Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Team Tarma

Today was the first day back on my feet after being sick with the . . . well I'm still not exactly sure what I had, but I'm glad it's over. And just in time too, for today was my first meeting with the Tarma Team! WhoooHoooo! Two of my teammates are also roommates, Meredith and Elsa, but I still hadn't met our last team member Julio - so today I did. We met at the ADIEL (The Evangelical Free Church of Lima) office and had a six hour long meeting discussing church planting strategies, schedules, prayer letters, support presentations, preparations for our next trip to Tarma, and material we are going through as a team on healthy missions. Did I mention this was all in Spanish? Claro que si! Actually it was nice to jump in and realize that I understand a lot more than I think I can, but it was also extremely exhausting to maintain my focus for such a long period of time. By 4:00 my brain was shot, and I was glad that we were calling it a day. In my eyes it was a really good first team meeting. I'm anxious to see how all of our personalities and experiences will mesh together. We are all single, and with the exception of Meredith this is all of our first experiences with longer term missions. Elsa and Julio don't speak any English, I am not yet bilingual and Meredith is really the only one with much experience and training,so at this point we are all pretty much learning "the ropes" as they would say. I'm looking forward to these two months to continue to grow and learn as a team the strategies for church planting, for healthy ministry, and just to continual to break the cultural and language barriers and get to know my teammates on a personal level.

What you all can be praying for right now is a clear and definable vision for this ministry. We are in the planning stages of the "how" of our ministry, but we can't do that well if we don't have a specific end goal. Please pray that we would be able to give a clear and reasonable vision, without limiting the power of the Holy Spirit to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine.

1 comment:

Berit said...

I miss you SOOOO much, your blog is an insufficient Bethany substitute, but it will have to suffice for now. I'm glad that you're feeling better and it just sounds like you get more into your role and more comfortable despite feeling extremely uncomfortable. I see your prayer card everyday and can't wait to hug you for real again. I love you and am praying for you all the time!