In my weakness, He is strong...

Hey friends! I feel like it´s been quite a while since I last wrote. So much has happened over the past few days that I feel like I can´t even remember what day it is! The team from my church arrived on Thursday night and Rebeca and I met them at the airport Friday morning. It was so wonderful seeing my parents! Kinda weird being on a team with them though...it´s been about 3 or 4 years since we´ve been on a team together! Haha!

Anyway, our team left and flew to Puerto Maldonado, which is an hour and a half away from Lima by plane (probably two days journey by car). I immediately was overwhelmed by the heat and humidity walking out of the plane. This place is so hot! We had a bus pick us up from the airport and we drove to the hotel we´re staying in. On the drive to the hotel, I noticed there weren´t very many cars...hardly any at all actually. Most people in this town drive around on motorcycles. Sometimes you´ll see two, three, even four people riding on a motorcyle together. Parents will even put their babies on them or small children. Definitely wouldn´t see that back home! Anyway, our first day went well. We rested up some then had dinner and a church service. I had the chance to sing in Spanish with 4 of my friends which was pretty cool! I sang with Sarahí, who is from Mexico, Rebeca, Miriam, and Eunice, who are from Peru and we sang Tu eres Todopoderoso. It was fun! We had a nice long service with a couple different pastors from the area.

Yesterday started our time of ministry. We have a dental clinic, a medical clinic, and reading glasses we have been giving to people. We have also been doing VBS with the children in the afternoon as well as a pastor´s training today. We were at two different churches today and yesterday. I helped out with the clinics and eye glasses. I was a runner and helped to translate wherever it was needed. For the most part, though, I have been helping with the eyeglasses. I can´t tell you what a joy it is to be able to help someone find a pair of glasses. Many of them are elderly people who can´t see well to read their Bibles. It is amazing to see the change in their faces when they put on the glasses and the words are actually clear to them. One woman even brought in her Bible to see if she could read it with the glasses she was trying on. And what´s even more amazing is when they tell you they have been praying for glasses or for some way to be able to read their Bible and we are that answer to prayer with the glasses! Praise God! It brings me so much joy to know that we are able to help people grow closer into a personal relationship with him.

In all the joy, there has been some difficulty too but praise God because He is my strength. Today, the dentist needed latex gloves but someone bought the wrong kind. So the pastor of the church had to leave to get the right ones. I took his job. His job was signing people in...writing down their names, sending them to the right area (medical, dental, or glasses) and trying to keep things under control. Well let me just tell you, there are some days where I feel like my mind is completely open and I understand so much Spanish. That was yesterday for me. Then this afternoon hit. I took the pastor´s job and it´s like I hit a brick wall. I couldn´t understand the people. They were beginning to crowd. I didn´t know what they wanted. And then I had to pronounce names that I had no idea how to pronounce! I was feeling overwhelmed and alone and just wanted to cry. I told the Lord I couldn´t do this. I couldn´t do it. There was no way. Definitley not on my own. Then it happened. A man who was waiting to try on glasses, got up and began to help me. He helped me pronounce the names. Then he wrote down names for me. And then he pretty much just took over the entire thing. I helped send people to the right place and tell him when I was ready but he took over what I could not do. It was so stressful but God stepped in at just the right time and helped me through this man. After he got his glasses, he actually stayed and helped me to the end. Praise God for Him! And praise God for answering my prayer! His power is made perfect in our weakness...when I am weak, He is strong!

Please continue to pray for our team. We have a few people sick. We are also traveling to another town tomorrow which is four hours away called Masuca. They say it is much more primitive than where we are now! So who knows what living conditions will be like! We´ve got a great team who works so hard and has been really positive. Keep praying for them if you would! And pray for the people we´ll be seeing over the next few days! We´ll return back to Puerto Maldonado on Thursday and then leave for Cusco on Friday!

Thanks again for everything. I´ll try to keep you updated when I can! God bless!

-Michelle