Can life get any better??

If its possible to hit a point in life when you are mentally, physically, and emotionally drained… I hit that point today. The past 4 days were filled with laughter, food, a few tears, tons of pictures, hiking, and a lot of youth. There is so much more that happened but I’ll just start with that for now.
On Friday afternoon we all piled into a bus and headed to a children’s hospital. We walked in and stood before about 15 little precious faces with various sicknesses and problems. We led worship, acted out the story of David and Goliath, made some crowns, played some games, and handed out food. Each face showed pain and suffering and just the attention they got brightened their faces to a smile. There was one little boy in a stroller that clinched my heart. Sarah helped him make his crown and we fed him his cupcake and juice. One of the nurses told us a little about some of the children and when she came to this little boy, the words she said made me love that little boy even more. They had just recently brought him to that hospital after they found him in a dumpster nearby. He was only one year old but looked old enough to be 3 or 4. Just the thought that someone had not wanted him and just dumped him off to die if no one found him made me realize how lucky I am to have the family I have. I have parents who love me and there were probably times when I was growing up that they wanted to dump me to, but they didn’t. They chose to love me and give me a chance at life and to love the God who made me. That little boy didn’t get that chance.
Saturday morning we woke up early and got ready for our monthly church breakfast. Buns, jam, ham, cheese, and coffee filled the table as people walked in as they pleased. We walked around the table making sure that there was always enough plates at the table for those who showed up which meant doing dishes 2 or 3 times within that hour and a half.
After we ate, we split up and had woman/men devotions. Our main passage was Matthew 25:14-30. Following that were some major points:
What is the highest priority in your life? ( Mark 12:29-31 )
How can I put God first in my life? ( Matthew 6:32-34 )
What are the things that are keeping God from being first in my life? ( Proverbs 3:5-6; Luke 12:34 )
What are some benefits of living with right priorities? ( Psalms 127:1-4 )
Even though the whole devotion was in Spanish, it really made me think and made me see what is really high on my priority list.
The youth stayed around all day and Lidia came over and taught us how to make Perogies and Cake de Calabazas. We all took turns rolling out the Perogies and stirring in the ingredients. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed singing Spanish worship songs as we worked. Things like this bond us together more and more with the family here and the whole church in general.
Saturday night/afternoon around 4, we headed to a Christian concert in a very shady part of town. I have never been to a Christian concert where you had to hold on to someone’s hand to make sure people didn’t cut in line and you had to keep your ticket out of sight so no one stole it. We arrived at the stadium at about 6 and stood in line until about 7:15 and the concert was supposed to start at 7 but then again its Peru and things never start on time. The concert was very good and Jesus Adrian Romero is a very good singer. I enjoyed his music even though I didn’t understand much of it. Kevin sat beside me and was translating most of it for me. About 25 to 30 went with us total. We enjoyed it all.
Sunday morning we all stumbled out of bed after a long night and got ready for church. We were to give our drime in front of church and we hadn’t even scouted out our tiny space. We managed to look things through and walk through some of the steps without giving it all away to the people already there.
I have to say that we did good!! We had Jano record it and things looked good. We saw some with tears, some with looks on their faces as if they had been touched, and some didn’t have much to say. They all congratulated us on our job well done and that was enough to cover for how nervous I felt before we preformed.
This morning we woke up at 6 and got ready to meet some more youth and head to the foot hills of the Andes Mountains. We rode 3 different buses for a total of about 2 hours and then hiked for an hour and stopped for a picnic. It was absolutely breathtaking. Words can’t describe the things I saw. I have so many pictures to prove how it looked… but when it comes to words… there aren’t any to share. There was a huge waterfall and while I stood in front of it… I just couldn’t imagine any better place to be. I was in Peru, standing in the Andes Mountains, standing in front of a waterfall, and singing worship songs. How could it get any better? This was the life. This was were I was meant to be. This place at that very moment.
I’m sitting on my bed right now wondering what I’m going to do when I go home. We are down to less then 10 weeks left for this whole TREK experience. I try to think about what its going to be like to go home… and it doesn’t come. I cant even imagine going home at this moment. This is my life, my home, and this is where I’m meant to be. I thank God for this place and for the people he has set in my life. And I know that when the time comes to head back to the life I’ve grown up in… the long to be there will come. I just cant believe that God chose me to serve him in this place, serve to these amazing people, and that God chose me to be his hands and feet at this moment!!

My life is a charade

Two months from today I will be heading back to Canada to finish this part of my life. In 2 months this place in Peru will only be a memory. In 2 months my TREK experience will be over and the people will all just be people I have grown to love and people I have spent a great season of life with. In 2 months I will return to my life as I know it in Indiana and look back on this and remember the memories I have made.
I know that people say that you aren’t supposed to look for the things ahead… that you are supposed to live every moment like it was your last… and that’s what I’m doing. I am living this season, my life, the best as I can. I know that the start of this may have sounded like I am longing to be home… but really and honestly… I’m not. Yes I miss home, and yes I miss my friends and families, but they can wait. This place is where God has sent me and this is where I want to be at this moment.
I look back on the past month and a half and I smile at the memories I have made here in Peru. The gym, charades, my family, and my new growth in love with Jesus. Those take over all the homesickness I may feel. Those memories make me smile and I think of the ones yet to come.
I know I probably have mentioned it before, but every morning we go with Otto and workout at a near by gym. At first, we hated it. We didn’t like waking up early, didn’t like to get all sweaty, and we just didn’t like the fact that we were going to do things to our bodies that would make us sore. Our options have changed. We still hate getting up early but its became easier. We are in bed by 10:30 every night and we learned to take small naps during the day. We don’t mind the sweat anymore… we just learned to take it when Hector pinches our sweaty body and move on. And the soreness… we have grown used to it. We no longer feel the pain of stretching muscles… and we just suck it up.
Charades!!! Who would’ve ever dreamed my life would become one. I personally hate the game, but when you are a gringo, you have to love it or else you wont survive in this Peruvian world. Everything you try to explain, everything you do, you are using your hands. You make the shape, you make sounds, you basically play charades every minute of everyday. Its been quite the experience. At home, I took advantage of knowing what everyone said, here…you guess and hope you are right.
The family here has been a blessing. I love each and everyone of them and I enjoy living in the same house as Jano and his family. We are learning their way of life and their way of doing things. Some come as a surprise but others, we grew up with to. They seem to have some good laughs at us as well. One incident I remember specify is one of the fist days here, we were eating lunch and we didn’t have a table in reach so we just sat on the floor with our plates in our lap. When Jano walked through the courtyard, he looked at us like we were green in the face. And the food on our plates had already been a laughing fit earlier because it was something they hadn’t ever seen… so this just added to the image in our minds of the way they seen us. We laughed about that one for awhile.
The past couple of days have been the best days spiritually that I have had in awhile. I did my devotions like I normally do, but the past couple ones have really touched my heart. On Monday, I read about King Saul and how he disobeyed God when he went into battle ( 1 Samuel 15 ). God gave him strict orders to destroy everything and leave nothing there. But Saul decides to take some of the best and offer them up to God as a sacrifice. It just really hit me how much God really wants our obedience. Yea… Saul offered sacrifices, but that wasn’t what God wanted! He just simply wanted Saul to obey. People say that I gave up a lot coming here… and I have., but that’s not what it is about. I came here because I had to follow God’s voice. I had to obey him. And when I obeyed his call in coming here… I had to make sacrifices.
I have learned a lot of other things in the last couple days of my ‘spiritually high’… but it would take way to long. You will just have to ask about those!!!
Six and a half weeks in Lima Peru and it has become my home. There is nothing I would change about it, that I would trade for, and nothing I am not grateful for. I love it here and I am so grateful for the opportunity to experience this season of life in this country… here and now!!

God's gas

Today started out on the worst side. I woke up nauseous and not in the best mood. I slept till about 10 and then headed to Spanish class. From here things went up hill!
Dates are an amazing thing. Especially when its with friends you love. Laura and I went out on a date this afternoon. We walked for awhile till we got to a ice cream place Greg had shown us earlier. We sat and talked about how we were doing physically, spiritually, and how we were doing homesick wise while we ate amazing ice cream. It was so nice to have a one-on-one girl talk.
Tonight was Greg’s last night here with us so he wanted to take us out for something special. We went to a nice restaurant called ‘The Jump of the Monk’ but in Spanish. We walked out by the ocean and took pictures on a huge rock where the waves were crashing behind us.
We headed inside and had some drinks, apple pie, and pancakes and ice cream. Super good!! We had a great time talking with Greg and spending the last night with him.
Where the restaurant was, there weren’t many taxies so one of the waiters offered to drive us to a place where we could find one. We all piled into a small van and started out. I don’t think the lady knew exactly what she was doing because the windshield wipers kept turning on and it was making funny noises. We started up this sharp hill and the van dies. We ran out of gas. We all start panicking because behind us is a curve, where at any minute someone could come fling around it, and we were in the middle of the road. Greg offers to drive and he gets in. He starts to back up and realizes that we have gas. So he punches the gas and we start driving. And I have to say that Greg makes a pretty good Peruvian driver! We make it to the gas station and we thank God for the gas that we didn’t think was there.
We walk out by the road to catch a taxi and we see one who has its rear windshield wipers on but it doesn’t have a blade, so it looks like a stubbly little tail on the back of this taxi. We laughed until we were nearly crying.
We finally got into 2 different taxies. Sarah, Breanne, Roxy, and I in one and Dave, Laura, and Greg in the other. My taxi took off first and we were just enjoying the ride and talking about the night. I asked Sarah to roll up the window and she said she couldn’t because there wasn’t a handle. The driver understands what is going on and hands Sarah the handle from the dash. I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I burst into another fit of laughter. All of the sudden honking when off, which isn’t abnormal, but we looked over and its Greg’s taxi coming up beside us. We waved and took pictures. On their taxi there was a New York Yankee sticker on the windshield, blue neon lights all over, and sounded like a motorcycle. Pretty hard core. We raced each other the whole way. I don’t think our taxi driver was as into the racing as the other one was. He was laughing the whole way and was flashing lights at us. And he was pretty stocked about me being a Yankee fan also. I made a new friend!!
We made it home safely and had tons of fun. All in all… today was one of the best days of my life. So fun and relaxed. Just plain out amazing.

Isn't it amazing...

"The God on the mountain is still God in the valley. When things go wrong, he'll make them right. And the God in the good times, is still God in the bad times. The God of the day is still God in the night"
Isn’t it amazing that when you are on a mission for God, the Devil is in your path more then ever. He finds ways to make you think that he is in control and that you are helpless and that you are not needed or wanted where you are. He throws things at you and expects you to drop dead and give up. Isn’t it also amazing that at the same time, the Lord is with you more then ever?
I have experienced both of these realities. When I look back at the events that shook me, they looked like enormous mountains blocking my view of God, but in reality, they were small pebbles in the ocean.
I love having a lot of memories of everything I do in my life. Everywhere I go, my camera is there with me. I truly believe in ‘A picture is worth 1000 words’. Six weeks into this trip, my camera breaks. It was like my oxygen was cut off, my source of life… my everything. I would leave in 3 weeks for Lima Peru and I wouldn’t have the most important item with me… I thought.
My family means the world to me, and when things happen when I am out of reach, it feels like the world is crashing down on me. From week one into TREK until I got to Peru, 12 different couples from home had ended or hit a wall. Most in which I was related to somehow. When your hit with that force, you tend to doubt the reason you are where you are. I did, but not only did I doubt it, I thought about backing out of it and turning home to see if I could help.
A month into being into Peru, I find out that my mother has to have surgery. That’s the worst feeling… not being home for my mother when she is in pain. She is there for me, I want to be there for her.
Through it all, I am so glad that I am here. Being away from home like this makes me see how much I need my family and how much I love them. But more then that, I began to see how much my Heavenly Father loves me. He has pulled me closer each day. He has whispered to me over and over about how he won’t put me through things that I can’t handle. Through the valleys and the over the mountains, he will be there. TREK has taught me so much when it comes to trusting God and giving my all to him. He knows what is going to happen. He is there holding your hand. He sees the whole picture.

Our highly unusual eventful day

God has blessed us with uneventful days while here the past 4 weeks until today. Today we experienced some things we have never faced before.
We woke up to a trembling shake… a 5.3 earthquake on the scale. When you grow up used to the blasts of a close by combine… a earthquake is a total different story. Its quite the alarm in the morning. You wake up to your bed shaking, parrots squawking, dishes moving around in the cabinets, and people screaming. Not the thing I would like to experience everyday. But everyone here just seen it as a normal event. They told us that we are expected one next week… so be aware!! Great!! Another possible morning of waking up to shaking.
Today we got invited to Italo’s house for lunch and that was amazing. We rode a bus for about an hour and then a taxi for about another 20 minutes. On the bus… we were all crowded in the back. Some 4 in a seat. When we got off to wait for a taxi, Otto told us a story of what he saw while watching out the bus window. A guy on the bus jumped out at a stop and ran up to a car stopped at a red light. He put his hand in the open window and grabbed the guys phone and took off running. Right in the middle of the street. Things like this happen regularly. Rule #1 while riding a taxi or bus… never open the window more then half way. Rule #2... Always lock the doors. Rule #3... Never flash things of great value. We finally arrived at Italo’s and shared our story with them. They all laughed at the events that go on in their streets. We ate turkey, rice, sweet potatoes, salad, gravy, and pineapple cake for dessert. Some good Peruvian home cookin’ food!!
While we were waiting to eat… Jano got a phone call and it wasn’t the best of news. It was about the church in Trujillo. We where all shocked and kind of at amaze. We are planning on visiting that church in 4 weeks.
On our way home from our lunch, I was in a taxi with papi, mama, Ali, and Anni… and as we came to a traffic jam, we saw a man out of his vehicle beating on a taxi driver. The poor driver just sat in his car and took the beating. Some guys rushed to the attacker and grabbed him and pushed him back into his car. I was startled at what I had just witnessed. The rage of some of the drivers amaze me. The driving here is outrageous. I would never attempt to ever drive in it. People cutting off people, more honking in a minute then you would hear in the whole day in the town of Montgomery, cars not watching out for pedestrians, and roads without stop signs. But the funny thing is that you hardly see accidents. I think we saw our first ambulance today since we’ve been here. How is it that in our towns, we have so many rules and yet so many accidents… and here, no rules and no accidents?! Something isn’t right.
Tonight for youth Jano had us TREKers dress up in all black. He talked on the death and resurrection of Lazarus. How we need to die to Christ. So dead that we stink. We need to die so we can be risen, we need to be hurt so we can forgive, we need to feel pain so we can heal. We need to really die. We then put a paper with our names on it and through it in the fire. Then he shared how when we raise for the dead… be bring color into our lives. Us TREKers then took off our black shirts and exposed a brightly colored t-shirt. It touched many people. It touched me. I had never thought of it that way. That when we die to Christ… really die the death and be made new.
After our lesson we headed to the market place where they had a special dance presentation going on for free. There was Polish, Peruvian, and some other dancing we had never seen before. It was so exciting and new for us. There were so many people there. Chairs set up filled with people and the circling area was overwhelmed with sightseers.
So for the most part… today has been the most eventful day of our 4 weeks here. We are starting to see the reality of life and how serious things can get. How fast situations can turn to the worst. We are starting to see the seriousness of togetherness and protection. And we are starting to see God work in the lives of the church member and also in some un helping neighbors. We are starting to see the devil working against the work we are starting to do. Please keep us, the church here and also in Trujillo, and the hearts of these Peruvian people in your prayers!!

Youth retreat filled with tons of energy

What a week!! The past 3 days have been filled with the youth group here. There were 26 of us total. So without us TREKers, the leaders, and staff… there were about 15 youth. Not bad for the community here. They all seemed to have a good time. Its just hard to know for sure though sometimes. Sometimes they just show up to see us and to have something to do. But this week retreat, it was focused on God and connecting with people in your area.
They arrived on Wednesday night at about 10. We just hung out and got everyone ready for bed. We had 14 girls ( 12 mattress ) in a small room… and 9 guys ( 6 mattress ) in another small room. It was hard getting some of them to bed on time. They love to giggle and just stay up. For some of them, this was their first ‘slumber party’!! Yea, that may be hard to believe, but its true. Yesterday morning we had breakfast on a long table. Felt like a big family. We had bread buns and soupy oatmeal. We sat and just chatted like we hadn’t talked to one another in weeks. After breakfast we played some games. We were on two teams and we played some true and false games. Talk about something challenging to have a person reading off the questions who speaks no English at all. He finally gave in and had Lydia give off some questions in English for us TREKers. The one question was pretty funny. She asked who the prime minister of Canada is. On my team it was: Laura ( American ), me ( American ), and Roxy ( Canadian but has a hearing problem )! So… if you didn’t figure it out yet… we last that one!! They had a pretty good laugh on that one. Another question I was eliminated from. Lydia yelled out… Lisa and Jake have been dating 7 months now!!! It was a fight to sit in the ‘True’ seat!! Everyone here knows I’m dating Jake and they ask everyday how he is doing! Makes me feel good and it helps me see how much I miss him.
After our games, Jano had devotions and it was a tear jerker. He talked about how much God did for us on the cross. He talked about how when they nailed him to the cross, they had to pull his arms out of their sockets and they were pulled out about 10 cm more then a normal arm. So for him to breathe, he would’ve had to push up on his nail feet to open up his lungs enough to take a breath!! OUCH!! He showed us 2 different clips from the ‘Passion of the Christ’! One of Jesus getting whipped and tortured, one of him being nailed to the cross, and one of the things that could’ve ran through Jesus’ mind while on the cross. It really touched my heart and made we wince at the sight. I had to turn away. I’ve seen that movie before and I’ve watched it all, but for some reason, I couldn’t this time. After the devotion was over, we were to get up and hug everyone. We saw some crying, watched their facial expressions change while getting hugged, and some just happy to be living.
After the hugs, we went out on a prayer walk. We split up and just walked around the neighborhood and prayed for each house, each person we saw, and just the whole Peruvian country. It wasn’t something I’ve ever done, and I found it relaxing, touching, and just amazing. After about a half an hour, Otto was walking beside me and he was explaining some things to me about the different streets and the houses. Some I found shocking, some I found amazing, and others were just the usual. We had some good talks and discussed the differences and similarities between Abbotsford Canada, Lima Peru, and Cannelburg Indiana.
Later we watched a movie. It felt so much like home. We were all spread out on the floor, mattress, and on chairs. We laughed and cried. We had the movie in Spanish and subtitles in English. It was so much fun how we can actually relate to each other. Just because we have a language barrier, we find ways to connect and to get through to each other. We watched a touching movie called ‘Pay it Forward’. Amazing movie!!
This morning we woke up and had another breakfast and then we headed to the beach. We were there about 5 hours!! Talk about a lot of sun!! We did a lot of body surfing, laying out, and hiding in the shade of the umbrellas! Beaches here are so amazing to just sit back and watch. There are ice cream carts being pushed around you every 2 minutes and just tons of kids running around. One thing I noticed though… their ocean has a stronger salt taste then Florida beaches do! We all did a lot of system cleaning while body surfing! But even through that, it was a lot of fun.
After 3 days hanging out with their youth, I can honestly say that I am wore out! They have a lot more energy then Americans or Canadians and they love to use it up in one throw! Its hard to keep up but it’s a lot of fun. I love it here and cant image being anywhere else at this moment. God is good and God is amazing!! He will never let you down.
Oh and we got Poncho ( the parrot ) to say ‘Party On’!!! Talk about some happy TREKers!! We were pretty excited!

Day as a tourist

Looking at Peru through the eyes of a tourist, someone you seldom are, you see the real beauty of the city. We got to do things and experience things we normally couldn't do. We experienced the reality of losing the only person you know who you understand for 5 minutes and being in the heart of a huge city, we experienced walking through a mall and hearing, and for a moment speaking to, a english speaking person without a peruvian accent. That was one of the best sounds I've heard in 2 weeks. Yes, we see and talk to Otto, Lydia, and Kevin, but hearing a native english speaker hit home more then I thought it ever would. We experienced Starbucks for the first time in 2 weeks. Now that is home!!! Drinking something you see at home really brought back some memories of both homes, Canada and Indiana. The best part of Starbucks was that they had a special Frap... one from their very home here in Peru... Manjar Blanco!!! A delicious caramel spread for just about anything you can think of! Bananas, apples, buns, grilled cheese, and yes... even pizza!! Try that in a Frap and you think you are in heaven!
The beach is amazing. Standing on the rail of the mall, having the wind blowing through my hair, and smelling the ocean, I realized how lucky I am. I am on a mission for God in the heart of Lima Peru with a Frap in my hand! What more can you ask for? How could it get any better? Having family here with me maybe, but the position I'm in now... it cant get any better!!

Breanne and I were standing facing the ocean and the amazing sunset and we talked about how when you put your heart and mind to something, you will eventually end up doing it. No matter if it happens how you wanted, if it takes many years, or just a few days, weeks or months, you will get there if you are determained enough. If you ask God, seek it out with your heart, and just look and watch for chances to do your dream, you will be surprised.

It doesn't seem like long ago that I first felt the desire to go on missions. I remember working hard to find something that worked and that fit my plans. But when you decide you want to follow God with something like this, he will find a way to get you there. Even thought I was thinking more like Jamaica, but Peru will do!! My heart is still on Jamica, and I trust God that I will one day step into the orphanage on the small island of Jamaica. But until that day, I will relax and have fun here where God has placed me.

One day in the life a tourist is fun and new... but I really enjoy the real purpose I'm here! I'm here to learn and serve!! Learn about the culture, the language, and serve God and the people here. That is my purpose here!! Learn and Serve!!