Back in the swing of things

Have I mentioned how glad I am to be back at work? It is such a good feeling to be busy again after a few weeks of not having much to do. Well, we are definitely back in the swing of things, and after a 3 hour team meeting yesterday, I’m realizing that we will be running through January, February and March with a full calendar! But it’s a good thing since it means that we have a million and one opportunities to be working in and throughout Tarma! Praise God because he is really opening a bunch of doors!
So in addition to a busy calendar this month we have Pacha to take care of (the dog) and are maneuvering our first rainy season in the mountains. Jason was a trooper and brought me my rain boots when he came in November – and I am getting a lot of use out of them. Last night Meredith, Elsa and I took Pacha “paseando” (the action that refers to walking around town visiting everyone you know). It was her first big outing into town, and we stopped and saw lots of people: Rosio at her restaurant, the girls at Chichos, a couple of neighbors we found on the street and we also stopped at Don Pepe’s to buy empanadas for the road home! Of course it had rained most of the day so Pacha left muddy footprints through the kitchen once we got home :).
Today is a surprisingly sunny day – and we are having company for lunch! Carmen and Marcia and Angela, a family we’ve gotten to know well, are coming to spend time with us. Carmen owns a bodega in town and Marcia works in a high school. There is a chance that I might start teaching English this month with Marcia in her school! And Angela is the younger daughter – 11 – and is the sweetest girl. We want to be spending more time with the contacts that are believers so that we may focus on developing them as leaders to play bigger roles in the ministry in the future.
I’m going to be visiting the girls at Chichos later today to continue building relationships with them and gaining their trust. There are a lot of new faces, which of course means new names to learn – I’M SO BAD AT THIS!!! But it is good for me to be there, spending as much time as I can with them. This is something that I want to focus on this year – relationships with these young women, and it is something that I’m praying hard about. My prayer is that God would lead me to one or two girls that I may be able to have heart relationships with and be able to care and disciple.
Well the lunch bell is ringing (its Meredith’s day to cook!), so I had better wrap this up. I will try to be better at updating this blog more regularly this year. I know that I was slacking off there for a while. Hope you all have a blessed week!