Home. Now what?

Home.  What a sweet word.....what a comforting place.

Margo and I spent a few hours at our sponsored child's house on our last day in Todos Unidos.  Her home is small, with a dirt floor and hard furniture.  There is a small, old black and white TV at the center.  The kitchen is in the very back, near the garden.  They have a hollowed out log with a grate on top which is the traditional stove used in the jungle.  Chickens live in one corner of the kitchen; fresh eggs were found in another corner.

I think Ingrid probably feels the same way about her home as I do mine; it's a safe place where my family is and I feel loved.  Even though our homes are so many miles apart and so vastly different, we have the same soft, warm feelings about home.

Now that I'm home in my very soft life, what do I do with what I experienced and witnessed in Pucallpa?  How do I share the constant, oppressive heat in which these people must move every day?  How do I explain the poverty?  How can I express the love that radiated from the kids when we hugged them?  What about the FH staff....how do I share what they did for us and the way each one reminded me of how much I need to lean on Christ?

My first day home was packed with typical American busyness.  First, my daughter had dance.  Then I had eight loads of laundry that needed to be done, folded, and put away.  I had to cook for the family.  Bills needed to be paid.  Some of my grandma's final papers needed attention.  Boom! back to reality.

While putting clean sheets on beds last night, I thought about how quickly I was back in the groove of my normal life and I wondered if the Peru experience really had changed me.  Yes, it has; how could those days with the community NOT change a person?  But this is my life, my culture, my reality.  I have a family and people who count on me....I have to move forward.  But the touches of the new friends I made, the pictures burned into my mind, the voices of the children will live on in me and will change the way I approach my everyday living now that I am home.  I will continue to share Peru and FH and hope that my experiences will draw me closer to Christ and give me the voice I need to share Him.

First day in the communities

Today was day 1 of going to the communities and it was absolutely amazing! We were in Todos Unidos all day for a family festival FH put on. When we arrived there all the kids ran up to us and hugged us and were just so excited. It was amazing! They were all so friendly and welcoming. Having never been on a missions trip I wasn't really sure what to expect. I figured they might be a little timid at first seeing as we were 13 complete strangers from America. But they were all very excited to see us.

Last night when the team had our meeting Sara told us to go into the communities and just reflect Gods love, but I saw so much more of His love in them than I did in us. They showered us with gifts, and with the little money they had they were buying us ice creams and sodas. They decorated for us and put so much effort into this festival because they were genuinely excited that we were coming.

The first thing we did when we got there was have an opening ceremony for the new community center they built with the money we raised for them. The president of the community spoke, one of our team members spoke, a couple other people spoke, and then the whole community, from the youngest kid there to the oldest, sang the Peru national anthem which was so cool! I really wish I would have taken a video of it because it was just an awesome moment!

During the festival we went around to all the tents the people from the community set up, played games, and took lots of picture! The kids LOVED having their pictures taken. We just played and sang and sand and danced and just had a wonderful time! I can't wait to go back tomorrow.

In the evening we went to a church here in Pucullpa where we're staying, which was a really cool experience. I speak no Spanish, so I thought itd be kinda boring because I wouldn't be able to understand anything they said, but it wasn't. While we were singing I was looking around and thinking how amazing it was that even though we spoke different languages, and had different skin color and different backgrounds we could all sit in one building and worship together. We don't have to divide ourselves up, because as different as we look , we really aren't. We're all Gods children and it's cool that we can all be together in one place and worship our Father together. It was truely an awesome experience and I'm so glad we went.

I was gonna try to upload some pictures but I can't because I dont have a certain app :( but hopefully we can get some on tomorrow from the computer. Keep praying and we will write again tomorrow! Buenos nochas (I have no idea if I spelled that correctly haha) from Peru!

-Margo

P.s. shout out to lils! I miss you kiddo! See you in a few days(:

Many New Friends

This morning we had our first day in the communities who we have been thinking about in the planning phase of our trip. We participated in a ceremony dedicating a new community center that had been recently completed before spending several hours at a family festival.

The people had tents set up like booths with decorations and food/beverages. Our team divided  up with a couple of team members joining each tent for games. It was an enjoyable way to meet members of the community. The children especially enjoyed playing the games and watching team members participate. I competed with some men of the village in a gunny sack race. I was making a good closing push at the end of the race before falling on my face due to increased speed and my usual tendency to be clumsy. We also had our pictures taken many times with the children, as they were intrigued by our presence.

I feel good steps were taken towards forming relationships with the members of the community. It will be interesting to see if the breaking of the ice that occurred today will continue during the upcoming workshop sessions. Pray especially for the meetings with the adults and adolescents, as they are not always as comfortable with the strange new visitors to their area.

Cory Sarver

Hello & goodbye

We arrived safely in Pucallpa this morning after a very short night in Lima. As a funny aside, we had pizza at Pizza Hut for dinner!!! Anyway, we arose at 4 am to catch our flight but I was so excited that the lack of sleep for once didn't bother me!!

It is HOT here....feels much warmer than the 100 degree days in Madison. We are resting up & hydrating for our week. Orientation is at 4 & we will also have a walking tour of this beautiful city later.

Saying hello to new friends & this new culture found Margo & me also having to say goodbye; Grandma Peg died this morning at 9:17 after struggling for so long. She is finally at peace. We will all miss her, but look forward to our heavenly reunion.

Life is short. Her death reminds me of that. I'm thankful that God has provided this opportunity to share His love & to learn to rely soley on Him for all of our needs

The Life of a College Girl

     Well, today I worked for 10 hours, had a 3 hours class and then drove 2 hours to get home so I can hop on the bus at 4:00am to get to Chicago so we can get on our plane and go to PERU! Needless to say, it has been a very busy and stressful day for me, and an even more stressful week. I started school and now have to miss a week for the trip, (so it's going to be challenging to stay caught up being in Peru) both my grandmothers are in the hospital, and I just found out a few days ago that my boyfriends best friend was diagnosed with cancer. Through all this I've been packing and getting ready for the trip. But with all this going on I just kept asking God why this trip seemed to be at the absolute worst time possible. Couldn't there be an easier time to go where life is at least a little less stressful?
 
      But maybe, just maybe, this is the best possible time to go. I know that He has a plan and purpose for me being down there at this time. Even if the timing seems so horrible to me, it really isn't because I know God's got this, and theres a reason I'm going and going during this time. Through this trip so far He's really taught me to trust in Him and He helps me work things out, so I can't even imagine what's in store for when we actually get there!

      Even through all the stress I am beyond excited to be going! Going on a missions trip is something that I have wanted to do for quite a few years now, so I am very thankful that I have to opportunity, and going with my mom and a group full of fun and wonderful people makes it even more exciting.

     I figured writing this would pass at least a little bit of time while I wait for 4:00 to roll around. I feel like it would be  pointless to fall asleep now, so I plan on sleeping on the bus and then on the plane I get to do something really exciting... HOMEWORK! WOOHOO!

-Margo

Maiden Blog!

Well, this is the beginning of what may shape up to be a week of many firsts for me. This will be my first time to Peru, my first time south of the Equator, and most pertinent at this very moment – my first time blogging. So, at the risk of completely doing this wrong and allowing the rest of the world to see how out of touch I truly am, here goes.

It is coming up on T minus 4 hours until we depart Madison. Wrapping up things at work and going over my packing list for the sixth and seventh times has left me exhausted, but too nervous and excited to get much sleep accomplished. I find myself coming back to the same nagging question…what am I going to do in Peru?

I have thought about this over and over during the past several months. I look around the room at our team meetings and I can envision how God will use the people around me to accomplish His goals. And somehow I come back to myself and am still left wondering. The annoying mantra returns – what can I do, what can I do? I have spent far too much energy comparing myself to the spiritual leaders I have known in my life, or study in the Bible, and of course find myself lacking.

And then it hits me, like it has an embarrassing number of times before – it’s not about me. Now, I resent this on principle (I’m quite sure that every ounce of me is shocked and disgusted at the mere suggestion – how can it not be about me? Especially when I am so good at making myself the focus?). But regardless, the truth of the matter is, that it is in fact not about me. There is nothing really that I could plan that would come close at all to what God could envision. So rather than striving and straining in vain to develop some woefully inadequate plan for what I will do, I will crazily step aside and let the Creator of the universe do His work. I will show up, willing to be used, willing to learn- albeit apparently not naturally insightful- and willing to open myself up to a bigger picture. And as earnestly as I believe at this moment, in my comfortable home while sleep eludes me, that I am completely willing to accept that I do not have God’s vision or wisdom and yet will trust Him anyway, I actually do know that I will likely have to learn and re-learn this again and again even in the next week. I guess in a way it really is a miracle that God can use broken humans like us, like me, to do anything good. Thank God He is patient!

So thank you to those of you who will pray for me, I think I will need it!

Hasta luego,

Emily

Peru Eve

It is the eve of my 7th departure for mission in Peru and I am preparing to leave. The preparation this time is much different than any other year, this time I am leaving my husband and two children behind. This is a first for me. I have never gone to Peru without Ben and I have not been since we had our 2 daughters in 2007 and 2008.

Florida Keys, June 2012

It all started with something our pastor Chris Dolson said during a sermon in 2001, "Everyone should go on a short-term mission trip." It was settled, I was going to go on a mission trip. Pastor Chris has no idea how many lives have been changed by those 8 words!

The first trip that worked in my schedule was a trip to an Amazon village in Peru with Food for the Hungry (www.fh.org) and our church, Blackhawk (www.blackhawkchurch.org). Ben couldn't imagine telling my father that I went to the Amazon jungle alone so he signed up too! What followed was several years of leading people from our church to this same community, La Merced, and now to two new communities, Todos Unidos and Monte Rico.

Pucallpa, Peru - Monte Rico and Todos Unidos are on the outskirts of Pucallpa

An oxbow lake in Pucallpa (Ucayali River)

So many wonderful things have happened in my life and the lives of the various team members over the years. The ripple effect of these trips will never be understood on this side of eternity. Our worldview has been drastically changed and that is why I continue to lead teams to Peru. What an honor and privilege it is to reflect God's love and grace to our team and to the families in Peru. 

VBS in La Merced - 2010 

Ben and I with our sponsored child, Richard, and his family - 2010 

2010 team in front of the church in La Merced 

Me visiting Monte Rico during our 2010 trip

As our partnership with La Merced came to a close in 2010, I wondered if we had done any good at all. During our team debrief with the Peru country director, I was fighting tears because I felt so conflicted about our work there. The verse "my ways are higher than your ways" came to mind. I grabbed my Bible found these verses in Isaiah 55. This chapter reminds us that God's word does not return to Him empty. He has a way of working in our world that we cannot understand.

Isaiah 55:8-11
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”declares the Lord.⁹ “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways    and my thoughts than your thoughts.As the rain and the snow
    come down from heaven,and do not return to it
    without watering the earthand making it bud and flourish,
    so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
    It will not return to me empty,but will accomplish what I desire
    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

I start this new partnership in Monte Rico and Todos Unidos with these verses from Isaiah 55 ruminating in my mind. We will continue to reflect God's love and mercy knowing that we may never understand exactly what He is doing but trusting in Him anyway! Viva Peru! - Sara Zimmerman