Greater Things Have Yet To Come

I am excited to say that we are feeling your prayers for breakthrough. We are really starting to see our purpose here in this city, and what God wants us to do to bless our city.

"Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." Jeremiah 29: 7

I've shared before that there is a desperate need for people to start ministering to youth here in Maldonado. Before recently, there has been little to no effort from churches to focus specifically on reaching and discipling youth. This has been on our hearts for some time. Within the last month and a half, God has started putting a team of us together who have the same vision. It's incredible to see how He does it.

We've decided to first gather the youth that are Christians in the churches city-wide to have events once a month. We had our first one of those at the end of January. It was great to see youth meeting other youth that are believers. We hope to see kids teaming up in the future to reach their schools for Jesus.

We've also started forming a youth worship band. Something that draws youth is music, and we know and have seen God use music to touch people's hearts and fan a flame for His glory. There is a lack of that here in Maldonado. Many worship leaders have fallen into sin, making it obvious that the enemy is especially adamant that this area not be addressed.

Some great things are starting to happen, but we know that is when Satan usually starts his efforts. Please pray that we will have wisdom and grace with each other as we plan and pray about what God wants us to do. Please pray for other pastors in the city - that they will praise the work that God is doing and allow their youth to be a part it.

I wanted to tell ya'll a story of something that happened a couple weeks ago:

Every Wednesday morning we have a cell group for the people from our church that live in Puerto Pastora, a little port about 5 minutes outside of the city. It is a small town and there are no churches there. Two weeks ago, a girl named Mikela came who had just arrived from her village 1 day away by river. She came to see a doctor because she was having trouble breathing.

She came to our cell group. A family member spoke up and told us she was sick. They also told us that she had a 4 year old daughter, but she had birthed three children in the last few years. Two of the babies died. So we prayed for her health and painful past. As I was praying for her, I got the feeling she wasn't a Christian. So when I finished the prayer, we asked her if she had heard about Jesus. She said yes, but she hadn't accepted Him. Bryan asked if she wanted to and she said yes. We prayed with her, with the cell group all crowded around praying for her, and she accepted Jesus.

But the best part is this. We went two days later and took her to the doctor, bought her a Bible, and talked with her a while. This lady is different. She used to have a countenance of grief and shame, and now her smile is pure. She looks happy, peaceful, and whole. It's amazing how Jesus even makes our appearance change! She has decided to stay a month longer than planned, so now we have more time to disciple her and make sure she is confident in her faith.

There is no church in Mikela's village. Many people in the cell group travel there often. We are teaching the cell group that they are missionaries wherever they go. We have encouraged Mikela that she can share what has happened to her to her village. We are also encouraging the people that visit that they can have a church service when they go to encourage the believers and reach others there for Jesus.

Anyway, that blessed me, so I thought it might bless you too.

How great that God wants to use us all to be city- or even nation-changers!

New Year's Cuy and a Trip to Bolivia

Well Merry Christmas, Happy New Year. It has been pretty crazy, so I'll try to do a quick run through of the past month.

We had a great time with my parents here for Christmas. It was so nice to get to show them around, but also just hang out. We are so thankful that they came. It made Christmas a lot more like Christmas. And we got so many amazing presents and gifts that people had sent to us. Thank you so much for everything. We really were wowed by the number of people thinking about us and our needs (and wants!).

We celebrated New Years in Cusco after my parents had left. It was fun, just the two of us. We went out to eat that night and watched some fireworks, but we were back in our hotel by 10:30. It took a lot of effort to stay up till 12, but we did. When we watched the ball drop, Bryan opened our hotel window and shouted "HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!" Of course the few people on the street below spoke Spanish and probably couldn't understand him, but it was funny and fun. Life is never boring with my husband! =)

Below is a picture of our first meal of the New Year. It is called cuy, which is translated as guinea pig. It is a Peruvian delicacy, and the pastors of the church in Cusco took us to try it for the first time. Bryan is pretending to eat the head. You don't really eat that part.

They started making jokes and playing with our food. He're the cuy is hungrily biting into a potato.

This is the plate that was served to us. There are four pieces of meat here. The body is spilt in half and then cut in half. Bryan liked it and even ordered more, but I didn't love it so much. The taste was decent, but it's hard to focus on that when you are holding it by the claw.

Here is a picture of my family at one of our favorite restaurants in Cusco. We loved showing them around our favorite places =)

So after New Years, we returned to Maldonado. We started up English classes, which are going really well. I have four students that come to our house every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. It is a good start, and I'm loving it! We are praying that God will use this to extend His Kingdom in the lives of these four youth.

Then last week, we had to go renew our papers to be legal in the country. They are good for 6 months, and we met our 6 month mark on Thursday. That made it necessary to leave the country and enter again to get new papers. So we set out on what ended up to be a 25 hour bus ride to Puno. It was the worst traveling I have ever done. But we made it, and used some of our Christmas present money from family to stay in a hotel with a bath tub and continental breakfast (these are rarer in Peru than the States). Thank you family for 2 nights of luxury!

But we then had to get a visa to enter into Bolivia. After doing a bunch of running around making copies and printing off all kinds of documentation, we got the visa. After a lot of problems and franticly going to many different places, we are now legal again in Peru! It feels good to not have to worry about getting that done, at least for a while.

Things in the ministry here in Puerto are going well. We have been discussing as a team a lot of different goals and desires we have for 2010. We are excited to see how God will move in the lives of the youth that we feel led to work with. Please continue to pray for this specific need. I believe God really does want to light a fire in the youth of Maldonado.

Last thing, I wanted to post a picture of the bookshelf that the RA's at South Oaks bought for us with their offerings. We love it, and it is super helpful to not have to put everything we have on the floor. Also the GA's helped us to buy another fan for our house, which kept my parents cool while they were here and keeps us even cooler now. Thanks so much for praying and supporting us!

Promise it will not be as long until I update again!

What's new

I know it's been a while since I updated. I wanted to leave those pictures of the "for sale" items up for a little longer so more people could see. Thank you so much for your response to these two ladies. It was awesome to see so many people wanting to help.

I felt a few weeks back that I should start praying for Chana, and that God wanted to heal her. She has been deaf since birth. This morning, she told me with hand signals and then her mom told me that she is beginning to hear in one ear the very loud noises. God is moving!! It's awesome to see God at work. Please join with us in praying for her ears to open for the glory of Jesus!

Here are some pictures from the feeding program. These are some of the kids who are helping me go around to invite other kids to come here the Word of God.

Along the way we ran into this sheep who was just chilling so I asked them to take a picture with it =)

We've been having a hard time spending time with the youth in our church. Most of them are busy most of the week, and our weekends are our busiest time. But the last two weeks we've brought them along with us to the feeding program so they can help and we can spend time with them. Working together brings people closer! So these are the youth that came and helped us on Saturday. From left to right, Clayburn, Ginger, Katia, Darliz, and Jorge.

Darliz is helping me serve the food.

This is one of the kids who always helps me invite. He's a cute little kid, always ready to smile!

Bryan and I ate out one Sunday night and I had a plate called Brocheta Mixta. Basically its kabobs with different kinds of meats. Well Bryan tried them out with a marinating recipe he found on the internet, and put them on the grill and they turned out fantastic. I just thought ya'll would like to see a bit of his creativity.

Last Christmas was Bryan and I's first Christmas married, but we were on our break from Mexico, so we were living with our parents. This is the first year we've had our own place for Christmas, so we went and bought our first Christmas tree. It's little, but it's perfect for us. We figure in later years we can use this even when we get a big tree.

Bryan took the job of putting the lights on very seriously. I think he did a great job.

Here is our beautiful tree!!!

We have several things coming up:

We will be giving out Christmas presents to children in the church and that have been coming to our children's program on Sunday morning. We will also be giving to some kids in communities outside of Maldonado. For the majority of them, this is the only present they will get this Christmas.

My parents are coming to visit and I'm super excited about seeing them and them seeing everything here. Pray for safety in travel.

We are having a get together at the church on Wednesday the 23rd to celebrate as a church. We're wanting it to be a time of fellowship and growing together as a family in Christ.

Thanks for your prayers. Christmas is less than 2 weeks away!

The more native stuff =)

So I said I'd put the other items on the blog that are up for sale. As opposed to Chana, Josafina is an older lady and she makes all her stuff by hand. So it takes a lot longer to make. I'm not sure if she's interested in making multiple items like Chana. I just know these are for sale. If i get multiple people wanting the same thing, I can ask her. But I know these will take a lot longer to make, so besides these I don't know what would be ready by the time my parents come. Please let me know if you are interested! First come first serve =)

Josafina is part of a family that lives just outside of Puerto Maldonado in a little town called Pastora. You can see parts of their houses in some of these pictures. They moved several years ago from up the river, but they travel frequently. None of them have a steady job. They take jobs as river guides and sometimes these women's husbands are gone for weeks at a time. Keep in mind that a day's wage for a job here is about $8. You can see why helping Josafina or Chana is a tremendous help!

Below is a native tunic that is the traditional garb of the Yene tribe. Remember they are all handmade so they're a little more pricey. The price of this is $135. It's a heavy material and really nice quality. Both of these tunics are for men.

This is $135 as well.

This is a woman's traditional garb. The pants are about size 4. The shirt is about a medium. The cost of these together is $17. If someone is interested in buying them separately, let me know and maybe we can do that. She just gave me a joint price.

This vest is $25. It would be great as a fishing vest for someone perhaps =)
These are placemats. It comes with 4 that look like this. They are $5 each. So for the set is $20.
This is a backpack type bag that Bryan is modeling haha. The cost of it is $12.
This is a bag or purse that has a long strap. So you'd wear it over the shoulder across your chest. It's a neutral and can be used by boys or girls. It's $14.
This is one of the same types of bags. But the design is just a little different. This also costs $14.

And this is Herman Josafina who made all of these. She's a very sweet lady.
Please check out the entry below as well to see Chana's if you haven't already seen them. Thanks for helping us help some precious sisters in our church.

Purses!!

Hey everyone! I'm sorry it's taken me a while to update. I've been waiting for some pictures I wanted to show ya'll. There is a girl in our church who is 19 years old. Her name is Chana and she can't hear or speak. She uses sign language (which is really tough to understand for me when she's signing out words in Spanish - like a triple translation!) and she does not let her disability get in her way. Since I've known her family, I haven't seen a father. She has three younger brothers and her mom that she lives with. Chana is has to work. There isn't any programs to help people with disabilities here. It's just a fact of life, but she has to work to help provide for her family. She is a very hardworker, and as you are about to see, a very creative and talented individual. I wanted to show ya'll some of her work:

This is for a square pillow. She designs these herself.
Another pillow except its a sideways picture with my foot in it too =)
These are the purses she makes. You can tell this one doesn't have the straps yet. It's in progress.
Another design
And another
And another with the added bonus of my feet again.

I asked her about sewing or putting "Puerto Maldonado, Peru" on them and she said she could definitely do that. She is just starting this business, but I know many of you have asked how you can help. This is a great opportunity to help a family of believers that we're working with here and get a pretty souvenir in the process. My parents are coming in December, so they would bring them back with them if you buy one. Please, please let me know if you'd like one asap because she will need to be working on them. I'm hoping this will help kick off her business really well. The prices of the pillows and the pink purse (or that material) are $10. The prices of the others are $15. Please consider ordering one of these to help her out. They would make great gifts =). Any questions please email or comment on the blog.

Just a few pictures more since I took the time to upload those others:

Moises, Octavio and Luz's grandson. He'll turn 3 this month.
Luz, Moises, and his mom Mari
Bryan carrying our "compras" for the Saturday morning food program. It gets really heavy.

Much love!

Some New Pics

This is the church in Tres Islas where we go every Tuesday to have church there.
This is the outside of the church building.
This is the girl who made my card in the last blog. She's always at the church if the doors are open.
This is the lady we usually buy our chicken from.
On the top left is the ground beef that we now have in our refrigerator. Below that are fish.

Just some pics of around town I thought ya'll would like to see.

Grateful

The other night we went up to the church to do some publicity about the English classes we are hoping to start on Nov. 2nd. Everytime the church doors are open, our kids from Sunday mornings come running over (at least a few of them anyway). They sat with us and colored, but this is what they ended up drawing and coloring and giving to us:

Translates: A card for Professor or Teacher Elena (which is easier for the kids to say than Delana). Sister Elena, you have taught me very well and because of that I'm telling you you are very nice. I love you a lot and I want to go to Tres Islas. Thank you Sister Elena. Bye Sister Elena.

This explanation to the Tres Islas thing is that we were going to have church there one Sunday and we invited all the kids. But when we went to reserve a soccer field and spot to have it there, it was already going to be used. So we decided to do it in January instead. But the kids were really excited and are still excited. They had to bring their parents to us to give us permission to go, so I guess that work got them invested in really wanting to go. Haha they really are fun.

This is the one to Bryan: Thank you Brother Bryan for helping me to color and draw and all the other things. You help me in everything.

This is the front of both of the cards.

These are from a brother and sister that we've gotten pretty close to. Their mom and grandmother own a shop in the market across the street from the church, and their dad is a teacher in another town and comes and visits on weekends when he can. It is obvious they are both lacking in attention because they are always trying to get it from us. But most of the time, especially when it's one on one, we love to give it. It's cool to see how God is using the short time we have with the once a week to make a difference in their lives.

It's so easy to get bothered by the little things. I was thankful when one time this week in my time with the Lord, I felt a direct command to be grateful. That is our job. Thank you for your prayers this week. I don't know what it is, but I can feel the prayers this week. I know it is the joy of the Lord.

We've had two pastor's prayer meetings since I last posted, and they are going well. We've gotten to spend time now with some of the pastors in a more casual setting, and that has been a very good thing. It's hard to have actually unity and not just talked-about-unity when you're not really even friends. One pastor and his wife and sister-in-law are starting a television program for youth here in Maldonado. I guess because we are young, they asked us to help them with ideas and things. Neither of us have any television experience, but it seems like it might be a great tool to make connections with some of the youth around town. Some of our ideas include, candid camera, a talent show (like American Idolish), but each week a new person comes on and has to compete against the ones who stayed from the week before. Also for teaching, we want to show interviews from around town and also some documentaries to show youth that there is more to live for than just the moment.

Anyway, I guess that's most of what is going on. I mentioned the English classes before, but please pray that it goes smoothly. We've done a lot of preparation and work for them, and we're hoping it will pay off by giving us connections with new people and a new way to share the Lord by day-to-day relationships.

My verse of encouragement this week has been:

"The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your love, O Lord, endures forever - do not abandon the works of your hands." Psalm 138:8