We just finished up our introduction night to the next Alpha course. It was amazing. We ended up renting a "party" room complete with poorly drawn images on the walls, blacklights, disco ball, glow in the dark paint and a roof made up of bamboo shoots and plastic - and yet it felt comfortable and cozy. I think after living here for a while, the idea of "nice" changes greatly.

In the ended we had 33 people come including us. 20 were brand new and I believe most if not all will come back for the rest of the course. One exciting aspect is that of those 20, 11 were men and only 1 is already involved in spiritual things. This was encouraging since the men here tend to avoid anything that could possibly be associated with God or religion.

Hannah and I are taking some time off before our bosses return to the US for a few months. Because of that the official first week of the course will begin on Friday the 19th of September. Please be praying for this and the time between. We hope that the momentum for the course will continue and that God will continue to work miracles throughout this next course and the people who attend.

Thank you once again for all of you who have been faithful praying for us in our work here as well as the people we're working with.

Today we made :
100 tortillas from scratch
salsa out of 100 tomatoes
guacamole from 30 avocados
and a lot more

I'm tired and also deeply grateful for Grace, her housekeeper, my housekeeper, her daughter, and Tim (all part of the cooking team).

Our Alpha Invitation Night (for the new course in September) begins in 45 minutes. If you read this tonight, pray for us! We're hoping for a good and enthusiastic turn out of interesting and interested people, particularly men (usually sorely lacking in anything "spiritual").

Yesterday in the women's Bible study, Grace read Luke 15:26, which says that if anyone comes to Jesus and doesn't hate his father and his mother, his wife and his children, his brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he can't be a disciple.

After some discussion and direction, Grace asked the women what they thought the verse was talking about. As usual, they spent some time in silence looking blankly at the verse. Then someone piped up: "It's about loving your neighbor." Grace and I exchanged a look of utter disbelief as all of the women nodded in agreement. I'd love to make some more comments, but I just don't even know what to say....

PS and FYI- I think what the verse is actually talking about is priorities. To be a disciple, my relationship with Jesus has to come before every other relationship in my life. I have heard before that exaggeration was a Jewish teaching technique, and I suspect that maybe that's what Jesus was employing when he used the word "hate" here. If we look at this verse in the context of the rest of the Bible (which I would say is an important tool for interpretation), we see that He couldn't have possibly literally meant that I should hate my family.

Here's my mom, showing that she is more athletic than me and my brother combined (although he's climbed Mt. Rainier ... I guess that makes me the odd one out!).

On of the interesting things here in Peru is that the trash is picked up daily. I believe it has to do with sanitation and the fact that there really isn't anywhere to store it for a weekly pick up. The reality is that since we have an empleada, I'm not really sure what happens to the trash, but I assume that Meri takes care of it each day.

Puerto Supe's local government has been having some financial problems for a while now (they went 2 months without paying any of their employees) and now they're completely out of money. Pretty much the only recurring expense is buying gas for the dumptruck that picks up all of the trash. The gas stations had been allowing the governemnt to buy gas on credit, but as of this week they stopped. Apparently they've lost all faith that the government will pay them back. It's only been 3 or 4 days but it's caused quite a rucus here.

Oh well, this is Peru after all.

After our worship service last night, I checked people's Reading Guide for John booklets and marked their progress. Three new people had started, which was encouraging. I was looking at some of the questions people had, and one man had asked, "Did John the Baptist complete the mission God sent him for?" I asked what he thought, and he said he would have to wait to finish the book to see. Then he said he was interested to see which of the disciples did the best. I told him I thought they all had different rolls or calls, but he says he's sure one of them did better than the rest. "Hmmmm," I said. "Interesting." I would definitely say that comment reveals some confusion he has about God, us, and where or how we get our value.

One thing I think I've learned from leading the Alpha Course is that people learn a lot better (here at least) through discovery than through instruction. If I let people figure things out for themselves instead of telling them the "right" answers, it sticks much more. I think also that there is so much in this culture (and ours, too) that runs contrary to the teaching of the Bible, that if I want to teach, I need to "pick my battles." There are only a few things that I consider important enough that I would directly disagree with someone about even if they weren't asking my opinion. For the rest, I'll hold my tongue until a more opportune moment. "Hmmmm, how interesting."

Besides, I'm not always right anyway (but don't tell Tim).

My mom completed a triathlon this morning, her first ever. Can you believe it?! I'm so impressed and pretty sure that at 56 I won't be starting any similar new hobbies.

This week I borrowed Faithful Women and Their Extraordinary God from the extensive Cubas library. It's five short-ish biographies of women whose lives have made a difference for the Kingdom of God-- Sarah Edward, Lilias Trotter, Gladys Aylward, Esther Ahn Kim, and Helen Roseveare. Faithful women is a good title, because as I read their stories, I don't feel like they were super-women necessarily. But they were faithful, faithful to God's call on their lives through wars and tragedies and more, and through their faithfulness, God worked miracles.

There's so much I want to say about these women, but I know I can't do them justice. I'm reminded again today how much I love reading history. The history of people who lived for God is all the more interesting to me, because beyond history, it's also encouragement for me today, and a reminder of the legacy I want to leave behind at my death. Of all the remarkable stories in this book, I have to share this one that I read this morning from the life of Helen Roseveare:

Opening his Bible at Galatians 2:20, he drew a straight line in the dirt floor with his heel. "I," he said, "the capital I in our lives, Self, is the great enemy.... Helen... the trouble with you is that we can see so much Helen that we cannot see Jesus. I notice that you drink much coffee," he continued... apparently going off on a tangent. "When they bring a mug ... to you ... you stand there holding it, until it is cool enough to drink. May I suggest that every time, as you stand and wait, you should just lift your heart to God and pray..." and as he spoke, he moved his heel in the dirt across the I he had previously drawn, "... Please, God, cross out the I."

There in the dirt was his lesson of simplified theology-- the Cross-- the crossed out I life.... "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me" (Galatians 2:20).

from Faithful Women & Their Extraordinary God, by Noel Piper (p. 160)

First I want to apologize for not posting our last few weeks of Alpha. Our last few weeks have been crazy and we haven't gotten around to it. Thank you to everyone who continued praying for us and the lives of the people involved despite our lack of reminders/updates.

Tonight we ate Chicken and Apple Curry, watched the last video, handed out certificates and had a time for some people to share their experiences/what they learned. Throughout the course we averaged about 10-11 people a night and had 9 that "completed" the course and received certificates. Out of those 9 people 3 were already fairly committed to God, and at least 2 others (maybe all of them?) have made serious committments to God.

We talked about what was next and all of them seemed to be pretty excited to continue meeting and studying the Bible together. As people talked tonight, I had the impression that one of the most meaningful experiences for them was the family and friendship that has formed amongst all of us, as odd of a group as we are (we have people ranging from 14 to 60+ years old). They also commented on the opportunity to discuss real issues together, learn new things and the freedom to say what they think without being judged. As I write this, I feel like I'm copying the promotional literature from Alpha and I'm remembering that I really didn't believe that God could work in this way. I have been proven wrong.

Next Friday we're having an introduction to the next Alpha course that we'll be starting in mid-September. Everyone has the opportunity to invite people to come to find out about the course and we're hoping to see 40 people or so there. If we do have that many people, it's going to be interesting because we'll be doing it in a different location and it a slightly different style to accomdate the larger group setting. Please be praying this week. We hope that many new people will come and have the opportunity to see what God offers for their lives. Also please pray for all the logistics (this includes painting the room we would be meeting in).