This month we celebrated sixteen years of our lives here in Peru! They have been wonderful, full and blessed years; certainly not without troubles, but God has walked with us through them all.
I have begun to thank God for allowing Vann’s tennis elbow, since the pain has driven him to delegate some of the work around here. Delegation brings other stresses for him, but it is worth it for his arm to heal.
He found a welding crew that for the most part did not mind taking instruction from him, and they came to work nearly every day! With Vann’s direction, design, and help they built the metal framework for the roof of the pavilion. Since he had enough hands to help to raise it, he decided that the structure could go up before the rock pillars are in place.
There is a lot going on here – the second camp bathrooms are built and awaiting a roof, the slab for the third camp cabin is finished awaiting the delivery of the prefab cabin, and the bunkbeds and mattresses are being made to outfit the first two cabins! Vann has installed the second array for our solar panel system, and six more disk golf baskets that have been enjoyed daily by the missionary community! He is working on fixing our generator, his motorcycle, and the internet has had to be entirely replaced and reconfigured with the service having become so poor. Building, advancement, and maintenance are all more than he has time to manage. We are so looking forward to Mikey coming to help as soon as the borders open up again - hopefully soon!
Gatherings have been specifically banned this past month, so everything became quiet here again, but that allowed for more space to work. We do so miss the various hosting opportunities, but trust that all will be back to normal soon. This mission base is still a refuge for our neighbors though – they come nearly every afternoon and evening to play out-of-doors - volleyball, disc golf, and swim while still obeying the social distancing rules!
Ethan was given an opportunity to go on a ride with a couple of missionary men who are dear friends. One of them very kindly loaned him their motorcycle and he had a blast! I didn’t sleep the night before, but the Lord is merciful, and he came home all the better for the experience! Our boy is growing up, and we are having to learn to let go a little at a time. He was five months old when we moved to Peru – time flies.
Thank you all for your prayers for us and your faithful giving – without which this mission would not be here! We are so excited for what God is doing even in this time of quarantine and are so grateful to get to work here and build this mission. May the Lord bless you and keep you and may his face shine upon you and give you peace.
“God does not keep a man immune from trouble; He says, “I will be with him in trouble”. – Oswald Chambers