Last week, I returned from a short vacation in Santiago de Chile. This marked the halfway point of my internship in Lima. Being halfway through something is always an interesting place. It is a time to think about how far you have come in the first half, and where you desire to go in the second half. Certain experiences this past week have made me ponder what I have learned and how I have changed. To be honest, my feelings are mixed. In certain moments, I feel like I have such clear vision of the world and all of its issues, both good and bad. At the same time, within these moments of clarity, I feel extremely confused regarding what to do about the things that I see.
Right before leaving for Chile, I went on my first visit to a section of Lima called Miraflores. I don’t know if Peruvians would consider Miraflores a middle class or upper class neighborhood, but it is one of the nicest areas of Lima. Right away, I noticed certain differences between Miraflores and my community in San Juan de Lurigancho: the air was cleaner, lacking the smell of exhaust fumes and pollution that I have grown accustomed to in San Juan. The streets were clean…no trash on the corners. The level of noise was completely different…gone was the incessant blaring of horns and street vendors calling out their goods for sale through loudspeakers. The parks were green as opposed to the dusty, desert landscape in my community. There were lots of high-end stores (including many American fast food places and coffee shops). Interestingly, even the people looked different. In San Juan, it is not rare to see people in traditional indigenous dress from the provincial regions in Peru. Peoples’ physical appearance is often rich in culture with beautiful dark eyes, hair and skin. The people in Miraflores are beautiful as well, but represent a different cultural entity of Peru –more European or mestizo. With my blonde hair and blue eyes, I didn’t stand out nearly as much. Walking through Miraflores, I felt like I was in a completely different world (and I don’t think I hid it that well as I looked wide-eyed around at everything!)
Fast forward a couple of days to the Lima airport. As I waited for my plane to Chile, I wandered through the airport. Again, I was again struck by the differences from San Juan. There were shops selling artisan goods for extremely expensive prices. I wondered who made them and how much did they get paid? The airport gates were filled with foreigners and those Peruvians that had enough means to travel. I wondered how much of the Peruvian population was able to travel for pleasure? 5%? 10%? Of the people that I know in San Juan, I don’t believe that many have ever travelled internationally, possibly not even nationally. I was well aware that my trip to Santiago for four days was a privilege that many people do not have.
These experiences, these differences, have been so vivid in my mind this week. I can see the inequality so clearly. I see it as someone living in San Juan de Lurigancho and travelling to Miraflores, two very different parts of the same city. I see it as the owner of an American passport, itself a ticket to incredible freedoms and amenities in the world. God has granted my prayer to begin to see the world as He does, but is seeing enough? If I have Kingdom eyes, what about my Kingdom hands, my Kingdom feet and my Kingdom voice? Now that I see these things, what do I have to do about it?
I look at that question, and it just feels overwhelming. What can one person (me!) do in front of enormous problems that seem to engulf the world.
Two days later….
I’m back trying to finish this post. I didn’t know where to go after the line above and I had a sense that I wasn’t supposed to finish the post. So I left it, and now I know why. I spent nine hours on Friday night in a church with fifty people of mixed ages in a vigilia (vigil) until the wee hours of Saturday morning. We sang, we prayed, we played and we talked. Our theme was integral or holistic mission. Basically, we began a journey to discover what it means to truly be on mission for God in our world today. How do we confront the problems we see in our society, the reality of our world, as messengers of the Kingdom of God? What does that even mean? In other words, is it enough to see the reality of the world, or do we need to do something about it?
Friday night’s vigilia reminded me of a few key things:
• Christians are called to be agents of transformation in their communities.
• The Kingdom of God is meant to be started here on earth (as it is in heaven, just like Jesus taught his disciples.)
• We are called not only to believe in the transforming power of the message of Jesus, but to ACT it out – make it a reality.
• The problems and the obstacles that we face may seem overwhelming, but we must have FAITH and HOPE that God will continue to transform our world.
So, I guess my prayer is changing. It's growing. I want to see with Kingdom eyes, but I want my hands, my feet, my voice, my heart, and my soul to be Kingdom-centered. I want to take the next step – to be actively building the Kingdom of God here on earth.
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