Peru Report #3: Sabbath, June 16, 2012 at 6 p.m. from Tacna, Peru (Dorado Hotel)
Dear Family and Friends:
Our opening meeting Friday night was interesting. We were supposed to meet the translator at the church at 6 to go over things and were to go to the church we will be serving (Gethsemani #1) at 10:30 a.m. to set up the equipment for the evening meeting. But it didn’t happen. There were orientation meetings here in the hotel that morning that lasted too long to get to the church at the time appointed. Long story made shorter—we got to the church at 6:45 p.m. and met the translator who came from six hours away and was tired. So we didn’t get to go over the sermon beforehand. But the church had a video projector and it saved setting up mine. So the meeting started at the advertised 7:30 p.m.
When I first saw the email photo of the church sent by Quiet Hour it looked like they had a plastic addition (tarps) put together for the evangelistic meetings adjacent to the church. It showed about 40 chairs and I wondered if there would be enough room for others to attend the series. Last night we discovered that the tarps put together WAS THE CHURCH. They had added more chairs until there were 88. The floor is partly dirt and partly broken cement. Some of it was wet. I inquired about that and learned that it was not from rain and a leaking roof, but the members had swept with water to settle the dust. It doesn’t rain here much at all.
There were about 50 in attendance the opening night, but the people were very warm and welcoming. We were greeted with a group of small children carrying in a banner with words in English “Welcome Pastor Glenn and Mary Alice”. They came and gave each of us hugs and kisses. Children in all cultures are beautiful and Peru is no exception.
CONTINUED ON FATHER’S DAY AT 11:20 a.m.
Peru has more Indians than many other Latin America countries and it shows on their faces. We were at Sabbath School shortly after 9 a.m. and I taped in video sketches of the service to show at home. There are very many able people leading out. We were impressed with the quality of the equipment they have and use during all their services. Even the SS lesson taught by the pastor was illustrated in PowerPoint. I wonder if the Conference or Mission creates them and makes them available to the churches. The pastor (Daniel) is very creative too. The church bulletin was electronic and included a color photo of us with two other visiting speakers for one of his other churches.
He has seventeen churches in all. Seven of them are around Tacna and the other ten are up in the hills. With the help of a motorbike, and bus to the highlands, he gets around. He preaches in four in the city two Sabbaths and gets twice a month to the ones in the hills. So, strong local leaders do much of the church work and supervision.
I preached at Gethsemani #1 on Sabbath and chose not to use PowerPoint as planned because they have so much of it already and would have had to set up my computer and change their décor up front which was very good. They related well to the straight preaching from the Word. Their visuals go through a flat screen TV that is portable. I saved them from having to move it. They have no piano but have the whole hymnal on DVD and can quickly bring up accompaniment to any hymn chosen. I was impressed with how smoothly it worked. The Spanish words to the hymns appear on the screen and there are singing voices leading out in addition to those live in the church.
After church when the pastor arrived from his prior preaching appointment elsewhere, there was a baptism of one lady (Nedi) who had studied and had good background. The baptistry was also plastic and filled slowly from a hose the day before and through the night. Still the water seemed to be only about 18 inches deep. No problem. They cope with it by having the candidate kneel and then lie back under the water with the pastor’s help. Everything is submersed and the warm greeting by all the people that preceded and followed the actual baptism was beautiful to behold. Most baptisms are conducted in the daytime because it is warmer and there is no heat for either the water or the church. It is winter down here. They see us without overcoats and wonder if we are cold, but acclimation to Arkansas has prepared us to take this in stride.
The evening meeting had 60 in attendance (20 were not SDA) and that was more than the opening night. This is special because our meeting was in conflict with a 50th Wedding Anniversary service for one of the church families. We wondered if we would have any at our service but went ahead because of the advertising. After our meeting the pastor and his wife went to that celebration where he was going to “tie the knot” again. Later, on the last Sabbath here there will be a mass wedding for all the interests who have not been married but have children and grandchildren. The high costs here of wedding prevent many from doing it until it becomes an issue for church membership. Then, of course, it is free for the wedding, but some will still need help to pay for the civil license.
One of the members sang all the solo pieces for church and our meeting. His face looks like he may have had a stroke, but his voice is beautiful and I have it on tape. Never judge a book by its cover applies to people too. We should not judge, period.
Today is Father’s Day and Mary Alice had brought along two beautiful cards to give me for the occasion. I don’t know where she found such beautiful cards at a reasonable cost. They are worth saving. We will have special recognition for fathers in the meeting tonight. The special day may reduce our attendance because families are celebrating it at home. I will be preaching tonight on Why Human Suffering and talking about the Devil who is called “the Father of Lies”. I hope it is clear in the sermon that I am not talking about the fathers present.
I remember a story about a little boy who was asked who the devil is. He said, “Oh, I know. It is like Santa Clause—it’s daddy.”
We feel quite safe here. There is very little theft. The reason is that they accept vigilante law that thieves may be burned to death and have done that in the past. Recently one man was guilty of molesting a small child and he was publicly burned to death. USA is probably too lenient on the guilty in these matters. Severe punishment does have a deterrent effect but we always have concern about some being punished that are falsely accused. And, of course, we would hate to be accused of “stealing” others to become SDA and be burned for it as were the martyrs in the Dark Ages.
Our group is together now but Steve from Sacramento, California, who has been to Peru 14 times without losing anything, still has not received two of his suitcases. He is easy going and is living well on the few items he could purchase with the remuneration the airline gave for the loss. His problem is that he is tall and has long legs which few Peruvian men do. So there is not material left over to tuck under and sew for a finished look. Some others also lost suitcases and that is sad. It will mar their experience coming here.
On Friday night we gave the felts which Quiet Hour sent along with us (Mary Alice spent about 3 weeks collating them into groups for easy use) to the children’s leader of our Gethsemani #1 church. Sabbath morning they were using them for the children’s story and for the Sabbath School class for the children. They certainly didn’t waste any time getting them into service. As I said, there are very high quality people here in spite of their church’s humble construction. They are a very young church and are still the Headquarters of this pastor’s district of 17 churches. Young means they came into being about two years ago.
The projector screen was very small but last night they had bought a new one that is about 15 ft wide and it was hanging there for the meeting. Now we can’t get the projector back far enough to fill that large a screen. But it is much better than seeing only a portion of the slide on the smaller screen.
Jeff Quam is doing well at his site. He studies hard and puts his all into it and the Lord is blessing. They had about 80 out last night. Attendance will increase because some of the advertising listed the meetings as beginning on June 17 rather than 15. Satan has a bag full of tricks when we try to do something for the Lord.
This morning I got an email from Willie Kisaka in Tanzania. He has been sick for three weeks and so did not get back with us sooner. He has issues with Diabetes. He has made contact with our SDA University near Arusha and they are definitely interested in our conducting an evangelistic series there for their 500 students who are not SDA. Also Sanctuary presentations. They are expecting us in January of next year. The Lord will have to work that out because we have little time to save from our pensions for the trip—especially if we also accept the invitation to preach in India this Fall (October or November) the two series they want to follow up on last year’s series.
We have told the Lord we are willing to go when and where He wants and so need to be sure it is the Lord calling to all these opportunities. If He is in it the way will open. If not, then we don’t want to go. It is as simple as that. The challenge comes in trying to discern the difference.
We will share more later as able. It sure helps to have constant access to Internet from our hotel room.
With love,
Glenn and Mary Alice (Dad and Mom, Grandpa and Grandma)