Culture Shock Tastes Wonderful

It has been a week since leaving the States. I’ve since been in 3 other countries and now I’m so far away from home that I don’t even recognize the stars. I have misunderstood or completely not understood about 40% of what has been said to me over the last 4 days. I’ve hiked in the Andes mountains, tried fine Argentina Malbec, been called Che, ChaBón, Gringo, and Juancito, and doubt that I will ever be able to eat what passes for beef in the U.S. again. In short, culture shock Argentine style is the most thoroughly enjoyable experience I can imagine.

The days are packed. Getting up around 8 we eat breakfast (mainly facturas, a type of breakfast bread/donut and eggs) and then begin work. So far we have done just about everything you can think of around the Church. We are all staying on huge squishy pads in this sweet, derelict house on the Church’s property. The lemon tree in the side yard provides daily lemonade as well as seasoning for the indescribably good beef that my new favorite person in the world, Julio, cooks. This man, the Church janitor/former UNICEF psychologist and, consequently our cook/task master, could make a rock taste good, but when he is cooking prime Argentine beef over a smoldering hardwood of which I don’t remember the name it is to die for. We have had 2 asados (absurdly wonderful barbeques) so far but we’ve had beef every day! ¡Qué rico!

Other than working around the church (which includes fixing up this building for a school they are starting for high school dropouts) we help with “copa de leche” (literally “cup of milk”), which is the daily feeding of the little kids in the Barrio. That part of the day absolutely rocks. The kids are incredibly cute and enjoyable. On Friday nights we go to the barrio to hang out with the local youth, sharing out testimonies and just chilling. On Saturdays we have “La horita feliz” (Literally “happy hour” haha!) with the little kids in the Barrio in which we act out a Bible story and then let the little guys act it out. Also, we feed them and play for a while. Our schedule is quickly filling up as we figure out more where we can serve.

Monday was Primer Gobierno Patrio, a day celebrating the Argentine revolution. Because of this the whole city shut down. We headed up to the Andes for the day, had an amazing asado, and hiked around in the hills surround the house of our hosts up there. It was so quant and I can’t really explain what it was like to have an asado with Argentine beef and wine in the foothills of the Andes.

This place is lovely, the people are so kind, and my team is a great encouragement. However, please pray for me as some things are quite hard to deal with. The poverty I see in the barrio is intense and being away from those I love and know so well is tough while everything else is so new and strange. Pray for the kids, pray that those who don’t know the lord would come to know him and that, specifically for the older kids, they would be softened to his work in them. Some of these older kids are pretty hardened, being surrounded by drug dealers and prostitutes. I’ve already heard some truly heartbreaking stories and am sure I will hear more.

I love you all! Please enjoy the photos below! For more frequent updates from other team members check out our team blog: http://argentinatrip.tumblr.com

Copa de Leche

Julio at the first asado
Little dude in the Barrio
The town you see down there is where we had the second asado, the foothills of the Andes

Explanation

“I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, nor let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?”

Orual, the main character of my favorite book, Till We Have Faces, articulates this. In the book C. S. Lewis narrates her life as it leads up to the point at which she is finally able to understand that God isn’t a cruel judge, rather a lover leading us to the place in which we can understand him. In a similar but true story, God spoke through Hosea to say this about Israel.

“I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her … and in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Master.’”

Though this was written about that nation, it applies to me and Orual. She was on the run from God but he turned her around until she could say that he was her husband, till she had a face. It has taken a lot to give me a face too and even now I only “see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” This blog is about face growing—the process of being humbled and seeking to meet God face to face.