A Beach Party Farewell

      Wow,  I am so emotionally drained honestly as I write this, but I also at the same time can not go to sleep because my mind is in a million places. A few days ago, I received some news that dramatically changed my life here in Peru, Nancy is following God's call to move to another team in Peru about 2 1/2 hours away from Ventanilla. Just a side note, this is not the cause of anything between us, but just a following of a calling from God for Nancy. So anyway, as you can imagine the past few days have been very rough and filled with a ton of different emotions. Today was our last day together, we actually moved her there tonight. Whew....I don't want to repeat this day again. :)

      I am so grateful for the past 2 years I have had with Nancy Lane. She has blessed my life in so many ways, and we have experienced so many great and crazy things together from learning the language together, to learning the transportation system here, to shopping in markets, learning how to be international missionaries and so much more. I will never forget the 2 wonderful years I have had with Nancy. I don't think the reality has truly hit me, but now I am a missionary alone in Ventanilla. I should rephrase that Jesus is with me and WILL ALWAYS BE WITH ME, but as far as another American missionary partner.......well there is not one. Let me tell you though, God is already raising up Peruvians like never before. I beg that you would pray for me and as well for Nancy for guidance. I ask that you would pray that God would raise up people here in Ventanilla to help me share the good news of Jesus Christ. I also selfishly ask that you would pray for the lonliness that I might feel in days to come when I have no one here to speak to in English or talk about ministry things. God is so faithful, and I can so see His hand in all of this. He has prepared me by doing so many things for me that I didn't know at the time what the reason was for and now it all makes sense.
  
  Probably the biggest confirmation of all of this was a couple days ago, I was talking to someone from Southmont about missions and she mentioned the story in the Bible where Paul and Barnabus split up. I was shocked that she mentioned this to me because no one new about this at the time  and honestly it didn't even seem to go along with the conversation that we were talking about. I feel like the Holy Spirit just prompted her to say that to me, to comfort me in the fact that God knows what He is doing and has GOOD PLANS for my life. He is sovereign and in control. So anyway, last night we had a beach farewell party for Nancy. We had a taco salad dinner, Dr. Pepper (which is a huge luxury item for us in Peru - since it is imported), brownies, Sundays, and frozen limonade complete with umbrellas and beach themed straws! We gave her a beach bag filled with things for the beach since the new town she lives in has a beach right there. We also made a bulletin board for her filled with pictures of our discipleship group and notes from each one of them. It was such a special night. We had a prayer time for her, she also had a prayer time for me, talked about funny memories we had of her, we ate, and played the game "spoons." It was such a great time to be together and be thankful for the past two years that God has given us. Please, please, please be in prayer for both of us as this transisition is difficult, yet it is NOT impossible. "With God all things are posssible." Luke 1:37. Thanks for your support and for constanly lifting us up and the people of Peru in your prayers.
Below are pics of the night.....I could not post the majority for confidentiality reasons for some Peruvians in our group. Enjoy!

Fernando and I! The Chefs. Notice the cute frozen lemonades in front!

Nancy coming in.....not really knowing we had a surprise party for her.

Milagros enjoying her FIRST Dr. Pepper. She LOVED it!

Yep, Nicchola and John had a weight competition to see who weighed more.

Surprising her with her beach bag full of fun things for the beach!

Nancy trying out all of her different things for the beach!

Her bulletin board full of photos and notes from our discipleship group and Bible studies.

Enjoying Sundaes!

Championship round of "Spoons"

God answers prayers!

Thanks for praying for my friend Fernando to make the right decision about a rehab center. It is official last night he said, I am going. He even said that his mom is very excited for him and supports him in this decision. Even to the point of his mom and his brother are going to go to family therapy. None of us thought, his family would support him in this decision honestly. My God is a God of miracles, that is for sure. In the past few days, I could see the devil throwing up many distractions for him not to go to this awesome rehab center, but Jesus is VICTORIOUS. Please keep praying for the financial part of this, but I know God will provide. He should start the rehab process around February 1st. Pray for these last 2 weeks he has before he starts that he would have good family time, be encouraged, and be able to get everything ready to go. He will probably be internalized there about 4 months and then outpatient about 6 months. All Glory to God for the great things He does!

A spontaneous idea that turned out to be one of the greatest days in Peru

Yesterday was my amazing Dad's birthday! I wish I could have spent it with him in the United States....BUT...since I couldn't I have a dear friend whose birthday was also yesterday, so I celebrated with her in Peru. This friend has had a rough life and until last year when we celebrated her birthday together no one has ever really done anything for her birthday in all of her life. Yesterday she turned 25. I called her yesterday to see what she was doing and she said she was just laying in bed. I called her to see if she wanted to go out with me to the movies and to eat for her birthday. She said YES! I was so excited. Then I decided that I wanted to surprise her and instead of just doing that have people over at the house for a surprise birthday party. I started calling everyone in our Bible study group to come over! It turns out all of them came except 3. I called my friend Carlos and he went with me to buy a pinata, a cake, and decorations!! We had to do it all in an hour and a half time span. We then decorated the house in pink and purple, filled the pinata, and blew up many balloons. Then we waited. Since this is Peru, she showed up 2 hours late, but that was okay. While we waited we played chicken foot! So much fun. I have been teaching Peruvians American games, and they love them! She was super surprised, she never expected a surprise party. We sang Happy Birthday, ate delicious cake, and hit the Pinata until it broke. It is hilarious watching adults get into a pinata and then go crazy like kids trying to pick up the candy! Hilarious. Then we all went to watch Alvin and the chipmunks at a movie theater that is about 40 minutes away! It was HILARIOUS! Totally recommend it and very clean! Then we ate at pizza hut. It was so much fun. There was so much laughter and joy! One time, I was laughing so hard, I couldn't stop and couldn't speak for at least 2 minutes. Also, all the girls did the suitcase dance in front of this huge food court! It was a BLAST! Glory to God for great ideas at the last minute and great friends to share them with. God really has given me a group of Peruvian friends here and I am so thankful for that. I can not post the pictures of the birthday girl or most of the other guests for confidentiality reasons, but the pictures I can post are below. :)

The way to hang a pinata in a house...someone hold it.

Carlos excited about his candy!

In the back of the taxi being goofy...on the way to the movies!

Another missionary off to the jungle

One of our new believers just went to the jungle for a month to visit her family. She took with her Bibles, art activities, and a kid’s Bible. Please be in prayer for her this month that she will have courage to share with others the good news of Jesus Christ. It is so neat to see God raise up young leaders from Ventanilla to take his gospel all over Peru!

A day of going to church in a church building

As most of you know, our mission here is to do house churches that grow all across Peru.  Sometimes we run into people that don’t agree with this method which is fine since God has called us each to different type of ministries. Yesterday was the first Sunday in months that I didn’t have a Sunday morning Bible study to teach, so I thought I would try out a local church that was about 40 minutes from my house. Once again I was very disappointed because there was so much false teaching. Hardly any churches around the area seem to preach the truth. In one sense, I was very discouraged because so many people believe so many false teachings, and in the other sense I was encouraged to keep teaching the truth through the way of House Churches. Then, I took our discipleship group to a church service last night that was about 2 hours away. It is a church that I love and that sometimes I go to for some encouragement. I hadn’t been in about 7 months because we always have Bible study at the exact same time, but I thought it would be good for our believers to have a time of corporate church worship service. It was an INCREDIBLE time of worship. God’s Spirit was definitely there. The message was also very good. One part of the message, the pastor was talking about how house churches are not a good idea etc. I was thinking to myself is God trying to tell me something, and then I had to return back to my calling. God has called each of us to different things, and I KNOW he has called me to take the gospel to the lost in Peru and at least for now by using the method of house churches to meet people where they live and work and not expect them to come to me. Last night, was an encouraging time for me, after the church service we went out to eat and talked about the service and how amazing it was and also our team’s calling of doing house churches. Last night, I felt like we broke a lot of ground explaining to our Peruvian leaders what our mission is and they seem like they are more committed than ever to continue with this mission. I feel like they understood that we do have “church”, it is just in houses. That the church the Bible talks about is the universal church of Believers. It was so encouraging to me. Then on the way home in the bus, I met 4 Christians, which is so rare! 2 of them were pastors, so maybe in the future we can partner with them. Yesterday, was a day of blessings and reminders that we are on the right track because we are following our calling, yet at the same time Satan will use whatever he can to distract us from what we are truly supposed to do. So grateful for what God is doing. 

Addictions

We had an interesting adventure this Past Wednesday, Nicchola, another new believer, Fernando, and I went on an adventure to find a Christian rehab center for addictions. Fernando became a Christian about 6 months ago, but he has been addicted to various things for about 15 years. He had told me that he wanted to find a rehab place, so we went looking for one. The first place we went that we were recommended, we went to and come to find out they really are not a true Christian organization. They are teaching a false gospel. Also, the lady in front of Fernando as if he was not there was saying addicts are manipulators, always give excuses, etc. That did not sit too well with him or with me for that matter. It was like there was already a perceived assumption about him before they even knew him. Although, I am sure she has had many experience with people like that, it was not a very good start off with Fernando. Anyway, we were already far from my house, so we decided to go to an internet place and look up rehab places online. Through a series of miscommunications we ended up one place earlier than our appointment, and they were not there. So we decided to go to the other place and then maybe come back to this one. We went to a place that was called fountain of living water to find out that is not a Christian place at all. All there therapy is just based on science and not anything with Jesus. The director could not seem to understand that I am okay with different proved addiction therapies but I strongly they believe they must be paired with Jesus. He is the true Healer and the ONLY ONE that can give us the power to overcome things in our life. Anyway, I left there feeling pretty discouraged. Fernando left feeling encouraged because this man seemed to really understand addictions, but this man didn’t understand having a relationship with Jesus. Alex seemed to think he would be fine there and just grow on his own in his faith. I was not okay with that solution. We called back the other place and they said they would wait for us until 8 pm. I was impressed with that answer. We entered in and sat down and had a conversation with a lady named Gabriella. I was going to get straight to the point this time. I wanted to know what they believed up front instead of wasting more time. I asked her if they were a Christian place and she said they were an open place. I was like oh my word…not again. What she was meaning, is you do not have to be a Christian to go there. I asked her what she believed. She said we believe in a high power, like the wind you can feel it but cannot see it.…and talked more about that. I was thinking to myself are we ever going to find the right place? She said and that higher power is God. I was like okay we are finally getting somewhere. I asked her what you have to do to be saved. She said believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I was like AMEN! I was so excited. Come to find out she has been working with addicts for 18 years, and she became a Christian 11 years ago. She changed her whole program to use what she had learned about addicts but to be coupled alongside the scripture and putting Jesus all throughout the whole treatment plan! I was excited beyond belief! She said that they had Christian psychologists, and they worked with the entire mind, body, spirit. The patients had to read the Bible every day, and they had worship services every Saturday. Then they showed us pictures of the house that the men stay at. It is on the beach! It is beautiful. It used to be a hotel/ restaurant. They have a pool, the ocean, and looks like a place with great opportunities. She so happens to be the director of the entire program! She said it is coincidence that we found her there that day because normally she is on site with the patients. I told her this is not coincidence but God’s providence. We all left that place feeling like God had shown us that was the place. This place was truly a Christian place that mixed our faith with practical things to help an addict. Please pray for Fernando that he will make the right decision and know exactly when to go and that Satan will not try to put doubts in his mind to not go there. Also, please pray that financially this possibility can become a reality. All glory to God, He always brings us to the place that we need to be!

Two special Bible studies

This past Friday, I decided to change some things about one of our regular Bible studies. We never take crafts or snacks to Bible study because we try to make everything we do reproducible so that Peruvians can do it as well and take over the Bible studies and start new ones etc. As I was talking to my mom one day about how hard it is to do Bible studies that are reproducible with kids, she said, “well Lauren Peruvians have scratch paper and you can still do Bible verse games.” That is exactly what we did. I brought a beach ball first and we played monkey in the middle. It was so much fun. Then we talked about the story of Noah and memorized the verse Hebrews 11:7 together. I had two baggies with the verse cut up into pieces. We split up boys and girls and the kids had to run and get one piece of paper and then bring it back until each group had all the pieces of paper. Then they had to put the verse in order! The kids had a great time! It was so refreshing. I also brought song sheets and we learned some praise and worship songs together. We normally just sing Christian kid songs but this time we sang real praise and worship songs. It was BEAUTIFUL. The kids loved it, and they even asked to sing another song. We then had a prayer time and almost every kid prayed. This Bible study truly blessed my heart. It was reproducible, the kids learned a ton, and it was easy activities to plan yet very effective.  I hope to have a lot more Bible studies in the future like this one.

Then the next day we went to Huaral. We had a really good Bible study with the kids singing and also learning the story of Noah. Most of the adults that normally come were gone, but one of the adults who is never interested invited us to come into her house since the other adults were gone. She actually listened intently to Bible study. We had 3 adults come, and we studied the story of Mary and Martha. Two of these adults that came to Bible study recently have become Christians, and the one that invited us into her house is not a Christian yet, but I was so encouraged that she invited us in. We are excited because we are planning to go to the beach with these people next week after Bible study. I think that will be a fun time for us to even get to know them better to go out with them to do something fun. God is up to something big. Excited to see what He has for the city of Huaral.

Christmas lights, Joy, McDonald's, and Ice Cream!

A couple of weeks ago, on December 30^th after finishing Friday afternoon Bible study, we decided to go look at Christmas lights. Yes, I know a little late, but we did not have time to do things like that before because things were so BUSY with all the ministry events for Christmas. I had wanted our new believer’s group to go, but none of them answered my phone calls. I decided to invite the landlord of my house, her granddaughter, her sister, her son, Fernando (a new believer that called me back), and Nicchola who took us there in his taxi. It was a BEAUTIFUL experience. It was filled with so much joy. We went to Surco to look at Christmas lights because it is a rich city and people there decorate big time. There are about 2 streets filled with tons of lights and elegant nativity scenes. I loved it because it was so elegant and was not overly decorated. It reminded me so much of Christmas in the states except that it was hot of course.  I saw some of the most beautiful nativity displays that I have ever seen. We had so much fun.  The 3 year old and twelve year old that were with us were having a blast. Then we went to McDonalds. That was so much fun too. My neighbor and her son had never been to McDonalds before. Let’s just say they thoroughly enjoyed it. Then we went for our last surprise of the night to an amazing ice cream shop. In this ice cream shop they make the ice cream shaped like animals or characters etc. It was SO much fun. The owner of my house said, we had joy tonight. Her granddaughter said I am happy. The aunt asked me about a theological question which gave me the opportunity to talk to her in depth about the gospel so that was very exciting! Christmas this year was very hard for this particular family because it was their first Christmas without Paulina. Paulina was the 3 year olds’ mom that died tragically of a brain aneurism. Please pray for them as these days are still very hard for them.  Please pray that this whole family would come to know Christ. This particular night was a night full of lights and blessings! 

In the back of the taxi ready for their surprise!

Favorite nativity scene of the night

Sisters

Part of my Peruvian family

McDonalds

Beautiful Christmas tree that was in the plaza

Luana ordered the ice cream called "pollito" or little chicken

Anthony ordered "Chavito" which is a famous guy in a soap opera here in Peru

A small blessing from Bible study

I was at Bible study yesterday in Ancon, and the two ladies said put in the Hillsong DVD for Lauren. Without knowing that I LOVED Hillsong, they had found them on the internet and had downloaded them singing. These women are not Christians, but God has been using their music to minister to their hearts. It was so neat. I was able to translate the lyrics for them from English to spanish. This small thing really blessed my heart.

New Years in Peru

My neighbors at the beach.

This was my first New Years in Peru without my family. Last year, my family was here for New Years day which was super fun. I wasn't quite sure what to do. My neighbor friends invited me to come watch how they make a dish called Pachamanca. They make it using flaming hot rocks and then cover the food for an hour with dirt. The dirt obviously is not touching the food but it covers it to keep the heat in. It was so neat to watch them do this. They then brought some over to my house later! It was delcious! After that, a friend and I went and ate a local neighborhood restaurant. I ate Lomo Saltado which was delicous. Then another friend came over and at midnight we went on the roof to watch the fireworks again! It was incredible! Then more Peruvians came over to the house and we played Yahtzee! It was so much fun. Then we watched the movie Soul Surfer. What a great testimony of God's faithfulness. If you have not seen it, rent it. The Peruvians loved it. We finally went to sleep again in the living room around 5 am. The next day a group of us went to a beautiful BEACH! It was so much fun. It was great being in God's creation and feeling the heat of the beautiful sun! We invited 2 little 12 year old boys from our neighborhood to go with us, they had a blast! On the way home we went to McDonalds which is always a special treat. It was a GREAT New Years.

Fireworks

On the roof watching fireworks.

God even uses the leftovers

We had about 300 gift bags left over from the event at the orpahanage. We needed to get rid of them because the cake was going to go bad if not. I was not prepared to do another big Christmas event, yet I did not just want to give away gift bags without telling people about Jesus. Then I remember that my aunt and Uncle that work for Family Life in Little Rock, Arkansas had given me 200 really good tracts that explain the gospel. I normally am not a a big tract fan but in this circumstance it was perfect. A few peruvians and myself went out to the intersection by my neighborhood and gave away 200 gift bags with tracts in no time. It was great. We had about 100 bags left, so I wrote a homemade tract and got it printed it out and we gave it out at the market that we have Bible study at every Friday afternoon. God uses everything for his Glory! I love it!

A Christmas Miracle

      Wow, this is one of the most miraculous things that I have ever been a part of. God is truly the God of miracles. On December 26th, we had gotten permission to go back into the Community (the orphanage) and do a Christmas event. I was a little nervous because we had not been there in a year because of a misunderstanding. Anyway, doing something for 800 kids is a huge task and especially when you do not have much help. Nancy was going on a mission trip to the jungle with some of our friends that day so that just left me and Nicchola and a few Peruvian neighbors. All of our other new believers for some reason could not help on that day.
     First of all I was super stressed out about making the gift bags. I had to cut 800 pieces of Christmas cakes, and put the other candies in 800 bags. I still couldn't figure out what I wanted to do there: a Christmas movie, do arts and crafts and just tell the Bible story, or act out the Bible story. My mom the night decided to pray that God would do something that only He could do because she did not want me to have to stay up all night and do the gift bags. I had not been able to do them ahead of time because we had so many other Christmas events. I decided I was just too tired to stay up all night. I would set my alarm for 5 AM and do the Christmas bags. It was going to be a stretch to finish in time but that was all I could physically do. To my horror, I woke up at 8:30. There was NO WAY I could finish by myself. I knocked on the neighbors doors that said would help me. My landlord, her granddaughter, her sister, her husband, her son, John, and Nicchola came over. In only 2 hours, We had cut 67 Christmas cakes into 800 slices and made 800 Christmas gift bags. That was a true miracle from God! 16 hours of work done in 2 hours! God really did the impossible. Then I was able to talk it out with John about what we should do at the orphanage. I just didn't have a peace about any of my plans so far. At the last minute we decided to do the Christmas story using costumes. It was such a blessing doing that. First of all the electricity went out the first 30 minutes that we were there so if we had brought a movie that would not have worked. After the drama, we did a craft.
      We had 4 rotations of kids. With the older kids, we made string bracelets, with the middle group we made button bracelets, with the little kids we made sticker nativity scenes, and with the youngest group we did nativity coloring sheets. It was such a BLESSING to get to see those kids again and to get to share the good news with new kids for the first time this year. The kids were so sweet and so well behaved. I could feel the Holy Spirit's presence in the room. I think I gave approx 600 hugs that day. It was beautiful. Also God provided for workers 2 our of adult neighrbors, 3 teenagers, and a 3 year old, plus Nicchola and I to do the event. The neighbors throroughly enjoyed it and had their eyes opened to the circumstances of kids in Peru. The kids absolutely LOVED the drama. It is so cool how God brings the ideas and everything together right before it is needed. All Glory to His Name.

My neighbor helping bag Christmas Cake!

My neighbors rapidly cutting Christmas cake and bagging it!

Nicchola counting the goodie bags.

Seeing kids for the first time that I hadn't seen in a year.

Acting out the Christmas story

Making button bracelets

My "son" playing Joseph in the drama.