Naranjal Community

We ended up not going to Naranjal yesterday as it was Fathers’ Day, as most people from the community would have been with their families throughout Arequipa. However, I want to let you know what is going on in the community. I should start with Manuela. When Greg Megan and baby Anastasia McKenzie moved to Peru, they were looking for an empleada, which is basically a part-time house keeper. Such is a very common and respected profession here, but rather than having a sterile relationship, the McKenzies hoped to have an empleada who could be part of their lives, and they part of hers. God blessed them with Manuela, who has become very much like a grandmother to Anastasia and Maggie. Manuela also, as it turns out, has been unsatisfied with the Catholicism she had been taught and was looking for someone to study the Bible with her. As they were looking for a way to be involved with urban development, Manuela informed them that she was part of a new community on the outskirts of town. This is the community I’m presently so excited about.

The community began about five years ago when a group of Arequipans decided that they wanted to own homes of their own and to live in a community of their own design (both of which are fairly difficult no matter where you live). Arequipa has squatters’ law that states that if someone lives on a piece of unused land and the owner has not paid their taxes on the land for five years, then it can be defaulted to those who have lived there and who will develop it. The Naranjal community selected a mountainside outside of town and have lived there now for five years. They lives together, share resources and work side by side to develop the community. Most of the houses are ~100 square feet in size and have thatch, tin or sheet-rock roofs. Peruvians work long hard hours during the week and on Sunday morning, the whole community meets together at the 5:30 sunrise and works together to build roads, retaining walls, a community building, etc. They work until 8:30, when they have a community meeting to discuss progress and where everyone has an opportunity to voice desires and complaints. Joining them from time to time are Greg and Kyle who started the nonprofit Christian Institute of Urban Development (ICDU). Their first project was to build water tanks so the community would not have to use water from an old unsanitary aqueduct. Soon we will be building latrines as well.

Following the meeting, the community has a time of Bible study where Greg has been going through the Gospel of Mark. They listen and read together, they ask questions together, and they struggle together with God's words. It reminds me a little of Vincent Donovan’s Christianity Rediscovered, where he presents the gospel to whole communities of Masai Africans who hear and eventually decide together whether to follow Christ (very good book). I love the simplicity of it all and how harmoniously (though sometimes discordantly) this community functions. My friends and I have often studied community and small groups, but here is a community where few have studied much of anything, living and creating the synchronous community they have hoped for. Of course it has its faults, but sitting on a rock in the sun and discussing Jesus' acceptance of people like little children was pretty awesome no matter who you are. I am really enjoying seeing the threads of God’s communal compassion being weaved into the threads of this new community. These Peruvians are willing uproot to pursue a greater life. How far can this be from uprooting to endeavor on a new Way of living under the reign of Jesus? In Him, we are free to live out neighbor love and earnest appropriation of grace on every aspect of life. I am eager to see how this continues in my short time here.

Thank you or joining me in tagging along for this work and journey of Peruvian faith! Happy Fathers’ Day to the fathers, especially to my own Dad, Pop and PawPaw who I love very much. Feel free to reply with questions or comments, or e-mail me. Much love! -Bobby