April Showers, etc.

April has been a whirlwind of a month! Between work and personal commitments, I haven't had time to document any of it, so here's a roundup post to summarize the goings-on in the Wilkins house. 

On the 13th, I had an awards banquet for work to put on, which meant long hours in the weeks leading up to it. That Friday happened to be the day of all the crazy tornado weather in Norman (where our office is and where most of our staff lives), so it was an interesting night with emotions running high, but the event was pulled off without too many hitches. In the meantime, Levi was at work manning a storm shelter of 150 people by himself. He said that, for some reason, his firefighter get-up made everything think he must also be a meteorologist! The tornado hit right next to the shelter, but thankfully the school where they were remained intact. 

Last weekend, my mother-in-law and I hosted a bridal shower for my soon-to-be sister-in-law, and I managed to fail at taking pictures. Below are the few I snapped (on my poor-quality phone camera) of the setup before the shower got underway. Somehow, I didn't even get a picture of Becca (the bride-to-be) and I!

On Thursday, Levi and I went to the Zac Brown Band concert at the Chesapeake Arena. It was awesome! We both really like their music, and we didn't get to see them when they were here a couple of years ago, so I'm glad we went. I managed to remember my camera, only to get there and realize the battery was dead. Clearly, you should never trust me to be in charge of taking pictures! Also, both of us had left our phones in the car, so there wasn't even the hope of phone camera pictures. I was pretty bummed, but at least we remembered to take one when we got back to the car:

The fun of April isn't over yet! Today we're planning to go to an impromptu, informal Wilkins family reunion in Guthrie and then I'm bowling for a Big Brothers Big Sisters of Oklahoma fundraiser with my sisters. Tomorrow, Levi will be running a relay with his recruit class in the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon. It's been a great month. Bring on the next one!

NFD Graduation

Levi graduated from the NFD training academy on Tuesday! It was a very joyous day that we were unsure would ever come not too long ago.

The day was made extra-special by me getting to pin on his badge:

He has a new helmet with his name:

He received the Outstanding Academic Recruit Award for scoring the highest in his class on all the tests (there were only 3 awards given):



I am so proud of him! He worked so hard for this, and I'm glad his dream came true. Thanks again for all your prayers! It is truly God's providence that Levi made it.

Peru

After a week of getting back into the swing of things, I finally have a moment to post about my spring break mission trip to Peru. It was a great trip, and I wish I had a way to impart my experience to others because words don't do it justice. I have spent this week trying to explain my trip to people who ask about it, but no explanation has ever been sufficient. Nevertheless, I will try again here to give an accurate account.

We first flew into Lima, the wealthy capitol of the country, and spent a day there:

Then, we traveled to Trujillo where Peru Mission is. This organization has four church plants in the city of Trujillo, two medical clinics, a wood shop, a microfinance bank and about six or so full-time families from the United States living there working for the mission, plus interns. The central part of the city (where we stayed for the week and where went sightseeing one afternoon) is relatively nice, equivalent to a large city in the U.S. (1 million people live there and there are 7 universities).

But, on the outskirts of the city (where we worked), there is a very desolate area called Parque Industrial. This area was originally built as an industrial park without plans for it to be inhabited. However, due to squatters rights (which say that if you inhabit a place for 2 years, you own the land), a community has cropped up there, amongst the unpaved roads and lack of running water. 

Below is the current church building that Peru Mission has in the neighborhood. It was originally an Assemblies of God church that was abandoned by a U.S. missionary who returned to the states. It can only hold about 30 people, so our job for the week was to dig the trenches for a foundation of a new building on the same property that will be added on to in the years to come as the church grows.

This is me with Jonathan, the son of Percy who pastors the church in Parque Industrial:

One afternoon, we visited an orphanage where we got to play with the kids. It is a privately owned home, so it wasn't sad like we expected it to be. The children are actually very well taken care of.

I'm sad to say that again I've failed to do this trip justice by explaining it. I loved it there. I got to speak Spanish, and the people there are so warm. Everyone greets you with a kiss like you're an old friend. There were two very meaningful parts of the trip to me. One was going to church at another one of Peru Mission's sites and reciting the apostle's creed. This is something we recite every Sunday at UFC, our church in Norman. But, this time, it was in Spanish and it was so beautiful to see that, in different countries and languages, we serve the same God. It was astonishing to see how big and encompassing God truly is. I know He spans even more than cultures, but that was enough to amaze me.

Our team at Cristo Rey that Sunday

The other especially meaningful part of the trip was when Pastor Percy laid the cornerstone for the new church in Parque Industrial. We had worked all week digging in rock-filled dirt, and it seemed like we hadn't accomplished much, that our time there was in vain. However, when he laid that stone, it clicked that we really had made a difference for that community. We had begun a work that would result in a new church building that would allow the families in that neighborhood to gather to hear the Gospel. That moment made the trip worth it. In that moment, God showed me the truth of His Word that nothing we do for Him is ever in vain.

I hope to return to Trujillo some day and see a flourishing church there where we dug. That will be truly amazing.