Lost in Translation

Today in Chia we hosted the annual men's meeting, and the topic was "every man's battle." We had five sessions, two taught by Pastor Jose, two taught by me, and an open forum for the last session.

I've been a little surprised and encouraged by the number of times I've been asked to speak lately. I'm not sure if people think of a missionary as instant "expert" or exactly why it is, but I am very happy to use the gift that God has given me. I think that I've literally been asked to speak on diverse topics by five different people from five different churches in the last month.

Pastor Jose had wanted to discuss this topic for a long time with the men of the association. We received a lot of positive feedback, more than anything from people who said, "Wow, this topic isn't normally talked about. It's nice to hear what the Bible has to say about it."

As far as my sessions went, I was very pleased. The first was about our wives as the true source of joy in our life. We talked about a biblical view of the sexual relationship in marriage, and how we should work to please our wives romantically as well. I was surprised that when I asked if there were questions a torrent poured out. I had to tell the men we would return to the questions later.

The second session that I led dealt with practical strategies to overcome these temptations. From making a covenant with my eyes not to look at a woman in a wrong way, to allowing my wife to pre-read and edit with scissors any magazine that may have questionable images or adds (even Nat'l Geographic falls into that category).

What encouraged me most was to have two people come up afterwards and tell me that they were greatly helped by what I had taught and that they would like my prayers for their victory in this area.

We were looking into car insurance this week, so I had to take our car to the shop for an in-depth review. The insurance agent, Cecilia, went with me, and we ended up talking about spiritual things for most of the hour we were at the shop.

She has many interesting views. She considers herself Catholic, but she doesn't agree with many of the teachings of the Catholic faith. What was very interesting was to hear her talk about an aunt who had converted to the Christian faith (interesting that in Spanish "Christian" and "Catholic" are not used interchangeably, whereas in English I think that most Catholics would consider themselves "Christians.")

She just shook her head and said, "I can't believe what she did. She gave up her identity. How can you be born a Catholic and not die a Catholic?" She was most upset by her niece's wedding. "It was just a normal guy with a normal suit and tie who officiated. It was held in a house, and there wasn't a fancy altar or anything. They should have just gone to the justice of the peace because that would have been just as meaningful. There was no one with authority. In contrast, in the Catholic church you have a real priest who has authority. He wears a special garment. He isn't just like all of the rest of us."

I tried to explain to her that it all depends on your authority. If the Bible is your authority, you will see things differently than if the "Church" is your authority. You will realize that the people are the church, not the building, and that the pastor actually does have an equal standing spiritually with any other person.

I tried to explain the Good News of God's grace, but I don't think that I got too far. It's difficult when someone has already heard the message, holds tightly to the traditions of their church, but has decided to believe only what makes sense to them.

At any rate, I learned some things during that conversation that will help me in the future.

We had some hail here in Bogota this last week. Just thought you might like to see the closest thing to a snow storm that a bogotano will ever see.

As a young missionary I've noticed that setting one's own hours is a challenge. How many hours should I spend in study? How many hours should I spend visiting people, or talking with a pastor? I'm sure that this will become more second nature after a while, but for now it's a challenge. Where does a missionary or pastor's work start and where does it end? Okay, most would say that it doesn't end. So the question really is, "What does God want me doing today?" As many books discuss, the urgent is not always the important. And the important rarely seems urgent.

For example, prayer does not seem very urgent we tell ourselves. I can get by today without concentrated prayer. But where will we be in five years of ministry with that attitude?

Or consider language learning. I can get by with my Spanish. I can communicate, and the people understand what I'm trying to say. Why should I make improving in Spanish a priority? You see how easily we justify putting important issues on the back burner.

This is a photo of my office . . . it's very cozy. I'm praying that I will spend the right amount of time there, doing the right things.

Yikes, time has flown by and our camera has gathered dust. We will try to take more pictures in the future, so that you can get a better idea of our life here in Bogota. For starters, here are a few photos:

Our neighborhood, our house, and the path that I jog on every other day.

I have been noticing something. Spending lots of time with paperwork and errands rather than people drains me. Now I know that the opposite can be true as well; it all depends on with whom you spend the time.

The first month in Colombia has been like this . . . Wake up. Read Scripture and pray. Every other day go jogging. Then I ask Holly, "What are we up for today?" "Well, we still need _______," and we take off for a local store to buy something superfluous, like a bed or a refrigerator.

Now, I am not complaining. I just don't remember this stage when we were newly-weds. Ah yes, the big difference was that many family members gave us the necessities (like a bed), and we'd always rented apartments that came with refrigerators and a downstairs laundry room. Added to this is the fact that this is not our home country. So there's a learning curve.

Like the other day when I went on a short errand to take the microwave to a repair shop (note to self--always open new things here right away to see if they work or not, otherwise you'll be in charge of getting them to the repair shop). I was looking for an address on Calle 68. Without any thought I headed up the big road near our house (it's 68). I got about two miles away and hit major traffic (no surprise there). I also noticed that the road had changed to Calle 100. Okay, it must be in the other direction. So I head south for another thirty minutes and see the cross street I need. I pull into a parking area and grab my microwave. It's hot, and microwaves are heavier than you think. As I round the block where the repair shop should be I see a restaurant. I ask the lady there where the address may be, and she tells me that it's written wrong.

With her help I figure out that there's a difference between Calle 68 and the road that runs by our house, which is Avenida Carrera 68. But of course!

I finally make it to Calle 68 and pull off for directions as I zero in on the neighborhood. "Oh yeh, just pull out here and go about two blocks up." What they didn't tell me was that the lane was a one-way road. It's a good thing that I don't know many swear words in Spanish because I wasn't a bit offended when the taxi driver cussed me out for my little maneuver.

Finally I arrived at the repair shop with an unbearable thirst (the altitude really dry you out). In fact I'm getting thirsty just thinking about it.

This is just one example of how I spent three hours in a day. But on the plus side, I'm learning to drive in this city pretty well, which is an accomplishment.

I am very much looking forward to beginning in ministry here. With God's help, it could be in the next week or two.

Just a quick blessing . . . we now officially have Internet in our home. That means that we'll start updating our blogs regularly and that we may even start taking some pictures of Bogota.

Thanks for your patience. We almost have our house in order now.

We´re still trying to get situated here in Bogotá, although God has blessed in so many ways. Our next major need is to determine where we will begin ministering. There are several possibilities . . . perhaps help a pastor who is pastoring two churches at the moment, or go help a young pastor who is working in a new church plant. The other missionaries have been very helpful to not burden us down too much at first.

Oh, I forgot to mention that we´ll probably be signing on our house tomorrow. That means that the next few weeks will also be devoted to getting the house furnished. About all we have for it are books (isn´t that all you need?). At any rate, we´ll be learning more of the city by traveling to all of the furniture stores.

Well, I´ve gotta run.

Well, we made it to Bogotá, and since Holly already blogged about the trip I´ll skip that to give you my first impressions of being a missionary in this country.

I had forgotten how gargantuan this city is! For the first three days my head was spinning just trying to find my bearings. Thankfully I´m starting to understand how the addresses work here. They just changed them all a month or so ago, so even some of the Colombians are learning. The system is logical . . . the calles go towards the mountains, while the carreras run parallel to the mountains. The numbers go logically based on their distance north/south and their distance from the mountains. I´ve driven a few times already, which was a little tramatic the first time but is now "normal."

Speaking of driving, you have to not make mistakes. For example, I made the mistake of thinking I could get off a road under construction, but it took over an hour to get to a turn-around. Traffic is incredible if you take the wrong road at the wrong time. Picture moving five feet on each change of the stoplight. It´s a wee bit different than Hibbing, MN or Ames, IA!

Holly and I have essentially felt overwhelmed with all that has to be done to get set up here. In the first week and two days we have: filed for our cedulas (ID cards), received our shipment from the States, begun the process of getting a driver´s license, and worked on a bunch of paperwork to rent a house.

Renting a house is not a simple task either. They want to have two cosigners just to rent a house, which both need three or four documents to show their income, position, property, etc. We turned that in yesterday, so we´ll see if we got approved or not. We are very pleased with the house that we´ve picked out, since it´s fairly close to the seminary building (about 10 minutes or less), has a good price, and has all that we need.

We set a new record for getting our shipment out of customs. I got there at about 11 a.m. and had our shipment to the guest house garage by about 3 p.m.! Usually it has taken between two to five days to get this done. Apparently many of you are praying because I´ve been stumbling my way through, and it´s been working.

We visited the Tunal church last weekend, where Holly´s parents ministered. They are doing very well and now want help to start a mission agency to send missionaries to different cities in Colombia. Their goal is to send one couple every four years. I surely don´t feel like an "expert" in that area, but I´m definitely willing to help in any way possible. We also may begin our work with a young pastor who is ministering in Suba. This part of the city has grown tremendously . . . I remember hearing that it had about two million people. We´ll keep you posted as we see God´s direction unfold.