Turkey Day

I know that several of our family members and friends were concerned about us missing out on having Thanksgiving but there was no need to worry because we were surrounded by plenty of friends and an unbelievable amount of food...

Here's Wes pulling apart the yummy turkey

The salad bar (courtesy of the interns)

Chelsey, me, Carolina, & Heather

Stacy & Wes - winners of the Turkey Challenge (aka Washers Tournament)

I'm not sure if you can see but it was Chelsey & I who played against the Yoakums in the final round. We were sad we lost the chance of having the trophy in our apartment but now we don't have to worry about coming back next year : )

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Retiro 2011

November 12 -13th we went on the church's first retreat! I believe we all had a great time especially with the water balloon volleyball! Here's a link to the video that John Mark made so you can view a little snip-it of what went on:
http://vimeo.com/32476214

Happy Birthday, Joshua!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOSHUA!!

For those of you who don't know - it is my wonderful, handsome boyfriend's 22nd birthday today!

If you've never met him, you need to! 

I thank the Lord day in and day out for putting us together. 

Joshua has an incredible heart filled with passion for our God. He is an encourager to the youth kids at church, to his friends, to myself, and to others. He's my biggest supporter. He is a listener and a talker. He's a planner and he doesn't like being late. The boy can sing and play guitar and he's always making me laugh.

Christ's love shines through his life. And there's no doubt in my mind that he daily makes God smile. I am beyond excited for him to spend Christmas break here in Lima and see how God uses both of us together! So, Joshua, I hope your birthday is a special day and that you're blessed just as much as you bless other people today. 

And now a few words from my fellow interns.....

Carolina:  "Joshua is the best-looking intern boyfriend. Happy Birthday!"
Lyndsay:  "'Boyfriend', you look like Jon Foreman. Feliz cumpleaños!"
Heather:  "Next time you play your guitar for our apartment on Skype, I'll be there! Happy birthday!"

A Reason to Hang Out at the Beach

We have officially been in Lima for 3 months and 1 day! There's a lot going on here...

We are going on a retreat with the Peruvians this weekend
Thanksgiving is coming up
We have family groups meeting
We have been learning new songs to use in worship and in Villa Maria
We have started a few Bible studies
We've been forming relationships, and more!

As for our reason to hang out at the beach....
About two weeks ago Carolina was taking a nice little nap after some quiet time with God on the beach when the tide started coming in and she was overcome by one of the waves. She managed to get almost completely soaked (iPhone, Peru phone, journal, and Bible included) and was befriended by a guard nearby who helped her get away from the tide and over a wall onto dry ground. Ok, ok, enough of the story-telling. Carolina, I tried to make it sound as graceful as possible!

Anyways, before this all happened, Carolina had been reading in the gospel of Matthew where Jesus began to preach, like John the Baptist, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."(4:17), and basically felt the desire to use this exact phrase to share the gospel with someone. Enter: previously mentioned helpful guard. Carolina took this opportunity and started a conversation with "Baltazar Ugkuch Petsa". As it turns out, Petsa is a 21-year old Christian from the jungle and wants to study the Bible more, as well as learn English. So Carolina and I have hung out with Petsa twice now and are really excited about his hunger for the Word.

We would love your prayers for our studies with Petsa! As well for our ability to speak/teach English! Do you know how hard it is to teach someone how to speak English when their own language does not have the sound "shhh" or "thhh"?! Actually so far it's been more amusing than anything, for both him and us.

As well, let me just take a minute to encourage you to be like Carolina! This girl is an incredible evangelist and is letting God use her where she is. Drenched from head to toe, her belongings ruined, she listened to the Spirit of God leading her to talk to someone about His Kingdom. 

Sometimes I think it's easier to talk to a person about your faith in a different language because you're pretty limited on what you know how to say. But if you're stuck in a rut and you've been looking for the words to say to a friend or a co-worker or a stranger, trying telling them "The kingdom of God is near" and see where that leads you. And if you're still searching for the right words to say, open your Bible and you'll find pages upon pages of examples of phrases you can use to share your faith! My suggestion? Start in one of the gospels and pick a phrase. Be prayerful for God to give you the boldness to speak truth, and be encouraged that our job is to plant the seed and water it while God's job is changing the heart!

Fotos - Photos

Today we hung out with some of our Peruvian friends and I managed to get one of their cameras to put pictures on my computer. I realized just how many things I haven't posted on here because I didn't have pictures. I need to get more pictures, but for now these will do!

The Peruvians threw us a welcoming party with lots of food and fun

First time practicing my Spanish in Peru. It
looks like I'm doing so with myself, but I promise
there's a Peruvian next to me!

We don't fit in the buses

Peruvians, however, have no problem!

We had a big party for "Kids' Day" out in Villa Maria

We won the wrapping contest - WHOOP!

Not sure what happened here...

We had our first "Noche de Jovenes", which is just a night for the kids our age
 (anywhere from like 18-35) to come hang out and eat, play games, talk, etc.

Terrible picture, BUT...before Mark Clancy went back to the States for his furlough, we went to a few Bible
studies at his house on Monday nights

We had our monthly "Mano de Dios" ("Hand of God")

We collected clothes and toys for a few weeks and then "sold" them, per bag, for something like 30 cents,
sometimes less if the family did not have the money

And everyone from "Aliento de Vida" ("Breath of Life" - the name of our community of believers/our church body) helped out

Most of the group at the end of the day! 

Lyndsay, the Yoakums, and myself enjoyed a sunny day in a nearby town

This is Fide & Alvaro during our second "Noche de Jovenes" at a Chifa Restaurant (Chinese Peruvian food) 

We moved our usual Sunday activities with the kids in Villa Maria outside, as the location we usually use
was unavailable because of a community party (most likely involving alcohol) that went on the night before

We became adventurous and tried cow heart with our friends Fide and Alvaro

We still go to Villa Maria every Sunday to sing, have fun, and learn about Jesus

We had a roomie sleepover since Heather is in the U.S. right now

Today was a holiday in Peru so we went to hang out with our friends Lastenia & Carla at a church in an
area of Lima called "Chorillos" 

That brown thing in the spoon is part of a cow lung

So now we have added "pulmón de vaca" to strange foods we have eaten

We played soccer

And had some chicha (which really isn't that great, but Peruvians love it!) before heading over to the
church to give it a facelift