Thursday, January 11, 2007

Going to Peru!!!

The exciting news of my life is that I'm actually going to get to go to Peru this month!!!! Yay! It seems slightly unreal because I've been wanting to leave since September! The plan is for me to leave either on the 28th or 29th of this month and to meet the Kreiders (longtime EMM missionaries in Peru) in Lima for a few days of visa dealings. I don't know why the visa stuff takes that long but I guess I should be grateful that it's not longer and at least I'll get to see some of Lima.

It's so wierd to think that my life is soon going to be very different. A different continent, a different culture, a different language and a different job. Whew! I have a lot of adjusting to do... I won't be doing language school in Arequippa as previously planned because the PROMESA school starts up again in March and I need the month of February to get accustomed to life in Cusco. I still am not sure that a month is enough time to adjust before I'm thrown into teaching madness. I found out that I'll be teaching the 4 & 5 yr olds which should be interesting. I know that I'm going to learn a lot and this whole process is going to be a growing experience. To think that I'm going to in my early 30s make such a career switch is mind-blowing!!!

Why choose to take the hard path? Why deny the things that I am familiar with? I was happy being a graphic designer! I liked all the stuff that I was involved with at my church -- all my talents were being used and there is so much growth at Keystone! Why choose to take a path that is unfamiliar and unknown? Learning to teach is going to be a sometimes hard and sometimes frustrating experience. Why am I choosing this path?

No matter how hard the path, the best place to be is in the center of God's will.

The PROMESA school needs teachers and I feel called to go to Peru. God has called me to be a servant there and whether teaching is the particular calling of God on my life is not the issue here. I cannot use experience, personality or temperament as an excuse to keep me from obeying God and doing what He wants. How could I ever limit the God of the Universe? He is able to give me strength for the tasks ahead, able to give me wisdom to do my best and able to give me joy as I serve Him in Peru. Sure He works with our personality and specific giftings but He has the ability to change things in our hearts and lives and allow us to do things we never imagined. I think too often we do use the personality thing as an excuse. If I had let my shy personality as a teenager rule my life, I would never be the person that I am today. Some people even accuse me of being extroverted.... funny...

I look forward to all that I will learn in the coming three years. It is going to be tremendous!! We never know what God's got in store but His ways sure are the best.

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