Farewells

Dear friends it has been some time now and I have much to tell you. It's been a busy couple of months. The Lord continues to shine through all of it and show himself faithful. This hasn't been the easiest season of my time in Peru or of my life for that matter. But I am confident that He has purpose in everything.

"Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand."

-Proverbs 19:21

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven"

-Ecclesiastes 3:1

I am gonna go all the way back to late June and pick up there. As you may remember, I was traveling with a couple of college students doing research in some different regions. We had a rough time in the early parts of June and were pretty tired by the time we reached mid-summer and at this time we were able to have a big reunion with all of the summer volunteers and with my close friends that I work with here. The timing of this was perfect and the Lord granted his grace to us with some good rest and time to fellowship with brothers and sisters. We had a time to share stores from the month of June. We had a wildly fun talent show. I did a dance with some friends and some peruvian animal impression. I hope to get a link up of the video so you guys can see it as well.

Shortly after this reunion my team and I headed back to Lima with some of my close friends so that we could wish Ryan, another Journeyman and one of my best friends, farewell. It was a blessing to be with all my dear friends that I have been working with since the beginning of this journey and to celebrate and praise the Lord for how He has used Ryan in Peru and in each of our lives.

Once my team and I worked out a tentative plan for part 2 of the summer we headed back out to Ayacucho to finish up research that we were unable to complete during the first half of the summer due to sickness. The Lord blessed that trip although we were constantly tired from the long travel and started getting sick again. During this time I met a dentist from the states who was visiting Peru and doing some volunteer work in the area. She and I became friends and I helped her out with figuring out some places where she might be able to use her abilities to help the people. Some of you may remember me talking about Domingo and Berta in some previous entries. Domingo is a pastor and Berta is his wife. She also teaches for kindergarten aged children. My dentist friends, Mariana, came to the school where Berta teaches to check out the children's teeth and show them how to properly brush. I was sort of her assistant for the day. It was so cool for me to help out in that way and tough at the same time to see the how bad some of the children's teeth were but to be able to teach them something important was neat. The Lord continues to reveal to me the passion I have in helping people out in a physical, tangible way. Serving them by meeting some of their needs.

The rest of the summer brought more travel and a nearly constant with sickness and fatigue. In our weariness, I petitioned the Lord for energy and strength. He provided. We had to commit ourselves to the work but also to taking rest when we needed it. I'll share with you about one specific village we visited and it was there that we really saw God open some doors. We were in the town of Congalla doing research in mid-July. We had gotten most of our information and it was evening so we walked around town trying to find something to eat. Some young kids approached us and wanted to know if we would like to do an interview of sorts. We complied and spent about an hour talking with them and answering all kinds of different questions. We tried to sing the National Anthem but it didn't go so well, cause we were unaware of how incredibly HIGH it is, hahaha! During the conversation told them about the purpose of our visit. At the end, the Lord gave us the opportunity to pray for them. Hallelujah! My teammate, Sarah, prayed in English and then I translated her prayer and prayed in Spanish. Just one example of how we saw God's faithfulness in our travels.

We made it back to Lima around the 25th of July in order to take all of our information and put it into documents that will be taken to churches in the states with the hope of stirring up interest to adopt these places and come down in order to share with the people in these towns. Towns where there are many lost and confused people who are in desperate need of truth and the word. After finishing all the computer work we reunited once again with all the summer volunteers and had a few days of sharing about the month of July. It was a time of listening, prayer, and fellowship. Most of them left shortly after this time. It was refreshing and inspiring to hear their hearts and see their obedience in spending two moths here and carrying out the purpose that the Lord has set before them.

The last couple of weeks have been crazy including sending off a couple more of my dear Journeyman friends and a week visit from my mom. I hope to write again soon and tell more about the time with my mom and some specific things that the Lord has been teaching me.

Mad Love

One more things... my team and I went through some of Psalms in our time together and the Lord revealed to me how weak I am when it comes to my knowledge of the word. I am working on putting scripture to memory and the Psalm below is where I began. I hope he will continue to challenge me in this way and that I will be obedient to guard the word in my heart.

Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!

Serve the Lord with gladness!

Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the Lord, he is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his;

we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise!

Give thanks to him; bless his name!

For the Lord is good;

his steadfast love endures forever and his faithfulness to all generations.