Michigan: where God painted the lakes and carved the land to remind us we’re always in the palm of his hand.

Earlier this week Billy and I arrived to Metro Detroit for our first furlough/home ministry assignment since we moved to Peru. As always, the week prior to traveling was hectic. A few days after returning from installing a clean water system in Kusi with a team from Living Waters for the World, Billy had the Girasoles house directors come to Lima for a 3-day training and planning for 2015. In addition to helping with the training, I spent quite a bit of time at immigration to renew my residency for another year before we left (sounds ironic, I know) since it would expire soon. We also spent a day at Hope House where we helped them inaugurate a new classroom at the home where the girls can study.

We’re finally taking that “longer trip to the States” that we have told many of you about and was also postponed a few times in the past. Unfortunately this doesn’t mean that Billy’s application for Peruvian citizenship has been approved, we’re still waiting for that to finish…

We will be in the States until the beginning of February. During this time, we are raising support for the Girasoles boys ministry in addition to spending time with friends and family. Scripture Union is still facing a deficit for the future and we are working to grow our supporter base to be able to further the ministry.

We will be based in Michigan but will spend time traveling around the States visiting current supporters and potential donors in Dallas, Charlotte, and Nashville and then back to Charlotte. We have also been invited to attend Clean Water U, the training seminar for Living Waters for the World in Oxford, Mississippi. Before all of this begins, we are attending Ward Church’s triennial outreach festival, Compelled by Love next week.

While it was hard to prepare to leave Peru for such a long time, leaving our day-to-day tasks in the hands of others and making sure we had made all of the necessary arrangements to be away from our apartment, we are looking forward to this time. It is our first Fall in a long time (cider mills! leaves changing colors!) and while I know it will be much colder than we are used to, I am really looking forward to some snow (sorry, everybody else in Michigan!) 🙂

We are still putting together our December and January schedule. If you are interested in having us speak at a small group, worship service, etc, please contact us. We are looking to broaden the support base for the Girasoles ministry and are excited to share what God is doing in Peru through these boys.

– Kate & Billy

To follow us on the road this season, follow us on Instagram at @katebruder and @greenmanbilly or on Tumblr.