(Above left to right – CJ Childs (teammate), Chelsea Weber (teammate), Haley, Lynda, Tyler, & Ron Webb, me, and Brandon Doerkson (teammate/roommate) )
*originally written and sent out on a newsletter October 6th, 2012
Writing from sunny & calm Arequipa, Peru where it’s 70 degrees, just about every day of the year!
I’ve been seeing pictures from some of you on Facebook of the Fall season hitting the U.S. right now. For the last couple weeks I had literally FORGOT about “Seasons”! They don’t really exist here in Peru. It’s about the same daytime & nighttime temperatures all year round. The only change we have is that we have a “rainy season” where it rains about every day from January – March. We leave Peru in March, so we will be here for the whole rainy season.
Yesterday marked our 2 week anniversary of coming here. Usually when I would take adventure vacations overseas, it would be a 2 week trip. So now as we transition out of the “vacation” phase where everything is exciting and new, we are starting to really settle in and make ourselves at home here in Peru.
I have all sorts of great news and exciting things to share with you all today!
Major Praises:
It’s been a very fruitful week in Peru. I’m extremely blown away and humbled that God is using our Ecuador team here even while we’re primarily here to study and “intern” more or less under the existing missionaries here. As I mentioned in the last email, we are each partnered with 2 local 40/40 missionaries working here, and we go to their Casa Abiertas (“Open House”) which are home bible studies twice a week.
Salvation & A Physical Healing Miracle:
The first one on Tuesday, we had 2 married couples in attendance, which was powerful and fitting as our lesson that night was on what Biblical marriage looks like. We have a new brother in Christ, everybody! Patrick presented the gospel after prayer time, & Jorge proclaimed Jesus as His savior and King for the first time in his life. After rejoicing in his decision, we laid hands on both married couples to bless their relationship and soak it in prayer. Pati, the host wife who is a Christian, couldn’t stand up b/c she had hurt her foot/ankle apparently. Long story short, the Holy Spirit showed me a vision of her ankle being twisted while we were praying, and then in the vision, God twisted it back. I knew I was supposed to pray for her after that and that God wanted to heal her! Before we left, I asked her if I could pray for it, and she said it was her foot, but I explained the vision God gave me. I laid my hands on her, invited the Holy Spirit to come, declared her ankle twisted back, straight, healed, and no pain in the name of Jesus. Asked her if she could walk, and she shouted “OH! NO DUELE, NO DUELE!” – which means “NO PAIN, NO PAIN!”… She was limping terribly just 1 minute prior, and God healed her instantly, on the spot.
Huge Expansion…
Our 2nd Casa Abierta of the week was last night at Corina’s house. Last week there were 3 people in attendance aside from myself and my 2 partners Patrick, & Heyner. Marleni, an incredible woman of God accepted the challenge last week to lead the Bible Study this week and invite her friends. The goal is that every quarter the group can continue to open new Casa Abiertas, and assign a leader to the group within the quarter as they focus on opening more groups and discipling the leaders in classes at church. This week we had 17 or 18 people in attendance besides ourselves!! We could barely fit in the small living room. The Lord was truly there and His presence was THICK as we worshiped, fellowshipped, studied, and ate together. While eating a little snack afterwards, one of the new ladies in attendance expressed her desire to open a Casa Abierta on her side of town (Arequipa is huge)! We are seeing the multiplication of God’s disciples in true effect here. People are hungry and thirsty for truth, and we have living water to offer, WOO!
This week there has been a short term missions team here building a temporary church facility for a new church plant on the outskirts of the city, and doing outreach events. There was one this morning while we were in Spanish classes & there will be another one tomorrow morning that we will be going to. On Wednesday we are going wayyyy out to the edge of the city closer to the volcano and the airport, and will be feeding people, hosting games, and doing a Jesus Film showing with a Gospel presentation at the end. I’m VERY excited for this event, and am praying for the Lord to bring everyone out who needs to hear of His love for them! Please join us in prayer!
Prayer Requests:
– Salvations, Victory, & The Love of God at the outreach events & Jesus Film showing this week.
– CJ, one of our teammates was too sick to go to school today. Pray for health for all of us.
– For the calling and selection of our Ecuadorian ministry partners & our church pastor. They’re searching now.
– For a Peruvian pastor for the Cercado church that the local Arequipan team has planted that we all work at.
– For continual hunger for Jesus for those attending the bible studies, discipleship classes, leadership classes, and church services.
– Strength and growth in the marriages here
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