The Creator God

As promised, I have another blog entry for you today. This isn't so much an update on my life here as it is an interesting story that I wanted to pass on to all of you. It actually goes way back to the time if the Incan empire before the time of the Spanish conquistadores came to colonize Peru.

To give you a little bit of background about the Inca culture in Peru, it had a very strict organization. The Inka--the emperor--was the only completely free being in the entire civilization. They expanded their civilizations rapidly, annexing smaller indian tribes into the Incan empire. They also imposed their language, Quechua, as the universal language for all of their subjects. The Inka's government regulated almost every aspect of the peoples' lives. There was no personal property, but people were given liscences to use the land. Occupations were predetermined based on the family line and the region where the person lived. No one was allowed to move without the permission of the government, and the government even regulated who one could or could not marry. It is said that the government was so well organized, and the land was so fruitful that it was one of the only ancient civilizations where starvation and poverty was virtually nonexistant. They also are one of the few civilizations that did not employ the use of slave labor.

According to the Incan religion, there are many different gods--all associated with nature. They worshiped the rainbows, the moon, the stars, the mountains, mother earth (Pachamama), and the sun (Inti). Of all of these deities, the sun god Inti was said to be the most powerful of them all. They believed that the Inka emperor was a direct descendant of the god Inti. One day one of the most powerful emperors at the hight of the Incan empire, Pachacutec, decided that he wanted to better become acquainted with his father, the sun. He had his subjects take him down to Lake Titicaca, a huge lake in the high mountains between present day Bolivia and Peru. He spent a number of days alone on one of the lake's many islands, and just observed the sun.

Upon his return to the capital city, Cusco, he decreed to the people that the sun god is not the all powerful being that they had believed. He said that the most powerful God must be free to do as he wants and all powerful, just as on earth the Inka emperor was the only free, all powerful being. But, he said, Inti does not seem to be free. All day he travels the same path in the sky, coming up in the same spot and setting in the same spot. The sun makes no original moves of his own. Pachacutec also stated that the sun does not appear to be all powerful either. Even a mere cloud is able to block its rays from arriving at the earth.

After stating these observations, Pachacutec decreed that there must be some unseen creator God in control of the sun and everything else. In the main temple of Cusco, he had a bunch of gold melted down, and it came out as a formless blob. The Inka decreed that from now on the civilization would also worship this unseen creator God.

What a paralell to Paul's journey to Athens where he found the altar to the unknown God. This story makes me wish that the colonizers might have taken time to learn about the Incas and explain to them who this unknown God really is. They could have told about the real Son, rather than the sun that was presently being worshiped. Unfortunately the thirst for gold and treasure was greater than the desire to spread the true Gospel, and rather than being redeemed, the culture was, for the most part, destroyed. Thankfully, the story here in Peru is not over. God is more powerful than any destructive acts of human beings. Please continue to pray for God's active work of redemption to continue here and around the world!

I'm Back!

Hey everyone...I know that it has been more than one month since my last post, and the goal is not to let that happen again. Being one full month since my last post, I have quite a bit that I can write about. Rather than putting everything all into one long post, I think that I will write a number of short posts over the next week or two. Also, make sure to check out my new pictures from May and June.

I have now switched gears--from working in the schools in Lima to working with American and Scottish short term missions teams who come to support the street boys' ministry that we have here. I have enjoyed the switch and the change of pace, but it is quite busy here. I traveled with my first two teams to one of our boys' homes called Kusi. In the Quechua language that is indigenous to Peru's sierra, the word Kusi is used for three separate English words: (1) Contentment, (2) Happiness, and (3) Joy. The word Kusi also fits very well with the name of our street children program--"Girasoles" or "Sunflowers" in English. In Peruvian culture to label a boy with a name like sunflower has no girly connotation as it would back in the States. The reason the boys here and all over Peru are called Girasoles, we hope that they will turn from the darkness towards the Light, the Son of God just as a sunflower turns to follow the light of the sun as it moves across the sky throughout the day. Only when the kids turn towards the Son can they find true Kusi.

Over the past couple of years that I have had the chance to become familiar with the site of Kusi, and for me personally it has certaintly lived up to its name. I have been blessed with a great friendship of the house parents in Kusi, Angel and Rosa, the scenery is beautiful (at the base of the tallest mountain in Peru), and it is always a joy to work with the kids at the home as well as share the ministery with the different short term groups.

At the base of the mountain near Kusi

After my few weeks in Kusi, I headed straight down to Cusco where we have our newest Girasoles home. It opened just over a year ago in March 2008, and there are already 42 children living here. My job from now through August is to work as the site coordinator here in Cusco. It is up to me to host, translate, and figure out all of the logistics of transportation, lodging, food, and ministry for all of the short term teams. I will talk more about Cusco and the ministry here in later posts. I will leave you with this short video (sorry for the poor quality) of one of the new seven wonders of the world--Machu Picchu! While most of the work teams that come here to Cusco spend a tour day at Machu Picchu, I rarely accompany them. In the case of my first team in June, my friend Polly had planned on going with the group, but then decided that she wanted to meet up with a friend who lives in the city of Cusco during the groups Machu Picchu day. I was happy to take the ticket off of her hands, and enjoyed having a tour day with the work team!

Also, I wanted to leave you with a few prayer requests. As I have talked and emailed with many of you, I have been reminded over and over again that so many people are praying for me and the ministry here. Thanks so much. I continue to covet your prayers.

--Pray me as I adjust to the pace of hosting work teams. The job extends far beyond the regular 8 hours a day, 5 days a week time period. When there is a group here in Cusco, I am almost always on the clock. Pray that God would give me strength to be able to encourage the short-term teams in their ministry. I will be in Cusco full time until August 8, then I have a few week break when my mom, dad, brother, and sister are coming down to visit. And after they leave I have a pretty full schedule with work teams through the middle of October.

--Another difficulty that I have during work team season is that life is very much like a roller coaster. Just as I start to become accustomed to one group of people, they leave, and I start over again. I am very thankful for the other Scripture Union staff that live here in Cusco. They have become good friends quite quickly, and they are a welcomed constant here where life has so many changes.

--Pray for all of the work teams this summer. We are know into the middle of the season, and there are traveling within the country a whole lot. Pray for their health and safety. Pray for God to work in their lives--that they would not go home the same as when they arrived here. Pray also for their ministry be it medical, construction, or with the boys--that their hearts would be overflowing with God's love and that God would use their efforts to further His Kingdom!