This article originated as an Instagram story in December. It was too good not to share with those who did not tune in during the 24-hour life of an IG Story. If you want to see it in its original format, with video and a step-by-step making of adobo, see my story highlight.
Happy 4th Sunday of Advent! A story…
Last Sunday our church met on our rooftop for the third Sunday of Advent. At the end of our time of worship and prayer, a young Venezuelan family who has been in Peru since February shared a hard situation they find themselves in.
Jose and Yoselyn, and their two boys Carlos (8) and Sebastian (5; picture from his fifth birthday a couple months ago), traveled from Venezuela through Columbia, Ecuador, and into Peru in February.
They crossed all the borders on foot, and eventually made it down to Arequipa, over 3,000 miles away.
If you know any immigrants and refugees, then you know how excruciating the decision is to leave home, how difficult it is to start over (leaving a good home, relationships, a car, clothes, everything), and how hard-working they are.
Even in the best circumstances, it’s hard to get back on your feet. There is no margin for error. Jose and Yoselyn found a person of peace in our dear friend Chari, and through her they became a part of our church. They blessed Chari by being with her parents in their last moments of life. They’ve found jobs, a new place to live, have the kids in virtual school, and got their documents in order.
And then Jose's hearing aid broke.
Jose is just 30 years old. He had health complications early in life that led to serious hearing loss. He has almost no hearing in one ear, and in the other the hearing aid helps him enough to have meaningful interaction speaking and hearing along with reading lips.
One of the toughest things for immigrants is having no safety net. No emergency fund or savings account because you’re living day to day. When Jose’s hearing aid broke, he was hoping it could be repaired. But when he went to the specialist they said it couldn’t be recovered, and a new (better) one would cost 4000 soles (about $1,000).
Our little church jumped to action. If you followed last week’s readings it would be hard not to (Zeph. 3:14-20; Isa. 12:1-6; Phil. 4:4-7; Luke 3:7-18). The way to raise money for special situations in Peru is to cook food and offer it to neighbors and friends. Our fourth Sunday of Advent (today) would have a twist—a traditional Arequipa Sunday morning dish: adobo. It would be one of those Sundays where we work take care of people, praying while we’re serving.
So on Friday, Manuela and I went to buy everything at Arequipa’s biggest market complex. We thought we could sell about 50 portions in this short amount of time. Some church members donated to buy the food so that 100% of what we’re able to sell can go toward Jose’s hearing aid.
Yesterday Manuela and Paty put it all together. It’s one of my favorite dishes so I was taking it all in—the art!—and washing dishes and helping where I could.
Adobo is a soup whose base is the ancient Andean purple corn drink—chicha—with ají colorado. It’s cooked with pork chops, onion, and spices. It marinades for about 18 hours.
My task: get up early and start cooking it. How early?
Advent remembers a story about light breaking into darkness. It’s a story about coming near; the holy coming near and into the common and the chaos.
I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of a small house church who wants to be part of light coming into Jose and Yoselyn’s darkness, showing in action what is holy about love coming near.
As well as this “Adobada” can go, we can only hope to raise about 1/4 of what Jose needs, about 1000 soles. They also made a Venezuelan dish that they’ll be selling this morning, and have a few others avenues to pursue early this week.
I had already gotten a couple early morning messages on Instagram about people wanting to help out. So I posted this:
That’s where I left it. Then I said:
Thanks for being part of this Advent story. Now I need to get back to stirring the adobo 😁
That's where I left it. Then the giving began. You gave and gave and gave. You offered prayers for Jose and his family. As the church here served to deliver adobos and raise money, folks in the US added to that in a modern multiplication of loaves of bread and bowls of adobo.
We eventually hit the $1000 mark, combining what we were raising here in Peru in soles. But you kept on asking about contributing, so we came up with a couple "stretch goals" in Kickstarter lingo 😂:
1) Helping buy Carlos and Sebastian a Christmas present. Carlos had been asking for a nerf gun, and Sebastian for a scooter.
2) In Venezuela, Carlos had been doing developmental therapies. Yoselyn had already talked to our neighbor Renso about starting that up here with him, but they were nowhere near being able to afford that, even with Renso giving a generous discount for them, given their situation. What about a fund to get them started with this in January?
Y'all gave $1500.
One. Thousand. Five. Hundred. Dollars.
The next day, I went over to share the news with Jose and Yoselyn. They were stunned. Shocked. With tears in their eyes they said thank you. The next Sunday that the church met on our rooftop, Jose expressed his thanks to the church, again with tears in his eyes.
They were able to pay for the hearing aid and get it sent off for being custom fit right away. They did it without having to take out a loan. They bought Christmas gifts for their kids. And last week, Carlos and Sebastian were evaluated by Renso to start therapy.
What a joy to witness to goodness. What a joy to see generosity in the name of Jesus. This is the church at her best. Thanks for being a part of it.
Praise be to God.