First Peruvian Baptisms!

One of the best days that I have ever had in Peru was 3 Sundays ago, when I had the privilege of baptizing my first set of Peruvians. I baptized John, Nicchola, and Sarah. It was a beautiful day. All of them had at least one family member present, and 3 families of neighbors came to watch as well. It was so amazing because each one shared their testimony and the gospel to their non-believing family members and neighbors. They explained that only through Jesus can you be saved and that baptism is just a symbol showing what Jesus has done for them and to show others that they are followers of Him. I spoke at the beginning explaining the significance and meaning of baptism. It was such a joyous time for me to get to baptize my 3 main leaders. After that we had a small reception in my house. Unfortunately, I cannot post many pics on my blog for confidentiality reasons for John and Sarah. I will post pics of Nicchola getting baptized. It was a great day. We are hoping to baptize about 13 more this month that are new believers as well!

Some of the neighbors that were watching!

Nicchola sharing his testimony

Getting ready to be baptized

Getting baptized

Nicchola and his family and friends

God is healing Aquilino!!

As of yesterday, Aquilino’s blood count was at 7.9. Raised from being at a 5 to 7.9 in just one month. He has been on his diet for about 3 weeks now. Also, God is healing his tumor in his stomach, it is shrinking! The doctor said he doesn’t even have to have surgery!!! Also, his sister – in –law, Marta, has started to come to my house twice a week for a small salary to cook for him. I couldn’t keep up cooking for him and doing all the other things I had to do. This is helping her greatly since she is in desperate poverty. It is a blessing for us both. She and her husband and her 2 kids came to our neighborhood Bible study yesterday for the first time! God is at work! Please pray for Aquilino and all of his family to come to know Christ. Please pray that his sister-in-law’s family would come to know Christ as well. Please pray for complete healing of his leukemia. Please pray that God would continue to provide the finances for him to buy his medicines that he needs to fight his cancer. God is the ULITMATE HEALER!

Attn: We have a new neighborhood Bible study!!

This is one of the most exciting things that has been happening for the past 6 weeks. We have finally started a Bible study in the neighborhood where I live. Kids in my neighborhood have been asking for this for a long time, and we could just never get it started for some reason, but God’s timing is perfect timing. The best part about this Bible study it is all Peruvian led. I do not even teach it! My Peruvian leaders who are in my discipleship class are fully responsible for it! The first week we had 28 people attend, 7 of those being adults. After that we have been running an average of about 10 people (ranging from 3 years old to 80 years old), but we are not getting discouraged because ministry is like this in Peru. We have also had a lot of competition with other things since Sundays are the people’s only day off here in Peru, a lot of times in the summer everyone goes to the beach on Sundays. We are hoping now with school just starting that people will get more into Routine and more will come. It is so cool because the Peruvian leaders come to my house at 11 am – plan a skit together, get the songs ready, the Bible study ready, and even cook together. Then we have the Bible study at 4 pm. It really does feel like I am living the book of Acts out. We are having really good adult attendance at this Bible study which we have had trouble with in other Bible studies so that is a huge blessing.

 My next door neighbors have been coming who I am really close with. It is so neat to see them coming to learn about God. They have not had anything to do with God for a long long time. They are really interested. The mom and the teenage son have expressed interest in wanting to lead this Bible study one day. She told me the other day, she is ready to get involved in everything, and she even wants to go to other Bible studies with me. She is not a Christian, but God is definitely working on her heart. Please pray for this family specifically. I think they are the ones that God will use one day to take over this house church and lead the entire neighborhood to Christ. Other great news is at last week’s Bible study, a teenage girl named Lucero gave her life to Christ. She is a very big leader among the kids in the neighborhood, so we are thrilled about her being the first person in our neighborhood to become a Christian! Please pray for our neighbors that they will come, please pray for our leadership that they will consistently come every week and lead. It is very easy to start something and then not consistently do it, and I really want Peruvians to be the ones leading this every week!

Learning the days of creation!

Reading the story directly from the Bible

The adults learning together

Putting the Bible verse in order

The most famous gospel sharing game that even the adults love

More kids keep a comin' to Calle 10

We have been having a great time lately at Calle 10. We have met so many new kids during this summer season. For the most part, the kids that have been coming have really been listening as well. We used to have about 10 kids and a couple of times this summer we have had over 20 kids. For 2 weeks, we had water balloon fights; it was a blast. The first week we had water games, 30 kids/ teenagers showed up, plus adults were watching and participating. It was SO much Fun. Our group is becoming more and more solid. School started this week so we were a little down, but please pray that these kids who have been faithfully come this summer will continue to come during the school season. I am so excited to see what God is doing in Calle 10.

Playing "sheet water balloon volleyball"

We had so much fun on the water day!

Love these kids!

Sweet girls!

The kids absolutely love Nicchola!

Fun times with other Gringas!

Three weeks ago on my day off, I got to meet up with an IMB missionary, Mindy McCord. I had wanted to meet up with her for about 2 years. Actually when I first went to Peru someone had given me her name, and I finally got to meet her just this past month. It was such a blessing. She is such a sweet person. We went to Chili’s together which was an extra bonus. Then I got to go hang out and play some games with my good friend Amanda Wissmann in Chorillos! There is no one that likes playing games more than Amanda and I!! We get so competitive. The next week I went into town again on my day off, but this time very early in the morning. I got into Lima at 7:30 am and nothing was open, except Wongs!! This happens to be an international grocery store. It was such a blessing because Dr. Pepper was on Sale! I also got some chocolate, cheddar cheese, and taco shells. I then went to a new Starbucks to wait on Amanda! We played games for about an hour and half in Starbucks while we drank Dr. Pepper and cheddar cheese. It looked like we were having a picnic in Starbucks! Of course, we had a Starbucks drink as well! Then we headed to KFC for lunch and to a movie. It was such a great American day – I was in need of a little bit of American culture. Every time I see Amanda, I am encouraged. I am so thankful for her sweet friendship.

That's right we are in Starbucks with our own canned drinks and block of cheddar cheese!

We love playing games!

Then this past Friday, Nicchola and I were delivering food to Aquilino, and I see 4 white women walking near the orphanage. I stopped and asked if they were walking to the orphanage. Come to find out they are 4 IMB missionaries. It was such a blessing. I actually took them to my house so they could stop by and visit on another Friday. They are going to be working in the orphanage every Friday! It was such a God-send that I ran into them. 3 out of the 4 of them will be leaving by May, but one will be here until December. They were so sweet! They got my number and are going to email me with contacts of other IMB missionaries in Lima. God is so good and sovereign. One of my main personal desires of my heart has been to meet other missionaries specifically ones from the IMB. God literally placed them directly in my path. All glory to His name.

Huaral - one of my favorite campo cities

So much has been going on in Huaral lately. We took them to the beach again and this time, 30 of us went. It was beautiful because Salvia's family was in town from another town. The teenage boys and I, played in the huge waves, I helped dig a "sand pool" with the teenage girls, played in the waterfalls with the people, and best of all right there on the beach, Salvia became a Christian. It was beautiful! Salvia has been the person I have wanted to be most connected with since the beginning. There has always been something about her that I just love. She is so timid, but for the first time ever she came up to me and started pouring her heart out with a problem that she was facing. By the end of the conversation, she prayed to give her life to Christ. It was beautiful!

The crew

Love the sunset!

Bible study before we went to the beach!

Singing give me a J with the kids at Bible study!

Since it has been summer, there have been more children because more of the grandkids are visiting their grandmother. Also more family members have been in town as well. It has been a blessing to teach more people the good news about Jesus. The day we went to the beach we had 22 in Bible study at Huaral! A record for sure. We have been having really good attendance this past month. Now we have gone back down to our regular 8 or so because the kids are back in school etc.

Tomorrow, we are planning on doing a training session for the Christian adults and teenagers on how to witness, and then we will go practice by going to a few houses in the campo to share the good news with them. Please be praying for these new believers that they will want to passionately grow in Jesus. This family is just very timid in general so it has been hard for them to really be bold about Jesus, but pray for strength for them because anything is possible with Jesus.

A precious newborn baby

We are still meeting with Jackeline from Ancon and on occasion her younger daughter Geraldine. Her oldest daughter Angela, just had a baby. We had the great privilege of going to visit her with her newborn baby in the hospital. Her baby is now one month old. Please pray for Jackeline, Geraldine, and Angela and her boyfriend to come to know Christ. I know that Jackeline will make an amazing Christian leader, but she still just does not seem to understand after all these months of meeting with her. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will just reveal Himself to her and that He will explain to her salvation: that it is only by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

Jackeline and her grandbaby

Angela and her son