I am writing to you from a cafe over looking the beach in Huanchaco… eating a fruit salad and drinking a cafe con leche. I can’t help but smile right now because today was such an amazing day. I would be lying if I said this week didn’t have its hard moments, because it did. There were points where I was like okay God, what are you doing? And He was like I know you don’t understand what I am doing, but you need to trust me.
One example was yesterday we worked all day trying to turn the church into a movie theater for a movie night with our english class and the church. The team cut out images and letters, made handmade popcorn bags and drew the design on them, got snacks and drinks, and cleaned the church, and picked out the movie Finding Nemo. When it came time to put the movie on it was just one thing after another; the speakers weren’t working, the movie was cutting in and out, freezing, and here we had like 20 people sitting around who had traveled to be here, frankly it was awkward. That was just the cherry on top of an already difficult day. I was sitting there like God we are trying to build a relationship with these people… I know you can take care of something as simple as technology. But it didn’t happen. Instead we shut it all down and ended up playing games with them and having conversations that we wouldn’t have had sitting in front of a projector screen.
One day this week my teammate awoke with her eye swollen shut, we took her to the clinic and it turned out that her tear ducts were retaining too much oil, and she was given eye drops and was back to normal. However, that same day I got really sick. My body just shut down, I couldn’t eat, I felt weak, my head hurt, and I was hot and then cold, and just felt miserable. Certain worries were physically making my body shut down. I was laying in a hammock holding onto my pillow for dear life thinking to myself “God it’s only the second week”… then I looked up and saw a little bird sitting on the hammock string with a worm in its mouth… and God said to me “Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? (Matthew 6:26-27)” I woke up the next day perfectly fine, with more energy than I had since Ive been here.
Last week I was supposed to give a sermon to the youth of the church, I had spent hours preparing, but instead the pastor accidentally forgot, but it was okay, because it doesn’t really matter who is telling others about love as long as someone is right? However the enemy tried to use it to bring me down, to make me feel like I didn’t have a voice. So this week I stood up and told the story of David and Goliath, and how the enemy tries to make us feel small and weak, and not strong enough to face the giants in our lives. How there is a battle going on for our hearts, and how we are fed lies to keep us down. God wants us to come to him with giants in our lives, the problems that we feel are too big to handle, the pain that we feel is too much to carry. The truth is we can’t do it on our own, trust me I’ve tried, our strength has to come from God. The absolute worst moments in my life are the moments I had no where to turn but to Him. Each day we have to chose to reject the lies, and walk in the truth of all that we really are. The smallest boy who I asked to come up front and play the part of David, and gave a small stone to, held onto that stone for the rest of the time I talked, and at the end came up front crying and wanting to be prayed over. Afterwards we danced our hearts out three times in a row to “Yo Soy Libre (I am free).” I have to admit that song has grown on me.
A really cool moment this week was a few days ago I learned how to Peruvian fish with a board, string, and hook… there was one point where I caught a big fish (okay it wasn’t that big, lol, but we still could have ate it). I was so excited I asked my friend to take a picture of me, but while doing so she accidentally tripped and dropped my camera lens cap into the water, and also in that moment I dropped the fish onto the pier and it slipped through the crack! Peruvians had already gathered around because obviously when I caught the fish I was screaming with excitement, shaking their heads like why is this gringa so excited? So once they saw it fall into the water they were shouting for a surfer to go get it for me, and as the surfer brought it to the end of the peer and gave it to me the crowd was shouting give him a kiss!
Obviously in that moment I pulled out my printed off copy of my “Adventures in Missions Single for a Year Contract” and apologized haha. I gave the older gentlemen who tried helping me capture my fish before it slipped away the rest of my bait. Then today I went fishing again, and dropped my rod in the water (seems to be a re-accuring theme)…. and that same man just happened to be there and retrieved it and wound the string back up for me. It was a God moment, I then gave him the rest of my bait again, for which he was extremely grateful. This week I also learned how to sand board, and by that I mean I fell down and rolled around in the sand.
I feel so close to God when I am at the beach. Maybe its because the ocean is so beautiful and terrifying all at the same time. It has to be respected. It is so full of mystery and of life. When I float in the waves all I can think about is the unknown. It is a powerful force, that can can be incredibly unpredictable.
Please keep my fundraising in your prayers, my next deadline is coming up soon!
Also the war against the cockroaches still continues, stay tuned.
