This last year has been quite an adventure, some of which has been very exciting and the rest has been very difficult but promising. God has used this year to help all of us to grow as leaders and as His children. There have been many new things and many things that not resulted the way we had hoped, but God has also blessed many things and kept our spirits high and dependent in the hope only He can give us.
January began with missions as it always does, but this year we were also able to have a team come from CCV for the first two weeks and it proved once again to be an amazing team and amazing time. After the transition from the previous to the new pastor and leader in Peru, things were still in the process of being smoothed out. Energies and spirits were running low and the team from CCV came and were very open to do everything that was asked and more. The team came with many ideas and God used them to bless us all here in Tacna. To see more on the short-term team from January see the newsletter from January2005. After the team left there were 5 interns who were beginning their time here in Peru and they have been amazing. The interns have been very helpful and up-lifting in more ways than they know. They have been able to begin the Engish classes again with four levels at the local church, and in Ciudad Nueva there are also beginner English classes. There are now guitar classes in Ciudad Nueva and the first group of musicians are actually being lifted up. But on other levels, which I personally thank God for, some of the interns have begun to disciple people and have been provided insight on church leadership that have truly opened our eyes to things that need to be bettered. We also have some bad news that 3 of the interns will be leaving on the 6th of June, and another one has shortened the previously planned year and will be leaving the 1st of August(but she is getting married so pray for their blessings). Overall, the interns have been more than we could have hoped for as a first group. With all the changes and confusions the group has been very patient and helpful and they have been a blessing.
We are now in the process of preparation for our first missions team. We will be partnering up with a team in Ecuador for about a 12 day trip. This is a big step for the direction that the church desires to go. Praise God that He has raised up people to not only go on a short-term trip, but that there are also responsible people in which the church can be left to. As for Chiqui and I, we have been preparing all that we can with the missions team, trying to get a solid work plan and leadership team with the youth group in Ciudad Nueva, and trying to get our wedding and future planned. It has proved to be very difficult and time consuming, but God continues to provide us with the strength and energy to take each day and each step. Which leads to what the last month of mine was dedicated to. During April through May I spent three weeks in the States raising support and one week in Lima getting paperwork straightened out for our upcoming wedding. I feel the trip went exactly how God wanted it. Even though I was very upset and my hopes were trampled on, the last week God clearly showed me that things were in His hands and that I need not worry. After two weeks of con-tacting the short-list of contacts and supporters I have, we had no confirmed monthy supporters and about a twentieth of the one-time support we were hoping for. We were hoping to raise enough one-time donations to get a house, a van, and start a cyber cafe, and enough monthly support for the two of us and for the four churches. But all in the last 5 days or so God provided the bare minimal in order for Chiqui(my fiance) and I to get a house and to survive until the end of next year. If anyone is interested in the exact numbers email me and I will send you a detailed list of what the money would be used for and how much we are now looking at. We want to be completely clear as to what it is this support would be used for so there is total confidence in all that we do. Also, if you want to see some of the plans and projects that the monthly church support would go to you could look at the projects page that is currently being modified. As of right now, praise God, we will be able to get a small house in the area we are focused on in our work(it's a blessing that it is a cheaper/poorer area), and we have half the monthy support that we were told we would need. But God was faith-ful to provide 3 possible supporters for next year, and when I say God provided it is undeniable. I was sitting at a coffee shop pre-paring different things and a couple old friends came in and we began talking about how everything was going, we got on the topic of support and I began to share with them. Well there was a pastor sitting right behind us who overheard what we were talking about and he felt he should introduce himself. To make a long story short, both of us will be praying if this is a partnership God wants. It was situations like these that enabled me to leave the States without the support we had hoped for, but with hopeful support. God is good and God is faithful to us, we must remain humble to search His will in all the outcomes that enter our lives. Please keep all the above in your prayers...the interns, the missions team, Chiqui and I, the ministries, and the spiritual development of the churches.
Immanuel,
Brian and Chiqui |
