Blessings Abounding

Friends, yet again, I'm sorry I've let you down.  If any of you ever really were interested in my blog, I've failed you big time, and I will make it up to you somehow.  I'll bring you a llama or something!

It's true. I haven't posted in over a month, but I've been crazy busy the past month!  Things seem to start to be slowing down, which may or may not be a good thing for my sanity. Who knows?  I just know that a little over a month ago I was pouting and angry that I wasn't doing much here, and I felt like I was wasting my time. Then the Lord filled my schedule with ways to serve Him, my heart with joy and peace, and my mouth with his praise!  Call me crazy, I just love to brag on my Savior's faithfulness!

Anywho, life here has been going by soo fast!  I've already been here almost 5 months! The days are flying by, and I'm not really sure how!  Everything is changing in the organization I'm working with, so it feel like we're just holding out til the big changes happen. We'll deal with new stuff when it comes around in January! 

I will share one big change with you, and even add a picture!  Our immediate supervisors, the Constantes, left for the states last weeks as they ended their term here.  I'm going to miss them!  Especially this little booger!

This is Joshua, and I taught him to walk before he got on that plane!

But yeah, changes are happening, and it's very exciting!

In other news, God is just showing me day after day his faithfulness, and since this blog was meant to share my heart, I will!  It just seems that every day God is showing me how much He is in control of absolutely everything, and that Romans 8:28 really is true:  all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.  When we stop trying to run from God and do things our way, we can see the faithfulness of His Word in full force.  Even in the hard times, He gives us unspeakable joy, which is so awesome. 

So as you go throughout the rest of your day and/or week, I just want to challenge you to seek the Lord.  Sing praises to Him. Talk to Him. Listen to Him. Study his Words.  He will be faithful to be beside you every step you make!

Sorry for the vagueness of this blog, and no real information on what I'm doing now.  Have some patience, and I promise to get my A game on and write more! Peace and blessings people!

What am I doing here?

Dearest readers,

I'm really sad to tell you that this will be another photo-less post. I know, I know. I promised more photos so I could keep you entertained. Truth is, I haven't taken many pictures. It's not that I don't want to, but it's not smart to carry valuables to some of the places I want to take pictures at.  One day, I promise I'll brave up and do it.  Until then, I'll tell ya about what I'm doing now, since people at home are curious! The best way to get everything in is probably to just go down through the week. So, if you're interested, follow me through a typical week!

Sunday-- I wake up at like 8:30, eat breakfast, find clothes, and facebook chat with my mom for about 2 minutes, then Melissa and I catch a bus to Barranco, an area of Lima about 15 minutes from our house. Muy cerca.  Sunday school starts at 10:30ish. We're usually 5-10 min late. No worries though, so is everyone else. I love this culture for that!  Anywho, Sunday school usually goes til 11:40ish, and then church starts around 12.  It lasts til 2.  Yep, that's right. TWO hours.  But I love it.  Our worship songs are verses out of the Bible, like verbatim, set to music.  Last week we sang Psalm 95, 97, and Revelation 15.  Love it.  We sometimes eat lunch at church for 5 soles, but not always.  However, we always get cremoladas on the walk back to the bus.. These are like creme slushes basically, and just 2 soles (that's 66 cents!).  Soo yummy. Then we come home.  I usually take a lil nap or read. Then we have class from 6-8, and hang out til about 9. That makes for a full day!

Monday-- Mondays are planning days, or atleast I try to make them that.  I try to get things planned for my classes on Wednesday and Thursday.  Something always seems to come up on Mondays.  Either visiting someone or getting lunch with someone, but both are always fine with me!  At 5 we get ready to take the S bus to San Miguel to work with some translators (keep a lookout for a blog about the buses here). Our friend Arturo has started a "Christian Interpreters Club" at his church, Calvary Chapel, and we go to be the native speakers that correct and perfect their English.  We sit in circles of 4 or less and take turns reading passages of Scripture in English and translating it to Spanish, and vice versa.  This is always fun. And they usually make me translate too, so I get to practice some Spanish.

Tuesday-- Tuesdays are my Sabbath.  It's the one day I have no where to be all day.  Usually I still have some planning to do, but then I can read and blog and cook and do whatever I want really.  Melissa and I do have our team time on Tuesdays, and we usually go to the market after that.  But that's about all that's consistent and worth talking about for Tuesdays.  If you ever want to skype or something, this would be the day!

Wednesday-- Wednesdays are my full days.  I get up and get ready to go downtown.  I catch my bus at 9:05ish to go downtown.  It takes about 30-35 minutes on the bus to get downtown, then I jet down two blocks and get to the orphanage/school that I'm teaching English at.  I say I jet down two blocks because I definitely stand out downtown, and I don't want to risk getting robbed or anything just because people think that I have money just because I'm white.  So I get to the school, ring the doorbell, and the fun begins.  Wednesdays I teach 1st and 2nd grade English.  These kids have or have had difficult living situations, so they all want love and attention.  They're all a mess, but all so super sweet (watch, they'll be crazy tomorrow since I'm bragging on them now).  I've only been twice so far, but I love this.  I'm teaching from 9:50-1, all a mixture of broken Spanish and English they don't understand.  As the weeks go on, I'll write about days here.  At 1 I jet back down 2 blocks and go to a mall.  I have been buying a drink in Starbucks and sitting there reading and looking up stuff on my iPod until 5.  At 5 I go about a block away and meet Melissa as well as Gina and Quentin Roberts.  Quentin and Gina are missionaries in downtown Lima, and we help them with English here.  I teach a group of about 5-8 adults basic English.  It's so fun because they actually listen!! It's great!  We finish there at 8, and we leave immediately.  Again, this part of town isn't very safe, especially after dark.  Quentin and Gina are very good about getting everyone out by 8 in order to get home safely.  We usually get back about 9 and eat something & then I retire to my room.

Thursday-- Thursdays aren't quite as busy as Wednesdays, but still full.  I go downtown to the orphanage/school to teach 3rd and 4th grade.  These kids listen better than the younger ones, usually. It's nice.  When I finish at 1, I take a bus back home.  I usually take a nap and work on some planning stuff.  We have translation class at our house from 6-8.  And then we hang out for a little bit and then back to my room! 

Friday-- Fridays are always different and fun.  We wake up, either visit people, or spend the mornings reading or doing whatever around the house, then we meet our friend Santiago for lunch.  Then the 3 of us take a bus to Pamplona Alta.  Pamplona started out as a shanty town, but now it's HUGE.  A couple thousand people living in what most Americans would call huts. Oh yeah, it smells like pigs and pig poo too.  But these people are (mostly) happy.  Yeah they all have their struggles, but they are unstained from the greed and ignorance that most of us live in.  The children there are ecstatic for a coloring sheet to color, not for an iPod or  cell phone.  Although their living conditions aren't necessarily the best, they don't know any better and are just as happy and joyful there as most of us are in the US, sitting in our houses of fortunes.  In Pamplona we have Bible study with several ladies, and it's always really good. Santiago likes to put me on the spot and ask me to pray in Spanish.  It drives me CRAZY, but I have to remember that it's for the Lord and that with him all things are possible, even my broken Spanish.  We then take the hour long bus ride back to our area of town and find something to do with the rest of our afternoon/evening (it's usually around 5:30 or 6 when we get back).

Saturday-- Saturdays are my days to teach!  Saturday morning is devoted to finding college football, and hoping that some online station is showing the Vols.  I also do a lot of planning for our Saturday afternoon conversation class.  These classes are really laid back and we just have a topic that we try to get everyone to discuss.  It's a big fellowship time basically.  Then we sometimes go out with our students after class, or just have a night in.  Either or. 

I'm sorry if I bored you with that book I just wrote.  I just thought some of you would like to know where you're money is going!  Every week is different, and things change a lot, but you have some idea now.  I promise next time to take pictures and make things more interesting!  Thank you for reading!

Streaker

So. This is a great story. There will be no pictures, you'll be thankful for that.

On Fridays, we're going with our friend Santiago to a part of Lima called Pamplona.  It started out as a shanty town, and now its HUGE, but it's definitely one of the poorest places in Lima. He's been doing Bible study with some ladies there a couple days a week.  It's been pretty neat to be a part of, and Santiago refuses to let us just sit in.  He makes us speak in Spanish, even when we don't want to and we aren't prepared, but we're better because of it!

Anyways, we usually meet him in Parque Kennedy and get lunch before the hour long bus ride there.  After lunch, we were standing on the sidewalk waiting for the bus, and Melissa notices a cop on a segway crossing the street.  Yes, in this crazy busy popular part of town, its a bit odd to see that, but not too out of the ordinary.  Here's the dialogue from this time.. "There's a cop on a segway."-- Melissa. "There's a naked guy beside him!"-- Santiago.

This is a true story.  There was a bare butt naked man walking beside this cop crossing the street!  TRAUMATIZING!! He then proceeded to run in between the cars stopped at the red light while the cops chased him. EVEN MORE TRAUMATIZING! At one point he ran into a guy on a motorcycle! ahh! Luckily our bus was there (they had their doors closed so he couldn't run on there), and they let us on!  Once we got through the traffic lights, we saw that the cops had caught the streaker (PTL). 

This is soo not what I expected to happen when I woke up yesterday!

Unfailing

So, I apologize again that I haven't done this in a while. No excuses. I'll try to keep all you who are supporting me updated on life in Lima these days!

First off, let me just tell you that God's rocked my world the past couple of days.  We all know the "ask and you will receive" verse; yeah, I'm receiving blessings in abundance! 

Let me tell you how this has all unfolded.

Background information.  I've felt pretty useless the past few weeks here. We've been finding different things to do in addition to our English ministry, but I still had a ton of downtime each day.  Yeah it was nice being able to sleep in and be in the Word as I pleased throughout the day, but I was wasting soo much time I felt.  I came here to serve, not to be lazy. Not fluently speaking the language of a place really puts a limit on doing street evangelism and such, and the organizations I'd contacted, such as World Vision, hadn't gotten back to us on opportunities. Last week I was frustrated most of the week just because I was hanging out all day in the house, and I didn't know how I could be out ministering more. 

So Sunday was "one of my better days" as my Maw would say.  For those of you who don't know, I've had bed bugs/allergies/something biting or irritating my skin since the end of July, and we haven't been able to figure out what it is. It's like I get rid of them, and then a week later they find me again. We fumigated, and I moved rooms, and they moved with me.  We fumigated again, covered my beds with giant plastic bags (which are still there. no worries if I wet the bed though!), and they still came back. We stayed at someone else's house for a week, and I was still getting them there! So needless to say, I'm wayy over itching and scratching! 
Soo.. Melissa and I were staying at a missionary family's house all last week while they went back to the states. So Sunday I woke up and took my sheets off the bed first thing so they'd have clean sheets when they got home, and what did I find? A teeny tiny little ANT! and not just one of them, but 2,3,4,5,6 of them in different places on the bed!  This is where my "better day" began.

In addition to feeling like I wasn't doing a thing in Peru all week, I was spreading ants to other people's houses and they were going to start getting bit too.  I cried, a lot (go figure), and just really felt like packing my bags & coming home this week.  If I was useless here, and getting eaten alive by the pestilence, SURELY I was just in the wrong place & this was a sign for me to go home.  I basically pitched a lil pity party for myself for a while.  Finally I came to my senses and knew I just needed to be still before the Lord and just listen to Him and let Him calm me.  So I went to Romans 5 where it says "endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame."  Ok that was cool and somewhat encouraging, but I needed more. So I flipped to Romans 1 and just kept reading and reading.  It talked how we're all fully of sin, and not just petty "little sins", but  we're disgusting in our sin, and NONE of us are righteous. None of us deserve the love of God. But through faith in Jesus Christ, God will redeem us righteous.  So I just pitched a fit before God, the Creator of everything, and then I see how absolutely useless I am to anything that matters in the world, but it's through faith in His son that I am redeemed.  Ok Gerica. Feel dumb yet? It's this faith thing I was lacking.  I just somehow forgot that God is faithful, and that He's taking care of me in every circumstance, so I should be faithful to Him and trust in that.  Man did I feel ridiculous and embarrassed!

So Monday rolls around, and Melissa and I had a meeting scheduled in the morning with a missionary couple who do inner city missions in Lima.  She said they'd love to have us help with their English ministry there on Wednesday nights. Then I asked about any orphanage ministries they work with (cuz I miss my daycare babies), and she said they had one who actually needed an English teacher a couple days a week! So we took a bus downtown and saw there office, and then stopped by the orphanage.  This is where the "ask and you shall receive" plays in.  We just stopped to see if they needed someone, and they were quick to say yes, and asked me to start on Wednesday! People, that's TOMORROW! So now Wednesday and Thursdays I'm going to teach 1-4 grade English at an orphanage downtown.  So instantly I went from having empty mornings and some empty evenings, to having all day Wednesday full and now Thursday mornings.  Kinda cool huh?

But the story doesn't stop there!  We then went to the Llorens's to visit with them after their trip to the states for Mrs. Tammi's mom's funeral.  Just a side note, this is the coolest family in Lima Peru, and they have been so great to us and love on us like we're their own. Such a blessing to have that here, and I'm soo very thankful for them!  Anywho, they brought us good news of "house sitting" for 6 months for a missionary couple going stateside in November.  PTL we get out of this gloomy lil house we live in now!  They also wanted us to consider taking on some more logistical work in the future.  And we all know that I'm a walking, talking UPS commercial in that I LOVE LOGISTICS!  So yeah. Went from an empty plate when I woke up Monday morning to considering if I had enough time to take on anything else! How neat is that! 

We come home for a bit, and God just blessed me with great conversation and a full heart for my friends back home.  Then we went across town to help with a translating group one of our friends is starting, and had good fellowship and learning time there.  *Pause. One day I'm going to write a blog on my experiences with Lima transportation, get excited.*  And then we came back, and I just had more great conversations with people.  It just made my heart sooo stinking happy to see how God's working in people in different ways all across the globe.  And I'm soo tremendously blessed that He's allowing ME, the one who threw a temper tantrum in front of Him Sunday, take part in sharing and growing with these people!  He's allowing me to see the effects of not giving up on people, the importance of knowing what the Bible says on certain things, how to rejoice in blessings with others, humility, His hatred for sin, the importance of standing firm on the Word and its teachings, and share in the excitement of new believers.  WOW. Mind blowing how cool this all is. 

I must stop now and go plan my lessons for tomorrow and Thursday, but I write this book of a blog just to encourage any of you who are reading to stay faithful. God's got ya.  His love is steady and His faithfulness never ends.

My Room!

So, I realize I haven't posted a blog in over two weeks. Crazy sorry guys. I really have no excuse besides life really isn't that exciting, and the exciting things that do happen, it's unsafe to take my camera there!

Anywho, for the sake of blogging, I thought I'd give you guys a mini update on life, and show you my (somewhat) clean room!

First off, life in Lima is weird, and we're still trying to figure out what exactly we can do to be doing more. We have English class 6 nights a week, Melissa teaches 3, I teach 1, Michael teaches 1, and the other is just translating. However, things may change soon. Fact: everything in life is subject to change. That's the one constant here. Change is inevitable, and that's its own blog on another day. Anyways, only teaching one class a week gives me lots of free time, that I'm trying to fill in productive ways. I'm looking into volunteering for World Vision or some other children's home in Lima, and also going to one of the poorer areas of Lima once a week or so and doing whatever I can there (I'm going Friday for the first time, so I'll be able to tell you more after that!). I'm really looking forward to getting involved with more here in Lima. I hate wasting days/time. Really, I do. I just have no idea what I can do right now and I'm going a lil crazy! But the Lord is good and He will provide me with whatever opportunity that will glorify Him the most and I have no doubt of that!

Soo.. on my not busy day today, I cleaned my room. And by clean, I mean moved back into my room for reals. If you didn't know, I've suffered from bed bugs or awful allergies to something since i've been in Lima (all of August). We sprayed mattresses, clothes, sheets, pillows, and basically everything else in this room, twice. The last time we wrapped everything in plastic and let it sit for a while before washing it. So hopefully, if it was bed bugs, they're dead now. Last week we stayed at a missionary family's home, so I didn't have to move back in my room until Saturday. I had the Limanian dridge (sinus cold/junk/bellyachin) all weekend, so today was the day I actually tidied up! (don't judge! what I call tidy may not meet your standards! :P)

bunk beds!!

closet area, minus the closet...

shoes! yes those are all the shoes i brought..

desk area

book case, minus the flower jars!

 Sooo yea! That's my tiny little room, ALL of it!  In cleaning up today, I found this tiny empty jar.  It's what the oil for my oil lamp I wrote about earlier came in.  It's soo tiny and so cute, I couldn't throw it away.  So I found a use for it! It's my flowery bobbie-pin holder! So stinkin cute!

Well, that's all I have to say for now. Stay tuned in til next time!

Sin Ti, no soy nada..

Lately, when people ask me how things are going here, I respond with the typical "It's going good! Things are picking up and we're getting settled in well!". Each time I do this, my insides scream "Tell them what God is teaching you rather than what you are doing!". Because, quite frankly, I, myself, cannot do anything without Him.

Lately, the Lord has been pounding in my head and heart my desperate need for Him.  To be able to see this need, He's specifically teaching me humility, and how to humble myself before Him.

humility -- the quality or condition of being humble; (thanks for nothing dicitonary.com)
              -- modest opinion or estimate of one's own importance, rank, etc.

Just for the sake of it..

humble -- not proud or arrogant; modest.

             -- having a feeling of insignificance, inferiority, subservience, etc.

             -- low in rank, importance, status, quality, etc.

             -- courteously respectful.

             -- low in height, level, etc.; small in size.

             -- to lower in condition, importance, or dignity; abase.

             -- to destroy the independence, power, or will of.

             -- to make meek: to humble one's heart.

 

This last definition of humble is what I'm going for.  a humble heart. But what does that really mean?

For me, Philippians 2:3-4 comes to mind. "Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourself. Let each one of you not only look to your own interests, but also to the interests of others."  Ok so, let's just think about that.  We've always heard "put others first", but practicing it is always easier said than done. Especially, when humbling ourselves before the King of Kings.  In Luke 9 Jesus says "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." Denying oneself.. basically the opposite of what we're taught growing up in the USA.  It's all about how hard you work and how much you study and what you make of yourself.  The "American Dream" is what we all aim for: success, security, love, happiness, joy. And I'm not saying any of those things are bad desires, but we I tend to forget that my purpose here is not to glorify myself.  My purpose is to glorify God, the Creator of absolutely everything.  And to do this, my focus cannot be on myself, my life, my friends, my family, my job, nothing, but Him, because without Christ, I cannot do anything to make any one of these good, pure, lovely, or holy. 
 

In order to fully depend on the Lord, I'm learning that I must really see my depravity as a sinner. Although I'm a sinner saved by grace (PTL!), I still have the sinful nature of a human. And after being in Peru these past two months, God is revealing to me one huge sin that I've been living in for a wayy long time. That, my friends, is pride.  

pride -- a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit, or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as displayed in bearing, conduct, etc.

Wait, didn't I just say that cannot do anything without Christ?  So seeking Christ wholeheartedly and dying to myself to glorify His name leaves no room for my selfish pride.  I have done nothing significant ever in my life. I am a missionary only by the grace of God.  I deserve an eternity apart from His unfailing love. I absolutely hate this sin that looms over me daily! I read this article this week that says "I remember that I am by nature a depraved sinner and that, in all my sinning, I have treated God with contempt, preferring other things to his glory. I take stock that I have never done a good deed for which I don’t need to repent."  And this is soo true.  Isaiah tells us that even our greatest efforts to please God are like filthy rags.  Wanna know the beauty of it?  He loves us still.  How marvelous! How wonderful! is my Saviors love for me! That he would love me still, after all the times I've chosen the world over him! 

I guess my point in writing this is to say, Glory to God for being Him, for loving us still, for His grace and mercy.  I encourage you (whoever actually takes time to read what I have to say) to humble yourself before the Lord, and let his all consuming love radiate in you, so that you can bring more glory to His precious name.

Casa & Ideas

Dear United States of America,

Please get a Casa & Ideas before I come home.  I desperately want to decorate my future house with their things and with their prices.  For now, I'll start small, and continue to dream big!

Here's my scented oil burner I looked at for 3 weeks before I finally forked up 10 dollars to get it. Let me just tell you, the office smells amazing right now!  Hopefully it'll tackle the bed bug spray stench tomorrow! :)