Saturday Post -- 28/03/15

There goes another weekend.

I've definitely had worse weeks than the seven days just past. Three points at Anfield on Sunday. Finally conquering the outrageously challenging final level of Super Mario 3D World. And then, in the early hours of Friday morning, a most pleasant surprise: a big, fat, juicy south wind tumbling its way into town.

For the benefit of the relative newcomers, south winds down here are like northerlies in Europe and North America, bringing temperatures down dramatically and generally ruining everyone's day -- except mine! With the vast majority of the year seeing temperatures well over 30 degrees, with a good deal of humidity thrown in, south winds roll in all too infrequently, but are welcomed (in this house at least) with open arms. 

The real surprise was the timing, as the peak sur season is between June and August. Not that we're complaining. With the weather particularly humid at this time of year, the mercury is already beginning to rise again. We shall savour this.

The rest of Trinidad, meanwhile, will have to wrap up well tomorrow, when they will be obliged to stand in line for the local elections, which are taking place across the country, with president Evo Morales' 'MAS' party set to sweep the board once again. Everywhere except here, of course; the Beni region has long been the sole remaining province of Bolivia impervious to Morales' unique charms. Now that we have permanent residency, we would normally be required to vote ourselves, except that no voter registration has taken place this year. So we have been granted a special exemption based on the fact that we were out of the country last year, the last time new voters were registered (to acquire this, we had to submit photocopies of the entry and exit dates on our passports). This is vital as proof of having cast one's ballot is required at a great many everyday junctures here.

Elections here also mean the country is in a state of semi-lockdown, with businesses forbidden to trade, motorists forbidden to, er, motor, and public meetings banned until the polls close at 6pm. That means that we can't have our usual church service tomorrow in the morning; instead, we'll be having our first ever Sunday evening service to mark Palm Sunday. 

Not too much else to report this week, really, so straight on to the prayer points.

Prayer

• The youth group at church are beginning a series in Hebrews 11 tonight, in which they'll be looking closely at the examples of faith cited by Professor Hebrews (as my dear old Cornhill teacher Edward Lobb refers to the New Testament's man of mystery). I will be giving the introductory talk to the whole thing. And, being true to those Cornhill roots, I'll be using it to establish the context of Hebrews 11 in the whole book (because, let's face it, the writer didn't wake up one morning and think to himself, "I'm gonna write the faith chapter to end all faith chapters!") while showing how lack of faith so often takes root when we focus on the things we see. Pray for wisdom for me and understanding for the young people.
• Keep praying for Hernán. He is due to be operated on any day now to receive skin grafts, but surgeons are not yet sure if he is in a fit state to go under the knife.
• Pray for stability in the country in the next couple of days as the polling booths open, and votes are cast and counted.

Praise

• This time last week, we were setting off with the youth group for a day trip to the lake, which, alas, was also affected by the weather, with very heavy rain arriving midway through the morning. Nonetheless, we had an enjoyable time of fellowship together, and the rain dried up later on, allowing everyone a brief swim.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda Cunningham

Saturday Post -- 21/03/15

In recent weeks, I (Craig – sorry, you’re stuck with me again) have graciously been granted a first-hand glimpse into the workings of our great God.

Those who know me will be aware that I enjoy setting myself targets now and again, in the hope of infusing my ever-hastening days with structure and purpose. During our time away in 2014, I managed to pick up a cut-price copy of Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology, which has already established itself as something of a classic in evangelical scholarship since its publication in 1997 (it’s also a bit of a doorstopper – handily for us, this version was in a digital format). Bearing in mind the relative lack of in-service training opportunities available to us out here, I resolved to study one chapter every Sunday afternoon upon returning to Bolivia. Thus far, I have barely dipped my toe into the first major section, on the word of God, but I already feel greatly enriched for the study.

Grudem’s work transcends the academic in its endeavour to apply Christian doctrine to the life of the reader and with this in mind, each chapter closes with a series of questions for personal application. A couple of weeks back, I noticed that, not for the first time, there was a question about how the particular doctrine of that week might challenge the teachings of the Jehovah’s Witnesses; perhaps Grudem has previous in this area. And not for the first time, I felt unequipped to answer the question. To the best of my knowledge, at no point in my life had I had any engagement with a Jehovah’s Witness, and (probably as a result) I’d never really taken the time to study their teachings and see how they measure up with Scripture.

Having been forced to skip a JW-related question for the second week running, I felt this was perhaps a little prompting from the Lord to venture down this particular rabbit-hole. Not that I was motivated by a mere lack of ability to answer homework questions. I knew fine well that I could hardly engage such people without having first gotten to grips with the tenets of their faith. And this would potentially be of even greater benefit here in this corner of Bolivia, where the Jehovah’s Witnesses are more visible than back in the UK – not that I had yet had an opportunity to converse with one.

And so, I spent some time the following day doing some research into the beliefs of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, in the process learning more about the reasoning for their reading of the 144,000 in Revelation, the various day-and-date proclamations of the world’s end, and the sharply contrasting claims (with us evangelicals) as to the divinity of Jesus. I wasn’t exactly ready to write a PhD on the topic, but I certainly had a better understanding as to where they were coming from – though, if anything, I was all the more perplexed as to why anyone with half a brain would give it all more than a moment’s thought. In any case, I would be prepared to engage a Jehovah’s Witness on these issues if and when an opportunity arose.

Five days later, seemingly unrelated circumstances were taking place. I was enjoying lunch with Amanda, not so much for the food as simply the opportunity to relax for the first time last Saturday, having attended the monthly 6am joint pastors’/leaders’ meeting before setting off on the odyssey that is the Saturday Morning Shop (stepping in so that Amanda could write last week’s blog entry). But I knew that I had better make the most of my plate of pasta. In mid-afternoon, I was scheduled to attend the weekly church music group’s practice, with the youth group to follow. But seeming light years ago, when energy levels were sky-high (i.e., Tuesday) I’d pencilled in another appointment for Saturday afternoon: a visit to the hospital, where FT’s former patient Hernán, the 19-year-old quadriplegic, had recently been transferred.

One morning at the Foundation, I paid Hernán a brief visit to read Scripture and pray with him. He mentioned that he really loved films and I suggested I could maybe come round with a DVD. I never quite got round to this when he was with us at the Foundation, so I felt it was only correct that I right this wrong – hence my pledge to come and visit last Saturday.

And so, I made my way to the hospital, but practically running on empty. I resolved in the car that I’d just watch half of the film with him and come back the next weekend (i.e., today) to watch the remainder.

But, as it happens, we both rather got into the film in question, and I thought to myself, “I have time, I might as well stay till the end”. But we didn’t quite get there.

About three-quarters of the way through the film, a medical team came to carry out a routine check-up, and so, to give Hernán and his mother some privacy, I stepped outside into the corridor, only to feel a pamphlet being thrust into my open hand and unwittingly open the door for the very first time in my 32-and-a-half years to…

…a Jehovah’s Witness!

This, surely, was providence writ large. And so I politely declined the copy of the Watchtower, explained that I was a follower of Jesus Christ and (unfortunately for Hernán, it must be said!) spent the next half hour in discussion with the woman in question and her friend, taking them to verses in Scripture that clearly contradict the teaching of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. I take no pride whatsoever in saying that they were unable to give satisfactory explanations; their general reaction consisted in their presenting verses to me with total disregard for their context and for biblical genres (a particular favourite was Daniel 2:44 – yet when I asked the women what the overall ‘story’ of Daniel 2 was, they could not tell me).

The discussion ended, unfortunately, with the women walking away while refusing to answer my latest question (one of them, a tad cheekily, explained to me that my being a non-native Spanish speaker was a contributing factor to my inability to understand the New World Translation!). But in the meantime, perhaps sensing the tension, ‘a crowd had gathered’. And for another half-an-hour, I held something of an impromptu Bible study with some of the onlookers, to expose the false teaching of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and point them in the way of Biblical truth as to the person of Jesus and the end times. Alas, at 6:20pm, I realised the youth group meeting was just 40 minutes away, and I would have to take my leave of these people and, of course, Hernán (turns out we’ll be finishing the film today after all).

The spring in my step as I dashed to the car was Super Mario-like. My one slight regret was that the discussion with the Jehovah’s Witnesses themselves ended so abruptly – I do hope that it was not down to any aggression on my part (I did try really hard to keep my emotions in check!). But, overall, I was simply in renewed awe of ‘the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God’ (Romans 11:23).

A few key lessons have hit home as I have digested these occurrences; I do believe they are of universal application.

1.     This chain of events was set in motion only when I became aware of my limitations. If I hadn’t studied these topics a few days earlier, I would have had little to go on in exposing the false gospel of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. But this study only arose out of a deep sense of ignorance on my part. Surely this conviction was of God, and he used it to bring glory to himself.

2.     ‘Nothing in my hand I bring’. 95% of me on Saturday afternoon was saying ‘stay at home, get some rest, Hernán will understand.’ I cannot take a modicum of credit for what happened. It was all of God.

3.     The ‘part of pain and pleasure’ of recent weeks could only be fully understood at a later juncture. I sat down to study these matters in the hope that they might be of use some distant day in the future; God, meanwhile, had other plans, determining to throw me in the deep end that very week! More profoundly, what of Hernán’s circumstances, which have been documented here over the past couple of weeks? Naturally, as a church, while endeavouring to care for him as best we can, it has nonetheless been tough to have a ring-side seat on such suffering and trust that there is a purpose. It is certainly not my place to make sweeping pronouncements regarding such a sensitive topic. All I know is that, occasioned by Hernán’s situation, Saturday was my first proper visit to Trinidad’s hospital, and unbeknownst to me, God had a little missionary work lined up in its corridors.

Prayer

• Today’s entry was written yesterday – if you can get your heads round that – as this morning we’re off with the youth group to the local lake resort for a morning of fellowship. It'll mostly be a time of relaxation, but one of the leaders will also be showing them how to share the gospel using balloons! Pray for safety and for listening ears during the talk.
• We have had one of those weeks in the house in which the proverbial rain has been of the ‘pouring’ variety. Just one thing after another to be fixed. Pray for patience and for provision to meet these costs.

Praise

• We had another really encouraging meeting of the men’s group last night. We’re beginning a Bible study using the film ‘Courageous’. Film-buff that he is, Craig would not readily admit to usually enjoying Christian movies (speaking of Daniel, would it be overly-spiritual to say they have been artistically ‘found wanting’?)! However, as a teaching aid, it’s excellent, with themes applicable to men across all cultures, particularly touching on the responsibility for male Christian leadership at home.
• Amanda was in need of a little mending herself over the weekend, coming down with a 48-hour stomach bug not long after she finished putting pen to paper on the blog (ominous!). Give thanks for a full recovery.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 14/03/2015

It is the time everyone has been waiting for: Craig has gone out to do the shopping this morning, leaving me with the blog post. There was a lot of wheeling and dealing to make this happen, but I think we’re both fairly happy with the change of pace. After a 6 a.m. youth leadership prayer meeting, getting to get back into bed and not having to get back out of it for grocery shopping is gift. However, now that I am sitting here having to write an entry, I’m not entirely sure what I should say… this is probably why Craig traded with me.

My problem is not that nothing happened this week, but that sometimes communicating what did happen is quite difficult. I think most people will have picked up form last week’s entry that I had a difficult week last week, and to be honest, I was quite nervous at the beginning of this week probably for the first time since coming back. I was worried if the difficult issues from last week would carry over into my personal relationships, I was worried finding wisdom in the face of some big decisions the Foundation was facing, and I was worried about my mounting level of stress.

I like doing things well; I actually would rather not do things if I can’t do them well, which is why I don’t play sports, but I guess that’s another issue entirely. However, I do recognise that this personality trait of mine isn’t always healthy. Sometimes we are asked to do things that we just have to do, and we can’t be good at everything. I have found working in HR hard because there isn’t necessarily the feedback to assure me that I am doing things even moderately well. I only know when something else has gone wrong or I have to intervene in another situation. I understand that that’s the nature of the job, but I have found myself floundering a little, wondering if I am even remotely tackling the situations in the right way.

So, back to what happened this week… I was nervous going into work this week because I knew some big decisions were coming up and I didn’t know how to go about approaching them. To give you some background, I would like to tell you about Hernan Noza. If you get the FT Facebook newsfeed updates you’ll know that Hernan is a young Christian of 19 years old that fractured his C4 & C5 in a swimming accident. Hernan is from the rural village of San Ignacio, but had to get transported to Trinidad for better medical care. At the beginning it was very touch and go about whether he would pull through or not, but he has had spinal surgery and has stabilized, though he is now a quadriplegic.  Through various contacts with missionaries and churches, Hernan’s recovery was something that many people in our church and in FT took on board as a matter of prayer, but everyone has also mustered together to support him practically as much as possible.

Hernan suffered neglect while in the local hospital and was moved around a lot before finally being invited to stay in a room in FT’s in-patient ward. Many members from our church took his medical care seriously and he was slowly able to recover from very serious bed sores that he had developed while in hospital which had become infected, and he was finally starting to receive the physiotherapy that he needed to prevent further sores. Hernan is now able to move his shoulders and he has some sense of feeling in his arms down to his wrists. Thank you to all of you who have decided to support Hernan’s recovery with extra donations specifically designated for his medical care. The family does not have the resources to be able to afford the level of medical care he requires and they are very dependent on donations from other people. If anyone would like to support Hernan, please contact LAM Canada if you are in North America or FT UK if you are in the UK.

However, Hernan’s care from an HR point of view was getting very tricky. The board of directors initially agreed to let Hernan and his family use the in-patient ward free of charge as a way to support his recovery and not one of us on the board had a problem with this. However, what we did not anticipate was how the situation would snowball so quickly. First our doctors started treating him, then we needed to use our supplies for dressing changes, we had to hire a nurse with experience in wound care, our staff nurses had to start taking care of his needs during the day, and our cleaning staff had various tasks as well… on top of all their regular responsibilities. People were getting upset that other people weren’t carrying their weight, others didn’t understand how we could possibly contemplate this without hiring more staff, others were upset at the lack of support from Hernan’s family and keeping everyone happy was getting difficult.

By the end of last week I was at my wit’s end. I had no idea what to do. I recognised that what we were doing to support Hernan and his family was important and necessary as we are called to uphold prayerfully and practically the needs of our family in Christ. However, I was also so conscious that pushing our staff, especially our staff that still do not have a personal faith in Christ, to the brink of sanity was not showing them the love of God that I so desperately want to show people. That was the whole reason I took on this role in HR: evangelising our staff first and foremost. The tension between the two goals were becoming hard to balance and I felt that many others that I work with here maybe were not seeing that tension like I was. Some board members were working really closely with the family and saw things from their perspective, others looked at the situation in a purely medical frame of mind, while I was dealing with our own staff and their needs. This week the board had to have a very hard conversation and it was really tough that we weren’t all seeing eye to eye on various points regarding this issue. I felt very young, inexperienced and out of my depth.

And then God stepped in. Unbeknownst to us, the hospital where Hernan was staying before coming to us finally decided to take responsibility for the neglect he received while on their care and decided to try to organise a skin graft that he needs for his serious bed sores free of charge. On Tuesday, Hernan’s mother decided to move him back to Hospital Trinidad and it all kind of happened suddenly, actually while we, the board, were in our monthly meeting. From a medical perspective we are not entirely sure if this is the best decision, but the family made the call and we have to respect that. The hospital where Hernan is now staying are taking care of his medical care, but are not providing medicines or materials, so FT is still in charge of coordinating the donations received and buying the things he needs for his treatment. However, from an HR perspective, this was the breather the Foundation really needed and I was so relieved I teared up in the meeting. That might sound horrible, because of course I want the best for Hernan, who is a really sweet, but very scared young man who needs a lot of support, I just didn’t know how to juggle everyone’s needs anymore. The burden that I felt lift from not just me, but the whole situation, was palpable. The board actually turned to one another and said, “Well, guess God took care of that.”

Hernan’s skin graft is looking less likely in Trinidad. The surgeon here has decided, once Hernan had already switched hospitals, that he doesn’t want to operate because Hernan has anaemia. There is the possibility of having the skin graft done in Cochabamba by a Doctor there who seems willing, but the costs involved in that would be a lot higher. In the future, there might be a move to a rehab facility in Sucre, but the situation has not arrived at that point yet. I have been by twice this week to see him and he seems quite bored and lonely in the new hospital as he gets fewer visitors than when he was surrounded by the FT community. Craig is going to swing by this afternoon and try and watch a film with him, so we’ll see how that goes.

While my week from this point on was no less busy, the evidence of God’s intervention in such a stressful situation was exactly the encouragement I needed.

Craig talks about himself most of the time when he writes the blog, right? So I figure you don’t need to know much about what he did this week. Well, maybe I’ll tell you a little. He actually got up with me at 5:30 this morning to go to a prayer meeting of his own; a pastor’s and leader’s prayer meeting in Trinidad. However, his prayer meeting came with breakfast, mine did not. I ate a leftover brownie for breakfast instead and now my stomach hurts. Sigh… Craig also had various discipleship sessions this week, he met with Elias and they went over 2 Peter together looking at overall themes for the church’s next preaching topic, and in his free time he got completely stuck in Super Mario World 3D.

Rest assured Craig should be back next week… I’m sure his post will be funnier and make reference to things that generally go over my head.

Prayer:

• Hernan Noza and his continued recovery. Please prayer not just for physical healing, but spiritual growth and a sense of peace. His family are also not believers, please pray that they are introduced to God's grace and love through their interaction with His people in Trinidad. 
• Staff interactions - now that some of the pressure has been removed, the staff are settling back down again, but there might be some lingering bad feelings and underlying issues between people that were present before Hernan arrived.

Praise:

• God's intervention when all earthly wisdom fled us - as explained above.
• A productive week for both Craig and I in our various jobs - Craig is time managing his life months in advance, and as I can't do that, I can only watch in awe. 
• Good discipleship sessions with various young people for both.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig and 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

Saturday Post -- 28/02/15

Eduardo Rojas, from Langham Bolivia, presenting Langham's hopes for a
course in Trinidad to the locals, last night. See prayer points, below.

My gap year here in Trinidad was instructive on several levels, but especially in getting me thinking about issues of faith, many for the first time. Seeing how things were done in a very different church culture woke me up to the fact that, in practice, there's very often more than one way to skin a cat. Having a ringside seat on the very different way that, say, the offering was given each week in church, or a generally more conservative attitude towards women's roles here, sent me back to the Bible and forced me to think carefully about what God, and not humankind, had to say on these issues.

One early development that year certainly had me sitting up and taking notice. One of the young Bolivian men in the church began going out with one of the long-term volunteers. But things weren't exactly done as they were among, say, my teenage friends in Scotland. And, of course, still a teenager myself -- because you've basically managed to work out everything by that point, right? -- I afforded my contemporaries a ludicrous level of respect in these areas. Even in church circles in Scotland, a camp flirtation would be followed by a largely unsupervised dating period of weeks or months (they wouldn't last longer than that, the significance of which hadn't quite yet dawned on me).

So when Walter and Nikki stood up before the church that October evening and announced that they were beginning a year-long 'courtship' (a word I'd thought had been buried somewhere in Victorian England), that the relationship would be lived out under the watchful glance of trustworthy friends, and that their intention was to marry a year down the line, I couldn't quite believe what I was hearing, and immediately started asking questions of people in the church. Why insist on marriage -- isn't that for 30-year-olds with several promotions behind them? Why no privacy? Why the public service announcement? 

Why, I was the very poster child of naïveté! 

15 years later and, quite frankly, I long ago lost count of the number of young Christians I have known here, many in active ministry, who have not darkened the door of a church for years, having made terrible decisions in the area of sex and relationships. Something I learned early on when we came back here in 2010 (seven years since we'd been here previously) was not to inquire if I noticed a conspicuous absence in the church, because the answer would probably only disappoint me. I know as well as anyone that things are less than puritanical in the developed world, but compared to the hot-blooded natives round these here parts, the UK and Canada at the moment are about as sexually charged as an episode of Antiques Roadshow. The slew of Miss Somewhere-or-other contestants are idolised; soft-pornographic billboards advertising beer and motorcycle parts are ten-a-penny; men have two, sometimes even three, families on the go at once; mobile phones in secondary schools have simply become the go-to place to let your friends see another side of you, in a very real and disturbing sense.

More than anything, though, Trinidad is an especially poor city by Bolivian standards, and poverty has a way of awakening people to sex and sexuality at a far earlier stage in life. It is not unusual for three or four generations to live in the same home, and I would think the average reader hardly requires a detailed explanation to understand that, in such cramped conditions, children cotton on to things quickly.

Walter and Nikki's pursuit of support and accountability, then, strikes me as a shining example of the way things really ought to be done in such choppy waters (they are, by the way, happily married with a daughter in the USA; a great couple!). Sadly, young people here rarely declare their intentions so publicly, and all too often the first we've known of such relationships has been a surprise pregnancy. Career plans are then usually abandoned, guilt takes hold, and the church loses another great asset. Rare and greatly prized are those young people who make it to the other side of 20 unscathed.

I touch on this issue because, in our young church, it has reared its head this week in a big way, in a way that we have, quite frankly, been unprepared for. As I've mentioned before, a group of five young people were invited on to youth leadership about three months ago. It has transpired in the last few weeks that one of these young people is still in a relationship that we had been told was over and done with. We are told that the romantic partner in question is a Christian, and yet the covert nature of the relationship raises serious questions about this young person's integrity. 

The whole situation has caused us, as leaders, to think long and hard as to the church's stance on such issues. A difficulty we face is that, with most of these young people coming from non-Christian homes, they tend to have their parents' full endorsement for any such relationship. We can't claim to uphold Scripture as the word of God whilst questioning parental authority.

Yet at the same time, even if we did have such authority, could we realistically tell them not to engage in any such relationships? We only see these young people for a few hours each week; how on earth could we possibly know how they were behaving day-to-day?

And so, after much thought and prayer, we've decided to meet with these young people before their regular youth meeting tonight, to put the following to them.

Firstly, we can't tell them what to do, but we can certainly recommend how they should live their lives as highly visible Christian leaders. And our strong recommendation is that they do not pursue courtship at this stage of their lives (bear in mind also that these young people are 16- and 17-years-old; hardly ready for commitment even by non-Christian standards).

Secondly, if they choose to pursue such a relationship regardless, they must: a) have full parental permission; b) introduce the person to us as church leaders so we can get to know them, their faith, and their intentions for the relationship; and c) announce the relationship publicly to the church and state marital intentions, seeking the congregation's support and accountability. Failure to comply with any of the three will result in us asking the young person in question to step down from leadership.

I'll be honest: though the rigorous steps we're asking them to take if they wish to pursue a relationship are, in our opinion, correct and God-honouring in a culture fraught with minefields in this area, we'll be much happier as leaders if they serve as a deterrent at this formative stage of their lives.

If all of this strikes you westerners as legalistic, joy-killing and puritanical, bear in mind the heartache we have experienced time and again over the many young lives we've seen ruined by simply following the pattern of this culture. But if you have experience yourself in this area, or anything you'd like to add, I'd be really interested to hear what you have to say. As I said, we are a young church, with young leaders (I'm referring to the eldership here), and the wisdom that only experience can supply is always welcome! Thoughts to cramandaham@gmail.com. 

Prayer

• Please pray for our meeting with the young leaders tonight (Saturday), and for the young people as they think seriously about this issue. Pray that these requirements would be seen by the young people for what they ultimately are: an expression of our deep love and concern for them, and a desire to protect them stumbling. We are going to give them a couple of weeks to decide what steps they are prepared to take. Pray that these steps would only go to strengthen the witness of the youth group here in Trinidad.
• For the new men's ministry, which begins next Friday evening in our home. The idea is to meet once every couple of weeks to study the Bible together. We'll most likely kick things off this week with a meal and a simple discussion as to the great need in the world and in our culture for men of faith and integrity.
• Amanda has had to deal with a few difficult issues in her HR role at Fundación Totaí this week (often involving workers who are Christians, which can take the frustration to a whole new level).  Amanda is a very quick learner, but is keenly aware at the moment of her lack of experience in this area. Pray for encouragement and wisdom.

Praise

• Thank you for your prayers for the Langham Bolivia information meeting. We were really encouraged to see about 30 Bible teachers from all over Trinidad attend the meeting, and the enthusiasm for starting a new course was tangible. The idea is that each year, over three years, there is an annual four-day residential conference, in which the principles of expository teaching are taught; this is led by Langham Bolivia staff themselves. But in the months between conferences, the conference attendees are to meet in small groups at least once a month, to preach to one another on a given topic, and offer constructive feedback. In other words, the course really depends heavily on the commitment of the participants. As Eduardo said last night, the Bolivian church is full of eventistas, i.e., people who get excited for conferences and camps, particularly when there is an authority figure from outside taking the reins, but who struggle to apply this learning to their ministry. So a lot of prayer is still needed here. Eduardo has formed a local organising committee comprising three of last night's attendees (including Craig), with the view to working towards a conference over the weekend of the 6th of June. Please pray, then, for Craig and the other committee members as they plan for this and promote the course between now and June, and for the course to make a lasting impact over the next three years, in order that the word of God would be taught faithfully in Trinidad's churches, and God would be glorified.
• We both had some really meaningful discipleship sessions this week. Amanda met with Yoselín properly for the first time this year. Amanda had been meeting with her once a week for two years before we left. Craig began meeting with Daniel, our new Cuban friend whom you may remember from a post a few weeks ago. Both are enthusiastic to grow in their faith, but lacking in support, so please pray for Yoselín and Daniel.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 21/02/15

Last January, the Beni region -- which is flat, vast, and susceptible to rain-related hazards at the best of times -- was hit by the worst flooding it had witnessed in 60 years. Dozens lost their lives and around 60,000 families were displaced. The floods had a devastating impact on agriculture too, with 150,000 cattle killed and 43,000 hectares of cultivated land destroyed.

Of course, we were not actually in Trinidad when this happened; indeed, having arrived here in 2010 just after some similarly bad flooding, we seem to have an uncanny knack of avoiding the worst of it. We're probably due one.

It's not likely to happen this rainy season (which tends to run from December to early April), but the last couple of weeks have seen a spate of prolonged and heavy rainstorms. We reckoned we'd got off the hook again this year when we made it to the end of January with nothing worse than a daily half-hour sprinkling. But February -- often the peak month -- has been a different story altogether, with the streets around us often completely submerged in water. No-one is having to leave their home or anything, but when we look around us, we're thankful for that council regulation we followed somewhat begrudgingly a few years back when building the house, that required us to raise the height of our land by a metre or so. Good call. 

Just about the only day we haven't seen such downpours over the last fortnight was Monday, which was a particular bonus given that it was the day of the annual Carnaval youth event. This year, the youth committee invited a guest speaker, a youth leader from a local church, having (probably rightly!) come to the conclusion that the young people are probably bored of hearing from the same people every week. He did a couple of talks -- one in the morning and one in the evening -- on the attributes of God, and did so in a way that the young people could really relate to. As is tradition, the afternoon was spent outdoors playing games mostly involving oversized water balloons. No avoiding a good soaking here even on sunny days.

The Carnaval weekend takes in Tuesday as well; if you're new to the blog, you'll soon find out that bank holidays are a national pastime round these here parts. So it's been a pretty compressed 'working week' (whatever that means in ministry), with the usual mix of HR and one-on-one work for Amanda, and sermon preparation and church leadership meetings for me. Due to the weather and other factors, I wasn't able to touch base with my own discipleship charges. Some Carnaval-like conditions, then, would be most welcome in the coming week.

This is a bit shorter than normal, but I think perfectly fair, given that we've just sent out our latest update. If you'd like a copy sent to your inbox every three months or so, just send us an email at cramandaham@gmail.com.

Prayer

• Tomorrow, Craig will be preaching his first sermon of 2015 -- and his first Spanish sermon in over a year -- as he begins a three-week stint in the pulpit, picking up the 1 Peter baton from Elías. Pray especially for clarity in communication.
• We have had to deal with a very difficult domestic situation this week involving some people we know from the church, and will probably be knee-deep in it for some time to come. This is not the place to go into details, but needless to say, we need love, patience, and a lot of wisdom. Pray for a gracious bestowal of all of these.
• This coming Friday sees the visit from Cochabamba of Eduardo Rojas from Langham Bolivia, who is coming to give information about a proposed Langham Preaching course here in Trinidad. Over the next few days, Craig will be reminding the various Bible teachers he's touched base with over the last few weeks. Please pray for a really good turnout at the meeting.

Praise

• For a great Carnaval event with the young people, and particularly for a conspicuous lack of rain!

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 14/02/15

The best image I could find online of the below-mentioned jigsaw.
Deary me. McCartney's left nostril alone must've contained the 'Help' film
poster, the 'Revolver' album cover, and a Gretsch Duo Jet.

There haven't been too many ministry developments to report this week, but to be honest, it's just a relief that I'm even able to upload this week's scribblings. 

With many hundreds, or even thousands, of miles separating the overseas worker and loved ones back home, the importance of communications can be keenly felt. One of the fascinating aspects of the on-off relationship I've had with this unique country over 15 years has been to witness developments in this area.

Of course, back in September 2000, I didn't exactly set off for Bolivia on a cargo ship from Southampton, waving a handkerchief to a family whom I never knew when I'd see again. Things weren't that bad (though it wasn't too long ago, of course, that such a scene was perfectly normal). But the adjustments required for an 18-year-old, well into the internet age, were not insignificant. The postal service was sluggish and unreliable. My Mum sent me a Beatles jigsaw for Christmas that year, opting for land mail given the bulk of the package. It arrived some time in mid-April. My Dad kindly bought me a subscription to a weekly digest of a British newspaper, specially put together for ex-pats. The enjoyment of reading this was largely dictated by how much of the past three weeks' news I was able to forget.

Not that that was too hard, given that the only 'international' TV news source here was CNN, and the internet had only just got off to a sluggish start. A five-minute wait for pages to load was pretty much par for the course. The phrase, 'I'm going to check my email' was never so accurate (one email was about as much as you could cover in a session!).

As for phones, forget about it. Calls cost a small fortune and the line was beset with a five-second delay as standard, which proved particularly problematic one December day. That same Christmas as Jigsawgate, Dad (they really do mean well, my parents!) brought a conference phone home from his office so that the 20 or so family members jammed into my parents' house could take it in turns to wish me a happy Christmas. I got the distinct impression that Dad's good cheer extended only so far when it came to the phone bill, and I'll forever have in my head the imaginary image of him standing there by the phone, in Alex-Ferguson-pointing-at-watch mode, while I asked my Grandma what she reckoned to her new games console, and my aunt Ruth what she reckoned to United's chances of silverware. 

Two years later (the summer of Amandagate), things were picking up a little, with internet cafes more prominent and dial-up speeds picking up. It was therefore something of a surprise, when we returned seven years later in January 2010, to see just how little things had come on. The postal service was worse than ever, and broadband hadn't even taken off yet.

So it was with no small delight that we came back a few weeks ago to something of a communications revolution, with internet speeds now so fast that we could stream Netflix in high definition, and I could even watch Match of the Day on iPlayer (though like the aforementioned newspaper, the thrill in this depends greatly on staying well away from sports websites till Monday night -- ouch).

It was surely too good to be true. Wasn't it? Well, while the internet speeds have shown no sign of a decline, alas the same cannot be said of customer service, which has remained reassuringly average.

I spent half of Monday (our day off) in the offices of our service provider, as our internet had cut off around lunchtime. We assumed this was down to us using up our monthly data quota, which was surprising considering we'd arranged only a week earlier for it to be doubled. In fact, I was informed that we had almost all of our allocation remaining for the month (surprising after a week's heavy use).  The problem, they suggested, was with the modem itself. Feeling like I was trapped in a pinball machine, I then made a tour of the offices, as one person after another suggested it was the-guy-over-at-that-desk's problem.

Eventually, the problem was identified, but with a slight hitch: the repair to the modem could only be authorised by Miguel-Ángel (Fundación Totaí's president) as our modem was bought in the foundation's name, at the same time as the foundation's own unit. With closing time fast approaching, I'd have to wait till the next day to get it sorted.

On Tuesday morning, the repair was authorised, and I got the modem back. So far, so good. Except that around lunchtime of that day, FT's own modem started playing up. The next morning (Wednesday), they sent that in for a repair. Amazingly, it was the same issue!

But on Wednesday afternoon, our modem started playing up again, so I had to go back in, and was told that the line hadn't been re-registered after the repair. They apologised for this, fixed the problem, and we, at least, haven't had a problem since. But FT then came down with the same issue the following day. Having thought they'd got it fixed, their internet went down completely yesterday, and no-one has any clue what's going on any more -- least of all, the service provider, it would seem! What's more, we've been poring over the monthly receipts for the past few months, and it's looking like we were charged twice for the same period. We all now suspect there has been a mix-up in the modem payments somewhere.

So the issue needs dealt with quickly in order for FT to get its communications back up and running. The only problem is: a) everything has to be done in tow with Miguel-Ángel who, as well as being the FT president, is also the dentist -- he's busy enough as it is; and b) this weekend is Carnaval, meaning no businesses are open again till Wednesday. 

I think all concern for the quality of my writing went out of the window about three paragraphs ago. Ultimately, I think the purpose of the blog this week has been to get these frustrations off my chest, in any way possible. I guess we can only hope that, like a Christmas present from Mum, fully-functioning internet will surface some day in the future. Only please let it be more straightforward than that Beatles jigsaw. It was a photo mosaic. Those things are murder.

Prayer

• Carnaval, for the uninitiated, is the pre-Lent long weekend celebrated throughout Latin America, though it makes no attempt at all to hide its distinctly non-religious activities; the very name alludes to a celebration of all things fleshly. And all things fleshly will most certainly be indulged to the max this weekend in Trinidad. Prayer appreciated.
• As ever, the youth group will be staging their special Carnaval event this Monday, a 12-hour marathon of messy games and solid Bible teaching, with a special guest speaker coming to talk about the attributes of God, and what they mean for us. Simply for getting them out of Carnaval, the event is important, but pray for encouragement in all that the young people hear.

Praise

• We're now both into our one-on-one discipleship routine, with Amanda meeting with Adriana during the week. Give thanks for the progress already being made there.
• Craig spoke to two groups of pastors and church leaders during the week about the Langham Preaching course, and there seems to be a lot of interest in the course, which we're hoping will take place later this year.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda

Saturday Post -- 07/02/15

Daniel, Yonatán and Craig enjoyed a Bible study over breakfast (for one
week only, lads!) as they began their discipleship sessions on Friday.

Last week, we signed off by asking for prayer for me (Craig) as I looked into launching some new initiatives which I feel could be of real help to the church here in Trinidad. Well, one of these began to take shape this week.

As I wrote a few weeks ago, my year at Cornhill Scotland, with its particular focus on expository preaching, was a tremendous help in preparing me for this new stage of our time in Bolivia. As the year progressed, I became increasingly convinced of the need to teach the Bible responsibly, holistically, and clearly. And as my thoughts turned ever more to Bolivia in the latter stages of last year, I knew all too well that Bible teachers here in the Beni region would benefit greatly from such insights.

A few factors here limit good Bible teaching. Firstly, there is very little high-quality in-service training and equipping available for Bible teachers. The Beni region of Bolivia is considered something of a backwater, and so there is not much here in the way of courses and conferences; the best people tend to focus on the cities. Secondly, some pastors do not have formal training of any description; indeed, it is remarkably easy here to start a new church (which can mean that congregations don't tend to persevere through difficult times). And thirdly, education here discourages critical engagement with information, meaning that people can pretty much say what they like. In my own ministry, for example, it is a rare day indeed when I receive any feedback, simply because people are conditioned to accepting that what the Bible teacher says is right -- no need for criticism there, whether good or bad.

As I thought about this state of affairs, I decided to at least look into possible approaches to addressing it. Last year, some friends of ours had passed on contact information for Langham Partnership workers in Bolivia. Langham began in the late 1960s in a move by founder John Stott to fund scholarships for young evangelical leaders in the developing world. In the decades since, it has developed into an international ministry, and one of the strands of its work is Langham Preaching, which seeks to equip Bible teachers in the developing world to better preach from God's word. Normally, the course is taught over three annual four-day conferences. In the year following each conference, the delegates are divided into smaller groups, who meet once a month, taking turns to preach to each other and receive constructive feedback on their efforts (not at all unlike Cornhill, in that sense).

Anticipating our return to Trinidad, I made some enquiries towards the end of 2014 about the possibility of starting such a programme here. It turned out, in fact, that Langham had run a course here some years ago. The annual conferences were a smash -- but few people made the effort to meet in their small groups during the year! Regardless, my contact from Langham (based in Cochabamba) said he would still be interested in starting a new course, and I expressed my own desire to help ensure that the small groups meet regularly as required, if such assistance was required on the ground.

Now that things have settled down for us here, and we are back into something of a routine, Elías (our pastor) and I drove around town this week to gauge what kind of interest there might be in having Langham again, particularly targeting those people who haven't done the course before, and Bible teachers who are in full-time non-church work. The response was fairly positive, though people still had a few queries that I wasn't really equipped to answer as a non-Langham representative. So my contact in Cochabamba has kindly offered to come through to Trinidad towards the end of this month to meet interested parties and look into a possible launch date. As you can imagine, I'm excited to see where this is going.

Things have definitely been getting busier, as I've also made renewed inroads into ministry among the younger generation. Late last year, the youth team asked a group of older teenagers with potential to come into ministry alongside them. One of the prerequisites for participation was that they sought out weekly discipleship opportunities. Three of them approached me over the last couple of weeks, and this week I sat down with them to begin these weekly sessions. Daniel has played guitar in the church music ministry with me for a few years now and comes from a Christian home. Yonatán's family are a little more 'mixed', with both evangelical and Mormon tendencies. While the third boy, Yordy, has no Christian influence at home whatsoever. Due to restrictions on their availability, I'm meeting Yordy on Wednesday afternoons and the other two on Friday mornings. We'll be working through  a Spanish translation of 'God's Big Picture' by Vaughan Roberts, to help them get a better grasp of the Bible's overall message -- so important now in their position -- and using the rest of the time at each session to pray together.

Amanda, too, has been approached by one of the team to the same end, a girl called Adriana; we've worked with Adriana for years and have seen an amazing transformation in her since our return. However, the old Trinidad-commitment-baggage (see the fifth paragraph) lingers and Amanda has twice arranged dates to meet with her, only for Adriana not to turn up. We really want to continue to encourage Adriana, while reminding her of her new responsibilities -- a difficult balancing act! Pray for wisdom there.

Otherwise, Amanda has continued this week to plough on with her new administrative responsibilities in the Foundation. The board had their monthly meeting on Friday, and simply by dint of her new HR role, she felt much more engaged and in touch with what is going on in the wider Foundation, than she had pre-furlough when her focus was Audiology. 

Later that same day, we had our first dinner guests since coming back, in Daniel & Romina, whom we'd mentioned last week. It was fascinating to learn more about life as a Christian in Cuba. He was telling us that he has only recently come to terms with the fact that his salvation is secure -- because the possibility of losing one's salvation is taught in most denominations in Cuba, including the Baptist church of which he was a member. Daniel was particularly complimentary about our Cuban musical selection for the evening (thanks Spotify!) and the steak we picked up from a local restaurant -- we also learned that meat is still prohibited for Cuban natives under the rationing system. And we thought we appreciated the steak here!

The house was also made available, as per usual, to the young women's Bible study, who met last Sunday. Encouragingly, this wasn't a case of waiting for Amanda to come back -- they'd simply continued to meet every two weeks, taking responsibility for chairing the studies themselves. We're enjoying becoming newly acquainted with our new house (which was only finished eight months before home assignment year), and particularly aware of what a great resource it is for ministry; we pray that the Lord will look upon us wise stewards of this small example of his goodness to us.

Prayer

• For Amanda as she seeks to disciple Adriana; and for Adriana herself, that she would re-dedicate herself to the vital task of being discipled.
• For Daniel, Yonatán and Yordy, and for Craig as he disciples them.
• We're hoping to begin looking into adoption this week. These will probably be some very tentative first steps -- it's a long process -- but please pray for Lord's blessing upon the whole process.

Praise

• For progress in establishing a Langham Preaching course here in Trinidad.
• For the opportunity to get to know Daniel & Romina a little better, and open up our house to a range of people throughout the week.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda