Update on Fernando

2 weeks ago, we (Fernando's mom, his nephew, John, Nicchola, and myself) got to visit our dear friend after a month of him not being able to be in contact with the outside world. Fernando is in a Christian treatment center for addictions. He is doing so good. Jesus has changed his attitude night and day, and it is so cool to see how Jesus is maturing Fernando. Fernando is learning a ton about the Lord in this place, and is also learning a ton about overcoming his addictions in Christ's power and practical ways to do it! We were thrilled to see him. We have gone to visit him the past 2 Saturdays, last Saturday we got to play chicken foot with him. Please keep praying for his progress and for continued financial provision for him to be able to stay in treatment.

Fernando seeing his mom for the first time in a month.

Hangin' out!

On the way there, we found an awesome gas station with TONS of candy from the states.  God always gives me little blessings!

Discipleship!

I just wanted to give a small update on our discipleship classes that happen every Sunday night from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. This group consists of about 8 people that are Christian believers in the Ventanilla area. We are digging deeper into the Word than a normal House church Bible study. These are also my leaders/ disciples that help me teach in other places. We are studying The story (story form of the Bible’s main stories by Zondervan). If you have not heard about it you should check it out. It highlights major stories in the Bible from Genesis to Revelations, but it goes into depth. Max Lucado wrote a book that goes along with it called God’s Story, Your Story. Randy Fraze also wrote a book that goes along with it that I am using. We are really reading a ton of scripture during these classes and seeing how God used weak ordinary people to do extraordinary things for Him. We are learning the strengths and weaknesses of the main leaders in the Bible. We just finished Joseph this past Sunday, and this Sunday will be studying Moses. Please be praying for our group. Satan always loves to distract people that are truly committed to the Lord. We have been having some trouble with our attendance lately with this group. Please pray that these disciples will realize the importance of studying the Word together, and they will be faithful to come every Sunday.

A restaurant in my living room!

The land lady downstairs daughter died just a little over a year ago. Here in Catholic culture they have a service to pray for the dead a year later. Obviously I could not take a part in that, but I was invited to. It was a very tough situation because I wanted to be a help to her in her time of extreme grief, not offend her, but also stand up for what I believed. I told her that I could not go to the ceremony and the reason why, but I knew that all the family members and friends were coming over for dinner after and I offered to help cook and bring some food. It is tradition for everyone to come to the house after and eat. There is nothing done during that time that is sacrilegious, just a meal is shared together. While they were at the ceremony, Nicchola and I rapidly served 150 plates so that they would be ready to serve to all the guests after the ceremony was over. I felt like we had a mini – restaurant in my living room. It was actually so much fun getting to act like a waitress for one night. I hope that I was able to minister to my neighbor in her time of grief, and I am hoping that the Holy Spirit spoke truth into her life when I told her the reason I would not be able to attend the service. This neighbor is now like family to me; please pray for her healing process with the death of her young daughter.

Sweet Luana, her mom is the one who died last year. Please pray for her.

Peruvians LOVE mayonnaise.

Burnt pasta....but great conversation

This is just a little random post about a couple I met over a year ago now in the street and invited them to Bible study. We have kept up with them since then. They came over for dinner the other night, and we genuinely had a great time. It was so cool because Nicchola was able to be at dinner, and it was evident that God was using him to minister to Julio in a way that I couldn’t. Since this is a very sexist society, it is so neat to see God raising up Peruvian Christian men to minister to other men who are not believers. I don’t think either one of them are believers, but we got to have an awesome conversation about the gospel mainly because Julio kept bringing it up. It was so refreshing for a Peruvian to bring up the topic about Jesus instead of me bringing it up to them. We ate some semi-burnt pasta that I had made and just had a good time of fellowship together. Please pray that both Lourdes and Julio will come to know Christ.

Mail all the way to Ventanilla!!!

I got my first package from the states in February from a dear lady from Southmont, Linda Roberts. The package totally made my day. I meant to take a picture of it before I started eating the contents, but I forgot to. She sent me little Debbie snacks, pringles, skittles, starbursts, all of my favorite things! I was having a rough day, and that package totally turned my day around. It is the little things when you live in a foreign country that can bring so much encouragement. Then like the next week, I got an envelope of cards from members at Southmont – thanks so much to those of you who wrote me. It was also a great encouragement. I also got a late Christmas card from my grandpa! It was like my house was a miniature post office in the month of February.

Then leave it to my awesome parents to send me a Valentine’s package as well. My parents for as long as I have remembered have given me a Valentine’s present normally including Valentine’s pajamas and lots of candy. They proceeded to do it again this year by sending me a tiny box packed full of goodies including pajamas. Who needs a boyfriend when you have such great parents? Totally a joke! I was so encouraged by the mail I got in February. Thanks to all of you who keep up with me whether it be through mail, praying, e-mail, financial support etc. It means the world to me to know I have so many people supporting me. Thanks for all you do for me and for the kingdom!

Yep you heard right....I bought a guitar!

Hold the phone….yes Lauren Robertson now has a guitar! If any of you know me well, you know I am highly challenged when it comes to anything musical, especially if it involves any type of rhythm. I decided though, that I need to start learning guitar so that we can have praise and worship at our Bible studies. Right now we are singing some praise and worship songs at most of our Bible studies, but I want our worship experience to get deeper. One of the guys in our discipleship group knows how to play guitar, so he will play this guitar on Sunday’s for our new neighborhood Bible study as well. There are some others in our discipleship group that are pretty good as well, so I am hoping this guitar will be used for Peruvians to lead other Peruvians in a time of worshipping our Savior. Yes, it is my plan to start practicing….maybe if I have time next week!

This picture is for my brother whose name is Evan! (He loves music)

Here is my new guitar!!!

Takin' the love of the Jesus to the streets!

It was a Sunday night after our discipleship class and we were all sitting around talking about what we should do for Valentines day. We are all single with the exception of one person in our group. I said that we should go out to the movies together. We don't do that stuff together as a group hardly ever, but a girl that I will call Sarah said, "We should go out and do ministry and teach people who TRUE LOVE is, God." That was a humbling moment when one of the people in my discipleship class looked over my shallow plea to go to the movies together instead to go do ministry. I honestly did not want to do another ministry event...which is horrible to admit.....but I was so blessed by what end up happening. We decided we would go evangelize in a park and then go to the movies. Then we decided to ditch "having fun" all together and that we would go evangelize in a park and then take dinner to prostitutes that night. We only had 2 days to get everything together. We were going to use the bracelets that had arrows showing:

Jesus came
Died
Rose again
Went back to Heaven
And one day will return

The only problem is we had 3,000 of these bracelets made in Peru and they turned out terrible....so we had to convert all of them into key chains. 3 of us worked a couple of hours and converted all the "bracelets" into key chains. The next day we prepared sack dinners for 100 prostitutes.

2,700 key chains ready to be passed out, Bibles, and dinner for 100 People in the street!

This precious little boy was so interested in learning about Jesus. He totally captured my heart! My Valentine's date for the night!

Wow, what a blessing that night was. We stayed in the park about 3 hours witnessing. We all split up. I was so proud of the people in our discipleship group. They witnessed for 3 hours using the bracelets, the tracts we had made, and explained to people the good news of Jesus. One of our guys even went into a liquor store and started telling people about Jesus in there. It was one of the best nights of street evangelism that I have ever been a part of, if not the best night because the people I talked to were thoroughly interested. I probably didn't talk to more about 20 people total in the park, but I talked to families that were interested in the good news of Jesus which is a huge change. They were not just interested because I was a gringa; they actually wanted to learn about Jesus. It was a BEAUTIFUL night!

Then at about 10:30 pm we left the park to do go to downtown Lima to find prostitutes to minister to. The place they used to be at had been overtaken with police, and we did not know their new location. We found a few though here and there and gave them dinner and shared the good news of Jesus. Then the rest of the sandwiches we just gave to people in the street late at night. Couples, people selling things in the street, people just hanging out etc. We not only gave them dinner, but shared with them about the BREAD of Life which is Jesus. It was so cool watching our group reach out to these people.I was amazed when I would watch our group go up to people on their own because they felt led to share Jesus with that person! 6 of us went out to minister on Valentine's night, and I think we all left more blessed than the people we ministered to. It was such a great learning experience for our group. We got home after 3 am, but it was totally worth it! It was so much better than going to the movies. One day I will eventually learn doing God's work/ will is ALWAYS better than "other fun things."