Another Day in Cusco: the secret repair shop and scary dogs edition

I'm starting to realize that crazy days here in Peru come fairly frequently.  At some point I'll get over it and stop blogging about it, but for now, I still find myself recounting with disbelief and lots of laughter the every day craziness of life in this country.

So this morning my mission was to get my cell phone fixed.  It's less than a year old, and the screen has been malfunctioning, so I looked up the website for the makers of my phone was pleased to find that they had a service location listed in Cusco!  The place was called "Grupo Deltron."  I jotted down the name and address, printed off my receipt from Amazon.com, fount my waranty card, and headed out the door with the phone.

I found a taxi pretty quickly and asked the driver about if he knew where this business was located.  He didn't.  So I described the location to him and off we went.  Usually in this sort of situation I'd be pulling up google maps on my phone to help me direct the taxista, but alas, the phone wasn't working.

I got out of the taxi in what I presumed to be the right area, and started walking.  It was very residential, so I was beginning to wonder whether I'd actually come to the right place.  I found the street listed on the address, but didn't see any signs or any building that even looked like a store front.  I asked a security guard standing in front of an apartment building if he knew where this place was, and he didn't.  I was about to give up and head home, when I noticed that a lot of the homes on this street were actually marked with numbers.  I examined the address I'd written down more closely, and was shortly thereafter able to locate a building with the exact address I was searching for.  It looked like an apartment building.  No sign.  Just a locked gate.  There wasn't even a doorbell to ring, like most apartment buildings have.

This is a picture of the building.  Does it look like a cellphone repair shop to you?  How in the world does a place like this stay in business.  Even the neighbors don't know it exists!

I stood there for a moment trying to decide what to do, when a lady walked up, and started banging on the gate to this building.  I asked her if she knew whether Grupo Deltron was located here.  She furrowed her brows, said, "Serivicio Tecnico?"

"Sí" I said, thinking that sounded like the right category of business.

She turned and continued banging on the gate until someone came and let us in.  He directed me to the 2nd floor, where low an behold, I found an actual sign which said "Grupo Deltron!"  I approached the desk marked "Servicio Tecnico" and waited to be helped.

The man who greeted me was very friendly and helpful.  After looking at my phone and looking up my warranty information he explained many things to me which I did not understand, and a few things that I did understand.  For one, my warranty was not international, so it would only help me in the US.  Secondly, he would be happy to fix it for me, except they didn't have the parts necessary for this model of phone.  The crazy part is, that shortly after entering this shop, my phone started functioning relatively normally.  I headed home, wondering at the sense of humor which orchestrated this whole experience for me, when something else happened.

I was walking down the sidewalk to go catch a taxi home, when I heard a bunch of barking behind me and then felt a jaw close around my calf.  I turned to see two dogs that both looked pretty upset with me for some reason.  I instinctively jerked away, looked to see that my leg was fine, and tried to remember what I was supposed to do in this sort of situation.

"Do I run or walk away?"

"I'm not supposed to look them in the eyes, that would be taken as a challenge."

I stated walking briskly as the dogs continued to bark and started coming at me again.  I suddenly remembered what my language teachers in Arequipa had taught me regarding aggressive dogs.  I quickly knelt down and pretended to pick up a stone from the ground and raised it quickly as though to throw it at them.  It worked!  They quickly backed away from me.  I continued my quick walk away from them, but after a few seconds they came at me again, still angry.  I started looking around to see who might be nearby if I needed help.  The security guard down the street had to see what was going on.  He didn't seem to be interested in lending a hand, though.  I tried the pretend rock trick again.  Fortunately these dogs weren't too bright, because it worked a second time.

At this point I started hearing barking from in front of me, and I saw a large dog approaching me from up ahead.  Great, I thought, they've got me cornered.  I shortly realized, however, that this dog was not barking at me.  He proceeded to go around me toward the other two dogs.  It was helping me!  Yay for my knight in furry armor!  I hastened quickly down the street toward a taxi, and jumped in.

Just another day in Cusco.

A Long but Productive Day

Today was quite a day.  I think it represents well some of the more futile aspects of life here in Peru:

1.  Finn woke up in the still-dark hours of the morning asking for water.  We all get a lot thirstier living in Cusco.  I think it's a combination of the dryness and the altitude (more breaths taken results in more moisture leaving our bodies through evaporation or something like that).  I went to get him some water from the water filter that is attached to our faucet, only to discover that the water had been turned off again.  Fortunately we had a bottle of water in the fridge.

2.  Later in the morning, when we all got up for real, we had a fairly normal breakfast routine, and then Derek went to work on setting up our internet router in a more centralized location of the apartment.  He spent a couple hours with the drill, various chords and extension chords, and a step ladder, only to admit defeat and come to terms with the wasted morning.  We're thankful that part of the house has good wifi.

3.  We soon got a call from our landlord informing us that the electricity had been cut to the building, so the elevator was not working, but that hopefully it would be working soon.  (This is a big hopefully since we live on the 5th floor).  She also informed us that some men were coming up to work on the washer machine problem and ceiling light problem we had told her about the day before.  These were the first two problems we'd had to inform her of since moving in a week ago.  We were especially hopeful that the washer machine would get working again quickly!  We'd spent several hours trying to fix it ourselves the day before to no avail.

4.  While Derek stayed home with Finn and the handyman our landlord had sent, I walked out to the main road (only a 5 minute walk from our apartment) and hailed a taxi to go to the open market.  This was about a 10 minute drive and it cost 4 soles - just over a dollar.  At the market I wandered through a maze of stalls searching for various items we needed for our house--all the while staying alert to the people in close proximity to me, and holding my purse (cross-shouldered of course) close to my side.  I bartered with several people over prices in Spanish and purchased several things.  Among other things, I needed a large pot that we could use to fill with water and disinfectant drops to make our fruits and vegetables safe for eating.  After finding about 50% of the items I had gone in search of, I gave up and found a taxi to take me back home.

5.  Upon returning home to our neighborhood, I rang the bell for our apartment at the gate, only to realize that the power was still out, and therefore the bell did not ring.  I called Derek on my cellphone and when he pushed the button to unlock the front gate, it didn't work either.  Neither did the garage door opener.  Electricity again.  Should have known.  So I was locked out of the building until Derek could find one of our building neighbors to let me in.  Our landlord hadn't provided us with an actual key to the gate yet, and we had just been entering and exiting with the garage door opener and the button from our apartment which unlocked the front gate.  Fortunately, Derek found a kind empleada on another level who lent him her key to let me in.  We hauled my purchases up 5 flights of stairs to our apartment, where the handymen were still at work.  They'd been able to fix the washer machine (yay!) but soon admitted defeat on the ceiling light issue.  1 for 2 isn't bad.  When they were ready to leave, we once again had to find a neighbor to lend us a gate key to let them out of the building.

6.  We ate sandwiches for lunch, put Finn down for a nap, and then began work on our next project for the day - assembling the piece of shelving furniture we had purchased the day before.  This actually went pretty well considering we were trying to follow instructions written in Spanish.  We were very thankful for the pictures.  It did take Finn's entire nap to figure it out, though.

7.  Later that afternoon, I walked down the road to meet a fellow missionary friend for coffee and then do some grocery shopping.  While I was out, Derek received a call from someone at the immigration office here in Cusco, and after a conversation that was rather difficult to understand (language barrier) he figured out that they needed him to come to their office because of some problem with Finn's documentation in his application for a visa.  Fun!  We'll tackle that tomorrow.

8. After a lovely coffee get-together with a new friend, and finding the majority of the groceries I needed (I never really find everything I need), I took a taxi home.  Now, there's all kinds of road work being done in our neighborhood, and different roads are closed each day, so the return home in the taxi involved discussing with him (in Spanish) which route would be the safest bet.  We found our way eventually, however, and fortunately I found that someone had left the gate to the building open this time.  Derek and I hauled all of the groceries up 5 flights of stairs again, spent several minutes recovering and catching our breath at the top, and then began to cook dinner.

9. I had decided to make one of our favorites, an enchilada lasagna dish.  This recipe is usually quite simple in the states, but not so in Peru.  Among other things, the recipe called for:

• a can of beans - I had to soak dried beans and cooked them in a pressure cooker, a new skill I've learned since moving here.
• a can of diced tomatoes - couldn't find this here, so I found a recipe to make my own.
• a can of cream of chicken soup and a can of cream of celery soup - also don't exist here.  I found recipes to make my own.
• A can of enchilada sauce - once again, had to find a recipe to make my own.
• Cheddar cheese - had to opt for Colby, since there wasn't any cheddar at the store. 

All in all, dinner took quite a while to assemble.  Every time I needed to pull up a new recipe online I had to run down the hall closer to the router before it would pull up.  And I SO miss the canned goods isle at Publix in the States!  I think in the future I'll try to prepare my "canned ingredients" ahead of time so that I'm not standing over the stove for hours at a time.  We ended up bathing and putting Finn to bed while the lasagna baked (at 176 degrees Celsius, I might add... our oven even reminds us that we're not in the US anymore).  Dinner did turn out pretty good, though the beans were a bit hard.  I'll have to work on my pressure cooker skills.

So that was our day!  Thankfully the post-dinner evening has been relaxing and tranquil.  It really was a very productive day, and we are thankful for what we were able to accomplish.  We sure are worn out, though!

- Laura

 P.S. at 9:30, the fire crackers just started going off outside.  No, it's not a holiday.  This is normal.

We've Arrived in Cusco!

We're here!  We are so excited to finally be in Cusco.

A week from Sunday we had a sweet send off from the church in Arequipa.

Last Tuesday was our final day of class, and then on Wednesday we flew to Lima.  We spent a day there picking up our visas and then taking a bit of a vacation.  We enjoyed staying in a lovely hotel room for the night, visiting a natural history museum, and also going to a cool fountain park in the evening.  We really enjoyed our time in Lima.

At the natural history museum

Finn's favorite part of the museum was the coy pond out back.

Finn and Derek walking through a fountain tunnel at the fountain park in Lima.

Riding a choo choo train around the fountain park.

Running from fountain to fountain.

Finn liked the big bed at our hotel.

The next day, Thursday, we flew to Cusco where we were greeted by our teammates, Scott and Meghan Dillon and their three children.  Since then we have enjoyed staying with them in their home.  We spent the weekend resting and adjusting to the altitude.  I attended a ladies Bible Study at church with Meghan, Derek played a soccer game, and then on Sunday we attended La Fuente De Gracia for the first time.  It was so neat to worship with the congregation we will be working with for the next couple of years.  Everyone was so friendly and happy that we have finally arrived.

Finn is enjoying lots of fun play time with the Dillon children.

This week we will be working on applying for Finn's visa and house hunting, and Derek will be meeting with some members of the team here to learn more about how he can begin serving.

We covet your prayers in all of these things!  So far we are very thankful for how smoothly all of the transition has gone and for the kindness of our team members here in helping us with transition.

- Laura

ABC Español Review

As we're finishing up our time at ABC Español here in Arequipa, I wanted to write a little review of our experience there for any future missionaries to Peru who might be considering it.  They used to have a website at abcperu.org but I think it's expired at the moment.  Maybe they'll reinstate it at some point.

What is it and who teaches at it?
ABC Español is a small language institute that teaches missionaries to speak Peruvian Spanish in-country.  The teachers are all evangelical Christians and all Peruvian.  Several of the teachers rent out rooms in their homes to students, and they encourage singles or people without young children to live with a Peruvian family while attending the school.  For families like us, though, they were very kind to arrange for us to rent a nearby apartment. 

How they helped us on arrival
When we arrived at the airport in Arequipa, Pedro, who runs the school, met us at the airport to help us with our baggage and transport us to our apartment.  We arrived a week before we planned to begin classes so that we'd have some time to adjust, but a couple of days after arriving Pedro came to pick us up and show us the school and surrounding area.  He also provided us with a list of trusted taxis, some essential Spanish phrases, and a few other pieces of information about life in Arequipa.  All of this was very helpful.

Scheduling
We then discussed our class schedule with Pedro.  They encourage all students to take both a grammar class and a practical class - each of which are 1.5 hr. sessions 5 days a week.  They were very flexible with us on when we take these classes though.  They have classes running from 8:30 in the morning until sometime in the late afternoon.  They said that they especially try to arrange schedules in a helpful way for families with small children, and were happy to give us both morning slots since this was going to be the easiest for us.  We did discuss the possibility of having Derek and I attend class at different times or at least staggering our class schedules so that Finn wouldn't need to be with a nanny as long, but in the end we decided it would be easiest to go from 8:30 - 11:50 (with a 20 minute break in between classes) and then both head home together.

Childcare and Schooling for Kids
The Institute itself does not have any program for children, but there are several private schools in the area that other families in the institute send their school-age children to while attending class.  I'm hoping to get a review from one of these families on their experience with a private school here in town.  There are numerous "jardins" (kindergartens) which are usually for children age 2-5 or 6 all around the city, and there are also day cares for children under 2, but we decided that having a Peruvian nanny come to our house to care for Finn while we were at school would be best.  The institute offered to help us find a nanny, but we ended up finding a wonderful lady through another family with our mission here in town.  Finn has really enjoyed his time with her and is definitely learning Spanish from his time with her!  Also we've had almost zero sickness which I'm sure would not be the case at all if he was in a jardin!

How do Classes Work? 
As I said above, the school offers two different classes for it's students--grammar classes and practical classes.  Grammar classes are just what they sound like.  The lovely thing about it is that class sizes are so small.  For our first two months at the school our grammar class was just Derek, the teacher, and I.  Later on we were joined by a couple other classmates, but the largest our class has been during our time here is with 4 students.  It's been so nice to be able to move at our own pace and feel zero pressure to get things faster or ask fewer questions or anything like that.  There are no tests or deadlines of any sort.  We just attend class and do our homework--which really isn't that bad (maybe an hour or so per day?).  Our teacher devoted a good chunk of time each day early on to drilling us on verb conjugations, which may not be the most fun, but was certainly very helpful.  I never felt like I had to memorize a huge list of anything, but just reviewed what we had gone over in class each day, and slowly but surely I learned everything that I needed to.  The teacher really was there to help us learn and had no problem at all with going at the pace we needed.

For the practical classes you work 1 on 1 with a tutor.  This class is largely conversational practice, however the tutors do have a program to work you through and they work very closely with the grammar teachers to help you practice the things you are learning in that class.   Often I would spend the first 45 to an hour just talking (in Spanish) with my tutor about my day, my childhood, my plans, etc. etc.  Then she would bring out an exercise or two that we would work on together to practice some newer concepts, and then we might play a game of taboo with my new vocabulary words.  Practical class has always been very pleasant and encouraging.  My tutor was always positive, and quick to remind me that I was doing very well and that learning a language takes time, but that I'd be speaking it easily before I knew it. 

In our practical classes we have both especially enjoyed opportunities to practice having spiritual conversations, reading from the Bible with our tutor, discussing the meaning of the passage, and also learning to pray in Spanish.  I also enjoyed reading some short devotionals with my tutor to brush up on my Spanish "Christianese." 

With both classes I always felt the freedom to come in with questions that did or did not relate to the things we had been covering in class.

Field Trips and Holidays
Every couple of months the school will take all students on a day trip to local places that represent different parts of Peruvian culture here.  Also, for major holidays such as Christmas and Easter they will have a party day in which everyone brings a dish to share from their home country, and then shares (in Spanish) about traditions surrounding that holiday in their home country.  Then the teachers take some time to teach us about the significance of that holiday for Peruvian families and about the traditions, foods, and events surrounding it.  There would always be some samples of traditional Peruvian foods at these parties as well.  For Easter we even participated in making the "Good Friday Soup."

Classmates
All of the students at the school are missionaries--some who have already been serving in Peru, and many like us who are preparing to serve.  We've really enjoyed getting to know the other students in our break in between classes, and hearing about the ministries they are a part of.

How Long is the Program?
The program at the school is designed to take about 6 months to get through from beginning to end, but as I've said above, they are very willing to let each student go at the pace that they need.  Often students stay longer than 6 months to be sure they understand everything and feel confident in the language.  Also, many students only come for a few weeks or a month or two, depending on how much time their mission has allotted them for language learning, and on how much Spanish they know already.  We will be finishing our time at the school after about 5 months of classes.  We initially planned to stay a little longer, but outside circumstances have caused us to need to finish after just 5 months, and our teachers have been very kind to work with us and try to squeeze in as much as we can in the time here that we have. 

Church
Pedro pastors a church, which, from what I gather is probably similar to a Baptist church, though I'm not sure if it's actually part of a denomination.  I haven't actually visited this church because we've been involved with a Presbyterian church in town where some missionaries from our organization are serving, but many of the students at the school attend Pedro's church, and have good things to say about their experience there.  I believe most if not all of the teachers at the school attend this church as well.

What's nearby
Arequipa is the 2nd largest city in Peru and has quite a bit to offer.  It's not the United States by any stretch of the imagination, but there are several malls, with one of the smaller ones being about a 3 minute walk away from the Institute.  This mall has a nice grocery store that carries all of the basic necessities (though no Campbell's soup or Pillsbury rolls - sorry!).  There are also clothing stores, several restaurants including a TJI Friday's, a Papa John's Pizza, and a Dunkin Donuts (Whoot!), a movie theater, a pharmacy, coffee shops, and several other specialty stores.  It's been nice having all of this available so conveniently close to the Institute.  We often walk there after class and take a taxi home with our groceries from there.

Conclusion
We have been very happy with our time here in Arequipa and at ABC Español, and would definitely recommend it to any missionaries looking to learn Peruvian Spanish.  We currently have a little over two more weeks of classes and we feel that we have a solid foundation and understanding of the language such that we can continue learning on our own from here.  Language learning will certainly be an ongoing process for us, but we feel that we understand enough to jump into ministry and learn as we go from here on out (by God's grace of course!)  I'd be happy to talk with anyone considering the school and answer any further questions that I can.

- Laura

Charlotte Mason and Learning at Church

I’ve been learning a lot about Charlotte Mason’s philosophy of education lately, and without having had an opportunity to put it into practice, I’ve fallen in love with a lot of her principals.  I do hope to use some of the good teaching strategies I’ve learned from her in my homeschooling, but that’s not what I want to write about today.  Today, I’ve been thinking about how to apply Charlotte’s philosophies at church - for myself, for children in my care, and for other church going families.

Right now I am a mom of just one small child, and so I acknowledge that any ideas I propose for families with multiples or older children are only hopeful proposals.  I know that as a parent you really don’t know what you’re talking about except with your own unique children and family situation, however I am passionate about children’s education and about helping families to train up their children in the Lord, so in setting forth my ideas here it is only with the hope that some might find it helpful, and with the intent of returning to it myself in the future when my own child (or future additional children) are older.

Currently I have a two year old who doesn’t seem very capable of remaining calm in a worship service for more than 5 minutes.  At home we’ve attempted quite faithfully to tell Bible stories to him, and sometimes this is successful, but other times it just isn’t.  On the other hand, he loves singing and dancing to Bible songs, so we try to capitalize on that for teaching Biblical truths.  He also, remarkably, does pretty well with short prayers.  He folds his hands and sits pretty still most of the time, so I try to keep our prayers together short, and to the point (so I won’t lose the good thing I have going) and also use it to sneak in some Bible truths here and there.  ("Thank you, God, for loving us," "Thank you for creating the world," "thank you for always being with us," etc.)

My son also loves to color with me for short periods of time.  This is something that I haven’t yet used much for spiritual instruction, except that sometimes while I’m in the nursery with him at church I will draw things from Bible stories and talk about it with him as we color.

My son loves to DO things physically, so this is something I’m starting to learn to capitalize on this for Biblical Instruction, but I need to sit down and brainstorm/plan for it better.  Recently I told him the story of the battle of Jericho, and we marched around his pack n play singing the song and then fell down at the end.  He loves it, and wants to do it every night now.  In between verses we talk about how it was GOD who made the walls fall down because GOD is POWERFUL.  Then we sing the song again saying “God fought the battle of Jericho…”  (instead of “Joshua fought…”)

As I said above, church hasn’t been easy with my son.  Because we currently attend a church without nursery staff so I (or my husband) have to stay with him in the nursery or bring him into the service - which never lasts long.  I’ve thought about being more persistent in attempting to teach him to stay still and quiet in the service, but at this point he’s SO squirmy, that I just don’t see it as worth the effort.  Maybe in a year or so we’ll give that more of a shot.  For now, we usually end up with him in the nursery through the whole service.  I do want to work on coming up with some reenactment tpye Bible lessons that I can do with him in the nursery, so we’ll see how that goes…  I just haven’t had time to put toward it yet.  I do think that over the course of the next year or two that sort of lesson along with active songs and picture drawing will be key to teaching him from God’s word.

Now, on to Charlotte Mason.

As I’ve been learning about Charlotte Mason’s philosophy of education I have naturally related it to my experiences as the children’s ministry director at Cross Creek, and the many many Sunday School and Children’s Church lessons that I taught.  Also, I’ve related it to the battle that many parents encounter trying to help their children engage with the sermon, and, frankly, the battle that many adults like myself encounter when it comes to paying attention to and learning from sermons.  Listening for long lengths of time (and by long, I mean more than a few minutes at a time) is not something that people in our society tend to be very good at.  Life is so fast paced and varied now, with a million and one distractions vying for our attention at all times that sitting still and focusing for 45 minutes or longer on one speaker, can be quite challenging for us - regardless of the speaker’s talent or topic (though these things certainly do play a role in our propensity to focus).


One of the fundamentals of Charlotte’s educational philosophy was narration.  She advocated for a LOT of reading, and for reading to frequently be followed up by narration - orally, written, or even drawn or acted out.  Anyone who has every taught something to someone else knows that in order to explain a concept, you have to know it pretty well yourself, and that the mere act of explaining solidifies things in your mind.  So with a student who was new to narration she would begin by reading the first sentence of a book and then ask the student to tell her what the sentence was about.  Then she might read the entire first paragraph, and follow that by another narration.  Eventually she would be able to read him a chapter at a time before requesting that he narrate what he had heard.  She wouldn’t interrupt or correct during his narrations, but simply listen to what he had to tell her.  The point of the narration wasn’t assessment, but it was a tool to help the student pay attention and to help the information sink in as he recounted it to her.

It seems to me that narration is something that could be incredibly useful for helping anyone to pay attention and learn from a sermon or a church lesson.  If I know I’m going to be telling someone about the sermon afterward, this will help me to pay attention, and might encourage me to take a few notes as well.  Then, through telling someone about what I heard, the ideas will take hold better in my mind and memory.

In a children’s class at church, a teacher could slowly develop this skill in her students by initially asking for short narrations after very short reading from the Bible (yes, the actual Bible).  As the students become adept at it she could go for longer readings.  Children will eventually learn from listening to the narrations of their classmates and come to enjoy the opportunity to narrate to the teacher and his peers.

For very young children, a teacher could help children to narrate via small pictures as she tells the story.  This is actually the sort of teaching style that I found to be the most effective with the 6 and 7-year-olds during my time at Cross Creek.  The teacher would draw small representative pictures while telling the Bible story, and the children would copy the pictures on their own paper.  At the end of the lesson, I would sometimes ask the children to use their pictures to retell the story, and they were usually very good at it.

So much time in Sunday School and Children’s Church tends to be devoted to busywork which is just that—something to take up time.  Yes, the busywork may be related to something in the Bible, but if it doesn’t require a child to think, or doesn’t accomplish something useful, then what really is the point?  Now admittedly there are times in life when teachers and parents really do just need to occupy their child.  No one can be on their game 100% of the time, so there is a time for busywork.  But reading, listening to, recounting, and discussing ideas that matter is so much more valuable.  Even very young children like to talk about things they are learning.  So much so, that many teachers find themselves devoting a lot of energy to getting the children to STOP talking.  Instead, what if we gave them opportunities to talk and tell us what they have heard.  If a child sees that he has your attention, he will likely be happy to start talking about just about any topic you want to discuss.

Now, the average children’s class that I led tended to be about 45 minutes long.  Another of Charlotte Mason’s fundamental principals that I resonate with was that young children should have very short lessons.  The lesson should end before their attention ran out so that they would be left wanting more.  That might sound crazy, but if we stop a lesson while the child is still engaged, they will be much more likely to mull over it’s ideas in their heads after the lesson ends.  They will continue to think about it and benefit from it after your lesson time is finished.

So how do we apply that to 45 minute Sunday School classes?  We stick to short Bible readings and short narrations, and then move on to another activity.  Very young children love to move and create, so having children get up to do a song with motions or act out the Bible story would be great ways to have the children stretch, move, and take a break from the listening/narrating activity.  Also, you could give each child a sheet of paper and a pencil to do some free drawing for 5 minutes or so.  If this is not the closing activity, however, I would strongly suggest agreeing with the children on a transition signal for when the free drawing time is completed.  After a short time of more kinesthetic activity, you could draw the children in again for a short story from your life about an answered prayer, and then take prayer requests and do a short prayer time (either led by the teacher, or by having each child pray for his neighbor after a short prayer is modeled by the teacher).  After this interactive prayer time the teacher could preview the sermon passage for the students (more on this below) and invite the students to tell their neighbor what they think the pastor will say about the passage.  At first, this type of discussion will probably need to be modeled by the teacher as well.

To learn more about narration, here are a couple of great free podcast episodes by some homeschool moms.  These podcasts are specifically talking about narration in homeschooling, but I think a lot of it could be applied to narration in a children's church class or after a sermon.

For the sermon, I think I would encourage a family to start out with just mom and dad learning to narrate.  The drive home from church (if it’s a long enough drive) or the supper table later that day would be great opportunities for mom and dad to practice narrating what they heard to the family.  Then, gradually, they could require their children to do short narrations as well.  They could encourage their children to draw or write anything that would be helpful during the sermon for use during their narration later.  All of this narration by the various family members would be excellent review and could potentially spark some great discussion as well.

 To learn more about narration, here are some great free podcast episodes by some home-school moms.  These podcasts are specifically talking about narration in homeschooling, but I think a lot of it could be applied to narration in a children's church class or after a sermon.
Narration, The Act of Knowing by A Delectable Education
Narration Q & A by A Delectable Education - particularly the 2nd half
The Mason Jar #2 with Guest Kim Neve 
The Mason Jar #7 with Katie Hudgins


Another thought I’ve had, which I actually had begun to implement at Cross Creek (even before all of my study of the Charlotte Mason method) was the practice of preparing for the sermon during Sunday School classes.  I would have Sunday School teachers take a few minutes to preview the sermon passage for that day with her students, to prep them for attentiveness during the following hour.  This practice certainly helped me with my preparedness for listening well, and I think it probably helped my students with this as well.  This sort of preview could easily be done at home as well of course, but due to the business and hectic scramble that so many families experience trying to get everyone dressed, fed, and out the door to church, I think facilitating this in Sunday School is probably a better plan.  This could be done in children’s classes and adult classes alike.

I’ve always found that I’m way more interested in seeing a movie that I’ve watched a trailer for.  I’m also more interested in ready a book that a friend has told me about (or that I’ve read a positive review on).  One doesn’t need a huge investment in a book, movie, or sermon, to listen to a short preview about it.  One would likely be more willing to commit his attention to a 3 minute preview than to a 45 minute talk.  However, after hearing the short preview, our minds begin to wonder about it and project what the full thing might include.  Then, as a result, we find ourselves more willing to listen to the real thing so as to find out what we don’t know about it.

The great thing about a sermon preview is that all a teacher really needs is the sermon passage.  You could preview it by giving a short intro to the plot if it is a narrative passage (like movie trailers do), or you could preview a more ideological passage by asking thought provoking questions about ideas in the passage such as, “why do you think Jesus would say to love our neighbors?”  “How do you think we’re supposed to exhibit gentleness?” and then providing a few minutes for responses and discussion.


Do any of you use narration or sermon previews with your families or church classes?  I’d love to hear about it!

- Laura

Easter in Arequipa

Our Easter season in Arequipa began a couple weeks ago when our school had an Easter Party.  During the party everyone participated in making the traditional Good Friday soup, and then while it was simmering we took turns sharing (in Spanish) about Easter customs in our home countries.  It was a fun and informative morning with our teachers and classmates at school!

Here we are chopping onions for the soup!

It was so much fun working together with our classmates from around the world!  In this picture you can see American, German, Swiss, and Peruvian friends of ours all working together to make the soup!

One of our teachers preparing to put the ingredients in the stock pot:

The recipe posted on the wall:

Team USA sharing about Palm Sunday, the Easter Bunny, and Easter Sunday church services!

Lase week, we were off from school on Thursday and Friday, and we were invited to lunch by Finn's sweet nanny, Celia.  We had a wonderful time eating with her and her family, and doing our best to converse in Spanish!

 

Finn enjoyed playing with Celia's granddaughter (above) and seeing the cows that graze near Celia's home (below).

 

Then on Good Friday, it was interesting to see the way the whole town puts out these little shrines in front of their homes or places of business (or even on the back of their vehicles).

 One interesting tradition that many of the Catholic people in Arequipa observe is a sort of pilgrimage on Good Friday to 14 different Catholic churches where they say certain prayers.  This custom is meant to call to mind the 14 stations of the cross.  I came across one group of people walking down the road that seemed to be observing this tradition, led by a man carrying a cross.

 

Later that afternoon, we had the opportunity to babysit for our missionary friends here in Arequipa, so that they could go out on a little date.  I had been wanting to do an Easter craft with Finn, so we decided to bring supplies so that he could do it with the other children.  We all had a blast painting together!

  

 

 

That evening we had a couple of American families from our language school over for tacos, movies, and games.  It was a lot of fun!

Saturday was a fairly restful day.  Apparently not a lot happens on the day before Easter here.  I guess everyone is resting from the Good Friday activities and preparing themselves for a super early morning of "burning Judas," an early morning activity that apparently kicks off with fireworks at 4:45 a.m. (I know this because it woke me up).  Read more about that here.  

On Sunday we enjoyed a lovely Resurrection Sunday service at La Roca (our church), and then lunch with the Gutierrez family afterward.  

All in all, it was a delightful long week-end and a wonderful time of celebrating the resurrection of our Lord with brothers and sisters in Christ.  This morning we returned to our Spanish classes feeling refreshed and ready to take on our final 4 weeks of school here!

- Laura

How In The World Could They Hate Jesus?

* explanation of this picture below

I read Matthew’s account of Christ’s arrest and crucifixion this morning, and the thing that has gripped me on this reading is the total hatred that the Pharisees and Sadducees had for Jesus.  Even Pilot himself could find no fault in Jesus, and yet these people were so bothered by him that they wanted him dead.

I’m sure there are many things that played into it.  They were worried about Jesus messing up their fragile arrangement with Rome and ruining everything they’d worked for.  But it seems to me that one aspect of Jesus’ ministry which infuriated these guys was His constant offer of grace to sinners—the age old controversy of works versus grace.  And I think I experience this agitation myself.  Like the pharisees I tend to idolize my personal standards and plans for “pleasing God” so that when someone else gets in the way of these plans, I feel disdain for that person in my heart.  I disdain them for getting in my way and what’s more, I disdain them because it makes me feel better about myself. 

And I’m not talking about criminals and “pagans” here.  I’m talking about my family members.  Like the Pharisees and Sadducees I so readily find fault in the people I ought to love, and when someone extends grace as Jesus did, I’m quick to write it off as weak or foolish.  “They’re just being nice,” I think.  “They don’t really know this person like I do.”

Why do I feel such a strong need for wrong doing to be exposed and corrected?  Is justice a stronger human trait than Mercy and Grace?  Perhaps.  But ultimately I think it’s all about my own desire to accomplish my own salvation.  Like those “spiritual leaders” of Jesus day, who had it all figured out and had cleaned up their lives meticulously, I, in my subconscious, most instinctual part of me, have this notion that I can take part in my own salvation, and that you could too  if you’d just see yourself and your foolishness the way I do.  And every time my heart accuses someone in this way, I accuse Christ and spurn the mercy and grace that He offered.


How could the “good guys” have hated Jesus so much?  Couldn’t they see the good things He was doing and the kindness He showed? 


Here in Arequipa there is a traditional burning of Judas which takes place every year at Easter.  They hang up a life size, flammable (and sometimes pyrotechnic) doll to represent Christ’s betrayer, and after reading his “will,” by which they air their grievances against city officials, they burn him.

I find it a fascinating representation of how eager we are to accuse and extort justice from others rather than face our own guilt.  This is what the religious leaders of Jesus’ day did, and this is what I do in my heart, if not always verbally, whenever my plans for peace, happiness, and productivity are infringed upon by those around me.  So what must I do?


Repentance.  Daily, constant, repentance, and acceptance of Christ’s sacrifice, forgiveness and grace.


- Laura


"But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."  Titus 3:4-7