28 de Septiembre (My Naked Church)

Having no school again today, Elizabeth and I decided to check out Chacarilla which is a mall and shopping area in Lima. We went to San Antonio’s, the same restaurant Jeff and Judy took us to last week, to eat lunch. I ended up ordering the same pollo a la plancha sandwich that I had ordered last week but with chocolate cake for dessert this time! Yum yum! Shopping was next on the list, and I bought two new shirts. I’m going to have to mail some things home or leave a few things behind in order to meet the weight limits . . . haha.

Later, Junior met us at Starbucks so we could go to dinner and then to our small group Bible study! We ate the cheesy bites pizza at Pizza Hut and loved it! (I’m still full. Haha.) Then, we headed over to Jennifer and Bill’s home for our small group. Jennifer and Bill are two of the kindest, most genuine people I have met in my entire life. They had a wonderful spread of food prepared for us and generously allowed us to stay in their home all evening with no pressure to leave at any set time. I felt so encouraged by their prayers and testimonies and look forward to learning that which God can teach me through their examples. (And did I mention they are moving to Texas when they are done in Peru? Good people, I tell you. :)

So, Flamingo Road Church is doing a study called, “My Naked Pastor.com” where Pastor Troy has cameras set up all in his home. This way, we get a sneak peak at who he really is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for 5 weeks. In addition to this, we are doing a small group study on Friday nights at homes across Lima called, “My Naked Church.” These studies encourage us to get real with our lives and with God. Tonight we talked about anger. Of course anger is a natural reaction to something that our body determines as unpleasant. Anger in itself is not, in my opinion wrong, but the results anger produces through our actions can be very wrong. We focused specifically on the way our words can impact others—for good or for bad. It is so easy in “the moment” to say things that we feel completely justified in saying. The Bible tells us, though, that we should not let our tongue get us in trouble. It says in Proverbs 21:23, “If you want to stay out of trouble, be careful what you say.” Oftentimes, I can react with an indignant attitude and think that I deserve to be able to say what it is that I want to say because someone else has hurt me. I simply need to learn to be quiet. We should use our words to build others up, not to tear them down. It can be so hard to be quiet! I’m not typically the type to avoid confrontation, but I should learn to enter confrontational situations with an attitude of Christ-centered love and respect for the other person.

On a lighter note, when we were leaving, Maria offered to take us down to the grocery store so we could catch a taxi home. She told us that her car was small, and guess what she drives. . . A VW Beetle! Like the OLD ones. . . Considering that I also drive a Beetle but with the newer body type, I was stoked to go on this short journey with her! How fun!! :) I wanted to take a picture but held myself back. Maybe next time. . .

“Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways.” Proverbs 19:30

Katrina