Exactly What I Need

This past weekend Becca, Carmen, and I went with Tommy on a hiking adventure. We went to a place called Laguna Llaca, which is only an hour outside of Huaraz. It was absolutely beautiful and a pretty easy hike, exactly what I needed. We stood on a glacier, went in an ice cave, and heard an avalanche.

When we planned and set out on this adventure I did not know how much I would need it. Pretty early into the trip, however, I discovered that it was just what I needed. I needed some fresh air, and some new scenery. I need to spend the night away from Recuay. I needed to see and explore some of the beauty of Peru. I needed a fresh perspective. I needed to feel small next to the mountains. I needed some good laughs and some good conversation. I needed a reminder that I serve a sovereign God. I needed a reminder that I am exactly where God wants me. I am thankful that I serve a God who knows exactly what I need even when I do not.

The LORD is gracious and righteous;

our God is full of compassion.

The LORD protects the simplehearted;

when I was in great need, he saved me.

Be at rest once more, O my soul.

for the LORD has been good to you.

Psalm 116:5-7

Learning to Love

The last two weeks at Utcuyacu Becca and I have been teaching the kids commandments from the Bible on Mondays and stories from the Bible that demonstrate those commands on Thursdays. We decided that the only place to start was with the greatest commandment, and then move on to the second greatest commandment, for Jesus tells us that “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” These lessons have got me thinking about the word “love” a lot. Becca and I are teaching these kids at Utcuyacu how the Bible tells us to love, but often I wonder if I am loving in the same capacity Jesus did and commands us to.

Since being in Peru I have had many people ask me variations of the same question, “Do you just love it there?” My response has often taken me a little longer than one might think, and lately I have been responding with, “I am learning to love it.” It has not been a “love at first sight” experience for me, but I am learning to love Peru. I see God’s grace everyday as He pours out more love on me. As a result of His love and grace I am learning to love Him, His people, this place, this season, and His plan.

I do not love waking up at 4am only to walk outside to go to the bathroom.

I do not love taking a warmish shower only sometimes twice a week.

I do not love spiders in my bedroom.

I do not love washing my clothes by hand.

I do not love when dogs pee on my feet.

I do not love being whistled at while walking down the street.

I do not love teaching English to rowdy first graders.

I do not love not being able to communicate with anyone I see.

I do not love consistently being late for things.

I do not love how long it takes for water to boil at 11,000ft.

I do not love living out of a suitcase.

I do not love the smell as I walk through the meat market in Huaraz.

I do not love when class is cancelled without any notice.

I do not love stepping in cow manure on the way to school.

But I am learning to love….

I am learning to love eating rice and potatoes three times a day.

I am learning to love a lot of extra free time.

I am learning to love the twelve animals that live in my backyard.

I am learning to love walking everywhere I go.

I am learning to love going to the market almost everyday.

I am learning to love riding the komby.

I am learning to love the hats and skirts all the women here wear.  

I am learning to love that Peruvians greet everyone they see.

I am learning to love washing all our produce.

I am learning to love being called a griega.

I am learning to love just sitting outside and starring at the mountains.

I am learning to love only getting online twice a week.

I am learning to love the little neighbor girls that randomly knock on our door.

I am learning to love Dina who own the store down the road.

I am learning to love Humberta’s adventurous spirit.

I am learning to love the construction workers that eat at Humberta’s everyday.

I am learning to love random festivals in town.

I am learning to love Gloria who serves us lunch everyday.

I am learning to love the families in Utcuyacu.

I am learning to love my eleven third through sixth graders at Utcuyacu.

I am learning to love all the students at Javier.

Thank you Lord for teaching more about your love each day. Lord thank You for first loving me. Let all my love for You and for others only be an overflow of the love You are pouring out on me. Lord thank you for a love that never fails, overwhelms yet satisfies; a love that is stronger and higher, a love that is patient, kind, and humble. Father thank you for a love that set me free, keeps no record of wrongs, and works all things together for my good.

Jesus le dijo: “Amaras al Señor tu Dios con todo tu corazon, y con toda tu alma, y con toda tu mente. Este es el grande y el primero mandamiento. Y el segundo es semejante: Amaras a tu projimo como a ti mismo.”

Mateo 22:37-39

Hot chocolate thoughts.

It has been a while since I have posted, but things south of the equator are still going well. This weekend will mark being in South America for one month, and Tuesday will mark three weeks living in Recuay. You would think this might be the part where I say something like, “Time is flying by, I can’t believe I have already been here a month!”, but that statement is not true. Honestly the last three weeks here in Recuay have gone by at an incredibly slow pace. We are just now beginning to see things pick up. It has taken quite a while to fall into a routine here, but I think we are beginning to find one.

Things are always subject to change, but this is what we are finding ourselves busy doing. We are teaching English and Bible five days a week. We teach at a school in town, called Javier, every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. Over the next several weeks we will rotate each day we go seeing first through sixth graders.  We visit two classes each day for twenty-five minutes each. (Ex. Tuesday: 1^st grade A and 1^st grade B, Wednesday: 2^nd grade A and 2^nd grade B, etc) This means that we will only get to see each class at Javier five to six times the whole twelve weeks we are here. We are also teaching in a town twenty minutes away, called Utcuyacu, every Monday and Thursday. This school is very small and Becca and I each have our own class for an hour each day. Becca teaches a class of about six first and second graders and I teach a class of about eleven third through sixth graders. In addition to our daily teaching schedule we cross the river, behind our house, every Tuesday afternoon to visit and have bible study with a couple families in the town of Ocunan.  Also on Friday afternoons we travel back to Utcuyacu to spend time with the families of the community doing bible study and playing with the children.

When reading this you might think this is a packed full schedule, however, we have come to realize that it is really not that packed. Even with lunch every day at Humberta’s, trips to the market and internet café, walking several miles every place we go, and doing random daily tasks like cooking and washing clothes by hand we still seem to have a lot of time on our hands. A lot of time to do things such as read, journal, memorize scripture, think, talk, drink hot chocolate, and play the occasional Spanish card game. *Hints the reason for the title “Hot chocolate thoughts”. 

Hot chocolate has quickly become one of our favorite things here in Recuay.  There are many reasons for this. One is that on a cold night as we huddle in the kitchen after dinner hot chocolate is one thing that keeps us warm. Two the way you make hot chocolate here is extremely fun, and very tasty. (They use this special chocolate bar that is very rich and full of spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. Melted in sugar water with evaporated milk, you just cannot go wrong.) Three sitting around the kitchen table drinking hot chocolate brings lots of great conversation, Spanish card games, and lessons from the Lord.

A recent lesson the Lord has been teaching me through many cups of hot chocolate and many intent looks into His perfect law is concerning all this free/down time we have had the last couple of weeks.  I few days ago I found myself using the word “bored” a lot, like several times a day. This was all due to the fact that I spend hours a day reading and journaling and just sitting around. This lack of a schedule was becoming monotonous and I found myself not knowing what to do with all this extra time. A few days after I made this discovery about the word “bored”. It dawned on me that this word and feeling is totally not from the Lord. I have become convinced that at the beginning of time when the Lord created and ordained everything in creation the word “bored” was not on his mind. So instead of sitting around thinking about how bored I am and what things I have not done since being here in South America I began to think and recount what I have been able to do.

-I have been able to spend more time in the Word listening to the Lord’s voice than I ever have.

-I have been able to catch-up and continue my goal of reading the Bible through this year.

-I have begun another season of memorizing a significant amount of scripture.

-I have spent time reading books and listening to sermons by people who are wiser than me.

-I have greatly increased the vitality my prayer life.

-I have learned apart from TV, internet, friends, and family, to rely on the Lord in every circumstance.

- I have learned to be content in this new place, for this new season, trusting the Lord’s plan is bigger than my eyes can see.

So I am counting these past few weeks of “boredom” as a gift from the Lord. A free gift He did not have to give me, but one He chose to give me solely out of His grace and love for me. These moments have been a great opportunity to dive into God’s Word and discover great and marvelous things about Him. Despite the work and ministry I have the opportunity to do here in Recuay over the next three months I am looking forward to taking every moment, the Lord gives me, captive. Being transformed by the renewing my mind, so that I will be able to discern what God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will is.

A Day In The Life

Here is a small, yet very detailed, picture of what our days have looked like since being in Recuay. Most days since being here have looked very different. This is an account of what our Friday looked liked.

8:00am- Wake up. *An hour before the alarm goes off because we went to bed at 9:30pm the night before.

8:10am- Put on shoes and sweatshirt to walk outside to the bathroom.

8:15am- Make coffee. (It is probably going to be a long day)

8:20-9:00am- Eat breakfast and spend time with the Lord.

9:00am- Begin preparing to take a shower.

9:15-9:35am- Shower. (Little water pressure makes washing your hair a long process.)

9:40-10:00am- Get dressed and stand in the sun to try and regain warmth.

10:00-10:15am- Walk to the market

10:15-10:45am- Buy fruits and veggies for dinner.

10:45-11:00am- Walk home with groceries.

11:00-11:25am- Wash and put away food.

11:30-12:00pm- Sit around the kitchen table and chat about the day.

12:00-12:30pm- Sit on the back “patio” in the sun and read.

12:45-1:00pm- Walk to Humberta’s for lunch

1:00-2:00pm- Eat lunch. (Aguadito de pollo, lentils, rice, chicken, apple cake, and agua de maracuya)

2:00-2:15pm- Walk back home.

2:15-3:00pm- Read, journal, stare at the wall.

3:00-3:20pm- Wait for Humberta to come with a Komby. *public transportation

3:25-4:00pm- Travel to Utcuyacu. (For a bible study that was supposed to start at 3:00pm)

4:15-4:30pm- Play volleyball with kids of the community.

4:30-5:00pm- Bible study with ladies of the community.

5:00-6:00pm- Travel back to Recuay. (Via foot, taxi, and komby)

6:00-6:30pm- Recount the day, think about tomorrow, plan dinner.

6:30-7:00pm- Cook dinner.

7:00-7:30pm- Eat dinner.

7:30-8:00pm- Clean up and practice Spanish.

8:00-9:00pm- Sit around the kitchen table (because the kitchen if still warm from cooking) doing random things like, talking, reading, journaling, and making a grocery list.

9:00-9:30pm- Brush teeth, put on warm clothes, and get in bed. (The sun has been down for nearly three hours)

Next week will hopefully provide more structure and an actual schedule. Wednesday we will begin teaching in the schools. Tuesdays , Wednesdays, and Fridays we will teach English and Bible at Javier for an hour, and Mondays and Thursdays we will do the same at Utcuyacu. We have visited both of these schools this week and both the teachers and the students are very excited for us to begin coming on a regular basis. Friday afternoons we will also be going to Utcuyacu to lead a bible study with some of the ladies in the community. We went yesterday to meet them for the first time and they all seem very hungry for the word. It is likely we will also be planning something for the children at the same time, because they just roamed and played about as we did bible study with the ladies.

Today as we walked to get a taxi we met two little girls who live near us. They immediately knew who we were because the missionaries from the summer had told them we were going to be here for four months. They were very bright. They sang us several songs the summer missionaries taught them and told us how about how they had bible study every Monday night this summer in the house we are living in, with about fifteen other kids. We are hopefully going to meet these other kids on Monday and maybe begin to make plans to carry on this bible study for the next four months.

Things you can join us in praying for: boldness as we meet new people every day, courage to speak and learn a new language, wisdom and discernment as we discover our purpose in ministry in this new place.

Lindsay and I in front of my house before they left to go back to Lima

The beautiful mountains from Utcuyacu

My backyard

        

Exalt the LORD our God;

bow in worship at His footstool.

He is holy.

Psalm 99:5

Bienvenidos al Perú

A week ago today I was boarding a plane in Atlanta for Santiago, Chile, where eight other Hands On students and I spent five days doing orientation.  We did everything from buying and preparing food from a local market, meeting random people at a local mall, to attending a local Spanish church service. We also got a lot of information about what the next four months are going to look like for each of us and tried to learn as much about South American culture as we could.  All in all it was a great time to bridge us into this new culture. Yesterday the nine of us all parted ways and flew to the places we will be serving the rest of the semester. I really enjoyed spending time with other Hands On students having fun, praying for and encouraging one another.

Pray for Greg (Far left): serving with his wife Shawn in Chile; Ellis, Caleb and Kristin (left): serving in Brazil; Becca, Lindsay, Kaleigh, and I (Girls in middle): serving in Peru; and Aaron and Barrett (Boys in back right): serving in Chile.

I will spend the next few days doing more orientation in Lima, Peru and on Monday we will all take a trip to the mountains to get Becca and I settled into our new home and ministry for the next several months. We are finding out more and more each day about what exactly our ministry will look like and it is very exciting. (I will post more soon, when things are really set.) I am looking forward to the things the Lord is going to do in and through me this semester in the high mountains of Peru.

From the ends of the earth I call to you,

I call as my heart grows faint;

lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

Psalm 61:2

ready or not.

Today is the big day. The day I have been thinking about and planning for, for almost four months. Today I will get on a plane and leave the country and I will not be back in the states until December. At times I thought this day would never come, but it is crazy how fast it seems to have appeared. I have asked all the questions I can think of, I have packed my bags, and I have my passport is all laid out ready to go. The preparation on my end is done and now I get to sit back and walk confidently in the fact that the Lord has gone before me and He is going to go with me.

Going into mission trips I try not to create to many expectations in my head and since this experience is coming so soon after camp I really have not even had time to think about that. People have asked me how they can pray and my response is “just pray.”

Two nights ago as I sat at Kairos at Brentwood Baptist I read the words of a song as hundreds of people around me sang them so freely. I have heard the words before, but last night they became so real to me. As I thought about leaving and questioned what life in Peru is going to look like I began to pray they words over my trip.

Let love explode and bring the dead to life
A love so bold
To see a revolution somehow.

Let hope arise and make the darkness hide
My faith is dead
I need a resurrection somehow

Let Heaven roar and fire fall
Come shake the ground
With the sound of revival

As I leave today this is my prayer. Let love explode. Let hope rise. Let Heaven roar and fire fall. Let me see a revolution somehow. Thank you all for showing such amazing love and support as I have prepared to leave. I leave knowing that I will be thought of often and covered in prayer daily. And for that I am truly thankful.

Past, present, and future tense.

An update on what I have been doing, what I am doing now, and what is coming next.

Since the end of May I have been in New Orleans joyfully serving and loving on the people and the city of New Orleans through the avenue of M-Fuge. I had a great summer. It was the first summer that Fuge was in New Orleans so we definitely had some obstacles to overcome and some major groundwork to lay. The team I worked with was amazing. Together we worked hard doing everything from changing our schedule, setting us apart from many other Fuge camps, to tearing down and setting up the auditorium each week.

My ministry site all summer was close to Tulane’s campus at a place called Evan’s park. There was no prep work done at Evan’s park, no site contact, and at the beginning there was not even any kids. Week two of camp I was sent to this park, not having the slightest idea what was going to happen and honestly not having the best attitude about it. So, we started from scratch. Me and my week two campers and adults started by praying and then we just began to walk around the neighborhood and knock on doors. Slowly, but surely we started to find kids and amazingly enough their parents trusted us enough to send them out the door and down the street to the park with us.

I truly saw the Lord answer prayers this summer through the work I was a part of at Evan’s park. We started out the first two week with only two or three kids coming each day, but then by week three as we prayed “Lord, multiply the kids that come to Evan’s park”, we saw twenty-two even twenty-eight kids come to the park one day. The Lord is so faithful. The ministry at Evan’s park might not have been organized or even ideal, but our ministry this summer was full of love. As the kids and families of Evan’s park waved goodbye to M-Fuge I walked away confidently knowing that we, as M-Fuge, had poured out genuine love on this neighborhood all summer. Love that could only come from Christ and the love He first poured out on us. 

So, what does all of this have to do with what comes next? The Lord taught me so much this summer, but one thing He taught me was exactly where my ministry is. He showed me that this summer my ministry was in New Orleans. And now you are thinking, “Duh! You have been doing ministry in New Orleans all summer, of course your ministry was in New Orleans.” But it is so much bigger than that. Going into my summer in New Orleans I knew that I would be going to Peru shortly after camp was over. I began to worry that I would be distracted all summer with figuring out what life and ministry in Peru would be like.

The Lord is so faithful. He showed me again and again how He was using my ministry in New Orleans to completely prepare me for my coming ministry in Peru. He used Evan's park and the people of the community to specifically prepare me for what is next. He used the bible study material, the life and ministry of Peter, each week in a new way to teach me something new about His plan. His plan, that is so much bigger than mine and I become more and more thankful for that everyday.

In less than a week I will be getting on a plane and heading to Peru until December. I will spend my first week in Santiago, Chile participating in orientation with many other students who will be working in various part of South America all semester. My partner Rebecca and I will be serving in the town of Recuay, which is in the Ancash province of Peru. Much of our ministry will be based on relationships. We will get to know the people of Recuay and become part of their lives. We are told this could include helping wash clothes in the river, teaching in the local schools, playing soccer with the boys and volleyball with the girls, studying and sharing from the Bible, leading Bible studies, etc. We will know better what we will spend our time doing once we get there. 

The Lord is so faithful. Even though I may not feel prepared I am resting confidently in the fact that the Lord is faithful and He has completely prepared me for my ministry in Peru. I cannot wait to see His plan unfold.

It is good to praise the LORD,

To sing praise to Your name, Most High,

To declare Your faithful love in the morning

And Your faithfulness at night

Psalm 92:1-2