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!

A day shall be as a thousand years...

That's how I feel here!  It seems like I could do 1000 years-worth of things in one-day's time.  But then time goes by so fast it feels like 1000 years would go by as quickly as a day.  Even though I haven't written an update for over two weeks, it doesn't seem like it's been that long.  A lot has been happening to keep me busy...

1.  I decided that I didn't like the Bible cirriculum I was given for either my middle school or high school Bible class, so I have decided to make my own.  This takes up many, many hours a week as I research, plan, and make my own notes and charts and graphs to pass out to the class.  It's definitely proving to be a worthwhile decision, though.  Below are some pictures of my high schoolers presenting their SIPs (Special Interest Projects) today.  We can only cover so much material in class, so if a question of interest is raised that they would like to know more about, it is up to them to do further research and present it to the class.  All four of my high schoolers did a fantastic job with their first SIP!  I'm so proud of how they are using the minds that God gave them to think and research and come up with answers for themselves! 

Tanya, comparing and contrasting the creation story in Genesis with other religions' creation stories

Kenji, showing locations archaeologists have considered for the landing site of Noah's Ark

Oli, demonstrating the dimensions of Noah's Ark in relation to the SAM base

Andrew, explaining different dinosaur extinction theories, including his own

2.  Another single missionary, Patricia, and I have decided to do youth group for the MK (missionary kid) girls on Wednesday nights when the adults are in prayer meeting.  Tonight was our first night and it went really well.  I didn't realize how much I've come to love (and now miss!) youth ministry.  I felt right at home and am looking forward to doing it again each week!

3.  I'm continuing to teach Middle School Language Arts and Geography  for now (although the other teacher will be here to take those over next semester).

4.  I'm also trying to get involved with working with Kids Alive in the more rural town of San Jose, right outside of Pucallpa.  They have a teen girls' club on Tuesday mornings and on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon they do Awana for the kids.  So far I've only gotten to visit and observe, but they would like me to teach one of the Awana groups each week (in Spanish!).

5.  Speaking of Spanish...I'm also getting tutored in Spanish, for an hour and a half, twice a week.  It's coming along really well and my tutor has already said he definitely considers me bilingual!

6.  I am also responsible for helping to get music together and to practice singing with another missionary to lead worship at a missionary women's conference that's coming up in Pucallpa at the end of October.

7.  I am aware that I do need to take a break every once and a while, so I make sure to have some fun and get some physical activity by playing volleyball and ultimate frisbee with some other missionaries and Peruvian nationals each week.  I also get together with the other single missionaries once a week to have dinner and hang out.  Here's a picture from our most recent dinner, last Friday (I'm in the middle):

That was definitely the shortened version, but hopefully you are all satisfied in knowing that I am staying busy and loving every minute of it!  Thank you all so much for your prayers and support that got me here!  Keep it comin'!  God bless!

 

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Hello again!

So it's easy to "tough it out" when you have to deal with little inconveniences for a short period of time, but recently it's been hitting me that these things I'm dealing with are not for a short time, but for 10 months!  For example, I just realized the other day that I have been here for going on three weeks and I haven't really had a chance to sing the whole time!  At home in the States I can belt it out whenever I feel like it, but here, that would be disruptive to everyone around me since there's really no privacy.  I didn't realize how much that would effect me, but it really got me down.  So I prayed for the Lord to give me an outlet to sing.  Within 5 minutes another missionary approached me asking if I could help her to lead worship at a missionary women's conference that's coming up!!!  How awesome is God that He doesn't just answer our "big" prayers, but that He cares so much and so personally for us, He takes care of our little needs as well?!  I'm hoping and praying that this opportunity to sing will help draw me closer to Him and be a comfort to me in this time of confusion and adjusting. 

Although there are some things I'm still getting used to, life here moves too fast to spend much time thinking about it.  SAM Academy has been keeping me busy with planning lessons, creating and grading tests, and coming up with projects and assigments for the kiddos (below is a picture of the classroom where I teach). 

Now that I've kind of got a handle on a teaching and the daily expectations at the school, I'm already adding more to my plate!  Next week I'll begin meeting with a Spanish tutor to help me regain what I've lost of the Spanish language and to learn even more.  My goal is to be able to say with confidence by the time I leave Peru that I can speak Spanish fluently.

Next week I'll also get an introduction to Latidos de Esperanza (Heartbeats of Hope), the crisis pregnancy center.  I'm planning to spend some time in the center as well as sitting in on an abstinence class that one of our missionaries teaches at the local public school.

There are two youth ministries I'm considering joining and both meet on Saturdays.  I've only attended one so far, but tomorrow I'll be checking out the other one.  I'm hoping to get plugged in as soon as possible, though, so hopefully after this weekend I'll know for sure which one to dedicate my Saturdays to.

Anyway, I'm very excited about getting involved in different ministries, just please keep me in your prayers that I don't do as I often tend to do and spread myself too thin.  Everything's just so exciting, I want to be a part of it all!  (I do understand the importance of a Day of Rest, though, so Tuesdays are my "nothing days".)

If you'd like to see some pictures of Pucallpa, I've recently put some up on my Facebook.  Thanks for reading and have a blessed week!

A Good Source of Protein

Saturday night around 12:30am I awoke to the sound of a blood-curtling screem on the other side of my bedroom wall.  Startled at the noise and terrified of what may be going on in the room beside mine, my heart froze.  But after a moment I was able to take a deep breath of relief and fall back asleep when I realized what was going on...

Halie, another single female missionary who lives in the dorm/apartment with me and the other single missionaries, had spotted something in her bed.  Not a blanket or a pillow or any ordinary bedtime comfort article, but a large, brown, tentacly cockroach!  This was not the first insect siting that had been made in my first week here.  I'd already killed a hairy black and white spider and a mid-sized cockroach in my bedroom, not to mention the swarms of tiny black ants that march through kitchen daily.  Bugs are becoming a norm around here.  So much so that when Halie and I sat down to enjoy a movie together with a bowl of maccaroni and cheese, it did not phase either of us when we spotted a few shiny black insects lodged snuggly inside the occasional noodle.  We simply removed those noodles from the feast and continued chowing down.  Halie is much more cautious than I since she is a vegetarian, but we agree that a little extra protein never hurt anyone. 

Bugs are just one of the few little inconveniences I've had to get used to since arriving.  Other things include being hot and sweaty ALL OF THE TIME (although we did have cold front come through this weekend, cooling it down some), throwing toilet paper in the trash instead of the toilet (but at least they have scented toilet paper so it doesn't smell too bad), always feeling dirty and having my eyes irritated from the dust in the air (however, that should calm down in the rainy season), and not having any privacy (at least I get my own room, though...even if there are only screens for windows and the wall does not reach the ceiling). 

Since I arrived last Monday, it has been a non-stop adventure.  Upon placing my bags in my room I was immediately whisked away into town where I spent the entire afternoon and evening shopping for things to set up my new home.  The next morning I had to go through orientation for new teachers at SAM Academy and I got to see the text books I'll be working from for the first time.  And then school started not even twenty-four hours later.  It was slow-moving the first few days but I finally feel like I'm getting into the swing of things.  I'm teaching the middle school and high school Bible classes as well as middle school Geography and Language Arts.  I'm struggling a little with the last two subjects since I'm not qualified to teach them (another teacher will be taking those classes over when she raises enough financial support to get here), but I'm praying my way through them and God is really coming through.  The kids are very encouraging and seem to enjoy my teaching style.  I've also been able to connect with another missionary who was a school teacher for several years before moving to the field.  She's been praying with and encouraging me as well as giving me tips on lesson planning and material to help me through the classes.  Praise God!  I'm teaching the children of American, German and Peruvian missionaries.  They all speak English, but for many of them it is their second language (and Spanish their third!). 

As for my language skills, I still do not consider myself fluent in Spanish, but I am very thankful for the amount that I can communicate and can already tell I'll be learning more and more each day.  There are also several other ministries I may be able to get involved in where I will need to use Spanish and hopefully increase my speaking abilities.  I will write more when that all happens :)  I'm sorry this post is so long and that there are no pictures, but I'll be sure to upload some for you all when I get a chance. Thanks for reading.  Keep me in your prayers!  God bless!   

5 Days and Counting

Yep, five more days and I'll be on a plane heading for Peru!  These last two weeks have been a whirlwind and it's not getting any slower.  I've been closing out my time back home with lots of visits and activities.  Last week I had my yard sale and my McAlister's fundraiser, both of which allowed me to visit with many friends and church family.  And I just got back from visiting my family and a supporting church in Pennsylvania this weekend.  Below you'll see a picture of me with Scott Carroll, the youth director at West End Baptist Church in Rock Hill who I've been interning with, and his wife, Cindy.  I just said good-bye to them last Wednesday before they headed out on a 10-day motorcylce ministry trip to Sturgis, South Dakota.  And below that is a picture of me with part of the congregation of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Troy, PA, whom I visited this Sunday.  I'm so glad I got the opportunity to visit with them since they have been so faithful to keep me in their prayers and support me in all ways, even though I'm not constantly there to remind them of my ministry needs.  I was also surprised when, during my visit to Pennsylvania, my best friend from PA, Anna (who is seen with me in the bottom picture), drove four and a half hours from Pittsburgh just to spend an afternoon with me before I left!  I can't believe how blessed I am to have such an awesome and supportive group of people surrounding me!
          

Well, it's all shopping and packing this week.  Thank you to everyone who has given of your time or financially to help my preparation time go more smoothly!  I appreciate all the help I can get and, fortunately, everyone has really been coming through for me, constantly blessing me with assistance, prayer, and words of encouragement.  It's a great reminder to me and, hopefully to all of you, that this ministry I am doing could not be accomplished without you, my loving supporters, committing to partnering with me.  You have clearly demonstrated your mutual passion for the mission to see Kingdom growth. 

If you still haven't gotten a chance to see me recently and would like to, I'll be at Bethel Baptist Church tomorrow (Wed, Aug. 10) for the 7:00pm service.  Then I'll have an open house at my dad's from 5pm-10pm on Friday, Aug. 12 (609 Atherton Way, Rock Hill, SC).  I'll also be at Glenrock Baptist Church at 11:00am for the Sunday morning service (Aug. 14).

If you're interested in giving financially to my ministry you can make checks payable to South America Mission and mail them to the SAM home office (1021 Maxwell Mill Rd, Suite B, Fort Mill, SC 29708) or you can give online HERE.  If you'd like to receive my weekly prayer e-mails and blog updates, e-mail me at awaldmeyer@southamericamission.org to let me know.  Thanks again to everyone for your constant and much-needed support.  I love you all!  God bless!