Life Update: Traveling, Visitors, and New Additions

Thank you for catching up with us this month. It's been a few months since our last update, but we'll try to keep it fairly short and high level. You can watch our most recent video for a quicker update. Just be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page to get our most recent updates.

Traveling and Visitors

Since our last update, Jared has taken 3 trips and we've had several visitors.

It began in March with a week-long trip to Puebla, Mexico. Jared was part of an artificial intelligence workshop. He led a session on how to craft prompts for ChatGPT. Then the entire group worked together to craft a set of bible stories that will be used for missionaries in language school.

In May, Jared had to return home to Tennessee for a few weeks for a family emergency. It was a stressful few weeks and we appreciate your family for his family as they continue to work through stressful situations.

In June, Jared traveled one last time to London for a digital engagement training. He helped lead a session based on his experience with digital marketing for the past 7 years.

In the meantime, we had 2 important visitors over the past few months.

First, Grammy (Amy's mom) came to visit for 2 weeks. She was able to spend lots of time with the kids and explore Lima together. One of favorite memories with her was at a fort. A group of high school students seemed to think she was very interesting. They surrounded her, took pictures and even requested autographs.

Second, my sister and her family came to visit for 2 weeks as well. It was a lot of fun spending time with cousins. But it was hard to say goodbye. I think we all shed a few tears.

Kids Activities

The kids have finished school for the year. We can't believe how fast everyone is growing up. Caleb turns 7 this month and will start 1st grade in July. Elizabeth will start 5th grade and Joshua will start 7th grade. 

We're excited to announce a new addition. No, we aren't having another baby. But we did recently buy a pet hamster for the kids. Her name is KitKat and she's been keeping our kids entertained.

They've all started doing sports at a local club. They've been able to make friends and practice speaking Spanish. It was also a good way for us to meet some people.

We have become friends with some Peruvians. They invited us over for dinner and we've had them over for dinner. They have been an answer to pray because we've been asking God to help us get more connected in Lima and to make local friends.

Church Involvement

Another answer to prayer is that we think we've finally found a church to start plugging into. The pastor is very involved with digital engagement online and Jared looks forward to learning more from the pastor and helping out as much as possible.

The pastor has a son the same age as Joshua and we think they will get along well once we get to know each other better.

Prayer Requests

Jared has started taking on more responsibilities as the Affinity Digital Engagement Strategist for the American People's affinity. He will be doing more coaching with individual teams and is prayerfully thinking about what the future of digital engagement in the America's will look like.

Amy is hoping to dig deeper in some of the relationships we have started to develop. She has done a great job of being hospitable and inviting friends to our home. Please pray that the friends made through sports and the relationship with the pastor and his wife will deeper over the coming months.

The kids are doing their best to adjust to life here in Lima. They've done remarkably well. It's been hard to say goodbye to family members who have visited over the past few months. So please pray for them to make good friends here in Lima. Also, please pray for each of them in their relationship with God and their understanding of the gospel.

Thank you all for your support and prayers!