Finally Friday

Classes have been going for two whole weeks now, and I must say that I am still not used to the busy pace. I have class four days and week and hope to relax on Fridays, but today is just not going to be one of those days! I am going to go study for a while and work in lab after that.
Despite the LONG hours of class and extended time on campus, there have been highlights to everyday this week. I have been pleasantly surprised by the lack of time that I spend just sitting around. God has provided friends and dinner dates galore to insure that I am not too sad over "the loss of a loved one" as Mary Katherine so put it. That, of course, is a bit of an exaggeration. He (Adam) is not lost, just a few hours away and I will be seeing him very soon (Thursday afternoon actually, the countdown has begun)!
So, as I said many exciting things this week. Monday Ashley was in town from California so she and I ate at an amazing restaurant downtown called Fire and Ice. You must check it out. It is a very modern place with cool colors and good customer service. The meals are of the stir-fried variety and you fix them yourself by selecting meats and veggies as well as pastas and potatoes from a smorgasbord of choices. I myself chose chicken, shrimp and scallops along with broccoli, oranges, onion and a spicy teriyaki sauce. After making these selections you cart your bowl to the grill where the "grinning grillers" fry up your tasty meal. Our griller was grinning indeed, he even sang us a song (in an attempt to learn the lyrics) but I could not recognize the song. Perhaps he should just stick to his day job.
After dinner, Brittni and I took our first trip to WalMart as roomies. Eighty dollars and a lot of food later, we were settling in at the apartment.
Tuesday brought many more blessings. It was the first night of summer Bible study. Jenny and I are co-leading a Bible study for college girls and to my delight it is in our apartment!! So Tuesday Brittni and I picked up the apt and I made HOMEMADE peach cobbler. I wish now that I would have taken a picture of it; I was so proud! However, perhaps it is best that you didn't see what it looked like--the pan was a little too big so the crust only covered a very small section of the cobbler. Despite this, it was VERY yummy. We served it with ice cream and I must say it was a hit.
It was getting close to 7, the cobbler was done, the apt was clean, and there were only like 2 girls here. I was starting to get a little concerned, but not overly surprised: it seems that this is the way things often go. Oh me of little faith! In less that five minutes five people arrived!! Giving us a total of nine. We were not only blessed with numbers, but with incredible conversation. I learned so much from discussing the message from this previous Sunday on singleness.
I should have probably posted solely about that message earlier in the week.
One of my favorite quotes from the message was this:
Love desires that which honors God in another's life.
That is a big definition of love to live up to, but one that we can each use as a litmus test of our love for others.
As the girls left Jenny and I were in the kitchen cleaning up. We both grinned from ear to ear and almost did a little dance. "You know Jenny," I said, "I think that this is how Bible study is supposed to be."
I can't wait until next week. Jenny is making homemade cookies and spinach dip and I will be leading. Remember me and the girls in your prayers.
So that was Tuesday, Wednesday Jenny and I worked out after class and then I hung out at the BCM for a while.
Yesterday, oh yesterday was such a long day! Brooke and I went to step class around 5:30 p.m. I must say that for a person with no coordination step class is quite a challenge. I kept up for the first few steps, the ones that consisted of putting your foot up on the step and taking it off, but I was pretty much lost after that, especially at the end when she began to add mumbos (or something) and pivots and twists just for fun. I found myself marching in place and hoping that not too many people noticed that I was facing the wrong way! Despite my inadequacies, it was a blast and a really good workout--definitely feeling the pain today.
Well, I am off to open lab to look at slides of fungus and plants, then MK and I are having coffee this afternoon. Tonight holds many exciting things as well of which I must update you at a later time :-D

Two long plane rides later...

After two days of flying and one incredible week, we are back. We arrived back in Birmingham at about 10 am yesterday (Saturday) morning. I was so sleepy and ready for a shower. The red-eye flight seems like an amazing idea because you can just sleep the whole flight, right? WRONG! It is so hard to sleep sitting straight up. We had an ornery reading light above our seat that flashed on and off for no reason at all. I think that the flight attendants just cut off the power to our seat or unscrewed the light bulbs or something to make it stop. By the time we got home I had not showered in over 36 hours and I am sure that everyone around me was aware of it.
We left "the compound" at about 10 am Friday morning with all of our things and spent the day in Lima before flying out on Friday evening at midnight. Lima was so much more American than the place that we stayed during the week. There were Starbucks and we at a Tony Roma's for lunch. You would think that it would be nice to see things that look familiar, but it was actually sad to me that people thought highly of American things and brought them to their country. To me it said that the "get all you can and can all you get" mentality of America was invading the rest of the world. This belief was further verified by the fact that all of the casinos in Lima were named after America cities (New York, Miami, Las Vegas). The BINGO trend was even catching in Lima, and "The Bingo Boat" looked to be a pretty popular destination.
Despite the American influence, Peru was a beautiful country, especially the Peruvian people. Before leaving for Peru, I had prayed that God will open my eyes and allow me to see the Peruvians the way that He sees them. When I saw the kids at the orphanage for the first time, I fell in love. They are absolutely gorgeous! I think that when you see the pictures you will also feel the same way. The spirit of those kids was just as beautiful as their faces. They were so giving, even with the little that they had.
When we arrived at the orphanage, the kids were eager to give us gifts. One of the girls took me to their "craft room" which was actually just a barn-like structure in which the craft supplies were kept along with chicken feed and old sewing machines. This room also housed the things that they had made. Diana (the face of Peru to me) gave me a bracelet and a colorful pony tail and placed brightly colored feathers in my hair. She then stepped back, looked up at me and said "Tu eres linda" (you are pretty). In this moment I thought--I am supposed to be ministering to her and here she is ministering to me.
That thought went through my mind most of the week--did I come to minister to them or to be ministered to? The natives with whom we worked were incredibly mature in their faith, and I was constantly challenged and encouraged by them. Our translators were incredible people of faith as well; they were both college students in Lima, Peru. They had incredible senses of humor and were constantly making me smile.
I learned a great deal about missions on this trip and am beginning to see that one of God's purpose for sending me on missions is to encourage and challenge me to live life as a stronger Christian at home. Sharing on the mission field is much more comfortable for me than sharing at home. Perhaps it is this way for everyone? There are fewer distractions on the mission field, and it is much easier to focus on the task at hand.
However, the Christians in both Peru and Thailand were excited and passionate about sharing the gospel with their OWN people. The boldness and commitment to God's Word at the places that they worked and lived showed me that God is calling me to live out the gospel at UAB and wherever else life takes me.
Well, this post is lengthy already and I feel that I have not even begun to describe the children, the country, or the work that God did through us. Perhaps I will post again later. For now though, I will leave you with some pictures and an earnest plea for you to pray for Peru, for the orphans and for the ministry of Alejandro and his team.
THANKS!

The cutest little boy--Carlitto

Diana and I being silly in our work goggles.