September, 2015, Newsletter

Something we are trying lately that has helped us get our newsletters out a little more often is to get them printed at mailed out from our headquarters in Marion, Indiana. Thanks to the World Gospel Mission Publishing Department for their enormous help there!

Here is the September, 2015 edition of the Bowen Arrow.

Podcast on Missionary Language Learning

"Language learning is much more than a mental exercise. It’s a spiritual exercise. It reminds you every day that you’ve been called to enter a world that’s completely different from your own, and that entering requires sacrifice."

I feel pretty strongly about missionary language learning! Listen to this podcast to hear my thoughts.

Newsletter Time Again

Well, no improvement on frequency of newsletter updates. Our latest one is linked in the left column, under the "links" section.

This time it took me about a month to get our newsletter out, what with design holdups, software glitches, printing, updating mailing lists, FedExing the envelopes to the U.S. to be mailed. In view of how much work goes into getting this out every time, I'm looking into having the whole process done in the U.S. in the future. My thinking has always been that people want to receive a letter from us, and not from our mission. But the clunkiness of the process is forcing us that direction.

For now, though, read our August, 2013 newsletter, posted on Scribd.

August 2012 Newsletter

Yes, it's true. Shamefully true. It's been a year since we last posted a newsletter on here. I realized recently that one of the most complex tasks we perform is getting a newsletter out. It probably wouldn't be that way if I weren't such a perfectionist. So you can pray for me.

In the meantime, here's the latest "Bowen Arrow". Read it for all the updates we haven't posted on this blog.

Latest Family Portrait

Our latest family portrait, including Joe, the latest arrival.

Latest Bowen Arrow

A link to our latest newsletter is on the left hand side of the page.

My current excuse for not posting for a while is the addition of a new member to the family and the changes that brings. Is it unfair to blame things on such a small person who can't defend himself?

Watch this spot for more updates in the near future.

February 2011 Video Update

Battle of Paraguarí

Today is the 200^th anniversary of the Battle of Paraguarí. If you aren't Paraguayan, or connected to Paraguay in some way, the chances are good you haven't heard of Paraguarí and even better that you didn't know there was a battle fought there on January 19^th, 1811.

Cerro Porteño, the smaller hill to the left, with Cerro Acahay in the background, as seen from my yard. The Battle of Paraguarí was fought on the plain to the right.

General Manuel Belgrano, sent by the government in Buenos Aires to deal with the rebellious Paraguayan province, had far superior arms and led professional soldiers. But the Paraguayans outnumbered the Porteños—the term still used to describe people from Buenos Aires. In addition, they were passionately defending their homeland.

They met each other in the valley between Paraguarí and Cerro Mbaé, or, as it is known today, Cerro Porteño. We can see this hill and the valley from our house, located on the south side of the range of hills called Cordillera de los Altos. The battle is also called the Battle of Cerro Porteño.

The Paraguayans won the day, both on the 19^th of January and 50 days later further south at Tacuary. These victories were key events that led to Paraguay's declaration of independence from Spain on May 14^th of that year. This year Paraguay celebrates its 200^th anniversary.

Perhaps just as important as Paraguay's military victory at Paraguarí was the custom of officers of both sides getting together before and after the battles and shooting the breeze. Many of them knew each other—several of Belgrano's officers were even Paraguayan!—and they came from the same privileged class. Through this fraternization the Paraguayan officers learned that Napoleon Bonaparte had replaced Spain's king with his own brother.  Napoleon wanted to retain Spanish possessions in the Americas and the Philippines, but Paraguay now realized that the new reality gave them the opportunity to break once and for all from Spain.

So it became one of the first in the series of South American provinces to declare independence between 1809 (Ecuador) and 1825 (Uruguay). Basically the Spanish empire in the New World disintegrated within 16 years, although Cuba and Puerto Rico still belonged to Spain until the Spanish-American war in 1898. (Guyana didn't get independence from the United Kingdom until 1966 and Surinam separated from the Netherlands in 1975. French Guiana continues to be an overseas department of France.)

There might even be an argument that the events that took place two hundred years ago out in the valley I can see from my front window contributed to the eventual fall of Napoleon. I might need some help from the historians to make my case, though. At the very least, one of Paraguay's most popular soccer teams, Cerro Porteño owes its name to the feeling of victory Paraguayans feel when they remember January 19^th 1811.

December Newsletter

I've posted a link to our December newsletter on the lower left of this page.

We've been in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, since the 27th of November, visiting with Lizet's family. The boys have been having a wonderful time with their tías (aunts) and their abuelito and abuelita. We came for Twana's graduation from high school, which was on the 4th, but decided to stay a couple of weeks. It's been a very pleasant, relaxing time.

I wasn't going to bring my laptop, but at the last minute I decided I would. On the whole, it's been a good thing. I've still gotten plenty of rest, had nice times with the family, and enjoyed playing with the boys. But I've also managed to get caught up on lots of things and been able to stay in touch so that I don't anticipate having to dig through a mountain of emails when I get home to Paraguay on Tuesday!

Good to be Home

What a good feeling to be back home in Paraguay after fourteen months in the US, mostly traveling around. We flew back into Asunción on August 4th and got back to Escobar as soon as possible to find our house and our dog Oso wonderfully cared for by Antonio and Lida Guerrero.

Before we went back to Escobar I went to our cell phone provider to get a phone that I could use, as I was using our Motorola V3 before, to connect to the internet. The salesman talked me into buying a BlackBerry, saying not only could I get email and browse the web using the phone but I could also use the phone as a Bluetooth modem to connect my laptop to the internet as I had done with my other phone.

Lucas and Timmy are happy to be home

Well, salesmen are salesmen everywhere, I guess, and this guy somewhat exaggerated the capabilities of the BlackBerry which, though a good phone and very useful for brief emails and a little internet browsing, is not good at all as a Bluetooth modem. The upside of that is I've been wasting no time at all online. The downside is that some things I really need to do online--paying bills, for example, or updating my blog--I just can't do.

Part of the problem is a very variable cell phone signal at our house. This aspect of the problem I'm hoping to remedy with a dual band cell phone repeater. But there also seems to be a problem with the phone itself as a modem--even when I have a good signal it only connects a fraction of the times I try.

Our neighbor "Abuela" (Grandma) Asunción's house

That's the frustrating side of life. The exciting part of our life is helping missionaries with language learning, and I just finished this week a four-week refresher course with SIM missionaries Jeff and Amy McKissick, who have also just returned from the US. They are super committed to ongoing Guarani language learning and it's always a delight to work with them. Check out Amy's post on their language-learning experience.

Right now we have a couple of days in Asunción. We're celebrating Timmy's fourth birthday today, and tomorrow we'll go back to Escobar and take with us Lizet's mom who is here for a visit from Bolivia. We're staying at the mission guest house, where we have a wireless internet connection, so I'm trying to remember and catch up with all the things I need to do online.

I keep reminding myself that to get to live in such a wonderful place as Escobar, and be involved in the exciting ministry we get to have a part in, we have to make some sacrifices, and if one of them is a reliable internet connection, well, then, so be it! It's well worth it.

July Newsletter

I've posted our latest newsletter on the lower left of this page.

We've finished up our time in the US and will be returning to Paraguay on August 4th. We're looking forward to getting back home!

Don't Forget Haiti

Don't Forget Haiti: Tent City from Ryan Booth on Vimeo.

Caleb and Ben Cameron at the World Cup

The Paraguayan soccer team is getting ready for its first game of this World Cup on Monday against Italy. They are staying in the beautiful city of Pietermaritzburg in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal.

It happens that our friends, colleagues, and former students, SIM missionaries Greg and Vonni Cameron, have just returned to South Africa for furlough and are living in the city of Pietermaritzburg. They went to see the Paraguay team practice at the Harry Gwala stadium. The Camerons were sighted by reporters sitting in the stands with their Paraguayan jerseys on, drinking tereré and speaking in Guarani. They were asked down to the field and interviewed.

Since Greg and Vonnie speak Guarani but very little Spanish, they responded to Spanish questions in Guarani! They told the reporters they had studied the heart language of Paraguay in order to read the Bible in Guarani to people who speak Guarani but don't read it, and to serve the community. The interview was on national television in Paraguay and the photo of the boys turned up in the June 7th edition of the daily ABC Color.

Operation Py'aguapy on BBC

BBC has posted a news item about the search for members of the Ejército del Pueblo Paraguayo, or Paraguayan People's Army, who are on the run in the north of the country, possibly in the Paraguayan Chaco. About 25 people are being pursued by the Paraguayan Military and Police in a massive operation being called Operación Py'aguapy, or Operation Tranquility in Guarani.

The BBC article cites the comparison Paraguayans are making between the EPP and Jasy Jatere (or as BBC calls him, Yasy-Yatere,) a spirit being familiar to all Paraguayans. This creature is a one of a number of spirits that are well known in Paraguayan culture and are usually referred to as "mythological" but which, to speak with rural Paraguayans, are not mythological in the sense of being fictional. Many people believe very firmly not only in the existence of these creatures but also in their regular interaction in their own lives.

Another example is Pombero, to whom some people leave offerings of cane alcohol, tobacco, or yerba mate in their tatakua, or brick oven. These offerings are said to appease Pombero, also known as karai pyhare, or "gentleman of the night," who might otherwise attack family members or wreak havoc with their livestock.

Google's Doodle Honors catorce de mayo (May 14).

Yesterday's Google Doodle in the Paraguayan version honored the 199th anniversary of the independence of Paraguay. It features the Paraguayan flag and a Bare-throated bellbird (Procnias nudicollis), the national bird of Paraguay, as the letter 'l'. Cool.

April Newsletter

I've posted a link to our April 2010 newsletter on the lower left of this page. For those of you who pray, thanks for praying for us!

Incarnation is Identification

I recently spoke with a man who had been a missionary in Brazil. While he was there he made a great effort to learn Portuguese well, taking as his models the Brazilian Portuguese speakers around him. His goal was to sound just like them them--or as much like them as possible--when he spoke.

To this day, twenty years after leaving Brazil, he speaks excellent, idiomatic Brazilian Portuguese. The hard work that he did many years ago continues to yield dividends in the way he speaks the language.

He told me about a time he traveled with a fellow missionary in Brazil. After an interaction with a Brazilian man, his colleague turned to him and asked in an annoyed way, "Why do you do that?"

"Do what?" my friend replied.

"Why do you try talk like the Brazilians, instead of like an American?"

"Because they talk right, and I want to talk right."

"Well," his friend concluded, "don't do it around me."

I thought about that story again a couple of weeks ago when I was listening to a radio program about language learning. The man being interviewed said something to the effect that the greatest compliment you can pay a language learner is to mistake him/her for a native speaker.

I realized that this was exactly what my friend's colleague had wanted to avoid. There was something in his self-identity that resisted identifying with Brazilians and he didn't want to risk ever being taken for anything but an American.

Now I realize that for most of us it is very unlikely that we would ever learn a language so well as an adult that we would be taken for a native speaker. But putting that aside for the moment, one of the reasons that my language students tend to be the most motivated language learners in the world is that they don't only want to communicate information with Paraguayans; they want to identify with them in the language that defines them as Paraguayans--Guarani. By learning Guarani, we affirm, value, and make part of us something that most Paraguayans hold in very high esteem--the language that is uniquely theirs.

Dr. Gailyn Van Rheenen, in his book Missions: Biblical Foundations and Contemporary Strategies, talks about this identification: "Such identification is not an external façade designed to create some kind of artificial congeniality; it is the heart of God incarnate in the missionary." (p. 66) The heart of God was demonstrated in Jesus, the Word who took on human form and had to learn words--human language--as a baby. His identification with us, his creation, sets the pattern for missionary identification.

That's why language learning for missionaries is not an onerous task to be endured so that the real missions work can begin. It is an indispensable step in the process of incarnation that every missionary must engage in completely in order to be effective ministers in the context they've been called to. For this reason, people who go to minister in contexts where they "don't need to learn the language" find themselves at a distinct disadvantage, because they lack one of the most fundamental tools of identification.

My Irish Forebears

Of all my ancestors whose details I've uncovered over the years in censuses, wills, tax lists, city directories, Civil War pension files, and other documents, by far the most mysterious is a man named Edward Harding Ryan.

Edward was born in Ireland in 1826 and immigrated in 1873, arriving in Philadelphia. He was apparently a Protestant so I'm guessing he may have been from the North, but I have yet to find any more concrete information on his origins.

He was naturalized on August 31, 1880, but strangely I can't seem to find him in the 1880 census. I don't know what his wife's name was and I don't know his profession.

He had at least two children, one of whom was my great great grandmother, Isabella Esther Ryan, born in 1859 in Ireland. She married Andrew Lucas Chamberlain and died when my great grandmother, Laura, was only five.

Edward's other daughter that I know of, Catherine S. Ryan, was born in 1857, also in Ireland, and married Douglass Bellerjeau, a Philadelphia native.

The most informative source on my great great great grandfather is his death certificate, dated January 1886. He was only sixty. He died of pneumonia and was buried in the Greenwood Knights of Pythias Cemetery. His address was listed as 1477 Cook St., and he was a widower.

I'm fascinated by the mysteries of my past. These people are part of who I am, and it's amazing to think that this almost anonymous Irish immigrant was one of the people without whom I would not exist. Some day I'll find out more about him but until then it's good to know on St. Patrick's day (though surely Edward would not have acknowledged St Patrick!) that I'm at least that little part Irish.

Quisqueya Relief

Check out this new blog about the Quisqueya Crisis Relief Center in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Don't miss the opportunity to donate.

Paraguayan guitarist Agustín Barrios Mangoré is one of the greatest musicians of all time.

That's what world famous Australian guitarist John Williams says about this Paraguayan icon of the first half of the 20th century. Paraguayan guitarist Berta Rojas and Williams talk about this remarkable composer and guitarist that so beautifully represented the musical heart of Paraguay in this BBC interview.