alpha prayers- week 6

The topic this week is “How does God guide us?” I don’t have many specifics for prayer today, but here are a few ideas:

1. Pray for our Alpha retreat next Sunday (July 20). Logistics, attendance, changed lives.
2. Pray for our regular participants-- that they would “get” grace, that they would give their lives to follow Jesus.
3. Pray for our discussion. I’m excited about this week’s topic and think it should be good. We’ll see.

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Hannah Murray |

a week in puerto supe

Here's what I do in a week. Right now all the mornings are starting with reading John with my housekeeper and then going to the beach with Tim to walk the dogs.

MONDAY. My day off. I rest, read, watch movies, plan for my week, write my weekly menu and grocery shopping list. In no particular order.

TUESDAY. Shopping in the morning. Eat lunch at 1. At 2, my friend A comes over and we read Captivating and talk about it for an hour or two. I attend Al-Anon (6-8) or a women's Bible study (5-7) on alternating weeks. The weeks I go to Bible study, we also have a Comunidad Cristiana Board meeting from 8-10.

WEDNESDAY. Catch up on life etc. in the morning. After lunch, my friend M comes over to study John at 3. Knitting club from 4-6. Prayer meeting in our house from 7-8.

THURSDAY. Team meeting in the morning, usually from 9-12. I attend Sierra's Bible study from 4-6 and after this week will be leading it. Al-Anon from 6-8.

FRIDAY. All day Alpha preparation (food, set-up, discussion). Alpha from 7-10.

SATURDAY. Recover from Alpha. Maybe have a movie night.

SUNDAY. Watch "church" with our team online from 8-9:30. Rest, eat lunch, rest, rest. Attend evening worship service in Spanish. Sometimes lead discussion afterward.

It's funny how there's no real line between life and work here. All the in-between time is both. I think I like it that way.

Read More 1 Comment | Posted by Hannah Murray |

even here his hand will guide me

Today began a little rough. I took both dogs to the beach by myself, and on the way we had some trouble. In front of the market, there was a moment when cars were passing and stray dogs were drawing near. In all the hubub, I got tangled up in leashes and wiped out. I was frustrated, embarassed, annoyed with myself that I would be embarassed about something so simple. By the time I got to the beach I also noticed that my engagement ring had broken from the friction of the leashes I guess. In the back the platinum just broke down the middle. Ugh.

I was glad to be on my way to the beach, and when I got there took the time to talk out loud with God about how I was feeling. Where would I be without him? I'd hate to know. This morning I needed to hear the voice of Jesus reminding me of all the things I know to be true, including his remarkable love for me demonstrated on the cross. So many good things have been going on in and around me recently, but there are hard moments as well. The redeeming truth is that in the hard moments, God is not changed, and I have the same opportunity to draw near to him.

I got home and read through Psalm 139.

O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O Lord.
You hem me in-- behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

It's the prayer of an ex-pat I think. Even if I settle on the far side of the sea, He is here and will guide me. I am so glad to know it.

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Hannah Murray |

oh dear

Our phone line hasn't worked for about 2 weeks. During that time, our internet has rarely worked. Maybe 2 hours per day and we never know when or how long. Tim called today (from someone else's house) to find out what the heck is going on. The operator told him that the phone number we claim to have is not actually ours. It belongs to a business in another city. How and when did that happen? And what the heck can we do about it?

I see now why they call this a developing nation.

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Hannah Murray |

how to make meetings more fun

By my own choice in part, most of my job has to do with attending meetings. Even my relationships center around the 1-2 hours a week I have scheduled to meet with that person. Probably sounds sick to a lot of you, but for right now, it's working wonders in my life and ministry.

Every once in a while I have to go to a long or boring meeting. The only way to combat this problem is food. I am definitely of the opinion that almost all meetings should involve snacks (and usually sweet ones). In preparation for the Comunidad Cristiana Board of Directors meeting tonight, I made Martha Stewart lemon squares. They were pretty easy and very successful. If you have any boring meetings coming up, I'd definitely suggest them.

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Hannah Murray |

yay!

In the last 24 hours, I've had two really encouraging moments I want to share.

One part of the weekly worship service that I'm gladly responsible for is the Alpha discussion. We've been watching Alpha Express videos for the sermon part of the service, and afterward, I lead the discussion. This week, the message was on prayer. Afterward, I explained one way to pray called "Palms up, Palms down." The idea is to turn your palms face-down and tell God all the things you are letting go into his care-- your sins, your anxieties, your responsibilities, your work, etc. Then you turn your palms face up and tell him all the things you are receiving gladly from him-- forgiveness, a new character, peace and joy, the Holy Spirit, blessings, his will, etc. It has always been a special way to pray for me. To make sure everyone got the idea, we first made a list on the whiteboard of all the kinds of things you would let go of and receive. They understood far more quickly and better than I anticipated. The prayer time was sweet in that it felt intimate and genuine. I was in my element-- leading and teaching in a classroom/workshop type setting about things that matter deeply to me.

A second moment. Since our Alpha conversation on the Bible on Friday, the "Biblical illiteracy" of this community has been heavy on my heart. On Sunday, I developed a "Reading Guide" booklet for the Gospel of John that I hope to use in a number of ways. It divides John into 54 short readings (about 20 verses each) and has 1-3 thinking questions for each reading with space to write answers. This morning my housekeeper and I started working on it together, beginning with John 1:1-18. She was super enthusiastic and says she wants to read the Bible but doesn't find motivation or make sense of it on her own. The questions for this passage were "What does it mean to 'recieve him' or 'believe in his name'?" and "What is the difference between the law of Moses and the grace of Jesus?" (both coming out of the reading). We had a great conversation about the two, and she really seemed to understand well how Jesus opened up a new way for salvation for us apart from the law. I for one was excited. We are planning to spend 10 minutes at the beginning of every morning reading and answering questions.

I am still in awe of what God is doing around and through me here in Puerto Supe. I feel like these were all the things I always wanted to do, both at Davidson and in Charlotte, but found so much difficulty in pursuing, both because of my timidity and the responses of people around me. I think in part I have been living in communities over-saturated with "religion" (although maybe not real faith) until now. In Puerto Supe, no one has anything to do, for one, so they're thrilled to come to a prayer meeting. Also they just haven't had the opportunity before to learn about Jesus. It's something new, and people are eager to find out what all the hubub is about.

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Hannah Murray |

the big bang

After going about 10 years without setting off fireworks, this last Friday I decided to buy some fireworks to celebrate the 4th of July. Every month or so we hear a few fired so I figured they were relatively easy to find.

As always I started asking where I could find the fireworks by talking to a few taxi drivers. Finally one told me to ask the fat man who drives the red taxi in Puerto, that he knew where to get them. I found him and he took me to a nearby town, stopped and pointed to house and told me they were in there. I knocked on the door and an old lady answered and mumbled something about her son now working in Supe (not Puerto Supe) and that there were no fireworks in the house. The taxi proceeded to take me to another house and after knocking a few times and no answering, a boy was yelling at me that the guy was down the street and then ran to get him for me.

When the guy finally showed up, he started asking me what kind of fireworks I wanted. I had no idea what to call them in english much less in spanish so I asked him if he could show them to me. He then began to describe the different ones and the prices for them. Still being a bit confused, I asked him if I could just see what he had. He said ok and took into his house into a room full of cardboard boxes, bags of gun powder and cardboard tubes. I then realized why he seemed a bit concerned when I told him I wanted the fireworks the same day. He had to make them all by hand. The photo above is of his shop which is open to his bedroom.

He showed me a few different parts of the fireworks to try to help me understand what I would be getting and then showed me a few piles of different gun powder and asked which I wanted (it turns out they had to do with color and I think type of explosion). I finally just ordered based on price thinking the cheaper would be puny and the more expensive would be larger. So I got a few dozen of the cheapest and medium priced fireworks.

When I went to pick them up a few hours later, once again I was surpised. I'm used to fireworks being 18"-24" tall and shooting them out of glass bottles. These were huge! Each one was at least 4 ft tall and had a bamboo shoot for a pole.

That night we went over to the Cubas's house and shot them off of their roof. It was pretty exciting and although there a few that exploded pretty close to the ground, no one got hurt. The next day the fireworks seemed to be the talk of the town and almost everyone I ran into were asking me if I'd shot them off (this include mini-market owners and random people I didn't know). I think I may have shot off a lot more than was normal for people around here.

I'm already scheming of another show on Christmas eve (that's the time of year they shoot off fireworks down here) and hoping to get people to donate to it so we can buy a few hundred of the big rockets and do a show off the end of the pier and everyone can come down to the beach to see it. We'll see.

Read More 1 Comment | Posted by Tim Murray |

alpha week 5

Last night was fairly good until the discussion part. We were talking about the Bible and realized it's a pretty hard topic to address with this crowd. The truth is that they haven't read the Bible and aren't really interested in it. To them, the Bible is somewhat irrelevant to their lives, even their lives of faith. It's boring, hard to understand, and really long. Makes me think of Tim's Flash MX 2004 Bible (computer nonsense). I think this view is pretty much shared by the believers in town as well, which becomes more problematic. Maybe it comes out of the Catholic doctrine that normal people can't understand the Bible and need the priests to explain it to them. People just don't read it themselves.

What can we do about this? To me, this community (and the individuals that make it up) will never grow up to be mature, self-sustaining and independent until the people are both "Bible literate" and regularly reading the Bible. It makes me think I'd like to start a "read the New Testament in X amount of time" campaign in a few months or so.

My housekeeper says she doesn't read the Bible because it makes her fall asleep. She also says she likes for people to read the Bible to her. I'm considering asking her if she would like to read a short passage with me every morning and pray for the day. Not to discuss it but at least so that she hears something. I think part of the problem with the perception of the Bible here is that no one has ever tried it, or if they have, they started in Leviticus or something.

On another topic related to last night, my friend C (she and her husband are the only "churchy" people who come to Alpha) would not stop talking last night in the discussion. She just went on and on with stories that to me seemed irrelevant. After the meeting, she and her husband told me that they wouldn't be attending the day retreat since I mentioned they couldn't bring their 4-year-old. They don't like to leave her with anyone (ever).

I was a little miffed at first thinking that I don't understand this culture with children. It seems crazy to me that their daughter is only ever with them or at school. She comes to every single meeting they attend, which means that someone has to watch her there or she gets into trouble (latest shenanigans- writing on Tim's blackboard with permanent marker). Anyway, then I realized that for the two of them not to come to the retreat is a real blessing for the others. I think it will make everyone else more comfortable to be themselves (however "not religious" that may be) and will give other people more time to talk now that C isn't monopolizing the conversation. By the way, everyone else says they are definitely coming to the retreat! I'm amazed and thrilled!

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Hannah Murray |

alpha prayers- week 5

This week we’re learning about “How and why do I study the Bible?”

1. Pray that our guests would all come and feel comfortable together. We are going to split them up by gender again (very successful last week). Pray that the Lord would continue to draw them to himself.

2. Pray that everyone would be able to attend the retreat. We are giving them all the information tonight and know that it is likely they won’t all come. We think the retreat is super important and will be a time for a lot of them to sort out what they’re going to do about everything they’re learning. The retreat is during the day July 20.

3. Pray that we would get everything prepared today and still be peaceful tonight. There are quite a few “extras” this week and I for one am feeling a little overwhelmed. Pray for sorting out retreat details, the food (Pat McB’s spaghetti salad), set-up, and discussion preparation.

We feel ourselves living in the power of your prayers. Thank you for your dedication and love.

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Hannah Murray |

monthly planning and review

The truth is that I love planning. It was one of the highlights of my teaching job. If I ever return to public school education (2 more years in NC for retirement benefits!) I hope to do it as a planner more than a teacher (curriculum development?). South America Mission seems to love planning, too, since they "require" that each missionary fill out a Monthly Planning and Review form with his/her supervisor. Tim has never done one. I'm crazy about them. They give me a sense of purpose and direction and in a way let me off the hook. I no longer have to take over the world this month. All I have to do is complete my month's goals. I won't bore you with all the details of my MPR, but here are a few of this month's goals that I'm especially excited about.

Set up both of my guest rooms for use. Hospitality is one my life's great joys, and with some of Tim's family coming at the end of the month, I have a great opportunity to get to work!
Hold the Alpha Retreat July 20 and coordinate the South America Mission Summer Team's involvement. We're hoping they'll fix lunch and play beach volleyball.
Start weekly prayer meeting and explore possibilities for starting 12-Step Recovery Group in Puerto Supe (Celebrate Recovery?).
Continue meeting one-on-one with two girls and begin leading Sierra's small group when she leaves July 18.

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Hannah Murray |

prayer meeting

Last night we opened our home for a short prayer meeting. I expected to have 3 or 4 people. Instead I had 20 and was scrambling to make space for the chairs (luckily between ours and the ones Kyle gave us when he moved, we now have 18 dining room chairs!). I think it turned out really well for a number of reasons. One of our main goals was to make sure it was worth coming back to, as we intend to repeat the meeting every Wednesday night. With that in mind, we insisted that people pray very short prayers (one sentence) at a time so that it didn't turn out long and boring. We also insisted on starting at 7 (Peruvian time: 7:30) and ending at 8 (exactly, American time).

I think some of those boundaries made a difference for people who aren't used to being around "religious folks." I was happy to see that there were quite a few in that category. A good chunk of our Alpha group came (and stayed to chat when everyone else had gone) and also Don F! I gave him an invitation yesterday but was still pleasantly shocked when he was the first one in the door. The town social worker, who helps us with our charity cases but is openly not interested in our spiritual teaching, showed up as well. It's my prayer that some of the new folks will have a chance to experience both Christian Community and God through these meetings. We'll see.

Read More 1 Comment | Posted by Hannah Murray |