Adventures in the Jungle

Music

2012-02-15T07:47:00.003-06:00

When we first started the youth center, we felt that God gave us three tools to focus on to reach kids. They were sports, English, and music. We immediately started a free once a week English class for kids after school, and we began volunteering in schools in their English program. We also started a sports time on Saturdays where we play a different sport each week. We also had the privilege of hosting Hoops for Hope to further our sports strategy.

But what we really didn't know how to use was the music side. For the first year of the youth center, we didn't do much with music except for sing and teach Christian worship songs at our Friday and Saturday Bible classes or small groups.

As you've seen over the last few blogs, God has been rocking our world as far as music goes. Our friend David now has a key to the youth center and is working side by side with us to extend God's kingdom using music to bring in kids. We now have several times a week where kids can come in and use the instruments to learn and practice. We are also doing voice practices to get the kids involved with the band.

Check out the video on our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=600956667691&notif_t=video_processed

We had an awesome concert, and the kids even put together a drama to do in the middle of it. It was great! I can tell the kids loved doing the skit and being part of the presentation.

God has brought in a lot of new people since we started the music stuff in November. Please pray for these new kids to respond to the gospel in the same way we've seen from our kids already involved in the youth center.

We have a core group of about 8 that have really been touched by the Lord and we see them growing in their faith. We've also seen them reaching out to the newer kids and including them in a way that does not come natural to 13, 14, and 15 year olds. We also see them eagerly participating in the leadership roles we've gradually been giving them! We are so excited to see how God is removing some daily responsibilities from our hands and giving them to these young believers. Our goal is for the youth center to eventually be able to function without us - just as most missionaries' goal should be.

Speaking of going on without us, it is hard to believe that we are only a month away from moving to Lima for 3 months. Our little Eva is kicking and moving a lot these days, and we're both just thrilled to have this blessing to be parents. We look at each other some days and can hardly believe all the emotions. Thank you for those of you that were praying for us to find a place to live. We found an apartment in a nice area that also has an extra room that can help us host family members that will be coming visit during those 3 months. We're excited about serving in a church in Lima where we hope to make connections for the future. Bryan will be coming back a couple times to Maldonado to see everyone and make sure things are going smoothly.

This next month is a busy one for us. Along with putting an extra push of energy into the youth center, we also have two groups coming. The first is a group of doctors that will be going into a reserved park here in the jungle. It is up river about 2 days. Bryan will be going with them as a translator. The government only lets people with special permission enter the park because they want to save the environment and way of life of the many native groups that live there. They will be gone February 26th until March 6th. Eva and I will stay behind and keep things going here. Please pray for Bryan's safety and for us as we will be apart. There will be hardly any opportunities for communication during that week and half so I know it will be hard on us.

The second group is Hoops for Hope. As I mentioned earlier, they came last year and were SUCH a blessing to us and our ministry. We are so glad they want to come again, and I know that will be a very fun week. They will teach 2 three-hour sessions of basketball skills and drills for 4 days of the week they are here. It will be very busy, but it will give us a great chance to meet more kids. Please be praying for us to get all the last minute details ready and for translators to fall into place.

One last prayer request. We really feel our time in Lima has a purpose for this time in our ministry whether it's making connections with Peruvians who have a heart for youth in the jungle or working by teaching English or something else. Bryan has been contacting some English institutes in Lima seeing if they need any help. We're also considering being private tutors. Please pray for us to find ways to be fruitful while we are away from Maldonado. It's hard for both of us to leave while things are going so well here, but we are obeying what we are hearing from the Lord.

We love you and are so thankful for your support and prayers.

January Newsletter

2012-02-01T20:44:00.004-06:00

Greetings!!!

I hope that everyone is doing well these days. We are having a girl!! We expect Eva Grace Davis to be born sometime around May 22^nd. Needless to say we are excited. We are going to be moving to Lima for three months. During our stay there we will be helping out in a church there. I may also be teaching English if I can find jobs. We are in the process of looking for a place to stay while we are there. Please be praying that we can find a place that is safe and affordable as things cost quite a bit more in the big city.

Christmas

Thanks to all who gave to our Christmas program. We were able to serve around 350 kids with sweet bread, hot chocolate, and a toy. We were privileged to see the kids happy. This gave us opportunity to share the Gospel with kids as well as parents with whom we don’t normally have the opportunity. You can see pics on our blog at bryananddelana.blogspot.com.

Testimonies

At the end of December we were taking Obed one of the 14 yr old kids home from the youth center. He told us that he had been teaching kids in his neighborhood things that he was learning at the Youth Center. He has been mee

ting with them for over a year off and on. This completely shocked us to hear that he would take the initiative to start meeting with his friends and teach them about Jesus. We are excited to see what God is doing in his life. We look forward to seeing more fruit. Please be praying for Obed. I am meeting with him personally during his summ

er vacation. He is helping me clean the Youth Center and then we are doing a Bible study.

There is a young girl named Sophia who was saved in the Youth Center. We have been discipling her over the last year. This January she has helped us start a Children’s program in the Youth Center. Folks, I cannot tell you how encouraging it is to see her teaching children about Jesus and praying out loud boldly. Please be praying for Sophia and our Children’s program

Upcoming Events

February 26^th I will be travelling upriver with Octavio and a team of medical doctors. I will be serving the team as a translator. The doctors will be seeing indigenous peoples from different communities. We are going to be entering into a protected national park called Manu Park. There are many people we will be seeing that have only h

eard of Jesus a few times. There are also uncontacted people groups inside the park. This is an opportunity to take the gospel to places it has never gone before. Please pray for protection for me and that I would be a blessing to the team that I am serving as I continue to share the Good News. Please pray for Delana while I am gone as well.

I get back March 6^th and March 10^th to the 15^th we have Hoops for Hope International coming. We hosted Hoops for Hope la

st year and it was a huge success. Not to mention it was a lot of fun. This year my friend from school Jon Wible will be leading the team. We will be teaching fundamental basketball skills as well as sharing the G

ospel with about 100 kids. We will have some of the same kids as last year. Please be praying that God would touch the hearts of the kids we are working with. Two of the kids from last year have been consistent in our discipleship classes.

Keeping in touch

If you have any questions or prayer requests for us please feel free to shoot us an email. You can also check out our blog. Delana usually updates it every few weeks.

Blog: bryananddelana.blogspot.com

email: davis.bp@gmail.com

Global Consulting Group

P.O. Box 7254

Waco, TX 76714

Happy 2012!

2012-01-03T21:25:00.003-06:00

We had a wonderful Christmas. The money you gave allowed over 300 children to receive a toy, hot chocolate and sweet bread to celebrate on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It was so fun to see the kids so excited about their toys. Here are a couple pictures.

Thank you again for giving! If you want to see more pics from the different Christmas programs, go to our facebook page - Bryan and Delana in Peru. I have a lot more pics up there.

I felt the baby kick today. I've felt little wiggles, but this was the first time I was like "whoa you are in there aren't you little one?" I was 20 weeks yesterday. Thank you for your continued prayers for us as we plan toward adding someone to our family.

We have added two new things to our schedule starting this new year. First, we will have a kids class once a week for an hour and a half. That starts this Thursday. Some of the older kids who come regularly will be helping facilitate this. That will give them a good chance to learn to teach kids and soak up more of the gospel while they are doing it.

Second, we are starting a Thursday night group at our house for people in their 20's ish. We're not really putting limits, but we know a lot of people in that age range that are just kind of floating around and not sure where they fit in. Most of the people going to church are a little older than them, and most of their friends are still in the partying stage. Please pray that God would bring the people who really desire to meet with Him. We don't really know what this is going to look like, but we've seen a need and we feel compelled to do something.

It is exciting to see some real fruit coming from our year of labor with these youth kids. I hope to share soon some of that encouragement here on the blog. But thank you for partnering with us to bring change to this city. We're praying that God will use us to bring the power of Jesus into more and more people's lives.

Hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and New Years!

First and Last

2011-12-09T15:14:00.002-06:00

This Christmas marks the first and last Christmas we've been alone and in our home. We have always been visiting the US for the holidays or with family here visiting. This year, we will celebrate Christmas morning just the two of us. I know this could be one of the only ones like that for a long time after the baby comes!

We had a great Thanksgiving. We made the family recipe for brownies (which are non-existent in Peru) and handed out baggies of them to our closest friends. It was really nice because with each drop-off, we got to visit with each family and God really used that time to strengthen our relationships with friends. We really enjoyed the day despite being far from family.

Here, the kids are about to start their "summer" break. It's the most logical time for kids to be out of school because it's rainy season. Due to mostly unpaved roads in the city, a lot of people have trouble getting out of their neighborhoods when it's covered with mud. Actually, a lot of families go on a two-month-long vacation to visit family in other cities or to go work their land in the country.

Needless to say, all of those things really change our schedule up at the youth center. There are less kids, but they have more free time because school is out. We're in the middle of planning our changes for the summer. We're also planning for next year. As soon as the kids get back to school, we will be moving to Lima to wait for our baby's arrival. The latest I can fly is the end of March. Please keep all this planning and organizing in your prayers.

God has brought several people into our lives to start helping us at the youth center. We've known both of them since we moved here, so we know we can trust them. It's just worked out timing wise that they are available now to help us a little. One is a 24 year old guy who is passionate about music. He's really helping us teach the kids the instruments. We have bought an electric guitar and a bass! He's been helping us keep open the youth center when we are doing other things, like the feeding program on Saturdays. We're praying he can continue to be available to be a presence at the youth center as we are in Lima.

The other is a 22 year old young lady. I love her! She's been a good friend to me since we've been here, but she's always had very busy jobs. She's had very little time for helping or just hanging out. But we're so excited that God provided her just two weeks ago with a new job that leaves her evenings open! Praise Him! She's been coming to help with English nights. She's studied English formally, and did very well teaching her first English night this past Wednesday! It was so exciting for me to be able to hand it over to her and get to enjoy it with the kids. I'm praying that her job will continue to allow her presence at the youth center.

We know God has brought these two people in our lives for a purpose. Please pray for them. Pray for us to have wisdom in how to let go of the youth center to see Peruvians extend the Kingdom of God in their city.

So much to be thankful for

2011-11-17T09:43:00.002-06:00

This has been a crazy month, but we've had so much fun!

We've started back volunteering in the school closest to the youth center. It's called Colegio Milagros. It's one of the lower income schools in our city. I've been working with one of the two English teachers and helping out in her classes twice a week. It's been great to help, but we've seen so many new faces in the youth center because of it. This past month we've averaged around 3 new people each time we're open. It's been really great to share with some new kids, and encourage the "regulars" to be leaders and make the new people feel welcome.

We've also been playing sports every Saturday for the past several weeks. We've seen that this really helps get kids out of their self-conscious shyness and really start to make friends with the other kids. We usually play frisbee or basketball with them. I say we, but Bryan hasn't been letting me play with them. I can goof around, but he doesn't want me to fall or get pushed over or something. I guess that's wise. I can be a pretty competitive and aggressive player. But it's also been nice to just get time to watch them, joke around with them, and pray for them while they're playing.

We are also really excited about our increase in English students. We now have 16 students! And that number could possibly go up to 26 in the next week. Along with me teaching high school aged kids, Bryan has started a class at a restaurant teaching their waitstaff. It is a very touristy restaurant, so English is very valuable to them. He's really enjoying getting to make relationship with people in their 20's who aren't Christians. They've even come a couple of times and helped out in our Wednesday night English class at the youth center!

There's also an opportunity for Bryan to start teaching the staff at a local hotel that is very popular with tourists. We're hoping to start this next week. We do charge for these classes, but very little compared to formal institutes. The exciting thing is that this month we should have enough from English classes to pay rent for the youth center building. God is using ministry to pay for ministry! He is so faithful!

We also had enough money come in to buy one instrument. We bought an electric guitar that came with a speaker to plug it in to. We are really excited about the kids getting to use this to learn to play. We've been talking this up with the kids, asking who wants to learn to play an instrument. All but a couple are very enthusiastic about it. Our vision is to eventually have a youth praise team that leads worship in our services at the youth center. We also see this as a great way for some of the older kids to take a lead and some responsibility - to make it feel like it's their own. We should get the guitar in the mail this weekend. We are still hoping to buy a bass and a drumset in the near future.

Bryan and I personally are doing really good. We've both said to each other that we are in the most exciting time of our lives. At times this month during the dizziness and almost losing my lunch because of a weird smell, I've thought to myself that I wasn't loving this phase. But it really is true. The baby is healthy as of our last doctor's appointment, and growing well. We are so excited that in just a few more months we will have a new member in our family. God has been so good to us!

Please be praying as we seek God's wisdom for our lives in the next year. We have so many decisions and ideas that we want to do only what will bring the Lord all the glory. Thank you so much for your continued prayers, love, and support.

"For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power." 1 Corinthians 4:20

Instrumentos!!!

2011-10-31T21:57:00.000-05:00

Things are going great with the youth center. Friday night we had six kids give their lives to the Lord!! God is good. I want these kids that we are working with to know it more and more.

My purpose for this post is to let folks know about a need that we have. We really need music instruments for the Youth Center. We don't normally put financial needs on here, but I really feel like it is important. I am looking to raise about $1500 for instruments. The purpose would be so that some of the kids who are coming to the youth center could come and learn how to play. I know people who would be willing to teach them. I see this as an opportunity for kids who are growing in their faith in the Lord to have an opportunity to develop their musical skills. Most kids in Peru don't get the opportunity to learn an instrument.

Almost two years ago we were developing a worship band made up of members from different churches. After a few months a couple of the members of the team moved away. We still have in our hearts to do something similar to what we were doing. So I see this as a need in the youth center as well as a need in the city where we are working.

Delana is 11 weeks pregnant today. I (Bryan) am writing this by the way. I know it has been a while. I think like two years. There was a fiasco in '09. I will just leave it at that. I am really excited about being a Dad. Delana is doing well. She is a trooper. Please continue praying for her as I know ya'll are doing.

If anybody is interested in helping out with buying instruments let me know by sending me an email at davis.bp@gmail.com. God Bless.

This is a pic of the Bridge that was just opened that connects our city with Brazil. It is really going to change things here.

We're Having a BABY!!

2011-10-22T15:53:00.001-05:00

So time has flown by. And most of you have probably received the newsletter or read the news on facebook, but I want the blog readers to know as well. We found out a little over a month ago that we are pregnant! I happened to be in the US when I found out. I went for a couple of weeks to be with my parents while my dad was recovering from surgery. And while I was there, I found out this amazing news which I had to tell Bryan over the telephone. But we are super excited. In November we will complete 3 and 1/2 years of marriage, and so we were hoping to start a family about this time. Our baby's due date is May 22, 2012!!

Our baby's first picture!

Things are going great here in Maldonado. We have seen God's hand moving in some cool ways. We started a discipleship class a few months ago, and we have consistently had at least 10 high schoolers involved. We decided to dedicate one night of the week at the youth center to only high school aged youth. A lot of times the younger children can be a distraction to those who are really wanting to learn more about Jesus. So we decided to do that. We've taught on many different topics, mainly starting out with the basics of Christianity. But last night, we taught a lesson on purity, separating the guys and girls. It was very encouraging to see the girls understand that God wants them to choose one man who is godly, who respects them, and who will be faithful to them. They know all to well of what happens in most relationships here (infidelity, children out of wedlock). I encouraged them that they can be the ones to change the next generation!

We have also seen a growth in our feeding program in Laberinto. We have about the same number coming to receive food, but we have more that are coming to the lesson to be an active part of hearing God's Word. It's been encouraging for both Bryan and I to see the older kids sink in the lessons and start practicing more respect and obedience. We pray this continues to grow.

I've started up again volunteering in English classes in the school close to the youth center. We've already seen 2 new faces as a result, and I'm praying that continues. They really seem to like the free English class we give on Wednesday, and most of them return for the class on Friday or Saturday where we teach the Bible. Pray for more salvations in the youth center.

We are still meeting with Isidoro and Maribel once a week. We were so encouraged to be back with them this week. This couple is such a testimony of God's power. He is blessing them, their marriage, and their ministry as they obey and pass on the teachings they learn. Isidoro shared a passion of his with us this week - reaching the uncontacted groups up river from here. We are excited about the dreams God is putting in his heart, and we can't wait to see where it goes.

We have been trying since this summer to do an evangelism in their town which is about an hour away from Maldonado. The town's mayor or governing group told us not to do it. It is actually illegal for them to forbid us, but we don't want to force our presence there unless it is what we are supposed to do. We are praying for a softening of hearts, and a strategy to bless this town called Tres Islas. Please pray with us - that they would see our hearts are to bless and not to manipulate or benefit ourselves. Pray for courage and boldness in the church there, that they would rise up to testify and pray for their neighbors.

The last prayer request I'd like to leave you with is for leaders. We have been working with the kids in the youth center for a year now, and we have been praying for leaders with the same passion for youth in this city to come alongside us and work at the youth center. We are still praying for this.

I wanted to post a few pictures of the other day when we played Ultimate Frisbee with the kids. Even though the kids didn't even know what a frisbee was before they met us, Bryan is determined to play one of his favorite sports. So we've been teaching them, and they love it. Enjoy!

Demi

2011-08-31T11:24:00.003-05:00

I wanted to share a quick story.

There is young girl about 8 years old who comes to the youth center who I'm going to call Demi. While Jordanna was here, she was talking one on one with her and realized she can't read, and she doesn't go to school. When she told us, we decided we needed to eventually check into the situation.

So on Monday, while we were at the youth center, Demi came in. She asked what we were doing, and I told her that we were there to hang out. I asked her if she wanted me to help her read. She was excited and said yes! So I got out one of the books LifeChurch in Bryan donated to us to start helping her read. She was on such a low level that she didn't know her letters. So after a few minutes of struggling, I decided to help her with letters instead.

We worked on A-J and then I had her copy them a bunch of times while saying the letter. I told her she needed to memorize them. When she was done, Bryan and I decided to go talk to her mom.

Her mom, Paula, was hesitant to let us in, but we told her we like to meet all of the parents of the kids at the youth center so they know who they are sending their kids to. So we talked for a little bit and then Bryan asked her why she wasn't in school. After a roundabout conversation, we discovered that Demi's father and Paula's husband died 3 years ago. Since then, Paula has been working to rent out a little room for them to live. When an emergency came up and she had to travel, Paula took her daughter out of school and hasn't put her back in since.

She also said that Demi's teachers said that she acts up, won't listen in class and doesn't seem interested in school work. Paula didn't understand why Demi had changed so much after her dad died because she used to be so studious. We explained that sometimes after a tragedy in a child's life, they don't know how to express their pain. Paula looked like a light came on in her head when she realized that Demi was also suffering pain. Paula said she was going to talk that day to the director to put her back in school. We got to share a little bit about God's purpose for their lives and pray with them before we left.

Please keep this two in your prayers. We know it's not by accident that their little room is so close to the youth center. Pray for salvation and healing for both of them.

One other thing. I also have a personal prayer request. My dad is having surgery next week. Please pray for him and my mom. It will take some time to recover, so pray for him to rest and recover well. Bryan is staying here, but I'm actually going back to the US for a couple weeks to help them while he's recovering. I would appreciate your prayers surrounding my family right now. But our trust is in the Lord.

And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

—Psalm 9:10

A Crazy Summer

2011-08-23T15:11:00.010-05:00

This summer has blown by. We have had so many great things happen, and it was an answered prayer to have so many people here helping us. In the last 3 months, we had more people here with us than we've had in our 3 years of mission work. It was such a blessing to see how much ministry grows with more hands working!

We started out with Cami and Jordanna, and then Life Church from Bryan came in July. Jordanna stayed until last week. With their help we were able to see 6 people saved, 3 people baptized, start a discipleship group, organize an outreach and ministry conference, and that's just the highlights. All that to say, we had a fantastic summer.

Here's some pictures of a few of the highlights:

We're excited about the next things God will be doing here!

One prayer request before I end this. One family in one of our cell groups had a baby girl who died last week. We are praying for them as they deal with this grief. Pray for their other 3 daughters as well. Dana had just had her 1st birthday. Even the things we don't understand we give to the Lord and trust that He will bring good out of this. Please be praying.

We love you. We can't say enough how much your support and prayers carry us through.

Lovin the Help!

2011-07-06T10:37:00.004-05:00

I know I keep saying that I'll try to blog more than once a month, but I failed again. Good thing ya'll are all nice people and forgive me!

We have been back in Peru one week, and we had already accomplished so much. We have two wonderful friends here helping us, Jordanna and Cami. God answered our prayers when these two girl contacted us about coming. They are a blessing! I'll post some pictures of them at the end of this blog.

Since being back we have gotten to see everyone and the fellowship has been wonderful. We've celebrated an anniversary with a fellow church, we've gone to our cell groups where they seem very encouraged, and even gotten to help with a medical team (translating).

I see more and more that God is bringing His church together in this city. This next week, our mission is holding a city-wide conference for churches to learn about working as the Kingdom of God as a whole. Please be praying for this conference and that many people would have new revelations of their callings.

We have been so excited to see the kids in the youth center. They were really happy to have Safehaven's doors open again, but we're praying for a new passion in their hearts for Jesus. With Jordanna and Cami here, it has opened doors for us to meet more kids and develop deeper relationships with others.

It's also been fun this week to share with the girls about daily life. They both came claiming they didn't know how to cook, but they won't leave that way. They have been cutting up and cleaning out chickens, and cooking some great meals! I'm so proud of them, and it has truly been a blessing from the Lord to have to girl to pray with. As I write, they are doing my dishes and sweeping my floor. God is so good!

Here's some promised pics of our first week back.

Check out our facebook page for more pics!

Texas, our Texas

2011-06-03T17:01:00.003-05:00

Nuts! I can't believe I've already let another month slip away without writing on the blog. In all fairness, since we've been in the US we've been blowin and goin.

We are in Texas for about 3 more weeks. Next week my brother gets married and the week after we will have a welcome home reception for them. Our family has been very busy to say the least.

It has been a refreshing time for us, but also we have realized how much Maldonado has become home to us. We were talking last night about how much we missed our friends and the kids at the youth center there. It feels very strange to have two homes.

We have had several opportunities to talk with people this time back. We are excited to say that we will have some help for the next few months. We have more people visiting us in the next 3 months than we've had in the 2 years we've been there. And we've talked to many others who have felt God's nudging to come and visit us for a while. We are pumped about God's provision to connect us with people who have a heart to serve.

Please be praying for Octavio and Luz and the Peru mission while we are away. God can most definitely continue working while we are not there. And pray for us to enjoy the present and prepare ourselves to go back and minister with a full heart.

The Lord has been using this time in my life to remove some things in my heart that weren't pleasing to Him, and change mentalities that could hold back my effectiveness. It has been nice to step away from our every day activities there and hear Him guide me to a new understanding. Thank you so much for praying for us. It is the greatest blessing you can give us.

Love,

Delana

Month Update

2011-05-06T15:30:00.004-05:00

So I realized today that it's been exactly one month since Bryan last updated. So I think it's time for a new post. I'll try to keep things short and just hit the highlights of April.

We have seen awesome things happen as a result of the basketball camps we did with Hoops for Hope. I'll just share one story. I decided to go meet with the coordinator at a school called Santa Rosa. It's an all girls school, and many of the girls that attended the camps go to that school. As soon as I sat down with the coordinator, she recognized me and asked if we were the one's who helped put on that camp. I told her yes, and she was so excited that I wanted to be involved on their campus. It was such a blessing that God had opened a door before I even went. I have since volunteered there a few times, and I'm really excited to keep going and working there.

We also made a big decision and sold our car. We had it for a little over 18 months, and it was such a blessing to us. We have felt the Lord leading us for a while to look for land to buy. We are eventually wanting to have a home of our own instead of renting, and also to have a place for people to stay with us. It would be great for our mission to have a "missionary house" or base here in Maldonado. We feel like this is the first step towards that.

SO... for our new transportation:

We are now proud owners of a motokar that looks a lot like this. Actual pictures to come. Some missionary friends of ours who left Peru last week sold it to us at a generous price, and we are so thankful the Lord provided for us through them. This will mean we will have to take taxis to the places outside of the city where we go every week, but we are excited for the opportunity to start looking at land with the money from the car.

I also celebrated my 25th birthday this month. It fell on our day off, which was also Easter, so Bryan planned a relaxing day for us and church that night. We had a pleasant surprise about 11AM! A group of kids from the youth center were at our door with a cake and juice that they'd brought to celebrate. It was a lot of fun! They sang to me, and then we all ate cake and played twister. It was really sweet of them to remember me.

They actually pushed my face in the cake, but I'm not going to post that pic =)

We have seen several youth give their lives to the Lord this month. It has been interesting seeing some of the kids come and go, but we are starting to have a very consistent core group. Please keep praying for these new Christians to learn to be bold in their faith, and to grow in their relationship with Jesus.

We just got back this morning from a short visit to Cusco. We were blessed to see all our friends there. It is always encouraging to sit with them and hear their victories and struggles.

We will be heading back to the US here in about a week and a half. We are going to be there for a good 5 weeks because my brother is getting married. We are really excited to see family and friends and celebrate with Brandon and Sarah. I'm excited to be getting another sister-in-law! Please pray for safety and a productive visit home.

When we come back, we will have people coming throughout the summer to help out here in Maldonado. Pray for these groups and individuals that will be coming.

Thank you for praying for us. My biggest personal request of all our prayer-ers is that we would be diligent in praising and listening to the voice of God. It can get so easy to get busy, which we all do, but I want my life to be marked by those 2 things. Pray that Bryan and I would remain sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit as we visit the US, and not get too wrapped up in all the indulgences. Thanks for your support and prayers.

Love,
Delana

P.S. Happy Mother's Day to all the beautiful mothers in my life. Especially to Mom and Carol - we love you!

River Trip!!

2011-04-06T14:09:00.012-05:00

So about a week ago I got to go up the Madre de Dios river. It is about a two day trip in boat to get there from Laberinto. I was excited to go because I hadn't been upriver for almost four years. It is a beautiful trip.

My main job was translating for Ken Daugherty. It was an honor to get to help Ken. He is the President of Cert International and he has been leading missionary medical teams to remote areas of the world since 1991. Cert stands for Christian Emergency Relief Team. We also had two ladies from the US Carol and Bonnie. Octavio led the group. Octavio has been leading the Jungle work for our mission for several years.

The places we went to were Shipiteare, Diamante, Boca Manu, and Boca Colorado. The word boca in Spanish means mouth. Boca Colorado is at the mouth of the Colorado River and Boca Manu is at the mouth of the Manu River. The Manu River leads into the world famous Manu Park. It is known for its biodiversity. It has lots of animals. In order to enter Manu Park you have to have permission from the government. Cert has been taking medical teams into the park for a number of years. There are still many unreached people in this part of the jungle that have never heard the gospel.

This is a picture of Ken, Tomas, Norma, and me walking through Boca Manu. Tomas and Norma have been pastoring a church in Manu for about five years. On Sunday I translated for Ken as he preached at the Church in BM.

This is a picture of some ladies in the church in Shipiteare. We were only able to visit in this village. We were not able to spend much time in the village.

This is me and Pastor Tomas in Diamante. He is awesome. Tomas loves to joke around so we had a lot of fun. I was glad to be able to encourage Tomas and Norma along with the church family we have upriver. Delana stayed in Puerto Maldonado running the Youth Center programs. God was really faithful to take care of us both while we were apart. Most of our work and heart is with the youth in the urban areas of Puerto Maldonado. However, God continues to put a desire inside my heart to see His Kingdom established in deeper parts of the jungle. I am glad that I am partnered with people who are committed to seeing that happen.

March flew by. Hosting Hoops for Hope was some of the most fun I have ever had on the mission field. I love getting to coach and play basketball while sharing the gospel. This river trip was a blast as well. Well that is all for now folks.

Amazing week!!

2011-03-21T19:13:00.004-05:00

Hello friends!!

I'm am so happy to report that Hoops for Hope was such a blessing to us. One of the goals we set last year for the youth center was reaching youth through sports. I'm am so thankful for a group of servant-hearted people who came this week to help us advance on that goal.

We had about 145 kids and youth ages 8-25 that were impacted by the camp. We had four days of camp, with three different age groups at 3 different times. Morning was for 12-15, afternoons for 8-12, and nights for 16-25. It was fabulous. We had great weather that allowed the group to keep their energy up till the last day.

We had a large majority of the kids say they wanted to receive Jesus as their Lord. We explained that this is a start of a new life and only the beginning to knowing their purpose. Coach Wible, the director of the organization reminded us of the parable of the seeds. It was encouraging to think that we as a group had done the work and that some seeds will be prosperous.

We are excited about having some new faces in the youth center to start discipling. Please continue to pray that we would be faithful to this harvest.

Not only did the Lord bring us new faces, but he also brought us favor with our government. The local government requested the group's presence on Thursday after the morning session. The mayor, president of education, president of sports, and the president of our region (like a governor) were all at that meeting. The purpose was to thank the organization for choosing our city to invest in. They were so happy that the group had come. Bryan got to translate for all the dignitaries. It was a blessing. They didn't even focus so much on the basketball, but mostly on how events like this can make a difference in children's lives. It was awesome. Plus, people all around town were telling us they saw us on the 6:00 local news.

God is so good. We are so ready to see Him high and lifted up in this city. And it starts with us! So we give Jesus the praise - only He is worthy of the recognition! May Your Kingdom come and be manifested HERE!

Here are a couple pics of the camps and the group (I will post more on our facebook group - Bryan and Delana in Peru) :

Bryan is leaving this Thursday for a several-day river trip. He will be visiting several villages and encouraging several churches along with Octavio. Please keep them in your prayers.

Strike and Other Things

2011-03-11T07:02:00.006-06:00

So last week was a little crazy. There was a strike about the mines here. Mining is a huge job source for a lot of our city. But many of them are illegal. The machinery they use releases mercury into the rivers, which is a life source to many of the villages. Not to mention it has decreased tourism, because now there are not as many animals living near the rivers. Plus the work conditions are terrible. That's what I've come to find out about the mines just from here-say.

But the government decide to evacuate all the mines, legal and illegal and start bazooka-ing the drags that are illegal. So all the miners came to the city to protest. I tried to post a video I took, but the internet is too slow. But the government and the miners are now working to find a solution. We are praying that they would have supernatural wisdom in this decision because it is very important to our city.

A new school year began this week, so we are excited to have a lot of youth back in town. December, January, and February are the summer months of vacation here. So we are starting a new schedule up the week after next to have after-school activities. We're praying about what things we need to throw out from last year and what things to add. Please pray for us as we do that.

Like I said in my last post, Hoops for Hope is coming. It's only 2 days away. The local paper yesterday had this picture in it:

Bryan is famous! =) One of our friends called us yesterday and was so excited that she had seen Bryan, her friend, in the paper. It was really exciting to see how well our city and state sport's department have welcomed this group of basketball trainers.

This group is special to me because my cousin is part of the team. I'm really excited to see Bryce. And also because the president Hoops for Hope is Bryan's high school basketball coach. And his son is comeing (who was on of the groomsmen in our wedding) with his wife. So it is always nice to have a group of English speakers come to help, but especially when they are close friends and family. We're thankful that we'll have this time with them.

Thanks for your prayers. Keep 'em coming!

"I will go before you and will level the mountains;
I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron.

I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places,
so that you may know that I am the LORD,
the God of Israel, who summons you by name." Isaiah 45:2-3

2011-03-03T07:02:00.002-06:00

I have to admit, I've wanted to post for a while now, but it's seemed so overwhelming because a lot has been going on.

We are in rainy season, but some years it is worse than others. Well a couple weeks ago, we went to Pastora and it was flooded. They live close to the river, so they know this happens, so their houses are all built up off the ground. But the water all around their houses was up to my mid-thigh. I walked through it on the way to the cell group, but on the way back one of the boys took us back to our car on canoe. It was a new jungle experience of sharing Jesus =)

While the kids have been on summer vacation from school, we have had a free once-a-week English class. It was 5 weeks long, and we promised a prize for the person who had the highest grade on the final exam. The prize was a dinner with us and the group of Americans that are coming in a week and a half. Well, 2 girls won it, so we are taking them both. I think it will be fun for them to practice their English. They both worked and studied very hard.

We have had a few good activities at the youth center. The Saturday before Valentines we showed "Fireproof" at the youth center and had free popcorn and juice. We had a good turn out and several adults who we talked to after the movie. We had told the kids to invite their parents, and a couple showed up to watch it. It was good to meet some of their parents and show them what we teach their kids.

Thank you for your prayers. I mentioned the group that is coming. Hoops for Hope is an organization that uses basketball to preach the gospel. We are excited that a group of 8 is coming in on March 12th to hold basketball camps for a wide range of kids/young adults. We have seen a lot of favor in planning this trip, and we are praying for safety for the group's travels and a great touch of God in the kids that come. Please pray with us.

Much love!

Taking Ownership

2011-02-03T07:43:00.010-06:00

When we first rented the youth center, it had only been used before as a place rented out for parties and gatherings. So because of that, it had a bunch of chipped paint on the walls from people putting up decorations. There was also a lot of dirt on the walls, I'm guessing from kids with dirty hands touching it and running around.

So this week, we decided to paint. Bryan wanted the kids to feel like it's their building to so we invited anyone who wanted to help us to come. The two guys below gave at least 2 hours of hard work and it would have taken so much longer without them. They did great and they were really proud of it when it was done.

These two other kids helped us sand, because their parents told them they couldn't paint. Probably a wise decision. They would have gotten pretty dirty. All four of these kids our part of our faithful regulars that come to almost everything we do.

We used some of the donations that were given to us over the break to by this chalk board sign. Many people with restaurants use them here to have outside what they are serving for the day. We decided it was important for us to list the things we have going on and what time they start. Below is advertising our English class we do on Wednesday nights. On the other side that you can't see, it's advertising for choir practice that we started last week.

Below are a couple pics from the classes that we had last night. They are really enjoying the classroom setting, especially since they are on summer vacation right now. So since they don't sit in class all day, they don't mind it once a week. That's why we are doing this class once a week during summer vacation. The person who scores the highest on the final exam actually gets to go out to dinner with the group of Americans that are coming in March. They are all hoping to win and get to practice what they're learning.

We brought back a couple games that we bought with a gift card I got for Christmas. We went to Target and one of the games we bought was Jenga. They love it! We like to have games like that to play before and sometimes after our weekly activities. Since it's part of the culture to always be late, we usually play a game or two before we start for those who come early.

We are really excited about the different things we've started since being back. We still really need your prayers for guidance and wisdom. We have some decisions we need to make and we really want to be sure what the Lord is wanting of us. Thanks for always remembering us in prayer.

I just thought I'd post a couple pics of our trip back home too. I was the matron of honor in December in my college roomate (and best friend)'s wedding. It was a lot of fun, and Bryan got to see me dressed up with my hair done. That just doesn't happen much since we live in an extremely humid place.

The Davis family, only lacking Matt and Julie.

Bryan with our brother-in-law Andrew at the Baylor Bowl game. It was really fun to take a family trip together to Houston (even though they lost).

Christmas with the Brewer's. My brother and his fiance, Sarah will be married by next Christmas!

It was so cool that several churches, even with their busy Christmas schedules, let us come and share our hearts for Peru and what God is doing here. This is at Mayfield Road Baptist Church.

These are some nice boys we met sharing at New Life in Covington. We really enjoyed getting to know this sweet congregation who treated us like part of their family.

So that's a little of our lives. Let us know how things are going for ya'll. Please email us or find our group on facebook: Bryan and Delana in Peru.

Back Online

2011-01-26T13:00:00.002-06:00

We had a crazy visit back! It was great to see everybody and be around friends and family for Christmas. Last year we got to see my parents and my brother, but this year we got to see all of Bryan's family and our extended families.

When we arrived back a week and a half ago, we discovered that our internet providers stopped providing internet. =) So we were really disappointed because they were the best internet in the city. Everything else is way below par, especially with video talking (Skype) that we use to talk to family.

But after a lot of researching and hassling, we got internet installed today. We are really excited, even though the video capabilities are still really low on it. At least now I can use the internet for English classes and other ministry stuff too - like this blog!!

Since we've been back we've seen a couple really good things. One thing is the cell group we do in Puerto Pastora. We had our first meeting last Wednesday, and they were doing great! They said they had started having services while we were gone in their home on Sundays. They plan to continue that. They all seemed so peaceful, and we were so thankful to see God's grace active in their lives. It's so nice that ministry does not depend on us! I'm so thankful that even when no one was coming to lead a small group every week, they started something themselves. Praise Jesus!

One other cool thing is the youth center. We've had a lot of kids since being back, and we've had some really good talks. We told the kids when we left that we would be back on the 15th of January and we would have regular meeting that night. When we showed up that night, we most of the neighborhood kids came and said, "YAY yall are back! i'm so glad to see you" and all that stuff. But then about 20 minutes after 7, our normal start time, one of our most faithful kids, Obe, came in. Obe lives about 5 minutes in taxi away from the youth center. He brought a friend. I said, "Hey Obe!! I'm so glad you knew we were here tonight!" He said, "well yeah, yall said you would be back on the 15th and i've been counting down the days." It was really nice to know that we were missed, and that these kids are ready to get going with us again. Since this is the kids' summer vacation, we are teaching a free English class one night a week for the next 6 weeks till they start school. The person who scores the highest on their final exam gets to go out to eat with the group of Americans we have coming in March. That got them all pretty motivated.

We are thankful to be home again. We are praying to find out what are the main things God wants us to accomplish in these next few months. Please pray that we will know where and how to focus our efforts and time so that we are obeying Him.

Victory

2010-12-03T08:54:00.001-06:00

This week has been a tough one for us for several different reasons. But I know there´s a reason it came so close to Thanksgiving. We are learning to praise at all times. There is no day, no circumstance where Jesus is not worthy of my praise. Every day He holds the victory, no matter the circumstances.

We are really excited about our home visit. We will be traveling the 7th of December to Lima and then on to the states on the 9th. Please be praying for safe travels. We are looking forward to seeing family and spending quality time with friends as well.

Thanks for your prayers and support.

Seriously???

2010-11-26T14:46:00.003-06:00

Is it really already the end of November?? This month has flown by. We have been working hard, and we've seen God move in the hearts of some of our youth. I'll share a couple stories:

There is a 15 year old girl named Katy that lives directly across the street from the youth center, and I've made a pretty good relationship with her. She comes occasionally, but she has to tend the little shop her family has most of the time when she gets home from school. She accepted Jesus as her Savior a couple months ago, but because of time I haven't gotten to talk with her as much as I would like. But on Sunday, she showed up at our house wanted some help with her English homework and wanting to talk.

She shared with me that her brother had been very sick. He even stayed a couple nights at a "healer's" house. These are actually witch doctors who many people still use instead of going to doctors. She said she'd seem some weird things while they were staying at his house. I got to share with her about her identity in Christ and that she has no reason to fear Satan because she has given her life to Jesus. We talked about the dangers of opening yourself up to other spirits other than the Holy Spirit, and many things like that. It was a great time to share, and she said she had never heard any of that before. I'm looking forward to watching her grow more and more in her faith and love for Jesus.

Another youth that we've been hanging out with and building a relationship with is name Ronald. He's 12 years and he accepted Jesus in his heart almost a month ago in the youth center on one of our Saturday nights. He has a sensitive heart and has asked us questions that show he really does want to know about God. A couple weeks ago we were talking to them about worshiping. We told them that worshiping is an attitude that we have towards God through our day - that we are thinking on how great He is and telling Him that. And then we explained that music can help us focus on the Lord and it is one way to worship Him. Ronald raised his hand and asked really sincerely, "Is it okay to cry?" Although a couple kids snickered we were proud of his guts and heart to ask what he was thinking.

We are praying for these kids and the others that are regularly coming to the youth center. We are seeing change and kids wanting to know about how they can have a relationship with Jesus. Please join with us by lifting them up - that they would answer God's call on their lives and be bold to share with others and live for Jesus even when it's not popular.

We are leaving tonight to go to Cusco to visit the church and some friends there. Then we return to Maldonado for a week, and then back in the USA. We are planning an end-of-the-year party next Friday so we can see the kids before we leave.

Thank you for your prayers! We're hoping to see all of you (or at least those of you in Texas) in December.

Seeing lives changed...

2010-11-09T07:12:00.000-06:00

We have been visiting a little girl with AIDS named Ruth. She lives here with her grandmother. Both her parents died of AIDS and she contracted it in the womb. She is 5 years old, which is older than any of the doctors expected for her.

A couple months back, we had a class at a private school in Waco "adopt" her to pray for her and collect some money. With their giving, yesterday we got to take her and her grandmother shopping. It was so fun to see them both light up when getting what they'd been needing.

Normally they have to go by one day at a time. Ruth's uncles help support them, but they have families of their own as well. Many times they don't have what it takes to go day by day. They are now stocked with all that Ruth needs for the next month. We are so thankful for this class that gave money, and this opportunity to minister to this sweet girl and her sweet grandmother. Please keep them in your prayers. We are believing for healing.

Please continue to pray for the youth center. Last Wednesday we had 19 kids, which was crazy and fantastic. We are loving it! Pray for creative ideas that will help the kids in their English and eventually allow us to develop relationships with more youth. Since opening the youth center, we have seen 8 people come to know the Lord. Wonderful, huh? Each of those 8 people have been coming to discipleship or teaching times. We are excited about God's work in each of their hearts.

Much love!

In the school "Milagros"

2010-10-29T10:10:00.002-05:00

Things have been progressing well.

This morning we went to the morning assembly at the school where we tutor, and where many of our youth go to school. We had permission from the principal to talk about purpose and value, and the freedom to speak the name of Jesus. We also educated them a little on Halloween, and to be careful this weekend as they celebrate - to only do things that give glory to Jesus. Here is Bryan (in the yellow shirt) sharing with the morning assembly.

We will go again tonight to talk to the high schoolers. Please pray for this weekend. Halloween can be a little more demonic here because of their already heightened awareness to the spiritual world. We are praying for wisdom in how to help kids glorify God with their lives every day.

On a more personal homey note, we bought a gardenia plant. Bryan surprised me by picking it out and potting it. These are some of the flowers I cut off for an arrangement, and behind you can see the plant. It's our version of a pet. haha

We love you! Thanks for your prayers and support. God has been wowing us lately with His provision at just the right time. As always if you have any questions for us, look us up on facebook or write us a comment. We love to hear from you.

2010-10-16T08:15:00.002-05:00

This week we saw a miracle.

A lady in one of our cell groups asked us to come and talk to her and her husband. They are having marriage problems, and we agreed to meet with them as long as the husband was willing. We know him as well, but he is often up river working and then comes home for a couple days.

Without violating their privacy and giving too many details, I'll tell you a couple things. We were so encouraged after talking to them for about an hour when the husband started asking questions.. We talked about covenants and in order to break off those strongholds the enemy has because of our past, we start by making a covenant with God.

When we asked, do you have a covenant with God, the wife said yes and he said no. "I've been waiting to get to be a better person"

After saying, "If we wait, we will never be ready" He was so earnest in His desire to make a covenant with God and ask for forgiveness. Bryan prayed with him, and the wife and I prayed for him as he accepted Jesus as his Lord.

When we finished the prayer, this strong tough guy looked up and couldn't barely talk. All he said was, "please excuse me" and went into the next room. The walls are wooden and thin, so we could hear him crying from the next room. Then we prayed with the wife that her bitterness would melt away and communication would be possible again in their marriage.

As we all know, these things don't get fixed in a day. But it was wonderful to see God touching and changing a heart right in front of our eyes. Please pray for this sweet couple.

Obedience

2010-10-07T12:33:00.002-05:00

I wanted to share a testimony.

Tuesday afternoons are usually my only day at home alone to get a lot of things done. I usually do deep cleaning, or write lesson plans, or spend time worshiping, or just do the things that have been needing to get done all week. And once a month I with Bryan to the village of Tres Islas on Tuesdays. So Tuesdays are a very treasured day for me personally.

As you know, we've been volunteering in the high school right near the youth center, but on other days of the week. Not Tuesdays.

Well this Tuesday morning, while I was spending some time with the Lord, I felt a strong urge to go volunteer. I like volunteering, but I did not want to go that day. For some reason, even cleaning the house sounded better than going out there to help. I even asked Bryan to try to get out of God's nudging. "You'd rather have a clean house than me go up to the school today, right babe?" But despite all my trying to get out of it, I knew I wouldn't be okay until I went.

So I went and helped out in the class with a new group of kids. At the end, I announced that we help with English on Wednesday nights and all of them were invited.

Almost half of our group last night was made up from kids that I met in that class.

Crazy how God knows things we don't. I don't know why I even question anymore because He has proven His power over and over. But I still fight to obey. I just wanted to encourage someone who is battling through an obedience. I wanted to tell you that He knows better than us. And He will give us the strength to do what He calls us to.

The great thing is that I had plenty of energy when I came home Tuesday that I cleaned the house anyway, and it seemed to go by faster than usual. He is good.

Elections

2010-10-04T18:53:00.003-05:00

We had an irregular week this week because of elections. Most of the campaigning here is done in person, so for the last several months, we've heard rallies with yelling and loud music. It's a very different environment. It's like there's been a buzz all over the city.

Also, the night before elections people are not allowed to have parties or get together with more than 7 people. The also prohibit any alcohol to be sold or consumed on that weekend. I guess so that they have a clear head and a good night's rest.

Another interesting thing is that voting is required. If you are over 18 and you don't vote, you have to pay the equivalent of $65 as a fine.

Because of elections, Bryan and I had our first two day weekend in a really long time. We didn't go to Laberinto or have youth night because of the situation. We enjoyed spending some time at home and I enjoyed doing some more involved cooking that I usually don't have time to try.

I can't believe it's October and that we will be back to visit in a little over 2 months. The time has been flying! We would love to hear from ya'll and let us know how we can be praying for ya'll.

Back in Peru

2010-09-27T11:32:00.012-05:00

We had a great trip to Bolivia, but we are exhausted. We are now in Cusco, but by the time we return back to Maldonado tomorrow morning, we will have traveled 43 hours in bus in the last 4 1/2 days. It's crazy! But praise the Lord, everything went well with our paperwork.

We got to visit some friend of ours in Puno, and our friend Linder's band was giving a Christian concert in the plaza there in Puno. So we really enjoyed visiting and worshiping with them.

This is them on stage:

And this is Linder and his wife, Maribel's little girl. We danced and sang while they were on stage.

We also got to stay in a new place, which was Copacabana, Bolivia. It was really pretty and right on Lake Titikaka. It was nice to spend time together just me and Bryan without much of a ministry schedule.

Bryan with an alpaca:

This is the view from our hotel room! Beautiful, especially for $14 a night!

We watched the beautiful sunset together:

And by last night, getting into Cusco we were ready to get off the bus and get some sleep:

Thanks for your prayers for us! We are glad to have that trip taken care of, and are ready for another week of work in Maldonado. Love ya'll!

Trip!

2010-09-22T08:48:00.003-05:00

Hey blog world,

I wanted to write to ask you to pray for us. We have to travel to Bolivia this week, and we appreciate your prayers for safety. We have to deal with some of our paperwork at the border, and Bolivia is the closest border to us.

On our way to Bolivia, we will be going to a Christian youth concert that a friend of ours is leading. We are really excited to get to support him in that, but also to cast some vision for us and what we hope will be in our future. We would love to eventually have him come and do a concert in our youth center.

Two praise reports! We had two of our youth give their lives to the Lord within the last few weeks. And found out that one of the girls that has been coming gave her life to the Lord while at a youth meeting at another church with a friend. We're excited that God is moving!

The second: Remember Mikeila? We hadn't seen her since March, but she came into town for a couple days this week. At church on Sunday she slipped in the back. She is doing wonderfully!!!! She has been teaching children in her village, and she's started a church service there too. She said since she doesn't know much, she just reads the Bible to them since she is the only one with a Bible. How amazing is the Holy Spirit that leads her! We were so encouraged to hear and see her. She will be coming back in a few weeks to stay for a month. She said her desire is to learn more about Jesus so she can tell the others what she learns. We were so encouraged by her hunger for God's Word. Praise the Lord! Keep praying for her. Here's a picture of her.

I'm going to try to do shorter posts and do them more often. Let's see how I do...

Exciting Week!!

2010-09-05T17:04:00.006-05:00

I'm updating so soon, because I'm so excited about this past week. We have really seen God move, and are excited to see what's coming next.

First, I wanted to share the most exciting thing. Last week we tried to start a discipleship class with the youth that have been coming, but it rained. And it rained the exact hour we planned to do it. And it stopped right when we were planning to be done. We had planned to do it outside riverside in Pastora where most of the youth live. There aren't many other buildings other than a room each family uses as their bedroom/kitchen/living room/etc out there. Plus these rooms have tin roofs so you can hardly hear yourself think when it is raining. Needless to say, we didn't do it that week. We visited a while and went home.

So anyway, when we headed out this Thursday it started raining again. But this week we were determined that we needed to start it. It so happened that one of the families were out of town so my group of girls used their house. Then there were only two guys that could come, so Bryan had his group in the car. Although it was make-shift and pouring rain, it was a great start.

One of the young guys, 11 years old, who has been coming for a while now gave his life to the Lord on Thursday. What an awesome way to start a discipleship time!! We were really excited about it. Please be praying for him with us. His name is Yohan.

Another exciting thing was we finally got the sign installed at the youth center. It helps soooo much to have a sign so people know what we are doing and who we are. We prayed and thought and brainstormed like crazy with one of our Peruvian friends, and we finally came up with the name "Safehaven" in English. We were thinking of tons of Spanish names like "refugio" (refuge) or "radical" (radical) or "destino" (destiny). But when explaining these to our friend, we told her we wanted it to be a "safehaven" and explained what it meant. Finally she was like, it would be much cooler in English. So we went with it. After all we are teaching English classes, and it's been a drawing point already with people wanting to know what it means.

Here's our beautiful sign!:

And it even lights up at night!!

The guys lowered it down from the second story and screwed it in.

Below is one of our English students. He is 15 years old. He knew I was taking the picture, but he wanted to look like he was working. I told him he should come read our blog to practice his English, and see his picture on the internet. =)

Here is our classroom!! We have been using it everyday except Sunday, so it has become a second home. It is the back room that you see on my previous post with the pictures of the youth center.

Also, we had an idea to have English help one night a week at the youth center. Since we volunteer in the high school closest to us, we invited kids to come from 6:30 to 7:30 on Wednesday night. They get out of school at 6:20, so it's like an after-school program for them. Last week we had about 7, and this week we had about 9. We invited them both weeks to our Saturday night youth meeting.

Last night, on Saturday, we had 11 youth in our meeting. We played Uno for a while, and then we taught/sang worship songs. Then Bryan shared what we are about. Out of the 11 there, 8 were first time comers. And all of those eight were people who met us through the Wednesday night English help. We were really excited to see these youth ready to learn songs about God, and asking us questions about why we were here. It was great to get to share 14 and 15 year olds that Jesus isn't just for adults, but He wants to touch them too.

Keep praying for all these things we have going on. We are also teaching the discipleship class to Isidoro and Maribel during the week, and it is a pretty intense study. We have been experiencing the spiritual battle lately, but it's pumping us up! We are excited and yet much more aware of our desperation for the Holy Spirit and becoming even more desperate.

Thank you for those of you who gave so that we could purchase things for the youth center. And thank you for praying for us. We are more and more finding that Jesus is our only strength and our only hope.

"Those who look to Him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame." Psalm 34:5

2010-08-26T09:33:00.003-05:00

Hello Blog Readers!

This blog we have some news. The first news is great news!! As you might have read in our newsletter, we had baptisms last week. It was a lot of fun, and it was a blessing to see 2 of the members of our church in Tres Islas making their commitment to Christ public. And they made it quite public because our baptisms were in the river. There is a little "beach" a few minutes in canoe from their village, so we went there to do the baptisms. We fit probably about 20 people on this canoe to go up to the baptisms.

Before we left, Pastor Octavio (the native pastor we work with) explained the significance of baptism, and made sure that everyone watching and being baptized understood what they were doing. So many people here associate baptism with babies being born and baptized in the Catholic church, that there had to be an explanation of what Jesus calls us to do after we begin to follow Him. It was an important step of obedience in these two believers lives. The 2 people baptized were Isidoro's father and sister. Isidoro is pictured below:

We have actually been working to train up Isidoro. He has been a Christian for a while, but is just in the last couple of years understanding what God desires of his life. He and his wife, Maribel are from the Shipibo tribe, and they just got married two years ago when they learned that God desired that a man and his "woman" don't just live together, but they make a covenant before God. It is so encouraging to see them continue in their obedience to the Lord. We are meeting with them every week doing discipleship training. We know God wants to use them in a mighty way to bring the Kingdom of God to their own tribe and many others.

Here is where we did the baptisms. This picture shows you that it was just another day on the river for the people in the boat passing, but it was a very special day for Hermana Mikaela who is being baptized.

Bryan and Octavio dunking her under:

This is Hermano Brito, Isidoro's father coming up from the water:

After the baptisms we went back and had some coke and cake. Can't be that. We had fun just being together.

We praise the Lord for the work He is doing. We hope and pray that this family will start to feel a conviction in their heart to share the love and truth of Jesus with their town of Tres Islas.

Another thing that has happened since I last blogged was a fire on the farm. I know Bryan put one picture on the newsletter we just sent out, but I want to put a few more on here just so you can see the extent of the damage. Especially for those who have visited us while we've been here and have seen the farm.

This is the entrance to the land as you can only tell my the car marks indented in the ground. This used to be really tall grass and very green.

This is Octavio and Luz's grandson, Moises. He's 3, but he has spend a lot of time out at the land "helping" take care of the plants. This was one of the orange trees and as you can tell, they were growing tall before the fire.

This is the house that a group came up to help us work on while they were here. The back of the house is mostly black. This is Octavio and Luz with Moises and his friend Maria.

Please be praying for Octavio and Luz as they have invested hundreds of hours working on the land. Also be praying for our mission and our leaders, as they invested financially into the land. We are believing that our God is a God of restoration. We are waiting to see how God will bring glory to His name through this trying time for Global Consulting.

We have some great things that God has been leading us to do in the city, but I will update next week with more of those things. I will also next week have pictures up of our sign at the youth center since we are getting that installed this afternoon!!! And I will show pictures of our classroom at the youth center with all the beautiful desks that we bought with a donation for that. So make sure you check back next week for that.

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers. Please comment or email or facebook, and let me know how things are going with you. A couple people respond to the newsletter by telling us what was going on in their lives, and it brought us such encouragement!!

Youth Center, Youth Fun Day, and Youth Night!

2010-08-08T08:28:00.004-05:00

We have had a crazy, BUSY, couple of weeks! We have finally signed the contract on the youth center, started English classes, and have had a lot of fun with the youth in our church.

I took these pictures a couple of weeks ago, so we've cleaned up quite a bit since these pictures, but I wanted to put them on just so you get a good idea of what it looks like and how big it is.

This is the main room. I'm taking it from the outside of the youth center.

This is from the inside. That's the front door where I was when I took the first picture. We really like it that it has a window too. It lets in a nice breeze.

These are the other two doors to the left of the front door. It will be awesome if we want to have a concert or show a movie. We can just open them up and people can crowd in.

This is the room we are using for English classes. We have it set up as a classroom now. We hung a white board, and are using a long table. We actually had a donation this week to buy the tables we were hoping for, so we will actually get to have new "desks" for the students! It will be 2 students per table. Now we can fit more than 5 students!

And it's exciting that we have a bathroom in the local. It's not very common to find that, but it was definitely a necessary thing if we're going to be up there for long periods of time.

So that's the youth center! We also had the answered prayer of a donation for our sign! Since we got the contract finalized, we can now start making it more of our own. We will be designing a sign this week, and hopefully get it up this week or next. Thank you guys for giving and praying for us. God has been really faithful in slowly but surely bringing youth to us. We're really enjoying our new role in ministry.

Like I said, English classes have started, and we have 5 students and 3 others that are planning on joining next week. We also have one private student. We are at the youth center now usually every day from 1230 to 530. Tuesdays we still go to Tres Islas, so we leave about 3 for that. But the other week days we are there.

On the weekends, we are still doing the feeding program in Laberinto, but we go pretty much directly to the youth center when we get back to Maldonado. I teach the private class on Saturdays, and Saturday nights are our youth meetings.

So last night we had a youth meeting. Since Wednesday is Bryan's birthday, we celebrated with the youth last night. Below is a picture of Bryan with his birthday brownies. We sang and the kids all made him cards that said Feliz Cumpleanos and told him how much he meant to them. It was neat seeing them appreciate Bryan for everything he has invested in each of them.

Happy 25th birthday Bryan!

The youth these past two weeks have been on vacation from school. Since their school year is different here than in the states, this was kind of equivalent to our Christmas Break. But we've been able to hang out with them in the mornings more because they weren't in school.

Friday morning is one example. We put together a game morning. We had 6 kids show up, so we separated them into two teams. They stayed in those teams all morning, and competed using relay games, and silly competitions. As far as organization and constant entertainment it was so-so. But since they don't ever get to do activities like that, they LOVED it! It was great to see them bonding with each other and talking to people they don't usually talk to. We came back to our apartment afterwards, and ate sandwiches. Here is a picture of them with Bryan after we'd had a busy morning of entertainment:

We are really excited about what God is doing. During worship last night, I really sensed from the Lord that they were coming into a relationship more real than they've had before. Something that proves God's existence and faithfulness to them on a personal basis. So I look forward to seeing them grow, and seeing more youth come to know the Lord.

Keep praying!

Love,
Delana

Por Fin!

2010-07-22T13:56:00.003-05:00

I know it's been a while since an update, but first I need to post the list of needs for the youth center that Bryan promised on the last newsletter. I'm sure the list will grow as we start different activities but here it is:

Sign with the name of the youth center and the mission - $125

Some wooden, comfy chairs - $35 each; We'd like at least 4

Foozball table - $145

Desks for English students (2 at each desk) - $25 each; We'd like at least 4

Okay, so now on to the update!

At the end of June, we had several visitors. David's aunt and uncle from Waco came for vacation to see Cusco, so we met them there and had a great time with them. It was great conversation, and fun to finally see some touristy stuff and introduce them to the church in Cusco.

A few days after they left and we got back to Maldonado, a group came from College Station to help out for about 10 days. We had a great time with them, and they helped us out a lot. They were great sports and cooked for the feeding program in Laberinto, used the machetes at the land, helped us move out of our old house (cleaning and everything), and many other things. I'm sure they were tired when they went home, but it was great meeting new people and serving God with other believers.

Since being back, we have found the location for the youth center and started advertising for English classes. We were a little discouraged to find little to no response on all the advertising. Bryan talked to tons of tourism classes and handed out over a 1000 cards with our information. We've only gotten 2 calls with questions, and we've had no one commit to classes. We took the hint from the Lord, and thought maybe we should try something different to kick off the youth center and get to know some youth.

So this week we went to the high school right around the corner from the youth center and talked to the director. We found out it is one of the poorest schools in the city, but they were more than willing to invite us into their classes to help out with English. So this week we've been tutors to some degree, helping the English students with questions during their class. It was also a blessing to get to share with the principal and vice-principal at the school our vision for the youth center.

I'm thankful that we haven't gotten much response for the English classes, because we've gotten to get our faces out there and meet some young people. A few girls came up to us yesterday as we were leaving the school and asked us our names. We talked to them a little while, and then told them we would be back tomorrow to help out in their class. They seemed really excited to get to practice English with a native speaker. I'm looking forward to that here in about an hour.

I know I have had several prayer requests for people on the blog. Please continue praying for our friends. This morning I was reading in Deut. 7 and came across these verses. When I read them I instantly knew that they were for this time in Puerto, and for us to start getting rid of evil that has been in this city for a long time.

"²¹So don't be frightened when you meet them in battle. The LORD your God is great and fearsome, and he will fight at your side. ²²As you attack these nations, the LORD will force them out little by little. He won't let you get rid of them all at once--if he did, there wouldn't be enough people living in the land to keep down the number of wild animals. ^23-24But when you attack your enemies, the LORD will make them panic, and you will easily destroy them. You will defeat them one after another until they are gone, and no one will remember they ever lived."

So that's something I'm praying for in our city. I believe with all my heart that it has to start with one generation. One generation of youth have to decide that they are tired of living life the way their parents did, and start seeking the truth. Pray for us to continue to have the courage and strength and encouragement to keep believing for this miracle.

Thank you so much for supporting us and praying for us. I have had a couple questions lately, so I wanted to answer them quickly on the blog. We are a part of a small missions organization called Global Consulting Group that is our spiritual covering. They do not receive any of our support, nor do we receive a salary from them. We get our income entirely from family and friends who feel the call to give. Our address is at the bottom of the first page of every newsletter we send out, so if you are interested in giving, check that out. If you don't receive our newsletter and you would like to, comment here on our blog or send me a message on facebook. We would be excited to add you to our list.

I look forward to upcoming miracles and touches from Jesus to report to you. Much love!

Apt Pics and GREAT news!

2010-06-24T16:09:00.001-05:00

Well, even though I have tarried in my promise, here are the promised pictures of our new apartment. We are on the 3rd floor of a 3 story building, and it's perfect for us! It's not the cleanest it's ever been, but here ya go:

The kitchen! I love that I can look out while I'm cooking and that Bryan can be sitting at the bar while I'm cooking. In the house, the kitchen had a little more storage space, but it was isolated from the other rooms. I really like this set up. You can't see it, but we do have a fridge to the right of this picture.

This is taken from behind the bar. We put that table there to serve as our dining room. The door is the door into our bedroom. The front door of the apt is not in the picture, but is to the right of that white chair.

This is the laundry room that is inside!! I don't have to worry anymore if it's going to rain, or if the clothes will get to smelling bad outside. And they dry with the breeze pretty well.

Our bathroom. I don't get to use my shower curtain anymore that we got from our wedding registry, but I think it will be easier to keep the door clean.

Our bedroom that is two times as long as our other one. We have a lot of space, and we just bought that used TV, so we've gotten to watch some of the World Cup. I love the windows surrounding the room.

This is the view outside of our bedroom window. Since we're on the 3rd floor, it's really a great view. Especially laying in bed, you can only see the sky. Awesome!

Our closet. A little messy right now, but our closet here has some shelving that we didn't have at our house. It's really helpful!

So that's our new apartment. Hopefully you can tell a little from the pictures how great it is.

On another great note, God has provided us with a youth center!! Thank you so much for your prayers. It has worked out fantastic, and we'll even be able to move in this weekend while a group is here. It will be nice to have the help moving and cleaning our old house. The youth center is directly across from a school and down the road from another. The closest school, whose name is Milagros (which means "miracles" in English; I don't think that's a coincidence) has elementary and jr high in the mornings and high school at night.

About a week ago, Bryan got the chance to translate for a Gideon who came into town from the US. He went with him to give the little Gideon Bibles to that school, and the principal, on finding out that we lived here, invited Bryan to please come back and help with English or do something in the school. We had been praying as far as location goes for the youth center, and it was just a clear smack in the face answer for us. God worked it out so perfectly to give us some connections.

Like I mentioned before, we have a group coming from a church in College Station tomorrow. When groups come, it is so encouraging and helps so much. We are excited to bring them along in what we are doing, and we are able to do some outreaches with a group that is a little more difficult with just us. Pray for them as they are traveling right now, and also for their health as they stay here. It's easy to catch a bug, and we are praying that none of that happens for them.

We were just in Cusco with David and his aunt and uncle, and we had a great time showing them around and just talking about the Lord. It was really encouraging, and I know the church and people in Cusco were encouraged by their visit. We will be going back again to Cusco next week with the group, and we look forward to more encouraging times with them.

God is good. Even when I'm down, or I'm sick, or I'm happy, or I'm busy. Even when things happen I don't understand or when I'm drowned in blessings. I've been reminded of that truth this week and wanted to share it with you. If you get a chance to read the book of Haggai, I think it is a timely message for the church today. I'm praying it over my city and my life, that I would understand the Word of the Lord, and that I would act on building His kingdom instead of my own.

Love you guys!

2010-06-09T16:58:00.003-05:00

It's been a crazy two weeks! God has really provided and been moving, and I'm excited to get to share it with you.

First of all, God has really been moving in two of the churches we have outside of Maldonado. We go every week to Tres Islas and Puerto Pastora, and we have seen 3 people saved in these last two weeks. One older man accepted Jesus last week in Tres Islas, and this morning in Pastora, a young man and an older woman prayed to receive Jesus. We are excited about working with these new believers as they begin their walk with God.

The young man (Rolando) will be leaving tomorrow to go up river to work. This was his first time coming to the weekly cell group, and his first time to read a Bible. I offered him my Bible to read during the teaching, and asked if he knew how to read Spanish. He said, "Yes, but I've never read a Bible. I've always wanted to though." And he just looked at my Bible in awe while Bryan was teaching. When Bryan presented the gospel and asked if anyone wanted to make a decision, he said he knew there was a God and that the only way was through Jesus. His girlfriend that was with him said she had prayed a prayer before. So when I explained that we have to continue to walk with God, and spend time with him, she decided to rededicate her life. So we had this young couple, with a young little girl, who dedicated their lives to Jesus today. Very encouraging. We also encouraged them that blessing comes when you get married instead of just living together. We gave him a Spanish New Testament that we happened to have in our book shelf, so as he goes up the river he can continue reading this week until we see him next.

As far as a local goes, we are still praying. We have found several, but we just haven't felt a peace about any certain one. As much as we really want to get a place quickly, we are learning to wait and listen to God's voice. Please pray for discernment. We actually have three we've narrowed it down to, but two of them would really take trusting in God for finances. So this week we will see if one of the owners of the two locals will go down on the price. The two more expensive ones are very close to schools, which would be ideal. Please pray that we would know what to do.

Something awesome though! As we were looking for locals, we found an available apartment that is cheaper than our house. As much as we loved living with David, we are very excited that we are now going to be living alone for pretty much the first time in our marriage =) We moved in last Thursday, and we love it! It is on the third floor of a three-story building so we have a great breeze, and a great view. I will post pictures soon! It has been amazing to see how God has provided for us.

I just wanted to share a personal testimony too. Since being back, we've had several things slow us down, and it's been a little discouraging. Monday we had a pastor's meeting, and I had been praying that morning that God would revive my passion for Him. It was so interesting, because after I prayed that I just went on with life. But during that meeting, I kinda clued out and God just began ministering to me. He started giving me ideas for initial things we can do for the youth center, and began giving me courage to speak His name boldly. It's so good to know that I have a God who hears me, and still wants to keep surprising me with His goodness.

Please let me know if you have nay questions about our ministry. I would love to blog about them. Thanks for reading. Until next time...

Back

2010-05-26T16:20:00.003-05:00

We are really glad to be back. We made it to our house on Saturday, and it took about two days to get it back to a home again. Unless you sweep/mop/dust here about every other day, the dust becomes caked up on everything. So you can imagine the very dirty house we walked into.

We had a great time visiting with several churches and a lot ya'll! It was a very encouraging time for both of us. But the great thing was that we really felt ready to come back. It was definitely a great time of renewing our strength, and gearing up for the next time.

Being back, we have seen a lot of our church family and friends that we have here. We found out yesterday that a couple of the pastor's wives that we are friends with are pregnant. The lady who told us looked at me a little expectantly, and I adamantly told her that we weren't pregnant and it would still be a while.

Today, one of my English students called and asked if he could come by and visit. It was really nice to visit with him. He's someone who is a natural leader, and we are really praying for him to come to know the Lord. We will call him Frank. He's older than Bryan and I, but is very youthful. He came one time to a youth event in January, and he also came and played soccer with us when we played with the youth from the church. Please pray for Frank.

This week our priority has been getting back into the groove, and looking for a place to have the youth center. We trust that God has the perfect place for us. We've been looking around as we've been out and about, but tomorrow morning we will start the hunt intensively. We have set aside the morning to go and hopefully find a few options. Because location is so important to something like a youth center, we are hoping for a pretty central location. I watched a little HGTV on the break, and it's the same here... location, location, location. So that means we'll probably be paying mostly for the location, but we really need a good, big facility as well. Just keep that in your prayers. We a trusting that God will direct us to the right place.

We already miss family a little, but family and friends, please rest assured that we feel we are exactly where God has us. I was praying today and felt such an urgency. I feel like these next 6 months are really important to our ministries and goals in Peru. We must be diligent for these upcoming months, because I feel like God is desperately wanting to transform an entire generation in our city. And we must do our part.

Thank you for doing your part and praying. I will update again soon. Much love.

Texas

2010-04-22T22:11:00.002-05:00

So it's been almost a month since we've been back in Texas, and we have eaten almost all the American foods that we were craving while in Peru. We've gotten to visit with so many great friends and family, and we are really enjoying catching up with people.

God has given us several opportunities to share with different groups and churches. It has been so encouraging to hear how many people are praying for us.

Last night we hung out and talked with the RA's and GA's at my parents church. We showed them some pictures, some of which were of animals in the jungle (both dead and alive). One girl was very dismayed to see that we ate guinea pig considering she had a pet guinea pig. Sorry! But they had some great questions. But the coolest thing to me was that when they were asked at the beginning of our time together who was there to speak with them, a lot of the kids raised their hands and then said Bryan and Delana Davis. The leader- "and where are they serving?" "PERU!!" So encouraging to see a group of kids learning about what God is doing all through the world, and that they care about what we are doing.

I can't tell you how nice it's been to just sit in church and be ministered to. It's shown me how neglectful I've been to let the Lord minister to me every day. Sometimes I just think I can do it on my own, or there's so much to get done. It's also nice to sing in English.

We are really enjoying our time, but I really miss the people we work with. I know when the time comes, I will be ready to go back. It seems like so much longer than 3 weeks that we've been here. It feels like we've been away a really long time.

Hopefully I'll update sooner the next time. Because we are just visiting with people, there's not many interesting things to tell. So instead of a boring post, I'll post next time there is something to tell. Or maybe I'll ask Bryan =)

One week!

2010-03-18T19:04:00.000-05:00

We've been planning this visit home for a while, and it's crazy to think that we leave 1 week from tomorrow to head back. Bryan and I have both said that we are very excited, but also a little sad. We are actually starting to figure out what our main purpose is here in Maldonado, and we will be excited to return back to it! But for now we are really looking forward to being home awhile. It's funny when home becomes two different places.

On Saturday Mikeala came back into town, and she told me that she has been sharing the Word of God with her sister where she lives. We were encouraged to hear that she is growing. There was also another woman named Sandra who gave her life to Jesus on Wednesday. After Bryan talked to her, Mikeala started encouraging her and sharing the gospel with her in her own language, Yeni. She has a small 1 year-old baby boy named Eduardo who is very malnourished to the point his stomach is very swollen while the rest of his body is very skinny. Bryan took him and his mom to the doctor, and the doctor gave them some vitamins and supplements to help his condition. He also explained what foods she can give her baby to help him. Sandra is only 21 years old and it can be common here for a mother not to know how to care for her baby. Please pray for Sandra and Eduardo as God is moving in their lives.

Last Wednesday, we were invited to speak at another church here in the city. The pastor and his wife have become good friends of ours, and they asked us to speak to their leaders about teamwork in marriage and in ministry. We were thrilled because, although we are young, this is something we have learned a lot about. We have been living and working with a team since we began ministry 2 years ago. We talked about how marriage and teams take our pride away, and gave personal testimonies of that. It went very well, and several leaders even asked us to pray for them, that they would begin to walk in what we were saying. We ate with them afterwards. We are praying for more and more opportunities like that. We want to develop friendships and trust with pastors here, so that we can help and encourage other ministries. We have felt more and more how God wants the Church to work in a city, not just in a church building, to bring transformation.

Our leadership team formed from various churches for the youth in the city has been very busy. It seems like we are all getting busy with many things personally and it has been harder to meet together. All 5 people on the team are going to be traveling to other places over the next 6 months. Please pray for this team. We have become good friends, but we know that God placed us together for a purpose. Pray that we will keep our eyes on God's calling in us, even when we have other things that need to be done in our personal lives.

The next youth event is Saturday, and we've planned something a little different. The last two have been more like church services, but this time, our goal is that the youth will get to know each other better. We are praying that the youth catch the vision of working WITH other churches. But we will be splitting them up in groups, each with people from different churches, to prepare a skit based on a theme given. We hope to encourage teamwork and that they just have a good time with each other. Then Bryan will be given a short teaching on the importance of unity and teamwork. Pray that this event will bring new levels of unity to the youth in the city.

Several people have contacted us, and we are thrilled that we are getting to share to some groups of people. But please, if you'd like us to speak somewhere, just shoot me an email or facebook message. We'd love to!

A dear woman of God passed away this week, and she was very special to me and my church family at South Oaks. I just wanted to ask all of our supporters and blog-readers to be praying for their family. She had been battling cancer for several years, and did it with the biggest smile and zeal for life. She was an amazing lady, and she will be missed. But I know she is even happier now!

See you soon!

Youth!

2010-03-09T07:54:00.003-06:00

Blogger seems to be having some problems. Or maybe our internet is too slowly. I've tried to upload some photos several times, but they won't work. So I decided it's better to post something rather than wait till I can get those pictures up.

We've been having a great time with the youth lately. Saturday February 27th, we had our second city-wide youth event, and this month we had 4 churches join us. So we added another church from last month. It was a great time. Our leadership team asked 2 churches to bring a skit or some presentation, and it was really nice to see youth active and get to sit back and be ministered to through that.

Every Saturday that we don't have a youth event, we invite the youth from our church over to our house to hang out.We've started having a devotional time and singing time with them, but several of them come from a more native background. They are usually very shy and do not open up much. Little by little we've been making some progress, and they've begun to laugh with us and talk with us.

This past Saturday went really well. I felt like I was supposed to share about connecting with God. About how the Christian life is more than a checklist or just going to church or just being a better person. So I told them some stories from my life, and how I've learned to have a relationship with God. I told them music is usually an easier way to connect with God because it helps us focus. So we did something very practical. We sang and I asked them to focus on Jesus, and if they started to get unfocused just try and refocus. So we did that for about 30 minutes in our living room. We played songs we usually play in church, so they were familiar things. But at the end of the time, I had prayed and Bryan had prayed outloud. So then I asked if anyone wanted to share anything or pray out loud. One boy, Claibern, said that he wanted to pray.

He prayed something like this:

God, I thank you that you have shown me how to connect with you. I thank you for my family and how you've provided for me. Tonight I've been touched by you. Tonight you've shown me how big you are and how powerful you are. I want you to have my life.

I was such an encouragement to us to see him open his heart to God. We are praying for our youth that they would each be touched and begin to burn with passion for Jesus.

We are getting really excited about a visit home. We have less than 3 weeks until we will be starting our journey to Texas. Right now, a lot of our schedule is open, and we would love to get to visit with anyone who wants to talk with us. I'm starting to miss real English conversations =) So please leave me a comment or contact me on facebook and we can set something up.

"Set your mind on things above, and not on earthly things." Colossians 3:2

Angelo

2010-02-23T07:51:00.004-06:00

There is a young boy about 5 years old who practically lives in the market across the street from our church. His mom has a store that sells videos and music, and he's there from really early in the morning until about 10 at night every day except Sunday. On Sunday they only come from about 9 till 8 at night. His name is Angelo.

He's a really funny kid, but easily distracted. He loves practical jokes, and hates wearing shirts. I have really only seen him with a shirt on a couple of times. I guess he saves it for special occasions. He has the cutest smile, that's just nice enough to make you love him, but has a hint of mischief in it too. He is the little boy in the picture above.

This Sunday, about 15 minutes before church started, Angelo walked in and said his normal greeting, "Hola profe" I never taught the kids what to call me, but I guess since I was teaching them, they all adopted "professora" as my name. He came in and sat down with a big bag of purple flour. He proudly held up his flour and said "Look profe, it only cost me 50 centimos (about 15 cents)!" I asked what he was going to use it for. He explained that since it was the month of "carnival," you use the flour to throw on other kids. "But you don't throw it at adults. Only at other kids" he told me.

But he looked a little sad, and when I asked him what was wrong he said, "My dad beat my mom yesterday because he doesn't like it when she goes to her friend Paula's house." I asked if he loved his dad. "No. I don't love him. He is a bad man. But he does give me money sometimes." Usually Angelo would not just sit and listen to me without being goofy, but he sat and listened while I talked. "Angelo, if you stay angry at your dad and don't forgive him, you will start to get angry with everyone, then you will grow up to be an angry person. God can teach you to love your dad." I also asked if he'd been taking care of his mom and younger siblings. He is the oldest of 3. He said he had been, but he still looked very weighed down.

"You know what else we can do, Angelo? Right now we can pray." He nodded his head, and then waited for me to pray. But I asked him to pray first and then I would. He said,"I don't know the words to pray." I said, "Jesus is your friend. He is right here with us, and he wants to hear you talk. You talk to your friends right? You just have to talk to him the same way. Tell him what is going on, and then ask for help." So he bowed and started.

"Jesus, please help my mom. Please help my grandma and grandpa. Please help my dad. Please help my brother and sister. Please help me. Thank you Jesus for my little brother. Thank you for today. Amen."

This was such a breakthrough for me to see. All the kids we work with do not come from Christian homes. Most don't have any religious background. When you ask them to pray, they just shake their heads. But he's learned.

I prayed after that, and as I was praying for God to help him, this little boy took a deep, long breath. I could feel him relaxing. When I finished, I told him he could always talk to Jesus. He didn't have to be with me to be able to pray. Then he said thanks and smiled and got up and left. After church I went to see him, and he had purple flour in his hair. I believe he experience the peace of God that night.

I was so blessed by God's faithfulness that I wanted to share with all our blog readers.

Valentines Celebration

2010-02-13T21:33:00.001-06:00

We had a great Valentine's Day here in Maldonado. On Saturday night we invited youth from our church over for dinner and a game night. Bryan even decorated our living room with our Christmas tree lights. We used the red couch cushions and a blanket and had our own little picnic with them on the floor. It was special and I think they really liked it. By how they ate, I think they also like the fried chicken and homemade french fries too.

This is how Bryan decorated while I was cooking.

And this is the group we had. To the right of Bryan they are: Darliz, Ginger, Claiber, Mikela with her back turned (she's the same girl from the previous blog), Johan, Winder, and Jersy is behind Winder. You can't really see him. But it is definitely helping having them over every Saturday. They are starting to open up and actually be okay with talking to us. We've taught them Uno, Spoons, Murder, and Pictionary so far. We are brainstorming for more if anyone has any ideas.

And these are the beautiful flowers that Bryan brought home for me this weekend. He also brought me a single rose that I have in a vase in our room. But these decorate the kitchen table so nicely.

In January, we had our first city-wide youth event with different churches. There were 3 churches there in total, but we are really hoping to involve more churches as time goes on. Below is a picture of the praise band we've assembled for now. They are a fun group. We hope as more and more youth come to know the Lord, we will have an opportunity to teach others to lead worship and lead other into the presence of God. We practice every week, but the last 30 minutes of practice is completely dedicated to worship. The first hour and a half, we work on songs and try to master new ones. But it's so refreshing to start moving as a band in worship. I know that God will be faithful to change us and fill us so that we can actually be able to minister as a team when the events come around.

This picture below is one of my English students. We will call her Lucy. Lucy is from a Catholic background, but not a very "devoted" one as she told me. She came to the first youth event, and stayed the whole time. Please be praying for her. Right now, she has a heart of stone and thinks she doesn't have any need for a Savior. But I am thankful that God has given me eyes to see her as my friend, and not a project. In His time, he will draw her to Him.

We found out today that Mikela leaves tomorrow to go back to her village. Pray for strength for her to be able to continue to seek God while she is far from our group of believers. We know and trust that God will continue to work in her life.

We will be visiting in April, less than 2 months away. I hope we will be able to see and catch up with many of you. We would love to visit any churches or small groups that would like to hear what God is doing in Peru. Just let us know if you are interested! We are excited to get to see everyone again. Much love!

Greater Things Have Yet To Come

2010-02-08T10:46:00.003-06:00

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

2010-01-16T14:49:00.003-06:00

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

2009-12-12T16:22:00.005-06:00

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 =)

2009-11-23T07:44:00.004-06:00

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!!

2009-11-17T11:00:00.005-06:00

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

2009-11-03T17:57:00.002-06:00

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

2009-10-29T10:47:00.002-05:00

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

Electricity

2009-10-20T18:36:00.002-05:00

It has been over a week since I updated. It's partly my fault, but we've also been without electricity frequently this past and current week, so that's my excuse. The rainy months have begun. It's not to much yet, but the other night there was a storm. I think that's a major cause of our electricity problems. Sunday night we even had church in a circle with a flashlight pointing up at the ceiling.

We came here really wanting to get to know the other Christian pastors and wanting to work with the pastors who were willing to work together. We found that there is a Fraternity of Evangelical Pastors that meets once a month. We've been going faithfully, but this week was really encouraging. Yesterday we met, and we spent about 3 hours with pastors just sharing about the city. Not their church or their activities. They were sharing about what God has shown them about strongholds or demonic activity and very serious stuff. It provoked in us, but I think in all the pastors, a seriousness of the condition of this city. We decided to meet once a week just to pray, not anything else. One pastor said a government official told him that in a lot of things the governments hands are tied. But then he told him, "You are the ones that can do something to change this city. The church can change the minds and attitudes of the people." It was very encouraging to see a desire to pray and dedicate ourselves to spiritually attack the oppression and idolatry in Maldonado. The first prayer meeting is tomorrow morning.

My friend Martha is struggling. My other friend I wrote about is doing pretty well. She is very busy, though. She has classes and then overnight shifts at the hospital some nights of the week plus taking care of her son in the middle of that.

English classes, we hope, are going to start November 2nd. We've been handing out flyers and have gotten several calls about it. We're just trying it out right now, but we're hoping we can get at least 8 people per class to make it worth our time. Thanks to God's provision, I will also be starting the process of getting my ESL certification soon. It's kind of exciting.

For those of you who receive our newsletters - Bryan has written two of them, but our friend Terry who has been doing them for us for so long got a new job and can't do them for us. We will be continuing those soon. You might even receive two at the same time. Bryan's updates are usually more general, but cover more things.

Hasta luego!

slowly, but surely

2009-10-06T12:08:00.003-05:00

I've realized this week that this is not going to be a snap and it's all better sort of situation. Things are going to take a lot of time and prayers and intervention by the Holy Spirit.

This morning as a team we were sort of brainstorming ideas about how to move the people in the congregation to be the "ministers" God created them to be. A mentality here is paying your dues. You come to church, sit there for a while, and then leave and get on with your business. We've started working with kids around the neighborhood of the church on Sunday mornings. One goal is to reach these kids, but another is to train people to share their faith. I feel like we've got to get this training people down. Not the "sending them to training conferences" type of thing, but them really being discipled. If it takes a conference - awesome. But, it's just something we're seeing as absolutely necessary. And this training will take a lot of time. I guess I see it differently, because I grew up in church. As I grew in age and maturity, I was also growing in the Lord. I guess I expect adults to be able to understand and change quickly.

I know we will see change here. I have felt so many promises from the Lord. But instead of coming through mighty waves of salvation and the Holy Spirit, I'm almost certain it will come through discipline - the every day faithfulness. I guess that's how it works most of the time.

So that's my thoughts on what's been going on lately. We had a great trip in Cusco, and the boys got to see their first professional soccer game. I unfortunately didn't go, because I hit my head earlier that morning and was feeling a bit dizzy. That's not that atmosphere you want to go into when you feel like that.

Cooking is becoming a more normal thing to me. I've found several things I can do pretty well that are cheap, so we've been enjoying that.

We're really trying to working on a business. We want to eventually be able to support ourselves and be able to use donations for other things besides our eating and living stuff. So we are about to start English classes. We want to open these up small at first, but we'd really like to start an institute. I think I've already written this on the blog, but I'm sharing it again - haha. I am planning on getting my certification for ESL through an online program that is accredited internationally and also here in Peru. I really believe that this is from the Lord, and we are excited about how this will advance the Kingdom through another facet instead of just through church services.

Anyway, I think it's about time for another post with pictures, but I don't have any new ones. I'm bad at remembering to take pictures. I would love to answer questions or take pictures of something if ya'll give me some ideas.

Love, Delana

P.S. It will be 3 months since we've been here next week. Crazy!

Cusco

2009-09-28T22:31:00.002-05:00

So we're in Cusco. It's nice to have a break from the heat.

Today I think I'm going to write a little more reflectively.

It's been over two months since we've been here. I realized for the first time a few weeks ago that when we go back to the US, it won't be the same life we had before. I know this seems obvious, but it made me realize that this is my life - here - in Peru, and that this is what God has called me to.

Last night we met with the church here in Cusco, and David spoke on our calling as Christians. That we all have a call on our lives. And one of those calls is to run our race. I've been treating my time in Peru so far as a short time period of my life. It really hit me last night that I MUST live my life here on purpose. I can't just think this is a phase, and that things will go back to normal in a few months. I guess it's easy day to day to start seeing things as mundane and forget that I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing. I think it's like that for everybody. Because day by day can be boring. So anyway, I want this to become the place I love. I want Peru to be my home, because by doing that I'm embracing my "race" or my calling.

Right now for us is obviously a preparing time. The 3 of us can all see that God is going to act here. But, if he started moving mightly right now, we wouldn't be ready for it. So I guess these times are just as important as when God starts to change people, churches, and cities. We have to be ready for it.

Pray for us to stay persistent in our times with the Lord. It's easy to get busy in ministry and forget that the real goal is to know Jesus. I know that's been a struggle for me.

So this blog was more emotional than usual, but I figure it's good every once in while. If anyone wants to come visit or bring a group from their church, please let us know. We would love to have anyone who can come.

Last thing - I sent out a message to the Facebook group, but if you don't receive our newsletter and want to, please send me your email address. Or if you receive it in the mail and you don't mind getting it in email instead, send me your email. We're trying to minimize the hard copies we send out so we can get them out faster.

Update

2009-09-21T08:46:00.003-05:00

So I said I'd post pictures of the baby. Below is her birth paperwork and stuff. They had to take her to a near by village to get her registered. You can see her little feet in the picture, but it's hard to read her name. But if you look to the far right, you might be able to make out my name, her middle name =) They even spelled it how I spell it in English.

And this is the mom, and little Carolina Delana. The two little girls in the back are her two big sisters, Reina and Gabbi. I didn't get a picture of Isidoro because he shyed away from the camera, but he's sitting on his wife's right. They are one family we work with here.

Things have been going well. The most exciting thing has been the people closest to us. I've made friends with a girl about my age, and it's been so nice. We've had some good conversations, and she's started opening up to me about her life. She comes pretty regularly to the church, and has even been helping on Sunday morning with the children's church. Please pray for this relationship.

This past weekend, there was a church who hosted a group of 40 something people from Lima to do an evangelism crusade. They told all the evangelical churches about it, so we could invite our members, and they could invite friends. We were excited, but really surprised when we heard the message on the first night. Instead of just a traditional, "Do you know where you will go when you die?" he spoke on the restoration of the family. WOW what a timely message here. He told stories of testimonies of how Jesus had healed, transformed, and changed people's lives and families. One story was long so I'm not going to tell the whole thing, but it was the conversion and physical healing and changing of the first Peruvian who had gotten a sex-change in the late 70's. He was actually the 3rd person in the world to have the surgery done. But God used tons of events in his life to come to Him, and He miraculously changed his body back into a man's 7 years after his conversion. I was wowed by this story.

Seriously, it was really encouraging to hear and see the people respond to this message. But the main thing is, we must see transformation in this area of the family. This is one of our greatest prayers for this city.

This upcoming Friday we will be going on a trip to Cusco. We told the hermanos there we would visit every other month if we could, so we will be going for about 5 days to spend time with them. We also found this awesome Taco Sauce that we will be buying more of while we are there. =) Now that I know what we have here in Maldonado and what we don't, I can buy some stuff there. We'll be taking our car again for the 12-14 hour drive, so pray for us please.

Thanks for all you support and prayers.

Baby!

2009-09-12T18:32:00.000-05:00

So we have a new baby!

I was hoping that would get everybody’s attention. A family in our church had a baby this week. The husband, Isidoro, works on the land that the ministry owns and we also provide him with a house to live in, but it’s kind of in the middle of nothing. From town you can’t get a car to go out there past 7:00 at night. So they happened to be out there, and Isidoro had to be “the doctor.” He even cut the cord once she’d come out. Pretty hardcore I’d have to say.

But for me it’s really special because her 2nd name is going to be Elena after me. =) I’ve never had anyone name their kid after me, so I think it’s really neat. The couple already has two little girls who are precious and I’m sure this one will be too.

We’ve been doing really well. This past Sunday was our 2nd Sunday to have a kids time in the morning instead of just an adult Sunday School type of thing. We felt we needed to do that discipling another time, and have some sort of outreach. The first Sunday we had 7 kids. When we drove up at 8:45 to the church there were already two kids there waiting, two that hadn’t come the week before. We don’t start until 10. So once we got the doors open, we had about 6 or 7 kids there. We told them we were going to clean the church, and I asked if they wanted to help. They said “SI!!” or “YES!!” and went to town. What usually takes us 35 minutes was done in 10. It was awesome. Then I told them that since we still had about 50 minutes until we started, they could go invite some other kids to come. When it was all said and done, we had 19 kids. Pretty amazing. We split the kids up and the adults that had come helped us by questioning the kids about what they had learned from the story. Thank you Life Church in Bryan for the material you left with us! It has been so helpful.

Our goal as we’ve seen it here is to raise up leaders. We’re starting to see individuals who would be great for certain things, but it’s a work of the Holy Spirit. Pray that we will have the wisdom with how to do this whole thing. We have more and more no idea how do get done what we know needs to be done. But in a way, this is a great spot because there’s not much room for pride. Anyway, that’s a little of what’s going on with us.

The other thing is that we went on Monday morning to the fraternity of pastors here in Maldonado. I thought it was funny that they’re called a fraternity. But anyway, it was good to see that there is already a group of pastors here that want to work in unity to see this city changed. It was encouraging for us to hear other hearts the same as ours. The pastor’s wives also meet for prayer every month. We were definitely the youngest people there, and the only Americans there. There was one Brazilian couple and one Swiss missionary. So it was neat to meet all of them.

Well that’s about it. I’ll post pics of the new baby soon.

No Internet

2009-09-05T19:54:00.002-05:00

So the internet we first had at our house was too low quality for the price we were paying. So for the moment, we do not have internet in our house. This has been the first chance I've had to update the blog, so you can see that my posts might be a bit less frequent until we make a new choice on internet.

But just one comment on my last post. That chicken-cutting, I discovered today, was nothing. Folks, as of today, I know how to completely decontruct an entire chicken. Head, feet, insides, windpipe, and rectal parts. SO yeah. If you need help with that ever. I can for sure do it. It was completely disgusting to say the least.

Anyway, things are going well with us. Pray for the children we've been working with. We're starting to see an attachment which is good.

Also, very quickly, I got to see Martha today and hang out with her for a little while. We didn't talk about much too serious, but I'm so thankful for your prayers for that. She's actually looking for a new job now, which would mean she might have a lot more free time. But just pray that she will find the right job. Love ya'll so much.

no such thing as fast food

2009-08-27T11:19:00.007-05:00

Last nights dinner:

No boneless skinless chicken breasts here. Here there's bloody bonefilled breasts. I took a while, but I eventually got it looking a lot like they sell at the store in the states.

Bryan demanded that we keep the bone so that we can make a soup out of it. We've been to a few restaurants that served chicken soup and had feet and liver and stuff in it, so he's wanting me to learn to make it. I think we'll just stick with the chest bone. I'm sure it adds enough flavor.

And I guess it turned out okay because it was eaten up.

So last night we had prayer at the church. Bryan and I bring our Ipod dock to play Spanish Christian music at the beginning, kind of like a call or something. Well anyway, we plugged it in and it wouldn't work. Then I remembered that the last time we'd used it, David accidently plugged it in without the adaptor and it popped really loud. I did this with my straightner the first time I came to Peru, and it completely ruined it. So we were bummed. But as we were waiting I asked Bryan, "hey do you wanna pray for the dock? maybe God will fix it" and my wonderful believing husband that he is said "Sure"

So we go over and lay hands on the dock and just pray in Jesus name that He would please fix it, cuz its all we have to play our Ipod on and stuff like that. Right after he started praying, it sounded like some people were walking by and we both turned around kinda embarrassed and then laughed at each other.

But nothing happened. It was still broke. So I was very surprised when Bryan woke me up last night right after I'd fallen asleep and said "LOOK!!" I didnt have my contacts so I couldn't see a thing, but I saw a light come on and made it out to be the dock. He said "I was praying and I felt like I should try it again and it works!!"

It was exciting for us. So we're hoping that God will start using us to heal people too. Thats a lot more important. But it was a great encouragement for me, because in my tiny amount of faith in the middle of all my feelings of ridiculous, God did it anyway. Amazing. And now we don't have to wait 6 months for someone to bring us another one =)

Love ya'll!

New Pics

2009-08-24T09:04:00.008-05:00

We've started singing songs with the kids at the feeding program. I taught them one with motions and everything, and they all seem to like it and think it's pretty funny.

We got our bathroom renovated this last week. The owners of the house told us that they were going to do it before they rented it out, but we needed it really soon so we said they could do it while we were living here. Bryan and I had to move out of our room for a few days because of all the dust and stuff, but it was worth it. If you compare it to the previous post, you'll see the difference. We really like it.

We had been sleeping on the floor on our mattress, but we now have this great bed frame! Bryan ordered it and then painted it black. It looks great. It's actually the first nice bed we've had together, with a headboard and all.

We had our first youth time at our house, and we had four youth come. But they were actually from another church. There happened to be an older lady in the Sunday night service who usually goes to another church, and she told her son and he invited these youth. We had a lot of fun though. We met some nice people, and it was so encouraging to hear some good stories. We've heard a lot of negative things since we got here about how awful and sinful this city is, but it was nice to hear that other people are working to bring the Kingdom here.

David and Octavio are leaving for a river trip this week. It will be an 8 day trip, so keep them in your prayers.

Funny story... A man in our church gave us some Brazil nuts because Bryan said he'd never tried them. So we had a ton of them, and I wanted to use them for something. I found a bread pudding recipe that was really simple, but used Brazil nuts. So I put it all together and baked it. I actually had a friend over too, and I told her she should wait a few more minutes till it was done so she could have some.

So, I pull it out and it looks really good. But the taste was SUPER salty! Of course, I'd bought this instead of sugar:

But I'm not completely stupid because it does say sugar or "azucar" on it:

But then I got mad, so I mushed up half of the dessert and then threw it away:

It did look prettier than that. Maybe I'll try it again soon once I go buy some sugar =)

My project for the week... making a hymnal. Not fancy or anything, but the words of all the songs I know so far in Spanish. And then hopefully I'll just keep adding to it. But this is definately a MUST! Everybody has just been standing there during worship trying to understand me singing Spanish. so yeah, this will help.

Pray for my friend Martha I wrote about. She's in school and has a full time job which is a pretty full schedule, and also means she doesn't have a lot of free time. Pray that I'll get to spend some quality time with her.

Light's Out!

2009-08-18T10:17:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe we've been here for a whole month. We're slowly adjusting to every day life here. This past week was our first full week in our house.

So Mondays are our days off. We've gotten advice from many people who say, take a day to rest. So that day is Monday.

Tuesdays we take time to pray as a team with Octavio for the city and the ministry. After this we go visiting. Last week, we got to visit a few Christians who haven't been at church in while so we made sure everything was going okay. Today, we used the visiting time to invite people that live around the church to come. We are trying to use this time to encourage and meet new people.

Starting tonight, we will be going on Tuesday nights to a small pueblo called Tres Islas. The have a group of believers there, but they haven't had regular set meeting times, so it's hard for the to have church. It's also a place where there is no electricity, so we'll be having church about 4. It gets dark here SUPER early, like 5:45. Pray for this time. We feel like we need to disciple these believers who are mostly first generation Christians from what I understand. If you read our newsletter, this is the same place where two young people got saved.

Last Wednesday, the boys went to the land that Global owns here. They helped do some stuff around there, while I worked on Sunday music. This is the first time since high school that I'm leading worship, and my first time in Spanish. Playing, singing, and praying in Spanish all at the same time has proved a little challenging, but with God's grace, I'll get the hang of it. We are planning on buying a microphone stand this week, because Bryan has been holding the mic for me while I play and sing. During the songs, I can see his arm getting tired, and then he'll switch arms. Pray mostly that we will know how to lead these people into praising the Lord through song. We need wisdom in doing this. Wednesday nights we have a prayer meeting at church.

Thursday mornings, I am now teaching piano lessons =). A 15 year old guy named Jordin who really likes music hasn't been coming to church with his mom. Octavio said he grew up coming to the church, but it's like he's lost interest. When he heard I brought a keyboard, he was excited. He wanted to learn, so we had class for about an hour and a half on Thursday mornings after we all just sat around and talked. On Sunday, he was at church. I have a feeling that he is a crucial part to reaching young people in this city. Pray for him to have a hunger for God like he's never known before.

Thursday night we invited Octavio and Luz over for dinner. We actually cooked Mexican quesadillas. While David was in Mexico, some friends taught him to make flour tortillas from scratch. So we made a meal of it, and it was great to laugh with them and get to know them on a more personal level. In the future on Thursday nights, we are planning on another service in El Infierno (translate "hell" so pray for us please! haha).

Fridays we don't have anything offically planned yet for the mornings, but I'll tell you about that in a minute. But Friday nights, we've devoted to youth. This Friday, we're having youth ages 15-25 over to our house for some food and games. Usually the weekends get pretty crazy here so we've heard. We're wanting to offer a good alternative to those who want to have healthy fun. Last Friday we had a girl over for dinner who we've gotten to know a little bit. She's studying English so we only spoke English the entire night. She is someone else that I think is key in our making a difference with the youth here. We'll call her Martha on the blog. I'll keep you updated with her.

So we're almost through with our weekly schedule. Saturdays we have the feeding program I've written about on here before. Pray that this will translate into lives change for Jesus, and not only mouths fed. We're finding that a lot of kids won't come until late so they don't have to listen to the teaching. Pray for a hunger and thirst there, not only for food, but for the Word of God.

This last Saturday night, the guys played a game of futbol, or soccer, and the girls played volleyball. It was fun, and it was a beginning to forming relationships with youth and people in the church.

Sunday we have a teaching-sunday-school-ish time and then at night we have a service with music and preaching. I also aquired another piano student that's coming over to the house after church to learn for an hour before lunch. His name is Isidoro. He actually works on the land and has been working with the believers in Tres Islas.

So that's what it looks like our consistent weekly events will be.

For those of you who don't know me really well, my passion has always been to teach English as a ministry in a city. We joked this week that we should have made a flyer for piano lessons, but we made a flyer for English tutoring this week. Instead of starting classes right away, I've planned to offer tutoring to those who are already taking classes. The ultimate goal is to have a Christian English Institute where we can use the Bible openly, but train people to speak English to bring better job opportunities. Pray for wisdom as we try to sort this out and make decisions. In a town this size, repuatation is a big deal, so we want to be professional and do things the right way.

One funny thing, is that we've found out that the lights aren't very consistent. They've gone out 3 times this week. I guess this is why the only sell gas stoves here. So I've learned to cook with a candle.

Ya'll are great. I've gotten so many messages and comments about the blogs, and I can't tell you how encouraging it has been. In times where I've been down, it seems like there's been a sweet note or comment. God is so good. He knows us and looks after us.

Speaking of, one quick story before I end this, we found out yesterday that a bus had crashed and there were at least 8 confirmed deceased. This happened on the same road (the 17 hour trip) me and Bryan drove the week before last. It's a very dangerous road, and the buses go very quickly around curvy, steep roads. We know God's hand was on our car during that drive.

Thank you for your prayers. Much love!! Make sure you check out the facebook group for some of our new pictures!

We're Home!

2009-08-11T15:20:00.000-05:00

Hey guys,

So we finally made it back to Puerto Maldonado. We heard from Cusco to here it was a 12 hour drive, but some were saying you could make it in 10. So we got up on Friday morning at 4:30, but by the time we picked up our car and got gas, it was about 5:30. So that's where we started our countdown.

This road is unbelievable. The view is so beautiful (of course our camera was still dead at this point), but the reason it's beautiful is that you're on mountain after mountain. The road goes round and round and round and round. Coupled with this is the fact that neither Bryan or I know how to drive a standard. That's pretty much every car here, so our new car is a standard. Bryan was learning to drive as we went. He actually did a fantastic job, and it wasn't too jerky after the first couple hours.

Of course there's another peeing story. We had to stop on the side of the mountain, because for the first 5 hours there were no places to stop. It was completely mountain. So we found a big pile of gravel that we could go behind. He went of course with no problems. I however chose to squat on top of some rocks which caused slashige. This caused my shoes to get a sprayed a little bit. Seriously, why do guys have it so easy on this??

So we pushed through and kept going. Stopped at the first decent sized town and got 2 cans of tuna and some crackers. Unfortunately we had no utensils and no hand sanitizer and crackers that broke really easily. So i just splashed a little water on my hands and dipped my finger in to load up the cracker. So went 1 can of tuna. Then we arrive at a spot in the road that has three foot long wood obstacles in the road with a few policemen standing around. A lady tells us that the road is closed until 5:30. We look at our watches. It is 2:00. So we turned around to go back to the town we'd been in to wait for 3 1/2 hours.

On our way back, we had a group of about 9 people flagging us down asking for a ride back to town. They had about three kids, but the rest were adults. So we piled in and learned that they'd gotten in a wreck and been waiting at that place for most of the day. They hadn't eaten so we gave them the other can of tuna and crackers.

We headed back and the pass cleared at 5:30, and we were on our way in the dark. It was now the 12 hour mark. All in all, it took us about 17 hours, because we finally pulled in about 10:30ish.

The cool thing is that we got to use the car the next day to go to the feeding program. We really believed buying a car was the first way we could bless this ministry. It was nice to see the results so quickly. We piled in the car with a gigantic pot of rice and another huge pot of this tuna noodle mixture. =)

Another blessing is that our keyboard arrived while we were gone! On Sunday night, I played and sang for the worship at church. They've been playing a CD with Hermana Luz up front singing. All the people loved the keyboard. Even a little boy, Rueben, who's 9 kept walking around it. You could see how much he wanted to touch it in his eyes. The only keyboards we've seen for sell here at all cost a lot more than that one did and are very dinky. I'm so thankful to have it. Thanks for praying for it to get here!

The last thing is that we got a stove! We are slowly adding to our belongings. It was really nice to have a cooked meal last night. We had baked potatoes and this meat. I say it that way because I'm not really sure what the guys picked up for me to cook. But it was a bit grissly, but we all just enjoyed sitting down and eating together. Plus we found some El Paso Hot Sauce in the Supermercado in Cusco, so we all just covered the potato and meat in that.

Today is Bryan's birthday, so ya'll wish him a good one!

Bryan posted the pictures of our car on the facebook group - Bryan and Delana in Peru

CAR STORIES

2009-08-06T17:01:00.000-05:00

So these past two week have been a little crazy. We came Sunday, the 26th to Cusco to spend time with the home church here. Cusco has a completely opposite feel from the jungle. it's very city-like and almost has a European feel (although I've never been to Europe haha).

So the pastor of the church here helped us look for a few days that week for a car. During that time we ate with his family a few times and got to know them a little bit. But, all the cars we found were too expensive for us. It's ridiculous the difference between used cars in the states and here.

When we couldn't find one here, a friend of ours sent us to a pastor/mechanic friend of his in Puno named Mateo. This is where our adventure really began. The first night in Puno, we went to the Plaza to eat with Mateo and his family. As we were crossing the street to get a taxi home, I didn't look at the ground as I was walking, and I fell right in the middle of the street. Laying there, Bryan ran out to make sure I was okay and block the oncoming traffic from hitting me. He and Mateo helped me to the side of the road. I knew it wasn't broken, but I couldn't walk on it. We were at over 14,000 feet and it was our first night there, so the altitude started getting to me. I started blacking out and I couldn't stand up. I sat down on the corner of the street, and finally the wave of black passed. It was kind of funny looking back on it. So I iced my foot most of the next day while Bryan went to look for cars.

He didn't find one that day, so we went the next day to a place called Ilave about an hour away from Puno. The bus ride to get there costs about 2.5 soles which equates to about 82 cents. It's great. But you go to the bus station and then stand in line as buses come around. It's like a ride at six flags, except the ride is no fun. But we pile in behind these people filling each spot. You don't pay for the ride until your almost there. I find that a bit funny, but I guess they are very trusting that you have the money if you get on.

So anyway, when they came around to collect money, the couple in front of us refused to give 2.5 soles. They said, "it's usually only 2 soles and we're not paying anymore than that." for a minute Bryan and I were scared we were going to be in the middle of a fist fight. finally after a bunch of yelling, they finally gave her the extra 15 cents or .5 soles. I guess that shows how poor some of the people are in this area. It was very interesting.

So we went the next day and Mateo went with us again looking for cars in Juliaca. When we'd finally found one we liked and made an offer for it, the guy told us he didn't actually have the paperwork and we were going to have to wait a few days for him to go to Tacna, several hours away, to get the paperwork. He said it would only take two days, but we weren't sure. We told him we would wait and for him to let us know when he got back.

When we got on the bus to go back to Puno, and Mateo called his friend in Cusco to see if he'd found anything. He had found the exact same car in Cusco, the same year. The price was negotiable, but it was already $500 cheaper. So we decided to leave the next day to return to Cusco.

To get to the good part, we got here, saw the car, and really liked it. It's in better condition than the other and we got him down another $350 from the asking price. We decided to buy it and decided with the owner to do the paperwork the next day. Just when we thought the stuggle was over...

The owner comes by our hotel and says the car is actually in his uncle's name. He says we will have to travel with him to Quillabamba, 4 hours away. He is very sorry. He will pay for all our expenses, only we have to go there to do the paperwork so his uncle can sign it. Ah the paperwork of a foreign country. It seems to be never-ending. So anyway, we decided to do it.

We got up at 2:45 the next morning to catch the 3 oclock bus. We got there about 8:30, a little longer than 4 hours I'd say. Then, they bought us breakfast, fried hen with white rice. Bryan and I laughed later why they can't just have eggs and ham or something haha. But then we waited around for the uncle until about 10. When we got to the notary, it took about 3 minutes and she said "ok, now just give us an hour to type this up." so we wasted an hour by getting these awesome cremalodas, which are fruit smoothies ish things that costed 33 cents. The owner of the car paid.

We returned at the hour and signed all the paperwork. So about 11:45 all was done, but the next bus out of this place was 1. So we wasted more time just walking around and sitting with the owner and his friend. At 1, we went to the bus station and waited. The thing about these "buses" is that they are 9 passenger regular vans. But if they don't have at least 8 people, they will NOT leave. So we waited and waited and waited. We had seven people, but they would not leave till someone else came and wanted to go. We finally left about 2. So the supposedly four hour drive started.

We pulled over about an hour and a half in with a flat tire. At this point Bryan and I both had to go to the bathroom. First, Bryan decided to walk down the road a few feet and turned the other way and went. Well I always carry toilet paper for occasions such as these, and so I decided to go to. I asked Bryan to stand guard and I squatted. The scary thing was that we were on the edge of a cliff and as I stood back up I lost my balance (being the graceful person I am) and almost fell over in the place I'd just peeed. Luckily, I didn't.

We got back in the van and with the curvy mountian roads and dirt-rock roads it actually took us 6 hours to get there, 7 hours from when we'd gotten in the van. We were so glad to get back and we went straight to mcdonalds (the only american-type food around here) and then straight to bed.

but the point of the blog, if you made it through all the stuff we went through, is that we bought a car!!! haha long blog for all that. but it's been an adventure. Our camera is dead, but when we get back to Puerto, I will take some and put them up soon.

Love ya'll. Thanks for everyone who's keeping up with us and praying for us.

The END

House Pictures

2009-07-28T08:22:00.000-05:00

So we got a house!!! But I wanted to wait to post it on here until I could give pics too. It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house and we're paying $500/month. We're splitting that with David, so it makes for a pretty decent rent for this size of house. These were taken the day we signed to contract, so you will see all their stuff in the house. Unless I say otherwise, it's mostly empty. We did get mattresses that we set on the floor for our first night to sleep there, but that's about it. I also uploaded these in the wrong direction, so it kind of goes from the back of the house to the front. But ya'll are smart, so it's all good. Hope you enjoy. Let me know whta you think. Thank you so much for praying for us as we made this decision.

A picture of us in our new house, right inside the front door.

These are to the right of our front door and it leads you into the garage area.

This is inside our gate, but before you get to the front door. It's a little patio area. I think they left the plants, but they said if it gets to be too much trouble, they'll take them for us.

This is the tile flooring thats in most of the house. The floors are really nice!

The master bathroom - it is actually getting renovated to look more like the guest bathroom. Our renter wanted to have it done before she rented it out, but since we needed it so quick, she's having someone come this week.

The other side of the room. That door is to the bathroom.

Master Bedroom closet. This is what our bed faces

And this is the master bedroom.

This is what the closets look like in the bedrooms.

This is now David's room. It's across the hall from ours.

This is David's bathroom. It's in the hallway, and will also be used for the guest bathroom if people come stay with us.

Another picture of it.

This is what is looking out of Bryan and I's bedroom window. It's in the back and it's a place I could have a garden or something. It's really pretty.

This is the back part of the garage where our laundry room is. We'll hook up our washer and dryer there.

This is the garage with the laundry room behind me. It's plenty of room for a big car or van.

This is the kitchen. We'll have to get a stove.

The kitchen again. I love that it has cabinets. That's something that several that we looked at didn't have.

This is the dining room. And right next to it:

This is what the lady called a biblioteca or library, but we could actually put a curtain over those glass doors and make it a fourth bedroom. That's Mr. Cooper reading over our rent contract to make sure we didn't miss anything tricky.

This is the living room (sala) and they actually left those three maroon pieces for us, so we don't have an urgency to buy seating.

This is our garage from the outside. As you can see by the dirt road, it will get a little muddy during rainy season.

This is Octavio, Luz (his wife), Mr. Cooper, and Bryan in fron of our house. It's that little white gate that we go into. The gate behind Bryan is an independent entrance to the second floor, which is rented by someone else

Ok so that's it. Love ya'll and I'll update soon. We're trying to find an affordable car, but it seems like everything is a lot higher here. Really trashy cars are going for $11,000. The thing is we have to have a pretty big vehicle like a van or large SUV to be able to carry people for services nad stuff.

Hope ya'll are well, and thanks so much for praying for us.

Perfect Timing

2009-07-21T16:19:00.000-05:00

So we´re still looking for a house. It´s funny how different it is to do this here as opposed to there. We´ve walked the streets the past two days asking people we see if they know of a house for rent. There is a newspaper that has two houses in it so we thought there weren´t that many. But we´ve found that many people are renting, just not advertising. We now have two houses we are looking at, but I will only post pictures when we are actually in one. This way we won´t get too attached to any certain ones. haha

So I wouldn´t say discouraged is the right word, but we are definitely ready to be in house. But I opened my email today, and saw an email thats title was ¨God will provide¨I get emails of little devotionals every month and that was this month. God really spoke to me and I know He will provide. He reminded me of my verse in Mexico, Phil. 4:12-13 that I can know the secret of being content in all. I just wanted to share with ya´ll this praise! That God is faithful and He will provide for us everything we need to accomplish His purposes. Even if that means another week in a hotel, I was reminded that only He can meet our needs. How nice it is to rely fully on God! Pray that we will walk in that lifestyle. I hope you are all well. I´ve been doing good with the blog huh? haha There´ve been a few people make fun of how few times we update...

Anyway, we love ya´ll so much!

Chau!

Hungry Kids

2009-07-19T17:09:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we got to go to the feeding program we´ve just started here. A church in Bryan, TX (actually the group here with us is from that church) gave us enough money to have this program every week. We went over about 7 to Octavio´s house and Luz, his wife, was cooking and some of the girls and I helped her. They woke up at 5 to start cooking a huge pot of rice and chopping up tons of vegetables and chicken.

When we got there, we cooked eggs and chopped those up. Then we cooked the veggies and started the stir-fry dish we ended up with. It´s called arroz chaofa. Then we headed out with the biggest pot you´ve ever seen, full of the food, to a town called Laberinta. We first went around the streets inviting children to bring their little plates and come eat and hear a program. We had about 160 kids in total. We split them up into four little classes and taught them a short Bible story. Then we got them all back together and Octavio presented the gospel to the whole group. We had a group of about 30 kids who wanted to pray to accept Jesus that day. We will be going to that town every Saturday to develop the work there. One exciting thing is that mom´s and dad´s sometimes come with their kids and they are hearing the gospel as well. It was exciting to get to say ¨I´ll see you next week. ¨

Today we went to a church service in the village of Tres Islas. These meeting actually just started not long ago and there are already several families there. After some testimonies and a short message, we invited those who had never accepted Christ to come forward if they wanted to. No one came up. But then we asked if people had something we could pray for, like an illness or something. Several people came up. I got to pray for a lady in her 60´s that was hurting badly in her head and in her bones all over her body. Then she asked me and one of the girls in the group who was with me to pray for her grand-daughter. This girl was about 13 years old. I asked her what she wanted prayer for and she said her side was hurting. But then I asked her if she had accepted Jesus as her Savior. She said no. I asked her, did you know that you can become a daughter of God? By this time she was crying and I just hugged her for a while.

Then we prayed, she repeating after me, struggling through her tears. It was beautiful to see a young girl come to the Lord. I´m looking forward to seeing her again sometime soon. I think we´ll probably go there most Sunday mornings. Another boy accepted Jesus this morning nad we got to pray for several families who were having a hard time.

One thing you can pray for is something we found out yesterday. We´ve sensed and been told tht we will be a big influence here with the youth. We asked yesterday what percent of girls here got pregnant before marriage and they gave us a surprise. 90%! In a city where there´s not much to do, that is the activity most youth turn to. We sense as a team that this is an issue pressing deeply on God´s heart. Please pray that we will hear clearly God´s plan for us and have the courage to follow through.

One last prayer request. We are still looking for house. It will be a relief when we can find the house God has for us.

I hope you are all well. Hug our family for us if you see them. Much love!

We´re in Peru!!!

2009-07-17T20:49:00.000-05:00

So yesterday we made it to Puerto Maldonado. It took us over 24 hours to get here including all the layovers and driving time, so needless to say, we were very ready to be here. We spent the night in the Lima airport, so we were a little tired when we arrived.

Since arriving, we have gotten to know the team of 14 people who came with us on the trip. They are here for about 10 days helping with some construction and with the outreaches we´ll be doing. They are great and all very hard workers. We´re praying that more teams like them come in the future.

Last night, we went to the market to do some shopping for today, and I got to see and explore my new grocery store. There´s many fresh veggies and I´m looking forward to cooking.

Today we went house looking. The town just recently started a newspaper where people can advertize things like a house for rent. So there were not many choices when we got here. We´ve seen two houses so far. We definitely really like one of them, but they are both nice. I will put a picture up when we finally choose one and it works out. The unfortunate thing is neither of them are ready to move in to this week. We are paying for a hotel right now, but we would rather be putting our money into a month´s rent rather than spending it here. But for the time being, it is necessary.

We saw the 90 acres of land that Global Consulting Group owns today. We saw some of the different crops that are planted and worked on the house that Octavio (the national we´re working with) will live in with his wife. We spent the morning there working on leveling ground, and the group finished it up while we were looking at houses. Tonight, most of them went to bed about 8:30 and they all claim to not be able to move very well =)

Thank you for praying for us. It has started to sink in that this is home and I really like the feeling so far. Spanish is coming back slowly but surely for both of us. God has been drawing both of us closer to Himself. We were talking today how easy it is to get so consumed with the things we need to get done or figure out for our survival instead of spending time with the Lord and resting in Him. Pray this for us. We love you all and hope that you are doing well. Please comment or email us! We would love to hear from ya´ll. I will try to update soon, as is not our trend (I promise we´re going to do better!)

Much love from Peru!

Visiting

2009-05-25T13:28:00.000-05:00

We've been in New York for the past week and it has been so relaxing. A few things we did:

Niagra Falls was one of the most fun things I've ever done on vacation. We rode the Maid of the Mist boat like Jim Carrey does in Bruce Almighty. You get on with a cheap blue poncho thinking "is this really necessary?" I guess I've never really paid attention to pictures of Niagra before, but I didn't know what to expect. So we get in the boat and pass this beautiful waterfall shown below -

So I think the boat ride is over and I'm taking a bunch of pictures of this waterfall not really paying attention to the fact that we're not turning around; we're continuing forward. So I start to feel a little mist and then the boat starts swaying and I turn around and see this -

It was incredible. If you can see that black little spot in the middle of the falls to the right side of the picture, that is the boat we were on. It felt like it was raining in there. It was one of my favorite moments of vacation ever. Here's a picture of us drenched on the boat -

Then after the boat actually did turn around, we saw a beautiful rainbow -

It was great. We went to look at the view on the Canadian side as well, and they definitely have the better view. We had dinner there and I got some fudge =)

Yesterday, we went to New York City just for the day to see West Side Story and have dinner. It was weird driving into NYC through the Lincoln Tunnel because the only other time I've been I was flying.

We've had a lot of fun just getting to hang out and relax around the house with Leah and Andrew. We've watched movies and they've taken us to some of the good restaurants in town. This will be the last time we see them for a while, at least a year. We're really glad we could come up and see them before we left.

March Madness

2009-03-29T16:22:00.000-05:00

We're back in Texas. This has been our first week back. We were sad to leave Mexico. They were so sweet to us before we left. We had several parties; one in Mitcho (one of the villages we worked in) and another in Huichi. I didn't cry too much, but it was hard to leave our close friends. We are excited though to move into the next step in what God wants us to do.

We're currently employed by Belton ISD and we will be substitute teaching there as often as we can. It has been a blessing that this week all our paperwork went through so quickly. We will be living in Temple with our generous friends Danny and Cherry Hill.

Hopefully we will get to visit each of you during our time here. We will be leaving for Peru at the end of July. We are looking for job opportunities once the school year is up. As much as we can earn will help us in our start in Peru. Please email us anytime! We'd love to hear how ya'll are doing.

Leaving Mexico

2009-03-11T14:04:00.000-05:00

We only have less than 2 weeks left here in Mexico. It is crazy when I stop and think how fast the time has gone. Yesterday was 10 months since we have been married. Crazy.

This weekend we are having a mini-internship. Every week here we have a teammate that we wash dishes with and clean the house and do other chores. This weekend the youth are coming and they are going to be on our teams. They will do with us what we do everyday. Also, arranged within the weekend are classes like we have twice a week that will talk about a having our own personal relationship with Jesus. We're excited to get to have this time with them. Please be praying for this weekend, that we can speak into their lives and their hearts will be open.

I know Bryan mentioned this in his blog yesterday, but I wanted to tell you again how excited we were about sending 11 kids to camp. Please be praying about sending one or more kids. It costs $20 per child for a Thursday through Sunday camp. It is the week of Spring Break here and that fee covers all their meals and lodging. We know there are about 200 teenagers that would like to go, but we would love to sponsor as many as we can. This is a time for youth all over the nation to get to know one another and grow also in their relationship with the Lord. Everyone in this network of churches has a vision of the youth of Mexico rising up to be a radical generation for the Lord. We are praying that this be one of the sparks to God bringing that miracle to pass.

Thanks for all your prayers and support. We are sad to leave the people in Mexico, but are excited about this next step in our lives and in our ministry.

Blogtime

2009-03-10T14:14:00.000-05:00

It is time to blog again. I don't really enjoy blogging a whole lot. I don't like writing things that everyone can see. I think part of it, is that most of the members of my family are pretty good writers. I think I may have been scarred in the past somehow someway with regards to my writing ability. Plus a blog seems really personal, and I just kind of like to play things close to the chest. However, Delana really likes it when I blog. The picture above is of Delana and I at the National Mexico Conference.

Like I said previously, we had the national conference in February. It was very good. I actually did the parking spots for the parking lot. I did it with the same stuff that you make the lines in baseball, but here we called the chalk "col" or something like that. The way we laid the chalk was poking holes in a one gallon paint bucket and nailing a stick to the bucket. I put the col in the paint bucket and then would shake the stick as I walked along marking the parking spots. I should have taken a picture. The lines were a bit uneven. Most parking spots in Mexico are much more narrow than parking spots in the States. I personally don't enjoy parking a large vehicle into a narrow space so I made all the spots plenty wide.

Delana's parents came in at the end of Feb. which was good. They definitely are troopers. La suegra (mother-in-law) did quite a bit of baking when she was here which was excellent. I love oreo balls. Thank you Penny.

Anyways, one of the things we are doing is raising money for kids to go to youth camp. I found out this morning that we have raised $200. That is enough to sponsor about 11 kids. We are pretty excited about that. The youth camp is going to be the 9th through the 12th of April.

News from Mexico

2009-02-07T13:54:00.000-06:00

I guess everyone knows we will be moving to Peru. Delana and I are both very excited. As of right now we are finishing our internship. We are going to miss many of the relationships that we have built here. However we still want to be able to come back and visit.
We are actually having a national Mexico conference coming up this next week. I'm pretty excited about it. Brother Jim Hodges and Barbara Wentrople are coming and the will be preaching. It is nice to hear preaching in english after you have listened to a lot of Spanish preaching. Please pray for us as we are going to be moving to Peru in a few months. Pray that God will supply all of our needs as we continue to follow Him.

Oh yeah and my in-laws are coming down to visit the week after that, which we are pumped about. However I think it may kind of be like the mixing of "two worlds" like George on Seinfeld......well anyways my sisters will get that.

The picture is of a group of us guys camping. This was back in November of 2007.

Fun Note: My Friend David and I have begun running in the mornings after people told us we looked fatter when we returned from Christmas.........Its not as rude here.

We're back

2009-01-24T19:11:00.000-06:00

Mexico is mostly like I remembered it. I'm really glad to be back and I think Bryan is too. It's funny that just when you get used to something, it changes...

I say that to tell you of our decision. We are about to send out our January newsletter, but for those of you who read this, you will find out early. Bryan and I have decided to move to Peru this summer. We have been considering and praying about this for some time now, really since we went a year and a half ago. We will be living in a little city called Puerto Maldonado in case you want to look it up where exactly we will be living. Wait maybe I can try posting a picture:

So hopefully you can see Puerto Maldonado. It's to the very right in south Peru. We're very excited. Actually when we went there before (before we were engaged) I jokingly told Bryan I was going there with or without him. So needless to say I'm really excited and Bryan is too. We will be moving back to Texas at the end of March to save up some money to be able to go. I plan on substitute teaching and Bryan will be working as well. And then, in July we are planning to move. We would love to answer any questions. Feel free to email us: davis.bp@gmail.com

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T17:10:00.000-06:00

Woah so it's been a long time. Those last few weeks in Mexico were a little crazy and we've been visiting family for the past couple weeks. We didn't do a great job of updating this past semester, but I will try to get better.

We got some awesome things for Christmas, and it's been great to see everyone. Hopefully everybody got our newsletter. If for some reason you read this, but you do not recieve a newsletter, email us and we'll get that taken care of: davis.bp@gmail.com

We return to Mexico on Monday, the 19th of January. We are uncertain of how long we will be there this time. We're making some big decisions in the next month or so for our future, so if you think about it, keep us in your prayers.

Our first Christmas together has been nice. Bryan bought me a beautiful ornament to put on a future tree once we have our own place =)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Davis family!

Praying for America

2008-11-04T11:35:00.000-06:00

During the women's conference this weekend, one of the American speakers asked for everyone to labor in prayer for a little bit for our country and the election. Then one of the leaders in the church brought up how many people here have such a negative view of Americans because of negative encounters and negative ideas. They asked any of the Americans to go up to the front and they felt like they needed to repent for these attitudes before God by apologizing to us.

This was such a touching experience for me. I've gotten to know so many people in this network of churches. I've stayed in many of their homes and worked along side them in ministry several times. These were the people coming up to me praying over me and asking for forgiveness for themselves and their country. Alicia from Huichi came up to me and grabbed my hands and held them up together making sort of a fort-like thing as she prayed for our nation. It was such a symbol that we are one nation in Christ. It doesn't matter the culture of America or the culture of Mexico, it matters the culture that Jesus has brought into our lives through His Kingdom. Many people came up to me crying in their repentence for a bitter or wrong attitude in their own heart and the people of Mexico.

Other people prayed blessings on us personally for me and Bryan and thanked us for giving our time to their country. My friend and fellow intern Rocio came up to me and said, "It's so cool that you are giving your time and your life for my country. Thank you so much." It was so encouraging personally, but I also feel a need to pass this blessing on to ya'll. There are people praying for God to be glorified and that the Kingdom and culture of heaven be here on earth.

Visiting is where it's at

2008-10-30T21:10:00.000-05:00

I know it has been over a month since I/we updated, but it's been a busy month. We've traveled to several new places and have been working a lot with the youth and different churches in different places like Tamasopo, Tamazunchale, San Luis Potosi the city, and several other small villages. I taught a group of youth several Saturdays ago, and it was my first time to "preach" in Spanish. It was very short, but I think it went well.

A lot of mornings, we take time to go visiting people. Visiting people is one of our main ministries because it allows us to go to people instead of waiting for them to hear about an outreach we're having. Unlike the States, it is not rude at all to come without calling before, probably because many people don't have phones. But all you have to do is announce yourself as you walk up to their house saying "Buenos dias" or the right salutation for the time of day. One of the ladies in our church here in Huichi, Alicia, has lived here all her life and knows almost everyone in town. We usually go with her and she knows someone with a prayer need or someone to visit. We also have been visiting some while others of us teach a cell group at an Hermana's house on Wednesday nights.

Last night I was one of the one's to go visit. We went to a house of a 26-year-old girl who lived with her mom. It was just the two of them living in the house for the most part, except every once in a while when her dad will come looking for food of coffee in the early mornings. He left them for another woman, but still comes back when he needs something. The girl just had surgery in June because she had a brain tumor. When she was 16 she started having bad headaches and was always tired. Throughout those 10 years she had a false diagnosis and when she found out what it actually was, she had to save a long time to have the money it would take to pay for the operation.

We just chatted for a while and then we started talking about how God had a purpose for her and it wasn't for her to live in constant pain. Many times, because Mexico is very open to witchcraft and satanic worship, there are consequences in the actually environment that people live in surrounding these areas. These two ladies had carried a lot of unforgiveness and bitterness toward the dad and the other woman, and it seemed that this was the cause of her pain. Her pain started when her dad ran out on them and that's why we thought it might be the cause. It is true everywhere, but especially here, that many times our spiritual condition can reflect itself in physical ways.

These ladies both accepted Christ as their Savior last night. They both were crying and said afterwards that they hadn't been able to cry in a very long time. Please pray that these two new believers will be hungry to know more of Jesus, who wants to restore their family, give them a purpose in their lives, and be with through all the hard times. Pray that the Holy Spirit will do a mighty work of forgiveness in them toward the dad.

Another shorter story that has to do with visiting:
This morning, we went again with Alicia to visit another family. A few weeks ago, there was a singing contest here in Huichi and me and another intern signed up to participate in order to meet some other people in town. I met a girl named Tiare who I immediately felt a heavy burden for as I spoke to her in my broken Spanish. Her mom sat right behind me and today Alicia wanted to go visit that family. Tiare lives with her boyfriend, so she wasn't there, but we got to pray with her parents. They are believers, but have been burned in churches they have been in and so they don't attend anywhere right now. Also in the surrounding area of their house there are many practicing witchcraft in caves and things. They asked us to pray with them for their property and their house so that nothing done in that area would be able to harm them or affect them and the angels of the Lord would surround it.

When we prayed for them, especially for their marriage, the both began to cry and said that they were touched. The man said after we prayed that he knew his family had to stop looking at things behind them and from this day forward they were going to look only ahead. Please pray for this family also. As a church, we want to be able to reach out to them and bring them closer to Jesus. We want God to bring them back to place where they are growing and He can change the lives of their children, like Tiare and their other 2 kids.

These are just a couple stories of the many that have been happening to me. I'll try to add more stories like this more often.

San Luis

2008-09-24T12:56:00.000-05:00

This past weekend we went to a conference in the capitol city of the state we live in. We ate at KFC, so that tells you that it is a pretty big city. The purpose of the conference was to bring together all the leaders of the different villages and cities to worship, learn, and grow together.

I've read in the Bible the way the disciples, especially Paul started churches and went from church to church supporting and serving each one and gathering more and more believers together. That whole concept is the way I describe what we are doing here. We help with outreaches in each village and praying for people who are ill or hurting, but we do a lot of work like the apostles did. I have learned a lot.

The region we live in is called La Huasteca, which is not necessarily a geographical region as much as it is groups of people. They usually speak Spanish but they have their own dialect. A major market in La Huasteca is sugar cane, but right now they are suffering from a major crisis and they are not getting paid in this region right now. So this affects even those who are not in the sugar cane market, because not many people are buying any sort of products.

So back to San Luis. On Saturday night, we had a time of worship and I knew God was touching my heart and others as well. Then the pastor felt that God wanted us to have a time of offering. But he asked all the people from La Huasteca (the villages) to come up to the front. This included about 40 or so people at the conference. They lined the front of the church and the pastor said "Ask God who you need to come and give your offering to. Pray with these people who are our brothers and sisters."

We continued to worship and as we did, people came down, grabbed hold of someone's hand and put money in it, hugged them like they had known them all their lives, and prayed with them. This is like a group from New York City with a group of farmers and laborers in a small country town. They are very different. But I couldn't stop my tears thinking how beautifully Jesus binds us together as the church. It was a nice moment to see unity and sacrifice in the church.

I thought ya'll would like to hear about some of the things I was seeing and learning. Maybe Bryan will get on here later and write a funny story from the weekend.

Arm Wrestling

2008-09-10T16:27:00.000-05:00

Last night it was raining too bad, and we were unable to go to Michotlayo like we normally do. It appeared that we would have some free time and somehow we ended up arm wrestling. This was completely David’s fault. He kept trying to coerce Delana and Liz to arm wrestle. I wanted Delana to arm wrestle too because I was the only one who knew how strong she really is. Finally after lots of discussion about this, Lis spoke up in her broken English and said, “Delana, I am ready if you want.” At this David and I were elated. Delana still didn’t want to, but David and I convinced her too if david and I arm wrestled. I knew I would lose. It was ok though because I was excited to see Delana arm wrestle. Of course I lost. David is much stronger and bigger, but what scared me was what happened next. Lis went against Delana and proceeded to smash her hand to the table like it was nothing. Delana is quite strong. I was actually petrified, but nobody noticed. However this got everybody arm wrestling. We had a ball. We were all yelling in English and Spanish. I actually beat Chak, I just didn’t want go against Lis. I was a little worried they might ask me to. In the end they didn't though, and I felt like I was twelve years old at youth camp again. Turns out Delana is the second strongest girl behind Lis in the internship, and I am stronger than Chak. So the Davis fam did ok. Anyways I thought I would share with ya’ll some of the things we do together in the internship when we have some free time. Normally we just play Uno.

Sweeping dirt and other things

2008-09-04T20:49:00.001-05:00

Over the past few days, I've learned quite a few things I think are necessary to live here. First, I learned to make flautas from scratch. I will make them for anyone who wants them over Christmas.

Also, I learned that Jello with condensed milk makes an excellent treat. It's the only thing I've found thus far that satisfies my sweet tooth.

But as the title gives away, I learned that sweeping the backyard is something that has to be done also. There's a lot of extra dirt and stuff to move to other places in the yard. Bryan was laughing at me and wanted to take a picture, but he was about to leave to run some errands. So i'm sorry you don't get to see that picture. I'm sure there will be other opportunities.

But honestly, I am really enjoying our time here. It has been challenging to use my Spanish and understand what everyone is saying around me, but it has been good. I also have made some good friends so far. The other girls in the internship are really sweet and helpful.

I know God has brought us here. We are praying about his plans for the future, but I have to remind myself not to worry and that He will show us in time. Life is so much simpler here and it's easier to see how much I need Jesus and it makes me want to be in His presence, resting in Him constantly.

Thanks for the comments guys. I don't remember anything to make Bryan look really sappy at the moment, but I'll think on it =)

Estamos aqui

2008-09-02T10:23:00.000-05:00

So it's the first day of life in Mexico. We got in last night about 9ish and went to a taco stand for dinner. My mom had loaded us down with all kinds of chips and snacks for the trip down, so I wasn't very hungry. I got to meet all the interns, and my Spanish started coming back a little bit.

There are 4 girl interns other than me, one who is from Houston and is learning Spanish along with me. There are 3 guys other than Bryan. We will all share responsibilities around the house as far as cooking and cleaning go. I'll have Spanish class every morning and we'll have either a Bible class or a service to go to every night.

I was nervous yesterday on the ride down. I felt a lot better once we got out visas and headed down, but I still didn't know how the new environment would be. I'm not a shy person at all, but in new situations I'm not the most talkative person. Especially if half the people around are speaking my second language instead of my first. But I am more positive now that I need God's help to embrace change.

I am going to try to keep this updated pretty well once I start experiencing more new things. Hopefully as life picks up, my posts will become more interesting/funny. I also have been told I'm not allowed to write anything cheesy that represents both me and Bryan, so I have to monitor my writing. It's easy when I'm writing to become journal-y and just gush out instead of being interesting. So I will try to prevent that type of thing as much as I possibly can.

Until next time...

Finally

2008-07-03T10:49:00.000-05:00

Finally, I am writing on the blog. We are finally married and Bryan has allowed this to be a joint blog. So hopefully our voices will be obvious enough that people will usually know which of us is writing.

Married life has been wonderful. It has been an extremely easy adjustment for both of us. I'm not as bad of a cook as I thought I was. My mom making me help her a little in the kitchen really paid off. It's fun looking through the cookbook and finding things I can cook. Our kitchen is really small, but it forces me to clean up as I go - another habit Mom tried to teach me.

We are really excited about what God has been doing in our lives. We have been seeking for God to change us. I guess that is one thing that marriage does more than dating. It makes it very apparent how self-seeking I am. So that is something I have been challenged with. We MUST fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. There is nothing I can do without keeping my eyes on him. As far as practicalities go, God has provided so perfectly for us. Before we got married, we thought we would just live in Texas for a couple weeks and then go straight down to Mexico. But God provided jobs and a three month lease at an apartment complex for us. We really don't have any clue what will happen a year from now, but what is there to worry about? If we look at how God has taken care of us, we have no reason to fear what will happen to us. I guess that just goes straight back to keeping my eyes fixed on Jesus. That's a little of what's going on with us. I'm hoping I get more used to this whole blog thing in the future. I haven't done this since high school and my blogs back then were pretty lame.

If you'd like to get our newsletter by email, leave your email address as a comment. We send those out about once a month.

I'm also trying to convince Bryan that our layout is super boring, but he seems to like this one. Hopefully we can get it a little more exciting soon =)

Two weeks

2008-04-26T17:10:00.000-05:00

Well it's two weeks away. I will no longer be a single man come May 10. It is weird to think that, but it appears that this wedding is going to happen.

You never think that these moments will ever come but they do. I remember when I was fifteen and thinking that I would never be able to drive. Soon enough the time came, and I got my license. I remember being a senior in highschool and not being able to wait until I grauated so I could go off to college. I remember getting into college and looking at my degree plan and never thinking that I would graduate from college. And now I remember proposing and wondering if I would ever make it to where I saw my bride walking down the isle toward me. The time is here and I will be getting married in two weeks. It has been nine months and two weeks since I proposed and although it seemed like an eternity at times, the time still keeps passing by.

Try to never wish a day away of your life even though this may be hard. I remember that it was hard for me in Mexico at times not to wish the days away until I could go and be with Delana and get married. I remember sitting there and just wishing the days away. I also knew at the same time that I was having a blast where I was. I was getting to minister, serve, and be a light in a dark place. Although at times it may have been hard it was truly just a discipline to enjoy each and every day.

Back in the States

2008-04-13T17:19:00.001-05:00

Well I have been back in the states now for about three weeks. I am glad to be back. I guess especially being back and hanging out with Delana.

Yeah anyways, I have started back at my job at Mclane Company. I had that job while I was in college. I also moved into an apartment in Temple. We got a three month lease which is perfect because that is about how many months we will be staying in the states. It has a strong smoke smell. Its all good though because we are getting that worked on. It is nice to have an apartment and a job for the time that Delana and I are going to be here. It has been really good how God has provided for us at this time. Anyways I am tired of writing.