“Quien no tiene minga, mendiga.”
“The one who doesn’t have a group to work with (a ‘minga’) will beg for food”
The Incan empire lived out that idea, which was later turned into a proverb in Peruvian Spanish (and less beautifully, into my English translation above). As we found in a visit to the Museum of Anthropology and History, the Empire thrived because of orchestrated team work; a community life in which people helped each other to plant, to harvest, to build. The one who didn’t have that group of mutual help would end up begging for his bread.
The Bible speaks that same truth in passage after passage: if one is alone and falls, who will help him? Two together are better. A cord of three strands is not easily broken. Jesus sent out the disciples by twos. Paul traveled the Roman Empire with a missionary band, and the picture that we have of Church life is a body, where each member serves the rest. It is a hard life when we try to go it alone; we are made to work together.
We weave that idea into the very nature of the Creating Understanding Seminar. Over the past 7 weeks, students in the Seminar have worked in four groups, not only visiting four different neighborhoods, but working together to analyze, write, and report on what they find. Each group submits written work; not each student. Each group presents their findings to the whole class; not each person. Each group suggests Biblical approaches to ministry in their neighborhoods; not each student. We don’t want to just talk about the importance of teams; we want to build cooperative learning into the very training of missionaries. After all, their success depends on their ability to cooperate. (look at John 17:20 – 23 to see how true that statement is!)
As I was thinking about teams this afternoon, I realized once again how grateful I am for the multinational team that is making this Seminar a reality. On the Peruvian side, we are blessed with hospitality and administrative ministry of Olga, Moises, Blanca, Jenny, Angie, Lina, and Maximo. On the IICC side, Mark, Karen, Andrew, Stan, Mark, Carmen and Katie are part of the “minga." (The photograph above shows many of the ministry team as well as the students at a prayer time we had in late February).
“The one who doesn’t have a group to work with (a ‘minga’) will beg for food”
The Incan empire lived out that idea, which was later turned into a proverb in Peruvian Spanish (and less beautifully, into my English translation above). As we found in a visit to the Museum of Anthropology and History, the Empire thrived because of orchestrated team work; a community life in which people helped each other to plant, to harvest, to build. The one who didn’t have that group of mutual help would end up begging for his bread.
The Bible speaks that same truth in passage after passage: if one is alone and falls, who will help him? Two together are better. A cord of three strands is not easily broken. Jesus sent out the disciples by twos. Paul traveled the Roman Empire with a missionary band, and the picture that we have of Church life is a body, where each member serves the rest. It is a hard life when we try to go it alone; we are made to work together.
We weave that idea into the very nature of the Creating Understanding Seminar. Over the past 7 weeks, students in the Seminar have worked in four groups, not only visiting four different neighborhoods, but working together to analyze, write, and report on what they find. Each group submits written work; not each student. Each group presents their findings to the whole class; not each person. Each group suggests Biblical approaches to ministry in their neighborhoods; not each student. We don’t want to just talk about the importance of teams; we want to build cooperative learning into the very training of missionaries. After all, their success depends on their ability to cooperate. (look at John 17:20 – 23 to see how true that statement is!)
As I was thinking about teams this afternoon, I realized once again how grateful I am for the multinational team that is making this Seminar a reality. On the Peruvian side, we are blessed with hospitality and administrative ministry of Olga, Moises, Blanca, Jenny, Angie, Lina, and Maximo. On the IICC side, Mark, Karen, Andrew, Stan, Mark, Carmen and Katie are part of the “minga." (The photograph above shows many of the ministry team as well as the students at a prayer time we had in late February).
And the names that I have shared don’t even begin to mention the technical, financial, prayer, and administrative help coming from Portland, Lima, Philadelphia, and many, many other places.
May you have Jesus’ joy as you and your “minga” work together to make Him known this week!
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