My precious

Coming to live in Chile, you have to release your grip on a few of the things that Australians love, although I imagine not nearly so much as in some other Latin American countries, where you may have to let go entirely. Some of these things I normally care about, others I don't, but none of the differences have bothered me so far.  These are the sort of things I'm thinking of: hygiene, safety, healthiness, productivity, efficiency, ordered thinking, planning ahead. Of course Chile has all these things but they are not cherished and assumed in the same way they are in Australia. Some of these things I never cared about very much and I actually feel much more at home with the go-with-the-flow optimism/fatalism and spontaneity of life here. I'd like to imagine I'll keep on cruising through life here, but the test will really come once I'm trying to get things done...

Clase medio

Most of the folks I know in Chile are clase medio (middle class). It's here that the differences - and similarities - between Chile and Australia really hit home. Like my friends in Australia, these guys are all university educated, often own laptops and smart phones (no iphones or macbooks though), are big into facebook and the internet generally, and are conversant with international popular culture (though with a latin twist). Many of them are the first in their families to go to uni and lots of them seem unable to find work in the field they studied. The work they do have often pays poorly and they are forced to rent lower-price apartments, buy poor quality goods, and live cheaply. They are workers but their lives look more like that of a university student in Australia. They need to put money aside for hugely expensive school fees and medical bills, and for this both husband and wife must work. (There is a public education and medical system here, but if you can, you go private.) There's nothing left over for overseas travel, but that doesn't mean they don't have fun - there are lots of dinners, suppers and parties at friends places, lots of chucking big hunks of meat on the barbie (no, they don't call it a barbie here) and kicking back around a table groaning with food.

Evangelio de Juan

Just over a week ago, a few of my worlds met. A bunch of people from my church joined people from my Chilean family's church, along with a handful of folk from four other churches. Then we all headed off to one of the bigger hospitals here, under the direction of Gail, my fellow SIM missionary. This is the seventh time that a group like this has got together for Proyecto VIDA (Project Life). The idea is to make it round to all the hospitals in Santiago (and there's a lot!), leaving a Gospel of John with all the patients there on the day we visit. So far 2704 Gospels have been given away, of which we were responsible for 410. As part of the visit, there's time to stop and have a chat, share the news of Jesus if someone would like that, or pray for them if they are willing. It was a really special day, the sort of day that reminds you what it's all about. The volunteers shared some beautiful stories afterwards, including the news that six people received eternal life, one of whom was a lady who was close to dying.

 Correction: 1704 Gospels have been given away. Still a lot!

Soy católico siempre

The big writing says, "I'm not only a Catholic when I have a sick kid" and down the bottom it adds, "I'm always Catholic". These posters are on bus shelters and buses all over Santiago. There are variations - others say "... when my team wins the match" or "... when I'm baptised". It's a campaign to get Catholics to pay 1% of their income to the church. I'm told that most Evangelical churches here expect their people to pay 10%.

Macaquiñoamarelorinrajaquieromoverelbote

Three mad Spanish kids' songs that I LOVE. The first two are Chilean. The last one, well I reckon you'll know. (You'll need to start two minutes in for the first one.)

I have hidden your word in my heart

It's going to be hard to explain how excited I am about these books, but I'll give it a go. Up in the top left we have exactly what I've been looking for: Las Grandes Doctrinas De La Biblia by RC Sproul. Each doctrine takes no more than a page or two (and there are some weighty ones - predestination, the omniscience of God, the marks of a true church), and is concluded with a very brief, point-form summary and a list of relevant Bible verses. Coming to understand these truths can turn your life around and is just what I hope to be part of here.

Heading clockwise we have the little-but-mighty La Vida Cruzcéntrica (The Cross Centered Life) by CJ Mahaney. If while I'm here, I only help people learn one thing, it would be what's in this book (and the other Book): that what Jesus did for us on that cross won us everything and is the basis of all in our lives. And gosh, does this little number look like such a help.

Next we have the NVI (Nueva Versión Internacional) Comentario Biblico Con Aplicación: Romanos by Douglas J Moo, and over on the bottom left one on Lucas by Darrel L Bock. Much more accessible than Moo's other (English-language, NICNT) commentary, it still deals with the texts in some depth. Taking roughly five to ten verses at a time, this commentary series looks first at the 'Original Meaning' ('Sentido Original'), followed by 'Building Bridges' ('Construyendo Puentes') in which the authors figure out what are the truths that apply to the world today, and finally 'Contemporary Significance' (Significado Contemporaneo') in which their implication is explored. Like the books I've already mentioned, this is exactly what I want to be passing on to 'my women'.

The final two are perhaps a little more sexy ;). Batallando Con La Incredulidad by John Piper looks at what help the Bible offers to people struggling with anxiety, pride, shame, impatience, greed, bitterness, discouragement and lust. And Doce Mujeres Extraordinarias by John MacArthur looks at what the lives of twelve women in the Bible have to teach us today.

Clearly I need to find some latin authors to supplement these guys, but it's good to start with folks you know and trust. Can't wait to get going!

Another normal

1. "no" in Australia = "maybe, I'm not sure..." in Chile
2. "yay!" in Australia = "awesome! yes! great!" ("¡bakan! ¡sí! ¡bueno!") in Chile
3. pointing with your finger or head in Australia = pointing with pursed lips in Chile (I'll have to get you a photo of this one)
4. "ouch!" in Australia = "ay!" in Chile
5. emoticons :) :/ :( :D :} in Australia = repetition of maaaaaaaaaaaaany vowels in Chile (I think) (eg "how gorgeous! :D" = "¡qué liiiiiiiiiiiindo!")
6. punctuation: "Bob said, 'bottom', and everyone heard him!" in Australia = ― Bob said, <<bottom>> and ¡everyone heard him! ― in Chile
7. "yum!" in Australia = "¡qué rico!" in Chile
8. greeting people with "hi! how are you?" in Australia = "hi! how are you?" ("¡hola! ¿cómo estás?") and a kiss on the cheek in Chile
9. enthusiastically waving goodbye in Australia = a kiss on the cheek in Chile
10. saying "please" and "thank you" at every possible opportunity in Australia = saving them for when you really mean them in Chile

I rock... I suck

I'm at a funny stage in my language learning. For a little while now I've been able to understand pretty much 100% of 40 minute sermons, without making any particular effort. Obviously this is really nice. And yet, I still find that I don't always know what people are saying in conversations - sometimes I can do little more than catch the general topic. It's weird and sometimes discouraging.

The other weird thing is how much the context affects what I can say. In the unreal, quiet, concentration of my Spanish lessons I can say a fair bit and get a good portion of it right. But when I go to speak in a social setting, I find myself incapable of thinking very much at all about how to do it. Most of the grammar I know goes out the window and I'm left forming these ugly, confused sentences, relying on the graciousness and intelligence of my listeners to decipher what I've said. I think it happens because the very fact of being part of a social situation uses a lot of my energy. I think it's to do with being an introvert. Anyway, it's weird and sometimes discouraging.

more than 42º south

Fortunately (thanks to God), I'm slow to get homesick. Though in truth, I haven't had much opportunity. I've lived away from Tasmania for nine years all up, but for most of that time I visited home every six months or so. The longest I've been away was during my year and a half in England and Ireland, and I got homesick at the end of the year. Anyway, all this is to say that I haven't felt homesick yet and am hopeful that I won't any time soon.

There is one thing that tugs at my heart though... the south of Chile. I almost can't look at photos - the land looks so much like the Tassie wilderness it kindof breaks my heart. I don't know why this should be - I should rejoice that I find myself in an equally (even more?) beautiful and familiar country on the other side of the globe. Yet it does.

Last Wednesday I went to the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural with Emy, the boys, and Emy's abuela. The section on Antarctica put me in mind of the same section in the Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery - even the information about the indigenous peoples made me think of home. But really it is very nice to feel familiar with a whole section of what makes Chile. For there's a whole heap of flora and fauna that's utterly new to me - I lack even the knowledge of a kid.

                                       Chile (or Tasmania?)
                                       from Ken Hornbrook

Foreigners on earth

It's a strange life, the missionary one. You willfully uproot yourself from all you know, and, when you get to your new land, work hard to become like one of the locals in the hope of saving some. But because in this you're not alone - because you're only here thanks to the support and prayers of folks back (in your original) home (and because you love them), you return to them from time-to-time. As you do, you repeat again and again the whole process of uprooting and replanting, uprooting and replanting. Naturally, all this can be unsettling and, well, just wierd. But it does bring a singular blessing. Here's what I wrote to some other missionaries heading back to Australia for a time...

(From Hebrews 11:8-10 & 16) "By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country . . . For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God . . . . [T]hey were longing for a better country - a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them."

May this crazy, unsettling time remind you that, together with your brothers and sisters in Christ, you are foreigners and strangers on earth. And may you know peace and joy as you look for a country of your own, a better country than Chile or Australia, a heavenly one. Praise Jesus for making us perfect, so we can live in that perfect place.