We all have our ups and downs, the mountain tops and the valleys, good times and bad times For us right now, glory be to God, we are in the good or the up or on the mountain top. Over the past few weeks even months we have just seen great growth in our personal lives and well as in the lives of God's people in our church. This saturday we are having a baptism where 3 local Peruvians and my oldest daughter will be taking the step of faith of water baptism. How encouraging is it to see believers want to follow the commands of Jesus and publicly proclaim and demonstrate that they have died, been buried and raised to new life with Jesus. This will be a very public baptism as well! It will be held at a local restaurant (that gets very crowded) here in Baños del Inca in there swimming pool while the restaurant is open and serving lunch.
Another issue that we are so grateful is the fact that we are dedicating a specific day a week were all we do is just hang out as a family. We turn off all electronics and we just spend time together playing games and of course if there is no rain we hit the skatepark for a few hours first thing in the morning. It is great because the whole family is skating now. It is great exercise and great fun and I love seeing my kids push each other to get higher air or better tricks or whatever. It is just a good time and something we all do together. I never understood this hashtag thing, but we even made up our own hashtag that says "a family that skates together stays together" so you can find some of our pictures on instagram with that.
We are all feeling the most settled in and blessed to be here than we ever have before. I personally over the past few weeks have dealt with the worst cases of homesickness that I have ever dealt with since being here, but when I get out and am involved in ministry that all goes away. I had never dealt with missing the States until, like I said, just a few weeks ago. I don't know why all of sudden that has started but one thing I do know is even that won't rob me of the joy Jesus has given us to serve Him here in this wonderful location. I love Peru, I love Cajamarca, I love the church I am privileged to pastor, I love my family, and most of all I love Jesus.
I am sure soon enough the downs will come, we will be in the valley and the bad times will show up, but I praise Him for those just as much as I praise Him for the season we are in right now. I love that the Lord gives us these moments so that when those dark and hard days show up, we can look back and remember just how good the Lord is and know that no matter what happens, He is with us and loves us!
