Return to Urubichá

I recently had the opportunity to visit Urubichá again after almost 3 years.  When our ministry plans changed direction in 2013, I made a rather hasty exit -- packed up the Patrol, threw all my tools and gear in the trailer, and hit the road for Santa Cruz.  Although the transition to ministry at Etnos has been bittersweet at times, I haven't truly regretted that decision.

However, I was excited to go back for several reasons:

1.  Since I left, Emilio and Marlen have finished culture/language study and started writing chronological Bible lessons.  They have a small group of believers meeting in their patio each Sunday and have a kids' program on Saturdays.  I was eager to see and hear how things are going for them.
2.  Margarita joined the team about a year and a half ago, and Eliana moved out there in June.  The purpose of the trip was to evaluate their progress in the Guarayo language.  My role was to accompany Judy, our language consultant, and learn how to do evaluations, a natural extension of what I am already doing in the training center!
3.  My parents are here for a few months to visit us and help around Etnos and I was able to take them along.  They haven't spent much time out of the city on this side of the country, so it was a great opportunity to introduce them not only to a place so important to me as Urubichá, but all of the countryside along the 210 mile trip as well.

The Guarayos team (l-r): Eliana, Margarita, Esteban, Emilio, Ninoska, and Marlen

On the trip out to the village, it occurred to me that this was the first time I was going to Guarayo country without planning to live there.  That realization gave me the freedom to look at everything through different eyes and I found myself much more relaxed.  I definitely took a lot more photos (Click here to see 80 of the best).

We drove on Saturday and arrived just before the kids' program.  They were having a special game day to encourage more kids to come, and there were a ton!  The younger ones and the gals played board games while Emilio reffed a soccer tournament for the older boys.

On Sunday, we joined the group in the family's patio. Unfortunately, most of the congregation was at a big event at another, Spanish-speaking church in town.  Even so, we enjoyed our time and were treated to several Guarayo worship songs, a violin duet by Esteban and Ninoska, and Emilio teaching in Guarayo.

On Monday, the work started.  Judy and I spent a couple hours with Eliana that morning, asking her to do a variety of activities using the Guarayo words and phrases she knows.  Then, in the afternoon, we invited a bilingual Guarayo lady to come listen to the recordings and talk to us about how Eliana speaks.  We also visited a couple from the church, Hermenegildo and Matilde, to get their perspective.  She is doing great!

Judy, Eliana, and Rafaela

Urubichá is known for making the best hammocks in Bolivia. Matilde is finishing the one in the background.

On Tuesday, it was Margarita's turn!  She is also advancing very well!  She is fairly well conversational and speaks rather fluidly.

Judy, Margarita, and Esther

Of course, no trip to Urubichá would be complete without going to the baroque music institute!

A highlight for us was to find Esteban giving a violin lesson to a 5-year old student.

Behind the music institute, there is an artisan institute that offers woodcarving classes for the men and weaving, sewing, and needlework classes to the gals.

Guarayo men hand-carve wooden boxes to sell

Guarayo girls with their needlework samplers

Eliana is using the weaving institute as an opportunity to spend time with the ladies, building crucial relationships and listening to language as she weaves.  She recently started a new bag and showed us the process of setting up the vertical threads on the loom.

That evening, we spent some time on the plaza and stopped in to see the church and watch the Urubichá youth choir practice for the following night's performance.

The region's reliance on timber and woodcarving shines through, even in the Catholic church

On Wednesday, our final day in town, Judy and I spent some time talking over the results of the evaluations with the gals, giving them suggestions for how to continue improving in their studies.  We visited the Rio Blanco in the afternoon.

That evening, we went back to the plaza and joined a packed house for a performance by the choir.  They sang an amazing rendition of the Kyrie from Domenico Zipoli's Missa in F.

Our plan for Thursday was to take some final photos of the team and hit the road by 8:00am for the ~7 hour drive home.  We had been gone for 5 days already, and I was eager to be back with Kaylee and the girls.  We were also taking Eliana and Margarita back to Santa Cruz with us, for a missions conference that started that evening!

However, first thing that morning we got news that there was a big blockade in San Julian, a town about halfway home.  Apparently, the soy and sunflower growers were upset about prices, among other things, and applied Bolivia's normal form of protest:  block the highway until the government agrees to help.  I was unsure how to proceed -- whether we should stay another night and see if it died down, or go look for a way to go around.

Then Emilio got a phone call, in which he learned that a group in Urubichá was planning to block the highway in Ascención due to a timber dispute.  So we decided to get out of Dodge.

We drove as far as El Puente, home of Bolivia's nicest gas station (in my opinion). After fueling up, I asked about a way to get around San Julian and one of the old timers told me about a route that cut cross-country to Montero.  I have often wanted to find a way through there, so of course we decided to try it! :D

Lunch in Nucleo 29

It was an exciting, crazy drive through farm country on bumpy, dusty roads.  We had no map, no GPS (mine was stolen recently), no road signs, and for most of the journey, no cell coverage.  I lost track of how many times I stopped and asked people for directions.  We had to flip a couple of U-turns, but we never got truly lost and never got bad directions.

For me, the highlight of the trip was crossing the Rio Grande on a barge, my first time!

The AC conked out around noon, so the inside was just as dirty as the outside!  We made it home in 10.5 hours, hot, filthy and exhausted, with just enough time to shower, change, and grab a bite to eat before the conference started!!

I spent some time on Google Earth figuring out as much of the route that I could. Due to a recent, significant change in the course of the river, I was unable to complete the center section, but it gives the idea. :)

English Practicum 2016 and Another Visitor!

This past semester, I once again taught the introduction to our Culture and Language Acquisition (CLA) program.  It was the first time I have repeated a course here at Etnos, and I was excited to give it some tweaks and improvements!  On the whole, I think it was a much more solid class than the first time.  To end the semester, the students spent 3 weeks studying English here on campus to practice what they have learned and get a feel for how the program works.

Three student gals baking with Kaylee and the girls

This year was much different than the last time we did this practicum.  With all that has been going on the past couple months, we still haven't regained the stability we would like to have and on top of it all, we went into it with practically the whole family sick. Most of us recovered quickly, but Kaylee continued to suffer through the entire first half.  Thankfully, we had enough other English speakers on campus that it wasn't a hindrance to the program.

The practice is as much a reflection of how I have taught as much as it is about the students' ability, so of course now I have lots more thoughts about how to improve my class again!

The BIG highlight this year was that my nephew Michael joined us!  It was his first time travelling internationally and was quite the adventure.  He helped me with several projects that were not only helpful for me, but gave the students the opportunity to observe and listen to us work.  He was also Jilmer's language helper, spending an hour each day helping him improve his vocabulary.

Michael cutting back mango trees blocking the lights on the
volleyball court (and burning a wasp nest)

Frying donuts for breakfast

Building shelves for our house

In spite of the craziness of running the English program, we managed to get him some good Bolivian experiences, too:

Checking out a jaguar at the Santa Cruz Zoo

Visiting Santa Cruz's central plaza and cathedral

Grabbing a café con leche in the plaza

Dining "out," his last night in Bolivia

My favorite part of his visit was his last Saturday, when he and I went on an adventure to find a beautiful waterfall west of us on the edge of the mountains.  But you'll have to read more about that over at the Tinker Thinker blog:  click here for photos and video!

Michael taking a gander at the 295-foot drop!

Celebration!

I'm not sure whether our circumstances have improved, or just our outlook, but either way, things are going much smoother than the last time I wrote.  However, please continue to pray for the staff of Etnos - there are lots of health issues right now!!  Colds, flus, dengue fever, and two ladies with broken arms within 5 days!  Anne said, "I guess I started something."

We have important reasons to celebrate this week!  We celebrated Kaylee's birthday yesterday.  It turned out well, although not at all like we had planned.  One of our coworkers fell and broke her arm at the wrist and Kaylee spent a good chunk of the afternoon helping with that situation.  All in God's plan, right?

Instead of a birthday cake, she got an apple fritter with a candle in it!

Our other reason to celebrate is that our friend Eliana, an Etnos alumna from La Paz, is moving to Urubichá today!  A new missionary moving into a village to begin ministry is always a reason to celebrate, but for Kaylee and I, this is doubly special.  Eliana is the first one of "our" students to make the leap of faith into indigenous ministry.  So as she begins studying to learn the Guarayo culture and language, she will be applying the things we have taught her.  Yikes!  We are excited to see how the Lord uses her.

Please pray for Eliana as she makes this transition and begins an exciting new adventure!

At the bus terminal, ready to go!

Church History

What do you know about your spiritual heritage?  Why do you believe what you do?

These two questions are the foundation for the subject I am teaching the first-year students this semester, the history of the Church from Pentecost to the Reformation (Part 1 of 2).  While it may not seem like a relevant subject for a missionary training program, it is fundamental to a good understanding of our theology and "how we got here."

Discussing the life of Justin Martyr

The fact is that we did not receive the Word of God in a vacuum.  Christ did not preach the Gospel to me personally.  So if I am going to trust it, I should know how it got from Him to me over the course of 2 millennia, through 3 continents, by way of several languages.

What is your concept of the Godhead, for example?  How do Jesus and the Holy Spirit fit into the clearly monotheistic Old Testament Scriptures?  Is Jesus God?  If so, is He the same person as the Father?  Is He different?  How different?  Did Jesus have a beginning, or has He always been?

Can you support your view from Scripture?  Or are you just repeating what you've been told?

This issue is at the core of the subject I am preparing for this week's class: the first council at Nicea in AD 325.

Sabellius and the other modalists had taught that one God has played different parts in the drama of history, expressing Himself in three distinct roles or modes.  Rejecting that view, Arius taught that Jesus had a beginning and was a distinct being, subordinate to the Father.  The majority of the Church was balanced somewhere between the two extremes, holding to some (perhaps) unexamined and (often) unexpressed form of our trinitarian view.

The upsurge of unbiblical heresy provided the catalyst the Church needed to refine and define its beliefs and understanding of Scripture.  It was nothing new in 325:  significant portions of the New Testament were written to combat the heresies of legalistic Judaism, mystical Gnosticism, and other deviations from the Truth.  And the Council of Nicaea was far from the last.  In reality, it was just the first of several councils that continued to debate different aspects of who Jesus was and is.

Constantine and bishops with the Nicene Creed

Reading about the lives of the Church fathers and the things they wrote are an important step in understanding our own theology.  However, we can't simply take their word for it.  We must follow the example of the Bereans in Acts 17 and examine the Scriptures for ourselves.  My desire in this class is to provide the balance and perspective of both, not just imparting knowledge of past events, but challenging each student to reflect on why they believe what they believe and change the way they pass that belief onto others.

Although I love and have always tried to be a student of history, I am definitely not well-read enough on the early Church to teach spontaneously.  This class is more an overview than anything, with only 32 class-hours to cover 1500 years.  Even so, I spend an average of 15 hours studying each week to teach 2 hours of material in class.  The students would be fortunate to absorb one-fifth of what I learn each week!

I'm thankful for good sources:

• Kenneth Scott Latourette's A History of Christianity
• Bruce L Shelley's Church History in Plain Language 
• Wikipedia and Wikipedia (Spanish)
• I spend a LOT of time here and it's great to be able to jump from one language to the other on the same page.  It saves lots of time translating concepts to Spanish.  The downside is that it is so easy to get distracted going down very interesting bunny trails. ;)
• Iglesia Pueblo Nuevo
• I don't know anything about this church in Madrid other than what I have read on their site, but they have a phenomenal section on Church history, including an amazing collection of biographies, all in Spanish.  It is my first resource for homework reading assignments.
• The Christian Classics Ethereal Library
• More resources than I can ever hope to read, including Philip Schaff's preeminent works
• Dave Barnhart
• My friend and Church History prof at Montana Bible College not only gave me a good foundation for CH in his classes, he graciously shared his notes with me.

I am also thankful for Kaylee's faithfulness and patience with me, as this has definitely been our most stressful semester so far.  Especially during our 6-week-long kitchen remodel (Details and photos here), I was under a lot of pressure to complete all of my responsibilities each week.  In preparation for Thursday morning's class, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are pretty solid study and Powerpoint design from dawn to dusk, other than breaks for meals and campus responsibilities.  I can't say that I've handled the strain very well, either, so you might want to pray for Kaylee's continued sanity.  At least her kitchen is in one piece now. ;)

Easter 2015

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: 

          that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 

          that he was buried, 

          that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,  and 
          that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 

I Corinthians 15:3-5 ESV

We had a great time celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord yesterday!  God saw fit to give us a tremendous rain storm most of the day, which definitely gave it an interesting flavor. :)

We helped organize a campus sunrise service and were very thankful for our covered basketball/fulbito court that allowed us to be outside, but dry.

Our family had guard duty this week (one family stays on campus every Sunday, for security reasons), so we put some hymns on the stereo and had an indoor egg hunt with the girls, followed by a family Bible lesson and reading of the events of Easter Sunday from the Gospel of John.

We were glad for the opportunity to host our friends Dan and Judy for lunch.  They have been in the States the last 4 months and it was good to catch up.  During lunch, the storm knocked the power out for awhile, which made for a special ambiance.

After our guests left, Kaylee and I spent most of the remainder of the afternoon playing games and doing puzzles with the girls.  My parents came back around 6:00 and we ended the day by watching the children's version of the Jesus movie and The Road to Emmaus.  

Power Made Perfect

As I wrote about a couple months ago, the Grammar Analysis class I am teaching this semester can be difficult, especially for those who are not inclined to be analytical.  The coworker that prepared the materials for our last grammar class had used the subtitle "The Funnest Class" as a bit of ironic humor.  I decided that Analysis needed something a bit darker and more direct, so I used "The Thorn In Your Flesh." 

I did hope to get a laugh, but as I considered the implications of  II Corinthians 12:9, I realized just how appropriate it could be in this situation.  In this passage, God reassures Paul that his thorn had a purpose:  to demonstrate Jesus' grace and power.  I decided to include the verse as a daily reminder to prompt in the students the same reaction that Paul experienced in his own life: that they would rejoice in their weakness, allowing Christ's power to work through them.
 

The lead slide for my presentations

I expected them to get bored and discouraged with the material we were studying, and they did at times.  I'm glad to say, though, that in the past 4 months they have all shown remarkable improvement in their ability to break down language.  Yet, I know that most of them would say, "I'm not very good at this."

However, I can't take credit for their improvement either.

As I look back at the past year, I can honestly say that I love teaching.  I have enjoyed preparing lessons, giving lectures, and doing personal tutoring.  That said, these verses have been just as important for me.  I, too, have gotten bored and discouraged.  I have so much to learn about all three of those aspects of teaching that I just mentioned.  There are so many ways I need to improve.  I'm completely new at this and I have had days where I return home from class wondering if I actually communicated anything worthwhile at all.

Some say, "You never really learn something until you teach it" and I agree.  I would also say, "You don't really know what fluency in a second language is until you try to teach in it."  I feel like I have been completely stretched and wrung out in both my understanding of grammar analysis and of Spanish.  I often have to "hunt" for words to describe concepts, because I still lack some of the technical vocabulary in this area.  I sometimes get to the end of the 2-hour class so mentally fatigued that I can't utter a simple sentence without some glaring, basic error in pronunciation, gender, or subject-verb agreement.  And for a grammar nerd, that's the worst thing that can go wrong!

That's why this passage is so beautiful.  In the end, it's not really about me or my performance.

No one really knows what Paul's "thorn" was.  There has been a lot of conjecture and a lot of good ideas, but the fact is that he left it unnamed. I believe that the Holy Spirit kept it hidden so that we could more freely apply this passage to our own difficult situations.  If Paul had specified what his difficulty was, we would tend to categorize it and put the application of this passage in a box.  As it is, we can take hold of the hope that is offered here and rest in Christ's work for us and through us.

Now, I wouldn't go so far as to say that my inexperience and inadequacy could be described as "a messenger of Satan," but they are a sign of weakness.  And that's discouraging.

Kaylee has also experienced this.  Although she speaks well, she struggles to express herself clearly in Spanish at the level at which she is accustomed to communicating in English.  She is uncertain of cultural cues at church, around campus, and as a hostess in our own home.  Yet God is using her, too, as she faithfully applies what she does know.  She has had some good opportunities to advise and counsel both students and staff ladies, in the past few weeks especially.

We are not here in Bolivia because we are great missionaries, or great disciplers, great Christians, or even great people.  The reality is that we are not great anything!  We are weak.  We have problems. We struggle.  We are uncomfortable.  We are inexperienced and have so much to learn.  And that's a good place to be.

If we really contributed anything to this work, we would have something to take pride in.  I don't know how others view us, but because we recognize our own weakness, we can see that it is Christ who is working in us and through us.  It is His power that is shaping us and maturing us.  If anyone else is blessed or changed by what we do, it is only because of His power being perfected in our weakness.

A similar message hangs above our kitchen sink

Student trip to Oromomo

One of the goals of the Etnos training program is to give the students an opportunity each semester to get off campus, see more of Bolivia, and get a practical, realistic taste of what ministry can be like among the various ethnic groups of this country.

This past week I had the opportunity to accompany my coworker Howard and the 8 students to a village north of Cochabamba called Oromomo.  It is a small community on the Sécure river, populated by 80 families of Chimane and Yuracaré ethnicity.  Oromomo is accessible by river (a week or so, from Trinidad) or by air (one hour, from Cochabamba).

As we planned the trip, we talked about several purposes that we wanted to emphasize and I believe that we accomplished all of them:
          -rustic living
          -language and culture learning
          -relationship building
          -church planting strategy
          -working alongside others with a different philosophy of ministry

The following is an assortment of stories and photos.  More, fully-captioned photos can be found in our Picasa web album at this link. And don't forget that you can click on these to see them much larger.

Sunrise on Jorge Wilsterman Int'l Airport, Cochabamba

We flew out from Cochabamba by small plane, operated by Mano a Mano.  The 4 singles and Howard took the first flight in a Cessna 206, without any baggage.  The 2 couples and I loaded up the bigger Piper Navajo with the bags and were on the platform getting our routine police inspection when the pilot got the call that it was raining in Oromomo.  The airstrip there isn't long enough for him to land the big twin-engined Navajo in the wet, so we had to cancel.

Group 1 on their way

The forecast didn't look good and there was a good possibility that those 5 were going to have to spend the night without any clothes, sleeping bags, mosquito nets, or bug repellent!  Oops.

Thankfully, the weather lifted enough in the afternoon that I was able to go out by myself in the 206 with all of their bags and mine too.  Unfortunately, the pilot and I miscalculated the weights and accidentally loaded about 50 kilos overweight.  We had a tough time getting up to 14,000+ feet to go over the ridge!  However, after turning a few climbing circles, he was able to coax enough power out of the engine and 45 minutes later, we were landing on a beautiful little airstrip in the middle of the Bolivian jungle.

Oromomo airstrip

Of course, everyone was glad to see their things arrive and we set about setting up camp in the house that we would be working on.

Howard showing the gals how to set up a mosquito net

My mesh hammock was a nice lightweight bed

The next morning, the 6 of us that were in Oromomo set about working on the projects that we were there to do.  One of the big things was to plumb a bathroom, which Dennis and I jumped on, with some help from the girls.

We started by removing an elbow that had been installed backwards :P

Eli started a fire so we could form bell joints on the PVC and Naty helped her keep it going, even in the rain

Around mid-morning, the 2 couples and baby Esteban flew in.  After accommodating themselves, we all got back to work.

We worked on 3 main projects: plumbing, doors and and window coverings, and church signage.  Several other small projects were mixed in as we went along.

As mentioned, Dennis and I pretty much handled the plumbing.  We plumbed the drains, then supply, and set the shower pan, toilet, and sink.

Meanwhile, Howard and Matias were working with Pastor Tito on making doors and window coverings.  Tito is half Yuracaré, half Chimane.  He grew up speaking both languages and learned Spanish in school.  He has a very interesting testimony and is a crazy man on many levels.  He handles a Stihl MS660 like he was born with it.

Leo worked with Cristian (Mano a Mano's supply buyer and accountant) to put the name of the church up on the building in all 3 languages.

The gals often helped where they could on our projects and employed themselves in a variety of other useful ways.

Boiling river water for drinking was a continual task, as was cooking, all over a fire

Eli prepping meat to make charque

Eli and Polette brightening up the kitchen

Our last day, Naty helped me grade and compact the passage between the kitchen and house

Kristen helping some of the kids with homework

During all of this work, we had many opportunities to rub shoulders with the ministers on-the-ground and the people of the community they are trying to reach.   

Much of life was centered around the Sécure River.  It was our water supply, bathtub, washing machine, refrigerator, and swimming pool.  We loved it!

Hauling water for washing, cooking, and drinking

We swam at least once a day, usually twice, to cool down and clean up

Tito's girls having a swim

The river was also a major food source; we ate a LOT of fish.  On Saturday night around 11pm, Tito took us guys fishing.  We went upriver about 2.5 kilometers by canoe, where he shot a couple small sábalo with his bow, for bait, and dropped us off on a beach.  Dennis and Leo caught two surubí each, but I got skunked!  I did catch one the following night, though.

It was Leo's first time fishing.  That one on the left weighed 20 pounds, cleaned!

 

Most Sundays, there are two families that come to church consistently and a third that is occasional. A few of the teachers from the school have been attending as well.  We were asked to share in the main service and in the Sunday school classes.

Tito leading the singing

Leo preaching

Kristen and Naty teaching the younger kids

Meanwhile, Dennis, Mati, and I were frying fish and listening from the kitchen!

Sunday evening, half of the group shared their testimonies.

On Monday, we worked in the morning and then Tito took the whole group upriver to meet his mom and see her place.  We had a good time in the boat!

Bow group

Stern group

That final night, we hiked about 20 minutes downriver to another part of Oromomo known as the Zona Baja. The plan was to have another meeting there, in which the other half of us would share our testimonies.  I didn't find out until we got there, but most of the people that live there speak only Chimane, so Tito would be translating!

Nathan sharing his testimony with lessons about faithfulness in teaching generation-to-generation from II Timothy

This experience solidified in most of the students' minds (as well as mine) the commitment we have to teaching in the heart language of the people.  We had no idea what Tito was communicating.  It is terribly difficult to keep a flow of thought going with the back-and-forth of translation.  We had no background on these people, how they think, or what they already knew about the Gospel.  For me, this was one of the best experiences that we could have had for our students, so they could see the value of what they are learning in this training program.


Finally, on Tuesday morning, it was time to say goodbye and fly back to Cochabamba:

l-r: Leo, Howard, Tito, Matias, Nathan, Dennis, Cristian