Summer Missionaries

Preparations are in full swing for the 2011 Summer Missionaries.  It's been excited to see how many students have signed up.  I have 25 students coming to serve from June 1 to July 30!  Just two years ago I had 9 students for six weeks.  The growth in our summer program has been incredible and encouraging.  I love how many students the Lord has brought to work with REAP North in the past 2 years.

I have four positions that I would love to be filled for the summer.  Students can sign up through the end of April.  Will you joing me in praying that the Lord will send:

• a male to serve with the team in San Jose de Quero to be a discipler
• a male to serve with the team in the Chancay River Valley to be a discipler
• a female to serve with a team in Iquitos to teach ESL classes
• a male to serve with a national pastor and teammate in Huaros and Huacos (Canta area)

Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.

Psalm 37:7

Thankful Thursday

Looking back over my day, two things immediately pop into my mind that I'm thankful for:

• my dad defended his dissertation and PASSED!!  Graduation here we come!  I'll be the beaming one cheering for Dr. McSteve. :)

• I was able to secure housing for one of my teams of summer missionaries today!  It took 3 days to make it happen, but today, mission accomplished.

D-Day

Tomorrow my hard-working Dad is defending his dissertation at 8am. 

Please join me in praying for:

* a confidence in all the work that he has done

 * clarity of mind and speech

* sleep and rest tonight 

* a sense of peace 

LOVE YOU DAD!!

Huallaga Quechua

I've borrowed this post from my teammate Tommy's blog.  It's too good of a testimony not to share.    

First let me say that I could never create a story on my own that would describe our trip last week with the Riverland Hills Church. I don’t think the most creative writer of fiction could either. It was an adventure that few have experienced and only the obedient and faithful could survive. This past week 14 Believers and an incredible group of Huallaga Quechua and Spanish translators presented themselves for service in Huánuco. They were continuously challenged by:
1. rain and more rain
2. mud and more mud
3. illness,
4. thievery
5. oxygen levels at elevations of 13,000 feet (only 63% of what you are probably breathing right now)
6. unfamiliar food
7. 6 hours (minimum) of travel daily on single lane roads where one couldn’t lean over far enough to see the bottom
8. trucks and taxis stuck in the road and blocking the way
9. an incompetent missionary driver who backed into a ditch (name withheld by request)
10. fatigue
11.   cancelled flights
12.   and I know I have left something out!

All were rewarded with occasional sunshine, breathtaking views, friendly people, smiling faces of children, barley coffee, and fresh boiled potatoes.

But more importantly, they were rewarded with continuous protection by the One who called them to GO. It is only by God’s power we can do anything. One person said he believed that the enemy did not want us to be there as we were constantly being attacked. I hesitate to give any kind of “credit” to the enemy but in this case I must agree. And these are the kinds of places we must go to.

The teams’ response, in spite all of the above, was to begin planning another trip to this area. This is what God’s people do and in doing so glorify Him.

Again, thank you for your prayers and I hope you are going to places where you aren’t wanted!  ; ) 

(The above picture was taken in Llacsa at the medical clinic. It is at least 4 hours from town, at the end of the road and at an elevation approaching 13,000 feet. There is a very modest church building there but no resident remembers a worship service ever occurring or a priest visiting the village.)

SO PROUD!!

Today, my hard-working, studious dad received his invitation to defend his dissertation for his Ph.D.  Over 20 years ago, Dad began working on this degree. He decided that trying to do it from Asia (think pre-internet, email, iPhones, etc) was not going to be very feasible, and he didn't like the amount of time that it was going to take during his kid's childhood.  Isn't he the best?!

About four years ago he began intensely working on Ph.D and now it's time to defend the dissertation and graduate!

This proud daughter will be posting pictures of the future Dr. McSteve in full regalia at graduation!

No Tsunami Threat

Thank you so much those who have written and asked about my safety after the tsunami in Japan.  With the west coast of the US and Canada on high alert, statements had been made about the entire west coast, down to the tip of Chile needing to be on high alert.  This statement was just issued in Lima from a Marine representative:

There is no imminent danger of a tsunami of grand magnitude in Peru. There is no reason for evacuation of the coast. Take simple preventative measures: avoid the beach today and tomorrow.

Please be in prayer for the Japanese people, and the safety for those in Hawaii and other high risk areas.

The Sound of Music

I have some great friends staying with me this week.  We went through missionary orientation together and survived language school together too.  It's been really fun laughing, catching up, goofing off, staying up late, etc.  Tonight was movie night for us.  What did we settle on?  A classic, The Sound of Music.  I've probably seen it 100 times and it was just as good tonight.  We've been talking about the cast and making of the movie, and I got curious.  


Did you know....

• Christopher Plummer said about Julie Andrews, "Working with her is like getting hit over the head with a valentine's card everyday!"
• Julie Andrews had a four octave voice range.
• Nicholas Hammond (Friedrich) grew 6 inches during the making of the movie.
• When the film was released in South Korea, it did so much business that some theaters were showing it four and five times a day. One theater owner in Seoul tried to figure out a way to be able to show it even more often, in order to bring in more customers. So he cut out all the musical numbers. (Not one of my birthlands most shining moments!)
  
• Julie Andrews sang "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" to the children in the cast to entertain them between shooting. Since Mary Poppins(1964) hadn't yet been released, they just thought she'd made up the song for them. 

Thanks imdb.com for lots of great trivia!