Friday was supposed to be a nice quiet easy-ish day after being in the childrens’ home on Wednesday and Thursday. We had a doctors appointment at 6pm, and people were coming around for an asado (BBQ) in the evening. So we spent the morning slowly, I walked the dog, did some shopping in advance of the evening, leaving the drinks and a few other things to buy later, had lunch, bit of a siesta…. At 4.30 we thought we’d make some coffee, do the washing up and start preparing stuff for the evening. At 5pm the dog arrived home squealing, with an absolutely massive gash in her chest, it was so big and deep and wide-open we honestly weren’t sure if she would survive, so Martin held her down and applied pressure, I phoned our usual vet, who gave me an emergency number for someone else, who in turn organised a different guy to come round. He turned our house into an operating theatre, put the dog out, shaved her, cleaned out the wound and stitched her up, she’s got three rows of stitches, one layer deep inside, then another layer a bit further out and then finally a third layer at skin level. Luckily it was her chest rather than the abdomen so her vital organs were protected by the ribs. We have no idea where or how she did it, but she’s always jumping over fences and walls, she’s convinced she’s a puma, so we can only assume it went badly wrong and that she landed on something, like a railing possibly, in mid-leap. We missed our doctor’s appointment, the vet left at seven leaving the house covered in blood and fur, and the dog still unconscious, with people due to arrive at eight and only half of the shopping done. So we did an emergency clean, an emergency shop, Martin lit the fire, I chopped salads and we were just about looking normal with the dog coming round kind of dozily when the first person arrived, which was luckily not till 8.30, this being Argentina and all. The asado went great in the end, Martin’s getting it off to a fine art, and he always receives lots of kudos for being a non-argentinian who has learnt how to do a good Argentinian asado. The dog managed to open one of her stitches slightly just as everyone was leaving soon after midnight, so we had to stop her bleeding, and then we kept getting up all night to check on her, but by the morning it seemed to have knitted itself, yesterday she spent the day lying around looking poor and sorry for herself but the wound’s only leaking slightly and she doesn’t seem to be in immediate danger. She’s still interested in food which is a good sign, although she’s so greedy I think it would take more than nearly bleeding to death to put her off her dinner!
Health and Wealth?
I’ve been nearly writing this entry for ages, so I thought I’d better bite the bullet and actually put it together, even though I’m not sure exactly how it’s going to turn out. One of the things I’ve been thinking about is attitudes to “health and wealth” teaching in churches both in Argentina and in the UK, and I’m coming to the conclusion that even churches who appear to be at totally opposite ends of the spectrum, seem to end up saying and believing pretty much the same things.
For the uninitiated “Health and Wealth” is the tag-name given to a brand of Christian teaching which says that God wants to give all his followers good health and material prosperity, and that if we don’t have good health and material prosperity then that must be our fault because we are variously failing in obedience, in faith, to tithe, to “claim” what God wants to do for us, or that we are otherwise separated from God through our unconfessed sin.
There is some evidence for health and wealth teaching. After all the Old Testament in general, and the pentateuch particularly, is littered with exhortations to obedience, and promises of prosperity as a result of obedience. Jesus himself said that the Father knows how to give good gifts to his children. When Solomon asks God for wisdom, he is given not only wisdom, but also material wealth as a reward by God for asking wisely, so we can presumably understand therefore that God would recognise health and wealth as falling under the heading of “good gifts” which the Father knows how to give.
No, the flaw in the scheme is not that it is entirely untrue, but in that it attempts to expound one bit of the plot as though it were a systematic model for the entire play. The thing very quickly falls apart when we notice that some of the most obedient people were some of the least materially prosperous, and thus in a caricatured world we might find ourselves asking whether John the Baptist, the apostle Paul, or the Lord Jesus Christ were terribly lacking in faith, or if they had just slightly miscalculated their tithe. We might also sneak a glance at Jacob who became materially rich, but was also deliberately given his dislocated hip as a blessing from God. And going back to Solomon, sure he was given great wealth, but as a reward for asking for wisdom, suggesting that the wisest thing is not to seek material riches.
Overt health and wealth teaching tends to be the domain of the “livelier” churches, both in Argentina and the UK. Here we hear quite a lot of fairly starkly “health and wealth” theology. We have heard that “the only reason why people ever die is because the church isn’t praying enough, and if we really had faith we would be down at the hospital ordering sick people to get better”. We have also heard that the way to be prosperous is to give more money to the church, and that if you are poor it is because you are not giving enough money to the church; or that if you are faithful in your tithe then you have the authority to ask God for anything and it will be done. There is even a church here which refers to its offering envelopes as “the keys to the blessing”.
In the UK at least, we tend to move in more conservative theological circles, and people in conservative theological circles tend to get a bit squeaky about such teaching, arguably with good reason. But I’m starting to wonder if we of the conservative church might in the final instance actually covertly hold the same beliefs that we appear to look down on.
Why do I say that? Firstly we need to understand that the position of the church in UK society generally belongs to a higher social strata than in Argentina. This means that where Argentinians are aspiring to “health and wealth”, the conservative UK church generally is healthy and wealthy, at least by comparison, and therefore doesn’t need to look to God to meet those aspirations. However, take away the health or the wealth to which a conservative UK Christian has become accustomed, and watch what happens. “God’s got to heal her, he’s just got to”; a friend whose wife was having surgery (why?). “Why is God making me go through this?”; a friend during a long period of unemployment (why not?). And when Martin had his road accident a lot of people said “Why did God allow this to happen?” (What divine right grants us protection from breaking our necks, especially if we’re going to walk out in front of moving Ford Escorts?)
Which makes me wonder if somewhere we of the conservative church haven’t sold out to a respectable conservative middle class UK form of “health and wealth” teaching which goes something like “God wants to bless you, his followers with good health and material prosperity to the level at which you have become accustomed”.
In the case of overt “health and wealth” theology, we put our faith in that which we want God to give us, and in the faith of covert “health and wealth” theology, we put our faith in that which God has already given us. In some cases the latter might be even more dangerous than the former, since we have also frequently forgotten that the gifts were his in the first place. In either case I would suggest that the result is about the same, give or take a nuance; that we have lost sight of Jesus, because we don’t trust that we are safe in Jesus, probably because we have no idea what it means to be safe in Jesus:
“The centrality of Jesus has been subject to continual usurpment by money, buildings, hard work, good works, Myers Briggs, efficient organisation, computers, food, the Bible, church activities, principles, religion, theology, virtue, sex, sexuality, party spirit, meetings, soundness, politics, fame, talent, tradition, single-issue fanaticism, alcohol, and family to name but a few” (Adrian Plass, in “Jesus: Safe, Tender, Extreme”)
Now I’m thinking I should stop right here if only because it’s going to take me half the night to put this into Spanish. But I haven’t finished thinking about this yet, so post a comment, send an email….
Fizzy drinks and clean money
Hi all. Sorry the long silence, we were away: couple days in the childrens’ home, followed by nearly a week at the Latin Link Argentina team conference, followed by couple more days in the childrens’ home. Now we’re back. It’s a testament to the strength of local community here that when I went shopping for food yesterday morning, the lady in the veg shop said “We’ve missed you all this time”. When since did anyone in Tesco or any other “friendly local hypermarket” even notice, let alone give a monkeys, that I didn’t show up for a week or two?
I’m a little concerned that the blog entry that’s generated the most response has been the one about toilets… But I probably shouldn’t be really… after all if you were posh you probably wouldn’t be friends with us or reading our blog in the first place. Today I’m afraid I don’t have a toilet story. But I do have two pieces of good advice for your next visit to Argentina. One: buy soda. Two: don’t get a bank account.
On soda. We’ve just discovered soda. It’s great. Soda gets delivered to the door, by a guy called a “Sodero”, from a little truck (remember the British milk float?). It costs 50 centavos (that’s 9pence) for a litre and a quarter. It comes in a reusable bottle thus eliminating plastic waste, just hand it back and they swop it for a full one. It has a proper valve so it never loses its gas. It can be mixed with all manner of things to create your own range of fizzy drinks with as many or few calories as you like. And you never need to pay another penny to those evil Pepsi / Coca Cola empires again. Perfect.
On bank accounts. To be fair I’ve only been twice, so it might not be a fair test. The first time I had to pay in 30 pesos to someone’s account (£6). I stood in the queue that said deposits, until they told me that this was only for large deposits, so I stood in the queue for small deposits, until they told me that I needed the correct change, so I stood in the queue for general services, where they told me that they don’t give change here (“but you’re a bank….”). Luckily at this point the security guard took pity on me, and wrangled change out of someone from a back office. Third piece of advice: Security guards are the most knowledgeable members of staff, don’t be put off by the gun. The second time we had to pay in 200 pesos to someone else’s account in a different bank. We had been given a CBU number, which we were assured was the magic number we would need. So we asked the security guard which queue to join; the general one. The lady said “that’s fine, you can go straight to the cashier”. The cashier said “I can’t do this without an account number, you’ll need to take a ticket to see the man at the desk to find out the account number”. The man at the desk said “I can’t do this, I’ll take you to see another man at the other end who can find out the account number”. The man at the other end found out the account number, and he handed it to us, on a print out containing the other person’s personal information, including every detail pertaining to the account with their recent transactions and current funds available, and sent us with this in our hands back to the cashier to pay our money in.
Moral of the story? Stick to soda, it’s safer.
Without Explanation
“An Englishman goes to church rather like he goes to the toilet: with the minimum of fuss, and preferrably without explanation” (our friend Bernie, opening a Bible study a few years ago)
Visitors to Argentina soon discover that every public toilet is attended by a Rottweiler, dressed up as a female person. Her main responsibilities involve handing a carefully measured length of toilet paper to each customer, in exchange for a coin; and saying “pa-se” when a cubicle becomes free. To be fair, if I’d been doing that for a few years, I can imagine that I might become a bit growly.
This week the Rottweiler in the minibus station has come up with an alternative diversion much more sophisticated than biting people’s ankles. She now requires each prospective toilet-user to announce publicly exactly what they are planning on putting into the toilet, so that she can then decide whether to point them to the cubicle where the flush uses a lot of water, or the one where the flush doesn’t work too well.
By luck or by the abundant mercy of God, just over the road there is a little coffee bar, where for the modest price of a small coffee, patrons may also use the toilet for free and for nothing, and most importantly without explanation. I am so English!
Readin’ Ritin’ an’ Rithmatic
Luckily the journey to San Marcos is a nice one; a view of the mountains out of the right hand window, and a lake from the left. I have done it so many times I nearly know every bend in the road. Luckily the little buses have air-con.
At the moment on Tuesdays and Wednesdays I am in the childrens’ home. I was originally just working with four kids, but then I started a new system of giving out a sweet or a marble for good work. And now I suddenly seem to have about sixteen kids lining up for extra school-work. I did worry for about two seconds about the ethics of whether I could be accused of bribery, until a friend said “How many kids do you know in the UK who would be prepared to do half an hour of school work in exchange for a toffee or a marble…?”
I have been using a lot of the material from Alfalit, and augmenting it with activities that I have invented, and some others trawled from the internet. I’m surprised at how little there is in Spanish on the web, given that Spanish is the third language in the world after Chinese and English.
This week I was able to give out proper Alfalit work-books to the kids who are working on basic literacy and numeracy skills. I was amazed at how delighted they were to receive their own books…. I’d never thought of a kid being pleased to own a text-book. Here’s a few photos that we took to send to the people at Alfalit…
The guy in the top photo is Santiago. He is about to do first grade for the third time, but we think this time is going to be different. He is one of my keenest students. He’s desperate to learn joined up writing, which wouldn’t have been my highest priority for him, but because he’s so keen, I’m teaching him and using it as a vehicle to teach him some other things along the way. Don’t ask why he’s wearing his T-shirt on his head: he’s a kid, I have no idea!
Then he took my camera from me and snapped some terrible shots of me looking like a crazy teacher. Least said about that the better I think.
The three girls are working together here on numbers, basic number bonds, counting on our fingers… not got onto toes yet. Somehow all three have managed to receive a “pass” mark for several grades of maths classes without learning that if I hold up two fingers and my friend holds up another finger then that’ll make approximately three fingers between us.
The guy in the cap is Gabriel. He is also about to do first grade for the third time, and he finds school work really difficult. Gabriel’s never owned a book before. When I gave him his, he just sat and stared at it for ages, saying “that’s my book”. Trouble is, he’s so proud of it, he doesn’t want to spoil it by writing in it, which kind of wasn’t the point…
What I hadn’t figured was that all the other kids were going to want a book. And when I said “you guys can already read, these books are too easy for you” they said “but we still want one”. So this week I’ve managed to get hold of a stack of little word-search books on special offer… I introduced word-searches to the older kids over Christmas, which they enjoyed, so hopefully these will keep them busy for oooh, about two minutes maybe….
Happy New Year
Happy new year all. OK, I’m a few days late, but I do mean it sincerely. Christmas and New Year were spent eating cow with friends, and watching the fireworks at midnight. The photo on the left is of Giuliano aged 2 sharing his Christmas toys with Martin aged 47.Prize for random conversation of the first week of 2007 goes to the waitress where we stopped for food on the way home the other night. We thought we’d have a large bottle of beer between us:
| Hazel: | … and a large Quilmes please (Quilmes being the usual beer in Argentina) |
| Waitress: | I don’t have a large Quilmes |
| Hazel: | Which beers do you have in large size? |
| Waitress: | I don’t have any large beers |
| Hazel: | OK, can we have two small Quilmes then please. |
| Waitress: | Wouldn’t you prefer a large Quilmes instead? |
I thought I must have misunderstood or misheard something, but no, I am assured that what I thought I heard is exactly what happened.
New year’s resolutions. I stopped making those at about the point where I became old enough to doubt that I might achieve any sort of saintliness this side of heaven. One very practical thing that I would like to do sometime soon is to put the rest of our website into Spanish. Funny, it was only a generation or so ago when missionaries were chastised for spending too much time writing letters and the like, now it’s pretty widely accepted that at least part of our “ministry” is about communication. Our friends and team leaders here, Hans and Priscilla have just written their first blog comment, starting by stating their intentions to be in better contact… it’s at www.saltasnippets.org Another friend, Simon, now working for WEC is writing a superb blog, which can be found at blog.simon-cozens.org One of his best entries is his discourse on why every missionary should blog (can’t remember what date that was… Simon….??). I also reckon that every missionary needs to be reading blogs, particularly blogs that are outside our own context/ denomination/ mission agency. Trouble is there’s a lot of stuff out there and if I try and read it all I’d never get anything else done and the old guys might end up having a point that “communication detracts from the real work” so I’m making myself a little list of a few good ones to keep up with… our friends Dean and Paula are doing great stuff in South Africa, they’re at dpfinnie.blogspot.com And if you are reading or writing a good-thoughtful-interesting-challenging blog feel free to hit the comment button and post up the link.
Sisters are doing it for themselves
The noticeboard in this photo says “The Cordobans are restoring our own cathedral”. That makes me so happy. Not so much because the cathedral is undergoing a facelift (although it surely needs one), but because of the pride and conciousness behind the words. It makes me happy for the same reasons that I am an avid buyer of street newspapers; “The Big Issue” in the UK, and “La Luciernaga” in Cordoba. It is the difference between the learned helplessness of “I tell you my problem and I wait with my hands open”, and the empowerment in “I have owned my problem and now I am owning my solution”. We have been told that the roots of learned helplessness stem directly from the teaching and behaviour of the Catholic church, which I have no reason to doubt the historical accuracy of this, but today the phenomenon is far more widespread than just the Catholic church. And now we see the Catholic church modeling something completely different. I wonder if it will catch on?Empire building
create your own visited countries map
This is a silly game… if you click on this link it will take you to a website where in about ten seconds flat you can create your own map of countries that you have visited: tick the boxes, and the relevant countries will turn red. This looks particularly impressive if you have visited some big countries… stick a toe into China… or like me, into Argentina, Brazil, and the USA and you have a nice lot of red. Unfortunately, small but exotic doesn’t show up too well, so for creating your own virtual empire in red ink you probably want to avoid Fiji, Bermuda or Monaco. Heck, who wants to go there anyway…? Come to Argentina, the people are friendly, the food’s great…
A Christmas Message
An unmarried pregnant adolescent. One of the most marginalised groups in society, both then and now. Wonder how many churches or Christian Unions would welcome her in today? Amazing to think that God did that on purpose.
We were at the prison yesterday for their Christmas service. It was a good time. Two people commented on Martin’s neck-brace. The first said “How terrible”. The second said “How nice”. The first guy is a pastor, the second guy is a worship leader who is missing a leg, and I’m guessing he knows some things about living with paradoxical realities.
Which transports us from Christmas, through Easter to the Resurrection, and the greatest paradox of all time. “Then I saw a lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the centre of the throne….” (Revelation 5:6)
Have a great Christmas!
W is for….
Looking back through the last several entries, I realise that I have not written anything about work of late, so I started worrying in case people think we aren’t doing any, so this is a little blog about work.
Last week and this week I have been out at the children’s home in San Marcos. There’s a page about the children’s home on our main site with some pics if you want to find out more. School broke up for the summer holidays, and the plan is that I am going to spend a couple of days a week “catching up” a few of the kids in the home before the start of the next school year. These last two weeks I have been using some new literacy material from Alfalit. Alfalit have a website, at www.alfalit.org (You may find the front page of their website rather patronising, in a “helping the poor helpless” sort of way, but if you get beyond the front page, they are a key organisation in literacy work in Latin America, and their materials are pretty solid.) I have two kids who have never been to school and have no idea what to do with a pen, and another two kids who have missed a lot of school and have some massive gaps. There’s another lad who I’m not quite sure where to start with, but I ought to be gathering up sometime soon, and another girl who hasn’t been picked up yet, but she’s next in line particularly for numeracy.
At the moment I am working with all the kids individually. Initially I tried to do group activities, but their needs are very different, and their concentration is not that good, so they distract each other too much, which means that I’m now teaching them one after the other. This is pretty intense. When I am not teaching, then I spend most of the time outside playing with the kids, or hanging out with the older ones. San Marcos is in a great location, so once a trip, I try and escape for an hour or so and have a walk, which is a joy and delight to be out of the big city and enjoying the hills or the river.
Back in Cordoba, we are visiting in the Hospital Rawson on Thursdays, which I wrote about in a previous blog entry. Today we met some new people, and had some good chats, as well as visiting “old” friends who have been in for a long time. One of my ongoing tasks is to produce some sort of simple gospel presentation in leaflet form which we can use in the hospital, which isn’t in tiny print, doesn’t use unhelpful jargon, and doesn’t use an antiquated version of the Bible. We started by going to the Christian bookshop, but all of their material failed on at least two of the three counts, so the next line was “Hazel, you’re good with a computer…” At the moment what I am working on is an incongruous mix between “Two ways to live” (bland, simplistic, but accessible) and the Nicene Creed (beautiful but completely inaccessible). Trying to reduce the gospel in its entirety onto a folded sheet of A4 in large print has given me a new respect for the writers of both the Nicene Creed and Two ways to live, even though I loathe the triteness of the latter.
At the weekend, we were at Barrio Sacchi on Sunday, and church in the evening. Last Sunday in the afternoon I was doing some preparation for teaching the kids at San Marcos, during which I made the important discovery that the material which my finger is made out of is less robust than the closed cell foam which I was cutting letter shapes out of. In the background, sometimes the foreground, and sometimes blocking out the sun altogether, we are mired in two lots of admin, one with the immigration office, and the other over health insurance, although on the immigration front, we think we might have finally collected enough rubber stamps. We were there on Monday, and they’ve now told us to come back mid January.
Tomorrow we are taking the day off!