Christmas Party at one of the High Schools
Having a contest trying to cut apart the most lollipops for the 3,700 fliers
Translating the fliers and eating lunch with our friend Wilfredo
Water Park with my English Class
McDonalds with my English class
Christmas Skit for a school in Puente Piedra
Shopping Day with a girl from the Community
Casa Bible study
Nancy's Birthday
Market in the streets of Lima
Video Arcade place with some kids from the Community
Evan and I with my "cast foot"
New Year's Eve
High School graduation
Ventanilla backyard Bible club
Christmas
The clothes all packaged up and ready to give out!
Graduation watches for the graduating seniors!
Materials for the Southmont team
Teacher Christmas party!
Getting the clothes ready...
Eric and Gina's house.
Christmas lunch with our house church
Tony Romas with the people that helped me shop so much for all of the clothes.
End of the school year party at the market
Amanda and the boys!
La Playa (The beach)
I always tell myself that I will never let myself go this long without blogging….and every time I fall into the same thing. The months that I have the most to write about are the months that are the busiest and I just never take the time to sit down and write what is going on. Okay….by topics I am going to try and recap the month of November and December ,and January. Hope I remember the cool things that happened.
Water Park with 45 people
This year, I had the joy of having 40 children 10 hours a week in a nightly English class. When I first started teaching this class, I really did not like it; but as the year went on – the class really began to grow on me. About 30 of the kids were high school girls mainly 13 to 14 years old. The other 10 were a few older high school boys, and then about 8 precious 10 to 12 year old boys that were in my religion classes this year. The majority of these kids were faithful to come every night. The majority of the 30 teenager girls came all year long. Yuck! 10 hours a week of English, but they were faithful. I wanted to do something fun for this class that I had grown so close to. Thanks to a Bible study group in Denton, I was able to take all of my kids to a beautiful water park in downtown Lima, McDonalds, and take them on a rented school bus so we could all get there and back together and safely. It was a blast. McDonalds in Peru is known as upper class. It was a beautiful 2 story building McDonalds and we used the whole top floor. The younger kids played in the playground and had a blast. We all ate fries, burgers, ice cream, and soft drinks. It was so much fun. Then we had 2 hours to just go explore this beautiful water park. The majority of kids had never seen it. It is one of the most famous sites in Peru. We had a fabulous time. I gave the kids freedom and allowed them to split up and in groups and do what they wanted! They went all over the place. The majority of kids soaked themselves in the “run through fountains”. It was one of the best nights I have had here with the children! We left at 2:30 and got home at 11:00! It was definitely a big adventure!
Nancy’s birthday!
Nancy’s birthday was in October, but she was in the States for her birthday, so we finally celebrated her birthday in November. We had a great time. We went to a beautiful restaurant that is on a pier over the ocean. It was a really neat time to get away, dress up, and celebrate my dear friend’s birthday.
Public schools
In November through the first or 2nd week of December we continued faithfully working in the public schools. Actually more than normal, we changed one school to meet in individual classrooms. By the end of the year this was our schedule:
Mondays: Pedro Planes Elementary 1:30 to 6:00
Tuesdays: Pedro Planes High 12:40 to 1:40
Wednesdays: Las Naciones Unidas 12:40 to 1:00
Fe and Alegria Elementary 1:40 to 5:30
Thursdays: Las Naciones Unidas 11:00 to 1:00
Fridays: never really worked out with the school, but we had scheduled to have Fe and Alegria High School
Christmas Parties at the Public schools
For the 2 high schools we were able to have 2 big Christmas parties. I went to the market and bought all kinds of snack foods. We set up a Christmas snack table. Nancy and I at Pedro Planes acted out the Christmas story. I was Gabriel (in my snuggie) and also Joseph, and Nancy was Mary. It turned out to be pretty funny as well. Everything is if Nancy is involved. She has a great sense of humor. I think about 70 to 100 kids were there that day. It was a good turnout for our high school gatherings; we were normally running 30 to 50 kids on a regular Bible study day. Anyway, we did the skit, passed out Christmas ornament craft and the food. A couple of our regular kids helped us and everyone pitched in to throw the party together. It was the best event that we had at Pedro Planes high school this year!
Then we had another party at Fe and Alegria High School, we had only gotten to meet there 3 other times prior to the party due to schedule changes etc. The only problem for that party was Nancy had to teach in the community the same time. One of the coolest things about Peru is that people pitch in from all over to help us (Christians and non- Christians alike). Anyway, two of my best friends in the community, Wilfredo and Alfonso decided to help me. More like, I persuaded them to help me. I mentioned to them on the way to the party that they were going to act out the Christmas story with me. After a little negotiating, they complied. This party turned out so great. About 180 high school kids came. We got to explain the Christmas story and the good news of Jesus. That He is the only one that saves, it is not of good works only through a faith saving relationship with Jesus Christ. The skit turned out to be pretty hilarious (2 peruvian 20 years olds – one in a pink snuggie to be Gabriel and a gringo) Then we passed out the ornaments and snacks like the previous high school. This party was a huge blessing since we had not been able to previously meet with this high school very much. It was well organized and we had a sound system! So grateful for how it went.
Bible studies in the Casas
In October, God gave me the patience, help, and idea to finish all of the casa Bible studies until the end of the year and plan fun games/ art activities with each one of them. The months of November and December we had some really good Bible studies inside the orphanage which included: Jesus washing the disciples feet (we washed the children’s feet), Mary Magdalene washing Jesus’ feet with perfume and drying it with her hair (we also acted that out), bible verse balloon games, and so many more fun things. We had some REALLY good times of Bible study in the past few months.
Teacher’s luncheon
All year long to all the Peruvians, I had been ranting and raving about TACOS. Something Peru does not have. Finally in September my parents sent me some taco shells but only 2 boxes. One day, I was in an international store in a rich city in Lima and found TACO SHELLS! Nancy and I wanted to cook for the teachers in the community because they have been a huge help and good friends to us this year. Since I had been raving so much about tacos to the teachers….and many wanted to try them, Nancy and I did a huge teacher’s luncheon immediately following one of the high school Christmas parties. We cooked everything the night before. The avocadoes are AMAZING in Peru, so we made a gigantic bowl of guacamole, and then everything else you need for tacos. Also, we let Peruvians in on tasting the joy of coke floats. Something they had never tried as well. About 20 of the 35 teachers came. It was great because we were able to present the gospel at this luncheon and also thank them for everything they had done for us this past year.
Teacher’s gifts
Nancy and I put together gift bags to give to each of the teachers. There were dry erase markers, chocolate from the US, chocolate from Peru and Bible that had specific verses highlighted and a letter from us in the front cover. In that letter we had presented the gospel. We highlighted the roman road and other verses and put sticky notes on all of those pages. The teachers were so thrilled to get these presents. One teacher commented how the verses were very pretty, meaning he had read them!
Teacher’s white elephant gift exchange
After the school year was over, the majority of teacher’s got together for a Christmas party at Mario’s house. We had a white elephant exchange. Hilarious, but the teacher I drew was the PE teacher. Out of all people to draw, I had no clue what to get for him….I was thinking a soccer ball….or what in the world could I get him. So, I had the brilliant idea of going to get him a dominoes gift card. We have a Dominoes 20 minutes away from the community in the nice part of Ventanilla. Little did I know, gift cards do not exist in the poor areas of Peru. I looked like an idiot trying to explain to the cashier what I wanted. By this time, I was already late to the party…but on time for Peruvian time. Anyway, I ended up asking if I could buy a pizza box and then just put the money in it. I’m sure he did not end up using the money for pizza, but I did not care at that point. The gift I got was a Christian t-shirt in Spanish that my good friend Mario got for me. It was a lot of fun to get to hang out with the teachers in a non-school setting after all the grades and tests had finally been done. I genuinely had a good time at this Christmas party!
Grades
Wow, I have a new respect for teachers. In the month of December, I had to make a test for 300 kids to take, grade those, finish grading the tests for the second trimester that were way late, do the averages for the second trimester, do the averages for the third trimester, and do the final average for my 300 students. Oh my word….! Didn’t think I was going to finish all of these grades. The reason why I had never finished the second trimester is because I had made the horrible mistake of letting elementary students summarize the Bible stories I taught them. Remember, all of this being in Spanish. I quickly learned they did not know how to spell and this was a horrible idea for a gringo like me to give a test like this. Anyway, I finished over 1,200 grades in a week in December. This is only because God gave me the strength to do it and provided many Peruvians to help me. 3 university students stayed up with me until 4:00 one morning helping me enter grades and figure out tests etc. It was such a blessing. They did it out of the goodness of their heart expecting nothing in return.
A Sweet moment in Suzuki
One night we were supposed to teach Bible study to the Suzuki girls, Liz’s house. They had to do something else but I was in there anyway, little by little several girls wanted to talk to me about trusting Christ as their savior. I think 2 that night decided to follow Christ. Then the other girls just wanted to come in and talk a ton about the Bible and learn more. It was a beautiful time. It was probably about 45 minutes of just deep conversation/ question about the Bible. Then there were 2 of the girls laying together reading a Bible that I had loaned them. They were so hungry for the word of God. It was so precious to watch these girls thirst to know the truth.
The baby house helper
I will not use her name for privacy reasons. Anyway, one day, I went to talk to a girl in the baby house. I went to confront her on why she had decided not to attend the last 2 weeks of my English class. I was frustrated at the situation, for a while she made up excuses until she finally got down to the real matter. She was falling apart in the inside. She didn’t have true friends in the community, her father who lives 3 minutes away never comes to visit her, she wanted to kill herself, and more. As she was crying, it occurred to me the situations that we were really dealing with on a daily basis. After you live in a place like this, sadly, you start to become numb to the real situations going on around you. Anyway, in the conversation she mentioned that she did not have any clothes etc. The next Saturday, I had the privilege of taking her on a day outside of the community just her and I. We went and she got 2 new outfits and a few other things she needed. We ate at a traditional Jungle restaurant since she was originally from the jungle. She ate a whole fish including the eyes. I was quite grossed out, but we had a great day together. It was amazing to see how different she acted when she knew someone really did care about her. Of course, one day I am hoping that she will understand that Jesus loves her more than anyone and that she will want to follow Him.
Lauren Robertson – The walking Christmas tree
My good friend Alvaro had asked Nancy and I do a presentation for Christmas for the high school that his wife works at. He said that the theme was giving. Anyway, we did a gospel presentation that had to do with me dressing up as a Christmas tree to really “feel” the Christmas spirit…….when of course what I really needed was Jesus. Alvaro, had said it would be for 400 people…but only 50 came but it was still a lot of fun. I don’t think our American humor really translated into Peruvian humor, but we still had fun. Our good friend Liz helped us write the skit and was actually the main character. It was stressful trying to get this together but turned out decent in the end.
End of the year class parties
The second to last week of school (seeing as we did not know when school was going to end, I could not plan for the last week because we didn’t know when it was going to be….Peru….) I brought some kind of food to all of my classes with our last lesson. I took 2 of my best classes outside of the walls of the community to go get a treat at the market. I took one class to eat ceviche and the other class to eat ceviche and drink fruit smoothies. We had a great time doing something outside of the norm.
Bibles:
People all over gave enough money to buy a Bible for each child in the Community. This made me so excited because kids were begging for Bibles and wanted to learn the truth! To get 800 Bibles was quite an experience! First the states had to wire money to Western Union and go through a lot of hoops to do that. Then when I went to pick up the money Western Union did not have that amount of money immediately but after a process I was able to pick it up. Then I had to go to the market to pick up my order of 800 Bibles. The guy was so nice and helped and paid for my taxi to load a ton of boxes of Bibles. Then I unloaded them in the clinic to store them for the next few weeks until Southmont got there. My mom suggested putting some kind of letter in the front cover which I had wanted to do, but I was having a hard time finding the time to do it. The night I was going to stay up basically all night trying to get it written in Spanish, I happened to call my house where my best friend Sara Campos was over helping my mom with something. She gladly agreed to translate the letter since she is completely bilingual. It was such a blessing. I typed the letter up in English and sent it to her. It just reminds me of how God uses the body of Christ from all over the world to do His work all over the world. Then when Southmont got there they brought the labels the size of a page to put in the front of each Bible. Then on the second day of the mission trip, Southmont gave out all of the Bibles. It was such a neat experience for me to see kids that had been begging for Bibles finally have the truth of the Lord in their own hands.
Clothes, clothes, and more clothes
I received a phone call from my mom on skype the last week of school saying a man from the states had graciously given enough money to complete a wish that the Community had for a house full of boys to receive full outfits for Christmas. The community was getting different people to sponsor each kid, so that each kid could receive a complete outfit including shoes and under garments. Then this man graciously agreed to complete the whole project, anyone that was left that did not have a sponsor. This was a huge blessing for me, as well as a huge project. Nancy was out of town when I got this phone call, so it was a project that I had to do by myself. God ALWAYS provides help even when I don’t think I will have any. This turned out to be SO much fun and very stressful, but totally worth it. I called my taxi driver Nicchola to take me shopping. He took me to the “streets of Lima” (a very dangerous area, but also very cheap). It is hard to describe what this was like. It was like markets full of certain things. Like one market would be full of clothes and as far as the eye could see vendors were selling clothes. Then the next market would be full of shoes and the same with the shoes etc. Well shopping for 212 kids buying them everything to complete an outfit took quite a bit of time as you can imagine. On top of that, I was shopping at the same time for things that the mission team needed like a sound system, 50 balls, and some other random things. It was so cool because 2 of my volunteer friends helped me. One girl, Lena from Germany helped me on this project 3 days. She even spent the night in Lima one of the nights to continue helping me. Mike from Hong Kong helped me two days. Then a teacher from the Community helped me one day and a girl that lives in the orphanage helped me shop one day as well and spent the night with me in Lima. To thank all of my helpers, one night I took them to an American restaurant “Tony Romas” in Lima. We had so much fun. Then one of the days we took a small break and played some games in an arcade in an American type mall. We had so much fun and got to build closer relationships since we worked together for several days buying clothes. We would call ourselves “Equipo pantalones,” “Equipo Zapatillos” etc. meaning Team pants or Team tennis shoes etc to put a little excitement into our next part of our project/ mission. Our goal was to find the cheapest/ good quality item for the kids that we could. Needless to say we did a lot of bargaining. Then several precious kids pulled I think 2 all-nighters with me helping me package all of the clothes into Christmas bags. I felt like we were factory workers. I would call out the name and the sizes and the kids would put the appropriate clothes in each bag. As we were doing that, other kids were helping me pump air into all the balls for Southmont and other girls were cutting string for the event we were doing in Ventanilla. It was so cool to see the willingness of the children to come together and help me when I had this huge project to do. It turned out to be such a blessing to my life for the neat individual time I got with several kids and volunteers and Nicchola, my taxi driver.
Eric, Fry, and Gina
Some of the kids that study at the community but live outside of the community invited me over for dinner at their house in December. I had known Gina since the beginning when I first got there because I went on the senior walking trip with her the year before. Their precious mom cooked a delicious meal for us. Then we watched part of one of the Chronicles of Narnia movies. It was a really fun/ relaxing night!
House Church
Nancy and I started a house church in September. We were meeting at the dentist’s office, but she told us she would not be able to come every Sunday and open up her clinic. I was first kind of upset because I only had one week to find a new place for us to meet. So, we met outside for a couple of weeks – which turned out great because more people came. Then we were able to move across the street to another house of a lady that had recently just started coming. It is a great location because she actually lives there. We meet on the second floor where there is no roof so that people can see us. We have had mainly all new people come to this location. Also, we have stopped providing lunch and crafts. This has really hurt our attendance, but the reason why we stopped is we are trying to do something that Peruvians can duplicate and house churches start multiplying from all over. In order to do that, we had to stop doing things that only Americans could provide. Now we just have a time of worship, Bible study, and fun games that are free. I am confident that the children will start coming back soon; it will just take a little bit of time for them to realize how cool it is to learn about Jesus even when there is not food involved. For Christmas, we had a really good time. We met outside, but after that we went to eat at the restaurant next to where we met and then also had a “Christmas cake” for dessert. It was a good time of fellowship and yummy food.
Christmas in Peru
I had the amazing privilege of spending Christmas in Peru. I was there alone, I mean without any other American, but I was definitely not alone. I got the amazing opportunity of spending it with 800 children. It was FABULOUS! The most simple, but probably one of the best Christmases I have ever had. The children and I got to eat some yummy chicken which we never have the opportunity to eat because it is so expensive. There was a group from Holland there that week that bought it and prepared all of it. They took the tables from the dining room outside on the basketball court and we ate chicken under the dark night sky. Miguel the director called me up to talk about the true meaning of Christmas. I was able to share from the birth to the cross to the resurrection of Jesus Christ to the entire orphanage and staff. That was a huge surprise and unexpected blessing. I had finally finished all of the clothing gifts for the children that they would receive at the beginning of January and everything that needed to be finished for the group to come in Christmas Eve afternoon right before the dinner started. Then after the dinner, I ran over to my good friend’s house where we eat on a frequent basis “the chicken shack” to say hello to their family for Christmas. Then I hurried back to the orphanage for the Christmas dance party. That lasted for about 2 hours until midnight. We danced the night away. Then at midnight we all went out to set off fireworks and give everyone their Christmas hug then back for a little bit more of dancing till about 12:45. Then the kids finally went to bed. After that at 1 am I went to visit another family that had invited me over and hung out with them till’ about 2. It is Peruvian tradition to stay up all night Christmas Eve until Christmas Day. I finally left at 2 am to go to bed. I didn’t do the full Peruvian tradition because I had stayed up all night the night before working on the clothing project. Christmas day, I just got to hang out with the kids and work on a few last minute details for the Southmont trip. It was very laid back and unlike any Christmas I have ever had before. Although, of course I celebrated the same thing I always do in the States, the birth of my Savior, Jesus Christ. It was so neat to see 800 children not receive one gift but see the smiles on their faces and their excitement to celebrate Christmas. I would venture to say they were happier than any American child I have ever seen on Christmas day.
Fliers for 12,000
Nancy, Wilfredo, and I had to make the fliers for the Southmont mission trip. On part of the fliers we also put the Christmas story and attached a lollipop. We made 3,700 fliers for the kids that we worked with on a normal basis with the Christmas story and the gospel and then we made 8,000 more fliers just inviting kids to the Southmont thing. We made the flier, did the Christmas story, translated, got 12,000 copies made, and attached lollipops to 3,700 of them all in one day thanks to help from many Peruvians. Several of which we did not even know until that day. Also, we wrote a letter thanking all of the teachers attached with a candy bar that we gave out to the public schools that we had been working in all year. Then we spent about 8 hours in a moto taxi one day passing out these fliers to any and every school we saw in the surrounding areas. We would either give the fliers to the directors or go in each school and actually pass them out. It was so cool. Then we gave them out to the schools we had been working in a time period of about 2 weeks. It was so much work, but it was so worth it in the end when 700 people came to the event we had in Ventanilla with Southmont.
Southmont Mission Trip
It was such a huge blessing to have Southmont come to Peru at the end of December. They flew in the day after Christmas. It was a great group of people. 30 people from Texas mainly from Southmont, 2 of these people being my Spanish professor and his wife. Then about 20 to 25 other people met us with a different group that was already going to be in Lima and people that lived in Lima as well. 2 of those people are some of my good missionary friends Amanda Wissman and Mark Clancy. Anyway, we were able to have small group times in each of the 15 houses for about 2 ½ hours each. This was really neat because each person from Southmont got to really connect with their group. 3 spanish speakers from Southmont and myself rotated around teaching the Bible story. It was a special time. About 30 kids that week accepted Christ so that was AWESOME! Then in the afternoon half of the group stayed in the orphanage playing games/ having a worship rally with the kids in the orphanage while the rest of the group went out into the city of Ventanilla. I got to be a part of the Ventanilla team. Nancy and I had actually passed out about 12,000 fliers inviting people to this event. It was incredible the first day to see people flocking down the sand hills to come to a basketball court in the middle of nowhere in the blazing sun just to learn about Jesus and play some games. The first day 700 people came and the second two days 500 people came. It was BEAUTIFUL. We had Hillsong blaring in Spanish, played games with the kids, sang fun songs in Spanish, and Juan Baldor shared the gospel each day. Many mothers were there and grown men were there also. People of Ventanilla are hungry to hear the truth of Jesus Christ. It was such a blessing to my life. There were about 8 people from the Southmont group that stayed with us. They helped us with our daily afternoon activities such as teaching Bible studies in the houses. We taught the story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, and we all washed the children’s feet. Also, we had two new believers Bible studies that week. One of which I taught about the words that we say basing it off of the book of James. Then Mark Clancy graciously agreed to teach another new believer’s Bible study. It was such a breath of fresh air for me to get to listen to another believer teach and just to enjoy that and not have to come up with another Bible study. That week was also the high school graduation which I will get to a little bit later. Then on New Year’s Eve, the whole group went into Mira Flores. We played NERTZ for several hours which was a blast and then watched the fireworks, and had a yummy American meal at KFC. Then on New Year’s day we all just kind of hung out and shopped until the Americans all went back to the US that night. It was an excellent week.
High School Graduation
We had the high school graduation on a Thursday night. I was so proud of all of the students who finished their high school degree. It was such a great group. They finished all of their studies amidst very hard circumstances. We had the ceremony, ate chicken, and had a dance party like every other party that we have. I had written letters that talked about their time in high school and what God would do with their time in the future, attached with a really cute watch for the girls and a sports watch for the boys. The letter had the gospel in it (Sara had so graciously translated the letter before) so it was a cool opportunity to share Christ’s love as well.
Amanda Wissman
Amanda Wissman was one of the biggest blessings in my life for the month of December and January. I met her through facebook actually after I saw that she lived in Lima, Peru. She and her husband are missionaries in Surco, a city about 2 hours away from where we live. Anyway, we met up and had lunch one day in December, and she was incredible. We had so much in common. Then she decided to help us with our mission team that was going to happen a few weeks later. Then she decided to come out and spend about a week just living daily life with me in Ventanilla. I was supposed to go on the senior hiking trip again this year but was not able to go due to circumstances that I will explain later. Anyway, she came and we had a GREAT time together. She helped me clean the volunteer house, pack all of our materials and things to move, and teach Bible studies in the houses. Along with that, we had a fun time going to check out the local market, playing card games, and watching movies. I felt like for the first time ever I got to have a girl’s sleepover in Ventanilla. Then later on I was able to go visit her a couple of times in Surco when I had things to do in the city and got to spend the night in her apt and had a pizza/ wii party. She is an incredible friend to me, and I can’t wait to get to spend more time with her when I go back to Peru.
Falling out of the bus
Well about a week before I was supposed to go with the senior class on a hiking trip through the Andes Mountains, I had a slight accident. I was getting off a combi (a local bus) and after my second step I fell over myself and basically doubled over my ankle. I just started screaming in pain. I fall/ trip a lot so I was not expecting the kind of pain I felt like this. I looked down as I was lying in a pile of sand and saw this huge balled up area all around my ankle. I was sure I had broken my ankle. Anyway after about 10 minutes some random Peruvians loaded me into a police car with Nancy and my brother who happened to be visiting at the time. My friend who worked in the pharmacy, Wilfredo, came to accompany us as well. We went to the first hospital and they seemed pretty shady, so we got a taxi to take us to another one that one of our American friends had recommended. Anyway, needless to say it was quite an adventure to say the least. I ended up just having torn some parts of the ligament in my ankle. They put a temporary cast on and then I got to learn how to use crutches in sand and on stair cases and then be wheeled around throughout Ventanilla and the orphanage in a wheel chair. It was a humbling experience to say the least. After the fact a little bit comical as well!
Not going on the walking tour
I had this huge struggle if I should go on the walking tour or not. I had been working on walking on my ankle and had gotten permission to take off my cast earlier than I should have and practice walking so I could go on the walking tour. I was going to tough it out if I needed to because the walking tour is an excellent opportunity to share the gospel with teenagers on the trip and people from all over Peru. Anyway, it became evident that I did not have a peace about going and God had specific things for me to do during those two weeks and it took me falling over myself to keep me at the orphanage. I was able to send snack bags that I had made with the help of several Peruvians of snacks that the children could eat on their hike. I had done the same thing the year before, and it was a huge hit. I passed them out right before they embarked on their journey. During those 2 weeks I spent about 5 days working with a housing engineer working on making house plans for us to build a house in Ventanilla, got to go to the beach with the children, packed all of our belongings and teacher supplies, and also got to help one of my best friends that lived in the orphanage, and do the normal Bible studies, and house church. It really worked out for me to get to stay.
House plans
Finally after much work and many trips to see the housing engineer, we have house plans to build a house in Ventanilla. The reason for this is we want to be more available to work with the city and living inside the orphanage we cannot work with the city like we need to and also it is not fair to the orphanage. Please pray for us as we see what God wants for us and our house. When we move back in March, we will be living in a hostel until something more permanent becomes available.
Taking the kids to the arcades
While my brother was with us, we decided to take about 4 kids to the video arcade in one of the nicer towns. Evan had gotten close to two of these kids and also these 4 kids were kids that had helped us a ton in various projects that we had to do. It was so fun, I had to go in a wheel chair which was definitely interesting going on a bus in a wheel chair, but once we got there it was great. We played for about an hour in the arcade and all ate “American fast food” together. Then they all left, while I had a doctor’s apt in the same city. It was a really great day to thank our Peruvian friends for all of their help while we got to have a blast with them as well.
Evan
Evan, my brother, decided to stay for another week after the team had left. That was a huge blessing to me since I have not had the opportunity to spend much time with him over the last 5 years with me being in a different city for college and then moving to Peru. Anyway, we had a really great time together getting to play some games at night/ watching movies. He spent a lot of his time really investing in a few teenage boys there teaching them piano and doing music things with them. He also got to know a couple of the volunteers really well. I had so much fun with Evan; it was really great to just get to catch up with him and for him to see what my life is like on a daily basis. I hope he will get to come stay with me each year for a couple of weeks. I hope this is an annual tradition starting!
Beach
During my last two weeks there before I went to the States, I had the privilege of going to the beach for my first time in Peru. Little did I know that we would make the 2 ½ hour walk there with 200 kids. It really was a BLAST once we got there. This was during summer vacation time so most of the kids were visiting their families. These 200 kids were kids that did not go home for vacation and a lot of new kids that had just gotten dropped off. It was just a great time to really hang out with the children and splash around in the water and build sand castles etc.
Moving
Amanda like I said earlier helped me move out of the orphanage. It was quite a job packing up all the school materials etc. It took us all day to pack all of the stuff and 3 taxi rides full of stuff to move it all. Some of our Peruvian friends helped us and made the process a lot easier. We really do have such great friends in Peru which I am so thankful for.
Jessica
A girl came up to me during one of the Bible studies and wanted to talk with me about something. She ended up telling me she had been wearing her salvation bracelet and had had the opportunity to share what it meant to several people around in her university prep class. Then she was able to give a Bible away. She was talking to me because she had given away all of the salvation bracelets that she had and her only Bible. I promised her that I would give her more to give away. She has not yet accepted Christ as her Savior but is still excited to tell others about Him. I can’t wait till she decides to give her own life to Christ, and I am so proud of her courage to share about Jesus with her classmates.
Talking with the kids about their decision to follow Christ
In January, Nancy and I talked with the majority of kids that had given their life to Christ over the span of this year and just really made sure they understood it again. We talked to over 100 children/ teenagers. It was crazy but awesome as well. We talked with them as well about seeing if they wanted to follow the Lord in believer’s baptism and the majority of them wanted to do that as well. We are excited for how many kids have decided to follow Jesus Christ this year and what is going to come in the future
Prayer Requests
Please pray for us as we do not know where we will be living next year and for the new type of ministries that God has for us starting in March including house churches/ teaching in the orphanage/ public school ministries/ and our house plans. We appreciate so much the prayers of the body of believers.
