Visit to Puerto Barra y Ypetemi Ache Continued

I was privileged to be present at the repatriation and burial ceremony for the bones of an Aché girl named Damiana who died in Argentina at the end of the 19th century. She was taken from her home to study her at the age of three. After she died at 13 She was cut up in pieces and parts of her went to Berlin and parts stayed in Argentina.... part of the head was taken to Germany and studied by a professor Juan Virtchow..... well enough of that. So the bones are now back in Paraguay and were given to the Aché and I watched the ceremony which included crying and singing from the men and women.

 These are the rib bones of the girl.

This picture is what the women do as they cry for the dead on the leg of their husband.

This is a sweet old man. In fact all the old men are very sweet and so loving. The "paint"is spit mixed with charcoal and sugar.

So here I am dressed in my Aché best. This black paint is like having your best suit on. (Back in the day paint was the only thing they wore).

So this guy is probably wearing an Aché tuxedo.

If you ever want to make some Aché face paint first get the charcoal from your fire. It has to be the hard dark charcoal and not the light colored ashes. Next take a big bag of sugar and grab handfuls of sugar and a lump of charcoal and chew it up together. The sugar helps you salivate and then spit it out into your hands and rub it around for a while then apply liberally to face.

And

Add feathers if you really want to dress up.

More Killing Chickens

This morning, more killing of chickens. We had a conversation about what life lessons we can learn from this. Zach said that he learned that he does not want to be a Chicken. And Norberto said that he learned that he does not want ZACH to kill him. Lask time Zach killed a chicken it took seven wacks to just get the head off and blood was everywere. Then we went in to see the US play in the World Cup but they were showing the England game instead! Will watch the game later. Please do not tell me the result of the game! 

P.S. I am glad I was not there at the time that Zach had his killing spree. I was in the Aché village eating Armadillo when Zach was killing that Chicken. Armadillo tastes a lot like chicken.

A Peek at Another Culture

This Monday I got back from visiting the Aché (ah CHEY) Indians of Paraguay. The picture above is a monkey peeking out of an Aché home.

The Aché are getting help to expand the farm. Among other things they have milk cows. They are working to become more self sufficient. With the milk they make cheese and yogurt.

My first impression of the Aché community was that it was a village and a farm at the same time. The missionaries are doing an almost impossible task of bringing a hunter/gatherer based culture into the 21'st century as an agricultural people. Teaching them to fish is not good enough, they have to be taught to run heavy agricultural machinery and modern milking methods. 

The next generation is already learning about this all from a young age. These boys will grow up farming while their parents grew up hunting and mid-life started farming. They still do go hunting once a month but as the rain-forest shrinks they rarely bring back anything. While I was there, they came back from their hunting empty handed.

This guy's Aché name is Loro, Parrot. He actively seeks opportunity to learn from foreigners. Everyone has a Spanish name and an Aché name. My Aché name is Jukugi which means Lion. I will be working on another blog post soon with more pictures. Until then God be with you.

The Good News

It has been so long since I have posted a blog that I am not sure where to pick up again. I feel like I have been around the back side of the moon. I lost signal for a while due to a mass of stuff in space.

Honestly I can tell you that this year has been the hardest in my christian life. I have not doubted God but I have doubted myself.

I want to talk about God and the gospel. In fact if I continue blogging I want this to be the main topic. I was reading in google reader the gospel blog http://gospelblog.net/ on the Perversion of the Gospel. As I was reading I was thinking about a friend that I have invested lots of time in telling him the truth and putting lots of effort into showing him the way but he seems to be going away from the purity of the gospel and with Paul I say, "I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you." (Galatians 4:11 NIV) But in some ways I am responsible. Some of his errors come originally from me. That is what this year has been all about. God has corrected me. God has made me see my own error. God has caused me to doubt in myself. That is a good place to be because that means that you can then trust in another. Anything else is legalism. I have begun to see that while I recognised the most obveous form of legalism I failed to see the more subtle form.

1. Legalism in its more obvious form is "The attempt to acquire merit before God through the performance of various rituals and practices"[1]

2. The more subtle version states that merit before God is by grace through faith maintained through the performance of various rituals and practices.

Biblical liberty states however, that merit before God is by grace through faith. (period) Nothing else added. No Law, Nothing.[2]

How does this work out in life? Well someone will point to some commandment and say that the bible says the people who break this one go to hell. Immediately you think, "Wow I have broken that one that must mean that I will go to hell unless I do not continue in that." The SDA's will use the fourth commandment to get Christians to turn from true biblical liberty to salvation maintained through works. They claim that God does not change and that sin is disobeying the commandments. We know that sinners do not go to heaven. So in order to go to heaven you have to have faith plus keep the commandments especially the fourth. But if salvation depends on works in any way then grace is not grace. "But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace." (Rom 11:6 ESV)

What then is sin? Sin is anything that does not proceed from faith. The New Covenant has given us a new command that is to believe the Gospel and anyone who does not is condemned already. "For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin."(Rom 14:23 ESV) see also John 16:8-9.


What then counts? Faith working itself in love. (Galatians 5:6 ESV)
"For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love."

[1] J. R. Wagner, Dictionary of New Testament Background, electronic edition, Editors: C. A. Evans, S. E. Porter IVP, 2000

[2] The Bible is clear in James that faith is not independent from works but that the proof of faith is works. This in no way makes salvation by works but only shows works as evidence of faith.  Some people would ask, "Is this grace of God an excuse to sin?" There is no way! Salvation is begun and finished by faith. And living faith produces works (James 2:26 ESV) "For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead." Be careful of the distinction between merit by faith maintained by works and merit by living faith producing good works. There is a world of difference between the two.