Recap of the Past Two Months

 

 

It's been almost two months since our last blog post so I'll give a quick recap of what has happened since. We ended our time in Mexico with another group of Americans that came down for a week-long mission trip. This was over the week of Thanksgiving. It was a busy week of work projects during the day and visits to the neighboring ranchos in the evening. One of the traditions at the mission house in General Cepeda is to invite the townspeople for a traditional Thanksgiving feast on Thanksgiving Day. It was estimated that more than 200 people showed up to eat turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, cranberries, and more. One older lady said on her way out the door, “Here, I never go hungry.”

Serving guests at the mission house on Thanksgiving.

Once we got back to Big Woods (FMC's home base in Louisiana), we had time to learn a little more about our new mission post in Peru. We were also given the opportunity to meet most of the missionaries who have been serving in Peru for the past year or longer as they were back for a “Year in Review” retreat. The group in Peru will consist of a women's team of four, a men's team of four, and three families, after all of us newbies get there.


Some of the Peru missionaries.  Missing 1 family, 1 single guy, 1 single girl, and a bunch of kids.

On December 5^th, our family along with all of the people we've been going through Intake with, were formally commissioned as foreign missionaries. The next day started our month-long break. We went back to Florida to stay with Robert's parents during that time. It was a busy month full of finalizing our packing, continued fundraising, getting necessary documents for the visas we'll need, and even a week-long visit from some friends. 

 

Getting some time at the beach with friends.

 

The boys helping Robert load up our car with all our suitcases to head back to Louisiana.

We came back to Louisiana this past week to finish the last two weeks of our training. During this time we're getting talks that are pertinent to the transition period that we'll go through after moving to our mission post.

 

The kids were excited to come back and see their friends.

Although our training ends on the 19^th, we likely won't be flying out to Peru until late February or early March due to the long processing time for one of the documents that we need in order to get our visas. We were disappointed about this to begin with but have come to accept it as part of God's plan, and that He must have some reason to keep us back for a little while longer.
 

Some things we still have to figure out (which may not happen until we get there) are: when and where we'll go to language school, if we'll have a house ready for us to move into or if we'll have to find one ourselves, how soon we'll be able to get a vehicle, and making a preliminary daily, weekly, and monthly schedule.
 

We welcome any and all prayers for a smooth transition to Peru, for the spiritual and physical needs of the people we will meet, and for our spiritual protection as we attempt to claim the area we live in for Christ!