We would be lying if we told you that January has not been a difficult month for us.

After David and I came back from our border run in Bolivia, we were only granted 60 days on our visa. We have been trying to obtain our Peruvian residencies (which would eliminate the border runs and allow us to work in the country). After four times of trying to submit the paperwork (and this time we had gotten further through the process than our previous attempts), it wasn’t meant to be. After a month of waiting on God and trying to figure out what He wanted for our family in all of this, we have heard Him speak that our next adventure is to come home to the States.

 

While it is bittersweet to have to announce this news to our amazing friends that we have made in Cusco over the past year and a half, we are sure that this is the right choice for our family. This was the only option, given our residency situation and God kept reminding us of our original vision of coming here: “that we are to learn how to pioneer from the Allen family.” That was it. He didn’t say anything to the tune of “join an amazing church family and get plugged in there” or “you are going to Peru to have a baby” or “you will run a DTS and stick around to see it grow…” 

We believe that obedience to what God says to do is the most important thing we can do. For our family, this means that if we miss when God says to leave Cusco and we were to stay, that would be just as disobedient as ignoring his plan for us to move here in the first place. 

Selfishly, we wanted to have Miriam here in Cusco and to give her the gift of dual-citizenship. Selfishly, we wanted to stick around and lead another DTS, and to see YWAM Cusco grow into different ministries. Selfishly, we love our church family at La Uncion and we wanted to be able to do life with them as a community. Selfishly, we want a lot more.

 

But God has shown us how faithful and in-control he is of the situation. We were blessed immensely by the generosity of new friends when we came here. Twice, God has given us places to live that were full of furniture and we always had more than what we needed. God had allowed us to partner with our amazing family of supporters and together, we have seen Him provide many miracles in answering our prayers.  Thank you for sharing your lives with us, for your encouraging words, for giving us a safe place to vent when we needed to and for believing in us and our work in Cusco. Thank you to Amauta and Jesus, our first Peruvian friends, who have become more like a brother and sister to us.  We wouldn’t have learned as much Spanish and how to live in this culture without these angels. They will be missed more than words can say. 

 

We would also be lying if we said that we weren’t excited to be on this new part of our adventure. Until we go home, we will be wrapping up the DTS here in Cusco. The students will get back from outreach this weekend and they will graduate February 19th. We will be coming back to South Carolina on March 3rd and taking the month of March off to see family, friends and supporters. 

 

Thanks everyone for your prayers and encouragement this past month! We appreciate you more than you know! Love, David, Jen and Miriam