Time Is On My Side, Yes It Is

I love it when people ask me to pray that God teaches them patience.

I always tell them that they really don't want me to do that.

"What?" they always respond incredulously. "How in the world can a pastor not want to pray that God teaches me patience?"

"Because if I do that," I always respond, "then God is going to fill your life with seasons of waiting and tests of your impatience. Is that what you really want?"

Usually they fall silent at that point.

If you really do want to learn about patience, however, then I invite you to come and minister here in Peru.

A simple banking transaction can take 2 hours to complete.

A simple trip to the central post office can last for 6 hours.

I am not making this up.

We recently had to close one bank account (remember that blog post?), open a new account, and transfer money into the new account. It would've been easier for us to just open our own Savings & Loan. There were a mountain of forms to fill out, finger prints to take, ID checks to verify, signatures to examine, passports to photocopy, and I think even a blood sample or two. Then there was a problem because one signature contained my middle initial and another one did not, so of course, as the reasoning went, one of the signatures must've been phony. Then the bank manager was at lunch, and she had to give her final approval to everything. 2 hours from start to finish. And we still had to go back a week later for our ATM cards!

People make an entire day out of a trip to the central post office in Lima. We once received a notice that someone had sent us a package, and that we had to retrieve said package at the central post office, so off we went. There had to be 200 people inside the post office. The idea of an orderly line was non-existent. It was more like a cattle herd, with people fighting and shoving and yelling and cutting in line. We went from one line to a second to a third to a fourth, then we had to exit the post office and go to the bank to pay a fee, then we had to return to the post office with the stamped receipt from the bank, then a postal worker finally retrieved our package, opened it up, and told us that we'd have to pay an additional tax, which meant another trip to the bank, another stamped receipt, and another line when we returned back to the post office. 6 hours from start to finish.

In the USA, I used to get antsy if I stood in line at the post office for more than 10 minutes. Now I just dream about those days.

Do you really want to learn patience? Then just come to Lima and open up a bank account and go to the post office.

Fat Cows & Skinny Cows

We were just in South Florida for a week, visitng FRC in Cooper City, attending various meetings and book studies, and bringing back materials for our Easter services here in Lima.

While we were in South Florida, we also visited a few malls, and they all were pretty empty. Even the people who were in the malls seemed to be spending more time window-shopping than buying, even as huge signs in store windows trumpeted discounts of 60% or more.

This financial crisis is beginning to remind me of the story of Joseph. In Genesis 41, Joseph interprets the dreams of Pharaoh. In one of Pharaoh's dreams, seven ugly, skinny cows ate up seven fat cows. Joseph interpreted this dream to mean that Egypt would have seven years of abundance, and then seven years of famine, and that they'd better start getting ready for the seven lean years that were coming.

I think this worldwide financial crisis means that we've begun seven years (or more) of skinny cows. What famine was to Egypt thousands of years ago is today manifested in bank failures, mortgage foreclosures, sub-prime lending scams, Wall Street greed and corruption, rising unemployment, currency instability, commodity price volatility, and an increased level of stress, tension, and desperation worldwide.

Joseph prepared Egypt for seven years' worth of skinny cows, and the country survived. You need to be preparing your ministry - today - for the same thing. If you haven't started to do so yet, then you'd better start immediately.

United Nations Day @ FRC-Lima!

Today at FRC-Lima, we had first-time guests from the USA, Peru, Canada, Norway, South Korea, and Australia! First-time guests from 6 different nations! It can be a lot of fun to be an "international church" - or a "Benetton church", as one of our FRC-Lima leaders calls us. There are some Sundays when it seems like the United Nations could hold its General Assembly right in our movie theater!

Sunshine On A Cloudy Day

We're having a huge luau at the beach today for all of the students at FRC-Lima, complete with sun, surf, sports, games, music (including the Beach Boys!), and other surprises. About 100 students are expected to attend, and we've rented three big buses to take everyone to the beach at Punta Rocas, which is about 45 minutes south of Lima, and features some of the biggest surf waves in the world.

At 7:00 this morning it was cloudy and gray in Lima, but we prayed for sunshine, and by mid-morning the sun was shining bright and hot, and everybody was pumped and jacked to go to the beach for the luau.

On Sundays, however, I never pray for sunshine.

I always pray for cloudy Sundays.

I am probably the only person in Lima to pray for cloudy Sundays.

Why do I pray for cloudy Sundays?

Because the wall of the lobby in the cinema where we have FRC-Lima consists of 4 stories of plate glass. When it is sunny on Sunday, and especially in the summer, the lobby becomes an oven. We have two large, commercial-grade air conditioners in the lobby, plus three tower-style floor fans, but even all that does little to combat the sun blazing in through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the cinema.

So I pray for cloudy Sundays, so that it'll be cooler in the lobby.

By May, however, when summer begins to turn to fall in Lima, it'll probably be cloudy most Sundays.

But until then, I'm not praying for sunshine on a cloudy day.

The Floodgates Of Heaven

There is a family at FRC-Lima which has faithfully served the church in a variety of leadership and volunteer positions, and always at a very high level. They travel 90 minutes by public bus, each way, to be with us on Sunday mornings. They also always have been very faithful with their tithe, even in the middle of some very challenging financial circumstances. Recently, this family approached Dorcas and me, and told us how they had received a large financial bonus, totally unexpected, and the first thing that they wanted to do was to tithe 10% of their bonus to the church!

This family is a living example of God's promise in Malachi 3:10 (NIV), when He says, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it."

This family brought their whole tithe into the storehouse, faithfully, and so God threw open the floodgates of heaven for this family! This is a wonderful story and an important lesson for us in ministry to keep in mind as we worry and fret in the middle of this worldwide financial crisis. If we are faithful to God with our tithes and offerings, then He will be faithful to us with His blessings.

Mop It Up!

As many of you know, we have FRC-Lima in a 300-seat cinema in Lima, Peru. We arrive early on Sunday morning, at 7:00 AM, in order to do all of the set-up for the first service which begins at 9:00 AM.

Many Sunday mornings when we arrive at the cinema, the place looks like a disaster area. There are mountains of popcorn all over the place, and rivers of Coca-Cola cascading down the stairs. The cinema has a cleaning staff that is supposed to make it all look perfect by 9:00 AM, but there are some Sundays when there's only one cleaning person in the cinema, and he or she is facing a losing battle against Popcorn Mountain and Coca-Cola River.

So what do I do when I see this problem? What do I do when I see an avalanche of popcorn and a tidal wave of Coca-Cola threatening to do us in?

I grab a mop.

And I begin to mop the floor, and clean it of all the sticky, dark Coca-Cola stains on it.

It is important for me, as the Campus Pastor at FRC-Lima, to show all of our leaders and volunteers that I am not above cleaning Coca-Cola off the floor.

It can be very easy for those of us in leadership positions in international ministry to try to be above certain types of work. And, honestly, I will be the first to admit to you that cleaning Coca-Cola from the floor is not exactly my favorite thing to do in the whole world. But it's important that I do it, and it's important that our leaders and volunteers see me do it, for then they, too, pick up a broom or mop and lend a hand, and the job gets done quicker.

In Matthew 20:28 (NIV), Jesus talks about how He "did not come to be served, but to serve." It is always important to keep that verse in mind, particularly for those in leadership positions in international ministry. Don't fall into the trap of being "above it all." Jesus served. So must we.

Cheering Us On

International ministry can sometimes beat you down. You may be dealing with language challenges, cultural challenges, homesickness challenges, denominational challenges, and now - more than ever - financial challenges. You may feel unappreciated and all alone as you minister.

But you're not all alone.

You've got a huge crowd cheering you on as you run the race marked out for you.

Hebrews 12:1 (NIV) tells us that "we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses ...." The Message Version of Hebrews 12:1 talks about "all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on ...." We've got a lot of saints in heaven looking down and cheering loud at us as we take on the challenges of international ministry.

I've always been a sports fan, and I've attended the World Series, the World Cup, the Summer Olympics, and boxing title fights. I've been part of a crowd of 80,000 people cheering on an Olympic athlete as he wins a gold medal. There is nothing like it! The moment is beyond electric! And that's what we have going for us, too, in international ministry. Billions of saints in heaven are cheering us on as we fight the good fight and bring people to the feet of Jesus Christ! Don't let the challenges of international minstry get you down! The heavenly crowd is cheering you on! Run the race! Go for the gold! The saints are on their feet, and they're cheering - and they're cheering for you!

Phantom Dogs

A few posts back, I told you about donkey dogs, which are hot dogs made out of donkey meat. They're not too tasty, but they're common in the provinces of Peru.

Today I'm here to tell you about phantom dogs.

Last night I was in a restaurant in Lima (the restaurant shall remain nameless in order to protect the guilty). I ordered a hot dog to go. About 15 minutes later I was handed my order, already wrapped, boxed up, bagged, and ready to go. I paid for it and left the restaurant.

When I got home, I opened up the bag, opened up the box, unwrapped the butcher block paper ... and found an empty hot dog bun.

The restaurant had sent me just the bun. There was no hot dog anywhere!

I know things are tough with this worldwide financial crisis that we're all facing, but it's truly getting ridiculous when there are phantom dogs on the menu at the restaurants in Lima!

Like Money In The Bank

As if trying to fight off this worldwide financial crisis is not enough work to do, Lima also has been beset recently by an epidemic of cloned credit cards, ATM cards, and even bank checks. Forgers and pirates and con artists are everywhere. You can even buy stolen credit cards, ATM cards, and cell phones on the black market in Lima. The authorities have done little to stop it.

As part of this crime wave, someone recently tried to access our bank account here in Lima. And that someone was not me or my wife. The bank automatically blocked and then closed the account, once it caught on to the attempted fraud. That's great - except that the bank never communicated their actions to us!

Yes, it's true: the bank (which shall remain nameless to protect the guilty) closed our account without even telling us. And they had all of our contact information, too! We only learned of the closing during a routine account check on our part.

We now have to open a new account, but due to the turtle-like speed of banks here in Lima, we will not have access to the new account for at least several days. A simple phone call by the bank could have prevented all this, or at least could have expedited matters.

In these days of Internet scams, phony e-mails, cloned credit cards and ATM cards, and other assorted con jobs , and particularly as they mushroom during this worldwide financial crisis, it is beyond important that you pay close attention to any and all bank accounts that you control. It is probably a good idea to have at least two separate bank accounts open at any one time, just in case somethig happens to one of them, as happened to us. Forgers, pirates, and con artists are everywhere, and they love to prey on unsuspecting international churches and ministries. While you are "praying", they are "preying"! Keep alert, and watch all of your bank account movements very carefully. Don't be a victim!

Should I Stay Or Should I Go

We were supposed to travel from Lima to Miami on Sunday night but, after a 2-hour delay, our flight was cancelled due to mechanical problems. OK, that's understandable. It happens. Better to cancel the flight than to get on board an airplane that could do a quick nosedive into the Pacific Ocean.

But then all chaos broke out at the Lima airport. 300 rabid passengers, all upset at having their flight cancelled, and also all bleary-eyed and cranky since it was now after midnight, converged on the American Airlines counters at the airport, screaming for new connections, seat upgrades, hotel and meal vouchers, and various other forms of pounds of flesh. AA had a grand total of 3 people trying to help out an angry throng of 300. That didn't cut the mustard at all. The line snaked its way through the airport, and it took all night to take care of everyone. I'm sure some people saw the sun rise as they waited to re-route. We wound up having to postpone our trip to Miami for two weeks, given upcoming full flights from Lima to Miami.

We wound up hanging out with mission groups from Canada and Germany at the airport, trading tales of woe in English, Spanish, French, and German. They missed connecting flights to Canada and Germany because of the Lima flight cancellation. At least everyone - among the Canadians, Germans, and us - kept their cool during the AA debacle.

Lesson learned: If you're going to be public about your Christianity at the airport, then you better learn to keep cool when they cancel your flight.

Chopsticks & Childlike Faith

I just finished re-reading a terrific book by Michael Yaconelli called "Dangerous Wonder: The Adventure of Childlike Faith." In this great book, originally published in 1998, Yaconelli "invites you to recapture the joy of being a child and apply it to your relationship with God. You'll be encouraged to ask difficult questions about faith and take Jesus at His word when He says, 'Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.'"

As Yaconelli states, "Jump first. Fear later."

It's so easy for us involved in international ministry to lose our childlike faith and become cynical, hardened adults instead. We do this even as we continue to call and consider ourselves believers and Christ followers. But we've got to get back to a childlike faith, just as Jesus says, in order to receive the kingdom of God. The NIV Study Bible comments that if we want to be become like the little child of whom Jesus speaks, then we need to become "trusting and unpretentious."

At the end of "Dangerous Wonder", Yaconelli concludes, "As you look at your life, as you contemplate embracing the faith of a little child, as you wonder what difference your bumbling, flawed life will make, I hope you've heard in the pages of this book God's whispering voice, 'Don't stop! Keep on playing! You're doing great!' One day we'll all be gathered in that great concert hall of God, and we'll hear the glorious beauty of the concerto God was playing while you and I plunked out our childlike version of 'Chopsticks.'"

Heed the words of Michael Yaconelli. Plunk away at the "Chopsticks" in your life and ministry, and then listen to what beautiful music God will make with it!

Donkey Dogs

I recently had the opportunity to sample donkey dogs here in Lima.

What are donkey dogs?

Donkey dogs are hot dogs made out of donkey meat.

I already see some of you grimacing!

Donkey dogs were not the tastiest hot dogs that I'd ever enjoyed. They were a little gamey, and not very flavorful, but that was about it. I didn't get sick after eating them, but then again they're never going to be on my Top 10 list of favorite things to eat in Peru.

However, I did win big-time "brownie points" with the locals who served me the donkey dogs. They were delighted that a gringo was willing to share in this local delicacy (although I use the word "delicacy" quite lightly). Downing a couple of donkey dogs enabled me to connect with them and meet them where they were, from both a cultural and gastronomic standpoint.

I don't know if they have donkey dogs wherever in the world that you are doing ministry, or what might be the local equivalent of donkey dogs, but be careful not to stick your nose in the air and refuse to eat something local just because it looks weird or is something that you've never had before. Don't lose an opportunity to connect culturally and gastronomically in this way. It might wind up endearing you to the locals and boosting your ministry big-time.

Sign Of The Times

How do you sign your name?

My full name is "Stephen D. Guschov." I almost never write every single letter of my name when I am signing something. More often than not, my signature consists of a cursive "S", then a cursive "G", and then a long slash or line.

Last week, I prepared a check to reimburse one of our FRC-Lima leaders for expenses related to our Extreme Week for kids that we have every year at a large, two-story Kentucky Fried Chicken here in Lima. When the leader went to the bank to try to cash the check, the bank teller told her that the bank would not cash the check for her, because I hadn't written out every single letter of my name in my signature!

The bank teller was saying, in effect, that even though my signature was authentic, a cursive "S", a cursive "G", and then a long slash was not good enough for them to cash the check. So I had to write a new check. And, very slowly and deliberately, I signed my name "Stephen D. Guschov." Every single letter was very neat and very legible. My kindergarten teacher would've been very proud of me.

I felt bad in this case, most of all, for our leader, as she was delayed for a few days from receiving her money, due to the fact that the bank would not accept an authentically-signed check. Peru is beset by falsification problems these days, but it seems as though the focus is on the wrong area when it comes to trying to solve this problem. You could say it's a "sign" of the times!

Back To School

Today is the first day of school in Peru. The Peruvian school year runs from March to December. Summer vacation runs from Christmas to March 1.

One of the things that we have done as an outreach here at FRC-Lima is to donate school supplies to needy children, particularly in the shantytowns and at the orphanages that we support. This has included backpacks, notebooks, pens, pencils, rulers, glue sticks, scissors, crayons, and any other necessary supplies, and all geared to the specific age of the child who is the recipient.

The start of the school year - whenever it is and wherever you are - presents you and your ministry with a great opportunity to partner with schools and teachers and families and children in your community. Take advantage of it!

Proverbs 22:6 (NLT) - "Teach your children to choose the right path, and when they are older, they will remain upon it."

Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young (CSNY) - "Teach your children well ...."