Where Do We Get OFF?

Disclaimer: This is an elementary, off-the-top-of-my-head piece I wrote, admittedly in a rather hot-headed moment. Which is probably not actually a good thing. You may not get it, you may be offended by it, I don’t know. It is a message aimed at all of us Jesus-followers out there….

Where do we get off? We all grow up in cultures seeped with philosophies, social rules etc. And to be honest, when someone talks about philosophies, about another way of life that we are not used to, our inner self rises up in offense, thinking “Where does (s)he get off?”. Admit it. We all grow up with ingrained ideas, and the problem is, that those ideas are often inextricably attached to our culture, our family, our identity. Me for example: I have to openly admit that it really raises my hackles when someone denounces ‘socialism’, and my ‘socialist’ country the Netherlands as some kind of evil equal to the legacies of Stalin, Mussolini, Kim Young Il and however many other regimes out there. Or when people do not believe in the equality of persons. Also when people make openly alienating comments about race or religion, like separating Catholics from Christians, as if Catholics are a sect and the rest of us Presbyterians, Methodists, Pentecostals, Non-Denominationals, or Baptists are the true ‘Christians’. What?!

And I could write papers and papers on end on the injustices, hypocrisies and blatant misnomers thrown out like candy by many people out there, by many Christians out there. … But then I circle around, and I realize the same finger I can point at others would and should also point right back at me. I am guilty too.

What I’ve come to realize, is that essentially I am missing a Kingdom mind. By that I mean that I am missing a mindset that firmly roots me, my identity, my thoughts, my actions, in the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, rather that the kingdoms of this earth: the countries, the families, the ideologies we pledge allegiance to. Hebrews 13:6 warns: “Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace”. Jesus also breaks the titles of ‘brother, mother, sister’, and that we are called into a new family (Matt. 10:34-37 & Matt. 12:48-50). He calls us to leave this life behind, and join Him and his Father in their Kingdom. In the same vein Paul urges us to be “citizens of heaven”, “living with one spirit and one purpose” (Phil. 1:27-29).

I’ll be honest, I do not have fully worked out how having Kingdom mind works out in the practical arena of life. It’s hard, and at every turn we are beset with our own human nature, that “trips us up so easily” (Heb. 12). But something has to change. When are we who claim to be a part of the body of Christ, going to stop prostituting ourselves to every whim and ideology of the cultures we live in? We are like Asa, who did not have enough confidence, even when God told him he would win the battle, to stand on his own. Instead he turned to his neighbor and asked them to partner with them in battle (2 Chron. 16:7-9). We attach ourselves so easily to crutches, because we are afraid we can’t make it on the supposed ‘simplicity’ or ‘vagueness’ God’s kingdom. Think of churches and Christian organizations that blatantly make the goals of this world into theirs? Like signing onto the campaigns for human rights, for the U.N. millennium development goals, for gay rights, against gay rights, for social justice, against social justice, for free markets, for democracy, for capitalist ventures, for equality, for freedom of this or that…and the lists can go on and on. We follow the latest trends, and in so doing we so easily draw lines, crisscrossed across the world, across our communities, constantly redrawing who is ‘on our side’ and who isn’t. We stand up for ourselves, for our world view.
And it is creating a divided, corrupt church, but it is also creating a generation of people who are completely apathetic to following Jesus and living as a part of His beautiful, transforming kingdom. Why? Because we are not set apart, we don't make any difference in this world that others can't also make. Are we really so afraid to follow God and to believe that He can bring the change we want to see, within and through HIS KINGDOM, or do we need to hide behind and follow blindly the citizens of this world? I believe we are becoming more and more like the man with the talents who buried them in the earth without doing anything with them. He did not know his master, and feared him; he did not have a relationship with him or trust him. We are much the same.

A Work of Art

PROBLEM: I'm faced with a blank canvas, an empty, crispy, ultra white sheet of paper if you will. What do I do with it, what do I fill it with?
This is a thought I've been mulling over for a little while now. And do I have an answer? No.
But I know two things: 1) I don't want to fill it with what I've already had, what I've already learned, what I've already done. I don't want to make it look like a picture I've already painted. And 2) I don't want to have my canvas look like anybody else's, like the pre-formulated, standard stuff sold at 30 copies a time in your local superstore.

Why is art called 'art'? Because of what meaning it holds in the eye of the beholder? Or because it is an utterly unique, one-of-kind piece that no one can ever copy? Sure maybe someone can copy the outside, but can they bring the beauty, no...the feeling, the sheer experience that the artist went through and brought to making that work of art? You know, the sweat, tears, the frustrations, the laughs, the interruptions, the mood swings, the inner thoughts that drive each human being? Isn't it THAT that makes every dot, streak etc. that appear on a canvas art? Because no one can know when or why or how that dot or streak was place right in the millimeter of space?

You may be thinking, what on earth is she talking about? I recently read 'Drops like Stars', and there is one part that has given my initial 'problem' a lot more body, has allowed me to process it more. Let me just quote it, and leave it at that.
"Heschel in 1972 had this to say to young people: 'Above all, remember that the meaning of life is to live it as if it were a work of art. You're not a machine.'
Harriet March, a sculptor, explains how she sees the world through her work.
'But no matter how much the mess and distortion make you want to despair, you can't abandon the work because you're chained to the bloody things, it's absolutely woven into your soul and you know you can never rest until you've brought truth out of all the distortion and beauty out of all the mess - but it's agony, agony, agony - while simultaneously being the most wonderful and rewarding experience in the world - and that's the creative process which so few people understand.
It involves an indestructible sort of fidelity, and insane sort of hope, and indescribably sort of ... well, it's love, isn't it? There's no other word for it...
That's creation ... You can't create without waste and mess and sheer undilute slog. You can't create without pain. It's all part of the process.
So in the end every major disaster, every tiny error, every wrong turning, every fragment of discarded clay, all the blood, sweat and tears - everything has meaning. I give it meaning, I reuse, reshape, recast all that goes wrong so that in the end nothing is wasted and nothing is without significance and nothing ceases to be precious to me.'"

If there can be beauty/wonder in everything, why do we want our canvases, the boxes or rules we live by, the meaning we give to our lives, to look like everything and everyone else's??

Devastation

Yesterday, we travelled south via Constitucion and Pelluhue, heading toward Pto Montt. We were bringing kits for the ppl in Pelluhue to put in their media-aguas.
What we met was unimaginable devastation. We have been working inland, helping rebuild homes.
But the people on the coast were hit doubly hard. At 3:33am in the morning they were hit by an 8.8 earthquake, and within 20 minuites of that they were hit by a tsunami.
The people in Pelluhue first had all their houses collapse, and then watched the sea illuminated by a big harvest moon pull all the way out as they had never seen before, only to rush back in with a 12+ meter wave, washing everything away.
What looks now like a beach front in Pelluhue was actually where 100s of homes had stood just 2 months ago.
The kits we brought had a cabinet, dishes, pots & pans, and a stove-top for the media-aguas (a.k.a. shacks) that the government has put up.
But this felt like nothing compared to the great need we encountered.
Please, please keep these people in your thoughts and prayers! The work has only just begun.

Mud n' Rain

Today was a our first day of rain and mud! Oh the joy. This was literally the first day we experience any real rain, and within just this short amount of time, (1 day), Espinillo and the roads there turned into a mud slide. The farmers of course, are somewhat happy with the much needed rain, but on the other hand, it makes our work building houses, much harder. Both trucks taking the team back home got stuck in the mud yesterday. The one I was sitting in was parked on a muddy hillside, the “driveway” to one of the homes we are working on. It seemed the truck was going to slide all the way down into the valley.
Ness and I are going to have to make a purchase of a pair of boots each!
My heart went out today especially to the people that still don’t have roofs over their heads, and are having to live through such a wet and cold winter. If I was already so ready to get home, change my wet clothes and warm up after a day of work, how must it be for the people who have nothing??
Meanwhile, we have been well. We’ve been hopping living locations, a new cabana (little vacation houses commonly rented out during the summer months here) each week. We left behind the place we had to ourselves, and now have been living with other teams working with us. Its been a nice change of pace, having many people around us and giving our lives a cheery and lively atmosphere. Of course, it also means readjusting a bit…
Next week we hope to head down to Constitucion, Concepcion and further south, to see more of how the Chilean people are faring in other parts of the country badly hit by the earthquakes. Also, after a few weeks of quiet, the tremors have started to get increasingly strong, the last one being a 6.8. Especially at night, the earth seems to move. We were wondering, is there a reason for that???
Either way, I’ve become so used to feeling things move that now I have not felt anything for the past few nights, while the rest all talk in the morning, “Did you feel that one at around 12.30? That was really strong wasn’t it? Or what about the one at around 4?” I just listen cluelessly. The girls tease that they’ll have to think of a good way to wait me up, like with a bucket of water, should a real big quake hit!
We are already starting to feel that our time here is drawing to end, with only a short 3 weeks left. We know that’ll just fly by!
In the meantime, we keep praying for the people here, for the ongoing battle of getting roofs over peoples heads!

A Late Post, And a Long Story!

It all started with a Saturday when we didn’t want to go out to work on building homes but wanted to take a day of rest. However, there were some interesting guests visiting from an organization called Casas de Esperanza (Homes of Hope), and we both couldn’t help but feel the need to get up early and see what was planned for the day.
Vanessa felt that it would be a ‘day of definition’ for some reason. However, this was not in the form of getting to talk to the people from Casas de Esperanza and maybe getting more involved with the help they offered for relief efforts, as we had secretly hoped.. Instead, Tio Emilio told us we were needed to help paint, and we went out with his team as usual.
It quickly became clear why this was a ‘day of definition’.
At lunch time, because there were some extra guests visiting the building site, there was no space a the usual small table for both Ness and I. So Ness offered to go sit with the team that had come in from Santiago to do electric work. Somehow she started sharing about how we were planning to travel to Santiago in the coming week to look for a vehicle to buy for the work here, as the lack of transportation is a big limitation.
Immediately, she got an offer for us to stay at a couple’s home in Santiago, and moreover that they would help us look for a car! Whew! What a relief, because we were already skeptical about how us foreign girls would manage to get around Santiago and find a car.
On top of that, the extra guests that had come to visit offered us a free ride to Santiago on Monday.
So far, so good!
Monday we got to Santiago, settled in and got ourselves a bit oriented with the city.
On Tuesday, Rodrigo (who we were staying with) took us to visit a few used car lots. However, we only had about 2.5 million pesos to spend on a car, and that would get us all of ‘94 beat up truck, or else a small passenger car that couldn’t even get up the hills here in Pichilemu!
So our strategy quickly became to tell people of our work, and that we needed a well-functioning car, sold at-cost for no profit.
Yet the problem we hit was that even if people sympathized with our plight, a used-car salesman doesn’t exactly have a ton of money to spare and give in the form of a freebie to help us out.
So on Wednesday, we did something a little different. I had felt when praying about buying a car, that we needed to take a more crazy approach, and we would need to knock on the doors of big, fancy dealerships.
Okay, lets try it we all decided. We went to Salfa, the biggest Chevrolet dealership in Chile. In we walked, looking like 3 stragglers in the midst of squeaky clean floors, gleaming cars, and poshly dressed salesman.
One saleslady gave us a skeptical up-and-down and asked us how she could help us. When we said we wanted a car for 2.5 million pesos, she said, “No way, nothing we have come anywhere close to that price. We can‘t help you” . So we asked if we could talk to the management. His secretary said we could have 5 minutes. Haha! I have never seen Spanish leave Vanessa’s mouth quite as rapidly as it did in those 5 minutes. She explained that we were volunteers from YWAM Pichilemu, working to rebuild houses, and that we only had this much money, but if they could sell us or lend us a vehicle, or even gift us one, it would go straight to putting more roofs over the heads of the Chileno people! She said, “I feel like a crazy person walking in here asking you for this, but we are getting desperate, and need your help”.
5 minutes quickly turned into 20 minutes. Arturo, the manager, gave us a few skeptical nods and smiles, protesting that he was busy and had to take care of over 4000 cars. To which Ness responded’ “We only need 1 of those”. But in the end he did ask for our contact information and said he would check with the others in management if they could do something.
Needless to say, we all a good laugh after we walked out.
Next we visited Relsa, a big dealership that works with buying and selling cars used for rental. He was bit more friendly, but had little to offer, and after we told our story, said he would see if anything could be done.
We visited the Automotive Club, and they said we can’t offer you a car, but we can see if we can raise money for your cause.
After racing up and down the city visiting big dealerships during Rodrigo’s spare time, we lastly visited Nissan on Friday. It was 5.30pm on a Friday, and the dealership looked pretty empty. They couldn’t even find us a salesmean. As we got ready to walk away, we saw a nicely dressed man come out of an office, and beelined straight toward him. He asked us what we needed, and Rodrigo started saying we needed a salesman, and Ness cut in saying, “No, we need to talk to the manager”. He asked how he could help us, and Ness quickly to our story, at one point saying “You can give us a car”, and he responded “I think we might have something like that, don’t we?” asking his colleague.
We nearly expected to walk out with a car that very day! But instead he asked us to leave our details and that he would get back to us on Monday.
Now, let me explain a bit of background info before finishing this story. Ness and I came to Santiago to buy a car that we could use, to transport people, materials etc. but also so that we could go around doing interviews with locals, so that we could post their information on a the web, with the concept of getting people to ‘Adopt-a-Family’. Tio Emilio on the other hand, wanted to buy a truck, and we knew that that truck would not be used by us whatsoever. By the end of the week, we had given up on looking for something for ourselves, feeling happy and blessed if our efforts would by some miracle of God deliver several good 4x4 vehicles to Tio Emilio and the other teams, even if we personally could not use the vehicles.
So after visiting Nissan, we headed back to Rodrigo and Magdalena’s house. On the way however, Vanessa yells, “Stop!”. Rodrigo quickly steps on the breaks, and we step out to look a Peugeot Partner standing for sale at the side of the road. Ness had seen it the morning, and thought, ‘if we randomly pass it again, I’ll ask him to stop’. It was the most well-kept used vehicle we had seen in all our frantic searching around the city, with low mileage, diesel engine and 5 passenger seating. But, the price was double what had, and then guy selling was not budging even when he heard our cause. So we all step back in the car, slightly bummed. Rodrigo then mentions quietly, “I have an idea, but I have to run in by Magdalena first”. Okay…
Then a little while later, we get home, and he sits us down saying, “Listen. We have the same exact Peugeot Partner, and if you want, we could let you use it. We don’t need an extra car.” We were thinking, “Where has this car been?” “Unfortunately, we have a small problem”, says Rodrigo. “We got in an accident a while back, and we are still in a court case to get the settlement from the lady who crashed into us. This could take at least another 6 months before its settled, and in the meantime we haven’t had the money to pay off the rest of the repairs on the car, so its been sitting in the shop. Magdalena has gone back to work to pay it off. Since we know you really need a car, we could offer you the option of forwarding the payment of the rest of the repairs, and getting the car for you to use within a week. Then as soon as we get the money, we’ll pay you back. Meanwhile the car is yours for a least the next 6 months.”
We were thinking, “Why hadn’t you told us this at the BEGINNING of the week?”. Haha. But obviously, we saw that there were several reasons for this. One being that we would never have gone out like crazy people asking for big dealerships to give us a car. Two, after a week with Rodrigo and Magdalena, we could tell they were truly lovely people who would never use us to pay off a debt on their car or anything like that. You see, they opened up their home while they have literally, nothing. They live in a tiny row-house on the outskirts of town, both working full-days while their son is taken care of by the neighbor. They had no food in their fridge when we arrived, and we could tell that was normal for them. As the week went on, we could tell they counted every penny to pay for food, electricity, gas for hot showers, and petrol in the car. Yet they did everything to shower us with their generosity, making us take the only bedroom the house, treating us to little extras, taking us to over to friends and driving us around. That Rodrigo mentioned their car in shop at the end of the week, as a last resort for us before we were going to head home the next day, said something about their integrity.
To add to everything, that very same Friday we checked our emails and got an email saying that a church that had CLOSED in Australia for lack of a building, had taken up an offering and was giving us 9,000US to buy a truck!
We knew immediately that was an answer to prayer for a truck for Tio Emilio.
So what is going on now? Well we came back with no car or truck to Pichilemu, but we have high hopes. Ness and I should have a vehicle to drive around to the villages by the end of the week, and Tio Emilio will surely have a truck of his own soon, and perhaps we’ll have even more for the other teams given as gifts from the one of the dealerships we visited!
We saw much fruit from our week in Santiago, and it has greatly renewed our faith. All things happen in the perfect time, and we are trusting GOD!

The Need

Ness and I spent the last few days trying to make a short video on what we're doing here and how people can help. However, the process has been a lot slower than it should have been, to our never-ending frustration, haha!
But here it is, have a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g01vDD2fvgI
Things are slowly starting to take a bit more shape with the organization of the relief efforts here at the YWAM base, and from what we hear there are some professional in disaster management/relief coming in to give some solid guidance on how to get our efforts to be the most effective.
However, we continue hearing more stories, one of them being that there is a huge monolopy being played in the government and local municipalities, to the point that while more than 10x the amount is needed, they will only be able to put out 2,000 of their little 6X3 shacks (that come without a roof and any other amenities) that are meant to get people through the winter.
Meanwhile, we are told that once the rains come, if people don't have a home, they'll be living in feet of mud. This is because things are not as paved here as they are in for example Europe or the States, and the torrential rains just wipe everything out each year.

Project in Espinillo

Its been a while since we've updated you all on our latest activties.
We have been asking ourselves, and others, what are the needs and how can we help? Last Friday, after we had already met with several teams working with the victims of the earthquake, we knocked on the door of one Tio Emilio. We've been told he's a large man with the heart of a teddy bear. And so he is.
We met with him that Friday, and just felt something “click”. He told us, "If you are willing and able to help, then come help!". He dove straight in, talking about what work he's doing, how he felt that God was leading him to build 50 houses in 3 different village in hills surrounding Pichilemu. Tio Emilio and small group went out the Monday after the first large earthquake hit on February 27th, with a truckload of food, water and clothing to this area because he had heard the area was badly affected. When seeing house after house completely collapsed, and knowing that these people have neither the money, resources or even time (as they have to be out working their crops all day before winter comes) to rebuild their homes, he wanted to do something. He went home, started praying and planning, visiting other villages as well, and that is how he came up with the number 50 as the amount of homes to help rebuild.
He is a quiet, calm man with a heart that is completely about helping the people, and thereby showing love in a practical way, something we feel is very important.
In the meantime, we have gone out with Tio Emilio twice, both to a rural village about 40 minutes from here called Espinillo. The road there is all dust n dirt, with many bumps and curves along the way. Its an area deep in the hills going inland from Pichilemu (which sits right on the coast). Espinillo consists of dirt roads lined sparsely with the homes of small-time farmers, called campesinos, here and there. The earth is tough and the weather dry and hot, so its not the easiest land to work.
Most of the homes in these parts are old, and cheaply built out of clay and therefore an easy prey for the rage of an earthquake and despite what is said in the news, Chilean building regulations hold no value in these rural parts. However, the houses that Tio Emilio has designed a built to better able to withstand earthquakes.
As we work, we are learning, and are also delighted to meet the locals. On our first day we met Senora Carmen Ruta, her son and her mentally handicapped daughter. They now camp outside right next to where they used to have a house. With pieces of furniture and farm animals scattered around, having to cook on a open fire and living outdoors, the sweet "abuelita" still manages to have a smile on her face. She is tiny tiny, and very talkative. However, she speak with the thick accent of the locals, barely enunciating as well. We were definitely practicing our communications skills that day! We did manage to catch her wondering out loud why it was that people from other countries would come to help them.
The other house we’ve been working on belongs that of a kind widow and her daughter.
The building process is not going as fast as it should, largely for the lack of a vehicle. So Tio Emilio works by faith. This translates to every morning, getting up and making a few calls to see who might have a car available. A car is crucial to getting materials and workers out to the building sites!
More skilled workers and modern construction tools would be extremely helpful to make the work go faster, and to work at multiple sites at one time.
We were also shocked to hear that it costs only $1500 to build a house! Unfortunately, response has been slow for some reason to the need, and even if people/organizations make promises, they more often then not are falling through. Why? We don’t know. But we do recognize that things have been a bit unconventional from the start, and so it will probably will continue to be! This whole project is about living by faith, and as we tell each other, "when we work, we work, but when we pray, God works".

Our First Free Flight

Well, we finally managed get free of Pichilemu and the YWAM base, to actually go look at the reality that Chilean victims of the earthquake are living in. This happened on Tuesday. We left at about 4.30 in the afternoon, and drove well over an hour through winding roads and over bridges cracked by the earthquake. One bridge in fact a 2 horizontal splits in it, split cleanly from one side to the other. If another quake hits, that bridge will be unusable.
We went with a completely Latino team from the base, and as we drove the leader, Tio Chelo, told us what happened to some of the villages we were passing through. One place, Cahuil (which is the next town when driving south of Pichilemu), had over 200 homes destroyed. They were all fishermen's home situated along the river leading out to sea. A big wave rolled in, coming to well over 2 meters above the homes, washing everything on the low-lying bank of the river away. A church bench ended up in the toilet of nearby school, and pieces of the homes were found on in hills above.
Tio Chelo and his team are doing whatever they can with the limited resources they have, and he was saying how important it is to make sure all the school buildings are reconstructed and up and running, because the children spend their whole days there, getting food, shelter and an education. At home, their parents have enough on there hands trying to rebuild their homes, and finding food for themselves.
As we headed to the small pueblo, we passed through a small town named Paredones. There most homes we saw had severe structural damage, beyond repair really. They explained to us that this is because the homes are made of cheaper materials like mud and clay, to make them affordable. Unfortunately, this also means, again, that the poorest are also the most impacted by the quakes here.
We got a chance to see what kind of temporary homes the Chilean government is offering the victims of the quake. They consist of 3x6 meter boxes made of thin planks, hardly enough we are told to get people through the cold and rainy winter. See the picture on the left.
The looming winter is really what is making the whole relief effort so urgent. The rains will start within about a month, and will be bad enough by the end of May that the many dirt roads will be unnavigable. This means teams can't go out to help build homes for those needing shelter, and no supplies can be sent out to the families.
The picture to the right shows a sticker posted by the government to assess the extent of damage to the homes in the pueblo we went to. This particular sticker indicates a 'total collapse' of the home, making the home 'unlivable'.
We went to this particular village to give out food, clothing and school materials for the kids, while keeping them entertained with two clowns. Meanwhile the mothers were free to sit with a team from UNICEF to talk about how they were faring after the quake, to receive some tips and be given a listening ear. Some families (like Vicente and his mom, see pic) are currently sleeping outside, without tents in the cold night air of 10 degrees celsius. Luckily, they can still remain dry for now.
On the drive home, we overheard Tio Chelo calling different people, asking for basic supplies like nails and hammers. He also says that there is a shortage of cars to even get able bodies to the villages to help out.

Ness and I meanwhile, are struggling to get our Spanish up to a more conversational level. We would love to get out the villages more often, but transportation is limited right now. So instead we help sort donations at the base, and are talking with a few men leading relief teams, to get a better grip on how the work is being coordinated and where we can fit into all this.
Please, be praying for all the families affected by the quake, and for relief efforts to get coordinated quickly and for more resources!!

….the continuing story.
We thought we landed safely, and even thought we had found a great house to stay in with a Brazilian family. Happy to see my brother Marc, to have had the journeys go well, and overjoyed at the sight of a proper bed, we certainly thought things looked normal.
Unfortunately, Ness decided to ‘ask’ that we be able to feel what an earthquake felt like, “Just a small one”, she said as I rolled my eyes.
I told her I would shake her bed for her in the middle of the night. But I never ended up needing to do that. Starting the evening of the 9th we felt a few small tremors, and honestly, we were thinking it was kind of cool. In the morning Marc mentions that there have been warnings that an earthquake would hit that day. I though, “Okay”. At 11.30, sitting on the top of our bunk bed with headphones in, I quickly realized what he actually meant.
A 7.2 quake hit just 40km north of Pichilemu, and caught us quite by surprise, my bunk bed shaking uncontrollably as I decided it might be a good idea to head downstairs and out the door as bottles fell off the dresser and books off the shelf.
We were not terribly frightened, just thought it an interesting experience as one is liable to do with anything that is experienced for the first time.
The villagers were much less excited. In fact, many nervously started racing up the hill behind our house either by foot or by car within a minute of the quake hitting. All of Pichilemu was heading for high ground as there was a high chance of a tsunami hitting. An old woman walked by completely out of breath, trying to get her phone to work so she could reach her family. Cars skidded in the dirt, revving up there engines nervously has they tried to get up the hill. Women were crying, the recent trauma of one week ago still fresh in their minds. This was no joke.
As we are staying with my brother who is part of YWAM, we ended up having to set up half-tent on the base grounds next to a campfire that night with fellow YWAMers. The base is situated on high ground and some of the most solid ground in the area in case of earthquakes. Although we didn’t not particularly enjoy another night of sleeping in our clothes after much traveling the previous days, along with chilly night air and many people staying up late talking around us, we survived quite well.
The villagers (or ‘campecinos’), dragged their tents, mattresses, sleeping bags one and all up the hill behind the base. We went for a look around, and certainly their situation was much less comfortable. Little children, elderly people with oxygen tanks, and young gangs were all mixed on the same grounds. The military had already installed a convoy to the area.
In such a moment, our foremost thought was how odd it was that we consciously chose to come to Chile at this time, while there people would give anything to not be here right now. Such a paradox of the luxury of choosing a lifestyle versus learning to cope with the life given you.
Pichilemu has fared well so far with the quake, with electricity slowly coming back, a few stores opening, and no visible damage as far as we can tell on the streets. News on how other villages have fared is still not clear.
There are predictions of yet another quake, this time closer to 8.0 on the richter scale, hitting near Pichilemu in the coming days. How it will go, we don’t know! But we do regularly count the seconds as yet another tremor shakes the earth beneath.
Ahh what an adventure indeed! Thankfully we are safe. As for those that have or will fare worse in the midst of this, again, it is those that our hearts go out to and we hope we can mean something for them in this time in any way. Some basic relief work has been set up, but it is a far from a coherent system through which relief teams and significant help can be channeled. Thus that unfortunately is still a story in development.

Off to Chile! Well plans have been forming and finally I’m off to another adventure. As usual, detailed planning is not the ‘word of the day’, and instead its all about “flexibility” and “openness to serve”. Vanessa and I (a good friend of mine from Brazil) are making South America unsafe for a few months, with our first stop being Pichilemu, Chile. We originally idyllically planned this as our first stop, thinking a nice visit to my brother on the coasts of the Pacific would be a good, slow way to immerse ourselves in Spanish-speaking Latin America…In other words, we planned a mini holiday before the real work was to begin doing volunteer work in Bolivia.
Well, what do you know….I booked my flight on Wednesday, and Ness on Friday, and on Saturday of the same week we tune into the news that an 8.8 earthquake hit Chile. What??!!! Needless to say, we were as shocked as everyone else, and our plans have thus taken a quick turn.
SO, as I type I’m at the airport in Madrid, Vanessa is to be en-route shortly, and if all goes according to plan (?) we will meet my brother in Santiago tomorrow, from there heading about 4 hours down the coast. There, we will promptly be set to work I’m told, to help out however we can with relief efforts.
What a turn of events! I sincerely hope that in the coming time we can serve the people effected by the quake in whatever capacity, and that we will be put to good use. But needless to say, we are sorely feeling our inadequacy for any such task at this point. Let’s see how God choose to guide this journey, as all planning is obviously not in our hands anymore J.
I will try to post updates on my blog, so if your interested, check it out every now and then!

The Irony of Our Mortality

Instead of painting a picture of humanity as striving for immortality as the old myths often do, why not discuss how it is that even upon reaching the possibility of immortality, we are still pulled back into the lure of mortality?
For mortality holds its own temptation.
For one: the pull of the immediate, the satisfaction of now, of the graspable.
But there is also somehow, an arrogance in our mortality. This is the tempting idea that in our mortality we might progress, improve so much, that we might come within millimeters of attaining immortality.
And so we are constantly pulled back by this blind, stupid hope. Or is it hope? Whatever it is, it is a pull back into a world of Time, of Regulations, a world of Opportunities if you will...but only if one learns to play the game.
For example, have you ever thought that however great the invention of the airplane might be, it also requires us to pattern our lives around it? The set time for departure at the gate, the train you had to catch 2 hours earlier to get to the airport, the hours spent weeks prior searching for good flights and destinations, and the money saved for such frivolities months earliers.
Money spent that one wonders if it could not have been spent more philanthropically.
Time which one no longer spends with the very humanity we should be busy with if we truly believe in the beauty of our own mortality!
Can immortality be reached? And if so, will we let it pass us by as one waiting for the train on the wrong side of the tracks, the real train visible, attainable, and yet SO very out of reach.