Well that was embarrassing!
August 2026
“We just arrived here a week ago. We’re missionaries,” we said sheepishly, standing in the middle of six lanes of chaotic traffic. Never had we felt so embarrassed to say that! I’ll share the whole story in a bit.
Here we are, checking in from our new home in PERU! It’s hard to believe we’ve been here just over two weeks, and boy, have they been eventful. We are alive and in our new home, which is still pretty empty but gradually coming together, and today, Asa was able to purchase our car! Praise the Lord!
We are so glad we went to Departure Readiness training a second time last month, because we’ve been experiencing a lot of the things we talked about. Being a baby in a new culture really isn’t easy. And it’s not just Asa—even though Suz grew up in Latin America, each country is unique, and Peru has its own personality and features (not to mention that we’ve spent basically our whole adult lives in North America). We’ve been disoriented, impatient, exhausted, and unable to complete basic tasks that we used to be able to do without even thinking about them. But all of this is a NORMAL part of culture shock, and God is still with us and so good to us in both trials and blessings. Our team here has been so helpful, supporting us in tangible and intangible ways. These last two Sundays we’ve been getting to know one of our team’s churches, and Asa will begin attending the men’s weekly Bible Study, which in addition to needed fellowship, will help provide some routine and consistency when we start visiting other churches. Suz has joined a weekly prenatal class offered at our New Life prenatal center. Oh yeah! If you weren’t able to watch our commissioning service, you might have missed the announcement—we are expecting a baby girl in November! What’s one more major life change, right? We are so grateful for the sweet gift of new life in our family! The prenatal class is not only helpful for Suz prepping for birth again after more than six years (and in a new context), but has also been a great way to start getting to know our prenatal center ministry and volunteers.
Our first two weeks were full of adventures: so far we made it through several frustrations getting through the airport and customs and immigration, found two scorpions in our house, had a day without water, a day without electricity, a (thankfully mild) tremor and subsequent family safety briefings, and began navigating the infamous Lima traffic, which abides by many unwritten rules.
On one such outing, with whole family in tow, we accidentally hit another car pretty good (in a borrowed vehicle, no less). Thankfully, traffic does tend to move slowly here, so the impact wasn’t dangerously hard. We got a three-hour course in local crash procedures and insurance practices. It was embarrassing to explain that we are new here, and that we’ve come to be missionaries in Peru, no less. The lady we hit was a fellow believer, and very gracious toward us foolish newcomers. She managed to convince the police not to take us to the commissary for drug and alcohol testing, for the sake of our boys. As we finally said goodbye, she encouraged to be extra careful on the road, not to drive like the locals, and that she hoped to meet us again under different circumstances. That evening we apologized to the boys for the long and hard day, to which they replied, “Actually it was pretty fun because we got so much screen time!” In the end, between the two insurance policies, her repair costs will be 100% covered, even though we were at fault and could rightly be charged a portion out-of-pocket. Talk about unmerited grace!
The car we hit The car we were borrowing
At this early stage, it’s hard to imagine what “normal” life will look like here. But all the frustrations and discomforts are nothing when compared to the bigger picture: God called us here, provided through your prayers and giving for us to get here, is with us, and goes before us. We feel undeserving, but trust in His providence and goodness.
Our struggles are small compared to what the apostle Paul went through, but I was encouraged in my reading today to remember our dependence on the Lord for personal holiness and effectiveness in ministry:
For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.
Philippians 3:8-9
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