Home, Sweet Home

I've been having so much fun and staying so busy lately, updating my blog hasn't even crossed my mind!  I can't believe a month has gone by since my last update...it feels like days! 

I have never ceased enjoying my time here from the moment I open my eyes at the 5:30am sunrise to the moment my head hits the pillow and I'm out like a light every single day.  I've truly come to love Peru: the people, the place and even the daily life (inconvenient as it may seem at times).  Peru has truly become my home.  I don't say that to upset my family and friends I left behind in the States, but to encourage and comfort you that I am certainly not suffering here.  I do miss you all!

But I am gaining a spot in the SAM Family here as well.  I was really nervous at Thanksgiving because I've never spent a Thanksgiving away from family and especially not away from the United States.  I wasn't sure how it was going to go down, but it turned out to be great!  I could have been in South Carolina if I didn't know any better!  We had a huge cook-out feast of the holiday essentials: turkey, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce.  There were about 70 missionaries who came out to join in the festivities: the meal, the prayer, the going around and announcing what you're thankful for, the NFL game on TV, and the football game in the front yard.   Below is a picture of the whole group who made an appearance at the Thanksgiving celebration and also a picture at the Boqueron (a waterfall out in the jungle) where a group of us visited the day after Thanksgiving.  It was an awesome time of fellowship and, I think, a turning point for me in my time here.  Peru is my home!

The question of how long Peru will be my home is still up in the air, but, for those of you who have not heard, I am officially announcing that I will be returning for at least a second year.  There will be plenty of ministry for me to do here with continuing to teach at SAM Academy, getting more into the work at Latidos de Esperanza (the crisis pregnancy center) as my Spanish continues to improve, and even getting involved in the building of a retreat/recreation center on the Cashibo Lake that will be used by churches in the Pucallpa area.

If any of you are inspired by my updates and of hearing about the amazing work the Lord is doing here, and think you'd like to come check it out, please let me know!  We can arrange a short-term trip, OR if you'd like to teach at SAM Academy, we're losing 3 of our teachers next year and are desperately in need of elementary and high school teachers.  What's a 10 month commitment out of lifetime of decades?  Come on down! :) 

I hope to see many of you soon as I'm going back to SC for a week-short visit at Christmas.  I love you all and thank you so much for the blessing you've been in my life!  Merry Christmas and God bless!  (Picture is of me with Mimi and Tashi, two 7th graders at SAM Academy who helped me decorate my Christmas tree.)

The goings-on...

I apologize that it's been so long since I've updated.  It's been so busy here, the seconds go by faster than I can count them.  So let me explain what has been going on..."no, there is too much to explain.  Let me sum up."

MINISTRY TO PERUVIANS
In the last blog I posted I said I had been reading Redeeming Love.  Well, I finished it and it was awesome!  Ironically, however, I have since pulled away from doing the children's ministry at TEC.  They didn't really need me there and, although I have a natural  Christian love for those children, I have never felt called to do children's ministry.  I have, however, attended a meeting at the crisis pregnancy center and have had two appointments to begin training and working there.  I showed up early both times and waited 30 minutes, but, for various reasons, the lady who was supposed to come work with me did not show up, so I have not yet done that.  But I'm praying that this Tuesday, when I go again, it will finally work out.

I've been praying a lot about how the Lord would use me to do ministry among Peruvians.  For a couple of months I've been thinking more and more about turning the apartment into a more visitor/guest friendly environment to host the many Peruvian friends I and the other singles who live in the apartment with me have been making.  This week, as I was praying, a devotional suggested Romans 8:13 for further reading.  I read it: "Practice hospitality."  Couldn't be plainer.  So, a day later, I did just that, hosting 15 people (half missionaries, half Peruvians) for a Taco salad dinner and a movie.  It was awesome!  I want to do it more regularly so some of my apartment-mates and I have agreed to do what it takes to save money to get the needed things (more couches, a big table, more dishes, etc.) so we can host our friends more often and hopefully be models of Christ to them as we deepen our relationships with them.   

MINISTRY TO MK'S
As always, I'm still working a lot with the MKs, teaching at the school, playing with them outside of school, and participating in activities with them.  We've recently had a Fall Festival and gone to a Christian concert (a rare thing in Pucallpa!).  We also continue to do things on a daily basis, such as play frisbee, plug in the stereo system and dance in the cafeteria, challenge each other in Dance Dance Revolution (like Guitar Hero, but with dancing), and spontaneous activities, such as "stealing" other teachers' sacred items such as a hair brush or ball cap, hiding them and turning it into a scavengar hunt.  Good times!  And, of course, we are still leading Wednesday night Bible study for the youth group-aged kids. 

EXTRAS
Other things I've done recently are participate in a missionary women's retreat where I helped lead worship, go water skiing and tubing on the lake at the missionary base 10 km away, and puppy/kid/house-sit for a family who had to go to Lima to get some paperwork done.  I stayed with their 12-year old daughter and 5 week old puppy, just as a nice gesture, but they decided to pay me anyway...with 2 bags of shredded cheddar cheese from Lima!!!  That's something you won't find in Pucallpa.  I've been savoring every tiny mosel!  :) 

I tried to upload some pictures for you all, but my connection has been pretty weak today.  I will try to put some up later.  Happy Fall, everyone!  God bless!

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!