Lately

A few cool things I've gotten to do lately:

1. Attend a 1-year welcome home anniversary party for Karina Nasekos, daughter of Matthew and Sheila Nasekos who God brought into their family through adoption. Karina spent most of her 13 years in a Ukrainian orphanage, and is now a daughter of the Nasekos, a fellow member at First Pres. in Jackson, an advocate with her parents for orphaned and abandoned children, and a joy to all who know her. What a blessed event to celebrate! Check out the Nasekos Family blog to learn more about Karina and her amazing story!

2. Talk to the ladies of Peru Paper on skype last Saturday. Oscar had a meeting with them all to update them on the business and to celebrate Valentine's Day and he called in from his computer. Here's a picture from the call. I loved getting to "see" the ladies and talk with them.

One half of the room- L to R: Monica, Marleny, Teresa, Azucena, Jackeline (and her son)

3. I saw The Blind Side, and I LOVED IT! If you get the chance, go see it. It's a great story about adoption, sports, a family living out their faith, and Michael Oher overcoming some pretty big obstacles among other things. Plus, it was funny and the acting was great. I highly recommend it. It's nominated for an Oscar Best Picture and for Sandra Bullock for Leading Actress. I hope the movie wins both awards!

A Few Wedding Pictures

Lenin and Elva are married! The wedding was Friday and was full of friends, celebrating, praising the Lord for His goodness and faithfulness in bringing Elva and Lenin together, feasting, and dancing. I could do this every weekend! Here are a few of my favorite pictures. More to follow.

Entering the reception.

With Elva's niece before the ceremony.

Friends and family of the bride and groom at the reception.

A special guest appearance by Brad with Muyupampa for his farewell to Lenin and Peru.

Near the end of the party with Clara.

Greetings from Trujillo

I made it to Trujillo on Sunday evening, and it has been wonderful to see everyone and catch up with them. There's a lot going on for Lenin and Elva's wedding, which has been great fun. Here's a picture with Elva on Sunday night after arriving.
I also had the chance to meet with some of the women who work with Peru Paper Company. It was a joy to see them again, and also to see that more women had been hired to work! There were some new faces there I'd never seen before. Your Peru Paper card purchases help provide employment to these amazing women. Watch this video I took yesterday!

Elva's Getting Married!

Tomorrow I'm headed to Peru! I'll do lots with the ladies of Peru Paper, but my primary reason for going is the wedding of one of my best friends, Elva!!! Elva and I have been friends since I first lived in Trujillo in 2004, and she is one of the dearest and truest friends anyone could ask for. She is a living picture of the gospel to me- showing me forgiveness and grace while pointing me to Jesus. She knows me well and still loves me. She is a jewel and her husband-to-be, Lenin (another good friend of mine), will be blessed beyond measure to have her as his wife. I am so excited and could not be happier for the two of them. I cannot wait to see Elva again and celebrate with her this week!

At Elva's birthday this past February, my last visit to Peru.

Ringing in the New Year: 2008. The Batemans celebrated with Elva and her family.

Seeing the Bradfords

Two Saturdays ago, the Bradfords from Peru were in Jackson. I was so excited to see them and get to hang out with their family for a little while. I love the Bradfords, having met them on my first trip to Peru when I was in high school, then living with them one summer in Cajamarca, then spending lots of time with them in Trujillo, including working with the women's group in Arevalo with Allen. They're on furlough this year in Corinth, MS, so I'm hoping to see them more in the coming weeks and months. Here's a picture with Mollie at Broadstreet, one of my favorite places in Jackson.

Thanks for the picture Allen!

Family Time!

L to R: Dad, Auston and Rachel, Mom, me, Jackie, Guin, Sarah, and Joe.

This weekend was the first time since January that all my siblings were together. With Joe studying abroad in Argentina, and me finding my way to Peru, Africa, and all over the States, our get-togethers are usually missing someone. It was a joy to have everyone together this weekend, including my future brother-in-law!! My sister Sarah got engaged last week to Guin Kendrick, and we could not be more pleased. What a blessing and joy it is to have such a wonderful family!

Missions Reports and Visiting Friends

Two Sundays ago, I headed up to north Mississippi, Okolona to be exact, to visit my good friends Kelly and David Perkins and give a missions report of how the Lord is working in Peru at First Baptist, Okolona, where David is a pastor. It was great to see Kelly and David, and an encouragement to see the interest of their congregation in missions and the spread of the Gospel throughout the world. They were excited to hear about the projects I was involved in, asked lots of great questions, bought LOTS of cards, and were a great encouragement to me.

Setting up the table with stuff from Peru, along with cards to be sold.

A cute little llama from Peru.

I got to read to Kelly's 4 year old preschool class on Monday morning. It was Dr. Seuss' birthday last week, so we read "Green Eggs and Ham" in his honor. They were very entertaining.

With Kelly before heading out. Thanks for your hospitality and for inviting me to your church!

Having fun

I've been doing a lot of work since arriving in Trujillo, but am also enjoying seeing friends, eating wonderful Peruvian food (it's my favorite...sooo good), and catching up with those I love and have missed! Here are a few pictures of what we've been up to so far:

My good friend Elva. I'm staying with her and her family during my stay. They are incredibly generous and hospital and a great blessing to me. Here, we're at a restaurant that serves Peruvian jungle food: juanes, tacacho, platanos fritos, chancho, etc. Muy rico!

Clearly Joe enjoyed his juane y tacacho.

Joe about to ride the waves at Huanchaco, getting some last-minute pointers from Elva's brother Ivan.

With my dear friend Maria after a wonderful lunch at her house. She lives in the Manuel Arevalo community and is a children's Sunday school teacher at Arevalo and a leader in the savings group. It was wonderful to catch up with her!

Lucia and her daughter Grace. So wonderful to see them again. Grace has grown so much. See this previous post to read about their family.

I'll post more about how work is going as well as a few prayer requests soon. Thanks for checking in!

Great Story/ Answer to Prayer

I have been blessed lately to watch many different friends of mine go through the process of adopting. One of those families is the Nasekos, who I know from Peru connections as well as First Pres. I have been in prayer for the Nasekos family as they work on adopting Karina from Ukraine. This week, all the papers were finalized, and Karina was able to leave the orphanage with them as their daughter! They should be coming home to the States soon with Karina.

Take a minute to read their story at their blog, storeygraceinperu.blogspot.com. It will warm your heart and cause you to rejoice and praise our Lord who takes care of the orphans and who has provided a family for this child. Continue to pray for them as they get a passport for Karina and work on the last few details to bring her home.

Closing out 2008

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks of 2008.

Auston, Rachel, Sarah, and I after Sarah and Rachel finished the Memphis half-marathon. I wasn't recovered enough from my appendectomy to run with them. :(

Mom getting a lesson in the guitar for rock band on Christmas day (those of you who know what an incredible musician my mother is may find this lesson a bit ironic). You can see Auston in the background ready to go on the drums. Rachel and Auston were very kind to share their Christmas presents (a Wii and Rock Band) with the family.

With my grandparents (on the Bateman side) and some of my siblings and cousins.

The AMAZING Peruvian food at Mango, a Peruvian restaurant in St. Louis. The Gibson, the Silvas and I dined on Lomo Saltado, Ceviche, Aji de Gallina, Papas Rellenas, Papa a la Huancaina, Palta Rellena, Tallarines Verdes, and Platanitos Fritos (those of you familiar with Peruvian cuisine will be able to appreciate what a feast that was!) Everyone loved it, including all the kids! We even got to talk with the head chef, who's from Chiclayo, just north of Trujillo on the Peruvian coast. What a treat!

The Gibson and Silva children in downtown St. Louis on New Years Eve after the wonderful Peruvian dinner.

"A" is for "Appendicitis"

This week has proved to be more of an adventure for me than I had planned! Now, I have a few new scars and am minus my appendix. I was up in Memphis for the weekend, and loved seeing friends and former students of mine. I was able to visit Redeemer for some missions events they were doing, and on Monday, I went to ECS to speak to Mrs. Coleman's 10th grade Bible classes, which were the students I taught when I was at ECS.

As I was leaving Memphis (at 4:45 to be exact- I remember checking the time to see when I'd make it home), my stomach started hurting. I figured it was the pizza I'd eaten earlier, and wasn't looking forward to driving home with a stomach ache. I made it home, still not feeling well, and went to bed as soon as I could. I woke up a few times in the night with the same stomach ache, and tried all I could to remedy it- I ate a bit thinking maybe I was hungry, then later took Pepto-bismol, then later drank hot tea, etc. etc. Nothing seemed to help at all, and the next morning, I was still stuck with the stomach ache. I then called a doctor friend of mine, who after asking a few questions said "you know, I don't like the answers you're giving me. I think you have appendicitis." I thought, "no way, I don't feel that sick" because I've always heard about how painful appendicitis is. But upon his insistence and the insistence of my sister Rachel (an RN), I went with Rachel to MEA to see what was going on. The doctor there was wonderful, and after ruling out everything we could, she said my symptoms were consistent with appendicitis and ordered a CT scan. So, we then headed to River Oaks where I got a CT scan which confirmed I had appendicitis.

I'll spare you any more details, but I spent the night in the hospital, had surgery this morning, and came home tonight with a few new scars, no appendix, and all of this nice hospital "jewelry" (that's what Rachel called it.)

Thanks to everyone for your well-wishes, prayers, phone calls, and gifts! The Lord was really gracious in that it was caught early, so I did not experience much pain, and I'm back home and hoping for a smooth, quick recovery. My family was awesome, especially Rachel and my mother who were at the hospital with me nearly the whole time and made sure I had everything I needed. A giant thank you is due to my sister Sarah, who was on the phone with my insurance company while Rachel and I were at the doctor, to make sure that we had all the details of my coverage and the hospitals I could have surgery at. Also, I have to give kudos to the River Oaks staff. The doctors, nurses, and support staff were all wonderful, very friendly, and made this as pleasant as possible!

Adoption

"so that we might receive adoption as sons." Galations 4:5
"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." - James 1:27

For many years, I have been convinced of the value of adoption, as Christians are commanded to care for orphans and widows, and it is patterned after our own adoption as sons by God the Father. I've always thought it was something that I myself would like to do one day, especially after working in different childrens homes in college and seeing the large number of abandoned and abused children, even here in the US. Lately, God has blessed me to witness Christian families heeding God's call to care for orphans and widows. One of my best friends, Bailey, has a nephew that is adopted. John and Heather Ferguson, who I served alongside with in Peru, adopted two children from the US foster care system, and it was a joy for me to have their daughter Miranda in a girls Bible study in Peru. I'm currently praying for families such as the Nasekos who are in the adoption process to adopt Karina, a Ukranian orphan. It has been a tremendous encouragement for me to watch the faith of these families as they seek to honor the Lord by bringing these precious children into their families. Check out their blogs to see how you can pray for them and to read the stories of God's goodness and faithfulness as they go through the adoption process.

I also recently ran across a video about Georgia football coach, Mark Richt, and his family's story of adopting two orphans from Ukraine.

What's Been Happening

Since returning home from Peru in September, I have been in Jackson working and hanging out with family. I've really enjoyed seeing everyone, as I haven't been in town for this long in a few years. I've been working for my dad and am SO thankful for the employment and the opportunity to learn new things. I've helped some to get the website for his new company, Environmental Turf Services, up and running. Check out the website to get an idea what his company does. I've been able to see my sister Jackie run cross-country for Belhaven in races both in Jackson and Memphis. She's done a great job and get's faster every race! Last Friday, I went to the State fair with all my sisters and we completely pigged-out on fair food for lunch. It's fun once a year (I don't think our stomachs could handle it any more frequently!)

Last weekend, I went to the State football game and had a great time with Sarah, Rachel, and Auston. On Sunday, my family surprised me with a birthday party at Rachel and Auston's for lunch. My birthday's not until Saturday, but Sarah was in town for fall break and wanted to celebrate while she was home. Included in my gifts were two books I've wanted to read for a while: The Poisonwood Bible and Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. I'm excited to read them and will let you know how they are.

Even though I miss my work and friends in Peru, I am thankful for this time home with friends and family and know that God has given me this time for reflection and respite, and to prepare for future work and service. I am still working on plans to head back to Peru, and I thank everyone for their prayers for me during this time!

Finishing grad school

I've been back in the States for two months now, but I've been so busy I've haven't had much to post. I went back to New Hampshire and finished up my graduate school classes for my degree in International Community Economic Development, and have been home for about a week, frantically writing my thesis and other reports so I can finally get my degree. There was a graduation ceremony, which was in fact, only ceremonial, as we will receive our degrees pending after getting all our work in and having our thesis accepted.

I'm so thankful for the opportunity I had to learn with people from around the world who have great experience and insight from years of working in development. I feel better equipped with knowledge to work in economic development and am ready to make plans and get back to work!

More updates to come now that I've recently turned in a draft of my thesis and will have more free time!

With my wonderful advisor Catherine Rielly and my parents who made the trip to graduation!
With my classmates- a very international group. Melissa and I were the only Americans!
With my dear friend Melissa.

Liz and Obal's wedding

Hello All.

Sorry for the delay in between posting. A very exciting event a few weeks ago was the marriage of my good friends Liz and Obal. They met through Sociedad San Agustin, a university ministry associated with our churches, and are faithful members at our Larco church. Liz is the director of a Christian orphanage in town and Obal works part-time with the mission while finishing his university degree in math. I was honored to be a bridesmaid for the wonderful event. Praise the Lord for pouring out His blessings on Liz and Obal, and may He continue to bless them as they begin their life together!

Valentine's Week

With friends at the Sociedad San Agustin dinner.

With friends at Elva's house

With friends Elva and Tania at Wichanzao

In Peru, they love to celebrate any occasion, including Valentine's Day. Actually, here, it's more like Valentine's week. Here is is called "El Dia de Amistad y Amor" meaning the "Day of Friendship and Love." They actually celebrate the friendship aspect of it just as much, if not more than the love aspect. It started the Saturday before Valentine's with a dinner at the Wichanzao church with their youth group. On Wednesday night, there was a couples dinner at Arevalo. I went (solo!) at the request of Noemi, Pastor Eduardo's wife, to help serve the dinner. On Valentine's Day, there was a SALI party and a party at the house of my good friend Elva. On Friday, there was a Valentine's dinner with our university group, Sociedad San Agustin. I've included a few pictures from the fun week of celebration.

Bateman Family Christmas- South American style

What a wonderful Christmas gift to have my family in Peru! Thank you Dad for the idea and then bringing everyone down! Here's a picture of everyone near Cajamarca at Cumbe Mayo.