Temporary

We have been home now for 6 weeks. It has been a whirlwind of catching up, speaking, meetings, appointments, and preparing to return to Peru. So many people to see and things to do...
Carmen and I will be staying a little longer due to the fact that I need to have corrective surgery for my little toe as a result of breaking it in Novemeber.
Since being home we have been asked a lot of questions. But, two stick out in my mind the most.....

Is it hard being back in the US?
Is it hard thinking of going back to Peru?

And my quick answer is ...No, because it is temporary....

Last year I was privileged to lead a bible study for Carmen and her friends called Faithgirlz. When I am asked these questions, I am reminded of the memory verse from that study.....

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."  2 Corinthians 4:18

Retuning home this time hasn't seemed as hard as coming home in the past. It is because I am reminded that it is temporary. God has changed my heart and the way I think of leaving and returning.

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:"   Ecclesiastes 3:1

Our time here is short so, instead of getting caught up in the world; we are valuing our time with family and friends. We are soaking up the comforts of home and realizing the treasures we have in the people who love us. We, of course miss our friends and home in Peru. But, instead of looking at that...we are just enjoying our time being at home.
The same goes for returning to Peru. Instead of looking at it as a time of sadness because we are leaving our family and friends; we realize it is temporary. We have been renewed and are excited to go back to Peru. Excited to continue to build relationships and strengthen our existing relationships. We know we are only there for a certain duration and we want to do as much as we can.
Along our journey, God has placed some amazing people into our lives. He has allowed our paths to cross with individuals that have impacted our lives immeasurably. And for me, saying goodbye to each of them starts with this gut wrenching sadness, due to the fact that I truly do not know if I will ever get to physically see them again. But, as I start to feel this way, I am filled with the Holy Spirit. He fills me to overflowing with gratefulness to my Father for the knowledge that I will get to spend eternity with them. The Holy Spirit also fills me with the urgency to share God's amazing gospel with others so that I will also spend eternity with them as well.

I will leave you with a quick story:
We met a young man from seminary school in the UK doing a five week mission trip. His name was Seb and he was quite an amazing young man. His heart for the Lord was nothing but inspiring. As it was time to say goodbye to him, I was sort of left with a feeling of uncertainty as to how to say goodbye. Because the reality was that we may never meet again in this life. I really enjoyed Seb and that thought was sad for me. As Joel, Carmen, and I were getting ready to leave in the boat; he reminded me that we would see each other again. Would we get to spend eternity together praising our Father in Heaven!! Just imagine that!!

Looking ahead....

The time has come…we have been looking forward to this time of going home with excitement but, I (Amy) have also been a little anxious. What will this time look like? Will we feel the distance that we have traveled in the last six months? Will we feel the joy of coming home or the distance of being out of everyone’s lives?  How hard is it going to be to come back? Will we have the strength to leave again? But, now that the time is here…I am starting to already miss Peru.

The last few weeks God has been putting different verses into my life that speak to the feelings I am having. He is speaking to me of renewing my heart for the journey ahead. He tells me of the need to put all trust in Him alone. He says to me that He will bless our time at home and give us this time to strengthen our relationships with family and friends. When I am worried about how to present and explain to everyone what we are doing and experiencing here. God is saying that He will tell the story. He will speak through our family.

But, also He has started showing me how He has built so many wonderful relationships here also. In the past few months our home has become a place that our neighbors are visiting and we are getting to learn from each other. It is a place now that our brothers and sisters in Christ are coming to rest on their journeys to and from home. It is a place that Carmen’s friends are playing and laughing and just enjoying. It has hosted teams and held prayer meetings.  In other words; this has become the Junglemaster Mission House. I am watching things come to fruition that we worried we would never see. I am seeing that our mission here is (a usual) not what we thought…but, better and more.

We are extremely excited to head home! I can’t wait for all the hugs and tears of joy and conversations, and just being with everyone. Ok, and let’s face it… I can’t wait to take a warm bath!!  And, well, maybe eat a lot of food! But, God is filling me with excitement for our return too. I know He isn’t done with us here yet, or with the mission.  I can’t wait to see what He has up His sleeve!

God Bless from Peru and see you all soon…

Amy J

A day with Dad

Took Carmen to Santa Rita with me yesterday. It was a long day (8 hrs on a boat) started at 5:30 AM we didn't get home until 8:30 PM. We laughed, we got hungry (because often times dad forgets to eat when he gets busy), she helped me haul and load the heavy bags of cargo onto the boat without complaint.  The best part though was when it got dark on the boat ride home and she crawled into my lap and we got to watch the sunset and the lightning flashing in the sky and just talked.

New Year Newsletter

We have mailed out our newsletter but, we thought we would share it here too. If you would like to get an email copy or a paper copy please email us and we will add you to our list.

joelmcgeezer@gmail.com

God moments....

Peace that passes all understanding..... 

The question I have is why do I seem to be surprised sometimes by what God is doing? I catch myself saying things like "Whoa that was a God moment".  Aren't they all God moments? Why would I be surprised? He is God after all. Maybe it's more me feeling honored that the almighty God would care enough about me to show me a snippet of His grand plan. 

Such a moment happened yesterday. I had been invited to a meeting with the new elect mayor of Nauta. I wasn't quite sure what to expect as I went in to the meeting.  I knew we (my friend Keny, who knows the mayor, and Keny's two friends who were visiting from Canada) were there to pray for this man. I also had been told by Keny that he was a pastor.

Manuel started the meeting by telling us that he starts every city board meeting by reading some scripture and praying. He also told us he gets some resistance about this; but he only has four years in office to shine the light of God and he wasn't going to stop. He also told us a lot about typical corrupt government issues. He told us about how one problem was that the garbage truck had broke down at the end of last year causing no garbage to be picked up for all of Dec. and there was talk that the old mayor had pocketed the money that was supposed to be used for the repair. There is also two tractors and another truck broken but he had no mechanics to repair this stuff. 

Now as I'm sitting there thinking "God are you telling me this guy needs some mechanical help"? I then started to tell him I'm a mechanic and possibly I could help with some of this stuff but what I really want to do is have a kind of technical training for the locals. The next words out of his mouth are what I was referring to in the beginning of this. One of those moments where God shows Himself in a mighty way. He said one of my projects is to get a mechanical teaching program going at the local trade school. A program that could teach the young men of Nauta some skills that they could offer to the oil companies who work in the jungle. Are you kidding me, God? These exact words have come out of my mouth. Talk about confirmation. 

Now, just like when God made it clear He wanted us to move down here, that's all He gave me. He didn't tell me how or why, He just quietly whispered "trust me". So I have no idea what this might look like but, I'm going to pray, trust, and listen to His quiet (or sometimes not so quiet) voice and let Him lead us.