Meet the Flintstones

Greetings Family!

I would first like to say ‘thank you’ to Tom Torpy for the encouraging me through your letter in the Jericho bulletin. We still try and keep up on what is going on back home, even though it's been a little while since we've been able to return. I whole-heartedly concur that Carolina Bible Camp has had a tremendous effect on my growth and development (as I sit in Peru wearing my CBC 2007 Week 1 t-shirt). Kirk, Bret, Tim and Dennis, among many others (if you ever read this), thank you for supporting, challenging and shaping me over the past fifteen years. You’ve changed more lives than you know, and there is more rejoicing in Heaven with sweeter and sweeter songs because of (God working through) you. Thank you to everyone who's ever worked through Carolina Bible Camp.

We went on a tour of Arequipa this past week. However, unlike most tourist attractions, this ‘reality tour’ is hosted by a man who is proud to show people how the typical Peruvian lives and gets by. In short, it is remarkable how they have done so much with so little. For this post I would like to highlight one particular small group called picapiedras.

The picapiedras (also the name of the Flintstones in Spanish) are quarrymen. These workers chisel the white volcanic rock (Sillar) into building blocks using a hammer, a flat-tip recycled car axle, and a rectangular piece of rebarb to measure. They work alone in their own corners of the canyons chiseling block after block, producing about two blocks per hour. For this they are given approximately $1.50 per block. I cannot imagine the isolation of this work. The man shown here wakes up every day and works from 6AM until 5PM. He sleeps in a shack fifty feet from this site to be closer to his work. He does this every day, Monday through Saturday, and then he goes home to see his family Saturday evening through Sunday. He has done this since he was 15 years old, 47 years ago. You can also see this man we met in the far left of the title picture. I do not know much of this man’s faith, though it is safe to guess nominal Catholic. While I can imagine this serving as a monastic discipline, the picapiedras here generally work with minimal community in the blinding brightness of the white stones.

I do not understand how these men and women persevere day after day, if not by some measure of faith. I have to hold to hope that in his evenings he has community and that he has found a way to commune with God in the quarry, though I honestly do not know. I am reminded by the picapiedras of the many people in our own towns who live each day among peoples and churches and yet live wholly outside of communal relationship. I wish I could go share lunch with this man and develop a relationship, but my lack of Spanish, the work going on here, and my inability to get out to the canyons alone keep me in the city. I am really aggravated by this, and am trying to find 'urban picapiedras' who are living in want for community. Soon after the tour, I was blessed with the acquaintance of one young man who I hope to meet with this week. He is 25y/o, has no job or direction, has quit medical school, and is lonely. As did Jesus, we sometimes have to take community to people and show them (not just tell them) that they are welcome in it. The following is not of Peru, but of the group with which Chris and I went to New Orleans. I include it because it was one of the best examples of a true loving community I have ever been a part of.

I wish this post could be more positive about the picapiedras, but unfortunately the truth of the matter is simply this: there is very often more harvest than there are people gathering. Grain is left out in the fields both near and far every day and the grain often does not even know that it is left out. It only knows that it stands alone with a deep down notion that there must be something more. We need to all of us to make sure we are looking for the quarrymen who work day after day, and though surrounded my pillars, exist alone. I will share one thing I have learned, that the quarrymen in our restaurants, gas stations, offices, nursing homes, schools, etc are often quietly about their work. We have to be proactive in finding and developing these relationships because we are the ones who know the something-more fellowship in the common family, mission and Spirit of God.

Exciting things this past week:

1) We had a two-evening seminar with several of the Peruvians we are studying Mark and Acts with, led by visiting Bill Richardson of Harding University on what God is doing in (t)his village. we also discussed who we are as citizens.The house was packed discussion plentiful.

2) We also started digging the first latrine in the Naranjal community on Sunday. I’ll talk more about that later, but in the interest of reasonable brevity, I’ll close up for now. Thank you for joining me on this journey. Feel free to comment or email me anytime!