Struggling to build the kingdom

 

One month. We have been here one month. As the picture above shows, life is a struggle here. We are struggling to learn new things and to understand. Struggling with the heat. Struggling to find a routine. I (Josh) am struggling to communicate. But the most important struggle is to build the kingdom of God. That is why we are here.

As I think back on the month I also can't help but praise God for his protection. We have been perfectly healthy. No sickness. It is a blessing from God and for that we give Him praise.

The first month has been extreme culture shock. Everyday we see something that gives us pause. Everyday we learn something new. Everyday we ask dumb questions. It is a lot like being in eighth grade all over again. Everything is awkward. We don’t know how to act or what to say or what to do in many situations. It is stressful.

We are also sharing new experiences with people here. Just this morning I prepared pancakes for the entire Hogar. Normally there are two women on duty during the day to cook and clean and watch and bathe the children, but on Sundays there is only one. So we are trying to help fill in the gap on Sundays. So yesterday Lucy and I wandered the markets looking for flour, milk, and baking powder. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be, but we were successful. This morning I got up early and made a huge batch of pancakes for the 23 people here right now. Sister Daisy was working this morning, and she told me she had never tried pancakes. I was shocked but then I realized that the majority of the people I was feeding had never tried pancakes. In fact, one of the new Shawi mothers looked unsure of how to use a faucet so I am certain it was her first time eating pancakes. I only wish I had some real maple syrup to share with them.

Above is a photo of Brother Devincen who has worked at the farm for five years. Two weeks ago his ten-month old son, Jose, got very ill. He had a high fever and a intestinal infection. He spent a week in the hospital here in Yurimaguas. Jose almost had to go to Lima for better health care but the day they were leaving his fever broke. Praise God he is 100% recovered now. But for a week I had to go to the farm every other day to check on things. One of the first mornings I pulled into the driveway to find four cows staring at me. Now this may seem obvious but cows don’t belong in driveways, they belong in fences, so this means the cows were out. As I got out of the truck I could hear more cows out in the jungle away from the pastures. Now I have chased cows around the corn fields of Indiana but the jungles of Peru is a different story. So I picked up the machete and off I went. After 20 minutes of hacking a path through the bush I found some cows. I told them “I don’t know if you understand English but I need you to follow me.” And sure enough they did!  Soon I had all the cows out in the open and after some thinking, some herding and some sweating I finally had them back in the fence. It was then I realized that I didn’t know how many cows we have at the farm. I had seen them and checked them before but never counted. Also somehow they had escaped. So I picked up the machete again and off I went to look for cows and a problem with the fence. A couple of hours later I found in the back of the farm where a neighbor had left the gate open. We have neighbors that own farms behind our farm and the only access for them is straight through our pasture. So we have gates for them to pass through but evidently they don’t always close the gates. As a result this past week the guys worked on building wood gates that close automatically.  I eventually confirmed with Devincen that I had recovered all the cows.

I am not the only one dealing with these new difficulties, so is my wife. My brave, brave wife. The other day at the hogar there was a huge spider on the wall. Now I want to be careful not to over exaggerate so I will under exaggerate by saying that this spider was the size of my whole hand, including the legs of course.  It was big. One of the workers told Jennifer that we need to get rid of the spider as it was dangerous. She called me over but I was busy so she took matters into her own hands. Grabbing a broom, she swept it off the wall and pinned it to the ground.  I arrived to see the final smash. After disposing I said to the worker, “so that spider is dangerous?” and she responded, “yes, sometimes when it bites people they die.” That is a strong statement. I feel like saying that the spider is dangerous is not sufficient. I feel she should have warned us that the spider can kill. But the whole thing seemed pretty casual to her. And Jennifer has since killed another. I am so proud.

But more importantly, we have been doing what we came here to do, share Christ. Last Saturday I was able to preach in a local church here in town. It went terribly but I can only pray that God’s message was received despite my poor Spanish. I am preaching again this weekend so pray for me. I have also been able to have spiritual conversations with some of the workers here and I do much better one on one. Jennifer has been working with the children and mothers here at the hogar. After putting the kids to bed the other night she went downstairs to talk with two teenage girls that were here by order of the court. She listened to their situation and talked with them about Christ. More and more it looks like she will be playing the role of counselor here. Pray for us as we continue to adjust. We are asking God for boldness as we share his truth, goodness, and mercy.

 Henry checking out cows at the farm.

Lucy and the horses at the farm.

Maggie helping pick lemons at the farm.