Soma Church

Doing crafts in the neighborhood!

God has an amazing way of working and doing things even when we personally are not on board. My very good friend, Amanda Wissmann – a missionary here in Peru, had asked if she could bring a team to Ventanilla to do some work with us. There plans had fallen through for them for three days of the mission trip, and so they wanted to see if they could come work with us. This was only 2 weeks before they were supposed to be here. We had just finished with a huge public school campaign and a huge event that I wrote about in a previous post, and I was just tired.
I talked with my mom about what we could do, and she said just do a simple thing in your neighborhood. Take out a ball, sing some songs, share a Bible story, and use the left over crafts. The team that came was incredible, they were just willing to be flexible, do whatever was needed, and came ready to work. They were so excited to go and invite people in the neighborhood to come. A ton of moms in the neighborhood came, even adult men, and tons and tons of children. We had about 130 people every day for three days. We had really needed to get to know our neighbors and this was the perfect opportunity and start. We made tons and tons of button bracelets that the last team FBC Mansfield had spent so much time putting together, did tons and tons of crafts, talked with people, played, and got to share a Bible story and the gospel every day. We were there every day right outside our house in a little garden area for about 5 hours. It was Beautiful! A huge blessing was Nicchola, a new believer, shared the gospel on the first day with the crowd. The second day, I literally saw a miracle occur.
This miracle reminds me when Jesus multiplied the fish and the loaves. We had decided that we were going to make arroz chaufa, which is like a Chinese dish of fried rice that is VERY popular here in Peru. Honestly, John and I had made enough for about 50 maybe 60 plates of arroz chuafa. God multiplied the food, we had enough for 130 people!!! We had I think 1 or 2 plates left over. I remember even trying to make a couple of plates into smaller portions so that there would be more and then I ended up mainly just spilling it on the table. One of the girls on the trip told me that we would probably just make a mess that way. Looking back, I realize God was doing something that only He could do. I did not need to get in the way. It was so incredible to see God multiply the food. Everyone was served! All Glory to his Name!!!
The third day, the men of the team in the afternoon did a leadership conference for our believers. I did not get to be a part of it, but I heard it was incredible. These men are worship pastors in the church, and they taught our believers mostly all of them new believers some really incredible things. It was so cool because outside there was a huge group of people from the neighborhood that the women were working with and inside our house was a group of believers learning new things about the Lord with the men from the team.
God used this group of people to really encourage me. I was so tired when they came and did not want to do another big event, but God had other plans. Way BETTER Plans! The team so encouraged me with their beautiful loving, serving, joyful, ready to do whatever spirit. They did so many little things during the week that I noticed that made a big impact on me and really encouraged me. Things maybe not noticed by others, but they did it because of their great love for Jesus. Things like putting away dishes in our house for us, sweeping our dirty floors, ladies that were pregnant on the team meticulously cleaning trash off the ground, standing on the street corner trying to invite as many people as possible, praying for a lady who was having stomach pains, wanting to go out and knock on doors and invite people, playing with a special needs child for as long as he wanted to play, playing with the kids even when everything was all packed up and done, and so much more. They were so kind to us and blessed us in so many ways. It really blessed my heart so much when they prayed for Nancy and I; what a blessing to have other believers pray for us. I know people pray for us all over the place, and it always encourages me and humbles me to know that people take the time to lift us up to the Father. As a result of what God did through this team, we have kids knocking on the door all the time wanting to play and study the Bible, kids singing Christian songs in the street, and some times of gathering with these kids to play with them and continue to teach them the Bible. We hope in the near future to start a weekly Bible study with our neighborhood. God did an incredible work through this team, and I am forever grateful that God’s plans and desires are so much better than mine. All glory to Him for the great things He has done!