These last couple months have been exciting. God has been teaching us so much about His love for His people and His yearning to reconcile with the lost. He has been showing us the desire within people to be forgiven and reconciled to Him. And we were blessed to see and hear it.
In mid-June Chiqui and I were given the opportunity to go to Venezuela. Someone we don't even know bought our plane tickets. We thank God for him and the incredible openness he had to help others he didn't even know learn more about how to impact God's kingdom. It was amazing to go and see missionary Eric Barry and the incredible work that God is doing through him and other missionaries in the Caracas area of Venezuela. We were invited to go and be a part of a conference for youth leaders by Pastor Doug Otten. The conference was a time for us as leaders to learn from the wisdom and experience of Doug in many very practical forms of ministry. What was taught was very helpful for Chiqui and I and we were actually able to get a copy and bring it down here to Peru to show the other youth pastors and leaders. Things as simple as making it a point to say the name of the kids makes them feel important, remembered, and wanted. And those are feelings that every single person who steps into God's church should feel. After the conference Chiqui and I took advantage of the free tickets and spent some time at the beautiful beaches on some islands off the northwestern coast. The water and sand looked like something we had only beforehand seen on brochures and on TV. But there first hand seeing the beautiful creation of our God was awe inspiring.
Upon returning to Peru we had less than a week to get the finalizing down of the preparation of a medical team that was going to be here for a week. The team consisted of two doctors, two nurses, and a small pharmacutical team. During the week they were here the team was able to see more than one thousand people. They worked very very hard to see many people from around the churches, from orphanages, and from within the church, and they blessed everyone with vitamins and the necessary medicine that each person needed. Some people got warts removed, children got bathed for scabies and treated for worms and parasites, some elderly even recieved crutches, and one old man even got a pedicure. For us as a church it was a time that we could witness, prayer, share, and invite many to the church and to know their Lord and Savior. Apart from the team of 17 that came down from the US, we had a team of almost 30 people to keep things orderly and to pray and share with every single person that stepped through the church doors. Please keep all these people in your prayers, and us as well, so that the work will continue the expansion of the kingdom.
The hardest thing for us was the news we recieved upon arrival in Tacna after the conference in Venezuela. A pair of missionaries that work in Culto.com, the youth group in the main church, will be returning to Chile in February. There are many reasons from lack of financial support, their studies, and some personal reasons. We ask that you pray for them and for their future. Pray that they will be able to return to Chile well and that they may be able to study and prepare themselves for a posible future in missions. We also ask that you prayer for the churches here and for the leaders in Culto.com. There will be a lack of leaders and we will need to work hard and allow God to raise up Peruvian leaders.
With so much good and bad going on it is hard to believe that God does not have much stored up for the Tacna church. It almost seems like an impossible task, but God can only do miracles when something seems impossible. For what is impossible for man is possible with God. It is these promises that we put our faith in and wait in the hope that only He gives. Please pour out your prayers over the Tacna ministry these next months as God works through the difficulties that are to come. Thank you for your support always. You are important to us and cherished by our Father in heaven. |
