Another mountain town...another opportunity for God to do amazing things

So we had to leave for the airport at 4 am to fly to Arequipa. From there we had to take a super bumpy bus ride for 6 hours to arrive to our destination city. This was the same bus ride that I had taken a year and half earlier and had accidentally thrown up all over myself. I brought medicine this time! This whole trip brought back so many memories for me because we were visiting the same places that I had visited on the 2nd week of my time in Peru on the walking tour with the kids in the Community a year and a half before. That was such a hard/ amazing week for me a year and a half ago because I barely knew any Spanish, I didn’t know any of the people I was on the trip with, and we were walking literally all over Peru. I literally had culture shock on SO many levels. This time it was so cool to go on the same trip to the same place and see what God has done in my life in the past year and a half. It was no big deal going to the bus station this last month and buying our bus tickets for ourselves. Last year the Peruvian bus station seemed like something that I could not even think about beginning to understand. I couldn’t understand last year at the time how the volunteers knew how to get a taxi, speak Spanish, and just live life here. After living here a few months, I realized there are just things that you have to learn along the way. More than that though, God just has pulled me through and taught me things about how to live here that were not possible for me to do/ learn on my own. I am so grateful for the things that God has taken me through over this past year and a half.

We finally arrived at our destination; our good friend that we came to visit, came and met us at the bus station. We gave him all the surprises that we had brought for him, Bibles, English materials, and Christian resources. He was very content. He quickly left us at a hostel because he had to go teach a class at his job. When he left, Nancy and I took about a 2 hour nap. He came back and we went out to eat at a local restaurant. It was a great meal just to catch up with our friend and him to share with us his heart and what has been going on his life. Then another one of our friends happened to be in the same restaurant and we were able to meet up with him and catch up with him as well. After that we went back to our hostel and all watched a Louie Giglio video together. We all learned a lot!

The next day, our friend came over to meet us, and we had a gourmet Mountain breakfast to go. Nancy and I had gone out to get breakfast and gotten it to go. They packed everything including the coffee in plastic baggies. I love how Peru works! Honestly, I had a bad attitude about going out and getting breakfast with Nancy. I just wanted to stay in the room and be lazy. God always seems to work greater in the midst of my bad attitude and laziness. (In my weakness He is made strong) He laid someone on my heart as we passed by them to tell them about Jesus, but I did not take the opportunity. I knew I had to go back, so after we got our breakfast; I went back and told this woman about Jesus and the other vendedores (salesmen) at their little kiosks about Jesus. We talked with them and set up a time to come back at 2 in the afternoon to teach them a Bible study and bring bracelets that explain the good news of Jesus. We ate a great breakfast with our good friend and then had a great prayer time with him. Our whole point on going down on this trip was to encourage our good friend who accepted Christ last October and to help him start a house church. He really enjoyed the prayer time. He said he had never had a prayer time like that before. Sometimes I forget the reality of the world we live in here. Most people come from a background of knowing a few memorized recited prayers and do not know anything about just praying from their heart. Before we knew it was 2:00 and time to go back to where we had been earlier that morning.



We went to the plaza where the ladies were that morning and the original lady that asked for us to come back and do the Bible study was not there. We met with the women and children that were there though. We got to play the famous hand game with the children in the plaza. We used the proclaimer (a radio Bible) to listen to the story of the crucifixion and resurrection in their native language Quechua. As we were listening more and more people started to come over. As people started to leave and lose interest, we decided to start giving out the bracelets to them and sharing the good news of Jesus with them. A ton of people came by! We were probably there for about 3 hours. It was so neat to have our friend translate things from Spanish or English to Quechua for us. He knows all three of those languages! It was so incredible to watch him share the good news of Jesus with those in his home town.

One lady came by and talked to me. She was SO interested in the gospel. We got to have an extensive conversation about Jesus and salvation. She was an older woman, and her daughter was in the hospital in another town about to have an operation. She was very concerned about her. We were able to pray together for her daughter to be healed. Please pray for her salvation as she is very open to the gospel. Many people asked where we went to church because they wanted to come and we told them that we were just visiting. Please pray that our friend will have the courage to start this Bible study soon and that he will know exactly what location to start it in. While we were there in the plaza giving out bracelets there was a girl named Veronica that asked me if we could go to her house. I honestly did not really want to go, she kept annoying me to go to her house when we were busy talking to other people, but it turned out to be the biggest blessing of the whole trip for me.






We finally got to her after a long time of her waiting for us to get done in the plaza. When we got to her house what we found was a one room shack filled literally with junk with a blue tarp roof where there is a second room where they sleep. The roof could easily cave in at any moment. This is a family of a single mom with 10 kids. 7 of these kids live with her and her granddaughter; the other 3 live at an orphanage down the road. Their conditions were really heart breaking, but this family was so joyful. They did not wallow around in their circumstances but took the time to spend time with us in a small Bible study. We sang Christian songs together, shared the good news of Jesus, and just got to know each other for about an hour. It was such a precious time of singing because the family is so big that we could have competitions between the boys and girls with how loud they could sing, and we got to see a huge family enter into a time of praising Jesus together.



I fell in love with one of the little kids named Cesar. He is five years old and he completely captured my heart. I would love to adopt him. Nancy and I decided to walk the studying kids to school. They go to school only for 3 hours a day from 6 pm to 9 pm. They have to walk a long way to school by themselves in the dark. It is incredible what kids here go through on a daily basis on their own. On our way out to walking them to school, I told Cesar that it was dark and I was scared and that he needed to protect me. He responded, “I will protect you; I am your soldier.” Okay, that statement made my heart melt even more.




His sister began to tell us how they did not have any school supplies. We were already late to school, but it did not seem to be of any importance to the family that they were late. We stopped by at a market and got them some new school supplies. Then I looked and saw that they had 2 old back packs. One was super old, and I just wanted to personally get Cesar something that he could be proud of. We stopped by the back pack store at one of the markets, and Cesar got to get a new Spider Man back pack. His sister also got a new back pack as well. It was such a precious moment for me to see them get something that they never thought they would have probably in all of their lives. A 5 dollar back pack is so simple especially to someone like me who is not at all in need, but I am reminded that a five dollar back pack is not possible for people like Cesar’s family ever. Most of the time I become numb to the reality of the poverty that I live in here in Peru, but it is so real. I need to be always aware of the people around me that are so badly suffering. I need to look at situations through Christ’s eyes and not my own. We left them to finish walking to school on their own in order to meet our friend to go with him to be “guests” in his English class.


It was so much fun getting to see our 2 good friend’s English institute that they started on their own. We did a question and answer session with them, and I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the students in his class. Then we went out to eat and had so much fun with our two good friends just talking and catching up.

The next day was another day full of adventure. Our two friends met us and we went to the nursing home in the town. Nancy had talked with an elderly guy the day before that had invited us to go the nursing home, so we did! It was incredible, there are about 45 people that come every Monday through Friday 8 am to 12 pm. There is not money for them to stay there, but they do eat breakfast and lunch, get Spanish lessons, and grow their own crops there to have something to eat. It was so crazy for me to see such elderly people still out working in the fields. Each and every one of them that is there in some way helps with the crops so that they can have food to eat. They were so gracious and so happy for us to be there. They loved the bracelets that explain the good news of Jesus! The coolest part was our dear friend translated the entire good news of Jesus from Spanish to Quechua and read the Bible verse out of a Quechuan Bible. It was so neat to see a new believer share God’s word and story. He is incredible with people, and the elderly people there just loved him. His grandma is one of the residents. As soon as we got done with that, we rushed to meet our friends’ English class to go on a field trip to 3 Canyones.

This is actually my favorite scenic spot in all of Peru. I saw it a year and a half ago on the walking trip, and I never thought that I would have the opportunity to go back. Three Canyones is exactly how it sounds, Three huge canyons. It is a beautiful, awesome, breath taking creation of God. It was a humbling and amazing experience for me to get to be back there a year and a half later. Last year I remember just worshipping God for who he was because he made these huge mountains all around me, and God reminded me last year of how he was big enough to get me through that very difficult time of being in Peru all alone. This year, I just reflected on all God had brought me through in this past year and a half, and once again the beauty of his creation. I went off by myself and just got some time to walk along the river, sit in the middle of a small water fall, and read a little bit of the Psalms.

Later as we moved to the next sight in tres canyons, I decided to take some time by myself again to read the Psalms. Before I knew it, this hilarious mountain lady was coming over to talk to me. She asked me if she could have my necklace, I really did not want to give it to her, but I at the same time couldn’t say no to her. She also asked for my English Bible. I explained that since she didn’t know English that it would not be of any use for her. She spoke a few words of Spanish but mainly Quechua. I think she understood Spanish though. Anyway, she just got up and basically started teaching me how to dance. This lady was so spontaneous and a little crazy, but I definitely am glad to have gotten to spend time with her.

After 3 Canyones, our two friends , Nancy, and I all went out to eat together for the last time. Then our friend that we came to visit came over and we went over house church curriculum with him. Please pray for him that he will have the courage to start his own Bible study because the people where he lives are hungry, yet he is still a little scared to start a Bible study for the people.

The next morning, our friend came over and we hung out a little bit and then he had to go to work. We then went and visited another friend of ours that lives in the area. She took us out to her “campo” (livestock field). It was incredible. The men in her family were making mud bricks to build another house, her mom was cooking over a fire, and they had livestock right behind where they lived. She was so precious and put together a little picnic with freshly grown potatoes and homemade cheese. We had a really good time getting to hang out with her and one of her friends.

It was so interesting because one her friends listens to all these English singing Christian artists even down to Michael W. Smith. If you know me, I was flipping out!! He is the first Peruvian I have ever met that knows who Michael W. Smith is. I was so excited. We are hopefully going to be in communication with him through email. We don’t know if he is a Christian, but please pray that God will draw his heart to himself if he is not a Christian already.

We were able to do so much stuff in the those 3 days. We got to see so many people that we knew, people that I did not write about that we have known since last year. God reminded me even though we cannot see everyone that we used to know last year, that he still provides opportunities for us to be reunited with people when we least expect it. Please be in prayer for this young Christian man and his mountain town that he will be the one that God uses to reach the whole town for Christ!

Jackeline is a woman that has made a big impression on me since day one. John and I were visiting schools a couple of months back for the group that will be here in less than 2 weeks. We got the contact information for the principal of the school, and I set up an appointment with him. When we got there, the principal was not there, but there was a woman named Jackeline that helped us. She was very firm and persistant that we told her what we needed because she was the one that could help us. Come to find out, she was the assistant principal. We began explaining the event we wanted to do, and she jumped totally on board. Then she began explaining about her life: how she does not even like kids and she is the assistant director of the school now, how she is undergoing dialysis, etc. John began to explain his full testimony to her, which was the first time he has ever shared it with someone on his own! John explained the good news of Jesus, and we talked to her about house churches. We asked her about starting a house church in her house. She talked about being empty, and we explained that Jesus is the only One that can fill that void. She made some kind of statement like "maybe doing house church is the purpose God has for me. I have been looking for it, and I think this is it. This is why I have a house so I can open it up to others." We started going to her house from that week on. She said she wanted to learn first for at least a week before she invited others. From the very first week, her 17 year old daughter has come as well. They are both so intrigued and understand the Bible very well. It is so crazy to hear them say we have never read this in the Bible before because they have just listened to what other religious people have told them. Jackeline goes to the hospital every week for treatment and thinks God wants her to share about him and encourage the patients in the hospital. Also, she is very interested in going to the nursing home and ministering to people there. She already is thinking like a missionary before she even knows Christ personally! Jackeline has been reading her Bible on her own every week. She even made a home made book cover for her Bible. Almost all of her family came by this past Sunday and we got to meet them: her mom, sister, brother, and neice. Her mom told us she would be there with us to study the Bible next week. That would make 3 generations! Jackeline and her 2 daughters came to our Mexican fiesta party. Jackeline was incredible. She took charge and started serving everyone their food. She is definitely a servant, a go getter, and an administrator. She has not trusted Christ as her Savior, but she is very close. Please pray for her and daughter Geraldine that they will trust Christ as their Savior this week and be able to join us in spreading the good news of Jesus.

Mili and her toilet paper

Just wanted to write about a funny conversation I had with a little girl in my neighborhood awhile back. I met a little girl, Mili, in the street who actually turns out to be my neighbor. We talked about various things, and I talked with her about Jesus. We ended up going to the same little corner store. She was trying to buy "soft toilet paper," but she did not have enough money. I was able to give her the 20 cents that she lacked so that she could buy her "soft toilet paper." On our way back from the store, I asked her what she was going to do after she got back home, and she promptly told me "take this toilet paper to my brother in the bathroom." I don't know why this story is so funny to me, but it totally cracked me up. It also shows the culture of Peruvians we live near. They live normally on just exactly what they need for that day or week because their isn't financial means to live any other way. Okay, just wanted to share a story that brought joy to my heart.

Girl's sleepover, first bible study in Huaral, elections, and just hangin' with Peruvians!

Wow! This has been an incredible weekend. We had our second Friday afternoon Bible study and about 15 people at least came for some part of the time. The kids that we met from the very beginning are still coming. They are natural leaders. It amazed me to see their passion. They would say let's go invite this person and they really participated in the Bible story. I heard one little boy tell his friend that came late, well you missed the games but now we are talking about Noah! One little 3 year old invited two other friends to come and sit and listen to the Bible story. There is one girl named Margarie, that is an amazing leader. She is the only teenager that came this past week, but that did not stop her from being involved and participating. She read all of the Bible passages and even offered to pray. I believe that soon she will put her faith in Christ and take over this Bible study with these precious children in the city of Ventanilla. Please pray that adults from the market will start to come. A group of 3 guys watched us almost the whole time and I think were makign fun of us, but one of those guys sent his son over to participate and let him stay the whole time. This father said he would bring his son back the next week! I hope so because his son even at the age of 3 has a natural gift to invite others to learn. The mom of the 2 kids that we have known from the beginning and whose husband asked us to start this, seems to really have an understanding of God as well. She said that He is the only one that can fill you. She also is a leader and gets other people from the market to come to this Bible study. Please pray that she will come to know Christ and also start coming to the Bible study as well. If she starts coming, I believe other adults will come as well. Please pray that Nancy and I would know how to get the adults involved in these house churches.








Playing the hand game that explains the story of Jesus.
Margerie, a great leader!


Playing the game, Senor Leon, what time is it?
The three year old that invites his friends to Bible study.
Sleepover! Nancy had the great idea of having a sleepover with the girls that attend our Bible study on Sunday afternoons from Tres Regiones. This is the Bible study that we have had since last year. The main attendees are a few teenage girls. Not all of them could come, but 3 girls did that were all sisters. It was so much fun. In Bible study these girls are super quiet, but are faithful to come. That totally changed during this sleepover, they were so fun and outgoing. We first started with a yummy chicken dinner from the restaurant down the street.
Then it was junk food time, watching Chronicles of Narnia, and painting finger nail time.

The next morning they got up at 7:15, and of course had to wake me up. We played chicken foot, a dominoes game, and they really enjoyed it.
Then we had breakfast. I have been learning how to cook some things lately, one of them being fried eggs. I have to start somewhere! That morning I also learned how to cook Peruvian rice. We had rice, scrambled eggs, and fried eggs for breakfast. I am trying to become more and more Peruvian. Nancy normally always does the cooking, but it is time for me to learn! They went home that morning, and then later that afternoon we left for Huaral. This is the mountain town outside of Lima. Since the bus fares were going to be double that day due to elections we decided just to go in taxi with our Peruvian dad, Nicchola. Around 3, John, Nichhola, Nancy, and I headed out for our first Bible study in Huaral. It turned out good for our first one, but we have a lot more to work on to make it better next time.
Pepe and Luis playing before Bible study started.
Nichhola and I eating some kind of fruit that we pulled directly off the tree and washed. It was good, but I still don't know what it is. What a blessing that Nichhola got to come to Bible study with us. I am sure that he will be one of the next people to come to know Jesus. Please be praying for him. He is a natural leader. He is great with people, anywhere he goes, he makes friends with the people that we are ministering to. I can't imagine the kind of witness he could be for Christ.


Nancy leading the kids in song time. About 18 people came that day to Bible study, and only 2 of those people were neighbors the rest was all the family that lived right there. We studied Creation and the sin of Adam and Eve. 2 of the neighbor boys that were only 8 and 9 knew a ton about the story. I don't know anything about these 2 boys, Josef and Jefferson, but I do know that they could be great leaders for the kids. The family had invited these 2 boys as they were passing by on the street. One of the teenagers, Christian, really made an impression on me. He seemed at first like the type that was too cool for school, but then he came out of his house and met us for Bible study with a Bible! He then proceeded to read half of the passages for Bible study and was extremely participative the whole time. Afterwards, we got into a very serious conversation about the gospel. He goes to a Christian church in Lima during the week nearby where he works. He is very concerned about the salvation of his family. I am not sure if he is a Christian by our conversation, but if not he is super close to putting all of his faith in Jesus. I talked to him about being the leader for his family, and that he would be the one to teach them. It was just so neat to see a teenager that on first impression I would think would not want anything to do with the Bible be the one to be the most into the Bible study. The handful of adults that were around, seemed very distant. Please pray that the adults would get more interested in Bible study and that the Holy Spirit would really work on their hearts.
After that, one of our best friends came over from out of town. I made a yummy gooey chocolate sauce to put over the ice cream with chocolate my mom had brought me! We had a really good time just getting to catch up with her. She also spent the night with us. Right when she was coming over, the land lady's granddaughter and niece came over. The granddaughter had been crying because her mom died a couple of months ago and they used to live in this house that we live in now. She wanted to come up here and spend time in her old house. Please pray for her as she is greiving so much the loss of her mom. Whenever her mom passed away, her father pretty much left her life completely as well. Please pray for the grandmother that takes care of a preschooler. This whole family is completely distraught. Please pray that through this terrible situation, they will see the love of Jesus and come to know Him personally. At the same time, our peruvian dad, Nichhola was over. It felt a little like a peruvian circus! It was great, but I was so thankful to have a teammate because we could not have talked with everyone if there was not two of us. Nancy made an awesome spaghetti dinner for us to all eat together! I am so thankful for as well for a place that Peruvians can come over to, eat with us, share their hurts, and that we can just live life with them.
Election day. After house church in Ancon. We went to the voting lines for a little over an hour and gave bracelets to the people in the lines. Nancy really encouraged me because she would just go up to people who were looking for the right room to vote in and ask them if they wanted a bracelet. I was at first too worried about "bothering" them. Her boldness really encouraged me. We got to talk with many people about the good news of Jesus. Nancy had a particurally interesting conversation with a Christian! He asked if we were the "gringas" that a taxi driver in his church had told him about. We were! We had ridden in a taxi about 2 months ago, with an incredible solid Christian guy that went to the same church this guy went to. What a small world. God has a crazy way of working.
After that we went to our second house church in 3 Regiones. After that, we came back to the house. I was going to work on all the blogging that I was behind on, but then we heard a knock on the door. One of our friends from the market came by to see us. Then our peruvian dad wanted to come over with his daughter and his grandaughter to watch a movie. They came over and joined us and we all watched a movie together. It is fun and exciting getting used to a life where people just come over at any unexpected moment. It always makes lifes an adventure and makes me realize I need to be ready for whatever God brings my way.

A gorgeous scavenger hunt to find a person to start a Bible study

So, I am pretty far behind on some things that have happened...and I am trying to catch up. I want to share about an adventure that we got to take part in on May 12th and 13th. They were two very action packed days. The morning of the 12th, John and I went to all the remaining schools that we needed to go to confirm the date for the group that is coming in a few weeks. Then I rushed off to see Sara's mom which I blogged about earlier. Then I went to make copies of our house church curriculum. I was in Surco, and everything is much more expensive there. I was actually kind of being mean to the people that were giving me the prices for the copies because I thought they were ripping me off. I actually left the market and was determined to find a cheaper place, when I realized I did not really have the time to do that and I just had to get this project done. I went back into the cheapest guy and gave him my copies. He started talking to me about the things that he was copying for me which were all Christian materials. At that moment, I started to feel convicted for how I had been so harsh about the prices and here I was getting Christian copies made. Anyway, he was not offended though because bargaining is pretty normal in Peru, but still I had been in the wrong. He was asking me if I was with the Baptist Seminary down the street. He says he makes all the copies for them. We began to talk about the gospel. He was so hungry to learn. We at least talked for an hour about the gospel if not longer. People before had shared the good news wtih him, i was just watering the seeds that others had planted. He was so hungry to learn the truth. He was very knowledgable and the good news of Jesus clicked for him, but he still was not ready to put all of his faith in Jesus. During that time, another client came by and ridiculed me for what I was teaching, but he continued to talk to me about it even after she left. He wants to have more Bible studies. Please pray that he will come to know Christ soon. His son also works for him. Please pray for him as well. Then I met Nancy and our friend Melissa at Starbucks. We also spent a good chunk of time talking about the gospel, we got so into it that we were all late for our good friend's birthday party. We took a bus in tons of trafic made it 30 minutes late to his brithday party, stayed for less than an hour, and then rushed off in a taxi to the bus station in Huaraz. God continually reminded me this day that he has other plans for the ministry that He has for me, and that I do not need to be upset when "my plan" does not get completed in a day. I find myself getting so caught up in not finishing what i was scheduled to do and not being thankful for what God has thrown into my lap. I have to learn to realize the little minstry along the way is just as important as what i have planned for the day, instead of being frustrated like it is an interupption. More and more lately i am learning every little part of life is minsitry and to count it as a blessing not an interruption.

God has so much more work to do in my stubborn heart for sure. So finally at 10 that night we headed off in a taxi to the bus station to leave for a mountain town up North. This town is 8 hours away, and we were going to meet a peruvian friend there to traing her to start a house church. Let the road trip begin!

It was so beautiful! Definitely so different than where we live in the sand hills of Lima. Anyway, the friend we were going to see normally gets online everyday, but it just so happened that she had not gotten online any this week and did not know we were coming. She also did not have a cell phone, so we had no clue where to find her. We did not have her address or anything. God had some other plans for us first. I love when I just get to walk in God's will, I never doubted when we could not get a hold of our friend that God had something else for us. I was also pretty confident that we would find her at some point or another. So the adventure began! We saw a hostal on her facebook page that she worked at. The taxi took us to the hostal that had the closest Kechuan name to the name we had for where whe supposeively worked. No one had heard of her. We tried calling the cell phone of one of her friends....no answer. Little did we know at the time, that was a hostal that she had worked at in Lima....not in this mountain town. Then we just started asking random people in the street if they knew her. One guy actually did, he described her perfectly to us. He said she was probaby working at one of the mining schools teaching English. Off we went to go check out the schools!

First stop...hostal no go. Second stop....school no go. When we asked the faculty in the school, they had never heard of her. They gave us a name of a man that knows a lot of English teachers, but we decided to go to the other school and then maybe go back and visit him. While we were walking to the next school. We saw a GRINGO! I was sure he was from Europe because we normally never find Americans. I started talking him to spanish. He was not responding. Then, I started yelling hello to him in English and he turned around.


Turns out he is a Christian MISSIONARY! What a blessing, and he is from Texas. He then proceeded to take us to his English teacher's house to see if we could find out any connection where our friend might be teaching English. He gave us the name of 2 mining schools. The guy earlier had said the same thing about these mining schools, but we had not fully understood everything he had said. We got to share the good news of Jesus with the English teacher and then were quickly on our way. We also got the information of this missionary so that we can set up our friend with him and his wife to do work together!

The roof of the English teacher's house! Beautiful!

Small afternoon snack :)

This is the beautiflul mining community where the second school was at. This is a private community. They would not less us in for like 20 minutes. Finally, someone confirmed that she worked there and the secretary of the school gave us permission to enter. The cool part about this too was we had spent a lot of time in this one taxi while we were waiting for permission to enter and we got to share the gospel with him! Our hopes were getting high. Then after entering the office after a phone call was made, we realized she really did not work there. They had been mistaken. It was a beautiful school, probably the most pretty and organized one I have seen in Peru. It was a Catholic school. I felt the Lord leading me to share the good news of Jesus with the secretary, but I chickened out. As I left, I decided I had to go back in share the gospel. She seemed very appreciative to hear it and another office worker heard it as well. Pray that these seeds would fall on fertile soil. We also had the opportunity to share the gospel with the security guards of this gated community.

One of the coolest parts of the day was about to come. Nancy decided she would go inside this little shack store to get a snack. I was in a horry and ready to leave, but God had other plans! I'm so glad his plans are so much better than mine. We met the coolest lady, Ivon.

She was precious! She is a single mother of a 13 yr old and a 3 yr old. She works at this little store, and works at a hotel. She is such a hard worker and seems to try her best to provide for her kids by working all the time. She talked to us a lot about God and about how it is not about church or other things but that He is the only way. I shared the plan of salvation with her and talked about the grace of Jesus and how it is only through faith in Him. I asked her if she had given her life to him. She said no but realized that was what was missing. I don't know why I had such a strong connection with her, but she is honestly one of my favorite people I have ever met in Peru. I plan on keeping in contact with her! Pray for her salvation. She gave us the address to the next mining school.

We had to go 30 minutes outside of town to get to the next mining school. We ended up in a beautiful place that looked like the scenery of the "Sound of Music." Nancy and Amanda bursted out together in The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music. The school was actually on vacation for 2 weeks and she did not work there. Well, at least it was one more person that we got to share the gospel with. We were exhausted after traveling all night. By now, it was about 2 in the afternoon. We went back to the hotel room we were renting for the day to keep our back packs in and took about a 2 hour nap. We got up to go to check out more English institutes at the plaza. We also went back to the internet to see if by a chance she had written us. I just decided to try again to call her friend. She answered!!!! She told us the address where our friend was. We showed up at her rented room and she was there! What a miracle!!! I can not show pictures or say her name for privacy reasons, but it was such a sweet reunion. She is one of my best friends in Peru, and she definitely needed encouragement. We were able to come at just the perfect time. We all went out to eat a lunch/ dinner at a wonderful restaurant by the plaza.

Nancy and Amanda tried cuy (guinea pig). We had a great time catching up for a couple of hours. We had a a great time joking with the waitor as well and ended up getting the opportunity to share the gospel with him and giving him a Bible. We also told him to stay in contact with our friend because she was going to start a Bible study in the city. She had to go teach English for an hour an a half. She took us and showed us the place where she teaches. After that Nancy, Amanda, and I made our way to the souvenir market. Of course, we had to stop and share the gospel with some people along the way. I had the opportunity to talk to a homeless person, he was very closed to the gospel, but it was obvious that he wanted someone to talk to. At the same time, Nancy was able to talk to another homeless lady that could not walk but had to crawl to get around. Seeing the conditions of these people really makes me realize how blessed I am. Then we got a chance to look around a cute market!

I had the opportunity to meet 2 super cute kids and play the hand game with them. Then I got to share with them about Jesus. Then their family came by later and told them to tell me bye. I got to talk with the adults about Jesus as well. It was such a neat opportunity. Then we we went and met up with our friend after her English class. I got to sit down with her and explain the house church curriculum and show her the different english materials we had brought her. It was such a special time to see a new believer so serious about things of the Lord. We had an opportunity to pray over her, and then it was time to head back to Lima! Sorry, this post has been so long. It seems like we were there so much longer than 24 hours, so much happened. This trip was great for so many reasons. It was a faith walk. We got to tell people literally all over the city about the good news of Jesus. We got to encourage a good friend to stay strong and keep on keeping on through the strength of Jesus. We got to train our good friend to start a house church there. Lastly, we got to see God's beautiful creation! I just talked with my friend today through chat and she had her first Bible study with 2 girls! She just found out today that she got the job she was training for, and she is staying strong even though she is all alone in a town she did not grow up in. She has already called Ivon to try and meet with her about Bible study. Also, she has already gone and bought Bibles for Bible study and took one to the homeless man I had talked to. God is doing amazing things in her life, and I can't wait to see what He continues to do through her in this mountain town that so desperatly needs to hear the good news of Jesus. To God be all the glory for the great things he did this day!

Mountain town, thousands of copies, and meeting new people all along the way

John had known a person named Elena for years, and he ran into her the other day. She lives an hour and half north in the city of Huaral. He coordinated to see if we could meet with her to start a house church there. He thought she was a person that seemed to be really be in search of the gospel and that was definitely a great candidate for house church. The bus ride out there is on a real bus not a combiee; it was really like a road trip. When we arrived, I definitely felt like was in a different place. This town of Huaral is known for providing 50% of the products of Peru when you put all the fruit, grain, cotton, etc together. There are tons of "chakras" (crop fields) all over this town. Elena met us at the plaza and then we took a taxi way out to where she lived. When we arrived their were three houses together and kids running around everywhere. I soon found out that all these people were here family, here sister, her brother in-laws house, their kids, and grandkids. There was about 20 people that lived in these 3 small houses. It reminded me so much of the book of Acts. Then some of the kids came in and brought fruit and shared it with everyone. I just kept thinking of the verse in Acts where it talks about everyone sharing their possessions and giving to anyone who had a need amond them. Elena told us Saturday afternoons would be the best time to meet because that is when everyone in those 3 houses could come. She also said she would invite the neighbors. As we were leaving I saw a long row of houses of tons of neighbors that could potentially come. Nancy immediately clicked with the children there and did a great job with them. She played so much with them and was so energetic! It was awesome to see how much the children there loved her.
They do not have running water. This is their well that is 22 meters below the ground. It was so neat to see how they get their water. This was the clearest water I have ever seen.
Elena and I. About 4 people of the family had a short Bible study with Nancy, John, and I focusing on John 3:16.
Leaving their house, we saw a huge herd of cattle.
After that, we went straight to the part of Lima where they make copies. We got 5,400 fliers made for when the group comes later in June. We also made 50 booklets of our house church lessons. Please pray that we will have leaders to give these booklets to. We always want to be ready. Inside these booklets is the curriculum for the first 23 lessons of a house church. Our desire is to start out these house churches and teach about the first 10 lessons before we hand it over to a Peruvian Christian leader to teach the rest. Please pray for Elena and her family that they will come to know Jesus quickly. Please also pray that many others will come to know Jesus soon and be leaders of house churches. While we were waiting for all the copies, we went to go eat come breakfast/ lunch/ dinner around 8:00 at night. While we were there 2 girls came up to Nancy and asked if she spoke English. They were so fascinated with English speakers. They stayed at our table with us until we left. Nancy had the opportunity to share the gospel with them as well. So many cool opportunities happen in Peru, like kids just coming up and talking with you inside a mall. Please pray for these 2 sweet girls as well that they would come to know Christ. It is so cool to see John take leadership and find new places for us to do house churches. Our first real house church in Huaral with Elena and her family will be this Saturday at 5. We are looking forward to it, this seems to be a place with a ton of potential. Please be in prayer for this Saturday.