First Couple of Weeks in Peru!

Hello everyone! It's me, Micah. This is my first time "blogging" so excuse my novice blogging abilities. This is my first post, but I hope to explain what I've been up to recently, and how this blog will work. Plenty of y'all have expressed a desire to see what I am up to while I am in Peru, so that is the reason I am publishing this. So, to my family, friends, and family from church hello and welcome to my blog.

Getting to Peru

Myself, my dad, and Christian all left early Wednesday morning (8/07). We went from Myrtle Beach to Charlotte; we then did one of my favorite things... Spend way too much time on layover in Charlottle airport (8-hours). Finally, we flew to Miami in the evening, spent the night. On Thursday (8/08) we departed Miami airport to Lima the Capital of Peru in the afternoon, arriving in Lima late in the evening. And then Friday (8/09) morning we had a short flight up the coast to the city of Trujillo, where the Bible College is located. Why the three days of flying you ask? A tropical storm was cancelling flights, so we left earlier than expected, while still keep some of our original connections, which meant we travelled for three days.

My First Couple of Days

Upon arriving in Trujillo on Friday, I got a little settled in. And discovered the church was hosting a Venezuelan wedding that evening... which naturally I attended (I was invited don't worry). It was a lovely ceremony, and at some point, in the reception "Cupid Shuffle" was played, a classic non-sinful American-style line dance. Which some of the Peruvians danced to, but then the ante was upped. "Cotton Eye Joe" made an appearance, another classic American line dance, but it wasn't as well known to the locals. Naturally I had to show everyone how it was done. And apparently, I did, I'm still getting comments about it. On Saturday (8/10), all of the students participated in a bunch of team building exercises. We split into teams, and then were given roles. I received the role of jester. It was a great day, it helped me to get settle in a little. Sunday (8/11) was my first church service, Pastor Ron ended up teaching for Pastor Cory as he was unwell, so my first Sunday was similar to service back in CCMB.

Classes

Finally, classes started on Tuesday, August the 13th. Our first week was "Introduction to International Missions" in the book of Acts. This class was taught by Pastor Bond Gaona. He has spent 10 years in long term missions work in Uganda, India, and Nepal planting churches and Bible colleges. He is now an Associate Pastor at Calvary Chapel the Rock Santa Rosa California. We went through the book of Acts with him, examining Paul's missionary journeys and how we can learn from them. Along with some very practical insight on the mission field. These past two weeks we were in the Gospel of Mark. We went through the entire book chapter by chapter examining the servanthood of Jesus Christ, and how to serve practically in ministry and in our callings. This class was taught to us by Senior Pastor Chris Begnaud and Assistant Keaton Click of Calvary Chapel Tooele Springs in Utah, and Senior Pastor Richard Wagemaker of Calvary Chapel Bakercity Oregon. Pastor's Chris and Keaton taught us the importance of loving on the people and being obedient to obey the scriptures. Pastor Chris ministers to a city that is 90% Mormon. Pastor Wage taught us to be sure of our calling and the importance of really knowing my Bible. Along with my weekly classes taught by visiting pastors. I also have a church planting class every Tuesday night taught by Pastor Cory and whoever the visiting pastor is for that week. Regarding homework, there's plenty of it. It's divided into class homework assigned by the pastor teaching for that week, a 15-minute sermon each week for church planting class, and Chuck Tapes.

I'm sure some of you have no idea what a Chuck tape is. Pastor Chuck Smith, the founder of the Calvary Chapel movement taught through the entire Bible several times. So, at Bible college we listen through the entirety of his C-3000 series tapes. And lastly, we have practical service. I serve six hours each week around campus, and once I am scheduled. I'll serve in Sunday morning and Wednesday night services.

Schedule + Everything Else

Sunday is church of course. But after the services & cleanup, our afternoon is free. Monday is our day off. Tuesday starts at 7am with a church zoom call till 7:45am. Classes each day start at 9am and go to 1pm except for Thursday, lunch is 1-2pm. Wednesday and Friday I have 2-5pm for service hours. Wednesday and Friday we have group devotions 8-8:30am. Thursday, we have prayer groups 9-9:45am, and class from 10am-1pm. Our lunch break, and then 2-4pm for afternoon classes. Tuesday night is church planting class 6-8:30pm. Wednesday night we have weeknight service at 7pm. And Friday nights we have house groups that meet at 7pm. Saturday morning at 9am we have a guy's discipleship group. Afterwards we clean the dorms and then have a planned activity for the afternoon. So, as you can see. It's quite the busy schedule. In my free time, I run, study Spanish and complete homework, cook some of my meals. Do other small chores around campus or hang out with the other students.

Everything Else

I know there are some miscellaneous things to tell y'all, so I'll try and do that in a jumbled fashion now. I share a dorm room with thirteen other dudes. We have a washer, but no drier so we hang our clothes. We have four languages on campus: English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. There are forty students overall, most on campus. Two of the three married couples live off campus + a few of the older students. I am in the Southern Hemisphere, so it is currently winter, and I am on central time, so an hour behind everyone in Myrtle. There are three other male American students on campus, so even though my Spanish is lacking, I am surviving. There's probably plenty more I could tell you all, but it isn't coming to mind currently.

Blog Stuff

I will post an update once a week on my day off which is Monday. I'll give a recap of my week and what I've been learning, plus any funny stories. I believe there is a way for y'all to comment on my posts, so that's cool. I'm still figuring out how to run this blog, so forgive any problems you may come across. A quick reminder for everyone, I'm not a missionary down here, just a Bible college student serving the Lord and my church here. I love everyone who is praying for me and checking in, I appreciate it. If you send messages to me through my family, I appreciate them even if I am unable to respond.

Prayers

Your prayers would be greatly appreciated. It's a full schedule and plenty of learning. I cannot think of anything else at the moment, so general prayers would be great.

God Bless, I love and miss you all!

"So he answered and said to me: "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit' Says the LORD of hosts. Zechariah 4:6