Chinchil here we come!

This is an exciting day (which might explain the fact why I have already been up for an hour on a Saturday). We are headed up north to Chimbote to meet our new church and family before heading to Chinchil Sunday to arrive Monday. Please pray for God's strength and a godly attitude for this trip. Also pray that he will use us through classes and personal interactions. Although we will be gone from Lima for nine days, we will only be in this little mountain town for three full days.

With lightning speed...

classes are just about over. One more morning of tutoring (followed by Ceviche with our language helpers)and two days of final exam remain. I can't believe we have already made it to this point.

On Saturday we are catching a bus and heading north to Chimbote (where Rochelle and I will get to meet some of the people at the church in which we will be serving soon!). After church on Sunday, we will get on another bus to head inland for over 10 hours (I think on a dirt road). Then, after a 20 mile hike, we should arrive at a little mountain village called Chinchil (can you say remote?). The plan is to help with a kind of VBS kid's club and with a Peruvian missionary's wedding. There could be as many as 200 kids at the kid's club! Thankfully, some of the young ladies from my church in Manchay are coming to help as well. It should be quite the event. In the mornings Pastor Jim will be teaching a series on Salvation and we get to go to his class. It will be a good refresher on the personal evangelism class we just finished.

I am looking forward to seeing a new region and getting to know the people there, learning a few phrases in Quechua, and trying new food.

I am not so sure about sleeping in cold tents and not showering for a week, but I am sure it will be worth it.

Welcome Spring!

October is here along with shining sign and warm weather. We only have six more hours (three morning sessions) of Spanish tutoring and the final exam. I am thankful to be finished and ready to start the internship part of the year. Personal evangelism class was a stretching class. We are now better equipped to share our faith in Spanish. Pastor Gary kept reminding us that now that to whom much is given, much with be required. That is a sobering thought as I consider the privilege of the Arriba program. Please pray that I won't waste this opportunity in any way.

Thanks for your prayers

Thanks for praying about Kid's club yesterday. I think it went well (other than telling the kids that God stopped the sun so that the Israelites could peal-pelar instead of fight-pelear). Many kids were there and they did a great job listening. God definitely helped me with words and not shaking with nervousness. Thank you for praying!

Prayer Requests

I would appreciate prayer these next couple of weeks as we are starting Personal Evangelism class on Tuesday. I am already nervous! We are praying that the Whipples will have found a location for their church so we can invite people when we are doing street evangelism, that we will be able to present in a elementary school (and distribute cds of Bible stories). We will also be traveling 2 hours each way to their house every day (to a part of town that is new for me). I would appreciate pray as I am teaching in Spanish for kid's club this Sunday (about Joshua right before he died telling the Israelites to choose who they are going to serve). Thanks in advance!

Trujillo

This last week we were given a break from studies in Lima and sent to experience some of the ministries in Trujillo. The eight hour bus ride was lovely. I saw the Pacific Ocean for the first time and watched the sunset over the waves. I wished we could have stopped to take pictures, but we did the best we could through the windows. Even the desert was beautiful. We saw fields of sugarcane and small villages with scrawny cows. I think I am falling for Peru (but I still miss corn and bean fields...God's creativity simply amazes me! all so lovely).

While in Trujillo we attended 4 different Baptist churches and went to various classes at the seminary. Living in the dorm for the week was a wonderful change. The girls were so transparent and willing to share their lives with us. As I walked through the campus, I was slightly homesick for FBBC, but at the same time, many things were very different. There wasn't any hot water, only one option for meals, four girls fit in a room the size of room 6 in the camp staff building (basically big enough for two bunk beds and a table attached to the wall that functioned as a desk with shelves above it), the concrete floor in the chapel and upper level of the dorm wasn't even leveled, all the students shared one piano and a few other keyboards (and music is one of the 2 majors offered) yet, these didn't phase the students in the least. They were thankful to be there and learning. I was challenged to think more on things above.

Other activities:
Monday: Pastor's kid's club (in spanish) then dinner with the Stilwells!
Tuesday: Camp Fortaleza! I am excited about serving there this summer (January).
Wednesday: Prayer meeting at Victoria.
Thursday: Chan-chan (largest mud city ruins in the world) and Huanchaco (the Beach!...although not to swim because it is much too cold. While shopping for souvenirs, another teammate asked for something made of cuerpo (body) instead of cuero (leather)...the language bloopers continue.
Friday: Free time with the seminarians. We sang songs and played games that I will have to bring home for youth group in the states (need to add games to my list of things to write down in my journal).
Saturday: visited a little town in the mountains devoted to La Virgin de la Puerta ( a doll of Mary) where many Peruvians pilgrim and pay homage. It was sobering to see how lost they are in their devote beliefs. (That day we at a sack lunch by a waterfall). I also went to a Peruvian wedding (which only started an hour late!)

It was hard to leave these people whom I had learned to love in such a short time, but Monday we headed back to Lima. It was a little odd to see the lights of Lima and think, 'I'm almost home.' It was a blessing to see my Peruvian family and friends once more.

A life lesson

After 100 days in Peru, I think it is time to share a little of what I have been learning.

We were riding back to my Peruvian house a few Fridays ago talking about our church in Manchay, when my roommate said, "What kind of a future do the people there have?" Now, in order to really understand this, you would have to visit Manchay and see the houses with no running water and dirty dogs in the street. But as I thought about this observation, I thought about how ethnocentric I am and how I view success. From my western mindset, I see success in college degrees, jobs, or simply choosing the future you want to make for yourself. But I don't think that this is how God views success. A tender heart, willing to do what he wants and when he wants is what God sees as success. These families, full of their Savior's love, can serve God in Manchay and be successful taking care of those around them and living out Christian love. Contentment is a quality with which I struggle, and, for this reason, I think it is a grand privilege to be able to serve with those in a little town called Manchay outside of Lima, Peru and see a little more of contentment in action. I pray that God will give me a tender, usable heart that would humbly be willing to do whatever he called me to do.