November 2014

Homestays

Homestays

CUDA has had a language school for a while now, but a little over a month ago added a homestay option. What the homestay option offers is full language and culture immersion by living with a Peruvian family. This is a great option for extra language learning beyond what happens in the classroom and gives the opportunity to use Spanish in a real context, every day. 
 
Jeremy and I moved to Peru over a month ago knowing we would be spending our first several months in language school full time, which is four hours a day, one-on-one with a Peruvian language instructor. However, we also knew that we wanted to do a homestay with a Peruvian family to reinforce what we had learned that day and to make us have to use Spanish outside of class. So, when CUDA started offering the homestay option we signed up right away.

Push & Pull

Push & Pull

The four new families that are part of Team Arequipa are not our replacements. They are the next wave crashing toward the shore as our wave begins the slow fade back into the ocean. For a little while, you can’t tell that both are happening, but standing in that water reveals the push and pull occurring simultaneously. Their effect will be similar, but new. They are a blessing to our team, our church, and the city of Arequipa.

Together in Prayer

Together in Prayer

As I scroll through my twitter feed I am keenly aware that the spiritual discipline of prayer is trending. With Tim Keller’s new book on prayer and the requests for prayers that include the Ebola outbreak, the Ferguson trial, or efforts to build wells in Africa, I am once again reminded that Christians are called to be people of prayer. I am grateful for the people of prayer that I have witnessed and ministered alongside of. They have taught me what it means to pray while challenging my own fledgling prayer life. Which begs the question, why is prayer so difficult?