Peruvian Update

Dear Friends and family,

Hola desde Chincha, Peru! I arrived safely a week and a half ago. My time home for Christmas was wonderful, and a well needed rest. I have hit the ground running here in Peru. I am so excited to be back in the saddle again, and be apart of what God is doing here in Peru. Some changes have come about since I have returned. The other guy that is down here with me has a tumor or something on his liver, and has not been released from the doctors yet. This makes traveling around the city solo to dangerous for me. At the same time, God has provided an alternative. Go God!! A group has just arrived here from the same organization (the World Race). It is a group of 25 people (broken into smaller teams of 5) all in there 20ʼs who are spending 11 months of their lives traveling to 11 different countries ministering to others, and living in tents, having very limited budgets. The heart of this program is discipleship, and with the given circumstances and close living quarters, it is pretty intense. They just started on the fifth of this month, and I have been with them a week. I will join them while they are here in Chincha doing earthquake relief, and then we will go to the Amazon jungle (Iquitos) for one month, then to Bolivia for another. From there, they will go on to South Africa, and I will go back to Lima for my time remaining (approximately one month). If and when Jason gets better, he will most likely join us. This really excites me, and I am really enthused to be apart of a larger team, and ministering together. Already I see God’s hands in how He made this possible, and the team members he has joined me with.

I have been placed in the team that is involved with Pastor Nestor’s neighborhood, Los Jardines. The name of his village literally means “the gardens.” We had the idea of planting a garden in the center, and proceeded to go through the hoops to make this possible. After a week of this bureaucratic jungle, the mayor granted us permission to create a garden and even donated 20 trees, 25 different flowers, and grass. Praise the Lord!! We do not have a large spending budget, but the Lord made it possible to build a beautiful garden! This may not seem like anything huge, but it just is a testimony on how much God cares for us! We are also planning on some kind of teaching for the children. Kind of like a daily school, where we can teach them morals, Bible stories, and the importance of making Jesus their all-in-all.

Family, friends it is hard for me to express to you my thankfulness for God in my life, for intertwining me with this opportunity and for
allowing me to be apart of something eternal. It truly is worth every penny, and every hour, and every prayer. God continues to save people, and bring them into His fold. Be encouraged. God is so good!!