Yay for Family!

My parents have been in Lima for about 48 hours now, and it has been wonderful.  Yesterday we had a nice slow morning at my house followed by an afternoon of grocery and market shopping.  I know your thinking I should have had food before they arrived, but Shelley had made it clear, she wanted to go with me!  It is fun having my parents experience my normal life here.  It makes everything more real I think.  Shelley and I made a delicious dinner and by 8:30, we were all pretty wiped out.  I forgot to mention that we all stayed up half the night talking when they arrived!

Today we explored el centro de Lima, a cathedral with catacombs, enjoyed a little sidewalk cafe, and SUNSHINE.  The whole morning with overcast, and I was afraid that the winter fog was already coming back.  The sun can out on our way downtown, and I was super thankful!

It is so fun to be able to hang out with my parents all day and to share Peru with them.  I love that after hearing about my life here for the last 15 months, they are able to see and experience parts of it with me.

Congratulations

Congratulations to John and Christine on their wedding day!

Prayer Request

In a little less than 5 months, my current term comes to a close in Peru.  Time has passed so quickly, and with a very busy summer ahead, I'm enjoying some time of reflecting on all that I have experienced and learned, ways I've been challenged and stretched, but most importantly all the things I've learned about the Lord.

More and more often I'm being asked, "what is next?"  Three weeks ago, I had some ideas, but the Lord has gently closed all the doors, but given me peace about the future.  I know my future rests in His hands and that in His time, I will know what is next.  I am not stressed or anxious about the next phase of life, but excited to see what it will be.  Please join me in praying for a continued sense of peace, wisdom and discernment about future opportunities.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support.  They make the hard days easier, the discouraging times more hopeful and add joy to all the wonderful days.  Your prayers, blog comments, emails, care packages, visits, Skype chats and phone calls are such a blessing.

What's for dinner?

Quiche...or at least tomorrow night, it will be.  I've been craving Mom's quiche recipe, so I stopped at the grocery store tonight to pick up a few needed items to make it.  An onion was on my list.  I only need 1/3 of a cup, so a small onion would be sufficient, but it never hurts to have extra onion on hand, right?  Small onions did not exist in my store.  All the onions were enormous.  I was so amazed by the size of onions tonight, that I bought the biggest one in the store!  It has about a 5" diameter and weights 1.7ish pounds.  Huge right?

My curiosity continued once I got home with my huge onion, so I started chopping.  I chopped and chopped and chopped until my watering eyes saw the job done.  You can kind of see in the picture below all my hard work.  4 very full cups of chopped onion.

Meatloaf and Curried Lentils have been added to the menu for this week.  If you have any good recipes that call for lots of onions, please pass them on! 

Change of Plans

For the few of you that read the last blog post, we had a slight change of plans.  After many hours on the road yesterday and a few mechanical problems, the team and I returned to Lima last night.  All the technical difficulties seem to be worked out and the team is back on the road.  Keep praying for the team as they are out.  They had a great outlook and were really positive as they left this morning.

Tomorrow, the Cambridge/Grace team is coming back from San Jose de Quero.  I can't wait to hear about their week of ministry.  I know they did an awesome job.  Earlier this week, I heard from them that Maruja had hernia surgery sometime in the last 2 or 3 weeks and she is staying with her daughters in Chupaca while she recovers.

Huasahuasi...huh?

In the morning I am headed back up the mountain with Southside Baptist Church.  We will be working in an area about 6 to 8 hours from Lima.  This will be a progressive trip, in the sense that we are staying in a different town each night.  I will be returning a few days before the team to get ready for my parents to come!!  I'll be home sometime Tuesday.

While we are out, please pray:

• for safety on the roads as we travel each day,
• for overall health of the team, protection from altitude and other sickness,
• for open doors for ministry and to share the gospel with people,
• and that through all our actions and words, the Lord would be glorified.

Quick Update and Prayer Request

The day in and day out of my life in Lima isn't super exciting, but it has been productive. Plans are coming together really well for all the summer student teams. I'm really thankful to have had this time to prepare and wrap my head around it all. There are a lot of students coming this summer and being organized is going to help me keep my sanity.

A team from Grace Community and Cambridge Baptist are back in San Jose de Quero. They wrote and said:

We had a good meeting this morning with Godofredo, Rolando and Arminda. We walked out and saw Teodoro in his fields with his cattle and are planning evening services for Wednesday and Thursday. We will be in the schools Wednesday and Thursday as well. Please pray for Maruja. She is not here, but in Chupaca recovering from a hernia operation. 

For those of you who have been here, this will mean a lot more to you. The team is staying busy! I look forward to being able to return to San Jose de Quero next month with a group of students.

This past week there have been two mudslides close to Huánuco, one south in the Ambo Quechua area and one north in the Panao Quechua area. A highland lake overflowed about 20 kilometers above the city of Ambo and brought down a mudslide that took out a large number of homes. The death count is still unknown, but its probably somewhere around 50.We know that 8 families of a local church lost everything. The associate pastor of the church was away at the time, but his wife and three young children were all lost to the mudslide.Please pray for the families of the victims and for all of the churches that will be helping in the relief effort.

Cancejos is a small town in the Panao Quechua area where a mudslide has covered at least 55 homes. Death count is also unknown. We do know of one pastor who was killed. He has been an influential pastor in the ministry to indigenous Quechuans and has also aided in the translation of the Bible into this Quechua dialog. Please pray for his family, his flock, and all those who are impacted by this mudslide. Please pray for all of the believers helping provide relief in this area.