Well, here I am just over a week into living in Peru and I am over whelmed by God’s abundant mercy and grace. I feel that I have only giving a small part of my life to Him and in that small part I have laded down he has poured so much love on me and my family. I only pray that I am able to laid down every part of it and truly know what that all means someday.

We are all moved into our home here in Iquitos, the home that my wife Shawn grew up in. It has special meaning to her I am sure, but for me it is a honor to live under the same roof as her parents.  I can only imagine the prayers and cries that went forth from every room in this house for the nation of Peru. They truly are remarkable people and I am so looking forward to getting to know them more down here.

Our days are filled with adjustment, and adjustment is something I strongly dislike. I wish I could just fast-forward thru this adjustment phase even knowing this phase will last my entire life.  We are getting settled, laying down the house rule to the kids and accumulating ourselves to the new surroundings. Getting use to things like, the ladies in church that greet you with a Holy kiss but miss my cheek and hit my eye or mouth every time. Also always seeing the baseball bats behind our front door (in case of an attack or break in) reminding me that we really do have an adversary the devil and need to be reminded who our covenant is with. And the hardest but maybe the best thing is walking around not really understanding what people are saying  or implying, thus forcing me to learn as much as I can and rely on the Holy spirit to be with me and guide me every step of the way. I think that I really am understand now  what a dear friend and boss once said, Trent  you just sometimes need to jump into the deep end of the pool and swim.

We haven’t started schooling the kids yet, Monday was the day to start and well  the day was filled with getting the oven fixed (done) as well as the washing machine ( not done) and running to town getting  copies for school and food in the cupboards. Today was going to be the start but the morning started early with 4 sick kids vomiting as well as a sick dad, I guess we ate something bad last night. So Shawn is washing bedding and I am attending to the ill. Amareah seems to be the hardest hit; she is so petite and has so little on her bones anyways so I get so angry when she is sick. I am sure I will run to town after lunch to get stuff for the house as yesterday afternoons trip to town was cut short with a massive rain storm that lasted 6 hours. Tonight is church so that fills up the rest of the day, and so place between that all I so need some more time with my ABBA and Rosetta Stone too.

All that I say, I am so happy to be here, what a long journey it has been. About 14 years ago I sat in the same spot as I am now wondering God, what really you are doing with my life. And today my hearts cry is that in this past 14 years I have allowed God to knock off the rough edges and fashion me in a way that he is able to use me for His Glory.  I so want to see rebellion and confusion broke over this generation of youth and children in Iquitos. God’s arm is not too short to move mightily here in the jungle.

So please agree with me that I know the heart beat of God for this region and city. Also please pray that I know what’s a priority to God to get done here and what role I play in it with Him. I have a unique ability of doing things in my own strength and power. I do not want to be ahead or behind of God. I want my heart to break for the things that break God’s heart and ignore the things that break my heart and not His.

Hope this made since to someone as I am not a writer; I tend to write things as they pop out of my head rather then what makes sense written or read.