Semper Gumby

I think it was Tolkien who said that life is what happens between scheduled appointments. By that definition we did a lot of living after the last post. The Internet went down all over Ayacucho on Saturday, and it was still off when we left on Monday, so putting together a blog post was out. That was just as well, because I caught a cold (or had a relapse from an old one) and couldn’t do one anyway.

So here some pictures to finish things off.

One of our main purposes for this trip was to attend the festicanto, a festival of Quechua-style Christian songs. This event was spawned at the workshop we led there last year—the participants at that time wanted to keep moving ahead with the idea of singing songs to the Lord using both their language and their unique music style and planned this event to keep things rolling—so it was a huge privilege to be there for it. Along with the actual performances, we led several teaching sessions Saturday and Sunday about the use of musical instruments in worship, the uniqueness of Quechua music, and the importance of worshipping God with both our hearts and our minds.

One treat we had on Saturday morning was to hear a traditional group that featured a five-year-old lead singer warming up for the evening festival. Her group didn’t win, but a good time was had by all. Here’s a video.

The venue for the festival, the Simón Bolivar Cultural Center, was big enough to hold the crowd. The acoustics were a challenge for the people on stage, but everyone seemed to enjoy their time there.

Unfortunately, my camera ran out of battery power just before the eventual winners performed, but I was able to capture their encore on my phone.

We left Ayacucho Monday morning bright and early – 7am – and flew to Lima where we were met by Martín, a wonderful Christian man who serves the church by taking care of the many visitors who come through the city on church-related business.

All in all, we feel like we encouraged three or four dozen Quechua believers to continue looking to their cultural heritage (as well as to innovations in global society) for musical ideas in worship. They certainly seemed to appreciate the time, expense, and work we put into our visit, and we pray and trust that God will use our time there to strengthen his church and cause it to continue to grow. May much credit abound to the accounts of you who prayed for and contributed to this venture (Philippians 4:17)!