Body of Christ

Stateside blog – Body of Christ

I think I saw the body of Christ function at it´s finest when I was home in the states. It was incredible to see what God did through His people. My first day home was great, I was picked up at the airport with a sign, got to see my parents, and got to see good friends that day and night and eat steak. Then shortly following the first few days, the biggest snow storm I have ever seen happened. We had a like a foot of snow in Texas. It was beautiful! Therefore, I was snowed in for 4 days. I wanted to go to places in the states, but I couldn´t....therefore I made a video about Peru. It turned out to be a huge blessing! One of my dear friends helped me make this video as well, and I ended up using it for all of my speaking engagements at church. Then the next week, my parents so kindly took me and my best friend to Disney World. It was a dream vacation. It was so cool because I got to spend great quality time with my two wonderful parents and my best friend. Plus, I got to see all kinds of awesome things, ride all kinds of amazing rides, take pictures with all kinds of disney characters, and wait in line for nothing because we went in the middle of February. It was such a blessing. Thanks mom and Dad! After that week, the craziness began! God, just opened up doors for me to be able to share what he has been doing all over the state of Texas. I had the opportunity to speak at several amazing churches. The people I met at these churches blessed my life in so many ways. I was able to speak at Southmont Baptist Church (my home church), FBC Clifton Women´s missions meeting, Meadowbrook Baptist Church in Waco, FBC Meridian, FBC Purves, Four Corners Church, First Baptist Church Mansfield, and Dallas Baptist University. Each of these opportunities God just opened the door so wide and used so many people to help me get connected with those places. It was so cool to finally get to share with people in the states what had been going on in Peru and for more people to start praying about what is going on here and get excited about Peru too. I met some amazing people at each and everyone of these churches that are passionate about the work of the Lord. It was a huge encouragement. I also had the opportunity to take a family road trip. I spent about 4 days going to get to see each side of my parent´s family. I got to see ALL of my cousins, grandparents, and Aunts and Uncles. It was such a blessing. We got some great quality time, ate great food, and of course played card games! I also got to visit my dear friend in Kentucy and see what her life is like in Kentucky and got to visit my aunt and uncle in Arkansas. They have just moved up there, to work with family life ministry. It was so neat getting to tour where they work everyday! Family Life is such a legit ministry! Check it out! Anyway, between all my layovers with southwest, between seeing Kelly in Kentucy- Indiana, and my relatives in Arkansas. I went to 6 different states in 3 days. Anyways, I was able to get many productive things done in the states. I went to the dermatologist and found out I am allergic to nickel which in like everything. So, as soon as I learned what had been causing my skin problem was my belt buckle my skin quickly got so much better. Thanks to everyone that had been praying for me. I got my tooth implant surgery finally finished, and just got a lot of miscellaneous stuff done that I had needed to get done before coming back! I want to thank all of my dear friends and family members who encouraged me, played nertz with me, supported me, loved me, and just hung out with me during the time in the states. One of my last and greatest memories, was the week of leaving to come back to Peru which was actually just last week, I had to write 6 curriculums, make all of these verse games, etc. It was like 100s of hours worth of work and I barely had any time to do it. I had been so busy with speaking engagements that I had not actually had the time to do what I needed to do for Peru. Anyway, so many people came together at the end and helped me get EVERYTHING done. I had a work day at Southmont and many people came for hours just to do factory type work. I had people all over translating things for me, working on verse games, cutting things, etc. Then the night before I was going to leave, I probably still had 40 hours of work left! At the last minute literally my mom and I decided to call together some of our very mission minded loving friends to the house, and I am telling you it was a miracle to see what happened. Hours upon hours of work was finished in like 4 hours because so many people came to help and worked so hard. I ended up staying up all night but literally finished everything that I needed to do besides leaving the house a mess and my room a mess for my parents to clean up. They are used to me doing that though! Hopefully my Peruvian wreck will just remind them a little bit of me each day! Haha. So anyway, it was a great and productive time in the States. God did an amazing work, so I will give Him all the GLORY!

November - December _ January

Teacher Luncheon that Nancy and I made tacos for Christmas Party at one of the High Schools
Having a contest trying to cut apart the most lollipops for the 3,700 fliers
Translating the fliers and eating lunch with our friend Wilfredo
Water Park with my English Class
McDonalds with my English class


Christmas Skit for a school in Puente Piedra
Shopping Day with a girl from the Community
Casa Bible study
Nancy's Birthday
Market in the streets of Lima
Video Arcade place with some kids from the Community
Evan and I with my "cast foot"
New Year's Eve
High School graduation
Ventanilla backyard Bible club
Christmas


The clothes all packaged up and ready to give out!
Graduation watches for the graduating seniors!
Materials for the Southmont team
Teacher Christmas party!
Getting the clothes ready...
Eric and Gina's house.

Christmas lunch with our house church
Tony Romas with the people that helped me shop so much for all of the clothes.
End of the school year party at the market
Amanda and the boys!


La Playa (The beach)



I always tell myself that I will never let myself go this long without blogging….and every time I fall into the same thing. The months that I have the most to write about are the months that are the busiest and I just never take the time to sit down and write what is going on. Okay….by topics I am going to try and recap the month of November and December ,and January. Hope I remember the cool things that happened. 
Water Park with 45 people
This year, I had the joy of having 40 children 10 hours a week in a nightly English class. When I first started teaching this class, I really did not like it; but as the year went on – the class really began to grow on me. About 30 of the kids were high school girls mainly 13 to 14 years old. The other 10 were a few older high school boys, and then about 8 precious 10 to 12 year old boys that were in my religion classes this year. The majority of these kids were faithful to come every night. The majority of the 30 teenager girls came all year long. Yuck! 10 hours a week of English, but they were faithful. I wanted to do something fun for this class that I had grown so close to. Thanks to a Bible study group in Denton, I was able to take all of my kids to a beautiful water park in downtown Lima, McDonalds, and take them on a rented school bus so we could all get there and back together and safely. It was a blast. McDonalds in Peru is known as upper class. It was a beautiful 2 story building McDonalds and we used the whole top floor. The younger kids played in the playground and had a blast. We all ate fries, burgers, ice cream, and soft drinks. It was so much fun. Then we had 2 hours to just go explore this beautiful water park. The majority of kids had never seen it. It is one of the most famous sites in Peru. We had a fabulous time. I gave the kids freedom and allowed them to split up and in groups and do what they wanted! They went all over the place. The majority of kids soaked themselves in the “run through fountains”. It was one of the best nights I have had here with the children! We left at 2:30 and got home at 11:00! It was definitely a big adventure!

Nancy’s birthday!
Nancy’s birthday was in October, but she was in the States for her birthday, so we finally celebrated her birthday in November. We had a great time. We went to a beautiful restaurant that is on a pier over the ocean. It was a really neat time to get away, dress up, and celebrate my dear friend’s birthday.

Public schools
In November through the first or 2nd week of December we continued faithfully working in the public schools. Actually more than normal, we changed one school to meet in individual classrooms. By the end of the year this was our schedule:
Mondays: Pedro Planes Elementary 1:30 to 6:00
Tuesdays: Pedro Planes High 12:40 to 1:40
Wednesdays: Las Naciones Unidas 12:40 to 1:00
Fe and Alegria Elementary 1:40 to 5:30
Thursdays: Las Naciones Unidas 11:00 to 1:00
Fridays: never really worked out with the school, but we had scheduled to have Fe and Alegria High School
Christmas Parties at the Public schools
For the 2 high schools we were able to have 2 big Christmas parties. I went to the market and bought all kinds of snack foods. We set up a Christmas snack table. Nancy and I at Pedro Planes acted out the Christmas story. I was Gabriel (in my snuggie) and also Joseph, and Nancy was Mary. It turned out to be pretty funny as well. Everything is if Nancy is involved. She has a great sense of humor. I think about 70 to 100 kids were there that day. It was a good turnout for our high school gatherings; we were normally running 30 to 50 kids on a regular Bible study day. Anyway, we did the skit, passed out Christmas ornament craft and the food. A couple of our regular kids helped us and everyone pitched in to throw the party together. It was the best event that we had at Pedro Planes high school this year!
Then we had another party at Fe and Alegria High School, we had only gotten to meet there 3 other times prior to the party due to schedule changes etc. The only problem for that party was Nancy had to teach in the community the same time. One of the coolest things about Peru is that people pitch in from all over to help us (Christians and non- Christians alike). Anyway, two of my best friends in the community, Wilfredo and Alfonso decided to help me. More like, I persuaded them to help me. I mentioned to them on the way to the party that they were going to act out the Christmas story with me. After a little negotiating, they complied. This party turned out so great. About 180 high school kids came. We got to explain the Christmas story and the good news of Jesus. That He is the only one that saves, it is not of good works only through a faith saving relationship with Jesus Christ. The skit turned out to be pretty hilarious (2 peruvian 20 years olds – one in a pink snuggie to be Gabriel and a gringo) Then we passed out the ornaments and snacks like the previous high school. This party was a huge blessing since we had not been able to previously meet with this high school very much. It was well organized and we had a sound system! So grateful for how it went.

Bible studies in the Casas
In October, God gave me the patience, help, and idea to finish all of the casa Bible studies until the end of the year and plan fun games/ art activities with each one of them. The months of November and December we had some really good Bible studies inside the orphanage which included: Jesus washing the disciples feet (we washed the children’s feet), Mary Magdalene washing Jesus’ feet with perfume and drying it with her hair (we also acted that out), bible verse balloon games, and so many more fun things. We had some REALLY good times of Bible study in the past few months.

Teacher’s luncheon
All year long to all the Peruvians, I had been ranting and raving about TACOS. Something Peru does not have. Finally in September my parents sent me some taco shells but only 2 boxes. One day, I was in an international store in a rich city in Lima and found TACO SHELLS! Nancy and I wanted to cook for the teachers in the community because they have been a huge help and good friends to us this year. Since I had been raving so much about tacos to the teachers….and many wanted to try them, Nancy and I did a huge teacher’s luncheon immediately following one of the high school Christmas parties. We cooked everything the night before. The avocadoes are AMAZING in Peru, so we made a gigantic bowl of guacamole, and then everything else you need for tacos. Also, we let Peruvians in on tasting the joy of coke floats. Something they had never tried as well. About 20 of the 35 teachers came. It was great because we were able to present the gospel at this luncheon and also thank them for everything they had done for us this past year.

Teacher’s gifts
Nancy and I put together gift bags to give to each of the teachers. There were dry erase markers, chocolate from the US, chocolate from Peru and Bible that had specific verses highlighted and a letter from us in the front cover. In that letter we had presented the gospel. We highlighted the roman road and other verses and put sticky notes on all of those pages. The teachers were so thrilled to get these presents. One teacher commented how the verses were very pretty, meaning he had read them!

Teacher’s white elephant gift exchange
After the school year was over, the majority of teacher’s got together for a Christmas party at Mario’s house. We had a white elephant exchange. Hilarious, but the teacher I drew was the PE teacher. Out of all people to draw, I had no clue what to get for him….I was thinking a soccer ball….or what in the world could I get him. So, I had the brilliant idea of going to get him a dominoes gift card. We have a Dominoes 20 minutes away from the community in the nice part of Ventanilla. Little did I know, gift cards do not exist in the poor areas of Peru. I looked like an idiot trying to explain to the cashier what I wanted. By this time, I was already late to the party…but on time for Peruvian time. Anyway, I ended up asking if I could buy a pizza box and then just put the money in it. I’m sure he did not end up using the money for pizza, but I did not care at that point. The gift I got was a Christian t-shirt in Spanish that my good friend Mario got for me. It was a lot of fun to get to hang out with the teachers in a non-school setting after all the grades and tests had finally been done. I genuinely had a good time at this Christmas party!
Grades
Wow, I have a new respect for teachers. In the month of December, I had to make a test for 300 kids to take, grade those, finish grading the tests for the second trimester that were way late, do the averages for the second trimester, do the averages for the third trimester, and do the final average for my 300 students. Oh my word….! Didn’t think I was going to finish all of these grades. The reason why I had never finished the second trimester is because I had made the horrible mistake of letting elementary students summarize the Bible stories I taught them. Remember, all of this being in Spanish. I quickly learned they did not know how to spell and this was a horrible idea for a gringo like me to give a test like this. Anyway, I finished over 1,200 grades in a week in December. This is only because God gave me the strength to do it and provided many Peruvians to help me. 3 university students stayed up with me until 4:00 one morning helping me enter grades and figure out tests etc. It was such a blessing. They did it out of the goodness of their heart expecting nothing in return.

A Sweet moment in Suzuki
One night we were supposed to teach Bible study to the Suzuki girls, Liz’s house. They had to do something else but I was in there anyway, little by little several girls wanted to talk to me about trusting Christ as their savior. I think 2 that night decided to follow Christ. Then the other girls just wanted to come in and talk a ton about the Bible and learn more. It was a beautiful time. It was probably about 45 minutes of just deep conversation/ question about the Bible. Then there were 2 of the girls laying together reading a Bible that I had loaned them. They were so hungry for the word of God. It was so precious to watch these girls thirst to know the truth.

The baby house helper
I will not use her name for privacy reasons. Anyway, one day, I went to talk to a girl in the baby house. I went to confront her on why she had decided not to attend the last 2 weeks of my English class. I was frustrated at the situation, for a while she made up excuses until she finally got down to the real matter. She was falling apart in the inside. She didn’t have true friends in the community, her father who lives 3 minutes away never comes to visit her, she wanted to kill herself, and more. As she was crying, it occurred to me the situations that we were really dealing with on a daily basis. After you live in a place like this, sadly, you start to become numb to the real situations going on around you. Anyway, in the conversation she mentioned that she did not have any clothes etc. The next Saturday, I had the privilege of taking her on a day outside of the community just her and I. We went and she got 2 new outfits and a few other things she needed. We ate at a traditional Jungle restaurant since she was originally from the jungle. She ate a whole fish including the eyes. I was quite grossed out, but we had a great day together. It was amazing to see how different she acted when she knew someone really did care about her. Of course, one day I am hoping that she will understand that Jesus loves her more than anyone and that she will want to follow Him.
Lauren Robertson – The walking Christmas tree
My good friend Alvaro had asked Nancy and I do a presentation for Christmas for the high school that his wife works at. He said that the theme was giving. Anyway, we did a gospel presentation that had to do with me dressing up as a Christmas tree to really “feel” the Christmas spirit…….when of course what I really needed was Jesus. Alvaro, had said it would be for 400 people…but only 50 came but it was still a lot of fun. I don’t think our American humor really translated into Peruvian humor, but we still had fun. Our good friend Liz helped us write the skit and was actually the main character. It was stressful trying to get this together but turned out decent in the end.

End of the year class parties
The second to last week of school (seeing as we did not know when school was going to end, I could not plan for the last week because we didn’t know when it was going to be….Peru….) I brought some kind of food to all of my classes with our last lesson. I took 2 of my best classes outside of the walls of the community to go get a treat at the market. I took one class to eat ceviche and the other class to eat ceviche and drink fruit smoothies. We had a great time doing something outside of the norm.

Bibles:
People all over gave enough money to buy a Bible for each child in the Community. This made me so excited because kids were begging for Bibles and wanted to learn the truth! To get 800 Bibles was quite an experience! First the states had to wire money to Western Union and go through a lot of hoops to do that. Then when I went to pick up the money Western Union did not have that amount of money immediately but after a process I was able to pick it up. Then I had to go to the market to pick up my order of 800 Bibles. The guy was so nice and helped and paid for my taxi to load a ton of boxes of Bibles. Then I unloaded them in the clinic to store them for the next few weeks until Southmont got there. My mom suggested putting some kind of letter in the front cover which I had wanted to do, but I was having a hard time finding the time to do it. The night I was going to stay up basically all night trying to get it written in Spanish, I happened to call my house where my best friend Sara Campos was over helping my mom with something. She gladly agreed to translate the letter since she is completely bilingual. It was such a blessing. I typed the letter up in English and sent it to her. It just reminds me of how God uses the body of Christ from all over the world to do His work all over the world. Then when Southmont got there they brought the labels the size of a page to put in the front of each Bible. Then on the second day of the mission trip, Southmont gave out all of the Bibles. It was such a neat experience for me to see kids that had been begging for Bibles finally have the truth of the Lord in their own hands.

Clothes, clothes, and more clothes
I received a phone call from my mom on skype the last week of school saying a man from the states had graciously given enough money to complete a wish that the Community had for a house full of boys to receive full outfits for Christmas. The community was getting different people to sponsor each kid, so that each kid could receive a complete outfit including shoes and under garments. Then this man graciously agreed to complete the whole project, anyone that was left that did not have a sponsor. This was a huge blessing for me, as well as a huge project. Nancy was out of town when I got this phone call, so it was a project that I had to do by myself. God ALWAYS provides help even when I don’t think I will have any. This turned out to be SO much fun and very stressful, but totally worth it. I called my taxi driver Nicchola to take me shopping. He took me to the “streets of Lima” (a very dangerous area, but also very cheap). It is hard to describe what this was like. It was like markets full of certain things. Like one market would be full of clothes and as far as the eye could see vendors were selling clothes. Then the next market would be full of shoes and the same with the shoes etc. Well shopping for 212 kids buying them everything to complete an outfit took quite a bit of time as you can imagine. On top of that, I was shopping at the same time for things that the mission team needed like a sound system, 50 balls, and some other random things. It was so cool because 2 of my volunteer friends helped me. One girl, Lena from Germany helped me on this project 3 days. She even spent the night in Lima one of the nights to continue helping me. Mike from Hong Kong helped me two days. Then a teacher from the Community helped me one day and a girl that lives in the orphanage helped me shop one day as well and spent the night with me in Lima. To thank all of my helpers, one night I took them to an American restaurant “Tony Romas” in Lima. We had so much fun. Then one of the days we took a small break and played some games in an arcade in an American type mall. We had so much fun and got to build closer relationships since we worked together for several days buying clothes. We would call ourselves “Equipo pantalones,” “Equipo Zapatillos” etc. meaning Team pants or Team tennis shoes etc to put a little excitement into our next part of our project/ mission. Our goal was to find the cheapest/ good quality item for the kids that we could. Needless to say we did a lot of bargaining. Then several precious kids pulled I think 2 all-nighters with me helping me package all of the clothes into Christmas bags. I felt like we were factory workers. I would call out the name and the sizes and the kids would put the appropriate clothes in each bag. As we were doing that, other kids were helping me pump air into all the balls for Southmont and other girls were cutting string for the event we were doing in Ventanilla. It was so cool to see the willingness of the children to come together and help me when I had this huge project to do. It turned out to be such a blessing to my life for the neat individual time I got with several kids and volunteers and Nicchola, my taxi driver.


Eric, Fry, and Gina
Some of the kids that study at the community but live outside of the community invited me over for dinner at their house in December. I had known Gina since the beginning when I first got there because I went on the senior walking trip with her the year before. Their precious mom cooked a delicious meal for us. Then we watched part of one of the Chronicles of Narnia movies. It was a really fun/ relaxing night!
House Church
Nancy and I started a house church in September. We were meeting at the dentist’s office, but she told us she would not be able to come every Sunday and open up her clinic. I was first kind of upset because I only had one week to find a new place for us to meet. So, we met outside for a couple of weeks – which turned out great because more people came. Then we were able to move across the street to another house of a lady that had recently just started coming. It is a great location because she actually lives there. We meet on the second floor where there is no roof so that people can see us. We have had mainly all new people come to this location. Also, we have stopped providing lunch and crafts. This has really hurt our attendance, but the reason why we stopped is we are trying to do something that Peruvians can duplicate and house churches start multiplying from all over. In order to do that, we had to stop doing things that only Americans could provide. Now we just have a time of worship, Bible study, and fun games that are free. I am confident that the children will start coming back soon; it will just take a little bit of time for them to realize how cool it is to learn about Jesus even when there is not food involved. For Christmas, we had a really good time. We met outside, but after that we went to eat at the restaurant next to where we met and then also had a “Christmas cake” for dessert. It was a good time of fellowship and yummy food.

Christmas in Peru
I had the amazing privilege of spending Christmas in Peru. I was there alone, I mean without any other American, but I was definitely not alone. I got the amazing opportunity of spending it with 800 children. It was FABULOUS! The most simple, but probably one of the best Christmases I have ever had. The children and I got to eat some yummy chicken which we never have the opportunity to eat because it is so expensive. There was a group from Holland there that week that bought it and prepared all of it. They took the tables from the dining room outside on the basketball court and we ate chicken under the dark night sky. Miguel the director called me up to talk about the true meaning of Christmas. I was able to share from the birth to the cross to the resurrection of Jesus Christ to the entire orphanage and staff. That was a huge surprise and unexpected blessing. I had finally finished all of the clothing gifts for the children that they would receive at the beginning of January and everything that needed to be finished for the group to come in Christmas Eve afternoon right before the dinner started. Then after the dinner, I ran over to my good friend’s house where we eat on a frequent basis “the chicken shack” to say hello to their family for Christmas. Then I hurried back to the orphanage for the Christmas dance party. That lasted for about 2 hours until midnight. We danced the night away. Then at midnight we all went out to set off fireworks and give everyone their Christmas hug then back for a little bit more of dancing till about 12:45. Then the kids finally went to bed. After that at 1 am I went to visit another family that had invited me over and hung out with them till’ about 2. It is Peruvian tradition to stay up all night Christmas Eve until Christmas Day. I finally left at 2 am to go to bed. I didn’t do the full Peruvian tradition because I had stayed up all night the night before working on the clothing project. Christmas day, I just got to hang out with the kids and work on a few last minute details for the Southmont trip. It was very laid back and unlike any Christmas I have ever had before. Although, of course I celebrated the same thing I always do in the States, the birth of my Savior, Jesus Christ. It was so neat to see 800 children not receive one gift but see the smiles on their faces and their excitement to celebrate Christmas. I would venture to say they were happier than any American child I have ever seen on Christmas day.

Fliers for 12,000
Nancy, Wilfredo, and I had to make the fliers for the Southmont mission trip. On part of the fliers we also put the Christmas story and attached a lollipop. We made 3,700 fliers for the kids that we worked with on a normal basis with the Christmas story and the gospel and then we made 8,000 more fliers just inviting kids to the Southmont thing. We made the flier, did the Christmas story, translated, got 12,000 copies made, and attached lollipops to 3,700 of them all in one day thanks to help from many Peruvians. Several of which we did not even know until that day. Also, we wrote a letter thanking all of the teachers attached with a candy bar that we gave out to the public schools that we had been working in all year. Then we spent about 8 hours in a moto taxi one day passing out these fliers to any and every school we saw in the surrounding areas. We would either give the fliers to the directors or go in each school and actually pass them out. It was so cool. Then we gave them out to the schools we had been working in a time period of about 2 weeks. It was so much work, but it was so worth it in the end when 700 people came to the event we had in Ventanilla with Southmont.


Southmont Mission Trip
It was such a huge blessing to have Southmont come to Peru at the end of December. They flew in the day after Christmas. It was a great group of people. 30 people from Texas mainly from Southmont, 2 of these people being my Spanish professor and his wife. Then about 20 to 25 other people met us with a different group that was already going to be in Lima and people that lived in Lima as well. 2 of those people are some of my good missionary friends Amanda Wissman and Mark Clancy. Anyway, we were able to have small group times in each of the 15 houses for about 2 ½ hours each. This was really neat because each person from Southmont got to really connect with their group. 3 spanish speakers from Southmont and myself rotated around teaching the Bible story. It was a special time. About 30 kids that week accepted Christ so that was AWESOME! Then in the afternoon half of the group stayed in the orphanage playing games/ having a worship rally with the kids in the orphanage while the rest of the group went out into the city of Ventanilla. I got to be a part of the Ventanilla team. Nancy and I had actually passed out about 12,000 fliers inviting people to this event. It was incredible the first day to see people flocking down the sand hills to come to a basketball court in the middle of nowhere in the blazing sun just to learn about Jesus and play some games. The first day 700 people came and the second two days 500 people came. It was BEAUTIFUL. We had Hillsong blaring in Spanish, played games with the kids, sang fun songs in Spanish, and Juan Baldor shared the gospel each day. Many mothers were there and grown men were there also. People of Ventanilla are hungry to hear the truth of Jesus Christ. It was such a blessing to my life. There were about 8 people from the Southmont group that stayed with us. They helped us with our daily afternoon activities such as teaching Bible studies in the houses. We taught the story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, and we all washed the children’s feet. Also, we had two new believers Bible studies that week. One of which I taught about the words that we say basing it off of the book of James. Then Mark Clancy graciously agreed to teach another new believer’s Bible study. It was such a breath of fresh air for me to get to listen to another believer teach and just to enjoy that and not have to come up with another Bible study. That week was also the high school graduation which I will get to a little bit later. Then on New Year’s Eve, the whole group went into Mira Flores. We played NERTZ for several hours which was a blast and then watched the fireworks, and had a yummy American meal at KFC. Then on New Year’s day we all just kind of hung out and shopped until the Americans all went back to the US that night. It was an excellent week.

High School Graduation
We had the high school graduation on a Thursday night. I was so proud of all of the students who finished their high school degree. It was such a great group. They finished all of their studies amidst very hard circumstances. We had the ceremony, ate chicken, and had a dance party like every other party that we have. I had written letters that talked about their time in high school and what God would do with their time in the future, attached with a really cute watch for the girls and a sports watch for the boys. The letter had the gospel in it (Sara had so graciously translated the letter before) so it was a cool opportunity to share Christ’s love as well.
Amanda Wissman
Amanda Wissman was one of the biggest blessings in my life for the month of December and January. I met her through facebook actually after I saw that she lived in Lima, Peru. She and her husband are missionaries in Surco, a city about 2 hours away from where we live. Anyway, we met up and had lunch one day in December, and she was incredible. We had so much in common. Then she decided to help us with our mission team that was going to happen a few weeks later. Then she decided to come out and spend about a week just living daily life with me in Ventanilla. I was supposed to go on the senior hiking trip again this year but was not able to go due to circumstances that I will explain later. Anyway, she came and we had a GREAT time together. She helped me clean the volunteer house, pack all of our materials and things to move, and teach Bible studies in the houses. Along with that, we had a fun time going to check out the local market, playing card games, and watching movies. I felt like for the first time ever I got to have a girl’s sleepover in Ventanilla. Then later on I was able to go visit her a couple of times in Surco when I had things to do in the city and got to spend the night in her apt and had a pizza/ wii party. She is an incredible friend to me, and I can’t wait to get to spend more time with her when I go back to Peru.
Falling out of the bus
Well about a week before I was supposed to go with the senior class on a hiking trip through the Andes Mountains, I had a slight accident. I was getting off a combi (a local bus) and after my second step I fell over myself and basically doubled over my ankle. I just started screaming in pain. I fall/ trip a lot so I was not expecting the kind of pain I felt like this. I looked down as I was lying in a pile of sand and saw this huge balled up area all around my ankle. I was sure I had broken my ankle. Anyway after about 10 minutes some random Peruvians loaded me into a police car with Nancy and my brother who happened to be visiting at the time. My friend who worked in the pharmacy, Wilfredo, came to accompany us as well. We went to the first hospital and they seemed pretty shady, so we got a taxi to take us to another one that one of our American friends had recommended. Anyway, needless to say it was quite an adventure to say the least. I ended up just having torn some parts of the ligament in my ankle. They put a temporary cast on and then I got to learn how to use crutches in sand and on stair cases and then be wheeled around throughout Ventanilla and the orphanage in a wheel chair. It was a humbling experience to say the least. After the fact a little bit comical as well! 

Not going on the walking tour
I had this huge struggle if I should go on the walking tour or not. I had been working on walking on my ankle and had gotten permission to take off my cast earlier than I should have and practice walking so I could go on the walking tour. I was going to tough it out if I needed to because the walking tour is an excellent opportunity to share the gospel with teenagers on the trip and people from all over Peru. Anyway, it became evident that I did not have a peace about going and God had specific things for me to do during those two weeks and it took me falling over myself to keep me at the orphanage. I was able to send snack bags that I had made with the help of several Peruvians of snacks that the children could eat on their hike. I had done the same thing the year before, and it was a huge hit. I passed them out right before they embarked on their journey. During those 2 weeks I spent about 5 days working with a housing engineer working on making house plans for us to build a house in Ventanilla, got to go to the beach with the children, packed all of our belongings and teacher supplies, and also got to help one of my best friends that lived in the orphanage, and do the normal Bible studies, and house church. It really worked out for me to get to stay.
House plans
Finally after much work and many trips to see the housing engineer, we have house plans to build a house in Ventanilla. The reason for this is we want to be more available to work with the city and living inside the orphanage we cannot work with the city like we need to and also it is not fair to the orphanage. Please pray for us as we see what God wants for us and our house. When we move back in March, we will be living in a hostel until something more permanent becomes available.
Taking the kids to the arcades
While my brother was with us, we decided to take about 4 kids to the video arcade in one of the nicer towns. Evan had gotten close to two of these kids and also these 4 kids were kids that had helped us a ton in various projects that we had to do. It was so fun, I had to go in a wheel chair which was definitely interesting going on a bus in a wheel chair, but once we got there it was great. We played for about an hour in the arcade and all ate “American fast food” together. Then they all left, while I had a doctor’s apt in the same city. It was a really great day to thank our Peruvian friends for all of their help while we got to have a blast with them as well.


Evan
Evan, my brother, decided to stay for another week after the team had left. That was a huge blessing to me since I have not had the opportunity to spend much time with him over the last 5 years with me being in a different city for college and then moving to Peru. Anyway, we had a really great time together getting to play some games at night/ watching movies. He spent a lot of his time really investing in a few teenage boys there teaching them piano and doing music things with them. He also got to know a couple of the volunteers really well. I had so much fun with Evan; it was really great to just get to catch up with him and for him to see what my life is like on a daily basis. I hope he will get to come stay with me each year for a couple of weeks. I hope this is an annual tradition starting!
Beach
During my last two weeks there before I went to the States, I had the privilege of going to the beach for my first time in Peru. Little did I know that we would make the 2 ½ hour walk there with 200 kids. It really was a BLAST once we got there. This was during summer vacation time so most of the kids were visiting their families. These 200 kids were kids that did not go home for vacation and a lot of new kids that had just gotten dropped off. It was just a great time to really hang out with the children and splash around in the water and build sand castles etc.
Moving
Amanda like I said earlier helped me move out of the orphanage. It was quite a job packing up all the school materials etc. It took us all day to pack all of the stuff and 3 taxi rides full of stuff to move it all. Some of our Peruvian friends helped us and made the process a lot easier. We really do have such great friends in Peru which I am so thankful for.
Jessica
A girl came up to me during one of the Bible studies and wanted to talk with me about something. She ended up telling me she had been wearing her salvation bracelet and had had the opportunity to share what it meant to several people around in her university prep class. Then she was able to give a Bible away. She was talking to me because she had given away all of the salvation bracelets that she had and her only Bible. I promised her that I would give her more to give away. She has not yet accepted Christ as her Savior but is still excited to tell others about Him. I can’t wait till she decides to give her own life to Christ, and I am so proud of her courage to share about Jesus with her classmates.
Talking with the kids about their decision to follow Christ
In January, Nancy and I talked with the majority of kids that had given their life to Christ over the span of this year and just really made sure they understood it again. We talked to over 100 children/ teenagers. It was crazy but awesome as well. We talked with them as well about seeing if they wanted to follow the Lord in believer’s baptism and the majority of them wanted to do that as well. We are excited for how many kids have decided to follow Jesus Christ this year and what is going to come in the future
Prayer Requests
Please pray for us as we do not know where we will be living next year and for the new type of ministries that God has for us starting in March including house churches/ teaching in the orphanage/ public school ministries/ and our house plans. We appreciate so much the prayers of the body of believers.

Oct/ Nov in PERU!

Disclaimer: My blog is really long and random, feel free to skip around, do not feel obligated to read the whole thing! Love you guys!

As I am sitting here writing…I am thinking how blessed I am to have a computer that now works, while I am listening to an amazing CD – Klaus that my mom so graciously gave me. Such an incredible CD…you should check it out. Wow, I feel like I have so much to write about, even though it has only been one week. Last night, I was just overwhelmed in a good way about how many crazy many ministry opportunities God has given us here. I was in the clinic last night around 10:00 working with Nancy on finishing making crafts for a school activity that we had today. Anyway, as I was leaving I saw a woman in the lobby, and I just felt the need to share with her the gospel. Anyway, I proceed to go back into the clinic (to be honest not really wanting to share and wanting to go to bed more), and I come to find out she is a neighbor of a lady that is dying of cancer. Anyway, she had come to help bring her neighbor to the hospital because she was having difficulty breathing. Just as I was getting to start to talk to her, the doctor called her in to help. I was like great…..there goes that opportunity. Then I thought, I will just write them a letter….so I wrote a letter. Then the doctor came out to talk with the security guard and I, I started talking to her about the patient and had the opportunity to go in with the doctor. What I saw, was so incredible saddening….probably an 80 year old struggling to even breathe. I have never heard someone breathe so terribly. My desire was to share Jesus with this family. Then the atheist doctor asked me if I wanted to tell them anything that would bring them more peace. Well of course…..I was able to pray with them for their mom who was very much dying. Also, I was able to share the gospel with the other two well adults. God even uses atheist to open up doors to share the gospels with others. Incredible……..anyway, I was able to get their address…so that soon as in the next week I can bring them a meal or something. I left the hospital thinking a few things…..one that I am a little scared about all of the smoke that I am around in the volunteer house…….but mainly thinking of how many amazing ministry opportunities there are here. Hospital ministry (chaplins), teaching abandoned kids, getting to know the faculty, working with the kids outside the community etc. I am overwhelmed by all the opportunities God gives here. I was thinking to myself part of me never wants to leave from inside the actual orphanage….because most likely I would not be in the clinic past 10 at night if I didn’t live here. Then God gave me the thought…what if we could raise up leaders here to have specific ministries here. A group of teenage Christians here that could share the gospel with those in the hospital and pray for those that are in such desperate need of prayer. That would be so much cooler and the gospel could spread even faster in that way. Anyway, please be in prayer of that for ministry teams to start………I think we are just around the corner for that to start. Wow…that is only like 20 minutes of the week…I still have much to write about, but right now I have to go teach English. I will come back soon and finish the rest of the week.
Okay, I am back, I am going to write from Tuesday night backwards. Anyway, this week has been a little weird in the fact that we have not been working at the schools this week because of random closings, volleyball tournaments, and exams. This has given me some extra free time to get ready other things. Nancy graciously decided to invite some volunteers to go with us to the market. I was being selfish and wanted for us to just go….but it turned out to be really neat. Which brings me to the point there is new volunteers in the house right now. It is hilarious how God always gives you the desires of your heart. I was just telling Nancy how I missed people from Mexico because I used to work with them all the time in Mission Arlington. Like literally the next day, a volunteer came from Mexico. She is the sweetest older lady and she is going to teach me how to make taco shells. I AM SO EXCITED. TACOS are my favorite food. Anyway, so they went with us and we bought things to make tacos and bought a ton of cookies and juice bags for the rest of the month of October for the public schools. Once again, I was being selfish and Nancy was being generous, I bought ice cream and coke to make coke floats. They do not have just plain ice cream in Ventanilla where we live ……..and I was thinking Nancy and I could make a quick coke float while we were waiting on the other volunteers and she said we should share. I am so glad Nancy was keeping me in check for all my selfishness, we ended up making coke floats outside of the grocery store with the other volunteers. The new volunteer from France said it was one of the best days of her life! I guess she like the coke float haha. Then we got to take over the ice cream to our neighbor’s house and let them experience their coke float as well; it was so much fun. By the end of the day I had had 3 small coke floats. Of course, I had to drink them with all of the people who had never had them before. The people from Peru absolutely loved them. Anyway, it was a great day of shopping for cookies, taco things, and drinking coke floats. More than that it was cool just getting to share life with others and continue to build relationships. Two funny things that happened yesterday as well, was when I was buying 1,500 packages of cookies, I broke the glass window at the kiosk and had to pay for it! That was quite embarrassing but luckily it was only about 7 dollars. Also, when we were at our neighbor’s house, or otherwise known as the “chicken shack” to some, we went into the kitchen for the first time to wash our dishes. They have just recently purchased a microwave, meaning that at times I might be able to buy freezer food and use their microwave to heat up some things like chicken nuggets. I was super excited. I feel a little dumb that this whole paragraph has been about food……but when you live in the middle of a “desert” sometimes the small things in life excite you. Anyway…

To more important things, house church went amazing this past Sunday! We found out kind of last minute that we were going to have to meet outside because the dentist had to vote, and she decided to not to give us her key. I was kind of irritated to be honest because all of our chairs and everything were inside there. I was thinking maybe we should not invite any new people and just let the normal people come since we will be outside literally on the ground. As, I am writing this I see that Nancy has given me much great advice this week. She said we should still invite them as normal. So we did! The most came than ever, 26 people came. More people came because we were outside, even people from other towns! It was crazy. Nancy, kept on inviting people as they walked by and more and more kept coming. It was such a great day. We were outside for about 2 hours on 3 blankets, and it was so fun to see Dad’s coloring crosses, people from rich towns come sit on blankets in the sand to hear about the Savior. INCREDIBLE. I have a new motto, “blankets, sandwiches, and Jesus” is all you need for people to come hear about the Savior. That morning on our way to buy the lunch for house church, I saw a huge line of people, the thought came to me that maybe it would have been more beneficial for us to spend our time with these people that were forced to stand in line because it was election day. In Peru, it is mandatory to vote. Well anyway, after church Nancy and I decided that we would take the extra bracelets with the arrows that share the gospel to all those that were forced to stand in line to vote. We were there for about 2 ½ hours getting to give bracelets to everyone and their mom and sharing the gospel with them. Even the army that was there guarding the doors and the police officers. It was so neat. I think it really touched some people. I have already received a thank you e-mail from one girl thinking her for the paper bracelet I gave her. We are hoping those will be seeds planted on fertile soil. God is always flinging open opportunities for us here. We can’t keep up with God. He is so good and so faithful! Saturday, I was kind of having a lazy day, but then I got movin’ and went to Liz’s house to see if she would help me grade tests in Spanish. We ended up getting a little side tracked and watched a great movie together “Letters to God” (thank you Katie, loved the movie)). It was good to get to spend some time with Liz because normally our schedules are too busy to ever even see each other. Then one of the coolest things happened after that. Alvaro, the religion teacher who became a Christian about two months ago came to the community for us to plan his class together. We went and downloaded the mission Arlington curriculum. We downloaded the last 8 lessons for the last 8 weeks of this school year. Then we planned together. I showed him how to use the felt board, verse games, jeopardy, and everything. He says it has been going awesome this week. That the kids love it! He says his class that he normally has with really bad kids responded to this great. He is super excited. From now on, we are going to plan together every week. Praise God, TRUTH is being taught now to the high schoolers. He is going back to the basics…the life of Jesus and sharing the gospel. How neat to see God use a new believer share with the lost. God has just been pouring out the blessings. Which leads me to this past week. About 40 children, gave their lives to the Lord. The Holy Spirit was moving in a miraculous way. We were talking about in one of my classes how Jesus has ultimate power over evil and he showed us that when he defeated death and rose again. Then, I was sharing the gospel like normal, and one girl asked how can I ask Jesus into my heart? Then it all started. About 10 kids decided to put their faith in Jesus right then and there. I talked with them individually and they made decisions each on their own. Then I was telling my other classes what happened in that class and more wanted to give their lives to Christ. This kept on happening in all of my classes. Also, some kids just had tons of questions and wanted to get them answered or just wanted to confide in me about problems in their life. It was such a sweet sweet week last week. This Saturday we will be starting a new believers Bible study since now we have about 50 believers in the community. The kids are really excited. It is so neat to see God drawing people to himself. I feel like we are at a turning point here. Kids are finally starting to understand the Truth! I feel like kids and adults are about to start to come to know the Lord in a more massive way than before. I am just waiting to see what God does. Mission Peru here we come!!! God has really been giving me a vision for this area in Peru.

Okay….so I left of this blog like three weeks ago and SO much has happened since then. I can’t even remember all of it. I am so bad at blogging, please forgive me. Anyway, trying to think of the highlights to tell you from the month of October and the first part of November. Wow, time flies. Anyway, God has been at work still drawing people to himself, I think about 60 have come to know him total in the past month. It is so cool to see God doing an incredible work bringing people to himself. Every kid that accepted Christ prayed with their own words. It was so incredible to see the faith of these kids. One of my kids that is in the second grade, but is old for his grade prayed this prayer (translated in English)

God,

I know that I have sins. I pray that you would free me from my sins. I want to be with you. I don’t want to be with the devil, I want to be with you. I want to be with you, and I don’t want to be with the devil and I want you to free me from my sins. I believe in you that you are God and God’s son and died and rose again, free me from my sins.
Amen

It so touched my heart. The kids are really learning the truth. One kid came to me after he accepted Christ and was super worried that the devil was putting bad thoughts in his head, but we got to talk about the assurance of his salvation. I have watched one of my worst girls attitude completely change after she accepted Christ. Last week, a girl came up to me and asked me if I went to mass. I told her no, and she asked me why and I told her that I did not believe the things they taught. This girl had accepted Christ a couple of weeks before. We talked about how the Bible is a much better of a teacher. She said well then if I don’t go to mass, can I come to the volunteer house and read the Bible with you because I am scared to stay in my house alone. Then she said she does not have a Bible, I proceeded to give her the one I had in my hand and challenged her to read the book of John, 1 chapter of day. She was so EXCITED! Then she started reading it right then and there. So, I changed my mind and told her to read 2 chapters a day. She said when I finish this, do I read all the rest, meaning all the rest of the new testament and then start at the front. I told her to tell me when she finished, and then we would talk about the next book to read. Kids are still asking all the time for the picture Bibles that so many of you graciously sent, but so cool now to see Elementary kids now wanting to read the ACTUAL BIBLE. One of my other elementary kids, told me how he had read the whole picture Bible and a lot of the stories I taught in class were in there. I explained that of course because I was teaching out of the book of Matthew. He then proceeded to ask me for a Bible so he could read the stories that we have been learning. He is hungry for God’s word. God has been showing me through my mom, the kids hunger for the Word, and just what I know about how powerful that the Word of God that is extremely important for these people to read his Word. I am assuming most of the people that are reading this blog right now are American Christians who likely have 5 Bibles sitting on your shelf at home collecting dust. I am saying that not to stereotype but because I was guilty of the same thing. People here are dying to read the Word of God. They literally are also dying spiritually because they have never heard the truth. I would encourage you, a challenge to clean all the Bibles out of your house besides one that you read and give them to someone who doesn’t have the Word of God. I am going to share a few more Bible stories with you as well. After, I got done teaching the big boy bible study, a boy followed me to my house and asked about proclaimers. Wendy Ball so graciously got us in contact with these radio boxes that read the new testament in Kechua, Spanish, or English. He was wondering if he could have one to give to his grandma who lives in Cuzco who speaks Kechua. He explained that she could not read, but would love to listen to the Bible because she goes to church and really wants to read the Bible and for other members of the church that have the same issue. I was so thrilled that even teenage boys were interested in people reading the Word of God. Nancy brought more back from the states last week so hopefully we will be able to send one of them with him to Cuzco. Another girl asked me for a charger so she could plug in her proclaimer because her hand got tired of winding it up. So encouraging, it just shows me that is actually listening and really wants to continue. Sorry, last Bible story. I was at my favorite restaurant the chicken shack, when I felt like God really wanted me to share the gospel with a man that was sitting there. I shared with him, then went over to his wife and kid in the car. The real reason why I was supposed to share with this man was so I could talk with his son. His mom proceeded to share with me, that her son loved to learn about God. I asked if they had a Bible and they said no like mostly everyone says around here. I gave the little 8 year old a Bible and you should have seen his face light up! He was ecstatic. Pray that God’s word would fall on very fertile soil with all the people that now have Bibles.
Sorry, my blog is so random. I was thinking I don’t think I have very much to write about, but then I am remembering so many things that have happened over this past month! So Crazy! Okay, next random story….. Well, apparently China messed up in producing these stuffed animals puppets for Bembos which is like the Peruvian McDonalds. The wrong tag was on the wrong stuffed animal probably because the Chinese people that were doing it don’t know Spanish. Anyway, a friend of Miguel’s brought it to the Community to do. He brought 90,000 stuffed animals to redo. The process for this is to open the bag, take off the tag carefully off of all 90,000. Then retag all 90,000 put them back in bags, heat seal the bag, and pack them. It took about 4 days, with a couple of nights as well. It was really so much fun! I LOVE factory type work. Why? Because you don’t have to think, you just do the same thing over and over again. I am sure it would get old after a while, but I really enjoyed it. Highlights of staying up all night one night putting together stuff animals: 1) Got to share the gospel with the man that brought this work to us. He seemed really open to it, talking about how I have a joy etc that he has not seen. I explained it was the Holy Spirit. Then he proceeded to ask my age and he was trying to see if I could date him…it was really funny. Turns out he is 20 years older than me. After he found out it would never work, then he proceeded to show me pics of his kids. One of his kids being my age. Pretty comical! 2) I got to hang out with some really awesome university students and to get to know them better like all night long haha 3) I got to hang out with the director, Miguel, which was cool since normally I never see him because he is so busy. I have really good memories of that night getting to joke all night long with some new University students that I had not known before, but I was super tired the next day for class.

Okay, man I am jumping all over the place, but way earlier in this blog, I talked about the new Mexican volunteer and making tacos. Well, the day after we went shopping for taco things, there were a few things that we could not find in the market such as sour cream. Nancy and I had the privilege of being able to attend some of our missionary friend’s Bible study in the city of Surco. Surco is more like a downtown dallas (the nice part) compared to Ventanilla being more like the outskirts of Dallas aka the ghetto. Anyway, I say that to say that Surco has some really neat things. After Bible study, we went to an international store called Wongs. The Wong’s in Surco is the best Wongs I have ever been too. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I found TACO shells for the first time in Peru. My parents had sent me 36, but those weren’t going to last too long. I was so EXCITED! The people in the aisle probably thought I was a pshycho! Not only that but I found pickles, ranch dip, sour cream, and pretty much all of my favorite foods. It was like God was telling me, see you can live here forever. I have PROVIDED everything for you. Of course, I was already planning on staying in Peru before this shopping trip, but God was just confirming his goodness and his faithfulness! He was like see Lauren I give you the desires of your heart even down to the ranch dip. It was a really neat night followed by going to Chilis! To most who are reading this, this probably seems very shallow, but the small American things are so appreciated when you live in an orphanage way outside of most modern civilization. It is just so neat to see God provide things that aren’t even necessary but are just fun. Anyway, back to Tacos. We cooked dinner for the entire volunteer house and EVERYONE came, which normally does not happen. It was a huge hit. I was thrilled. Then the next weekend, I was able to cook Tacos and brownies for my good friends Mario and Merby and hang out at their house all Saturday. I met some people playing volleyball with them. One of the girls I met has already come by the community for help with English. It is just so crazy how everywhere we go, we meet people that want to learn about the Bible or English. Either way a good opportunity to share the good news. I also made Taco’s last weekend for the Dentist and her friend. She loved them. She is super skinny and she ate 3 tacos. So, tacos are a huge hit in Peru for me and the Peruvians. So glad I found out where I can buy taco shells!

Another fun thing that Nancy and I were able to do was take like one of favorite two people in the Community out for their birthdays. Their birthdays were on the same day, they both are amazing Christian girls. One is a very new Christian and the other one has been one for about a year and is literally leading many to the Savior. We took them to dominoes! We had a great time with them. They loved the pizza! Then that night with one of them we had a sleepover in her house. She had a great time and so did we. Speaking of birthdays, another one of the university girls’ birthdays was recently. I had sent her sisters to go buy a cake, but living in the community nothing stays a secret. The tutor of the house wanted to use the cake that I had bought for a small little birthday party for the entire house. I was irritated at first, but God turned into a really cool thing. Instead of just having a little small party for her, her whole house threw her a huge party. Then I was able to spend a really good time talking with the house parent of that house which I hadn’t talked to her in a long time. It was SO GOOD! She just talked to me about her life. Please remember to pray for the house parents. None of them except one are Christians and they are going through their own set of hardships. Even though I am busier than I have ever been since I started in Peru, God is like multiplying the time. It is incredible. I never want to be too busy to talk to people. I never want for the kids in the community to feel like I am too busy for them. I know they have felt that way at times, but lately I have really gotten to have some excellent one on one time with people. I one night got to talk to one of the Doctors for like 2 hours, it was really good because I am always trying to build relationships with the doctors, I have gotten to spend a lot of quality time with another university student that works in the pharmacy (he actually helped me in the Public school while Nancy was gone, AMAZING!), got to spend a lot of quality time with the girls that work in the kiosk. People are opening up about their lives finally it seems and man these kids are going through some hard times. Most of the times, I feel myself getting used to living with these kids and really forgetting about all they are going through. But then I am forced to remember when a girl shares with me that she has been sad since the day her uncle killed her dad. Intense. These kids need the peace that only Jesus can bring. I got to go to a church service with one of my favorite friends Alfonso. Although, everything that happened at that church service I do not agree with, it was a really sweet time of fellowship with Alfonso. We studied the Bible together and then we went to Dominoes which was super fun!
Senor de Milagros – God always uses what Satan means for evil to bring something good out of it. If anyone is reading this from Peru, I am not writing this to be offensive, just want to share some cool things that took place in the community. A big festival took place one weekend at the community. It is called “Senor de Milagros.” This was a HUGE event at the community where all these people came in and spent tons of money. Senor de Milagros is a 2 day festival to worship a picture of Jesus. Legend says, that hundreds a years ago back this same picture healed people etc. That is legend! Anyway, now every year in Peru there are huge worship fests of a picture. It broke my heart when I heard that this was going to go on in the community. Before, I even said anything about it; teens had already asked me about it, asking if I believe in it. I said no and they said we don’t either, the Bible says not to worship idols, we just believe in God. I decided that week to teach the Bible study over Exodus 20 about not having idols to the high schoolers, and it just so happened that week’s lesson for my religion class was about Mary washing Jesus feet. I was able to incorporate not worshipping idols into that lesson as well. The kids on their own brought up Senor de Milagros. I was just talking to them about idols in general. It was incredible to see God working in their hearts. Almost every kid disagreed with worshipping that idol of Senor de Milagros. Only like the 1st and 2nd grades did not understand until I explained about it being wrong. Besides two university students, none of the other kids wanted to be a part of it. It was just obligation. It was just so neat to see how God was showing these kids the Truth even when they were being forced to do something that they did not want to do. We talked about how; it is one thing to go to the ceremony and another thing to actually worship the picture. It was such a neat time to see how God is continually revealing his TRUTH to the people in the community. I purposely did not attend this event, but I feel confident in knowing that the majority of kids in the community did not worship at all this idol, but knew that they were only supposed to worship Jesus Christ himself. God is at work! The most convicting part of the whole thing, was as I was drilling into these kids about idol worship. God showed me a ton of idols that I had in my life. No not pictures, but fb, talking with friends over Him etc. He majorly laid some things in my heart that had to change. Right now, I am working on letting God remove idols out of my life. It is crazy being a teacher because normally I learn as much as the kids do or more! It was a humbling experience for me when I realized I was so upset about this idol worship ceremony that was going to take place when I had several of my own idols in my life.

As I mentioned, I taught the story of Mary at Bethany when she anoints Jesus with perfume. It was such a neat time in my classes because we acted it out. I had a kid be Jesus and I as Mary and I actually washed their feet with perfume and my hair. Hopefully, the point was shown that Mary truly loved Jesus with everything she had. Let’s just say I took lots of showers that week!
Right after Nancy left for her time in the states, I decided I have to get everything ready for the rest of the year to surprise Nancy and just so I can have sanity! One of the girls in the community helped me a ton, another house helped me cut string, and my English house helped me cut string as well. After about 60 hours or more of collective work! I finished with the help of many all of my religion class lessons, church lessons, bible studies for the community, English lessons, and public school lessons. All I have left is to get Alvaro’s lessons in order (the new Christian teacher) and the new believer Bible study in order. It was a huge encouragement to me to finish these things. Speaking of schools, we are now in all of the schools finally. We have had two sessions of High School ASP with Pedro Planes and about 50 high schoolers have come. We are hoping for more, but 50 is a good start. We also changed our schedule at one of the other schools so that we will be going into individual classrooms. I am excited about this new plan so that the kids will understand better in smaller groups. Please pray for discernment for us as we plan for next year and actually being in the schools actual schedule of classes. Please pray that Nancy and I will know exactly what schools to be in and how to be involved in each particular school!

House church is going phenomenal. I am falling in love with the children of Puente Piedra. I was late 2 Sundays and did not have time to go around and invite people, but they came anyway even bringing new friends. They are so consistent and so faithful to bring new friends. Last week as I was inviting people, I found out where some of our kids live. They actually are the kids of the owners of all the little shops nearby. It was so humbling to know that kids from stores all over are coming to church. Some really neat people have come to church lately. The girl that sold me my cell phone came and also my good friend and taxi driver came for the first time 2 weeks ago. We also had a really neat Christian family came, the kid brought his mp3 with Spanish Hillsong on it! It was super sweet. Also, one week an elderly Baptist pastor came. God is really working in this house church. Please pray that Doris the Dentist would be able to take over this house church soon, so another one can be started!

Last weekend on Sunday, I saw lots of people that looked like they were from Cuzco. Normally, there are hardly any parents from Cuzco because it is so far away. Well, I walked by two ladies that seemed familiar, and they were people I knew! It was SO CRAZY! Almost a year ago, when I first came to Peru I went on a walking tour and I met these two ladies in this remote mountain village in Arequipa and spent a ton of time talking with them and gave them salvation bracelets. I was able to reunite with them, they asked for more bracelets. I gave them the arrow salvation bracelets this time. Honestly, I was really tired and wanted to take a nap instead of talk to these people from Arequipa but God continued to open up incredible doors. I was able to meet some more people and give out more bracelets. Before I knew it I had the opportunity to share the gospel to this huge group of people from Arequipa that had come on a field trip with one of the schools to the Community. I even got to give the mayor a salvation bracelet. God is so cool. It is so crazy how many people in Peru God has put back in my life when I thought I would never see them again.
One more random story…..a lady came in the clinic last week. Her daughter had escaped from the community. The interesting part about this lady was she was deaf, mute, and could not read. Years ago when I was five I took sign language lessons. I was able to communicate with her in sign language and share the gospel. It was so neat. God is really impressing on my heart about learning all sorts of languages so that you can communicate with anyone that comes into your path the good news of Jesus. But first, I must conquer Spanish. haha

So sorry, my blog is so long…..Almost done. Nicolette’s wedding! One of our friends from Australia that has lived at the community for four years and has been the tutor of the Santa Rosa house had an emergency with her fiancee’s health and they needed to go back home. They had planned to get married this January in the community, but they had to go back home yesterday. So what happened….did they have to cancel the wedding?!? Of course not, they just had to plan it in three days and transport the ENTIRE community to their wedding 2 hours away. It was quite an adventure. It was a beautiful wedding, everyone pitched in and literally the entire wedding was planned in 3 days. Nancy and I were able to help by going out late the night before to buy sandals for the bridesmaid. It was quite a comical 2 ½ hour shopping trip bargaining with little vendors in the market. Nicolette was an awesome help to the community, so selfless, we are all sad to see her go, but her wedding was amazing!

Okay a few last thoughts that I would like to leave you with. This past week, God has just shown me that he is a God that GIVES AND TAKES AWAY! Blessed be HIS name! I was just reminded of God’s great faithfulness. I was talking to one of my dear friends and it became apparent to me for the theme of my life this year and for so many others that are close to me that God gives and He takes away, but he is always still faithful! Blessed be his name. For a short example, God took away my homeland the USA – but brought me to even a great country Peru! He took away my favorite ministry at the time apartment ministry in the States, but GAVE me a ministry to 1,000s of Peruvian people. He allowed many of my good friends to go on with their own lives, but GAVE me a great new support system and great new friends and even reunited with me old friends form the past. At first I had a great sadness here, but HE GAVE me a great joy. I could continue for pages about the faithfulness of God, but you get the point. He is so GOOD and Faithful. There is no need to worry about the problems that you might be facing (easier said than done) because He is an incredible God, who will prove to be faithful up till’ the very end!

PERUVIAN CHALLENGE: Last but not least. I would like to challenge all of you who are reading this blog not to buy Christmas presents this year for your friends or family members. I am going to take part in this as well and use that money to help people hear the gospel around the world. I am biased with Peru, but use the money to help reach people for the Lord in whatever country. I know this is asking a lot, but God is calling believers to be RADICAL! People are dying to hear the word of God. Peruvians are so hungry for the word of God, but unfortunately Bibles cost money, Peruvians are hungry for actual food as well. There are so many needs. I would challenge you to have a different Christmas this year! The challenge is NO PRESENTS – but to use the money that you would spend on PRESENTS to help bring the PRESENCE of Jesus into people’s lives all around the world. If you want to take part in this challenge and want to help the people of Peru, you can give to Southmont Baptist Church. 2801 Pennsylvania Ave Denton, TX 76205

YOU GIVE AND TAKE AWAY! LORD BLESSED BE YOUR NAME!!!!