mountain movie magic

At a recent outreach, we showed some movies.


It was a village of about 100 families; Day 1 of our return trip to Chos Malal.

At these events (well, most events we show movies at), the two and a half hour JESUS film is often times too long. The kids usually don't make it past a half an hour - any more and they will begin to wander off. The Torchlighters series work well in these situations, especially since we have many other activities going on and a program to follow. The movies are evangelistic, animated, and only 30 minutes in duration - very kid friendly. A nice fit after the kids (and watching adults) have sung, played, heard the Good News, and had a snack.


the garage, lent to us from a family in the village, converted into a makeshift movie theatre



setting up the projector





aren't they adorable?!?





notice our make shift projector stand: a rusty barrel, an old rack, and some planks 



Fun stuff. Hard work. Worth it.

mime gospel part II

The nine-second test video never uploaded here for me. Welcome to my life. So... sorry. No amazing five-minute mime gospel video. You'll just have to believe me, it and they were amazing.

A couple of these kids accepted Christ. :)

The first day's event of our three days in the mountains was well-received. Now the native missionaries can go back in and continue working with the people. We are very pleased with how it went!

"Let all the nations be gather together, and let the people be assembled... let them hear, and say, It is truth." - Isaiah 43:9

mime gospel part I

I've had a bit of a rough week. The busyness and emotional strain of it has kept me from posting pictures of our truly amazing trip to the mountains.

Here are some starters: Jonathan and Keren, university students from church, and their amazing mime act of the gospel. The kids (and adults) ALWAYS love it.

Now, to see if I can upload the video of it...so amazing. Here's hoping it works.

:)

Camila, and my favorite picture of all time

I think this is my all-time favorite picture taken in Patagonia. Ever.

"I want to read the Bible, but I can't understand it. I need someone to help me. Can you help me?" she said.

Camila is one of our little friends. She lives deep in the slums. She is nine years old. She lives in a wood slat house with a dirt floor. Her dad is a drug addict and former pai de santo. But she wants to read the Bible. She wants to learn about it, but doesn't know how to begin. So she asked Tony.

And you know you don't have to ask us twice.

:)

what is to become of those bricks

Marcela and Ceferino are rebuilding. This will be their new house.






I got to see on Saturday how it's coming along. The brick walls have now been raised as high as my hip.

Those bricks will come in handy as the night temperatures drop into 50s, soon into the 40s. [EDIT: Now 30s...]. Freezing. Right now they are sleeping in a temporary wood-slat house with only three walls and a tarp for a roof. Brrrrr.

"He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the LORD..." ~Proverbs 19:17



busyness, drunkeness, and other general weirdness

Life is busy here. And sometimes a whole lot of weird. I feel like my head's going to explode trying to process it all sometimes.

Good Friday, Tony spent all day in the slums while I took the kids on a nature walk - our first "official" nature walk in Patagonia - complete with list of things to look for. Since I had spent the entire week with visions of public school dancing in my head, I figured it was time to get out before somebody {Mommy} lost it.

Tony came home from a draining day, hoping to rest and eat something before we quickly headed out again to a meeting then a movie showing, only to get a call from the slums about an altercation with a drunk. Someone (we know) had shown up to "help" one of the families rebuild, but he showed up so drunk he could barely talk. He claims he's a Christian, he was insisting he was there to help, proceeded to walk around the site "praying" in a loud voice, continuing to insist he was there to help and to "do the Lord's work". All he succeeded in doing was making the families really, really mad. One of the dads called Tony asking him to come back and remove the guy before he killed him. We didn't put it past him, so back Tony went. One incident like that, someone showing up wearing the name "Christian" but acting really not, could completely ruin everything we've been trying to build for months.



drunk guy {in the red hat} - sometimes he's sober, like here


That's another new thing for us... flagrantly alcoholic church-goers. Slaves to alcohol who have no self control, but claim to know and love Jesus while getting rip-roaring drunk, all the while not seeming to think this is anything to really be alarmed about. The next day after a binge, they are "doing well, all is well, I'm well, God is good, and Praise the Lord!". It's kinda weird, definately new. At least people in the States who go to church and claim to know Christ but who are really raging drunks know better than to shout it from the mountaintops, at least in my experience. A certain level of shame is a good thing - it means you might have a clue that something is not. quite. right.

We have not-so-infrequent run-ins with inebriated people. It's the nature of the beast. I'm nobody's judge, but I am certainly learning to not answer my cell phone depending on who it is - and definately not after midnight {always bad news}, because then I can never get off the phone. Drunk people just go on and on and on in usually beligerent drunken stupors. There's no reasoning with them. I have better things to do with my time than to talk to someone who isn't listening anyway. Tony's really good with drunks, though. He keeps his calm and is able to take control of the situation; I just get annoyed and kick myself for answering the phone, vowing not to next time I see the number. The last time Pedro called I just told him the truth - You are a slave to alcohol and you need Jesus to set you free. He's the only One who can help you. I must have said goodbye and told him Tony would call him at least ten times. All he wanted to do was ask me how I was doing over and over again and put me on the phone with his grandmother (sweet lady that she is). Six months ago that would have been really awkward. I still think it's weird. But now, it's just kinda normal.

Pedro, Tony, Raul, and Alberto [Pedro was let go for drinking on the job, so returned to his little town up north. He still calls us.]

Fast forward Easter morning. As I was in the bathroom getting ready for church, I heard a gunshot. I heard Tony from the other room, "Did you just hear that?" Uh, yeah. Sure did. The weird thing is, everyone here says we live in a "nice" neighborhood. That wasn't my impression when we first arrived here. But, all things being relative, it is a "nice" neighborhood. For here. A nice neighborhood with gunshots. Yeah... 

Gunshots were just never on my radar, but hey, I guess they are now.

Easter afternoon we spent at the children's home.

But let me preface this with a little rant first- may I? Just humor me.

PARENTS: Don't leave your kids with anybody. Let me repeat myself... DON'T LEAVE YOUR CHILDREN WITH ANYONE. If you heard some of these stories we hear, if you knew... REALLY KNEW... that 90% of sexual abuse cases are perpetrated by someone who knows the victim... you wouldn't ever leave your kids with anyone. Family, friends, your trusted church friends. An.y.one.

Okay, I'm done. Ignore me if you want. It's just some statistics with a suggestion. I'm sure there are people in the world we can trust, surely.

So, I was finally able to go to the Children's Home {where all the kids have a story like above}, now that visitations are up and running again after summer break. We had a great time with the kids - we played Duck, Duck, Goose; Red Light, Green Light; and Freeze Tag - Argentinian versions, of course. Some of the young adults from church shared the Resurrection story as we sat around an outside table talking with the kids. I was amazed that most of the kids had never even heard of the Resurrection before. They thought Easter was about eggs. I took my daughter with me on our visit; she loved it and asks me all the time when we are going back.

my friend Keren with one of the sweeties from the children's home

There's more that's been going on, some that makes me nervous. Like Tony beginning a new ministry in another home for older kids... 13 and up. Kids aging out of the other home with nowhere to go. No one visiting them. No one sharing love and the gospel with them. I asked Tony if he really thinks this is a good idea. I mean, people get knifed in homes for older kids; they are bigger and they have bigger problems. Kids are extremely street smart here, more than most adults I know. A guy that used to work in one of these homes recently showed Tony his scars. So, really, Tony... don't you think maybe we should just forget this one? He doesn't think so.

And there are other things that are happening that are weird, well, more like extremely disturbing. Things that are just unbloggable. Things that remind me why I don't like having neighbors, and why I don't trust anyone. Things that make me shudder and remember that this is a yucky, fallen world. Things that remind me that yes, indeed, this is a battle. A WAR (Ephesians 6). Things that remind me of the very reason we are here. Things that, once you begin to fight them, wake up the someone who doesn't want to lose any ground. Not an inch.

I've been reminded, uncomfortably, this Resurrection week of the Truth in 1 Peter 5:8...

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion,

seeking whom he may devour."

Feelin' it. Hoping next week is better.

living the dream

Living the Dream Part I

Saturday night my boyz showed the JESUS film and a few Torchlighters movies in the rough neighborhood next door (this one). I am so proud of them. We're actually doing what we set out to do. God has really brought it to pass. I feel like Francis Chan who said, upon leaving the States to pursue missions in the third world, "Living the dream!".

Setting up. The screen hung on a wire between two posts of a soccer goal.

 Tony with some of the neighborhood kids

 The boy in the camoflage shirt's dad is in prison for double homicide. It's that kind of neighborhood.

 watching a Torchlighters movie

the JESUS film

Some of the kids scoffed at the movies to be shown, saying they had better movies at home. Action movies, horror movies. Some threatened to go home and watch their movies which were "better". They were riveted, of course, watching the Torchlighters series. Everybody always is. They later didn't want to leave and asked when we were coming back to show more movies.

Living the Dream Part II

In other somewhat selfish news, I finally started zampoÑa [sahm-pohn-nyah] lessons. [My computer is being weird about ALT commands - they're not working for me here. The least of my problems.]. I finally made it to the weekly practice of a group of Christian guys that play Andean music. It was heaven. It was even more wonderful because my kids didn't come with me. Translation: it was relaxing. I almost felt young again: childless, able to finish adult conversations, glorious. If God is merciful, maybe I'll even learn to play.

Miguel teaching me how to play the zampoÑa

Living the Dream: The Flip Side

But, life isn't all rosey here. Not at all. There is another side (as another soldier on the forefront has noted) - "the inevitable spiritual attack that meets the coming of the Kingdom". It is ever present. We have had bad dreams, nightmares, all of us, since we've been here, often. Impatience, tension, pressures, trials, misunderstandings, criticism, fightings, tears.

But there is grace, the same grace that we all have access to through Christ. The same grace that upholds us who hope and believe in Him. Being here, fighting dirt, has brought all our dirt to the surface like nothing else. Missions is messy. Daily we come face to face with our failings, our weakness, our filth. It's ugly. The only thing that separates us from those we are trying to reach is forgiveness, nothing else. Because of Christ, we are forgiven. Because of the forgiveness he has extended to us, we are able to extend forgiveness, be forgiven. So we forgive, we kiss and make up and hug and talk, and we move on, praying we get it someday. Sometimes limping, sometimes swiftly and with strength, daily reminded that we are not qualified for this. For any of this.

Which is exactly why we are qualified for this.

back in the slums

Since we've been back from our weekend way away, I've been playing catch up: washing mountians of clothes, homeschooling, cleaning for our Wednesday Bible study, and begging Tony to pleeeeease not invite anyone over for a while or accept any invitations. I'm feeling oversocialized (is that a word?) and overwhelmed, and need to catch up and catch my breath. Moving and living here is a lot to process sometimes.

We no sooner got home, than Tony went back to the slums.



The first day he went to visit Marcela and Ceferino, he found the kids alone and the parents unavailable. So he sat down with our little friends in the dirt, glanced over, and saw one of the tracts we had given them a while back in the trash. He picked it up, dusted it off, and then began to read it, walking them through a kids' version of the gospel. He's so good that way, always so naturally sharing the gospel. He does it all the time... so easily talks about God. Even when we were leaving the Observatory, he witnessed to one of the people walking out with us about how amazing God is, and isn't it incredible that he created all these stars and planets, and Do you believe in God?

When he was done explaining to the kids about God and how we can know him, Camila looked up and said, "I would like a Bible. I don't have a Bible to read and I would like to read it."

Bibles are expensive and hard to come by here, but God always sends a few our way at just the right time.





{Photos: a house in the slums, rebuilding after the fire}

Understanding Doctrine

Tony with Marcela's kids and Dani, practically our adopted son at this point

"If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine..." John 7:17

The golden rule for understanding is not intellect, but obedience.

  ~ from My Utmost for His Highest

I'm feeling very behind on updating the blog - we've been so busy and so tired - but hope to get some posts up soon!

:)

Tony's 2nd Post

Here is Tony's 2nd post (you can read his first post here). He asked me to post this verse back in July of...um... last year?

(oops)

And after he saw the one measly picture I put up the other day of an entire afternoon's work, he was like, "That's it?! That's the only picture you posted?? What happened to all the other pictures I took that day? You have to put them up, too!"

So, here you are, the scripture he wanted me to share last year {the one that keeps coming up over and over these days} intermingled with the rest of the pictures from the other day's water run to the slums.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat,

I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,

I was a stranger and you invited me in,

I needed clothes and you clothed me,

I was sick and you looked after me,

I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

That's all from Tony, til maybe next year.

Another day. Another water run to the slums.

Marcela, Ceferino, their children - and everyone else up on the edge of the slums we have been reaching out to - use water like this to drink, bathe, and wash. Cool water in rusty barrels. It's all there is. Imagine.



"For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink..."

[Read the whole context here. Sobering.]

Learning to do Good

"Learn to do good..." - Isaiah 1:17

Yesterday we heard about a family of 7 whose plywood house burned down. Mom, Dad, and five kids were left with nothing. Literally nothing.

So a group of us from church loaded up some non-perishable food items (they don't have a fridge), clothing, mattresses, sheets and blankets, a tent so they have somewhere to sleep, and some water in big plastic jugs, and drove our little caravan out to the very edge of town.

Because, the Bible says, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.


Edgardo lent us his truck, onto which we strapped our extra mattresses
(now when people come visit, we will just have to sleep on the floor and give them our own bed,
hardly a sacrifice considering the needs we see here daily)

we half emptied our own cabinets to pile food and clothes and other supplies into our van

 I made my kids pick out some clothes that no longer fit them, and some shoes that still do, to donate to the family of 5 children. Because no one needs five pairs of flip flops when your neighbor has none.

"He that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and he that hath meat, let him do likewise." Luke 3:11

heading out to the site

"If you love me, keep my commandments." John 14:15


on the way we stopped to pick up Dora, who lives 4 blocks from where the houses burned down
 - she goes to our church, and lead us to what was left of the homes




getting closer - the brick houses turned into plywood lean-to's



finally there



one of the three houses that burned down

Fires are common here, they either start with electrical shorts or from sparks that fly off of wood fires or gas stove used for cooking.


one of the burnt houses is already being rebuilt

 

the woman in the red shirt lives in the gray tent

 

her "home", a tent

The neighborhood sits on the very edge of the city. It's a squatters village and it's sprawling and huge. It seems to go on and on and on. People who have no place to live and no money to rent or buy land just "take" a small plot of land on the edge of town, sometimes in public squares or parks, and build ramshackle houses out of plywood, scraps, or brick if they can afford it. The government put up a fence on the edge of town to stop the squatters from taking any more land.

right next to the burnt houses was the fence (behind me), beyond was desert



unloading the mattresses and supplies

It was about 100 degrees and there was not a tree in sight. There was broken glass, dog poop, charred wood and ash, and trash mixed in with desert grit. The kids who live here were filthy and were walking around in underwear and bare feet. Bare feet! My mommy instinct wanted to just stick them in a bathtub, scrub them up, comb their hair, and put some shoes on them. But there is barely water in the neighborhood. The government hasn't extended the pipes to this edge of town yet.


Keren playing with the kids







Mario, one of the pastors, comforting the families with God's word



after unloading everything, we prayed with the families that lost everything
the woman in the middle in the dress will be sleeping in the tent we gave her until they can rebuild



afterwards, conferring about the possibility of coming back, and what kind of help is most needed

and, of course, the truck wouldn't start (it has had battery problems) so we had to push it to pop it into gear

Afterwards, when we were driving Dora back to her house, we drove by some little kids playing outside -two adorable little girls, maybe 4 and 6. I smiled out the window and yelled, "Hola Hermosas!" and they waved back. Dora said, "Oh, if you knew the things those girls have lived through..."

Oh, no. What? What things??

Their mother is mising one leg, so has trouble taking care of them. Last year, some men broke into their house and raped the mother and her daughters.

This is the neighborhood that Jorge and Monica do the Happy Hour outreach. We were told that 90% of the people who live here are alcoholics or theives. There are a few that work hard and don't commit crime, but they are not the majority.

Tony was following me and told me later that he thought I was probably scared driving one of the cars by myself through this neighborhood. I wasn't. At all. I attribute that to prayer, and God's grace, ONLY, because I am a bit of a scaredy cat. So thank you, friends, for praying. We definately feel your prayers.

Our night did not end there. Argentinians are lovers of the night. The youth/young adults invited us back to Edgardo's house for pizza. All I really wanted to do was get my three-year-old into a bathtub stat, and myself into a cold shower, but we said yes and went. Our three-year-old fell asleep on the drive back into town with dirty hands and filthy feet. Dinner wasn't until 10:30. But it was delicious - they made pizza from scratch and torre de panqueques (stacked crepe sandwiches). Yum! Sorry no pictures of that - our cell phones were already full of pictures.

:)