Birthday weekend

I turned 23 last Thursday. That afternoon, Blanca cooked lomo saltado for lunch, which is my favorite Peruvian dish - a plate of rice, french fries and stir fried onions, tomatoes and steak. Roberto made a Waldorf salad (he has a cookbook of American recipes) to make me feel "at home." And I got a birthday card from my REAL parents in the mail! I spent that evening with my first host family (Daniela, Juan, Juan Carlos, Giulia, Damaris, Dayra) where we ate causa that Juan prepared (I'm not sure what all is in causa... it's basically a mashed potato salad with tuna and mayonaisse) and of course they sang happy birthday and we ate cake, too. After spending time with them, I went back home to my current host family. Waiting for me with them were about 10 members of Santa Isabel Church. We ate sang happy birthday (again!) and ate cake (again!). I share the same birthday with Juan, the president of the session of Santa Isabel church, so it was really a double birthday celebration. As is the custom here, everyone took turns saying nice things about Juan and I, with some inspirational bible verses mixed in. Juan and I then each said a few words about what the year has been like and giving thanks for our friends. All in all, it was a really great birthday. But it wasn't over.

The next day, I went to work at Km 13's compassion program. After work, there was a small "party" in the office that was very similar to the one from the night before. More cake. More singing. More reflecting on the year and being thankful for the community that I've become a part of. Afterwards, Alison, one of the young adult members of Km 13's congregation who also occasionally volunteers with Compassion invited me to have a lonche (small snack-type meal eaten at about 6pm, between lunch and dinner) at her house with her mother and sister. So I went straight after the office part to spend time with Alison and her family. I carried the leftover cake from the party with me and offered it to their family. Thankfully, they accepted (I definitely love cake, but by then I was looking for ways to "share" it). I continue to be amazed by the hospitality that people in Lima have offered me.

Saturday offered me a reprieve of cake. I spent most of the day with youth and young adults from Kilometer 11 church. KM 11 is another church in the Presbytery of Northeastern Lima. I've gotten to know Priscila, the president of their jovenes (youth and young adults) group, from various presbytery events. She had invited me a couple of weeks ago to spend this particular saturday with the Km 11 jovenes, hoping that I could present a theme/message/reflection at the worship service that night. I told her that I could spend the morning and afternoon hanging out with them, but that evening I was already committed to helping out with the worship service/meeting for Km. 13's adolescentes (middle school-age youth) group. She told me that was fine, and arrived to meet me in my neighborhood to together to Km 11 church at about 10am. On the bus ride there, she asked me if I could lead a talk with the jovenes group about ways they can affect change in their communities/country/world.

I've gotten used to these sorts of last-minute-requests for speaking engagements. They seem to be pretty common in the world of the IEP (Evangelical Church of Peru denomination). Pastors are expected to be knowledgeable enough about the Bible to give a sermon or bible study on a moment's notice. And from what I can tell, a large percentage of them really are. And I guess since I also have a University degree (and carry the esteemed title of "missionary"), I'm also expected to be capable of speaking in public about a wide array of topics without previous preparation. On the one hand, it makes me feel really good about my Spanish skills that people who have spent ample time talking with me think that I speak well enough to coherently impart useful information to a large group of people while speaking extemporaneously. On the other hand, I sometimes feel guilty that I can't possibly be living up to their expectations when everything is said and done.

As I'm sure most of you know well, I'm generally a pretty outgoing, fearless, and "just say yes" type of guy when it comes to opportunities to talk in front of people or be the center of attention. Nevertheless, there have been many instances during my time in Peru when I've told people in these situations "I'm sorry, I can't give that [talk, sermon, reflection, etc]. I'm really not prepared or knowledgeable enough right now." However, this particular time, I told Priscila "yes," because doing social/community work from a Christian perspective is kind of what I'm all about.

When we arrived at the church, I got a chance to meet all of the jovenes (and adolescentes, too actually) in the Km 11 church group. Purely for curiosity's sake, one of them asked me when my birthday was. When they found out it was just two days earlier, of course they all sang happy birthday to me (and apologized for not having cake). Then I got to lead my talk. Without missing a beat, I started by reading Isaiah 58, which is a passage in the Bible about "True Fasting" -- which isn't giving up food and praying to God, but instead working to make sure the hungry are fed and "loosing the chains of injustice." (Presbyterians never carry Bibles around with them. Members of the Evangelical Church of Peru, however, do; I've changed my ways.) I then basically "borrowed" much of the central message of David Lamotte's "World Changing 101" seminars to explain why activism and volunteer work is important on both community and global levels. ("There's a difference between changing the world and fixing the world. No one expects you to "fix" the world, but you can't be in the world without changing it in some way. The question is: What type of changes/impact will you make?") Then I simply asked them to list some of the problems they see in their community so we could brainstorm together ways to address them.

The most common answer was gangs. After carefully opining (as a "professional sociologist") on some of the root causes of gangs (poverty, teenage kids in search of identity, lack of other constructive social outlets/activities/groups), we discussed what the church could do to address the issue. We basically came to the conclusion of having Saturday neighborhood clean-up days. There are several artists in the group, so they decided it would be fun to paint over gang graffiti and blank/unsightly walls with Christian pictures/images. They also decided to help clean up trash around some of the streets and fulbito ("mini soccer") courts in an effort to take pride in their neighborhood and convince the other residents to do likewise. All in all, it wasn't anything revolutionary, but I still really enjoyed participating in the conversation and being a part of a group with goals and a plan to improve the problems in their neighborhood. After the talk was over, we all played some fulbito, ate lunch, and then visited the homes of some of the members of the jovenes group who hadn't been attending the worship services recently. I then left to go to the worship service of the Km 13 adolescentes. (Yes, they sang happy birthday to me).

Finally, today I preached at the sunday morning worship service for Km. 13's congregation (a pretty decent sermon about forgiveness, if I do say so myself). And afterwards... you guessed it. More singing. More cake. Pastor Hernando and Ramon (Director of Compassion at Km 13) both shared some very kind words about the work I had been doing with the church. Someone had also put together a slide show featuring pictures from my blog and picasa site (I haven't shared the address with anyone in Peru, but it wouldn't be hard to find -- there's a link to it on the Presbytery's blog and website). And finally, I also got another chance to express my gratitude for the friends I've made and hospitality I've experienced while in Peru.