The Good ol U S of A

Well I made it to New Orleans somewhere around 10:30 yesterday. It was a lot of hassel at the airport in Lima, but I finally made it. Sadly, they lost one of my suitcases, but I had my trunk which was full of souvenirs!!
Anyway, Im having a blast playing with my 2 and a half month old niece and hanging out with my family!!!
It was an amazing summer and I am forever grateful to have been used for His glory this summer!!

Thanks for all of your prayers and support while I was gone!

Back in Lima

Well we are all back in Lima and some are leaving today. It has been a good week of eating good American restaurants and debriefing!! I am leaving tomorrow night at midnight and I am looking forward to it!!!
See you all soon!!!!

Last day in Chumpi!!

So today is our last day in Chumpi.....thats a really sad thought!! We have lived there for just about 2 whole months and tomorrow we will make our journey back to Lima. Everyone has asked us to stay for longer, but there really is no way we can stay. I think the three of us are a little sad to leave behind the people we have grown so close to. Senora Rosa, the elderly lady we live with, asked us to stay, because she is going to be sad and bored when we leave...
:(
Nevertheless, things are going well in Chumpi. We decided to have services every night this weekend. Friday we had Maria, a young girl who has been faithful to coming, and then an older lady named Maria as well. Later, Senora Griselda showed up with 5 of her 7 kids. So it was a good turn out. Last night we didnt have anyone though, so the boys discipled Juan Carlos, our friend in Chumpi. Hopefully though people will show up tonight. Juan Carlos and Daniel have been our prospective leaders in Chumpi, but it seems both are going to Lima. In fact, Daniel already left for Arequipa. Please continue to pray that God will rise up leaders in Chumpi.
Last Sunday, Maria and Juan Carlos were the 2 who showed up for our Bible study. Of course, that was during the festival, so it meant alot that they came. Juan Carlos gave a short sermon on the importance of the church. It was really neat to see him preach, because he is one of the ones we have been discipling this summer.
Well, we are about to head off to church here in Coracora for the last time. Then we are going to get our stuff together and say our farewells with our friends in Chumpi!!
¡¡Adios!!

Festival time!!!

The festival officially began last tuesday. That basically means that there are about 300 people who are either selling stuff or making food. There are tents set up all around the plaza. It is pretty interesting to watch actually. Every afternoon at 4, a parade of horses and llamas go around the plaza and make their way to the bull arena. There, the men make the horses ¨dance¨ and then they award the best dancer and prettiest llama. Then, a couple stands in the middle and dances for a little while. Around 9 or 10 every night they have a Gran Baile, Big Dance, where they all just dance around til 4 am. Then it all starts again at 5 am with a band marching around the plaza.
We have been invited to several peoples homes to eat some good ol cuy (guinea pig). So needless to say, we have gotten our fair share of cuy this summer. It really has been quite entertaining to watch the festivities unfold. There was a huge wedding and then yesterday they had a HUGE statue of the Virgen de Carmen that they marched around the town. She represents Mary, but each city has its own name for her. Today and tomorrow there is a bull fight. As soon as we leave here and go back to Chumpi we are going to see the bull fight today. Ive never seen one, so that should be an experience!!
Last Sunday we had around 12 or so people show up to our Sunday night Bible study. It should be interesting to see who all comes tonight, because its during the festival. Please continue to pray for those who we are disciplining. Also pray for leaders in Chumpi. We are discipling 2 young guys in particular, but one is probably moving back to Lima. We really think they could be potential leaders in Chumpi. So please pray for them and for the others in Chumpi, seeing as we will only be in Chumpi for one more week.
Also, please pray for my health as well. It seems I have pink eye.....Thankfully, the medicine I got from the hospital is working quite well though!! Praise the Lord.
As always, thanks for your support and prayers!!
¡Dios te bendiga!

Life in Chumpi

The few days we had before the team got here were pretty routine. We held a service last Sunday night and praise the Lord there were 12 people who came. Jonathan shared his testimony with the people and Elias and Juan Carlos both shared a short sermon. It is so amazing to see God working in the lives of the people in Chumpi.
Jessica and I moved into our new home above the Expreso Wari bus station and then we all prepared for the team from the states to come.
Well, the third team from Old Fort left this morning. They will be the final team to come down, because we are leaving in 2 weeks to head back to Lima. The past week of ministry was a lot of serving and relationship building. Every afternoon we had all the kids in the plaza playing games and such. The team brought a lot of toys and candy, so it was fun passing all of that out. Wednesday night we had a service and we had around 9 Peruvians who came. Anyway, Wed. night the power didnt come on in Chumpi, but we still held the service. We also had decided to do the Lord´s supper. So we broke some bread and had Crystal light raspberry ice as our drink. It was one of the most amazing Lord´s suppers that I have ever been a part of.
The festival begins tomorrow, so please continue to pray for us as we continue on sharing the Word. There are about 300 people who have arrived in Chumpi over the past 2 days.
Sorry I dont have much time to write today. We need to head on off to church!!
Thanks for all of your prayers and support!!

Headed home....Chumpi that is!

So the other 2 teams headed back down to Pausa with Vic this morning. Stacy stayed, because there wasnt any room left in the car. She originally thought that she was riding the bus back with us, but just found out that our bus doesnt go to Pausa. So she and Jonathan are taking another bus back that leaves in about 15 minutes. Jessica and I are riding back with the Nasca boys. Juan Carlos´s sister is also coming back with us for a week. So, anyway, Jess and I are sitting here using the internet for a little while until we leave. The rest and relaxation was definitely a nice break. As we were discussing earlier, we really only have like 3 more weeks until we head back to Lima. That is so crazy to me!
Our 3rd and final team is coming from the states from Old Fort Baptist on Tuesday. It will be nice to have them again to help with our ministry. After they leave, Jess and I are moving out of the hostel and into the room we are renting above the Wari bus station. Then the fun begins!! hehehe The festival in Chumpi technically begins on the 12th of July and goes until the 20th or 21st. We arent quite certain what our ministry will entail then, but we are going to try our hardest to continue our small groups. Please continue to pray for that!! After the festival we basically have around 5 or 6 days until we leave for good. We are leaving Chumpi on July 26, in order to get a cheaper bus ticket back to Lima. July 28 is the Peruvian independence day and we have been told that prices go up during then. So anyway, please pray for our ministry, as we really only have a good week and a half before the festival begins!
Nasca has been good to us, but I am actually looking forward to seeing my good ol Chumpi again! Thank you for all of your prayers and support!!

Everyone needs a little r and r......

Hey again!
So we made it to Nasca yesterday afternoon for our ¨rest and relaxation¨. We (Jonathan, Jessica and our 2 Nasca boys) decided to take some combis (larger taxis) to get here instead of the buses. Elias and Juan Carlos wanted to get back in time so they could go to church last night, because it was the 25th anniversary of their church. So, we started our journey early yesterday morning and got here somewhere around 5ish. Unfortunately, I got a little altitude sickness on the way down the mountains.....but nevertheless, I am fine now!! It made for a long journey down the mountain though! Anyway, so we are here and the other 2 teams made it safely last night as well! It was SO wonderful to take a shower last night!! It was the first real shower I have had since I left Lima and that was a month ago almost! So I´m praising the Lord for hot water!! hehehe........Nasca is really nice and the food here is definitely a welcomed change!! It´s nice to be back in civilization for a little while!!
Okay, so an update on Chumpi.....We had our first collective Bible study on Friday night. Praise the Lord!! We had 6 adults come and one little girl. We had promoted it to be an adult Bible study, because the following day we had a kids thing in the plaza...which was also quite a success!! I entertained the little girl, Jenny, who came to the adult Bible study while the others discipled the adults! It really was a blessing to see that many people come though! At 7, we only had one little old lady and we were really thinking that she was all that was coming! But nevertheless, people showed up!! Then on Saturday, we played games in the plaza with the kids. We had a really good turn out! I would say around 40ish kids came, but we definitely had a big crowd watching us! We are hoping to have a collective adult Bible study every Sunday night and a kids study on Saturdays! Please continue to pray for the people of Chumpi!! It is rather difficult to get people to actually come to things collectively, but praise God that they came this past week!!
That was our main focus last week in Chumpi. We really promoted the Bible studies and continued our daily one on one discipleship teams. Other than that, things were pretty routine in Chumpi. Praise God for the faithful who are in Chumpi and who genuinely are willing to take time to learn more about the Bible!
Okay, now I´m off to go to the grocery store!! Thanks for all of your prayers!!
Dios te bendiga!!!