Bible study update and YOUTH NIGHT!

Well things are going pretty good as far as our weekly Bible studies go. Numbers are always up and down, never too consistent, but 2 weeks ago in our neighborhood Bible study on Sunday afternoon, we had 41 people at Bible study. 12 came including Nicchola and Fernando, and 29 children! God is so good!!!

This picture is taken from my house looking down on our neighborhood Bible study

Learning about Jesus being the Door.  Each group is entering with a banner of something good they did to  get to Heaven, but it won't fit, since only through Faith in Jesus can we get to Heaven. 

Normally every Sunday, we have a Bible verse competition between the boys and the girls. 

Playing Bible jeopardy

We also had our first youth night at my house 2 weeks ago on a Friday night and we had about 15 youth come. Another miracle! Our ministry is mainly with children, a few adults, and few youth. We invited youth from several of our Bible studies, but youth only came from my neighborhood. The majority of youth that came do not attend our Bible study! It was such a blessing. We played games for several hours, ate snacks, and we did a drama that shared the gospel. It was such a fun night. One of my neighbors who is part of the a Peruvian cult came. It was such a joy to get to know him and for him to hear the gospel. Our desire is to start doing these youth nights once a month. Please pray for our youth that they will start getting involved and come to know Jesus!

Chicken foot in Peru!

Jessi making bracelets with sweet little Linda. Her dad just died of cancer, and she came with her older brothers to youth night. 

First time for these boys to be a part of anything we have done here. So excited about what God is doing in their lives. 

Huaral is going good as well. We go there every Wednesday afternoon, we first have Bible studies with the adults of the family that we originally started with. Anywhere from 2 to 4 adults come. Eva an adult who has been coming for a while now, because a Christian 2 weeks ago!!! All glory to God. She flat out asked how she could become a Christian, and she wanted to pray and ask Jesus to be her Savior and Lord right then and there. She said after she felt basically that her weight was gone and she was so happy. I can see a change in her immediately. Then we have Bible study with the kids in the pueblo. We range in numbers here as well but we have had up to 40 but we can have 15 up to 30 kids on a regular basis. The kids are super sweet and we meet out on the dirt street and praise Jesus and learn about him together. It really is beautiful.

The kids love dressing up and acting out the story!

These kids were lions in the story of Daniel and the lions

Eva just became a Christian 2 weeks ago! Glory to God!

Last week, we had the opportunity to go early and make a typical mountain food with the family in Huaral that we always have Bible study with. It was so much fun and so interesting. This mountain food is called pachamanca, basically it is lots of different types of vegetables and any kind of meat you choose, we chose beef because we didn't want to be too crazy. The food is cooked underground on hot rocks. You have to dig a hole, heat up the rocks, don't worry we cleaned the rocks first - not to US standards but kind of...... the people wanted to get the water from the river where the sewage and trash goes, but Praise be to God, that the river was practically dry, so we cleaned the rocks with well water. After about one rock was dipped into the water it was already disgusting and was not really good to clean the other 10 rocks we cleaned with that water without dumping it out, but Oh well. Also the tarp we were going to lay the clean rocks on was cleaned in the sewage water....but no big deal the rocks were heated up big time to kill any germs or at least that is what we were all hoping! Then once the rocks are hot, all the vegetables ready, you put the stuff on the rocks, and then cover the food with big banana leaves, and then tarps, and then cover it back up with dirt and let it cook for 30 minutes under the ground. It actually is really good. Definitely not clean in the least, but FUN!

As I was taking a part of that morning, I realized how much God had grown me just in the small things: that I could stand and get 5 kilos of meat from the market without getting sick, or watch raw meat being dipped into the green spice sauce without being washed, and dip the vegetables into the same meat and not just flip out that I was going to die. You know just the little things.

It was so great to get to spend some time bonding with this family and showing them that we really care about them as a whole. It was neat to all work together and make this food and just have fun with this family. I hope to do things like this more often with families in all of our different Bible studies.

Digging the hole

"Washing" the rocks

Shucking the corn

Cutting over 4 pounds of onions. Oh man did we cry. 

Our job was to dip all the things into this green sauce that made our hands smell for a week. 

Putting the food in the hole.

Taking off the banana leaves

Getting the food out, it was super hot and burned your hands. SO I let the experts do it and just took out 2 pieces. 

Yep, all the food is out of the hole!

Finished product!

Our Calle 10 Bible study is smaller now that we are in the school year. It is probably our smallest Bible study with about an average of 10 kids coming but sometimes can be more. One of the girls Gema became a Christian in that Bible study a couple of months ago. It is neat because there are adults around that are selling things, and it is cool to watch them being interested in what is going on in the sidewalk right in front of them. It is also cool to have deeper relationships now with a lot of the parents who work in the market who send their kids. There has been interest with 2 of the moms about learning about what we are teaching. I do feel like relationships are definitely growing in that place which is great! We met a new family that is from the jungle who live nearby but far enough where they definitely have to make an effort to come to our sidewalk Bible study in front of the market, yet they are faithful to come every week with their aunt. It is just so neat. They know a lot about the Bible, so I am thinking they were part of a Christian church in the jungle. Anyway, please pray for the boys in this area. A lot of them used to come but now they are "too cool for school" and have really bad attitudes. Please pray that God would draw their hearts to himself and bring them back to learn about Him, and that they would know him personally one day!

The Israelites vs the Philistines

Moses and the Israelites when God parted the Red Sea. 

Playing the hand game, where the gospel is shared through a song. 

Our Monday night Bible study in Ancon has turned out to be really neat. For over a year now we have been meeting with just a mom and her daughter. The mom has become a Christian, and they have just recently decided to move into her mom's house. Therefore, her brother has started coming to Bible study. He is very confused about a personal relationship with Jesus but seeking. Would you please pray for understanding for Him? We also got to study with their mom who also does not know Jesus. She has hardly been at her own house lately because she was just diagnosed with cancer. Will you pray for her healing and that she would come to know the Savior. It is just cool how God is calling this entire family to come to know him, just like he calls each and every one of us into a relationship with him. The decision is ours if we will accept him through faith or not. We were having Bible study this past Monday night and talking about how statues and pictures of god are not God. It made my heart happy when Jackeline, the women who is a Christian now, said  to me about her brother, " I told him that." It is so cool to see her grow in her faith. Please pray for discernment for myself and all our team that we would know how to share the gospel most accurately in this culture where there is so much confusion, lies, and so many cults. Please pray for us to be bold, wise as serpents, yet gentle as doves.

We have Bible study on Tuesdays and Saturdays with many people as well. I cannot go into too much detail about this one for confidentiality reasons. Please pray for discernment for us to know what to do. These Bible studies are filled with much spiritual warfare and rejection. At the same time we are still having Bible study with many precious people that are eager to learn. Please pray that doors will be wide open so that people in this place would know the Truth about Jesus.