Father's Day at Brazos Abiertos

Happy Father's Day to an amazing husband and father. So thankful that God has blessed me with the ability to do life with you! I could not do this parenting thing without you.

Thanks for the Father's Day ice cream celebration Ria & Jordi. So blessed to call you friends and grateful for our time together. Jordi you are an amazing role model and father to so many, your passion for all men to live their lives for Jesus is contagious. May you be richly blessed and may the community around Brazos Abiertos become set apart for Christ with men rising up to lead their families in the name of Jesus.
Here are some photos from the families we were able to photograph at Brazos Abiertos Church service today. Brazos Father's Day Pictures

Brazos Abiertos and "the hills"

This morning we went up to Brazos Abiertos for the first time this trip. This is the ministry we are serving alongside on this trip to Lima. Saturday morning the youth meet for fun, games and a devotional teaching. Jason & Carter joined in on the floor hockey game.

It was a great chance for us to see the future home of Brazos Abiertos. This is a photo of Jason and Jordi Bosch standing on the land that Brazos Abiertos owns and will soon begin transiting their ministry center. They are currently in the process of working with an architect to plan for future expansion and a permanent facility.




The afternoon adventure was hiking up to the top of a hill (FYI: These are not mountains) at a public park and playing a little American football with the Bosch boys.

Day 2: Paddington Bear: from the jungles of Peru...

We saw Paddington Bear yesterday in Miraflores, a shopping area and city along the coast. Remember Paddington Bear was sent from the Jungles of Peru to the UK. We might have felt a little like Paddington Bear yesterday, when he first landed in London, as we wandered around Miraflores and the surrounding shopping center. The kids did great with a long day of walking, a Burger King stop and looking through local craft markets. It really was interesting. Both of them found Alpaca "treasurers" to bring home with them.
We took a taxi from La Molina to Miraflores in the morning and then managed to find our way home via taxi and two different buses. It was the first time Carter and Brook have taken a taxi or public bus. Great experience and we got to practice a little Spanish. Peruvians are very friendly and a number of times offered help when we "looked lost". :) We had a great day of adventure and ended it back at the Bosch's house with some Peru vs Colombia futbol & Papa John's pizza.

More Photos from our first 36 hours:

https://goo.gl/photos/NL8DtFHRfxFH7TTJ9

Day 1 / Día uno

Hola from Peru! We landed around 10pm last night into Lima and we were in our apartment around midnight. So much leading up to this adventure that we are so grateful for... all of the support and prayers from so many of our family, friends and church community. Thank you does not adequately express our appreciation for all you do and continue to do to partner with us on this journey.

For those of you who have been following our family health struggles this year we decided last week that it would be in the best interest of our oldest son (Lucas) & our ministry partners to have him remain in the states and not continue onto Peru with us. He has been struggling with many health issues this year and we felt he was just not ready to handle the challenging adventures we will be experiencing on our trip. Praising God that he is feeling much better and that he had many wonderful days leading up to our departure. He is excited to have a restful and relaxing vacation in Florida with his grandparents, whom we are extremely blessed by. We were able to fly to Fort Lauderdale, FL as a family yesterday and enjoy a few hour layover which included lunch at the beach and a quick swim in the Atlantic before continuing our journey. Lucas headed back to Papa & Nana's house when we departed for Lima.


I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.  For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. - Romans 12:1‭-‬3 ESV

Today we caught up on much needed sleep, spent the morning organizing our things in our apartment and more importantly started our time off with scripture. This has always been one of my favorite verses and so fitting that this is what the kids and I studied today.  

Not being transformed by the patterns of this world - takes on a whole new meaning when we get outside of our comfort area and head into a cross culture context. So many different experiences for all of us and sometimes we need to be challenged by getting out of our routine to help us see God in a different way and make ourselves smaller and world larger. This helps us realize how big our God really is. Our kids had fun learning some Spanish today with new friends and seeing a very different "market" or open shopping mall, among many other different experiences from their "world." My prayer for all of us that this trip helps us take our focus off of ourselves and on to Christ.

We talked about how we need be ready to step out in faith - according to the measure of faith God has assigned us. To follow what God has called for us, each one of us uniquely different. Dad is a pastor, but that doesn't make him more valuable to God then us (even children). God has plans for all of us and we need to be ready be used by Him and focused on Him. So blessed to be able to spend time with Ria & Jordi Bosch's family today, they are our missionary friends living and serving in Peru with their family, including three children. Exciting to see our children begin to form relationships today and to get to spend time with this family who has stepped out in faith.

My prayer for this trip is that we can be a blessing to the Bosch's and their ministry. Please continue to pray for our family, including Lucas in Florida, the rest of our team joining us next week and the Bosch family. Please keep our special little amiga, 5 year old Hanna Bosch, in your prayers Friday as she is having surgery to remove her tonsils. Blessed to spend many hours with this sweet and fun mini-Spanish translator who absolutely melts your heart. 

Buenas noches, más mañana - Michelle