Missions trip, spider, new friend, new classes, & la playa

We found out today for sure where we have been assigned to go on our week long mission trip we will go on in April. We are going to Iquitos, a city located at the mouth of the Amazon River and will be taking boats into the jungle for a couple of days to help minister to a river community in the middle of the Amazon jungle. All together there is 7 of us going on this trip, Brian, Beth, Sandra, Kiah, Garrett, Jeremiah, & I, it is awesome because we happen to be pretty good friends with all of these people. We are super excited to go on this trip and see what God is doing there and what He might do while we are there. We had our first trip meeting today and will start practicing a drama that we will perform while we're there. They used these on our trip to Pisco to get the message of Jesus across to the people and one of them was so powerful that it brought tears to both of our eyes.

There are a couple of guys attending the bible college that are from Iquitos. They are really nice and Jeremiah has become pretty good friends with them. He has been showing them some workouts. It is so funny to see him with them because they are seriously like half his size, by height & weight (they are super tiny). Their names are Job, 19 and Rolando, 20. They are brothers and have great hearts for the Lord.

We started the 1 Corinthians class Monday and it will last for 3 weeks. Next we will spend a week finishing up the Missiology class, then Romans for 3 weeks, medical missions class for 1 week, mission trip to Iquitos for 1 week, then finish up with the Exodus class for 3 weeks.

Last week I was sick again for a couple of days so that wasn't too much fun. One of the American students was bit by a very dangerous spider on campus. He was in a lot of pain and his lungs started closing up, he was very lucky that he got to the doctor and they were able to diagnose him so quickly. Don't worry this is not a common occurence in Lima.

Yesterday I went to dinner & a movie with one of the college interns, Beth, and a lady I met from our church named Vivianna. She is Peruvian but has lived in Romania, Venezuela, Panama, and Texas. I guess her parents were both Peruvian Ambassadors who represented Peru in all these countries. Her dad is currently a Deputy Ambassador in Egypt. She has been living in the states for a number of years. Her mother passed away 4 months ago in Venezuela and she promised her that she would come back to Lima to care for her 90 year old grandmother. She is a strong Christian woman who desires to serve the Lord wherever He might take her. We had a really nice time talking and getting to know one another. I hope we can become better friends.

I will be taking spanish classes next week starting Monday & Wednesday. Also, I think I might take this class to learn how to teach ESL (English as a Second Language). There is an American girl named Grace who teaches the Peruvians how to speak English and she is offering to teach us how to teach ESL. She said it is a great opportunity to minister on the mission field since there are a lot of people who want to learn English.

We just got back from the beach and Jeremiah not only went swimming in the ocean for the first time but he also went boogie boarding with fins and all. Brian & Garrett, who he has become good friends with, helped him out. Garrett is from Maui, Hawaii and Brian is from Maryland. Beth, Amberly, and Jessica went to the beach with us too. Beth is Brian's fiance and one of the girls that I have gotten to know better the last couple of days.

If you check out our new pictures on our picture site you will see pictures of all these people, the beach (la playa), and some funny pics of Jeremiah trying to get out of the ocean with his fins on.....haha......I had fun taking these pics.

Please continue to remember us in your prayers. We need God's continued protection, direction for our future, and pray that the Lord would show Himself to us more and more each day! We will be praying the same for all of you back at home. May God bless you all!

Love,

Serah & Jeremiah

P.S. If any of you would be interested in planning a group to come on a short-term mission trip to Peru let me know and I can give you some information on how to get started. There is a girl named Ivy that plans these trips for churches to come down all of the time.