SALI Commerical in our Home

One of the branches of our mission, San Agustín Language Institute (SALI) recently filmed a short commerical at our house. The commerical appeared on local television around Trujillo. I thought you might enjoy!

Ten Questions to Ask at the Start of a New Year

Several years ago a friend directed me to Donald Whitney webpage. There I found a very helpful list of personal evaluation questions. The idea is to ask yourself these questions at the turn of each year as a spiritual inventory.

I have observed in many Christian biographies, godly saints of ages past - such as David Brainerd, Henry Martyn, and Andrew Bonar - also used the new year to evaluate their soul. Also, it dawned on me that since we have dental checkups, physicals, car tuneups, computer diagnostics, etc., why not have a yearly spiritual checkup. So for the past several years I have used this list below to see how my soul is doing. I invite you to join me. The rest of this post is in Donald's words....

"Once, when the people of God had become careless in their relationship with Him, the Lord rebuked them through the prophet Haggai. "Consider your ways!" (Haggai 1:5) he declared, urging them to reflect on some of the things happening to them, and to evaluate their slipshod spirituality in light of what God had told them.

Even those most faithful to God occasionally need to pause and think about the direction of their lives. It's so easy to bump along from one busy week to another without ever stopping to ponder where we're going and where we should be going.

The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop, look up, and get our bearings. To that end, here are some questions to ask prayerfully in the presence of God.

1. What's one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?

2. What's the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?

3. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?

4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?

5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?

6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?

7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?

8. What's the most important way you will, by God's grace, try to make this year different from last year?

9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?

10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?

The value of many of these questions is not in their profundity, but in the simple fact that they bring an issue or commitment into focus. For example, just by articulating which person you most want to encourage this year is more likely to help you remember to encourage that person than if you hadn't considered the question.

If you've found these questions helpful, you might want to put them someplace—in a day planner, PDA, Black Berry, calendar, bulletin board, etc.—where you can review them more frequently than once a year.

So let's evaluate our lives, make plans and goals, and live this new year with biblical diligence, remembering that, "The plans of the diligent lead surely to advantage" (Proverbs 21:5). But in all things let's also remember our dependence on our King who said, "Apart from Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5)."

If you would like more questions, go here for 20 more. Have a blessed new year!

We're Expecting!

We are very excited to announce Baby Smith #3! It will be several more weeks until we find out the gender. Abbie really wants a baby brother. The whole thing is still very foggy for Adeline. Baby Smith will be arriving in June. We will be coming back to the States at the end of May to have the baby in Jackson, MS. We will then return to Peru after several months.

Below is a blown up picture of the sonogram. We'll let you know when we find out if we have a boy or girl. Please pray for Sandi's health. And praise God with us for such a wonderful Christmas gift!

Seminary Module in Cajamarca

Several months ago, the missionary team thought it would be good for me to set a date to teach a seminary module class in Cajamarca. The purpose was to not only to encourage the brethren in Cajamarca but also to set a goal for my language aquistion. In other words this was my Spanish Midterm Exam. I taught a Biblical Theology course on "The Sacred World of Israel" where I showed how sacred space, sacred people, and sacred time all find their fulfillment in Christ.

I had never been to Cajamarca, the land of Peru Mission's founding father, Alonzo Ramirez. He gave me a tour around the lovely city and many of the surrounding country churches. Many of the churches were recently planted while others were started by Scottish missionaries eighty years ago. Here are a few pictures from my trip...

Christmas Below the Equator

We hope you are getting ready for a wonderful Advent Season as we are here. As we approach Christmas we are also making our way into the summer months here below the equator. It is a bit different celebrating Christmas in the summer, but growing up in Louisiana I can remember several Christmases when my brother and I were wearing shorts on Christmas day, so it is not too weird. Just as we do in the U.S., Peruvians enjoy the tradition of drinking hot chocolate during the Christmas season, the difference is they are sweating as they drink it.

Hope you enjoy these recent pictures of family life. Anyone who has ever tried to take a Christmas family picture will appreciate these first few. Since we have no A.C. in our house or in the taxi’s we ride in, we have also been enjoying some swimming.

It only cost about $.80 or 3 stamps to send us a Christmas card, we would love to hear from you!! Our mailing address:

Allen Smith
Larco 100
Trujillo, Peru
South America

Merry Christmas and Much Love,

~Sandi

O.k. Abbie, no silly faces. . .

Everyone look at the camera please. . . .

That's a good "cheese" Adeline