A very busy April!

Hello everyone, it's hard to believe that it is already May and we just had a very productive past month! Shortly after the Indigenous Worship Festival we had an opportunity to go out to Suzy's village of Pintupo for a few days with part of our School of Gospel Contextualization. Our intent was to conduct a worship songwriting workshop, but God had different plans. Instead we were able to talk at length with the chief of the village (who also is the leader of the entire reservation) to gain a better understanding of the spiritual health of the village. It was an eye opening experience as we understood the weight of what was said. There is a great divide between the church and the rest of the community. Leaders want the church for the benefits it brings, mainly in the form of money from foreign missionaries who must pay fees from boat rental, motor rental, village fees, etc. This is also the reason the chief and pastor in the village want to build a bigger and better looking church to attract more foreigners. However, church activities are restricted to the church, apart from the rest of the community. As a result, Christianity is viewed by most people in the community as a foreigner's religion and for that reason, most do not attend church or understand the true meaning of the Gospel. Further complicating the issue is the fact that most people in the community barely understand Spanish, which is the main language used by the foreign missionaries and the Pastor during his services. The higher ranking people of the village (pastor, chiefs, elders) speak and understand Spanish well enough to communicate with foreigners, but many of the laypeople of the community still have some difficulty. The result of all this, as we learned, is a Gospel that really does not have any relevance to the everyday lives of people in the village, and a church that is more interested in attracting foreigners and their own agendas than reaching the community. So "church" remains the "weird" thing that the pastor and his family do in their corner of the village along with the help of foreigners once in a while. In a way, we were glad that the trip turned out the way it did because it served to help us better understand the best way to approach evangelism in Pintupo. The trip was still a lot of fun, however. Not only were our classmates able to meet the family, we also got to dress up Marisol in her colorful molas and let her hang out with her cousins who are now able to run around with her. The entire family was very happy to see us!!


Back at YWAM, we are in the process of relocating to an apartment which will better serve us as a family. The three of us living in a small bedroom was becoming difficult and since we are planning on expanding our family, it will be better to have a space to call our own. The apartment will be finished (it is still under construction) in about three weeks, but in the meantime we are living with the Base Director so our old room back on base can be used for another staff member. We are also happy to announce that we are finally mobile!! We have been blessed with a car, so we no longer have to brave the hot crowded city buses for hours just to run simple errands in the city. God is good!!!!!!!! So what's next? We are planning to visit Pintupo again in the near future to prepare for the medical team coming in July, and we are hoping to have an idea of what we will be doing for our class field assignment which will likely be in Pintupo as well. Be sure to check out the slideshow of the latest pics!! Thanks for visiting and God bless!!!! (Note: if you double click on the small slideshow to the right of this post, it will take you to our Picasa web albums where you can view it full size)