Personal Reflections from Peru

This trip is the trip for me was honestly a result of not being able to go where we had planned to go. In many ways it was hard because my heart longed to be elsewhere and in other ways I am so thankful that I was able to lead this group to Peru this year. I got to see life change in myself and within our team. I saw our students mentor other students. I witnessed the Spirit moving and renewing the faith of others. I experienced the hurt and disappointment of the steps that I had planned be shifted to another path. Yet, through all of it, God's sovereign hand and His presence were clear. Here are three major things that I remember most from my time in Peru.

1. I played so much guitar in leading worship that my left fingertips ached for days and I now have scars on my right arm from where my right arm rubbed and bleed on the guitar. The physical aspects reveal how hard we worshipped throughout our time there. It was a joy in the midst of the hurting.

2. I got to help baptize 3 people in the Pacific Ocean. Baptizing someone never gets old. It is a joy and privilege each time.

3. We got an opportunity to visit some ruins in the desert and it reminded me what I learned in Israel a few years ago. A wilderness experience can bring about bitterness and hate, or an opportunity for renewal and faith. God often uses the wilderness to reveal something else about Himself we did not know before. I don't want to choose the desert, however, I no longer run from it. #embraceit
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