The McEuen Family

Cross Cultural Witnesses to Peru Jirn San Jos 230, Urb San Carlos Huancayo, Per opencircleperu@gmail.com http://opencircleperu.weebly.com
October 2012 As I write this, the 32 students in one of my eighth grade classes is watching the movie Courageous. Id like to say that the story had captured their attention and they were all enraptured by the plot, but if I said that Id be lying. The truth is some of them are paying attention, but others arent. Thats to be expected, I guess. They are 13 and 14 years old. It doesnt help that the rain falling turned into hail covering the ground. The kids are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but they are good kids. They are some of the ones I work with in the school where I teach. They arent the poor kids that a lot of people think missionaries should be working with. These kids are the children of local doctors and architects, politicians and engineers. Most of them come from middle class and upward families. Many of them have the latest technology. Many of them have their physical needs taken care of. Many have families who love them. Many of them are latchkey kids who go home to an empty house with open internet and alcohol. Because of who they are, they have ready access to temptations. Some fall into it. Others dont. The Mantaro Valley where we live has been home for people for thousands of years. God has been with them even before they arrived here, but so were the powers of evil trying to draw them away from God. Today we see the evidence of the centuries old battle between good and evil in the form of drunken festivals and parties, ritual sacrifices and customs. That is hard enough, but today the powers of evil that have been here have called in reinforcements from the United States. The materialism and secularism that is proliferating western society is reaching here and most people are not equipped to fight the good fight. The young people with whom I work are in the heat of battle (and mostly do not even realize it). Let me give you an example. There is a movie from the United States called Project X. It is about a party out of control and has a tag line something like your parents worse nightmare. The idea of this party has reached even here in the mountains of Peru. I learned about it on Facebook when I saw one of my young students invited to it, and when I read the description of the events to take place, I felt sick to my stomach and tears began to fill my eyes. At this party where children as young as 10 are invited to participate, they were openly selling alcohol and cigarettes and, I believe I am accurate in saying this, drugs and more not so openly. I told the students that I cannot tell them not to attendthat is a decision for them to make with their parents and with Godbut that they need to know their own values and morals and limits of

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behavior. I left them with a plea to Please be careful. Some went to the party. Others stayed home. I have been told since then from different people that there has never been a teacher in the school who has wanted to be involved in the lives of the students like this (and that it was a good thing). I pray a lot for the young people here because the battles are real, and all many of them have is a faade of a shield of faith. Faith is a surface thing. It is a cultural thing that they do because theyve always done it this way. But it does not go deep. To make it even more challenging, there are to my knowledge no strong Latino Christian role models for them to follow. At least, I have not been able to find any (Im even asking for advice from friends from other Latin American countrieswith no luck). My goal when I am with them is that they learn to trust me enough so that they feel safe enough to be real with me. With this in mind, weve started a youth group for kids aged 12 through 17. We meet every Sunday in our house from 4 until 6 in the evening. We want kids from all different churches (or no church at all) and from different schools to come together to cook, to play, to talk and to learn about the love of God. Weve been meeting for about a month and have consistently had between 12 and 15 youth (last week we had about 20). A friend asked if he could invite the youth he knows as well. Of course he can! That would add about seven more. And the kids are talking about it with their friends. Soon the house will be too small (we pray) and we will have to find someplace else to meet. The challenge is that our home has a warmth to it that any old building would not have. There are hints of light shining through the darkness. One student recently told me that because of the studies we are doing in class, she understands that the characters in bible have the same problems and difficulties that we do. It`s like, she said, the bible is an analogy of our own lives! This is a huge first step in walking with Christ. Another student opened a chat with me just to say, Thank you, profe, for your advice about the parties. I see now that they are not good for us to go to. Oh yeah, and the kids not paying attention watching the movie? Turns out they actually were. Some of them came up afterwards to ask the name of the movie so they could buy it for themselves. Baby steps. Little by little. With hope and joy and peace from God, lives will be changed. The war is being fought for the lives of those who live here and for the future of Peru, and the young people are in the middle of it all. Some battles are being won. Some are not. The important thing is that we do all we can to be prepared. Thank you so much for your prayers and financial support for the work we are doing here. We could not do it without you.

Ash, Audra, Kia, Ayli, Todd y Soraya Cross Cultural Witnesses to Per