The neighbor’s sow has been getting loose the past couple of days. They try to have her staked out with a rope, but it hasn’t been working. Last evening and this morning she was trying to get in with our pigs. I was milking Estrella and talking quietly to her when a voice boomed, “Buenos dias!” at my elbow. I nearly jumped out of my skin.
It was the lechero from next door. He chatted a little about the cow, then he told me that his pig that has been harassing our pigs and running onto the haylage pile had celo. Since she was celo, could he borrow our pig? Then his pig would leave us alone. I had to look up celo in my Spanish dictionary on my phone while continuing to milk with one hand. According to the dictionary, his pig had zeal or was zealous.
Shawn continues to stare dumbly at his phone while waiting for the light bulb to go on. Why would the zeal of his pig require him to borrow our pig so that his pig could finally be tied up again? Light bulb! This is the fun of language learning.
I told him we could make that happen. I finished chores, had breakfast, then came out to assist the lecheros helper in getting their female pig in with our male pig so that in about four months there could be baby pigs. Afterward, I went out to the haylage pile with duct tape and patched up the holes from where the lady pig had been dancing the night before. Not too much damage. I hope she stays home now.
In other news, a friend from Puno messaged me yesterday and asked if I’d be willing to record my sermons and send them to him to share with his church. They do not have a pastor currently, and the quarantine here in Peru is keeping them from studying together.
I told him I’d be glad to do that. I have some past sermons that I could go ahead and get for him, and I will plan to send him a recording of my messages ongoing. Today I went back to my first notes from the Sermon on the Mount series and worked on them a bit. I then recorded the first sermon over–my Spanish is much better now–and edited it a bit on the computer before sending it to the friend from Puno.
This makes me very happy that I can share my messages beyond our little group here at home. The children are young enough and inexperienced with Spanish enough that they’re not getting much out of it yet. Knowing others can be blessed by my studies is a great encouragement to me. In fact, I’m considering the possibility of a couple shorter devotionals throughout the week that I could record and send out. Writing the scripts doesn’t generally take very long, and I’m already reading the Bible every day for my own studies. I might as well share it with others who’d be glad for it.
You can pray for me in this. I’d like to feel more useful here. An opportunity to share God’s Word more broadly feels like an answer to an unarticulated prayer of mine.
I have a Patreon page.
Juan David 