Monday, August 30, 2010

Puno....


So much has happened and I haven't had time to write! Our Puno group started Bible classes two weeks ago. Don't ask me why, but it hit me in our first class that not only is God the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow, but He is also the same in every language! Yes, I knew this before, but it hit me in class how amazing it is that He is the same, He hears in all languages, He loves people of every type, He has mercy on people in every country, He wants us ALL in His kingdom.


Last weekend we had the opportunity to visit Puno where we will be evangelizing and starting cell groups and churches. I am so grateful God put me in the Puno group for many reasons. While we were in Puno I got so excited and scared for the work ahead. I realized yet again how unequipped I am for this work I have been called to. I go back to the verses I found while preparing to leave the states: Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth...It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus who has become for us wisdom from God - that is our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 1 Corinthians 1:26 & 30 Actually, every day I notice how unprepared and inadequate I am for what God has called me to. But I am grateful we serve a God who fills in our shortcomings with His overflowing capabilities. I'm glad I can't do this on my own otherwise I would try to do it without God and fail.


So let me tell you a little about Puno. It is so beautiful! Not as magnificent as the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, of course, but Puno has a different beauty of its own. The altitude is over 12,000 feet so I will be over two miles high! And to get anywhere from the city center you have to walk up some steep hills. But once you get up the hills, you get a beautiful view of the city and Lake Titicaca. I actually got to row a typical boat made from the Uro people on Lake Titicaca! Here are a couple photos from our trip to the Uros......




The need in Puno is huge. Puno is a huge party and drinking town. In February there is a major fiesta in Puno and the statistic is that there is more beer in the Puno area in the month of February than in all the rest of Peru for a whole year. We did see a drunk man falling down and knocking on doors while walking in the city central at about 4 pm one day while there. And another sad fact about Puno is that their beliefs include more Incan rituals than many other cities in Peru. They still hold onto beliefs from their ancestors and there is one that particularly saddens me. Many of the people in Puno believe that if they need money or want to be rich, they will kill their youngest child and rip out the heart and present it to the spirits in return for money and material possessions. My partner Francisca and I have been praying for God to prepare Puno for our team and our team for Puno. To begin opening the minds, ears and hearts of those in the city for the work we are about to embark on in 4 months. Please join with us in prayer that the people would be ready to turn their lives around and spend their lives in communion with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We want to saturate the city in prayer!


But overall, our trip was great. We had a fun time getting out of Arequipa and being able to see where we will be living and working for almost 2 years. The Uro Islands were beautiful and interesting and as you could see above, I had fun dressing up in typical attire. Also, just walking around the city, getting to know the pastor in Puno and experiencing the city made for a great weekend trip!


And as promised last time, here is the English version of my Spanish story from last time, Tres Deseos….

Three Wishes

I was walking by a lake in Colorado. This lake is very close to my parents house. I always walk to this lake because there is a beautiful view of the mountains. But, one day my walk was different. When I was walking this day, I fell in the street. When I was lying in the street, I noticed there was a lamp beneath a tree. I got up from the street and walked to the tree. I took the lamp and this lamp was very pretty.

I had a headeache and was thinking the lamp was a dream. But the headache went away and the lamp was still in my hands. I carried the lamp to my house and put it on the table. En the evening I always wash the plates after dinner. When I was washing, I heard a noise. The table was shaking and the lamp was missing. The noise came from the living room, so I went to the living room. The living room had a lot of smoke. When the smoke left, there was a Genie in my living room! The Genie told me, “You have three wishes, what do you want?”

When I was a little girls I wanted a white horse so a white horse was my first wish. In one moment the Genie said, “white horse!”. And there was a white horse in my living room! Later, I told the Genie, “I want an airplane”. Again, the Genie said what I wanted and there was an airplane in my garden! I only had un more wish. I thought a lot and finally decided. I told the Genie, “I want all the colors and patterns of high heels in all the world.” One more time, the Genie said what I wanted. I ran to my room and there were all the high heels of the world in my closet! I was the happiest girl in all the world! The Genie told me, “You don’t have any more wishes”. He went back into the magical lamp. I took the lamp with me to the lake and put it beneath the tree again for the next person.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

New chapter.....

So I graduated from the Extreme Spanish Institute on Friday! Yaya! And I moved all my stuff two blocks from my Peruvian family's home to the church where I will be living for a month then we are all moving to some apartments two blocks away until January when my team moves to Puno! So two very short distance moves and then one big move! On Monday we start Bible classes in Spanish. Yesterday I helped my partner prepare the Sunday School lesson and today I helped her teach the kiddos about the sabbath and why its important. It was awesome to be involved at church here and to work together as a team with my partner! Everyone has their partners now except Micah. He should be here by Tuesday and our team will be complete!

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In honor of my graduation, here is a little story I wrote in Spanish for homework a couple weeks ago to practice two types of past tense verbs. Try and figure it out then I'll post the English version soon to see how you do! I have the vocabulary knowledge of a first grader so it should be an easy read if you know a few spanish words, haha!

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Tres Deseos

Una vez estuve caminando cerca de un lago en Colorado. Aquel lago estaba muy cerca la casa de mis padres. Yo siempre caminaba a aquel lago por qué había una vista muy bonita de las montanas. Pero, un día mi paseo fue diferente. Cuando estuve caminando este día, caí en la calle. Cuando estuve en la calle, noté que había una lámpara abajo de un árbol. Subí a la calle y caminé al árbol. Tomé la lámpara y esta lámpara era muy bonita.

Tenía un dolor de la cabeza y pensaba la lámpara estuvo en mis sueños. Pero, el dolor de la cabeza se fue y la lámpara estuvo en mis manos todavía. Llevé la lámpara a mi casa y la puse sobre la mesa. En la noche yo siempre lavaba los platos después de cenar. Cuando estuve lavando, oí un ruido. La mesa estuvo temblorosa y la lámpara se perdió. El ruido fue de la sala, entonces fui a la sala. La sala tenía mucho humo. Cuando el humo se perdió, ¡había un genio en mi sala! El genio me dijo, “Tienes tres deseos, ¿Cuál quieres?"

Cuando era niña, quería un caballo blanco, entonces, el caballo blanco fue mi primer deseo. En un momento el genio dijo, “caballo blanco”, ¡y había un caballo blanco en mi sala! Luego, le dije el genio, “quiero un avión”. Otra vez, el genio dijo cual quería ¡y había un avión en mi jardín! Yo solo tenía un deseo más. Pensaba mucho y finalmente decidí. Le dije el genio, “quiero zapatos altos de todos los colores y los estampados del mundo.” Una vez más el genio dijo cual quería. Corrí a mi cuarto y ¡habia todos los zapatos altos del mundo en mi closet! Era la chica más contenta del todas las chicas en el mundo. El genio me dijo: “No tienes más deseos”. El regresó a la lámpara. Llevé la lámpara conmigo al lago y la puse abajo del árbol para la siguiente persona.

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Mi hermanita with her mohawk one morning!
The first of many pictures with my partner, Francesca!

And the first picture of Garren and his partner Jeremias!


My Peruvian mom with the special lunch she made me on Friday for my last meal at their home and to celebrate my graduation. It is now my second favorite Peruvian dish and its so fancy looking!

And my Peruvian Padre ready to devour the yummy food!


Wednesday, August 11, 2010

United.....

Yay, I have some exciting news! So a little while ago I blogged about my frustrations with how things were going and that I needed to stop having expectations when I pray to God. I have been leaning on the verse, "If we ask anything according to His Will, He hears us, and if we know that He hears us, we know that we have what we've asked of Him." And I was praying to God, asking and expecting Him to answer my prayers in the ways I had planned out. Ha! You would think I would know this by now, but I'm a slow learner! I found this quote online last week, "Prayer should not be seen as our means of getting God to do our will on earth, but rather as a means of getting God's will done on earth." duh!

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So, now on to the exciting news. Although I love everyone on my Tacna team, I was frustrated with dynamics of my team headed to Tacna. I was frustrated we've had so many people leave already, and we were left with a small group, and our age differences were so large. So I prayed. But like I said, I prayed for God to answer this dilemma in my way, I was praying for a Peruvian partner close to my age, someone I click with right away and I had an image formed in my head. Well, luckily God didn't listen to me because His plan is way better, of course! God provided me with a sweet gal to be my Peruvian partner and she is at least 10 years older than me and is not what I had pictured at all. But like I said, that's a good thing! My plan is always wrong anyway so I know that I have been blessed with an awesome partner and I look forward to our, as we call it down here, "arranged marriage".

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But there's more good news....because the Tacna group was so small and the Puno group was small as well, Extreme decided to combine the groups....we are all going to Puno! This is super exciting because I have made great friends with everyone on the Puno group, Trevor, Garren and Micah (my fellow 40/40's) and the cluster support family, the Duerre's (Chad, Amanda, Ella and Thomas). I am sad to be leaving behind my previous cluster support family, Tricia and Lindy, as we have grown close. But they will still be in Peru and will take a team to Tacna in about a year.

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So this week is quite important to our group. The announcement was made just yesterday that Roy and I would be joining the Puno group, so that is a big change. Also we have some drastic changes coming up in the next few days. Tomorrow is our last day of Spanish class and we have a graduation on Friday! Wow! I am definitely not fluent and won't be for about two years, haha! But I can get by and I'm excited to learn more and improve every day. But that's not it; we have two other large changes happening this weekend. We will all meet our Peruvian partners. I have technically met mine but this is not typical and the guys have not met their partners yet. So we will be adding five more people (five Peruvian partners for our five North Americans) to our group. And we are all moving to Zamacola Iglesia del Nazareno. Zamacola is a church building with rooms for the 40/40's, one for girls and one for guys. Right now I have a whole bedroom and wall of closet space to myself and I live with a Peruvian family who has become family to me. So leaving all this to live with 13 other girls in one large room, cold showers, a curfew, and washing clothes by hand will be a big change. Also, we start college level Bible classes in Spanish on Monday!

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Soooooo, we have many changes coming up! Please pray for our group that we would truly unite and stand strong against any attempts to break our unity in Christ during all these changes and the emotions that are sure to come with change. Our group is quite close and united but with all that is to come very soon, this opens up a great opportunity for God to use us and stretch us in preparation for the work ahead. And therefore we are anticipating spiritual warfare. But through our Father and your prayers, we are confident we can overcome any obstacles and stand strong because of our unity with our Savior at the center.

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May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and one mouth, you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 15:5-6

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Pictures of Cohort 4.......
We are all going to Puno except our beloved Tricia and Lindy as explained above.....
Tricia and Lindy at the beach






Movie night with the boys (me, Garren, Trevor & Micah)



Roy and Micah in Florida during orientation


Amanda Duerre and Thomas at dinner in Mollendo


Chad so proud of his coloring!


Ella Bella and Tickelish Thomas with all our carry-on luggage in Houston