Missionary Lives from the Students' Eyes

In Bible class, we’ve been studying the book of Acts and talking about mission work. As part of that discussion, we watched End of the Spear, a movie about Nate Saint, Jim Elliot, and three other missionaries who served in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador.

-- Caution: Spoiler Alert -- J

The missionary men who serve in the Amazon make a seemingly astounding sacrifice: their lives. They make a pact that they will not, under any circumstances, shoot at the Waodani tribe with whom they’re trying to make contact. The violent, unreached tribe may not be ready for Heaven, but the missionary men are. Thus, defending themselves by harming the Waodani simply is not an option. When the time comes and the men finally not only make contact but meet the tribe members, things go unexpectedly well. They seem to form a small friendship. But then things turn bad. The Waodani spear the men. Nate, in his dying breath, whispers Waodani words his son taught him: I’m your sincere friend.

Years later, the wives of the missionaries return to work among the tribe. The Waodani still need to learn about God. God miraculously transforms the tribe as the women live among them.

What a testimony of service, forgiveness, and love!

As our class processed what we saw and considered the testimonies of Stephen, Paul, and others we had read in the Bible, we realized a few things.

Christians are missionaries. Whether you work a full-time job at “home,” volunteer part time for a ministry, disciple, evangelize, or move into a remote, unreached tribe, you are a missionary as a Christian. Although the students live as “missionary” families overseas, they felt that any Christian lives as a missionary.

With that in mind, we considered this question: What decisions do missionaries have to make? My students’ answers challenged me:

We must love regardless of whether others deserve it or earned it. Nate Saint and the others loved the Waodani without knowing them.

We are called to serve with our lives daily.

Sometimes we have to make sacrifices in order to help others even when it’s risky. The missionary men’s service meant giving up their lives.

We must forgive others no matter what. The wives of the killed missionary men forgave and loved the Waodani simply because they needed to know God and God does not hate.

We need to trust God in every circumstance.

We need to be genuinely involved in others’ lives since that’s how God works through us.

We should live each moment with kingdom character – character after the heart of God’s kingdom.

Some New Norms

Gradually, some "new" things have become a norm here. What has started to feel "normal?"....

Iguanas: I see or hear one scurry off almost every time I go outside.

Homemade: Most things in the kitchen = time consuming and homemade. Thankfully, someone else cooks lunch for us teachers 3 times each week. I'm holding homemade pumpkin pancakes. Yum!

Homemade Pizza: The pizza isn't the hand-tossed Italian pizza shop pizza from home, but families make really yummy homemade pizza quite often. :)

Chifles: Instead of potato chips, I like salty, yummy chifles. (from platanos instead of potatoes)

Produce Prep: After market, we bleach and prep everything. No baby carrots, prepared lettuce, etc.

Purified "Sisley" Water: simply the only option.

Fresh squeezed juices.

Mototaxis: Okay, I'm still getting used to this one. We wear sunglasses when we go on them to help keep some dust out of our eyes...but it's almost always dusty. It just makes me appreciate a shower even more at the end of the day!

...and (no picture)...Ants: Little sugar ants like to invade everything that's remotely sweet. I've learned to never leave something sweet sitting out or not completely sealed. I also check my water before drinking it (because, yes, they get in our water cups too). This past week I learned this the hard way, and ended up with a mouthful of ants. :(

Rainy Days: The Most Fun of All

In the past week, it has rained…and rained…and rained. At times, that means I slept in just a bit longer (or maybe a lot longer). At times, that means we had slightly more chilly weather, which made us feel like we’d received a great big present. And at times, it just means we had a ton of fun together. Some say rainy season has begun, which sounds wonderful after dry, relentless heat. A few rainy day descriptions:

Wednesday we intended to go out to the SAM Air base to complete some work projects as a school as a “community outreach” day. But it poured, so we had to cancel school for the day. I guess that’s our version of a “snow day” here in the Amazon.

Friday we were supposed to go have swimming class as a school at a local pool. But it poured and got chilly again, so we stayed at school and played wet, slippery, muddy games of soccer and football in the drizzly weather. After the games, of course we all participated in some splashing and frolicking around in the huge puddles (more like little rivers). The students, so loving and devious, proceeded to ambush me, pick me up by my limbs, and, despite my thrashing around, dump me in the biggest puddle/river there. Soaked, I figured why not go participate in the mud fight? Lots of fun!

Saturday, lo and behold, it poured again. We teachers just couldn’t resist going out in the rain, puddles, and mud with our students yet again. So it goes. My new outlook on rainy days: all you need on a rainy day is some friends and clothes you can get wet and muddy....although I do still appreciate reading a good book or taking a nice nap on a rainy, dreary day.

Pucallpa Tidbits

A few tidbits about life in Pucallpa so far: It includes...

Laughter. Language mistakes. Games. Community living.
Sun. Sweat. Dust. Downpours. Humidity.
Heat.
Delicious food. Homemade everything. Multiple-store grocery shopping. Produce bleaching.
Rice.
Noise. Music. Beeping.
More laughter.

A few pictures:

Received an invitation to start Prank Wars: students versus teachers. I accepted.

(Many of us live on the same base, making this a dangerous but entertaining prospect.)

TEC games for Awana kids

Community

The school year has kicked into full gear! I teach middle school Bible and English (Language Arts), 9-10 grade English/Literature, and 11-12 grade SAT Prep. I have wonderful class sizes: 12 students in two classes and 5 students in the other two classes. I love teaching these subjects! Sixth, seventh, and eighth graders take the middle school courses together. While I can usually teach them the same material, I do have to work with different grammar books for each grade level and create slightly different assignments for each grade level. It keeps me on my toes! I’ve thoroughly enjoyed seeing the students’ personalities come out as we’ve spent time together. They’re creative thinkers, encouraging me to build a peanut butter factory so I’ll have my obsession at my fingertips for the rest of my life. J

Over and over, I’ve noticed that people here in Pucallpa have a real understanding of community. Here at the school, I’ve already noticed that the community environment makes teaching here natural and meaningful. The students know each other well from being in a community of missionaries together. They bring to class the context of living out mission work as families in a community. We have a wonderful context (living out mission daily) for discussion. On a more comical note, literally living in a community with these people makes life different as well. I joke with students about how they know where I live and I know where to find them since I live on the central SAM base with some of the families. The best part: living next to our students means we sometimes find homemade bread or other treats in our kitchen for us. Yum! Community really is wonderful. J

worship at the camp reunion

I’ve continued helping out at Misión TEC with the Awana club for kids every Tuesday, and I’ve been able to connect with staff from TEC and the church in that community. When our team from Zion Church helped here at TEC a few weeks ago, we experienced “campamento” (camp). This past weekend, TEC invited the youth from camp back for a reunion. We played games, worshipped, looked at pictures, and Max shared a short message with them. I feel so grateful I am here to experience this. Through this, I was reminded again of the fellowship any community can share. We six who came to TEC from Zion came as part of our church community to share in relationship from one community to another. My team members built relationships that carry significance not only for each person individually, but also on behalf of a community. The good relationships that my team members built have enabled me to plug in well to TEC. I feel truly grateful that my fellowship here is part of Zion church’s community fellowship, which is a part of fellowship in God’s kingdom. Relationship connects us as groups of people, and we invite others to share in the community as well. What a wonderful picture of how life will be someday in Heaven. This sharing in fellowship is a part of delighting in God in an eternal way.

Quality Time with SAM

Living at SAM base:

This past week, local missionaries welcomed me to the base with groceries, meals, and hospitality. I’m so thankful! We also had two different girls’ nights with students, including movies, yummy snacks (no lack of good sweets here so far!), fun dancing, “dress-making” (with T.P.), and cookie decorating. On any given evening, I can find something to do here, be it “Smash it,” volleyball, soccer, or other games that often occur here at the base. I don’t find myself bored.

Jungle Games:

This weekend we had an end of summer/welcoming teachers Olympics party – “Jungle Games.” Team USA (my team) brought in a whopping 11 points to win the silver medal! The games included relays, volleyball setting, soccer passing, and basketball shots. After the jungle games and pizza, they gave me a Jungle Survival Kit. A few of the more memorable items include:

-T.P. since many places don’t find it necessary to keep that in bathrooms

-Candles since the electricity goes out often here (I’ve experienced that about 3 times already.)

-Map of Pucallpa with the best ice cream places and bathrooms marked

-Nail polish for chigger relief

-Parasite treatment L

School:

School starts on Wednesday! We teachers press ahead in full planning mode. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we plan and begin our school year this week and in the weeks to come.

SAM Air: an integral part of SAM's mission in partnership with other missions to reach tribes

Week One: Serving at Misión TEC

What a fun week! During the first leg of my time in Pucallpa, I’m helping out at Misión TEC alongside a group of five other young adults from my church. San Jose, the community in which TEC is located, lies on the outskirts of Pucallpa. I will live about 25 minutes from TEC when I move to the SAM base. I plan to help out at TEC regularly during the year. Our church group has helped with many clubs for kids this week. We love working with the kids. Every hug, smile, and attempt to communicate brightens both our lives and their lives.

Kisses from Katie, a book written by a missionary in Uganda, encouraged us in this as well. Katie says, “I’ve noticed something about people who make a difference in the world: They hold the unshakeable conviction that individuals are extremely important, that every life matters. They get excited over one smile. They are willing to feed one stomach, educate one mind, and treat one wound.”

What does the community in which Misión TEC ministers and lives look like?

Some of them live in houses that look like the one pictured below. We visited a few of the kids’ families to give them food items and pray with them. The poverty level astonished us. However, Cristina, a leader of the mission, reminded us to have a true understanding of poverty. We from North America think of poverty materially and mourn for those who lack. She pointed out that those who live with less see poverty as a relational and spiritual thing; impoverished people lack God and relationship. While God does mourn when His people do not have the means to sustain themselves, He concerns Himself more with the wealth of our relational well-being.

Moments worth highlighting:

- I met some of the students I will teach, their families, and some fellow missionaries at the SAM prayer meeting this week. They joyfully (with applause and all) welcomed me and were glad to hear another teacher had come. They overwhelmed our group with kindness.

- We visited Nueva Era, the Shipibo village our church has connected with regularly. The people welcomed us with open arms, as always, and we gave them greetings from home. I loved seeing a few girls with whom I’ve connected in the past. Real highlight: They asked us to go up front and sing for them unexpectedly. After some deer-in-the-headlights stammering as we looked at one another, we decided to all go up together to sing for them. Luckily, we picked a song that they knew in Spanish, and some of them joined in. We return to that moment as one of the more comical ones we’ve experienced.

- On Saturday, Peru celebrated their 191^st year of independence (commonly called Fiestas Patrias). We walked through a parade in town with the kids from the clubs here…a parade that consisted of walking/marching for about 60 yards down the street after gathering together. Let me tell you, they know how to celebrate (really, they do). We’ve sung their national anthem about four times already as well. Time for me to join in their patriotism! 

Delight -- A focus for living out "mission"

What does it mean to delight in someone or something? It means to be enraptured by something or to take great enjoyment in someone or something (dictionary.com). It means to play together (Proverbs 8:30-31). Picture this: A little boy scampers over to his daddy. He hits his daddy’s leg, wanting his full attention. This little tyke can’t wait to ask for his favorite thing. With unblinking eyes full of anticipation, he asks his daddy to make him laugh. That is his one request: make him laugh. His daddy knows exactly what he wants. As his daddy prepares to make him laugh, the boy's mouth spreads into an unhindered smile, eyes bursting with delight. Shrieks of laughter endlessly topple out of him until he can’t stand up. He delights in his daddy.

This video captures that shrieking laughter of a child delighting in his daddy. My nephew, Jude, loved watching his daddy run, head back and arms flailing. Jude became enraptured with delight (a bit more boisterously than I described in the opening paragraph)…

How does God delight? As I began looking into how God delights in the Bible, I found rich insights into God’s character. He delights in Himself. Jeremiah 9 reminded me that God delights in justice, righteousness, and kindness. He wants to see His order and His kingdom established; He wants to see reflections of Himself. So how does He delight in us? He made us reflections of Himself. Pretty neat.

How do I delight? In Jeremiah, God’s people, while in exile, need a heart change. YHWH wants them to repent, know Him, and share in His victory (Him reigning on earth). His people can share His victory by embracing Him and exuding Him to the nations. If they repented, God would equip them to bless the nations. “‘Let him who boasts boast about this: the he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,’ declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 9:24)

In Isaiah 42, God calls for His people to serve Him as bearers of restoration to the nations amidst their exile to the Assyrians. Unfortunately, Israel hadn’t been delighting in God. But as they did delight in God, He would show His delight to the nations through them. They were blessed to be a blessing. What better picture of delight than blessing others as an extension of God’s delight in us. “‘Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.’” (Isaiah 42)

This is not something overwhelming we must obtain, but something we may freely, gratefully rest in through Jesus.

Ready or Not: Orientation with South America Mission (SAM)

Learn and share. That’s what SAM said we’d do during New Candidate Orientation, and they did not let us down.

I drove to South Carolina for a week of orientation with SAM in June. I knew going into it that SAM sounded solid in its mission, vision, doctrine, etc…But I didn’t relish the idea of meeting new people and flipping through a manual for a week (which, for the record, we never did). I thought I’d probably meet some nice people and most likely enjoy my week. I obviously didn’t know this crowd. (And I'm learning to curve my pessimism.) Let me assure you, however, that orientation exceeded all of those thoughts and expectations.

At orientation, members from the SAM staff shared their hearts for the mission. I met beautiful families and wonderful people who want to serve God and enable others to serve God. We heard from various people about discipleship, living a lifestyle of worshipping God, placing our identities in Christ, living as an “abiding community,” and other topics. The main point: worship God and seek to glorify Him in all you do. Would I like to join this mission? Yes, please. I learned important information that week. But, more importantly, I mentally, spiritually, and emotionally prepared to proceed with SAM. In fact, I would have gone straight to Pucallpa after that week had it been possible.

Some highlights?

Friends/Fellowship: I made new friends. I had to leave orientation early, and I hated it. I didn’t want to miss out on the next week of learning alongside my new friends. I miss them, but I also love hearing updates from them. We shared about why we’re going and how we began this process. Some current missionaries shared about the ups and downs of serving abroad. We also shared our life stories, which reminded me repeatedly of God's faithfulness. The fellowship, discussions, and individual conversations helped me process what it means to simply BE God's as I move forward in going to Peru.

Food: Wow. We ate delicious snacks and meals constantly. Yum!

Face time: I met staff who I had only emailed or talked with on the phone. Nothing replaces face time. I’m just bummed that going to Peru does not mean I will spend time with the SAM staff (since they live in SC). 

Teaching: We soaked in challenging teaching. How did they prepare us for the mission field? By encouraging us to worship God and grow in our understanding of who He is.

Cornhole: I absolutely and competitively loved playing Cornhole many times throughout the week. I fully anticipate owning this game at some point.

I fail to take pictures most of the time when I should. That fact did not change. But, thanks to some friends, I have a few pictures I can share from orientation.

My friends, Rachel (left) and Kate (right), who teach in Bolivia

Fellow missionary candidates at the commissioning banquet

(which I, unfortunately, missed during the second week)

It's official!