Our strategy in approaching Peruvians with the gospel has been referred to as “friendship evangelism”. We don’t want to force ourselves into someone’s life to try and change it drastically with no previous relationship, no established trust, no perceived level of personal care for the individual. Thus, it is of vital importance to us that we make good friends here, not just to feel at home, but to have a foot in the door of the community or family unit as trustworthy, should they be interested in the Bible study that they already know we are willing to begin. It is the logical process considering the factors of life in this culture, but the execution has proved somewhat difficult and slow.
Full House
Just over three weeks ago, the activity level in the Smith household jumped a good bit. Now, keep in mind that the previous level was normally defined by a 2 year old, so it was not exactly boring before. But we have thoroughly enjoyed the extra life filling the house since my sister, Briana, and our friend, Kristen, joined us for an extended visit.
¡Feliz Día Papito!
For those of you that don’t remember, Manuela is a woman that helps with housework in both of the families’ homes. We were told that it is very hard to find an “empleada” that one can trust. We feel that Manuela is a God-send to our lives here. Not only is she a hard worker, but she has served as a great mentor, friend, and Peruvian grandmother to our girls. We love her so much, and we earnestly pray that Manuela will come to have an intimate relationship with Jesus one day.
It came as no surprise to me when she requested to prepare a special meal for Greg and Kyle on Father’s Day.
Transitions
Around Christmas time I took time to write a reflection of how the culture was affecting me. It can be found on our family site. Culture shock is something we have been told to expect in the foreign mission field. Most of our missions teachers say that it hits around 6 months of living in the field. We have now been living in Arequipa for 9 months. Everyone’s situation is different; everyone deals with stress and transitions differently. I am going to share with you how 9 months has affected me, because I believe that I have experienced some feelings of culture shock in the past month. I hope that this piece can shed light for those of you that will be foreign missionaries one day.
A Peruvian Wedding
When Alfredo first told the team that he and his fiance, Judith, wanted us to attend their wedding, my overwhelming thought was “Wow!”. Now, I’ve been to lots of weddings in my life, but it has always been people I have known for a while and the invitation was not a surprise. However, this invitation meant more since this relationship is fairly new. Somehow in our few
months here we have come to mean enough to this couple to be invited to a very important event in their lives, and we felt honored.
Great News!
As you know from our previous newsletter, March was to be a month of house hunting. With our leases expiring at our apartments, we decided it was the perfect time to look for more permanent housing in our target area. The good news is that both families have found a place to live. I’ll give the details a little later but first you need to hear how we found these places.
Above and Beyond
During our time with each of our sending churches, one of the tasks we undertook was to put together a mission support team. You may be thinking that must have been a little awkward, since the point is mostly to support…us. It’s natural enough that we need support, but putting it together ourselves is something else, partly because it’s hard to know what a support team should do and partly because it’s strange to ask people to be actively thinking about what we might need or even want. The short of it is that we were in a position, in terms of time and energy, to kick-start such a support system, which everyone agreed was beneficial for the longevity of our missionary service.
Preparation
I have experienced a lot of death in my life. Grandparents, friends, parents of friends, car wrecks, suicides, illnesses...I couldn’t begin to count the number of funerals I have attended and the heartache I have witnessed firsthand. And I never thought anything of it until late high school/college, when I would actually hear friends say they were going to their first funeral. First funeral?! How did you make it this far in life with never going to a funeral before? Why has my life been so different?
Refreshment
Summer Break
I can’t believe Christmas is this week! For one thing, it doesn’t feel anything like Christmas here (or at least our idea of it). I am wearing sleeveless shirts during the day because it is officially summertime. While students in the U.S. are relieved to get time off for Christmas break, Peruvian students are relieved to finally enjoy Summer break.