Taxi Tales

One of the really wonderful things about life in Lima is that a person can get into a taxi at whatever moment, and launch into a conversation about practically whatever topic you like, and you will find a willing conversation partner. Enjoyable for most, but a jackpot for those of us who like to talk about Jesus!!

One day, I was on my way to a meeting with my pastor’s wife, and met a taxista with whom I had a great conversation. I have found myself, in the last 6 months or so, speaking strongly about the nature of salvation to those I witness to. I have gotten the rather strong impression from several people that they got that whole holiness thing confused—that they somehow have the impression that they have to get their lives together first, and then they will be good enough to go to God, do the church thing.

It is easy to talk about the Lord here—and even more so, because I am a missionary. When I get into a taxi, I often get asked, “Why did you come here from your country?” My reply is almost always “The call of God!” That leads really easily into a little history of our call, and talk of spiritual things.

This particular day, I found a taxi driver who had gone through some difficult life challenges recently, and we talked extensively about the nature of salvation, how no one is good enough to merit salvation-how we are all sinners, in need of a savior. He began to weep, and as he drove, he asked if there might be a prayer or something he could pray to make a decision for Christ. I honestly thought he was joking, or had done it before, but he assured me that he had never prayed a prayer of salvation before. I couldn’t believe it! What an awesome moment.

We made arrangements to take him to church, but as happens often with follow up, that was the last I saw of him. Of course, the best is if we can manage to tie people into a congregation, but we must leave these things in the hands of the Lord when things don’t go according to plan, as we would like. But what an awesome moment! Makes a missionary girl all smiley inside!!

What I can't abide

There are many cases of injustice that cause my blood to boil. For example, we're currently helping a boy from the jungle, named Eber, who cannot walk well. Eber had meningitis when he was an infant—an illness I also suffered from. Unlike my family, Eber’s family had no means for treating the fever; as such, he was left crippled. He cannot straighten his legs; so, to get around, he hops. The doctors say that if he doesn't receive treatment, his knees will deteriorate to the degree that he'll be completely immobile.

Thanks to Latin America ChildCare, Eber will receive surgery that will (by God's grace) enable him to stand up straight and walk. The fact that the family was so poor that they could not even treat a child with a fever makes my blood boil. But that's not all. Another thing I can't abide is fake Disney character trash can lids--like the ones at the Children's Hospital in Lima!

Thanks Speed The Light!

SUV's make you feel powerful and secure. Sports cars make you feel young and alive. Minivans make you feel ... useful. Here, our mighty Kia Carnival (Sedona in the States) is being filled with sand and rocks. We were Shipping the sand and rocks to the jungle where it'll be used to make water filtration systems. Here's a quick list of what you can find in the jungle:

1. Moskitos the size of your head. -Yes!
2. Flesh eating minnows. --Yes!
3. Fossilized monkey dung. --Yes!
4. Rocks. --Nada!

The problem is that the jungle is all rotting trees and fruit. So, in order to make the water filtration systems, we had to buy the pebbles (and a higher grade of sand) in Lima and ship them to the jungle. When we loaded our mighty minivan, the rear end nearly hit the ground, while the front end was facing the sky. It was a fun ride.

I want to thank Speed the Light and the youth groups from Ohio that enabled us to have this incredibly useful tool. Children in the jungle will have clean drinking water because of the sacrifices all of you made. Thank you!

What's in a name?

What's in a name? A lot, when the name is in English. Peruvian ice cream is, ironically, overly sweet--at least to North American taste buds. Americans also tend to prefer a higher fat content. As such, we're excited when an American brand can be found in a local store. Turkey Hill is just that brand. Imported all the way from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, it's a little taste of home.

In the Desert

Lima is in the middle of thousands of miles of desert. I was out driving last week and snapped these two pictures with my cell phone. The picture, above, is of two adobe houses. I'm often perplexed as to why why someone would build a house where there's no water. Many people here have their water trucked in. Obviously, that's what the people in these two houses had in mind. Yet, they didn't stay. Like many homes in the desert, the families were only here for a while. Perhaps until the roof blew off.

The shot, below, is of a small town in the desert. It's near a highway and mostly serves as a place for thirsty travelers to stop and buy a Coke. Driving through the desert is a little like driving through snow--it's very bright and you go through a lot of windshield washer fluid.

Top Ten Shrader events of 2009

Each New Year Lena puts together a Top 10 list from the previous year. Here is the 2009 edition:

1. Hundreds received Christ as Savior and Lord as a result of visiting evangelism and medical teams. Ohio XA went hog-wild and sent us three evangelism groups this year! We had a blast! A special thanks, also, to Timberline Church in Colorado who offered healing and physical comfort to hundreds in the jungle, Dr. Raquel Mullen who treated the kids of Lima, Ralph and Jo Allen who gave their time and expertise of photography to showcase LACC ministry here in Peru, the Belding family, whose balloon art and illusions attracted a slew of kids to come hear the gospel! Through them, Peru was blessed and we received an incredible outpouring of love.

2. Two of the Fabulous Four Shrader children experience a dramatic physical change--morphing into teen bodies ... while the two older Shraders are morphing out of theirs!

3. Will (age 7) learns how to read and discovers that he likes it.

4. Lena realizes how precious her family is as news of her dad’s cancer and ongoing treatment continues. (Dad is doing well, but continues to need your prayers!)

5. Abigail goes to kindergarten and Lena has her first daytime empty nest experience—with all four Shrader kids in full-time school for the first time in 15 years. Lena is recovering nicely from her sudden change of identity!

6. Lena got a surprise invitation to speak to the national women’s conference, with more than 500 in attendance!

7. Productive ministry! Hundreds have received Christ in salvation; wells have been dug--providing water to flush toilets and take showers; and our Latin America ChildCare schools are now able to feed up to 1000 kids per day (3-5 days a week) with the help of friends from Fire Peru and Feed My Starving Children!

8. God’s sovereign hand of protection is evident as the Shrader family counts it all joy, facing trials of many kinds. We have been through many challenges and blessings this year. We understand more than ever what it is to trust God through the storm.

9. The members of the Shrader family complete the honeymoon stage of missions, and finds themselves still loving the country of their calling (Peru).

10. The amazing way our children have become an essential part of our ministry team! We find that wherever we go, and whatever theme we present, the Peruvian nationals are primarily intrigued by one thing and one thing only—our family. That Bill and I publicly speak well of each other and function as a team, that our kids worship and invest in ministry, and that they kiss on each other (even though they wiggle a lot through 3-hour church services), are all very interesting for them. And by the way, many invite us to come and minister primarily because they have heard about Hannah’s voice and want her to sing!

Thank you all so much for your support in every way. So many of you have sent emails, checked in on us, continued to send in your support even in the midst of great economic uncertainty. I know that God is teaching you, as He is us, that He is our certainty. Some of you are even waking up in the morning with a burden to pray for us—how precious you are! We are looking forward with great anticipation to getting home for itineration to tell you all the things a newsletter can’t hold, and to give you all the hugs we have been saving up for you! We’re hoping to return to the states for itineration in July of 2011.

The Knife (or Tears in the Airport)

My dad died on June 21, 2006. The last time we had a good conversation was on June 18. It was Father’s day. Lena, the kids and I were driving to a church service in western Kentucky. We had our pop-up camper in tow and were planning on camping for a couple of days after the service. I had a great conversation with my dad, on the cell phone while driving to the service. We talked about camping and other things. He had been so sick that it was rare to have a good conversation with him. When it was over, I had tears in my eyes. I remember telling Lena that if it was the last conversation I had with him, that I was very grateful to have had it. One of the things I told him was that I had his Father’s day gift and that I would give it to him when I got back into town. He had asked me to get him a new pocket knife. He had arthritis and couldn’t close his old pocket knife. So, I went to Dick’s Sporting goods in Mason, Ohio, and (with the help of a great sales agent) tried every knife they had. The salesman and I both decided on a very cool Gerber knife. The locking mechanism was the smoothest we tried and very easy to close. I told my dad that we’d be back on Tuesday night and that I would come over on Wednesday morning to celebrate Father’s day. That Wednesday morning, I was awakened by an early phone call. My father had died.

I’ve carried that knife in my pocket nearly every day since. Even though my father never saw it, in my heart it was his knife. Whenever someone saw it, I told them the story. I travel a lot and have lost my share of knives in the airport. A few times I nearly lost “the knife” to airport security. Usually, I remember in time to stick it in my checked luggage. Today was not that day. I walked up to the X-Ray machine, reached into my pocket and felt the knife. My heart sank. I said a quick prayer, stuck it in my book bag and put the bag into the X-Ray machine. As the bag came out, I watched the security guard grab it. I knew he would have a hard time finding what he was looking for, so I opened the bag for him. He pulled out the knife, opened it, and held it over the acrylic disposal box. He looked at me for permission. I said, “OK,” and watched him drop it into the box. I grabbed my bag, walked about 5 steps from the counter and burst into tears.

I was surprised by how difficult it was. My emotions welled up within me—irrational and unholy. I felt like the Lord was stripping me, taking from me all that I have held onto. My father died just before we left for the mission field; so, emotionally, the loss of my father is intertwined with the other relationships and things we left behind. As the security guard dropped the knife into the box, I wanted to yell at him, as though he were the Lord, saying, “What do you want?! Do you want me to arrive at the temple completely naked?” (In my mind, the guard would have responded, “No sir—just the knife.”) It wouldn’t be bad if we did arrive at God’s house with nothing to hold onto but God himself. In one sense, we all walk through the Pearly Gates that way. In my head, I know that the knife was easily replaceable. But, the loss of it brought back all those emotions of loss.

The good news is that I’m probably not the first guy to cry after walking through security.

This from Lena:

Merry Christmas, friends! We have been very busy these last few weeks, bringing Christmas presents to the kids of our Piedad schools. It is our pleasure to purchase a gift for each child in our project schools, regardless of if they are enrolled in our program or have a sponsor. Birthday gifts only arrive for a few, but Christmas brings a little for all! The shot above was taken today in one of our Lima schools. As you can see, they were pretty happy to greet us!

All the children receive the gifts with great joy, but on experience in particular impressed me deeply, on our visit to a partner school in Trujillo. Our school in Trujillo was founded years ago by missionaries who wanted to reach the poorest of that coastal city. A large percentage of these children's parents cannot read. I am always impressed, because the teachers in this school have them writing quite fluently for this age. What a great way to take ground!

Anyway, as we were handing out the gifts, and they were all going back to their classrooms with their gifts, I noticed that many of the children had not opened their gifts yet. I encouraged them to open them, but they showed none of the zealous tearing and ripping that we see in the States. I was curious as I watched one little girl carefully pick the paper apart, looking as if she didn't even want to mess the paper.

I asked one of the teachers to interpret what I was seeing. She said that they don't want to ruin it--that the paper was special, too, and they wanted to keep it nice. Many of these children live in houseing that is something rather makeshift (some of woven leaves, something like a tent), and probably won't recieve anything for Christmas. This was it! Later I watched as a teacher kindly helped one of the girls tease her new bead set back into the paper.

As we needed the kids to know what they were getting so that they could write a note to their sponsor, we settled on a system. One gift would be carefully unwrapped, all the children could see it, and then write their thank-you note.

I am so thankful to be a part of this. I remember growing up, sometimes in hard times,and worrying about how I would feel if I didn't get anything for Christmas. That never happened--we always were blessed with generous family. But I remember that worry, and I really remember the people who made sure I got something! Still do!

For those of you who gave to help make this happen, thank you so much. You made an impression on some kids who could really use a little gift now and then! And thanks for making us part of what you do for the Lord. This is a great way to spend a life!

To All Our Chi Alpha Friends!

Wright State group, led by a very smiley Steve Brannan with some helping friends from the kids' school.

This from Lena:
Last night, the last of our little midnight visitors (all but one seems to have mostly passed through that 4-7 year-old phase of waking up with a lot of nightmares) popped into our bed for a little late-night comfort, thus making me sleep a little lighter than normal. It is really out of the ordinary for me to remember an actual dream, as I only remember nightmares that wake me up. But I remembered this one!

Now, those of you who are not Chi Alpha folks will have to bear with me on this one, but I promise that it has a wider application. I dreamed that me and my family were waking up in our apartment building, and there was a SALT conference going on downstairs, as the first floor appeared to have transformed into a conference hall. I was talking to Dale Crall, who as always had encouraging words. Colton was still asleep upstairs, and Bevan Haynes, who has been great about following up with Colton, was calling up to our apartment, "Wake up, Colton Shrader!!" There were faces of people we love everywhere, and they had come to us! I felt like I always do at a SALT conference, eager for things to begin, to greet all my dear, dear friends who made it so hard for us to leave, and with great expectation about what the Lord was going to speak to us!

I started thinking about all the support we have recieved from our Chi Alpha friends. I cannot tell you how incredible it has been to know that you all are behind us. We had a really hard time leaving Chi Alpha because we are in love (still!) with all of you. We have recieved teams from Wright State, Ohio State,and Wilmington College this last year. We saw incredible fruit with each group, with a total of about 150 people recieving Christ! But we also received dear friends, who reminded us over and over again that we are loved and wanted, not forgotten. Each goodbye was surprisingly emotional and overwhelming, but we have learned that the harder the goodbye, the more that relationship means to you.

The dream was undoubtedly about all the support we have recieved from all of you. We love you more than words can say. Many of you know that we have passed through some incredibly difficult challenges this past year. We want you to know that we seem to be resolving our situation here, and are incredibly thankful for all your prayers (especially Dale and the SIU group who we know have gone to war on their knees for us!).
Chi Alpha has taught me from the beginning how good it is when brothers live together in harmony. Even through difficult times, we have known an incredible level of trust and love. You mean the world to us! Thanks!