Today began with Sergio, Erin and Nick walking from their home to 220 Viewmount to visit the residents and tour the building.
For me the day began at 9:30 AM - I slept in. I was out the door by 9:40 am and driving to 220 Viewmount. Ah, it's not always nice not being a morning person. : ( I can hardly wait until Thursday morning when I have to be at Calvin for 6:30 am.....groan...... : )
The three of them arrived just after I did, so I was able to get a picture of them walking in.
Sergio met several of the residents of 220. This is Wilma. She's the manager. She doesn't live here. She has been the manager for....well, I'm not sure how long...but I know it's been a long time......
Here is Sergio and Erin being introduced to people.
And more people.....
Eventually Nick formally introduced Sergio and Erin to the group.
Sergio shared words of welcome and a bit about his church in Peru. There were some questions from the group as well. A nice time of exchange and learning.
Sergio meeting more people.
Before we left, Erin gave a gift to 220 Viewmount. I've seen that before somewhere....hmmmm.....I wonder what gift we'll be getting tomorrow night before Sergio and Erin leave our home..... (tee hee).
Sergio wanted pictures with the residents of 220, so I snapped several. Here is just one.
Wilma then took us on a tour of the building. We left no stone unturned. We saw laundry rooms, garbage chutes, little nooks and self opening doors. Here Sergio is looking at an empty apartment. Someone will be moving into it on the weekend. He was impressed.
We moved on to another apartment which was being fixed up for new occupants. We ended up spending about 15 minutes here talking about Viewmount and many other things.
I learned that Viewmount was started about 30 years ago through an idea from the deacons of the CRC. They approached Nick (that man has done LOTS of neat stuff over the years....and I never knew them until this week....hmmmm). He designed the building with some other contractors and with lots of work and effort this Co-operative housing development took shape.
Sergio commented on how what he was seeing this week reminded him so much of the early church. We were a bit taken aback by that comment, but it seemed fitting. Sergio has seen much in the way of faith put into action (Christian Schools, Housing Co-op, even Christians raising chickens). It has touched his heart to see all of this, and reminded me of some things as well.
I've come to see, with fresh eyes (Sergio's), that much Kingdom transformation has taken place in the generation of my parents, and we are reaping the result of that in many positive ways. Sergio is seeing this first hand. I am proud of all that our parents have done in order to live out their Reformed World and Life view.
However, me being the realist that I am, I have noticed something else as well. Something that I've seen in Gamaliel church that I haven't always seen here. Something that Pastor Sergio talks about often as the hope for his church, and the hope for our church. That would be the desire to meet with your neighbour and share the love of Christ with him/her in such a way that their life would be changed forever.
I'm so attune to the fact that we are seeing the meeting of two different worldviews here and it's wonderful to see. I know that we Reformed Christians are very good at things like social justice, at home or abroad, and working hard to improve the lives of people all around the world in the name of Jesus (CRWRC is a prime example).
I also know that Pastor Sergio would love to, as he says, "Split himself in two" so that he could reach more people in his community with the love of Jesus. He wants everyone he meets to know the same Jesus he knows, and he wants to shout it from the mountaintops (so to speak) so all will hear and see by his words and deeds that Jesus is the only way, truth, and life.
Sergio is seeing that the many things we are doing here are things that he should be pondering in Gamaliel church. I am seeing that the one thing that he has been doing in Peru is something we could be doing more of here and that is impacting our neighbour and neighbourhoods with the freshness of the gospel. You can come talk with me about this if you'd like. I'd be more than happy to dialogue about it.
That passion to share the hope that lies within us with whomever we meet is something that oozes out of every pore of Sergio. That's something I could catch and do more of; how about you?
After our little reflective talk we continued on. Here we are at the garbage disposal spot, as well as the boiler.
We took a short walk to the gardens that are maintained by the residents.
Here's a panoramic shot of the back of the building. Sergio loved the peacefulness of the place.
As we were about to leave, we bumped into some women who were entering the building. Two had been missionaries, and one a teacher. Sergio thanked them for their work in the Kingdom of God and asked for his picture to be taken with them.
Before lunch we had time to visit the Bibles for Missions store.
Sergio drank it all in once again. He was amazed at what people were doing to raise funds for Bible distribution. He wanted to come back to purchase things for his family, which he did in the afternoon.
He was given the BlueJay's Baseball hat by Peter, a volunteer at the BFM store. Sergio loved it.
Erin happened to find some Sombrero's and we got a picture with them. Sergio can seem like a serious man, but he has a wonderful sense of humour as well. Stick around him long enough, and you start to see it.
I was tired, having stood up for most of the morning, so I took a seat on this couch and waited while Sergio met some more of the volunteers in the store. Eventually Sergio joined me, and then Erin.
After the BFM store it was time for lunch. I crashed lunch (thanks Margaret for accommodating me) and we enjoyed a wonderful meal. A spicy soup with homemade bread and a great salad. We ended our meal with singing some Spanish songs out of our church hymnal.
Sergio offered to help with the dishes. He always wants to give back. Margaret wasn't going to argue, so here you see Sergio doing the dishes. The funny part of this was it looked to me like he didn't know what to do with the dishes once they were washed. He just left them in the sink.
Margaret and Nick were downstairs helping Erin with some laundry stuff, so I showed Sergio how to put the dishes in the drying rack. I figured they didn't rinse their dishes in Peru, so letting the soap run off in the drying rack would be fine this time around. When Margaret came back upstairs, I told her what I did, and she was good with that, though we both would probably have rinsed the soap off the dishes before putting them in the drying rack.
Well, when Erin came upstairs Sergio matter of factly commented to her that he thought it was interesting that Canadians didn't rinse off their dishes before putting them in the drying rack. Go figure.... : ) Amazing what cultures assume about each other.......
After lunch I took Erin to get Pepe a couple of gifts (no Pepe, I'm not giving away what they are, as I know you are reading this blog each day) and then returned her to Nick's. They spent the afternoon relaxing and walking back to the BFM store.
I went home and started getting pictures ready for this blog entry and finished 1/2 of it. Thanks goodness I did that because we went late tonight.
At 6:30 pm we met as a youth group for some quality time with Sergio. Here is Sergio greeting everyone. It's Peruvian custom to greet everyone.
As an aside, my son injured himself yesterday at school, and just had to show Kevin and Colin. Nice leg son.... : )
We had pizza and pop/juice for our meal together. Sergio has never had pizza before. He thought it was great.
Happy as a clam Sergio was. Sorry Erin for getting you in a bad pose in this picture, but I didn't feel like cropping you out.
We have a couple of Gluten free people in our midst, so Janine was VERY happy I remembered to get her gluten free pizza. Fontana didn't make it, so Janine had the whole box to herself.
Once our stomachs were full it was time for Sergio to share with us. He shared his life story with us. I'll tell you more about that in a later blog entry, as I'm getting tired and probably will miss a fact or two if I write about it tonight.
You know you have a good thing going when your young people are listening to a speaker and engaged in the question and answer time. That happened tonight. The group listened well to Sergio and asked many good questions. I attribute that once again to the fact that you pick up Sergio's love for the Lord in his speaking. It's infectious and the group caught it.
Sergio shared the history of the church from 2003 onwards and the group asked some good questions.
When asked what he liked about Canada, he stated he liked the order in our Country. There is much disorder in Peru.
He commented on the fact that many families in Peru don't send their children to school because they can't afford the uniforms, books, etc. There are many difficult issues in his city of Pachacutec. There are also many who can send their children to school, and Sergio encourages his students to study hard and get a good education, because he knows there are many who don't have that priviledge.
When someone asked what kind of impact our group was having in Gamaliel church Sergio commented that we are a blessing to his congregation even when we aren't around. People have been encouraged by our presence and are amazed that these Canadians would come and visit with them.
Erin added that when we do a VBS for the church, that VBS not only impacts the child, but the entire family. The VBS draws in the child, and often times the parents end up coming as well. After we leave, the church offers the child Sunday School, and the child often brings the parents to church then too.
When we go to visit in the homes of the Peruvians, it's often easier for a "Gringo" (white person) to get access to the home because the Peruvians are curious about us and why we are there. Once the trust has been built by us, it allows Sergio to be able to enter into a home more easily and to continue in ministry. That was good for many in our group to hear.
Before we knew it, an hour had slipped by. We didn't even get to go upstairs and watch Ray's Reptiles with the Friendship Group. Ah well, good things were happening in the room, so why disturb things.
After the hour was up, we moved out of the youth room and further down into a larger room so that some adults could join us. We (I) made coffee and there were plenty of desserts. I'm beginning to think Sergio thinks that all we do is eat.... : )
Oh, I should mention that Erin made some hot chocolate for the youth group too. Apparently she had brought a brick of solid chocolate from Peru and simply melted it on the stove, added some sugar, and voila.....hot chocolate. Those who tried it, commented on how chocolaty it tasted......no duh! : )
Someone got hold of my camera and took allot of silly pictures. Here's just one of many I could have posted. I resisted putting the rest up.
This is a better one of some of our group with Sergio.
I can tell that Sergio is getting good etiquette training at Nick and Margarets. He's eating a Nanimo bar with a fork of all things. I showed him how to really eat a Nanimo bar. Take it in your hand and shove the entire piece in your mouth.......Sorry Nick and Margaret.
Our youth leaders (minus Ken who was talking somewhere else).
Sergio talking with the one family unit who have all been to Peru before. Neat.
Here's the group as a whole mingling and enjoying each other's company.
Peter showed up and did some talking with Sergio.
Michael wants to go to Peru the next time, and really wanted to meet Sergio. He ended up having to work this evening and was pretty bumbed he couldn't hear Sergio talk. At least he was able to make it so he could meet Sergio tonight. Thanks for translating Peter.
Not everyone could talk with Sergio at the same time, but there was no shortage of other conversations taking place. Nice to see the group mingling so well.
As people slowly began to leave, the group settled in to spend some more one on one time with Sergio. Here Marg is getting reacquainted with him.
I finished cleaning up while Kevin, Jeannine, and Shawn took some time to talk with Sergio. They were the last ones to leave with us. We talked until 10 pm.
It was a really neat time for them, and me. The best part was that Sergio thinks I'm only 35 years old! No really. You ask him. Only 35. Erin didn't even believe I was 45 years old. What a compliment. : )
No, really, there were better things than that discussed in this hour long bonding time. Things like what impacted Kevin and Jeannine and Shawn when going to Peru. The issues of community versus individualism and how that affects the church in N.A. AND Peru.
We talked about Sergio and my training to get into the ministry and how we each are not ordained (he soon will be) but how that doesn't stop one from ministering. I gave Sergio the history as to how we ended up coming to Pachacutec through Frontline Peru.
I shared the thoughts I stated earlier about the two worldviews that I see coming together, and Sergio agreed with this.
We shared hopes for a future trip to Gamaliel church in 2012 and getting to know the Gamaliel church families better. I witnessed growth areas through the things talked about by Kevin and Jeannine that I had no idea about.....cool!
I chalk this up to a time that I was priviledged to be able to be a part of. Those rare times when community seems to be present and you don't want it to end because you know that God is in the room and something powerful is taking place.
However, it was 10 pm, and I could see that Erin's voice was going, so it was time to end. As we entered the van, Erin commented that this was such a neat group of people and that was a special time we had spent together. I couldn't agree more.
When I asked Sergio how he felt about the evening he mentioned that when he first got the invitation to come to Canada, and then it came to pass, he questioned God as to what good he could be here. Why was he going? He now knows that he is having an impact on this group in Canada and there was a reason for coming. He rests on God as to what all that means........
So, I say goodnight to you all with a warm heart.
Tomorrow it's time to meet with Coffee Break, Redeemer Christian High School and then some time at the museum of civilization. Then dinner at my house and we end the evening with a House Call from our Prayer ministry group. Another busy day......another God day......
Till then.................
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