Extreme Makeover Peruvian Style

The first night that we lived here.
Chili's after the surprise for Nancy!
Nicchola's first time at Chili's!
Woo Hoo Extreme Makeover!
I came back to Peru after furlough towards the middle end of March. When we came back, we did not know where we would be living. I stayed with Amanda and Shaun Wissmann for about 4 days while I was working on my residency. Then I moved in with a sweet family for about a week and a half. Nancy and I love this family, but the main problem is they lived too far away from where we needed to work. It was too dangerous to work late at night and get back to their house. So one night, Nancy and I went with the Ventanillan police to look for places to stay to rent that would be closer to where we needed to work. Each place that we went in was super shady and looked like the second you left your room all the other people that were renting rooms would steal your stuff. I was honestly pretty discouraged at the situation, living in a place that was way out where we did not know anyone, but then at the same time not being able to find a safe place to live. The next day, I called one of my closest Peruvian friends Nichola to come pick me up because he is a taxi driver and to see what we could find. He went to a pharmacy on the corner to ask about places that were for rent. The pharmacist sent us down the street. We did not know exactly where she was talking about, so we decided to ask some ladies that were on the porch, and they said they were renting the second floor of their house. Wow, it was a miracle. Nichola and I went in and looked and I knew right then that was the place that God had provided for us. At the time the electricity was not installed and there was not a level floor, but the owner did that for us the following week. God honestly completed all the desires of our heart for where we wanted to live:
A safe place, a place where we could host company, running water, and electricity
He even provided more than just that, amazing neighbors that literally watch out for us all the time. The lady that we are renting from just lost her 25 year old daughter 2 months ago due to a brain aneurism. She is in a time of despair right now, and God has provided us the opportunity being 2 girls that are in our twenties to be able to get to minister to a hurting mom. They are always checking on us and are honestly the friendliest people we could ever live by. Her sister is also our next door neighbor.
When we moved in the house, there was absolutely nothing in there. There was one utility sink, a toilet, a shower, and the day before they had put in a bathroom sink. Everything else was just cement walls. I am not complaining at all, I just wanted to describe how the house was when we found it. Nancy and I then spent the next week going to markets and stores trying to buy Peruvian furniture. It was a little difficult trying to buy things that were Peruvian and to make sure that we were not putting too much of our American culture into it. Before Nancy left for her trip to Germany, we had bought the majority of things for the house. Another miracle, while I was home in the states, people from all over Texas gave financially to our work in Peru and with that money we were able to move and furnish our house. God is so good, he always provides.

Anyway, one of the biggest tasks of all this move was all the materials that Southmont Baptist Church had left with us over all the times they had come to Peru in this last year. They always left with us all of their left over supplies. We had used almost all of them this year, but then they came again at the end of January and left a TON of stuff, all of which we are very grateful for….but the question is where to put it? Also, I wanted to count all the materials to be ready for whatever project God would call us to next. Anyway, I say all of this to say that when Nancy left for Germany the house was an absolute wreck. It was not from a lack of not working very hard on it together, it was just because there was more than we get done in one week. I was very discouraged as she was leaving for the airport because basically all we had time to do together was put together the beds, and buy the majority of the stuff for the house, and nothing else. We had spent the whole time shopping for the furniture for the house but not unpacking, organizing the materials, or constructing the other furniture. You would think by now that I would have learned this lesson that God always provides and to not have a bad attitude about things.
As I was driving with Nancy to the airport, I was letting myself get bitter about how much I had left to do. Then my mom encouraged me that God was providing great help for me and that I needed to change my attitude because my good friend Amanda Wissmann (a fellow missionary that lives in Lima) was going to come spend a week with me while Nancy was gone. Amanda Wissmann is a gift from God in every way. She is the one who helped me move in January before going back to the states, and once again she was willing to help. She is one of the hardest workers I have ever met, she works circles around me, and she is the queen at organizing!
Within 11 days of Nancy being gone, God did a huge miracle and expanded our time. We were able to go and pick out doors, get four doors installed, find a kitchen sink install it, construct cabinents, finish the upholstery for the couches, put curtains up, paint our bedroom, paint 2 verses on the columns, paint all the columns, count and organize ALL the materials Southmont had left, unpack everything, wash all the dishes, clean, install everything in the kitchen, make a library of books to check out for the people we minister to, and do a huge surprise for Nancy all at the same time. We had been “joking” with Nancy and had convinced her that we had not had time to do anything on the house, and it was just like she had left it. She believed it. I have never had to lie so much in my life, but in the end I was going to tell her the truth. I am not promoting lying! 
Anyway, we decided to call this Peruvian extreme makeover! Almost every day, Nicchola, our dear friend, came over to install and construct all kinds of things. We had so much fun! Everyday, we would get up and work all day and sometimes until the next morning until we would finish a certain project. We honestly finished everything 10 minutes before Nancy came home. Amanda had made cookies and cake. We had a big banner that said “You have been chosen for Extreme Make Over Nancy Lane.” She was so surpised! We had pulled it off only with God’s strength and grace, the biggest surprise that I have ever been a part of. What in the beginning, I thought was going to be a burden, turned out to be an amazing time with 2 of my dearest friends Amanda and Nicchola! I got to see team work play out at its finest! All three of us had different things to offer to finish the project and with God’s strength we finished! It was a beautiful 11 days and such a blessing to be a part of it. We did little fun things all throughout the 11 days, like drink coke floats (it was Nicchola's first time), play phase 10, watch movies at the end of the day, and just a lot of laughing! After Nancy arrived and we gave a tour, we all went to Chilis! It was Nicchola's first time, and he LOVED it! What a blessing! If you would like to see pictures, I can e-mail them to you.

A beautiful time of discipleship

For Privacy reasons, I will not be using the name of the actual person I am talking about. I will be calling him John.
John told me that he really just had this desire to meet with one of our friends and fellow missionaries, Mark Clancy. We only have a few missionary friends here, but they have been such great friends to us so we are frequently are talking about them. John had met Mark last December when the team was down from Southmont. I think they cae bien (meaning they hit it off – their personalities click). I still though did not really know why John had such a desire to meet with Mark, yet looking back I know it was because of what the Holy Spirit wanted to teach John that night and for John to see what a Christian man looks like. I am not sure John has ever really known a Christian man, the only Christian examples he has had teaching him have been us (2 young white girls). Anyway, so Mark came out to Ventanilla and all four of us just sat down for a time of discussion and reading the Bible.
John shared his testimony with Mark about how he had been looking for God for years that is why he studied 11 years to be a priest. He did not find God in being a Catholic missionary or studying to be a priest because he had never put his faith fully in Jesus he just did a lot of things that he was told to do. Anyway, he left that pursuit and just started living his life being a professor and raising a family trying to do good things to bring glory to himself for being a good person. In about March or April of 2010, I started having weekly discussions/ Bible studies with him. They were more like fights, and I could not stand them. I remember one time I went back to my room and cried, but the Lord was working on his heart in an incredible way. Kelly Dillon came to Peru to visit me, and she went to one of our weekly discussions. God used what Kelly said to really change everything that John believed before. He always says the question that hit him was when Kelly said to him “Are you with Christ or are you not?” He said that just sent him into a whirl wind of thought and hit him at the core. About 2 weeks later when he was at his house alone, he gave his life to Christ. The months since then have been a marvelous sight to watch. He has stood firm for his faith, he has not participated in idol worship when everyone around him is doing it, he has stood up for Christ till’ the point of losing very important things in his life, he has stayed faithful during many trials, and now he boldly proclaims the gospel.
Mark shared many passages with John, some on the early church since that is our mission to do church planting, talking about how there were house churches represented all throughout the passage of Romans 16, talked about how we are weak on our own but we are strong in Christ and after someone believes in Christ they are now a precious child of God. John was so intrigued by how Mark taught him because he always read everything he taught directly from scripture. Mark seemed to have the whole Bible memorized. John shared many ideas with Mark and Mark shared many ideas with John. The majority of the night was spent on our new identity in Christ as believers how the old is gone and Jesus has changed us into a new creation and looking at what the early church looked like. It was a time of encouragement for everyone that was involved. For me personally, it was so refreshing to just get to listen and not have to teach for once. It was so incredible for the first time to get to see a man minister to a man. Since our team is made up of 2 girls, it was so neat to see the dynamics of how impactful it is for a Christian man to minister to another Christian Man. On that note, please continue to pray that more and more Peruvian men will come to know Christ and join us in the work of sharing the gospel all over Peru. It was a huge encouragement to me that another fellow missionary that lives in a city an hour and a half away would take the time to come and pour into someone that is a part our team. That really blessed my heart as well.
After that we all sent down to eat a yummy chicken dinner from the restaurant down the street, helped John get his lesson plans ready for the following day for his classes in the school where he is teaching the Bible, and celebrated early Mark Clancy’s birthday. We had a surprise birthday cake for him! The whole night was just a joy to be a part of!

Totally mind blowing Tuesday

Dear friends,

Thank you so much for praying for us in Peru. God is doing an incredible work here and in my heart. I know it is only because the prayers of His people and the work of the Holy Spirit. I know I just wrote on Sunday, but I really am trying to keep things more updated this year. Anyway, on Monday Nancy and I finished doing some shopping to move into our house hopefully in the next few days. I was honestly kind of depressed on Monday. Our friends in Surco were busy with other things and could not hang out and we have not gone back to the Community yet to hang out because we have to get some things settled first. I was thinking to myself after a year of being here, it is like I do not know anyone all over again. I have not gotten to hang out with my old friends from Ventanilla because we are staying with a friend in another city, I have not gotten to hang out with the kids from the community whom I love like part of my own family, and I did not have an opportunity to see my friends in Surco. I was getting down about how I didn`t know what God had for me to do and how to do it, even though I knew I just needed to trust in Him. I know it sounds so stupid because God continues to prove himself faithful. Anyway, Monday, I was in a blah mood. Nichola came and picked us up from Surco and we had a great time on the way home from Surco with him. Then Nancy had a great idea to go hang out with the family that we are living with right now. We watched a movie together, ate together, and helped the younger kids with their homework. It was really good to finally get to know the family that I had been living with for the past week.

Tuesday morning rolled around, and I slept in late. I am sure that is not a surpise for those of you who know me well. :) Anyway, I had received a message from one of my dear friends that needed help with some documents. I met up with Alvaro around 12 noon, and together we went on a mission to work on somethings for one of my dear friends. God, literally opened up many doors to get the things that we needed for this situation. While we were going from city to city, Alvaro began to point out all of the cities that we could have house churches in. We started talking about ideas and strategies. We decided that we would take a combi one day and just go explore all the nearby cities. Here in the Ventanilla area there is like a different city or zone literally every five minutes. He showed me where the poorest of the poor go and eat trash in the middle of the night, we talked with a lady who knows in the city where girls get sold for prostitution, and my heart was just burdened for the injustice that happens right where we live.

I was talking to Alvaro about how it has been totally new and different for me to only live in the power of the Lord and not in my own power. He talked to me how he noticed I had changed. I say that not to be proud, but that God has to be doing something for him to notice that. All glory to God. Alvaro said, ¨Lauren give me time, I made a mistake for deciding to teach history classes as well. ¨That was a decision of my human nature. He explained that he would not be able to teach about Jesus in his history classes. This kind of mission (church planting) needs to be 100 % of our focus. ¨I reminded him that it has taken me almost 20 years to figure out, and which I am still figuring out how to rely on God. I told him that I had noticed a lot of changes in him and how I was excited that he was ready to tell people about Jesus. He shared with me that he wanted to announce the good news everywhere. I noticed only months ago he was ashamed or at least worried of what people would think of his beliefs, and now He is ready to tell the world. He also told me that he had gotten a video at the Christian bookstore in the market. I didn`t realize until later on that he had gotten it this past Sunday. He went to the store asking the owner if he had any videos on Peter and Paul. This new mission of starting house churches had intrigued Alvaro´s heart and he wanted to learn more about it. He had already told me previously that this is how the Christian movement was started, but I did not know how serious he was about it. He asked me if I wanted to watch it before Nancy came over. He said it was only 40 minutes. What I did not understand was that it was in sections and the first part was only 40 minutes. It ended up being a 4 hour long video. It was one of the best things I have ever watched. The movie in depth went into the journey of Paul and Peter. It basically outlined what our ministry should look like. It was incredible. To top it off, Alvaro made popcorn for us, and we had a movie ministry night!

After that, Alvaro, started to share his heart and his strategy for reaching the people of Peru. A lot of things were Catholic things he had done before when he was young training to be a priest. He talked about a year long experience he had had working with people that no one else wanted to work with. He explained that for that year he only taught about Jesus and not about the Catholic church. He said after that year, it was like impossible for him to go back to doing the things of the Catholic church and that is why he had to split ways. God, was already working on his heart years ago. He said, ¨I would venture to say that everyone that was in that one year project does not work with the church anymore.¨That really hit me because it was more as if God was speaking to me, not just about the Catholic church but the Christian church as well. It was as if God was speaking to my heart showing me that an experience of church planting movements and true miracles from the Lord will probably not be in the confines of a regular traditional church and that God is calling us out of that. I am not saying that God does not work in regular traditional churches, but I know that He is calling this team to something different than that. Also, Alvaro, talked about how he could relate with Paul so well because just like Paul was so entrenched in Jewish tradition and religion, Alvaro was the same with the Catholic religion. God saved Paul and God saved Alvaro. I know that God is going to use Alvaro to reach the people of Peru because Alvaro has been there with the people and knows what it is like to be entrenched in religion and not have a relationship with Jesus Christ.

It was amazing because for the first time yesterday the tables reversed. Alvaro encouraged me in my faith and the vision the Lord has put before us. He talked to us about what our strategy would be, would we go work with the extreme cases or would we work with the families. He said I believe the Lord is leading me to work with the families. He said we would have to pray about it. I totally agreed, right now the Lord is definitely calling us to the families, and He will show us in his time how to minister to the extreme cases of the drug addcits, prostitution houses, etc. I thought it was exremely wise that he would bring up the extreme cases because Alvaro and I normally always like to run straight to the extreme things and not necessarily the things the Lord has called us to. We like to tackle the big projects, but this time we know that God will take us there in his timing. For right now, God is calling us to work with families, Casa to Casa. Also, we talked a lot about the team from FBC Mansfield that is coming in June. We talked about strategy and the way the Lord was going to open up so many doors for us in that one short week that would help us with our church planting ministry. We are excited to see how God is going to use a small team of young people from the states to make a huge eternal diffence here.

The Lord has grown Alvaro in unexplainable ways in the past few months while we have been gone. He talked about how he felt so good yesterday, it was 9:30 at night but he felt relaxation and peace. Normally, Alvaro and I are the type that run ourselves ragged, but God has been showing him at the same time the power of his Spirit. I can`t count how many times Alvaro said this has to be something that the Spirit does, and we do not do. He said we are only the instruments, the mediators, but God is doing the work. Then we had our first team of three prayer time. We were for the first time in one year all united under the same thought and vision. It was a beautiful night. A chord of three cannot be easily be broken.

Trying to Recount the Miracles God has already done!

Hi friends, I have been back in Peru a week and a half now, and it is crazy to look back on the things God has been doing. I can not believe the amount of miracles God has done in my life in the past week and a half. I know people all over have been praying for me, and I so appreciate it. To start out, I get on the plane from my layover in Houston to Peru, and I for free got first class. My mom had given me enough miles so that I could get a free plane ticket to Peru, with her ticket I got this is awesome first class seat. I was so shocked when the stewardess would come by like every moment offering something to drink or eat. I got to eat filet minon for free! Also, I had the blessing of sitting by a man that normally never sat in first class either. We literally got to talk about the Lord for a couple of hours and the work in Peru. His wife is from Peru. He was a blessing to my life. When I got to Peru, my good friend and taxi driver, Nichola picked me up and took me to some of my dearest friends house, Shaun and Amanda Wissman. They are fellow missionaries in Peru who have been such a huge support, encouragement, and blessing to my life. If you want to check out their ministry: http://www.calledtoperu.org/. It was so fun because I was able to bring back some surprises for them from the states, so at 1 am we were all enjoying opening up chocolate etc from the states. The next morning, I woke up bright and early meaning 9 am to go get my residency for Peru. Another fellow missionary and friend, Mark Clancy, met up with me to meet a fellow Peruvian to go get my residency card. This is so exciting to me because no longer will I be a tourist here, but I will finally be a resident by the end of April. It turned out that we did not have time to finish the whole process, so I would have to stay in the Surco area until Monday. In the mean time, I got to hang out some more with my good friends Shaun and Amanda. Amanda and I went to the movies in Peru, which is definitely something neither one of us hardly ever do. We had a great time together, played phase 10 together with their whole family. One really neat thing is Shaun´s dad was there also to visit Shaun and Amanda. I got to know him and really how God has been working in his life. I had planned on going to church with Shaun and Amanda at their church that they serve at. It just so happens that this particular Sunday Shaun´s dad was preaching, and I got the privalege of seeing Shaun´s dad get baptized as well. It was a beautiful Sunday. After that, I had the opportunity to visit a house church that Mark Clancy and his team lead. Then I got to go to a church planted by an American family years ago called Camino de Vida. In between all of these church services, I was able to fellowship with several Christian Peruvians. The whole Sunday was a major blessing to my life. On Monday, I finished up my residency. It should be coming in only about one more month. Yay, I am about be officially Peruvian. Amanda and I decided to go eat some American food in Peru, so of course we went to Chilis! Then we decided to take a small trip to the post office to see if they had any mail. I never knew what this post office trip would hold for me. We went to the post office, and it turns out that they did have a package but that we would have to go to another place to pick it up. We went to the next post office and did all the paper work and then started to wait for the package. We had waited 1 1-2 hours when finally I was just pure fed up! I finally went to the window and asked what was going on. I had run out of patience. They sent me to another window that we had already been to. When I went up there the guy in front of me was complaining as well. He said he was number 93 and they were already on number 98 and had passed him. I was number 84. He then told the guy and the girl behind me has been here a long time too. He then proceeded to ask me if I spoke English. This guy had grown up in Conneticut. We were able to start talking in the lobby. The Holy Spirit was really doing a work. He was very interested to learn about the gospel. It did not seem like he had ever heard it before. I had my Bible with me and was able to give it to him. There was a reason God had us a the post office for over and hour and a half. He had a divine appointment for me. It was one of the best conversations I have ever had with anyone about the gospel. I will be calling this family in the next week or so to check on them. Although, I was so frustrated to wait at the post office with horrible service, God had divine plans in mind instead. It is so cool to see that God´s plans are always better than ours. After that, Amanda and I rushed around to get a few errands done, so that I could attend another house Bible study at Mark´s house. I figured while I had the time before I got into the routine of the ministry God had for me this year, it would be good for me to check out some other missionary´s ministries, since we never had time for that before. It was a disaster getting to Mark´s house because my cell phone died etc.....it is actually a very long story. By the time, I finally got there, I was so stressed because I had been trying to get there for 2 hours. I made it just in time though. It was cool to see how someone else leads Bible study in their home and the families and friends that are coming to it. As, I left there, the culture shock started to hit me. It was time for me to go back to Ventanilla and face real life. I still had to go to Amanda´s house and pack my suitcases. When I got to her apt, I just broke down and started crying. I did not know where I was going to live, what I was going to do this year etc. The reality of now knowing anything all hit me. Nancy had recently just called me and said she was not going to stay at the hostal that I had been planning on staying at and that she had moved in with a girl for a while. I did not even know where this girl lived, but I would soon be finding out. I was so discouraged. I had been having so much faith before this moment, then fear hit me straight in the face. My dear friends, Shaun and Amanda and their dad all prayed for me. Amanda even offered to go with me for the first night. I love having Christian friends in Peru! I told them I needed to just go on my own and I would be fine. Approixmately 2 hours later around 1 in the morning, I arrived at the house where Nancy was staying. Let´s just say that I was in a very mad and depressed mood once I arrived at 1 am. I was upset that Nancy had moved somewhere without my input. It seemed kind of permanent and a lot of things were bothering me in general. I had let myself over the past few months get very bitter about somethings. Nancy asked me what was wrong. I had been praying for an opportunity to talk to Nancy and to get some things worked out in our team. I had also been praying that God would take away my bitterness and also help me to forgive. I had been praying for that for at least a month a more and still I had not allowed God to truly take that away because I was too stubborn. When Nancy asked what was wrong there was no denying the Holy Spirit. It was time to talk though some things that had been between us for a long time. I want to give God all the glory because he used that conversation to get everything out in the open and to truly remove the bitterness from my heart. I know God heard the prayers of many that were praying for me and the cries of my heart. Our team honestly has never been so solid as it has been in the past few days. Tuesday, it was finally time for me to go back to the community to say hi to everyone and talk to Miguel about teaching religion. I got to the community around 1 and director Miguel was not there. I decided to go to the school and say hi to the kids. It was such an unexpected blessing. The kids were so excited to see me and I was so excited to see them. It was like I was HOME again. I saw my peruvian son, Angel Antonio, and it was as if God was saying, I am taking care of everything Lauren. I had some big worries before I went to visit, but God made it clear that things were going to be okay. Anyway, I decided I would wait for Miguel, but he still was not back. I went to the internet to find a phone number with a Peruvian friend I was supossed to meet with. We decided we would meet up at 3. Right when I left to go meet with him, Miguel showed up. I thought about cancelling my other appointment because I really needed to talk to Miguel about teaching religion classes because school ahd already started. I decided though to go ahead and go through with my appointment. Then, I finally after that appointment got to meet up with my good friend Alvaro and talk about the work that God for us this year! It was such an encouragement to see him again! I tell you all of these details to show you in just a minute the whole reason why I could not meet with Miguel because God was definitely working in the details. Anyway, Tuesday night, Nancy had things to do at the internet, and I didn´t. I had gotten all of the majority of things that I needed to do done while I was in the States. I guess you could say I was bored. That is the first time in probably all 22 years of my life that I could say that. I was out in the boonies in the desert literally away from all of my normal ministry opportunities, caught up on all my work etc, so I decided to read. I had left this awesome christian historical fiction book at home, so there was only one other book that I could read I mean besides the Bible. It was this book given to me by Bruce Troy, the pastor at Southmont, it is called Church Planting Movements: How God is redeeming a lost world by David Garrison. I started reading this book and from the preface it started to capture my heart. I read about the first 70 pages, and then decided I had to wake up on Wednesday morning and finish reading this book. I worked on reading the book all morning on Wednesday. That afternoon, I had to go do some work with Alvaro, then that night I continued to read the book till 4 in the morning. This book has forever changed my life and perspective on ministry. First of all, let me tell you the miracles of me even reading this book: 1. God closing the door for me to talk to Miguel on Tuesday and start teaching religion 2. Having an appointment with a peruvian at the exact time Miguel arrived. 3. Leaving my other book on the table in the US 4. Being stranded out in a desert 5. Being bored. 6. Having all of my work done. These are just some of the miracles that God did for me to get to this book. Basically the theme of this book is reaching the nations house by house or casa by casa. The book talks about the biggest missionary movements that are going on right now and it is by church plants in houses. God, just begin to speak to my heart that I was not supossed to be involved in the schools any longer not even one day a week, but was supossed to focus all my time on house churches. He made it clear that I did not need to be distracted by anything else. I kept reading quotes outloud out of this book to Nancy. Nancy decided she would read this book as well. Which was another miracle, I thought for sure she would not be interested in this book, but God had other plans. She started reading on Thursday. In the meantime, I went with our taxi driver Nichola to look for a house to rent because I was not okay with not having running water and having to bathe out of a tupperware container. Anyway, Nichola ended up picking me up at least 1 1-2 hours late. Once again I was impatient and frustrated, yet God had other plans. We stopped at only 2 places asking about houses to rent. The third place said yeah we are renting come in and look. It was exactly the thing I wanted a whole apartment by itself. 2 bedrooms, a great living room, kitchen, bathroom, and running water and electricity! Literally it is almost the exact house plan I had designed 2 months ago but already built. Some of the most trust worthy peruvians I have ever met own it, and said we could set up a meeting for Sunday to confirm the details about renting it. Wow, God was surely blessing us in ways we could never imagine. Friday, Nancy and I had the opportunity for one of the first times this year to do some normal things. We went to the grocery store, did laundry, went to the internet, and she worked on finishing the book. She finished late that night, and decided that she was not going to teach English but work with me in house church planting. I could not be more excited. We were going to go completely seperate ways this year with ministry, but God in his sovereign grace brought us back together for the exact specific work He has for us. On Saturday, we had another pretty chill day. I slept in because Nancy and I had talked till´4:30 in the morning on what God had for us ministry wise. We did some things at the internet and then went to the place where we had been having house church. We shared our vision with the family and prayed with them. Finally, Sunday, today! We finalized the deal on the house we are going to rent. Not only, were their workers this morning finishing the electricity, they decided to put flooring in for us as well. We are beyond excited! We should be moving in next week. After that, we went and had a prayer time again with the house church lady and Nichola our taxi driver. It was kind of weird because we did not invite anyone today. We are going to spend all week praying, re-strategizing, and reading the book of Acts in expectation for what God is going to do next Sunday. Nancy and I went to the hostal and took showers! Yay, then we went and hung out in Surco until we had the privalege of going to an amazing church tonight called Camino de Vida. The message was straight to my heart about following God´s call. After churh, we were able to share the gospel with 3 different Peruvian ladies. 2 of those being a believers. We were able to encourage the 2 believers. It was so crazy because one was literally a begger in the street, yet she had no complaints. She just sat quietly under her blanket. We were able to give her some food and have a praise and worship time with her and prayer time. It was a beautiful moment from the Lord. The other lady that was not a believer was so interested in learning. Nancy made a huge personal sacrifice and gave the lady her own personal Bible. We ended up finding out she was only about 20 minutes from where we live even though we were 3 hours away today. It was such a God moment. Who knows...she might be another start of a house church. Then again, it was kind of a rough night because I was reminded once again that I have no clue how to do this new ministry God has called me to and I have to completely depend on Him. That sounds great I know, and it is is. The problem is that for so long I have put my dependance in my own work, what I can do for the Lord, how much I can do etc. I thrive on stress, not sleeping because of doing ministry, and always being busy working for the Lord. The Lord is calling me to take a step back and work only in His power. He is calling me to something I could never manufaturce on my own so in the end HE WILL GET ALL THE GLORY! Tonight, was hard for me because I have put so much faith in myself instead of in my all powerful Savior. Please pray that I would fall hard after God´s heart and only do the things He has for me. For tonight, we are going to stay in Surco and pick up a few things for our new house tomorrow. Please pray that God will guide our steps as we seek him on how to minister this week. God is so good and has done more than I could ever imagine in this past week and a half. All GLORY to His NAME!

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.