Good News... Bad News!?

I was suprised to find out today I´ll be here another full month- probably until the middle of July! Pedro says I have some things to iron out and then we can work on level 3, being able to explain yourself on deeper topics. That´s good and bad! I was advised to do between 3 and 6 months of language school but was really hoping for 3! I was excited to go to Lima and ¨get in on the action¨ but was also sad to leave the family here and this new place that was beginning to feel comfortable! Just a chance to work on contentedness! I want to be present to whatever the Lord has for me. In some ways that is an easy way to live, but it´s so different from my initial response!

Culture Shock

So they tell you it´s gonna happen... This week and last I´ve been going through it but I think it´s more of a culture ¨mood¨ and part of me wants to debate if it has anything to do with the culture! When your teacher asks what has been the biggest ¨choque¨ or, crash, with the culture- it begs a few tears- remember who you´re dealing with here! Well, Pedro didn´t know that... I´t´s my first week with him. He´s the language school director and happens to be a pastor of a church many of us go to, as well as Peruvians. At first, these two careers seem like a lot on one person´s plate- and it is! But it also makes a lot of sense. Especially in this case. I answered it was that there is no 8-5 job description and then you can enjoy yourself like at home... but it came out in Spanish through an event of this week. A friend of one of the language school students died the day before. He was serving in Lima with LatinLink. He´s about my age and is from England( pray for his family who do not understand why he was in Peru). In someways this triggered my thoughts, but they have been brewing for a while! Mostly I´ve been missing material things from the states- sadly. (Well, my sister has been super at sending me pics and videos of my new nephew so I feel a part!) So what is this choque about? well, it´s mostly that I want to be doing what God sent me down here to do- minister His gospel! But I can´t minister well if I don´t understand the gospel well or the culture here. Right now I´m to be learning the language and the culture and I can enjoy it!- I realized I was taking a verse and changing it- that we aren´t guranteed tomorrow ¨ was what I was thinking (Matt.6:34 I guess is what I was thinking of I´m not really sure if this idea is even in the Bible actually!) Pedro was sweet to listen to me and to share his own struggles with contentedness and enjoying what God has given him today. He gave me Ecclesiastes 3:11-13 ¨He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men, yet they cannot fathom what God has done from the beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink and find satisfaction in all his toil-this is the gift of God. 14 is good too ¨I know that everything God does will endure forever, nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.¨ I hope that encourages you! It does me! If anyone finds a New Testament agreement with that I´d be interested- I´m looking too. Thanks for your prayers and being the conduits of so many of the things I am thankful to God for!

subiendo Misti (climbing Misti)

Just wanted to write a week later about our climbing Misti. It is 8500 meters to the top and it was our friend´s idea that we´d all go. Most of us didn´t know what we were getting into but we went all the same. The first day we climbed with our packs to the campsite. it was hard for me because I had never hiked with a big pack. but it didn´t compare to the second day. I had taken some pills to help with the altitude but that only dulled the pain in my head. We got to see a beautiful sunset and the lights of the city turning on as the sunset! WOW! and we got a good view of another mountain near Arequipa called Chachani. but as soon as the sun went down we got very cold_ very cold. The spaghetti, soup and tea helped a bit but we all took cover in our tents as soon as we finished because we weould be waking up at 4 am to start the second day ( so we could catch the sunrise too). IT was not a fun night but was certainly better than being outside! I had a bunch of dreams that night_ that my brother Jon was there and that it was all a fun ride at an amusement park- I wish! We didn´t make it before the sunrise unfortunately. The ascent was incredible_ we felt so great wothout our packs that i wanted to go fast but the guides wouldn´t let you waste your energy. it was like I imagined expeditions to be but never thought I´d be on one! There are no trees on this mountain- we saw our last one as we drove up to the starting point! It´s a volcano remember! lots of sand and rocks! It´s a little difficult getting up but advantageous on the way down! My head started hurting when the second group turned around because they couldn´t make it! Once we got to the edge of the crater I thought I was finished but they said we´re going to the cross! I wasn´t sure about that and you really have to have desire to go further in those conditions but I had come with out host sister whose dream to climb has been since high school so i was going as far as she did! i made it but do¨m´t have the pics to show yet! My head was pounding and that was more than I ever want to see at the altitide so I didn´t enjoy the destination as much as the journey but I barely made the pictures! I wanted to get down_ luckily that´s the fastest part_ it´s just like the dunes_ you run down- except this time we had shoes and socks on and there are rocks!- makes for a mess but cuts the time down by one fifth ( 5 hours up day two- one hour down)We met the rest of the group at the camp and headed down some more sand! crazy stuff- my grammar teacher keeps asking if I want to climb the others but I´m trying to tell him that was more than enough adventure for me!