Preparations

The tickets were purchased, there was no turning back.  It was time to change our focus of who was going and the exact dates our trip to preparing.  We did not have much information as to what the missionaries  would like us to do while we were on the ground.  The broad details were a children's camp and pastor's  retreat.  Some games to play with the children that had a purpose or lesson were desired.

We focused much of our initial preparations on packing and immunizations.  I mentioned the sleeping bag requirement previously in the blog.  We learned it is winter in Peru while summer at home, with varied temperatures of near freezing at night to 70 degrees in the day.  I started gathering layers, shopping clearance racks for the really nice sport tech gear.  This fit nicely into my new running routine, especially as it snowed here until mid May.

As winter lingered, cutting down my already shortened summer, I again questioned why I was going on this journey.  As you see, I am not very confident in my decisions and have many misgivings.  As I said, the tickets were purchased, I was and am past the point of aborting the plans to go.

We met as a team a few times, feeling fairly good about our preparations, but not certain what would be desired or expected of us.  That is until we met at our planned final meeting prior to departure.  Pastor read an email laying some requests of us:

- be prepared to do some skits or songs each evening.  Mimes would be best for the language barrier.

- be prepared to lead devotions up to one hour in length with translation 

- lead games for 200 children for 2 hours each day of camp

- lead team building activities for pastors 

- Pastor was asked to teach the book of Nehemiah

- bring potato peelers as there will be lots of potatoes to peel at each event -  finally something I feel capable of doing 

- could the hygienist come prepared to teach the children to brush teeth and please bring tooth brushes and paste for each child.

Whew!  We felt a little overwhelmed with the short notice.  Each of us are busy in the summer schedule.  How would we put a drama/mime together?  Would it be possible to get the toothbrushes donated?  Would the additional items fit in our full suitcases?

Our team is hand picked by God, which became evident as we responded to the requests.  Two could get toothbrushes.  Megan had a suggestion for a mime which we found on YouTube.  We plotted out how we could do the drama and found an evening to meet again to practice.  

You know what?  In one evening, a powerful drama came together.  Wow!  This was not in our strength, this is beyond our meager capabilities.  We all give full praise to God.  We learned first hand how God will equip one when needed.  We asked for guidance and strength, and we received.  Such a simple principal --  ask and you will receive.  

If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him ! (Matthew 7:11 NIV)

For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. (Proverbs 2:6 NIV)

Now, just days away from departure, we are finishing the packing, suitcases are stuffed.  Everyone has been preparing devotions and games.  Perhaps we will practice our drama in the airport during layover.  Certainly we will have time to put our individual efforts together.  God has been faithful to bring us together as a team.  I am confident He will finish our work as a team.  

We seek Devine strength and anointing as 'we go.'  There we will find the will of God and be effective in ministry for Him.

A kindred spirit

Do you know what is crazy interesting?  Although I have been married to my best friend for nearly my entire adult life, and we both have traveled around the world, he more than me, we have only been out of the country together one time, when we visited Grand Cayman to celebrate his completion of college.  Since, he has been to Singapore, Australia, India, and England without me.  I have traveled to Germany and Poland without him.  Now I am embarking on a trip to another continent without him.  I guess we don't believe in both leaving this good ole USA together. *giggle*

I have had to come to terms with a few of my anxieties while preparing for this missions trip.  One is the fact I could not convince my husband to go with us, to carry my luggage (see first post in blog).  I hope one day we will have opportunity to do ministry together, but this trip he is sending, while I and Megan are going.  

As the trip was being planned and others were committing to go, it initially looked to be a small group of 4 - Meg and I along with our Pastor and another man from our church.  Fabulous men that I am honored to travel and serve alongside.  But, I wondered how the dynamics would be with two men and a mother/daughter team.  I am delighted to travel with my daughter, but I was concerned about how these men would handle a rather emotional woman on the trip with them.  Let's face it, life is just different for men and women.  

Another discussion I broached with God, I told Him of my concerns and desires for another lady and kindred spirit to go along on this trip.  He came through in a fabulous manner.  Kim, fellow committee member, coffee addict, and neighbor had a strong desire to go on the trip, but did not believe she could leave her job during the time of the trip.  She and I prayed together for her boss to 'let her go.'  Our prayer was answered shortly, and she is going with us!  How wonderful to have this kindred spirit going with me.  We both share concerns of finding coffee to wake up in the morning, how to fit all those necessary items in a suitcase, cope with 'roughing it' in a foreign land, and other 'girlie' issues.  

Now we were a group of five but soon we learned of a sixth member.  Another lady, who is a delight, joined our group.  Four ladies and two men, the guys will be overwhelmed with female hormones.  Thankfully they have each other while we women will take turns crying and holding each other up.  Ha ha.

I am not sure why I am always surprised that God answers my prayers.  But I usually am surprised at just how much He cares about my silly anxieties and desires.  It is incredible that the God, who created the entire universe, every human, is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, takes the time to know the number of hairs on my head, has the time to hear me among the trillions of humans, listen to me whine most of the time, and give good things to me.  I am not worthy.  I constantly fail at living a righteous, sinless life; I am selfish, a worrier, and not always faithful in my relationship with Him.  And yet, He always loves me, listens to me, and continues to lavish on me.  I need to remember this as I encounter difficult things.  

Getting Fit

The last few years have not been the best for me in physical fitness area.  It has been a real challenge to maintain my weight which was creeping steadily upward.  Age, hormones, stress, life are not working in my favor.  I determined that if I truly wanted to be effective on the mission field I need to return to a healthier lifestyle.  My chosen start date (why must there be a start date to healthier living?) was the Monday following Easter.  I fully intended to enjoy Easter meal and dessert.  April 2 arrived and I began my journey.

I once lost quite of excess weight, kept it off for quite a few years.  But April 2nd found me in need of relearning how to eat correct proportions and nutrients as well as revving up my activity level.  Walking is my exercise of choice.  I enjoy the pace, I have neighbors that I walk with many days a week, and it is easy on my joints.  Unfortunately, I was rear ended the day before my 18th birthday and suffered severe whiplash.  For my entire adult life, I have been recovering from this injury.  I have tried jogging in the past but this was too much for my body, in fact my chiropractor told me to stop running.

As I approached this endevour in weight loss and healthy eating, I figured I was going to need to try to do more than walking.  I am not as young as I once was and losing weight is not as easy as I want it to be.  Additionally, my youngest daughter expressed a desire to run in 5K fun run races.  I figured if I was going to take her to these 5K events it would be silly for me to stand on the sidelines watching.  I again attempted jogging.  I bought new shoes for running and set a goal of running 2 to 3 times a week.  I started out slow using a couch to running type program.  On days I did not run, I walked.  On days it was a blizzard I played Dance Dance on the Wii.  Before April ended I ran in my first 5K race.  I ran the entire distance!  I was also down a few pounds.   You cannot understand my excitement and pleasure in this accomplishment.  I did not think I was ever going to be able to run.

I am running, I am still in shock.  I have now completed 5 fun runs.  My back and neck feel great.  My knees, well they are complaining somewhat.  I bought new shoes, again, that brought my knees some relief.

As I have been running, God has shown me much.  He has provided cheerleaders when I have needed them, a jazzy song in my headset when I told Him I just didn't think I could run another step.  Through analogies in running He taught me that I need not be concerned with winning races.  I need to be concerned with running the race, not giving up, running my own pace.  If I try to keep up to another's standard of pace or distance, I will likely fail.  This is true in my spiritual life too.  I need to run the race, following His call on my life, not the call of another's life.  Following a person will likely lead to failure, I need to follow Him!

I learned to keep my eyes focused on small goals, such as the next mail box or the stop sign rather than focusing on the fact I have 2 more miles to the end.  This again translated in my spiritual life.  God often tells me only the next step.  He knows that if I am shown the big picture I will be overwhelmed and give up before reaching the goal.

I love how God talks to me.  And I am so excited that He has healed me to allow me to run, albeit slowly, but I am running.

Now that I am down a few pounds and my lungs have been tuned up with aerobic exercise I am more confident in handling the thin air of the Andes Mountains.  Once again, God gave me what I needed when I needed it.  This time it is the ability to run.

A Garage!!

Have you mourned with me at the loss of my garage?  Perhaps you applauded my sacrifice in answering the call 'to go'.  Maybe you are praying for a windfall of money that will somehow result in something, a garage or walls or flooring in the house.  For me, I was striving in being content in the wait for the someday garage and remodeling projects.  The story of the garage will not disappoint, keep reading.

I am married to a man that is beyond wonderful.  He is not perfect but he is as close.  Don't get me wrong, he has his moments but well, he is perfect for me.  This guy who is sending his wife and daughter on a trip to Peru, staying home to work, not taking a summer vacation himself, guiding  his other daughter through a college search, asked me how important a garage is to me.  I carefully responded with 'very important'.  We have lived here 20 years and will likely be a minimum of 20 more years.  We are not getting any younger and fighting the snow and ice is getting harder with each year.  He nodded and let me sit while he pulled a piece of paper and began drawing.  I became cautiously optimistic.

We discussed the size of the garage, the amenities of the space, the type of structure (wood or steel), and the exact location of the structure.  My man of many talents drew out the garage of my dreams, a three car stall with an attic above, included a full concrete apron out front with a basketball hoop at one end.  My excitement began to grow as he began to collect bids for such a fabulous building.  The prices came in and we had a bit of sticker shock.  We then discussed exactly what did we need in a garage versus want, are there areas to cut back in the structure to make it more cost friendly.  

I waited in a somewhat quiet, non-begging manner as hubby figured and collected data.  Okay, I was not that quiet, I asked a lot of questions wanting to know if we were really building a garage.  Shortly he presented me with a drawing of the garage of my dreams:  a two car garage with a gambrel roof with a lean-to third car stall, and windows!!.  Oh!  How lovely.  He was planning on putting only concrete in the two car area with a small apron.  I jumped with delight.  I was so excited to have a garage for my car this next winter, near the back door, as well a place to host a graduation party next spring.  AND - I was also going to Peru.  I am truly the luckiest girl and the most spoiled.

The story is not quit over yet, this amazing man then decided that if he was going to do this project he may as well do it right and do it all the first time.  You can imagine my joy when I understood the stakes he put out laying out where the building included stakes indicting a 25 foot apron of concrete out front.  I am nearly giddy with the knowledge that less dirt and mud will enter our home with all this concrete out the back door. Our dream garage is to become a reality.  

The man I married is wise and generous.  He has wisely waited until we had the money saved to build rather than taking on debt to burden us for years.  He is patient and puts up with an impatient spouse as he leads our family as a wise steward of our resources.

I am still living with partial walls, worn flooring, unfinished woodwork, lack of woodwork yet I am get the privilege of a short term missions trip with my daughter and a garage.  God wasn't done blessing me as donations started to arrive for our trip.  Approximately 50% of our trip is paid for through donations.  As my friend and fellow traveler said "you cannot out give God."  She is so very right.  

The garage is in planning phase, going through blue print design and approvals, etc.  Although the building site pad is ready and waiting.  The process is taking much long than my impatient personalty prefers.  I keep reminding myself that the wait worth it.  I real relish each time I pull into the garage, near the back door of the house this winter rather than traversing the icy hill to the big shed, maneuvering the big sliding door, tromping through the snow to lock it all up.  I desire to remember how I though the dream was lost to have it given back to me with much more than I expected.

I'll post a picture of the lovely structure when it is built.  

P.S. 10 days to our departure for Peru.

Sleep on ground required... uh, I'm not so sure

As I wrote in the previous post, the decision was to sacrifice the garage and/or home remodeling to go to Peru.  I wish I could tell you that I signed up immediately without further pondering or questioning.  But that would be less than honest.  Rather, I had the audacity to debate the decision and leading with God.  God the Most High Creator of the Universe, Alpha and Omega --  that God. 

Before I would pay the down payment, I had to convince myself that I could survive without some comforts I am accustomed to at home.  I readily admit I am a spoiled princess.  I have a soft bed, running water, flush potties, heat and cooling on demand.  I am not an outdoorsy, camping kinda girl.  I gave up tents when every adventure in camping as a young girl turned into monsoon rains and tornadoes.  I have decided that hotels are best for me.

The schedule for this trip includes time in a little village high in Andes where we will sleep on the cold ground, hopefully in a building, a building that does not get heated.  The night time temperatures drop to around freezing as August in winter in Peru.  I simply and respectfully told God that  my hips could not tolerate sleeping on the cold, hard ground.  Seriously, they ache and cause discomfort in my soft, adjustable mattress.  In very predictable God-like fashion, He quietly reminded that His grace is sufficient, He is the God who created me, after all.  God and I discussed this detail for some time.  Yes, I lost the debate.  I am going to where I sleep on the cold hard ground, BUT I am bringing an air mattress, thank you very much.

I do not recommend debating with God.  I have yet to win a debate.  He really does know what is best.  I guess I am just bull-headed.  Thankfully, He is a patient, merciful, compassionate God.  I am praying that I do not wear out His patience.  I admire the quality of Mary who immediately responded to God in a positive manner without any questioning.  "May it be done to me as you say."  It is a quality I really would like to strive to achieve, I fail daily in attaining this character trait.  

In the end my suitcase includes a sleeping bag, an air mattress, and a camping pillow.  Hey, did you know that make small camping pillows that roll in a bag?  I didn't, nor did I know that there are compact, yet warm sleeping bags.  Those outdoorsy, camping stores have some really neat products to make outdoor living more comfortable.  I can learn and I can enjoy.  I am really hoping it doesn't rain.  It is only temporary and I will survive.  I may suffer aches and pains, I may find it difficult to move those mornings following ground sleeping but I will also learn that God's grace is sufficient.  Prayers are most appreciate for those three nights high in the Andes Mountains as our team attempts to rest on the cold ground in our sleeping bags.

I am going to Peru? Really?

Welcome to my journal of this adventure I am about to embark upon with my youngest daughter and four others to the Andes Mountains of Peru.  We are a group of six going on a short term missions trip for two weeks.

We leave in less than two weeks but I think you might like some background how I became a part of this adventure to bring Christ to the Andes Mountains.

I currently serve on my church's mission's committee.  We strive to provide opportunities for our congregation to serve in our church, community, and world.  With that in mind, as a group, we desired to offer a short term missions trip opportunity further than a day's drive.

Our church has a relationship with a missionary currently living and serving in Peru.  She was sent out by this congregation.  Coordinating a short term missions trip with her seemed appropriate and natural.  We will get to see her mission field, learn about her work first hand, and have a clearer understanding how to pray and support her.  We also will have the opportunity to serve along side of her and hopefully bring her encouragement.

For myself, I have long desired to go the mission field.  My adult life has been a continual exposure to the larger field of world-wide missions.  Being a part of a the Christian Missionary and Alliance I have gained friends who are missionaries.  I follow the ministries of several missionaries, read about missions, pray for missions, and financially support mission work.  This season of my life has not been conducive for me 'to go', raising a family.  I have watched others and have been waiting for my turn.

I have visited some very dear fiends on the missions field.  These were not official mission's trips, I was visiting my friends.  I quickly learned that visiting a missionary is an opportunity to serve.  I saw up close and personal what is like to move your family to another country and culture, to navigate in a place without language skills, to create a home, to make friendships, networks, and ultimately tell other of Jesus in a place far from home.

We have so much going on in our lives right now with two teenagers.  I told my husband, initially  that I did not think I should consider this trip.  The timing, again, did not feel right nor was I convinced of the financial aspect of the trip.  At about that time, I began reading a book entitled Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis (http://www.amazima.org/katiesbook.html).  Katie was a high school student desiring to go a missions trip, she lobbied her parent to allow her to go to Uganda.  Her mother finally agreed to go with her in December of her senior year of high school.  This trip changed Katie's life forever.  She now lives and serves the Lord full time in Uganda.  That short trip was a life altering trip in Katie's young life.

My next conversation with my husband about the Peru trip was different.  Our youngest daughter has had a life-long interest in the Spanish language - - this is a trip to a Spanish speaking/Latin country.  I told him that rather than building a garage and continuing our home remodeling projects of 20 years, perhaps I should go to Peru with our daughter, which will ultimately impact her relationship with the Lord.  Where do I want to store up my treasure, in things that rot and decay or in the heavenly realms?  Please understand my deep desire for a garage.  We have an upcoming grad party in the spring, I have awaiting 20 years for a real garage and am tired of fighting the ice and snow.  I would also really like to finish the interior of our home, the never ending remodeling.  We live with half finished walls, unstained woodwork, walls needing to be torn down and rebuilt, and flooring in desperate need of replacing.  This is not an easy sacrifice for me.  My husband quietly and confidently agreed, as if he had been waiting for my conclusion he had made long before, that we should go.  His agreement gave me the final nudge I needed to commit.  Thus our preparations began in earnest.  

That was in February/March.  It is now July and we are leaving shortly.  I am excited and nervous all at once.  How I wish my husband was going to lead me and handle all the complexities of travel into a foreign land as well as carry my luggage *grin*.  This is also the longest period of time I have every been away from home.  My husband has been gone longer but I was the one at home in the comfort zone holding down the fort.  I am being stretched and look froward to all there is to learn in my faith walk, but, admittedly, scared at the same time.

Here in this blog, I hope to journal my experience as we go forth.