Peru Mission, Numero Dos!

I'll be heading back to Lima, Peru on Sunday morning. I'm not going with Compassion International this time, but instead with Cottonwood Creek's Denison Campus (my sister's and brother-in-law's church), through the Eric Fuller Evangelistic Assocciation, Inc. We will be serving in a much different way than our group did back in September. Below is a schedule and prayer guide for all of my prayer warriors to use.

Sunday, March 11th - Depart DFW and fly to Atlanta and then onto Lima. Pray for us as we travel.

Monday, March 12th - We will begin the day with team orientation. Pray for the hearts of our team members, that God will give us strength and wisdom as we begin the week. After that, we will do door-to-door evangelism and a home Bible Study. Pray now for the homes that we will visit. That God will soften thier hearts and make them receptive to the Word that we will bring, and that He will stir within them and give them a desire to know Him.

Tuesday, March 13th - We will have a worship service at the First Baptist Churh in the Bocanegra area mid-morning. Then, we will spend the afternoon doing street evangelism in a new community. Again, pray for the hearts of everyone who will hear about Jesus. Some, even for the first time.

Wednesday, March 14th - We will begin the day with more street evangelism with the Frist Baptist Church in New Pachacutec. In the afternoon, we will have a home Bible Study. Pray for everyone who attends.

Thursday, March 15th - We will be sharing the Gospel and speaking at two different locations today. In the morning, we will be at New Pachacutec School, and in the afternoon, we will be at Bocanegra School. Pray for the children who will hear the Good News that we bring!

Friday, March 16th - We will leave Lima VERY early (12:25 a.m.). We will fly back to Atlanta, and then onto DFW. We are scheduled to arrive around 11:00 a.m. Pray that our team is able to rest on the flights as we prepare to be back home with our families. Quite often, it can be a hard adjustment coming back home - at least it is for me. Every time I go on a mission trip, I struggle with going back home. I always feel like I'm leaving part of my heart behind.

Everyone keeps asking me if I'm excited about this trip. My answer is always, "YES! I can't wait!" And even though that is the truth, it's hard to put into words how I'm feeling about this trip. Part of me is a little nervous. Not about the flight or leaving the country or anything. Just a little nervous about door-to-door evangelism. I struggle with rejection, so I'm praying hard that God will open the hearts of everyone we talk to. However, a bigger part of me feels like I'm going home! Peru has had a very special place in my heart for years, and I can't wait to be back there!

Thank you, again, to everyone who is praying for my team and me. You are missionaries, too! I love you all!

Beautiful are the feet...

During our time in Tula and San Francisco, we had the sweetest group of ladies who cooked and served us three meals each day. In the past, we have always given gifts to the pastors' wives of the mission churches where we serve. However, the time we wanted to do something for all of the ladies. Early on in the week, one of the ladies from San Francisco said that she really liked the bags we were using to transport our craft supplies back and forth each day. She asked if she could buy one of the bags at the end of the week. *Keep in mind that the people in this village have next to nothing.* We soon found out that all of the women had been admiring the bags, but we knew there was absolutely no way we were going to accept any money for these bags. Instead, we filled the bags with goodies -- lotions, soaps, wash cloths, snacks, etc. -- for our new friends. There were 16 ladies who had served us throughout the week, and we had brought 16 bags with us. Imagine that...just enough!!! We had plans to pass the bags out to our new friends on the last day.

We knew they would love the gifts, but it just wasn't enough. We wanted to do more. We decided to serve them by washing their freet. I can't describe just how special this time was to all of us. You see, years agho my youth pastor washed the feet of our youth leadership team. It completely redefined servanthood for me. It was beautiful to see him kneeling down at our feet, loving us and serving us in a way he never had before. I had read the story in the Bible of Jesus washing his disciples' feet, but to see it right in front of me was completely life-changing! So as we spent those frew sweet moments with the beautiful women of San Francisco, reading God's Word, singing, praying, weeping, and loving on each other, I was reminded just how beautiful are the feet of those who bring God News. I will never forget that moment, for it was by far the most amazing thing I have ever done in the mission field.

Me Gusta Las Mantanas

After spending our first night in Tula, we met up with Pastor Nimias, our friend from the local church, and his group on Monday morning and started our journey up the mountain to San Francisco. It was only 36 miles from the church in Tula, but the mountainous terrain kept us on the path for nearly two hours before arriving at the village. *It actually took us closer to 2 1/2 hours the first day because we were marveling over the mountains, the streams and waterfalls, the farmers plowing their fields with donkeys and plows, and the livestock - cows, horses, and donkeys. I learned that I am not so bad at herding cattle, but that's another blog... We stayed in a hotel in downtown Tula and drove to San Francisco every day. However, we are making plans to camp in San Francisco during our next visit in order to save four hours of traveling time each day.

As soon as we arrived in San Francisco, we were all taken back by the sheer beauty of the mountains. One of the first things we noticed was the farmers literally on the side of the mountain (think 70% incline, or higher) tending to their crops - corn, beans, and sugar cane. It was absolutely amazing! We worked together to unload the vans and prepare for our first day of VBS (it's referred to locally as Escuela Biblica de Verano - Summer Bible School). Liz and our Thursday morning ladies' mission group had worked extremely hard for months before our trip to prepare all of the lessons and crafts. We had prepared for about two hours of VBS each day. However, the majority of the kids stayed at the church with us ALL day (8-10 hours) each day. While the men were doing construction work on the church building, we played with the kids, taught them Bible stories, did crafts, had snacks, sang songs, did puppet shows, blew bubbles, played with balloons, and just had a wonderful time learning about them and how they like to play. We taught them about Jesus feeding the 5000, Noah and the flood, the Good Samaritan, and the story of the prodigal son. The days seemed to fly by, and the week was coming to a close much more quickly than I was prepared for.

One day, early in the week, when Shawn was leading a Bible study for the village/church elders and leaders, with tears streaming down their faces, they thanked him over and over for coming to their village. They said they had prayed for so long for God to send people to help them. They told him that we were the first white people to ever come to their village. One of the men wanted to slaughter one of his calves for us to celebrate the return of his son who had been lost. The men (including Pastor Shawn - he was so stoked!) killed the calf on Wednesday, and it cooked in a pit down in the ground all night long for us to eat on Thursday - our last day there - and we had a celebration. The kids' lesson for the day was about the prodigal son. How cool is that? For the craft, we made tambourines, and we had a party! During the service that night, all of the kids used their tambourines while we sang all of our songs. It was so neat to see them be so excited about worship!

It was such an amazing week and I was very sad to see it end, but I know we will visit San Francisco again. I am planning to post a few more blogs about our trip to Mexico - about some people and events that have become very special memories for me.

Here we go...

I have decided to join the madness and become a blogger. I’ve been hesitant in doing so because I have blogger friends who are fantastic writers, and I wasn’t sure if my writing was worthy to be read by anyone other than me. I have my moments, but as my blog title states… I tend to ramble. Needless to say, I got over it! I have decided to begin with something that is very close to my heart – missions. My first several posts will be about my most recent trip to Mexico. I will include photos and stories of what God did while we were on the mountain. I am excited to share my memories with you!