CRM - Empowering Leaders

Frequently Asked Questions

What does a typical week look like for you?
What's your team life like? How do you work together and support each other?
What are the living conditions like in the barrios? Do you live together there?
What's the food like in Venezuela?
Do you work with the local church or other organizations?
What's the hardest thing about your work with the poor?
What's the most enjoyable thing about your work?
What's it like raising kids in the barrios?
What's internet access like in Caracas for your team?

People of the barrio, ourselves included, are usually home by 8:00pm or 9:00pm because transportation up and down the hillside is limited after 9pm. People normally don't walk far from home after dark either. For Americans accustomed to the freedoms of a highly mobile lifestyle, going anywhere at any time of day or night, the sudden loss of mobility can be difficult.

Much of our contact with people is spontaneous or unplanned. We bump into neighbors in the alley, coming to and fro. Or you find yourself on the same jeep (10 people jammed together in the back of a 4 wheel drive Toyota Land Cruiser) going up or down the hill.

A typical day may include riding public buses and jeeps up and down the barrio hills, conversing informally with neighbors and merchants, shopping in the local market, making a house visit to a barrio family, meeting with local church volunteers, meeting with a teammate for mentoring or coordinating ministry plans, taking time to journal and pray…

Living in the same barrio and sharing a common vision for the barrios enhances our sense of connection and unity as a team. Our intentional times together include weekly team meetings, sharing ministry activities, one-on-one mentoring and periodic team meals.

In our weekly worship meeting we sing, meditate deeply on scripture, intercede for needs locally, globally and for InnerCHANGE worldwide, and take the Lord's Supper together. These are deeply enriching times together that serve to re-center our lives in God.

In our weekly team meeting we sharpen our vision, reflect on ministry issues, plan and coordinate our ministry activities and update each other on ministry opportunities, developments and problems.

Finally, Learning Community is another meeting that is not every week, but is the heart of our formation of new staff. In these meetings we discuss readings, go deeper into spiritual disciplines and learn the essentials as InnerCHANGE missionaries.

Personal Development

InnerCHANGE is committed to the on-going personal development of each staff person. Each team member can expect to receive personal mentoring from a seasoned missionary (usually, though not always, the team leader). Mentoring entails discussing areas of personal concern and growth, as well as on the acquiring of ministry skills and reflection on ministry. When conflicts arise we value openly communicating and resolving tensions and hurts as soon as possible.

Working Together

Team members usually have a primary ministry and a secondary ministry. As a general rule, we share our primary ministries with teammates – like starting house churches in the barrios. Secondary ministries are often pursued individually, though they may later dovetail with the efforts and goals of the team.

Examples:

* John Shorack's networking with Venezuelan missionary candidates preparing to go to very poor countries in Asia and Africa and therefore volunteer with us in developing house churches in the barrios of Caracas.

* Steve Scharf (2001-2004) developed a secondary ministry of working with Zapatos Nuevos, a Venezuelan ministry to the sexually and relationally broken, then helped bring that ministry into the house churches and other churches we work with in the barrios.

Some barrios are poorer than others depending upon how old or established they are. Generally speaking, the newer the barrio the less developed it is. Why? Barrios are formed as people wanting their own homes "invade" (the term used in Venezuela) undeveloped land and build makeshift shanties out of scrap materials.

With time, barrio dwellers invest in improving and building up their "rancho" (barrio home). Shacks made of scrap material are replaced by one-story cement block structures. Water and sewage lines are installed. Paths and roads eventually are constructed from concrete. Later, with more resources, people add a second floor to the house or they tile the floors and continue improving the house.

We live within walking distance of each other. The barrios we live in have the basic services of electricity, running water, and sewage lines. Water from the city comes infrequently and so people store it in big tanks.

Some typical North American amenities are not present: There is no hot water. Gas for cooking comes in portable propane tanks. The gas trucks come weekly for people wanting to exchange their empty tanks.= The homes we live in are cement block structures. Some have tiled floors; others are polished cement.

The Shoracks, a family of five, live in a four-bedroom apartment above the team office. Most singles begin by living with a Venezuelan family for a few months, after which they find a simple apartment; usually rented from a barrio family.

Venezuela is a tropical country and therefore has many delicious tropical foods to eat. "Pabellón" is considered the "plato típico" or typical dish. It includes rice and black beans, accompanied by fried plantains, called "tajadas," and "carne mechada", which is shredded beef with special flavorings.

Another Venezuelan favorite is the "arepa". "Arepas" are round, thick patties made with cornmeal and water. They can be baked or fried. They are sliced open, buttered, and filled with a variety of foods (black beans, cheese, shredded beef, chicken, etc.). When the dough used for making "arepas" is boiled or thrown into a soup or hot water in a ball or a cylinder, they are called "bollitos".

Large soups are nice, simple meals for big gatherings. Called "hervidos", which means stew, different ingredients are thrown into a large pot and boiled over a wood fire; many people can eat the results.

The biggest meal in Venezuela is often the lunch meal. Women often put on a big pot of food to cook starting at 10:30 or 11, and lunchtime can be between 12:00-2:30.

The poor in the neighborhoods where InnerCHANGE works, watch what they spend on food, and buy food to make very simple meals. Many eat beans and rice, pasta, and "arepas" with little to accompany them.

Portuguese immigrants brought their bakeries with them. Caracas is full of bakeries where one can buy fresh bread. Bakeries are so important in the life of the people that good friends are called, panas, which is short for panadería, meaning bakery. So a good friend is like the panadería on the corner where you can buy delicious bread. You can also buy very deliciously brewed espresso coffee there! Venezuelans rarely eat food from a can. There are many markets in the street where one can buy fresh veggies, fruit, cheese, meat, and other goodies like homemade yogurt.

Working with local Venezuelan churches and other Christian ministries is important for us. We currently have a significant relationship with at least five congregations, three of which are in the barrios where we live and work.

A Dios Sea La Gloria (To God Be the Glory) is a Methodist Pentecostal church where we attended for four years and collaborated with in the barrio San Pablito. Though our direct working relationship with this church is much less now, we continue to meet with the pastors and encourage the congregation in various ways.

Luz del Mundo (Light of the World) is a Pentecostal congregation in our area with whom we also have a great deal of relationship. John and Birgit, the team leaders, meet regularly with the pastors and their spouses from Luz del Mundo and A Dios Sea La Gloria; for personal care and mutual support.

Our relationship with these two pastors and their spouses began several years ago when team member Steve Scharf and team leader John Shorack starting meeting twice a month with a small group of barrio pastors. This group soon took on the name Pastores Amigos (Pastor Friends).

Pastores Amigos has done various activities together. We have done several all-night prayer vigils - worshiping, celebrating and praying for Venezuela and the world. Friendships among the pastors have resulted and they often exchange pulpits, and hold joint worship services now.

Pastores Amigos has expanded greatly, incorporating many pastors throughout the city. It has now created a non-profit organization with the intention of providing funds for the start up of holistic ministries for the needy in the community.

Other churches we have a special relationship with are:
· Vineyard Christian Fellowship (house church network)
· Resurrection Catholic parish (very active in Caricuao barrios where we work)

We also network with churches and Venezuelan missionary organizations that train and send Venezuelan missionaries. We have a partnership with Operación Timoteo (Operation Timothy), a Venezuelan missionary order, providing periodic training events.

· Watching people turn away from God or turn to religiosity and rule-keeping.
· Letting go and not controlling the outcomes of ministries being done by Venezuelans we mentor.
· Exercising patience with people as they open themselves to God, their neighbors and the Church.
· Finding ways and places to unwind and relax.
· Living in a crowded, noisy, dirty environment.
· Facing one's own limitations in energy and time.
· Juggling many responsibilities as parents, team leaders, ministry practitioners, etc.
· The stress of potential danger to yourself and your loved ones.
· When the unpredictability of basic services hits from all sides at once…the electricity goes out, city water doesn't arrive on schedule and your water tank is empty, the phone lines go down due to heavy rains, your bank card isn't working at the ATM machine, your gas tank for cooking is empty and the gas truck doesn't come for two days, then, to top if off, your wife or child gets sick due to the uncollected mountain of trash at the corner.

· Seeing people catch what I've been teaching.
· Seeing people respond to the message of Christ with their whole heart.
· Living in another culture.
· Seeing the kingdom of God come in the hearts of people I love.
· Seeing my children so at home in Venezuela.
· Seeing Venezuelans open their hearts and lives to us.
· Discovering new treasures of God's kingdom, hidden in the reality of the barrios and the scriptures.
· Living my dream and sensing God's pleasure.
· Learning something new every day.
· The camaraderie with neighbors.
· Having companions on the journey (team life).
· Going to neighbors' parties.
· Looking out for each other as neighbors (lending tools, advice, water, sugar, etc.)

Exhilarating and challenging. It's exhilarating to see how well our kids are doing – linguistically, culturally, emotionally and spiritually. Our kids have found friends with other kids in the neighborhood and church, which helps us as parents to meet the parents and build meaningful relationships.

It's challenging as parents to accompany our kids through the roller coaster of their emotions – feeling overwhelmed with home work or exams (in Spanish), feeling bored or stuck because we can't do something that they want. The social pressures, especially on young girls, to be physically beautiful (even perfect) are very hard for us because it hits at a deep values-level.

Though challenging, we feel affirmed that a stable home does, in deed, enable children to withstand a great deal of instability or external uncertainties that surround them in the city. Our kids have witnessed their dad get accosted by street thugs. They were with Mom and Dad in a scary street rioting scene where we were rescued by a man with a gun who helped us escape from harm. When a public bus driver in our area got killed by youth thugs we discussed openly and honestly with our kids about how they felt riding alone on that same bus line to and from school.

Through all this, our kids are overwhelmingly happy living here. We know this from what they tell other people, not just from what they tell us directly.

The team facility, located in the heart of the barrios, has a broadband internet connection. This makes doing email and surfing the web very accessible to team members. InnerCHANGE staff each has their own laptop computer and we have a team desktop computer in the office as well.

Apart from our office, there are numerous, affordable internet cafés down in the market area close to where we live and many throughout Caracas. (75 cents per hour)