Professional Documents
Culture Documents
July 2011
July 2011
Huancayo, Peru
Volume 4, Issue 7
No, Omega laughed. Im just like swimming. Will you teach me? asked the young lady. For the next hour, Omega and the young lady swam in the pool, starting in the big pool, they moved to the wading pool to help boost the students confidence. The whole time she was teaching, they were being watched by other Peruvians. Eventually they moved to the intermediate pool for more practice in a bit deeper water. Audra and I watched from our seats at the table under the umbrella. When our eyes looked back at the wading pool, we saw something wonderful: the mother who had been watching Omega and the young lady, was doing the same thing with her two children. She was teaching them how to swim. That is really what it is about. We are here to teach others how to swim. We cannot do the swimming for them. Thats their job. We can, however, offer the tools they need to do it. Thats called empowerment. Its a tough word sometimes, and there is a fine line between it and prescribing. In a nutshell, the difference between the two is this: empowerment begins with them while prescription begins with us; empowerment allows them to seek and to discover their own needs for themselves while prescription means we come in with all the answers even though they might not even think they need to ask the question; empowerment is letting them decide for themselves while we provide tools as they request them while prescription is us telling them what to do whether or not they want to. Prescription is easy and lasts for a short time. Empowerment is hard (and sometimes frustrating) but lasts for much longer. Whats really cool about empowerment is that we dont know who is being affected. Omega was teaching one girl to swim, but with her actions, another family was
A multiplying ministry:
empowering others to do what they can do for themselves
LA MERCED Ayli and Kia were in the jungle around La Merced helping with a medical campaign with Roswell United Methodist Church in Roswell, Georgia. At the end of the week, Audra, Ash, Todd, and Soraya, along with Joel (Kia s enamorado) and the two interns working with them this summer, went up and then down the mountain to see them. They spent the weekend enjoying the sun and relaxing. At the hotel where we stayed, there is a swimming pool used by the community. Soon after we got there, we put on our bathing suits and went down to cool off. Being the only people not from Peru, which was rather obvious because of the color of our skin, we drew some attention from the other people there. They watched us from the far end of the pool, trying to figure us out. Omega, one of the interns, began swimming laps the long length of the pool. One of the young ladies watching from the side watched with interest. Eventually, she screwed up enough courage to ask her with wide eyes, Are you training for the Olympics?
A few things we do
HUANCAYO We are always busy with one thing or another. A few of the ministries we are focusing on this month (and early July) include a new Bible Study for youth and young people, a workshop with ninth graders at the local Methodist School on Enamoramiento: Love and Sexuality, and a workshop that teaches families their role in teaching their children how to read.
affected when the mama thought, Hey, I can do that! and began teaching her own children. Had Omega said, You need to do this with your children, she probably would have come up with a log of excuses not to. Ministry multiplication happens when we empower others to do it for themselves. The old saying talks about giving people a fish and teaching them to fish. Our goal here in Peru is to teach people how to fish, or to swim, or to read, or to make moral decisions, or to know Christ Jesus, or or or Sometimes people look at us as mini-gods for doing what we are doing. Oh, youre from North America. You have all the answers. We hear that in one form or another. The truth is, we dont. We have tools to offer. We have ideas. But ultimately, it is up to them to come up with the solutions. We are here to help them in the journey as they are here to help us in ours. It works together like that. It is truly a blessing.
Open Circle Peru is published monthly by the McEuen Family, Missionaries to Peru with The Mission Society. They may be reached by email at opencircleperu@gmail.com. Their webpage is found at http://opencircleperu.weebly.com. You can send them mail at Jirn San Jos 230; Urb. San Carlos; Huancayo, Per.
DEAR ASH, AUDRA, KIA, AYLI , TODD, AND SORAYA, Through careful and earnest prayer, I have come to the following decision:
I/we will pray for you. Please send me/us your prayer letter. Please update me by e-mail ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ As God provides, I/we will partner with you by giving $ __________ per month / quarter /year I would like to give a one-time gift of $ __________. Please contact us again next year. I would like to be your liaison with my church or organization. I would like to organize an annual support raising event (e.g., sale, dinner, carwash, golf tournament, 5K run, etc)
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Photos from the front: Omega teaching the girl to swim; A beautiful woman from the jungle; Alex Wilson; Omega Tennant; Kia and Ayli with some children in the jungle; Audra holding a Machetero (so named because his teeth are as sharp as a machete); Todd having fun; Ash talking (big surprise there, huh?); and Soraya dressing as a princess.