Redeeming Love

Last night I was going to go to bed early, so I started reading this book I checked out from the library, Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers.  It's basically the story of Hosea, only from the prostitute's perspective and it takes place in the 1830's in the U.S.  Well, I thought I'd read maybe 5 pages and be out, but instead I read the whole prologue.  As soon as I finished it, I started crying, sobbing.  The whole prologue is about this little girl and how, due to a lack of love and people who cared about her in her life, she was forced into prostitution...at the age of eight!!!  It made me think about the kids I see every Tuesday when I go to do the children's ministry at TEC.  It totally broke my heart on a new level for, not just these kids, but all kids who don't have someone to show them what real love is, and that they are worth being loved.  Sometimes I feel like I have so much love in my heart that I have to give away in order to be happy, I have to have someone to serve or to give to.  This book helped me realize what a lack of love there is in the world.  I should never feel like there is no one for me to love, because the world is full of people who are literally dying (physically and spiritually) to be loved.  I feel like I've been kind of naive to that.  Even though I've gone a lot of places and seen a lot of things, I feel like it's never really sunk in how much of a REAL need there is in the world, not for food, not for shelter, but for love. 

There's a 17 year-old girl here who is a friend of Patricia (the German girl I work with) and comes over sometimes for dinner or to hang out with us.  She has this "god-father" who is with her ALL the time.  It's really weird how he unceasingly hovers over her...long story short, we think she is being sexually abused by him.  Patricia talked with one of the experienced missionaries here about it and she said, unfortunately, it's very likely that that's what's happening.  She said it's pretty normal here.  NORMAL?!?!?!  That's just not right!  Also, I've been told that the majority of the kids who come through the kids' ministry I'm involved in on Tuesday afternoons are being sexually abused at home by their fathers and brothers as well.  I can't stand it but I don't know what I can do about it. 

Please pray for me, that God would open up my eyes more and more to the need for love and give me wisdom in how to show that love.  Continue to pray for safety, as I am living in a very different world here.  And most of all, please pray for the kids of Pucallpa and all the kids all over the world who feel worthless and unloved, that God would bring someone into their lives to share Christ and His love with them, the only love that truly satisfies.  We can't go into their pasts and erase the terrible things they've had to experience and endure, but we can at least show them God's love...a Redeeming Love.   I John 4:10-12

Photo Blog :)

As always, a lot has been happening, so this time, I thought I'd sum it all up in pictures...

Every Tuesday afternoon I go to TEC, another mission agency in the more rural town of San Jose, outside of Pucallpa, where they do OANSA (Spanish AWANA) with the local kids.  Here's a picture of one of the competetive games we played with the kids recently.

SAM Academy strives to provide their students with the best possible education and social experience.  So we have adopted the American tradition of School Spirit Week.  Here is my class on "Crazy Hair Day".

I've been getting requests for pictures of the food I'm eating, so here ya go!  This is fish with white rice and tomatoes and avacado.  Doesn't seem very exciting, but it's all quite tasty.  The only thing missing from this meal is fried yuca or banana. Mmmmm....

Down the street from the mission base is a statue that is referred to by the missionaries as the "Banana Man"...probably because he's got a huge bunch of bananas slung on his back :)  But it represents the hard-working jungle people and the troubles they have had to endure.  Here's a cool silhouetted picture from behind that I took at sunset the other day.

Next to the "Banana Man" is a cemetary.  Halie and I went inside to check it out.  That's where we found this awesome picture of Peruvian Jesus painted on the wall of a building!  The coolest thing about it is that his robe is painted with a typical Shipibo Indian design.  Our God is the God of the Peruvian Jungle people too!

As I've mentioned, Patricia and I are now alternating leading Wednesday night youth group for the girls.  Here's a picture from my latest lesson.  The lesson was on Rebekah and how God had revealed his plan to her, but instead of trusting Him and letting him do it his way, she took the reigns and made it happen herself.  I blind-folded the girls and had all but one walk down the booby-tapped hallway themselves.  The last girl I guided, moving some of the obstacles out of her way.  You may still reach the end goal if you take matters into your own hands, but you end up with a lot less bruises if you just let God take the reigns. 

Here's a picture of me on Pirate Day for School Spirit Week.

Aaarrrrrgghhhh!!!  The elementary kids posing in all their fierce pirat-iness.  And yes that's an older sister putting the sword to her little brother on the right. 

Satruday morning I invited the middle school girls to come over and bake cookies.  This is Tashi and me doing all the work while Mimi and Kerstin licked the beaters and cleaned out the bowl later on :)

The kids got so into Pirate Day on Thursday that we decided to have a Pirates of the Caribbean Movie Marathon!  Here's a picture of all of the middle and high schoolers mindlessly gnawing on cookies while being hypnotized by the constant swaying of Captain Jack Sparrow.  So much fun!

Pride Rating: 0

This year, in the process of getting to Peru and then finally arriving and working here, I have taken a big hit to my pride.  As you may recall, my original plan was to come for two years to teach abstinence to teenagers out in the city.  But, as you have probably noticed, I'm not actually doing a whole lot of that.  Not to mention that my current commitment is fourteen months shorter than I had hoped it would be.  At first this was really difficult stuff for me to take in.  It didn't seem good enough for me to come for ten months and teach MKs (missionary kids) in English in the gated, secure base.  It wasn't adventerous enough to be a "real" missionary job.  But, as I've come to find over the seven weeks that I've been here, it is not only a real ministry, it is a much needed one, and I feel like it was no mistake that this is where God has placed me for now. 

It's amazing how I'm not only acting as a teacher for these kids, but as a discipler and friend.  As soon as that bell rings at the end of the schoolday I go from "Miss Ashley" and "Ma'am" to "Hey Ash!"  It's the same for the other young single missionaries here, too (Patricia, Halie, and Micah).  The kids love us!  It's great when I'm sitting in my room, planning lessons or working on some project, and I here a little tapping on my door, open it up, and find a few middle school and elementary girls standing there with puppy dog eyes, saying, "Ashley, we're bored.  Will you come play with us?" or, "We need help with a prank!"  Some of the ministries we do with the MK's other than school are Wednesday night youth group, afternoon and weekend activities (Ultimate Frisbee, Dodge Ball, Capture the Flag, you name it...), and sleep-overs and outings.  Below are some pictures of me with the girls.

I've been having a ton of fun and accomplishing a lot of work, but, unfortunately, because of the non-stop action, my personal spiritual growth had kind of taken the back-burner for a while.  But I'm so excited that I am finally seeking out the tools I need to continue to grow in my relationship with the Lord.  The single missionaries have just started a Bible study together, going through the book of Joshua.  I've also found a website that can send a daily devotion directly to my e-mail inbox!  http://www.crosswalk.com/ has a TON of different daily and weekly devotions and sermons as well as podcasts that you can subscribe to.  Also, this week I'm gonig to seek out a prayer/accountability partner in the missions community to meet with me weekly.  Please pray that I'll be disciplined in doing that.  One of the things that I think will help me most in my walk is that I have finally found a church to plug into.  Mil Palmeras is the church on the missions base and the pastor, Julio Chiang, a missionary with SAM, but also a born-and-raised Peruvian, is an awesome speaker!  There are also small group Bible studies I can go to in the Sunday school hour before the service begins, where I am beginning to build friendships with Peruvian women.  I'm also building friendships with others close to my age in the youth group at the church (youth group here is ages 18-23).  Below is a picture of a group of us (including Micah and Patricia) last week when we had dinner at the youth pastor's house.

There are a lot more things I could talk about, but they are all still developing ministries, so I will wait until they're officially taking off to share about them.  But just so you can know what to pray for, the ministries that I am beginning to get involved in include the children and teen ministry at TEC (another mission agency outside of Pucallpa) and the crisis pregnancy center, and I will be personally taking on a hospitality ministry.

Thanks so much for reading.  Have a blessed week!