“525,600 minutes.
How do you measure a year in the life? How about love?”
This is the question some bohemian artists struggling to make it in New York ask themselves in
the 1996 Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway play “RENT”. Today marks one year that I have lived in Peru. I have also been pondering this
question, “How do you measure a year in the life of a Peruvian Missionary?”
·
16 short term teams/vision trips
·
6 weeks in Arequipa for language school
·
3 trips to Cajamarca
·
Countless trips to Lima to meet teams
·
Several new job responsibilities
·
1 new Church plant
·
First Christmas away from family and home (and
many more other “firsts” from trying guinea pig to surfing)
·
3 weddings (Lenin and Elva, Calin and Heather,
and Julton and Julie)
·
4 roommates
·
2 goodbyes to dear missionary families
(Bradford’s and Ball’s)
·
1 new family in the field (Mills)
·
5 new families raising support (Davenports,
Hills, Lewis’, Suttons, and Ueltcheys)
·
26 Peru Mission interns/fellows (including a
name change mid year from Internship to Fellowship)
·
1 big, beautiful new office building!
·
Untold number of new friendships (Peruvian and
American)
·
Countless blessings to be able to serve my Lord
and follow Him wherever He may lead me and know there is no safer place than
the arms of my Savoir!
“Lord, are you sure about this? Do you really want me to go to Peru? Please make your will known, because if
this is what you want, I will go!”
January 2008. I still
remember writing that in my journal as I lay in my tent in the Peruvian Andes
after a long day of hiking and thinking and praying. I had just finished my first mission trip ever. It was a trip to Trujillo, Peru, to put
on the first Twin Lakes Camp in Peru.
Little did I know how that trip – 8 short days – would change my life? While in Trujillo, I felt the Lord’s
presence like I never had before.
After the mission trip, I stayed in Peru and went hiking in the Andes. It was supposed to be with a group of
people, but in God’s providence, it was just I. This allowed me 4 days of solitude and hiking and praying
about God’s plan for my life.
After returning home, I prayed for 6 straight months and had others
praying for me. Then on June 15,
2008, I told Matthew Nasekos that I felt God calling me to go to Peru. His excitement was so
encouraging—especially since I told him, I specifically wanted to do his job
(he was raising funds to move there also). That night I went back to Sheila and Matthew’s house at Twin
Lakes to enjoy some time of fellowship and prayer with their staff. We split up into groups to pray for
Twin Lakes, but we prayed about Peru.
I will never forget Matthew’s plea that the Lord would not only open
this door if it be His will, but that it would be flung open. I had the mental image of the door that
flies open so strongly it bangs against the wall. And the Lord did indeed fling open the door and push me
through. My comments to my mom
that this would be a year long process, maybe longer, to get to Peru turned out
to be untrue! Within six months of
that first conversation with Matthew, I had filled out an application, been
approved, tried one last Baycol case, began raising support, quit my job and
moved to Guatemala first for language school and then Peru. What a whirlwind! Nevertheless, such a joyous and blessed
one. I would not trade my life for
anything in the world.
I am not sure how to measure a year in the life of a
Peruvian Missionary, but I hope the Lord allows me many more to try to figure
it out! The photo at the top is from January 2008, my first mission trip to Peru where it all began.
