Exciting Cusco news!!

I'm going to keep it short this time. I just wanted to praise God for His gracious provisions in my life. As of yesterday I am 100% funded for my one time need to get to the field. YAY!! Now all I have left to raise by the end of this month is $600/month in pledges. I'm getting so close to being 100% funded with about 12ish more days til my deadline(the first week in December) for support raising.

I'm getting really excited and am looking forward to the distinct possibility of heading off to Belgium in January for pre field training and then to language school in February. In theory I'll get to my final destination(Cusco, Peru) in July of 2010 to start my work in Hinterland Health ministry. I am thankful for all of the generous supporters and prayer partners God has provided for me and am looking forward to sharing this experience and ministry with dear friends and family. I'm just pumped to be involved hands on and have a front row seat in this work God has called me to. God has been good to me.

If anyone might be interested in supporting me on an ongoing basis, please feel free to contact me with your pledge info or any questions you might have. You can email me your pledge or send your pledge to MTW by mail.

Please continue to pray for my support to come in by the end of this month so I can move forward in the process of getting to Cusco. Thank you all for praying about support and other preparations I have for this ministry.

Hopefully the next update I'll send out (very soon) will be the announcement that I'm 100% funded for everything. I'll keep you all posted!!

Cusco Update

As requested, here's a short update on my trip to Cusco last week( glad to hear that some people are looking this. Thanks Jared!! You rock!)

After much excitement and anticipation I finally had an opportunity to get a glimpse of what life will look like for me in the near future. It was a great week in many ways. God was gracious and placed me on a team with so many really cool and gifted brothers and sisters in Christ. It was a time of sweet fellowship. With a team of so many disciplines within the medical field, God equipped us to meet many different needs. There were 18 of us. We had a wide range of physicians-Family practice, radiologist, plastic surgeon, Ob/gyn, general surgeon, 4 nurses, 2 dentists, Physical therapist, and some lay people. I think one of my favorite team members was a 16 year old who did children's ministry during clinic hours(it really can be quite a challenge). How brave of him come spend a week with "a bunch of old people" as he put it, give of himself, and minister to the children. It was neat to see how God brought us all together to share the love of Christ with people in need.

Thankfully, we all arrived in Cusco on time, with all of our luggage and had no issues with customs on the way in or the way out. We all got along and actually had a blast(imagine that....what a surprise). The food was pretty good and no one got really really sick. The llama was pretty good. I'll have to wait til I move there to try the cuy(guinea pig). I hear it's quite good.

As is my usual experience, we encountered much heartache in the lives of the poor in Cusco. We were able to address some of these people's physical needs. We also had time to pray with patients and care for them(hopefully showing them the love of Christ). It can be a challenge to share the Gospel with the Quechua people. In general, they are very guarded and closed. It can take a long time to gain their trust, but I do believe we planted many seeds during our time there. God did give our team a gift of seeing a young woman come to know Christ while we were in Cusco. What an encouragement!! It always touches me to see the visible difference in someone when they come to know Christ.

The team also got to visit an orphanage run by part of the MTW Hinterland team. It was fun to play with and love these children, but also painful to hear the stories of abandonment and abuse in some cases. Apparently, the acceptable way to get rid of children in Cusco is to slowly starve them to death. I thank God for those who are willing to step up and care for God's precious children through this ministry.

It was good for me to spend some time with and get to know the missionaries I'll be spending the next couple of years with. As our team was leaving to come back home I was excited to not have to say goodbye permanently because I'm coming back soon!!! It was great and made me even more eager to get to Cusco. I still hope to have all my support raised by the first week in December, so I can go to prefield training and then language school in January. It's hard to believe I'm on the home stretch for support raising. God has provided so much support(prayer and financial), but I still need $3000 for my one time need and $600/month in pledges. I'm praying for a miracle so I can get to the field this winter. I trust that God will provide in His perfect timing and am trying to rest in that.

I think I've gone on long enough, so I'm going to end here. If you want to hear more......I'm having a party/support raising dinner next Sunday, November 8th from 6-8ish at my church(let me know if you want more info). I'm looking forward to sharing about what God is doing in my life and in Cusco, Peru as well. I really can't do this alone. Thank you all for your continued support.