Update from Peru

It's hard to believe that we're rapidly coming to the end of our summer here in South America with Inca Link.  Time is beginning to really fly.  Our thoughts are turning now toward finishing well with our internship.  With any project, it's easy to start strongly, and even to work consistently.  It's rare, however, to find someone who always finishes well.  It can be as true with a summer internship as with life.  As we prepare to finish our time in Trujillo in less than two weeks, it's important to us to make sure that we're pressing forward with our work projects and goals.  We've just finished the interior paint in the large multi-purpose building, and before we leave we hope to have the exterior paint done on the three main buildings.  I (John) just finished up the majority of my creative project, and Katie's is finished as well.  We'll post pictures soon!

We've just had another group finish up their time here in Trujillo.  We thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with them.  It was our second adult team, with two married couples and a younger lady.  The two husbands were a supervisor at a nuclear facility and a personal injury lawyer, and the three ladies were all teachers.  They had all sorts of different testimonies and great stories.   They worked hard too, and with some real quality, and we got a lot done.  Next Saturday, the next team comes.  This will be the team that Marion and I are leading, and Katie along with me.  It's actually two teams overlapping - the first this Saturday, then the second a few days after that.  Unfortunately, I think we will be leaving Trujillo for our intern debrief before either departs.  I'm really looking forward to taking some direct leadership with this team.

Katie and I have enjoyed taking a lot of leadership and initiative around the albergue too.  Our director, Ignacio, has been under a lot of stress lately, and at the moment has been very preoccupied with his wife's visa application in Lima.  In his absence, Katie and I have been able to step into the gap a bit.  In addition to continuing to step up our leadership with the interns, something that Ignacio has really recognized and expressed appreciation for, we've started giving some direction to specifically the painting part of the construction.  Katie is picking out most of the colors for the entire albergue, and we're putting together a master document with color guidance for each room and the psychology behind each color.   We figured out a trick to paint a perfect line between two colors, but now we're having trouble getting the paint to stick to the primer and not come back up with the tape.

Thanks for your continued prayers!  They are blessing us and it's wonderful to know that we have so much support back home.  Our thoughts are with you all frequently and we can't wait to see you in just under three weeks to share more stories and settle back into life, somehow changed by our experiences!