Calling on Mary....

As I continue to look deeper into my spiritual self many things have seemed to surface. I found that:









- I like to pray the rosary




- God is there and never leaves us behind




- Ask and you shall receive




- Don't stop believing!









Of all these, praying the rosary has been the greatest discovery. In the past week, I have been hit with a lot of obstacles. My sister felt abandoned, I was reminded of my moms death, my brother was hit with custody, and other emotional things. I felt useless for my sister because I could not be there (physically) for her. Luckily, I was able to get in touch with her by Skype (and so was my brother).




With these things happening far away, I was allowing their hurt to become my hurt. I was not as present for my kids in my pabellon. I kept to myself and kind of refused to be social. The beauty about being in Peru is that I have a community I can rely on. My sisters situation happened on the day that we usually do Rosary as a community. I almost didn't want to pray it and just feel sorry for myself and my sister. But, I felt that I needed it and prayed it with them. At the end, I stopped crying and felt a lot more clear headed. I prayed the rosary again the next day and was happy through out the day. Saturday and Sunday I did not pray it. Did I not have time? I had all the time in the world. I just didn't pray it.





Today (Monday 10/11/11), I prayed 3 mystery's in the morning. My pabellon went on a field trip to a park about 30 min. away from CDLN. We had a huge pot of food that we were carrying and decided that one of us take a combi there. It was going to be Luciano (one of my kids) and I. The first available combi ended up being empty. Anita asked them if they wouldn't mind taking 26 kids and 4 tutors. They were going to charge us 20 soles for all of us. Anita got it down to 5 soles. Coincidence or the help of Mary? I would like to give thanks to Mary and Jesus for that one. The kids had fun and so did we. It was fun being a kid for a day.





The rosary has been a huge part of my time in Peru since May of this year. It is hard to pray it every day, but when it makes everything feel better why not do it.

Changing rooms

When one door closes... another shall open!

It is time to go through that new door into a room called PERU. A room I never knew would exist in my life. It amazes me with how much God works in a persons life and he sure has done his share. It is time for me to show hime that his GIFTS will not go to waste.

Let me tell you are Peru:
I will be leaving on August 17 for Peru with two other volunteers (Alyssa and Michael). We will be working at Cuidad De Los Ninos which is a boys home and school. Our roles have not been defined yet. We are the first volunteers to serve in Cap Corps in Peru. So, we are sort of the test group. I will be going with very little spanish and a great will to learn the language. The length of service is 18 months. Within 6 months, I should be at a Spanish 102 level (I hope). I am truly excited about this challenge.

Looking back:
In the past two weeks, International Cap Corps serves have been attending a Ecumenical Orientation. We have meet other international volunteers from ECLA, RCA, PC-USA and one lucky one from Episcopal. We went through sessions on Racism, Sexism, Cross-Cultural conflicts and relationships, learned about Islam and went to visit a Mosque, safety and contingency planning, and other topics. Each one provided something to take with us on our mission.
Everybody had a great story to share and it was fun to get to know them personally. I hope we get to stay in touch through out our periods of service. The number one thing I learned was: Go without expectation and know that you will learn.