Tuesday, August 16, 2016

August Update

Hello friends!
The harvest season is petering to a halt, and I (Ben) am alive and mostly in one piece. Did we mention we are having a baby? We are having a baby!!!! If you have never seen a baby yawn on a 3D ultrasound: it is so cute you want to eat it!

Also, we got to see my Momma and step-dad this weekend after their grueling 10 hour trek through nightmarish Seattle traffic. Awesome greasy burgers and gelato were had by all. It was joyous.

I have had the privilege of making friends with a chemical engineering student who is planning on joining us in the near future to help with solutions to stabilizing products on their way to market. I also met a produce farmer who worked in the Peace Corps in Guatemala around the same time as another Christian organization(Agros) which started in the very same place (The Ixil Triangle, if you want to know) to empower farmers to own their own land and become financially independent.

Also, I have discovered a refrigerator made of clay (the Mitticool, from India) that functions off of water evaporation and requires ZERO electricity. That’s right. 
In addition, I will be meeting with a few friends who are tech savvy to piece together a prototype power production model for the village. In theory, we can produce power far in excess of the village needs and this means a stable platform to host translators. 

Keep in mind we won’t be hosting folks on day two. Goal one is to learn the language and make connections while learning about their felt needs and unexpressed ones too. We also want to ask a mountain of questions about expectations, culture, and their own plans for how to accomplish these goals.
On that note, it is rather strange to shift one’s perspective from a technician’s mindset (I am the best, therefore I shall do it...NOW!) to an advisor’s mindset (I move based on YOUR direction). This might be the lynchpin of frustration AND excitement. All of us, not just Mary and I, have to remember that cultural expectations could be VERY different, and Christ’s model was always invitation (whether He angered Pharisees or not is beside the point). Therefore, we have to come humbly and without pretense to ASK how we can help. Tough...very tough for our culture. It is a stretch goal for us as Christians that Christ wants us to grow into so we can look at following Him through the lens of multiple paths (not doctrinally, just culturally).
Thank you, each of you reading this, for taking the time to look into our lives and see what Christ is doing with us in this season. May He guide you like He guides us: Absolute certainty even in total darkness!

In His Grace,

The Grimm Horde

2 comments:

  1. Ben,

    Unfortunately the MittiCool (and others like PotinPot) will likely not work in the PNG. The MittiCool uses evaporation cooling which is very effective in climates such as Arizona or India. It is not effective in areas where when you walk from one end of the lawn to the next, you have a coating of moisture on your skin.

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  2. Ergh! On to the next, even BETTER, idea!

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