two holidays

Here's how we kicked off our Advent celebration this morning.

It may not be exactly what we're used to, but a few little whispers from home made it a special morning for me. Our sweet online church recognized the beginning of Advent with special songs, readings, and lighting the first candle of their Advent wreath.

We bought our Advent wreath candles (I know, not exactly the ones I was dreaming of) last week but haven't made our wreath yet. How am I going to make a wreath anyway? There's nothing green anywhere to be found. Anyway, we pulled out our candles this morning "as is."

I tried to sing along to "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" but couldn't continue without tears. There was something about watching this church sing surrounded by Christmas trees and thinking of them coming in from the cold that had me all choked up. It's sunny, warm, and very lonely down here this morning. I'm nonetheless grateful for this little Advent morning in our living room and looking forward to a season of waiting and preparing for Christmas. And for a visit from my mom and brother, who will arrive Dec. 13. I'm so so glad.

I forgot to report on our Thanksgiving with friends in Lima. We had a busy but very fun day cooking and catching up. The food turned out well I think, but the best part was spending time with John and Heather, their precious kids, their neat friend Hillary, and our best language school friend David (now flying planes for SAM in the jungle). This photo is minus two photographers (John and I) but plus one baby in the womb! Heather's due date is Dec. 20.

Here's our final menu, in the order we cooked it. I'd make every one of the dishes again!

Toll House Pie
Peach Blueberry Pie (our first blueberries in over a year!)
Sweet Cornbread
Brined, Herb-Roasted Turkey (amazing!)
Brandy and Orange- Mashed Sweet Potatoes in Orange Cups (accidently put 1 c instead of 1/4 c of brandy... but they turned out okay anyway)
World's Best Cornbread Stuffing (added toasted pecans and craisins)
Green Bean Casserole with Homemade Onion Rings
Mashed Potatoes
Homemade Gravy

Read More 2 comments | Posted by Hannah Murray |

alpha week 10

Last night (the last night of the course) only 11 people came, a pretty big discouragement for us. Of the 5 leaders, only 1 showed up. I did know in advance about another one not being able come (she had an opportunity to work, not something you turn down), but no word from the remaining 3. In general, the low attendance made for an awkward night. We didn't really know how to wrap things up, and I think our "short and sweet" approach was not very successful.

On the positive side, we did get some interesting responses from our surveys. Here are some (translated) highlights:

How would you have described yourself in relation to the Christian faith before beginning this course?

as an atheist
I didn't know anything about the Bible
with skepticism

How would you describe yourself today?

I have drawn nearer to God by listening to the responses to certain doubts and questions that I had.
more convinced
I know more about God and have more faith in Christ.

Did your relationship with God change through this course? How?

putting into practice everything the pastor read from the Bible and his own experiences
Yes, because before I didn't believe, but since I came to the course, I learned a lot about God. Also now I can and know how to pray, because before I didn't do it.
Yes, a lot. My personality is different.
Yes, my relationship with Christ and God changed because my life is changing.
I'm no longer the same. I was grouchy and antisocial with people before.

What did you like most about Alpha?

The videos and small groups because they helped to dispell my doubts.
The talks, the relationships with people I didn't know before
I liked the friendships and the way people treated each other. Also the food.
The illustrative videos, Tim's questions, his responses, and the harmonious environment in the course

Maybe this Alpha round hasn't been everything I wanted it to be. This morning I was oscillating between discouragement and wanting to forget last night and move on with my day. Somehow neither seemed right. I went to the Bible for answers and indeed found some.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

That sounds like good news to me. My part is trusting Him, which feels like something I can do. His part is filling me up with joy, peace, and hope (definitely not in my power). I feel those gifts springing up inside me little by little as the day moves forward, and I'm so glad I'm not on my own here.

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Hannah Murray |

alpha prayers- week 10

Tonight is our final session for this round of the Alpha Course. I must admit that we're relieved. Alpha is a lot of work for 2 people, especially if those people aren't very social anyway!

The topic tonight is "What about the Church?" This is a pretty big issue for us when it comes to Alpha. So far most of the people who have done the Alpha Course have not become involved in the Comunidad Cristiana or any other church around here. It is our understanding from reading the Bible that the Christian life is meant to be lived in community, and we long to see this group grasp that concept. Pray for us tonight!

1. Attendance. We still don't have much of a clue about who will come tonight! Pray that the "right" people would come (on time) with open ears and open hearts.

2. Us. Pray that we would have a relaxing afternoon and go into this night full of joy and peace.

3. Alpha Questionaires. One problem with this round of the course is that we feel less connected with the participants and don't really have a sense of how this course is (or isn't) helping them in their lives of faith. Tonight they fill our questionaires that address much of that. Pray that they would understand the questions and answer them with sincerity.

4. Logistics. Chicken and Apple Curry, set-up, sound and video equipment, children (not) being a distraction.

5. Introducing New Life in Christ. We are so excited to be able to offer this follow-up discipleship course to Alpha starting next Thursday! Pray that we would have wisdom about how to explain to our Alpha people that Alpha is over, they can't come to the next Alpha, and that we want them to come to this new course. New Life is a very different and more "serious" course. Pray that we would explain it in a way that encourages people to come but also communicates the commitment involved.

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Hannah Murray |

tío timo

At 3 am this morning my second nephew was born, Nathan Charles Murray, to my brother Phil and his wife Christal. He weighed 7 lbs 5 oz and it sounds like everything is ok. I found out from my dad while on a bus to Lima so I wasn´t able to talk long.

Congrats on your arrival Nathan. See you in a year or two.

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Tim Murray |

thanksgiving part 3

Today's trials were all brown and made me remember why I love being mostly vegetarian. We had rolls, roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, and pumpkin bars for desert. I would definitely recommend the mashed potatoes and gravy (no lumps!).

My pumpkin bars didn't turn out like Paula Deen's, but how can I resist anything with homemade cream cheese frosting? I'm sure the difference had a lot to do with the fact that I can't buy either canned pumpkin or a fresh pumpkin, so I tried this with sweet potato. I wasn't sure how much sweet potato equaled a 15-oz can of pumpkin, so I put in about a pound.

Paula Deen's lovely pumpkin bars:

My very humble sweet potato version (smaller b/c I halved the recipe):

Not sure yet if this is worthy of Thursday. Luckily I also have a Toll House Pie up my sleeve that needs no further rehearsing. It's become a well-mastered art in our family.

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Hannah Murray |

laundry

It's been a year since we've done our laundry. In Arequipa, our host family's housekeeper did it. Here, we've been paying someone $10/week to wash it by hand, dry it, and iron it.

When our vet told us recently that he was selling his 2-yr-old washing machine, we realized it would be cheaper to buy it than continue paying $10/week for 18 more months. At first we were a little conflicted, because our laundry provides a job for our neighbor. We put a lot of thought and prayer into this and for a number of reasons, decided to do it.

I couldn't be more pleased. Maybe it's the sense of control over my own clothes again. Maybe it's the fact that a shirt can go from clean to dirty in one day (instead of 1-3 weeks). Regardless, I am so far not the least bit bothered by the tasks involved. And there are several.

1. Wash the clothes. We have a pending issue with our drain, so we've been rolling our washer from the laundry/dog room outside the back patio. Thank goodness for the rolling platform our vet gave us with it! The drain issue is not entirely averted, and we still almost always end up with a small flood in the laundry room. We've talked to a guy about fixing this, but it seems to be happening on Peruvian time.

2. Hang the clothes to dry. Pull out the stool and start clipping laundry to the line! Our washer is small (6 kg), so we never have that much at once. Our housekeeper has been helping with this task as well.

3. Take the clothes down and iron them. All of them. Remember when I laughed about my neighbor ironing my dishtowels? I did it myself on Saturday. They looked so pitiful all contorted into shapes! With the actual clothes and sheets, I'm more worried about softness than looks, and ironing really does help make them softer. The down side is that, as you can imagine, this is very time-consuming. My Saturday night ironing session lasted through 4 old episodes of 24 (3 hrs?).

My plan with the ironing is to have my housekeeper do most of it. She doesn't have a lot of extra time, but I think she could probably spare 20 minutes a day out of the 4 hours she's here. We'll see how it works. This week I'm saving all the clothes up for her to iron while we're in Lima on Thursday for Thanksgiving.

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Hannah Murray |

thanksgiving part 2

Today's Thanksgiving trials were delicious and not nearly as time-consuming as yesterday's. Somehow when we sat down for lunch I was already full. Note to self: stop tasting after every step!

Brandy and Orange-Mashed Sweet Potatoes in Orange Cups: A huge improvement over the gnocchi. We used cognac for brandy and some bizarre combination of milk ingredients (in lieu of heavy cream, unavailable). These look kind of muffin-y but aren't. More like sweet potato casserole. I might try putting a mini marshmallow and a pecan on top. Deeeeelish and as an added benefit, pretty darn cute, too!

Cornbread Stuffing: We didn't have access to sage or sausage, so I ended up using rosemary, thyme, and some kind of spicy hot dog (chopped up). Can you believe that it actually turned out tasty? I think it was partially because of the awesome cornbread we put in it (1/2 the recipe). This recipe still fell short of the one my aunt Nancy gave me. Comparing the two, I think I will add pecans on Thursday and also, if I can find them in Lima, sage and dried cherries or cranberries. Hopefully I can improve on the spicy hot dog, too :-)

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Hannah Murray |

thanksgiving, here we come!

We're eagerly looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving with our American friends the Chapman's in Lima! This is our first time cooking Thanksgiving dinner (other than dessert contributions), so we decided we ought to test out some recipes first. Today we started with Green Bean Casserole with homemade onion rings and Sweet Potato Gnocchi. The green beans were a huge success (probably even more so if fresh mushrooms were available) and the gnocchi a pretty big flop. Now we know and won't have to frighten our friends with them.

Sunday was a bad day to pick to play gourmet chefs, both because our housekeeper is home resting and because I have the distinct sense that I should be resting, too (even though my "day off" is Tuesday). The cooking itself was laborious but it was the dish-washing that really killed us. From leaving the house to buy the vegetables to finishing drying the last dish, we spent about 5 hours on our project. Good thing we like cooking. Too bad we don't have a dishwasher.

Speaking of hard labor and machines, we finally bit the bullet and bought a washing machine last week. It comes with a host of adventures, which I hope to recount in a post to come!

Read More 1 Comment | Posted by Hannah Murray |

one sentence

Here's a blog of true one sentence stories. Many of them are hilarious, although a few are pretty sad. Here are a few highlights:

It always brings a smile to my face when my dad tells large groups of strangers how he once cut himself on Jello.

As I woke up from my nap to find written on my feet "This is my momma and you can't have her," I realized that my child is very, very strange.

When I turned in my family tree in the 3rd grade, I realized that having to explain the fact that my parents were cousins would be much harder than I had previously thought.

One of the joys of sleepwalking is spending my morning speculating what happened last night to cause me to wake up holding a teaspoon.

I was bleeding and in pain, but I had to laugh when the ER nurse asked the guy in the next room, "You swallowed HOW MANY toothbrushes?"

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Tim Murray |

alpha and cultural learning

Last night's Alpha was positive in so many ways. Why then did I leave with my face all scrunched up?

Good things

decent attendance

evidence of people forming friendships

curried chicken salad was a huge hit (darn, no lunch leftovers)

I had a deep sense of the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in prayer

lots of people were open and vulnerable about their prayer requests

preparation went smoothly

Frustrating things

Leader 1 didn't come, although he was sitting outside down the street the whole time. I'm frustrated by his immaturity, his lack of responsibility, and the fact that his spiritual growth seems non-existent some (most?) days.

Leader 2 slept through the video (as she does almost always).

Leader 3 is so incredibly insecure, and when I asked her how I could pray for her, she said "just for my children" even though I know she has a thousand serious issues in her life right now. I felt frustrated that she was putting up a wall to me.

People didn't write on the sheets I gave them for reflection. Big disappointment.

People were talking loudly and shamelessly during the prayer/reflection time.

People began cleaning up and stacking chairs before I was even done praying for the last person.

People had their eyes open as we prayed for them (How do I know this? you ask....)

One woman made a comment that indicated she was planning on attending the next Alpha Course. I am so not looking forward to that battle again.

Lessons learned

First, a reminder that I'm not in Kansas anymore, and that people don't necessarily know everything I expect them to know. If I want someone to do something (commit to leadership, fill in a worksheet, be respectful during prayer time, close their eyes during prayer), I need to be more clear and explain myself as best I can. It's not necessarily that they're being obnoxious, lazy, disrespectful, stupid, or whatever other label surges to the front of my mind. It's entirely possible that they just don't know what my expectations are or what is the appropriate way to behave in new situations.

Second, I need to let go of my sense of responsibility for others' spiritual growth. My power is limited, and instead of fighting that, it's time to accept it. There are some things I can do to encourage these new believers and walk alongside them (setting clear expectations about what it means to be an Alpha leader, for example). There are a lot more things that don't fall within my sphere of influence, and that's okay. I can trust God to carry the world. All on His own.

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Hannah Murray |

mug + flour + microwave = cake

Every now and then I get a craving for chocolate cake but I just don't want to go to the trouble of making an entire cake for 2 people. Well yesterday I came across a post of a 5 min cake recipe that turned out to be pretty good. It really only took 5 mins including the baking time!

I'd encourage everyone to try it, but mine was a little spongy so you might want to add a pinch or 2 of baking powder to the flour (and maybe using half an egg?). You can find the recipe here. Good luck and let me know how it turns out!

Read More 3 comments | Posted by Tim Murray |

alpha prayers- week 9

Tonight is the penultimate session for this Alpha Course. The topic is "Does God Heal Today?" Instead of following the lesson with discussion, we will be using the time to pray for all of the participants one-on-one. I've also prepared a worksheet of sorts for them to have a time of personal reflection while we're praying for others. I feel excited about the possibilities for the night!

Please pray for us and for our participants:

1. Attendees. Pray again that God would hand-pick people to come and that we would receive them as such.

2. Logistics. Curried chicken salad sandwiches, set-up, sound and video equipment, children not being a distraction, how to seat people during the prayer time to provide some privacy.

3. Us. Protection from spiritual attack, fullness in the fruit of the Holy Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control). Pray that the daytime today would be somehow fun and encouraging to us, that we would be happy going into the night.

3b. Us praying. Praying out loud in Spanish is one of the more challenging language tasks we face. Pray that our language abilities wouldn't be a distraction for us or for the participants during the prayer time. Pray that God would set our tongues free to speak well!

4. Praying about prayer :-) Pray that people would be open about prayer needs. Pray that we would see physical and emotional healing during this prayer time. Pray that people would want to give their lives to follow Jesus!

5. Alpha follow-up. We're excited about the follow-up Bible study for Alpha beginning Dec. 4. Please begin praying with us for lots of enthusiastic people to come! More on this in a post to come.

I hope you're as excited about this night as I am. By praying for us, you are participating, too! We're so grateful for your partnership in the gospel and wish you could see the fruit it is bearing with your own eyes.

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Hannah Murray |

two holidays

alpha week 10

alpha prayers- week 10

tío timo

thanksgiving part 3

laundry

thanksgiving part 2

thanksgiving, here we come!

one sentence

alpha and cultural learning

mug + flour + microwave = cake

alpha prayers- week 9

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