This week I was pulling out my journal from a year ago and going through what God was teaching me then and what He is teaching me now. In the hodgepodge of a year ago: coming back to the States for 7 months after our DTS in Thailand, recording and interpreting some crazy dreams, praying specific prayer requests for people (and to see now that their prayers have been answered—Brittany Jones, you now have a new car! Praise God!) and ironically, my own prayer requests from last year are being repeated this week. Last year I had recorded in my journal, “I know that God is telling me to be still. I know that he doesn’t want me to feel lonely. I know that he provides all things….the Lord will fight for (me); (I) only need to be still. (Exodus 14). For the past 2 weeks I have been trying to control things that I can’t control. I want to be able to control certain situations or people or the timing of when things happen and I’m so powerless to do so. I tend to have a really bad habit of striving for things. I had some wonderful alone time with God this week and He reassured me that He’s got my back and that everything is perfect in His time. He is my Daddy and He can take care of me, of us, of everyone. But especially me. So this week, being “Semana Santa”, or Holy Week, I’ve been thinking a lot about what Jesus did for me, for us, so that you or I can sit in his lap and to say “I love you. I trust you. I’m counting on you. I know you. I love spending time with you. I love talking to you. Thank you for taking care of me.”

In other news, between many Skype dates, emails and a surprise care package David and I feel so encouraged and loved. Thank you for your continued prayers and support! Keep it coming! Don’t stop now : ) As you know, David and I have been praying for a house and last week we stumbled upon IT (we couldn’t find the address and only meant to see it from the outside and a stranger in the neighborhood helped us find A-1 Los Portales and we were introduced to Hugo, the owner, who gave us a tour and everything). This house meets all our “requirements” and then some! Winning. Please pray with us this week as we are seeing so many confirmations about it already. We are claiming it in Jesus’ name as ours. That God would set it apart as holy and ours. Pray that we will see this house become ours by the end of next month and pray that God would make it so evident that it is perfect for us!

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK:

My friend, Jen Smith and I went to Chinchero (a Quechua community about 30 min. outside of Cusco) to spend a morning knitting with her and her Quechua discipleship ladies. They have a co-op of about 10 women who make (by hand) incredible creations out of 100% alpaca wool. They literally spin the yarn from the sheared alpaca themselves and are in the process of trying to get their goods in stores in the States. Who wouldn’t want to knit with this back-drop?

 They are in the process of filling an order of “coffee cup holders” (the purple llama)

In town for lunch today we were able to watch the festivities for Holy Week or “Semana Santa”, the week leading up to easter. This particular celebration is unique to Cusco. “Senor De Los Temblores” or “Lord of the Earthquakes” is celebrated every Tuesday of Semana Santa to thank God for protecting Cusco from the earthquakes that are common in this area. One year when there were bad earthquakes, they took the statue out of the cathedral and paraded it once around the Plaza de Armas. Since then, Cusco has only experienced one earthquake.