He Must Become Greater- I must become Less

As I was laying in bed last night, laying with no sheets, blanket, or pillow on my bed (due to my roomie having lice. lol) I was thinking about how blessed I am to have everything God has givin me. There are so many people here who have nothing and are out sleeping on the streets. Everyday when I am at home I am worried about my own life. It is about what I need to get done for the day. Here it is different. It is hard to explain. I was just thinking about how real those words.....God must become greater and I must become less. How big is my God and how small am I. God put me here on this earth to serve him and to do that it needs to be all about it.
Today Karen, Rita, and I were in charge of getting rid of the lice in the whole compund. Way easier said then done. There is so much to think of and with 40 kids and a unique set of supplies. It was sp much easier back home when we had to do this at my daycare. We went to the market and priced supplies and had a meeting with all the head people here to figure out the best way to work things. Rita and I went in and took 2 pairs of clothes and a towel from each child to seal in bags for 2 days to kill the lice. I felt like the grinch. It was horrible! Some of the kids didn't want to give up there clothes. After assuring them they would get them back in a couple days they finally gave them up.
I also scrubbed down desks in one of the classrooms in the school. One girl had a hannah montana sticker on her desk that I scrubbed at forever. I thought is was so funny that they know who she is! lol
After that I watched Kevin and some of the younger kids play duck duck goose and then headed to missionary night. We had some good omlets. To make these we put eggs and ingredients in a zip lock bag and put it in a pan of boiling water for awhile. Who knew that would make omlets.
Then Rita, Karen, and I, and 4 kids practiced a skit that we are going to preform on Saturday at one of the churchs here.
Now we are boiling hot water to wash some of the kids towels to kill the lice. I just got my head sprayed with vinegar. I can honestly say that I have never done that before. Another wierd thing- Kevin, Rita, Karen and I were walking back from the market when I saw someone walking a huge hog.....just like a dog. Right down the road we always take. It stopped to pee....which leads me to another good point- when walking in Peru never step on dark spots in the sand!
Good night all! Love you from Peru!

Lice- No Bueno :(

This morning started off very slow and relaxing. We went to go have lunch with the kids but they ate early so we missed out. Rita, Karen, and I stayed and painted all of the girl's nails! It was a lot of fun! They were all so excited! It blew my mind how patient and thoughtful they all were! They took turns waiting for us to paint their nails and even shared colors with no fighting! Then we played a game of slap jacks with the boys. After that we went back to our house and had lunch. After lunch Rita and I went and played basketball with the boys. (Gerson, Yohnson, yowell, and Christopher) It was girls verse boys. We were doing pretty good until Kevin came along. lol After that Rita and I went to the store and then made spaghetti. After that I checked Rita's hair for lice because it was itching really bad. We found a total of 21 bugs (I think that was the final count) and a ton of lice nets. We started at 7:30 and it is now 1am and we are still working on digging them all out. We sprayed all of the mattresses, put all of our clothes in bags and washed our hair with lice shampoo. No Bueno! We all decided we are going to use the shampoo every ten days just as a procotion! God is good for being with us because we all were grossed out majorly!
And a small update on the little girl who had the surgery. Everything went well and she is in recovery until tmro.

Swine Flu

So I didn't get to tell you all that on Saturday night I found out that the kids have off school for 3 weeks because of the cases of the Swine Flu in Peru. No worries it's not here in Pacasmayo! lol And anyways the safest place to be is in the center of God's will so I am not worried about it. ha ha So Yesterday the kids didn't go to school. I was excited beacuse that means we have more time to play and hang out with the kids but I was still a little bummed because I was looking forward to seeing what teaching English here would be like.
In the morning Karen, Emma, Peggy and Wanda and I went into the market. We were there all morning because the ladies had lots of shopping to do. Let's just say it's not like wal-mart lol. I took some pictures but I am still on Kevin's computer so hopefully when mine gets up and running I will load some for u because you guys have to see this. I will just leave it as a suprise. This guy came up to me holding a box stuffed full of live baby chicks. He asked me if Iwanted to buy one....and I am pretty sure those aren't for pets. :) It is so different. Not in a bad way though. After the market Kevin, Rita, Karen and I had lunch with the kids. After lunch Kevin and the little girl here ( I would tell you her name but I would butcher the spelling) left for Trujillo. She is the one who has the tumor. I just got news from Peggy that the surgery went well. Thanks for the prayers those of you who knew. Sry I meant to get on earlier but I never got a chance. They are still waiting to see if it is cancerous though. Rita and I (well mainly rita) lol taught the kids those games you can do with the string on your fingers. You know like Jacob's ladder and a broom ect. It took me forever to figure out one of them. Betzy a little girl here and Gerson were teaching me for like an hour. I could do it, I just couldn't remember it on my own. I finally got it and Gerson said Thank you God! (in English) It was toooo cute! After that I played a lot of volleyball and basketball. Then Rita, Karen and I went to bible study for the youth guys from the church here. We read through Genesis 26 last night. They read and then Cherry (an English teacher here) talked about it. It is in English to help them learn it. We talked all about God's promises. Such an important part of our walk with Christ yet they are often over looked. After the study we played so Charaids with movies and songs. hmmmm yeah try playing with a few guys that knew no English at all. It was interesting and very entertaining. :) After that I got to talk to my Meggie Moo Who and my beautiful family on skype! YEAH!!! So that is all for now!

I've got the Joy Joy Joy Joy Down in My Heart

So here is a little update:
So much has happened since I have been here only a few days. I learned fast to ignore all of the whistling as I walk down the street. They aren't use to seeing blonde haired people here :)Today I woke up to a giant cricket looking me straight in the face. Good thing I had warning that they fly! lol I just threw my blanket over my face and pushed it off the bed. Oh the excitment of living here. It is so peaceful and stress free here. I love (at times) how they don't really have a lot scheduled. If church starts at 9am it might be more like 9:30am. This morning we all went to church to listen to a guest speaker. He talked about David and Galiath in 1 Samuel 17. God can use the little people in unexpected ways! Everyone told David that he couldn't do it. He was to young, not skilled, weak. The pastor talked about what was our Galiath in our life? This story just made me think about myself and how I feel like I am never good enough. Oh I am to quiet for that, I am not good at that, that's too scary, uh that's not really my thing. David didn't doubt at all. He had full faitht that he could do it. If God brings you to it, he will bring you through it! God gave David all he needed to fight his battle and he will give us everything we need to fight all of our battles if we have faith that he will. Since this week there are a lot of gringos here the paster helped interpret. All the joy in this church blew me away! People here are so sincere in everything they do. I hope this is making sence. I just have all these thoughts and feelings flying around in my head and am trying to get them all out! After church we went to a beautiful resturant. Rita and I shared chicken, rice, a salad, fries, and thier vesion of mash potatoes. not at all like ours but still pretty tasty! Today is visitation day here so the kids have all been excited to see if they will have any visitors. I am not sure what is planned for the rest of the day besides church at night. I love you all!!!

An Answer to My Prayers

I don't have a lot of time to write but I just wanted to let everyone know I am here safe! God answered my prayers and just blew my mind away! When I was in KC Jeff Heart was there! Wow God is so good! He traveled with me all the way to Lima. Watching out for me the whole way! Then Richard picked me up and I spent the night at his house. The next day I was in the van pretty much the whole day driving from place to place. I got into Pacasmayo at 6:30am today and now we r headed to the market! Thanks for all the prayers! Keep up the good work :) Love you all! I will do me best to keep u posted. I already am in love with all the kids! They have already given me lots of hugs and kisses! I also learned that I will never drive in Peru! They are so crazy! So there is a 3 lane road....to them yeah that's like a 5 lane road :) It is best just to let the driver drive and you just sit back and pay no attention to it! lol

3 Days until I leave!

Ok so I didn't mean to put that last picture up there, but that's ok. There is the happy newly engaged couple! Aren't they beautiful!

So I am officially leaving for Peru this Thursday the 9th. There is just so much I can't explain about the whole situation. Man God is good! I am really nervous but I know that God is going to be there every step of the way! Holding my hand, Sitting next to me, pushing me off my step....whatever I need.

Since some of you haven't really heard my heart in it all I shall share a little with you now: I was praying about going back to Peru with Gateway since I went last summer. I was saving up my money and MY plan was to go and that was that. As the time got closer I started praying about it and searching for what to do. It was kind of one of those looking but I still had my mind set type of things. But God just kept telling me to wait to make my decision. Then around spring break time Kevin (who is living in Pacasmayo now, where I am going) asked me to come visit where he was at. Was this what God wanted me to wait for? I prayed about it and everything just started falling into its perfect place.

God is funny like that. I just picture him in this huge warehouse with card tables lined up through the whole place....on and on and on. Each card table represents a person and God has their puzzle up on that table. He starts taking pieces from one person's table and adding them to another person's puzzle. Then it gets so big he has to move to the floor. Eventually everyone and every piece is perfectly placed. God cares that much that he perfectly builds each puzzle piece in my life and has the perfect place for each one of my pieces. I know cheesy but get over it that's how I am. lol

So now I am actually going to Peru. Yes I am scared. No I never saw myself doing this. But my dear sister once told me...you have to do something different to get something you have never had before. Might have said that before but it just really stuck with me. I am so excited to love on all of the children there! God is teaching me so much already! I am excited to see everything else he has in store for me.