Raising the bar!

(Testimonies from the Institute for Forming Instructors continued)

During our Institute for Forming Instructors (IFI) Feb. 1-15, 2009, Jose Climaco, said about Christian Camping International, Latin America (CCI/LA):

Every time I attend a CCI AL training event I know I’m going to get evaluated and my shortcomings pointed out, but I keep coming back for more!

I should know better!

I started with Lisa in 1993 when she came to El Salvador and although now I’m a missionary with Assemblies of God, and have served in Peru and Dominican Republic reaching out to children, I love about CCI/LA that they have a high standard. They raise the bar for me and I need that challenge and the accompaniment to change.”

He continues his confession, “my problem has been finishing my homework, writing my thoughts and ideas and mapping out plans, that’s why I haven’t finished my professional studies and so although I hesitated attending this IFI due to my “my human side” being exposed, God brought me here because He knew I needed the push. I will return to my studies the Monday after I return after having stopped for 10 years.”

PS. Since returning to El Salvador, Jose has written all of his fellow instructors indicating that he indeed is finishing his studies. Praise the Lord for the accountable relationships formed during the IFI-3!

My human side—Mi lado HUmana

(more testimonies from the IFI-3)

Patricia Heredia from Argentina spent a couple of weeks in our home before the IFI-3 started and she was apt to jokingly say: “Lisa, at last, I am seeing your human side” whenever she noticed a flaw, which I tried my hardest to show her, ha, ha. For example, when I lost my temper with the kids.

Gladys (whom I hadn't seen since she attended our first IFI in 1992) and Patricia on the right

What makes this particularly funny is the play on words in Spanish since my married name is UMANA which has the same Spanish pronunciation as HUMAN.
Several other people joked similarly during the IFI, Alvaro from Bolivia said the same thing when he realized I had missed the IFI’s opening program due to watching the Steelers win the Super Bowl. (I mean really, if you are from Pittsburgh, wouldn’t that be considered a virtue and not a flaw? Besides, Robert, my boss, is a Steeler's fan!)

Having our “human side” visible is a core part of what happens during an IFI. Two weeks of communal living 24/7 where you exercise together in the morning, have your individual quiet time, breakfast together, then meet to learn from 9:30am to 6:30pm, broken up by lunch time, snack and small group Bible studies; then dinner at 6:30pm, “share your story” interview after dinner followed by an evening of some work you might not have finished in the day and then good old fun and hanging out together in the evening until bedtime.

How long can you wear your “Sunday Best” in that environment?

Tell me about an environment where you get to be real!

Mother's Day in Honduras

I've been adopted into the Umana-Martinez clan (Martinez is Alfredo's maternal side of the family)!
Both sides of Alfredo's family have enveloped me into a warm embrace. In a culture that is highly family oriented (collectivistic), I sense that I am no longer on the outside looking in, or even being observed by them as a foreigner.

• It's like, now, there's a place for me at the family table.
• It's like, now, they anticipate my participation in the family discussions.
  
• It's like, now, I belong.
  

A word about these family discussions. Alfredo's family is well-read and up-to-date on politics, world events, and theological trends. In fact, Rogelio, my brother-in-law calls the current Democratic Party's contest, the world's best reality show! When we gather, as we did for Mother's Day, we delight in the verbal sparring that goes one regarding everything from Obama, to Bush, to the war in Iraq to the recently published Evangelical Manifesto.
Although our political views differ, our mutual love for God's word and our "belonging" to the same family is what binds us together.

As you can see in the picture to the right, we gathered round the breakfast table to discuss scripture and then the Moms present opened our gifts.

At family gatherings in Honduras, for Valerie and Victor, everyone their age is a cousin and everyone older is an aunt or uncle. This solidifies their sense of belonging since they only get to see their Aunts and Uncles and cousins from the Anderson clan but once a year.


Matthew 19:29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.