The Road to Peru

El Misti volcano from Yanahuara Mirador, Arequipa

Writing a ministry blog can be a perplexing experience at times. It’s not that there isn’t enough material to include (sometimes it feels like we could write something everyday) or enough characters to describe (Arequipa has its own theatre troupe of colourful personalities), but rather its a question of how much to include, how to phrase things, how honest to be. There is a temptation when writing about the experience of coming to the mission field to be image conscious, careful not to paint the picture of following God with any dark tones or sombre hues, or alternatively to use each blog post as a form of catharsis for the feelings and emotions which flood your heart when away from home, familiar culture, and family connections. When we have written honestly about our feelings before  we have been overwhelmed by the sensitivity and prayerfulness expressed by many of you, and this encourages us to talk about some of our difficulties without this site becoming an online pity party. We feel that we owe it to you as our prayer supporters to talk about the positives and negatives so that you have a realistic picture of life on the road to Peru. We also feel that there might be a slightly broader readership of people who are coming to the missionfield, or who are at least contemplating it, for whom such honesty might be preparative (breaking the lenses of any rose tinted spectacles that they might be tempted to pack) and hopefully affirmative (it is not easy to move culture, but we have a great and faithful God).

Two word pictures summarise our feelings at present about being in Peru, and about studying language. The first is borrowed from one of the dear SIM folks here in Arequipa who is guiding us through orientation. His description of this period of language study and cultural adjustment is that we are cutting keys. In all honesty, at times the process of going to language school, learning grammar and practicing constructions can seem a little purposeless, if not pointless. Its easy to lose sight of the big goals and aspirations that lie behind gaining Spanish and to become dispirited by a seeming lack of ministry and meaningful work. Our friend’s word picture is really quite brilliant. He has counselled us to see this time as cutting keys, as gaining the tools we need to live and work for God’s glory in this country. This invests our labours in language with a significance that transcends getting verb endings right, dignifying them with a sense that learning to talk to Peruvians is also a means of learning to talk for God. ‘Cut the keys well and doors will open for you in the future’, our friend says, ‘cut them badly and you’ll be locked outside of the culture and outside of God’s service’. What an impetus to keep working, keep failing, keep trying, keep exerting our minds and emotions to gain some grasp of how Peru speaks, and how Peru thinks.

The second image is of our own making – it is that of moving mountains. When we lived in Northern Ireland one of my favourite past times was hill walking.  I can think of a few blue sky days when climbing a mountain seemed an easy and joyful task, when myself and a friend would just keep walking and walking, so strong was our sense of purpose and our feeling of fitness. More often, however, getting up a mountain was a long hard slog. I can remember many a cold misty morning when the peak of Donard or Comedagh seemd elusive and far off. On  those days it was easy to suffer from moving mountain syndrome. As we trudged up a hillside there would come a moment when we thought we could see the peak through the mist and so we would push on, only to find that it was a false summit and that there were still many metres to go. This is as good a picture as we can think of to describe culture shock/stress. This phenomenon does not come in one episode and then forever disappear, but is a recurring experience. At the very moment when you think that you’ve ascended it, that it is going to soon be behind you, you find that that hope was a false summit and that there is more pain and difficulty to come. We can write about this today because we do feel that we have crested many false peaks in this process, and that finally we are getting a little elevation and perspective on it – but that could be another mountain myth for all we know. It is possible (although thankfully not habitual) to rise in the morning feeling elated about being in Peru, and by the afternoon to feel deflated and defeated with very little sense of purpose.

But there is another element to this notion of moving mountains – and that is the more biblical one. Mark 11:22-26 records these words: ”so Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. “For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says” (NKJV). Time and again as we have hit the granite hard mountain sides of culture shock, when we have felt our feet slip in the gravel of unbelief and self doubt, we have sensed the hand of God, moving the mountain, breaking the clouds, showing His power, and assuring us of His presence. This sentiment  isn’t written as a kind of fix-all or ‘happily ever after’ for the difficult experiences we write about here, but is simply the truth. In these four months we have known more of God’s grace, strength, patience, counsel and reality than we had tasted in all of our life prior to stepping out to come to Peru. That may sound like an overstatement, to us it feels like an understatement. We have learned about our own corruptions and equivocations, our own obstinate inability to look by faith to our circumstances, but we have seen and heard the Lord in ways hitherto unknown. He has been moving mountains, He has been strengthening weak hands and hearts, and we believe that He has been doing much of this through the prayers of so many of you.

And so we trust that this post conveys some of the real problems we have faced/are facing/will face here in Peru, but even more we hope that it speaks of a God who is real, a God who is merciful, and a God who delights to work in the space between our needs and your prayers. We are cutting keys, we are seeing mountains move, we are leaning on God, and giving thanks for His grace.