Joanne Dineley, February 2003 
Not normally one to seek out a challenge, the idea of a year in South America was strangely appealling to me. A chance to improve my Spanish and see another side of life between graduating and starting work. A year devoted to serving others before life got too complicated to permit such adventures. I didn’t know what to expect from my time in Lima, Peru but I sensed it would be an important year where God would teach me a lot. I would give and gain simultaneously.
I gave up: baked beans, cranberry juice, the ease of effortlessly speaking and being understood, bath tubs, clean air and greenery. I gained: confidence — in what God and I can do together. The ability to catch the attention of a hundred kids then hold it long enough to teach them about God. I gained their love and they gained mine. I can now understand and be understood in Spanish (a skill that eluded me somewhat despite years of classroom teaching!) I swam in waterfalls in the jungle, trekked the glaciated peaks of the Andes and ate fresh tuna on the beach whilst the sun set.
I realised that missionaries aren’t a special breed of ‘Super-Christian’. They’ve just already grasped what I’ve been learning over these last 12 months: that God often works through our weaknesses more than our strengths. Being a missionary isn’t about sacrifice and strength as much as it’s about weakness and willingness to learn.
