La Gente in the Streets

Yesterday was so cool. It was ¨voting day¨. This has a completely different meaning here, as voting is manadory and a lot of times more violent (or exciting) than in the states. There is only one day the people here can vote, and if they don't vote, they have to pay a fine. Completely foreign concept for someone who grew up in the states. Anyways, as you can probably imagine, the streets and public transportation were jam packed with people. Most shops were closed and everyone was out and about. Lauren and I left for house church as usual, and because the dentist had to go vote as well and couldn't open her consultoria to have church, we just had it outside on the sidewalk. This, in fact turned out to be better because more people who were just passing by came and joined in. It was almost a completely new group of people there because the normal people had left to vote.

Anyways, after we finished church, Lauren had the idea to go hang out with the people in the lines and hand out the salvation bracelets that Amy brought (thanks so much, guys!) an give out the little Howdy from Texas cards. That was really cool. I have no idea how many we ended up giving out, but I think maybe like 1,000 sounds about right. I don't really know. But anyways, it was really funny cause we already get enough stares for being gringos, but on top of that, when we are talking in spanish AND handing out brightly colored bracelets AND talking about Jesus...well, you can just imagine...=) So, anyways, we would ask people if they wanted these bracelets, and then they just wouldn't respond, but then most of the time if I just went ahead and explained the bracelet and then told them they could bathe in it and nothing would happen (like water would not affect it), well most of them wanted not only one, but one for their son, daughter...etc. One of the army guys that we talked to I think wanted one for everyone in his family (momma and papa included) ha. It was great.

I will say the one great thing about being white with eye color other than brown is that you don't really have to try to get people's attention to talk to them...they're already looking at you most likely. I am sorry, I really feel like I should be talking more about the actual evangelistic work that we were doing, but I always seem to gravitate toward the funny or awkward things that happen while we are doing the evangelistic things...for instance....Lauren got called over to a truck FULL of army men because one of the army ladies said they wanted to hear about Jesus...as Lauren walked away, she admitted that the real reason was because they wanted to see her eyes because they were blue HAHAHAH =)  What made it funnier is that Lauren heard her say it (guess she didn't realize that?) and we both thought it was pretty funny. Anyways, gotta run. Hope you have a blessed day and I will write more soon. Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers. 10 days till I come back to the states!

Sommos La Communidad!

So I don’t know even where to start anymore. I have so much to write about...so much that I will never be able to write about. Mostly because they are things that are so deep inside of me, that I can't even put them into words. Things that I am watching God do all around me, and I just end up either not realizing what a miracle it is, or just internalizing it all and storing it away in my mind and heart. One of my biggest struggles is that I am going so fast that I don't really have time to process things...I just internalize them, or let them pass by. I could try to give you an outsider version of what I do, but I'm honestly not sure I have the entire capability of doing that anymore. So here´s the insider version!

Well, it's Friday evening! It was quite a week, meaning it went by so fast. I gave exams in all my classes...poor kids, the exam had 40 adjectives on it they had to translate...I feel kinda bad for some of them, but then again I gave almost each class a week's notice and most of them still didn't study. Oh well.

Well, update on the awkward teacher who can't figure out he wants to be my dad or my boyfriend...He asked me to video record OUR class (lol) when it was their turn to dance in the dance off that we had all day last Friday and i told him I would. Unfortunately my camera started freaking out just a little while after he asked me (of course) and then when I found the other camera that I have, the battery kept dying. How charming. I did get them on video though. Mission accomplished. P.S. They were AMAZING if I do say so myself. They won for their grade. Its funny cause a lot of the kids that are really misbehaved in class here are amazing dancers or very talented in other ways...pretty much the case here. Anyways, back to AT (Awkward Teacher).

I saw him yesterday and of course I asked him how he was, and he started talking about something that I really couldn't understand. It's gotten to the point sometimes where it's just funny when I don't understand something cause sometimes the other people appear frustrated than I do about the situation...which was the case here. So anyways, I just decided to change the subject . And of course I brought up the infamous USB. I had to ask him how many GB it was so I could buy him another one. I told him I would save the video on the USB for him and then just give him the USB. He told me it was not that big of a deal that I had lost it and he asked me if I had been worried about it and I was thinking (of course I was...you said you were gonna kill me! hahah) Anyways, he just told me that the USB was minimal storage capacity and that it was not a big deal that it had been lost. WHEW!!!

Okay so anyways on a completely different note, God showed me the coolest thing yesterday when I was reading. I haven’t read the Bible through ever, and that is something that I want to do while I’m here in Peru. So I’ve been reading Isaiah as of late, and I didn’t realize what a good book it is! I mean my favorite verse is in Isaiah (Isaiah 43:2-4) but there are some other really incredible things in there. This is what I am talking about specifically. When God called me here, He just told me that I was supposed to come back here. It happened in a shopping mall of all places. That was pretty much it. I remember telling God how scared I was and he told me before I left to come to Peru the second time that He would go before me (and boy has He!!) But yesterday a really special thing happened. I was reading Isaiah 42 and this is what it said

¨I the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people adn a light for the Gentiles, to oepn eyes that are lind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.¨

This scripture spoke to me in such a deep way, and I knew it was the scripture that was to be connected with the call to return to Peru 9 months ago. I had wondered about this before...if I needed to have a chapter and verse for what I knew in my heart, but God knew that I would need it 7 months into it...and not before.

Things have still been hard here, partly because I have still been getting sick, and partly because I just feel like I´m still just treading water and not really swimming...but I do think a lot of that is do to the amount of different things we are invovled in. At first, I had a really hard time just teaching in the school here, and now Lauren and i are teaching Bible in three other schools outside the community in addition to our normal teaching schedule here. We also started a house church about a month ago, and this is addition to doing Biblestudies every night at the community. Now, granted, sometimes things are randomly cancelled for whatever reason (the culture down here is sooo much more laied back than in the states, and I love it) so we may not do all of these things every week, but for the most part, when I come home, the last thing I want to do is socialize with other volunteers....I just want to sleep or talk to Lauren or chill by myself. I have felt kinda bad about not really hanging out with the other volunteers that live here, but another thing that has come up is that one of the volunteers constantly asks for our stuff and then takes it out into the community and uses it...which is fine I guess, but its just that there is a mentality that says if we have it, everyone else is entitled to it. And I guess that makes sense to some extent, but I think it might be more a European mindset...whereas the American mindset is ¨it´s mine...don´t even think about touching it¨...so I am positive that is not necessarily the way either, but I am tired of feeling like people only want me for my stuff. The other day one of the other volunteers asked to borrow the internet, and I kinda just had had enough and I said ¨yes, but we are not going to lend out the internet anymore!¨ Well...that didn´t go over very well. And I don´t think things have been the same since. Oh well. Doesn´t help that I sat on the internet and it doesn´t really work that well anymore. But I think we got if fixed yesterday for less than 2 bucks....so that´s good. I hope. But anyways, I am hoping that I can have a right balance in this situation of hanging out or not hanging out with them, but let me just say that I totally understand why Lili and Frances (the two other voluteers that have been here for years) keep to themselves.

Well, I bought my ticket to come home for two weeks in October. Yes, the rumors are true. The main reason I decided to come home on such a short notice was my health...I need to try to get well and recuperate, plus I miss my family and friends and I wanted to spend my birthday with my family. I will be back the last two weeks in October and am excited most of all about spending some MUCH needed time with my family and close friends. What an unexpected blessing. I am having to miss school for 2 weeks, but I feel complete peace about going home right now, and on top of that, I know it´s something I need to do for health reasons. Please pray that God will be with the doctors and that nothing serious is wrong with me.

Dang, I don´t like that these blogs are so long and so far in between. There really is so much to catch up on. Lauren´s parents came last week and it was amazing. They brought along two family friends with them, who were just precious and sooo very encouraging. So that was a blast having all of them here. Got lots of AMAZING presents from some ballin peeps in los estados. Wendy, Brett April, Amy, Carly sent me some of the most amazing things seriously...along with some sweet sweet stuff from Brian and Lisa and the best brownies ever from my little brother John who made them and sent them. Seriously, living here is better than Christmas morning!! =)

Well, its been a great week, and thats about all I got for this blog update! Gonna go to the internet cafe, post it, and maybe try to figure out what I´m teaching in my English classes next week! Whoop 14 days til I come home, as Mom reminded me yesterday! So excited!

P.S. Liz and I are trying to memorize Heb. 4:14-16 this week in English andin Spanish. Here it is if you want to memorize it with us. Love you guys!

Therefore, since we have a great high preist who has gone through the heavens. Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the fiaht we profess. For we do not have a high preist who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may recive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

here it is in Spanish

Por lo tanto, ya que in Jesús, el Hijo de Dios, tenemos un gran sumo sacerdote que ha atravesado los cielos, aferrémonos a la fe que profesamos. Porque no tenemos un sumo sacerdote incapaz de compadecerse de nuestras debilidades, sino uno que ha sido tentado en todo de la misma manera que nosotros, aunque sin pecado. Así que acerquémonos confiadamente al trono de la gracia para recibir misericordia y haller la gracia que nos ayude en el momento que más la necesitemos.

Okay pics wont upload right now...and I left the internet cafe to go check on things at the community and someone came in and stopped all my uploads...so Ill upload pics later.

Camilla and her partner.

Costimes in place...let's DANCE!!!

Ready for the dance-off.

The three amigos.

Richard.

House church.