Chincha, Peru: What we did, where we went, and why we did it

Happy Pentecost!

As I prepare to receive the mission team from Hendrix College this evening, I wanted to share some more information about the activities of the team that flew back to the U.S. late last week. The team consisted of a diverse collection of folks from quite a number of different locations. The people included:

-- Andrew and Emily Thompson, Lynn Cross, Nathan Kilbourne, and Emily Dueitt (from Duke Divinity School)

-- Stephanie and Joe Dunn (from Candler School of Theology)

-- Danny Redding-Rhodes, Jessica Bridges, and Angela Flanagan (from Vanderbilt Divinity School)

-- Rev. Dee Harper (associate pastor at FUMC Searcy, AR)

-- Rev. Cody Schuler (pastor of Edgewood UMC in Fargo, ND)

-- Rev. David Hollis (pastor of the Lee Circuit three-point charge near Opelika, AL)

Of those 13 people, 7 of us had been to Peru at least one time before. And all of us have experienced a call by God to engage in mission work. For me personally, I never see the signs of the oneness of God's people so much as when I am in ministry with my brothers and sisters in the Iglesia Metodista del Peru.

Let me breakdown the itinerary we kept over the course of our 8 days together ... Thursday, May 1, was our travel day, and it was a long one. We arrived at the Nashville airport at 4 a.m., and after spending most of a long day waiting in the Miami International Airport, we hopped on board our international flight to Lima around 4:30 p.m. After landing and clearing customs, we met up with Pastor Pedro Uchuya, the district superintendent of the Distrito Costa Sur (or South Coast District). We traveled with him from Lima to Chincha, and we finally fell into bed around 2:00 a.m. (making it about 22 hours worth of travel in all!).

On Friday, May 2, Pedro took us on a tour of some sites around Chincha. Our contributions to the church's mission in Chincha this year (what we often call, 'project money') were put toward the construction of the district superintendent's office in downtown Chincha. Pedro sees connectionalism as a real key to the strengthening of the Methodist Church in his district, and the physical presence of the D.S.'s office, as well as the various ministries that will be coordinated from it, is an important step in making connectional identity a reality. As he explained it to me, the office of the D.S. will be the central point for the various churches around Chincha, so that they can all be better related to one another. We also visited the Templo Central, or the main church in Chincha, which is right around the corner from the D.S.'s office. This is the church where I have stayed, prayed, worshipped, and played over the past several years. A water issue kept us from staying there this year, but it still served as a central meeting point where we could engage in conversation and worship together.

The next day was Saturday, May 3, and we took a large part of the day to go out to Tambo de Mora, an outlying community about 20 minutes from Chincha Alta. This was a hard-hit area during the August 2007 earthquake, and signs of the devastation are still common. Tambo de Mora is also the site of one of the most exciting mission projects that the Methodist Church in Peru is working on right now. They call it the campamento, and it is a combination of church, community center, and retreat camp. I am going to give the campamento a blog post all its own, so I won't go into much detail here. But this is the place that is closest to my heart, and I have worked on its construction over the past 8 years. Tambo de Mora is a very poor community, but it is clear that the community also sees the work of the Methodist Church there as a great sign of hope. It was good to introduce our team to it, as well as to many of the people who live in that area and participate in the church's ministries.

On Saturday night, Pedro took us to one of the iglesias libres, the free churches, which tend to be much more charismatic than their Methodist cousins. Sometimes we hear about the growth of Pentecostal churches in Latin America as a sign of the work of the Holy Spirit, but as Pedro would be the first to tell you, it's not all good. These churches often reduce Christian discipleship to the religious experience of charismatic worship, and I myself heard the revival speaker say, "The gospel is not social, it is spiritual" (as if there can be a real separation of the two). It didn't take long to realize why Pedro had taken us to the service. He wanted us to see a little bit of what the Methodists in Peru are struggling with. Apparently, Protestants of other traditions are often attracted to the emotional worship of the charismatic churches and drift away from their own communities to become a part of one of the free churches. This is clearly frustrating to Pedro, who pointed out to me more than once the theological problems of the charismatic tradition.

Sunday, May 4, was a day for worship, and we had a great experience at the Methodist Church of Pueblo Nuevo (a suburb attached to Chincha). I got to teach a Sunday school class there, and other members of our group went to various classes for worship and study. We also visited another Methodist Church in Pueblo Nuevo called Micaela Bastidas, which is one of the main sites for the Methodist Church's Ministerio de Alimentacion, or Children's feeding ministry. This program has been going on for several years and receives monthly assistance from Dee Harper's church in Searcy, Arkansas. After a wonderful lunch at a local restaurant El Colque, we worshipped in the evening at the main church in Chincha Alta, where Danny Redding-Rhodes and Cody Schuler tag-teamed the sermon and I assisted Pedro in celebrating Holy Communion.

On Monday, May 5, we spent most of the day in conversation with Pedro at his home in Pueblo Nuevo. This was an important day, as it allowed us to take the raw experiences of the previous few days and refine them through conversation and interaction with Pedro. He told the story of the project in Tambo de Mora, talked about his hopes for a stronger connection between the churches of his district, and talked some about the theological conflicts with the charismatic churches. We also met Dr. John Deaver this day, who has committed to living half the year in Chincha in order to begin a health ministry aimed at preventative health and the care of mothers and children. That evening, we were back at the main church in Chincha Alta, where I led a bible study (in Spanish!).

The next day was Tuesday, May 6, and we toured the Escuela de John Wesley, which is connected to the church in Pueblo Nuevo. Through our connections to both the church and the school, I started getting to know a young local pastor named Obed, who both leads worship at the church and teaches at the school. The status of the school, and its relation to the Methodist Church, are both a little up in the air right now. But regardless, it is doing a great ministry with children (and as I was told, is also the only school named after John Wesley in all of Peru). We also worked at the office of the D.S. on this day, unloading a truck of bricks that will go to build the office's second floor. After sharing some educational resources we brought with Pedro (such as Sunday school curricula, VBS stuff, and Upper Rooms), we ended up back at the main church in Chincha Alta for a bible study (which I taught, again, in Spanish).

Wednesday, May 7, was our last full day in Chincha. After breakfast we had a meeting with Lucho Ruiz, who came down from Lima to tell us about Voluntarios en Accion, the organization he heads out of the bishop's office which seems to be like a combination of Volunteers in Mission and UMCOR in the American church. We later went back out to the campamento in Tambo de Mora, where uber-artist Danny Redding-Rhodes led a painting project to re-paint the emblem of the Methodist Church on the front gate of the campamento. We also had more time for playing with the children there, and Pedro and I were able to give the team a more extensive tour of the facilities and their intended use.

I took the group back up to Lima on Thursday, May 8, from where they flew back to the United States.

The trip as a whole was interesting to me, in that it pushed my conception of what a mission trip is all about. I am a firm believer that short-term missionaries need to allow their expectations of a mission trip to be conformed to the needs and desires of their hosts. I had mentioned to Pedro that I was bringing a group of people who wanted to learn more about the churches in Chincha, with the hopes of bringing their own groups someday. Pedro took that ball and ran with it, and he basically constructed our trip around the themes of experience, education, relationship-building, and worship. As we traveled around from church to church under Pedro's care, we were joining with him in strengthening the ties between his churches as well as the ties between the Peruvian and American Methodist Churches. And at the same time, all the members of our team were soaking in the basics of short term missions. As a way to aid this process, Danny Redding-Rhodes and I set aside conversation time where we talked to the group about mission logistics and the way that the theology of mission is embedded in how you go about preparing for the trip itself.

We did little manual labor on this trip, but in many ways, what we did do was much more important. With the members of this team, seeds have been planted and watered. The great possibility now is that 13 people will return with 13 different groups in the future, thereby expanding the work in Chincha and the relationships between Methodists of Peru and the U.S.A.

That's a heck of a lot to read, but if you are still with me, thanks! And if you would like to know more about the mission in Peru - including how you can be personally involved - drop me an e-mail.

God bless +