more pictures!! scenery, readers, and church members :-)

Downtown Lima

Carol, one of the church members, and I

Landon and I with Louis, Angie, and Lizardo from the church

Downtown Lima

The children at the church doing a special presentation for mother's day

At our second social party, with Lizardo, Matsu, Landon, Barbara, and Loretta. Matsu is Landon's reader and Barbara and Loretta are my readers.

Reading today...I'm going to be smart today and remember my spanish-english dictionary

I will be leaving in about an hour to start reading sessions today with my students. I absolutely love studying the bible with all of them! At first, I was worried because I thought that things might become monotonous, studying the same lesson, eight hours a day, two days a week. (Because I have different afternoon readers on Monday and Tuesday, then the cycle repeats Wednesday and Thursday)

But everyone is so diverse! Different levels of English and different undertstandings of the passages have led to very different discussions every hour. I love my readers! It sounds odd to say, but I feel as if we have all become very quick friends. I truly look forward to reading with them every day. I wish there were more hours in the day to have more discussions and for us to do other things together.

Please keep me in your prayers. I am getting questions very frequently about the differences between Catholicism and Christianity. I have been trying my best using the scriptures I know, but I really don't know very much about Catholicism in the first place. Additionally, some of Landon and my readers are very skeptical about starting bible studies with the church leaders, because I guess they feel like we are more "normal" ...I guess in terms of not being pre-armed with an arsenal of anti-Catholic literature. Some of our readers will not even read prepared literature.

My readers range from that to agnostic to very passionate about Christ. One of my readers, Loretta, is attending church with me now. It is such an encouraging blessing! I praise God for having his hand in this trip. And I pray that he will continue to lead my thoughts, words, and actions for his glory.

Our Social Party Yesterday

These are just a few pictures of our social party yesterday. There are certainly a lot of new friends and faces to get used to. One of the women, Loretta, in the purple shirt, has decided to come to church with me. I am in the picture with Matsutaro, my reader who transferred to Landon because he wanted to read more hours.

Second (and First) Weeks in Peru:

When we arrived, it did not take long to realize how different things were! Peru is nothing like America, although I did notice some things in common with Barbados. Actually, the city smells exactly like Barbados. It smells wonderfully like the ocean.

Landon and I were blessed in that we had no problems at all flying from San Antonio to Peru. There was one layover in Houston, and that was uneventful. Even when we landed in Peru, going through customs and immigration was very easy.

The following Tuesday after arriving was an easy, relaxing, “getting adjusted” day. We learned where the nearest supermarket was, how to contact people with the local phones, and met some of the church members. Wednesday then we went to the English Institute and advertised for the coming classes. We also had an introductory information meeting that night. Then Thursday we jumped right in and started reading with the Peruvians!

We have experienced SO much interest since the classes have started! So many people want to read that we no longer have any space in our schedules! Landon is reading the book of Luke with eleven people, and I am reading with nineteen. Additionally, we have a waiting list. Thank the Lord! Things are going very fruitfully.