A return.......

In February, I returned to Peru for the first time in about a year and a half with a group of 20 members and their pastor, from Zion Lutheran in Saskatoon. It was a returning to my heart, to something of myself that had been left behind and of which I try to bring back to Canada each time.

San Juan and Zion members

 In the survival mentality of those I served in the barrio of San Juan de Lurigancho, each day is a blessing of God and each day is work and grit. It is work to find a job with a steady income, work each day to stretch financial resources far enough to feed the family, work to wash clothes often by hand, ironing them for days after they dry to kill bugs that might have found their way onto damp clothes. It is work to just get around and accomplish the most simplest of tasks, that which we find mundane and easy: getting a few groceries. There is a ride in a bus, not many have their own vehicles in this barrio, it is congested and weaves in and out of the millions of vehicles on the road, not stopping at designated stops but perhaps at each corner if there is someone waiting to get on. Competition among several bus lines is great, so the bus is packed fuller than it could ever be. Without regulation for catalytic converters and with many vehicles using diesel, buses that we sent there in the 50's and 60's are still utilized, spewing out fumes as they take off for the next stop. The ride to the market might take ten minutes by car, but it is more than a half an hour by bus. This is the prefered market, as prices are cheaper than the larger commercial markets that keep getting built around the barrio. Peruvians in this area of the city are smart, though, they know that the local market supports the local people so they rarely shop at the larger, foreign-owned stores.

At a local market
in San Juan de Lurigancho, Lima-Peru

One arrives at the local market, filled with people. Each little shop spills out onto the street in this neighbourhood and is built back up into the hillside, taking in about ten square city blocks. Each merchant sells one thing, be it shoes, purses, fish, vegetables, or fruit. There is produce, that is where it is purchased, but it all looks bruised and several days old, no doubt rejected from the larger commercial stores. Pushing the way through the crowds, there are smells of fish, poultry, and images of ducks and chickens, of sides of beef even, hanging above the displays of other pre-cut meat. Packs of dogs follow the scent, some even eating the blood or other pieces of meat that have fallen onto the gravel below.

Incredible image: meat, intestines, legs and thighs
just hanging open at the local market

It will take a couple of hours to shop for food that will likely only last in the household for a few days. This rhythm is repeated a couple of times throughout the week. Arms full of products, there is the return bus trip home. Heat, crowds, screaming babies, one waits at the stop for however long it takes for a bus to come along. Then the task of preparing food begins.

Life is gritty here. You have to be a survivor. You have to push your way through crowds and not be concerned about personal space or boundaries. Yet something else beautiful has emerged from the dusty, gritty, daily survival of life in the barrio: a deep trust and faith in the risen Lord, Jesus Christ.

And as we returned in February, we encountered it once again. We saw it in the faces of the children and parents, grandparents. We heard it in their prayers, in their stories of daily life. We experienced it as they asked us to dance and sing along with them.The trust and reliance on God is something that is not only deeply felt in the people, but it is a lived and daily reality. It is what we felt when we were there. And it is one of the missing pieces I feel upon returning to my own culture.

In Canada, we take so many things for granted: clean water; consistent electricity; basic services provided by the local and provincial governments; jobs that contribute to the running of the society; basic human rights that allow us earn a minimum wage; good health care services; an established, good education; opportunities for sports, music and arts. Yet, we often feel entitled and even deserving. We take these rights for granted and in doing so, can forget that they are gifts of God, that which God has provided for us. In our sense of entitlement, we forget that all we have has come from God and lose this sense of humility.

Yet in countries like Peru, in the barrio where San Juan Camino de Esperanza (St. John Way of Hope) is located, there is a deep sense of trust, of humility, of gratitude. There is an acknowledgement that people cannot survive daily realities of poverty, disease, poor education and health-care without God's intervention And what we have seen is God's glory, breaking into the darkness of greed and inequality which causes such disparity. We have seen God's glory, in a glimpse, in these ten days in Peru. It is here, too. God is here, in Canada. Yet it is seen with such clarity in a place like this barrio in Lima. Daily struggles, daily humility, daily walks to survive each day and make a better world for the children.

So, we continue in our mission and service to God and our neighbour, as we seek to deepen our understanding and bridge the gaps of culture that lead to strengthened faith and a deeper trust in God. May we come to acknowledge our need of God in our struggles, not the same as those of San Juan members, yet loss, change, transition. And in these times, we pray that with Christ at the centre, the church can be the safe, strengthening place for all.

With thanks to all of the participants of this Mission Exposure Trip, members of Zion Lutheran Church and Pastor Randy, for the opportunity to return to Peru and be a bridge of language and cultural understanding, to see and experience God on other soil....and become aware of how God is at work in all times and places in the world! 

Pictured with Pastor Randy and Pastora Ofelia

Grace and peace to all who pilgrim in these experiences of self-awareness and challenge. May God bless your journey and discovery, strengthening your sense of faith, humility and gratitude.

Pastora Fran.