"¡Maranatha Cristo viene!" I heard the children singing off key and at different rhythms, but from the bottom of their hearts and lungs. Sitting in a small village church with about fifteen children, I realized that Jesus is coming soon. I have heard this statement many, many times before and knew it was true, but it never hit home until that day. Jesus really is coming soon! Cheriss and I have been at Peru Projects for about four months now. We started out helping in the garden, bakery and aircraft maintenance, but have now also started helping give Bible studies and teaching English classes at one of the local village churches. On Wednesdays, we ride a motorcar to the village church. The church member in charge of the Bible studies, Hermana Blanca, has a short worship thought and prayer before we split into two groups and walk to the houses. We sing a few songs and then we share the lesson. It's nice when the whole family can participate, but sometimes the parents are busy, so the children participate in Bible study. They enjoy holding the Bible and reading the verses, so we read each verse multiple times to give everyone a chance to read out loud. Because of the language barrier, I am not able to clearly share some of my thoughts related to the Bible studies. Though communication is difficult at times, I would rather be doing this to hasten Jesus’ coming, than anything else. A poster (pictured at right) that I had seen earlier at Oklahoma Academy encouraged me to do this kind of mission work and not get discouraged. Working on airplanes takes more patience and perseverance than I realized. There were times when we were working on the Lake Amphibian and found a small problem. We thought it could be fixed in a short amount of time, but it actually took us a week. Other times we have found a problem in something we thought was working well. I soon realized that it's not only the weather that is unpredictable, but also airplane parts. It is very important that all the parts are in good working condition, because after takeoff you can't pull over in the sky to fix something. Everything has to be good before flight. It takes a lot of patience and perseverance to carefully work through stubborn problems on the plane! MISSION TO PERU I remember one time I was having a Bible study with a friend in the USA over the phone, when a little girl from church, named Emily, came and sat next to me. I gave her one of my earphones so she could listen, although she didn't understand anything. During breaks in the conversation, I explained to her a little bit of the chapter we were reading. Emily got up once to bring me a flower, then came and sat down next to me. When we prayed together, she listened and prayed in Spanish too. During the time my friend prayed on the phone, someone came by and asked if she wanted to play. I thought Emily would just get up and go, but instead she waited until the prayer was over before she ran off. She didn't have to stay, but she did. It was amazing to see an eight year old reverently stay for the rest of a prayer she didn't understand before going to play. The experiences I have had here so far, working with people, have inspired me to want to continue doing mission work here and wherever I go next. Jesus is coming soon! And I want to help hasten His soon return