Hands of Praise

Me with Ayelen, Alisson, & Maria at the High School Outing "For by Grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." - Ephesians 2:8-9 What a blessing to see God at work and see the glorious fruit of obedience to Him! On Thursday, July 25th, I had the absolute joy and privilege to see God at work first hand and personally. I shared last year that one of our deaf high schoolers, Mar

The original quote of $37,000 to build the Missionary House here at Refugio has been met! Woohoo!!! God is so faithful to provide our needs through his faithful body of Christ - YOU! Thank You all sooo much for investing in the ministry here and donating time, sweat, work, and funds to be able to build this house! I knew that the Lord would work everything out to provide for this house build. I was just reminded yesterday of God's faithfulness through using His people to bles

We broke ground on the Missionary House on April 1! We are almost 1/2 through the 4 month projected build, and soo much has been accomplished! Underground foundation/base is done, columns are up, most of the walls are up, windows are marked and doorways are noted! The roof is being prepped now and the brick for the roof just arrived today! By the end of next week, the roof should be all set and the cement poured! We will then have to wait 15-20 days for it to dry and cure, bu

School is officially in session! We’ve started off well with minimal issues! With the 2 new principals in place, it seems to be going well thus far! Now in our third week, we’ve gotten into a bit more of a routine as a school. But my personal routine in the mornings is still in flux. 😊 I started out the school year without a functioning classroom. But it was for a good reason! The previous week we had a surprise announcement that my and the blind kids’ classroom was going to

I’m back in my rustic, jungle-weathered home in Pucallpa after a month-long visit back to the U.S.! It was such a great trip being able to see my parents, siblings, nieces, and nephews! It was an especially awesome treat to be able to meet my newest nephew Slayden at only 4 months old! Missing the first year of my previous 4 nieces and nephews during my first 2 years in Peru was not pleasant… While I was in the U.S., I celebrated my 3 year anniversary of serving in Peru. Febr

I recently reread a poem written by a missionary to Peru back in the 1930's and onward. I want to share it with you: Somebody Prayed by Louise Jeter Walker Somebody prayed and my burden was lighter, Somebody prayed and my path became clear, Clouds rolled away and the sunshine was brighter, Jesus, my wonderful Savior was near. Prayer hands outstretched over ocean and mountain, Helped me press onward when I was afraid; Thirsty souls drank at the life-giving fountain, Somebody,

When love is lost What can remain? When pain is sharp And hurt severe? My Loving Lord! Draw us near! To Your cross Forgiveness clear! Offense is strong All sides on guard Lord, break this bond! Your victory, won! Satan celebrates While discord reigns Demons laugh As pain enslaves! We are Yours Lord! Break us free! Humble us! Let us see! Your truth is hard, But always best! Forgiveness humbles, But gives us rest. In chaos Lord, Take the reigns! Our sin so clear, Our life in ch

This morning I was listening to worship music on a Christian Radio app and heard a song I hadn't heard before. It is called "HOME" by Planetshakers. I've never heard of this Planetshakers either, but I love this song. Especially the last lines : HOME Now, My heart is open now Your Love advances breaks my defenses down Go, Jesus I'm letting go Your grace is greater than every failure Now I'm coming Home I know I am home Safe within my Savior's arms Right back where I belong Ho

This is a blog post written by another missionary, Joy Smalley. It spoke directly to my heart and articulates perfectly what I feel myself going through and what the Lord is doing in me here in Pucallpa. It is a little long but worth the read. :-) "I want to go home. I want to sit by the beach, listen to the waves and feel the sea breeze against my face. I want the touch of the sun on my bare shoulders and legs while digging my toes deeper and deeper into the sand. I want to

Oh, how hard is the lesson of humility. God has me in a time of learning humility right now. How do I know this? I have been publicly and deeply shown my wrongdoing and pride twice in the past month... in addition to many other instances in between less public, but nonetheless humbling. It is not a pleasant lesson at all to have to learn, but an important one nonetheless. The first time my wrongdoing was brought to a public attention, I wanted so greatly to defend myself. My

From May 29 - June 5 I had the honor and pleasure to go to Cusco, Peru and help translate for a short-term missions team from Sanctuary Church in Atlanta, GA! It was a pleasure and joy to join with the team as they served a local church and witnessed to the surrounding community. I had never interpreted full time for a team like that, but it was an amazing experience and I learned a lot. I most definitely messed up and was not at all the perfect translator, but with the graci

I often feel that I am in the midst of a whirlwind that never stops. My default introvert needs start to become idols as I feel like I can't catch a breath. I crave order. I crave stability. I crave routine. I crave quiet, me time. But that is not my reality. And my internal fight against my reality, I grow angry and react very badly. I become bitter and don't love. I don't want to be angry at the differences from my passport country I now live in. The culture I live in now

On February 20th, I returned to Lima, Peru and on February 25th I returned to Pucallpa. How quickly my 2 months in the U.S. for furlough went by! Within those 2 quick months, soo much happened! I am very grateful that I was able to spend a lovely Christmas with my entire family! It was awesome being able to meet my 4 new nieces and nephews that were born over my 2 years here. And being able to chat with my mom more freely and daily was a great blessing as well! I was also ble

I arrived back to the U.S. on Sunday, December 17th, and since then it has been a crazy, awesome, readjusting, stress-full, family coming, wonderful, whirlwind of activity preparing for Christmas, celebrating Christmas, and now settling down a bit after Christmas. It is strange and weird to be in the U.S. again going through the motions of familiar activities and traditions, but unable to completely disconnect from the knowledge that this is for merely a time because my new n

Fundraising for Project CASA is in full swing! We have been blessed to have received about $4,000 thus far of the $37,000 goal. But this week another huge blessing presented itself! An anonymous donor has offered to match every dollar donated up to an additional $4,000! It is an awesome opportunity to increase the amount raised an additional $8,000! But this match-fundraiser is only active for one month – until Friday, December 15th! I know God will provide in His time all th

Oreo sleeping in my fruit basket....makes for a super cute centerpiece! Pumpkins come once a year to Pucallpa in the month of October. All the missionaries here keep a look out for when they are finally spotted in the grocery stores – a glorious display of the round, orange, fall-reminiscing gourds! As soon as they are spotted, the word gets around quickly via word of mouth, Facebook, etc. Then we promptly all run to the stores to make sure we each get at least one! I was luc

My sending church and I have an exciting venture to share with ya’ll! Now in my second year of service to the deaf and hard-of-hearing community at Refugio, it is apparent that the small house I rent on the Refugio campus is unfortunately in a sad state of repair. Having spent money for numerous repairs and realizing that the termites, ants and wood rot are winning, I have consulted with a trusted carpenter and others about the wisdom of continuing repairs. The conclusion i

We had “winter break” from July 26 – August 6, then started classes again Monday August 7. But not all schools started classes again…. Here at Refugio, we continued with classes normally, but for the rest of the public schools in the city, they all decided to join the teachers strike that had been occurring in Lima….So they began their own strike here. The strike continues to today, so they are now in their 4th week of the strike. The poor students of those schools are going

The saying is old, but true....."You don't appreciate what you have until you don't have it anymore." July 22, the Saturday before "winter break" started, we suddenly no longer had running water. Our pump wasn't pumping water from the well to the water tank, so therefore, we didn't have running water in our houses. We quickly turned the pump off to not overheat it until we figured out what was wrong. During the next week and a half, we lived with no water coming to out houses

Last week was rather interesting for the Worship Team. We were asked to play for the Youth Group's "graduation" from their latest study as well as playing for Sunday service. That would mean we would need to prepare at least 10 songs. Seeing as there are only 5 of us currently on the team, I was slightly worried about making sure we would have everything down. Our Worship Team leader has been out of town since late June, so I have kind of felt responsible for the team since I