Scripture Union Peru Videos

It is hard to believe that April has already come and gone. Time here in Peru is flying by. April was a great month for me. I enjoyed celebrating my birthday with friends in Lima, I have enjoyed my continuing sign language classes, and I have really enjoyed having a little bit more time to get involved in my local church here in Peru. I have made some new friends, joined in on a service project to paint a school for children with special needs, participated in the recording of my church's live worship CD/DVD, and I have begun translating some of the Sunday morning services from Spanish to English. No, I don't translate in front of everyone, but each week we have a few English speaking visitors that would like to know what is happening during the service. They are given headphones, and I speak into a microphone in the back of the room that transmits to their headphones. It is a little bit more challenging than translating up front because there are no pauses for me to jump in and translate. I have to do it simultaneously. It is great practice, though, and it is a joy to be able to serve my local congregation. You are welcome to look at my pictures from the last few months. Just click here or look for them on Facebook.

Painting the School

I have also kept busy with Scripture Union. Last week our international relations team had an opportunity to meet with our board of directors. It was a good chance to talk about different ideas and visions that we have as well as a good opportunity to become better acquainted with the board. The week prior to the meeting was full of preparations for our presentation to the board, and I think that our work and preparation paid off.

In many ways the month of May is kind of the quiet before the storm. Our first work team arrives on May 22, and we will hit the ground running. I will be with teams almost nonstop between then and mid August in different parts of the country. Right now it is all logistics. Booking hotels, buses, and figuring out budgets. Thankfully my friend and colleague, Rachel, is in charge of most of these logistical details. She does a great job, and I am around this month to give her an extra hand where need be. Please pray for us as we make preparations this month. Also pray for all of the teams who are preparing to come and partner with us. Pray for the volunteers who will be coming to help host the teams and all of the full time SU staff who will be involved with the short term teams.

If you are interested in getting to know a little bit more about SU Peru, then I encourage you to look at these two videos below. The first explains our general work and the different options for work teams that come down. The second shows a little bit of our medical ministry on the Amazon River. If you are interested in work teams or medical missions, give me an email (bgreenman@latinamericamission.org), and I will get you more information.

Work Teams

 

Amazon Hope

"Abandoned" and How You Can Help

Lev Mergian is a friend of mine back from my days at Ward Church's youth group. He and I traveled together on a number of short term trips with church, and they were trips that opened our eyes and changed both or our lives. For me, God used the short term trips to solidify my long term calling to Peru. For Lev, the trips inspired him to film a documentary about the street children here in Peru to open the world's eyes to such an important social issue.

He has already done the filming, and is now in the process of raising money to cover the costs of producing the documentary. I encourage you to take a look at his page on kickstarter.com and consider being a part of this documentary. The funds raised will be used to hire translators, transcribers, colorists, editors, sound designers, licensing, multi-media formatting, and composers. It will also fund the submission fees to enter this picture into as many film festivals as possible. Below is the trailer for "Abandoned."

You can learn more about the documentary and donate to this project by clicking here.

So Much More than Sign Language

Just as I did last year, I have decided to enroll in the sign language classes that Scripture Union Peru offers for the months of March and April. Last year I had to enroll in the pre-basic class, and in that class we actually didn't learn signs at all. It was more about gestures and visual, non-verbal communication skills. This year I am now in level one, and I have only attended two classes so far. In the first class we concentrated on the alphabet, and in the second class we added numbers to the mix. I find myself walking around Lima and practicing signing the letters on street signs. Haha...I know I am a little bit of a nerd.

My teacher's name is Vanessa, and she herself is a deaf adult. As I walked out of my last class on Saturday, I was really moved. It wasn't so much the content that she was teaching but the way in which she chose to teach it. Vanessa does a wonderful job of incorporating her own personal experiences into the classroom. As she patiently spells words to us with her hands and teaches us new signs (10 times slower than she would with someone who already knows signs), she tells us bits and pieces of her testimony. She tells us how she was ignored at home because no one knew how to communicate with her. She tells us of all of the painful doctors visits and odd procedures that she underwent because of her parent's desire for her to be normal. She told us how her parents made her feel like she was guilty--somehow responsible for her own deafness. She told us of how she would be handed books and expected to read, or at least copy the letters even though she did not understand what the letters meant. She had a low self esteem, and she was so angry without any way to express it in a way that other people would understand.

Today she is so much the opposite. Vanessa is bright and outgoing. She is able to communicate fluently in signs, and she can read and write Spanish. She told us that as a child she could never have imagined that she would be in charge of a classroom full of hearing adults. She is so happy that by God's grace she has the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others. Most of my classmates are parents of deaf children. To see the light in Vanessa's eyes as she urges the parents to make the effort to communicate with their children and to include them with the rest of the family is truly moving.

I thank God for Vanessa and her other colleagues who are working at Scripture Union's deaf program. Many deaf people in Peru end up jobless and living on the streets with nowhere else to go. They fall into a life of drugs and loneliness. Praise God that he is using people like Vanessa to make a difference in these peoples' lives. He is using her not only as a mentor and role model for other deaf children but also as a testimony and example for these children's parents and family!

Summer Camps in Kawai

For most of the month of February I am working in Scripture Union Peru's summer camps at Kawai. Kawai is a large campsite owned by Scripture Union right on the Pacific Ocean. While most of you readers are all bundled up trying to keep warm, I have the privilege of spending one month of my Peruvian summer on the beach working with all different types of kids and youth. This past week I had a special opportunity to help host a camp in partnership with another organization called SOS Children's Villages International. Forty teenagers came from the Esperanza home and the Rio Hondo. While the organization itself is not a Christian organization, I had the opportunity to spend four days with the kids and to share God's love with them.

We did all sorts of activities during the week. We spent hours in the pool and even more time on the beach and swimming in the ocean. We had relay races, skits, soccer and volleyball tournament, we slept in tents, and we had plenty more excitement during the week. One thing that amazes me working with kids and youth is how quickly you can begin to build relationships. What a blessing it is to become involved in the lives of people who you are just beginning to know. Working here in Kawai brings back years of good memories at Ward's Kids Kamp. I loved going to camp and enjoying life as a camper, but I also remember that God worked in my life through the counselors and other role models that he placed in my path.

I now have the opportunity to be one of those role models for these kids. For me the highlight of last week was the very last night. We had a bonfire on the beach and we went around the circle talking about our experiences from the last few days. We had a few laughs thinking of the funny things that happened during the week. We toasted marshmallows, and we enjoyed the beach. As the evening was coming to an end each of the counselors had a chance to say sometime. Paul, the director of the camp, shared how he made a decision for Christ in Kawai a number of years ago. When my turn came I felt pressed to share that one of the great things about God's love is that he chooses to continue loving us even in the midst of our broken condition. I shared that we can come to God just as we are with all of our problems, and he will accept us with open arms. The other guides continued to give a few words, and then the evening was over. We started to go back to the campsite, but I noticed that one of the older kids, Antony, just stayed sitting on the beach looking at the fire.

I approached him, and asked him if he was alright. "God really loves me in spite of everything I have done?" he said. Wow. I was not expecting that question--especially not from him. Antony was the oldest and one of the most difficult to work with during the week, but the gears were obviously turning in his head. I sat down with him in front of the fire, and we stayed and continued talking late into the night. How awesome it is to be in a situation where I know that God is using me. Antony still has lots of questions, and I encouraged him to continue to ask and to continue to search for God. I know that as he begins to search, God will be faithful in answering. Pray for Antony and the other kids who are coming to Kawai all summer long. God is at work here in Peru!

I leave you with a few photos from the week. You can see all of them on my Flickr page.

Games on the beach

My favorite thing to do at camp--SWIM!!!

Pie in the face

The group

Paul, Joca, Erica, and I (the leaders)

Alex, Julio, Alex, and I

Ideally the eggs were supposed to sink!

Update on Jacob

I just wanted to post a quick update about Jacob from my last blog post.  He is healing very well, and we are continuing to take care of him. It looks like we may take him to our boys' home near Iquitos. Either way, we will definitely work to make sure that he is in good care. It is great to see how God can work--even in the midst of a snake bite. Thanks for all of your prayers!

Earlier this week another group from the UK visited the boat, and they were able to meet Jacob. The following video was taken by one of the group members. If you can't see the video, then click here to go the the YouTube page.