I have to preface this by saying that my time in Peru pretty much turned my world upside down.
I am a notorious planner. Not so much in that I write down reading assignments and appointments for daily reminder in a planner, but in that I have a plan for my life that usually goes at least 5 years into the future, and I stick to it.
PRE-Peru:
- May 2010: Graduate from College of Charleston with my English degree and Teaching Certificate.
- August 2010: Enroll in MFA Program, most likely at USC
- May 2012 (approx.): Graduate with Masters Degree
- August 2012: Begin teaching English (probably somewhere around Charleston, where I plan to eventually move)
- Teach for the 4 years I owe the Teaching Fellows, begin or continue graduate work on a book to publish, get involved in a new church and work with the youth.
- Eventually (no date attached for obvious reasons) get married and start a family, be life-changing teacher, write great-American novel, live happily ever after. The end.
- May 2010: Graduate from College of Charleston with English degree and Teaching Certificate.
- GOD ONLY KNOWS.
Why the change?
Well, Peru was amazing. I've been on mission trips before, mind you. I went to Pennsylvania, Maryland, Tennessee=on these trips I focuses on people's physical needs, giving out food, helping out local shelters and doing church planting, performing in impromptu worship services in parks, doing surveying door-to-door, etc. I did see God move on these trips, and I was humbled over and over again each time.
But the Peru trip was an entirely different experience. The people of Shevojah (the village where I was) have almost nothing. They live in houses made of bamboo stalks and banana leaves with mud floors, they eat what they can grow or raise, they have extremely limited electricity and plumbing, no health care, no money to speak of. But I spent a week there and my purpose there had nothing to do with their physical needs, which were immense.
Instead, I was there as a visiting storyteller. Everyone there called me "Hermana."
Sister.
I was there to teach them part of Moses' story--the story of Mount Sinai and the 10 Commandments. And these people travled for miles and sat for hours to learn it--along with nine other old testament stories! Their thirst for the Word was like nothing I'd ever seen.
I spent six days sleeping on damp ground, in a hot tent, with no computer, no bathroom, no phone, getting bit by bugs and falling in the mud while playing games with kids who didn't speak English, and those six days were enough to put my life plan on its head.
I have my entire life to settle down, teach Walt Whitman, and drive kids to Little League practice and Sunday School.
The time when I am most free to go to the ends of the Earth to teach about Jesus is limited. And it's NOW.
