The Ability / Inability To Take A Hit

If you have been following the news lately, you know that the Pope has stirred up a hornet's nest by implying that Muhommed was 'evil & inhuman.' Actually, he was quoting a 14th century Byzantine emperor who said, "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." [It is curious that for many, the historical record of Mohommed's actions is absolutely irrelevant. And as John Gibson at FoxNews notes, "As The Times and TIME magazine and others have pointed out, it's hard to think of another religion that presently calls for war and death as the method of bringing the faith to the unenlightened."]

Now regardless of what you think of the Pope's comments, many folks are left scratching their heads that a religious and social phenomenom that wants to be taken seriously as the essence of peace simultaneously calls for violence when anyone insults, criticizes, or calls into question the actions and / or teachings of Muhommed /Islam. For example, the cries have gone out that the Pope must be executed. Death to the Pope. A nun was shot and attacks upon churches in Palestine have increased. Protesting outside Westminster Abbey, Anjem Choudary said, "The Muslims take their religion very seriously and non-Muslims must appreciate that and they must also understand that there may be serious consequences if you insult Islam and the prophet....Whoever insults the message of Mohammed is going to be subject to capital punishment....I think that warning needs to be understood by all people who want to insult Islam and want to insult the prophet of Islam."

All this is to say that I believe that Islam is fundamentally incapable of 'taking a hit.' For all their talk of Allah being merciful, Allah is not capable of taking a hit. Contrast this with Christianity's teaching that God took on flesh in the person of Jesus Christ and took THE ULTIMATE hit when he was beaten, stripped, humilliated, insulted, and crucified.

If you didn't read Piper's excellent article on "Being Insulted" when all the hullabaloo erupted when the Danish cartoonist characterized Muhommed, then you should check it out. Piper says,

"The work of Muhammad is based on being honored and the work of Christ is based on being insulted. This produces two very different reactions to mockery....That’s the most basic difference between Christ and Muhammad and between a Muslim and a follower of Christ. For Christ, enduring the mockery of the cross was the essence of his mission. And for a true follower of Christ enduring suffering patiently for the glory of Christ is the essence of obedience. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account” (Matthew 5:11). During his life on earth Jesus was called a bastard (John 8:41), a drunkard (Matthew 11:19), a blasphemer (Matthew 26:65), a devil (Matthew 10:25); and he promised his followers the same: “If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household” (Matthew 10:25)....It means that a religion with no insulted Savior will not endure insults to win the scoffers. It means that this religion is destined to bear the impossible load of upholding the honor of one who did not die and rise again to make that possible. It means that Jesus Christ is still the only hope of peace with God and peace with man."

Lord, give us the ability to follow the Lord Jesus and to take hits for His glory--not only to take them, but also to rejoice in them.

"Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church..." (Colossians 1:24).


"...and when they [i.e., the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council] had called in the Apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, [and shouted death to their enemies? threatened violence & terrorism? No, they left...]rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name" (Acts 5:40-41).

Update: My good friend, Brian Franklin, sent me this commentary by Chuck Colson.

"Humility" by CJ Mahaney

From time to time, I want to share with you some of the stuff that I am reading that is impacting my life. A man for who I have great respect and whom I have only discovered in the last few years is CJ Mahaney. I have several of his books, including Living The Cross-Centered Life and Why Small Groups? The book I'm currently reading is called Humility and it is a gem. Coming in at around 160 pages (& small ones at that), it is easily digestible and packs a powerful punch.

He begins by quoting Isaiah 66:2, and then contends, "Humility draws the gaze of our Sovereign God." Ponder that.

Here are some other great quotes...

"The real issue here is not if pride exists in your heart; it's where pride exists and how pride is being expressed in your life" (p. 29).

Quoting Charles Bridges, Mahaney perceptively says that pride "lifts up one's heart against God" and "contends for supremacy" with Him (p. 31). "Lord, in that moment, I was contending for supremacy with You. Tha'ts what it was all about. Forgive me."

In another section, Mahaney refers to the need to humbly accept sleep as a gift. He encourages us to pray at night, "Lord, thank You for this gift. The fact that I'm so tired is a reminder that the I am the creature and only You are the Creator. Only You neither slumber nor sleep, while for me, sleep is something I cannot go without. Thank You for this gracious, humbling, refreshing gift" (p. 84).

I'll have more to come from this book. I'd encourage all my friends to get this book and seek to learn to be more like Christ.

Friday Night RUF

This past Friday night, I had the privIilege of preaching for the first time at our RUF meeting (known previously & locally as the Society of Saint Augustine, or SSA). I taught about the Lord Jesus & the forgiveness of sins from Luke's Gospel and Bill Bradford translated for me. We had about 25-30 students for the evening. Pastor Geraldo has done a great job of gathering students here, and we are excited about what the future holds!!! Here are some pictures of the evening:

Language Mistakes

I'm sure that it will not be the last, but I made my first (at least that I'm aware of) embarrassing mistake in speaking Spanish. I took a taxi the other day and told my taxi cab driver that I am new to Trujillo and I am anxious to learn much. I said that I wanted to learn about his city, his people, his language and his "país" which means country or nation, but what I said instead is that I wanted to get to know his "pies" which means feet. When I saw his face drop, I reiterated it thinking that I just didn't articulate it well.

I'm just glad he didn't make me get out of the car right then!

Colton Boy is 7!!!

I can't believe it. I no longer have any young children. On Wednesday, Colton turned seven years old, which just makes us feel very old now. All the Peruvians are amazed that we have 5 children all between the ages of 7 & 11!

Here are some pics of the bday party we had for him. We had a great time for the special boy!

A Friend, Brother, & Father in the Faith

Knox & Ginger Chamblin
One of the great privileges of my life was to study at Reformed Theological Seminary--Jackson under Dr. Knox Chamblin. I studied Pauline Epistles, Greek, and the Parables of Luke in Greek with him during my years of study. Knox and his lovely wife, Ginger, have come to Peru for the week to participate in our first ever Spiritual Life Conference for the mission team.
Our Mission Team at a Retreat Center

We have had a great time studying the Scriptures, reflecting on life and mission, and the cause of the Gospel in this world. Knox and Ginger have been great examples to me and my wife, and we hope that the Lord will find us faithful as the Chamblins have been faithful in serving Him throughout the years. They are such a great inspiration to "fight the good fight" and to finish well.

John & Heather get some quality time with the Chamblins
Knox is also teaching a module this week on the Parables of Matthew for our churches, seminarians, and other believers in the area. Last night, we had 50+ in attendance. Please pray for the endurance of the Chamblins, and for the fruitfulenss of their minsitry here.

John, Heather, & Alonzo Ramirez listening to Knox teach on doing what is necessary over what is urgent (cf. Luke 10:38-42)

A Glorious Mess!!!

We wanted to let all our friends back home know that we finally got our stuff late Thursday night (around 9pm) after spending all day trying to get it released from the port. It was like having Christmas in September. Our kids definitely thought so! And although our house is a complete wreck, it is absolutely beautiful.


I think the most beautiful thing was being able to sleep in our own beds. It's like being on vacation for a while and longing to get home to sleep in your own bed, know the feeling? We went approximately 57 days without our belongings. Second to the bed was our couches, and how can you rank long lost books (I still can't find a few that I was particularly looking forward to holding again. I'm sure they will show up.

At any rate, thanks for your prayers and encouragement. We finally feel like we can settle down and begin a routine.

Please Pray for our Stuff

This seems on the one hand like a very silly request: would you all join us in praying that our possessions will arrive here? Actually, it is sitting in the port here in Trujillo and has been since a week ago Monday (at least we know its not at the bottom of the sea!!!). As we are finding out, Peruvian red tape is very thick. We initially shipped our stuff here on July 7th hoping it would arrive here the day after we did (July 27th). But we still don't have it and we're coming up on our two month anniversary of living out of suitcases.

So, pleas join us in praying that our stuff will be released on Thursday (today is actually a holiday for Santa Rosa so no one is working today).

Our New Church at Arevelo

Peru Mission aids in the work of three churches here, Wichinzau, Larco, & Arevalo. This past week, I had the privilege of preaching from Luke 7 at the new church plant in Arevalo. This is the same church that our Spring Break mission team from Texas A&M RUF and Westminster Pres worked on. Please pray for Pastors Eduardo and Percy (who works with the youth as he attends seminary). These brothers are working hard to bring the light of the Gospel to neighborhood of Arevalo and to city of Trujillo. Here is a picture of the newly painted inside of the church.

Justin's Bday!

I can't believe it, but I now officially have an 11 year old kid! Last week, we celebrated Justin's 11th bday with all the missionary families and some of the SALI interns. We went to Rokie's, where the kids played on a big playground (like you'd find a McDonalds) and we ate chicken. Justin drank his new favorite soft drink, Inca Cola, and had a great time with all his friends here.

Jason & Justin with his new Inca Cola tshirt
Justin with some of the kids here

Learning Spanish

Ever since we made the decision to move to Peru, the necessity of learning Spanish has always been on our minds. While we had time here and there to learn some Spanish while we were in Texas, we never could devote a lot of our time and attention to it. Well, that's all changed now. I'm very grateful for what I have learned so far, but we need to grow so much more in the months to come.

I thought I would take a moment to tell those who are interested what we have found helpful in terms of resources. First and foremost (and most expensive) is the Rosetta Stone Spanish program for use on the computer. This program mimicks immersion, doesn't translate anything for you, and I have enjoyed it immensely. One resource that set us to speaking Spanish right away was a book that Heather found in her homeschool resources called Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish. This book makes learning Spanish enjoyable, and has lots of practice examples to help get the feel of the language.

One surprise find I came across while doing a search on Amazon for Spanish CDs. Behind the Wheel Spanish Vol. 1, Vol. 2 & Vol. 3 are all very useful to train your ear to hear Spanish as well as to practice speaking. You can listen to them while driving, excercising, showering, etc. The English speaker asks, for example, "How would you say, 'to eat', is Spanish?" And the Spanish speaker will repeat twice with an ample pause for you to repeat, "Comer. Comer." To my surprise, the Spanish speaker on Vol. 1 is actually a native Peruvian. What are the chances? as Calvin might say.

Of course, one must master verbs if one is going to communicate, no? There are multiple spanish verb books out there, but the one I like most and chose is called, simply, "Spanish Verb Workbook." The explanations are very simple and helpful. Plus there are lots of practice drills. Other books in the same genre that we have found useful are Practice Makes Perfect: Complete Spanish Grammer and Spanish Verb Tenses. And you simply must have The Big Red Book of Spanish Verbs which has 555 of the most common verbs fully conjugated for you.

And of course, no student of Spanish should be without their dictionaries. Our desktop dictionary is the Oxford Spanish Dictionary and the handy pokect guide we have is Random House Webster's Handy Spanish Dictionary.

As I tell folks here, "Yo puedo hablar español un poco, leer mas, pero no puedo eschucharlo muy bien." I don't know if I'm saying that correctly, but in my mind what I'm saying is, "I can speak a little Spanish, read more, but I cannot hear it very well." But the good thing is that many people here are understanding and patient and encouraging. Heather and I will start with our tutor our mission's San Agustin Language Institute, either next week or the following, depending on how quickly we can get our stuff out of the port and unpacked at our house.

At any rate, that's enough procrastinating. Back to studying Spanish. ¡Chau!

The Good News...& the Bad (sort of)

The Good News
Let me start by issuing an apology for the silence on our blog. We have had limited access to the internet, and we finally got our internet set up at our house yesterday. Yes, we finally found a house and moved into it this past Wednesday. It took a bit of time to get it. The landlady showed it to us the first Saturday we were here, but didn't bring the contract, so it wasn't until a week later that we were able to sign a rental agreement. After cleaning it for a few days, we moved in last Wednesday. Here is a picture:


It is a nice two-story house with four bedrooms. We have essentially the same setup as we did back home in Texas: Justin & Kevin share a room, as do Colton & Jason. Miranda has her own room which was conveniently painted Pepto-bismol pink, which is simply too much for me, but if you know that Miranda's middle name is "Pink" (no, not really, but it might as well be), you know she couldn't be happier with it. I, of course, share a room with my most favorite person in the world, which is just the way I like it.

As you can see from the picture, the houses here are built against each other, and everyone has security bars on their windows. We have one of the few houses in our whole neighborhood that has a front porch. Heather and I sit out there often, saying ¡Hola! to whoever passes. Yesterday, a man from Scotland stopped by and told us (with a great Scottish accent) that he is the headmaster of a private school here!!! It is ,however, hard to get to know the neighbors since most houses are built behind 10-12 foot walls with broken glass & other sharp objects protruding from them designed to impale would-be intruders. But we are doing our best to meet and greet the folks that walk around the park that is our front yard essentially.


This is the view we have looking out the front of our house. It is a little slice of paradise in the middle of the desert coast of Trujillo. Our kids love playing freeze tag, hide & seek, and let's-roll-around-in-the-grass games. They are loving having this space to play in, especially since we have a tiny backyard. You can see the foothills of the Andes Mountains in the background which is often hard to see because of the hazy skies. We are in the middle of winter now, which means that the highs are in the upper 60's and the lows are in the upper 50s. I'm tempted to say that it gets chilly here, but I know that all my friends back in the states, especially in TX, would kill me for saying that. So I won't.


Another great benefit to living here is that we live right across the park from the Bradford's. They have four children. Their oldest, Mollie, is 9, and they have a son, William, who is right in between Jason & Colton in terms of age. They have two other kids, Hannah, and Andrew, and all of our kids have a great time with each other.

The Bad News (well, really just "frustrating" news)

I said earlier that we moved in. That is technically correct in that we are sleeping in it, but we haven't "moved in." The reason for that is that the container that we shipped to Peru has not arrived yet. Actually, it is due into the port in Trujillo today, and it will probally take a few days to get all the paper work in order. It was originally supposed to be here on Aug 5 (10 days ago!), but it sat in a port in Panama because of an accountant's error. This annoyance is mixed with blessing because it has allowed us the benefit of cleaning and painting the inside of our house (the living room was mustard yellow!!!). But we are really eager to get our stuff. Heather and I would simply love to be able to come home and sit on our soft couches!!!

Once we get our house set up, then I think it will be easier to get into a routine. If my watch didn't tell me the day of the week, I would simply be lost. We have been filling our time getting things we need and studying Spanish on our own as well as practicing with anyone who would be willing to talk.

Let me tell you, it is so frustrating not being able to speak the language well. For example, one of the men working on our house today saw a book on the table that I have been reading called, Reinventing Jesus [which is a good book about the modern insanity among so-called scholars & the popular media which is reinventing Jesus after their/its own desires]. He asked about it and then asked us about what we believe, and together, my wife and I fumbled through the Gospel in our broken Spanish. We invited him to our church, so we shall see. But nevertheless, it is very frustrating knowing what I want to say and not being able to find the Spanish words to speak them (yes, that is a prayer request!!!).

Having Fun & Being Silly in Peru

Beware of Missionary Kids!!!

This is what could happen if you let your children play with missionary kids! The other night, we were over at the Baker's house and Colton "I- Can- Never- Get- Enough- Attention" Ferguson allowed himself to do the unthinkable...



And yes, I was mocking him. It's part of the strategy to set things right.

Note: Lest there be any concern that Colton wasn't enjoying this, he even came back and asked to have his picture taken.