The miraculous in the mundane

Mornings are kind of like a chaotic machine in this house. Everyone already knows what has to happen between 6-6:45 but somehow they need the gentle reminders from mom to feed the animals, get their lunches, brush their teeth etc... Normally after everyone leaves I like to try to get an extra 30 minutes of sleep in before I start my day because I already feel like I ran a mini marathon just getting them out the door. ha. But, for the past week the water has been shut off every day around 8:30 am-7pm more or less. I think it has something to do with preparations for el Niño since that is the reason for everything lately but I knew this morning that if I wanted to take a shower and do more than one load of laundry I had to get up to the roof (where our washing machine is) and do some laundry. So I said goodbye to my kids kissed my husband and gathered all our dirty clothes on my way up. I picked the most important stuff (school uniforms or Jose's stuff it's always a gamble) and prayed as I started that the water would stay on at least through the end of the rinse cycle. A couple days ago I tried to wash our sheets and the water cut off about 20 minutes in the washing machine paused but it didn't automatically restart and when the water came back on 9 hours later it was brown...It's really dark upstairs and I didn't realize it when I restarted the washer. I didn't know until I got back inside and by then the damage was done. The sheets aren't really stained but they smell so weird, I don't know if it's from sitting wet.but.not.washed.for.9 hours or from being rinsed in brown.for.unknown.reasons.water or a mix of both. So that's also in my pile of things to wash again today to try to get the funk out of the sheets. (thank you God we have 2 sets of sheets)

I had a long list of things to accomplish using water so I wanted to try to get them all done before 8
Take a shower. check
wash dishes. check
do another load of laundry. check
By then it was actually 9 and Jose showed up he needed to shower then we had some errands to run. I  thought we would be out of water for the day but when we got home I had water to do everything else I needed to. More cleaning, more laundry, and every time I turned the water on I held my breath expecting the sputtering sound of air escaping from empty pipes. And every time the water came out I said a quick "thank you Jesus." It might sound silly and some I know are used to it. I'm almost there. It's kind of just a part of life now that we may or may not have water or electricity or either and we may or may not know in advance if they will be cut. But I never would have dreamed that would be a part of my life or a part of being a missionary. Sometimes we think that miracles are only things like walking on the water and forget that there are so many miracles that happen every day and we are just used to them so we don't recognize them. So for right now a day of running water so I can catch up on housework was the miracle for me. But sometimes getting through homework with Tim (or him doing it with minimal help and understanding what he's doing) is the miracle. Or having a conversation with someone who doesn't speak any english is my miracle.

We have some friends who hashtag everything life is an adventure and I love that because that's kind of perfect. You never know what will happen in life no matter where you live and every day you have a choice to see it as an adventure or travesty. Sure there are frustrations. Sometimes you might feel like the person on the other side of the counter is trying to make sure you have a bad day. (Sometimes I feel that way) But only you have the power to let them ruin your day.

This verse usually only gets pulled out at the end of November as everyone is preparing to eat Turkey and gather with family. But I feel like it should be posted on the desk where you pay bills. Maybe in the car where you might deal with other people cutting you off. Personally I think I'm going to hang it on my kids doors so I can see it before I walk in and see what their rooms look like ;)

The more we begin to thank God for everything. The more we will see the miraculous in the mundane and the more we will see God using the little things in our lives to shape us into the finished product. 

What do we do?

When I wasn’t a missionary I often wondered what missionaries spent all their time doing. I had mental images of people dressed in Khaki in the middle of the jungle with tribes of people who had only scraps of fabric tied on with string and body paint as their clothing. I imagined those people using hand motions to share the gospel and then going home to their mud huts at the end of the day. Maybe that was just my imagination but I think I probably saw a movie or read books with those types of images to put the idea in my head. 

Now that I’m an actual missionary I know that there are probably missionaries whose lives look more like that but that’s not really much like my life. (except maybe using hand motions to share the gospel…but I do that no matter what I’m talking about or who I’m talking to.) Anyway, I wanted to share a look into what we do here as missionaries. 

The first aspect and most time intensive part of our work here is church planters and pastors. We have a 3 1/2 year old church that we planted in the main city of Piura and just last week we officially opened the doors of our second stand alone church plant in a smaller town about an hour away called Chulucanas. Over the last few years we worked with a couple from the first church plant so that they can direct the new church plant with supervision from us with the goal that one day once we have gotten the church well established they will be able to be the pastors of that church. Because both churches are relatively young our work just in the church entails pretty much every thing a church staff does. We have been able to grow our team little by little so that we have more laborers helping with things like worship team, the childrens ministry and even things like cleaning the church. But if something breaks Jose is still usually going to be the person going to the hardware store. ;) We also offer free family counseling to the community which is something that we spend a lot of time doing day to day.

One of our recent "Man Church" services 

The second part of what we do is actually something that was birthed once we came here. We really had no idea how pervasive sexual child abuse was here until we actually lived here for awhile. 1 in 3 kids in Peru is sexually abused and usually by a family member or close family friend.  Now that we know what a horrible problem it is we have made it our mission to go into every school that we can in the region to teach the kids about grooming for sexual abuse and how to avoid it and what to do if someone tries to touch them inappropriately. We were connected with an organization that writes materials for children age 3-10 that helps illustrate those things in an age appropriate way and also teaches about values and things like self-esteem. 

Jose with a group of kids from one of the schools we worked with last year.

Another thing we do is about once a month sometimes more often we go into the community to serve. We do lots of different things but some of my favorite have been feeding the homeless and people in hospitals or who had to work on Christmas eve, taking gift baskets filled with stuff for mom and baby to the maternity ward at the regional hospital, and handing out cold water or “bodoques" (a popsicle like treat that is very popular here) to people on the street as they passed.   

some of our team who sacrificed their Christmas Eve to hand out food 

Our fourth aspect is called our training center.  This is a relatively new concept here of combining physical exercise, healthy eating habits, spiritual teachings, focused thinking, and doing it with friends. We call it “Vida Saludable” or Well balanced lifestyle.  What we discovered is that we are reaching a certain group of people that has been left abandoned: the elderly.   This has been a huge undertaking to help bring a healthy lifestyle to a third of the population of our region.  

one of our first "Training center" workshops

The final aspect of our ministry is still in the beginning stages. We always planned to build an orphanage and we are currently in the process of getting that started. Having a son with special needs opened our eyes to the amount of kids here who are like him and need help. But because of the lack of resources most orphanages can’t take them. Most of this part is still in the dreaming stages but we need you to prayers and financial support as we enter into this stage of the ministry.  

I have to confess...

In my life there have been certain lessons I've learned more than once. Or maybe I never learned and I keep going through the situations in order to learn the lessons for real. Growing up I thought I had a lot of self confidence.
 I never really worried about my looks that I remember and thought I was pretty secure. But somehow along the way I lost that and became incredibly insecure. 
A friends younger brother told me I laughed weird so I tried to change my laugh (impossible to do unless you just never actually laugh) 
Someone made fun of the way I scrunched my nose when I smiled so I tried to change my smile. I was made fun of for being short, the size of my hands and feet, my name, how I talked, how much I talked, how little I talked, being too emotional, not being emotional enough...the list goes on. Aside from that there were people who made me feel like my opinions...my voice had no value. 
It was their way or nothing. There are situations where things are a matter of authority and there are others where it's mostly opinions. 
I never really understood the difference and thought I had to conform to the people I was around, fit in like a little robotic carbon copy of everyone else or I would be rejected. 

I remember when my sister was young her favorite things always matched exactly to her friends favorite things. Her favorite color, food, movie etc... changed depending on what friend she was around. One day she asked for "her favorite food" while a friend was over only to realize (once she ate it) that she hated that thing. I don't know really if that helped her recognize what she was doing. She was pretty young at the time. But I don't think she was even doing it on purpose. It was a message that the world sent out to us from a very young age. "Be just like everyone else or nobody will like you" That's why peer pressure is so effective. 

What happened with me is I lost my identity. 
I was afraid to stand up for myself even in tiny things. 
If my opinion differed from someone else's I just kept it to myself "why rock the boat" I thought. 
But really I told myself they wouldn't like me. 
Once I accidentally admitted to a group of women that I didn't like a certain chick flick that had recently come out. 
Suddenly everyone went silent and they just looked at me like I had 3 eyes. 
I started to try to explain my position and then I lost my nerve. 
They thought it was weird that I disagreed but they quickly moved on to something else.
 (and surprise, surprise, they didn't stop being my friends.
 which I really worried about for the rest of the day as I tried to mirror everything they liked)
Now if that's how I felt about movies imagine anything bigger. 
I let people walk all over me and treat me like garbage. 
People I thought of as close friends who really didn't value me at all. 
There have always been people in my life who didn't see me or treat me that way but I wasn't listening to their voices or God. I was believing the lie that my value was dependent on what everyone thought of me. The voices that were the loudest always seemed to be the voices that tried to manipulate me or the voices of those who didn't like me. 
When people would try to encourage me or say good things about me, I always thought. "yeah, you really don't know me." And to be perfectly honest I still have to fight those thoughts.
Changing your mindset isn't an overnight thing.


Why am I saying all this?
 I believe that a lot of people feel that way. I think life and the enemy of our souls has attacked and beaten so many down that we all think "I am garbage" and "I am alone" we don't believe anyone else is going through it and because that's how we think we don't believe we can talk to anyone about it because they won't understand. 
If you keep thinking you are alone. You will be.
 You are more important than you think you are and you are exactly the way you are supposed to be. Every one of us has room to grow but that doesn't mean you have to like all the same movies as everyone else or eat the same kind of food or laugh more demurely or smile without scrunching your nose. 

Most people have at least heard Psalm 139:14 "I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.Wonderful are your works;my soul knows it very well."But if you keep reading verses 17 and 18 say a little bit more "How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.They cannot be numbered!I can’t even count them;they outnumber the grains of sand!And when I wake up,you are still with me!"The beginning of the chapter talks about how He sees everything. He knows everything we do and everything about us. He didn't just make us exactly as He planned. Wonderful. But he thinks about us and we are precious to Him, even though we are not perfect. For me it shouldn't matter if everyone else in the world thinks I'm a weirdo or awkward. I really am a weirdo and awkward, so they are right, actually. But even so, God thinks I'm precious. He likes my weirdness. He made me to be that way. The way he feels about me is not dependent on if I like to eat at his favorite place or wear his favorite brand. He likes me because I’m me. He also brings people into my life that feel the same. They don’t care if we like the same things or have nothing in common. I (and maybe you too) just have to believe that the right people will stay no matter what I do and the wrong people will move on. 

And that’s ok. 

Really.

Theres something better out there. I’m tried of living in fear of rejection. are you? 

March Update

I keep wanting to sit down and write a nice update on all the great things that are happening (because they are. Really) But I'm having trouble getting it all down. Life is kind of kicking my butt right now. (can missionaries say that?) And everything I try to start gets overwhelming about halfway in. I think Zoe realized this about me because she decided to be potty trained and just started telling me she had to go and that was pretty much it. That's the only explanation I can come up with because I honestly did not want to deal with it right now. Or maybe ever.

Anyway, the boys started school this month because the school year here runs March-December. Logan is doing great mostly because he's social and works better with other kids his age doing the same thing as him. The only part that is hard is homework. I thought homeschooling was tough (it was) trying to help a 4th grader do homework in Spanish is ridiculous. I could probably easily help with the homework in english but naming the tools used in a chemistry lab is a little out of my depth. Every day he asks for help and I end up telling him to ask dad when he gets home.

Timothy on the other hand has been struggling with every aspect of school but he's finally getting in the groove. Autism and sensory integration issues are not very well known here. So we are trying to teach his teacher about it while also trying to help Tim with Spanish, cursive, and anything the teacher sends home for him to work on. Thankfully we found a great tutor who doesn't speak any english but is extremely patient and seems to like working with Tim. Timothy can understand her because it's one on one with no distractions and she speaks very slowly. Every day is a new test of my creativity to help him get through different challenges. We have learned he works best with some kind of reward looming in the near future to help him push through the hard parts.  That and lots of squishing, pillow/tickle fights or wrestling are what get us through the days.  




Zoe had her second birthday. I threw my first big party in awhile for her. She adores princesses and it was all pink and princess themed just for her. She loved it even though she only kept her tutu and tiara on long enough to take one picture. I did my best to just be a part of the party so I didn't get very many pictures. But it was a lot of fun and many people who love her were there to celebrate my sassy & sweet little 2 year old. She is constantly surprising us with how much she catches. She loves to sing and dance and draw on things with magic markers. She speaks her own version of spanglish and she imitates people perfectly. She often likes to run through all the names she knows. Repeating "awella" (Manuela) her hands down favorite person in the world. Having a daughter has been an adventure and a challenge but I wouldn't trade her. She lives up to the "life" part of her name for sure.  

For the last couple weeks we have had a lot of rain. Peru isn't used to rain...at all. When I have said it rained I was referring to Peru's version which is basically a light sprinkle. The kind of thing where back home everyone would be asking "is it raining?" Because you could stand outside in it for 10 minutes and still be completely dry. But the last couple weeks it's been good, solid, flood the streets raining a little every day. Because of that we've had a few setbacks, the church and our house flooded. The roof at the church caved in and even the school Logan goes to closed for a day because they had some rain related issues. It's amazing how much damage can be done when you aren't prepared.

God has been doing some really exciting things in the midst of all of this.                                    In coming here we had a few goals.                     One of them was to plant churchES.                 We've been in Piura for 4 years now and have been steadily growing that whole time. This Sunday we will have our grand opening at Powerhouse Chulucanas.                                     The second official church plant of Powerhouse Peru.                                                                       We have a great couple that have been working with us and learning a lot about ministry.           They will run the location and we will go every so often to make sure things are running smoothly.                                                              

This has been a huge undertaking along with everything else going on.                                      But we are so excited to see what happens.  Chulucanas is about an hour East of us here in Piura. It's a beautiful little city that's kind of in the mountains. The famous black and white pottery from Peru originated there.                       The location we found is right in the center of town.                                                                    About one block from the "Plaza de Armas" it's actually about 3 times as big as our Piura location so we are hopeful it will be filled with people seeking a relationship with Jesus.                    Starting tomorrow night we will have our own version of "The glory and the fire" put on by our awesome Powerhouse Peru people!

  

Thank you all for praying for us and to those of you who send us notes of encouragement on Facebook or email or whatsapp or by carrier pigeon.

 However they come they mean a lot to us when the days are hard. 

Thank you also to everyone who supports us financially. 

Your sacrifices help us to continue the work and often come in right at the moment we need it the most. 

We thank God for you and we thank you for you! 

Love from Peru! 

The Lopez's 

Joy in the morning

3 years ago at this time I was sitting in a hospital bed trying to force my body to lactate so my milk would come in to nourish my baby who I thought was fighting for his life one floor below me. Jose walked in with a look on his face that is permanently emblazoned on my brain. He didn't have to say anything, I knew. I remember throwing the pump away from me like it was to blame and saying no over and over again in hopes that maybe something would change. Holding onto Jose for dear life while we cried together. At that moment and for many months afterward I thought I would never recover. I remember my great grandmother who had lost 2 husbands and a few of her children saying that losing a child was harder than a spouse because nobody expects to lose a child. We expect our children to outlive us, anything else doesn't make sense.

I miss him. I wish I knew what kind of personality he would have had. Would he have been a clown like his brothers and sister? Would he have been an introvert like me. Would he love pickles like his dad? Would he have had green eyes like me and Tim or brown like everyone else? Would Thomas the train be his obsession at this age or would he have broken the trend and been into cars? What would his voice sound like?

They say that time heals all wounds and I guess in a sense that could be true. The gaping wound does heal. The bleeding stops. The constant pain of missing someone becomes less and less constant. But theres still a scar, a part of me that will never be the same. I will probably always get an ache in my heart when people ask how many children I have. But it is getting ever so much easier.

This year I was able to do something special in memory of Caleb that eased the pain of not having him here to celebrate his life. A few months ago I had a thought that I miss having birthday parties for Caleb. I'm not even that much of a birthday party person in general but when you can't do it you miss it. So I decided to have a birthday party for newborn babies in the hospital. We gathered diapers, baby wipes, clothes, blankets, baby wash etc... for the babies and hand lotion and chocolates for the moms. We wrapped up all the items in a box and delivered them by hand.

As we started to load up the van it began to rain. If you are new to this story let me explain what this meant to me. I have always felt like the rain is little love song from God to me. When we came to Piura I heard it had not rained in years. I was sad to think I would not get to experience the rain anymore. The night that Caleb was born it rained. After Caleb died it rained. And every night for the next month (and a little longer) it rained. It never rains very much but for the past 3 years it has rained a little bit here and there. Usually on days that I really need that extra touch from God to help me carry on. It rained for about 2 hours on the day we delivered gifts to the hospital.

most of the team and the head nurse for maternity/neonatal unit and the nurse in charge of the neonatal unit.

I didn't expect to hold a baby but all the moms insisted we hold their babies. It was a very happy/sad moment for me

all of our team (minus Jose who had to wait downstairs with Zoe) and the head nurse

God worked in so many ways behind the scenes to make this an amazing day. I cried many times but mostly they were happy tears knowing how much God loves me and that he has not forgotten me in my darkest days. Everyone involved was so excited about what we were doing and everyone we encountered was amazed. We decided to make this an annual event to honor Caleb's memory. Next year we hope to at least triple the amount of gift baskets so that every woman in the maternity unit can receive one. (We had no idea how many women would be there and we guessed about 10 and there were at least 35!) 

Psalm 30:5b says "Weeping may last for a night but joy comes in the morning". My weeping lasted much longer than a night. But joy has come in very unexpected ways.