The great thing about operating in (what you perceive to be as) the center of God's will is that it's impossible to fail. I really did feel confident going into this night that if 3 people came or 30, it would be a smashing success. In the end, 16 people came, and I think they mostly all had fun. My housekeeper and my friend C came by an hour early and took over the whole cooking operation. I didn't know how much I would need them until they were in charge of all of it and I was busy doing other things.

The best part was that our neighbor M came over. His mom is a friend of ours, but he's a 21 year old drug addict. I think he put everyone else at rest. If he's here, I guess I'm safe. Surely I'm at least as spiritual as this guy! Besides that, he was a fun addition to the party. Despite his general distaste for religious stuff, he told us that he liked the video and wanted to come back next week. He might even bring a friend.

The other thing I got excited about was that our housekeeper, her teenage daughter, our carpenter, and his wife all came. Our handyman said he was going to come and bring his wife, but at the last minute something came up. I love the idea that all of these people in our normal everyday lives are showing up at Alpha. Doesn't that seem right? We pay these people to work for us, but they're also people we spend a lot of time with and hope we are ministering to (beyond the financial ministry, which I know is meaningful).

And last but not least I was excited to see my friend A (from the retreat) and her local enemy M in the same room. I remembered this week that there is hope for reconciliation, not necessarily through Alpha, but in general. I'm praying that both of them will come back and that being together in my house could be part of God putting things right. This community is desperate for the redeeming love of Jesus to erase all divisions and heal all wounds.

So in general, it was a great night. I can't think of one thing I would change, except maybe that I put milk in the tea (one of I'm sure many cultural faux pas). The social time seemed comfortable, the reactions to the message were positive, and I think we'll have most people back plus a few more. There were definitely some moments where I sensed the intervening protection of God against major problems or distractions, so if that means anything to you, keep up those prayers! We are grateful to be the on-site arm of a team of people who care about this town and are fighting for the expression of God's glory here.

I'm leaving in 15 minutes (probably 45 Latin time) for an overnight retreat with Sierra and the girls in her Bible study. There are 4 of them between 19 and 26, 2 single, 1 a single mom, 1 married with 2 kids. The kids are staying home, which is fairly remarkable in this culture I think. I know all these women, but I think at this point they know me more as an idea than a person. I'm a young female missionary. I hope that on this trip I get to know them better and get to actually enjoy my time with them. And I hope also that somehow I can be a gift to them. Their lives are not easy, and I get the impression that they could use some love. I don't have much on my own, but I'm praying I can be an open passageway for the love of God.

Taking the dogs to the beach in the morning has become somewhat of a routine lately. I love to go first thing (around 7 am). It's gray, a little misty, and would be quiet except for the roaring and crashing of the waves. Taza goes bonkers. She's running around, hopping, twisting in the air. There is a fair amount of trash on the beach, which she loves to sniff and sometimes play with. Also crab shells and starfish. Today there was a dead rat. We avoided that one. As you can see, this is not country club paradise. But it's real and it's breathtaking.

I usually take my Bible so that I can do my daily reading in front of the ocean. Somehow it seems more fitting. In that setting and all alone, I feel safe praying out loud with my eyes open, looking up at the sky instead of at the back of my eyelids. There's something precious about starting the day that way, remembering that I'm a tiny speck of a person on an insignificant planet but that God is still listening intently as though I'm the only thing going on. It's been good.

This Friday is our Alpha Course Invitation Night. We've invited a bunch of people over for tallarines verdes (dinner- which is a small meal in Peru), a short intro video (Christianity: Boring, Untrue and Irrelevant?), and a discussion time afterward. The people we've invited are mostly connected to us or our team in some way, but with only a few exceptions, they aren't people who are currently participating in the Puerto Supe Christian Community. Most of them, I think, are not "serious" about a life of faith but are somewhat interested in exploring it.

We are so excited about this possibility and really looking forward to the evening. The closer we get to Friday, the more I know that I need to be on my face before God, begging Him to do something in this town and among the young people here. Would you pray with us? Here are some of the specific requests we have:

• For God to draw a group of people together who can enjoy this time and be changed by it. I especially want to see a community of friends emerge from this course.
• For our time together with these people to be free and safe. We want people to feel open to say whatever they think and to find in our home the space to express their desires, beliefs, and fears.
• For the logistics of having a bunch of people over, feeding them, making them feel comfortable. There are so many cultural elements that we are learning still, and the possibility of a major faux pas is pretty high.
• For people to find here the basic DNA of the Christian faith, particularly that they would "get" the concepts of community (without gossip!), serving one another, the "contagious" nature of this faith, and living for something more than "me."
• For this to be a bridge for guys to come into a life of faith. In the Peruvian macho culture, Catholicism is hard enough. A spiritual life apart from that is pretty daring and puts these guys in a pretty scary place in town. We are especially praying for God to raise up men who can take leadership in the church.

Oh, in every way we are desperate for the grace of God to fall on this Alpha Course! Pray with us that God's hand would orchestrate every detail and that we would find ourselves caught up in His work around and among us. I can't wait to update you with the results of this Friday night!

Today I am enjoying a leisurely day off. I've been feeling exhausted emotionally and dying for some down time, but I didn't feel like I worked hard enough last week to deserve a day off. Much to my delight, my devotional reading last night was about resting and Sabbath rest. I took it as a message from the Lord that whether I "deserved" it or not, He was giving me today to rest. What a gift!

It's been hard for me to let go of the idea of Sunday being a day of rest. Our weekly worship meetings are now on Sunday nights, so it's really not possible to "recover" on Sundays. In addition, people here work (when they can) 6 days a week, so Sunday is the best day to find and spend time with people. Yesterday was full to the brim. Here's what I did:

• 7 am- My alarm goes off. I turn it off and fall back asleep.

• 8 am- Sierra knocks on the door and wakes me up. Glad to have her around!

• 8:15 - We show up a little late for "church." The Cubases, Sierra, Kyle and we meet together in Cesar's office to watch church on the internet. It's actually not bad.

• 9:30- We leave and immediately go to meet with a group of neighborhood people Cesar has motivated to clean the streets on Sunday mornings (for town pride and emerging tourism industry). We pick up trash and sweep dirt to the sides of the road. I'm all about trash pick-up, but sweeping dirt in the desert doesn't seem to be a great strategy. Nonetheless, on this particular morning my ministry is my presence more than my ideas. I stick around but wish I had a better attitude about it.

• 11:30- We come home and crash on the couch for a moment. I'm feeling sort of sick (I think from the fresh cheese at breakfast maybe) and Tim volunteers to make lunch.

• 1 pm- Sierra, Tim and I eat omelets and oven fries for lunch and leave the dishes for our housekeeper to wash the next morning (yay!).

• 2 pm- Sierra and I go out to visit people and deliver invitations to the Alpha Course, which begins this Friday at our house. I'll be very interested to see who comes. We've invited about 25 people and told them they can bring friends. Could be 8 people. Could be 40.

• 4:15- We return home and I for one am completely wiped out.

• 5- We leave with our instruments and all our sound equipment to go set up for the worship service and practice the songs.

• 6:20- Worship service begins. Tim shares some intruiguing words about the Lord's Prayer, we sing some songs, and for the first time yet here the sermon is member of the congregation sharing what he's learned recently about fasting. I'm delighted and encouraged.

• 7:30- Worship service ends, and various people follow us back to our house. I'm a little miffed because all I want to do is stare at the wall. Instead there are people sitting on my couch who want love and attention (and children fighting over toys on the floor).

• 8- The people go home, much to my relief. I think about how I really want to spend some intentional time with them sometime soon, because recently all my time with this family has been them dropping in on me at a time I don't want them to and me being fairly cool with them in an attempt to convince them I'm not that fun to be around and they really ought to go home. Surely that's not the heart of Jesus.

• 8:30 Tim and I eat a Twix bar and play a new card game we just learned called Casinos.

• 9:30 We call it a night. Boy am I looking forward to taking Monday off.

So far today has been everything I dreamed it would be. The housekeeper kept the house, and I've been doing everything relaxing I can think of. I listened to a sermon this morning, took the dogs to the beach, hung out with Grace and Sierra, cooked broiled eggplant with thai sauce and curried couscous pilaf (we're back to our gourmet vegetarian kitchen), washed my feet with a fancy scrub in a bin of warm water. And now I get to write, which I also find sublimely relaxing and useful for digesting this crazy life we're living.

On a completely unrelated note, today our handyman guy started painting the front of the house. We picked purple. When else in my life would I be able to paint my house purple and have it be completely normal? Plus (and this was a serious consideration) I wanted the house to be distinctive enough that I could tell people I live in "the purple house on Calle Arequipa" and they would know which one I was referring to. Here it is (work in progress).

Here's where I washed my hair last night.

The only hot water in the house is in the shower. We have some scary electric showerhead that runs all the shower water through hot coils first. It's been pretty handy over the last month. One of the complications is that the power for the showerhead can only be running when the water is on (or else the motor burns out). It was left on by accident (I think the housekeeper) and is now not functioning. No more hot water in the house. Oh well. We heated up water in the electric kettle for washing yesterday. Tim says he's going to get a new showerhead ASAP. Fortunately they're under $20.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the object above, that is our new internet router. After waiting 4 weeks, a dozen phonecalls, ordering it 5 times and traveling to the office an hour away, they installed it yesterday. As I write this, I'm remembering that until recently there was no such thing as internet and short wave radio was the height of communication. Sometimes it's nice to be young.

Our errands yesterday took significantly longer than we had anticipated so we decided to just stay another night in Lima. What a gift that turned out to be! We dropped by to visit some friends and ended up spending the evening with them. Friends are a not easy to come by here and are therefore all the more precious to us. These particular ones, John and Heather, hail from California, were in language school with us in Arequipa, and are now in Lima with intentions to train Peruvian children's ministers.

We really intended to stop in to see them and their house, but we won them over on the idea of a slow-dinner sushi date and they managed to find a babysitter and join us. It was the first time since we've been in Peru that we had a night like that and I for one left glowing. Scrumptious sushi and sweet friends. I'm so grateful.

While our bathroom floor is being painted and drying, we're in Lima for two days. Last night we got to go on a date, which is not very easy to do in Puerto Supe. We went out for some life-changing sushi and then to see Prince Caspian. As if that sushi weren't enough (I'm sure I'll be craving it until we're back in Lima again), one of the themes from the movie left me with a desire to be different than I am.

As the Narnians are considering a plan of attack against the Telmarines, Lucy reminds Peter that it was Aslan's power that defeated the White Witch and not his. He retorts that he thinks they've waited for Aslan long enough. The attack that follows is a total failure, lots of people die, Peter and Caspian start fighting, and everyone feels crummy.

Who's power am I counting on to transform Puerto Supe? Now that I put some thought to it, I realize that I really have been believing that the good ideas and intentions of our team were going to effect lasting change there. As disappointments come from one direction or another, I feel us grabbing onto anything we can see (hmmm, there's some insight- we're fixing our eyes on what we can see). What is vision if it isn't getting a glimpse into what God is doing? I don't know that I'll find much fruit from coming up with my own plans and begging Him to join me. Disappointment always hits me so hard, but I think it's because I put my hope in my expectations or dreams and not in God.

We're at a crossroads of sorts. We want to do things right (which generally means the long way) and to wait on God. We're also aware that there are people who don't have money to buy rice and beans. Not just "people" in an abstract, far away sense, but friends and neighbors. In the end, I know there's no plan but His plan that will succeed. We're left waiting, slowing down a little, begging the Holy Spirit not to empower our plans but to open our eyes to see His, begging the Him to fill us with life, to draw us closer to Himself, to work in us His power, love, patience, goodness. It's a beautiful place to be, if not easy.

"Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit," says the Lord Almighty. Zechariah 4:6

Some trust in horses and some in chariots, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. Psalm 20:7

My soul waits for the Lord,
more than watchmen wait for the morning,
more than watchmen wait for the morning.
Psalm 130:5-6

Sorry it's been a while. I'm not sure what we've been doing other than waiting for internet, which is mysteriously impossible to acquire. We get a new answer every time we call. Gosh, you'd think they'd want our money!

The biggest deal of the last few days is that Sierra is "home"! She is one of our teammates who will be living with us over the next few weeks. It has been so great to have her around. I appreciate her insights, humor, and easy-going personality more than I can explain. I think we feel significantly less alone now that we're digesting our days with someone outside our miniature family of 2. She's a lovely, confident, Navajo woman. She's full of great ideas and life, and I feel priviledged to have her in my home.

On another topic, I was wrong about the rain. It does rain here. Sort of. This morning we woke up to a barely visible mist. Since parts of our house are more outdoors than in, it's made for a kind of yucky day.