 'The Nature of a Servant' from The Purpose Driven Life. Please pray for Wilson tonight. We could do with more guys like him in the church, and we hope this will be an important step for him along his spiritual path.

Prayer

• For continued post-surgery recovery for Amanda, and energy for myself, as I temporarily see to the multitude of tasks she so ably tends to in the house!
• For wisdom and guidance as we work through the post-surgery implications.
• For Wilson (see above).

Praise

• For the overwhelming sense of peace we are experiencing in the face of these difficult circumstances. 
• For continued progress in our housing project.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 28/04/12

On Sunday night I arrived back at our flat from a friends house to find a scene of wanton disarray. Tissues littered here and there. Puddles on the floor. A wife in some distress. Yes, Amanda's chick-flick night was a roaring success!

Actually, it doubled as a baby shower for one of the participants of Amanda's young women's Bible study group, who is due next month. There were, in all, ten of them in attendance, including a special guest appearance -- all the way from Scotland! -- by Rachel Peebles, who has been paying Trinidad a visit over the last couple of weeks. Rachel worked with FT and El Jireh for many years before heading home in December 2010; on Tuesday evening we had the chance to spend some personal time with her and enjoyed the chance to catch up on her news.

It's been a busy old week. On Sunday morning I preached on John 21 and used the passage as a platform for the church to think about missions. I tried to challenge the pre-conceived notions in this part of the world that missionaries are white people who come to Bolivia, rather than Bolivians impacting their nation and the world for Christ. I shared with them some of our experiences in Costa Rica, where we learned about, and witnessed, a vibrant missionary community among the natives. Some 20 years ago, there were virtually no missionaries leaving Costa Rica. Today, they are all over the world and in some parts, being a Latin American is actually advantageous for them. You won't find many white missionaries, for example, in the Middle East, where the caucasian appearance translates as 'American'. Latin Americans, however, don't have such an obstacle to overcome. With this information in mind, I challenged the church to believe that our own congregation had an important role to play in world missions. 

On Tuesday morning, our first working day of the new week, Amanda held her first morning prayer meeting at the Foundation. As the week progressed, we were encouraged to see some other workers, and not just missionaries, turning up to pray for the Foundation, and particularly the board, who meet at that time every day. 

The R.E. classes in local schools were somewhat disrupted by education strikes this week. But it was business as usual for my English classes, which are run from FT headquarters. On Thursday, at the 'Biblical Application' lesson, the focus was the Bible itself, its basic structure, its teachings, and its significance for Christians. Having recently been donated a large supply of Bibles by an anonymous Canadian donor, we asked if there was anyone who didn't have a Bible and who would like to read it. Four people responded positively and took a brand new Bible home with them!

We have mentioned over the last few weeks our continued developments and setbacks re. land and we asked you to pray for this last week. We don't wish to go into too much detail, however, let's just say that things didn't work out quite as planned this week (they rarely do in Bolivia) but they may actually have taken a significant turn for the better. 

Your continued prayers would be appreciated for that and for this Wednesday night, when we will be travelling to Santa Cruz. We have a couple of important matters to attend to there which we couldn't really put off any longer. We would appreciate your prayers for safety on the road and for progress on these matters in Santa Cruz, which we would prefer to keep private right now. It may be the case that we have to stay there over the weekend, but we will aim to post next Saturday regardless.

Prayer

• For the message Craig preached on Sunday, that the call to take the good news to the nations would take hold in lowly Trinidad.
• For the English students who took Bibles home, that they would read it and seek to understand its message.
• For our land situation and for our travels to Santa Cruz, that we would be able to accomplish what we have to do there.

Praise

• For the chance to, quite literally, share the Word with the English students.
• For the staff involvement in Amanda's morning prayer meetings.
• For Amanda's burgeoning ministry among the young women of the church.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Diego & Jo: An Appreciation

Trinidad has lost a couple of great servants this week in the shape of Diego and Jo Santana, who on Friday set off with their three daughters for Santa Cruz, a few days ahead of their departure for Diego’s native Tenerife on Monday, bringing to an end a combined 28 years of missionary service in this corner of the globe. In their most recent guises, they served as president and administrative director of Fundación Totaí and it has been our pleasure to work alongside them over the past couple of years. Trinidad will be without a couple of rare vision, who have, with the Lord’s help, established an Ear and Hearing Care service which is unrivalled throughout Bolivia; we, meanwhile, say goodbye to a family who have made a great impact upon us as individuals and as a couple.

I first got to know Diego & Jo during my gap-year at a project called La Palmera in 2000/1. The Santanas arrived in October 2000 for the first time as a married couple and got down to business in typically speedy fashion. Diego took charge of the fledgling health centre, while Jo resumed her duties as the school’s headteacher.

Professionally, I learned much from Jo, who imbued me with the confidence I needed to stand in front of thirty unintelligible teenagers and teach English. It proved to be the first step along my education-centric career path, even if I wasn’t to know it at the time. Though I had no medical interest, Diego was a particularly powerful example to me as a young Christian. He’d come to Bolivia as a highly-skilled ENT surgeon but his work that year – and for a few more later on – would be limited to general practitioner shifts with the schoolchildren and their families, as he endured a seemingly endless wait for his papers to come through from the government. Years later, his wait would, in the end, be rewarded, as thousands of ENT patients can now testify. But his patience and grace as he went about his day-to-day work impacted me greatly.

Diego and Jo’s influence was, if anything, even more keenly felt outside of work hours. Though conversation in the home often took in our shared sporting and cultural interests, it was never too long before spiritual concerns came to the fore. With their vast array of apologetics texts, Diego and Jo were the first Christians I’d met who challenged me to be a critical thinker when it came to my faith, and brought to my attention aspects of my faith I hadn’t even yet considered. Furthermore, I saw at first-hand a fine personification of Biblical teaching on the roles of husband and wife. To be in their home in the build-up to one of Diego’s sermons or Bible studies was to witness not simply a marriage, but a partnership, with Diego busily scribbling notes to the sound of pages being sifted, as Jo plucked out one supporting verse after another.

In summer 2008, a year into our own marriage, Amanda and I were feeling a lack of satisfaction about our professional and personal lives, and sensed that God might be calling us to full-time service – though exactly how, we were not then aware. That same summer, the Santanas (now with three bonny daughters in tow) arrived in Scotland for their latest furlough and when we got round to meeting them, we were left in no doubt as to the need for people with our skills at Fundación Totaí (which they had since set up in 2004). Though keen on a change of direction, we were somewhat unprepared for such a big one. Jo, in typically brusque fashion, encouraged us to take the decision in prayer and the doors would open. And as many of you know, they did and some!

Since January of last year, we’ve been glad of the opportunity to renew our acquaintance with the Santanas. I’m not really sure that white guys like us can truly adapt to life here, but to the extent to which it’s possible, Jo has been of seismic importance, whether pointing us in the direction of the best TV repair guy, waiting for hours with us in queues (or melees as they so often become), recommending the best place for ice cream, or providing us with transportation in those first six months when we were sans voiture. And this time around, they have opened their home to us in the most literal sense, effectively converting their upstairs into a separate apartment and thus giving us a place to call ‘home’.

But this is no eulogy. The family is moving on to pastures new but their passions will not go unpursued. Indeed, Diego is taking on a high-profile Senior Global Advisor role with CBM (Christian Blind Mission) and will, in fact, be able to return to Trinidad a couple of times a year to carry out ENT surgery, as part of his remit. And with the girls continually growing stature and independence, Jo will be freer to pursue her own career, whether that be in health or education (she’s supremely gifted in both). So we look forward to seeing them all some day in the future – Diego, God-willing, in 2012. But until then, we will, as the writer to the Hebrews urges, ‘remember…those who spoke to [us] the Word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.’