It has been another blessed month. Some opportunities that the Lord has placed in my life in the last month have been working at an orphanage outside of Lima, helping teach english for a group of young people, and having down time here in Lima with my team members (seen above). I has been praying for the Lord to open up some way to get connected here in the city while here for the holidays. And he was faithful. Another blessing is coming up for me as I will be traveling to see my family in Florida in only a couple of days.

So this is me wishing each of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I know that I won't be seeing many of you during the holiday season but I am thinking of you and praying for you. This has been such an awesome year for me. Full of many new experiences and learning how to do life in Peru. The Lord has taught me so much and for that I am thankful. I am also thankful for each of you and your prayer and support. I am praying during this season that I can share the love to those around me that was shown to me when Christ was sent to earth. I have been reading in 1 John and would like to share just a short bit with you.

"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him." 1 John 4:9 (NSV)

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." 1 John 4:11 (ESV)

Still here

Well it's been almost a month. I wanted you all to know that I am still here. Following my trip to Spain I spent a couple of weeks out of town. Now that I am back in Lima I am eager to catch you guys up a little on what has been going on with me and more importantly what the Lord has been doing. More than likely I will be here in Lima for a month or two as there are some things our team will be doing to prepare semester missionaries in January and we are going to enjoy the holidays all together in Lima. I am so very thankful for this upcoming time to be with team and to have some down time.

I never really got to fill you in much on my vacation to Spain. I'll take this time to tell you that it was one of the coolest vacations I have ever done. My friend Brittne and I visited the capital city of Madrid and then headed to the coast to see Barcelona. We kept ourselves super busy because we wanted to see as much as we could in the week that we had. I was wonderful to experience a country that I studied at length in college. I saw Spanish history come to life as I looked at paintings of famous artists in museums, walked through palaces of past kings, looked at building of famous architects, and stood on ground where it all went down. A couple of other highlights were going into La Sagrada Familia (a church designed by the architect Gaudi) and riding mopeds throughout Barcelona. I was so thankful to get away and to see some of the world and the wonderful creation of God. I hope I can go back someday and maybe even visit some other parts of Europe.

Following this trip I came to Lima for only a day or so and headed to a pastors training in an area about 9 hours from Lima called Ayacucho City. It was great for me to see meet and share time with some other believers who are excited to learn more and spread the gospel into their respective communities. We talked about storying the Bible and ways to plant simple churches. What an encouragement and blessing to see nationals living out their faith.

Following this trip I went to another part of Peru with my friend Brittne and three members of a church from the states. This church from Alabama is interested in adopting an area and they came down to check out a specific village and begin to for a vision for how they can bring the gospel their and how to prepare the people of their church for a culture and setting completely different from their own. It was neat to see a fresh perspective and passion for the people of Peru. I was reminded and affirmed by them in my love for these people and in the call that the Lord has placed on my life for this time.

Now I am back here in Lima. We have finally settled into a new apartment after all the chaos with the fire that happened in our apartment. I have a wonderful family down here in my team, they have helped us in all the moving around and all the drama that has surrounded this incident. It's also been so great to have the ability to regularly communicate with my family in KY, they have also loved and supported me through this busy and chaotic few weeks.

In all of this the Lord has urged me to claim this verse:

"Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:4-7

Home from Spain

Wanted to let you know that I made it home from an absolutely wonderful trip from Spain. It was such a blessing to get away, see some of the world and enjoy God's creation, and meet some cool people. I will be updating again very soon.

Be praying for me and my team as we are preparing for a pastor training in Ayacucho this coming week. We will be heading there on Sunday and stay for a little less than a week. Many blessings to all of you.

I'd like to add that if there is ever anything specific that I can be praying about for any of you then please let know through a comment or e-mail.

MAD LOVE

My new birthday tune

So when I woke up on my birthday I was thinking... I would really like for someone to sing to me or hear a birthday song, hahaha! I got my computer and checked my Itunes library to see if there might be anything. I found this fun little song from the wonderful decade that is the 80's. If any of you are having a birthday I would highly recommend this songs. It was just the perfect way to start of a birthday!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40K2S0-5Xo0

Strange Days

So the last fews weeks have been a little crazy and weird for me. I got back from a research trip about a week ago (more details on that trip to come) and was enjoying down time at the apartment where we stay in Lima, trying to catch up on things. On Saturday of last week, in the afternoon, some men came to install a gas tank so that we would have gas for our stove and for hot showers. Not long after they had come and gone something happened with the gas tank or with the hot water heater and a sort of explosion/fire took place in the house. I managed to get out of there before it all happened. I can be nothing but thankful to the Lord for getting me out and also that there was not much damage to our house and most of our belongings were just fine.

The time following this incident has been trying for me. I was initially overwhelmed, in shock and later just wore out. This feeling of being wore out seems to linger. But my family here has been so encouraging and hospitable. Since all the events, I've been blessed with a place to stay with a missionary family until things get worked out and we can move to another location. I want to ask for your prayers as I continue to work through this emotionally and also as I try to work with the police and our organization on getting down to exactly what happened and what can be done.

I have been learning more and more about my necessity to depend on the Lord for absolutely everything. I have been depending on him specifically for strength, for comfort, for healing, for rest, for guidance, for joy... I pray that each of you are also depending on the Lord wherever you are and whatever you might be experiencing.

As some of you may now I recently celebrated my 24th birthday. It was amazing to spend time with friends here and to celebrate life. I can't tell you how thoughtful my team has been and how much support and love I was shown for my birthday. It was hard to be away from family as always. I got to talk to my family on skype the day after my birthday and it was life-giving to hear their voices and see their faces.

I am heading out tomorrow on a little adventure/vacation to Spain. Which is actually kind of big for me and really exciting as I have never been to Europe. I will be there for a week with a friend of mine that I work here in Peru. It is going to be such a blessing to get away for a bit and enjoy the Lord's creation and have a time of rest and relaxation. Love you all and will be posting again soon.

Off to research in Apurimac

Well I am off to begin research in some villages in the department of Apurimac, province of Grau. Ryan, Mandy, and I are going to try and get into 12 different villages in the next couple of weeks. We will be back in Lima round the 5th of October as Ryan will be preparing to go on another trip and I will be preparing for a short trip to Spain!

I ask that you would all be in prayer for us as we travel and try to find out lots of information. We are confident that the Lord will provide people for us to talk with, places to stay, and food for our bellies. I am also in prayer for all of you. Love you all and miss you very much!

I wanted to give a shout out to Uncle Vernon because I know he has been keeping up with me so well and trying to pinpoint to the rest of the family all the places that I have traveled to on a map. I thank you so much for your interest and support in what I am doing and especially your many prayers!

Be in touch soon.

Mad Love

Loong time no hear

Hello everyone! I hope that each of you has had a wonderful summer and that you are enjoying the transition to fall. I have to be really honest and say that I am deeply going to miss the fall in the states. My home is such a wonderful place in that fall. I am thinking of the bright oranges, reds, and yellows that cover the yard and hills all around my house and the mums and pumpkins everywhere! If you know me then you most likely know that I love anything that has to do with pumpkin. So enjoy some pumpkin carving or pumpkin delights or pumpkin pie for me!

I wanted to catch you up just a little as to what I have been up to the past months and weeks. I spoke in a previous post about how I had been working for the months of June and July with a couple of college students from the states. That was such a blessing to me to be able to travel with them and also to get into doing research. I was able to visit over 20 villages and make friendships with people in hopes that the gospel will be spread in these places in the near future. I continue to think about those people I have met and pray that they will be reached soon. It was a wonderful time of growing. The Lord continues to give me such a love for the people here in Peru and a desire to serve.

After my two research buddies headed back home for a break before they started school again I remained in Lima for a few weeks and was able to reflect on summer and on all I had learned about research and how it works here and how I can improve as a part of the research team. I also got to meet and spend time with my new teammate, Mandy, with whom I will most likely be serving for most of the rest of my term. It was great to get to know here a bit and talk to her about all I had learned here and what she was in for. It was also such a blessing to get to be here, to eat some good food, to take hot showers and to cook. Some of the things that aren't always possible when I am in the village. AND get this... during the month of July I went a total of about 16 days WITHOUT a shower! WOW, I never thought I would see the day as I am normally a pretty clean girl. But it was actually not that bad but I was reeeeaaaal dirty by the end of over two weeks. I am sure that you are all trying to picture that and it was not pretty and you are probably even a little disgusted which is totally fine cause I was too. But I am thinking it will probably happen again and I may even try to exceed the 16 days at some point in the time I have left.

In mid-August Mandy, another brother who has served here for over three years, Steve, and I went to a region of Peru called Puno to finish up some research that my summer team was unable to finish as we had experienced some illness toward the end of July (some of you may have heard about my bout with the flu... it was icky but God is good and I am healthy as a horse). I was eager to get to work with Mandy and "teach her the ropes" and to get to work with Steve who has been her for a lot of time and served in a lot of different capacities. We researched in four villages that were all very far and we had to take buses and truck rides that would last more than 8 hours one way which wasn't always easy. The Lord was so faithful to provide us with food, shelter, transportation and people to talk to as we visited each place. We did a 10-hour hike to one of the villages which I am now referring to as "my new Everest". It was a difficult hike and at high elevation so it was a struggle but we made it and were so thankful for the time outdoors and just enjoying God's creation and thanking him that we made it! Another funny thing that happened was when we had to ride in a cargo truck from one village because there was no other form of transportation coming through for many days. Sooo we hopped in and rode through the evening and some of the night and it got incredibly cold but again God provided and some people in a town that we passed through gave us some blankets to cover up with. I have no doubt that it would have been a pretty miserable trip without having had those blankets. It has been so amazing to have such tangible ways that the Lord has been providing all along the way. I praise God for all that he has done.

Well that catches you up quite a bit on what has been going on with me recently. I am sorry that these posts are often few and far between but I love being able to tell you about what I have been up to and how God has been working. I hope that wherever you are that the Lord is also teaching you and blessing you. I love you all and will try to update you as soon as I can. I should be heading out in the next day or so to do research for a month or so in a region called Apurimac.

MAD LOVE

Slideshow

Found a new little gadget to add to the blog... check it out!  ---->

More to come soon.

Mad love!

Lots of traveling

So since I last posted I have been all over the place and visited over 17 villages and have since more of Peru in the last month and a half than the entire first 4 months or so. I have two wonderful traveling buddies. We have had a great time serving together and learning a lot as we go.

Research basically involves going into a village which statistics from past years tell us is less than 2% evangelized. Once in the village we begin to find basic information on that village. We seek to find information about what the primary language is (spanish or quechua), whether or not the people in the community are literate, where could a volunteer team stay if a they came to the village, is there a medical facility, are there schools, what kind of needs do the people have, and one of the most important elements is finding out if there is a church or believers in the village. Basically we get a good mental picture of what that particular village is like. We also take lots of photos. Once we have our info we spend time talking more with people around the village and making some relationships and seeking out any believers that we have heard of or trying to make sure there are none. Normally the research takes no more than a day or so. All of the info on a particular village is then put into the little hp computer that we carry with us and these "reports" will later be put into a physical form and shown to churches in the states in hopes that the villages will be adopted.

I have really enjoyed learning about how to do research and the importance of really getting a good idea of each village and what makes them different and significant. It is often really hard to leave places because of how well we are recieved and the fact that we know so many people are lost in each and every place. We have developed a strong passion to continue praying for each of the places we go and the specific people we meet. We know that God has big plans for each and every village.

I hope to tell you some specific stories in the near future. I should be back in Lima at the end of July and will look foward to updating this more as well as posting tons of pictures on my flickr.

OH by the way I totally got to visit Macchu Picchu last month with my team and it was amazing! The Lord has blessed us with so many opportunities to see his beautiful creation and we are really thankful for that!

MAD LOVE

Another light note before getting on to the serious stuff again. I wanted to share with everyone some cultural differences that I have found to be quite amusing. A friend and I were discussing some of these so it has been a cooperative effort to put a couple of examples together.

The first is that the majority of Peruvians believe that if you drink a cold beverage you will get sick with a cold. This explains why all beverages here are warm. It is very difficult to find a beverage that has been refrigerated. Maybe their logic is that if something cold goes inside your body that your body is bound to get cold and then sick. However, in some villages (like that of some of my co-workers but none of the ones that I personally have stayed in for a significant period of time) they eat ice-cream all the time which would clearly oppose this reasoning. So the mystery remains on why Peruvians think this way. So when one is in the mountains of Peru you can just plan on always drinking lukewarm or hot beverages.

One that shocked me initially but eventually became my favorites is how being called “fat” is not offensive. It’s like calling someone tall or short. It’s a fact about someone. But, being an American, it makes for an awkward moment when someone calls someone else fat who is standing right there. It’s only natural for one to want respond by saying “No you’re not fat” even though, let’s face it, this person probably is overweight and they are most likely not offended whatsoever. However, we know from our own experience that in the states words such as this can get a person slapped across the face. Another example of how this is not offensive is that some Peruvians may refer to a female family member, such as their mother or sister, as “Gordita”. This translates into English as “fatty” or “chubs”. But for them it is kind of like a term of endearment or a way to show affection to someone with which they are close.

I am lovin' Peru. More to come soon.

 New photos available from my second village experience in Tambo.  Check them out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jessjojosorrell/.  

A little fun

So... Here I am in Lima again.  I am really looking forward to a week break or so before summer missionaries arrive and then travel begins full force again.  I hope all is well with each one of you and that you are enjoying Spring.  I am going to be catching you all up on what's been going on in the next few days!  

I also would like to share something with each of you that you may or may not know about me.  I have a slight obsession with youtube.  In light of this I thought I would share with you some of my favorite videos!  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nda_OSWeyn8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHBwi_CGQ-k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIpsHrlWuoA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_zK2apRHI4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9yAkBSrMk0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww

I suppose that is enough for now, hahaha!

Well I am here in Lima.  I am in anticipation for my next trip for which I will be leaving sometime tomorrow!  I am heading to a small town called Tambo.  It is actually close to where I was these last two months.  The travel time should be about 11 hours.  I will be going there with three other guys.  It is gonna be interesting to be with all guys for a month but they are really great and I have no doubt that the Lord is gonna use us in awesome ways.  Please be in prayer for us as we head out and begin a new journey!  The guys names are Rob, Josh, and Chris.  They have spent a couple of weeks in this village and are excited to return.  I am looking forward to getting to work with the women and possibly teaching english in the schools.

I would like to take some time and talk about all the things that went on in the last couple of months in Santiago de Chocorvos.  We made some really awesome relationship with a number of folks in that village and toward the last few weeks we were meeting and hanging out with some pretty regularly.  I was really blessed by a number of situations.  One of which was with a lady named Pilar.  Pilar had two young kids and lived with them and her husband and her brother-in-law.  We were able to share stories with her on a number of occasions.  One specific time that was awesome was when we were sharing the story of Joseph.  We did the story in two part and when we came to share the second part she had already read it and told the whole story to us!  We were amazed and rejoicing that the Lord was giving her a passion and desire to read the Word!  We are praying that he will continue to do that.

We also spent a lot of time with a lady named Marcelina.  She loved to hear us sing.  Salomon had his guitar with us and we learned a number of praise songs in spanish so we would go and sing all of our songs with here and then share either a story or read scripture verses.  Sometimes it was hard because she would be really tired.  But I know that the Lord was using us and that she was understanding much of what we said.  I feel like her heart was in wonder about what the Word said and about the stories.  In the last week she told us that she found out she has pancreatic cancer.  We were alarmed at the news but were able to pray with her and let her know that the Lord can be her refuge and strength.  I am continuing to pray for her and her family as she learns more about the cancer.  Please pray for her as well.

I was so blessed by a number of people in this village and made some relationships that were really hard to leave.  I don't know if the Lord will ever take me back there but I would love to visit again at some point during my time here.

It is really hard for my to sum this up.  There were so many amazing and fun experiences.  I have decided that I am just gonna bullet some sweet memories that I would like to share:

• Making pancakes with two families as well as a young lady that I became friends with
• Playing cards and Phase 10 with various people in the village in the evenings
• Purchasing the movie Fireproof and passing it around so that various people could see a godly perspective on problems in a marriage... the response and questions that developed from the movie were amazing
• Going to work in the fields on numerous occasions and doing tasks that included:  picking potatoes, leveling the ground to sow seed, gathering wood to carry back for cooking, picking pumpkins
• NO electricity for days at a time
• Showers once a week with only cold water
• Eating enough potatoes and rice to last me for the rest of my life
• Spending a day by the river with some of the kids
• Teaching english to the kindergartners
• Playing volleyball with government workers and locals in the afternoons

Needless to say the Lord really blessed me and taught me a lot!  It was hard to be away from family and without a way to talk regularly with them but we made it through.  I can't wait to see what is in store for this next month in Tambo.  I hope that this finds you all well.  I will be blogging again in early May when I get back to Lima.  The first of May will mark a transition for me as I will be starting research projects and will hopefully be doing research primarily from here on out.  

Mad Loooooove

Psalm 62:5-7

"Find rest, O my soul, in God alone;

my hope comes from him.

He alone is my rock and my salvation;

he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.

My salvation and my honor depend on God;

he is my mighty rock, my refuge."

Hello from Lima!

I am gonna be here a short time longer before heading out on another trip to the mountains but I will be writing a long blog about my first trip this evening or tomorrow.

I have a flickr site now so that you can all check out some photos from my first village trip.  Here's the web address:  www.flickr.com/jessjojosorrell

Mad love

First month of village life

So my team and I have enjoyed a quick break here in Ica, Peru at the Huacachina Lake. We were able to meet up with another team that is serving closeby. We have had a wonderful, relaxing time here. One of the highlights was yesterday afternoon when we went on a sand buggy/sand boarding adventure! We were in this huge buggy and we went over the dunes at high speeds and then would stop on huge hills so that everyone could get out and either sandboard or the slightly more fun and maybe safer choice which was sand sledding, haha! I chose the latter but it was soooo fun and the board would go super fast. I have some sweet scrapes on my elbows and knees as proof. We also got to see the dessert sunset before heading back. The Lord's creation never ceases to amaze me. I never knew that there was dessert and large sand dunes in Peru. I always thought of Egypt when I thought of sand dunes and dessert. Needless to say it was beautiful. I will be posting pictures as soon as I get back to Lima in a month from this trip and from the village!

Now this is gonna be the hard part... trying to sum up an entire month in Santiage de Cochorvos. Let me just say first that the Lord is definitely working in this village and I think He still has big ways that he is going to use us in this coming month. We have met some great folks and we are looking foward to spending more time with them. The early parts of the trip were a little slow going as we spent the majority of our time trying to get to meet a many folks as we could and getting initial relationships in place. The town is not a highly populated town and especially during this time of the year as it is the rainy season and many families go to the coast to work for a bit and are in and out of the village. We met some sweet children early in our time and were able to spend quite a bit of time with them in the afternoons. And during the days we would often just walk through the streets and go into some stores or houses to spend time with sharing testimonies, scripture, and prayer. This continued to be a regular thing for the first few weeks. Some days were really awesome and other days were harder because we may not get to visit a lot with people if they were busy or even out of town.

We took a trip to one of the small villages about a 4 hour hike from our village to spend some time with them and encourage some folks there. Salomon has been there before and new of some families that he hoped to visit. We had a really great time there and shared with a number of families and encouraged the believers that were already in the village. We hiked quite a bit each day, which I really loved and stayed in tents for about 4 nights. There was only an outhouse and no showers, haha!

We headed back to Santiago expecting madness because there was to be a big carnival taking place for about four days. Soon after we settled back in the crowds began to file in and there was loud music and dancing in the street for basically four days straight. These people were nuts... I think the only reason they lasted was because there bodies were numb from all the alcohol they had been drinking. We spent most of this time praying and taking some time during all the madness to begin memorizing bible stories to share. Once the carnival was over we started our daily visiting up and began sharing stories as well. I am so excited about the beginning our storying in homes with people as I think the Lord is really going to use it. We are really hoping to get some sort of bible study going where we could share stories with a group of people but we are really gonna need to the Lord to guide us and to capture the hearts of the people. Please be in prayer for our visits with the people and that He would help us to continue learning the stories.

On another note... lanuage has been going well. I continue to learn by messing up and by just listening to the native speakes. It was hard to talk about spiritual things in the early parts as I had never really been used to speaking with that sort of vocabulary. That is another place that I would like to ask you continue to pray for me. That I will continue learning and begin bold and letting the Lord use me even when I am not sure of myself. And somethng else really cool is that I have been learning some quechua which is a language used by folks in various parts of the mountain... it is way different from spanish but the people love to teach us and so we always try to get involved. It is definitely an area of pride and interest for them and a huge part of their identity and history.

Oh man... so I don't know how great of a synopsis that was but I think I am going to leave it at that. I just want to let you all know that I am feeling your prayers as I go and I take each one of you with me. I pray for you all as well and I hope that the Lord continues to bless each one of you. Please continue to pray for me and my team as we go back to Santiago. We are looking foward to the Lord using us in awesome ways and changing our lives as well as lives of people in the village.

Mad love
I miss you all
Look foward to getting more to you in a month and I will post pictures as well!

I just finished the book called "The Shack" and I loved this quote and found it to relevant to life right now...

"You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you." --Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth

A little break

Hey everybody

I am in Ica, Peru for a few days. My team and another team have met up to hang out and fellowship a little before our second month in the village. I think we are gonna go sandboarding today. I am gonna do a big blog before I head back and let you all know how things have been going in the village. Maaaad love

Miss you all very much

How beautiful on the mountains

It's early Monday morning and after additional training, great fellowship with my team at a prayer retreat and a fun super bowl party I am about to start packing up for my first village trip.  Our departure should be for sometime tomorrow evening or possibly early Wednesday morning.  I am so thankful for this opportunity and eager to see how the Lord is going to use my team and I in the village of Santiago de Chocorvos.  

I am part of a team of three.  It is made up of Salomon, Tiffany and I.  Salomon is a peruvian and he has traveled as a translator numerous times and has some experience in the village to which we are going.  He will serve as leader of the team.  He speaks english well and will be a huge help as we may not understand everything in the early weeks.  Tiffany is a college student and she is taking this semester to serve in Peru.  I admire her willingness and excitement to do the work of the Lord.  I think we are gonna have a great team dynamic.  

My team and I will be spending approximately two months in the village.  We hope to meet believers in the town and see where they are in relationship with Christ and begin some discipleship and bringing up strong believers, even leaders.  We want to continually be spreading the gospel to those who do not believe.  We are also looking forward to beginning some ministry with the children.  One of the biggest ways we will reach the people is through storying the Bible.  We are going to be learning and memorizing numerous stories in spanish and sharing them with the people daily.  The Lord has already blessed my team as we practiced storying here in Lima for the past few weeks.  The people of this culture really respond to the stories and He is going to use it in an awesome way in the villages.

I would like to give you some very specific prayer requests as this journey begins.  My team and I need your prayer more than ever if we are going to see lives and villages changing and turning to Christ.

Prayer requests:

- safe travels to the village

- Salomon 

- Tiffany

- the people of Santiago de Chocorvos and then surrounding area, that the Lord will prepare their hearts for receiving the good news

- fluency in the language 

- good health

- a personal passion to grow in the Lord through scripture and prayer each day

- my family as I may have very little contact with them

- the other teams that will be traveling to villages in the south of Peru 

I am praying with boldness and confidence about what the Lord is going to do and claiming this verse:

"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all that we ask or imagine, according to the power that is at work in us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!  Amen."               -Ephesians 3:20-21

May love never end

I have to confess that most of the times on here I am letting you know all the great things have been going on and leaving out the messier, harder parts.  It's absolutely true that the Lord has provided many blessings in the last 20 days that I have spent in Peru.  But there have been some struggles and emotions that I have been working through.  And what I have found is that this time in Lima before traveling has been the Lord's time to help me found my foundation and worth in Him.

I have had more free time than I had expected.  I have been using that time to hang out and get to know my new team members, get settled in my apartment, learn the city, practice spanish, and also to talk a lot with family back home.  A few times while talking to my mom I have found myself swelling with emotion followed by a good cry.  And then right away she begins to cry as well, something that is pretty normal with my family... one cries we all cry.  Spending time with Lord and in prayer as well as talking further with my family, friends, and fellow missionaries on the field in other places.  I am so very thankful for struggle because of the lessons learned.  Now I know that if I am gonna get through this adventure, that often seems overwhelming, I am going to have to fully depend on the Lord.

These last few days have been training days as my first trip is a little over a week away!  I am so excited for what is in store in the villages.  We are specifically focusing on storying the Bible and practicing this skill daily in the city with nationals.  It has been a humbling and unique experience.  We have daily visits with women at a flower shop each day.  They are interested in our stories and willing to listen and participate.  The goal is to tell the stories to people in a way that once we leave them that they are able to understand it and take it to heart and then pass it on to others.  Please pray for the women in the flower shop that we share with daily.  Pray that the Word will penetrate and begin to change their lives and that they will want to spread what they have heard.

Pray for me in as I prepare to go out on my first trip.  That I may be bold and glorify the name of the Lord!

Mad love to all

I have been reading in 1 Corinthians 13, a chapter about love.  It spoke to me recently.  Here's a little piece of it:

"Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends"

 

Blessings of new friends

It has been a crazy week!  Two new team members recently arrived, one of which is my roommate.  Her name is Brittne.  We have had tons of fun together already along with the other newbe Ryan and our housemates Kristen and Claudia.  The Lord has blessed me with some awesome folks with which I can share my experiences.  

Brittne and I spent most of this week cleaning around the house and trying to get our things unpacked and slightly organized.  We also did plenty of grocery shopping as we are eager to start cooking some of our own meals in our kitchen.  We cooked enchiladas for a group of eight friends and few nights ago and it turned out great.  

I have also been running some in the mornings.  One of the morning runs was down on the "malecon" which is a nice wide sidewalk that goes for miles up above the beach.  It was beautiful and so peaceful to enjoy God's creation.  The weather here is pretty amazing... daily highs are around low to mid 80's with overcast skies and high humidity.  It's nothing like the frigid air in Kentucky that I have been hearing about, haha!

More to come soon...

Mad love

Jess

P.S.  I listened to the UK game against Tennessee the other night online and was pumped to hear the outcome!  And how about Meeks?  A night for the history books!

Lost in the city

So this is day 5 in Peru.  Things are still going very well.  I am currently taking it easy in my apartment.  I had my first meeting with the team today and met a couple with a little boy who are working here in Lima as career missionaries and they were very sweet people.  It's always an encouragement to see a husband, wife, and their young child/children out on the field fully surrendering themselves to the Lord.  At the meeting we discussed the upcoming arrival of many folks and about all of the many church groups and individuals that will be coming in during the US summer.  I am so thankful for my current team members and am looking forward to meeting more in the next few weeks.

I have been trying to walk many of my routes and learning street names and where important places are in town.  I got lost for about a half hour the other day on my way home but eventually figured it out.  And again today I found myself a little confused but managed to get back safely and saw many beautiful parks with blooming flowers, green grass, and big trees while I was lost so it wasn't so bad.  The Lord is really showing me how with just a little faith and trust he can get us through anything.  Whether it be large or small.  I am finding joy in small victories... like finding my way around town, figuring out how to make the shower warm, and fixing the constant running toilet.  

May each of us find joy in the small things in our lives.  I ask that you would continue to pray for a smooth transition into the culture and language.  Pray for the missionaries that will be joining us very soon and that together we can begin doing the work in the small villages of South America to which the Lord has called us.  

MAD Love

P.S.  If any of you have skype please let me know so that I can add you.

Goodbyes, Planes, Beaches, and Bem Bos

Hello all!

Hope you have all had a wonderful holiday season.  I am so happy to say that this is my first post from PERU!  I am in my apartment and about to head to bed!

Saying goodbye to family was really hard.  I already miss them dearly.  During my last days I was able to go to the lake with poppa, momma, and my brother to enjoy the warm weather, we went to my favorite restaurant Pasquales, we spent lots of time just hanging out with the in the house, and we had a wonderful celebration with friends and family on New Year's Eve.  I could never thank the Lord enough for the blessing of my family.

My day on plane rides went pretty well besides a little spurt of sickness on the way to Lima.  I flew with a couple of girls who will also be working in South America which was very comforting.  We finally arrived in Lima, Peru around 2:00 am on Saturday.  We were met by a number of missionaries working here in Peru.  After getting luggage loaded we headed to my apartment.   I was the only girl in the apartment last night although there are 2 others living here who will be back tomorrow.  I unpacked until around 4 am and then hit the sack.  

Today was spent with two new friends who are working on the ReapSouth team.  We spent lots of time talking and walking.  They helped me to get familiar with the city.  We then took a trip down to the beach.  This was quite an experience as the beaches were packed with locals.  We set up a spot and enjoyed the warm air.  But ended up spending most of our time avoiding the burning looks from a group of surfer guys who were smoking marijuana.  We left the beach and headed back for home and later went to a local restaurant called Bem Bos where I got cheese sticks and a burrito!  It was a good meal for my first night.  I am looking forward to church tomorrow and more time with my new friends.  More to come soon!

Please be in prayer for me as I try to get back into the groove of understanding and speaking spanish constantly.  Be in prayer for the people in Lima and for Christ to have a strong impact on their lives.

Besos