After 18 days of on dutyness we are excited about a day off!! Being on duty means to be available basically 24 hours a day. So, that translates into 480 hours on duty!! Too bad we don’t get paid by the hour!!
We’ll go off for our four day weekend on Monday. It will be, as Caitlin used to say, “like sweet honey butter biscuits from church’s” . . . or something like that.
I (ryan) will be traveling to Peru September 8th. Along with two Dave H. and Marty M. from Geyer Springs, we’ll be assessing the damage caused by the recent earthquake in the villages that Geyer Springs has adopted.
Needless to say I’m very excited about this opportunity. Amanda is excited for me, but sad that she is not able to go.
It’s strange. We’ve spent half our married life in Peru. We had Sophia there. I guess we have some roots there . . . and we miss it.
God is good. He put us in Peru and now he has put us here at the Promise House. And he has been faithful to give us what we need, namely, himself.
Here at the Promise House we have a verse of the week. The girls memorize it and we try to incorporate it into devotions and things we do throughout the week.
The girls each got a index card Monday morning that said:
Dear Resident’s Name,
Trust in me with all your heart and don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge me, and I will make your paths straight.
Love, Jesus
Can you guess the verse?
My whole life in one sense, has been an experiment in how to be a portable sanctuary — learning to practice the presence of God in the midst of the stresses and strains of contemporary life. Some people who read my books are surprised that I have never been drawn to a monastic life, as important and valuable as that way of life is. For me, the great challenge has always been to experience the reality of God in the midst of going to work and raising kids and cleaning house and paying the bills.
- Richard Foster, Prayers from the Heart. p. xi.
That’s pretty much what I want my life to be. A continual practice of the presence of God. Nothing fancy. Nothing spiritual. Just life the way it was intended to live. Dang, I’m terrible at it! Thankfully, Jesus is very patient with me.
Today was my first day of class. I’m taking 3 classes this semester. Two online and one at the Baptist building (an extension of SouthWestern). The class at the Baptist building started today. It is New Testament Greek I. I haven’t formally studied Greek since my sophmore year at OBU. That was 8 years ago!!! There is a prerequisite to this class that I haven’t taken, but I talked the registrar into letting me take it because I have studied Greek before . . . . (drop of sweat).
Thankfully, I was inspired by Dr. Sills to study Greek so I have studied a bit the last six months. I led a group of Southern seminary students on a trip to Cuzco last fall. Over the Peruvian cuisine each night I was convinced that Greek would be a great thing to know. I’m glad I now have the chance to study it with some accountability.
These little guys have survived over 4 months at the Promise House!!! That’s pretty amazing. They are now on their fourth owner . . . which just so happens to be me. I actually need to rename them . . . because their original names have been lost. So, let me know if you’ve got any suggestions!
Sophie loves the water. So, she loves taking baths. I’ll wash her hair and stinky booty at the first and then just let her play for a while. I’ll read stories to her while she plays. For a while, she was on the verge of starting a bad habit . . . going #2 in the tub. Not a fun mess to clean up. Happily, she hasn’t done it in weeks!
Jesus lived in this broken, painful world, learning obedience, through the things that he suffered, tempted in all the ways we are, and yet remaining without sin. We are, to be sure, reconciled by God by Jesus’ death, but even more, we are “saved” by his life (Rom. 5.10) — saved in the sense of entering into his eternal kind of life, not just in some distant heaven but right now in the midst of our broken and sorrowful world. When we carefully consider how Jesus lived while among us in the flesh, we learn how we are to live — truly live – empowered by him who is with us always even to the end of the age. We then begin an intentional imitation of Christ, not in some slavish or literal fashion, but by catching the spirit and power in which he lived and by learning to walk in his steps.
- Richard Foster, Streams of Living Water. Pg. 1.
Amanda and Sophia went to the Wonder Place with a group of moms and kids last week. This place is awesome! After seeing the pictures, I wanted to go there and play! Here’s the website.
You can see a few more photos of Sophia at the Wonder Place at our flickr.
Marty Mote, Dave Hughey and I traveled to Peru on September 8th in response to the earthquake that shook southern Peru on August 15, . Our plan was to spend a few days in the mountain villages of the Andes that Geyer Springs FBC had been working in over the past 4 years to assess damage. Also, we hoped to visit the hardest hit coastal towns of Ica and Pisco. Below are some pictures that I took and excerpts from the notebook I scribbled in throughout the week.
09 Sept 07 :: 9:00 pm
Day 1 / Huaytara
We awoke this morning and had breakfast at Hotel Santa Cruz where we stayed the night. It feels so strange to be back in Peru. Almost surreal. I guess I didn’t realize how much I loved being here. It feels like coming back to your childhood home after being gone for a long time. Everything I see brings back a memory.
We picked up a few boxes of supplies at the IMB command center in Lima that we will deliver at the end of the week to the missionaries at base camp in Ica.
Chinca was the first town we came to today that was really affected. We could tell that a lot of work had been done, but the streets were lined with huge piles of mud bricks, broken pieces of wood and trash.
We made good time to Huaytara, so we were there well before sundown. This gave us plenty of time to ask around about damage. A local pastor took us to his church to show us the damages there. The movement of the ground had caused huge cracks in the walls. So much so that I could see sunlight coming through the cracks.
Damage seems fairly minimal here. There is some structural damage, but nothing like the coastal towns.
We finished the night by teaching “I’ve Got the Joy” to a 12 year old girl named Lisbet who runs the hostal we are staying in.
Lisbet