Week 1

Wow! What a week. I have 30 minutes to write a blog. I'm going to my host families grandpa's birthday party tonight. I feel like I have been here for a month already. I've done so much...I started working pretty much on Tuesday..Wednesday was more work..Thursday I got to go to a meeting at the US Embassy for work...that was awesome! Today, was by far the best day of the week. I was able to go to Independencia, one of the poorest parts of Lima...all of my trips to Mexico through Tijuana House Building Ministry and Viidaii...everything I read could have not have prepared me for what I saw and experienced today. I can't describe it all in the next 20 minutes that I have. I'm still trying to process everything in my head. Anyway, I will be working there..hopefully 4 days a week..working with a doctor who runs the medical clinic and does pretty much all of the public health/health promotion in this area. I'm so excited...his project focus that is coming up is children under 5 and physical screenings, I'm so excited to work with him. The medical clinic that he had was so small. Anyway, I have to go soon. Another memory...on the car ride to Independencia was speaking Spanish with a German..that was a new experience for me. I'm so glad that I have Spanish speaking ability is helping so much with forming relationships and getting work done. I do miss home as well, but prayer and keeping busy is helping. I know that I'm never alone. Ciao.

16 Days

I cried today. I've cried a lot lately. When I was a baby and first learned how to walk, I cried then too. I cry when things in my life change-even if it is for the better. I will probably be like my grandma who cries at everything, I'm smiling now just thinking about how she could turn any normal conversation into a emotional conversation because she will start crying about something. I love my family...I really do. So I have 16 days left here and I'm trying to be prepared as possible. This week I have my tetanus shot on Monday and I have to go to the doctor on Wednesday for some medical stuff. I have so much to do! I need to make a list. Next weekend I'm visiting my grandmother and going to the Strawberry Festival in Oxnard (that is where I was born). I also need to start moving stuff into my parents house. The 24th will be here in no time.

Follow You Lyrics by Leeland

You lived among the least of these

The weary and the weak

And it would be a tragedy for me to turn away.



All my needs you have supplied.

When I was dead you gave me life.

How could I not give it away so freely?



And I'll follow you into the homes that are broken.

Follow you into the world.

Meet the needs for the poor and the needy God.

Follow you into the World.



Use my hands, use my feet

To make your kingdom come

Through the corners of the earth

Until your work is done

'Cause Faith without works is dead

And on the cross your blood was she'd

So how could I not give it away so freely?



And I'll follow you into the homes that are broken.

Follow you into the world.

Meet the needs for the poor and the needy God.

Follow you into the World.

(X2)



I give all myself.

I give all myself

I give all myself... to you.



And I give all myself.

Yes, I give all myself.

And I give all myself... to you.



And I'll follow you into the homes that are broken

Follow you into the world.

Meet the needs for the poor and the needy God.

Follow you into the World.

Practice Posting Photos

Bienvenidos!

Psalm 121: 7-8, "The Lord will keep you from all harm-he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore." Hi! Welcome to my blog! This will be my first blog for my upcoming life adventure: I just accepted a volunteer placement at a YMCA in Lima, Peru for one year. Nervous, excited and anxious are all adjectives that describe how I feel right now. First things first...the testimony of my life. Growing up, my mom was an awesome example of what it means to be a godly selfless woman. Although not at all perfect, her love, self-sacrifice, forgiveness and sense of humor are all traits that I hope I have inherited from her. Growing up a Christian was awesome, however my life hasn't always been easy. When I was in college at Point Loma Nazarene University, I went through a very low point in my life. During my senior year of college I broke up with my boyfriend of two and a half years and tore my left Anterior Crucial Ligament. I felt so alone and so sad. I was also very insecure in myself and anxious. My heart was broken by the boy I thought I was going to marry. I tore my ACL at soccer training camp and I was out for the whole soccer season. I had played soccer since I was five years old and it was such a huge part of my life. Prior to this, I had a identity life crisis and it was a challenge for me to relate to people at Point Loma. I never felt so alone and isolated in my life. After graduating, God had used my friends (Marissa and Jamie Dungca)to invite me to a small group in Santee (shout out to Tuesday night Santee small group). Gradually, God began to work on my heart and transform me into the person I am right now.I continued to go to the small group and I experienced the love of Jesus through their lives. Then God gave me a mentor who taught me how to speak to people. God placed it on my heart to serve his church, so that is what I did. At small group, I would spend time with people, meet their needs and serve them. I wanted to do more because I loved them. I wanted to grow so much in my walk with the Lord and I prayed to him for a life like David and Joseph from the Old Testament. I told him that I didn't want to waste my youth but wanted to bless him and be blessed by Him. I wanted to build a foundation for my life so that I could become the godly woman that he had intended for me to become. I can't fully explain in words how grateful I'm to God for the life that he has given me. To know what it feels like to be so alone...that only God was there with me when I would cry myself to sleep...to know that He was there when there was no one in the world who could meet my needs..I'm eternally grateful..and for that I give him my life. Not only because he comforted me in what seemed like the most depressing point of my young life, but he protects, leads, guides and loves me. Isaiah 58:11, "The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail."If you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I want to tell you that he loves you, he desires you, he created you, he has died for your sins. God's love towards us is so great and is so free. My prayer for each person in my life is that they could have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. My life is not perfect, in fact, this season has been a little stressful with school and work and other life issues. There is so much that I know God needs to work on me: my pride (a big issue I think everyone deals with), my selfishness, my sin...I will never be fully mature until I'm united with him in heaven. So in this life journey, he has brought me here, to go down to South America and use all of the education and opportunities that I have to help a community. This has been my dream for the past couple of years and it has finally become a reality. I'm going to miss all of the beautiful and loving people that God has placed in my life. I'm going to miss my family, church, classmates and abundant life here in San Diego, but I want to be challenged y quiero hablar espanol perfectamente! That is all for now, good night family and friends. I love you and pray for each of you often.Please keep me in your prayers.