Abancay in lockdown

Greetings from Abancay!  Life here has reduced to a few things I am able to do, and yet the time always seems to get filled.

I’m not allowed to leave my house apart from for essential shopping, although it’s possible to apply for a government permit to carry out work.  Of course I can’t travel to the villages I would usually be working in, and there are no meetings.  This means the work I do has changed rather over these past 2 months.

I have two “projects” at the moment:

• I’m producing a facebook live video devotional 3 times a week. This is aimed at students and young professionals who might not have the motivation or skills to seek God when the church has ceased all activity (my church has no online presence).  To start with, this was a very scary thing to do but I’ve got more used to it as the weeks have gone on.  It’s great that at least some of my target group are watching, and occasionally I hear from them that they have been encouraged. 
  
  I’ve been mostly focussing on the presence of God with us and the certainty of being able to trust his goodness despite circumstances – so I’ve been thinking a lot about this too. 

• Peru, like many countries, has been working out an economic aid package for its citizens but has not always been able to reach everyone who needs it.  Lots of private organisations as well as individuals are identifying local people who need help and giving out food parcels.  The small SIM Abancay team has been doing the same, using some of the funding we’re unable to spend on our usual ministries.   So far we’ve done this twice, getting the government permission to be out and distributing 90 food parcels, many to Venezuelan refugees who receive less government help.  The idea is primarily to provide practical help but we’ve also been including Bibles and encouraging people to seek God in their difficulties.  
  
  Last week we had just run out of food boxes when we encountered another Venezuelan lady  - we still had a few little bits, which we gave her.  It was mostly sugar which she’d just come to the shop to buy!  She’s a Christian but hadn’t got involved in a church in the two years she’s been in Abancay – she also didn’t bring a Bible with her and her husband is not a Christian.  So she’s on our list for next time, and we’ll bring her a Bible.  In the meantime we prayed with her there on the pavement – it was the highlight of my week!

A typical day?

• I wake around 6.30 as I sleep with my curtains open since the lockdown – I am really appreciating windows!  
• I go downstairs to the cornershop to by fresh bread and some vegetables. 
• If it’s a video day, I get dressed and ready to present – otherwise it’s an exercise day so I find a workout video on the internet and jump around, possibly waking my downstairs neighbour! (I’ve been slowly getting to know her during the quarantine, which has been great.) 
• Then I spend some time reading the Bible.  It’s lovely to have plenty of time to do this properly – rather than a rushed 5 minutes while I’m eating breakfast and before running out of the door.  This year I’m studying Jeremiah – there’s a chapter for every week – and it’s amazing to read the relevant themes of desolation in the country, although also interesting to consider the different purposes God might have – for Judah, punishment, but for today? 
• My building has a flat roof so I tend to go up and walk around while the sun is setting and it’s a good time to phone people – sometimes from the villages I’m unable to visit, or the young people in Abancay.  Many people seem concerned about God’s purposes in this as well as about their health.  I also have people I phone just to relax! 
• I’m in much more frequent contact with people from the UK, partly because everything has gone online – including my midweek group at Barnabas! 
• There are also admin jobs to do – planning for my videos or for the food distribution project, various tasks for churches (like writing this article!). 
• I miss being able to visit people in the evenings, particularly my godson who only lives 2 blocks away, but I am learning, along with the rest of the world, that it’s possible to watch films and play games with others from different houses.

Here in Apurímac we have comparatively few cases of Covid-19, but the numbers are slowly going up.  This means that the economic impact of the pandemic has been much greater than the health impact.  Markets are the cheapest place to buy food but are also some of the most crowded places.  Financial constraints and worries mean that people often don’t respect the guidelines in place to keep them safe.  Of course we don’t know what will happen in the coming months.

It’s been helpful to see that the words in James 4:13-15 are more obviously true these days.  I’m learning to make plans only about a week or so in advance, and admit that they, as well as my very life, are in God’s hands.

Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’

This of course includes my plan to have my Home Assignment in the UK later this year!  So I may or may not see you in 2020, but in the meantime I’m enjoying “seeing” many of you more than usual.