Tuesday, February 1, 2011

1 February 2011 Update!

Greetings from warm and sometimes sunny Lima Peru!

Thank you for all who pray for us. We are constantly aware of your prayers in practical ways. Driving in this crazy place, communicating in a language that three years ago was so to us, seeing Haylee and Jackson grow up into amazing disciples of Jesus, patience in the midst of some frustrating days. All of those things are areas where we sense the prayers of all of you out there. Thank you!

We have settled back in to our jobs here in Lima after a few weeks in the USA. We are gearing up for some busy weeks ahead as March until September are going to be busy here in Peru. We are blessed with incredible teammates who are such a blessing to serve with. I'm glad that many of you who read this blog have met many of them.

Last week was a busy week of catching up on emails and phone calls. It is amazing to receive emails from pastor friends out in the jungle, talk with a fellow missionary in Spain on Skype, chat online with a missionary friend in Mexico and do all those things on the same day. And, the blessing of having an ice cream break at a local mall with a fellow national missionary from North Peru who was in town with his family. We are blessed to serve in a wonderful place like Peru.

Today we had the blessing of hanging out via video call with Rob, Fish, Shawn, and Liz. They were in Oxford and we were in Peru but it felt like we were all in the same room 'cutting up' like we usually do. 'Stopemfromfloppin'. Now, that's funny. Inside joke, sorry.

Tomorrow, Jeff is excited about working with the 'Hands On' student missionaries who are headed to Brazil next week to work in Sao Paulo. Jeff and the youth group at FBC Oxford, MS worked in Sao Paulo at several universities several years ago with IMB missionary friends and it is exciting to see today what is going on there in Sao Paulo with those students. These 'Hands On' missionaries will be working in Sao Paulo, Brazil for this semester. It is a privilege to be a part of their training.

Haylee and Jackson are enjoying the lazy days of summer. How many hours a day can you play Wii? How many days in a row can you not get out of pajamas? Jackson is trying to find out. Haylee is enjoying sleeping, reading, watching t.v., and girl stuff. Both have had time to spend with friends and we even snuck away to the beach earlier this week. So, all is good with the kids.

Haylee had a great report from her doctor today. Things are looking good with her rheumatoid arthritis and the doctor is beginning to decrease her drugs. We'll see how she responds but things have been going really well over the past couple of weeks. The cold weather of Mississippi caused her some pain but the warm weather of Lima has been a blessing.

We begin a week of meetings next week to begin to unravel the mystery of what the future holds for our ministry assignment. This is a long story, but in short, from our perspective, the International Mission Board is shifting priority to other parts of the world which means the work of missionaries in South America is changing...dramatically for some. And, the work that is being done in Central and South America is changing focus to those labeled as 'unreached.' 'Unreached' means a population where less than 2% of the population is Christian. This all sounds good and we are very supportive of those making these decisions as long as they will answer questions about the changes and display wisdom in the way they use resources entrusted to them by Southern Baptist Churches. So far, so good.

Thank you to all who are praying and supporting the work of Southern Baptist missionaries around the world through the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering.

Jeff, Liesa, Haylee, and Jackson Holeman

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