Dental visit to Marjoni

The Connallys are back!  So that means: dental clinics.

I am trying to prioritise my work, focusing on a few villages and not visiting any new places.  but the work in Marjoni is done by the Lambrama church, who I've been getting to know through Project Mochila in February and their anniversary in May.  So I decided to go, then travel back with them to Lambrama and visit their church.

Seeing these guys do the dental clinics is amazing.  More so now that our main dentist is 5 months pregnant.  All the equipment (3 chairs, stools, tools, drill, air compressor, lights, tables, portable x-ray machine, autoclave and stove) are packed into the Connallys' truck, still leaving room for the driver and 4 passengers.  And so we drive along the Lambrama valley and over the ridge into a hidden valley I've never seen - and arrive at Marjoni.

We set up all the equipment in the village hall then head outside to the lane where we are served breakfast - thin porridge and bread rolls.  Boiled potatoes and cheese comes round later.  As we're tidying up someone comes along carrying a sheep. "Oh how sweet" we think - then we realise it's going to be our lunch and go round the corner in times to see the final parts of the butchering.

Later we perform a drama we have rehearsed - the parable of the lost sheep.  I am an un-lost sheep who wants the shepherd to stay and look after me.  I am wearing a fluffy white knitted jacket and have carefully practised how to say "don't search for that sheep, just let her die - look after us" in Quechua.  In the end of course the lost sheep is found and there is much rejoicing (which in Quechua culture means coca-cola is shared round, perhaps not very appropriate for a dental clinic).  I'm not sure if the message of repentance is helped or hindered by the recent presence of a real, temporarily live, sheep.

Chuño: potatoes are taken high into the mountains to freeze
then brought down to thaw and dry.

The Connallys' 2-year-old son used to be very comfortable in Spanish and in rural villages, but understandably after 6 months away has forgotten a little of both and has not been speaking any Spanish.  He did very well, was intrigued and not in the least upset by the sheep, happily chased chickens, and by the end of the afternoon was happily chatting in Spanish again with the other children.

Cesilio (amazing 60-something man who works for AIDIA, supports the Baptist churches and spends his life pretty much walking the mountains and preaching the gospel) had asked me to preach in the evening.  I had had a very busy week and he gave me a day's notice... so I said no... then rang up an hour later and said yes - it will be good to preach in the Lambrama church.  I like preaching with Cesilio to translate - I have to speak in short phrases which helps me to keep me train of thought and not ramble.  And we have done this before so he obviously thinks I will have something worth saying.  So I spend quite a lot of the day sitting in the village hall preparing what I'm going to say.  I also sit and chat a bit to the people waiting for treatment (and blow up dental gloves as balloons to keep the children occupied) - we have a lot of volunteers today so they don't need me inside.

When it's time to pack up the equipment and the team are leaving, I realise the visitors from Lambrama are staying to lead a church service here - and this is where I am to preach!  A slight change of audience from what I had expected - from an established church to a few recent believers and any others who might come.  I explain this to Cesilio and the Lambrama pastor and they say just go ahead...

I talk about repentance and how it is different from confession - not just words but an action, a turning away from our sin and towards God.  Fortunately I can now understand enough of the Quechua Bible, which translates some of the imagery differently from the Spanish, so we don't get too confused. Cesilio does a great job of translating and helpfully I can now understand enough to check he's getting my point across too.  I do a lot of marching across the room and changing direction to show that repentance is an active change, and talk about how it's something that produces results.  I finish feeling like I have not done very well.  Cesilio does a bit of wrapping up and then I thank him for his help and he says it was excellent.  The Lambrama pastor asks if anyone wants to respond and make this change of direction in their life - and 3 do!  I am astonished and overwhelmed and realise that I have done a very tiny thing of saying yes to something difficult, and somehow God has used it.  We pray for these women and I trust that the church in Lambrama will keep providing the support they need to grow as Christians.

I ask the little girl I was chatting to earlier what she learned.  She said "some people are like snakes!".  True, it was mentioned...


We pile into the car back to Lambrama - there are now a few extra passengers so I am perched on the very front of the seat trying to keep my balance round the haripin bends.  I am learning to remember that I did not come here to be comfortable!

In Lambrama I am invited by one of the couples I've spent the day with and sleep very comfortably on the kitchen floor.