One More Day of Freedom

Well, I have one more day of freedom before school starts. I can't believe that is that time already. I am really not looking forward to it too much. I am moving offices AGAIN! This really shouldn't surprise me, since in the 11 years that I have been working for CMSD I have moved 6 times. Crazy, huh? Because my job doesn't require me to be at any school (I don't serve children at any of our elementary schools-I travel throughout town and serve the children at their daycare), I am the first one to be booted out if they need a room. You would think that I would get used to this, but I never do. Oh well, I will survive it again. Heck, I should be a pro at it.

Enough of that stuff! On Saturday, my friends Kelly, Dana, and I, we will be hosting a baby shower at my house for my best friend, Michelle. I am so excited about the shower and so excited for her. She has experienced two miscarriages and gave birth to our sweet Bella in August of last year. Bella was just too small to survive and went to be with our Lord three weeks later. Michelle is now 32 weeks pregnant with a baby boy, and she and the baby are doing great so far. This will be Michelle's first shower and I want it to be perfect. Several of our college friends are coming and we are looking forward to visiting and celebrating with Michelle. I will definitely be posted pictures soon.

More pictures of Peru

These are just some random pictures from the week.

Pictures from Peru!

This is a picture of the group on our last day in Lima.

Our first day in Huancas

Our first day was spent in a village named Huancas. We set up a medical clinic and played with the children there. Here are a few pictures from there.

This little girl was waiting outside of the clinic with her mom. I just thought this was a great picture. She was the cutest thing. All of the children were just beautiful.

We took jump ropes for the kids. At first, the kids were shy and didn't want to do it. I had to show them how. Thankfully there are no pictures of that. It has been a long time since I have jump roped.

In the medical clinic, one of the things we did was to give out glasses to those who were having trouble seeing. We had an eye chart on the wall and some of them couldn't even read the big letters at the top. I can't even imagine what it would be like to not be able to see and not to be able to do anything about it. I know that we did not necessary give them the right prescription, but you could always tell when we got the right glasses for them b/c their faces just lit up. This trip truly made me realize how fortunate we are. God has truly blessed us far more than we deserve.

These are a couple of pictures of some of the children who came into the clinic. They were all so adorable.

Day Two - Tingo, Peru

On Tuesday, we were in Tingo, Peru doing the same things. I worked more with the children on that day. Enjoy the pictures from there!

We were allowed to go into the schools to talk to the students and give out pencils. I went with Courtney Stanback, who is a Spanish teacher at CHS. She was so in her element in that classroom. It was so great to see her interact with the children in their native language.

Outside the clinic, we set up activities for the children. Here we are making salvation bracelets with the children. The first pictures shows us at the beginning with only a few children around. As you can see in the second picture, we were being mobbed by the children. These children really had nothing compared to our standards and got so excited over the smallest things.

Another thing that we did in Tingo was to take pictures of the children and make a key chain with their pictures. These children had never seen themselves in pictures. The picture above is one of them at the door waiting for their picture. It was absolutely crazy. We tried to take everyone's picture, but we eventually had to start turning them away. It is extremely hard to say no to these children.

This picture is a picture of one of the men who became a Christian. While we were talking to the children and presenting the gospel to them, we noticed that there were several adults listening very intently. This man was one of them. After Courtney finished talking, this man began studying the cube. We called one of our pastors over and he talked with him, and he and one of his friends accepted Christ as His Savior.

Molina Pampas - Day 3

On day three, we went to the village of Molina Pampas. We continued with the activities for the children and the medical clinic. The problem was that Dr. John and his wife were both sick and couldn't come to with us. Bro. Tommy became the doctor for the day.

These are the people waiting to get into the clinic. There were so many people who came. I think we ended up seeing about 150-175 people that day.

Dr. Tommy in action! Pretty scary, huh? Just kidding, he and Teresa did a great job that day.

Some of the girls in the village.

This is one of the babies that I fell in love with. He reminded me of John James. I was able to share the gospel with his mom. She and her daughter both accepted Christ. I gave my Evangel Cube to the little girl. The mom was so appreciative. It really touched my heart.

The place that we worked in here was actually their medical clinics. There were 2-3 nurses from the clinic there that day. This is a picture of one of the nurses. Later, in the afternoon, she came up to one of ladies in our group and asked her some questions. Stacy went through the gospel with her using the Evangel Cube and she accepted Christ. Almost immediately, she began sharing with the other nurse, who also accepted Christ. Then the 2nd nurse asked me to share with her sister, who asked us to share with her daughter. It was a domino affect. Lynn ended up giving the cube to the first nurse. I can't tell you how many people she witnessed to. It was truly amazing seeing God at work.

Wednesday Update

Hi Everyone again!

We had another great day working today; however, when we got up this morning we found out that John and Courtney were both sick with some kind of virus. John Neil had it Monday. Please pray that no one else gets it or if we do, that we get it tomorrow. None of us want to have that bug and be on a 24 hour bus ride.

Although Dr.John was not there today, we went ahead with the medical clinic in Molino Pampas and everything went well. Let´s just say that I think everyone was a doctor at some point today. We served about 150 patients today and present the gospel to many. We shared the gospel with one of the nurses in the clinic there using the evangelcube, which is cube that opens to different pictures of Christ and explains salvation . That nurse invited Jesus into her heart. After she did, she started using the cube to tell the other nurse. I walked over there to help her get started with the cube and I called Raul (our translator) over to make sure that she was telling it right. I prayed with that lady and she also accepted Christ. Then she asked me to share the cube with her sister. She also accepted Christ. Then that lady asked us to share with her daughter, who was probably about 10 years old, and she also accepted. It just had a domino affect. Lynn ended up giving the cube to the first nurse and she went around to many people sharing the gospel. I lost count of how many people she talked with. It was truly amazing to see God work in her life and in the lives of other people. Many people were added to our heavenly family today. Praise be to God.

Tomorrow we will be doing some sightseeing in Kuelap. Thank you again for all of your prayers!

Tuesday Update

I am a day late with the post. I was a little car sick from the van ride around the mountains. I don´t think that I will ever complain of a bumpy road or pothole. Until you have been to Peru, you really don´t know what those things are. On Tuesday, we went to the village of Tingo and we had another great day. We are all extremely tired but all in great spirits. We held a medical clinic today and served over 150 patients. We also went into the schools and got to go into the classes we handed out pencils and candy to the children. After school, there were probably 150 - 200 children in the square. We played soccer and frisbee, blew bubbles, and made salvation bracelets with them. Their favorite thing was that we took their pictures and printed them out for them. Many of these children have never seen themselves in a pictures. Unfortunately , we finally had to start turning them away because we just couldn´t do anymore. Turning people away is the hardest thing to do for all of us, but sometimes we just had to. Many people came to know Christ today. I honestly don´t know how many, but just from the stories from everyone on the van there were many. We are going to the village of Molino Pampas tomorrow to do the same thing. Please continue to pray for us.

Thanks again for all your prayers!

Hola from Chachapoya!!

Just wanted to give everyone an update from Peru. I am typing on a computer in an internet cafe so the keys are different from ours, so please excuse all the mistakes. We made it to Chachapoya around 12:30 Sunday night. The travel was not nearly as bad as I thought is was going to be. I did have a problem Saturday night. As we were loading the bus after we got into Lima, we were all standing around with our luggage, and apparently someone stole my backpack. Thankfully, I was wearing my passport and had all of my money in my pocket. I was so upset Saturday night, but once I got some rest and calmed down, I realized that there was nothing in my backpack that I absolutely needed. I lost my cell phone and a couple of other things that I can replace. The majority of the things in my bag were my Bibles, both English and Spanish, tracts, and my Spanish songs that Courtney had been teaching us, my food (yes, everyone, I am okay with out my food - I do have my pop tarts : ) !!! The person who got my bag is probably very disappointed. I just am praying that he/she reads the things in my bag.

Enough of that stuff, today we went to the small village of Huancas (pronounced Wonkas). Some of us were in the medical clinic and some were outside witness and praying with the people and playing with the kids. I help in the clinic today and we were able to help about 65. I was everything from a pharmacist to optometrist to nurse to receptionist. To me the glasses made a huge impact on the people who received them. To see their faces light up, when they could see. There were children who couldn´t even read the top line on the chart and to be able to help them at least see even the fourth line on the chart was just such an impact on their lives. The people were so grateful for what little help that we could give them. To see these people and the situations that they are living in, really makes me see how fortunate we as Americans have it. It is totally different world here. I can´t wait to share the pictures with you. I will share about one girl in particular. Betsy came into the clinic complaining that her heart was hurting. The more they asked her questions, John and Teresa determine that she was suffering from depression. She said that her "heart was empty¨". Lynn and the interpreter were able to talk to her and she accepted Christ as her Savior. Please pray for her.

Tomorrow, we will be going to Tingo. We will be going into the schools doing activities and sharing the gospel with the children there (both elementary and high school), setting up a medical clinic again, and having church services that night. Please remember us as we present the gospel and provide medical attention the people there. Please pray that we will have the medicines that we need to help the people. The worst feelings we felt today was when we didn´t have the right medicine to give the people. For many of these people, this is the only medical treatment that can receive b/c they can travel to Chachapoya (only 20 minutes away) to receive help.

I can´t add pictures from here, but I will definitely be adding some when we get back.

Thanks for all your prayers.

Peru is almost here!

Well, I am now basically two days away from leaving for Peru, and I am really getting excited. Still a little nervous, but very excited to see what God is going to do on this trip. For those of you who do not know, I will be leaving Saturday on a mission trip with my church to travel to Chachapoya, Peru, which is located in the Andes Mountains. We will be working in several villages close to Chachapoya. As with any mission trip, we don't know many details about the schedule of events; however, God knows exactly what we will be doing each and every day. One day we are scheduled to be working in a medical clinic to provide care to the people of Tingo. Our biggest prayer concern with that is that we will have enough medical supplies to help the people there. We don't want to have to turn anyone away due to lack of supplies. We will also probably be having revival services at night at the local church. Other than that, we really don't know. We are leaving all the details up to God. I know that we will be exactly where He wants us to be.

We had our last planning meeting tonight and almost everyone was there. There is such a diverse group of people going (senior adults down to a 6th grader and everyone in between), but there is just such a sweet spirit already amongst us. God has already amazed us at how He has worked out the details for this trip for everyone.

Please pray for our safe travel. We will be flying out of Atlanta into Lima. From Lima we will be boarding a bus for 24 hours to travel into the mountain regions (Yes, I said 24 hours!!!!) We leave at 8:00 Saturday morning and don't arrive to Chachapoya until Monday morning around 2:00 a.m. Do you understand why I am a little nervous??

I guess that is all for now. I haven't started packing yet, so I guess I probably need to get started sometime soon. We are supposed to have internet access while there, so I hope to update my blog as much as I can. If not, I will have lots of pictures and stories to share when I get back. I cherish each of your prayers while I am gone.