Visa Renewal - Santiago, Chile

Tomorrow morning we are headed to Santiago, Chile! Heather has to renew her Visa a little sooner than we do, and she needed someone to go with her - so we gladly agreed. We should be back in Lima on Saturday, so keep us in your prayers, as always!

So that you know we are alive and well, here are some recent pictures of us trying some Peruvian food - ENJOY!

Chelsey & Kami (Mark's, one of the missionaries, girlfriend)

Lyndsay & her "enchilada" that's basically a HUGE burrito

New Beginnings

Last week Wes (one of the missionaries) and I started a Bible study with two kids: Ricardo and Carolina. I should post a picture with them, they are absolutely adorable and I think are 10 and 12. We've been reading a children's Bible storybook with them and they seem to be really enjoying it and Ricardo has the biggest grin on his face when we arrive, when it's his turn to read, and when he has something to say in response to the story...so cute. Anyway, I just love their interest and enthusiasm about the Bible stories and I pray that the time we spend with them helps to open their hearts and minds to what God has in store for them.

This Sunday the church is going out to Villa Maria, the slums, where we usually have vacation Bible school-like activities, to have a garage sale type event. We have been gathering clothes from people in the church and friends and are taking them out there to sell (at very low cost) to the people in that neighborhood. The profits are going to be used to help fund the activities that usually go on out there and perhaps other local needs. I just want to ask for special prayers for this event because we will be coming into contact with many new people and need to be especially intentional about our time there.

Today, Wednesday, is my little sister Cathryn's Birthday and she's officially an "adult"! I can't tell you in words how much I love and adore my lil sis. She's incredibly friendly and loving and at times, I'll admit, wiser than me. One of the hardest things about being here is not being able to squeeze her to death like I would when I came home from college. Well, Cathryn I hope you have an absolutely amazing 18th birthday filled with too many smiles and laughs! I love you!!

It's Lunch Time!

On Wednesday after class, Carolina, Lyndsay and myself (Heather was sick) went to our "usual" Peruvian restaurant close to our school. It ended up being about a 2 hour occasion because we saw one of our friends, Jorge, passing by while we were waiting for our food and invited him to have lunch with us. We had a good, long (and I'm going to take the liberty to add "hard" - in the sense that it was all in Spanish and I'd been in class for 4 hours already - to that list as well) conversation.

I just want to say that we feel extremely cool to be running into people we know and are friends with in a city of 7+ million people! Not to mention we love getting the opportunity to get to know the people and share our stories, we love spending 2 hours eating lunch/talking, and we love it when Peruvians correct our Spanish (no, but really, we do!)...you learn so much! We also heard some pretty good music while we were there too, so check out the video

One Month

So we've officially been here in Lima for one month! Lots of y'all have been wondering what we've been doing here....well, for starters, we've kept super busy, well, mostly busy but with a good amount of laughter and memories to help liven up the overcast and at times, chilly weather. Chelsey, Carolina, Heather, and I (and if you haven't caught on, Carolina and Heather are the ACU interns) are all involved in many things, in particular, family groups and Bible studies and are working to find our own individual niches in the work going on here. I’m sure you’ll get details on specifics soon! But now I want to tell you about a couple days last week that I spent in Chosica (a town outside of Lima) with a group of Peruvians. It was time well spent in the sun but at times challenging because I was the only fluent English speaker and I don’t think I’ve ever had to speak Spanish for two straight days in my entire life, even in Spain… The majority of my frustration was felt when one of the guys received a call from his family saying his dad had been in a terrible accident at work and had lost his left hand as a result. For starters, I didn’t know what was really going on at first, only that something bad had happened and it seemed like the worst. And second, how was I supposed to comfort someone in Spanish?? That’s a lot of pressure because I don’t even know what I would say to someone in English that I had only spent less than 24 hours with… All in all, from the trip I began and deepened relationships that I pray I will continue to be intentional about. And also I can say my knowledge of the language has a long way to go and I hope that you will pray for all of us in that aspect of our journey.

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” – Psalm 139:14