Peru...home sweet home :)

Hello everyone!

Things have been going wonderfully since I've got here! Thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts! I'm so thankful.

I'll try to fill you guys in on everything that's happened so far.  First, travel day: All the flights and everything went smoothly, praise the Lord! Our first flight was on this little plane to Atlanta, then had a 2 hour layover, and then flew into Lima (a 6.5 hour flight that ended up taking much longer.)  Once in Lima, Peru we were met there by a man named Jose who was holding a sign for us to find him.  He took us to a lady's house, and we spent the night at her house that night.  She was so sweet, and asked if we needed anything.  We were sooo thirsty because we forgot to buy water at the airport.  So we asked for water, not remembering that we couldn't drink it.  So we ended up pouring it down the drain to make it look like we drank it, cause it's rude here not to take the things that people give you, and to not eat/drink what people let you have.  Kinda funny.  We couldn't fall asleep until around 3am, but we finally did (after eating a whole bag of peach rings :) In the morning we were met by Jose and he took us to the bus station. Our trip to Trujillo was 9 hours long, but it was wonderful to just relax.  Getting into Trujillo, we were met by someone from the church who took us to a lady's house and from there we were picked up by another two ladies who finally brought us to our destination!! hah. It was crazy, but everything went so smoothly.  We met all the interns and today, only 6 days later we're already a big, happy family! :)

Here are some highlights since I've been here. We're staying at the Childrens home with some missionaries named the Kimbros.  They're awesome.  They have 4 kids, Kaleb (16), Luke (14), Kassidy (9) and Karson (he'll be 8 on Friday and he can't wait for his bday!!)  It's been so much fun getting to know the kids and Mike and Karen Kimbro! They're like our family.

One of the days we had to do a mock work project with all the interns. We each got roles to play and mine was the "super spiritual student who incorporates God into every conversation and always wants to pray with everyone." hah. It was a fun role to play.  But through that, we got to see how we should deal with each kind of student that comes down and what the appropriate way to approach them would be.  Our work project was to work in the corn field.  We shucked corn for what seemed like forever.

Two of the first days that we've been here we had training and read through our manuels and talked.  We shared testamonies and heard the missionaries testamonies, which were such an encouragement.  Their patience and trust in the Lord is beautiful. 

Every morning here I get to go out on the roof of the children's home and have devotions.  It's so sandy here, but it's beautiful, and the people are beautiful.  the temperature is great, it's going to get colder soon, but right now it's perfect. (It's Peru's winter right now!)

All of the interns live alone together at the children's home and we are on our own for meals etc.  So we make meals together, or go out in the city for dinner every night.  we have a budget for each day.  We get s./20 (20 soles) per day to either buy groceries for meals, or to go out to eat.  It's fun to make meals together or to go out to eat with all the interns.

One of the nights that we were at home we were all out on the roof and Kaleb (the Kimbro's oldest son) came up with his guitar and we all sang together.  After that he set up the projector outside on a big side wall of the building and we all watched August Rush together. The movie lasted until about 2am, and then we tried to fall asleep outside under the Peruvian skies, but ended up not being able to, so we went inside around 2:30am.  It was lots of fun though. A bonding experience :)

On Sunday we went to one of the big Alliance church in town and experienced our first church service.  It was cool all that I could understand, and even some of the songs.  It's much more like a service in the U.S. than it is in the Dominican Republic.  And i wasn't really expecting that. But it was great. 

I'm not sure when else I'll be able to update everyone on here because we only have internet at Helping Hands ( which is where all the short term teams will stay...it's about a 20 min bus ride from the Children's home)

Thank you again for all of your prayers! God is so faithful, and things have been so wonderful here.  I wish I more time to update you guys, so I'm sorry if this sounds like rambling :)

MUCH LOVE!!