Saturday Post -- 03/12/2016

Well, we're in our final month in Trinidad before we leave for the Latin Link conference in Santa Cruz. It is unbelievable how fast time has flown by and it is also a bit scary to think of all that's going to have to come together before we leave. The good thing is that we are accomplishing things bit by bit and I (Amanda) have full confidence that before we leave Trinidad our heads should still be attached to our shoulders and not lost somewhere. Hopefully, as we drive away from our house on the 29th of December, we will have remember to bring all the important things, like Sam. 

Sam's visa for the UK is still pending, so we continue to appreciate prayers for it. This coming Tuesday will be 14 days on from the initial interview, and they said the wait time is 15 days. I actually got a scary call from the embassy in Bogota this week. I answered the call and, after taking a couple of minutes to confirm that we could hear each other and that we could have this conversation in English, the woman asked me to confirm that Craig was a UK citizen, which I did. And then she asked me to confirm that Sam was Craig's son, which I did. And then she said, "Well then, we are unable to issue a visa!" To which my heart tried to jump out of my chest and the inner, angry Amanda tried to break forth. I explained that we had looked into all of this when we were last in the UK and we were assured that Sam does indeed need a visa and she said, "That information is incorrect." She said our two options were to apply for a UK passport or to apply for a certificate of something. I don't know what certificate, because I cut her off (inner, angry Amanda was starting to win, sadly) and started to explain how that can't possibly be correct, because the adoption is a national adoption, not international, and therefore not recognised by the UK. Sam only qualifies for citizenship if we decide to return to the UK to live. 

The lady was quiet for a while and then said, "He's adopted?" Inner, angry Amanda was really pushing hard now and commented, "Of course he is adopted, which is why you have all the adoption documents in front of you, in both Spanish and English, having been legally translated (which was not cheap) as requested."  Well, inner, angry Amanda calmed downed when she went looking for those documents and said that she couldn't see them, and it seems that the visa agency in La Paz had not sent them on. She apologised, said she would go chase those documents down and that we are indeed correct in Sam needing a visa as an adopted child. Inner, angry Amanda didn't bother getting frustrated at the agency in La Paz; 1) it's Bolivia, so no one is really surprised, and 2) the nice lady there gave Sam a lollipop, so how can you get mad at someone nice like that? We totally threw the lollipop out as we left as Sam is way too young for sweets like that, but it's the thought that counts. 

So, crisis averted and we're just waiting for them to hopefully go through the whole package once it's scanned in properly and sent to Bogotá. Craig commented that he was very glad that they randomly picked my phone number instead of his as he probably wouldn't have argued with the lady, accepted what she said, hung up the phone and then had a complete meltdown. I totally learnt how to be forceful but still polite as I watched my Mom insist that all her coupons were still valid when used all at once because the terms didn't specifically state that it was one per customer. I'm pretty sure all coupons say that now because of my Mom and Aunts. 

The Foundation has finally found Mariana 2.0. Well, actually it's not Mariana 2.0, but Mariana 2.0 version 1 and version 2. Yes, we have had to hire two people to do what Mariana, our Director of Finances, has done for the last six years. This is going to cause a financial burden on the Foundation that we were not necessarily expecting, but the Board essentially decided that there was no way that FT could function with only one person to replace Mariana, especially with Craig and I about to go on furlough. Both people seem very capable and the Board was quite impressed with them during their interviews, especially their desire to work with an organisation based in service. The man we're hiring as Administrator was actually the only person who looked the Foundation up before his interview and was able to tell us everything that we were involved in, which was impressive. And the accountant we hired wrote a very convincing covering letter, one of two covering letters we received across all the applicants. As I mentioned before, I found the process of accepting and rejecting applicants very stressful, and I took the coward's way out and asked our Secretary to call everyone who was not successful and inform them as such. Although I knew I was doing it from a distaste of that particular job, I also justified it by stating that our Secretary is just so good at jobs like that; it was probably better for everyone. Both new employees are going to be trained through the month of December and be put on payroll in January. Please pray that they adjust to the Foundation and that all employees adjust to them as well. 

Monday is the start of this year's Major Ear Surgical Campaign. I try to stay as far away from this campaign administratively as possible. I find too many fingers in the pie is quite destructive in an endeavour like the surgical campaign, but I obviously stay as informed as possible. We have fewer patients than we would like for the campaign, but I kind of think that's because we've operated on everyone in Trinidad with major ear conditions. We need to go further afield for more patients for next year, but for this year I think we'll end up with 15 overall. Dr. Wagner from the States arrives tomorrow and leaves on Friday and the Foundation will be absorbed by this for the next week. It's always fun to have so many surgeons arrive at the Foundation. My sister is going to be is studying to become a surgeon, so I know what I'm talking about..we never fought ever, she's the most placid person I know (major eye roll). In all seriousness, we're very grateful for the services that these surgeons bring and we pray that the campaign will be a physical and spiritual blessing to many people. 

We're at the end of the school year here and all the major services and ministries are having their year-end closing ceremonies. Sports had their clausura last weekend, the community class's was this past Wednesday and Juguemos Juntos (the Mom and Tots group) had theirs yesterday. Sam and I attend this group, so the Moms played competitive games like dodge ball and steal the bacon, where I might have accidentally slapped a fellow Mom in my enthusiasm. I totally won the egg-and-spoon-race-while-balancing-a-child-on-your-hip; Sam ate most of my prize. And today is OANSA's (children's programme) end of the year fair. Although, we're not specifically involved in OANSA, we're going to go along and watch all the kids play at the fairground stations; it's something that Sam will love. Every time he gets excited about being around other kids I look around to see if children really do grow in the garden, because this child desperately needs a sibling. Sadly, it's not as easy as that. 

Prayer

• For the new employees, Hernán and Vladimir (my first thought still strays to vampires when I read his name on paper), as they start in FT this month.
• For all the end-of-year closing ceremonies.
• For the surgical campaign this coming week.
• For Sam's visa.
• For preparations before we leave Trinidad.
• Craig's is speaking both at the youth group tonight and at the OANSA prize-giving tomorrow morning.

Praise

• For God's protection over FT .
• For a sense of progress and productivity as time moves along.
• For Craig's English classes finishing well this past week.
• For our visit from Brigitte from Latin Link this past week. She's the short-term coordinator, based in Cochabamba, and came out to see the volunteer opportunities that FT and El Jireh church have to offer possible short-termers who come out with the Stride programme that Latin Link offer. We had a really good time with her.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig, Amanda & Sam

Saturday Post -- 20/08/16

Have you ever stopped to wondering how much you've changed over time? Do you think your former self would recognise who you are now? I (Amanda) had a week which really highlighted to me how much I've changed, not in good or bad ways, but I saw how I was now different.

Instance 1

On this week fell Day of the OANSA Leader -- OANSA is the Bolivian version of the AWANA children's and youth programmes, which originated some years ago in the USA. I'm not sure about which day specifically because I don't actually care about these things, but being the OANSA youth ministry coordinator in our church, I was supposed to be celebrated at some point this past week. The OANSA ministerial team for Trinidad organised a dinner for all OANSA leaders on Wednesday night at 8pm. Craig and I looked at each other, and I decided to bite the bullet and go on our behalf, thus allowing him to stay in, because he might die a slow death if forced to actually celebrate a Hallmark holiday (he made an exception for Mother's day this year, me being a new Mom and all, but we've become quite unromantic with Valentine's Day, it being overly corporate). 

So a whole pile of leaders from our church went to this organised dinner, where we arrived on time, and proceeded to wait for almost another hour before anybody else showed up from any other church. Even, our own church members were getting antsy about this time. And then there was still a whole programme to get through before we could eat. The food came out about 10:40. I don't think we left until 11:30, and we still had to drive some of the youth home to the village of Maná, about 20 minutes away. 

The most revelatory aspect of this evening to me, however, was the fact that I had fun. I suddenly remembered that when I was younger I liked going out and being in large groups, laughing and joking, but that due to business, tiredness, and a lack of a social group in our stage of life [you can start playing your violins around now, folks -- Craig] we just don't do that any more. And I had fun! It was fun! And I got dropped off at my door in a large carpool, just like when I was at Uni coming back from a youth event. I felt young again... until I realised it was past midnight and I was about to turn into a pumpkin. Seriously, I remembered why I had changed: my body is falling apart and I am old. Okay, I'm only 30, but it is true -- my body is falling apart and I am old. So, great to be reminded of who I was in my glory days, but I think I get more excited now about early bedtimes than a long night out on a the town. But thank you, Trinidad OANSA Ministerial Team: the chicken was lovely!

Instance 2

This week we finally organised another FT staff training morning. The Board had been meaning to organise one since June, but people kept scheduling surgery over the mornings I had fenced off, apparently thinking that emergency surgery was more important. As if. Okay, maybe it is. But finally on Thursday morning we got all the staff together in one place and made them say nice things to each other. In all seriousness, that was the first activity Mariana pulled out of her bag of tricks. Everyone had to say something positive or something they were thankful for about the person sitting on their right. The activity was supposed to highlight how much easier it is for us to think of negative things to say about each other, and to really force us to try and be positive. It was generally a success, with a few minor hiccups. One person ended her positive comment by saying, "But I would also advise her to try harder with her personality." Someone else started by saying, "Well, he's a lot better now than he was at the beginning." And finally, someone said, "I like how she wants to do everything right. People may think she has an ugly and hard personality, but it's because she wants to do everything right." My jaw hit the floor when that was said. Obviously the PC brigade never got this far into the Amazon jungle.

But being the HR Director, these staff mornings are generally my show, so I chaired the morning and led people through the activities. Our morning GP, Dr. Vargas, organised a seminar on the purpose of and how to properly put together a Procedures Manual, because FT doesn't have an updated one. We need to get it organised by the end of the year and most staff looked at me funny when I asked people to write in point form how they go about their jobs. So, we had a training morning. And Dr. Vargas did a really good job. Even I feel more confident about sitting down and writing out the details of my job (which I haven't started to do yet).

But as I was sitting through the seminar and my mind started to wander to other things (hey, I said Dr. Vargas did a good job, I didn't say the material was gripping), I kind of thought about how I would never have dreamed of being able to do my job when I was in University. My insecurity always killed my confidence, and while I never shied away from standing up in front of people, I always had intense nerves. Now, I just do it and move on to the next thing, and sometimes I look at myself in the mirror and say, "Who are you? And where were you in grade 7 when I was supposed to be Patty in Charlie Brown's Christmas play?"

Instance 3

Our new volunteer arrived this week, Roseanne Sanders from England. And she's really nice. We're going to be friends. And right there is another change. I have never made friends really easily. I have always been too insecure and worried about what people thought to really give myself to friendships easily. It has always taken time with me to really becomes friends with someone. But it has become easier and easier to just give myself to people and make friends in recent years.

So, Rosie and I are going to be buddies for the next three weeks. I mean, she brought shortbread for everyone to share at FT. Who doesn't want to be friends with someone like that? And she is up for anything. I'm sure there are some things that she didn't come out her to do, like intense manual labor, but she hasn't said no to me yet...I wonder what else I could get her to do. I wonder how she feels about babysitting. Can you say 'Date Night'?

And I have never seen anyone less stressed and polite after losing their suitcase, which did not leave Brazil when she did. Thankfully, she has her suitcase again. I'm pretty sure I would have lost my cool at some point, but she was really relaxed about the whole experience.

We're all looking forward to spending more time with her over the next three weeks and I know that Odalys and Maye, in our Speech Therapy and Audiology Department, are especially excited to have the extra help.

Conclusion

Craig mentioned that we had attended a one day conference on mentoring while in Sucre by Rick Lewis. Rick highlighted that the purpose of mentoring is identifying and promoting the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And he asked us all to think of the ways that we knew that the Lord was currently working in our lives, possibly convicting us of specific sin or challenging us in certain circumstances. Yet he said that mentoring had to do with all the ways in which God was working in us, but that we couldn't specifically identify. That's why we need the help of mentors. Because the reality is that God is doing so much more than we are actually conscious of at any given moment. God is changing us, moulding as, and growing us and the truth is that when I look back on my life, I can see some evidence of specific change, but the rest has just kind of happened slowly over time. And for this I am grateful: that God knows and me and loves me enough to want to change me where I need to most, without me even noticing sometimes. I like being more confident. I like being able to come alongside people without a lot of insecurities getting in the way. I like making friends. And, while getting excited about early bedtimes might not be an overly spiritual change, I know that I know myself more now than I did before, and I know how I need to take care of myself...and sometimes it is an early bedtime. And I am sure that in another 15 years I am going to be a completely different person again, and that's kind of exciting.

Prayer

• For Rosie and her three weeks with us at FT.
• Craig is preaching on Sunday from 2 Kings 2; please pray for him as he shares God's word.
• We tried to apply for Sam's passport this week, after successfully applying for his Bolivian ID Card, and we hit some obstacles. So, please pray that we get his application submitted on Monday.
• For some delicate pastoral care situations that Craig and the other church leaders are involved in right now.

Praise

• For Sam's ID card and updated birth certificate being processed
• For Rosie's safe arrival and the arrival of her bag two days later.
• For a really beneficial staff training morning
• For a good time out with the other OANSA leaders on Wednesday night

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig, Amanda & Sam

Saturday Post -- 28/5/16

"Goanae no dae that?"

This is likely to be fairly short, as a busy Saturday awaits, due not so much to ministry as a certain football match. Every year, the guys from church and their families used to get together to watch the Champions League final, always a big deal down here no matter who is playing. And when the final was moved to Saturday evenings in Europe a few years back – mid-afternoon here – that very conveniently paved the way for the Champions League barbecue. 

Today, we resurrect that tradition at Casa Cunningham, not that I personally am too excited about the game. Real Madrid’s Francoist past, imperialist bluster and inability to operate fax machines means I’m dead-set against Los Merengues, but Atlético aren’t exactly easy on the eye. Still, given that I might have to get very used to such football fairly soon, I’ll reluctantly back the bus-parkers, not least as most of the guys in attendance are hardline Blancos, and I'd love them to stick it to Ronaldo after that simply appalling 'It's all about me' moment following his only meaningful contribution in 2014.

This week has been one of those extremely bitty weeks in which two public holidays magically collide (the profusion of such holidays here always reminds me of the debate over giving St Andrews day such status back home, and the agonising over the damage a single day away from the desk could do to the economy). Furthermore, yesterday was Mother’s Day (a very big deal), and, of course, mothers were free to take a half-day off work in order to see their kids perform a ditty or two at school. Something of a write-off, then.

In between all that, we have done what we can. If you get our email updates, you’ll have read/skimmed about Amanda’s appraisal interviews with staff. When she started out in HR here, her goal was to disciple/evangelise to personnel. That has somewhat been marginalised due to the administration, the disciplinary meetings, and, oh yeah, a one-year-old boy to look after. So a formal opportunity to speak one-on-one with staff and talk more about their personal situations has been a blessing.

Sermon-free this week, I’ve largely been taking care of church administrative matters. Not much to report there.

We also bid farewell to the Brass Tacks guys on Tuesday morning following their Herculean efforts here over the past couple of months. More on that, hopefully, in the Fundación Totaí email update, due next month (let me know if you would like to receive a copy of that).

There’s a steak with my name on it, so…

Prayer

• Remember Amanda’s staff interviews. Not all of those we work alongside are Christians (especially in the health work); pray for further opportunities to evangelise and show Jesus’ love.
• Keep praying for the adoption. I referred last week to some major issues at local level; these are holding up progress on this front as well (legally, it should have been completed within 30 days of the termination of parental rights, not that we’re expecting that to be enforced in a city where most motorists have no driver’s licence).

Praise

• Give thanks for the work that is going on in the youth group. As mentioned in our email update, we’re getting a lot more time with the young people in small groups this year, and several have made a confession of faith.
• For increased (and most welcome) time together as a family as a result of the holidays this week.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 13/02/16

Amanda's eyesight's bad enough as it is.

Over the last couple of weeks, we've been busier than Donald Trump's hairdresser, so much so that last Saturday, for the first time in the history of this blog, we completely forgot to post anything (as opposed to home leave periods, or those weekends when we serve notice seven days earlier that we'll be venturing to some exotic destination -- or Santa Cruz). 

As a result, in spite of our efforts to give our blog-posts a more thematic feel in recent months, this weekend's effort will very much be in the tried-and-trusted mold of I-did-this-and-she-did-that-and-no-one-died.

The first of these last two weeks was exhausting, firstly because we were up late every night, and secondly because when we did finally rest our weary heads, we kept getting that nightmare about showing up for a high school exam late/unprepared/sans vêtements. Except for the first time in years there was some experiential basis, as a not-altogether-untricky exam was awaiting us at week's end.

All of which is attributable to the youth training week, which we mentioned last time out, with the church looking to re-calibrate the structure and methodology of the youth work, bringing it more in line with the AWANA (Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed) programme we run for children with its focus on Bible memorisation. It was an interesting course, but as intensive as it was interactive; here, rather than meet, say, once a week for five weeks, people prefer to do such courses quickly and efficiently over five weeknights (remember the Marriage Course)? 

In the end, we just about managed to scrape a pass (fully clothed, too) in the leadership exam, though the majority failed. Mercifully, there was a re-sit a few days later, by the end of which all eleven candidates got the seal of approval.

Ah yes, the old favourite of, er, smacking a ball around with balloon-stuffed
pillows.

After something of a dry January, rainy season has lived up to its billing a little more in the last couple of weeks; the storms have been heavy if intermittent, but much surface water remains, meaning mosquitoes are an ever-present nuisance (particularly, and most annoyingly, by our front door). Thankfully, but for a lunchtime downpour, the rain kept well away for last Saturday's annual Carnaval social event for the young people at the lake, which featured testimonies, the usual water-based games, and plenty of opportunities to demonstrate John 13:35 in action. 

That was an all-day affair, capped off with the exam that evening. Sunday, then, presented an ideal opportunity to finally put our feet up...except that we'd organised a Super Bowl party. We went to the lengths of borrowing the church projector for the occasion, rendering the thudding anti-climax all the more massive.

Cam Newton, in happier times (i.e., the pre-game warmup).

We had just about managed to get our house in order again by the time Thursday morning arrived with Edwin Fernández in tow. Avid readers will remember that Edwin works for Langham Preaching here in Bolivia, and Casa Cunningham is base-camp for what is his second follow-up visit since the initial course back in June. There is a lot to be encouraged by here; the fact that he has made the trip so frequently is symptomatic of Langham's optimism about the way things have progressed in Trinidad. Indeed, at the curtain-raising meal on Thursday with all the participants, Edwin presented us with a veritable bookshelf of written material (good books are very hard to come by here), adding that Langham Central was greatly encouraged by the Trinidad group's dedication, and the books were a gesture of gratitude.

Edwin's visits are always greatly encouraging (you might as well call him Barnabas) and he has even been kind enough to make himself available to the staff at Fundación Totaí, most obviously at the morning devotions. We're looking forward to what he has to say the rest of the weekend, be that on Sunday morning, Saturday evening with the youth, or today in our Langham workshop.

I should leave it there before I cause a renewed outbreak of exam nightmares.

Prayer

• Sam is growing quickly and his health remains robust, however, mosquito season brings great potential for complications. Pray for protection there.
• This Wednesday and Thursday, FT is holding two consecutive mornings of staff meetings, with the goal of better equipping our staff for the year ahead and helping newer members of the personnel understand better FT's mission and vision. Pray that these would go well.
• Pray for wisdom for Amanda and the other members of FT's board as they grapple with some financial restraints right now.

Praise

• That everyone passed the dreaded exam! Most were mature adults (you have to be at least 21 to serve as a leader in the new programme), including several who are getting involved in youth ministry for the first time this year. Exciting stuff.
• For safety, fellowship and fun last Saturday at the lake.
• For the great encouragement of Edwin's visit.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 27/06/15

Amanda with her trusty staff.

This being our last working week before heading back to the old country, things have been pretty manic. Indeed, two days away from leaving, our to-do list doesn't seem to be getting any shorter. Nonetheless, there have been a couple of highlights.

Before all of that, though, to the question that is on the tip of everyone's tongue: what about Ringo? Well, we have some cracking news. Though no small yolk to bear, we are delighted to inform you that we delivered him, intact, to social services (and no, before you ask, we didn't at any time shell out for a replacement). Gallingly, the psychologist, the very picture of solemnity a week previously, barely batted an eyelid as we marched into her office and triumphantly placed our pride and joy on the desk. And these are the people we entrust with our children?!?!?

Ringo's return brought the curtain down on a week of daily visits to social services, where we submitted ourselves to a series of interviews and psychological evaluations, answering such searching questions as, "When do you feel most powerful?", "What do you fear most in life?" and "Which animal would you most like to be?" (a whale, of course). We were even paid a visit at the house one afternoon, so that they could get a feel for the prospective child's surroundings (amazingly, there was no comment on the current lack of a bannister on a lower section of our stairs -- tiled flooring and all). 

We managed to get through the week unscathed, meaning that we will now be recommended to the judge as potential adoptive parents. There are one or two legal processes to deal with when we return here in late July and, assuming they go smoothly, it will be a case of waiting for a child to be offered to us through social services, while also keeping our ears to the ground for any possible unwanted pregnancies; indeed, an advantage of Trinidad's small-town mentality is that word tends to get around fairly quickly. In short, we might have to get that bannister installed sooner rather than later.

Earlier on Friday, we had something of an appropriate ending to our first 'semester' back at Fundación Totaí. While, once again, we have found ourselves with our fingers in oh so many pies (the best laid plans o' mice and men...), in general my prime focus has been on the church, while Amanda has chosen to concentrate on the personnel side of things at FT. You will know that Amanda has already been involved in planning special events such as the 'Pray for Fundación Totaí' evening, and has met regularly with individual staff members to minister to them. 

And yesterday morning, for the first time, we put up the 'closed' signs and devoted the whole morning exclusively to the staff, with breakfast served, team-building games played, and a half-hour slot in which you were to sit with a randomly-assigned member of the personnel and get to know them to the extent that you could answer a series of 'Mr & Mrs'-style questions by the end of the morning.

An added bonus was the visit of some contacts from the local deaf school, who gave an 'introductory' sign-language lesson (an important skill, particularly for the medical staff who work with many patients with hearing disabilities). What's with the inverted commas? Well, straight after the likes of 'Hello' and 'How are you?', our teachers reckoned the next natural step was, er, the human reproductive organs! And let's just say that, unusually for beginners in sign language, most people had guessed the correct words for each sign from the word 'go'! My advice would be to not ask questions and to file that one under 'Only in Bolivia'. 

Still, we reckon it was a most beneficial morning for all involved, and a really good way to say 'chau' to our 9-5 friends before getting out of here for a few weeks. And yet another confirmation of the Lord's will, as revealed to us during our sabbatical year. Indeed, now would probably be as good a time as any to look back on these past six months and reflect on the legion ways in which our calling has been further confirmed. 

Well, tough cookies. I have far too much packing to do. See you in August!

Prayer

• The road home, as you'll already be aware, is long and winding, and particularly drawn out this time. This time we're driving to Santa Cruz on Monday, probably leaving around 5am and getting there early afternoon (our car has an issue with the steering that needs looked at, and in this motorcycle-heavy town, few people are qualified to address it; we're taking it to a trusted contact in the big smoke, who will return it to Trinidad later in the week). On Wednesday morning we fly to Sao Paulo (Amanda will be on her Irish visa this time!) and then, on Thursday evening, we head to Frankfurt, where we will have to spend most of Friday before our flight to Edinburgh. Pray for safety and patience.
• Pray for Craig, who has one last sermon to deliver on Sunday morning (1 Kings 3).

Praise

• For big progress this week on adopting.
• For yesterday morning's event at FT.
• For a really encouraging six months back here (and, in all seriousness, if you're looking for highlights, you've come to the right webpage). 

"Don't you forget a-bow-wow-t me."

Finally, though our time in Scotland is limited, we will be giving a report at Shettleston New next Sunday (5th of July, 11am), and then two weeks later at Strathaven Evangelical Church (19th of July, 11am). Would be great to see you if you can make it.

¡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 -- 07/03/15

Last night at around a quarter past eleven, some seventeen hours since horizontality, and as I applied a little more elbow grease to the last plate's pizza residue, I thought to myself, "Back in Scotland, when visualising what this new stage in Bolivia would look like, it would have looked awfully like today."

In the morning, I met with Daniel and Yonatán for their weekly discipleship session, half an hour earlier than planned, at 8:30am, to accommodate some last-minute changes to Daniel's diary. A couple of years ago, we would have had to scrap the whole thing due to the fact that I would have had to attend Fundación Totaí's morning staff meeting, which takes place around the same time. And while I do still try to make it there most days, the fact that my only real work for FT now is in supporter communications means that I am under no obligation to attend, and can be much more flexible in the mornings. And as anyone who's read this blog with any frequency can attest, flexibility is an important commodity in Bolivia.

It was another terrific session with the boys, during which we worked through the next part of our Spanish translation of 'God's Big Picture' by Vaughan Roberts -- a text I strongly recommend, by the way, if you struggle in your Bible reading to see the macro for the micro; so easy to read, too. Resources of the calibre of 'God's Big Picture' just don't exist here, and naturally, the boys are lapping it up. It's a joy to guide them through these vitally important concepts for understanding Scripture.

Finished by 10am, I was free to head over to FT (just a five-minute walk from our house) and the office which has kindly been lent to me in the mornings. There, I took care of some more church business, writing out music for a new song, preparing for the men's ministry launch that evening, and sitting down with a church member and FT worker to discuss something that had come up in the church leadership meeting the night before.

With everything pretty much in place for the evening's activity, and having worked morning, afternoon and evening since Tuesday (Monday being our day off), I was able to afford myself a few hours of relaxation in the afternoon, during which I touched base with a former Cornhill colleague via Skype. Since coming back, I have set up a network of four friends from the UK, who vary in age and background but who also share a passion for the gospel. They have each agreed to meet online for about an hour once a month, which in turn means that I can get a bit of encouragement most weeks. I hope they can too. The effort it took for me to set all of this up has already paid great dividends.

Weather permitting, Friday late-afternoon usually sees me running podcast-assisted laps on the track at the nearby stadium (I try to do the same time on Mondays and Wednesdays too). Exercise is another important tool I have in maintaining personal sanity, and Fridays are particularly anticipated, what with the Guardian Football Weekly/Kermode & Mayo double-bill.

I then had a couple of hours to make myself socially acceptable again, before the first motorcycles revved up the driveway for the church's first official men's ministry meeting (the front garden soon resembled a two-wheeler garage). We enjoyed some Wii U, the half-dozen pizzas that one of the group had specially made with his wife, and a whole lot of blokey banter, before I gave a short talk I'd prepared about how the world's perceptions of manhood conflict with what God has to say on the topic, prompting a short discussion before we wound things up at around 10:30pm. There was a general acceptance among the group that strong male spiritual leadership both in the home and in church (with the latter's activities all too often encroaching on the former) too easily becomes something for which we eschew our God-given responsibility. I'm very excited to see where this ministry takes our church.

But just to keep our feet on the ground, Amanda's afternoon yesterday could hardly have been more deflating. As has been mentioned here before, she's now in charge of Human Resources at FT and just needs a bit of assurance now and again that she's doing her job well, particularly as she's not been trained in it. Anyone who knows Amanda will know that she most certainly is; the discouragement comes when positive results are not all that forthcoming. 

What with Google translate and other such tools, this is not the place to go into details about what happened yesterday, but I'll try to hit the main notes. Essentially, she had a long-arranged meeting with members of the health staff, most of whom were not Christians. And for most of the meeting she had to walk a tightrope: laying down discipline where required, due to some grumbling about the working conditions; but endeavouring at all times to do this in a way which maintained her own, and FT's, Christian witness. 

The meeting was made particularly difficult by the fact that one of the participants was asked by Amanda to adapt their working method a little to help the others and staunchly refused. This was especially hard to take from the one member of the group who is a believer; indeed, the person in question plays an active role in our church and is someone we would generally consider to be a good friend. The loneliness of leadership, in a nutshell.

A great contrast in experiences, then, yesterday, and not in any way untypical of an average day here; Amanda has had to support me through some challenging days too. As individuals who are not always the most stable, emotionally and mentally, we in no way take for granted the great gift that God has given us to stand strong when such circumstances arise: each other.

Prayer

• It's been mentioned here before, but particularly in the light of experiences like yesterday's, please keep Amanda and this new work of hers in your prayers. The FT board (on which Amanda sits) are also dealing with a few weighty matters just now and have their monthly meeting this coming week. Wisdom required by the bucketful!

Praise

• We had a really encouraging members' meeting at the church on Wednesday night, where the leaders (including Craig) put forward proposals to alter the programme. It is possible for a church member at the moment to attend up to six meetings a week, and while we're glad that such a range of services are available, most people quite understandably can't make it out to everything, and attendance has taken a hit. So we've dropped one of the two midweek meetings -- we'll now alternate the prayer meeting and the Bible study on Thursday nights -- and are going to drop the communion service the first Sunday of the month to incorporate it into the family service. There was a generally positive response, and some constructive discussion too as to the overall direction of the church.
• For the men's meeting last night; an encouraging start.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Hopes, Dreams and Educated Guesses

The children in the above image are, in fact, both of us on our way to
Trinidad five long years ago.

If you’ve read our blog in the past, or have some awareness of developing world contexts, you will know that the only thing you can predict on any given day is its sheer unpredictability! So it is with a fair dollop of caution that we offer up these insights into what may be on the horizon upon our return to Trinidad. In fact, we know that the very worst thing we could do is to throw ourselves straight back into a load of activities, without having first of all taken the time to assess things; so much will have changed even in the space of thirteen months.

Nonetheless, we know that you, our friends, are keen to know how you can be praying for us. We greatly appreciate this, and hope that the following will help you to get a very rough idea of the coming months.

Craig: Staying Focussed on a Better 'Yes'

In any situation, you will never be useful if your efforts are engaged in providing a need that simply is not there. It is with that in mind that, as stated above, we are keen to take stock of the current situation in Bolivia before rolling up our sleeves.

However, commendable though this is, a further refinement of resources must take place. Because, as human beings, we each bring very different talents to the table, and the danger is that we find ourselves attempting to address specific needs while not necessarily being equipped for the task. Taking this a step further still, we might well have the abilities to meet a need, yet still be wasting our energies as this is not the role that the Lord has for us.

I was certainly guilty of this at times during our first term in Bolivia. As the years went by, I gradually took on a vast array of tasks. These were all ‘good things’; indeed, they were by and large kingdom things! But I found I was scraping by in them, doing many things sufficiently, but few things really well. Worse, I was too proud at times to admit this to myself, yet the last year has certainly confirmed it; by the time we’re finished with our standard 40-minute church report, it’s hard to tell whether we are more exhausted in the telling, or our audience is more exhausted in getting their heads round all the different plates we’ve been spinning.

An extended period of home assignment like ours has its fair share of challenges. But at the same time, something really positive has been taking place out in Bolivia, which I was probably too proud to have foreseen a year ago. While we have been at home, being built up and prepared for the next stage in our ministry, things have not collapsed in Bolivia. In fact, in our absence, the Bolivians have taken on their fair share of things that we used to do. In 2014, our long-expressed desire that the work in Bolivia would decrease in its missionary dependence has taken a big leap forward.

This has been as true in the Education area of the Foundation – my own traditional stomping-ground – as it has been elsewhere. And yet, even up until a few weeks ago, I was in a bit of a fight with God over this.

You see, for some time I have known that God wants me to channel my energies into the work of the church, which is not quite at the same stage of maturity as the Foundation. In particular, there is a tremendous need for disciples to be raised up, for those who are Christians to be equipped to understand the Bible’s message for their lives and ‘set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity’. And, naturally, I’m humbled and excited to be a part of this.

But part of me just could not let go of the education ministry. What about those dozens of people each year who had so enjoyed the English classes I had taught? What about the students in the local schools who, as teenagers, have heard the gospel for the first time in their lives? The possibility of leaving behind these primarily evangelistic activities concerned me, and I don’t think there was anything inherently wrong with this.

Another happy bunch of English graduates.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of sitting in a Cornhill class taken by a much older visiting missionary, who has long wrestled with such questions. Indeed, it is only in the past few years that he has truly begun to understand what his gifts are and what God wants him to be engaged in. Yet since then, he claimed to have been much more effective in the Lord’s service. What did he do when presented with the opportunity to become engaged in something that, while great, was not what he had been called to? He remembered the following mantra: It’s easier to say ‘no’ when there’s a better ‘yes’.

That afternoon session may just have been the most important couple of hours for me in my preparation for going back. All of a sudden, two startling realisations dawned on me. Firstly, my utter lack of faith. How arrogant of me to presume the Lord’s dependence on me and me alone to bring the gospel to these people. Secondly, my failure to see the practical ramifications for our church of such evangelistic ministry, were it to prove ‘successful’. If, as a church, we’re not quite the finished article when it comes to getting alongside people on the path of discipleship – as I believe is the case right now – then welcoming new believers into our midst will, until that time, prove challenging.

Having thus been stopped in my tracks, I feel emboldened and unashamed to focus my energies solely on the church, and specifically on discipleship. And I will do so as part of a much-depleted leadership. When I joined the eldership in mid-2012, there were five of us; now, only I and the pastor, Elías, are left. With so many needs in the congregation, and only a couple of us to deal with them, it probably will not do to simply meet every two to three weeks as we had done previously as a leadership. Indeed, I would hope we can create regular time(s) during the working week (Elías is employed by the church part-time) to meet together and prayerfully address the needs of the church on a more day-to-day basis.

The year at Cornhill, of course, will have some bearing on the coming months. I have been assisted greatly in developing my preaching abilities over the last year, and I’m really looking forward to getting to grips with some new texts from the pulpit.

With good friend and shameless mickey-taker, Wilson Menacho.

However, important though that is, I can’t help but feel that it is especially vital that I look to equip others in Bible teaching ministry in the church – be that from the pulpit or the playpen – with the necessary tools for better understanding and communicating the truths of the word of God, tools which I had mostly gone without myself until this year.

Ideally, such equipping would go beyond the four walls of El Jireh church. In Bolivia, we continue to be saddled with a copy-and-paste education system which encourages a great deal of accumulation of disconnected facts and learning by rote, and not much in the way of engagement with information or independent thought. If our pews are largely filled by the products of such a system, it is of huge importance that preachers communicate the word faithfully. I have been in touch with a renowned international organisation that seeks to equip pastors to teach the Bible in a more responsible manner. My hope is that we can begin such an initiative in the Beni region sooner rather than later.

But, more than anything, I am convinced that such a work has to begin in our church, and for this reason, I’ll be seeking to have regular, one-on-one contact with young men in our congregation, in the hope of raising up more disciples and, I pray, some leaders of the future. What form this, or any of the above, will take, I’m still not sure, but I know these needs exist today, and I know that God has graciously given me the resources this year to address them. I would value your prayers as I continue to discern the right path for me in Bolivia, and the right path for El Jireh church.

Amanda: Keeping things Personnel

People who have read the blog before, or know me personally, will know that before our year in Scotland, I spent my mornings in Bolivia working in Audiology in the Foundation. When we first thought about serving in Bolivia, I wanted to use my Health Sciences degree and my experience as a medical secretary/health care support worker experience in my work in Trinidad.

I started out in nursing and after a year was trained as an audiological technician. I have enjoyed all the time I spent in those two areas as well as the relationships I made in them. I learned so much about ear and hearing care and I liked being able to put that knowledge to practical use in a missions context.

Amanda providing a routine hearing check as
part of FT's health check-ups for every
school child in Trinidad.

However, closer to the end of our first stint in Bolivia, I felt that what I was doing maybe wasn’t the wisest use of my time. I felt that there were a number of Bolivians who could do, or could be trained to do, what I was doing, and maybe even do it better.  This sense continued to grow as 2013 was drawing to a close, and I knew with a large degree of certainty that I would not be returning to audiology upon our arrival in Trinidad again. I was not quite sure what I would be doing instead, but I felt confident that there would be a better use of my time and skills.

Craig and I have spent at least the second half of our furlough year praying and sharing with each other about what we think God might have in store for us in Bolivia. From early on in 2014 I knew that the board of directors at the Foundation had taken on the job of human resources on top of their already busy schedule, and the concept of lightening this burden for Mariana and Miguel Angel was bouncing around in my mind.

I also felt strongly about the need for more overt evangelism amongst our own staff. Staff unity has also been a problem in the past and I have wondered in the past five years or so if someone needed to focus on building unity amongst all the staff through team building events or socials. Throughout the second half of the year, as we’ve been praying, I felt God leading me to the conclusion that I could address the majority of these issues if I left audiology and moved to human resources. I want to focus primarily on developing staff unity and a sense of team amongst us all, and evangelism to staff and patients in a more obvious way.

Amanda with FT audiologist, Odalys Arce

God, who has been so good and gracious to us in all things, once again proved to me how it was really Himself leading me to this conclusion. Mariana, at the beginning of September, wanted to have a Skype conversation to talk about what Craig and I were thinking of doing once we returned. I met her online and shared with her first about what Craig was thinking and then went on to outline my own thoughts. After hearing what I had to say, she answered with, “Oh good, that is exactly what we were wanting to ask you to do.” The confirmation that God had been working in both my heart and the other board of directors’ hearts on both side of the ocean was such an encouragement to me. I can return with the confidence that the leadership of the Foundation is supportive of the need for staff unity and evangelism.

Please pray that God gives me the wisdom to perform the tasks necessary. I am confident about getting alongside some people and developing friendships, but I am less confident about conflict resolution and problem solving amongst staff. I have some ideas for developing unity, but I also know that if I really want this to work I need to think outside the box and be creative and I am nervous about this particular challenge. I am so not as familiar with legal matters that might arise and I know I will be leaning heavily on other board members for advice in these cases. And as much as I would like to jump in and make changes, I know I need the sensitivity to move at the pace that the people around me are comfortable with and to follow God’s leading.

Amanda and Elías (centre) with their team at 2013's youth camp.

In terms of my involvement in the church, I am still praying through a lot and am adopting a wait-and-see approach. I feel the need to spend a lot more time with people one-on-one. I feel that a lot of programmes have been running perfectly fine without my involvement this year, so I would like to step back from a lot of programme work and focus on individual or small group discipleship. Depending on what we see when we join the church once again, I would like to take a step back from children’s work altogether and focus on supporting, but not running, youth work. I would like to be an active member of the women’s group in our church, but again, not necessarily organise the group.

However, I feel very strongly about supporting Craig in his church work. I know how hard and challenging this work is and I know he is going to need my help. I want to be there as prayer partner with him, and I definitely want to be available to listen to him and emotionally deal with the issues that are going to come up. I would like to help him practically as well; if this means cooking meals for leader’s meetings, or doing pastoral visits with him to families, couples or women, then I need to be able to fit these things into my schedule.

Although what I have written seems relatively well planned out, the truth is that we will not know exactly what we will be doing until we arrive and settle in. We want to take the time to integrate ourselves in the church and Foundation community before asserting ourselves or stepping on people’s toes. We know that relationships are central to what we do, and we also need to make time to re-establish old friendships and make new ones as well. We appreciate all your prayers as we seek to do these things with Christian love.

Both: Family Planning

One last thing, Columbo-style, which really applies to us both as a couple, and that is the possibility of adopting. We’ve been praying about this over the last couple of years and, now that we have something of a clear run of things for the next year or two (i.e., we probably won’t be leaving Bolivia for extended periods any time soon), we’re ready to begin actively exploring this possibility pretty much as soon as we get back.

In Bolivia, as with many things, the process of adoption tends to be a little more informal. We will first of all register with social work to be able to adopt, and then it’s quite simply a case of keeping an ear to the ground for any possible unwanted pregnancies; putting out the word through friends, making maternity nurses we know aware of our situation – a child could surface within a few weeks or many months, or even years later. We just don’t know.

Then would begin the next stage, of adopting that particular child, which can take a few months. And finally, we would begin looking into citizenship in the UK or Canada.

As you can see, then, much patience will required of us, both in the initial waiting period, and then as we take on the vast paperwork which will follow. Please remember this situation in your prayers.