Oramos.

Well yesterday was Sunday. And for the first time since I've been in Peru, I went to a church building for church. We usually meet together in one of the two families' homes, but this week, with lots of visitors from the Harding research team, we went to the Iglesia de Cristo for worship.

The preacher there is named Sabino. He's really friendly, and he speaks the clearest Spanish of any native speaker I've ever met. Although this was my first time visiting his church, I had met him before because he comes by ICDU's office from time to time. Because it is usually necessary, the way Sabino usually gets things done is by telling people what to do. This week, he had asked Greg and Kyle to pick some guys from the group to help with church services since he knew we were coming.

On Saturday night, Greg appointed Michael (one of the Harding visitors) and me to head up communion for the following morning. Michael and I decided to go ahead and split up the bread and cup prayers. I chose the bread and was told that it would be a good idea to have something prepared as a communion thought, like a certain scripture to read, in addition to praying in Spanish.

I spent a good deal of time that night looking for a good passage to read from. It was harder than I thought to find a passage that talks more about the bread than it does the cup. Most of the time, it's a packaged deal. But I did find John 6, where Jesus compares himself to manna, the bread of life from heaven. Perfect. I read over it a few times in Spanish to familiarize myself with it. Then I translated and typed out what I wanted to say in the prayer, happy to have the opportunity to get it just right rather than have to pray in Spanish on the fly in front of the whole church. I printed out my prayer along with the John 6 text from an easy-to-read Spanish version. I stuck it in my Bible. I was ready to pray, dangit!

But--as is His typical nature--God had something else in mind.

When it was time for "La Santa Cena," the Lord's Supper, Sabino got up and asked Greg which two of us he had appointed from our group to help. Michael and I went up to the front. I had my Bible in hand, ready to read from the script I had so carefully prepared. Then Sabino started reading a scripture and giving a communion thought. Hm, ok. I thought, I'll just say, "I also have something to read before we pray..." That way, I can still read from the bread prayer script which is cleverly tucked away in my Bible.

Meanwhile, God laughed.

"Michael, if you'll pray for the bread...and Aaron, you pray for the cup," instructed Sabino. You've got to be kidding me. I'd never felt so prepared to speak Spanish in my life, and now this. All the time and preparation and translating, and I still have to wing a prayer in a different language because Sabino switched it up on us...

I put down my Bible. "Santo Padre..."

No one snickered during the prayer, so I think I got away without blaspheming. Man I was glad to get through that.

"Aaron, if you would now pray for the offering." Okay, seriously? I think at that point God was just messing with me, because, well, we just have that kind of relationship.

Again, no snickering; no lightning. Prayer success. Crisis averted.

Now, with all that being said, it really wasn't that bad. And if you know me, you know that I am much too go-with-the-flow to get truly flustered by something like that. After looking back on the whole situation, how well prepared I felt and how differently things went, you might think I'm trying to say that planning is futile because you just never know how things will turn out. And certainly, attaching yourself to a single plan with no room for variables will eventually go awry. But that's not really what I took away from it all.

Instead, I am reminded of (1) how much God is in control, (2) how much I am not in control, and (3) how much that is okay. Do I think God thwarted my plans specifically to put me in my place? Not at all, although He certainly has the right to do so. God has "God-knows-what" in store for me down the road, and one of the best ways He prepares me for that is by raising the stakes, by making me think on my feet. I can plan and prepare and plan and prepare all I want for certain tasks, but I get the best picture of where I am when I am caught off guard.

Maybe this applies to you too. Maybe not. This is just a story that offers great perception into my personal relationship with God, which is perception into me as a person, because after all what more are we than who we are with God?

Machu Picchu Family & Simple Tasks

Last weekend, Briana, Kristen, and I took a short trip to Cuzco and Machu Picchu. They--whoever "they" are--say that you just can't go to Peru with going to Machu Picchu. I'm sooo glad we did it. The train ride to the waypoint city of Aguas Calientes was absolutely breathtaking, not to mention the ruins at Machu Picchu itself. Everywhere I looked there was something picture-worthy, be it a green jungly mountain reaching from a river to the sky, or an Inca wall still standing after centuries of earthquakes.

One thing really took me by surprise, though. My favorite part of the whole trip was not the view, or the history, or even the food. It was getting to know a family from Lima on the way to Machu Picchu. On the train, the seats where situated in groups of four, two seats facing two other seats. I sat with a mother and her two sons, and across the isle, Briana and Kristen sat with the boys' two aunts. The train was long and we were all eager to practice our Spanish, so naturally we got to talk quite a bit with this family. When the train was over, I wasn't really expecting to see them anymore; I just didn't really think about it.

Then after while we were waiting for the train back, I was looking through a souvenir market when I felt a hand tap on my backpack. I turned around and it was Diego! Him and his brother Javier recognized me in the market and got really excited! They asked what time our train back towards Cuzco left, and sure enough, we were in the same car again! On the way back I sat with Firelei, one of the aunts. She taught me all about various Peruvian "jergas," or slang words, especially the ones that have English roots like "chequear" and "luquear" which both mean "Look/Check that out." In return, she wanted me to explain some of the differences between England English and American English. As an example I showed her the difference between the US saying "Harry Podder" and England saying "Arry Potta." Understandably, she laughed at me...

After the train stopped in the town of Ollantaytambo, we were expected there to be a bus waiting to take us the rest of the way to Cuzco. There was no such bus. No worries, though, because our "familia fiel" offered to let us ride with them in the 10-person van they had reserved. As if we hadn't bonded with them enough during the two train rides, we got to drive another hour with them.

By sheer coincidence, the boys spotted us again in Cuzco the next night. They saw us through a window from the street while we were sitting in a restaurant. We immediately paid and ran outside to see them and asked them if we could do breakfast together the following morning. After saying goodbye, we spent the next few hours that night finding a gift for the family to thanks for helping our trip go so smoothly. We found a photo album then went to an internet cafe to print out the picture of all of us that we'd just taken outside the restaurant. We put the picture in the album and spent a loooong time thinking up (in Spanish) a note we could write on the inside of it that would express just how much of a blessing they were to us.

Breakfast was fantastic! I really felt like family with them, and I had to try really hard to hold back the tears when they read our note in the photo album. Like I said, I was not expecting the people I sat with on the train to be my favorite part of the trip, but they were.

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Overall, it is absolutely incredible how beneficial this internship has been to me. I told Robert Oglesby last week that regular intern-ish tasks become a lot more complicated in a culture, language, and city that I'm not familiar with. For example, we had a inauguration party for the first community library on Friday. Before we headed over to the library site, Greg sent me to get styrofoam cups for hot drinks at the inauguration. I was supposed to go get cups and meet them at the library. In the US, especially with your own mode of transportation, this would be extremely easy. In Peru, however, this involved taking a taxi to the San Camilo market, finding the disposable cups & plates store, communicating what I wanted, what size I wanted, and how many I wanted, paying for them, and getting another taxi to a landmark church near the library so I could find my way to the party from there. I've found that the increased potential for problems in simple tasks makes for increased problem-solving and responsibility on my part...

¡Que emocionado!

Wow, I am a horrible blogger. And I was doing so well there for a few days...But I made up for it with tons of links for you to enjoy throughout my post!
This site is one of three places where I am keeping track of what I'm doing here (my journal and diario for Spanish tutoring are the other two), and I blame this for why I don't post very often; I feel like I've already written everything down.

It's also a lot easier to post when I don't have anything else to do. Since I've been here, I've had two hours of class everyday (besides reading and writing outside of class), and I've also been working on creating name tag badges for a research team that's coming soon from Harding to help with ICDU's community projects. It was really exciting to see ICDU make it's first no-interest loan to help Willy, the son of the lady who helps both the McKenzie family and the Smith family around the house, buy a taxi to stay employed. It was truly the beginning of a great relationship with the rest of this family, and I loved seeing how willing people back home were to loan Willy money so he could keep his job.

In other news, Ben, Wes, and I have signed the lease and sent in the security deposit for our house next fall in the Stevenson neighborhood of Abilene. This "intentional community" is going to be so much more than a house. We will be living together, not just rooming together. Our use/adaptation of a New Monastic model for community will no doubt be the next adventure worth blogging about!

I've posted some pictures from the last two weeks on Facebook. Even if you're not on Facebook, you can see the pictures here.
The team also had me post a short bio on their website. If you'd like to see that, and the rest of their site, click here.

Lessons!

One of the men here that works closely with the team and the ICDU, used to work for a language school, and his name is Alfredo, which is apparently a pretty common name here. Besides working with ICDU, Alfredo also works with Megan and her Spanish, and he might work with others; I'm not sure.

Before coming down here, the team mentioned that he would be a possibility for language classes for these two months. Well I talked to him this morning after his lesson with Megan, and we agreed to start Monday! ¡Que emocionado! We're going to work for two hours every day after lunch, and I can't wait to get started.

I went out with Greg today to a part of town that sells a lot of furniture and used appliances. He's in the market for a few things because they just got to move into the other half of their apartment right before I arrived. He explained a lot about how the shopping works there, and how he would look in different stores for the same furniture in order to find the best prices. He also mentioned how interesting/strange/frustrating it is to be the subject of some form of racism. None of the stores had marked prices, so sometimes the vendors would expect him to pay more just because he's white.

This is a picture of the volcano that overlooks the city of Arequipa. It's awfully handy in orienting myself when I don't really know where I am. As long as I can see that mountain, I can at least know the general direction of home.

Isn't it beautiful?

La Hospitalidad de Los McKinzie y Lecciones de Marcos 9

Well the internship has officially begun with TeamArequipa and their Instituto Cristiano de Desarrollo Urbano (Christian Institute for Urban Development). Greg and Megan have put me up in a great room with a warm bed--and my own baño!

Being in a high altitude desert, the weather changes drastically from warm and sunny to cold when the sun goes down. I find myself layering up often.

Tonight, I went with the team to a Bible study they've been attending. I don't think they're usually in a leadership role in the discussions, but Greg filled in tonight for the regular missionaries who are currently on furlough. The study was amazing! For one thing, I understood way more than I thought I would. But more than that, I was able to stop thinking about praticing my Spanish and really let the message affirm me and shape me spiritually.

We talked about the words of the dad of the demon-possessed boy in Mark 9, basically, "I believe, but help me to believe more." Later in the text when the disciplines ask Jesus why they weren't able to drive out the demon, He tells them that that kind of demon can only be driven out by prayer. That phrase is incredible in my Spanish Bible because it calls it "la fuerza de oración," the force of prayer. What an awesome reminder of the power that comes with prayer through the name of Jesus! I pray that the rest of time here is filled with things to learn like this!

I Lived to Travel Another Day

Well I'm pretty sure that everyone reading this already knows that I am back from Uruguay...Once we got back from our free travel time in Tierra del Fuego, things really picked up pace, like getting homework and projects turned in before we came back home.

And everyone knows how Christmas goes. Especially in our family, there is absolutely no time for blogging with all the present-swapping and game-playing. Speaking of which, I'm sure I'll have a hankerin for chickenfoot come August.

This last Spring semester was even more transformational than the Fall in Uruguay, if you can image that. I met some incredible people at ACU, people who are helping me to grow and to know God and His quirks :-) It's amazing how drastically your view on things changes when make a real effort to actively show love to people...I highly recommend it, even though it may come at a high price.

During the Spring, I took a class called Intro to Ministry and Missions, which is the pre-internship class for Bible majors. Well the time has come to do that internship, and where else to do it but South America?

TeamAREQUIPA has been gracious and accommodating in setting everything up for me to spend the next two months with them in Arequipa, Peru. Peru is going to very different from Uruguay and Argentina. For starters, their Spanish will sound different. In the Southern Cone, they pronounce the double-L and Y letters with a soft 'j' sound that almost sounds like a "sh." In Peru, the double-L and Y are both pronounced like English Ys. For example, the word for chicken, "pollo," sounds like "po-jsho" in Uruguay, but "po-yo" in Peru.

Another difference between the two South American countries is that I am going to stand out a lot more in Peru. In Uruguay, most everyone was caucasian, but in Peru, the general skin-tone is darker.

I have also been told that mountainous regions like Arequipa tend to be more traditional in their culture and mindset than coastal cities, like Montevideo, Uruguay, where the culture is much more open to change. This would be mostly due to the amount of seclusion in the mountains versus the constant visits from other cultures in a harbor town.

I'm excited to learn the small conversational phrases used in Arequipa. Not everyone uses "¿Como estas?" and "Adios." In fact, in Montevideo, it was mostly "¿Como andas?" and "Chao."

Well my plane for my first stop on the way to Peru is boarding soon. Check back for updates and pictures, and don't be afraid to leave comments!