C-mail...better late than never

Howdy All!

Well, it certainly has been awhile.  Time just up and runs without much notice and adding to it, these months have been busy.  None the less, the update is here and there's lots of ground to cover so here goes:

1). This last week has been rough as I was sacked out and bedridden with bronchitis.  I'll spare you the details, but thankfully the antibiotics kicked in on thursday, broke the fever, and I've been gaining energy ever since.  Thank you so much for all of those who were praying. 

2). Happy Easter! Before Easter of course is Lent and before Lent is Mardi Gras or Carnival as they call it here.  It is the holiday of the mischievous. Water balloons filled with who knows what are chucked with reckless abandon at anybody and everybody.  As for Lent, I couldn't see any major cultural distinctive between Caracas and the states.  However for Semana Santa or Holy Week, there are a number of processions of the Nazarenes.  The Nazarenes are folks who have made a promise to God in exchange for healing or protection for a loved one.  During the week they pay that promise by visiting various cathedrals wearing purple.  Some wear a crown of thorns and carry a cross.  At least so I'm told.  I haven't seen anyone paying their promises since they didn't happen pass in front of my bed while I was sick.  For everyone else, the week is vacation.  Easter in the barrio was celebrated by burning an effigy of Judas in the evening.  Despite my initial reservations, it was actually a pretty neat community event.  Judas had his will read aloud where he bequeathed various articles of clothing to people in the community, usually making a joke out of it.  Then, his firecracker filled form is set on fire and everybody watches and jumps from the explosions.  So aside from detracting from the main focus of Easter, I enjoyed it.  Maybe I'm just getting too well adjusted here. 

3). We've just completed another kids club.  We focused on interactive drama with Bible stories highlighting the basic narrative (creation, the fall, incarnation, life of Jesus, crucifixion, resurrection.)  We ended with a drama for the community.  You can see a video on the blog. For never having done acting before, I think the kids did pretty good.  More importantly, our goal was to love on the kids in very concrete ways.  We all considered this part of the escuelita big success.  So many times the kids don't have any older presence in their lives or sadly it is only an abusive presence.  It was a joy to offer something different that extends into their lives. 

4). Praise God for a prayer time with a neighbor!  The woman had been confined to her house for three weeks.  She was suffering from a lot of pain in her back and would randomly fall/faint.  The doctors didn't know what to make of it. We visited and prayed with her and her husband for healing.  I saw her a few days later walking around and she said she hadn't fallen since.  Praise God for His work in her life and pray that she and her husband would continue to be open to knowing and following this healing God that has touched her. 

4). Our teammate and good friend Ryan is leaving.  He'll be returning back to the states and there will begin work/study/permaculture and life.  It is very sad for all of us to see him go; he was a true blessing and smile bringer to everyone here.  I ask that you join us in prayer for his closure and for his time of reentry into the states. Unfortunately, that leaves me the only guy of my age/status on the team.  It would be beyond nice to have another guy here, and I ask for prayer in that too. 

5). This Wednesday I'll be heading out for a short visa run/midyear retreat in California.  I'll be back in very early in April. Also I'll be moving into a new "apartment" when I return.  More about that when I get there. 

Alright, well, that's it for now.  I hope you are all doing really great and are excited for spring.  Let me know what's happening with you. 

Stay strong, seek the Lord and
Press on for Joy!
Cameron




traaAACCKK sang the hooked blade with the bull nose as it was pulled down the spine of the bamboo.  It's wielder was hunkered down next to a pile of uncut bamboo poles and the cut strips were laid in another pile.  There were three of them working and from the rate they were going, it looked like they could put together a section of bamboo thatching in about an hour.  They would sell it for just under three dollars.  By this point in our short conversation, I was invisible and it seemed clear my presence wasn't appreciated.  I was looking for their son; he was as lost to them as he was to me.  Except I wanted to find him, and it was looking like that it was not going to be possible. 

As an "Estadounidense" (United Statsian) living in Venezuela, I have been unable to get a real visa.  Legally, I need to leave the country every three months to renew a tourist visa. With the first set of three months coming to a close, I jumped at the chance to return to Peru. While I couldn't even begin to explain what happened the first time I went to Lima in 2006, nor during this short trip, I can say that they both ended the same way: deeply shaken by the unchangability of the poor as personified by one extremely lost and tragic life. I returned to Caracas not sure how nor even wanting to deal with it.  It has been months since that trip, and only now am I not so hesitant to think of it.  Yet, at the end of both trips I have found myself reflecting on the life of Elijah. I know I usually try to share a story in my updates, but this time I want to share a bit of what I've been learning in some times of study and reflection. 

The life of Elijah might be basically familiar, but if not, here's a rough summary of what takes place in chapters 17-19 of 1st Kings.  Elijah lived in the middle of the very turbulent nation of Israel about 900 years before our calendar started counting up.  Israel had seen about six lousy changes in leadership during the reign of one good king in the bordering nation of Judah.  The current King Ahab was the worst: he had turned away completely from the God of Israel and was worshiping other gods from other countries, something the Israelite God had completely forbidden when talking to Moses on Mount Sinai.  King Ahab finds himself confronted by Elijah who literally showed up out of nowhere.  Elijah tells Ahab that it will not rain in his nation until Elijah says so.  Consequently, at the word of God, Elijah runs and hides for the next three and a half years. That time is divided between a brook being fed by ravens bringing bits of bread and meat, and with an impoverished widow who lived just north of the border of Israel.  In both cases, God provided water and food for Elijah in miraculous ways.  Finally God directed Elijah to talk with Ahab with the promise of bringing back rain.  Elijah finds Ahab, and summons a contest between the God of Israel and the foreign gods.  Whoever can get their God to light up a sacrifice with fire wins.  The priests of the foreign gods fail to get their god to speak with fire while God sends fire upon the sacrifice of Elijah . . . even after he completely drenched it in water.  Elijah rallies the people of Israel watching and proceeds to execute the priests of the foreign gods, 850 in total.  Ahab's wife, Jezebel, soon finds out about the slaughter.  She sends a messenger to Elijah swearing to kill him. Ironically, she swears by the same gods that just got defeated.  Elijah flees the country, prays to die, and in the middle of the night is given food and water by an angel.  From there he walks 40 days and nights to the mountain of God.  While in a cave, God asks Elijah why he is there, to which he responds of his zealousness for God and Israel's failure to follow Him.  Then while Elijah is in the cave, an earthquake, a strong wind, and a fire pass by.  It is noted that God is not in any of these things.  Then Elijah hears a still small voice, leaves the cave and receives the same question from God and gives the same response.  God then gives him specific directions which he more or less goes and fulfills. 

Whew, long story! So what's the big deal?  Before the looking at the story itself, the person of Elijah merits some attention.  First, they guy had some guts.  There seem to be a number of times where he just throws himself out there before really hearing from God.  It is only AFTER he confronts Ahab the first time that the record shows that the word of the Lord came to him. Also, it appears that he independently comes up with the idea of the contest between him and prophets.  Again God responded in Elijah's behalf. 

I think that contest also reveals how Elijah's faith and guts extended to how God spoke to him.  I was surprised to discover that every single time God speaks to Elijah before the "still small voice" on the mountain, there is an element of water mentioned. Perhaps more specifically, what is mentioned is God's provision of water.  I'm beginning to doubt that Elijah's pouring of the water on the sacrifice was to show off God's power.  Perhaps it was more that Elijah knew from experience how God had always spoken to him about water and he used water in order to let God speak.  The contest in Chapter 18 is presented as a contest of whose god will speak. The account mentions twice the the foreign gods never spoke.  Yet Elijah's God did. 

Finally, Elijah was a waiter.  Not of the restaurant type, but of the patience type.  No one knows what Elijah did before he jumped up in front of Ahab, or how old he was when he did it either.  But after a one sentence proclamation, he runs to a brook to be fed by ravens for a very long time.  Perhaps a year, perhaps more.  I'm not sure I could keep my sanity just hiding by a stream and letting some birds drop me a bit of bread and meat for breakfast and dinner.  There's nothing to do except wait.  Even after bidding the ravens nevermore, Elijah waits again at the house of a widow in a foreign country. We don't know what he did there either if anything, except that he became acquainted with the grief and sorrow that this drought was taking.  (17:20)

Now, to the story. I think there are two main hinge points.  First, when Elijah prays to die after the contest, it looks like he has given up on Israel.  He says he is no better than his fathers. After all that had been shown to Israel and the complete victory over the foreign gods, the fact that the leadership of Israel had not changed was too much for Elijah.  Nothing had changed and he knew it. 

I think I have fraction of an understanding of how he felt.  There are times I walk around La Montanita, and I'm completely clueless as to how to engage, how to even imagine anything could be different, that God could truly be their God.  I get excited about a family taking me in and a discussion about God, but then they turn distant, and I see their sons dressed in all white, a sign of Santeria. After coming back from Peru, I too gave up hope for change.  It wasn't anything specific I could point at, but somehow everything was different. 

However, God's response to Elijah's resignation is extremely significant.  God sends him bread and water.  God still provided for him, talked to him, and in the exact same way He always had.  Even though Elijah gave up on Israel, God had not given up on Elijah. 

A few significant points came on the mountain itself.  The imagery describing how God passed by Elijah on the mountain with wind, earthquake, and fire is a direct tie to the encounter Moses had with God on the same mountain.  Both of them talked to a formless voice that was preceded by fire and fear inspiring manifestations.  (As a side note, it's interesting that both Moses and Elijah end up talking with a voice on a mountain later, but this time the formless voice has taken the form of Christ during the transfiguration.)  This voice asks Elijah twice why he is there.  Elijah responds the same way both times: "I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts(armies); for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life." Elijah is addressing God in the matter of zeal, of action, of passion let loose. The cause is that Elijah's own nation and people had failed to do what God had asked them to do on this same mountain with Moses. 

It was just below this mountain where the people of Israel made their image of a god while Moses was talking with the imageless God.  For their rebellion, God told Moses he would kill off the people and make a new nation out of him.  Instead of going along with the plan, Moses threw himself on his face without eating or drinking for 40 days and nights, pleading that God would not carry out His plan.  At the end of that time, God heard Moses and did not destroy Israel.  I'm honestly not sure what Elijah was asking of God or even if he knew exactly, but he does stay consistent.  Both he and Moses were not willing to let God off the hook.  They essentially protested against God, wrestled with Him, demanded from Him something different.  Moses begged for mercy; Elijah for restoration.  And God responded both times.  I don't pray like this.  Even if I try, I give up after a few days. And yet, I have to consider that God sustained both these guys for impossibly long periods of fasting in order that they could pray.  I don't pray like this, but I need to. 

I think something very amazing about the character of God is revealed both times in the encounters on the mountain. Both times, the mountain is surrounded by destruction: earthquakes, smoke, wind, and ultimately fire.  And yet, when these things passed by Elijah, God was not in them.  Rather, He was in the still small voice.  When Moses talked with this same voice, it revealed its name to him: "The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty," (Exodus 34:6-7)  This God surrounded by destruction, at the center, is kindness, is affection, is love, is mercy and justice.  He does bring change, and often in a manner that is utterly destructive.  And yet somehow, in the midst of the destruction, at the focus is a potent kindness.  To say or even view God as only just/destructive or as only merciful/kind, puts a form on a formless God.  It's only in that paradox that God exists. As Dosteyevsky penned in "The Idiot": "We degrade God too much, ascribing to Him our ideas, in vexation at being unable to understand Him."

So what is to be taken away from Elijah? For me, two things: A) Act in zeal.  That means to know the heart of God, what He desires, and to act in it with the faith that God is already there.  B) Pray before, when and after zeal fails. I truly am only one person and even though everyone says our little actions can add up to be something big, one can only deceive themselves for so long.  Many changes are far beyond mine or any collective's abilities, and for that only an God surrounded by power and a God with a heart of love can suffice.  This formless, adjective breaking God wants our obstinate cries; I don't want to disappoint Him.  There is hope in that. Until then, keep wrestling and,
Press on for Joy!