This October marked 10 years for us in Peru, a number that sort of astounds us, especially since that was the top part of our 5-10 year commitment when we moved to Peru in 2014. We don’t have any plans to move anytime soon, and continue to pray and discern what life and mission and family and work look like on an ongoing basis. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers.
We happened to be on the other side of the world at that ten year mark, as part of a working leave of absence. We had the chance to be the visiting faculty for Harding University Australasia this fall, and taught and traveled with 37 students over the course of three months in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Japan, Thailand, and Cambodia. Katie documented what this looked like for our family beautifully on her own Instagram and I contributed eight 90-second reels to HUA’s Instagram.
This was an amazing learning experience, and an important one for us as a family. In particular, I was (and remain) eager to learn from Australia and New Zealand’s experience of colonialism as well as the history, culture, and experience of Asia—where more than half of the world lives. For our kids, this was an important experience of the world’s diversity. For them, Peru is normal life, and time in the US is just “grandparent heaven,” so being in a part of the world where the language and story is so different begins to shape their view of God and what it means to be human in God’s diverse world. We are deeply thankful for this opportunity, for Pam and Ray Little who direct HUA, and for the 37 students we got to work with for three months.
It took us 43 hours to travel home from Thailand, including 12 hours of time change and two back-to-back overnight flights. The kids were amazing! We were all exhausted! We got back in time for them to close their academic year with tests and graduation ceremonies, touchpoints in “real life” for us in Arequipa with the church and our community here before a visit to the US and a new HULA group’s arrival on January 30th.
Tomorrow we head to the US. If you’re curious about our dates and locations, check out our plans on Mozi. We’ll spend Christmas and New Years with family, and will work with the Cedar Lane Church in Tullahoma, TN from January 8-14. Katie and I will get to share the Sunday morning sermon and class space on January 12, so if you’re in the greater Tullahoma area (looking at you Nashville! Murfreesboro!) we would love to see you.