March 23, 2017 - Dia del Mar

The Dia del Mar

Just the other day, my friend, Anna, informed me that today was the Dia del Mar, or Day of the Sea.  This is a celebration of the heroes of the War of the Pacific, in which Bolivia lost the Litoral Province.  This province was Bolivia’s only access to the Pacific Ocean.  When it was lost in the war to Chile, Bolivia then became a landlocked country.

Like most wars, it began with a little event that escalated out of control.  Bolivia had a treaty with Chile, in which it promised not to raise taxes on individuals and companies for 25 years (1874).  Yet in 1878, Bolivia raised taxes on the Chilean mining company CSFA.  When they didn’t pay, Bolivia decided to auction their property, causing Chile to act by sending armed forces to occupy the city of Antofagasta, and protect Chilean interests.

Peru tried to mediate between them, but Bolivia declared war on March 1, 1879, calling on Peru to support its alliance with Bolivia.  Chile demanded that Peru remain neutral, but when it did not respond quickly, Chile declared war on both Bolivia and Peru.

There was more going on than just a simple tax.  Both Chile and Peru had been trying to become the economic power in the region.  Chile was more economically stable, while Bolivia and Peru had problems maintaining a stable government.  It was a war of who is the biggest, baddest dog in the neighborhood.

Just who was the biggest, baddest dog?  It seems that was Chile.  In just one year, Bolivia knew they were beaten and left the contest.  By 1883, Chile was occupying Lima, Peru’s capital, over 1200 miles from the disputed area. 

A truce was signed in 1884.  Chile had gained the Tarapaca territory from Peru and the Litoral department from Bolivia.  Bolivia was cut off from the sea.  It wasn’t until 1904 that a treaty was signed between Bolivia and Chile, setting the current boundary, and in 1929 for Peru and Chile. 

So today, Bolivia remembers the heroes of this war and mourns the loss of their valuable access to the sea.

Mark Potter's Amazon Author Page

March 22, 2017 - Mariposas y Estrellas

Mariposas y Estrellas

Above the highway hovered what at first I thought were falling green leaves.  But as we got closer, I discovered it was a swarm of pale green butterflies, welcoming me to the lush mountain forests of Eastern Bolivia.

For the next few days, as I prepare to revisit Samaipata, I decided to repost my second visit to this pretty little town.  It filled me with so many great memories.  I had fun.  I laughed.  And I discovered that I could write for hours if give n the chance.  So here goes!

Friday, October 28, I headed out again as soon as school was out.  Thursday, I told Mariela that I wanted to visit her house in Samaipata again.  I was thinking closer to mid-November, but she gave me the keys.  In my box, at school, before I left was a note that said “relax, sleep, breathe, restore, and be inspired.” 

At noon, I found a trufi, a group taxi, heading to Samaipata.  It costs about $4 for a 2 ½ hour trip.  In Santa Cruz, it was getting hot.  I ate a snack in the car and drank some cold water, but the heat put me to sleep.  I slept until Angostura.

When I awoke, we had passed the flat lands and straight road out of Santa Cruz.  We were now in the foothills of the Andes Mountains.  The roads twisting and turning between hills and overflowing with lush vegetation.  A river was along our left.  At times the road was well-paved.  At other times, it was bumpy or filled with potholes.  There are even stretches with no pavement at all.  A sign said, “geologically unstable.”  That makes you comfortable. 

That is when I noticed them.  Butterflies.  They were everywhere.  Yellows and whites alone or in pairs.  Glimpses of reds and greens.  There was what at first I thought were falling leaves, but it was a swarm of about 100 pale green butterflies, hovering over the highway.  I was feeling welcomed to the mountains.

Soon there were landmarks I recognized from my visit a month before.  A colorful house graced with peacocks.  The waterfalls by the road.  A house that looks like a lighthouse.  We had made it to Samaipata.

I found Fernando and Mariela’s house with no problem.  I changed clothes, because it was cooler than Santa Cruz.  I went looking for food and found some nice spaghetti at the 1900 Restaurant.  I shared part of it with a stray dog.  The owners thought he was mine.  When I said he wasn’t, they brought out a plate of food for him.  I like this place.

Life is quiet here.  You can walk down the middle of the street, something that would get you killed in Santa Cruz.  There are about as many cars as motorcycles, but there are just not that many. 

After dark, I walked a road on the edge of town up a mountain.  It was dark except for an occasional street lamp.  I was looking for the Milky Way.  I could see it, but it was dim.  I could barely see the road at my feet, so I decided to head home.  Getting close to the house, I noticed that the sky seemed extraordinarily clear.  I went into the house and turned off all the lights.  Standing in the middle of the garden, I clearly saw the Milky Way, a white swath of stars across the sky. 

Did you know it begins with the Southern Cross?  Behind that constellation is the tale of brilliant stars we know as the Milky Way.  Look in the bottom right corner of the picture above.  You should see the cross.

Why did god create that expanse of universe above my head?  He tells the number of stars and calls each by name.  Thank you, God, for the butterflies and stars.

Link to my author page. Onesimus coming out soon.

March 21, 2017 - Lenten Reading Plan

Lenten Reading Plan

At the beginning of the year, Pastor Dave of Bristol Baptist Church always talks about the importance of reading the bible.  The new year is a good time to start a new reading plan.  I had just finished reading through Psalms and Proverbs, and was a few weeks from completing a reading plan on the Pauline letters, so it was a good time to search for a new one.

I discovered a 40-day read through the New Testament and thought it would be perfect for the days of Lent.  This plan skips Sundays, but so does Lent.  Lent is the 40 days of fasting between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday.  There is really 46 days, but Lent does not include Sundays as days of fasting.  These instead are days of feasting, joyful celebration of the coming resurrection of Christ.

This is how the plan is described on the bible app: “What if you spent the next 40 days walking along side of Jesus, listening to his life-changing teachings, visiting churches with Paul, and falling more in love with God on each turning page?  You’re invited to read through the entire New Testament in 40 days – with a Sabbath rest each week.  Our prayer is that at the end, you’ll feel so spiritually full you’ll never want to live on empty again.”

When I read that, I thought, “that is what I need.”  Do you ever feel drained, like you are running on empty?  I do too often.  For the next few months, I don’t have a lot of responsibilities.  When would be a better time to spend in God’s word than now?

Pray for me as I try this “walk along side of Jesus.”  If you tell me you are praying, I’ll pray for you too.

I am hoping to finish Onesimus in about a month, a novel about redemption. In the mean time, you can find my other novels on my Amazon author page.

March 20, 2017 - A New Routine

A New Routine

I’ve been back in Bolivia for two weeks and am trying to develop a routine.  That was easier to do when I got up for school early every morning.  I won’t be doing that for at least six months, so I have to do something so my life won’t be so chaotic.

I have been using my iPad as an alarm clock for about a year now.  I generally have set it to go off three times in the morning.  5:30 says, “time to get up.”  6:00 says, “are you awake yet?”  And the third was for 6:45, about the time my taxi would pick me up to take me to school.  I’ve kept the 6:00 and 6:45 alarms.  If I don’t, I’ll wake up around 11:00.

I don’t rush to get started, because I don’t have to go anywhere, but I do try.  An interesting tidbit about being on the 7^th floor of a high-rise apartment building is the wind.  Santa Cruz is a windy city and it is even windier on the 7^th floor.  I can open the window and the wind acts as a blow dryer for my hair.
 

Around 7:30 or 8:00 I try to leave my apartment.  I always have a nice conversation with José, the young man who is the porter for the building.  I’ve decided breakfast will be street food, but note I am picky.  Has to be clean.  There are several shops in the area that serve a great breakfast, Teconté, Wistipiku, Starbucks, and a few others I don’t remember the names.  For my health, I am trying to do a morning walk of 30+ minutes every day.  Part of my plan will include a walk around the first ring once a week.  I didn’t do so well my first try, but I will keep at it.

I’ve decided for Lent that I will read the entire New Testament.  I am at the place in my life that I have no one to account to, which means it is harder to stay on track.  Reading 5 to 7 chapters a day helps put the word in my heart.  I need that because I stumble so easily. 

The rest of my morning is composed of business I need to do.  If I need to shop or pay bills, it will be done in the morning.  I try to do a little cleaning every day.  Many people hire a maid to clean house, but I have decided to forgo that.  I hate house cleaning, but hate my house being dirty.  I don’t mind washing clothes; put them in the dryer, then hang them in the window, and voila they are dry!

I write my blogs in the mornings too.  For those of you who follow my blog, you will notice that I am reposting some from the fall.  I still have enough for a month that I haven’t reposted.  I have about that same number that I have begun researching.  Hopefully I will have enough adventures in Santa Cruz and other places to get a few more good blogs to make it to 365.  I was thinking of doing a series on the Ten Commandments. 

If I truly want to make a career in writing, I need to write.  I’m not worried about money, at the moment.  I have my monthly retirement check and the cost of living in Santa Cruz is about half of what it is in Texas.  So, I’m good for a while.  In three or four years, if I am not adding significantly to my retirement to cover my living expenses, then I’ll probably return to Texas and look for a teaching job.  For now, I am going to write.

After a lunch, usually of leftovers, I try to dedicate my time to writing my novels.  There are days I have lots of ideas.  Sometimes they are on a completely different tangent than where I am supposed to be, my current novel, Onesimus.  For example, the other day, I had the idea of a novel of the life of Saint John.  I imagined him telling his story in a series of essays about Jesus.  “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched.”  He comes later.

Sometimes my afternoon is taken up with research.  What did the city of Ephesus look like?  How long was a voyage from Corinth to Italy?  Who was with Paul in Rome?  What is the time line of Timothy’s life?  Sometimes the research I intended to answer a little question adds pages to my manuscript. 

I am trying to make part of my routine an hour or two that I turn off Facebook and Instagram.  I turn on classical music, like Smetana, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, or Ravel.  WRR in Dallas is a good station to listen to.  Then I open up Onesimus and just write.  I don’t edit.  I don’t stop and research.  I just write.  In an hour, I can usually turn out 4 or 5 pages.  When I go back to edit a day or two later, more ideas come and that will turn into 6 or 7 pages.  Sometimes, you just have to write.

Some evenings, I go out with friends; four times in the first two weeks here.  If I don’t, then around 7:00, I go downstairs, chat with the porter for a few minutes, then go for a walk.  I timed myself at Lion’s Park in Ennis.  I can do about half a mile in 10 minutes.  So I am trying to do 30+ minutes each night.

Sounds like a busy day, doesn't it?

Link to my Amazon author page

March 19, 2017 - Berea Celebration, Part II

Berea Celebration, Part II

In Exodus, Miriam and other women took tambourines and danced before the Lord.  In 2nd Samuel, David leaped and danced before the Lord.  In Psalm 149 and 150 it talks about praising the Lord with dancing. 

I write this because some Christians are going to read my blogs where I talk about the people of Berea dancing, or the youth jumping in worship services.  What they are doing is quite biblical.  You might not see it in your church, but maybe your church is not as on fire for God as it should be. 

Berea is a church on fire.  Percy and Debbie became pastors of this church 20 years ago, a young couple with a little baby girl.  There were only 25 members at the time and the church seemed doomed.  Lots of prayer and lots of time devoted to discipleship has transformed Berea into a church with around 400 members, a dynamic youth group of several hundred, two full morning services, hundreds participating in church services every night of the week, except Fridays, and many young men becoming leaders of the future.  I mention about the young men, because most churches seem to be dominated by women who take up the slack when the men aren’t there to do the job.  Berea is overflowing with young men with a passion for Christ.

I wrote a blog a few months ago about the yearly celebration that took place in September of 2016.  The combined morning service was packed to overflowing.  It wasn’t a preaching service, rather a praise and worship service.  It was three hours long, but was not boring and dreary.  I cried and I laughed.  I was surprised when it was over that it lasted as long as it did.

Well, the service wasn’t over.  Everybody went home for a few hours and then came back for part 2.  When I arrived that evening, the parking lot was filled with tables and nicely dressed chairs.  It looked like a catered affair, but everything was organized by the church.  It seemed that almost everyone participated in either cooking, serving, or entertaining.

The food was good, though the meat was difficult to cut with plastic cutlery.  There was a steak with rice, yucca, and black-eyed peas.  And later a cake.

While we ate, we were entertained by dancing.  My favorite was a group of girls and ladies who danced to Hebrew music.  In the middle one young man blew the shofar.  I don’t know if they know that Rosh-Hashanah is a week away, but I could imagine the trumpet being sounded to call us home.

I spent three hours talking with a missionary from La Paz, and Pastor Percy and Debbie, and enjoying the food and entertainment.  The fellowship was beautiful. 

Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians that everything should be done in an orderly way in a worship service. The dancing here was well-done and orderly.  It was meant to enhance the beauty of the music and lead the worshipper into a deeper appreciation of the music.  I left feeling refreshed.  Tired from a busy weekend, but refreshed in my walk with the Lord.

Amazon Author Page

 

 

March 18, 2017 - In Search of the Blue Church

In Search of the Blue Church

I was determined this morning to find a blue and white church I had seen from the window of the hotel.  I had to find it!  I decided to not eat at the hotel, and instead look for something to eat on the street.  I went several blocks north and several more west, until I sighted it.  Something wasn’t right.  Maybe it was not a church.  What might it be?

As I was turning the corner to the blue church, I was distracted by a beautiful plaza.  Yes, another plaza.  This one was about three blocks long and opened with a statue of Simon Bolivar, the liberator of much of South America.  I am planning a blog on him in the near future.  Behind him was a park of tall trees, pines and eucalyptus, with blooming trees on its edges.  At the far end was a fountain.
 

As I headed back, I saw a group of people surrounding a food vendor.  That is always a sign that she makes good food.  I ordered two things, both she called empanadas.  One was filled mostly with potatoes, but she called it a beef empanada (there was a little beef in there).  The other she called a cheese empanada, but it was stuffed with egg.  I also had a fruit drink of some kind.  I’ve seen it before, but never bought it.  I sat in the shade and enjoyed a breakfast that cost me $0.88!  That’s life!

Two blocks later and the blue and white building was standing before me.  It was of a definite Victorian style, with stripes of blue and white, almost like a circus.  But it was not a church.  Several friends told me about the building later, so I am going to research it and share more about it one day soon.  It was a center of a literary association, but is also associated with ghost stories.  It looks like a good read.

From there I headed toward the Plaza Principal though a neighborhood that reminded me of the quiet streets of Santa Cruz that I loved from the 1980s.  Flowers flowed over walls.  Dogs barked at passers-by.  Elderly ladies in their finery walked down the street looking as dignified as a president’s wife.  I encountered a church dedicated to Saint Francis.  There were more than a dozen beggars along the path to the church.  I had a pocket full of change, so I got rid of it. 

At the Plaza Principal, I decided to rest and enjoy the morning.  There was a lady selling corn to feed the pigeons.  She looked so perfect, dressed as a woman from the mountains would dress.  I don’t buy any corn, but after moving to several different spots to get a picture of her, I decided to ask if I could take her picture.

“Oh, I’m too ugly,” she said.

“No, you are beautiful!”

She scoffed.

“You are the most beautiful thing in this plaza.” She let me take her picture and accepted the few coins I offer.  I benefitted the most.  I am her friend for life.   I hope she is there when I go back.

I walked a few blocks to the south to a street I was told has three or four different names, so I will just call it the Boulevard.  The Boulevard has a park running through it for miles.  I don’t know how many miles, because I never went the full length of it, but at least five miles.  Today one side was blocked for bicyclists.  My plan was to walk a bit and write a bit, then walk some more.  That kept this old man from getting too tired.  I wrote this blog walking along the Boulevard.

What is there to see in this park?  Blooming purple trees, beds of colorful flowers, and roses.  Tarija could easily be called the city of roses.  They are everywhere.  There is a black and yellow plane hanging over your head in one spot.  The Palace of Sports runs parallel for about a mile along the Boulevard, with soccer fields and basketball courts, all filled on this Sunday afternoon.  A display of the flags of the Americas, though none of the flags were up today.  There is a statue that looked like young Gandalf, though my friend, Mariela, said this is the Moto Mendez (something else I need to research for a future blog). 

I was entertained by a young man who was juggling at the intersection.  He was kinda good, but not really.  He could get the ring spinning around his leg, but then would drop the bowling pins (that’s what they looked like to me).  I gave him a thumbs up and it encouraged him.  He got better.  Before I left, I indicated I would tip him.  He ran over to me and seemed happy to get 10Bs.  I noticed that those who gave him anything would throw coins out the window.  He dodged cars to get his coins. 

I ate lunch at the plaza again and I had to pack for home.

Goodbye Tarija.  Until we meet again.

Link to learn more about my two novels. Number three is on the way!

 

March 17, 2017 - Happy Saint Patrick's Day

March 17, 2017

Saint Patrick and Saint Valentine

Most of the time we go through life, little realizing what is going on around us.  St. Valentine’s Day is Sweetheart’s Day, the day when guys are supposed to show their beloved just how much they love them by purchasing candy, flowers, and jewelry.  Everything is pink and red with flowers and cupids.  How pretty.

A month later is St. Patrick’s Day, the day for wearing green and being proud to be Irish.  As a kid, it meant wearing something green or getting pinched by other kids at school.  Maybe this is the reason we usually had Spring Break at this time.  So much easier than dealing with pinched kids all day long.  For many adults this is going to bars and drinking beer all night, sometimes beer with green food coloring in it.  Doesn’t sound too appetizing to me.

Most of us don’t know who these two men were, and most don’t care to know either.

Saint Valentine, or Valentius, was the Bishop of the town of Narnia (there really is a place called Narnia), north of Rome.  He was arrested for sharing Jesus wherever he went.  The judge told Valentius that if he would heal his blind daughter, he would believe.  If he could not heal her, he would put him to death.  Valentius prayed and the girl’s sight was restored.  The judge, his family, and slaves were all baptized.  Valentius was set free as were all the other Christians in captivity with him.

The Emperor, Claudius II, did not like that he continued to preach and ordered him arrested.  When he met the Christian, the emperor liked him, but Valentius did the unspeakable.  He told the emperor that he needed Jesus.  He was ordered to renounce Jesus or die.  He would not renounce him.  Claudius had him beaten with clubs, then beheaded him.

Not the idea of love we always picture for St. Valentine’s Day, is it?  Yet, he loved Christ so much that he was willing to die for him.  I guess that is true love.

St. Patrick, or Patricius, was born about a century later in Roman Britain.  Though is family was Christian, he was not much of a believer.  That is until he was captured by pirates and sold as a slave in Ireland.  For six years he was a slave in Ireland, pondering his life and growing closer to God.  One day he heard a voice telling him that his ship awaits.  He ran two hundred miles across Ireland and found a ship bound for England.  Somehow, he persuaded the ship captain to take him home.

Back home he learned more about the Christ that he had met in captivity.  One day, he heard a voice again.  This time it said, “We appeal to you to come and walk among us.”  He knew the voice was calling him to return to Ireland and share the Gospel message.

A lot of the story of St. Patrick in Ireland is shrouded in myth and legend.  It is known that he refused payment for things such as baptisms, he challenged powerful war lords and somehow converted them, and he left Ireland a truly Christian nation.  He used the shamrock to teach people about the Trinity, which is why the shamrock remains one of the symbols of St. Patrick. 

When he died, the pagan land of Ireland was the most Christianized land in northern Europe.  After the fall of Rome, as civilization and Christianity seemed to be dying, Irish missionaries spread out across Europe strengthening the church despite barbarian invasions.  One might say, the enslavement of a boy, saved Christianity in Europe.

I hope you have a lovely St. Patrick’s Day.  I intend to reflect on these men, who showed me what it means to be a follower of Christ.

Happy St. Paddy’s Day!