October 15, 2007
Sweet Family & Friends,
Wow, it has been a crazy few months since the last time I wrote (do I always say that?) what with weddings, earthquakes, new volunteers, new staff members, great visitors, and a lot of time spent on the streets of Lima.
First of all, thank you a million times for your concern, prayer support, and flood of emails & phone calls during the aftermath of the tragic earthquake that hit the coast of Peru in August. It was a scary and devastating experience for this country. Many people in Ica and Pisco lost everything in a few short minutes, and it is the poor who are hit the hardest in times like this, so we continue to walk with them in prayer and continue to seek partnership with other organizations who are working on the relief effort.
As for me, it has been a full few months. I again took up the role of Servant Team Coordinator when a team of 6 wonderful ladies arrived in the middle of August. Today actually marks two months of ministry together with this team. We have already experienced a lot together and continue to strive towards the intimacy with Christ, service, community, and ministry God is calling us into in this unique moment. They have encouraged us, challenged us, and served us in beautiful ways thus far and I look forward to seeing what the next two months will hold.
Along with the joys of this role comes the challenge of balancing all the aspects of life and ministry here. My schedule changes drastically and it is easy to feel bogged down and or a bit frazzled. The responsibility can weigh heavily at times even though it is also a huge blessing and always a learning experience. Please pray with me about these things and for the servant team as we dive into these next few months. Community can be very difficult at times and we want to continually ask the Lord for his grace & truth to cover us.
Our times with the youth have also been rich and beautiful over the last few months. I have felt my relationships with the younger guys have really begun to move into places of trust & care. I feel freedom to encourage them and speak into their lives in new ways, which is very exciting. Please pray for these talented, strong, hurting youth-they are still young and at a very crucial decision making stage of their lives, there is a lot of temptation to begin using harder drugs and turn to stealing as a source of income. We know God dreams different dreams for them and we hope to be able to help the boys really see and understand that.
In the midst of trials and the busyness of life there are those moments that make your heart overflow with joy. For me, in these past couple of weeks, it was an encounter with our friend, B. We got on the wrong bus because the bus route was written wrong on the side of the bus (sigh) and so we were quite annoyed when we realized and hopped off. While we were trying to figure out what bus was the correct bus B came bouncing around the corner. The sound of him calling our names was enough to brighten my month. After 6 months of not seeing our friend, here he was telling us of how he was living at home and taking to become a chef and loving every minute. He looked clean, healthy, and happy. We talked for a minute invited him to Saturday celebrations bible study and then agreed to meet for lunch soon. We couldn't stop smiling. And then we laughed at ourselves for being annoyed about the bus debacle. We got on the wrong bus for a reason and without that little annoyance we would have missed out on a great joy.
Thanks be to the Lord for the depth of His faithfulness. And thanks to you for continuing to walk this path with me.
with much love & hope,
Monica N. Ghali
http://mghali.blogspot.com
monica.ghali@gmail.com
Three business-y things ☺:
1. If you are interested in praying for a specific one of our youth who have lived or are living on the street please email me at: monica.ghali@gmail.com
2. If you are interested in purchasing Christmas cards designed by our youth please contact me at the aforementioned gmail address.
3. I will be in Des Moines for Christmas (yay!) and would love to connect with whoever is in the area. You can also email me at my gmail address.