God Speaking

It was sometime this past summer, 2011 that I believe God started speaking to me about doing a mission trip but I, like Moses, had my doubts.  I did not want to listen, looked for all sort of excuses as to why should I not go... 15 people, $33,000.00, lets send the money.  Sure they could do a lot more with that money than we could do going to Peru.... However, my son in law, Steve, kept urging and reminding me that Jesus said GO, not - send money...  I still had doubts that I could be of any help.  I also thought, well, I always wanted to go to Italy, I could sure use that money for a fun trip instead...  Oh, how Satan works on our weaknesses... But something inside of me kept urging, you should go!

In the fall I decided to put half of the money down, always thinking I can back out of it, then came the time to pay it all for the reservations.  Oh my, I think someone pushed me and I jumped...now I was committed - of course, maybe I would get sick or something else my come up and I had to stay.

Well, God has His power and on March 8th I boarded a plane with 14 others on our way to Trujillo, Peru.  Little did I know that my life was about to change forever.  When people told me that God had a purpose for me, I thought yeah!  Guess it could have been moving to Dallas and helping Karrie Ann with his 4 boys, or helping the Hope Clinic in Garland, or maybe just being a wife and mother.  What a surprise God had in store for me...

Looking out of the airplane window I could see the "stars" of Lima, we have traveled a long way to Peru.     Those "stars" turned into thousands of cars, people, buildings, etc.  A big city of about 10 million people and very cosmopolitan.  On our way to the guest house I would see signs for McDonalds, TGY Friday, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, I started to feel at home.  Not only that, it had a little resemblance to Puerto Rico, colorful buildings, beautiful tropical flowers and the familiar Spanish...

The bright blue guest house is in a very nice area of Lima, small but very welcoming.  We all arrived tired and eager for a shower and bed.  Girls slept in the second floor, boys in the first.  I shared the room  with two others.  It was not a 5 or 4 star hotel but there was a comfortable bed, small kitchen, bathroom and at that time of the night I was ready to rest.  We had no air conditioner, just a fan and an open window.  I must have been really tired for I slept even though I could hear the city noises and people talking outside (did I say, it reminded me of Puerto Rico...ha!).

                                                God's working force....

My travel companions:
Richard Hardy
Kristi Luedecke, Katie Luedecke and Jon Luedecke
Karrie Ann Arze and Joseph Arze
Stephanie Prior and Dakota Prior
Melanie Prda and Nick Prda
Regan Forson
Elizabeth Nelson
Chris Tamez
Luke Windahl

                                                      Our Guest House in Lima