Building the Team and Learning to Share

We had our May team meeting this past weekend and it was good to get together again as a team while we work through the administrative items needing to be completed. This time was augmented with our sharing lunch around the tables getting to know each other better as well as having our mission partners, the Blocks, with us. We spent the time learning more about what we might be doing down in Peru (even though plans aren’t completely concrete yet) and nuances on sharing the gospel in that context.

The Details: Not Just Administrivia

As mentioned before, a mission trip involves its fair share of paperwork necessary for the trip going smoothly. We spent some time ensuring that everyone is on track with the needed administrative items—making sure everyone has authorized the needed background checks and that everyone’s travel profiles and passports are submitted. It’s the necessary side of missions even if we’d rather skip over it to just get to the trip itself.

We also started the “packing list” conversation. It’s becoming very real when you’re discussing which battery-operated fans will survive the Peru heat, finding the right power adapters, or remembering to pack eye protection for the dusty truck rides through the mountains. We even touched on cell phone options to ensure we can stay in touch.

From Theory to Practice: The 3D Gospel and Orality

After lunch, we had a short discussion on what we learned reading The 3D Gospel (you can read my review of the book in my previous post). If you have read my review, you know that I wouldn’t recommend the book, but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from it. While I might disagree with how the author proposes to solve the problem he raised, it does present how we may need to better understand cultures we may encounter and gives us “a leg up” on understanding situations we might encounter without having to learn it on our own through experience and time. We then moved from the “theory” of cultural worldviews into the “practice” of one of the ways we will be sharing the gospel while there.

Meredith Block led us in a session on Orality. In the communities we will be visiting, information and truth aren’t primarily passed through books or written documents, but through oral tradition—storytelling. This is especially true for the leaders and those who would be pastors in those communities. If we want the Gospel to take root, we have to learn to share it in a way that fits the “oral” heart of the community.

The Story We Are Telling

As part of this training, we had been asked to begin looking at Matt. 25:14-30, but in the spirit of the global church working together, we found out that another group will be in the area before us and will be sharing a different story from Acts 19 and won’t be able to share with all the community. So, we will change to that same passage to be able to continue what they will have started.

So, this new passage our team has been given for an assignment is Acts 19:13-20. We are asked to learn the story by memory and practice telling/teaching it and asking leading questions afterward to facilitate the engagement and learning.

It’s an interesting story about spiritual authority and the power of the name of Jesus—but not just the name as a ritual or magic phrase, the name used from within a relationship with the true person behind the name. What’s also interesting is how this story links with the “Fear-Power” worldview presented in The 3D Gospel. It’s not just a hypothetical situation anymore; it’s addressing the reality of spiritual forces around us and showing that spiritual authority isn’t just a formula, but comes from a genuine relationship with Jesus.

Learning to tell this story accurately from memory and being ready to engage with the questions and discussions afterwards will be a challenge but we are excited to do it.

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How You Can Partner With Us This Week

• Pray for us: As we learn the story of Acts 19, that it would sink into our own hearts before we share it with others.
• Participate with us: Read Acts 19:13-20 and then close your Bible and try to tell the story from memory to someone close and see how much you are able to share (and learn)!
• Pray for the logistics: For the final pieces of paperwork and the practicalities of packing to come together without stress.
• Pray for the Yanesha people: That God would already be preparing the hearts of those who will hear these stories this summer.
• Pray for those we encounter along the way: That God would have us ready to share with those we meet along the way.

Thank you for your continued support and for being part of this journey with us!

If you aren’t already on our team and feel led to support this mission, you can find all the details and a link to donate on my trip page: steve-in-peru.themccrackens.org.