Off to Peru!

Hola y Buenos Dias mi familia y amigos!

This Wednesday evening I will be boarding a huge plane for my first ever mission’s trip and my first ever visit to South America! I am just so excited and honored to be part of this team I can hardly handle it…and I didn’t want to go without telling you (our faithful readers) all about it. 

A few months ago Hilary, my friend and pastor, was asked to speak at the National Peruvian Foursquare Women’s Conference in Lima Peru. Our senior pastors, Todd and Hilary have had a relationship with Fabio and Mariella, the couple who lead Foursquare Peru, for a few years now, and this trip has come out of that friendship. Since I am Hilary’s assistant, I heard about the trip pretty early on, and in my heart I thought “I wanna go I wanna go!” But I also wanted to be patient and see who Hilary had on her heart to take with her. So it was even more exciting when she asked me to go…it was a pretty easy decision at that point.

Matt was also SO very excited for me.  He is looking forward to some special time with Rebecca, and we are both incredibly grateful that his health is so much improved that me leaving for 5 days is possible. (More on that really needing to come soon in a post, huh?)

So the next step was to raise the money for the trip, something that I was nervous about. I have never gone on a mission’s trip before, and so I had never had to write a support letter before. While I love getting support letters from other people going on trips, me being the writer pushed on a vulnerable spot for me.  I didn’t want anyone to feel pressured or expected to do anything, and yet I know that every time we receive a support letter (and depending on the season in our life sometimes we support through prayer, sometimes we send five bucks, sometimes a little more), it is always such a blessing to us that we get to partner with that person and be behind them while they share what the Lord has done for them in another place. 

And so, trusting that the Lord would take care of the finances, I sent out the letter. 

And shattering my fears, and blowing my mind, BAM! Just like that I was fully funded. 

But more than that, I feel fully supported. I separate the two because the outpouring of love and prayer and excitement and questions and the “I’m so excited to hear stories” means so much to me. Of course just getting to go monetarily speaking is awesome, but the fact that my trip is on so many people’s hearts and to know that they are praying for me, whether they sent money or not, is hugely humbling and encouraging.

Dear friends sent me notes, deeply blessing me. Two of my previous students who are 4 and 6 years old, actually went and dumped out some money from their piggy bank because they were so excited that “Teacher Corrie” got to go to another country and tell people there about Jesus. Like the little boy who gave Jesus his lunch, these little boys just wanted to give what they could – but to me, it was treasure!  

And so, feeling thus supported and incredibly loved, I am fervently packing and list-writing and alternately last minute shopping and freaking out that I will forget something : )  (But it’s a good kind of freaking out…mostly)

I will write more when the trip is over about all that we actually did, and while we have been emailing back and forth with the Pastors there in Lima, sometimes the translation is a little iffy, so here is the run-down of what we will be doing – as we currently understand it : )

Hilary will be speaking twice at the conference of probably one or two hundred women. She has asked both Teresa (our third teammate!) and me to be prepared with a possible testimony to share at one or the other of those talks if there is time (This is Hilary’s first time preparing a teaching that will have to be entirely spoken through a translator…so budgeting time is tricky). Then, after the retreat, we will also be meeting in a smaller setting with women from around Peru who are in leadership of some kind in their churches. The focus of this meeting will be not only to encourage them and pray for them, but also to discuss what it means to hear from the Lord, and how to walk in faith, and also humility as we share with people what we feel is on our heart from the Lord to say to them. Again, Hilary has asked Teresa and me to be prepared here with a testimony of hearing from the Lord, and what we have learned so far about how to share that with others. 

I am so eager to see all that the Lord has in store for this trip. From the conversations on the plane in between trying to get a good night’s sleep : ), to the relationships we build with our host families, to the words we say, and the words we hear, to the health and the contrary-to-jet-lag-űber-energy we are believing for, I am trusting that the Lord will be in it all.

Things to please pray for!

• My hosts will be Pedro and Silvia, a newly married couple almost exactly the same age as Matt and me. I would love to be a blessing to them, and would love this to be the beginning of a lasting relationship. 
•  Confession: I get trip anxiety. It’s not usually during the trip, but more before the trip as I try to prepare for all the unknowns and then that’s not possible and then I try to think of the possibilities and then…and so on and so forth. So, ya, that would be a please pray for this right now! : ) 
• Please pray for our health. Traveling wears anyone out…and I don’t want to be worn out! Sometimes airplanes lead to little bugs in the recycled air (trying not to think about it), and I don’t want to be sick. Peru has different foods, and water-drinking “considerations” – and again, I don’t want to get sick. I want to be all there. 
• Pray for Matt and Rebecca. I know they will be fine, and we are so surrounded here on the church campus that I know if Matt needed anything he would be supported…and yet, I don’t want them to miss me at all. I want their time together to be so special and bonding that me being gone for 5 days actually added to their relationship. I love them both so much. Also pray that I don’t miss them too badly – a little missing is good…just not too much : ) 
• And lastly, please pray that my heart is open to what the Lord wants to do in me on this trip. I know there will be places where He wants to challenge and grow me, and in my mind I’m up for it…but sometimes it’s a little harder when it’s actually playing out…So I’m asking that my heart is soft and ready to hear from Him.

Adios y hasta proxima semana!

Thank you all! Love to you!