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

A mission trip to Peru??????

If someone had told me three years ago that in the near future I would be going on a mission trip to Peru with Blackhawk church I would’ve laughed and rolled my eyes.  At that point my life was a mess.  I had just gone through a divorce and was suffering through a myriad of personal and financial challenges. 

I was continually searching for hope and relief from the emotional emptiness and pain I was feeling.    I had arrived at a point where I didn’t like myself anymore and I was so disappointed with the life I led and continued to lead.  My life at that point was a story of one bad decision after another fueled by my selfishness. 

A good friend was aware of my struggles and suggested I look into attending a DivorceCare class that was being offered at Blackhawk church.   I wasn’t excited about attending a class at a church.  I had not been to church in over 20 years and I considered myself a “nonbeliever”.  This is when God started to work through me, even though I didn’t realize it at the time. 

A couple of weeks into the DivorceCare class, I was already starting to feel much better about myself and my life. I finally had hope and a fellowship that supported me.  I started attending services around that same time, and I was blown away (in a good way) by the people and services at Blackhawk. 

 I had attended church when I was much younger, however I never felt a connection to God.  I went to Sunday school and Sunday services, and was even confirmed, however I never fully grasped the story of God provided to us in the Bible. I also didn't see or understand how it related to me and my life at that time.  At Blackhawk I heard the story of the Gospel in a way that really made sense to me and it changed my life.

God led me to Blackhawk Church, and rescued me.   I am now happy and proud to call myself a Christ follower.   He has shown his grace to me and I am so thankful.  One of the happiest days in my life came in April of this year when I was baptized and accepted Christ as my lord and savior. 

My journey has sometimes been a painful and unhappy one, however today I am grateful for all the blessings He has given me; including the opportunity to participate in this mission trip to Peru. 

2 Corinthians 5:17

 ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation. The old has gone, the new is here!

Scott Lovelace

Not long now....

The count down is on as we have only 11 days until take off. :)

The team bonded well last night at our "packing/meeting".  The excitement was building as we joked, laughed, packed materials, prayed, ate and got down to business.  Since this is my 5th Peru mission trip, through Blackhawk, I enjoy seeing the enthusiasm pour out of those that are experiencing this mission for the first time.  Can we totally prepare them for the mission?  No, there is so much to learn and God will reveal something different to each of us.  We will be taken out of our comfort zone and will need to place our trust in the Lord.  Yes!!

So what is our purpose in going on this mission?  This year we are working with three new communities, Todos Unidos, Monte Rico, and Maximo Castro.  We will be conducting biblical workshops on "Good parenting", "Taking Care of My Body - My Body is a Gift from God", and Treating Others the Way we Want to be Treated".  We will also spend time painting the community center (I like to paint), teaching crafts, playing games, singing, and putting on a drama.

One may wonder how our teaching is reinforced once we leave Peru.  Food for the hungry (FH) has staff placed in the communities year round.  We are actually reinforcing their teaching.  FH has committed 10 years in helping these communities thrive.  They're in the early years of their commitment.

We will be leaving really, really early (4am) on September 7th.  Please pray for the team, the families left behind, good health, and our eyes and hearts to be opened to the work God will be doing within each of us.

Thank you for supporting BH Peru Team 2012.  You are part of our team.

Jeanette

This is real!!

I can't sleep tonight.  I'm not sure why, but I am wide awake at 2:30 am. 

Of course, being wide awake and the only one up gives one time to think and all night I have been thinking about Peru and the fact that we will be leaving in just 16 days!  What seemed so far off is now so close.

I don't feel ready.  I question if I am really the RIGHT person to be going to this foreign place and telling these wonderful people whom I have never met and with whom I have no shared cultural identity, well, anything.  I'm just this middle-aged mom and wife from middle America who doesn't speak a word of Spanish and only ventured out of the US at 41 to pick up my youngest daughter in Africa.  Hardly mission worthy.

Sharing this trip with my daughter is going to be wonderful.  I am so excited to see how God uses her, and also how He changes and grows her through this.  Margo has always had this soft heart; she loves people and wants to serve and help and nurture.  And I know that He is also going to do something with our relationship as she moves on into her own life and my "mom" role changes from what it was as she was growing up to what it is now that she is a grown woman .  I know that we will have a whole new connection after this experience.

For whatever reason, He lead me to this trip and has placed me in this time for His purpose.  I don't know what it is yet, but I'm about to find out....for real! 

The Kids in the Back Seat

I have been a parent for over ten years now.  I've been a parent of four children for five years.  Our road trips as a family have evolved from trips to the grocery store that created melt downs, to hours of quiet time and connection with each other while we are traveling.  My children have learned that I have special buttons they don't want to push while we are together in the small space of our mini-van:  wrestling, singing at the top of their lungs, or pestering one another.  Thanks to the GPS, they no longer ask, "Are we there yet?" or "How much longer?"  They can see where we are and where we are going.  It is the clear vision that gives them peace.


 It took us over an hour to find a trail head on a recent excursion. The GPS was wrong (or user error), tensions were high, and we couldn't find it.  No one said a word.  I was so grateful.  They've learned from experience.  They know that silence is golden (and duct tape is silver.)


Sometimes, in ministry and in life, I find myself screaming to God, "Bumpy Road! Bumpy Road!" Or, "How much longer?  I just can't sit here any more."  Having a clear vision brings peace, but sometimes I get lost, I've messed up, I'm frustrated, tired and I just want to get there.  You'd think that I would be as wise as my children and just "be still."   The more I try to find "it" myself, the more lost I become and I'm afraid that I push God's buttons more often than not in the process.

Our children have learned through experience to trust us.  Do I trust God?  My experience says that I should.  Do I trust him with our fundraising challenges?  Will I trust him when flights are delayed, room reservations are for less occupants than team members, lesson plans are scratched, equipment fails, luggage is lost, and tensions are high?  What kind of kid will I be in the back seat?  Will I have a complete melt-down?  Or will I choose to trust God and be still?


" . . . unless you become like little children, . . ." Mt. 18:3

Good Bye Old Friend

My participation in the Peru 2012 Mission trip will be the first stamp on my new passport.  After 9 years and 8 countries, the washing machine finally got the better of my previous passport.  All though it did make it through the border several trips after that (using my tried and true method of "stand there and look stupid and confused until they let you pass"), it was time to stop rolling the dice and actually get it replaced.  Here's to hoping my old passport gets sent back (and not destroyed as one lady said it would be) and I can keep the memories.  Otherwise, my 600dpi scans will be all I'll have to remember my old friend and our journeys.

Glad to be starting off my new passport with a stamp representing a trip based on missions.  I'm happy to be on a team that rooted in a great mindset and vision of helping by building lasting relationships and learning about the community and its needs rather than slapping the Bible, singing some songs, taking some pictures and leaving.

Us vs Technology

So, no one has posted, and it may be because it's a bit difficult to log on to the blog account.  I'm hoping that everyone can get on and let us know what they're thinking and feeling now that we're only two months away from actually being in Peru!

We had a great meeting today and it was so nice to have lunch together and to get to know one another better.  I especially enjoyed hearing what was going on in every one's lives these days....we're all so busy and tend to get tunnel vision about ourselves and what is right in front of us.  As a mom of older kids, I can relate to my team members with little ones around.  I'm so in awe of your ability to focus your heart and mind on going to serve in another country because I'm sure that I would never have even thought about trying to go on a missions trip when mine were that little!  What an example to your children to watch you prepare for a trip like this and to learn from a young age what it means to go and serve others.