Backstory part 1.

I graduated with my BA in English with a minor in Psychology Pre-Counseling. It was a beautiful December day, and my whole family was together… including BOTH sets of Grandparents! I am truly blessed with my family! The day, and subsequent week passed by in a whirlwind… that swept me right into Christmas and New Year’s celebrations.

After the first of the year, life began to slow down. Graduation hadn’t really sunk in and I felt as if I was just on a temporary break from school. The days grew lengthy, boring, and largely unproductive. On one of my many free days, I met with a dear friend for lunch. She was my sunday school teacher in high-school, and we were catching up on life. At some point the conversation turned to traveling, and I casually mentioned that I needed to renew my passport. I had no trip plans at the time, but I was just reminding myself it was something to be done someday. My friend told me she wanted to pay for it to be renewed! I was grateful, but wasn’t planning to take her up on the offer, after all, I didn’t even have a trip planned...

Life continued... I was looking for a church home, and constantly getting the dreaded question of “What do you do?” What did I do? I went to a Bible study, I read novels and watched DVDs of my favorite TV show... I knew I needed to find a job and begin my new adult life… but I was terrified. What if I don’t find a job? What if I do and I hate it? What if I get a job and I’m stuck in it for the rest of my life?

Also during this time, I found myself constantly thinking about Peru. I went to Peru with my family in 2003 on a mission trip. Since then, I have always wanted to return and learn Spanish, but never really thought it would happen. Yasmin and I had playfully talked at Graduation about how fun it would be if we ever got to go sometime. Yasmin is Peruvian, but has lived in the USA for a long while. Neither of us thought our words would actually come true.

Towards the end of January, I became so frustrated with the messy state of my room and was convicted to clean it. Every time I prayed to God about my job, He would answer, “Clean your room.” “But God,” I would answer, “I need a job! my room can wait can’t it?” Then God would gently correct me, “How can I entrust you with more when you are not managing what I have already blessed you with?” Now, I have never been the most organized person in the world... In my room, I had most of my childhood belongings, along with everything I accumulated in college, and there simply WAS NOT ROOM for it all. I decided to obey God and clean my room. If I was going to do this though, I was going to do it right! I spent an entire 6 day week going through everything I own. One third went to the trash, one third to Goodwill, and the last third I kept. It is so much easer to stay organized when you have less junk! God taught me a lot through that experience. In our own lives, it is also easer when we get rid of our unnecessary junk. God also blessed obedience!

Soon after my room was CLEAN, Yasmin and I were talking. Turns out she could not get Peru off her mind either. We began to pray for wisdom. Dreaming big, we discussed what it would even look like if we did go. We prayed and decided to write the parents of a mutual friend from Peru... They are pastors, and we emailed them asking if they knew of any needs in the Country or in local churches.... we were just trying to see if there was even a need.

The next day they wrote back saying that they had needs in their church for someone to teach Bible Studies in Spanish and English with their youth... they also invited us to stay with them in their home, and asked when we would be coming. Yas and I flipped out! We were not really expecting a response... we then started praying more intently. We talked about how long we would stay and when we would go.... The end of March was the earliest and latest we could go to be able to each spend the amount of time in the country we felt God was leading us to spend.....

to be continued...