Last Thursday we began a journey. It started in the Dominican Republic and will continue in Comas, Peru. The ending is undetermined, but then again, aren't all of our endings?
"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps."
In an attempt for this blog to not only be interesting, but informative, I'll explain as well as I can right now what we'll be doing in Peru. There is a church in Comas, Peru (45 min north of downtown Lima) that recently began a small savings circle program. A saving circle is a small group of people (eight to ten) who meet regularly and pool their money as a means of savings and very small loans. This article from the
Economist (from 2010, but the principles remain true) explains a bit of why savings programs are so beneficial in the developing world where access to financial services is so limited. This church in Comas reached out to HOPE International (
HOPE website) to ask for support in developing their program. Thus, a fellowship position was posted on HOPE's website to find someone to commit to a year in Comas with the plan to aid in the development of the Savings Circle Program. This is the position that Steve will be filling.
See the
HOPE blog for some more information on the church and program in Comas. It's one of the few small glimpses we have into what life is like there.
Right now we're in the Dominican Republic for five weeks to study Spanish and get to know the HOPE staff here in preparation for our time in Peru.
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| Our street! We live in a neighborhood a little bit outside of Santo Domingo with a Dominican family. |
The family we live with has been a huge and unexpected blessing of our time here. We really feel at home with them and they've made it very clear we're part of the family. The fourteen-year-old girl cooks for the family and is very patient with our broken Spanish. The sixteen-year-old girl teaches us how to be cool in Dominican culture - i.e. saying "What's up?" rather than "How are you?" all the time. The nine-year-old boy just makes us smile. He and Steve talk baseball, play ball together, and occasionally Steve will read to him (of Steve's suggestion, not his!). He high-fives Steve when he walks in the room, but will barely talk to me. Ha! I guess that's how it goes. They're really an awesome family...and have taught us a LOT of Spanish.
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| The building where we take Spanish classes for four hours a day. |
This really is the main reason we're here, so we're taking this job seriously. It is exhausting, as anyone who has lived in a country whose language they don't speak. It doesn't feel like we can ever just rest and stop "working" since we are constantly struggling to speak or understand. But it's good! They say this is how you learn.
At the end of the day, I'm so thankful for these
steps that the Lord has determined for us.
