Life in a different culture
Every day is a different day here, and sometimes it rains so much that there is large puddles of water and mud everywhere. So getting to church in good shoes can be a daunting task. Lehman has solved all of these problems by an ingenious system. It is a combination of farmer and city-boy.
Here he is in all of his glory, ready to walk out the door for church…
Pay special attention to those classic style church shoes.
It is Sunday today, and upon my arrival in the bus, I search out Guido, a good friend from the mission. He is down at the church, where the service has just finished, and I find him farewelling his parishoners. After greeting and catching up a little on where life has taken us since we last met, we both head off down the road chatting. I did not know where we were going, but after a couple of blocks we reach the main town field where everybody is gathering.
My friend Guido just before the match starts.
Guido tells me that there is about to be an official match here. A competition between his team, the Taxistas (taxi drivers) and the Constructores (builders). All locals to the town and although friends off the field I am soon to find out that they are the greatest of rivals during the game.
The guy known only as “Baldy.”
It takes longer for the game to start than expected. The Constructores understood that the game started several hours later and had to be searched out from their houses where they were enjoying lunch. So from the start there was disputes. Once this issue was settled, the game began, and over half of the town was there to watch it.
All present watched the game intently, giving their ideas of how it should have been done.
Mostly it was men that watched the game, sitting or standing along the sidelines of the field watching intently. Although the women were generally occupied in other work, some of the women selling their wares in the Sunday market would crane their necks to see the game through the spectators blocking their view.
Guaranies watching the game. Their hair is never cut so it is curled up under their hat and the material around their head stops the sweat from running down.
Earlier this morning Oscar and I connected our bikes together with rope and he towed me along to my mechanic. It took only 15 seconds for my mechanic to work out the problem and he did not look very excited that it had happened.
Being towed along just near the point that my engine died yesterday.
Apparently it will be ready for me tonight. So in faith I will be climbing onto a bus for the 50 minute journey to town, with another 20 minute walk down to the workshop in the expectation that the bike will be ready for me when I get there.
Riding back home on Oscar’s bike.
UPDATE: Well, I returned at 7.30pm and when I got there the bike was ready to go. Not only had old Mr Verdun replaced the head gasket that was broken, but he also fixed up the oil leak for me too. So I am back on the road again with my head-turning super-medium-fast almost-antique motorscooter once again. And it is good.
The blown head gasket that caused all of my woes.
Wandering around Entre Rios, it is amazing the variety and number of flowers that you can find here. I thought it worth taking a few photos of these flowers so I could share their beauty with others. What follows is only a sampling of the rich gardens that can be found here.
Small flower found growing wild in the country.
Red rose in someone’s garden.
White rose with spider found in the main plaza.
Still budding flowers found growing wild in the country.
A whole bush of these were growing beside the entrance of a country church.
Heidi and Rolland Baker from Iris Ministries, in their book, There is Always Enough…
No matter how big the revival is or how many thousands of churches there are, we hear the Lord’s voice again: stop for the dying man, the dying woman, the dying child on the road. Pour my oil and wine into their sores. Pick them up and bring them home. He wants to put eye salve on the eyes of the Church. He wants us to stop for the one. He wants us to see the one. The face of revival! This is His heart. Let it beat in you. (p.175)
Heidi Baker from Iris Ministries, in her and Rolland’s book, There is Always Enough, tells about her response to prophecies…
Probably, like many reading this book, I have received prophecies for years that in our ministry the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the crippled will walk, the dumb will speak, the dead will be raised and the multitudes will come to Jesus. As time went on it seemed these prophecies became stronger. People began to minister those words over me more and more. I especially remember Randy Clark prophesying over me in 1998. After that I would literally go out and look for every blind person I could find. Living in one of the poorest nations on earth, they’re pretty easy to find. There are blind people all over, so I’d go up and just grab them and say, "I know you don’t know me, but I’d just like to pray for you." I’d pray for them and I’d lead them to Jesus. Every one of them would get saved. I never felt like I failed because they came to Jesus, every one, but none of them saw. I must have prayed for twenty blind people, and none of them saw. But I kept praying. I kept remembering those prophetic words that the Holy Spirit poured into my heart. There was such a powerful presence of the Holy Spirit as those words were spoken over me. I just said, "I’m not giving up. I’m not giving up. One day they’re going to see."
Tanneken Fros, one of our long-term missionaries, and I were in a little mud church up north. We began to pray for another blind lady, and she fell onto the ground. Her eyes went from white to gray to brown, and she was healed and seeing. Her name was Aida, the same name that I have in Mozambique. We were so excited. We could hardly wait to pray for the next blind person. As we were left that little mud church, everyone was singing, dancing and jumping. They were so thrilled…
This dedication. Her faith in those prophecies that they would come true. Her determination to continue against all of the failures that faced her. The certainty in her heart that she would see it come to pass. It made me think. What prophecies do I have over my life? What have I done about these prophecies? What has been my response to them?
When I got to the mission here in Entre Rios, I was first shown to my room and then shown how to use the shower. It was not that the shower was hard to understand at all, just that there was no water in the shower. To get water for the shower I needed to go outside and turn on the mains tap.
Making a path through the concrete for the pipe.
After inquiring about why the situation was like this, I was told that there is a great amount of water being lost underground through the pipes. This could be seen clearly by the amount of water pouring out of the ground and pipes at the lower part of the building on the downhill side.
Rather than live with things as they were, I offered to help out with the re-plumbing of the place. I told them that I was a qualified plumber by virtue of one of my good friends being a plumber (just as I am a qualified electrician because my cousin is an electrician – runs in the family you see). Also having re-plumbed my house also helped.
The original tap that needed to be opened to take a shower.
All of the materials were present, and a small portion of the pipes had already been joined, although were not in place. With a bit of planning and work, and help from Guido, we had almost the whole place plumbed within two days. After this, there were only a couple of extra things to do, such as running water to another small bathroom that is hardly used and fixing the kitchen tap.
During the last few days there has been a leadership teaching running all day which has limited what I have been able to do. There are a couple of leaks still to be corrected, and some burst pipes that I have managed to fix too, including one that filled the storage room within seconds. Putting in some taps here and there to be able to cut off the water to different sections and fixing the leaking taps and toilets are also on the list.
The pipe on this toilet burst, filling the dining room with water.
The dining room filled with water.
Even now the place is tremendously better than it was before. One of the ladies came up to me and thanked me tremendously for what we had just done with the plumbing. She told me that the plumbing had been in disrepair for a whole year. They had been getting so desperate that they were considering paying a plumber to fix the problem – something that was far beyond the meagre budget of this small mission.
The pipes in place and finished (the old tap no longer works).
When things like this happen and I am able to help out, I often consider it as though God had placed me in this place for that very reason. Perhaps not, but in any case I have been able to help these people in a very practical way.
The pipe that burst, filling the storage room within moments.
Quoted from There is Always Enough by Rolland and Heidi Baker.
Many people in the Church are frustrated because they don’t see a harvest. They’re frustrated because they have so little fruit, and they wonder why. They keep going to the same people. In the parable of the great banquet in Luke 14:15-24, the rich didn’t want to come. They were busy enjoying their money and possessions, and made excuses. The poor can’t do these things, and they are eager to come to the banquet when they are invited. God says there are no excuses, but the Church keeps going to the wealthy and well-fed, and wonder why they don’t respond.
God is saying, "Wake up, Church! Wake up, Church! The Church isn’t ready for the wedding feast. The poor need to be called." The Lord is looking for servant lovers who are passionate for Him, who are filled with love for Him, who are longing for the Bridegroom’s return, who can taste the feast and know it’s about to begin. They can’t stand any more to stay in their comfort, to wait around for someone to be saved. They will literally run out and call in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. If we will go, they will come. (p.165)
In the two years that I have been living in Argentina, my hard heart toward the poor and the needy has softened. For too long my attitude was of "us" and "them." Now I see all people as "us." There are no "them’s" left. When approached by beggars my thoughts have changed from giving by guilt to deciding how much I should give and wondering if it is enough. Sometimes I put my arm around them and we walk somewhere that we can eat together. But this is not enough.
To palm off our responsibility as Christians to care for the poor with a coin or note is not enough. It is not what Jesus told us to do. We were told to love and care for them. Not push them away with hardly enough to buy their next meal while we spend dozens of times more than we have just given them on just one meal. We must do more. We are commanded to do more.
The Lord is calling for servant lovers who will call in the outcasts, who will go into the dark corners of the world and compel the poor to come. And they will come. They’ll come by the millions. Who will go and leave their life of comfort and call in the broken? Who will go and be a learner? Who will go and lay their life down for Jesus among the poor? The Lord Jesus wants His house to be full. It’s time for us to go out to the poor, to the broken, to the homeless, to the dying, the lonely, and call them to come in. Thousands and thousands of missionaries and ministers need to go out to the darkest places, to the poorest places, to the forgotten places, because the wedding feast is about to begin and so many of the poor haven’t been called. Rush out and call them. They will come.
It has been a long time since I was last here. August 2004 during the practical part of my YWAM Discipleship course I came here to Entre Rios, a small town in the middle of a long winding journey between two cities of Bolivia. That was with a team of people, and we helped the local mission in any way we could. This included evangelism, working with the church, children, and visiting distant churches and people living in the mountains, walking over 12 hours at times to reach them. I have come in response to a promise I made to return, and because I believe that God has called me to return during this time.
A man in typical Bolivian dress sits outside the town hotel.
Frozen In Time
Today is my second day here. The town appears to have been frozen still in time. Everything is still the same. The old guy with a missing leg still sits outside his home serving cold drinks to people passing by. The roads and houses even down to the signs and writing are all just as I remember them from last time. In the mission are all the same faces, and the building has not altered in any way. Even the motorbike lying against the wall remains there, unfixed.
The recently finished town plaza.
There have been a couple of changes though. The plaza, still under repair when I was here, is now fixed and looking pretty. There are a couple of American girls working here, the first foreign faces that I have seen here outside of the mission. And the most significant change is that there is now Internet. It is slow, cuts in and out, and can be frustrating at times, but it exists.
Fruit and vegetables for sale direct from the farmer.
Somehow I feel right at home here. A slow pace of life, everybody knowing each other, limited selections of goods, limited communications, fresh air, beautiful mountains, and a relaxed atmosphere are all part of life here. I love dropping into a local restaurant and ordering from the selection of chicken leg or chicken wing for something to eat. I love seeing the same people over and over. Watching the paranoid man peek out of his old door and slam it again as I walk past. Watching the ladies in their Bolivian dress prepare their goods to sell. It feels like home. But it isn’t.
A boy holds his pig, recently untied from the roof of the bus he was travelling in.
A young girl playing in the doorway of her home.
Towing an unwilling bull through town.
A side street leading down to the main route to Tarija.
One of the busiest streets in the entire town.
This old bus carries people out to the outlying settlements and towns in the mountains.
Quoted from There is Always Enough by Rolland and Heidi Baker.
So as we were praying for a pastor to help these street girls, the Lord just spoke to my heart, "Louis." He’d never been to school. He couldn’t read or write until we got him into one of our literacy programs. He never had a Bible school class. He was just working in our construction department. I went over to him at campismo and said, "Louis, do you think Jesus could use you to help pastor these girls with Lucia?" Louis began to weep. He just began to cry in the sand. We don’t have buildings. We were out there in the sand under the trees, and he began to cry, tears dripping into the sand, running down his face and down his scarred hands. And he said, "Oh, Jesus would honor me with such a thing? Jesus would let me do such a thing for Him? Of course. What joy, what great joy! Of course I’ll go. Oh, I would love to go. I would love to pastor these girls and the orphans from the floods." And Louis is out there with Lucia ministering.
As I read this I wondered how I would react if offered such an opportunity. Would I think something like, "Oh at last they have recognized me, at last I can do something better than this!"? Or would I react like Louis, with humble gratitude to serve and honor my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?