Cultural Clarity de Peru: (Times) of the Culture

A really interesting observation that I made that I already talked about in my previous post I will expand a little more on is the time. Another funny thing with Peruvians is time is really just a philosophy or great idea but a poor invention. As the week started we would set times to be ready and be waiting for 20 minutes to an hour for them. Our leader, Doug, expressed his concern that we always be ready on time no matter what. Well by the end we were being pushed by them. So as we are getting more tired and slower and run down the local Pastors seemed to sense our eagerness to follow the clock so as we were beginning to slow they were there to push us.

By the end of the trip I heard “rapido” more times than I wanted. However I feel they were respecting us and our time consciousness. I began to think about the differences of culture. Are they wrong for being late all the time and not caring? Are we wrong for always holding the clock as a higher priority then relationships? I feel the root of this is true, there are differences of culture and that carries much of the weight however I feel a sense of blame and ownership. As two cultures collide, I believe our eyes are opened up to our shortcomings.

First off I will point the finger because there is less there to deal with, actually I truly want to focus on the American rush. If you are like my Peruvian friends, look at your watch, focus a little more, care a little more, be a little more courteous of others. If a car is about to run you over instead of forcing him to slow down pick up your pace, simply move.

So before I point the finger I am first to say, SLOW down America. Don’t shortsale relationships because of your over-exhausted time schedule. Don’t neglect your nature of relationship, we are relational by nature. Stop to say hello, slow down to have time to bless someone, don’t run so fast so that you can have a meaningful conversation of hope and purpose, don’t miss opportunities that are God appointed. Allow yourself to be in the moment and present for what God has intended instead of putting on the game face all the time and running. I realize that many times I speed when I drive and am not even in a hurry. I have accustomed myself to always be on ‘rush mode’. I seem to always be late for things even late for events that are not even scheduled, figure that one out. I want to sloooow down, I want to catch my breathe and breath a deep sigh of relief that the earth will still spin even if I’m not pedaling it. Did you hear that, our little planet will still keep spinning without you pedaling it and running on it.

Here’s the bottom line, you will always have more to do, more to finish, more work to do… set it down and relax, kick your legs up and enjoy the simple life all around you that is waiting to be explored. We make so much complication of God’s simplicity and make ourselves tired and God is saying rest in me my child.

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Cultural Clarity de Peru: The Kiss of Innocence

After the first conference a young lady approached me with Oscar, my translator, and she had a question for me as well as a prayer request. Her prayer request was that her father was a pastor for eight years and he quit and walked away from God. I could tell in your heart she was hurt and broken. Her question was that she felt very shy but had a heart to share her faith and she didn’t what to do. I encouraged her that it is okay that she is shy but I shared with her that when we receive that baptism of the Holy Spirit we receive power to be witnesses and I encouraged her to seek God for everything that He has for her. I spoke life into her and told her that she is perfect in every way, that her life has purpose and that God has a destiny for her. I told her that she was wonderful and amazing. I told her that when she shares her faith with people and they reject her they are not really rejecting her; they are rejecting God. She seemed to be very encouraged and lifted up by those words.

Let me step you back to the moment of her approach, as she neared me with Oscar they seemed to be pretty close and as I stood it was very awkward so the only way to make it not awkward was to turn the stand into a standing hug. When I went to hug her she hugged me face to face and then I heard her kiss me. At first I was very nervous and couldn’t understand why she did that. Then I realized that I had been seeing that from different people throughout the previous day. As the rest of the week every woman or girl hugged me as well as any person with a kiss.

Now the funny thing is I hate touching people’s hands, sure call me weird. To me it is gross and I wish we in America did not do the hand shake. Many times I will hit fists instead of shake hands. You know what also bugs me is holding hands to pray, call me unholy or what but I do not like it. Think about it for a second, the longer the prayer the hotter and more sweaty it gets, gross. To me the kiss is a little weird but in a strange sense beautiful. I remember our last night our bus on the way to the airport had to drive through the drive-thru and we sat there looking inside as three girls were finishing there meals and one had to leave and then she kissed her friends on the cheeks then left. Over and over I saw this happening and it brings the idea of trust and love as well as a personal relationship. I think it is a personal way of greeting inspiring love that a hand shake can’t do…. wait, wait, I guess we do have that, we have the clasp of the hands, snap the fingers, hit three times, hit the fists up then down, spin around, high five, then hug. We also have the gangster hands clasp, fist to fist, hug the side shoulder.

I must say that the love of the innocent kiss is beautiful and makes our hand shake quite pathetic. Here is my solution, I don’t think that we can ever change the culture of America to the kiss, at least not easily. However how can you show love more? How can you express the love that God has given you to the people in your world? God has given each of us our own circle of influence and our own world if you will. Are you able to affect your world in a positive way? I hear many times from people that would say, “I can’t change my world”. The truth is maybe you can’t, maybe that is too big of a task, but I believe in you. I believe that you can change your circle, your own ‘world’, your area of influence. So how will tomorrow be different than today? Will you begin to affect the destiny of others by loving more? Let’s see it.

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Reports From Peru

Peru is a beautiful country and I have cherished every moment here. After the dozen or so mission trips to Mexico I felt very comfortable in Peru. One of the funnest and scariest parts is the driving, much like Mexico. There are really no rules, well at least rules that are followed. Stop signs are optional, red lights are recommended and the horn works as a tool for communication. Yet in the midst of seeming chaos and almost complete traffic jams, Peruvians seem to still stay positive and there are also no accidents, at least not in the week we were there and believe me, after watching the driving for 5 minutes I expected to see at least a few accidents daily. Another funny thing with Peruvians is time is really just a philosophy or great idea but a poor invention. They do not seem to be too worried of the time. Many times we would wait a while for the different local pastors and leaders.

There was a couple interesting things that happened. The first night we were still in a state of euphoria with the idea of being in a new country and the excitation of the days ahead. We were given our room keys and go to our rooms. My room was on the side of a VERY busy road not to mention all the honking. I could not sleep at all and it was a very good thing I brought some Sleep MD. Chicken is the main staple food, more prevalent than good clean water, no joke. So we literally ate chicken for every meal, now my first point is the chicken is the best chicken I have eaten in my life. It is all rotisserie and amazing. However after the first nine times in a row it became out of control. Now I must mention that there was a Starbucks only a parking lot away that I frequented every morning to do my "vanille latte con hellado" as well as the most amazing cinnamon roll that cost about $0.80 US. So finally ten meals in, that is lunches and dinners we end up at a high end outdoor mall that was pretty cool. Finally a food court, anything you would want including American fast food, yessss! No, because all the meals were included in our trip and they paid for them all at once, so guess where we found ourselves? Pardo's chicken, 10th time in a row. It will be a good month of Chicken Sabbatical for me.

The leadership conferences were amazing. God always does the unexpected. We were expecting about 200 at the fist conference and about 300 or so at the second, totaling 500-600. I personally was expecting about 70-80 youth pastors and leaders total. The first conference totaled just about 500 and the second was 500+. So with a total of over a thousand combined, I had about 100 pastors/leaders at each conference. They were hungry for learning and philosophies on ministry. I really felt that God had given me some great leadership ideas and strategies to give to these amazing people. One of the neat things is a couple days later when we were doing a children’s program at a little village a lady came up and told me that she was at one of the conferences with me and that it was 'excellente'. It was amazing to see one of the people in their own area of influence and that they were blessed by the conference.

At the second conference there was a homosexual couple that came in to see what was going on and got convicted so they returned that night for the service and wept knowing they were living in sin. Pastor Larry who was on our team who had been a missionary to Ecuador for many years ministered to these two guys and through tears of shame found God and left new 'men' of God.

I have never been so stretched in my life. The two conferences were in two days in different city/states, the first one in Lima and the second in Ica. These were about 5 hours away. The first conference was Tuesday, it began at 8:30am and ended at about 7:30pm then we all went for dinner, chicken. Rode the cab to the bus terminal (like our Greyhounds) and left about 10pm. We arrived in Ica at about 2:30am and then found our hotel and got only a few hours of sleep to make it to the next conference that started at 8:30am. This same schedule repeated that day ending with the drive back to Lima. Then the next morning up at the same time around 7ish to head to do some street ministry with the team that was here doing ministry while we were at the conferences. That day lasted until 11pm with a couple chicken meals in there for our pleasure. So three days of about 4-5 hours and then standing and walking for about 13 hours and ministering is one of the most exhausting things I have done. I ran my body to fully empty relying on fumes then ran out of fumes by Saturday.

Then Saturday was a day to shop and eat and see the country, it was great and beautiful. Then Sunday I preached at a church in Lima with a couple hundred in attendance. On my way the Book of Hope leader in Peru told me that the mayor goes to this church and will be there, nothing like pressure, eh. God really moved on me and even though I felt too sick to minister I always depend on God in those times and as I approached the pulpit the sickness was not able to follow. I poured my heart out with a message that God gave me for this church talking about how the gift of God, His son, is effective in our life. Myself, the church and the pastor all seemed blessed. Prior to the service the pastor led us through the church introducing us to all the teachers and pastors and as we were entering the Sunday School class for the teenagers the Sr. Pastor told my translator that I would be teaching the class, again nothing like pressure. I had nothing prepared but God led and I followed. When we are sick and at the end or feel great and have high energy God always comes through.

This trip was amazing and everyone that supported us in prayer, thank you. I was invited back again next year and really hope to return. The burden of leadership burns in me to return again. So be praying about considering helping me get there next year monetarily and in prayer. Oh and an interesting bit of knowledge, where we stayed the last rumored time that it rained was about 10 years ago, other than that it hasn't rained for hundreds of years even though it is on the coast, it just mists a lot.

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Viva Peru

Well I am sitting here at IAH, the International Airport of Houston for a 3 hour layover and am getting excited to finish my next flight, 6.5 hours to Lima, Peru. I was invited by Doug Reed to join him and a team of about 10 pastors to go to Peru for a Pastors Leadership Conference. It will be a great trip, I will get to lead three sessions with about 70-80 youth pastors and leaders. I have entitled the three sessions I will be leading:

• Seven Keys to Growth: What causes your ministry to be a magnet for teenagers that need Christ.
• Why Inspirational Leadership? 10 Roles For An Inspirational Leader.
• Ten Great Ways to Lose A Volunteer: Ten missteps that can cost you new and old volunteers.
  

Please keep our team in your prayers and that God uses us in powerful ways in Peru. We need them and depend on God to make this week memorable for everyone.

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mean daiv

there was 1ce a man named daiv, daiv one day was not nice. daiv later apologized and now i forghiv him and let hiim be mi frend agin.

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