hey everyone!! Holy moly, I haven’t written a blog in actually really really long! This blog is going to be a huge wrap up about my time in Peru and just the things the Lord taught me and the really awesome things I was able to do in ministry.
So to start off, my squad all started together in a Cusco, Peru. We had this week long event called “Debrief” where as a squad we were able to discuss important things like our team dynamic and how we are doing spiritually and emotionally so far on the Race. Also, while our leaders shared wisdom with us along with people on my squad sharing their wisdom and gifts from the Lord. All around, it was a really great week for me, but for most, they were sick. Many of my squad mates got sick with strep, food poisoning, and altitude sickness. Many of us were in pretty bad shape from the high altitudes we were in plus the really bad bus food we ate on the way to this event! Gross. But the hostel we stayed at was really really cool and was one of my favorite places we stayed at as a squad, and I learned a few things from the Lord during this time. The Lord taught me that I am a creative person and even when everything isn’t going the best for me, he is always going to pick me back up and allow me to try again and he gives me so much grace through all of that. While also learning throughout my Race that my emotions are valid and I can come to the Lords feet and lay it down in front of Him and just be real and vulnerable and be okay with crying or being angry. Literally the coolest thing I have learned on my Race.
So after this week, my co-Ed team split up and us three girls from my team joined 7 other girls from their co-ed team and we did ministry together in February. We were placed with a church called Calvary Chapel in Cusco, Peru. Our hosts were an American family from California and Texas. All of us girls shared a room together with all our little sleeping pads lined up all next to each other. We had a room next to ours that was the church along with a Cafe that we were able to run for English conversation with the teens of this area! We also held a really awesome VBS with the little kids in our neighborhood in which I had a blast and everyday we were able to pour out into these kids and really get to know them and become best friends with them. Another thing we did was go to the University near our house and have a short English class with the same university students that attended our Cafe! I made deep connections with a few of them and the Lord really allowed me to be a vessel to some of them. The Lord taught me here that I can be really vulnerable with people and so I would dance all night to the blaring music in our cafe/kitchen room and just be free in who he created me to be. The Lord brought me so much freedom during this month and I was able to learn that I can set people free from their past hurts and really allow them to join me into this freedom I was experiencing. God was really cool this month while I was living with just girls and I honestly really loved this month a lot and I was really able to figure out more and more what the Lord places inside of me and allowing Him to reveal to me the things I never saw in myself. Guys, God is really cool when we are in tune to His spirit and go to Him when we want answers or clarity. Also, I was able to visit Manchu Picchu during our time here which was INCREDIBLE!
The month in Cusco went by super fast and before us girls knew it, we were reunited with our men on our teams. Getting back together with the guys on my team was really really fun and we all were able to share the things we had learned throughout the month and many of us came back loving our brothers and sisters really well. Once we got all together in a bus station, we were off to our next stop which was Pacasmayo, Peru where one of our girls teams on my squad had been for the past month and all of us arrived here and it was an all squad month! We stayed at a compound that used to be an orphanage, but the church we were with used it to house us and it had A lot more space than the place I was previously living at. I was in a room mixed with girls from other teams, 6 or 7 of us in total and all 20 something of us girls shared 4 showers this month and 4 toilets. Kinda crazy if you ask me. Nicely enough though, we were really close to the beach and had the best of times there even including a bonfire and a worship night there which were my favorite. The atmosphere here was so much more chill from where I was at the month before and it definitely was a month of relaxing and resting. My month started out a little rocky though and honestly I had a really rough start getting into the swing of things being with the entire 37 squadmates and leaders. The first week, I felt really tired and almost useless because the way our ministry was set up, not everyone had a job to do so we just sat around on our compound all day. I was finally assigned to paint a wall mural with one of my squadmates, Morgan, who was one of the squadmates I got even closer to during the month. We painted a really cute jungle themed picture and made sure it was perfect in every way. i started learning that it’s okay to rest and to really dig deeper into myself this month and I allowed myself to process the things from my past that I had never really got healing or freedom from, and the Lord was so, so loving to me during this time and he fixed my eyes on the things that I really need to be chasing after and that is forgiveness and restoration and wow he really was crazy good to me in my times of hurt and pain. The Lord was also so very patient with me and I began to realize that sometimes God doesn’t give you an answer right away, but if we walk with him continually and constantly, he will lead us into a path of freedom and redeeming love. While I was learning these things, my squad had team changes. This was one of those things that my team did not want to happen at all at first. I was angry at God and really upset at Him for thinking He could just switch up my team, but let me tell you, God works in amazing ways. I got placed onto a new team of all girls and they are the coolest and most solid group of women I have ever met. I was happy and full of joy when I got placed with a few of my close girl friends on the Race and it was almost like the Lord really knew what he was doing when he created this team. Now I am on a team with Chessie, Morgan, Brooklyn, Elizabeth and Bernadette with Sara MacIntosh as our leader and I couldn‘t be more pleased with how cool we flow as a team. The Lord has revealed himself yet again and had been the ultimate provider in the end.
So!!! Now I am in India with my squad!!! We are in Manipur, India which is a state off the East side of India and it‘s really more Asian than it is Indian. I am loving it here, and it‘s probably one of the prettiest places I have been to on my Race. I will have more blogs to come and hopefully more exciting announcements to come in the future, so stay tuned for those!! I love each and every one of you that read my blogs!
