The four new families that are part of Team Arequipa are not our replacements. They are the next wave crashing toward the shore as our wave begins the slow fade back into the ocean. For a little while, you can’t tell that both are happening, but standing in that water reveals the push and pull occurring simultaneously. Their effect will be similar, but new. They are a blessing to our team, our church, and the city of Arequipa.
As I scroll through my twitter feed I am keenly aware that the spiritual discipline of prayer is trending. With Tim Keller’s new book on prayer and the requests for prayers that include the Ebola outbreak, the Ferguson trial, or efforts to build wells in Africa, I am once again reminded that Christians are called to be people of prayer. I am grateful for the people of prayer that I have witnessed and ministered alongside of. They have taught me what it means to pray while challenging my own fledgling prayer life. Which begs the question, why is prayer so difficult?
This month marks the long-awaited arrival of the remaining members of Team Arequipa. Since our last newsletter, two more families arrived - Jeremy & Katie Daggett and Jake & Jaclyn Blair. We are now a seven-family team, which means we all have some new dynamics to get used to for the brief months we are all together. We appreciate your prayers for our time, that we will provide for each other the exact balance of support and challenge that we need to grow and pursue the mission of God as it plays out around us here in Arequipa. Also, that we cover all necessary and relevant topics before the McKinzies make their transition back to the stateside mission field in early January.
I participate in the health team meetings with lots of questions and input but the project that I hope and pray I get to be a part of is in its very beginning stage: the dreaming stage. Truly, it's one of my favorite stages, but not a very informative one. I was encouraged, however, to share my dreams. To show you once again, from a newbie perspective, what it's like to dream and plan and learn to work on Peruvian timing mixed with the big ideas of a new missionary who is in the middle of cultural adjustment with life 'busy-fied' by two small children! As you read, envision with me and join me in prayer for God's hand, his wisdom and guidance to be completely integrated into this project.
““That’s cultural””
This is the standard response when our study of the New Testament deals with first-century church practices that we no longer observe. The usual contenders are direct commands such as “greet one another with a holy kiss” or, paraphrasing, “women must wear head coverings.” The observation is not wrong, per se. These certainly are cultural practices. But putting it that way reveals a key assumption about both the Bible and church practices: that some things are in the category of “not cultural.” We fancy many of our practices are universal and immune to the dangers of “cultural relativism.” This assumption, I suggest, is wrong. “That’s cultural” doesn’t get us very far, because everything is cultural.
If that opinion sets you on edge, well and good. You might explore those emotions in order to empathize with the cross-cultural missionary. To come humbly into a foreign culture seeking to bring the kingdom of God to expression in contextually meaningful ways means experiencing the loss of the pat solutions “That’s cultural” provides. The experience blesses us with the realization of how much of our taken-for-granted way of life as a church community is actually meaningless or confusing in a new context—maybe even meaningless or confusing in our home context, but I digress. And the experience blesses us with the discovery of new ways of representing the good news about Jesus, ways that would not have occurred to us because they are cultural and are, for that reason, the right ways for a particular community in a particular place to say and do the gospel.
Obviously, sorting out the relationship between culture and gospel is a big conversation. Oceans of ink have been spilled to that end. I merely mention these concerns by way of introduction to the analysis of culture under way here in Arequipa. Without indulging in too much self-deprecation, I confess that one of our shortcomings over the last six years has been a failure to engage in significant cultural analysis. I think we knew better but gave other concerns priority. Anyway, I’m glad that the arrival of fresh missionaries affords the opportunity to address that failure. The Arequipeño churches we have planted stand to become significantly more indigenous as we foreigners learn to be more culturally appropriate and help lead the church into the freedom to express itself more naturally. It’s an exciting thought!
This December, with the help of Bill and Holly Richardson, the church will gather for a time of reflection and re-visioning. The foreign missionaries who set many of the church’s current practices in motion will seek critical feedback from our Peruvian brothers and sisters in order to place many of our own assumptions prayerfully under scrutiny. The recent arrivals will bring the fruit of their cultural analysis to bear as questions about the meaning of various cultural practices—religious and otherwise—and about the possibility of adopting new practices that might express the gospel more clearly from and to the Peruvian worldview. We are all so thankful that at this juncture, we share the conversation with godly Peruvian disciples. Please pray for the insightfulness of our research from now to then and for the Spirit-led discernment we will need as a community when it comes time to make new decisions. We ask God for the faithfulness and the innovativeness that service to God’s kingdom requires.
On October 7th, we arrived in Arequipa. Over the last several months Jake and I have been asked if we’re ready numerous times. At times I’ve struggled to answer this. Though we have thoroughly prepared through prayer, reading, team meetings and missions conferences I struggled with doubts and feelings of inadequacy. If I read all of the theology, missions, and culture books that people have recommended I might be ready by the time I’m 83.
In case you missed it, about a month ago, CUDA decided to close Café Connection. Those of us who have been with it since birth are sad to let go. It was a fun venture and we had high hopes for it as a sustainable source of income for the NGO, but in reality it fell short. It simply required too much investment of time and resources without generating consistent profit. We chose not to renew our lease of the space and found another location to house our offices and language school, with new ideas for ways to use it to generate income. It will house a snack area for workers and language students, so we have one cafe employee making the move with us and we'll still offer bagged coffee and to-go drinks and snacks. We'll miss the sillar walls and familiar feel of this place that has served as a hub for the last couple of years, but it's the right time to reconsider our best approach.
There is no change with coffee sales in the States, so be sure to check out Luminous Coffee and figure out which of our varieties is your favorite.
As I near the end of my language school experience, I am thankful that we have been able to support CUDA during this process. But I am most grateful for the friendships I have formed as CUDA has done an amazing job with choosing their language teachers. Each of us (Morgans included) have formed friendships with the teachers throughout the past 7-8 months, relationships we will continue to develop throughout our time here.
As mentioned earlier, big changes have come to CUDA with the termination of the cafe. Another development is that Passport Language School is introducing home stays. Home stays are available for those who wish to speed up their language learning by taking classes that are then applied practically by living with Peruvian families. Total immersion is the best way to learn a new language, and CUDA will now be able to offer an even fuller experience toward that end. Perhaps the most exciting part is that home stays will commence with the arrival of the two remaining team couples arriving by the beginning of October!
I have been attending a new church plant going on in the part of the city where we are working with the Health Initiative. They are meeting in the home of a sister from another group of Christians. This is an exciting new work. Part of the reason it is exciting is because this group meets so close to the clinic where we are working. When volunteering at the clinic I sometimes have the opportunity to speak about the mission work here in a more comprehensive manner and can invite people to come join us on Sunday nights. It’s also exciting because people from the community are coming and it’s slowly growing. We are acquainted with this other group from occasionally meeting together, and this is just another way to come alongside them in unity.
I would like to expound a bit on the fact that the work I am privileged to do through CUDA’s Health Initiative allows me to be connected with this new house church plant. Part of our strategy as a mission team is to work holistically in God’s kingdom here in Arequipa. Part of what that means is sharing our faith as we teach people how to prevent Diabetes. I often have the opportunity to mix the physical, emotional and spiritual in a short 15-minute conversation with someone. I really do believe that God cares about each part of us. For example, in Mark 2, Jesus heals a paralytic and forgives his sins at the same time. Later in Mark 6 Jesus feeds the 5,000 while he teaches them valuable spiritual lessons as well. If Jesus blended the spiritual and the physical, then I think we should as well. After all, why focus so exclusively on the spiritual while every other part of the man suffers? It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to do it that way. Yes, the spiritual part of the man is the most important, but the other parts of a man are still important and still a part of him and all parts are interrelated. It’s amazing to see God working in this way. I certainly didn’t plan for this church plant to start up so close to the clinic, but it is a blessing and an opportunity.
