32 days left

When I stop and think about how much time is left before we leave for Peru I often have to take a deep breath. I have never been on a missions trip and honestly I am a bit nervous about what we will run into down there. For those of you who don't know me, I really like to know every detail of a task so that I know how to completely complete it, so with this missions trip I feel like there is an x factor of the unknown for me. I have nothing to compare this trip with, so everything is a new experience for me. This is all exciting and terrifying. Thankfully God tests us before we reach the place He wants us to be at. Over this freshmen semester of college I have been growing quite a bit. In fact, so many ways that it would probably take up an entire blog of its own to explain how everything fits together and every detail of this growing story of my life, but for the sake of your time and mine I will just give you a brief summary.

In my daily devotions for the past few months, I have been studying the life story of David son of Jesse (which can be found in 1 and 2 samuel). My view of David for my entire life has been in awe of how perfect David was..... well all except that one thing with Bathsheba. After I started studying his life and reading commentaries on his life, I found it interesting how David had this period of preparation in his life before he was king. He spent many years learning how to enquire of the Lord for everything. When David was doing this his life was filled with blessing although he was being persecuted, but right when he stopped enquiring of the Lord he fell into some sort of sin. After becoming King this training that he had been through helped him keep the kingdom of Israel from falling apart. The lesson I had learned is that David was a man after God's own heart not because he was perfect and new every detail of a task, but rather because he had learned to enquire of the Lord and obey what the Lord told him. Yeah david fell, but he always returned to the Lord and sought His direction. I guess this has encouraged a lot because I have had to learn to enquire of the Lord in a lot of situations this semester, and God doesn't just teach us to do things just for the fun of it, but for a purpose that will be used later. So I know that as long as we continue to enquire of the Lord this summer I know that He will direct us in the right situations of what to say and what to do. 

If you would pray for us that we would continue to seek the Lord and enquire of Him in every situation now and while we are down in Peru that would be greatly appreciated! 

*Josh