9/21/05

I just can't imagine living in the same place my whole life. I can't imagine never having any dreams I could chase down. I was talking to a Catholic nun tonight at the school here in Campo Gallo, she was saying that she has the same problem I did in Nicaragua as a teacher. The kids don't care to learn. She teaches English but finds a whole lot of apathy there. She said that the reality is - these kids have no incentives to learn anything. It is rare to go to college for them, so why pay attention in school if you're going to make the same wages as if you don't know English. There is no point. I wonder sometimes what I am fighting for. Am I a rare thinker that wishes all children could have a chance at a decent education so they can have more options than doing what their father did? Is it a pointless dream to have? I think of kids like Palao and imagine if in 50 years he'll be living in the same basic lifestyle - torn shirts and dried skin hoping to survive. He doesn't know any better than the life he lives but should he be taught there is better and he can have better? But then I must define the word better - for surely I cannot mean become a part of the proletariat class. That is where I put my pencil down and claim I cannot solve this equation. Maybe I should sit down and think, what do I really want these kids to have? Is my mind so cluttered by scenes of kids in the middle of toy stores. Sure I would love to take Palao to Toys-R-Us but what good would that really do, except place in him a mindset of how materialism brings happiness. Love. Opportunity. Intelligence. Heaven. I suppose those are the things I want for him and for Junior and Anibal and Gabrielle and Celene and Ronaldo....

From the South to the Deep South

Thirty-four hours of traveling, 26 suitcases, 10 men and three women with one purpose: to glorify God. On September 16-25, 13 Men and Woman of Action left the Big Macs and clean running water of Thomasville, NC, behind to spend five days in the dusty streets of Campo Gallo, a village in the province of Santiago, Argentina, to build a pastoral training center with the Iglesia de Dios of Campo Gallo. Pastor Oscar Padilla had a team of his church members as well as a full load of handmade bricks waiting for the team upon arrival. The Sunday night church service brought in about 150 people including pastors from other cities, some as far as 10 hours away. The project began bright and early Monday morning as the workers of both countries began laying brick from the time the sun came up until it went down. From 5-years-old to 69-years-old, from dark skin to light skin, from professional brick layer to novice, everyone worked together. The majority of the team was from the Thomasville Church of God, and needless to say spoke very southern English. The two translators did not speak this distinct language, but along the way learned phrases such as "wore slap out" and "right quick," while the southerners learned "gracias" and, well, yeh, gracias. The Argentine children learned "okay" and used it as often as they could. The last night was an informal church service to say goodbye. With about 250 attendees, the team said, often with tears, that even though it was difficult to communicate there was an obvious spirit of unity, an obvious purpose, and a sense of fellowship that words in either language cannot describe. For it is in the sacrificial obedience to God that His name is glorified.