Waiting to be shaped

Hello family and friends! As many of you know I will spend June 1st- June 29th in Lima, Peru. I have been encouraged by several of you to blog during my time in Peru but have been extremely hesitant because I am NOT a writer nor am I very techy and I feel like blogging is something that hip, tech savvy people do. However, after reading my dear friend Natalie's blog about her time in England I have been inspired! I will join the blogging world for the next 29 days. Before reading any further please be warned: there are certain to be many spelling and grammatical errors, a lot of exclamation points, and a lot of sound words such as ahhh!!!, ekkk!, hmm, etc. (I type the way I think and I think the way I talk...lots of excitement/emotion). Now please continue...

Tomorrow, June 1st, at 10:20 pm I will land in Lima, Peru. Ahhh!!! I cannot believe it is so close. I have been preparing and looking forward to this trip basically my whole life. My parents can tell you, I began looking into colleges when I was in the 7th grade and I think I started looking into study abroad programs in 6th grade, ha! It's finally here. I am packed and ready to go. (It only took me a week to pack. I haven't been packing since 6th grade!)



You may be wondering, "Lauren, why Peru and what will you do there?" If you are wondering, please read this paragraph to solve the mystery. If you already know or just don't care, skip to the next paragraph. Well it all began when I was 8 years old...just kidding! I will give you the short (well, shorter) story. The summer after I graduated high school The Lord lead me to do a short term mission trip to Guatemala.



 A couple months later during my first semester at Mississippi State I took Dr. Sylvia Byrd's Individual and Family Nutrition class and after only a few weeks changed my major to Nutrition. I enjoyed studying for this class especially when we studied vitamins and minerals and what happens when our bodies do not get the nutrients they need. I realized that I had seen some of the signs of nutrient deficiency while in Guatemala. God began working on my heart and I began to pray then that He would provide an opportunity for me to go back to Guatemala or another impoverished country to learn how to improve health problems related to nutrient deficiencies in areas where hunger is severe. So here we are today, May 31, 2013, and God has provided that opportunity. I am going to Peru with 14 other US students to take a class at the International Institute of Nutrition in Peru's capital city Lima. The class is called "A Multidisciplinary Study of International Nutrition". The disciplines I will focus on are clinical nutrition and research.

I really cannot express how thrilled I am that God has provided this opportunity. I am so excited to get to know another one of His awesome people, the Peruvians, and experience their country and culture. I look forward to see how God will use the Peruvians and this trip to shape me into who He created me to be.

Oh my goodness I wrote a lot! I promise that the posts to come will include a lot more pictures and less babbling. I cannot promise that I will have daily post but I will try my best to keep you updated!

Thanks for reading! Look out for the next post--it will come from Lima!!!

Lauren