Hi Tim Here

I see today that the posting from last week did not work. hmmm I wonder what happened?

On Begging:

When we first arrived I saw many beggers on the street and condemned the culture here for not looking after them. Lately I have been thinking that perhaps the culture is looking after them. In Canada we tend to see beggars in the city and often they appear able bodied however are asking for money. We tend to shun them and are fearful of them. Down hear there are some of the same kind however most are truelyin need of help often demonstrating this with no legs or hand or they are deformed or are very old and without family etc so I am thinking that the attitude to beggers down here is a little different and that in fact the begging provides the opportunity for the society to provide for them. They may not eat like kings or have great sleeping arrangements but I am sure they are receiving enough to survive. In the Canadian social mindset we tend to think that the state is supposed to provide for the weak. This helps us stay one step removed from the needy however downhere they are right in the face of the public. So I find that as time goes on my attitude of discussed for the society is changing and I am trying to look for the good also.

More market day pictures! Can you guess what the fruit is . for the pink and yellow fruit think about the shape of the black portion!

How Now Shall We Live by Chuck Colson and Nancy Pearcey.

Book Review by Tim Juhlin

May 19, 2007

The book ‘How Now Shall We Live” student edition, is motivated by the authors’ assessment of the Christian Faith as being marginalized and private in today’s culture. The authors state that if the Church sees their mission as only preparing for Jesus’ return through the disciplines of prayer, bible study, worship, fellowship and witnessing and ignore our responsibilities to rescue the surrounding culture our “Christianity will remain private and marginalized” and “turning our backs on the culture is a betrayal of our biblical instructions and heritage because it denies God’s power over all of life.” The authors expanded on this by stating:
“It is not enough to focus only on the spiritual, on Bible studies and evangelistic campaigns, while turning a blind eye to the distinctive troubles of contemporary life. We must show the world that Christianity is more than a private belief, more than personal salvation. We must show that it is a comprehensive life system that answers all of humanity’s age old questions: Where did I come from, Why am I here? Where am I going? Does Life have any meaning and purpose.”
The authors see the culture wars as a clash of worldviews. The book is very cerebral and requires the laying down of a framework of thought accomplished in 8 units:
1) How we see our world- 2 world views: Judeo Christianity and Naturalism (includes postmodernism and multiculturalism) and the logical conclusions of post modernism.
2) Chemicals,it’s all chemicals- addresses evolution and the big bang theory and the wonders of our design.
3) Science or religion- the anatomy of a lie, What has the theory of evolution has done?
4) The Fall- two views of evil and utopianism
5) Redemption and the Myth of Progress- The escalator theory and the many faces of this fallacy of Naturalism
6) Real Redemption?- Salvation through Science, Genetics, Eastern Religions? And then, real salvation.
7) The Church and Culture- renewal is possible, becoming a creative force in the Culture
8) Transforming our Culture- The opportunity before us.

The authors identify what a worldview is and set up an evaluation process, for any belief system, based on 3 questions?
1) Where did we come from and who are we?
2) What has gone wrong with the world?
3) What can we do to fix it?

The two belief systems are identified as either a biblical foundation or a foundation outside of God. The foundation outside of God includes Multiculturalism and Postmodernism and along with evolution and a series of other thought lines is called the Worldview of Naturalism.
Definitions:
Multiculturalism says that all cultures are equal because one value can’t be better than another.
Postmodernism is a system of thought that denies all truth claims.
Judeo Christianity says that God is the center of all that is good and the source of all truth.
I have included these definitions because truth matters!

“Your worldview is the most basic level of your Faith, the core of your beliefs about the world. It is the big picture that directs your daily decisions and actions.” Our Worldview filters information and colors what we perceive. The authors focus in on Romans 12:2 which speaks on the renewing of our minds stating that unless we purpose to consciously and consistently choose a biblical world view we will be affected by the many other world views that can be defined and will be conformed to the pattern of the world rather than God’s view.

Here are a few lines that may peak you interest enough to buy the book or borrow it from the local library.

-What Christians ought to be telling people is that we do not want to ban Darwinism. We do not want less taught we want more taught….Naturalism starts with certain ideas that cannot be tested. One belief is that nature is “all that is or ever was or ever will be”, to use a line from the late Carl Sagan’s popular science program Cosmos. This is not a scientific statement, because there is no believable way it could be tested. It is an assumption, a philosophy, a religious belief. It is the philosophy that supports the entire evolution scheme, from its assertions about the beginning of the universe to the beginning of life to the appearance of complex life forms…I need to be clear. We should not oppose the teaching of evolution. Instead, our desire should be to expose the religion of naturalism. We should work to have all the facts taught about origins.

-The whole point of Darwin’s theory was to identify a natural process that would mimic design, thus making design unnecessary(by design they are meaning Creation by God).

-The hostility to religion that is so strong in the scientific establishment is not driven by the facts but by materialistic philosophy…..even the methods of science are driven by materialistic philosophy….”We (scientists) are forced by our a priori (a decision reached before examining the facts) adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations. You say, Huh? What he means is that since we already have decided what the answer is then we have to find a way to prove whether it’s true or not…..The truth is that much of Darwinism is not science but naturalistic philosophy dressed up as science.

I include this above point because over the years we have all heard of new findings (ex the infamous pepper moth) with corny conclusions attached to them as they hit the airways only to hear later about the phoniness or falsity in the original claim. The above tends to add some understanding for me as to why this happens.

The author explains the philosophies of individuals such as Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, Margaret Sanger, Alferd Kinsey, Wilhelm Reich , Jean-Paul Sartr, Earnest Hemingway , to name a few who influence thought in the 20th century and the negative consequences related to their belief systems that are seen in our society today.

As the authors move to conclusion they provide examples of how we can begin to change our culture, the role of law enforcement (i.e to maintain the peace firstly).

The topic of Christian Unity is discussed… “Let’s fight the real enemy (naturalism) together and quit fighting each other.”

How do we redeem a culture? The answer is simple we are told… “From the inside out. From the individual to the family to the community and then outward in ever widening ripples”
The Books concluding lines:
How now shall we live? By embracing God’s truth, understanding the physical and moral order he has created, leveling contending for the truth with our neighbors, then having the courage to live it out in every walk of life. Boldly and, yes joyously.


This book is not a quick read nor is it escapism but if you are purposefully driven to understand the mindset of the world’s people who chose to deny creation theory and practice the religion of naturalism, whether knowingly of unknowingly, then do consider reading this book. If you are plagued with questions on evolution from you children then read this book. If you are trying to mix Creation with Evolution than please read this book. If you belief in truth read this book. If you believe in relativism and consider yourself a post modernist then read this book. If you do not belief in God or Evolution read this book.


You may be asking yourself why is this missionary to Guatemala taking so much time to write a book review, why does he not get out there and win souls. My motivation for doing this is multidimensional and includes:
- Listening to a friend describe the problems their granddaughter was having in a junior high science class.
- Seeing the influence that TV has on each of us morally.
- Seeing the drift in thought processes from absolute truth to relativism
- Reading the bold introduction to our blog site about changing the culture in Guatemala and gulping a little as the reality of the meaning hits home for me as I view the society ‘here and now’ as a new resident of Guatemala and then thinking about the practical ways that this may happen.

I can only hope that this review peaks your interest enough to inspire you to pick up the book and have a deep read. Whether you believe in God or do not. In either case you will benefit.

Tim Juhlin- May 2007

Market Day!!!!

One of the differences in living in Antigua is the shopping. There is a grocery store where we buy all our dry goods, and dairy stuff. But for fresh fruit and vegetables, you can't beat the prices at the market. For instance, we went today and spent a grand total of 72 Q.... just over $10. What did we get for that magnificent sum? Well, we got 5 apples, 6 big carrots, 7 beets, a pound of green beans, a small watermelon, 3 pineapples, 2 of the biggest mangoes I've ever seen (they don't ship these ones to Canada), a pound of peeled shrimp and 3 avocadoes. The most expensive was the shrimp, at $4. If we were vegetarians, we could eat for next to nothing, but for some reason, we like our animal protein. Something about being from Alberta?

Three weeks of school left! I (Sheila) feel like a kid being let out for the summer. But my summer holiday will have to wait for a while. I'm subbing at the school for the English teacher while she is on furlough in Canada. So, back to the books, trying to translate things into Spanish for these beginner students. I'm grateful that I'll have a translator in the class to help with my blank moments (which I'm sure will be many).

This week I was able to accompany an American out to a work site where Canadian developed (U of Calgary) water purification systems are being manufactured and used. We moved one into a local Mayan family’s house and set it up. The family has 2 boys and 6 girls. They had some wood cut on the porch and have banana trees in the yard. They had a 5 lb bucket of green bananas on the porch. They used to live in a bamboo shack, however a few years ago some Canadians built them a house with a tin roof. They were the poorest family on the block and I think that they still are very poor but they at least have a roof over their head. Sheila and I drove back to their place the next day and delivered some food. To our surprise they are Christians and asked to pray before we left. We were moved by the whole thing.

I took 3 people to visit the William Cornelius school site and everyone was very impressed that here in Guatemala there is a school of such high quality. Stories were shared of the Lord’s faithfulness during the process of developing the school and I left the place recharged and excited about finishing language training and getting to work in earnest with the school.

On the language front we are finally getting it and having a little more fun. However, loneliness is a constant challenge. Thank goodness we have each other.

Adios

Hi

The other day Sheila and I agreed that our homesickness is as much about not doing activities that we are used to as it is about missing people. There is something about doing the activities associated with the seasons, such as... shoveling a spring snow dump until your back is sore or fishing in the first open water on the lake. Smelling that spring thaw "doggy do" and watching the first pussy willow buds or the lilic bushes starting to form flowers. This loneliness shows up mostly when weekends are upon us and we do not have to study. Anyway, it is not every day and on the plus side 2007 has been for us the longest summer of our life.

Just the month of May left of language school and then we will be working at the vocational school and should be able to maintain a little more consistency on this site. We do wish that we could place folders of pictures rather than one at a time. Anyone have a better site or suggestion?

What is this picture of? ha ha

Thanks


Tim

The thin forest of pine near Jalapa looks similiar to some warm places in the interior of B.C.

Here we have pictures of 2 different families, Tex with unique guitar pants and below a very poor mom and child with house in background.

Note that corn and pine are planted on the same slope grades.

Hello everyone it has been most of a week since my last short communication. As you may or may not know, Blog stands for weblog and blogs are set up for many reasons. This blog has been set up to give our family and friends opportunity to experience some of what we experience and feel. This is accomplished through writings and pictures. The blog is somewhat different. Although we are missionaries in Guatemala, we have a broad range of readers based on our support base which includes a number of forest practitioners. We do hope, however, that we are able to provide you with enough variety of information that you will make it a “must read” site and save the location in your favorites file.

In my devotions I have been systematically reading through the New Testament and have been doing this for 3 years. Over the last few weeks, many interesting points have required contemplation and today was no exception. We hear people talk about the great battle of Armageddon as mentioned in Revelation chapter 9. Well by the time I finished The Book of Revelation I was thinking that the entire book is amazing (I have never seen a movie on Revelation) and it would have been near impossible for John, the author, inspired and afforded a look into the future by God, himself to have thought up such an account. The Judgments described will be absolutely terrifying and although we cannot be sure of the order or timing of events it seems likely that many judgments will have been upon the earth before the great battle. So whatever we think or suppose about that battle during these times will be greatly overshadowed or molded by the events of the preceding judgments. Life will not be like ‘all is normal’ and poof… the great battle.

I am now proceeding back into Matthew where I find the amazing documentation of the lineage of Christ in 3 groups of 14 generations. In our society we are hardly able to identify our great grandfather and here in Matthew Ch 1 we have 42 generations tracked. What a marvel.

For those of you interested, we feel the following: primarily at this time loneliness is our companion. This loneliness is for friends and the familiar and is followed closely with feelings of being unsettled. This is probably because we are living in a hotel while at language school and are not able to establish a secure nest. These 2 feelings are followed by an excitement about what God is about to do once we move into assisting at the William Cornelius Technical Training School. Note the change in name from vocational to technical, this has occurred to satisfy government officials.

I promised a few pictures of the highlands of Guatemala to the east of the City. We traveled back from Jalapa (pronounce halapa) on some wild roads during Easter so here are a few pictures.

Yours In Christ

Tim

Well we have been back to school for a week and much to my surprise I was able to string sentences together. I guess the break helped.

Adjusting to the culture is still a big challange with many little things getting under our skin. I have noted though an inner change towards accepting things as they are. The wages paid to individuals is bothersome, however we benefit daily because of the low wages. Contradictions! It is like those complaining about logging and then using toilet paper and reams of paper towel.

Only Converts not Disciples? A great omission in the great commission?

All the best

Tim & Sheila