Peru

A week ago today, Rachel, myself and three other students landed in Lima, Peru for the first time. We had never met each other before, but we were all really excited and ready to see what God had planned for us while we were there. We dove into intense training for 4 days straight and enjoyed plenty of Traditional Peruvian food. We met multiple missionaries that have been on the field for many years, many of them being in multiple places during their time with the IMB.

Here’s a quick overview of what our week nights looked like while we were in Lima:

Tuesday: arrive in Lima super late in the evening.

Wednesday: First day of training, girls go out to Ovalo (roundabout surrounded by stores and restaurants)

Thursday: Second day of training, group went to dinner at a mall sitting on a cliff overlooking the South Pacific Ocean, at dinner, many of us tried cow heart. Thursday was also the first time I had ever been in a taxi (and Peruvian drivers are scary).

Friday: Third day of training, in the evening, our small group went out to the English school to try and start conversations with people in between classes. Rachel and myself weren’t AS successful as the other groups, but we took the opportunity to prayer walk around a few blocks. We later found an English student bookstore that had a ton of English books for the school across the street in it and were able to have some conversations with the employees as we told them that we were going to be English teachers in Mexico. We met back up with the other groups shortly afterwards to head to dinner and as we were walking across the street, we were stopped by an English teacher at a school saying that he had heard we were talking about the Bible (Rachel and I had been praying that people would come to us). So our leader, Janna, stopped and talked to him for about 20 minutes and during that time, myself and the four other students I was with stopped and took turns praying that the conversation would go well and that the Holy Spirit would work in this man’s life. After the conversation was over, we were able to go to dinner and share what conversations we had with other people around the few blocks we were walking through.

Saturday: Last day of training, we were invited into one of the missionary family’s homes for breakfast (she made homemade cinnamon rolls, can’t turn those down) and we continued our last few sessions at their home. That evening, we were back at the guest house we were staying at and a good number of the missionaries we had met that week came and prayed over each of us and the places we were being sent out to. After dinner, the other students and I took a bus tour of Lima and we were able to go see more of the ocean and just how vast and enormous it is. It reminds me that we are so small compared to our God.

On Sunday morning Rachel, Marcus (another student), and myself left at 5:30am to head to the airport to be flown to our locations for the next 4 months. We had long days of travel ahead of us, but we were excited to have met new friends and to be able to pray for each other about how the Lord would use us over the next 4 months. I know that the friends I’ve made in Peru will be lasting friendships, we all have a heart to serve God and make sure that people of every tribe, nation and language have heard His name. I’m excited to see where the Lord takes us and how He will use us for His glory while we are all away from each other. Here are some ways you can be praying for the five of us over the next few months:

• Safety: we are all going into areas of the countries we are in where safety can be a big issue. This is one thing we were trained on, but we are praying that we won’t need to use any of our training while we are away.
• Relationship building: be praying that we will be able to build relationships with the nationals in the countries we are in and that through those relationships, we will be able to share the love of Jesus with them.
• Team building: all of us are teamed up with local missionaries working with the IMB. Be praying that we would all get along well and that there would be no conflict among us, and that if there IS conflict, that it would be resolved quickly and efficiently.
• Language: 3/5 of us aren’t proficient in the language of the countries we are being sent to. Be praying that we will have opportunities to learn the language efficiently and quickly and that we would be able to retain what we learn.

If you would like to contact me directly, I have the app called WhatsApp, it’s an app you can download to your phone that is super secure. I’m able to text and call people on that app while I’m connected to wifi. IF you would like to have the number for me on the app, contact my mom and she will be able to get it to you. I’ve added some pictures from my time in Peru below. Thank you so much for your continued prayers!

Soli Deo Gloria