A little while ago I posted some reflections on the story of the Prodigal Son.  It has been argued that calling it the Prodigal Son is a bit of a misnoma because it says more about the Father than about the son but it also has something to say about the older son too.  I have discovered the wonder of sermon podcasting and have heard some great messages about the particular story.  Here are some cool thoughts that have helped me understand it better.

The Youngest Son

• Asks for his inheritance early and as such tells his father he wishes he was dead.
• Insults his father in the worst possible way, brings shame on his family and his community.
• Only cares about his father on account of what he can get from him and when he gets it, he goes and does whatever he wants.
• Ends up in a place he never could have imagined – feeding pigs – and that he would never have chosen if he wasn’t desperate.
• Doesn’t expect his father to acknowledge him as his son when he finally decides to go home.  Says he will be a hired hand (an apprentice).

The Older Son

• Stays on the family property, working the land and generally helping his father. 
• He’s working when his brother comes home and realises there’s a party going on on behalf of his brother and refuses to go in, insulting his father.
• When his father tries to convince him to come, he doesn’t even respond by addressing him as Father but just says, ‘Look!’  That was a very insulting. 
• Questions his father’s decision to throw a party for his wayward son when he has hardly given him anything even though he has always obeyed him.
• He obeys his father to get what he really wants.

The Father

• When the younger son asks for his inheritance early, the father says OK!  A more typical reaction would have been to kick him out of the house and to take away his rights as a son.  Another idea would be that he agreed because he didn’t want to impinge on the freewill of son.
• Land was a very important part of life in those times.  Your identity, wealth and status in the community was tied to the land.  To give his son his share of the inheritance meant selling off part of your land.
• The father waits for his son to come home and keeps an eye out for him.  He sees him from a distance and hikes up his robe and runs to meet him.  A shameful thing.  His reasons for doing so are two-fold.  One being to welcome him home, the other was to protect him from the anger of the community.
• He has his son dressed in the best clothes and the ring to be put on his finger.  This ring signified sonship.  He also calls for an expensive party to be put on the son’s honour because he had finally come home.
• Does not even acknowledge his son’s request to become one of his hired men. 
• When his other son refuses to come into the party he goes out to him even after he insults him – twice.  He calls him, ‘My son’, even though his son refused to call him Father.
• His main interest with his older son is that he has always been with him.  The fact that he had always obeyed him was not so important.

One of the sermons I listened to and that is well worth a listen if you’re interested was from Timothy McKeller.  The sermon was called the Prodigal Sons.  He has a podcast that you can download.  Just put in his name in a google search.  Don’t know if you can access it any other way.  Another was from C3 City Church – the title of the sermon was The Prodigal Son.

To those of you who seem interested in whether there is a man on the horizon – sorry, I am in fact referring to the movie the Passion of the Christ (the one directed by Mel Gibson).  Did I mention that I have been visiting another church?  I believe I did.  I say visiting because when one only gets to church about once in every two months you don’t really feel like you go to a church or have a church that is ‘yours’ so to speak.  Anyway, I have been going to another church and have been rather enjoying it. 

I did however go to a Women’s Meeting at Iglesia Refugio a few weeks ago and the speaker showed an edited clip of the lead up to Christ’s crucifixion and the crucifixion itself with Amazing Grace playing in the background.  If someone asked me what is the biggest thing that God has helped me understand better since being here the answer would be easy – grace!  I’m not actually going to go into too much of that here only to say my understanding of grace didn’t extend beyond the crucifixion of Christ.  I think the scenes in the Passion of the Christ about this are very powerful and in a lot of ways the way it ought to be portrayed (although I really don’t recommend it for children).  The only problem with it is that I cannot bear to watch it – it’s hard enough hearing it let alone watching it.  I couldn’t watch it the first time either so nothing has changed.  I don’t know if my reaction would be the same if I didn’t know Jesus or not.  It stuck with me afterwards though and got me reflecting more than usual on what it means for us all. 

At church a few days afterwards we celebrated communion.  It had been a long time since I had had the chance to participate in communion and coming on the heels of watching that clip from the Passion it took on some extra signification.  You don’t realise when you have these opportunities regularly how important they really are.  I miss not being able to go church regularly and be part of things like communion and to hear a sermon, to be part of bigger group of people singing.  I now appreciate more the time of singing during of a service  (I used to just want to get to the sermon and not have to many songs but now I’m like can’t we have some more of that?). 

During this particular service they sang Light of the World and in light of seeing that clip and in participating in communion the line that says, ”I’ll never know how much it cost to see my sin upon that cross” rang more true than other times that I’ve sung that song.  There was actually an extra line that went I’ll never know what it cost to be forgiven.  And I marvelled at how God puts these things together for us.  But it’s back to Carumas for me in a couple of days – and I know I will miss all this but I also expect that it will stay with me and keep me persevering until the next time.

Yep, she really did come!  Maybe next year’s presidential elections had something to do with it.  She was promoting an initiative of the government where people can have an oven installed for free (although they have to provide the necessary sand – yes, these ovens are not what you are probably thinking off).  She also officially opened the new oregano plant so the team had a particular interest in that.  And of course there was a lot of waiting around – I would say that people were waiting at the plant for near on two hours!  One thing I did notice though was how accustomed the kids are to waiting for long periods of time.  They were really quiet and not running around much, or crying or complaining – they just waited.  It was amazing to see.

Anyway, here are some photos of the first lady.  Her name is Pilar and she’s from Argentina.

Well, there’s something…spanish fau paix?????  Hmmmm, french is hardly spanish, they’re not even somewhat alike!!!

When you’re learning another language you’re bound to make plenty of mistakes – many which can be rather embarrassing but only if you allow them to be.  A sense of humour definitely goes a long way.  Here are just a few reasons why this is so.

The family I stay with tell the story about a guy who was preaching for the very first time.  At the end of the service he asks for two adulteros to come up to help with the offering.  Nothing.  So he asks a few more times but still nothing.  Eventually he says that he just needs two adulteros to come up and two men come up crying but of course this guy doesn’t understand why when all they have to do is pass around the offering bag or plate.  Turns out adulto is the word for adults (which is what he meant to say) but adultero means someone who commits adultery!  Well, at least it led to some repentance!

You also do not want to confuse embarazada with embarrassed.  They may look alike but when you mean to say I’m embarrassed (which is tengo verguenza) but actually say I’m pregnant you could be in for an awkward few moments (especially if you can’t manage to convince people that you are not!). 

One of my friends was leading the service one day and realised he didn’t know when the offering would be so he quietly asks the percussionist when the oferta is.  Blank look.  Clearly he didn’t pronounce it right or not loud enough but this still had the same effect.  So later on he asked the pastor – same thing.  So my friend tried to explain a bit more and the pastor finally worked out what he was trying to say.  An oferta is a sale – ofrenda is the word for the offering!

My grammar teacher, Aby, has entertained me with a few fau paix by other students (I will include some of my own eventually!).  One student had been sick and Pedro, the director of the school, rings him up to find out how he was.  The student thought he said much better (mucho mejor) when he actually said mucho mujer which actually means much woman!  So he essentially says I am much woman.

Another classic is when someone was looking in a shop and the lady asks how she can help.  He was just looking so he says that he just wants to look (quiero mirar) but he hadn’t mastered the ‘r’ in the middle of the word so he actually says quiero miar.  The lady tells him to come through and he says again I just want to look and the same thing happens.  Eventually he leaves and later asks his friends what she was doing.  Of course they had to know what he said and discovered that he actually said that he wanted to do a number two!  She was showing him the way to the toilet!

One of the other students who is staying at the same house as me was recounting to me a conversation that she had with a Peruvian lady.  The lady told her she wasn’t going to get off the bus (they were on the top of a double decker) because she had a sore leg.  Dianne said that she also had a sore leg and proceeded to show her what had happened.  She showed me where a bear had broken her leg or something like that.  I didn’t quite understand so she told me in english that a few years ago she had broken a bone in her leg.  The word for bone is hueso.  Later on she was telling her husband while I was also there but this time she said about her broken ojo (which is an eye).

Me?  I have a few that I can think of off the top of my head although I am sure there are many others.  There are two paths through Solajo and the path I prefer means passing the first one.  A number of people have let me know that there is another path that is shorter.  I would reply that I preferred the other one by saying prefiero la otra trucha.  Trucha actually means trout, trocha is one of the words for path!  I will also often confuse cabello with caballo.  I was recounting the story of Esther to one of my teachers and was at the part when Haman had to lead Mordecai through the town on a horse.  I actually said that he to put him on a hair or lead him around on a hair!  Cabello means hair, caballo means horse.  I also confuse polo (tshirt) with pelo (hair) so I might say I need to put another hair on, or where’s my hair.

There are other words that are very similar – watch out for these if you ever need to learn spanish:

* Pecado (sin) and pescado (fish).  Be careful not to say that Jesus died for our fish!  *  Empanada (kind of like a pastie) and empleada (maid).  When someone asks what food you like avoid saying you like hot empleadas (true story!).  *  Ordenar  (to put in order, to organise) and ordeñar (to milk a cow).  *  Parar (to stop) and parir (to give birth – as relates to a dog or a cat or a sheep).  Parents – don’t tell your kids that there will be no place to ‘parir’ on the way so make sure to go the toilet before we leave!

Maybe you’ve heard of him?  He is Australian, grew up in Melbourne but now living in North America because he was getting so many speaking engagements there.  Nick was born with no arms or legs and has become an international speaker and quite well known it would seem.  I had never heard of him but a couple who are staying at the same place as me had been following him and found out he was coming to Arequipa and invited me along. 

He did not waste any time getting to the point.  Nick, by the way, has a very strong faith in God.  Actually I can’t even remember just how he started off but I do remember saying to my friends that he didn’t muck around.  There were a few things that he had to say that had a greater influence than it would have hearing it from someone else.  Lots of people have a great testimony but it’s not always as visible when they’re talking – you can’t miss it with Nick given the fact that he is limbless. 

He talked about prayer and how God hears our prayers.  He continued by saying that he asked God to give him arms and legs.  This was when he was younger – I get the feeling that he doesn’t ask for that anymore.  He emphasised that God hearing our prayers is not demonstrated by him giving us what we ask for.  Just because he doesn’t do what we ask doesn’t mean he hasn’t heard.  We say things like this, ”It was a real answer to prayer” as if the real answers are the ones in which we get what we want.  We may also say, ”God doesn’t listen to me” which is often a statement about the same thing.  Sometimes it takes a while to realise God actually gave us something better or we realise that what we wanted would have turned out to be really awful.  No one ever says yes to a question or a request all of the time, and certainly not God because the fact he is that he knows better than anyone what the consequences of always saying yes would be.  We’d be rather silly if we though that we did.  It certainly took a while for Nick to understand why God might have said no to his prayer.  He even told God that he wasn’t going to trust him or do anything for him until he let him know why he hadn’t given him arms and legs.  When he speaks he talks about his life and God’s role in the midst of it.  He has a great testimony. 

I’m pretty sure Nick has found out why God didn’t give him arms and legs.  He couldn’t be the testimony that he is with them and he gets it.  Are you able to say the same?

www.nickvujicic.com

I have been going to a different church for the past five months or so (when I am lucky enough to be able to go to church – ie. every time I’m in Arequipa).  I went on Father’s Day (the third Sunday in June) and they had a time when some of the young people shared about what their father meant to them as well as some of the young mums who spoke about their husbands.  The guy who was preaching chose to talk about the parable of the prodigal son.

I have heard many sermons based on this parable and he used a lot of things that are often brought up (this is not a bad thing I don’t think) about the son working with pigs and how desperate he must have been to do that; about the father running to meet his son and how undignified that would have been; how the son essentially told his father he wished he was dead when he asked for his inheritance; and of course that the father in the story represents God and the wayward son, Israel.  But he also added a perspective that I’m pretty sure I had never heard before.  He said how the father saw him from a long way off and then asked, ”How was the father able to spot him when he was still a long way off?”  He saw him at such a distance because he was watching and waiting day after day for his son to come home.

I thought Wow that’s really something after the way his son treated him.  He still hoped and waited for him to come home and behaved in a way that was totally inappropriate in his day when his son finally did come home.  Of course the whole point is that that is what God does when we tell him in one way or another that we wished he didn’t exist and find ourselves wallowing in our own bad choices.  The father in the story couldn’t have known what his son was getting himself into but God knows what we get up to even though we might like to believe that he doesn’t.  And he waits for us to come ‘home’ anyway.

The first time I met the Treadways I realised straight away that Shane was a bit of a joker.  Upon introducing me to Colette he said, ”This is Katrina, and she speaks a different english to us (or maybe it was a different language altogether I’m not too sure now)”.  He assured me he was joking but I had already spent some time with the Wiest’s so I knew that his joke wasn’t far from the truth!  He was yet to find out for himself.

We have so many different words for things and different expressions which make no sense whatsoever if you stop to think about many of them although they must have a story).  For example I say, ”I ate tea at 8:30 last night,” which used to cause much more confusion than it does now – ”How do you eat tea?”  That’s a good question if tea is just a hot drink. 

I have a number of ‘native’ english speaking friends here in Peru and it’s quite something to realise how diverse english really is (and I’m not just talking about accents!).  I enjoyed a very humorous lunch with some three Irish friends and one Canadian.  Our humour was really quite similar (Irish and Australian particularly although there is a difference between Canadian and American humour – hard to believe when they’re neighbours).  To take the mickey is an unknown in America but it is understood in Ireland.  In fact they will also extract the Michael which I think is great and might start saying it myself.  Irish and Australian humour is totally sarcastic and deprecating so we spent the whole meal giving each other a hard time.  American humour is not really like that at all (well maybe just a little bit) so sometimes we don’t get each other but we do get each other lots of times and have plenty of good laughs  especially after we’ve finished a meal and are just kicking back for a while.  Hanging out with my Irish friends is bit of a taste of ‘home’.                                                                                                                                  

One of the biggest areas in which our english isn’t ‘compatible’ is that of food.  We have biscuits while the Americans have cookies but then we have scones while they have biscuits!  We have tea and they have dinner.  We have slices and I think (don’t quote me) they have bars.  We have custard, the Americans have pudding but then we have pudding and they have pie.  This distinction was figured out when it was nearly my birthday last year.  Janet and Carey asked me what kind of dessert I’d like.  I didn’t have to think about that one and asked for chocolate pudding.  On my birthday when the desserts were brought out I couldn’t see any chocolate pudding but the chocolate pudding-cheesecake thing was very delicious.  I made chocolate pudding for something else and Janet made the connection that we mean different things when we say pudding and told me that she and Carey were a bit unsure how to go about making a chocolate pudding – well now they know why! 

Another classic in terms of words we use is that of the toilet.  We go to the toilet and wash our hands in the basin and they go to the bathroom and wash their hands in the sink.  The Wiest kids, especially Andrew, think it’s pretty funny that I wash my hands in the bathroom which is where they go to the toilet.  He will still say I can’t believe you wash your hands in the toilet! 

So I have been learning to speak American (but without the accent although sometimes it’s useful to be able to pull it out sometimes to aid in communication).  As a team we have had many ‘communication problems’ due to our accents.  I asked Solana one day to go inside and get a ball.  She was taking quite a while so I went inside to investigate.  She was in the kitchen cupboard with a bowl in her hand and asked would a red one do.  I was a bit confused and said that I wanted her to get a ball to which she replied this is a bowl.  I had to tell her a ball to bounce.  She says oh a bahl.  So now if I ask for a ball and I get a funny look I ‘correct’ my accent and ask for a bawl.  I have to watch how I speak to her because she picks things like that up so no more tweny (twenty) for me!  This explains why I do not teach phonics to Solana!                                                                                                                                                  

I asked Colette once for a pin and she comes out with a pen.  Of course the same kind of conversation ensued with me saying I said a pin and she said this is a pen.  I had to clarify by asking for a sewing needle.  My favourite however happened at a team meeting.  Tom had just arrived from Moquegua and said he waited for half an hour or an hour for a taxi.  So I chipped in and said I had to wait for three hours once and that to make things worse I had my cooler with frozen meat in it.  Shane asked me what I said I had in my cooler and I said frozen meat.  He just smiled a bit and said he thought I had said my frozen mate!

Learning english has been fun.  Keep an eye out for my post on spanish fau paix.  At the very least there’s been none of those in english (that I know of!).

There are a two buildings in Solajo that the team makes use of fairly regularly.  Sometime ago Shane needed to arrange the use of one of these for some kind of meeting.  At the time there was a number of wooden crosses being stored in this particular building.  The President of Solajo was concerned about the building being used for normal business with the crosses in it because the crosses would no longer be holy.  He did agree that the building could be used however…and his solution to the ‘problem’?  They would light candles and pour beer on the crosses to keep them holy so that’s just what they did.  The guys also used it as an opportunity to ask for things…one guy asked for mas plata (more money) as he walked away.  Shane took the opportunity to talk to the men about what the cross really means.

Around this time we had been getting unusual rains for the time of year and the farmers had lost of their oregano crops (Shane and Carey’s neighbour lost 70% of their crop).  Someone said it would be worthwhile going to talk to the mountain about this.

The people here have many, many traditions like these that go back a long time.  They talk about God but rarely, if ever, about Jesus.

I invited the team to come to my place to celebrate Australia Day.  The lamington cheesecake was very yummy (thanks Colleen!).  They did a 25 question Australia Quiz and some of the answers are below.  It was girls versus boys.

Question 3:  Draw the flag and name what the main parts represent.

Guys: 

Commonwealth

6 provinces

Constellation of flaming cross

Girls: 

England

The stars are white, and the background is blue.

Southern Cross constellation

Question 4:  What do the following words an phrases mean?

A Hills hoist – Up and at ‘ems, a bra!

Jumper -  Sweats (trackies), a kangaroo

Doona – A doozie or a flop

Texta – A cell phone

Question 5:  Who is our current Prime Minister?

Alfred Willington III, Bob Hawke

6:  What do the following phrases mean – Ocker, ridgy didge and true blue?

The Ocean, That’s true!

Question 10:  Who was the last Australian tennis player to win a Grand Slam?

Andre Agassi (1991), Martina Navaratilova,  Rod Laver

Question 18:  Spell vegemite.

Veggiemate, Vegimite

…and the winners?  Sorry girls but…

P.S.  I was given a pop America quiz afterwards !

Like many places around the world, corruption and manipulative governments are rife.  Here in Peru this is a serious problem.  For example, the municipalidad doesn´t pay many of its workers when they should.  This makes day to day living very difficult for many families as they have no way to know when or if they will receive their pay.  Many of the shopkeepers run customer accounts on a monthly basis but of course if workers haven´t been paid they can´t pay their account at the end of each month.  So the cycle just goes round and round.

The political system here in Carumas, at least, means that candidates for mayor know who supports them and who doesn´t.  The current mayor won´t give people who don´t support him much work but of course, gives plenty to those who do.  He also manipulates people by demanding that his supporters don´t make purchases from any of the shopkeepers who do not support him.

We have friends here who were owed a significant amount of money from the municipality but it was only going to pay much less.  They told the family that they could accept the lesser amount and sign a document stating that they had received what they were owed in full or else not receive anything.

Please pray for the government here and the people who are being manipulated by them.