"Meaningless, Meaningless, utterly meaningless, everything is meaningless"
Wisdom, relationships, money, entertainment , nothing can fill the God shaped hole we have in our lives. Soloman´s advice to us therefore is to seek God, to remember our creator in the days of our youth, to fear Him and keep his commands. This has been true for me in this past week.
We can run lots of programs for kids, have fun as a team and camp out in churches but unless we do it for God´s glory, in his strength and in his will, it is meaningless. We praise God for the blessings that he has given the team, he continues to take us forward and teach us new things every week.
The past week in Ilo we enjoyed the opportunity of sharing the gospel with two groups of kids in the holiday bible clubs and spending time with the young people in La Pampa. We had up to 100 kids between the two clubs and it tested our abilities but God was faithful and we leave the kids in His hands trusting that He will continue to work in their lives and use the teaching they have heard this week, please pray for this. We finished the week with a night for the young people, and we had a few new young people come to the church for this so pray for them also that they would have felt welcomed and would come back again. For me it was lovely to spend time with some ex-mision Rescate people. Freddy is from Mision Rescate 1 and a friend from my first time in Peru and it was lovely to catch up and see he´s as crazy as usual. I got to spend some time with Fanny also MR1, who recently married her fellow MR team member Riachard and they send their grettings to all the Irish MR1s and to the churches in Ireland who support the work in Peru. It was encouraging for me to see so many MrR team members active and encouraging their home churches and who can testify to how much MR taught them. Richard and Fanny are working tin 24, the rough area i mentionned we were doing the kids club in, and are leading the youth in the church. They choose to live in 24 so they could get to know families there and be a light in the community. So be encouraged that the support that you give to Mision Rescate now has a lasting impact and in ways that we cant see and be encouraged that your prayers are making an impact here in Peru, praise be to God. Pray for the members of next years team, from both here in Peru and in Ireland, that God would appoint new people to continue the work!
(kids club in Ilo) (me helping with the quiz) (kids loving MR getting water poured in their face)
Ecclesiatses tells us there is a time for everything
1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.
For me, Peru has been a time to learn and to grow in my faith. I have had to depend on God because for language and for strength. But it has also been a time for fun and to try a lot of new things so i want to give you a bit of a taster of life in Peru for me...
New things.... food......i ate my first chicken feet last week. In Peru you are privelged to get the chicken foot in your soup and they eat the meat, skin, whatever it is off the foot and suck the bones. I on the other hand nibbled a bit of the foot and thought that was enough!
Post.... i received a few parcels from home this week, and actually ran across the campsite to open them, not just because i suspected they contained chocolate but because it was exciting to have a little taste of home. I sat drinking my startbucks coffee this afternoon, translating my devotional, thinking, life is good! Praise God that the parcels arrived safe and sound. The Morrows are still waiting on post sent before Christmas, and a few christmas cards, just one of the difficulties of missionary life, keeping track of your post!
injuries....I received my first electric shock plugging in my straighteners, my foot got stood on by a slightly large child at the HB in Ite, I fell into the rubbish bags outside our bedroom, impailed my foot on a piece of stick, and fell while running with paddington the spaniel in my arms... dont panic the dog was all right but my bruise is still there.
jokes...i may have painted the boys toes scarlet red in the first couple of weeks and a couple of times since then, the girls may have threw some water baloons and pink dye in the general area of the boys, so i continue to live in fear of whatever revenge is coming my way!
(mugged while out on a walk/ hike) (we walked past the film crew working on the Peruvian version of Titanic) (Peru is rather pretty, and the top left photo is the path down to the beach) (delivering some baby clothes for Sally, mum to be in Ite)
skills.....íve been getting a bit of grief from the boys becuase i cant roll my r´s which is important in spanish. For example ´caro´ means car and ´carro´ (with a nice long r) means expensive. They try to make me practice and laugh when my rrrr souns like i´m choking. one night i was feeling a bit out of sorts, i may have been missing my family but i´m not sure, that doesn´t happen often. but anyway i was talking to guido and in a particularly wingy voice said, ´í just feel grumpy´only to discover that i can roll my r´s and can say grrrrumpy. God uses all our emotions!
I also had to wash my clothes by hand! the campsite has run out of water and for the past three days we´ve been filling buckets for water for toilets and showers and washing clothes. i was washing my clothes remembering the days when i put my washing in a basket in my room and it magically returned on hangers on my bedroom door! dont think my clothes washing abilities are quite at the same level as the rest of the team but its good fun sitting with my feet int he sink scrubbing the dirt out of my socks!
people....i had some time one afternoon in Ilo to head down into the centre to buy a frappuccino (amazing). true i got one the bus in the wrong direction and the journey took 20 minutes longer than expected. I got chatting to a gentleman who is married to a french lady and who used to go to church. i was able to share why i´m in Peru and a little of the work the team does with the churches here, it was nice to be able to talk about my faith with someone outside the church.
prayer....i have prayed my first prayers in spanish! prayer meetings are difficult for me, because its a lot of spanish words and words in tenses i dont know...yet. i have missed praying out load in meetings but God again is good and has given me opportunities to pray one to one with people and yesterday i managed to pray a whole prayer in spanish with Vanessa. small victories!
so what´s next....
Today is our final day of prep for the next two church visits. On thursday we head to Tacna to work with Luz de Vida another chruch associated with Baptist Misions working in the community in tacna. On Saturday we return to the Campsite, we have church in Ite on Sunday and then off to Moquegua to work with the church in San Antonio. So i wont be at the computer for the next week and a half but really appreciate your prayers for the work we´ll be involved in, again working in kids clubs and children´s meetings and being involved in the life of the church.
Prayer Points
- that God would lead us and keep us close to his word and we would serve him faithfully in all that we do
- for the children and young people we will work with in Tacna and Moquegua and that we would encourage the churches
- for Pan de Vida church and for San Antonio
- for mision rescate for old and new members in the team
- for me, for greater courage in using my spanish and talking in the churches and in sharing my faith at every opportunity
Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.
jude.. love it!! thinking of you and praying for you in the time that is left! there's still so much for you to do and to enjoy. i pray that God continues to work in and through you as He has already been! it makes me so excited to read about all you're doing and learning..!! lots of love
ReplyDelete