September/October Reflections

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Yes we are still waiting on our visas to be approved! This got me thinking about how much of the time we spend waiting. Here are some statistics from a Timex survey on how much Americans spend waiting:

• 20 minutes average a day for the bus or train
• 21 minutes for a significant other to get ready to go out
• 28 minutes in security lines whenever they travel
• 32 minutes whenever they visit a doctor
• 13 hours annually waiting on hold for a customer service
• 38 hours each year waiting in traffic (50 hours annually in Big cities)

About 6 months of our life is spent waiting in line for things (in the United States – not in Peru), it means like 3 days a year of queuing up. The average person spends about 43 days on hold with automated customer service in one lifetime. 

And we have been waiting on our visas now for over 7 months! Several good things though- we do not get fined for having an expired visa while the new ones are in process. And we finally just found out the other day why the hold up. After making several calls and working our way up the bureaucratic “ladder” we discovered that one apostilled document from the States that we submitted in March, though it was in Spanish, wasn’t “official enough” and we have to get it translated from Spanish into “official Spanish” with their stamp on it. While it’s a relief to finally find out what the hold up was, it makes you wonder when they would have let us know. So now we are waiting for the “official” translation so that we can resubmit it to complete the process, hopefully. 

But I think waiting is good for us. It is part of the sanctification process that God uses to shape and mold us into what he wants us to be. It builds the fruit of patience in us as we wait. It also humbles us as we realize that we are not in control when there is nothing to do but wait. Another thing that I have often pondered about is that the word for wait and hope is the same in the Spanish language. So maybe waiting can also be a hope builder or at least we don’t wait hopelessly- especially as we think about “waiting for that blessed hope” in the return of our Lord and Savior.

The end of September we celebrated the 1 year anniversary of the church meeting in our house. 

Several things I would like to clarify, the first is that this is NOT the first anniversary of this church. It had been meeting in different homes as a “house church” for several years before congregating in our garage one year ago. The second thing I would like to clarify is that this is not “our work”, that is to say, we did not start this church. We have the privilege of being on the leadership team (but not as pastors) giving guidance and counseling where we can. Please pray for this little church as it struggles to find itself, and for us also- that we would have a view of the bigger picture of where it could be, and not on its current struggles.

You all have known that I have been working on a kitchen for Ruth on our main living floor. This had been an urgent project because of Ruth’s back problems so I had put almost all teaching and studying responsibilities on hold for several months. Well, I officially finished it last week! 

It’s a relief for me to have this big project done and Ruth is very happy in not having to go steps between the kitchen and dining room, carrying everything up and down the stairs. She moved in last week and already feels the difference in her back! And I’m back on the teaching schedule again.

We visited friends in Moquegua, a small city about 3 hours south of us. We stayed in a hotel room, not realizing that we were right across from where the image of El Señor de los Milagros is stored. Around 1 am we were awakened to a full brass band, firecrackers and the smell of incense and chants as the image returned to its place. 

Tradition says that during the 17th century, an Angolan slave brought to Peru painted an image of a black Jesus Christ crucified in an improvised temple in Lima, where the slaves went to pray. The devotees, mostly slaves, started to congregate around the image and began to worship it, building a small temple around it. This painting that survived several earthquakes and a tsunami is attributed with providing protection from earthquakes and was proclaimed Patron of all Peruvians by the Holy See in 2005. The image is paraded through city streets in Peru during the month of October. Many people dress in purple robes with a white rope for the whole month as an offering to their Patron.

• Pray for people enslaved to idol worship.
• Pray for the church La Esperanza de Vida and for us as we relate to it.
• Give thanks with us for God’s healing in Ruth’s back.
• Give thanks that Julia is feeling much better. (mentioned last month)

Blessings, 

Stan & Ruth

commissioned missionaries by Good News Fellowship

P.S. About 37 billion hours each year is spent waiting in line somewhere. That’s a lot of spiritual formation that could be taking place!