Well it’s officially been three months since we left the great white north to come to the sun scorched land of peru. It hasn’t been easy, we’ve had to give up the luxuries of flush toilets, wi-fi, English speaking people, friends being close by, being busy, not having bug bites, not having to sleep with bugs nets, snack food, & being cold. All things we would take for granted just a few months ago. I’ve learnt so much since having moved here & God continues to teach me things every single day. I’ve never truly experienced the peace that transcends all understanding before moving here but now I finally understand. God is the peace in my troubled sea& his grace IS sufficient, even when I’m weak h e i s s t r o n g.
SO what have we been up to? Mostly just getting adjusted to life here. We were in Lima for 5 weeks doing language training ( & trust me, 5 weeks is not long enough to learn a language ) Lima was mostly just getting used to life away from home, its pretty much just like Canada, minus the freezing cold weather & the English speaking white people. You can get anything you want in Lima, for the first 5 weeks, we weren’t suffering at all.
Now for the past 9 weeks, we’ve been in the jungle. My dad drove up & brought all our stuff the our new home in Puerto Maldonado where we joined him 3 days later & with us we brought Howard & Abbie Hildebrand!!! It was SUCH a blessing having them here! They were such a big help in getting us settled & it was so nice to have a girlfriend around here! They stayed for about a week & then it was just us. We were able to go through a lot of the rooms where we found a lot of things, all the paper work for the home, arts & crafts stuff & even some animals, dead & alive! The first week we were was so stinking hot, we were literally melting every day. This is supposed to be the rainy, so hot you sweat more than you weigh season & that’s what the first week was, but eventually it started to cool down, it hasn’t been your typical Peruvian summer here, but I am thankful for that!
After three weeks of just exploring & figuring out our new town, my Aunt Kathy & Nana came down for Christmas!! I was so thankful to have some family here. It was wonderful!! AK & N stayed for 2 weeks, in those 14 days we celebrated Christmas, drove to Cuzco the see MACHU PICCHU (bucket list check!), celebrated news years & enjoyed each others company, it was so great!!
Now its 2015, we are so excited that our ministry will be starting this year & we are eagerly starting to work on our home so that it will be ready for the beautiful children that will live here! We are still adjusting but with God’s help it get easier & easier.
“My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made strong in weakness.” ~ 2 Corinthians 12:9
Tatiana Blackburn 