I´m Going to be a Tourist!

12-16-09

Hey Everyone!
Sorry has been a while since I have put much up! Just uploaded two other quick blogs about a really cute little boy and getting proposed to, but hopefully in the near future will have a more meaningful blog to add! Tomorrow heading out for Christmas break and not sure when I will be back on again so Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Here are a few pictures from this last campaign we just finished!
Love and miss you all!








Above are pictures of most of our group at 38, a boat ride, kids from Tupac, one of the baptismal groups, and a picture of all of my holiday decorations!

Jimmy

12-10-09

This is Jimmy.



He is to a certain degree mentally disabled.

His mom did not want him so she dropped him off with a couple here in Tupac.

They do not really want him either. They truly asked if we wanted to take him.

Jimmy does not have any papers so he cannot attend school.

Usually his speech is so slurred you cannot understand what he is saying.

The kids like to pick on him and tease him.

BUT…

He always runs around with a huge smile on his face.

He loves giving everyone hugs.

He gets excited about the small things in life.

He loves sitting on your lap and having you scratch his back or play with his hair.

Jimmy is one of the happiest little boys that I know.

WHY?...

Jimmy does not worry what others think.

He offers love to anyone will accept it.

He always looks for the positives of life.

Jimmy does not talk much…

But I have learned so much from him.

Save the Date

12-10-09

Today I was proposed to. I felt like it might be something that happen sometime during my life, and that perhaps the likelihood of someone asking to marry me might be higher while I was in Peru, but the manner in which it went down totally caught me off guard…

Backing up a little bit, let me try to fill in a few important basic details…
While living in Tupac, we (meaning us girls) have had a bit of a problem. A large portion of the population is young adults, which means a lot of guys between the ages of 13-25. Throughout the beginning part of the campaign we commented on how nice it was that people in Tupac did not whistle at us as much as they did in Kilometer 8; we thought our experience in this town would be a breeze from that aspect. As time went on though, and we befriended the locals, included the guys of all ages, rumors started going around about us girls. Needless to say, we have tried to cut them off with our actions, but we know even now they are still going around. I personally spaced myself from most of the guys, but was somewhat touched by one guy who came to apologize to us for any actions or words any of the guys could have said to offend us or disrespect us.

This guy was Pedro. Pedro, original Hispanic name, I know…Anyways, during our time here, I had not spent much time with him, and had not felt like he was pursuing me at all. With our time running short here, I was honestly afraid that a couple of the more attentive guys might talk to me about being the love of their life, but had safely avoided it thus far. So when Pedro asked me to talk with him tonight, I did not think anything of it. He even agreed to sit right in our big tent where bunches of other people were milling around.

He was baptized a few weeks ago and since has been acting pretty interested in the church. When we sat down, he started off asking me more questions about the church and living as a Christian. After a few minutes of talking though, he sneakily brought finding a good Christian spouse into the conversation. From there, the rest was history. He decided to inform me that he had been waiting and that God had picked me out for him. Everything was perfect about me (yeah right!), he respected everything about me, he would wait for me to finish school and return to Peru, and even though he is younger than me (18!), he had great aspirations for his life and that he was just as mature as the 24 year olds around here.

WOW…..I was totally floored. I tried to talk my way around it over and over again, without being hurtful, but he did not seem to be getting the point. And that is when he did it….he went and dropped the L word…yep, he told me that he loved me and that he wanted me to marry him...I will have to admit, it was really tough to shut down this offer because he did it so well, bringing God into the picture and everything….but do not get too nervous, I did not say yes.

So that is how it happened, my first proposal…really romantic I know. But I do have to admit I was expecting it more as a type of a desperate plea slash joke from the random guys who work in the shops that we walk pass in Pucallpa. Turning down an offer ended up being a lot more difficult than I thought it would be!

THANKS!!!!!

Have about three things I want to write blogs abouDt but haven´t had the time....going on vacation soon here for a few weeks, but will try to get something uploaded before then!

Do want to go ahead and say a super big thanks to lots of people though! I have gotten so many boxes lately and feel super loved! Know boxes are expensive and take a lot of time to put together! So, thanks a ton to:

My church family-those boxes of food were really yummy-don´t worry I´m sharing!

Amanda J-thanksgiving or not, the box was awesome, especially the turkey picture (it is now currently up on the wall next to my Christmas decorations!)

All my awesome friends (know I already said thanks, but it was just that good of a box too)- honestly have opened all of the presents, but still am working on cards, the best part!

AND my parents!- two packages stuffed with all sorts of random goodness was a little much, but going to esp love all of the backpacking food!

Sorry did´t send boxes to all of you, but promise to bring back cool suveneirs!!! Thanks again for your thoughtfulness!

Just Another Update

Didn’t have time to write for real so here is an update on my life!

-Had thanksgiving dinner...one week early...well kind of…we had it Friday…because the dental team was leaving today…had some real deal thanksgiving food from the States…cooked for 40 people…took all day…the Peruvians thought the food was gross…guess green bean casserole and stuffing doesn’t appeal to everyone…

-That night I opened up a box I got….it was from some really amazing friends…don’t worry, I only opened the granola…and the chocolate….and the window stickers….I am seriously waiting on the rest...(p.s. Nick, everyone loved your card)

-I also put up my Christmas decorations…we don’t have windows so I had to duck tape up the window stickers…also put up some really awesome pictures my grandparents sent me…sadly think the only snow I will be seeing is the snow in the pictures…and I thought TN had it bad…

-Yesterday I went on a boat ride….one wooden boat…one shallow river….and 11 people…it was a lot of fun…found out that there are electric eels that live in the river…they can kill you instantly…but luckily they only come out at night…

-Just finished our first week of our nightly evangelistic series…harder crowd to reach this time…lots of young people…things going well though…

-Have found out they have these wonderful things here called curiches….they are like coconut popsicles…I think I could eat them every day...actually I have been pretty much!...when I get back, I promise I will make them for all of you!

-Started…or at least helped continue…two arguments this week (you are off the hook Brittany for my once a year blow up ;)…learned the importance of not opening my mouth before I have thought things through…got to offer a couple of apologizes…communication is a good thing…when done correctly…

-Found out I might get more free time for our Christmas vacation!....really excited only three more weeks!...lots more reading to do in my tour guide book…

-Was informed that a fellow SM passed away this week…kind of solemning for all of us down here…have run by myself a lot….think I am going to cut that habit…praying a lot for the girls friends and family and hoping that God brings good from the situation…..send up some extra prayers too if you get a chance...

Well that is about it for the week...over and out

Working for the Big Guy

This past Thursday God amazed me….

My partner in crime, Edward, on of the Peruvian Bible workers, had decided to go into the next town to visit some families. That left me wondering what I should do for the afternoon. I really wanted to just sit down and write out some lessons plans, but I did not think that my boss would be too excited about that, so I forced myself to fill up my water bottle and headed out into the heat. The day before we had promised this one girl about my age that I would come and visit her the next day, so I figured that was a good place to start. Well, when I got there, I found out that she was not there at the time, but I started talking with the older guy who was there. At first we talked the weather, then politics, and then we started discussing religious beliefs. The first thing the man brought up was eating meat and such and I figured that he was going to be one of those people who ask you a question and then when you cannot give adequate responses in Spanish, they wham you with a bunch of Bible verses. But this was not the case with this guy, he actually invited me to come sit down and talk. With nothing else to do, I accepted the invitation.

Ends up the guy used to live in Iquitos and had talked with David Gates once upon a time so he was slightly familiar with Adventism. I am not normally one who likes to talk directly to people about my religion; I am definitely more about showing people God’s love through action. So as I started conversing with this guy I sent up a quick prayer to God asking Him for wisdom and the words to speak in Spanish! Well, three hours later our conversation ended. We talked about everything from marriage, divorce, personal testimony, taking care of our bodies, dancing, the Sabbath, we covered it all! Several people came in while we were talking and listened in as well. It was crazy! I was amazing first of all that this guy seemed so open to so many Adventist ideas, and secondly because we had conversed for all of that time on varying subjects with no problems! Needless to say, that when I left I was on cloud nine.

Next, I rushed off to meet with Edward for a Bible study. That evening we studied the Sabbath with an Evangelical family, quite a touchy subject. At the end though, the husband spoke to us. He told us that the lesson was beautiful, then he went on to tell us about a dream that he had recently. Ends up before we had come he had a dream about God telling him to guard the day of rest. In his dream, God also had given him the name Edward…..as I heard this, I got goose bumps. I remembered back to our first day when we had stopped to visit the family to ask if they wanted Bible studies, Jehovah Witness style. The had not looked friendly, but when we stopped to talk and Edward had explained who we were and introduced ourselves, they had warmed up immediately. Since then we had been studying with the whole family, all six kids included! As we finished up the Bible study, I was once again up in the clouds.

The stories for the day were not over yet though…As Edward and I were walking back to the house for supper, he also shared something else with me. As he had been giving Bible studies in the next town, Bellen, he had a touching interaction as well. When he had been studying with a mother and daughter, the daughter began crying throughout the whole study. Afterwards, Edward asked her if she was okay. She pulled him off to the side and told him the story that as a young girl she had been beaten and raped several times. She had never told her mom. She felt worthless and lost. Edward explained to her that God could help her through this and asked her if she wanted that. She agreed and Edward offered more comfort…another door opened to spread God’s love.

This past Thursday God amazed me…I can’t wait to see what else He has in store!

Living in Fear

11/6/09

This past Monday was our first day of visitations in Kilometer 15 (Tupac Amaru-sorry not to be confused with the dead rapper ;). It was great, we got to go around and just meet people. Our goal was simply to make new friends-no pressure, nada, I was loving it. As we were walking around we came to a brightly colored house, it was a great mixture of pink and teal. I know this would probably be considered an absolutely hideously colored house in the States, but here it was a wonderful change from the plain brown wood ones. As we walked by, an old lady came out and invited us in.

At first, we just kind of talked about every day life and then she went on to tell us about being robbed that day while in town. That then led into her talking about how the day before a girl had been raped out on the main road. I brushed it aside though, thinking a girl had been stupid and out walking by herself. That night though when Mike (another SM) came back and repeated to us once again the story of the girl, and in addition told us about another assault that had taken place out on the main road, I realized maybe it was a little more serious. As Mike went on, I had to admit that I was getting kind of freaked out. Ended up that there had actually been a problem along the road into Tupac for about four to five months now. This time a bunch of guys had put on masks, hid in the bushes and then threw logs in front of motokars. After getting motokars stopped the men would then come out with machetes and guns.

By now, Mike had my full attention. None of the other girls seemed too worried about it (but they also don´t care if they don´t get showers every day :), but I was honestly scared half to death! I even made the serious statement that I might just stay in Tupac the remainder of the six weeks without leaving unless the truck came. Lauren stated that she was not too concerned though, because she felt that God would protect us. That gave me something to think about…but I really didn´t come to a conclusion how I felt about that. We talked to the people back at the base and they said they would also try to come get us in the truck more often. That was that for the time being and nothing else was said.

Well, yesterday was our day off and I really wanted to go back to the base to call my parentals. No truck was coming…I hadn’t fully decided what I thought about this road situation, but the call of the telephone and an oven to bake cookies in was too much to bear. So I found myself in a motokar on the forbidden road. As Lauren and Mindy sat back and enjoyed the ride, I literally prayed the whole way and held tight to my pepper spray (as if I could really do much with it :). As we made it safely to the main road and hopped into a taxi, I let out a huge sigh of relief.

Sometimes I think about all of the risks down here, and I get really paranoid about everything. I get overly freaked out when I see one of the poisonous spiders in our house or have to go outside in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. It makes me want to curl up in a ball and not go anywhere for the rest of the year. But truly, there are just as many risks up in the States as well.

One day when I was working at the hospital before I left, a friend that was a PT asked me why in the world I would go abroad for a year. He thought I was young and it was stupid of me to go and put my life at risk somewhere. I tried to explain to things to him, but he did not seem convinced. A few weeks later though, I was working with the same guy and he brought up the same topic again. This time though, he had a different take. He told me that he had just talked to his brother who had a friend who had been a missionary in Africa for 18 years. For all those years while being in Africa he had never had any safety issues, but then within a month of returning to the States he was robbed and shot.

So really anywhere you go there are safety issues-Africa, Peru, United States…perhaps concerns are just a little different, but the underlying problem still exists. So things aren´t really going to change much when I am done here either. Does that mean I should never get out of bed the rest of my life? I definitely don’t think that is what God wants us to do. God wants us to live life to the fullest and to not live in fear. We need to take daily risks for God and trust that He will protect us. That doesn’t mean we should be stupid, we should just focus on claiming His promises more. I think another part of this is, when things do happen we need to accept them as part of his bigger plan and realize that however long our lives are here, they are nothing compared to our long life we have to look forward to in eternity. If I can bring glory to him during this life here on earth, it doesn’t matter how short my life is here, because the best is yet to come!

“When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” Psalm 34: 17-19







(Above are pictures of the road to Tupac, motokars in Pucallpa, us celebrating Dane´s bday with Mexican food and a rice crispy cake, and picture of how amazing pinapple season is here!)