Third Time's a Charm! (A.K.A. Returning to Peru)

     When I was a little girl and people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, sometimes I would say a vet, or an astronaut, or something like that. Doesn't every kid want to be those things at some point in time? But there was one response I would give to that question that I simply can't explain.
     "When I grow up, I want to be a missionary in Peru."
     What? Where in the world did that come from? Brazil would have been a more logical destination, given that my dad grew up there and half of my extended family still lives there. I had literally no connections to Peru. Maybe I wanted to go there because of the llamas at first, IDK. Looking back, however, I think the reason goes a lot deeper than that.
     Some of my favorite verses are found in Psalm 37:3-7:

  "Trust in the Lord and do good;
    dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. 

 Take delight in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.

 Commit your way to the Lord;
    trust in him and he will do this: 

 He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn,
    your vindication like the noonday sun.

 Be still before the Lord
    and wait patiently for him" (NIV)

     Now, I don't think these verses mean that God is like a genie, giving us everything we desire all the time. I desire chocolate most of the time, but that doesn't mean that God's going to make it miraculously appear in front of me :) I think it may mean that God gives us certain special desires- deep, unexplainable ones- and He will fulfill them in His time and in His way!
     I ended up going to Peru for about 2 weeks in 2010 with my dad:

      And again in 2012 with my whole family:

     
AND IN THREE DAYS I'M GOING BACK FOR A THIRD TIME!!!!! :D :D :D So. Stinkin'. Excited! God has opened the door once more for me to go to the country I love so much. Here are a few random points/prayer requests about the 2014 trip:
     * Praise that God provided the rest of our team's financial support in the past week!
     * Caleb and I (the only one's from our family going this time) will be able to meet the little girl our family sponsors! Her name is Fabiana :)
     * There is a lot of work still to be done, for me anyway (I put the PRO in procrastination sometimes!). Pray that all will get done in an unstressful way...
     * Our team will be doing evangelistic outreach along with Peruvian youth group for a couple days, something we have not done in the past.
     * Pray that we will be selflessly devoted to God's will, ready to change lives and be changed!

ALL GLORY TO GOD!
Be back on the 21st!

Dreaming of a Cosplay...

     I love dressing up. Always have. In fact, my hope chest is full of random costumes instead of keepsakes for my future life. So going to the first two Hobbit premieres in costume was right down my alley! And as long as my school schedule has me home for Christmas break by the 17th of December this year, I will be going to the final midnight premiere along with my awesome cosplaying friends!
      Here we are at the first movie:

     And after the second:

      For the third, I'll more than likely borrow one of my friends' old costumes (notice that's what I did for the second one) because I'm just not much of a seamstress :) But... I like drawing, and I like dreaming, so I sketched out some quick designs yesterday of a dress I would like to make if I could actually convince myself to start sewing (which is super-unlikely, by the way). The basic design is practically identical to the blue elvish dress seen above. Then I came up with three variations based off of Eowyn's white dress in LOTR, and Aurora's dresses in Maleficent (the designs are very similar). Note: these sketches were thrown together in about 30 min., and the variations were simply drawn on top of copies of the basic drawing... so excuse any imperfections :)

Let me know which one is your favorite!

COMING SOON: A post on my upcoming mission trip to Peru! (Which I'm getting super-stoked about!!!)