2 Corinthians 12:9-10

“But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”.  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong”  2 Corinthians 12:9-10

A continued glimpse of our week at La Finca...

Teaching-- Dr. Sills continued to teach about the missionary call-- mostly demystifying what it looks like when God calls his people to the mission field. Obviously, as believers we are all commanded to make disciples of all nations but how do you know if you should sell your home (or not buy one), pack up your life, and move yourself or a family to a another part of the world where you probably don't know the language, don't recognize the food, and come from a different world view? Basically, it comes down to Psalm 37:4 "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." When we take our greatest delight in our relationship with Christ and our humble and passionate pursuit of Him-- He (the great giver of all things) places desires in your heart and then when you pursue them you get great joy and He gets great glory as He accomplishes His great plan. It's amazing and freeing to recognize that as I abide in Christ (John 15) I am freed up to pursue what I desire and in this, the God of the Universe is Glorified. So if you have a passion for culture, people, a desire to learn languages, love for travel and being over sees, passion for sharing the gospel-- then you are likely called to missions. 

I am praying this summer that God would draw the 130 of us here to greater and deeper intimacy with Him. That He will grant us great joy to keep us moving and enough trouble and hardship to keep us humble before Him. I pray that as we grow in intimacy with Him that He would grant and give us great desires and that as we part ways at the end of the summer we would pursue those God given desires with all our might and joy.

Family Groups-- to make 130 people seem a little smaller for training and relational purposes we were divided into 10 teams of about 10 people a group. Family Group 9 (my group) is pretty much amazing and a huge blessing to me already. We spent time in our teams practicing storying (reviewing over and over the stories we learned that day), asking questions that we didn't feel comfortable asking in front of 130 people, sharing what we need each other to pray for, laughing, having praise and worship (Hayes Parnell is in my family group and he is an amazingly gifted worship leader), and spent time on our faces for our own souls, the state of our hearts, and the souls of those we will come in contact with over the next 2 months.  Kristen Seay (my volunteer missionary friend) and Jess Sorrell (a journeyman who has been here since January) were our Family Group leaders, both are extremely knowledgeable but more than that they have a passion for seeing the glory of God seen in Peru and are living that out in front of us. 

One part of our Family Groups was to compete against the other teams in earning points through various activities such as soccer volleyball, question time after each teaching session, and then finally through team challenges. I was part of leading the game time with Ryan Northup (Journeyman). We tried to come up with funny, challenging, and at time disgusting team challenges. It's hard to know which was my favorite seeing 10 people eat a banana off a chair with no hands and yes, that does mean peeling it with just your teeth, cramming crackers in your mouth and then trying to whistle, or maybe just maybe the best and worst was seeing them each HUGE and I mean HUGE crickets we collected. It was totally insane to me that not one of them hesitated who volunteered for their team to complete the challenge. They popped that cricket in their mouth and chomped away. I had thought only Lydia, who grew up in the Philippines, would be up for this challenge but they were all willing and bothersomely eager to eat the cricket. It was such a close call on who consumed the cricket the fastest that we had round two... run outside, find your own cricket, run back and onto the stage, and bite the head of the cricket, eat it, and then eat the body.  Why someone would even consider this is beyond me but they were off at go and Andrew Crosson was back and onstage eating the head first and then the body (after it jumped out of him mouth) before you really knew what happened. Like I said it was disturbing. But maybe just maybe this eagerness to try the weird and desire to get the job done will be what will help them as they move out into villages of the highlands of Peru.  

Prayer-- our need and dependance on prayer can never be over emphasized. 

Here are a few quotes from men who sought God in prayer...

Martin Luther (a pretty busy dude) declared he had so much to do, he could not possibly accomplish all of it unless he spent THREE OR FOUR HOURS ON HIS KNEES before God each morning.

"Talking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is greater still." 
E.M. Bounds

Our Family Group got the chance to spend a fair amount of time for each other, our needs, and struggles, and for the Peruvians we will minister to.

Please be in prayer with me for my heart and the hearts of those in my group to be united, not divided, for God.

O Lord, I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name. (Psalm 86:11)

I am oh so grateful for each of you and for the power of prayer. I thank my God for each of you as I remember you in prayer.

Lima

We got back to Lima yesterday and got the chance to go the mall. It is called Jockey Plaza. Honestly, it was slightly overwhelming but good to see a Starbucks since I had been without coffee for most of the week. I spent the rest of the day at the apartment after getting home from the mall because I have come down with what is probably just a cold. We have kidded about passing around swine flu, mostly because it is more fun to say. I think my weeks of little sleep and busy schedule finally got the best of me. I am trying my best to rest and recover but we are still planning to head out tomorrow to start traveling. So, I would ask for your prayers for health and strength. At this very moment, my fever is down and the chills are gone so we may be moving toward getting better. 

We are going to have those who are still in town over in just a few minutes for some worship and prayer time.  

We are going to end our evening with dinner and a trip to the fountains. Honestly, I don't much about them but will post soon.  I do love water and anything that involves water so I am sure I will be fascinated.

Again, I am grateful for each of you-- for your prayers, emails, comments, and words of encouragement.  

With lots of love-- Celeste

La Finca

Oh, how it gives me joy to write you all. Thanks so much for the prayers, they are felt and really appreciate. It will literally take an army of prayer warriors for us to be effective this summer. we are so desperate for Gods spirit and presence. The team arrived at the camp safely monday night about 12-2 am. they came in 5 buses. they came loaded down with bags but eager from the onset. despite the fact that it was almost 2 am they all came to check and make sure they could just head to bed... they didnt want to miss anything. We got started with traing tuesday morning and it has been pretty much non stop since. We have a professor, Dr. David Sills, from Southern seminary in Louisville here with us this week doing teaching and traingin. He has taught about the missionary call- which has been so good for our group seeing as how everyong is still in college or just out and so eager to do what God has for them. They are eager to be obedient to Gods word and leading. We have also had sesssions on the world religions that are prevalent here (mormonism, adventists, catholism, withcraft, annimism) and most of the time in most villages it is a crazy blend of several. This is a oral culture so teaching with outlines and sermon style is often ineffective and definitely not reproducible when you leave. We are learning about how and why to story and have begun the task of learning bible stories in spanish to teach from. Because they are an oral culture stories are what they know and learn from and thus reproducible. I am excite about the challenge and adventure of learning how to tell the gospel through stories.

We are all anxious to get out to the villages but know that training is important. We are beginning to bond and I (of course) have LOVED meeting new people. I am sure already I have made long term friends. It is so cool to see how God has uniquely shaped our lives and shown us his grace and brought us all here for this time to labor alongside each other.

I must end now. Back to training. I miss you each so much but know that I am loving it here and cant wait to share the good news of Christ.

Continue to pray for my intimacy with Christ and our last 2 days of training. I will be back in Lima on Saturday for over night.

Trusting Him!

Getting Started

2 am in Peru (central time)Praise God from whom all blessings flow. I arrived safely-- no glitches, no snags, no hang ups, totally and amazingly uneventful. I arrived in ATL at 3 and found my gate and began to make a few last minute phone calls. My mom and I discussed that this was going to be the 1st time I had traveled out of the states and not had someone meet me in ATL to travel with. This seemed to trouble my mom. Well, God is faithful and good even in our smallest prayers. Kristen called from Peru about 5 min later just to confirm she would be there to pick me up AND to tell me that Mike the missionary was on the flight AND 6 other college guys-- 3 of which were from Samford. So, I was able to call my mom back and let her know God had provided and I was not traveling alone. The flight from ATL to Lima is a little over 6 hours. I had great plans to sleep and while I dozed on and off God had different plans for me-- I did a lot of journaling, praying, and I started Elizabeth Elliot's book "Through the Gates of Splendor."  Below are a few excerpt from my time journaling.

I started "Through the Gates of Splendor"-- how did such a young man (Jim Elliot) have such clarity about God's direction in his life? It's a testament to God himself. God I pray that you would grant me an unquenchable desire to see your name taken to the unreached peoples of the world. I have no idea how this will look/play out but I don't have to fear because you have said I will never leave you nor forsake you. 

I got tripped up over this quote "What if the well filled church in the homeland needs stirring? (speaking to people's suggestion that Jim stay in the states to use his gifts to teach americans) They have the scriptures, and the prophets, and a whole lot more. Their condemnation is written on their bank books and in the dust on their bibles"

God redeem us as a nation-- rectify our lost ambition and hollow dreams. God I beg you to keep my generation from wasting our lives on stuff-- cars, homes, and giving our kids everything money can buy buy failing to do the one thing we've been called to do-- point them and those we come in contact with to the One who created and calls them to Himself. 

I spent the last part of the flight thinking, dreaming, and praying.  The flight touched down at 11:10 central time. Our wheels had barely hit the ground before they were informing us that we would not be able to de-plan until we had all filled out forms for the health department regarding Swine Flu. When we pulled up to the gate every airport employee-- baggage workers, maintenance, ticket clerks, immigration officers ALL had those face mask things that I thought you only used when working with heaving chemicals or something.  I felt like I was in a movie as they came down the plane aisle with masks and gloves handing out forms. 

Once through immigration, baggage claim, and customs we finally entered the airport area and I began scanning the huge room with hundreds of people there to pick up passengers for Kristen... I finally located her she was standing inside the roped off area and she too had one of those masks on-- her and brittany, the other girl already here, thought they would try to look like everyone else in the airport.  We got the 6 boys dropped off at their hostel for the night and we are now at her apartment in Lima. We will leave in the AM to go to the camp where we will do training until the 31st of May. The rest of the teams, an additional 90 something people, will arrive late tomorrow night and then will travel out to the camp. Kristen, myself, and several others will go ahead to the camp in the AM to prepare for the rest of the group.  We will return to Lima before we head out to the villages on the first. I do not anticipate having internet before then. 

Here is a picture from this morning when the kids prayed over me and commissioned me to go and to take the gospel to the nations. A moment I will never forget. One 5th grade girl prayed that God would show the people of Peru that He is Holy. Amen.

From this 5/24 at Brook Hills-- lots of woman I love. 

Ashley aka mini me being a champ and carrying my pack to the car to take me to the airport. She would later call me and tell me to be careful carrying that thing. My pack weighs 42 lbs as of leaving the states. 

Me. In Lima. In the apartment. Happy grin on my face because it smells like South America and I love that smell!!! 

Schedule

Summer schedule as of May 20, 2009:
June 1-6...Vilcashuaman
June 8-13...Huancopi
June 15-20...Bella Union
June 22-26...Andamarca
June 26-30...Mid-summer debriefing
July 2-10...Huangascar (with Micah's team)
July 13-18...Oyolo
July 20-25...Marcabama/Pausa
July 27-30...Caraveli
July 30-August 2...End summer debriefing

Obviously, everything could change but here is what Kristen sent me today. Wow, 4 days. It is getting really real. Please be praying as I continue to diligently work by the power of Christ in me to accomplish the details and do the will of the Father in these last few days. I am praying I do not miss an opportunity to share the gospel with those I come in contact with today.

God has had Colossians 3:15 on my heart and mind for days now I just keep reciting it over and over "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful."

I am so grateful for God's word and the promise that above everything else God will use His Word to sanctify us. So trust God's word, memorize it, and meditate on it-- it will make you wise (psalm 19:7)

Overwhelmed by Grace

As one season ends and another begins it's always a great opportunity to stop and reflect, to see where God brought has brought me, to rejoice in the triumphs and accomplishments, and if you are like me to shed a few tears.  I love adventure but boy, do I dislike change. As I was looking back and at some journal entries from when I was ending college and starting my time on staff at Brook Hills I wrote the following and I feel like it encapsulates where I am today-- in awe of God's Grace

Overwhelmed by your grace and desperate for your presence. Grace- It's Your grace that sustains me, provides for me & covers over where I lack. It's grace I am unworthy of, undeserving of but abundantly grateful for. I'm reminded that it's Your grace that enlists, empowers & equips your children & it's Your grace that humbles me now. Humbled that You would use me, that you fashioned me together with such care, love me, call me beautiful and wonderfully made, & then you cover over all my greatest faults by the blood of Christ so that all you see is the righteousness and holiness of Your son. When faced with grace and love so great I realize I add nothing to the equation but humbly submit all that I am, possess & hope for to making Your name and glory known to the ends of the earth-- even in submitting to this I know it will require Your grace to carry me through. Thank you is too small a phrase to encompass gratitude to the Faithful One but may my lack of words be a mark of reverence. I owe a lot of people Thank You's for the countless prayers sent up on my behalf. You've provided me with the most amazing people who have surrounded me, encouraged me, shown me how to trust you more and more, and not been afraid to push me when I have lacked faith and belief. You have made clear in Your word Your plan to redeem man from His sin, to restore him to relationship with you  & I praise you that you get great glory in it.  

November 2007 

6 days till I leave for Peru. God has shown Himself mighty and faithful every step of this journey. I am incredibly grateful and overwhelmed by the way He has provided.  

The Little Things

Planning to live out of a backpack for 9 weeks means you have to get creative. I have spent my fair share of time over the last few weeks in sporting goods stores looking for wool socks, a shammy quick dry towel, soap, and a few clothes items to layer. Every time I go in I get the feeling that everyone is looking at me thinking "this girl is never going to make it and she has no idea what she needs." While it's true I have no idea what I need and have never "roughed it" for this length of time I am confident that it will be good. I am totally going to embrace and enjoy 9 weeks of no make up and hair dryer, but I think the not too frequent shower thing may be tough... but I am trusting God for His grace even in the little things. So, even if I don't get to wash my hair and my clothes very often I am still going prepared. Yesterday I found these "soap leaves." They are totally awesome. You can wash your body, hair, clothes, and dishes with it. It's like listerine strips but instead of giving you fresh breathe it suds up and makes you clean all over-- literally from head to toe and the kitchen sink too. As I explained my new find last night to someone, they were concerned that I would use the same soapy water that I can cleaned my dishes and clothes with on my hair-- have no fear, a new strip for each will be used. I will have to update at a later date on how effective and efficient the multipurpose soap is.

10 days from today until I leave. God continues to grow my excitement and anticipation. I am praying that God will direct and guide my last few days here in the states—that I would be obedient to his will and “to do” list and not a slave to my own.

It's Official

I officially have a plane ticket, a seat, and a return date.
I will leave from Birmingham on May 24th at 112 pm and arrive in Lima at 1050 pm.
I will return from Lima on August 3rd. I will get into Birmingham at 1030 am on August 3rd.

There is much still to be done from finalizing international travelers insurance to closing out my time on staff at Brook Hills. God is good and gracious and continues to multiply my moments. I trust God to order my steps and pray that what it is He has for me to accomplish in the next 13 days that I will obedient to those things and allow my own agenda to fall to the side.

The excitement and anticipation are continuing to grow-- I hope to start updating this more frequently... in my spare time =)