Give us today our daily bread

I have spent a bit of time recently studying the Lord’s Prayer - for the 24 hour prayer day in February, for teaching the children in our church, and just for myself too. I am very aware of how unbalanced my prayers can be, so I thought studying how Jesus teaches us to pray would be a good idea. The part which I have found most challenging is the part that I thought was the simplest: Give us today our daily bread.

This is about our needs, but I am struggling with two issues: (i) How do we distinguish ‘needs’ from ‘wants’? and (ii) Why is it that so many people in Cusco (and many other parts of the world) do not seem to have their basic needs met?

Let me tell you about a few of the people I have spent time with in the last couple of weeks:

The hospital is always a place of great need. Last week, with Robyn, I met a lady who had been lying on a trolley in the Emergency area for 4 days. She had diabetes and a severe infection in one foot. It appeared she needed the foot amputated or could die, but for some reason no one was attending to her. Her husband was desperate. Robyn managed to speak to the right person and within two hours she was in the operating theatre. The couple have a young son who cannot walk or speak, plus a 9-year-old daughter, and are certainly going to need some more help.

This week I visited Virginia (Jose’s mum from CORASON, who you may remember from the film on the blog last year, June 2010) who I had not seen for several months as the family had moved away. I saw Jose at the club and he said his mum was working in an internet cafe down the street. So the next day I went to see her. It turns out she is there 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, as she has to sleep there to make sure no one steals the computers! Her younger two kids (Jose, 10, and Marie Carmen, 8) go there each day to do their homework and go to the club, and sometimes sleep there too. There is a room at the back that they could rent as a family but it is S/.100 a month (£25) which is twice what they pay on the other side of town and Virginia says they can’t afford it. I feel very sad to think of her in that dark, bare room continually, not able to take care of her family properly. An added expense for the family is that Jose needs to go to Lima every few months for continued treatment for the severe burns he suffered two years ago.

Sonia is a young teenager whose home I wrote about on the blog once before, and whom we have helped with materials for school. I haven’t seen her at the club recently but occasionally see her up near the boys’ school as her school is located nearby. This week I saw her mum and discovered that Sonia does not live at home anymore. She lives at school with the Catholic sisters. The school must be well-funded as they offer places to kids from the poorest families and now I realise, takes them as boarders as well. I expect Sonia is being looked after quite well there, but I can’t imagine she had much choice regarding whether to board or not – her mother was struggling to provide the bare necessities at home.

Some of these people are Christians and some are not. Most people here have some sort of faith and do cry out to God for help to meet their needs. And they are needs – food, shelter and health care. A simple answer to the question of why so many needs are not being met is that the country as a whole probably does have the money to solve a good many of the problems, but as in many places there is widespread corruption and the money is not being spent properly. Another answer is that the church in Peru, or perhaps the church world-wide, also possesses, amongst her members, the resources to help people in this country and many others. If we are the body of Christ, are we not hearing God’s voice and understanding that we are the answer to these people’s prayers?

Reading Acts 2 is a little difficult as the model for the church presented there is radical sharing amongst the believers. Having recently come back from the UK, in all honesty we miss things like having a car, a constant water supply (with drinkable water), free education and health care, and food that you can just pull out of the freezer or a packet. We try and live simply, but just the fact that we can afford the ‘essentials’ makes us rich in comparison to most people. God does provide ‘our daily bread’ and more and we need to share what we have. The challenge is to work out how to do that - how to participate with God in answering other people’s prayers, helping people both spiritually and physically, and keeping in mind that the answer is not just handouts (see previous blog entry on ‘When helping hurts’ June 2010).

A few weeks later

Since writing the above entry, there have been a few developments regarding people mentioned above. Virginia and her family have now been able to rent the room behind the internet cafe – the price came down a bit, and Virginia is coming a few hours a week to help us at home which earns her a little more money. So her situation has improved significantly and she and her family are much happier.

Luisa, the lady who lost her foot recently, was discharged very quickly with no help and is now back in the hospital as she burned her other foot badly! Her little son, 7, who has multiple disabilities, has been given a place in a lovely school run by a charity near to CORASON, but hasn’t started yet since they are living too far away. We are trying to help the family find a little place near to CORASON so that he can go to school and so that the family can become part of our CORASON community and receive some support.

I was encouraged the other day by one of our CORASON mums who struggles to provide for her family. However, she is really growing in her relationship with God and says that when she doesn’t have enough food to make lunch for her kids she prays and God brings someone to the door with food for them. We have recently given her a few hours of work each week at the CORASON centre and so we hope this will help her with affording basic necessities.

So I guess I feel more encouraged that God does answer the prayer ‘Give us today our daily bread’...

Kings Church visit to Cusco

We have just come to the end of a great three week visit from a group from our home church (Kings Church, Eastbourne). It has been a fantastic way to end our second ‘term of service’ here in Cusco so I thought I should write a blog entry.
The aim of the trip was primarily for the group to get an insight into our work here, but also to help out where they could and have a bit of time off to see some of the more touristy things like Machu Picchu. With 13 people of a variety of ages and with a variety of gifts and interests, the timetabling has been a little complex at times, but we have done our best to enable as many people as possible to see as much a as possible while using their gifts as well as possible, while trying to work within the limitations of altitude, jetlag and general lack of sleep!
Much of the group’s contribution has been up at C.O.R.A.S.O.N. where most people spent a large part of 9 days in total. Jean and Jean, along with Mary (the pastor’s wife) and a rota of 4 mums from the community, spent most mornings cooking for the group and other helpers. The language barrier was a little interesting to start with but they soon learned to communicate with a mixture of Spanish, English and signs and seemed to have a lot of fun. The first week the CORASON mums planned the food, the second week Jean and Jean showed them how to cook some English recipes. We only have a small oven so the Cottage Pie had to be taken down the hill in a taxi to be cooked in the community oven!

Roger and Geoff spent most of their time finishing the cupboard doors for the kitchen and making a portable partition to enable us to have a separate area for the small kids in the club, and a safe area for them to play while their mums are at the mums’ group. It was great that a couple of dads were involved in the project for the first time helping them. Encarni, Emma and Becky did a great job covering the partition with a beautiful 3-D fabric collage. An unexpected bonus in this area of the club room is a fantastic wall mural painted (with a little help from various team members and children) by Jenny James. Lynn, with help from Encarni and Jean, helped the older girls in the club to make some very sweet stuffed toy animals which they are very proud of.

Jackie was very popular with the younger kids in the club and they loved her games! She also ended up teaching several English classes to the mums (where they seemed to spend most of the time laughing!) Dionne, Jenny O and Becky have done a variety of things which included hospital visiting, helping in The Meeting Place Cafe, visiting the Casa Josefina Children’s Home and helping with the children’s club. Several people also visited one of the pre-schools we support in the Quechua community above CORASON and visited the office, and some of the clients, of the micro-finance project with Roland. A group also went to one of the areas flooded earlier in the year to see one of the families we have helped to restart their guinea pig breeding. The Club CORASON children and families put on an emotional final thank you ‘show’ - the group’s blog has a good report of this: www.kingsinperu.blogspot.com/

The first and last Sunday of the trip have been more focussed on church activities – helping with the anniversary celebrations at the theatre and then Chris preaching at both meetings of the church on the final weekend. Chris, as group leader, has been here, there and everywhere, coordinating things, helping with tasks ranging from cooking to carpentry to making paper necklaces (!) and getting an overview of everything that has been going on.

The group also managed to fit in a trip to Machu Picchu, Pisac market, the Moray circles, the Maras salt pans, one or two Cusco museums and markets and the CORASON prayer mountain, with three going all the way over the top with Roland. ‘Extra’ duties included playing with the boys (they had such a great time!) and rescuing the cat who decided to try and live on the roof for a week! (Thanks Jenny O!)


For us these three weeks have been a unique opportunity to give people from our main supporting, sending church an insight into our work and life here - the difficulties, the encouragements, the chaos and the beauty. Cusco is such a diverse place and our lives here are so different from life in the UK that we have trouble conveying how things really are. This visit, and also other visits from family and friends during the year, means that we now have a number of people back home who have a much clearer understanding of life here, who have met the people we live and work with, and who have taken a little bit of Cusco home in their hearts. It is difficult to explain how much this means to us and what an encouragement you have all been! Thank you!

More photos at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=300460&id=702530766&l=e9c6356ae9

The challenge of Poverty

A day in the life of Jose

Thanks to Aime for making the video! And thanks to Jose and his family for taking part. You may be interested to know that Jose was the boy who suffered bad burns earlier in the year, but now, as you can see, he is doing well.

Jose’s House

Possibly a reaction to seeing a little mud-brick house like that with all four kids and the grandma sleeping in one room, the almost non-existent kitchen and the outside sink as the only water supply, is to think of how they could be helped to improve their living conditions – maybe they should build another bedroom, get a table to eat at, buy an oven, a fridge even ....? When we see poverty we often want to pile in with money or ‘stuff’ to help the people we think are ‘in need’. We genuinely want to help, but our immediate ideas of how to help may not be the best ones. I have recently read a book called ‘When Helping Hurts’ (Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, Moody Publishers 2009) which I would recommend to everyone with an interest in helping those considered ‘less fortunate’ – it deals with questions such as ‘What is Poverty?’ and the difference between, and timing and appropriateness of, relief, rehabilitation and development. (See separate blog entry for more on this.)

On a slightly different note, although there are undoubtedly things that José and his family would like to improve in their house, maybe one important question is actually how we can move our lifestyles more in their direction.

I recently read a book by a church leader from India who was given the chance to study in the USA (Revolution in World Missions by KP Yohannan). His reflections are very interesting. For example, he writes: ‘What impresses visitors from the Third World are the simple things Americans take for granted: fresh water available 24 hours a day, unlimited electrical power, telephones that work and a most remarkable network of paved roads.’ And also: ‘I discovered most Americans have cupboards of clothing that they wear only occasionally – and I remembered the years I travelled and worked with only the clothes on my back’.

(The comment about the water reminds me of something I heard recently: ‘ Do you know that in Europe they wash the streets with drinking water?!’ )

Comparing his comments with Cusco, in our house we have mains water supply morning and evening (and a tank on the roof so we rarely run out), the electrical power is OK (although with slightly worrying sparks at times!), the phones are fine in the city although outlying areas don’t have fixed lines or cell phone networks, and paved roads do exists although they are often full of potholes, and many routes only have tracks or paths and it takes hours to get to the nearest town. Of course many people here don’t have a mains water supply or electricity in their house. At the recent youth camping night it was interesting to see that many of the kids came in their school tracksuits as they have very little choice of what to wear.

The author also quotes from another book where someone has suggested how to turn a middle-class Western house into a typical developing world house. Here is some of what he quotes: ‘ We begin by invading the house to strip it of its furniture. Everything goes: beds, chairs, tables, lamps. We will leave the family with a few old blankets, a small table, a wooden chair. Along with the cupboards go the clothes. Each family member may keep his oldest suit or dress, a shirt or blouse. We will permit a pair of shoes for the head of the family but none for the wife or children.

We move to the kitchen. All the appliances have been taken out, so we turn to the cupboards ... the box of matches may stay, a bag of flour, some sugar and salt, and a few potatoes. We will leave a handful of onions and a dish of dried beans. All the rest we take away: the meat, the fresh vegetables, the canned goods. The bathroom is dismantled, the running water shut off and the electric wires taken out. Next the family can move to the tool shed. There are no more newspapers, magazines or books. There are no postmen, no firemen. There is a school 3 miles away with two classrooms. The nearest clinic is 10 miles away and is tended by a midwife. It can be reached by bicycle, provided the family has a bicycle, which is unlikely ...’

The author is not actually expecting you to do this to your house, you may be pleased to know, but it makes a point doesn’t it? Even small changes to our lifestyles can free up money that could be used in a variety of ways and can be beneficial to the environment and our relationships too. Last year, although we weren’t in the UK, we read a bit about the SIMPLICITY campaign, and through that looked at some web sites connected to it and also some articles written by a friend of ours, Ruth, who works for ‘Living Lightly’ and who wrote a book a few years ago called ‘L is for Lifestyle’. I’m sure she won’t mind me quoting from her blog:

I was being interviewed about the way I live and the guy, Ian, said, 'well that's all very well for you: you're a bit of a hippy aren't you, but what about normal people?'. Oh my goodness, it's that H word again.
But why is this not normal?
Why is it not normal to be concerned about our world and its inhabitants? Why is not normal to want to live well in relation to those around us? Why is it not normal to give away more of our money than we spend on food for ourselves? Why is it not normal to try to stand against the messages of greed and consumerism that surround us? Why is it not normal to want to have some sort of a connection with the earth on which we live?’

If you’re interested in looking further into practical ideas to simplify your lifestyle, here are a few websites:

www.eauk.org/simplify/

www.lisforlifestyle.com

www.arochalivinglightly.org.uk

When Helping Hurts

We have been reading some helpful books recently relating to poverty and development in a Christian context. One was particularly clear regarding when relief is appropriate (i.e. emergency aid, such as during the floods here earlier in the year) and when just 'giving stuff' can actually do more harm than good, such as in areas with long term poverty-related problems (i.e. most of the Cusco region). And then there is rehabilitation, an example of which is the help being given to people in flood-hit areas to restart their small businesses. This can then progress to development, where they are able to reach a better living standard than before the floods (more about that, including Roland's involvement in businesses raising small animals, in the newsletter!)

What is Poverty?

The question of ' What is poverty?' is also addressed in a comprehensive way in the same book, looking at the way we all experience 'poverty' in some way - we all have a less-than-perfect relationship with God and with other people, and a less-than-perfect view of ourselves. In relationship to our environment, we may have too much or too little, work too much or too little, and cause environmental damage, for example. While recognizing that material poverty is a particular focus of Jesus, when working with the materially poor it is important to remember that we all have areas of need and we are not the ones with all the answers. Also, we need to keep in mind that meeting people's physical needs does not solve all their problems, and that as Christians it is crucial to be working with people in a holistic way, something on which Roland and the team have been focusing in the micro-finance project recently, starting to use some new business training materials that encompass a Christian worldview. If you are interested in getting hold of the book, it is called ‘When Helping Hurts’ by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert (Moody Publishers 2009).

How does it work out in practice?

These are some of the thoughts on which we have been reflecting and which are affecting our work here. Sometimes deciding how to best work is complex: The mountain project, for example, is an interesting mixture and while some of that work could be classified as 'relief', more and more we are trying to help people become more self-reliant and able to cope with crises. For example, at times we help with money for medicines, such as for Luz Marina, pregnant with her 6th child and suffering from domestic abuse. But if we can help her, and mums like her, to register with state insurance system (very basic, but worth doing), she will be more able to cope with health problems herself, needing to rely less on other people which further damages her very low self-esteem. The educational help, the young teens work and the Bible teaching are all designed to help members of the community into work in the future, into better family relationships and into a personal relationship with their Father God who ultimately can help them in all areas of material and relational poverty far better than we can.

Some Cusco Children

Even after living here for over 2 years, there are occasions here when I am very moved – it might be meeting someone, visiting somewhere, or just an occurrence in the course of everyday life. This week I have had several of these moments so I thought I’d try and express them on the blog.

Sonia

Last week Lucy (Strider) and I went to visit Sonia's mum who was sick. Sonia is a 12 year old we know well from the mountain project and perhaps because she is a bright girl with leadership skills we had not realised how poor her family is. Her mum is a widow of Quechua background who does not speak much Spanish and the family, with three children, live in the tiniest, darkest little mud house I have ever seen. They have one room containing three 'beds' (more like benches with blankets), a table and some shelves. The house has no windows, a mud floor and a few guinea pigs running around. They have a little side room containing something that resembles a gas camping stove, and a small mud-walled courtyard. I cannot imagine how they manage to live there. I have questions such as: How does Sonia manage to have clean clothes? Where does she do her homework? What do they do when it rains and they can’t use the courtyard? What hope do they have of ever getting a better place to live? How can we help this family?

Sonia, left, with friends and Emma, a volunteer from China.

Flor

At the weekend Lucy, Robyn and I (together with Matthew and Carolina (Robyn’s children), and Sammy) went to visit baby Flor’s grave, as at her burial we did not have a little cross to mark the site. It was Sunday afternoon and the atmosphere at the hillside cemetery was a strange mixture. Some families, presumably those who relatives had died a long time ago, seemed to be on an afternoon out with kids running about flying kites. Others were in the midst of grief as they visited a very recent grave or were actually burying someone that day. A young couple had brought flowers and silently lit a candle over a very new baby grave near to Flor’s. There was actually just a patch of earth where Flor’s grave was as people had used the stones we had put there for other graves and the flowers had died since it is the dry season. Anyway, we pretty much had expected this and Lucy had brought new plants to put in. Matthew and Sammy carried the little wooden cross up the hill and one of the teenage grave diggers helped to fix the cross into the ground. As we were there, just below another family were burying a little white coffin. It didn’t take long and after a very brief prayer they left. But then, two of their grave diggers, boys who looked to be about 12 years old, took off their caps, stood beside the grave and very solemnly and clearly began to recite prayers and sing a hymn. It was very moving to see how seriously they committed the little girl to God.

Sammy and Matthew at the cemetery.

Nilda and Katherín

Part of Lucy’s work here is visiting a children’s home once a week and I have been going along too. I wasn’t sure at first if I had the time to go every week but I’ve quickly grown attached to the kids so I have been going regularly. (It has taken the place of the little baby and toddler group I used to do with Ben last year, which we don’t do now he is at pre-school.) It is a new home started by another mission agency and most of the kids are very young – it is so sad to see such little children without parents, despite the good care they do receive in the home. I have become particularly attached to two little sisters, Nilda (4) and Katherín (6 months). Nilda used to live with her mum (often on the streets), who is ill, and I think they were picked up by the police when Katherín was born. Their mum is not able to look after them so they are permanently in the children’s home I think. Not much is known about their dads and they have had to estimate Nilda’s birthday. Other children have similar terrible stories. Beltran, who is about 6, is smaller than our Ben and has multiple disabilities. His mother died, I think due to alcohol problems, and he was found in a field beside her. It is amazing how he has improved since being in the home. He has learned to sit up, talk and sing and is such a happy little boy. Alina is the oldest girl in the home and we thought she would always be in a wheelchair. However, this week a visiting group from the USA had brought her a walking frame and with Lucy’s help it was amazing to see her begin to try to take steps with it. Again, she is a child who is going to improve so much now that she is being given better care.

Baby Katherín

Vanessa

Church last weekend was one of our special invitation services for families and a group of our older girls from the mountain project performed a dance. They have been practicing with Lucy for a number of weeks and it was lovely to see them finally perform. Afterwards, Vanessa asked if they had done OK because she said ‘ it was the first time I’ve done something like that and it made me really nervous’. She is 12 and really quite talented in art and dance – how special it was for her to perform in front of a church full of people! Later in the service everyone got into groups to talk about the Bible story and do activities and it was great to see 6 groups (3 kids groups, plus men, ladies and young people) all sitting round discussing – such a change from the tiny services we used to be part of a year and a half ago! Equally encouraging is that the church people themselves organise most of these outreach events now.

August Family Service.