The biggest thing I learned during my time in the mountain community in Bolivia was just how faithful God really is. During the difficulties of that time, I learned so much about myself and just how much I cling to comforts and luxuries of the United States (even though I thought I had given all of those things up and would be fine without them!). But, even more so, I learned that God is continually faithful, and His grace lavished upon me is ever sufficient to sustain me and to mold me into the image of His Son.
Prayer Necessities for the Skimmers:
1. Tomorrow, we are returning to the jungle to spend another couple of months to complete some further training. This means time away from communication with friends and family again, and that has been the hardest part for me and the rest of the women on the team. Please be in prayer for us and for our loved ones during this time of no communication. Also, pray that I would be able to be an example to these young women of contentment and joy in difficult circumstances. I have learned much from Paul's letter to the Philippians during these times:
"I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (Phil. 4:11-13).
2. Continue to pray for Misty, who still is not well enough to fully participate in the majority of our team activities and is frustrated by that. Pray for her physical health, but also pray that she would learn the lessons God is trying to teach her through this trial.
Inquiring Minds Wanna Know (Bonus for the Readers):
I originally wrote four blogs about our time in Sijcha Alta but, with the rapidity of being incommunicado again, I'm not able to share all of them. So I've decided to basically summarize everything to the best of my abilities.
As background, the way our team functions is by what is called an "incarnational witness." The term comes from the idea of how Jesus, the best missionary who ever lived, worked on the earth. He came as a man, just like we are, lived and worked among us, and taught us as one of us. His willingness to leave His kingly glory and come down to live as Emmanuel ("God with us") earned His disciples' willingness to listen to Him as He spoke Truth to them.
Our goal is to do the same. We, too, want to live as the people live, work as they work, eat as they eat, and, in such a way, earn the right to teach them the stories from God's Word that have so changed our own lives and have the power to change theirs as well.
That being said, that was our goal in Sijcha as well. We were living with believers, but we still wanted to be able to share stories we had memorized from the Bible. And we wanted to work alongside them to be able to learn the culture and the work and difficulties of the life they lead.
Leah and I were given a room in one of the houses in the community, and we shared this space for our time there. The family also gave us a gas stove to be able to heat water in order to bathe and wash our clothes. They were very good to us and treated us wonderfully!
We awoke just before sunrise daily and went to the kitchen to help make breakfast. Our normal job was to peel potatoes, and we both developed some pretty nice callouses doing that all the time. :)
As far as the food goes, it was actually very good. The only problem I had was the quantity; it was too much! We had been warned about that before, but it really was a lot of food. First, we would be given a big bowl of four or five boiled potatoes or three ears of corn on the cob. Then, we would get a big bowl of some very filling soup: A soup containing potatoes and rice and corn. And it's very important to eat it all because, otherwise, it might communicate that we do not like the food, which is highly offensive.
We arrived during harvest time, so there was plenty of work to be done. The staple of the Quechua diet is potatoes, so our family spent several days completing the harvest of their "chakra" (field). They also spent a great deal of time making bricks to sell in the nearby city. This is their way of life; the chakras provide food, and the bricks provide a little bit of money to buy necessities that the chakras don't provide.
The family works from sun-up to well past sundown. There is always much work to be done, and the people labor all the time. If they're not harvesting food, they're taking care of the animals: Cows, sheep, goats, donkeys, and pigs (
Leah and three of the women are pictured here taking the animals out to graze).One particular experience with the animals really stood out to me. Evarista, the mother in the house where we were staying, returned one day caring one of the lambs. She explained to us that he couldn't stand, though she didn't know why. When she put him on the ground, we could see that his rear legs were fine, but his front legs were too weak to hold him up. Because of that he couldn't walk or even eat.
For the next two days, Evarista cared for this little lamb, holding him in her lap and feeding him grass or milk from her own hand (pictured below). Thankfully, the lamb eventually improved and could go back out to the field with his mother, but he would have starved to death without her care.
I found it interesting because I had watched Evarista care for the animals several times before, and she was rarely gentle. I mostly heard her yelling at the pigs to go in a different direction or throwing rocks near the goats to keep them from going too far. But, when I started thinking about that, it reminded me of some spiritual truth.
The story I shared with the people in Sijcha Alta was the story of Jesus as the Good Shepherd from John 10. Jesus says this:
"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep." (vv. 11-13)
But I started realizing that being the Good Shepherd can look different at different times. Sometimes it means being the One Who holds us in His lap and feeds directly from His hand when we don't have the strength to stand. And sometimes it means being the One Who yells and throws rocks at us to keep us from straying from the best path to get us to a safe grazing area that will nourish us.
Sometimes we need Him to feed us gently, and sometimes we need His chastisement. I think we usually prefer the One Who treats us gently and feeds us, but the fact remains that He's the Good Shepherd regardless.
"You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees." (Ps. 119:68)
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