Here’s the SAM Peru crowd we enjoyed at our conference this week. Tim, Taza, and I are in the middle. We got back this afternoon and are feeling a little lonely without our new friends. It was a beautiful time of fellowship, fun, good food, and meaningful teaching. I don’t think I once felt like an outsider or the victim of someone’s conversational charity. We had plenty of time to rest and reflect but still managed to learn so much. We also had a lot of American candy brought in by people joining us from the US! Have you noticed yet that Easter M&Ms are called “bunny mix”? Who would have guessed that you could even make Easter politically correct?

Here is the daily schedule we followed:
7:15 breakfast (bread, Nescafe/tea)
8:00 group devotions by gender
8:30 worship and teaching
10:00 break
10:30 reports on our various projects
11:45 prayer time
12:15 lunch
1-5 rest or sports
5:00 worship and teaching
6:15 dinner
Evening free time

The group consisted of
4 current Puerto Supe people
3 language school students (including us)
4 missionary kid teachers
6 missionary pilots/mechanics and their families
1 family working with a tribal church association
1 family working with developing church leaders along the jungle rivers
1 German missionary woman who has been here for 41 years
2 Peruvian pastors and families (missionaries from Lima to the jungle)
2 counselors and 1 speaker specially sent from the US for the week
Taza

It was so exciting to have the privilege to be with the group this week, surrounded by people who have been seeking and serving God in Peru for many many years. I was inspired by the community they share and the creativity and passion they put into their work.

The teaching theme for the week was “Reclaiming the Way” (as in, the Way of Jesus). It was a beautiful reminder of the life God offers us and how much deeper and more lovely it is than the life we settle into or the life Christian culture suggests. We focused specifically on reclaiming the Way of Children, the Way of the Father, the Way of Anger, the Way of Love, the Way of the Church, the Way of Sexuality, and the Way of Story. I hope to write more this week about those messages as I reflect on what they stirred in my heart.

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