Trinidad is in the grip of a bona fide crime wave at the moment,
with a spate of robberies taking place across the city over the past week.
These outbreaks are known to happen fairly regularly, but are no less shocking
for their frequency.
Our missionary friend, KC, was dealing with some important paperwork
(somebody we know always is – this is Bolivia) last week, for part of which she
was required to show her face at the police station. She arrived to a scene of
total mayhem, a slew of stolen motorcycles littering the main corridor
following a major bust. “Better if I come back next week?” she inquired of the
copper in question. “Probably” was the reply.
The last few days have highlighted the precarious nature of youth
work in this and, indeed, in any culture. I remember as a secondary school
teacher back in Scotland (where I worked in two less-than-well-off catchment
areas) having nights when I’d drive home, consumed with self-doubt after having
gone twelve rounds with certain classes, wondering why I wasn’t making any
difference at all to the behaviour/attitude of my pupils. Particularly when, as
an English teacher, I had the privilege of their company for more time than any
other of my colleagues, maths aside.
When the reality struck me, it was so obvious I could hardly believe
I’d thought otherwise. In a school context, yes, these kids had more class time
with me than almost any other teacher. Yet in the context of their week, their
four hours of English teaching were but a drop in the proverbial ocean of
influences at home, in the street and, yes, at school (where Christian values,
inevitably, were not always upheld across the board). A galling, yet
liberating, realisation.
Fast-forward four years and it’s a principle I’m continually reminded
of in our youth work here in Bolivia where, if anything, our contact with young
people is even more limited. And yet, as a relatively young church, we
naturally place a great deal of importance on the couple of hours or so each
week we have with the local youth. At times it consumes our working week, and
certainly our prayer lives – meaning that when things don’t turn out quite as
expected, it can be hard to take.
And yet, we need only look around us to take in the scale of the
tide we are swimming against. Negative influences tend not only to be fostered
among peer groups but from older relatives. Girls are largely encouraged to get
pregnant sharpish so that someone else can take care of them. Fathers’ lives
are, in many cases, governed by the bottle. Many, indeed, view the church with
suspicion (an ever-increasing challenge in the more atheistic West) and permit
their offspring to attend the Saturday night youth group meeting on the
condition they don’t get involved on a Sunday. Support from schools is on the
wane too, with the native Bolivian ‘Mother Earth’ religion now being promoted
in primary school R.E. lessons. Idolatry by another name, therefore, is
increasingly encouraged.
Saturday was the most recent reminder of the challenges we face. You
may remember my mentioning last week that, as part of a teaching series on the
Passover, I was charged with leading a session on what the Passover means to us
as believers, which focused largely on the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper and
its importance to Christians. In the church, we choose to observe this
important ritual every week before the family service and, if you’ve ever
partaken in it, you’ll know just how refreshing it is to be able to take our
eyes off ourselves and our own challenges, and concentrate on Jesus.
To be honest, we don’t really get a lot of youth along to the
service at the moment (owing, in part, to some of the above-mentioned factors),
but I was nonetheless led to present an overview of what we do and why – with a
particular emphasis on the obedience factor – in the hope that it might
encourage at least some of those youth who are able to make it to the service
the next day. I didn’t mince my words, really driving home the message that if
we take our faith seriously, then we’ll get to the Communion service, no matter
what.
Being Sunday, as usual, it was difficult to see the wood for the
trees owing to my various tasks with the band. So it wasn’t until I got home in
the afternoon that it dawned on me that not a single new face from the youth
group made it to the service that morning.
I learned long ago not to take these things personally, especially
in a culture which has major commitment issues, but it was more than a little
depressing as one of the youth leaders to realise the deficit between the
theory and the practice when it comes to what we teach. Naturally, much of the
teaching tends to centre around less discernible matters of the heart. This was
a case where evidence of any fruit borne in the hearts of our young people
could be seen in their actions the following day.
And yet, as in so much Christian work, we must trust in the Father
who ‘is at his work’ and the Son who, too, is working (John 5:17). As youth
leaders, we seek to teach only the Word of God and, as long as we do that, we
can be His word will not return empty, but will accomplish that which He
pleases (Isaiah 55:11). It might not happen overnight (as it certainly didn’t
in this case in a very real sense!) but we trust that our Heavenly Father
continues to minister to these young people, in ways beyond our asking or
imagining, in those 166 hours of non-contact every week.
Prayer
- For the Lord’s continued work in the hearts of our young people, and for endurance for their, at times, impatient, youth leaders!
- For our documentation situations! Craig is still waiting on his visa to be processed (now two weeks behind Amanda’s). Amanda, now on to the post-visa stage of renewing her ID card, has hit a minor snag. These are fundamental documents for life and work here so continue to remember this in your prayers.
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| Our new kitchen. Amanda refused to be photographed in it on the grounds of 'sexism'. |
Praise
- We have a kitchen! Visitor’s to Craig’s Facebook page will have read about the closing, dramatic developments in the saga earlier this week (the kitchen was delivered by the transport company to a completely different city in the opposite direction from Trinidad!) but it was, finally, installed over the last couple of days, meaning the interior of the house is now, more-or-less, complete.
- For a relaxing Easter weekend (so far!) and slightly extended break it affords us. Enjoy your own wherever you are.
¡Que Dios les bendiga!
Craig & Amanda
