June 2018 – dannypeck.net

Would Jesus Hang Out With This Group?

We gathered for all-block debrief today, beginning with breakfast, worship, and book study at Dani´s house. Our interns are reading When Helping Hurts this summer and one of the questions Thomas asked as he taught the group this morning was “Would Jesus want to hang out with this group?” He didn’t make anyone answer out loud, but even as the conversation moved on, I think we all kept coming up with answers in our head to that question.

Yes, he would, because we are the people who want to follow him.
No, he wouldn’t, because we aren’t the poorest of the poor.
Yes, he would because we’re pretty sinful.
No, he wouldn’t, because we’re the religious leaders.
Yes, he would, because we are building his church.
No, he wouldn’t because we quite often defile his temples.
Yes, he would because we’re pretty dumb sometimes and need to be taught.
No, he wouldn’t because we aren’t always ready to let go of our idols.

I want to be the kind of person Jesus would want to hang out with. But at the same time I want to be so much better than I am so he doesn’t have to waste his time with me. And what’s funny about that is that both of those goals are accomplished by being the kind of person who hangs out with Jesus.

What are you doing these days, Danny?

People have joked around with me for years that they can’t keep track of what country I’m in. But it seems like I can hardly keep track of where I’ve been lately myself.

In February I left my job at First UMC in Elizabeth City. I came back to Ecuador to host two short-term teams and hang out with a bunch of people I love. And those people convinced me I should come back to Ecuador this summer as the Maestro for the Education=Hope program. So I’ve been doing just that, helping to train and supervise both the E=H interns and the Quito Quest interns who are serving with E=H sites and teams.

But in the midst of my preparations for Ecuador, God dropped another crazy opportunity in my path, and after weeks of calls and texts and emails and Skype calls and plane rides, I accepted the position of Director of Family Ministries at Soapstone UMC in Raleigh, which I will be starting in August.

It’s been a crazy few months. It has been hard sometimes telling people what’s next for me, especially because since January, I quite often haven’t known beyond about the next two weeks what was really next for me. It’s about to be a crazy few months as well, because I need to finish well here with Quito Quest and Education=Hope, and dive immediately back into Conference Youth Events, moving to Raleigh, and starting a new job. I won’t be back home in Elizabeth City until about twelve days after I return to the United States, and “home” won’t really be home after that anyway.

I’m excited. I’m terrified. I’m actively trusting God to give me the ability to do all the things that He’s called me to do. And I can’t wait to tell everybody about this whole new adventure.

Maestro-ing

Over twelve summers, I have had a lot of roles in our short-term program. I’ve been a team member, a team leader, a Quito Quest host, a site host and an additonal staff member on teams. I even once helped train a couple of hosts who would both the next summer become my maestros. But I have never actually done the Maestro roll until now.

Since 2008 I’ve been telling people that Quito Quest is the most work not the least sleep you’ll ever get, and I use that statement to make a point of just how much I love this program, because I keep coming back and doing it again and again. And while my perspective has slowly changed over time about how much sleep you actually need to do this job (I’m old… I need way more sleep now than when I was 22), my perspective has changed dramatically this summer on who it is that really has all the work to do.

When you’re a team host, you are responsible for all the people on a short-term team, for their food and housing and schedule and translation and cultural acquisition, and their medical needs. You’re there to take care of them from the moment they walk out of the secure section of the airport until you drop them off right back there eleven or so days later.

When you’re a maestro, you’re responsible for all that stuff, except for the interns, and for three months instead of a week and a half. And when seven of your eight hosts have never hosted before, you wind up being responsible for a lot of their job too, because it’s simply impossible to learn how to do this job perfectly in the two weeks between intern arrival and the start of Block 1 of teams.

An intern asked me after my Basilica orientation, “How much of that are we supposed to remember?” She had this seriously worried look on her face, and I just laughed, and tried to compassionately explain that I’ve been doing Basilica orientations for 11 years, and I’ve been there with all kinds of people, so I have learned a lot about the place. I dumped it all on those unsuspecting interns, hoping they’ll be able to regurgitate 40% of it or so this summer. I want give them all the information and experience and wisdom I have, but I certainly don’t expect them to know cold in one summer what I’ve been compiling since 2007.

Cameron has been laughing at me all summer as I ask deep questions to the interns and then press for answers. She remembers exhausted 2008 Danny who had to be forced to give more than one-word answers. I hadn’t figured out back then that it was okay to be an introvert and an internal processor. But I also hadn’t quite figured out back then how much the staff needed me to get out of that comfort zone and verbally let them know how they could take care of me. She also remembers 2008 Danny who would debrief teams until 11, get home at midnight, blog until 2am, and get up at 5 or 6 to do it all over again, because he thought you had to just run yourself into the ground to lead a team well. And now she’s watching me tell interns to hide out in the book bag room and take a nap or catch up on finances so they don’t have to stay awake so late at night.

It’s also a lot of work to put team hosts together as a pareja and to match those parejas up with teams. Figuring out how to compliment people’s gifts, and how to match them up with projects and team leaders and teams and ministry sites is a giant puzzle. And just as it’s impossible for the hosts to do their job in a perfect way, we (maestros and directors) will never quite get this part of our job perfect either. But I can tell you we talked about it and processed together way more than I ever thought would be necessary.

I love being here for summer, and I love getting to train and oversee all these hosts. But as I jump in and out of teams’ schedules and ministry sites, and do my best to care for our hosts who are caring for them, I have a lot more appreciation for Bryan, Dana, Darío, Christy, Manuel, and Kristin, who were all maestros for me at various times.

Soccer Match

We don’t have sports, plural, in Ecuador, we pretty much just have soccer. And in Quito, for the most part we don’t have fans of different teams: everybody here is a Liguista. So when you are invited to a soccer match, it’s a Liga game, and you had better be hyped for it, and you had better have your jersey.

A number of our team hosts are off this weekend, so they joined the staff and the site hosts tonight for Liga vs. Emelec at Casa Blanca.

Pablo got our tickets this morning, but he clearly didn’t trust the gringos to know how to act at an Ecuadorian soccer match, so he sent us all instructions before he would hand them out.

Blue is actually one of LDU’s colors, but not when they’re home against Emelec, so Pablo was actually trying to make sure we don’t start a fight. And people will definitely fight when it comes to soccer.

It took forever to get on the bus this afternoon because each one that came by was already so full, and everyone at the station was wearing their Liga jerseys, so we knew we’d be crammed in like sardines all the way to the stadium. The general admission seats in Casa Blanca were packed out as well, but it was a ton of fun to participate in singing and cheers and listening to all the fans in the stadium heckle the referees… and the other team… and sometimes our team.

Liga scored a goal early in the second half, but Emelec got a penalty kick to tie, and the score stayed like that the rest of the match. One of the players on the other team passed out due to altitude, which sucks for him, but at least we were reminded that doesn’t only happen to team members. All in all, it was a great cultural experience, something I haven’t done in seven years, and a really cool day off with some of our staff.

Notice who is the only one wearing a Liga jersey.

Celebrating

Last night we got to celebrate a little bit that I got a new job. What’s really cool about this is that most of the people celebrating were somewhat disappointed that I won’t be coming back to Youth World full time, and yet they were living out our summer motto of “People over Projects” by joining me in my excitement over what’s next. I’m really pumped to be joining the Soapstone UMC family, but I am truly going to miss this group of people that dives fearlessly into life and ministry together, knowing that the kind of people who wind up at Youth World are only ever here for a season.

And by the way… sometimes “celebrating” in Ecuador just means going to the BK Lounge.

Ecuadorian Day

There are some characteristics we ask our short-term teams to have or adopt. Flexibility is a big one, and one I needed today. And by today, I mean yesterday because it’s technically Monday now, and I’ve been awake since 6:30 Sunday morning.

Our plan today was to go to Emaús and for Ezechias to preach, and then to do his Africa/Rwanda presentation for the kids at the church. In the broadest sense, that did happen. But things started to get off course all the way back at “going to Emaús.”

Pablo (who was translating), Ezechias (who was preaching), and I (who was the only one who knew how to get to Emaús) left the house shortly after seven this morning. That seemed like plenty of time to walk down to the Trole, catch a Trole that wasn’t packed, and ride for about an hour down to Terminal Morán Valverde near the church. It took a while to get on a Trolebús, but eventually we were on our way.

And then suddenly we weren’t.

It turns out the newspaper in Quito was sponsoring a huge race today. So the Trole was only running in the north of town, down to El Ejido, and the roads were closed farther south. So everyone on the Trole had to get off seven stops down the road, before we were even truly out of North Quito.

The three of us walked a ways, and finally managed to catch a taxi. But it turned out it wasn’t just the roads around the Trole stops that were closed, it was every main road we needed to get across the city. Our driver kept saying “I’ll just get on that road and then we’re home free,” (I’m paraphrasing) but we would immediately run into another metal barrier on the road. What should have been a 20 minute, $3 taxi ride took 45-50 minutes and cost us $8. In the grand scheme of things, that’s not a large amount of money. But I’ve been taking taxis in this city for 11 years and I’ve never paid $8 for one. Ever.

The other issue with an $8 ride is that instead of reaching for my change purse to pay the driver in Sacagawea coins, I reached for my wallet to pull out a 10. At which point I realized i didn’t have my wallet. After thinking all day, my best guess is that somebody snagged it from my front pocket as all of us had to pile out of the Trole at once. Fortunately I had eel over $8 in coins, because that’s as much a reality in this city as getting your wallet stolen on public transportation. And after twelve years coming to Quito, and as many hours as I’ve spent on the Trole, a total of two wallets taken isn’t really a bad statistic.

We got out at the Puente Guajaló and I showed the guys a sliver of my old neighborhood. They laughed when I told them what funny looks I used to get, because gringos don’t generally go to Guajaló. Part of that may have been the Ecuadorian and the African laughing that even this morning, I was still the only white guy for miles, and yet I was the one who was able to guide them around this section of the city that feels so like home to me.

We arrived at Emaús at almost exactly 9:00. Which is the time painted on the wall outside at which the service starts. Most of the congregation got there around 9:30, and we actually started then. But as they trickled in, and we three greeted everyone, the other guys were surprised when almost everyone greeted me by name. Pablo finally said “man… you know everyone here. Why are you so famous?” Ezechias preached, and it was wonderful. Pablo translated, and did a fantastic job, made even better for me by the fact that I wasn’t the one doing it. I also didn’t have a guitar with me, so for the first time since 2010, I just got to be a part of the service at Emaús from the congregation without needing to lead.

Ezechias was also supposed to do his Rwanda presentation right after the service for the kids who are in the Education=Hope scholarship program. But it turns out it was Día del Niño and there was a children’s program going on outside after the service. So the expectation was actually that he would do his presentation for the parents. His very kid-friendly Powerpoint was basically useless, but fortunately he was flexible (and prepared… he had the presentation he’d used for Youth World Staff meeting last week with him as well) and jumped right into what needed to happen.

Our time at Emaús ended up lasting much longer than we expected. Even after the Africa presentation, there were snacks, and a birthday party upstairs for two of the youth. We were finally able to excuse ourselves with the true story that we were supposed to be at Alliance Academy back up north to play soccer with the Casa G boys at 3pm. So we took off, and way too impatient to ride the Trole or bus again, Ezechias paid for a taxi all the way back home.

Soccer went about how you’d expect it. We got to hang out with the boys and some of the staff from Casa G, which is always fun, and then headed to Chelsea’s house for dinner. We intended to watch a movie until the hosts and I needed to go pick up a team from the airport, but we ended up just sitting on the roof with a bluetooth speaker, having a sing-along for several hours.

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church is the team that was scheduled to come in at 10:13pm. Then they were delayed an hour. Then they were delayed another hour. Our bus driver was not happy with us that he had to wait, not that we have any control over Delta’s schedule or the weather in Atlanta, since that was the actual culprit. Finally at 10:45 we left for the airport. Grace and Bleu (the hosts) slept all the way there. I watched half a movie and slept for a while myself, on what should have been about a 40 minute drive at that time of night. There was no traffic whatsoever, and somehow it still took us an hour and twenty minutes to reach the Quito airport. I think our driver got lost while we were all asleep. We arrived around midnight, but our team (not surprisingly) didn’t get out until ten minutes after 1am. With 24 people, they are usually at the back of the immigration line, and take an hour after landing to actually walk out the door. So it wasn’t any big problem to us, but certainly didn’t help our driver’s mood. And again, he took twice as long to get home as we thought, but this time I knew for sure why, because he missed our exit from the highway and had to drive all the way to Central Quito and turn around to come back North. He really should pay more attention, but in his defense, the city of Quito should really build more exits on the Oriental. At any rate, 3am was when we finally left all those gringos at the hostel and headed for bed. Or for me, to a computer to record all the ordinary unexpectedness of this crazy Quiteño day.

Photos from Training ’18

I haven’t stopped for a moment to write down all the things I wanted to about Quito Quest training this year. But here is a photographic glimpse of what has been happening for the past couple of weeks.