Arme/Desarme

In this time before I can communicate well, I've been helping out my church in less expressive ways. So I said yes to heading up a small team that sets up and takes down (arme y desarme) all the chairs and other equipment in the school gym where we have church. There are a few other teams, so mine is on about once a month. It's been something of a small introduction to Chilean culture. For most of the year, I haven't gone to very much effort to remind my team or get them to confirm (I don't like talking on the phone), but then the chairs were always stacked up at the back of the gym so it wasn't a big deal if one or two people didn't show. But lately the chairs have been in another part of the school, a million miles away. We still get the job done but it means that the ol' faithfuls who are always there early, responsible for other stuff, have to pitch in.

Yesterday the Arme/Desarme leaders all (or mostly all) had lunch at the coordinator's house. Juan Esteban stopped in and told us to:

• aim for excellence and hard work, because we are serving God;
• remember that, like ourselves, our team-members are 'jars of clay' - so that, as we encourage or even gently admonish them, we can do it without judging them;
• pray these things for our team;
• create a sense of identity, first of all by having them over to lunch and encouraging them in the work.

So that's what you do in this culture! Not so very different a response from Australia afterall :).