22nd December 2007
At church today, someone prayed for me in the whole area of compassion. He saw two halves of a heart being brought together and moulded as one and prayed along the lines of saying that I was half compassionate and half unconcerned and that God would mould my heart. I think the word was for me, but am unsure about the interpretation. It may be I'm unwilling to admit to my hard-heartedness, but I believe the picture was more about my concern for caring too much and emotionally burning out when faced with need and that God was giving me His assurance that He would mould my heart and my compassion.

17th December 2007
We've had the visa process outlined to us now and it looks like being a long one. As things stand, we are led to believe that we'll need to visit the Peruvian Consulate in London with armfuls of official paperwork and some money, ask them to stamp everything, then courier these to Lima where they will be processed and, if we're accepted, a visa will be couriered back to London which we'll then have to go and pick up in person. Only after this has happened could flights be booked for us. A departure date of early February is still be talked about but I, for one, am not optomistic about this, not least because we can't get started until someone in Peru has confirmed the procedure.

13th December 2007
After the disappointment of the option in Nepal falling through, we heard today that we are definitely (subject to visas) going to Peru to help co-ordinate post-earthquake reconstruction work. Both Rachel and I are excited about the opportunity, I just wished I kept up with my Spanish learning!