Well, we are 9 weeks down in our DTS! The students are preparing for their outreach with dramas, preaching, kid’s programs and excited to minister in other parts of Peru and Chile. Their outreach starts December 16th and David’s going with them for a week to translate in one of the communities in the Sacred Valley. This week Pastor Farfan (from Cusco) lectured 2 days on “Cultivating a Christian Character” and the rest of the week we talked about some of YWAM’s early foundations.

We brought “treasure-hunting” back this week for local outreach. Here’s what happened when God told us to go to the Plaza de Armas:

1. (Jen and Logan) “Find an old man sitting on a bench in Plaza San Francisco near a kid who is rolling around in the grass on the hill.” (When I got to that plaza, a girl was yelling “Jennifer”, but to her friend across the way. I joked with Logan that “too many people in Peru have my name,” but then realized the Lord was making it obvious to not leave the plaza yet (He called me by name after all). I sat down and realized that there was one older man in the plaza who didn’t move from a bench. I went over and starting talking, got to pray for him and he was really surprised that I was a “normal person” doing this and we got to talk about the fundamentals of Christianity (he was Catholic and interested in what makes us similar as Christians).

2. (Bailey and Maddie) “Orange and pink”,”a woman on the steps of the cathedral”,”an alleyway near Plaza San Blas”. (They went to the steps of the cathedral in San Blas and found two women selling various trinkets. One had an orange manta (the traditional brightly-colored cloth Peruvian women wear on their backs to use as a huge purse/baby carrier) and the other lady had a pink one. The girls tried speaking Spanish to them, but they weren’t understanding and when Bailey was trying to say “Can I pray for you?” another woman walks up and she was fluent in Spanish and English. The Lord provided a translator at the exact moment when needed and the women were very excited.  One of the ladies was so encouraged that she kissed their hands and wanted them to come back the next afternoon to pray again.

3. (David and Nico): “Plaza de Armas and sitting on the benches”. David got to spend some quality time with Nicolas (our Peruvian student). They had a lady approach them and the guys prayed for her and for her family. She went away encouraged.

We have been really encouraged to see how the Lord is shaping our students in boldness. They were all really encouraged by this week’s treasure hunt and talking about their expectations for outreach. We plan on sharing a Thanksgiving meal with them at our house (after explaining what Thanksgiving is to the Peruvians) and they find it odd that we are so set on getting a turkey (because turkey is expensive here).

We had our second check-up at Clinica San Jose for Little Bear and everything is great! Baby looks completely normal on the ultrasound (has doubled in size) and all my test results came back normal. I don’t seem to have any “high altitude symptoms”. I finally caved and bought some jeggings because my skinny jeans are well, too skinny. Yes, I did just buy some jeggings, that’s jean-leggings if you are still confused—and yes, I rock them well because at least they are comfy and fit over baby. Doctor’s visits are quite funny in another language. I can’t calculate my weight in kilos (in my head) and when I swore the question addressed to me was “Do you have tall men in your family?” David comes to my rescue before I formulate an answer to translate the question as “Does your family have a history of high blood pressure?”. Hilarious. We will find out in a month if we have a daughter or a son, but either way, Little Bear is an athlete. Lots of movement happening down there (and I can actually feel it, though not quite strong enough yet for Daddy to feel). The three of us went to a bakery and had some delicious looking red-velvet cake that turned out to really be dry and crusty. Oh well, points for trying. 🙂

Some things to pray for:

1. For continued health and growth for baby

2. For our DTS (staff and students) in their last 3 weeks of lecture phase before outreach phase