I think that missionary is an interchangeable word with adventurer. Embarking on a crazy journey to a new country is always an adventure. If you’ve kept up with ours, then you know that we moved to Peru one year ago and lived on the third story of a church in downtown Lima for one month. For one month we shared a twin bed, slept in a tiny room right next door to 20 Peruvian missionary interns, and we all shared the same bathroom (with a shower that let out a tinyyyy little trickle of freezing cold water). We came to Peru with one suitcase that held all of our belongings, which were at that point just clothes and books, and one guitar. That first month was a fun, kind of crazy, kind of annoying, and always very busy since the church we were living in had a service every single night that lasted for at least 2 and a half hours!
After that first month, we found our little home and we have been living here since February of 2014. It’s a little apartment on the 6th floor of 10. Smack dab in the middle of the city, there are always car horns honking and alarms going off at all hours. A baby is always crying (and it’s usually not my baby!) and once a month, the owners of the apartment travel from the jungle to do business in Lima and we share the apartment with them. There’s always a steady stream of people in and out, we always have visitors, there is food always cooking in the kitchen (sometimes American, sometimes Peruvian) and this little apartment has made our first year living overseas quite memorable! It’s the place where we spent our first precious weeks with our sweet Jubilee, where our families came to visit us, where a few awesome friends came from the states and stayed, where we have spent lots of nights hashing out how to survive culture shock, where we have laughed and cried and learned how to be a family, and where we have made so many more wonderful memories.
After a crazy year of living here, in 6 weeks we are going to be moving out of our little spot in Jesus Maria (that’s the name of our neighborhood) and heading 20 minutes up the road to our new place in “Ate.”
Please send up lots of prayers for us as we get ready to move and figure out how to get all of our stuff to our new apartment (we have heard that you need to get a special paper that gives you permission from the police to transport furniture so that they know it isn’t stolen!)
I’ll be spending the next 6 weeks watching the sunset from my little balcony and being thankful for all of the memories made in this place!
