Emotional and Physical Exhaustion

I was in Puno the last time I write. Since then I have taken two 15 hour bus rides, experienced my first earthquake and found myself in a state of both emotional and physical exhaustion.

I was really excited about coming to Nazca and seeing friends I had said goodbye to, particuarly those on the Barnabus Team. However, with all the different people around, I found myself just being overwhelmed, as I´m not a ¨big group¨person. I like little groups, with one or two other people. So it was hard for me to really find my nitch there.

Making it harder was the fact I knew we´d be leaving early to go back to Chupa so we could be there by Sunday. I confess, one of the big reasons I didn´t like this was because the situation was out of my control, and that I´m not used to a group of people expecting me to be at a certain place that requires me to sit in a bus for 15 hours to get to. The other reason being I knew it´d be sad saying goodbye again, for another month. And Sundays in Chupa just steamroll, as we travel a lot, and sit a lot.

Finally, I found myself with a friend who seemed to be avoiding my presence...and wasn´t sure why. This sent me into tears all day Friday, because I was so scared I was losing this friend.

To be honest, my second and third day in Nazca didn´t contain a whole lot of enjoyment, except for a few things, one of them being a rooftop conversation at midnight with my wonderful friend Allison, who I miss very much right now. But I can say I am pretty much at peace right now. I made another wonderful new friend named Brandy who sat with me through many of my tears, and I thank the Lord that the friendship I was so worried about has been healed, or is at least in the healing process.

Please pray for me and my team these next few days as we go back to Chupa. Tomorrow, we will be visiting the churches, though I may only go to one on the advice of Allison. Also, Tuesday we will be coming back again to Juliaca to pick up a new team member, which will also mean a new roommate for myself and Karen. Please pray for us as we adjust to this change, and that we would accept her with open arms into our little cobbled together family of myself, Karen, Lidman and René.