Chilean Earthquake

I'm sure many if not all of your have heard about the 8.8 earthquake in Chile early this morning.  We have many missionary families serving in Chile and all are safe.  I am thankful for the number of missionaries present that can step in and minister to the people there.   
My hearts break for the people that have lost everything including loved ones.  Their lives have been torn apart.  I know when God moves in such a way, He also moves the hearts of those affected.  Please pray that this tragedy will be  an opportunity for the Gospel to be spread.
If you would like to make a financial donation to help the people of affected by the earthquake and tsunami, please direct them to the Disaster Response Fund at Baptist Global Response.

Amazed

Just a couple days ago I blogged about how excited I was to have 40 students coming throughout the summer.  I just recounted and we're up to 60!  This doesn't count the nearly 350 that will come with International World Changers projects.  How incredible!

Saturday Project

When I moved into my current apartment in November, it hadn't been consistently lived in for sometime.  It lacked the "personal touch" of a home.  I was determined to make it feel homey and really settle in for the rest of my time in Peru.  It was fun hanging pictures on the walls, decorating the built in shelves, and replacing the vertical blinds in the living room.

I can't stand entire walls of vertical blinds.  I think they are an eye sore and was so excited to find an easy way of replacing them while using the existing hardware.  Today was the day to finish putting up my new curtains.  I'm thrilled with them.

Before:

After:

Student Update

Serving as the student coordinator on my team has been and continue to be a real joy.  I have so much fun getting to know the students, planning their trips, seeing their love for the nationals they work with.  Much of my current days are spent emailing back and forth with students, approving travel itineraries, making budgets, sorting out schedules, etc.  I've been working on the individual projects and haven't looked at the overall picture of how many students are coming.  As of this afternoon 40 students have registered to come serve in Peru with their BCM or as individuals!  I couldn't be more thrilled!  I know of 10 or 15 more that are still in the registration process and only the Lord knows how many more will sign up by the end of April.

It is going to be a very busy summer.  I can't wait!  These students are going to do an amazing job of spreading Christ across Peru!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I almost forgot!!  Happy Valentine's Day to my sweet friends and family!  I hope you've enjoyed a fun day with someone you love.

Sending love from Peru,
Mindy

To my few blog readers:

It's going to be a while until I can post more pictures.  My camera dropped itself (as we would say in Spanish).  In English, we say that Mindy is clumsy and knocked it off the bed.  Oops...

But have no fear an upgraded model has been purchased and will be making its way south in a couple weeks.  :)  Many great pictures of beautiful Peru to come!

Prayer Need

My friend Mitch serves in Bamako, Mali and shared this prayer request in his newsletter.

We are hoping to host an International World Changer project in July of this year. Registration ends March 1st. However, at this point we do not have enough people registered to do the project. The project is open to high school and college students, but we will also need some adults. The project is not cheap, but the Bambara are desperate for someone to come tell how they can have eternal hope. Will you come? Will you tell someone about this opportunity? There are only a few days left to register. To find out more and to register, check out www.thetask.org or click on the following link: http://thetask.org/students/projects/ProjectDetails.asp?JobID=94635

Please join us in praying for more students to register for this project and for the Bambara people.

Normal Kind of Days

After spending much on January not having a normal routine, I've really enjoyed my last 10 days in Lima. It's been wonderful to schedule my day as I want and doing all the normal things like laundry, cleaning and email. It may not sound glorious, and I suppose it's not, but I'm really enjoying the calmness of life right now.

I've been able to spend a lot of time planning and budgeting for summer projects. I feel much more organized and prepared than I did last year. Although this time last year, I'd only been in the country 3 weeks. It's amazing what you learn in a year!

Cardboard Testimonies

A friend showed me this video it's such a neat depiction of God's grace and how HE changes life. It will make you think...

New Blog to Watch

Today, my team started a Prayer Blog.  The blog is for my team members to post prayer requests for our Strategy Coordinator (ie. Partner) churches and friends to pray.  There are two requests up already and we'll keep this updated as we travel across Peru.  I encourage you to check it out and support our missionaries and churches through prayer.  The blog site is: www.pray4reapnorth.blogspot.com