Oct/ Nov in PERU!

Disclaimer: My blog is really long and random, feel free to skip around, do not feel obligated to read the whole thing! Love you guys!

As I am sitting here writing…I am thinking how blessed I am to have a computer that now works, while I am listening to an amazing CD – Klaus that my mom so graciously gave me. Such an incredible CD…you should check it out. Wow, I feel like I have so much to write about, even though it has only been one week. Last night, I was just overwhelmed in a good way about how many crazy many ministry opportunities God has given us here. I was in the clinic last night around 10:00 working with Nancy on finishing making crafts for a school activity that we had today. Anyway, as I was leaving I saw a woman in the lobby, and I just felt the need to share with her the gospel. Anyway, I proceed to go back into the clinic (to be honest not really wanting to share and wanting to go to bed more), and I come to find out she is a neighbor of a lady that is dying of cancer. Anyway, she had come to help bring her neighbor to the hospital because she was having difficulty breathing. Just as I was getting to start to talk to her, the doctor called her in to help. I was like great…..there goes that opportunity. Then I thought, I will just write them a letter….so I wrote a letter. Then the doctor came out to talk with the security guard and I, I started talking to her about the patient and had the opportunity to go in with the doctor. What I saw, was so incredible saddening….probably an 80 year old struggling to even breathe. I have never heard someone breathe so terribly. My desire was to share Jesus with this family. Then the atheist doctor asked me if I wanted to tell them anything that would bring them more peace. Well of course…..I was able to pray with them for their mom who was very much dying. Also, I was able to share the gospel with the other two well adults. God even uses atheist to open up doors to share the gospels with others. Incredible……..anyway, I was able to get their address…so that soon as in the next week I can bring them a meal or something. I left the hospital thinking a few things…..one that I am a little scared about all of the smoke that I am around in the volunteer house…….but mainly thinking of how many amazing ministry opportunities there are here. Hospital ministry (chaplins), teaching abandoned kids, getting to know the faculty, working with the kids outside the community etc. I am overwhelmed by all the opportunities God gives here. I was thinking to myself part of me never wants to leave from inside the actual orphanage….because most likely I would not be in the clinic past 10 at night if I didn’t live here. Then God gave me the thought…what if we could raise up leaders here to have specific ministries here. A group of teenage Christians here that could share the gospel with those in the hospital and pray for those that are in such desperate need of prayer. That would be so much cooler and the gospel could spread even faster in that way. Anyway, please be in prayer of that for ministry teams to start………I think we are just around the corner for that to start. Wow…that is only like 20 minutes of the week…I still have much to write about, but right now I have to go teach English. I will come back soon and finish the rest of the week.
Okay, I am back, I am going to write from Tuesday night backwards. Anyway, this week has been a little weird in the fact that we have not been working at the schools this week because of random closings, volleyball tournaments, and exams. This has given me some extra free time to get ready other things. Nancy graciously decided to invite some volunteers to go with us to the market. I was being selfish and wanted for us to just go….but it turned out to be really neat. Which brings me to the point there is new volunteers in the house right now. It is hilarious how God always gives you the desires of your heart. I was just telling Nancy how I missed people from Mexico because I used to work with them all the time in Mission Arlington. Like literally the next day, a volunteer came from Mexico. She is the sweetest older lady and she is going to teach me how to make taco shells. I AM SO EXCITED. TACOS are my favorite food. Anyway, so they went with us and we bought things to make tacos and bought a ton of cookies and juice bags for the rest of the month of October for the public schools. Once again, I was being selfish and Nancy was being generous, I bought ice cream and coke to make coke floats. They do not have just plain ice cream in Ventanilla where we live ……..and I was thinking Nancy and I could make a quick coke float while we were waiting on the other volunteers and she said we should share. I am so glad Nancy was keeping me in check for all my selfishness, we ended up making coke floats outside of the grocery store with the other volunteers. The new volunteer from France said it was one of the best days of her life! I guess she like the coke float haha. Then we got to take over the ice cream to our neighbor’s house and let them experience their coke float as well; it was so much fun. By the end of the day I had had 3 small coke floats. Of course, I had to drink them with all of the people who had never had them before. The people from Peru absolutely loved them. Anyway, it was a great day of shopping for cookies, taco things, and drinking coke floats. More than that it was cool just getting to share life with others and continue to build relationships. Two funny things that happened yesterday as well, was when I was buying 1,500 packages of cookies, I broke the glass window at the kiosk and had to pay for it! That was quite embarrassing but luckily it was only about 7 dollars. Also, when we were at our neighbor’s house, or otherwise known as the “chicken shack” to some, we went into the kitchen for the first time to wash our dishes. They have just recently purchased a microwave, meaning that at times I might be able to buy freezer food and use their microwave to heat up some things like chicken nuggets. I was super excited. I feel a little dumb that this whole paragraph has been about food……but when you live in the middle of a “desert” sometimes the small things in life excite you. Anyway…

To more important things, house church went amazing this past Sunday! We found out kind of last minute that we were going to have to meet outside because the dentist had to vote, and she decided to not to give us her key. I was kind of irritated to be honest because all of our chairs and everything were inside there. I was thinking maybe we should not invite any new people and just let the normal people come since we will be outside literally on the ground. As, I am writing this I see that Nancy has given me much great advice this week. She said we should still invite them as normal. So we did! The most came than ever, 26 people came. More people came because we were outside, even people from other towns! It was crazy. Nancy, kept on inviting people as they walked by and more and more kept coming. It was such a great day. We were outside for about 2 hours on 3 blankets, and it was so fun to see Dad’s coloring crosses, people from rich towns come sit on blankets in the sand to hear about the Savior. INCREDIBLE. I have a new motto, “blankets, sandwiches, and Jesus” is all you need for people to come hear about the Savior. That morning on our way to buy the lunch for house church, I saw a huge line of people, the thought came to me that maybe it would have been more beneficial for us to spend our time with these people that were forced to stand in line because it was election day. In Peru, it is mandatory to vote. Well anyway, after church Nancy and I decided that we would take the extra bracelets with the arrows that share the gospel to all those that were forced to stand in line to vote. We were there for about 2 ½ hours getting to give bracelets to everyone and their mom and sharing the gospel with them. Even the army that was there guarding the doors and the police officers. It was so neat. I think it really touched some people. I have already received a thank you e-mail from one girl thinking her for the paper bracelet I gave her. We are hoping those will be seeds planted on fertile soil. God is always flinging open opportunities for us here. We can’t keep up with God. He is so good and so faithful! Saturday, I was kind of having a lazy day, but then I got movin’ and went to Liz’s house to see if she would help me grade tests in Spanish. We ended up getting a little side tracked and watched a great movie together “Letters to God” (thank you Katie, loved the movie)). It was good to get to spend some time with Liz because normally our schedules are too busy to ever even see each other. Then one of the coolest things happened after that. Alvaro, the religion teacher who became a Christian about two months ago came to the community for us to plan his class together. We went and downloaded the mission Arlington curriculum. We downloaded the last 8 lessons for the last 8 weeks of this school year. Then we planned together. I showed him how to use the felt board, verse games, jeopardy, and everything. He says it has been going awesome this week. That the kids love it! He says his class that he normally has with really bad kids responded to this great. He is super excited. From now on, we are going to plan together every week. Praise God, TRUTH is being taught now to the high schoolers. He is going back to the basics…the life of Jesus and sharing the gospel. How neat to see God use a new believer share with the lost. God has just been pouring out the blessings. Which leads me to this past week. About 40 children, gave their lives to the Lord. The Holy Spirit was moving in a miraculous way. We were talking about in one of my classes how Jesus has ultimate power over evil and he showed us that when he defeated death and rose again. Then, I was sharing the gospel like normal, and one girl asked how can I ask Jesus into my heart? Then it all started. About 10 kids decided to put their faith in Jesus right then and there. I talked with them individually and they made decisions each on their own. Then I was telling my other classes what happened in that class and more wanted to give their lives to Christ. This kept on happening in all of my classes. Also, some kids just had tons of questions and wanted to get them answered or just wanted to confide in me about problems in their life. It was such a sweet sweet week last week. This Saturday we will be starting a new believers Bible study since now we have about 50 believers in the community. The kids are really excited. It is so neat to see God drawing people to himself. I feel like we are at a turning point here. Kids are finally starting to understand the Truth! I feel like kids and adults are about to start to come to know the Lord in a more massive way than before. I am just waiting to see what God does. Mission Peru here we come!!! God has really been giving me a vision for this area in Peru.

Okay….so I left of this blog like three weeks ago and SO much has happened since then. I can’t even remember all of it. I am so bad at blogging, please forgive me. Anyway, trying to think of the highlights to tell you from the month of October and the first part of November. Wow, time flies. Anyway, God has been at work still drawing people to himself, I think about 60 have come to know him total in the past month. It is so cool to see God doing an incredible work bringing people to himself. Every kid that accepted Christ prayed with their own words. It was so incredible to see the faith of these kids. One of my kids that is in the second grade, but is old for his grade prayed this prayer (translated in English)

God,

I know that I have sins. I pray that you would free me from my sins. I want to be with you. I don’t want to be with the devil, I want to be with you. I want to be with you, and I don’t want to be with the devil and I want you to free me from my sins. I believe in you that you are God and God’s son and died and rose again, free me from my sins.
Amen

It so touched my heart. The kids are really learning the truth. One kid came to me after he accepted Christ and was super worried that the devil was putting bad thoughts in his head, but we got to talk about the assurance of his salvation. I have watched one of my worst girls attitude completely change after she accepted Christ. Last week, a girl came up to me and asked me if I went to mass. I told her no, and she asked me why and I told her that I did not believe the things they taught. This girl had accepted Christ a couple of weeks before. We talked about how the Bible is a much better of a teacher. She said well then if I don’t go to mass, can I come to the volunteer house and read the Bible with you because I am scared to stay in my house alone. Then she said she does not have a Bible, I proceeded to give her the one I had in my hand and challenged her to read the book of John, 1 chapter of day. She was so EXCITED! Then she started reading it right then and there. So, I changed my mind and told her to read 2 chapters a day. She said when I finish this, do I read all the rest, meaning all the rest of the new testament and then start at the front. I told her to tell me when she finished, and then we would talk about the next book to read. Kids are still asking all the time for the picture Bibles that so many of you graciously sent, but so cool now to see Elementary kids now wanting to read the ACTUAL BIBLE. One of my other elementary kids, told me how he had read the whole picture Bible and a lot of the stories I taught in class were in there. I explained that of course because I was teaching out of the book of Matthew. He then proceeded to ask me for a Bible so he could read the stories that we have been learning. He is hungry for God’s word. God has been showing me through my mom, the kids hunger for the Word, and just what I know about how powerful that the Word of God that is extremely important for these people to read his Word. I am assuming most of the people that are reading this blog right now are American Christians who likely have 5 Bibles sitting on your shelf at home collecting dust. I am saying that not to stereotype but because I was guilty of the same thing. People here are dying to read the Word of God. They literally are also dying spiritually because they have never heard the truth. I would encourage you, a challenge to clean all the Bibles out of your house besides one that you read and give them to someone who doesn’t have the Word of God. I am going to share a few more Bible stories with you as well. After, I got done teaching the big boy bible study, a boy followed me to my house and asked about proclaimers. Wendy Ball so graciously got us in contact with these radio boxes that read the new testament in Kechua, Spanish, or English. He was wondering if he could have one to give to his grandma who lives in Cuzco who speaks Kechua. He explained that she could not read, but would love to listen to the Bible because she goes to church and really wants to read the Bible and for other members of the church that have the same issue. I was so thrilled that even teenage boys were interested in people reading the Word of God. Nancy brought more back from the states last week so hopefully we will be able to send one of them with him to Cuzco. Another girl asked me for a charger so she could plug in her proclaimer because her hand got tired of winding it up. So encouraging, it just shows me that is actually listening and really wants to continue. Sorry, last Bible story. I was at my favorite restaurant the chicken shack, when I felt like God really wanted me to share the gospel with a man that was sitting there. I shared with him, then went over to his wife and kid in the car. The real reason why I was supposed to share with this man was so I could talk with his son. His mom proceeded to share with me, that her son loved to learn about God. I asked if they had a Bible and they said no like mostly everyone says around here. I gave the little 8 year old a Bible and you should have seen his face light up! He was ecstatic. Pray that God’s word would fall on very fertile soil with all the people that now have Bibles.
Sorry, my blog is so random. I was thinking I don’t think I have very much to write about, but then I am remembering so many things that have happened over this past month! So Crazy! Okay, next random story….. Well, apparently China messed up in producing these stuffed animals puppets for Bembos which is like the Peruvian McDonalds. The wrong tag was on the wrong stuffed animal probably because the Chinese people that were doing it don’t know Spanish. Anyway, a friend of Miguel’s brought it to the Community to do. He brought 90,000 stuffed animals to redo. The process for this is to open the bag, take off the tag carefully off of all 90,000. Then retag all 90,000 put them back in bags, heat seal the bag, and pack them. It took about 4 days, with a couple of nights as well. It was really so much fun! I LOVE factory type work. Why? Because you don’t have to think, you just do the same thing over and over again. I am sure it would get old after a while, but I really enjoyed it. Highlights of staying up all night one night putting together stuff animals: 1) Got to share the gospel with the man that brought this work to us. He seemed really open to it, talking about how I have a joy etc that he has not seen. I explained it was the Holy Spirit. Then he proceeded to ask my age and he was trying to see if I could date him…it was really funny. Turns out he is 20 years older than me. After he found out it would never work, then he proceeded to show me pics of his kids. One of his kids being my age. Pretty comical! 2) I got to hang out with some really awesome university students and to get to know them better like all night long haha 3) I got to hang out with the director, Miguel, which was cool since normally I never see him because he is so busy. I have really good memories of that night getting to joke all night long with some new University students that I had not known before, but I was super tired the next day for class.

Okay, man I am jumping all over the place, but way earlier in this blog, I talked about the new Mexican volunteer and making tacos. Well, the day after we went shopping for taco things, there were a few things that we could not find in the market such as sour cream. Nancy and I had the privilege of being able to attend some of our missionary friend’s Bible study in the city of Surco. Surco is more like a downtown dallas (the nice part) compared to Ventanilla being more like the outskirts of Dallas aka the ghetto. Anyway, I say that to say that Surco has some really neat things. After Bible study, we went to an international store called Wongs. The Wong’s in Surco is the best Wongs I have ever been too. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I found TACO shells for the first time in Peru. My parents had sent me 36, but those weren’t going to last too long. I was so EXCITED! The people in the aisle probably thought I was a pshycho! Not only that but I found pickles, ranch dip, sour cream, and pretty much all of my favorite foods. It was like God was telling me, see you can live here forever. I have PROVIDED everything for you. Of course, I was already planning on staying in Peru before this shopping trip, but God was just confirming his goodness and his faithfulness! He was like see Lauren I give you the desires of your heart even down to the ranch dip. It was a really neat night followed by going to Chilis! To most who are reading this, this probably seems very shallow, but the small American things are so appreciated when you live in an orphanage way outside of most modern civilization. It is just so neat to see God provide things that aren’t even necessary but are just fun. Anyway, back to Tacos. We cooked dinner for the entire volunteer house and EVERYONE came, which normally does not happen. It was a huge hit. I was thrilled. Then the next weekend, I was able to cook Tacos and brownies for my good friends Mario and Merby and hang out at their house all Saturday. I met some people playing volleyball with them. One of the girls I met has already come by the community for help with English. It is just so crazy how everywhere we go, we meet people that want to learn about the Bible or English. Either way a good opportunity to share the good news. I also made Taco’s last weekend for the Dentist and her friend. She loved them. She is super skinny and she ate 3 tacos. So, tacos are a huge hit in Peru for me and the Peruvians. So glad I found out where I can buy taco shells!

Another fun thing that Nancy and I were able to do was take like one of favorite two people in the Community out for their birthdays. Their birthdays were on the same day, they both are amazing Christian girls. One is a very new Christian and the other one has been one for about a year and is literally leading many to the Savior. We took them to dominoes! We had a great time with them. They loved the pizza! Then that night with one of them we had a sleepover in her house. She had a great time and so did we. Speaking of birthdays, another one of the university girls’ birthdays was recently. I had sent her sisters to go buy a cake, but living in the community nothing stays a secret. The tutor of the house wanted to use the cake that I had bought for a small little birthday party for the entire house. I was irritated at first, but God turned into a really cool thing. Instead of just having a little small party for her, her whole house threw her a huge party. Then I was able to spend a really good time talking with the house parent of that house which I hadn’t talked to her in a long time. It was SO GOOD! She just talked to me about her life. Please remember to pray for the house parents. None of them except one are Christians and they are going through their own set of hardships. Even though I am busier than I have ever been since I started in Peru, God is like multiplying the time. It is incredible. I never want to be too busy to talk to people. I never want for the kids in the community to feel like I am too busy for them. I know they have felt that way at times, but lately I have really gotten to have some excellent one on one time with people. I one night got to talk to one of the Doctors for like 2 hours, it was really good because I am always trying to build relationships with the doctors, I have gotten to spend a lot of quality time with another university student that works in the pharmacy (he actually helped me in the Public school while Nancy was gone, AMAZING!), got to spend a lot of quality time with the girls that work in the kiosk. People are opening up about their lives finally it seems and man these kids are going through some hard times. Most of the times, I feel myself getting used to living with these kids and really forgetting about all they are going through. But then I am forced to remember when a girl shares with me that she has been sad since the day her uncle killed her dad. Intense. These kids need the peace that only Jesus can bring. I got to go to a church service with one of my favorite friends Alfonso. Although, everything that happened at that church service I do not agree with, it was a really sweet time of fellowship with Alfonso. We studied the Bible together and then we went to Dominoes which was super fun!
Senor de Milagros – God always uses what Satan means for evil to bring something good out of it. If anyone is reading this from Peru, I am not writing this to be offensive, just want to share some cool things that took place in the community. A big festival took place one weekend at the community. It is called “Senor de Milagros.” This was a HUGE event at the community where all these people came in and spent tons of money. Senor de Milagros is a 2 day festival to worship a picture of Jesus. Legend says, that hundreds a years ago back this same picture healed people etc. That is legend! Anyway, now every year in Peru there are huge worship fests of a picture. It broke my heart when I heard that this was going to go on in the community. Before, I even said anything about it; teens had already asked me about it, asking if I believe in it. I said no and they said we don’t either, the Bible says not to worship idols, we just believe in God. I decided that week to teach the Bible study over Exodus 20 about not having idols to the high schoolers, and it just so happened that week’s lesson for my religion class was about Mary washing Jesus feet. I was able to incorporate not worshipping idols into that lesson as well. The kids on their own brought up Senor de Milagros. I was just talking to them about idols in general. It was incredible to see God working in their hearts. Almost every kid disagreed with worshipping that idol of Senor de Milagros. Only like the 1st and 2nd grades did not understand until I explained about it being wrong. Besides two university students, none of the other kids wanted to be a part of it. It was just obligation. It was just so neat to see how God was showing these kids the Truth even when they were being forced to do something that they did not want to do. We talked about how; it is one thing to go to the ceremony and another thing to actually worship the picture. It was such a neat time to see how God is continually revealing his TRUTH to the people in the community. I purposely did not attend this event, but I feel confident in knowing that the majority of kids in the community did not worship at all this idol, but knew that they were only supposed to worship Jesus Christ himself. God is at work! The most convicting part of the whole thing, was as I was drilling into these kids about idol worship. God showed me a ton of idols that I had in my life. No not pictures, but fb, talking with friends over Him etc. He majorly laid some things in my heart that had to change. Right now, I am working on letting God remove idols out of my life. It is crazy being a teacher because normally I learn as much as the kids do or more! It was a humbling experience for me when I realized I was so upset about this idol worship ceremony that was going to take place when I had several of my own idols in my life.

As I mentioned, I taught the story of Mary at Bethany when she anoints Jesus with perfume. It was such a neat time in my classes because we acted it out. I had a kid be Jesus and I as Mary and I actually washed their feet with perfume and my hair. Hopefully, the point was shown that Mary truly loved Jesus with everything she had. Let’s just say I took lots of showers that week!
Right after Nancy left for her time in the states, I decided I have to get everything ready for the rest of the year to surprise Nancy and just so I can have sanity! One of the girls in the community helped me a ton, another house helped me cut string, and my English house helped me cut string as well. After about 60 hours or more of collective work! I finished with the help of many all of my religion class lessons, church lessons, bible studies for the community, English lessons, and public school lessons. All I have left is to get Alvaro’s lessons in order (the new Christian teacher) and the new believer Bible study in order. It was a huge encouragement to me to finish these things. Speaking of schools, we are now in all of the schools finally. We have had two sessions of High School ASP with Pedro Planes and about 50 high schoolers have come. We are hoping for more, but 50 is a good start. We also changed our schedule at one of the other schools so that we will be going into individual classrooms. I am excited about this new plan so that the kids will understand better in smaller groups. Please pray for discernment for us as we plan for next year and actually being in the schools actual schedule of classes. Please pray that Nancy and I will know exactly what schools to be in and how to be involved in each particular school!

House church is going phenomenal. I am falling in love with the children of Puente Piedra. I was late 2 Sundays and did not have time to go around and invite people, but they came anyway even bringing new friends. They are so consistent and so faithful to bring new friends. Last week as I was inviting people, I found out where some of our kids live. They actually are the kids of the owners of all the little shops nearby. It was so humbling to know that kids from stores all over are coming to church. Some really neat people have come to church lately. The girl that sold me my cell phone came and also my good friend and taxi driver came for the first time 2 weeks ago. We also had a really neat Christian family came, the kid brought his mp3 with Spanish Hillsong on it! It was super sweet. Also, one week an elderly Baptist pastor came. God is really working in this house church. Please pray that Doris the Dentist would be able to take over this house church soon, so another one can be started!

Last weekend on Sunday, I saw lots of people that looked like they were from Cuzco. Normally, there are hardly any parents from Cuzco because it is so far away. Well, I walked by two ladies that seemed familiar, and they were people I knew! It was SO CRAZY! Almost a year ago, when I first came to Peru I went on a walking tour and I met these two ladies in this remote mountain village in Arequipa and spent a ton of time talking with them and gave them salvation bracelets. I was able to reunite with them, they asked for more bracelets. I gave them the arrow salvation bracelets this time. Honestly, I was really tired and wanted to take a nap instead of talk to these people from Arequipa but God continued to open up incredible doors. I was able to meet some more people and give out more bracelets. Before I knew it I had the opportunity to share the gospel to this huge group of people from Arequipa that had come on a field trip with one of the schools to the Community. I even got to give the mayor a salvation bracelet. God is so cool. It is so crazy how many people in Peru God has put back in my life when I thought I would never see them again.
One more random story…..a lady came in the clinic last week. Her daughter had escaped from the community. The interesting part about this lady was she was deaf, mute, and could not read. Years ago when I was five I took sign language lessons. I was able to communicate with her in sign language and share the gospel. It was so neat. God is really impressing on my heart about learning all sorts of languages so that you can communicate with anyone that comes into your path the good news of Jesus. But first, I must conquer Spanish. haha

So sorry, my blog is so long…..Almost done. Nicolette’s wedding! One of our friends from Australia that has lived at the community for four years and has been the tutor of the Santa Rosa house had an emergency with her fiancee’s health and they needed to go back home. They had planned to get married this January in the community, but they had to go back home yesterday. So what happened….did they have to cancel the wedding?!? Of course not, they just had to plan it in three days and transport the ENTIRE community to their wedding 2 hours away. It was quite an adventure. It was a beautiful wedding, everyone pitched in and literally the entire wedding was planned in 3 days. Nancy and I were able to help by going out late the night before to buy sandals for the bridesmaid. It was quite a comical 2 ½ hour shopping trip bargaining with little vendors in the market. Nicolette was an awesome help to the community, so selfless, we are all sad to see her go, but her wedding was amazing!

Okay a few last thoughts that I would like to leave you with. This past week, God has just shown me that he is a God that GIVES AND TAKES AWAY! Blessed be HIS name! I was just reminded of God’s great faithfulness. I was talking to one of my dear friends and it became apparent to me for the theme of my life this year and for so many others that are close to me that God gives and He takes away, but he is always still faithful! Blessed be his name. For a short example, God took away my homeland the USA – but brought me to even a great country Peru! He took away my favorite ministry at the time apartment ministry in the States, but GAVE me a ministry to 1,000s of Peruvian people. He allowed many of my good friends to go on with their own lives, but GAVE me a great new support system and great new friends and even reunited with me old friends form the past. At first I had a great sadness here, but HE GAVE me a great joy. I could continue for pages about the faithfulness of God, but you get the point. He is so GOOD and Faithful. There is no need to worry about the problems that you might be facing (easier said than done) because He is an incredible God, who will prove to be faithful up till’ the very end!

PERUVIAN CHALLENGE: Last but not least. I would like to challenge all of you who are reading this blog not to buy Christmas presents this year for your friends or family members. I am going to take part in this as well and use that money to help people hear the gospel around the world. I am biased with Peru, but use the money to help reach people for the Lord in whatever country. I know this is asking a lot, but God is calling believers to be RADICAL! People are dying to hear the word of God. Peruvians are so hungry for the word of God, but unfortunately Bibles cost money, Peruvians are hungry for actual food as well. There are so many needs. I would challenge you to have a different Christmas this year! The challenge is NO PRESENTS – but to use the money that you would spend on PRESENTS to help bring the PRESENCE of Jesus into people’s lives all around the world. If you want to take part in this challenge and want to help the people of Peru, you can give to Southmont Baptist Church. 2801 Pennsylvania Ave Denton, TX 76205

YOU GIVE AND TAKE AWAY! LORD BLESSED BE YOUR NAME!!!!

FAMILY

Some of the kids at house church this morning!
The houses on the mountains that we want to know the Lord
Making crosses in class that Terry so graciously sent us.
My English class decorating for the concert.
Eating at amazing ice cream shop in Mira Flores!
Machu Pichu
More Inca Ruins
Me and Dad with some amazing milkshakes!
Miguel and I at lunch.
English Concert
Making sheep masks at the Catholic school.
Riding in a moto!
The kids at one of the public schools!
Teaching in the community!
Opening cheezits and Cheetos!
Gifts from family and friends!
Frozen Limonade! Always can count on Larry to be unhealthy with me!
All of us at Machu Pichu!
Llamas!
Suckered once again to take a cute picture with a girl and a lamb. haha
Singing at the schools!
Wow! It has been an incredible week. I have been so blessed to have my parents visit me this week and my second “grandparents” visit me. I am writing right now from the hotel room while my mom and dad are in a meeting with Miguel. I am listening to my new Steven Curtis Chapman CD. It is so nice to listen to this CD and not cry the whole way through it. I had this CD in February and I cried over and over while I listened to it in February. Then somehow in all the craziness of February, I lost it. My mom was so kind and brought it back to me. This CD reminds me of God’s faithfulness. It is so encouraging to listen to this CD and realize everything God has brought me through. Anyway, back to this week. It has been a week full of great adventures to say the least. My parents and Larry and Carol arrived late Friday night. I was so excited I could barely stand it once I got to the airport! It was such a great feeling seeing them walk through the doors. It was great to hug my Mom and Dad again. That night of course I stayed up till’ 3 am talking with them. Then the next morning we left for Cuzco.
It is so beautiful there. It was quite a change from the last time I went. I did not even have to carry a backpack! It was wonderful flying there. We had a great time just getting to look around the city of Cuzco, see Inca ruins, getting to see many llamas, alpacas etc. Machu Pichu was awesome and this time I had a tour guide so I actually knew what things were. It was such a sweet time to get to see things again that I had seen my second week here in Peru and had previously tried to explain it to my parents, but this time I got to see it with them. I have not been on a vacation with my parents in four years, so it was amazing to get to travel with them again. My parents are my best friends so it has been a huge blessing in my life to have them here. Also, my second “grandparents” Larry and Carol have been here with me and that has made this week even more fun. No one knows how to tell jokes like Larry Reynolds. Since I have known them since my birth; it makes this week even more special because we can go back and talk about so many good memories. Since, I have been in Peru, I have thought more about life. I would say I have had more time to think, but I don’t think that statement is necessarily true either. I think it was just that for a long time, I didn’t know the language so I could just think to myself in English and also for a long time not really having any friends besides Nancy gave me the opportunity to think a lot. Anyway, all of that to say, that I have thought a lot about my life while I have been here in Peru over these past 8 months. I never had time to process life before. It was really neat because my mom and I got the opportunity to sit by each other on the train from Machu Pichu and talk about life before Peru. How God is so good and worked out so many things for me to be here at this time and what God is doing in Denton as well. It was so neat how God used my mom over and over again for the calling in my life. Our stories are so woven together. Normally, my mom and I are normally involved in ministry all the time, but in separate places. We got to share some of our experiences over the last years together. The funniest one being to me, when God did a huge miracle and really expanded the bus for me at Mission Arlington. I crammed 71 people into like a 15 passenger bus. It was just a really good time for me to process with my mom the last 4 years. They have flown by and so much has happened and I am so thankful for the opportunity to talk about with my mom what has happened, what God has done. It is incredible to see the hand of God.
It was so amazing to see the creation of God in Cuzco. The Mountains were so beautiful. Everywhere you looked there was beautiful mountain with beautiful people on it. I fell in love with the people there. They are probably the cutest people I have ever seen. Every kid has bright splotched red cheeks. The women have their hair in long braids, with a big hat, and a wear a long skirt. The people are so kind and loving. All of us got suckered into paying cute kids to take pictures with them and their little lambs that they were holding etc. The people there are generally very poor. They were so excited to receive anything. I was able to give out bracelets with my mom that explained the gospel. At one place, I had kids running from all over to get them; I had several adults come to get them as well including a police officer. It was so neat that God used bracelets to share His gospel. After eating very well and seeing many neat things over three days in Cuzco, we were ready to return back to Lima. We had a slight surprise; there was a strike in Cuzco. We were all so grateful we had gone to Cuzco when we did because basically Cuzco was shut down for the rest of the week because of the strike. We were able to leave just fine, except we had to get to the airport 6 hours early. That was fine though, because it gave Larry and me a chance to eat ice cream at 7 in the morning. He ordered a banana split and I had a chocolate shake. Of course, we had 6 hours so we ate many other fun airport snacks during that time. We returned to Lima and ate some more and went and looked around the town of Mira Flores. One of my most treasured times of the week is when we got together to have Bible studies. We studied the chapter of Romans 8 this past week. It was so encouraging to have Christian fellowship again. We learned how we through Jesus are accepted into God’s family, have no more condemnation, we have no more rejection, and no more defeat. It was so uplifting. We had four Bible studies throughout the week. Then my mom and I headed back to the Community late Tuesday night. It was so neat to have my mom with me in the place where I live my life every day! She brought tons of neat supplies for us, gifts from several of our friends, really awesome snacks, CDs, and so much more. It was like Christmas in September. Then she proceeded to help us unpack everything and organize it! That was until about 4 in the morning. In the middle of all that, we had a fairly large earthquake. A lot of the children and all of the volunteers went to the basketball court for protection. Welcome to my home MOM lol! My mom is so awesome; she stayed awake with me until 5 to finish my lesson plans for the next day! The next day was so neat because finally my mom got to see what I really get to do each day. She went with me to all 3 of my classes. Then Larry, Carol, and my Dad met us for my third class. Then we went to one public school to teach. I was so thankful to have all of them there. We had about 150 kids and to say the least it was mass chaos. It was fun though. All the third and fourth graders from one of the public schools came to learn about the lost sheep. Then we wall went to the Catholic School down the road where we taught the same story, only 35 kids in each class this time. We had 6 of these classes. Larry, Carol, and my Dad stayed for one class then came back to the community for a tour and to see the kids eating lunch! My mom and Nancy stayed the whole time to finish up the classes. We even got done early because we had so much help it was great! Then one of my favorite parts of the day came. My English class has been preparing for weeks an English Christian concert for my parents and the Reynolds. They did a great job and sang about 10 songs for them, some of the songs included Mighty to Save and How Great is Our God. It was such a sweet time of worship in English. Then we all ate hamburgers, thanks to Nancy’s help (she was our caterer helping getting all of the burgers ready and bought the cake for me). Then we all went to our famous Chicken Stand to have a great meal. No one got sick, and everyone liked our Peruvian Chick-fil-a. SO MUCH FUN. Then Larry, Carol, and my Dad left, and Nancy, my mom, and I went to Medianas Bible study. Nancy did an amazing job teaching the girls a story in John. It was a great and long day! Then after talking a while, we finally went to sleep. The next day was awesome as well. My mom went to Nancy’s classes to watch her, while I taught my normal two classes in the community. Then my mom, Nancy, and I cut string faster than ever before for the high school at the Catholic school. Then my mom and I went and taught at the Catholic school for the high schoolers. At the end, about 63 people came. It was such a blessing. So many parents came, and snack vendors came. The kids and adults alike loved the bracelets. The parents were asking me when they needed to come back to show me their work etc. It was great. They even said I should have an adult meeting after school one day and teach them. Just another door that God is opening to spread His gospel. After that, my mom graciously cleaned the pharmacy where we keep a lot of our supplies. Then we all headed to check out the building we use for our house church. Then we also went to the huge market that we shop at for our supplies. My mom loved it. It is like a Walmart style market. It was so fun! I loved for my mom getting to see the things that are a part of my daily life. Then my mom and I headed back into Mira Flores to meet up again with my Dad and the Reynolds. Of course, we ate again. I am pretty sure that is the night I ate some delicious cream filled churros and dipped them in chocolate sauce. I ate so much food this week, I probably gained at least 10 pounds. The next few days in Mira Flores, we all just hung out, had a couple of Bible studies, ate a lot more, shopped in markets, and just took in the sights of Lima. One highlight was having lunch with Miguel. I had not been able to talk to him for about a month because he has been so busy; it was nice to catch up with him with my mom there as well. My mom asked me in one of the markets if I planned on staying in Peru for a long time, and my response was yes for many years. I do not ever want to make my own plans, but God is opening up too many doors for me not to stay. We will see, I am not making any promises, but God has continuing been affirming to me that this is the place I need to be in my life. One way he affirmed that was a lady I met at the phone store yesterday. I went to buy a new phone because I was robbed in August. My parents were watching the changing of the guard at the Plaza, while Nancy and I went to pick up a few things. Anyway, this girl was super nice that sold me my new phone. I told her to take my number and call me sometime. She proceeded to call me like 2 hours later saying that she wanted to come out today to the community. I have to admit I am pretty cynical and did not think she would actually come. She did! She came to our house church this morning, and then hung out with us all day at the community. It was a huge blessing! She really loved it. Then she proceeded to say that she would ask off for Mondays and Wednesdays from work to help me in the schools. Please pray for that because she could be of huge help to Nancy and I. Please pray for her. Her name is Gaby, a very sweet girl. Speaking of house church, today was phenomenal. 22 people came, and about half were new people! Nancy and I had time this morning to go up to the Mountain behind the building where we meet and invite people up there. It was incredible, it was such a steep walk, but when we got to the top we could see houses all over the mountains. We invited a lot of people but have many mountains left of people to invite. It was such a blessing to Nancy and I. The people are up there are poor physically, but I imagine they are very poor spiritually too. I am excited to see God bring these people to learn his Word. All in all, this week has been phenomenal. Probably the best week I have ever had in Peru. God is so good and faithful! I loved the times talking with my mom about ministry and actually getting to do ministry with her in the same place and joking and talking with my dad (he always knows how to make me laugh). I have so many memories of my dad this week pulling out his video cameras to take funny videos of the week. It is so awesome to have so much support from my parents, it was so neat looking over and see my dad and mom so engaged in everything I was teaching even though it was in Spanish. I have great parents. The Reynolds were such a huge source of encouragement to me as well. They really are like another set of grandparents, they have supported me thorough literally ever y phase of my life and continue to do so for that I am so grateful. As my parents and the Reynolds told me bye this morning at 3 am, I was sad to see them go but I was not in despair. My heart is here, God has called me here, and I am glad that I have the opportunity to stay here, having the chance to tell the people of Ventanilla and the surrounding areas about Jesus. All glory to God.

Lauren's recap of her entire time in Peru!

The new Catholic school we are teaching at!

A kid I absolutely fell in love with at the new Catholic school we are teaching at! He asked me like what every single word in the dictionary was in English.

Miguel's (director) birthday cake

Nancy and I "snorkeling" in Ecuador

Whale Watching

Nancy and I on the boat to go whale watching.

One of our good friend's Alfonso surprise 20th birthday party!

Liz and I on our weekend in Lima to go to the Kari Jobe concert!

Liz and Milagros enjoying some good food in Lima!

Kari Jobe!

Gayla working with the boys at the high school! Such a precious follower of Christ!

Gayla, Haley, and I walking kids home.

Clown for the "Encuentro"

Making bracelets with Santa Rosa girls at Bible study one Sunday morning.

Going to Dominoes with our England roommates. We were a little excited to eat pizza that is why we all have hats.

Bible study with the ABC boys!

Bible study with San Francisco boys!

Esteban!

Hammocks in Ecuador are AWESOME!

We found Dr. Pepper in Peru, and yes I drank it for the first time in 7 years!

First time to Chili's in Peru with Michael and Jessica Deroche!

Jessica and Raechel doing an awesome job on their skits!

Family time when I went home in June.

Evan's graduation!

At the meat market buying chickens for the Community to sell!

Preparing the chicken plates!

My Birthday!

2 Baked potatoes for my birthday. Tony Roma's was the only place in all of Lima that I could find baked potatoes.

Hanging with my friends in June.

Nertz party in June. Peruvians can't grasp nertz. After all of these wonderful people helped me make tons of things to take back to Peru.

Sara!

One day we had to wash thousands of Lemons, it was such a fun experience because while we did it, we sang Christian songs. It was so cool to see joy brought into something that would normally be very boring.

Easter Celebration. Songs and skit!

My brother from another mother!

Eating at the famous chicken stand. My favorite chicken sandwhich for $0.40.

Cutting the ribbon for the opening of the new school!

Girls getting ready to dance at the new school celebration.

Kelly!

College group reppin' Peru!

Playing nertz with the college group!

College group!

Kids having to spin around a broomstick 10 times for a relay!

Debbie passing out the breakfast burritos we made for the volunteers!

Quincinera!

Birthday Cake for the Quincinera!

Taking all the birthday kids out ot eat chicken! So much fun!

Shopping in the market for the birthday kid's new outfits!

The beach in Ecuador! So beautiful.



Sorry, the above pictures are not in order, I am technically challenged and do not know how to move them around without it taking me 5 years to do it. Hopefully you got the gist of how things are though from the pics. Below explains the pictures in depth. Thanks for putting up with me and my technical skills

Well, I know it has been a long time since I have updated my blog and for that I am very sorry. Every time I tell myself that I am going to sit down and write out what has been happening something else comes up. Anyway, there is much to say that has been happening over the last 6 months. I am going to try and write what I have to say by categories, so if you want to skip over something you are welcome to. First of all, I am going to try and highlight the main things that happened each month.

March:
The start of school and figuring out what our schedule was. The word schedule here is very fluid we found out quickly. It was neat because we got to be a part of two big celebrations. The Region Callao opening celebration of our school and another celebration dedicating our school happened in the first week or so. I was interviewed on one of these days for the TV. At the time I could barely speak Spanish, at the time I thought my friend Mario was saying we were going to go watch TV. I thought that was really weird since there was a celebration going on at the time. Then before I knew it I was in front of a camera talking in Spanish. It was very interesting. The start of school was super crazy. We never really knew what was going on. Poor Nancy did not even get a real schedule for the first month. It was always an adventure. The first few weeks learning how to teach in Spanish were also quite a trip. Also, I was having a very hard time with discipline in my classes at the time. The kids loved jeopardy and all the games that so many people from Southmont and Denton so faithfully helped me put together. The kids really enjoyed/ enjoy my class, but discipline was a huge issue at this time. March was still very hard for me. One huge blessing from God is when Michael Deroche came at the end of March for only one day. He was a HUGE encouragement to me. He came to talk to Miguel about the college group coming in May. I never realized how much Michael and I are alike. He is definitely my brother from another mother. Anyway, he just let me talk with him about what had been going on. I cried a lot that day, but he did not run home and tell my mom how bad I was really doing. For that I am thankful, he was just a Christian person to confide in and a huge encouragement. We played Nertz together and tried to teach Peruvians which did not work out. Haha We sang praise and worship songs, we took video of the water system which I had to translate for which was also very comical. God was so good to bring him just for one Saturday in March to really bring encouragement to my life. For those of you who know me, you know it took a lot for me to come back because in all honesty I did not want to come back because I was just going through a hard time personally, yet God was continually faithful and pulled me through each and every day. Looking back as I write this and I can see God’s faithfulness throughout everyday of this journey.

April:
Easter was probably the biggest thing that happened in April for me. I did not know what I was going to do for the kids for Easter, but obviously I needed to do something. The kids went on a “religious” walk on the Friday before Easter. I went on part of the walk, but then I left halfway through because I didn’t feel right about being there going on a walk with kids as they stopped to worship saints. At first I really didn’t know exactly what was going on, but as I found out more, I felt more and more uncomfortable with being there. I know it was God’s will for me to go on part of that walk because I got lost going back to the Community and met three ladies. I know that is not a surprise for most of you who are reading this blog that I got lost, since I got lost in Denton all the time. Anyway, I ended up sitting down with three ladies on one of their porches and got to explain the gospel. They commented that it must have been God’s will for me to meet them there. One lady told me her daughter went to a Christian school and she had never heard the gospel like this, that it was only about faith not about anything we could do for God. They all told me that they wanted to have Bible study with me every Sunday afternoon. I came back the following Sunday and only one was there, but still to this day 5 months later, I have Bible study with one of these women. She still has not come to know the Lord yet, but I know God is continually working on her heart. Anyway, we decided ( Liz a new Christian in the community, and two other Peruvians that were Christians) to do a drama, show a video and give out cookies. We asked Miguel, the director of the orphanage, if we could do something for the whole community and he said that was fine. We just thought it was going to be kind of come if you want or whatever and were not expecting too many people. I decided to go ahead and buy cookies for everyone in the community just in case. I went to the big market for the first time. Wow! It was crazy. Anyway I bought cookies for everyone in the community at least to be able to have one or two. That is 1,600 cookies by the way, since there are over 800 kids that live here. So, I was at lunch and we were going to do it right after lunch, but then plans changed and someone else needed the chapel so we decided to plan it for a little later in the day. I made an announcement in the Cafeteria for all the kids to come if they wanted. Then, later Miguel came in and told ALL of the kids that they needed to be there and it would be dumb of them not to go and learn new things. It was incredible! By the end, we had at least 365 kids there of all ages. We sang songs, had a drama that shared the gospel (in the drama, Liz shared her testimony), and then watched a cartoon video about the last supper, crucifixion, and resurrection. I was blown away that 365 kids heard the gospel without having to knock on any doors, fill any Easter eggs etc. These things are obviously not bad, but it is just such an open and easy mission field here. You don’t have to entice people here to come to things, they just come. This weekend was a HUGE encouragement to me. It was a great Easter weekend. It was so different than all my other Easter weekends in the states. Normally, I would have been involved in a church Easter Egg Hunt or taking tons of kids to a Mission Arlington Easter Egg hunt, which was one of my favorite things to do, but this year it was just so simple. Simple but amazing, and many heard the good news of Jesus.


May:
The coolest and most amazing thing that happened in May was the COLLEGE GROUP coming here for a mission trip. It was such an amazing week first of all of encouragement for us. They brought us suitcase upon suitcase of Bibles for the kids to use, supplies, chocolate, etc. It was such a huge blessing. It was honestly a miracle, 9 people from Southmont, Nancy and I, and the translators pulled off a Vacation Bible school for the entire community. There were literally 200 people at least at each rotation. Mind boggling!!! Raechal and Jessica, two people from the Southmont did awesome jobs doing skits for the Bible stories. We played games like parachute, egg relay race, how fast can you eat crackers relay, clothes relay, and so much more. It was incredible because it was a requirement for everyone in the community to come. Everyone on staff was so supportive, and we were so unorganized with so few workers but God was still incredible. It was amazing to see God take everyone’s talents and abilities and really put them to use. Funny thing, the college put up a shower curtain for me and Nancy which we are so grateful for and built us some shelves as well. It was so encouraging to have Christian brothers and sisters here encouraging us. I almost forgot to write about the “Pollada.” That was probably the most crazy and gross thing that I have ever experienced. One of my friends that is a Peruvian volunteer came to visit me for a surprise for my birthday. She was so sweet and brought me flowers for my birthday. Anyway, I went with her to help in the bakery with getting prepared to sell chickens all weekend long to people that live outside of the community. I was joking with Miguel because there had just been a box of donations sent, and he had a hulk glove on and we were just joking around. Anyway, later I hear that Miguel wants me to go to the market with him. He sends a kid to come get me from the school to go with him to the market. I never expected what I was about to experience. It was the grossest thing I think I have ever been a part of, but the cool part was God gave me an abundant amount of strength to do it. We drove to this huge market and bought huge heads of lettuce at first and just put them in the floorboard of his car. Then the grossest part came, we came to the “chicken stand.” The lady was literally still cutting off the feet of the chicken for our order. There were about 50 grocery sacks packed full with chicken parts. Each probably weighed at least 25 pounds. Since it was just Miguel and I, I got the wonderful privilege of carrying all the bloody bags of chicken to the car while he loaded the car. I thought my arms were going to break because the bags were so heavy and blood was getting all over me. For those of you who know me well, you know that I pass out at the sight of blood. There was so much chicken that the whole back of the station wagon was filled to the top and the car was having trouble going. Then I had to unload all of it. A lot of the chicken had fallen out of the bags on the floorboard. Blood was everywhere. For the next 2 ½ days Nancy and I prepared the chickens to sell. We had to pull out the guts etc. I thought I was going to pass out and puke several times, but I didn’t. Needless to say, I didn’t eat any of the chicken after I saw how it was prepared. It was definitely an adventure.

June:
Highlight of June for me was going home to Denton, TX for my brother’s graduation. It was an AMAZING time of refreshment. I got to see all of my family, hang out with my brother, and best of all my parents!!! Also, I had a great time seeing all sorts of friends. The best part about this week though as far as it goes with ministry is I did my planning and prep work for the rest of the year for my English and religion classes. People all over Denton came together and filled balloons, wrote Bible verses on popsicle sticks, looked up clip art for my English classes. Two of my sweet friends Jen and Lauren Moors gave me great ideas on how to do my English class. They are education majors and are really good at that type of stuff. They gave me a ton of encouragement and talked to me about doing rotations etc. The best thing that anyone helped me with was making 12 different color changing discipline charts. I had been having a horrible time with discipline. By this time, when I went home I was so discouraged with the discipline problem, that I thought to myself if this does not work I don’t even know what to do anymore when it comes to teaching. It had gotten horrible, kids giving each other nose bleeds, peeing on the sidewalk, running around the classroom, screaming, not listening to a word I would say, and so on. I told people about this and people started to pray for the discipline, and since I came back the discipline charts have been incredible. My first grade class that sometimes would drive me to tears is now perfect. God did an amazing work through the discipline charts and I am still amazed even today how great the discipline is now for the majority of my classes. The best thing that happened for me in June is God totally restored my joy. I had been in the valley for months. I can even remember the night before I went back to Peru in June that I did not even want to come back then. I had such an amazing time in the states with my friends and family, I remember saying I don’t want to go back. I can’t even explain it to myself or anyone I know, but when I got back to Peru in June God changed everything for me. Kids were so excited to see me when I came back, the discipline was great, and God had just completely changed my heart and gave me a joy I did not deserve. God is so faithful. He gave me a new love to be here and just restored my joy in general. God did an amazing work by bringing me home at this specific time for my brother’s graduation because it was just the right time to be encouraged, restored, and ready to serve again.

July:
VISITORS! What a huge blessing from God that I had so many visitors in the month of July. All of them were unexpected. I found out about all of them 2 weeks before they came. SO MANY amazing things happened in the month of July. First of all one of my dear friends Kelly, decided to come visit for me for 10 days. She was such a huge encouragement to me. She is a great listener, a huge follower of the Lord, and she just came and lived life with us. She helped us teach our classes, hung out with kids, hung out with me and Nancy, and just lived life in Peru with us mainly. It was amazing. Two amazing things that happened while she was here was while we were having the Dentist Bible study together, the Dentist decided to give her life to Christ. Also, Kelly explained to one of the teachers here that the reason why we as Christians do good things is for the glory of God. It was like a huge light bulb went off in his head when she told him that because that is something he had been struggling with. It was so incredible to have another Christian sister with us helping us. We had so many good laughs together. That same week one of Nancy’s friends Katie came and we had some great laughs with her too. She was here for 2 weeks as well helping us, working in the baby house, and living life with us too. She is about to move to Kuwait to be a teacher there so be in prayer for her. Then one of my most dear family friends came to visit me, Gayla Tekell and her daughter Haley Tekell. The mission trip that she was in charge of had gotten cancelled at our church so she decided last minute to come visit me instead. For that I am forever grateful. I have been going on mission trips with her for years to Colorado and to South Texas mainly. I have grown up with her family. She is a huge role model for my life. She follows the Lord with everything she has, she has had cancer for years now, and she never lets that stop her from serving the Lord with all of her heart. The week she was here, there was another church group here at the community doing vacation Bible school. Therefore we used that opportunity to work with people outside the community. The kids in the public schools were still in school that week. Gayla, Haley, Nancy, and I proceeded to go to principals’ offices and ask that we could do a program in their school. Even though, almost every school was in the midst of end of semester exams, every principal let us in to do a program. It was incredible. We worked with over 2,100 children that week. On Monday of that week, we spent the whole day going to principals’ offices getting permission for that week. Then for the rest of the week, we had a session with about 500 to 700 high school girls. I literally almost got trampled to death by high school girls wanting Crayola markers. We also, taught about 150 high school boys at this school. Then we worked at another elementary school teaching about 3 to 400 children. Then we got the opportunity to teach at a Catholic high school to about 150 high schoolers. Our fourth school was just incredible, it was elementary and high school and total there we probably taught about 900 or more children. Gayla taught the story of the fisherman deciding to follow Jesus. They didn’t do stuff to earn his salvation. They just followed him; they put their faith in the only One, Jesus, who could save them. We did corny little crafts with everyone and they loved them. We just took the random craft materials that we had and made crafts out of them and it turned out to be great. Gayla also made house visits with me and was a huge encouragement to everyone that she came in contact with. Especially with one little girl who she made great friends with and who wanted her to bring a Ziploc baggie to her house for a gift. It was so precious this little girl was crying when she was telling Gayla bye because Gayla had made such an impact on her life. One of the coolest parts of this week was when all of the girls from Medianas who had been praying for Gayla for months prayed for her in person. We had a beautiful time of worship, I told the story that years ago, Gayla prayed for me on a mission trip to pass the TAKS test, and now I wanted to pray for her. I shared the verse that on that trip encouraged me; it was the passages of Philippians 4. It was a beautiful time together. Haley was also the hit with all the children and teenagers. Everyone was so fascinated with her blonde hair and blue eyes. She was also great with the babies and everyone she came into contact with. I had so much fun with her. We got to go bowling together and we had a great time. We are a lot alike in some ways, and she really reminded me of myself when I was her age. Then the last week of July, a friend from Mission Arlington, Debbie Simmons, came to visit me. She has been a constant source of encouragement to me ever since I have been in Peru. I barely knew her before I left for Peru, yet she told me she was going to come to see me. I have really gotten to know her through emails because she has been so faithful to keep in contact with me since I have been here. She definitely kept her word and came to visit me; we had so much fun. That week the kids also had off of school. My gracious, loving mom sent two suitcases full of supplies with her for us to use for the week that she was here. There were all kinds of fun crafts like alligator necklaces, tons of foamies, and some type of Noah Ark’s craft to do with the entire community. Debbie’s plane got in at 4:30 in the morning, so once we got back to the community we slept for a little while, and then we got up and showed her around and planned the events for the rest of the week. We planned an activity in all 12 houses. We also met Buckner this week. The head lady for Buckner was here with 3 interns from Texas. Debbie and I were able to do like a miniature vacation Bible school in all of the houses. We used the felt board to tell the story of Noah’s ark and the Kid’s Bible. Thinking about the resources we have continually amazes me; so many of you that are reading this are the ones that cut out all of those felt pieces and the Bible is from my Spanish professor from college. It is just so cool to see how God uses so many people all over the world for his kingdom work. Anyway, back to the Vacation Bible school, we also learned the verse Romans 10:13 with the kids and played a game with them using swim noodles. Then we made the crafts that my mom had sent. It was such a neat time. One of my favorite parts of the week when she was here was we decided to make breakfast for the volunteers. At the time there were almost 20 volunteers here. Almost all of them were from Spain. We made breakfast tacos and fruit salad. It was a huge hit. Every volunteer came and they loved them because they had never had them before. We made it on Peruvian Independence day, so it was like a celebration for Independence Day as well. That week the kids also had a marathon; it was so cute to watch them running, especially the little ones. In July, we also had two “encuentros”. These are talent shows that each house participates in. It was so much fun. At first though, one kid from each house gets up and tells a problem that they have with another house or with another person. It is pretty embarrassing for the other person because they are basically getting humiliated in front of the whole community. Then one person from each house gets up and tells a compliment to another person. Then finally after all that, the 3 hours show begins. The first Encuentro that we had several of the volunteers made delicious pizzas for everyone to have and dressed up like clowns to serve them to all of the kids. For the majority of kids, it was the first time ever to have Pizza. It was delicious I must say myself. The other encuentro was a little bit more laid back seeing as it was only two weeks after the one we had just had. Another huge event that happened in July was the quincinera. It was SO MUCH fun. At first, I was kind of wondering what kind of event this would be….and didn’t really understand what it means to be a godmother etc. Being a godmother here means that you pay for a new outfit for the kids and nice meal to eat. It doesn’t have any other significance. Well, Nancy and I were gone when the volunteers had the meeting about which kids they were going to be godparents of etc, so I just got assigned a kid. At first I was a little sad because I knew so many of the other kids, but I was a godparent for a kid I did not really know. Also, a lot of the other volunteers had several and I only had one. Don’t worry…I didn’t have to stay sad for long. That same afternoon, another girl came up and asked me to be her godmother…she wasn’t on the list that the volunteers had. I was thinking sweet, I know her and two kids sounds perfect. I went shopping with her and the other boy and with Nancy’s two kids since she was in Cuzco at the time. We had so much fun. We went shopping for new outfits for each one of them. Then all of the quincinera kids and their “godparent volunteers” went to eat at a chicken restaurant. This is a HUGE deal here. We never eat chicken because it is too expensive. They loved it! It was so much fun. Then the next morning I get a knock on the door asking if I could be a godparent for another girl. I say yes, and then I get another knock on the door asking if I could be the godparent for another girl. I reluctantly say yes, then I shook out of it; and I was like of course I need to do this. Then the two girls and another girl went with me to go shopping. The other girl went with me so I wouldn’t get lost. If you know me well, you know that I get lost all the time! We went shopping and then went to eat at a chicken restaurant too. It was delicious! Also, they served the whole chicken there, and one of the girls asked if they could split it apart for us. I was thankful for that because cracking the chicken bones did not sound like my idea of fun. I might have passed out at the table. Anyway, finally got back to the community after a day full of shopping, might I add that it was extremely difficult for me shopping for girls. I am extremely modest, and I would not allow the girls to get jeans that were too tight or shirts that were too tight. Finally we found pants and shirts that were okay. I still would not have worn them, but I don’t think they were too bad. I am just extremely conservative. Then I found out that other volunteers were sending their girls and boys for haircuts and to get their hair done prom style. I rushed all over the community trying to find my 6 children I was responsible for. Then I sent them to get their hair done prom style for the equivalence of two dollars. Incredible, 60 dollars in the US, 2 dollars here. Send your kids here for the prom hair! Ha. Anyway, the quincinera finally started about 2 hours late, which I was actually thankful for, since I was doing so many things trying to get ready for it. There was a HUGE cake about 3 feet long and a foot tall. We had so much fun just dancing and hanging out with the children. It was one of my favorite things that we have done at the community!

August:
Wow! August flew by! What a great month! First of all, major highlight was Amy and Robert Pierce coming to Peru for vacation and to visit us. They were both a huge encouragement to us. Robert is hilarious and made all kinds of jokes. I will never forget Robert always saying ma-o-meno meaning more or less in Spanish (Spain style). Anyway, they came out to the community one Sunday in August and brought bracelets and cards that explained the gospel for every kid in the community. The bracelets had symbols that explained the gospel:
Jesus came
He died
He rose
He ascended
One day He will come again.
We had a lot of fun passing out bracelets to all of the houses and singing songs with the kids as we went house to house. It was such an encouragement to have such good friends here with us. Then the following weekend, Amy and Robert so graciously allowed for us to hang out with them. We actually went to a restaurant where they had baked potatoes. I was so SUPER excited. Anyway, we had a great time with them hanging out at the market, Robert making hilarious jokes, and me getting to talk to Amy without my mom being there. Haha. I was feeling kind of lazy in August, because I was so tired all of the time. I took quite a few naps in August. I was kind of mad at myself for that, and also didn’t know what direction God wanted us to go in for the schools. I was praying about what God wanted us to do for the public schools. I knew the public schools were something that I didn’t want to take on without help. So then, one glorious Thursday in August, with my weekly meeting with the high school religion teacher, after about 45 minutes of talking with him, he informs me that he gave his life to Christ the Saturday before. Most exciting that has happened to me while I have been in Peru I think! He is so excited about his new found faith and so excited about teaching the kids in the community differently. He also committed with much enthusiasm to working in the schools of Ventanilla. What a huge answer to prayer! He knows a lot of people, has a lot of connections, has a lot of great ideas, and is faithful to keep his word and help. That same glorious Thursday, I went to have my weekly Bible study with the dentist who became a Christian in July, and we started to talk about using her dentist office that is outside of the community as a place for a church. Finally, we found a place to start a church for the community. The rest of August consisted of making many school visits trying to figure out a schedule. All of the schools except one were overly gracious about us coming into their schools. I am blown away by the doors that God opens for us. Our first school was the last week of August. We worked with 2 out of the 3 first grade classes at one school. It went really well. We taught them the story of the lost sheep and how Jesus is looking for us to have a relationship with him. We made sheep masks that the kids absolutely loved. One other really neat thing that we got to do in August was go to the house of one of the Security guards that works here at the community. We have made a pretty deep friendship with her over the months, and she wanted us to go to her house to specifically talk about to her mom about the Bible because her mom was not doing well. It was a really sweet time of fellowship and laughter. Oh wow, I almost forgot one of the best parts of August. We took two of the girls from the community, our good friend Liz (who became a Christian) in January and another friend Milagros to the Kari Jobe concert in Lima. It was incredible. We had so much fun getting to hang out with the girls from the community, sleep in, eat some good food, see Kari Jobe even though we got extremely lost trying to get there, and Nancy and I got to talk to Kari Jobe! We got to share with her that we teach her songs to the kids in the community here, and I personally shared with her that one of her songs God used to speak to me about staying here in Peru for longer than the original six weeks that I had planned. It was really incredible. In the midst of seeing Kari Jobe, actually the real reason that we got to meet Kari Jobe was a guy came up to us in the concert and was like, “I know you guys.” He is another missionary we had met months ago in Lima, but didn’t have his contact information so we hadn’t seen him in like 5 months. This was a huge blessing to get to talk to another missionary. He also invited us to their Bible study that week. Nancy and I went and were really blessed to get to worship the Lord with other believers in English. Also, Nancy needed to leave the country because she had been here six months, we can only stay here six months at a time. We got the awesome opportunity to go to Ecuador. Nancy did an awesome job planning the trip, and we got to go to the beach. God’s creation in Ecuador is just phenomenal! It is so tropical. We met some great people, got to go whale watching, play in the waves, and just see some amazing things. We were only there two days, but it was an amazing two days!

September:
A lot has happened in the month of September already. Sept 2nd was the first day of our first house church. It was such a sweet time. I cannot believe how smoothly it went. Two boys from the community came to lead worship and play guitar. The dentist, Nancy, and I were there to teach the Bible study and prepare everything. The day before the dentist and I passed out fliers telling people about the Bible study. It was so cool to see the excitement of the Dentist and her new faith. She was shamelessly inviting everyone! We made sandwiches, bought Ritz crackers, cookies, and soft drinks, and the people were so happy to have something to eat. We had 22 come our first Sunday: 6 adults, 3 babies, and 13 children. It was a beautiful time. They all acted as if they were going to come back and invite more of their friends. I think the food is what brought them there, but I am totally okay with that. Jesus was always meeting people’s physical needs so that they would listen to the Truth. The day before house church (Saturday), I went to this huge market by myself trying to get ready for the week of crafts for all of the schools that we would start working in and get everything ready for the house church the next day. Nancy was not able to go with me because she was sick. I always get lost, this is a huge market but by God’s grace I did not get lost. It was so comical because I was in the market for three hours looking for all kinds of things like chairs, ham and cheese, paper, etc. The market is kind of like Walmart (market style) all of the paper products are in one section etc., yet I did not know where these sections were so that made it for a fun adventure. Also, the fact that I had only brought a limited amount of money also made it quite an adventure because I was trying to bargain all over the place. By the end of the shopping experience, I had bought 7 chairs, 3 pounds of ham, a pound of cheese, 36 rolls of bread, 3,000 sheets of copy paper, 2 kilos of cotton, a big bag of mayonnaise, 2 big Tupperware containers, 400 packages of cookies, and 150 bags of juice. It was impossible for me to carry this all around and there are no shopping carts. I left each thing I bought at the stand that I bought it at. Hoping it wouldn’t get stolen. Then at the end I brought everything to one store to watch, and then a sweet old guy that worked at the store helped me watch the stuff while I flagged down a taxi and tried to explain where I live. We do not have an actual address so it always makes it a little hard to explain how to get home. This I think was my first time to ever have to explain how to get home without Nancy. It was a miracle from God that we made it home because I am horrible with directions. The second funny story happened on Sunday. Apparently, this past week I have had a stomach virus. I am fine now, but funny thing happened. I was feeling pretty sick after the house church, so I went to the bathroom before our ride home. On our ride home, I started feeling pretty sick. Right as we were about to get off at our bus stop, I had started throwing up with tons of Peruvians watching me on the bus. Everyone was just staring at me like”what is the gringa doing throwing up on the bus?” Then I got off the bus and just layed down in the dirty sand for a little while until Nancy got like a motorcycle carriage thing called a moto to take me the rest of the way home. It was pretty funny! This week have almost done all of the schools. We still have two more schedules to set in place, but we almost have all of our new schedules organized. On Monday afternoon, we worked with about 350 elementary kids at an elementary school and it went really well. Then on Wednesday, we taught about 40 second graders at another elementary school, and then went and taught about 210 1st and 2nd graders at the Catholic school down the street. They were such sweet well behaved children. It was really good because we got to teach them class by class. We never had more than 35 kids at one time. It was so refreshing to teach kids that actually listened. What we were teaching was brand new to them, so it was such a cool opportunity. Tomorrow we will teach the first year high school students at the same school. We are excited to see how it goes. Next week we will be teaching in one more high school as well and one more elementary school. We are excited about the things that God is allowing us to take part in. Okay, we just had our second day of house church. We only had eleven people today, but three were new. It was such a sweet time. We have decided with the encouragement from Bruce to keep the families together as we teach them instead of splitting into adults and children. It has been going awesome that way. Even the dad today made the craft. They are all learning together. It just seemed like such a Spirit-filled time today. The things that really stood out, is a new boy that came today named Edgar. He had a precious laugh, and he laughed all the time. Then he stayed late and helped us clean up everything. Then there was an older woman Ana and she was so interested to learn about the Bible and it was obvious that she was very intrigued. Then there was Frank who was singing at the top of his lungs in Spanish, Savior He can move the Mountains, My God is mighty to save. It really was such a blessing to have house church today. I have a “son” here in the community. He is a five year old named Angel Antonio and he has stolen my heart. I have never known his story. Today I met his aunt and uncle. They explained to me that their father abandoned them years ago and their mom just left with her new spouse and abandoned them as well. She moved to Spain and left them here. I found out which kids were his brother and sister today. My heart literally broke for them. He has such a special place in my heart. Who know maybe one day I will adopt my “son.” But as for now, I will just continue to watch out for him and give him special attention. He is such a joy in my life. I know he is just one out of many that have the same types of stories. It is easy to get used to living here with these kids and really forget what they are going through. Sometimes, I am harshly reminded and hard these kids have it here. I have so much to be grateful for.


Salvations:
A handful of people have become Christians this year. It is exciting to see people God draw people to himself and use them to lead others to Him. I mentioned earlier, the dentist became a Christian in July and she is passionate about learning about the Bible and sharing that with others. The religion teacher became a Christian in August, and he is very on fire for his faith. Liz who is always faithful to help us became a Christian in January. Five girls out of the Medianas house have come to know the Lord as the result of a Christian girl that lives there. She is faithful to share her faith with all the girls in the house. It is incredible to watch! Also, one of the security guards from the community became a Christian, and he also is so excited to learn about the Bible and share his faith. Also, two other teenagers have come to know the Lord as well. We are hoping for a revival to break out soon in the community.

Blessings:
It is so cool to watch how God always provides for our needs. For example, we were just telling one of our missionary friends in Lima how much we needed a Christian guy on our team, and then like a week later the religion teacher becomes a Christian. Now he is a huge help to us. Non-Christians help us all the time spread the gospel, it is incredible to watch. We have kids helping us cut crafts, other kids leading worship for us by singing and playing guitar, others helping us haul bags of materials to places, others even helping us at the schools with the children. These people do not know the Lord yet, but God is using them to help us spread His Word. It is so neat to watch.
Another huge blessing, is my English class. At first, I honestly hated teaching it every night because I didn’t know how to teach English, did not have a good system for a 2 hour English class, and had lots of discipline problems. Now I love it, I have a consistent group of about 25 girls that come 5 days a week for 2 hours a night. I have grown to really love these teenagers. Tonight, more were sent to my class and we had about 40 teenagers. We have a really good time playing games, making English dictionaries, and practicing how to speak. My favorite part is singing with them. We sing English Christian songs every night. They know so many songs right now. It was such a humbling experience the other night when they were singing at the top of their lungs, “You’re all I want, You’re all I need, You’re all I want, You’re all I need.” I was thinking to myself, how beautiful and if they only understood that Jesus is really all they need. It has been a great opportunity to get to know a group of about 25 in a deeper way. Since we live with 800 kids, it is difficult to get to know all on a deeper level. God has really used this experience of teaching them as a huge opportunity to get to know them better.

Finally, I just wanted to say thanks to all those who have been supporting me financially but most of all those who have been praying for me. I can’t tell you how much that means to me to know that people all over are praying for me. I am humbled by that thought. Some of you probably know that when I first came here, I was in a huge “valley” of my life. I had so many changes so quickly and just a lot had gone on. I was so sad; I was not without hope. I am not saying that I was in desperation or without the underlying joy of Jesus, I just was at a “valley” time in my life for sure, but I am happy to say that God has restored my life. He has brought about full restoration and joy to my life here in Peru. I am so glad I have the privilege to serve God here in Peru. I look forward to the months to come and possibly the years to come that God has for me in Peru. All glory to God.