How do you live in a micro-climate?

Lima (actually the entire coast of Peru) is a desert, and for 9 months out of the year is cloudy and grey, but very little precipitation. We do get "llovizna" as it is called which is just an occasional heavy mist that spits in your face all day, but coming from Seattle I would say it doesn't really count as rain. So it should be no surprise that the all the foot hills leading up to the Andes are brown and dusty (like the communities where FH serves on the outskirts of the city - see picture below).


So imagine my surprise to find lush green hills just 40 min south of the city. In a small town, Quebrada Verde, near Pachacamac, due to some strange weather/ geographic anomaly, the hills find themselves in their own little microclimate that actually receives rain and turns what is normally brown, dry and harsh into a lush green oasis.



Thanks to a national holiday (Battle of Angamos Day) last Wednesday I too got to experience an oasis in the midst of what has often seemed to be a dry and harsh year. With a bunch of friends from Lima we trekked around for several hours exploring beautiful green hills, looking for walking sticks and snails along the way, and talking and laughing a ton. A great day, spent with awesome people - very rejuvenating.


But now I find myself back again in Lima, sitting at my desk and wondering....how do I keep from living in the desert? How can I live in a micro-climate that is beautiful and green and alive regardless of what my life surroundings are like? For the next couple of months I am cutting back my work hours to regain some balance and hopefully figure out the beginning of an answer to those questions. While I my brain knows that the answer lies in living out of the Spirit of the Lord (the well that never runs dry), I think I have gotten out of practice in living in and through that oasis. While I don't really have an answer to those questions yet (I think it is going to take a while), I just wanted to share a little about where I am at, and ask for you prayers - that in the next few months I would be able to reconnect and remember how to live in the micro-climate of the Spirit.