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In Arequipa, there was a guy in a wheelchair doing sketches for 5 S/., so we had him do one of Sophia.

Please don’t freak out. We did not let Sophia ride in the front seat. This was on one of our many breaks on the way to Arequipa.

God is so good. We talked to Jesus a lot about Sophia and the trip . . . . and kept her calm and happy.

At each break we would get out and give Sophia a good back rub and leg rub.

Here she is chillin’ just before starting another leg of the journey. She thought it would be cool to sit up front. She even said she’d wear a seatbelt, but we decided that that probably wasn’t a good idea.

Our time is getting short here in Peru. We will fly back to the U.S. January 11th, 2007. We will have completed our assignment with the IMB.

Kind of crazy. Time flies. Anyway, we want to make the most of our last few months here. It’s sad to think about leaving, but at the same time really exciting to be back with our family.

Faith. Faith. Faith. If it’s one thing we’ve been learning lately . . . . it’s that we must walk in faith . . . . and that applies to every square inch or our lives, every corner.

When Sophia doesn’t make a deposit for 2 days and we get kind of nervous . . . what do we do? We talk to Jesus about it. We walk by faith. . . . that he won’t lead us astray. That he will let us know when to call the doctor.

I really like the Chronicles of Narnia . . . . and in The Magician’s Nephew one of the characters says that it seems like Aslan (the Christ figure) likes to be asked for stuff . . . I think that’s true. God wants us to ask for stuff. He knows what we need, but he wants us to recognize that need and then recognize that he is the meeter of needs.

We´re heading back to Lima today. We´ll break the 15 hour trip into two days. We would be nervous about how Sophia would handle it if God hadn´t already answered our prayers and guided us every step of the way on this trip.

It´s absolutely amazing what happens when one decides to stop focussing on what he wants and start focussing on hearing and obeying God.

I think we had forgotten for a while that it´s not about us. It´s all about him. Life is so much better/funner/richer/abundant/exciting/etc. that way.

So, we´re off. Hopefully we´ll make it to Naza tonite. We´ll see.

Ryan

Like I said in an earlier post . . . God has been teaching us so much lately. He´s teaching us to walk by faith . . . for his glory. We are seeing God work in and through us like never before.

A few nights ago in Arequipa we (the Reap South team) were eating dinner with some of our Arequipeño friends.

Elizabeth helped Amanda and I a lot a few months back when we came to begin the first steps of an English ministry here.

She was telling me about her life. “Medicine is my life.”, she said. I felt like Jesus wanted me to tell her what our life was…… So, I told her that Jesus is our life. That he is our everything.

God is working on her. I´m not sure what he´s doing, but it´s so cool to be a part of it. Big tears welled up in her eyes as she told me about her dad who won´t talk to her. . . and how she doesn´t feel like she´s been close to God.

Amanda and I have decided to live by faith….. What the heck does that mean!!!???? We don´t know …. but we´re learning. For starters, it means believing what God says. More on all that later.

We travelled to Arequipa (14 hours) a few days ago. Now we´re working on starting an English club for folks that will be able to translate for us in the future.

The weather is incredible. Sun! Sophia did great on the road. She spen a lot of time in the carseat, but hardly complained.

In Nazca, I had to wash one of Sophia´s bottles. So, I went to the kitchen and asked if I could use a sink. The lady said I could, she too was washing dishes, so we talked. I was telling her that we follow Jesus. I was telling her how good God is and how much he loves us. I was telling her how it´s so cool how God wants to know us. . . that he talks to us and leads us everyday.

At the end I told her thanks for letting me use the sink. “No . . . . thank you”, she said. I asked her why she was thanking me. “Because you have brought me hope.”! Can you believe that!?¿ God is so awesome. He rocks the house! He sets things like this up. I was washing a baby bottle . . . a pretty mundane thing . . . and he uses it to give a soul hope! Oh, and by the way, the lady´s name is Esperanza . . . . which means Hope in english.

We´re gonna try to stop back by on our way back to Lima.

I think we’re seeing God move in our life now more than ever. It’s all about him! Every step of the way, every corner of our lives. We are learning to walk in the liberation that comes with giving him every single aspect. God is awesome.