We are really excited about several things we are working on right now and I wanted to share them so you can pray for us as we move forward.
As of last week week I started a women's group. I had 3 people (not counting me) on our first night and 9 on the second. I believe there are a lot of women that will want to be involved. We are going over the book "Captivating" by John and Stasi Eldridge. If you've never heard of it or read it I highly recommend it. (It is one of my all time favorite Christian books) The main thing I need prayer for here is that we can find a girl to interpret at these meetings. Jose has been doing it and while I like having him around I think there will be more openness with just women present.
In February we are having our second outreach as a church. "Operación Mochila" or Operation Backpack. We will go back into the same area we went to for Christmas and hand out *hopefully* 100 backpacks with school supplies inside. As far as we know this is totally original here. And just in case you think our timing is strange the school year begins in March.
Our goal after this is to have a monthly kids club so that we can build relationships with the kids/families in the same area. We will go in on a Saturday every month and have a Jesus centered fun time with the kids. As our team grows we hope to either go more often or spread out and bring the same idea to different areas of town
We are planning more outreaches either monthly or bi-monthly and I will share about those as we get closer to them.
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I'm 2 weeks away from my due date with this pregnancy. I have been pregnant for 38 weeks or 9 1/2 months (the way pregnancy is measured each month is 4 weeks so you end up saying you took 10 months total...yes, it's very confusing) This honestly has seemed like a very fast pregnancy and I 'm probably one of the only pregnant women ever who kind of wishes it would last longer. I would just ask that I not have to have contractions or heart burn. Those are the absolute worst part of being pregnant at this point. That and I miss Sushi. But we don't have that here in Piura anyway so it's not much of an issue right now.
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| The first picture lost it's caption in the process of putting these together but I'm 6 weeks pregnant in it. |
This pregnancy has been a huge trial of my faith. I know I talked about it a little here I'm just going to expand on it a little so I don't forget. Every time we have seen the Dr he has found another problem or concern. Lately there is some dilation in what he thinks is her kidneys and her head is measuring right on target but her abdomen and femur are several weeks smaller than they should be. I was put on bed rest the week before Christmas because my body was trying to go into labor and and I was only 33 weeks. I have so little amniotic fluid that even if my water did break I probably wouldn't notice. All of these things are cause for concern and make my Dr frown quite a bit. The papers they send home with me start with the statement "unique pregnancy." I know that God is taking care of me and the baby and even the fact that we've made it this far is a miracle. But that doesn't mean I haven't freaked out quite a bit. I'm actually embarrassed how many times I've started crying while listening to my Dr talk. He must think I'm the worlds most emotional woman. I want to remember this feeling though. When she is 9 months old if I'm struggling to get her to sleep through the night I want to remember that it's a miracle she's here. That I couldn't sleep through the night a year before because the Dr thought she wouldn't make it. When she's 3 years old if I can't get her to listen or be still I want to remember that 4 years before I wasn't listening to God or being still. I was all over the place emotionally. When she's a teenager and doesn't trust me or believe I know what I'm doing I don't want to be mad at her. I want to remember that when I was 29 I had a hard time trusting the one who made me and her. I need to remember these things for so many reasons but mostly because I want to always treasure the gift that God has given me in this baby and in the things he has taught me while I've carried her.
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The other day we did show and tell as a part of school. Both of the boys got very excited. I told them that I wanted them to bring something that is special to them and tell me why they like it.
Logan's was his playmobil Nativity set. In telling me about it he said "I like this because it's a very special birthday. It was Jesus birthday. Something very important to know is Jesus is the son of GOD! That is why this is special to me. Thank you." (I was pretty impressed with his presentation considering it was his first show and tell ever)
Timothy brought his bag full of jenga's (He has like 3 sets of the game that he uses as blocks. This is by far his favorite toy in the world) He held the bag up as high as he could and said "I have jenga's! all together they make credits, and castles, and special features. I play with JENGA'S! OK!" While Timothy didn't really have the poise Logan did he did understand and completed the assignment which is a win in my book. I never want to forget their first show and tell.
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| Timothy playing with Jenga's |
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Recently Timothy watched a movie that had a couple of kids running a lemonade stand. Ever since then he has been wanting to do one. We talked about setting one up in our yard and letting him sell us lemonade but had not had a chance to do it yet. So the other day Jose told me that while some of his guys were over they were talking out in the yard and Timothy set up a chocolate milk stand. We had a pitcher of chocolate milk already made so Timothy took a table and chair to our yard. Set out cups, the chocolate milk and his piggy bank. He sat there waiting for someone to buy a glass of chocolate milk for a while. I'm pretty sure he didn't make any sales but we did run out of chocolate milk. He's not one to let good chocolate anything sit untouched for long. I wish I had seen it, but just hearing the story makes me smile. He's a funny kid.
