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.
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.
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