Some musings about money

There's some pretty big building projects going on in Sydney churches at the moment. Even from the other side of the world the constructions seem impressive and I'm sure there are many people who are going to benefit. But as I read about 'state of the art audio systems', 'cutting edge cinema quality video' and 'up to the minute podcast and vodcast facilities' - and how much all this sort of stuff costs - it has got me wondering a bit about the Christian dollar and the worldwide perspective.

For example, I've just spent a week in a county where the most up to date teaching aid was a handheld whiteboard and the climate control was a couple of fans to push the humidity laden hot air around. Pastors have to have a 'day job' because there's hardly enough money in the economy to eat, let alone pay someone to minister in your church. The course I was teaching cost the equivalent of 1 month's average wage - which of course they could not pay. Some donors in England raised the money - at the cost of an average sandwich and coffee in London per student.

Clearly there is a great disparity here. On one hand christians in one part of the world are spending millions on dollars on new buildings and facilities, while in another part they are scraping together a few bucks to buy paper for weekly hymn sheets.

I know I'm not the first person to identify this disparity or to think about it - but here's a few questions its got me pondering about.

- When we spend megabucks on new buildings and the latest equipment that goes inside, are we being good stewards? Should we be going for something a bit more 'plain' and sending the difference overseas?

- Do we sometimes convince ourselves that the latest and greatest is needed because that is what the non-Christian world is used to and therefore won't give us a hearing if we don't have it? Are we putting too much confidence in technology at this point, rather than in the power of God's word?

- Is there a problem with the way the Christian community gives money? Will we readily give to local projects and buildings - but less so to offshore projects and people?

- Should we be asking similar questions about staffing levels in churches? When we want the money for that new assistant minister / youth worker / kid's minister / .... do we look at the money that is going to our missionaries and see a disparity. If so, should we consider that?

- Are we serious about supporting worldwide mission when it comes to $$?

I certainly don't have the answers to all of this - but I think they (and other similar questions) are worth thinking about.

Today's photo comes from Mexican Independence Day celebrations in the town of Allende, about 1hrs drive south of Monterrey.

Exciting opportunities this week

In the last week we've had some exciting opportunities to be teaching the Bible.

Last Friday Sarah read Colossians with a friend. It was refreshing for Sarah and the friend described it as "like water in the desert". We read 14 verses in Spanish and then talked about it (in English and Spanish) using the light bulb, question mark and arrow framework.

On Sunday Pete met with a leader from church who is keen to be running something to train the uni age people. After discussion it was decided that Pete will teach the Moore College Introduction to the Bible course regularly on Sunday nights.

Yesterday Pete went to the leaders meeting for the Christianity Explored course which is due to start this week. He discovered that he was leading the meeting as he was introduced. But it was a great time encouraging 20 leaders to be leading groups to help people read Mark and let God's powerful word do it's work.

Pete has also been preparing his teaching notes for a course in another Latin American country next week. He'll be teaching Intro to the Bible to 12 pastors who will then train other teachers. Lillian (Sarah's tutor) checked his translation of some of his notes, and he was pleasantly surprised by how impressed she was with his Spanish. It will still be necessary to use a translator for much of the time.

It's exciting to see the way that God is opening doors for us, and then equipping us to step through them. It's also exciting to see people around us asking for help to understand the Bible and grow as Christians.

"It's almost impossible to be a missionary from America"

"Its hard being a Christian in America, its almost impossible to go out as a missionary from America"

So says John Piper, speaking in his annual 'Missions Week' address at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis.

The strange thing was, I was listening to the talk, sitting in a bus driving down the interstate from Idaho Falls to Salt Lake City, where we were catching a plane to come home from holidays.

We'd just spent two weeks with dear friends in comfortable, organised, 'everything works' middle America. We'd enjoyed fantastic national parks in the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone, eaten great food, enjoyed warm fellowship and appreciated the wealth of our surroundings.

But now it was time to go home. Back to chaotic, grungy Mexico. And here I was listening to these words.

Pastor Piper's point was this. To be Christian in America is difficult because the lure of comfort and materialism and money is very strong. To put all that aside and go to another country for the sake of the gospel is almost impossible.

I'm not commenting on this so you feel sorry for us or put us on a pedestal - neither of those things are appropriate (especially the pedestal one!!) But I do want to say - after seeing what we saw and experienced what we experienced in the US, I think he is absolutely right.

Where we were in Idaho was a great place to live (in Summer at least!!). In some ways, it had a 'shire' feel to it (Sydney-siders will know what I mean). It's beautiful, why would you want to leave? In fact, I can see how all over America, there are great temptations to think that God is truly blessing people because of their comfortable houses and efficient transport and giant shopping malls and all that.

But he calls on us to give all that up for the sake of following Jesus.


We found it difficult coming back to Mexico. Our Spanish brains took a while to reconnect, it was hard to get re-adjusted the pace of life here and we missed being with our close friends. But we're back into it now - and going pretty well.

Thanks again for your interest and support.

The cat performance

This is it... I did it...I performed as a cat in Spanish!

As part of the celebrations of Day of the Child at Miriam's school, a group of mothers (and one father) performed a play about a cat and some mice, and I was the cat. I learnt all my lines in Spanish (and it was not just miow!), but was not looking forward to wearing a huge foam and fur mascot costume (complete with enormous foam head, gloves and foam feet) in 35+ degrees.

And just to make things even more difficult, the head only had a tiny opening for the cats mouth for me to see, hear and speak through. This meant, I couldn't see very much, I could barely hear the other dialogue, and for anyone to hear me, I had to shout. But wait there's more: the mice actors were in the room - their mouse house - with the audience, but the cat stays outside. So the difficulties that I faced were trying to work out where the other actors were up to without being able to see or hear them properly, trying to manouver my enormous cat body in a small space to look into the mouse house, and delivering lines in Spanish, correctly pronounced at shouting volume, all while sweating copiously and smelling everybodies sweat who'd worn the costume before me!

However, moments before the opening curtain, someone had the brilliant idea that I could act, but somebody else could say my lines so that they could be heard! I breathed a sigh of relief (amidst the stink of the cat head) and the show went on.

The kids loved it, the cat was their favorite, the teachers and parents were very sympathetic with my sweaty state, and full of admiration of my performance and that I got involved when it was so difficult, and I had a great time. I'd forgotten how much I love to perform, and it was fun to be involved and work with the other mums.





Sarah

The end of the school year

Tomorrow marks the end of the 08/09 school year here in Mexico. There are various class parties etc on, although with 2 days to go K and L are still getting homework to do! School starts again some time in late August (although we're not exactly sure of the date), so the girls have about 2 months off school. We're going away for 2 weeks, and then we'll be at home, getting stuck into language learning. K and L will have 4 x 1hr lessons per week, S will have 3 x 2hr lessons per week and I'm going to intensive mode for August, 4hrs/day x 5 days per week for a month!

Hopefully this will be a big step up in ability for all of us.

On the 'work' front it looks like I'll be going to a large island south of Florida for a week to visit with the Creation to New Creation course in September. There is a seminary there that wants to take on the courses for their students, and I am going to go over and share with the students and faculty the details of the first course. It is a great opportunity. The biggest challenge will be that the whole thing will be in Spanish - so I really have to get cracking. I will have a translator with me but it is much better if I can try and do things myself.

This week's picture comes from my trip to Mexico City last month. It's the main cathedral in the Zócalo (the main plaza) in Mexico City. Construction of the cathedral began in 1573 with the Spanish making a point by building it right on top of an Aztec temple!

God prepares good works

I had one of those moments when God very clearly showed me that he is the one who prepares our good works in advance (Ephesians 2:10).

I was sitting in Bible study feeling very grumpy, and like I didn't want to be there. I'd had the token greeting with the people beside me, and then sat uncomfortably in silence. The conversation went on around me, but it was too fast and I had no hope of understanding, let alone joining in.

But as the group went on, I remembered that at times I'd had similar feelings about my Spanish Bible study group in Melbourne. And that was one of the most valuable groups I've been part of. So I worked hard at humbling my attitude, and prayed that I'd be patient, and kept listening out for the occasional word that I understand.

At the end of the group I helped to serve dinner, then sat with a lady away from the rest of the group. She is the mother of the host and I'd spoken with her once before. In an attempt to make conversation, I asked her (in English) what she thought of the course that we had just finished. She was full of admiration for all that she'd been hearing about and the transformation of her son since he'd become a Christian. Then she said, "But I am a catholic. I am too old to change". I desperately wanted her to know Jesus, and I wanted to respectful to this kind, older lady. So as the conversation went on, I shared with her a conversation that I'd had with Miriam a few days earlier.

"Mummy do good people go to heaven and bad people go to hell?"
I replied, "Do you think you're good or bad?"
"I don't know."
"Do you think you're good enough for God?"
"No".
"Is there anyone who's good enough for God"
"Jesus is."
"That's right. That's why when Jesus died, his death was good enough to pay for my punishment."
"So how does anyone go to heaven?, I asked Miriam.
"By trusting Jesus", says Miriam with a smile. "So does that mean that if a bad person trusts Jesus they can go to heaven?"
"That's exactly right!" "What about if a good person doesn't trust Jesus?" I asked her.
"They go to hell."
"Yep", was all I needed to say.

I think it's easier to say hard things clearly out of the mouth of a 5 year old.

But the lesson that I learnt (again) is how much God prepares our good works for us. I was feeling like it was a complete waste of time being in the group. But God has his plans, and I just need to be patient to see how he will use me.

Sarah

Sunday school camp and Moore College news

As graduates of Moore Theological College, Sarah and I were both really encouraged to read the latest 'Moore Matters'. There is a particularly good spread on where Moore graduates are serving around the world.

If you haven't read it yet, can I encourage you to do so.

http://www.moore.edu.au/fileadmin/publications/latestmoorematters.pdf

On the home front, we have two weeks of school left before the long Summer holidays. I (Pete) finish my current Spanish course at Universidad Autonomos de Nuevo Leon this week, with a final exam. I'm still working out what my next step in language learning will be. Hopefully an intensive during the Summer period then another Uni class.

Last weekend the we joined 50 or s0 4-12 year olds on our Sunday school camp. It was 40+C and exhausting! We camped at the 'weekend house' of a family - and as you can see, they had a pool. I became the lifeguard as most of the kids overestimated their swimming ability and there wasn't much supervision. As you can see from the picture though, the big danger was not drowning, but being squashed!

It was a real cultural experience for us. The first kid's talk started at 11:45pm on Friday night, and we charged around all day on Saturday - in Spanish of course. We were absolutely exhausted , but it meant that the girls were able to connect a bit with some of the kids in their Sunday school classes.

Oh, and by the way, did we tell you that we are expecting?? The latest additions to our family should arrive in the next week or so, as the hummingbird that has taken up residence in our tree hatches her eggs. We think it will be twins! Very exciting.