Saturday Post -- 30/10/10

We were engaged in much merriment yesterday (Friday) as, together with the rest of the Fundación Totaí staff, we marked FT's sixth anniversary. The above picture shows FT staff and various family members at the official climax of the day's festivities. It was a good opportunity to consider how far FT has come and the Lord's provision over the years.

I say official climax as my favourite bit of the afternoon came later on, when about a dozen of the workers got changed and had a game of football out on the field outside our house. Believe it or not, this was my first proper kickabout since we came to Trinidad nine months ago and therefore embraced by yours truly with no little fervour, though admittedly no large flair. Indeed, if you're a secondary English teacher and you're in need of a simple, easy-to-understand definition of irony for your pupils, a simple photograph of me in my Barcelona 'Messi' shirt would be of immense benefit. Forgive me, Lionel, for I have sinned.

Nevertheless, a great time was had by all, not least the opposition goalie. This week also marked the climax of our Spanish classes with Farid, with Amanda concluding her lessons on Wednesday -- though, of course, the learning has only just begun! Cheesy, that, but true. We're glad that, with a freer morning schedule, Amanda will have more opportunities to learn in practical, everyday situations in the workplace. And we're particularly glad for the relationship we've been able to build with our young teacher over these past months, and will certainly be looking to maintain that friendship in the years to come.

On that subject, I was able to take advantage of our newly-turbo-charged internet speed earlier this week to meet, via Skype, my uni flatmate of two years, Dave Vinton, who like ourselves has recently left familiar shores to serve in a new environment -- though in many ways, it couldn't be any more different than Trinidad. Dave, originally from Bath, is working as assistant pastor at Grace Church in Greenwich, Connecticut or, in his own words 'the Tunbridge Wells of the USA'. Just 30 minutes' drive from New York City, Greenwich is America's unofficial hedge fund capital and home to some of the world's big economic players. Like ourselves, adjustment to the new culture has its ups and downs, but he is relishing this new opportunity. For all that our respective 'fields' are in such contrast with one another, I was intrigued to realise, as I chatted to Dave that, in many ways, we face similar hurdles to the gospel, particularly with regard to the whole concept of salvation by grace and not works (admittedly, something that none of us will ever truly grasp this side of Glory). Here the root of that confusion is centuries of Roman Catholic influence; up there, men and women who have gotten where they are in life by being very, very good at what they do.

I really appreciated getting back in touch with an old friend -- you have no idea of the encouragement that that sort of contact can be to us down here. I heartily commend his ministry to you and direct you to his own website, which details his work.

http://davevinton.blogspot.com/

Prayer
• For both of us, that with our formal language training now at an end, we would not slacken off in our Spanish studies.
• For Amanda, who has taken on further administrative tasks this week as part of her work, that she would keep afloat among the paperwork.

Praise
• For big progress this week on the new FT website, which Craig is developing.
• For some great opportunities to spend time with friends this week, be they work colleagues or old pals from home.

¡Qué Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 24/04/10

The major development this week at the Fundación has been the opening of the new quirófanos, or operating theatres. Until now, any surgery performed by the Fundación’s staff has been carried out in Trinidad’s military hospital, which sits on the other side of town. Given the time required to set up, dismantle and transport equipment, this added a couple of hours to any surgery session. With the facilities – unrivalled in the Beni region – now on-site, the Fundación’s health workers can expect to get home in time for dinner. Which is great news for Amanda, who is a part of the surgical teams.

Amanda wasn’t able to make Thursday’s opening session this week, however, due to the WHO ‘Primary Care of the Ear and Hearing’ which has taken place at the Fundación this week. It’s fair to say that when we discovered the entire course would be in Spanish, Amanda quickly reached for the panic button. However, she has applied herself with her usual dedication and has every confidence of passing the final exam, which takes place this afternoon. And, what’s more, her Spanish has gone up a couple of notches. As turnarounds go, it’s up there with Nick Clegg.

Unfortunately, the magic dust hasn’t quite rubbed off on Real Mamoré, who were routed by three goals to one at the weekend. Not the best introduction to local sporting ‘endeavour’ for Matt but he’ll at least have the chance to sample the surrounding wildlife when we visit the river this weekend, though swimming may well be out of the question: a big sur has quite literally just blown into town, much to the excitement of my trousers.

Prayer
• For Amanda’s final exam today.
• For safety for Matt, who flies back to Texas, via La Paz, on Wednesday.

Praise
• For Amanda’s linguistic development via the course this week.
• For a well-received and well-understood sermon last Sunday, with much-improved standards of Spanish (thanks, Diego!).

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 20/03/10

The only way was down after last week’s heatwave and, mercifully, things took a turn for the better weather-wise this week. Most days have brought heavy showers, though thankfully nowhere near long enough to threaten people’s homes. As I write, it’s around the low 30s outside with a breeze to keep things balanced. But it will take more than that to stave off the power cuts and, sure enough, we’ve been hit another couple of times this week.

Thankfully, though there were cuts on Wednesday, they didn’t interfere with our evening frontón match, or at least, not to the extent of our generally atrocious play. At one point, trying to recall the word for ‘blind’, I asked Diego for the translation. “Ciego,” he replied, “like Diego, but with a C”. Given my team-mate’s less than exceptional vision in night games, that’s an easy word to remember.

This week I started drawing up a beginner’s English curriculum and devised some lesson plans. I’m determined to have a bank of materials on hand by the time I begin teaching. Interactive Smartboards haven’t quite reached Trinidad yet, but I’ll be looking to invest in a fair-sized whiteboard in the next few weeks. When I begin teaching in the Foundation, my classes will be in the upstairs auditorium which is also used by the church for its meetings. Conveniently, it’s right next door to the new Education office.

Within church, Amanda continues to make use of her Spanish in the Sunday school classes and I’m continuing in my efforts to expand the horizons of the music ministry. A week on Sunday, I’ll be giving my first full-length Spanish sermon, so I’ve started the preparation a week early in order to give myself enough translation time. I’ll be looking at 1 John 2:7-14 and what the ‘new commandment’ means in the light of Palm Sunday and the events which followed later that week.

That may, indeed, be the only opportunity to consider the events of Holy Week as a church as there are some local elections looming on Easter Sunday. For fully paid-up residents/citizens (of which we are neither) the vote is compulsory. And in order to ensure that impediments to the ballot box are kept to a minimum, the country is essentially shut down. For a few days on either side of an election it is impossible to travel between cities and public meetings of any kind are prohibited. However, given the importance of the date in the Christian calendar, the government has kindly agreed to allow churches to meet on Easter Sunday itself.

We’ll be mightily relieved when it’s all over. I’m not too down on ‘big government’ but I don’t appreciate being told what to do! Equally, I’m fed up of the propagandists around our neighbourhood with their helpful cut-out-and-keep guides as to how to vote for their candidate. And, frankly, the Fundación’s ENT work is sure to be in much demand in the coming weeks given the preponderance of motorcades blaring out ear-splittingly awful Latin pop tunes! Sadly the age-old link between politics and bad music is not restricted to Gordon Brown’s X Factor endorsements.

We endeavour, therefore, to keep our heads amidst the chaos around us and no better place to turn than the Bible. I’ve been reading ‘Pure Joy’ by the genius that is R.T. Kendall and thinking particularly this week about John 5:44: “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?”. Hardly classic memory verse material, yet it has exposed so many basic areas of weakness in my life. As John suggests in 1 John, when you let the light of the Word of God loose in your life, be prepared to face up to the niggly stuff hiding away in the corners.

Prayer
• Craig's preparation for speaking a week on Sunday (28th)
• Our language learning. The basics have largely been dealt with -- it's getting all reflexive verbs now!

Praise
• The cooling-off in the climate this week.
• The government’s recent decision to grant exceptions to churches meeting on Easter Sunday.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 06/03/10

A couple of encouraging updates from last week to kick off. First of all, though we have not officially obtained our one-year visas, they have been paid for in full, i.e., they can’t fling any more surprise charges at us unawares. We should have our newly-stamped passports by next week, when we can then begin the process of obtaining our ‘carnets’. The I.D. card debate has been raging in the UK for some time now, but there’s no getting out of it down here.

Thank you all for your prayers for this and my sermon last Sunday. In a nutshell, as part of the church’s series on 1 John, I used 1 John 1:8-9 to explore confession and its vital – indeed, expected – role in the lives of Christians. Despite having to account for translation time (in the shape of Diego), which effectively reduced the standard sermon length by half, I feel I was able to communicate what the Lord had placed on my heart in its fullness. Next time (if there is a next time!) I’ll be doing my own translating!

Our church horizons broaden a little further this weekend with Amanda taking a Sunday school class of 12-15 year-olds, alongside Jo. Where we come from, churches recognise the blessing of children and usually pray that more would come through their doors. As you can see from the picture, that's not a significant problem for 'El Jireh' (if anything, the challenge is convincing their parents to pop in!). Clearly, then, this is a vital ministry. She attended a leaders’ meeting last Sunday and will begin work this Sunday. Whilst giving her an active role in church life, it will also provide an excellent opportunity to develop her Spanish. 12-15 year-olds.

In the Fundación, Amanda returned to surgery this week, though a larger case-load didn’t see her getting home till 8pm – that’s fairly normal on surgery afternoons (see last week’s post which goes into the rigours in more detail). Aside from this, she was helping to conduct hearing tests on newborn infants at the local maternity hospital. She also had the opportunity to triage new patients by herself for the first time and, excitingly (for Amanda, at least) help out with administrative tasks!

Meanwhile, I’ve been tasked with translating into Spanish the six-monthly sponsors’ report, which those of you who support the Fundación’s work will have received recently. I’m excited to be learning all sorts of unfamiliar medical words (FYI: an operating theatre is a quirófano) though all too aware of my linguistic limitations. You know when you get Google to electronically translate a foreign website only to upload an all-too-literalistic rendering, metaphors and all? If not, try it out. It's pretty hilarious. And you're right, I do need to get out more. Anyway, that’s precisely what I’m trying to avoid. We’ll see how that one turns out.

Additionally, in the absence of Claudia, who heads up education here, I’ve been tasked with some education-related business, such as drawing up monthly reports and convening the monthly education meeting. Currently, these tasks are relatively light compared to other divisions of the Fundación (such as health) but I hope to play a part in expanding this in the near future when I begin teaching English. If our meetings are a reflection of our activity as a division, then for once in my life, I’m happily embracing the prospect of long meetings!

A few weeks ago I wrote about our Spanish teacher, the Chelsea-supporting Farid. Well, you’ll be pleased to hear I haven’t lost my perspective on grace. We’re putting our differences aside and, on Sunday, are going to the opening match of the season for the local side Real Mamoré (still not too sure what’s so Real about them, but not to worry…), who play in the national premier league. Farid is about my age and despite being under his tutelage, we’ve actually managed to develop something resembling a friendship during our classes. This is something Amanda and I have been praying for a lot recently: the development of relationships with locals unconnected with the Fundación. Why? Well, much as we love our friends and colleagues working alongside us, you’ll know all too well you can only have so much time with your workmates! It’s healthy for us to have a wider spectrum of relationships. Additionally, we’re missionaries, and developing relationships is a great way to lay the foundations for the gospel, should the Lord will it.

Finally, I should point out that a Sunday School teacher friend of ours recently got in touch with a great suggestion to post now and again about aspects of life here with particular appeal to youngsters, so that we could get children praying for our ministry. Amanda’s decided to have a go at such posts now and again and the first, concerning our furrier neighbours, is underneath.

Prayer
• Amanda’s Sunday school classes, beginning this Sunday.
• For Craig as he oversees the education division.
• For discipline in managing our work- and free-time.

Praise
• For significant progress in the visa applications this week.
• For Craig’s sermon last Sunday.
• For growing relationships with locals.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 20/2/10

To date, these blogs have tended to focus on day-to-day activities more than our leisure time. We may be boring, but we’re not so boring that we don’t let our hair down come the weekend (alas, a purely figurative statement in my case)!

On Saturdays, Amanda will leave the house with KC around 9 to go and do the grocery shopping for the week (see previous entry). I, meanwhile, join Dr. Santana and about 6 others for a frontón session. Frontón is like squash without the mid-life crisis. You play it on an outdoor court which is about the same height and width of a squash court, but twice as long. You play it in teams of two, one at the front and one at the back, with racquetball equipment. It’s fast, unpredictable and utterly addictive – so much so that we play on Wednesday evenings too.

Our only other ‘engagements’ at the weekend are church-related. I meet the other band members for a practice at 3pm on Saturday and then, at 10.30am on Sundays, we have our main service, which is followed by a communion service and usually finishes around 12.15pm. The church’s music situation is in need of something of an overhaul. We have a small, but eager band of 3 guitarists and a keyboard player. However, the vast majority of music at present comes from a theologically-sound, though somewhat antiquated, hymnbook of about 50 songs. Chicho (Rachel Peebles’ husband) and I are endeavouring to expand the range. This week we photocopied ten new worship songs for use, though hopefully we’ll have use of a projector in the days to come. Add to all this the fact that Bolivian singing voices tend to be about as pure and unblemished as Paul Gascoigne’s criminal record and it is clear that music is an area of crucial importance.

These aside, we tend to spend our weekends in a perpetual state of elegant slumber, reading, snoozing and watching sports. And the Winter Olympics.

As mentioned last week, Carnavál, while providing Bolivia with an unrivalled opportunity to celebrate its culture in all its drunkenness (22 deaths nationwide and counting), gave those of us at FT a much-appreciated two-day holiday on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday, we helped the young people (Jóvenes) of the church out with their programme of outdoor games. Some 50 young people turned out for this event, which included a time of worship and gospel presentation in the morning and evening sessions. Our main involvement, however, was throwing water balloons at unsuspecting teenagers and photographing them in all their mania. A good time had by all.

Tuesday was scheduled to be our ‘day out’ but unfortunately, we were not able to see as much of the surrounding countryside as we would have liked as there had been severe flooding all day Sunday and throughout Tuesday morning. We therefore drove about 10 miles out of town to a fish restaurant near the river and this proved to be a most sobering journey. On either side of the road, all one could see besides acres of water was treetops and rooftops of houses, with only the electricity pylons standing strong above it all. At the immediate roadside were hundreds of makeshift tarpaulin tents – in other words, the temporary homes of those who had to evacuate (no joke: on Monday, for one of the water games, we were generously donated the ‘roof’ of one of the participating girl’s bedrooms – a single tarpaulin sheet).







We arrived at the fish restaurant and you can see from the first picture how precarious the flooding had rendered the entrance. We sat down and enjoyed a fantastic meal together (pictured are Craig, Amanda, Maicol, KC and Chicho). But while we were enjoying ourselves, the third photograph demonstrates the fragility of life for the restaurant’s neighbours.

On Wednesday, we were back at work, enjoying the fact that another weekend was none too far away. Amanda’s Spanish is picking up (she’s now telling the moto drivers what to do – know the feeling, guys!) and on Thursday evening I was able to give a brief, three-point talk in Spanish at the prayer meeting.

Finally, a brief ‘hello’ to a Mr. K. Fisher, none too impressed by the mixing of first- and third-person in previous posts. Trust you’ve enjoyed this post, Kenneth. And get a life.

Praise
• A relaxing, rejuvenating two-day holiday.
• Encouraging signs of progress in language-learning.
• Safety during Carnavál.

Prayer
• Craig is giving a sermon in church next Sunday (28th). Pray for preparation.
• Amanda’s development of relationships with co-workers.
• The people of Trinidad who have had to desert their homes during the flooding, and FT’s ability to deal with the health/community needs arising from this.

Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 13/2/10

Well, our first week here was always going to be a little different and it's fair to say that this week we were brought down to earth with a bump. On our knees. With a wrenching stomach.

Amanda went to her first session at the clinic on Monday afternoon, reporting mild nausea but otherwise looking forward to getting started at last. Within half an hour, she was desperately trying to remember the word for "toilet" and, having managed to locate aforementioned excrementary recepticle in the nick of time, she promptly emptied herself of all but love.

As first impressions go, it takes some beating.

Not content to keep it all to herself, Amanda proceeded to pass said virus on to Craig as he was attempting to nurse her back to health that evening. I'd expected long, agonising nights in a posture of prostration as I set off for the mission field, but this I had not bargained for.

Needless to say, we took Tuesday off, but what we lost in work hours we more than made up for in Doctor Who episodes. By Wednesday morning we were able to nibble again and were back behind our respective 'desks'.

Amanda was attended the clinics this week and paid a visit to the local maternity/paediatric hospital. This was the first week of a new study into hearing deficiencies of children who are in the accident & emergency facility there, as part of the foundation's ongoing ¡Oye, Bolivia! ('Hear, Bolivia!') programme. She's enjoying being back at work and already, despite her lack of Spanish, feels part of the team. The other day she was pointing out to one of the nurses the differences between the English verbs 'to kiss' and 'to kill'. A beneficial distinction, you'll no doubt agree.

I've spent a half-day every day this week working through my online TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course. Though a lot of the reading is fairly theoretical, most of the assignments have a really practical basis. Just like being back in the classroom, then.

And speaking of classrooms, we've commenced our Spanish classes with our teacher, Farid. Amanda attends on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and I on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Farid is a Chelsea fan, so he's not had the best of weeks (he should be used to those) but his footballing knowledge does have its linguistic benefits. When I was trying to remember the meaning of the Spanish work 'puente', he said 'bridge...Wayne Bridge!'. I think it's best we leave it at that...

As you can see from the photograph, Trinidad is once again feeling the negative effects of rainy season. This is a typical scene, particularly in the southern outskirts of the town, which sit nearer the river. It is at times like these, of course, that the Foundation's assistance is most required. And yet, while many thousands struggle to keep their houses in order (in an all too literal sense) the citizens are preoccupied with Carnavál, i.e., the traditional Latin American festivities in the days preceding Lent. Lent, of course, is a season of abstinence, of inward contemplation and renunciation. It thereby follows that Carnavál is the perfect time to get your vices out of your system! You've got to love the logic. If Lent was observed half as enthusiastically as Carnavál, Trinidad would be experiencing true revival!

Needless to say, it's not the best time for Christian missionaries to be in town (chocos are a particular target of youths with super-soakers!). So instead, we're helping the young people of the church out with a programme of activities all day on Monday. And on that same note, we had a meeting with the church elders on Sunday to look into possible roles. Amanda's going to be helping out at the Sunday school and I'm going to be helping the praise band, though I made a head-start on this, guitar in hand, last Sunday. And I'm going to be put on the teaching rota, probably speaking about once a month. I've been asked to share something at the Communion service this Sunday. I think they want to check that I'm not a heretic...

Praise
• For Amanda’s increasing confidence in Spanish (see previous post)
• For a speedy recovery from our bout of sickness.
• For a quick adjustment to our new schedules.

Prayer
• For the people of the town who are worse affected by the floods.
• For Craig as he gives a brief message on Sunday.
• That our relationships with the people of the community would develop.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 6/2/10

Dear friends,

It's now a week since we landed here in Trinidad and while so much is still so new to us, we feel very settled.

With five hours' difference from Glasgow to Toronto and only a single hour's deficit between Toronto and Trinidad (FYI, we're four hours behind GMT and they don't change the clocks here in the Northern Spring), we naturally assumed the worst of the jet-lag was behind us. Yes and no. While we have enjoyed an hour's extra sleep in the morning, our sense of exhaustion has been palpable. In many ways we're just recovering from the hectic last few weeks and (in Craig's case, anyway) retrieving the evening's snooze lost on the way down here.

Of course, at the same time, the heat is a not inconsiderable factor in this. We're not sure exactly what the temperature is – probably mid-to-late thirties – but let's just say we had our first (dreaded though hardly unexpected – this is Trinidad) power-cut on Wednesday and, with the ceiling fans out of action, probably between us produced enough perspiration to cause embarrassment to the East German women’s hammer-throwing team.

Acclimatisation has been required, additionally, to our new surroundings. Fundación Totaí is based in a part of town which didn’t even exist a few years ago. Indeed, when the foundation stone was laid for Casa Margaret (the main building here), the project was effectively based in the middle of nowhere. Since then the town’s (city's?) outward spread has been so rapid that it now sits in the suburbs.

This seismic change is visible in the town itself, which has increased in population by one-third. This, added to a growing upper-working-class, has sparked a major upsurge in traffic. Those of you who saw our presentation towards the end of 2009 will remember those images of transportation in Trinidad – the odd moto-taxi, a horse-and-cart here or there. These days, the roads are practically gridlocked wherever you look, with a major increase in motos but also the appearance of a hitherto unknown entity in Trinidad: the car.

Though it's a little strange for us to effectively move in with another couple (with the Holts returning to their home in June, there may well be three of us here), we could not have felt more welcome. K.C. (a volunteer from Seattle) and her husband Maicol (a native) have gone to great lengths to help us settle in, with K.C. dealing with most of our induction business. In K.C., Amanda has someone with whom she can go shopping and watch girly movies; in Maicol, Craig has someone who can mock him for being a “choco” (white guy) and whom Craig can bore to tears with his ramblings concerning the financial instability at Old Trafford.

Around us are great friends, some new and many old, not least Diego & Jo Santana and the many natives with whom Craig already has a deep friendship and for whom Amanda will some day be able to say the same.

Though we were advised to use this week to settle in, on Thursday afternoon we had a meeting with the Board of Directors to discuss our roles here. The next three months will be somewhat dominated by language learning. We've been able to enrol in classes with the local language institute which complement our individual levels in Spanish. Our weekdays will appear thus: for half a day, we will concentrate on our Spanish and in the for the other half, we will focus on our specialist areas. Amanda will be getting her hands dirty in healthcare – job shadowing the nurses in the clinic, helping with health checks for children in the local schools and newborn hearing assessments – while Craig will sit his online TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course, in order to gain the internationally recognised qualification. Additionally we will help out in various ways across the different areas, with Craig, for example, supporting sports ministry discipleship and, in the church, getting involved with the praise band and teaching schedule (first sermon is Sunday 21st!).

Beyond the next three months, we can envisage Amanda’s main focus being healthcare with a little church work, with Craig’s being more of a 50/50 split between church and education. But, as we know all too well, it is the Lord alone who knows what will transpire, and so we will endeavour to hear his voice in the midst of all of this.

We aim to post this update every week, probably around the weekend (if you are a church secretary, you may wish to visit on a Saturday evening in order to pass on updates to your congregation). We have no idea what sort of format it will take, but we can guarantee that it will always close with a few main points of prayer and praise:

Praise
• A safe arrival here in Trinidad.
• A genuine feeling of being at home among the volunteers and workers here.
• Following Thursday’s meeting, having a clear idea of our schedule over the next few months.

Prayer
• That we would adjust mentally and physically to our new climate and timetable.
• That we would be disciplined in our language learning – particularly Amanda, who is effectively starting from scratch.
• That we would find time in our busy schedules for personal Christian growth and for each other.

Que Dios te bendiga!

Craig & Amanda