Here’s my quick update on Nauta and The Big Move. After searching for two days, praying and seeking wisdom, I decided against renting a house that I would have to repair in favor of renting a room that I DON’T… and looking to buy a house and/or land where the investment would be mine to keep eventually. It is still utterly strange to me that the first place that I would ever buy land or a house would be in Nauta, Peru – but that seems to be the gist of it for now.
I’m renting and living in a small cozy room on the second block of a dirt street called, appropriately enough, Amazonas. The quinta (a place that rents out rooms) is right in the middle of the block on the left hand side, about half-way up the hill that forms the second block of the street. You recognize the quinta because it’s one of the few cement block buildings on the street and is painted a lovely bright blue. When you go in the door to the rentals, you enter a long rather dark hall and all the rooms are on the right. Mine is the fourth one down, and locks with a padlock like all the rest. When you walk in, the bathroom is on the left – a bare toilet, a large water bin, and a sink that drains but doesn’t run water. The bed is along the right-hand wall, about two large-ish steps from the door with a straw mattress, there is a small table opposite the bed on the left wall with my two-burner gas stove on it, and soon there will be a set of shelves on the far wall between the bed and the table where I can store all my “stuff.”
After praying and talking to the pastor and his wife, we fit me into the church program with room to grow in ministries on the side. On Wednesday nights I start a discipleship group with the ladies of the church (oh, do pray for me in that! Tomorrow night’s the first one…), and on Thursday mornings I’m starting an investigative Bible study on IJohn (ditto there too!). The first week I was there in Nauta, I spoke in the church three times at the request of the pastor – the Tuesday night service, the Saturday youth service and Sunday morning. This is not something I’m used to nor necessarily with which, as a woman, I am comfortable – but I do enjoy teaching the Word, as long as God is leading and gives me something to teach.
I’m hoping to get a rhythm going during the week where I can spend time visiting people in the community, time getting ready for the training center (whatever that might look like), time playing with the kids, time for discipleship of the ladies in the study group, time in study, and of course, time in prayer and in fellowship with Christ :). Again, I so covet and am grateful for your prayers in this time of transition and all things new. There IS internet in Nauta, however unreliable, slower and slightly more costly that it may be – and I love hearing from you.
