Do you ever have one of those weeks when everything seems to be falling apart? Those weeks when somehow you missed out on the rainbows, sunshine and roses. The past week has been one of those weeks for us. BUT, in the middle of chaos, stress and “why is this happening to me, right now?” God’s unending grace is still poured out for us. Over and over again.

He teaches us to have grace and somewhat of an understanding for others. He teaches us to forgive and to move past things. Something that we are so thankful for is the season of grace over our heads while in Cusco (for the past 9 months). We’re certainly not perfect, but God is using people and circumstances to reveal the favor of extending and receiving forgiveness in our first year in Peru. We hear some things about how rough the race is going for others here and it makes us very thankful for what God has given us and what he has done through us. We have to keep going back to “what did God really say?” and keep reminding ourselves of the truth. The truth is that He loves us as a son and a daughter. The truth is that we are called to Cusco for a time to learn how to pioneer and to submit. The truth is that we have a really good Father who has given us all confidence and authority of heaven to bring Kingdom mindsets to Cusco by loving others through relationships.

Something that God highlighted to us this week has been to keep going.  “But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Sometimes it’s really hard to keep being motivated to keep pressing on toward  goals; even the short-term ones seem like they are taking forever to get here. Yet, God is ever faithful and ALWAYS good–this I’m sure of. And it will be nothing short of a miracle for our upcoming DTS to happen this September! When every aspect of human striving for it is taken away, it provides God an opportunity to move.

It is such a privilege and an honor to be running this race with God!

Keep going friend. Keep pressing onward!

Congratulations Cusco! You had the honor of hosting Jen’s quarter-of-a-century, her 25th birthday! A huge thank you to family and friends who made her day so special with prayers, notes and emails. She feels very loved! We had fun going to Maestro (an equivalent to Lowes), she picked out our new clothes hangers and calking gun, we went to dinner (and ate deliciously tender alpaca steaks and tapas) and ended the night at Starbucks.

A huge testimony to the favor of the Lord of her birthday, we also splurged on the nicest mattress in Cusco and our man, Jorge, also gave us a discounted price, plus free pillows and a mattress pad! Thanks Lord!!! The first thing we did was take a 2 hour nap on it and Jen was so happy 🙂

The previous week has been spent with the addition of David’s parents, David and Cathy, exploring and rekindling our love for the city of Cusco! Don’t get us wrong, we thoroughly enjoyed our sweet time at home in SC, but we were also ready to get back to Peru. We saw so much of the Lord’s favor on us through the trip back! Not only did we have a lot of peace about us; all of our crazy luggage made it back with us. (That’s 3 giant rollies, a large green duffel, carry-ons for 4, and 1 guitar and a banjo for those that really want to know). The Delta guy at the counter even waved a bag for us that was 7 lbs. over (after we agreed to take out 2 pairs of shoes). Glorious.

We celebrated July 4th in Cusco after mild symptoms of the altitude adjustment. It was about 50* down here for the fourth. The Cusqueñas do not joke, June/July are the coldest months here! Although we felt very silly with all of our winter gear in the Atlanta airport, we are so blessed to have it now. Thanks to our friends, Eric, Jen and their new intern–Jess, we combined forces and grilled out pimento cheese burgers, cole slaw, sweet tea and baked beans…all in SC fashion for the 4th.

Dave’s parents graciously offered us a rental car for 2 days so we took advantage of a mini road trip with them to the nearby town of Pisac and to the sanctuary of Señor de Huanca. David enjoyed driving and navigating around very much. The last night we had the car, we drove up the mountain to Cristo Blanco to “look for UFOs” (in the words of my father in law). I went for the hot tea and locating stars with Google Sky View (shout out to the Barrier Island astronomy class). Orien’s Belt is not visible in the Southern Hemisphere, but we did spot Sagittarius and Saturn. Pluto couldn’t be made out with our eyes, but Google Sky View could pin-point it.

As far as an update with our bilingual DTS this fall, we have accepted our first student this week! Please continue to pray for the students that are applying (Jordan gets phone calls every day from Peruvians asking for more info.) And please be praying for 2 more Latino staff (1 guy and 1 girl). We have some leads, but want them to respond to what God is telling them to do, not what we want them to do 🙂 Still a lot of behind the scenes work to do, but praise God for all that he is doing already!! We have 2 confirmed teachers (1 American and 1 Colombian) ready to lecture at our school in the fall!
So many things to be thankful for, folks! Thank you for your continued prayers, support and encouragement. We would not be as motivated to press on without you guys!

Stay tuned for another family update from Machu Picchu over the weekend!…

“The Three Little Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf” (Los Tres Chanchitos y El Grande Malo Lobo)

5 Little Monkeys swinging from a tree, teasing Mr. alligator ‘cant catch me’. …

5 Little ducks went out one day, over the hills and far away. Mother duck salid ‘quack, quack, quack, quack’ ….