i'm learning too

Last week we had an awesome professor who normally teaches at the seminary in Pilar/Buenos Aires, Argentina. Jorge Julca. He’s visited the States several times, and knows Mark Maddix and Professor Galloway. It was fun to talk about places and people that we know in common. He taught us Methods of Studying the Bible. Great teacher, fabulous person. The last night he was here, all of the 40/40 team went with him to dinner and a walk down by the river. And then we got ice cream! As Rich Wyatt once said, I’m cheap and easy (to please). Take me to ice cream, and you’ve won my heart for good.

Today we started classes with someone new. Marcario Balcazar Santa Cruz. He teaches at the seminary here in Peru. I had been told that he was really strict and that he was really cool at the same time. I wasn’t sure how those two would fit together, but this morning I learned. Our class is the History, Doctrine, and Organization of the Church of the Naz. Every day, I thank the Lord for my incredible professors at NNU and that I have this foundation to go on in the classes down here. Our Spanish has improved immensely, but to learn all this for the first time in Spanish, and in 1 or 2 weeks, I can’t imagine how hard that would be.

In these past few weeks, I have learned so much about who I am as a person and have been learning a lot about how to be myself in a different culture. I’m learning about cultural do’s and don’ts, and what I can and cannot do. It has been an interesting and bumpy ride. Being someone who enjoys being friends with everyone and has been perceived of flirting with the gas station man in the States (WHEN I’M NOT); living in a culture where I need to be incredibly careful of how I interact with men has been difficult. I’ve made mistakes and I’ve learned from them. God is molding me and forming me into the woman that He has in mind. It is my constant prayer that in all of these experiences, I can be a light for Christ in this world; that I won’t be a stumbling block or an obstacle; that my actions will point people to the only One who can really save us from ourselves and our selfishness.