Orientation in Lima

Here's a quick recap of our week of training in Lima, Peru. We had some long days of training filled with lessons from current missionaries serving in South America. One of the main things I learned was about Orality/Storying. The idea is that you learn stories of the Bible and teach it to others orally. An example of this would be to tell it to them a couple of times, have them tell it to each other, have them tell it as a group, have them act it out as you tell it, and tell it to them again. The repetition helps them learn the story. Then you open up discussion by asking them what they think of the story. It's a great way to teach the Bible to people groups that aren't literate or don't have the Bible in their own language. It's also good for personal growth and ensuring a solid foundation in Scripture.

Even though training took up most of our time, we did work in some fun! One of the missionary families invited the Oaxaca team into their home for pizza and games one night. We played Sequence! This is one of my favorite games so I was pleasantly surprised to be playing it in Peru! It was so special to be invited into the homes and lives of these families throughout the week.

One day we went to Wong's, the main grocery store, to get food for dinner. It was a fun experience. They had workers dressed up to match the products they were advertising. They had the best free samples!

Saturday night we took an open bus tour of the city. We scarfed down some sandwiches on the street before the tour started. 

The bus stopped at a water fountain park called Parque De La Reserva where we saw some of the biggest water fountains I've ever seen. I would love to come back one day when it's a little warmer and enjoy the fountains you could actually get in.

These are my table mates and friends that I met at our snack break on the Bus Tour. We pulled over at the Sheraton hotel and had cafe/juice with some cake and mini sandwiches. I was able to practice my Spanish with these 2 couples from Argentina and Colombia. They were so patient and gracious with me and it was so fun to practice Spanish with them.

On Sunday we went to church with one of the missionary families and then they took us surfing in the Pacific Ocean. That's right. Surfing! This was my first time to ever see the Pacific Ocean and my first time to try surfing as well. It was beyond awesome! We rented boards and wet suits from a friend of theirs for the equivalent of about $7-8. They showed us the basics of how to surf and then let us loose. It was not easy and the water was freezing, but it was so fun! I will definitely be trying it again!

It was a great week and I'm blessed by all that I learned and through all the people I met. Continue to be praying for my team as well as the other teams who are in Brazil and Peru. May He be glorified through us over these next months.

We Made It!

** This is a post I wrote on 8/14/13 after our first full day in Lima. Sorry for the delayed post, but the internet was a little patchy!**

Hola! My team and I made it to Peru late last night. We will be here for a week doing training with other students and then head out to our respective countries. It's been a great day of training, getting to know the other girls, and eating delicious food!

Hannah and I on the airplane from Atlanta to Lima...8/13/13

Our training group at a local Peruvian restaurant for lunch on our first day in Peru

We got to taste some delicious fruit that I've never had before. The star fruit was super sour but yummy. And I couldn't help but love the bananitas (mini bananas).

We went to dinner tonight and I was able to order my favorite Peruvian dish from when I was here 3 years ago...Lomo Saltado con Arroz Blanco y Papas Fritas (meat with white rice and french fries and vegetables). I had jugo de fresas  (strawberry juice) to drink and it was quite possibly the best juice I've ever had! Soooo good!

Today was jammed pack full of listening to and learning from different missionaries serving in South America. Please pray that we will continue to learn much and that the Lord would prepare us for what He has in store. 

Tidbits from Training

At the end of July, I was blessed to spend a few days of training with 8 other girls who are also being sent out on mid-term missions from my church. We were privileged to spend time with our pastors, some of their wives, church staff members, and a missionary who is currently serving overseas. I learned so much during these 3 days and I'm so grateful to the Lord for all that He taught me. I pray that we will all take what we learned and use it to be most effective in doing the work the Lord has called us to do. Please join me in praying for these girls!

Some things I learned/good reminders:
- Lower your expectations
- Think of yourself as a learner and not as much as a teacher.
- Your team is where satan will attack you.
- Be flexible and willing to change. Use unexpected situations to share the gospel with people you wouldn't have otherwise met.
- Expect great things from God and attempt to do great things for God.
- Cling to God's Word and be desperate in prayer.
- Walk in humility and do not be afraid to make mistakes.
- Spiritual Disciplines are an essential component of the missionary's life. These spiritual disciplines include relationships, worship, the Word, prayer/fasting, personal evangelism, Sabbath, reflection, celebration, health. Ask yourself where you are today and what needs to change.
- Journal everyday.
- "We must go out and live among them, manifesting the gentle, loving spirit of our Lord. We need to make friends before we can hope to make converts." Lottie Moon

I pray that as I go into villages in Mexico, that this quote from Lottie Moon would reflect my heart: "As you wend your way from village to village, you feel it is no idle fancy that the Master walks beside you and you hear his voice saying gently, 'Lo! I am with you always even unto the end!' And the soul makes answer in the words of St. Bernard, that holy man of God, 'Lord Jesus, thou are home and friends and fatherland to me.' Is it any wonder that as you draw near to the villages a feeling of exultation comes over you? That your heart goes up to God in glad thanksgiving that he has so trusted you as to commit to your hands this glorious gospel that you may convey its blessings to those who still sit in darkness? When the heart is full of such joy, it is no effort to speak to the people: you could not keep silent if you would. Mere physical hardships sink into merited insignificance. What does one care for comfortless inns, hard beds, hard fare, when all around is a world of joy and glory and beauty."

A Taste of Italy: Tiramisu

Last year I went to Italy for 2 1/2 weeks. It was a fabulous trip and one of my favorite things that we did was a cooking class in Florence. We made Tagliatelle and Ravioli pasta from scratch as well as a Bolognese sauce, Butter and Sage sauce, and Tiramisu. I quite enjoyed learning how to make pasta from scratch, but I have made the Tiramisu more than the other recipes...maybe because it's so easy. Tiramisu is an Italian dessert that literally means "pick me up" and gets it's name from the small amount of caffeine found in the coffee and cocoa that is in the dessert.

Well, tonight a friend of mine and I broke out my recipe for Tiramisu and I thought I would share it.

Ingredients include 4 eggs (room temperature), 1 lb. Mascarpone cheese (room temperature), 24 small Lady Fingers, 12 spoons of sugar, 6-7 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 cup black coffee.

First, separate the egg yolks and whites into 2 separate bowls. Be sure that none of the yolk mixes with the whites. You can do this by moving the egg yolk from hand to hand and letting the egg white drip into the bowl. 

Combine the sugar with the yolks and mix until creamy. 

Then fold the cheese into the yolk mixture.

Whisk whites until soft peaks form. You may want to use a hand mixer for faster results. The peaks should be formed so that if you turned the bowl upside down, they would not fall or move.

Fold the egg whites into yolk and cheese mixture. 

Dip the cookies into the coffee one at a time.

Spread a layer of cream into chosen serving dish. Layer with cocoa and cookies. Layer again with cream. Keep going until everything is used up ending with cream on top. 

Dust with cocoa powder until covered. Add chocolate chips if desired. Chill 2 hours in the refrigerator. Keeps 1-2 days (no more than 2 days because of the raw eggs). Recipe makes 6 servings.

Bon Appetit!

Pepper Place

This past weekend I was blessed to spend time with two friends enjoying a purely Birmingham experience..Pepper Place Market. It was so fun to sample local produce/treats, enjoy live music, chat with friends, shop at booths from local venues, and observe the people of Birmingham enjoying this scene. It's definitely a fun way to spend a Saturday morning in the Steel City.

We sampled all sorts of yummy treats like goat cheese and spiced pecans.

We also discovered a neat local coffee house called Red Cat that was jumping with business. If I liked coffee, I would hit this place up frequently. The atmosphere is so fun! The worker I spoke with said that he visited the farm where this blend of Dominican Republic coffee came from and they get it direct without the middle man.

The live music at Pepper Place Market was probably my favorite part. I love the banjo!

And there is a plethora of beautiful fruits and veggies everywhere.

Not only am I a sucker for supporting local business, I love all things natural. So, I got a little carried away at this booth...Earth Garden Naturals. I've used their lip balm before and really liked it. But I cannot wait to try their Skeeter Beater bug spray I bought. I'm going to need it in Mexico!

And there was no way we could pass up on a Steel City Pop. This is probably one of my favorite local eats. If you're ever in Birmingham, it's worth a stop!

 We had a great time and I look forward to going again!

The Swan House

Several years ago mom gave me a book called The Swan House by Elizabeth Musser. It's a Christian fiction book set in Atlanta, Georgia in the 1960's, and it's about a young girl who learns about the Truth as she deals with the grief of a tragedy. The book captures many historical aspects of the city of Atlanta and highlights a particular house built in 1928 that still stands in Atlanta today...the Swan House. So, when mom and my sister and I were looking for fun things to do on a recent weekend visit to Atlanta visiting the Swan House was a must. We quite enjoyed our visit of the house and other attractions that the Atlantic History Center had to offer, including the Smith Family Farm and the Margaret Mitchell House.

We ate lunch at the Swan Couch House which is the sweetest little cafe located near the Swan House. The food was delicious and we even ended up going back to eat lunch there a 2nd time on our short trip!

This is a view from the back of the house. The house is referred to as the Swan House because of a little swan located in the iron work of the window above the back door.

The font of the Swan House

Micah quite enjoyed visiting the Smith Family Farm which is still in use today. They grow vegetables and have chickens laying eggs daily.

On Sunday we attended church and enjoyed lunch with one of Micah's friends who is from the Atlanta area.

While Micah was enjoying time with her friend, mom and I decided to tour the Margaret Mitchell House. It is actually an apartment located on the first floor of a house and is the location where Margaret Mitchell lived while she was writing Gone With the Wind. 

And what's a better way to end a girl's weekend than with the Melting Pot and a Pedicure? This was a real treat because it was mom's first time for both!

As much fun as we had touring old homes and spending time just the girls, my favorite part was the opportunity the Lord gave us to share our faith with a homeless lady and her son who approached us one evening. It was a divine appointment, humbling experience, and good reminder of the precious gift of grace the Lord has given me. I'm grateful that the Lord gave us this opportunity to proclaim His name and show me areas where I need to grow. It was good to be reminded of the importance of scripture memory and the need to be "prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you" (1 Pet. 3:15).  As I prepare to go to Mexico, I pray that the Lord gives me many more opportunities like this one to share with those I meet that He alone is worthy of our praise and obedience and that we are all sinners condemned to death until we trust in Christ who died in our place on the cross and turn away from our sin. I pray that Ever and her son and all that I meet will see their need for Christ and surrender their lives to Him. I'm grateful to the Lord for giving me the privilege of taking His message to the world, and I pray that He continues to show me His character, draw me near to Him, and transform my heart so that I reflect His image.

Preach and Heal

One of the books that I have been asked to read in preparation for Mexico is a book called Preach and Heal by Charles Fielding, MD. It is an easy, quick read with great perspective for missionaries seeking to model Christ's example of mission strategy. The author is a physician and church planter who shares his experiences and lessons learned regarding apostolic work. The book begins recognizing that most apostolic workers (missionaries) can be divided into one of two categories: the preachers and the healers. Preachers love teaching and evangelism, and they focus on transforming the community through those they teach. Healers love to heal in whatever capacity they are in whether it's a poor education system or physical/social/emotional pain, and they focus on transforming the community through individuals they serve. Both camps are skilled, passionate, called of God, and have biblical support for the work they focus on.

The preachers draw from scriptures such as: Romans 10:17 - "So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ"; 1 Corinthians 9:16 - "For if I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast, because an obligation is placed on me. And woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!"; and 1 Timothy 4:13 - "Until I come, give your attention to public reading, exhortation, and teaching."

The healers draw from scriptures such as: James 2:15-16 - "If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,' but you don't give them what the body needs, what good is it?"; and Matthew 25:34-40 - "Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me'."

So, if we are seeking to minister to the world, what approach do we take? preacher or healer? Well, our best option is to look at what Jesus did. Was he a preacher or a healer? We see throughout Christ's ministry recorded in the Gospels that Jesus was a preacher and a healer with no bias towards either camp. Matthew 9:35 states "Then Jesus went to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness." Fielding states "Can you think of any example where Jesus complained about too many sick people getting in the way of His preaching or too many learners getting in the way of His healing ministry?" Jesus was the perfect preacher and the perfect healer. And Jesus encouraged His disciples and has instructed us in this model of ministry as well. Matthew 10:7-8 says "And proclaim as you go, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons." Luke 9:2 says "And he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal." Mark 6:7, 12-13 states "And he called the 12 and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits...So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent. And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and healed them."

The problem we encounter is that we don't have a divine nature and we are still battling the flesh. We come to the table biased. And we have a comfort level surrounding our identity as either a preacher or healer, so we look to others to pick up slack and handle responsibilities that we consider outside of our role. Academic achievement and specialization prior to being commissioned as an apostolic worker further contribute to the separations of preaching and healing roles. But this is not the Lord's design. The Lord has given us instruction and modeled for us a strategy to further His kingdom through both preaching and healing. Fielding states "Those who uphold the value of preaching or healing are focusing on mere activities rather than on the glorious kingdom. It doesn't matter which ministry is more important. What matters is obedience to the directives of Jesus. He is the master strategist. He knows what He is doing and has given us this tactic as a two-handled plow. Both handles must be held with equal pressure and commitment for the one plow blade to dig deep into the ground and transform the soil into a place best prepared for seed."

So, as believers we are all called to make disciples. And as we have seen here, we can best do that by imitating Christ as both a preacher and healer. We can find encouragement in knowing that Christ chose ordinary men to be his disciples - the men he spent the majority of His time with and the men that carried His message into all the world. These men had no special training. They were led by and enabled by the Holy Spirit...the same Spirit that is living in us. As Fielding says, "Our personal bias or training is irrelevant and must not be allowed to become an idol. Jesus gave all of us the strategic tactic to 'preach and heal' so that we may grip the lost through the power of the Holy Spirit, that disciples may be made of all nations, and that the knowledge of the glory of the Lord may cover the earth as the waters cover the seas."

As a nurse, I have a tendency to get caught in the healer camp. It's easy for me to get overwhelmed by the volume of homeless people lined up at the nurse's clinic I work at. It's also easy for me to get distracted with all the tasks I need to do for my patients at the hospital. And so I often get carried away with the serving part of making disciples and forget to take time for the preaching part. This is an area I have struggled with since I became a nurse, but I'm grateful that God in His grace has enabled me to see that I need growth in this area and that He has been helping me take steps out of my comfort zone and have more boldness in teaching the Word as I serve in healing ministries. As I think about what this model of preach and heal means for me in Mexico, I pray that our team will be imitators of Christ. I pray that the Lord will give us many opportunities to preach and heal, and that we will not neglect or value one side over the other. And as we seek to model after Christ's ministry, I pray that many will come to know the Lord, trusting that He is the One true God who came to this earth, lived the sinless life we could not live, died the death we could not die, taking the punishment of our sin upon Himself, freeing us from slavery to sin, and giving us His very own righteousness so that we could be united with the Lord for eternity. I pray that it won't stop there...I pray that these disciples will take what they learn into their communities and become disciple makers who preach and heal as we model for them and Christ modeled for us. May we live in such a way that we can exhort people to follow us as we follow Christ!