Thankful for Sunshine

I had no idea how much I loved the sun, until I moved to a city that is sunless for a good part of the year. As I look out the windows over a grey city, I look forward to the day (or even part of the day) with the sun will break through the blah and bring brightness and warmth! It's almost funny now how excited I get when the sun comes out. It's like a new discovery and just makes me happy. So today, I'm thankful for sunshine and hopeful that it will return to Lima soon!

Thanksgiving Tradition

Every year at my home church we have a Thanksgiving Day service. It is one of my favorite services of the year because we focus on what we are thankful for and how the Lord has blessed in the past year. It's a great time of reflecting and glorifying Him. Since I can't be there this year, I decided to share some of the things that I'm thankful for from now until Thanksgiving day. So, here it goes....

Grace Church is my home church and I love it there. I have an incredible church family that is supportive, encouraging and affirming of me serving in Peru. It is such a blessing to have this group of believers behind me, praying for me every step of the way. When I reflect back over the years that I've been there I think of all that I have learned, about the people who have poured themselves into me, the friends that I've walked beside (and who have walked beside me) in good and hard times and how the Lord has stretched me in ways I would have never imagined.

Moving Again

I'm constantly learning new things about Peru. Today I discovered that hardware stores don't have paint chips that you can take home with you. I'm moving into a new apartment sometime next week and it is in need of a little makeover. With approval to get the apartment painted, I was quite excited to go pick out a bunch of colors to see how they looked in the apartment.

That's not how Peruvian's do it. From what we could tell, all of the paint on the shelf is white and you choose what color you mix and they mix it for you. Nothing was pre-colored on the shelf.

My friend (soon to be neighbor) Amber and I picked out a new color, and hopefully it will look good. It's hard to know how bright the creamy yellow shade that we picked will look. Pictures to come as the apartment gets painted and I get settled into my new home.

Long Time Gone

Well Blog Readers, (if there are any of you out there any more) obviously, Christine and I have been more than delinquent in updating the blog. I'm going to try to bring this thing back to life with much more frequent postings.

Let's see...a quick recap over the past 4 months. I traveled constantly through June, July and August. Many of the trips were with my student teams, 2 trips with my home church and a couple with Strategy Coordinator Churches. It was a wonderful summer. The students did an excellent job in their respective villages and really caught the vision for missions in Peru. It was a privilege to work with them. I'll try to share more stories in the months ahead about some of their work.

Plans for Christmas trips are well underway. All of the student teams are headed to the jungle to work with the Nelsons. I will be observing, and maybe helping with 1 of the team trainings, but won't be able to travel with any of the teams because, I'm going on VACATION!

That's right, my baby brother is getting married just before Christmas and the Lord has provided a way for me to go! I'm so excited that my entire family is coming together for the celebration. I can't wait to see them all. Hugs all around! I'm also taking almost 2 more weeks at home in Virginia to spend more time with family and friends.

Friends, if you are in the Richmond area in late December, let me know and maybe we can get together for coffee!

Broken Record

Something today made me think about the old record player in my grandparents house in Texas. For as long as I can remember, I've been fascinated by the record player and the number of records that Nana and Papa had.  I found a Beetles record in the collection when I was in college and decided to test it out.  Unfortunately, there was a scratch on the record and it repeated the same bit over and over again.

Sometimes I feel like that record when I talk about my wonderful family and friends.  I like to brag on them!  I'm so thankful and blessed to have such a supportive and loving family!  I was reminded of this again tonight after having a great phone call with my stepmom and later my brother.  I'm so thankful for the ability to call and not have to worry about expensive phone bills or major time differences.  Not only is my family amazing, but my friends in the states and around the world are so wonderful.  I love you all!

It was a busy week...

I last blogged about what a busy week it was going to be, and indeed it was in ways that I didn't expect.  I had a great time with a group from Mississippi.  We had an orientation time over looking the Pacific Ocean and a good time of talking about what it is like to work and serve in Peru.  I was SO impressed by these students.  They are solid, well rounded, passionate students and I am so thankful that they came to Peru this summer!

Another group arrived from South Carolina and did a fantastic job working with most of the other journeymen on the team.  They worked so hard teaching in schools, sharing their testimonies (some in Spanish without a translator), and endured sickness like champs.  They didn't complain and kept moving forward, praying and encouraging one another along.  They saw 11 new believers between the many towns they worked in.  Praise the Lord for new brothers and sisters!

The other team that arrived two weeks ago had an unexpected experience.  While I was with them, we were robbed.  Praise the Lord no one was hurt, and nothing was stolen that couldn't be (relatively) easily replaced.  It was a scary experience, but we saw the hand of God at work.  During the event, all I could hear was the students praying out loud and as I joined them, I felt and overwhelming peace.  The kind of peace that only comes from the Lord.  The team journeyed on a day late, committed to staying in Peru to continue with the work they were called here to do.  Since the night of the robbery I have been praying against fear.  Fear of living in Peru, fear of future robberies, fear of the unknown in general.  So many verses have come to mind but the one that I sticks with me the most is Psalm 27:1 . "The Lord is my light and my salvation-whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life-of whom shall I be afraid?"  I know that I am not guaranteed safety living here, or anywhere else, and robberies are a reality of living here.  I also know that the Lord has brought me here and that I am His.  I will joyfully continue being obedient to my calling, living in Peru and serving the Father free of fear. 

Some of you have heard about the robbery already.  THANK YOU so much for your prayers.  I have continued to experience an amazing peace and sense of calmness.  It is absolutely not from me.  I have experienced the Lord in new ways and grown closer to Him through this experience.  If for no other reason than growth in my spiritual life, I'm thankful for the robbery.  

On a much more exciting note...the Summer Missionaries arrive on June 1st and I can not wait to meet them!  Just from emailing with them, I can sense the excitement and anticipation of arriving in Lima.  It's going to be a great summer!!

It's a BIG week!

This is a very exciting week!  There are three teams of students arriving in the next 5 days to work in northern Peru.  It is incredible to see how the Lord is calling out college students to serve for part of all of their summer.  Over 200 students are coming to work with my team between today and early August.  

As exciting as it is, it also means there are many details to coordinate (which I happen to love).  Please pray for me this week as I wrap up last minute logistics for these teams and prepare for a trip to Ecuador on Saturday for student missionary training

My verse for the week is Psalm 105:4 which says, "Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!"  

Also please pray for Christine as she is researching a province in far northern Peru this week.  Pray for safety on some very rough roads, providential meetings with key leaders and a vision for future ministry opportunities in these areas.

Pictures to come soon of our journeys!