Today we decided to check out a Chifa! In Peru, Chinese restaurants are called Chifas, and they are everywhere! There’s a really nice German lady in my Spanish class named Eva, and she checked out the restaurant for me. She said that she was going to eat there with her husband the other day, and I told her to be careful and that if I didn’t see her in class the next day, I’d know she was sick from the food! Well, the next day she was absent from class! I was so worried. . . When she came the following day she explained that she’d had to stay because a man was coming to work on the phone line and that she had figured I was probably worried. Haha. She assured me that the restaurant was clean, though, so Liz and I checked it out! Chifa Choy Tac had some wonderful food, and we didn’t get sick! That’s a bonus here in Lima! :)
I finally broke down and asked for some ice for my Inka Cola. . . I just can't drink it lukewarm. :)
Also, we had our first Thursday Bible study today! I have to admit that I was a little bit worried that we would have a sparse turnout since it was the first one, and I really prayed about this. With the Bible study set to begin at 7:00, we had only one person there by about 6:55. By 7:25, we had around 10 people in the room! We even had a couple of completely new faces!! I was so excited and reminded of God’s promise to us that He is in control. I never should’ve doubted that He would take care of it all, and I hope I never will again. We are studying a series of videos called “Nooma” which is the Greek work for “spirit.” The videos are made by a young pastor of a church in Michigan who really has a way of sharing the word of God. Our first episode was entitled “Rain” and was about the storms that we endure in our lives. Of course God never promised us that life would be perfect or even that we’d never hurt, but He did promise that He would always be there with us. It’s amazing that He allows us to go through hard times so that we can develop our character and our ability to persevere. He promised that He would never give us more than we could handle with His help, and I believe in that promise. One of the hardest times of my life happened about two and a half years ago. At the time I knew that God was teaching me a lesson, but my heart was hurting so badly that I just wanted it to be over. It took a while to heal, but I’ll never forget the pain I felt—and this is good! God wants us to learn from our trials so that we may share our wisdom with others and use that experience to make good choices in the future. I can honestly say that I’m thankful that He allowed me to go through that time, and I value the way my relationship with my creator grew. During the times that we are hurting the most, we become the most dependent on Him. Although struggles can be painful, I am always glad to be at the point where God is the only one who is sustaining me because only then do I have an accurate picture of His strength and love for me. I realize only now how, when I was hurting, He was carrying me. . . carrying me through the hard times and doing so because He loves me that much. I love the paraphrase of Matthew 5:3-5: “You're blessed when you are out of options, and all you can do is lean on God. Because when you realize your need for God, it is only then that you tap into His immeasurable greatness and goodness. You're blessed when you've been stripped of that which is most precious to you, because only then can you be tenderly embraced by the One most precious to you.”
I pray that God continues to bring people to the Lighthouse so that He may become known among the lost. I pray that I will be used as an instrument to tell people of His love and that we’ll see these people in Heaven someday.
“. . .and in the wilderness where you saw how the LORD your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place.” Deuteronomy 1:31
Katrina
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