After being in the cold desert of Uyuni, Bolvia… Trujillo, Peru was truly a dream come true! A warm town near a very beautiful beach town… Huanchaco!
My heart felt at home! This is exactly what I needed!
One of the first things we did before we started ministry was visit the beach and go sand boarding! I had never sand boarded before but it was so much fun!
Later in the month I tried a different kind of boarding for the first time…
I loved surfing SO much! This is something I have always wanted to do and I am so glad I did! I caught three out of five waves and it felt so good riding into shore! More than actually getting up on the board, I just loved laying on the board in the water! I felt so peaceful, so small in the middle of such a big ocean, and I felt SO close to God! My surfing instructor even asked me when he saw me taking a few minutes of stillness if I was all good and I told him I just told God thank you for this opportunity, for this day, for this moment… He agreed and said he too was thankful.
Huanchaco is such a cool, little beach town! I will never forget spending my off days sitting on the beach until sunset, exploring the cool cafes and restaurants, getting a hair wrap, etc. I want to come back one day with my brother and stay in the surf hostel where I made friends with the owner, a Gringa from Kansas!
We found an awesome burger place, Surfer Burger, owned by an ex Navy Seal. He had the Chili Peppers playing when we walked in, gave us our first real Angus burger since the states, and even let us write on his wall!
I of course gave a shoutout to the DAWGS and ATL. 🙂
Alex, the owner, to right of me and Freddy, to my left, the cook!
Eating a coconut/peanut butter icy while getting my hair wrap! Typical! 🙂
I could truly live here!
Ok, now for the important stuff! Our ministry was so fun this month! We did a little bit of everything! We held a Vacation Bible School for local kids, helped at a Preschool, painted the compound the school where we worked and lived, worked with three different churches, hosted parties on Saturdays for kids in different neighborhoods where we danced, sang and told them about Jesus, we had fun and worked with youth, went to a women’s prison and preached, sang, danced, and acted for them, went to local schools and did the same, went through local street markets handing out fliers to one of the local churches and told people about Jesus, did street evangelism… We saw a lot of people come to know Jesus, it was truly an amazing month!
t was a great month and we were with our whole squad of 45… living in one place, sharing 1 cold shower, and cooking with just a 4 eye stove! It was awesome! I slept in a tent on the roof and saw some magnificent sunsets over the Pacific!
This is how we traveled everywhere… 6-7 packed into a taxi or 20+ packed into a 12 passenger van! Or all of our 45 person squad packed into a mini bus! It was hilarious!
We had a back to school party with our squad and dressed up like our favorite high school character or click.. it was so much fun! I dressed up like a jam band groupie, of course!
Jam/Hipster standoff
This month was full of fun, love, hard work, and truly growing closer to the Lord! I am growing more and more into the woman God made me to be and I am leaving behind bad habits, thought processes and hurtful people in my past. It has been such a month of freedom! I want to continue this freedom journey as long as I live! I can’t wait to see all that the Lord has in store this coming month in Ecuador and the rest of this amazing journey! I am so thankful for the continued love and support! It means so much to me!!! XOXOXO
