Mase, Taco Salad & Truth...

TEAM PERU:

I never really know how to start these posts because there is so much to say, then I end up leaving a million things out of it but here I go... :) We have had another great week beginning with Bible College last weekend which was packed, I'll share a few thoughts later on. Saturday afternoon we have the girls over our house for a girl's Bible Study and Age shares with all of us at that time-awesome time then too! She spoke about the difference between TRUST and FAITH... anyone know what that is??? Maybe I'll put that in the next blog but I'll let you think about it for a little bit. Sunday was a great day, it was actually sunny in the afternoon (for those of you who didn't know this, right now its usually cloudy and overcast everyday so when the sun comes out in Lima its VERY exciting for us!). So I went to a park near my house and enjoyed the sun for about an hour. Ha, I actually have a small case of MASE (not sure if that is spelled correctly) but I brought that with me just in case I would need it. Its not a really bad area, no worries. Just thought some of you would laugh thinking about me having a spray thing of MASE and maybe needing to use it some day. ANYWAY, I forgot what I was even talking about... SO we had a fun time with the team this week. For a little backround info, we had Pastor Scibelli and the other visiting adults over for dinner during the conference and we couldn't have the boys over simply cause we didn't have enough room for them in our apt so Pastor Scibelli gave us some money to cook for the boys. :) We made them taco salad on Monday and then we played some basketball (not such a great idea after consuming a massive plate of taco salad but we always have fun playing basketball, its a weekly thing with some of us). I definitely have a slight height disadvantage being the shortest one. We had another great class on Monday night and made a grand plan for Tuesday - our team day off. We made breakfast at our place and had the whole team over, watched church service online from Baltimore-which has been really amazing. I love that we get to watch the services!!! I look forward to it so much! So, we played some more basketball after that a little later then went to P Stans house to get some pizza and watch Saving Private Ryan, definitely not a chickflick... Wednesday morning a group of us went up a Christian School where Myshell (one of our team members) teaches and we did their chapel service for them, music and all, that was a great time, the first time we had done that at that school. Thursday we went to the airport to greet Tyler Yanosky and his friend who will be living in Lima til December or so to play basketball about an hour from our church here. That was fun because he brought down some chocolate chips for us girls, and that is VERY exciting because they are VERY expensive down here, something like $7 a bag. So we had chocolate chip bars today. Mmmmmm. Today we had our team meeting then evangelism up in Mira Flores. As we were leaving the rap (see my definition in post 1) at McDonald's I saw this girl who I thought spoke English and introduced myself to her. Turns out she is here for 3 months and has already been down for 1 (Just like ME!). She's from Norwey and we are going to get together at some point since we go down there every Friday, that was the highlight of my night.

NEWS FLASH: October 9 - 19 I will be going to Argentina and then to Chile!!! SO excited about that, just made the final decision today. Pray for the time with the churches there and the conferences. If anyone wants to come down there let me know, I'm sure we could work something out!

The important part of this post...
So all of that isn't REALLY what I wanted to talk about in this post, I wanted to fill you all in on that but I what I really wanted to share are some of the things that GOD has been doing in my heart and in my life here. All of those things are great and fun but they are outward things and not the focus. :) I am amazed that I am even here, sitting in my bed in our little apartment in Lima Peru but I am here and God called me here for this time. Pastor Stevens said that the geographical will of God is where I can get the most of God and the Bible (His Word). I believe that is very true. God reveals Himself to us by the Holy Spirit and through His Word. Its really an incredible thing to not just be taught about God but to be taught by God in your heart. There is a huge difference, HUGE! It is incredible that when we put our simple, tiny little mustard seed of faith in the Almighty God (TODOPODEROSO in Spanish, one of my favorite Spanish words) and in what He has done for us on the Cross we have His Spirit living inside of us. The REAL, LIVING God. Not just some abstract being in Heaven floating in the clouds but the personal and compassionate God. Its amazing. Faith is the only part that we have and then God fills us and teaches us by His Spirit. Without Him we really are nothing and we can do nothing and we know nothing. There is a song we sing in church called "There is none like You" and it goes like this in the chorus: There is none like You, no one else can touch my heart like You do, I could search for all eternity long, and find there is none like You." Only God through His Word can address the deep things in our hearts and meet our deepest needs. In our weakness and our own insecurity He is strong and we can have confidence in His ability. There are so many thoughts and truths to share, I almost wish I could type out my whole notebook that is full of treasures. I really am so thankful to God. Every day by faith we enter into the grace of God (Romans 5) and its only by faith. In our difficulties and challenges we have a ROCK that is higher than I. Its an incredible thing to cry out to God, our healer and just believe in Him. He is real, He is for us, He loves us and forgives us because of Christ and He will lead us in our lives. That is so encouraging and even more encouraging that none of it depends on me. I just receive it. God is good to us, He really is. :) Love you all.