House churches:
After a year and a half of most of our lives, ministry, and relationships being done virtually, in the last couple months we’ve finally been able to take some steps toward reconnecting with people in person. Our house churches have still been rotating between gathering virtually and in person. We had our first gathering in person when our HULA group was here at the beginning of August! In our neighborhood we have connected with a family who arrived to Peru from Venezuela with two young kids, and along with another Peruvian they have become a part of our house church and we have begun reading through the gospel of Mark together. As much as possible we stay outdoors when we’re with others, which means we’ve been spending time on our rooftop. Please pray for Jose and Joselyn, their kids Santiago and Sebastian, and Javier and Chari who have been their direct link since getting to Arequipa.
Pizza and Jesus:
Last month we started a small gathering for young people to eat pizza together on our rooftop and watch a couple episodes of The Chosen. Think college age to our age (I’m 33…in Peru they hear “33” and automatically think “Ah…the age of Jesus!”). As is the custom with our good ideas, this was Katie’s idea. Most of Peru has suffered to have any semblance of community, and young people especially have been hurting for community. So we hoped to connect some friends that we already had over life-giving bread (that is, pizza) and also talk some about the one who referred to himself as the bread of life. Peruvians love religious TV shows, and The Chosen is a good one. It’s different enough from what they’ve seen in the past that it raises all sorts of questions about Jesus and a life of faith. We’re thankful for these friends and hope that as they grow in their faith they might also share that faith with others. We’re hopeful we can even bring together a few more friends now that, over September and early October, more of this age group has had access to a vaccine.
In 2019 we started directing Harding University Latin America (HULA). In March of 2020, our group was blessed with a couple extra weeks in lockdown here which led to a somewhat stressful process of getting them repatriated to their families in the US of A. We had to cancel our Spring 2021 HULA semester, but were able to rescue something for students this year by offering a short HULA program—aka SHULA—for three and a half weeks starting at the end of July. It was exhilarating and exhausting! We had an amazing group of 20 students who were so ready to learn, ask questions, and soak up the process of learning in, from, and through Peru. There’s something special that happens when you cross cultures with the attitude of a learner. God, whose image is reflected in diverse humanity and is present in a diverse creation, teaches us something about God and the world when we are willing to learn. Intercultural learning is a significant piece of spiritual formation, and being a part of that with a group this year, even for a shorter time, was special. Now we’re gearing up for our 2022 group, who plans to be with us from mid-February to mid-May. We’re still navigating what that semester will look like based on what options will be available to us. But the students who come are such a blessing to us, and our prayer is that, by sharing our lives and our country with them, they would be formed to love God and love their neighbor in a deeper, more inclusive way, wherever in the world they end up. Some of you already follow us there, but we’ve started an Instagram account for HULA.
Studies:
In January of 2020 I started a Doctor of Ministry program and am now in my last semester of coursework for that. The dissertation for this degree is project-based, so I’ll actually use HULA next semester as my research project on intercultural spiritual formation and then reflect on that in written form over the following months to have my final product. The whole process has been a good challenge for me and I’m thankful for the opportunity. I had my final week of class in person earlier this month in Memphis—a marathon week. Katie spent the same week in Fort Lauderdale resting and being renewed at Great Cities Missions’ Connections retreat. Which meant Adileen and Kinney got a week with Nonna and Grampie in Searcy 😁. We spent a few days with my brother’s family on the tail end of our trip before flying back south. Though we’re not sure what the future looks like, it’s likely that our visits to the US will be around Christmas and/or January moving forward because that’s when Adileen will be on “summer break.” She starts first grade next year, and we’re hoping it gets to be in person, so we feel like we need to plan extended time away around school vacation moving forward.
