One day Alex came home from the local San Juan market with a surprise–He had bought me an elliptical trainer! I could hardly believe it! We had never owned any kind of exercise machine ourselves in the U.S., let alone Peru. But we certainly had need for it. Well, at least I did.
As I started teaching English in Peru, I spent more than 40 hours on my feet every week, whether it be in class or walking to and from my classes five days a week, in addition to any other activities we did ourselves or with the ministry. Before that, I had a sedentary job as an administrative assistant; my feet were not accustomed to so much use. I had also started walking laps around our neighborhood courtyard for general exercise. Unfortunately, because I was at the heaviest weight I have ever been (outside of pregnancies), I developed plantar fasciitis from heel spurs, literally deposits of calcium attached to both heel bones easily visible in x-rays. Every step felt like sharp knives penetrating the soles of my feet. Cushioned shoes and various wraps were not helpful. Soon walking became a most undesirable activity altogether.
But my new elliptical trainer seemed to do the trick! It applied far less pressure on my joints and heels, giving me an alternative, less painful exercise to adopt. I would cue up the scene in “Facing the Giants” where Brock Kelly did the death crawl all the way into the end zone thanks to the persuasive dialogue of Coach Taylor. Each time I watched it and pushed through lingering aches, I gained a deeper sense of purpose that God was using each moment of our Peruvian trials to deepen our character and propel us forward.
In July 2008 we returned to Atlanta for a few weeks of fundraising and ministry training. We felt like we had fully settled into our new home in Peru; with every supporter we met with, our commitment and excitement for all that was to come grew deeper. As we looked to the future and how best we could employ our gifts and talents, we stepped into new ministry roles, Alex as the President of our ministry and I as the Director of Public Relations. By the beginning of August, we were back home in our San Juan apartment, ready to press on.
I continued to teach English to about 30 students while beginning new Public Relations tasks for the ministry as a whole. However, we weren’t into classes but a few weeks when suddenly the rug was pulled out from under us. Some unsettling news from the States made its way to Peru, news that was about to permanently change the course of our overseeing ministry and our involvement in it. It was the kind of news you can never really share without more people getting hurt, the kind of news that only gets worse as the gossip spreads and snowballs…and so ultimately must be cut off at the knees.
Sin. It so easily entangles. And destroys. Names don’t have to be named; fingers don’t have to be pointed. We have all sinned and must face the consequences of that sin. But when our leaders, who are held to higher standards, fall before our eyes, the consequences seem exponentially amplified. So it was with the sin in the highest leadership of our overseeing ministry that now tainted our own path. Because we were associated with this ministry, we were also casualties of its basic demise. We lost all of our support and were forced to decide: rebuild from Peru, or rebuild from the U.S.
By my birthday at the end of September, we had reached our decision. After my English students graduated at the end of the year, we would return to Atlanta. Our hearts were heavy, but we determined to finish well. On December 2nd, we bid farewell to our would-be home of San Juan de Lurigancho. And I bid another sad farewell to the mission field…for another four long years…
To be continued.
The Art of Choosing True Life 