Thankful

Sitting here in the internet cafe, thinking about what to title this blog and the word that came to my mind is Thankful. I am so Thankful to be here in Peru. There are many reasons I am so Thankful.

First, it is awesome to be able to be used by God. Lately, I have seen in just little ways how we can be used by God daily whether we are in a foreign country serving Him or at home serving Him he always places opportunities and people in our lives to show His love. Many of you know that I am a pretty extroverted person, I love talking to people and building relationships. Latley it has been a bit difficult here in Peru, since my Spanish is not the best. I was getting a little discouraged thinking that people were not getting to know me because of the language barrior. Although, I realized that just through a simple smile, saying ¨hola¨ or even trying to teach English to a class full of people who speak very little God uses it and I am so thankful. Thankful that He uses me, even though I have flaws and imperfections. What a beautiful picture of His love.

Second, I am so thankful for the relationships I have here in Peru and at home. There is nothing like being able to spill your heart out to the people who love you most and know that they love you. I am thankful for the bond that the Lord has placed with me, Maggie, and Andrea and what an amazing support system they are to me. I am thankful for Pastor Ruban and his family and their continued friendship here in Peru. I am thankful for the Grady´s for asking for Summer Missionaries through the BCM and thier support and mentorship here in Peru. I am thankful for the relationships we have begun building here and I am thankful from my family and friends at home for their encouragment of me being here. I am thankful.

Third, I am so thankful that the Lord has blessed with a life full of experiences to serve him and have fun! SO, with that being said and my little spill on thankfulness here is an update of the big happenings of this week---

This week we have continued our ESL classes. They are going well and the students really seem to enjoy it. The kids class has been a challenge but we have come to learn a lot about ministering during this class. We played a game on Thursday with them where they had to get the flash card right in order to try and shoot a basket for their team and they really enjoyed it and it seemed to help them with their English. We are praying that they begin to want to know more about the Lord through the Bible stories we share at the end of class.

The Adult ESL class is a blast. They all love learning English and we can tell they really want to be in class. We played the same game with them to review this week and had a great time! They are quite competitive, especially since they were playing for a prize (American candy). I can´t help but smile and laugh through out the adult class it is so fun to teach! They all are also very into hearing the Bible story at the end of class and all love sharing their two cents on what the liked about the story. Also, on Saturday we played volleyball with about 8 people from our adult ESL class. Let´s just say Peruvians are amazing at volleyball and me, Maggie and Andrea not so much. We had a blast though and it was great to hangout with them outside of class. Pray that these relationships continue to build and that we are able to share more with these students!

One relationship that is really sparking is one with a girl from our ESL class Rosmmy. She has grown quite fond of us enough to buy us some leg warmers in Juilica when she went to get some items for her mom´s store here in Huancane. She is super sweet and said she had been saving her money to buy them for us! We invited her over for supper that night, which was homemade pizza. The pizza turned out amazing and Rosmmy said she had been waiting 2 years to eat pizza again! It was great to be able to just hangout with her and bless her as she had blessed us!

On Wednesday, Andrea and I traveled to Moho with John (the full time missionary here) and Conima to check in on the other collegiate missions teams that are out there. It was about an hour ride out to Moho and John took us the scenic way. It was curvy and bumpy but the view was absoultley beautiful! We got to see Lake Titicaca from all different view points and took some awesome pictures! God´s creation here in Peru is so unbeliveable. The lake seems to go on forever and it is so blue. In the word´s of Andrea, ¨It should not be called Lake Titicaca but an Ocean¨. We also really enjoyed seeing the team in Moho and the little town of Moho. The Moho team gave us a tour and we got to see where they are doing ministry. We had some fun playing on a playground and getting some pictures with some pretty cool Llmas! We also went out to Conima which is about another 20 minutes from Moho. The Conima team is doing great and I can´t wait to see what God does there. Conima is beautiful, it is right on Lake Titicaca, so let´s just say the Conima team gets a pretty awesome view of the Lake everyday! We are planing another trip to Moho and Conima again, since Maggie was a little sick and didn´t get to go with us! We missed her and we felt like a part of us was missing since she was unable to come.

Upon arriving back in Huancane on Wednesday night, we ate a quick dinner and then went to the church service across town. Pastor Ruban asked me to share the Genesis 3story again about Adam and Eve and the fall. The service went well and it was great to be in the company of believers. I always enjoy singing the Spanish worship songs! After church, we hung out more with Ruban and his family. It was a special custom in town that night to burn a fire outside your house because it is supposably the coldest day of the year. So Ruban, burned some wood right outside his door and Louisa made us chocalatada (homemade hot chocolate). It is so good we have had it 2 more times since Wednesday haha. It was a fun night to just hangout and spend with them.

Friday, the Moho team came to get some rest in Huancane. It was a treat to see them 2 times in one week. We got to enjoy their company swap stories about our Peruivan lives. John even set up the DVD player in our house and we got to watch the Blind Side which was so fun. It was nice to watch something in English and feel a little at home. Saturday, we went to Juilica with the Moho team and picked up some grocheries that we needed from the ¨American like¨grochery store. We also went to Topac which is like a big market in Juilica. The Moho team bought some stuff there and then we headed back. We watched the USA vs. Ghana soccer game and ate some lunch. We were all very sad to see the US loose especially in overtime.
Maggie, Andrea, and I also tried to make our homemade pizza for the Moho team as a special treat. Let´s just say for some reason our whole doubling the recipe didn´t really work out and we were pretty sad about that too. We can´t seem to figure out what went wrong but the pizza was pretty doughy to say the least no matter how long we cooked it. We wished it would have turned out like it did for us the first time we made it when we made it for Rosmmy but for some reason something went wrong. It was our first cooking fail in Peru and hopefully the last. haha. Dough just doesn´t cook the same here in the high altitude, and I guess since we made more then the first time something just didn´t work out right. But other than that our cooking has been fabulous here and we have enjoyed our meals that we make from scratch! We then helped the Moho team get a bus back to Moho this morning and said goodbye until hopefully the fourth of July we will get to see them again.

Well that is pretty much the highlights of the week. Thank you so much for your prayers and support! I love y´all so much!