January Prayer Letter

Dear friends and family,

It is hard to believe that we are already this far into the year of 2005. I realized today that we have now been here for 8 months. It sounds like a long time, but the time has flown. I praise the Lord for this time that I am here in Perú, He is teaching me and changing me so much! There are so many things that I would like to share with you about this past month, but I have to settle for summing things up.
We had a good Christmas and New Year’s, spending the evenings in the church with special services. That was a lot of fun, and the view of Christmas among the believers of Buenas Nuevas was so refreshing! No matter how many times I have heard that the real meaning of Christmas is about Christ’s birth and life and not presents and candy and such, I think this year was the best teacher that I have had of what Christmas really is. The people here have next to nothing compared to us, and yet they are so happy and they celebrate Christ more than they celebrate presents and Christmas trees. I didn’t hear people complaining about the gifts they got or didn’t get. The members of my church here are wonderful examples to me. I praise the Lord for them!
These last few weeks have been very busy preparing for the trip to Bagua in the jungle and also the three weeks after Bagua that we will be working at a camp a couple of hours north of where we live in Lima. In Bagua the ARRIBA! group will be holding a Vacation Bible School for all of the children at a conference of churches. Pastor Evelio will be speaking for the evening services. For the VBS, we are in charge of the crafts, games, lessons, and everything else. Please pray that we would be able to communicate well with the children, capture their attention, and that those who are not yet saved would accept Christ as their Savior. We will be teaching the lessons in a style like the “Wordless Book.” We will be leaving tonight on about a 20 hour bus ride to get to Bagua. We will be on this Bagua trip for a week, and then we will be home for less than two full days before we head out again to do the camps. I am really excited for these following weeks!
The four of us of the ARRIBA! group that live in Musa are now each in charge of one kid’s club. I am in charge of one in Manchay. It has been a good learning experience. I have had the opportunity of working with a lot of the planning and scheduling and deciding how the club should be run. I work with two 18 year old boys from the church, Henry and Román, and they are a great help to me. They have a passion for serving, and they are willing to help in any way that they can. Within the last two weeks, 7 people (5 adults and 2 young boys) have accepted Christ as their personal Savior! Praise the Lord! It is so encouraging to see how God is working!
Also, we are now in charge of the Jóvenes meetings, Caleb and Annette with the younger group and Seth and I with the older group. During the lesson time Seth teaches the guys and I teach the ladies. We are teaching through the book of James, which is tremendous! I am God is teaching me so much through my studying for the lessons, and there are so many things to learn, there is no possible way that I can possible teach everything that I would like to in the length of time that we have to teach. Pray that the Lord would continue to conform my life to be more like Him, and that He would also speak through me to help the girls grow also.
I also have had the opportunity to teach at the ladies meeting at church twice. I really enjoy speaking to them, I just pray that even though at times I lack the right words or grammar they would still learn and be encouraged. I am so thankful that God uses us in spite of our weaknesses!
My Peruvian family has gone to the jungle to visit the family of Nordid, my house mom. They will be gone for about a month. Nordid went up there with the hope and prayer of witnessing to her siblings, aunts, uncles and all the members of her family that are unsaved. Pray that she would be bold while doing this and that the Lord would give her opportunities to share the Gospel and that the Holy Spirit would work so they would have open hearts to accept Christ.
Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support! I appreciate it so much, I can never say thank you enough. I know that words cannot accurately describe everything God is doing down here in our hearts and lives and through us, but I hope that this gives you a little bit of an idea!
Prayer Requests:
-Trip to Bagua
-The camps in which we will be working
-Nordid and family in the jungle, salvation of the rest of her family
-New believers in the church and kid’s clubs
-Kid’s clubs
-Jóvenes Mayores-that the Jóvenes would come and would grow in their walks with Christ
-The financial situation of Buenas Nuevas- they are in debt some right now, pray that the Lord would provide the money to pay it off completely, and that they would have the money that they need to pay Pastor Evelio