Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Amazing.

That’s how I describe my God.

Mighty. Powerful. Sovereign. Perfect. Wise. Loving.

How great is the might of my God! We so often fail to realize His power in our day to day lives. Greg Gomez felt God calling him to serve for the summer in Peru. As a recent graduate in the field of engineering, Greg decided to delay the start of a new job to serve my God, our God in Peru for the summer. What a risk, right? No. God is sovereign. He is in control of everything. In following God’s will, Greg gave his life while reaching those who have never heard the Good News of salvation!

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” –Romans 10:14, 15

Praise Him that He is in control.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. –Romans 8:28

One of Greg’s friends wrote this about him:

“Greg was destined to die serving God. It didn’t have to be in Peru or in Mexico or Africa. It didn’t have to be in the projects of Nashville at MFUGE, or at the homeless shelter downtown St. Louis. Greg was going to die serving the Lord because he served Him everyday in his everyday life. Greg was always on mission just so happens he’s was in Peru this summer.”

What a convicting and encouraging message. My prayer is that the same thing could be said of my life. What a challenge to serve God in ALL that we do so that no matter how or when we die, we have died serving our Creator, our Savior!

I didn't even know Greg yet feel his loss deep within me because of the bond that we shared in Christ and in our calling to share Christ with those in Peru. I am amazed at God's divine, perfect plan and His might. It's tragic that we so often lose sight of just how wise He really in times that we, as human beings, can’t seem to reconcile as just or fair. It was His will for Greg to be called home in that bus crash, and my prayer that He will be glorified among the nations through it.

Praise be to Him who loved us so much that He sacrificed His SON for our salvation!

“May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine upon us,
that your ways may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations.

May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you.

May the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for you rule the peoples justly
and guide the nations of the earth.

May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you.

Then the land will yield its harvest,
and God, our God, will bless us.

God will bless us,
and all the ends of the earth will fear him.

-Psalm 67

Updates!

Wednesday, December 5: Deivis, Liz and I went to the zoo! Parque Zoologica Huachipa is located about an hour away by bus! Deivis even took Liz and me on our first “real combi” ride. These vehicles that they refer to as “combis” are actually little vans used in the same manner as a bus. I felt a bit cramped, but it wasn’t as bad as I had expected it to be! Anyway, at the zoo, we saw leones, osos, cocodrilos, monos, pingüinos y más!

*deivis and me at the zoo!!
*a weird peruvian animal. . . don't remember the name of it. :) it kind of looked like a cross between a hog and a rhino?-ish. . . it was weird. :)
*they have the same hair! :)
*up close!
*christmas! kind of ironic that the two missionaries are in a picture with an evolution banner. :)

Thursday, December 6: felt a tremor! That’s right! I’ve officially felt earthquake-like shakes! We were all hanging out after Bible study when Noemi grabbed my arm and said, “Do you feel that?” Oh my goodness! It was crazy! We survived. . . :) Our friend from the beach, Fernando, came to Bible study. We were so happy and shocked to see Him there, but we couldn’t deny God’s grand planning. If he hadn’t sent that big wave to flood Liz and me, we never would’ve met Him! (see blog titled “30 de Noviembre al 2 de Diciembre (La fin de semana!)”

Saturday, December 8: Christmas decorations!!

*liz hanging stars!*helping us with the ornaments
*all done!
*it kind of looks like an american christmas. . . oops! :)

Monday, December 10: So, I’m thinking. . . Peru is cheap. I think I’ll get highlights. . . Haha. Yeah. After choosing a salon down the street from our apartment, I thought getting a full head of highlights for $30 would be a great idea! Liz and I went down there and explained (ha) to the hairdresser what I wanted. It was quite a scene. The lady took out a book of colors and I picked a reddish-brown color that I liked. She then pointed to a brighter color suggesting that I get those instead. I shook my head “no” and told her that I wanted the original color. After the hour of hair-doing, it appeared that the Peruvian hairdresser had won her way. :) Ah. Only in Peru. . .

Tuesday, December 11: A typical Peruvian dessert is the picaron. Picarones are basically like doughnuts that are dipped in a molasses-type sauce. Erick, our friend from ICPNA and the Lighthouse, took us out to a Peruvian dessert shop that he assured us would not make us sick. The picarones were quite interesting, and we had a great time! *erick, liz and me enjoying our picarones.
*our kind friend and me

Wednesday, December 12: We saw “Encantada” (“Enchanted”) in Spanish!! It was a wonderful movie and quite understandable for us even in Spanish! I’m so proud of Liz and myself for being true Peruvians. :)

Thursday, December 13: Liz and I taught our last English Conversation Club at ICPNA in La Molina. It was so great to see our friends one last time and so hard to say goodbye! Betsy, who has only missed like TWO conversation clubs since we’ve been here, even brought us each jewelry that her mom had made for us! *Sigh*

Monday, December 18: We took a final trip to Ancon to visit the family of our good friend Deivis! His mom, Olinda, was kind enough to cook us a real Peruvian specialty-Cuy. Let me translate that for you. . .Cuy is Spanish for GUINEA PIG! That’s right, folks. She went down to the market, selected a LIVE guinea pig, brought it home in a bag, killed it and grilled it up! As much as I was looking forward to eating new and strange foods, the guinea pig still kind of freaked me out. :) *that's the HEAD!!!

*yum!
*welcome summer 2007. the sign made me laugh because peruvian summer starts in december. . . :)Later, Deivis, Liz, Deivis’ sister Fiorela and I went down to the beach. I actually showed Fiorela how to hold a baseball bat for the first time EVER! That’s right! She is 21 and has never played baseball! Crazy!! After a wonderful day there, we went home again to get started on our packing.

*i totally missed that one. :)
*just having a little fun in the South American sun!
more to come soon. . .
pictures
more pictures!

"May his name endure forever;
may it continue as long as the sun.
All nations will be blessed through him,
and they will call him blessed."-Psalm 72:17

15 de Diciembre (Fiesta de Navidad/Despedida)

*me, manuel and liz with our going-away cake

Tonight was our FINAL meeting at the Lighthouse. Goodness, it’s so unfathomable for me to even think that there are people that I saw tonight for the last time. Gladys came tonight. I’ve never met her before, but she said some of the nicest things. One thing she said to me was, “Thank you for coming here to help out our people, the Peruvians.” She went on to explain what a blessing she could see that we’ve been, and told me to take heart in the fact that I will see many of my friends again someday in heaven; she encouraged me to pray for those that haven’t made the decision to accept Christ yet.

Our Christmas/Going-Away Party was quite fun! We gathered together and read the Christmas story directly from God’s word. While discussing the birth of our Savior, we also talked about family traditions and things that we love about the season. One thing that I find to be so interesting here is the time that they open gifts and eat Christmas “dinner.”

*our cake from manuel

So, the tradition is for the whole family to get up at midnight on Christmas Eve and open presents! After that part of the celebration is over, they eat Christmas dinner! That’s right. Think about this. . . it’s one, two in the morning and you’re downing turkey and hot chocolate! ¿Qué extraño, no? Yeah, I love Peru!! :)

*serving some ice cream!

After all that, we ate ice cream sundaes! It was so fun because some of our friends had never had them before! In addition to the ice cream, our friend from conversation club, Miguel, kindly brought us a going-away cake! Thursday he asked Liz and me what our favorite type of cake is to which we had opposite answers. (I’m sure you can guess what mine is!) He had the bakery make a half-chocolate/half-vanilla cake! We managed to eat the whole cake and TONS of ice cream that night! Haha. It was fantastic. Julio was my helper and served the ice cream toppings while I scooped up the ice cream and cut the cake! He did a great job and really enjoy the whipped cream! :)

*dr. julio serving the toppings for hernan*rene, arturo and junior
*moises and raul *noemi, gladys, miriam, martin, jhon and javier REALLY enjoying their ice cream!

One thing you must know is that we have a ratio of like 10 boys to 1 girl at the Lighthouse. It’s quite humorous really, but we are never short on bodyguards! :) Anyway, somehow our group of wonderfully sweet GUY friends managed to organize themselves enough to get us not only going-away gifts but going-away cards, too! I was so impressed with them! They all went to the store together and picked out the perfect cards for Liz and me and took the time to each write a sweet message in the cards. They also decided to get us perfectly-Peruvian t-shirts that have cuys (guinea pigs) on the front! Guinea pig is a delicacy here in Peru. . . :)

*me, junior and liz with our "cuy" shirts!

For a parting gift, we printed out group pictures from our Lighthouse meetings from this semester. Everyone seemed to love their pictures, and I hope they treasure the memory of our time together as much as I will.

*me, aulo and lizMy goodness. . . just a few more days now. I’m not to the point of tears quite yet, although the urge hits me from time to time. . . God has been so good to me. He’s blessed me more than I ever imagined He would. Coming to Peru, I knew that I would be His instrument to speak to others about Him, and to bless them in His name. I never imagined that so many people who were perfect strangers to me only four months ago could impact and bless me so abundantly. But they have.

*our wonderful group at the "Lighthouse"

Katrina

“I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

"It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.”-Philippians 1:3-11