Twice in One Week!

Well, I have to start this blog entry off with a pat on my back. It is the first time since I have been here in Peru that I have even come close to getting two blog entries posted in one week! This has been a busy week--probably the busiest since I have been in Peru--so there is plenty to write about!

On Monday, I had a chance to take a visitor from England to Kawai. For those of you who don't know what Kawai is, it is one of Scripture Union's camp sites/boys' homes located about 90 kilometers south of the city of Lima right on the Pacific Ocean. I really enjoy every opportunity that I have to get down to Kawai because I have so many good memories at that place. When I traveled to Peru with my church youth group, we would always spend a week in Kawai helping with construction, spending time ministering to the street kids (we would throw a big birthday party for them each year that we came), and doing some work in the local schools. One of the highlights of visiting Kawai was definitely having a chance to visit with the kids and the house parents. I first visited Kawai in 2001. That means that some of the kids that I met at the age of 9 or 10 are now 17 or 18 years old. It is awesome to continue to build on old friendships and to see how God continues to show his redemption through some of these boys' lives!

Juan Carlos 2001

Juan Carlos 2009

For those of you who have been to Kawai, practically everyone there sends their greetings to you. I sat down and looked through photo albums that Raul and Rosa, the house parents, have from past work teams. Know that they continue to pray for the teams who have come through Kawai, and if anyone has a chance, they would love to see you come again!

I spent Monday and Tuesday in Kawai, then I headed back to Lima to continue working in the schools. Wednesday was my busiest day in the schools yet. I had the chance to enter seven different classrooms in three different schools with a volunteer from Scripture Union named Manuel. It was really neat again to just spend time with the kids letting them know that they are loved and that they matter to God. They had all different kinds of questions for me. Here are a few examples:

"Does your family have the swine flu?"

"Why are you so white?"

"Is your house made out of wood?"

"Do you like Pisco Sour?" (A Peruvian Liquor)

"Have you been in any movies?"

These were all real questions that were asked all on the same day. As I already said, it was so great to spend time with them. Sometimes the innocence in their questions for me are refreshing as well :-)

After a full day in the schools on Wednesday, I had a chance to go visit some friends from Indiana Wesleyan that had just arrived in Peru the day before to do some work with a local church in Lima. I was really thankful that they invited me over for that night. It was great to connect with a couple friends from a familiar place. We spent a couple hours hanging out at a friend's house singing karaoke (don't worry; I didn't sing!). We then all headed over the the movie theatre together to see the very first showing of the new X-Men/Wolverine movie. It was a good time, but I have to say that I was slightly dissappointed with the movie. It wasn't bad, but the other X-Men movies are better. As I said goodbye to my friends from IWU, they left me with a few presents from home--Snickers bars and peanut butter! Both treats were welcomed.

Even after a late night on Wednesday, I had to make sure to make it to the office early on Thursday morning for breakfast--mainly because the breakfast was being held for me and another couple from England who just arrived to begin working with Scripture Union in the jungle near Iquitos. It was our official welcoming to Peru! But breakfast was just the beginning of the day. As I mentioned in my last post, this past Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we hosted a camp/retreat for high school juniors from a local Christian school. It was the first camp that I have ever been directly involved with in Peru, and I was glad to come along and observe. The theme for the weekend was "Making Good Decisions." I have to say, this retreat took me right back to my days in senior high at Ward Church. We had crazy games, VERY late nights, pranks were pulled, and we had some good times for discussion and encouragement. While all of the kids came from a Christian school, many of them do not profess Christianity. As we had a fun weekend together, my prayer for them is that they would see beyond all of the religiosity and come to a place where they really meet Christ--his love and his power to change and bring healing that many of them need. I hope to have a chance to be involved in different activities with the same students and the same school in the future. Here are some pictures from the retreat:

Devotions

Breakfast (Early Morning After a Late Night)

Crazy Games (They are a House)

The Guys from My Cabin--Juan Carlos, Johnny, and Christian

I came back from the camp yesterday, but work still wasn't quite over. I got to spend a day in Lima with my first American work team of the year. They were just coming back from the jungle on their way back to the United States. It is amazing how small of a world it is. One of the people who was on this particular team is dating an acquaintance of mine from back home! It was a short time together--just lunch, shopping time in the market, dinner, then off to the airport--but it reminds me how close we are to being at the beginning of work team season. It is coming very fast!

I am incredibly thankful that today I had a chance to take a break from work and rest. I literally had 5 or 6 straight days with less than 5 hours of sleep (some days much less). With that said, I really am loving the ministry down here. Right now I only have the ability to see the short term picture, but I put all of the work that we have done over the past week into God's hands, and I trust that he sees the long term picture. I am confident that God is at work in the lives of the boys in Kawai, the kids in the schools, and the youth who were at the camp this weekend.

Now for some prayer requests:

--That God would continue to work in the lives of all of the kids that we have had a chance to work with over the last week.

--Praise God that my mom, dad, brother, and sister officially have flights booked to come to Peru in August. I look forward to their visit and getting to show them all around!

--That God would protect and bless the group that is down here from Indiana Wesleyan. I am not 100 percent sure what their ministry is, but I know that they are in Lima working with a local church and also in some very impoverished communities until Tuesday. Then they are flying to the jungle to work there for about a week before returning home.

--For all of the work teams that are coming to work with Scripture Union this year. There are a whole lot of small details involved with the organization of each work team. Pray that God would help us to figure out all of these logistics.

Lastly, I just wanted to leave you with a video from my church here in Lima. It is basically just a summary of the week of Servolution that I mentioned a couple of posts ago, and I thought it was really neat to see how God can use the church when we step out into the world with the sole objective of serving and shining his love! Take care everyone. Thanks for reading, and thanks for all of your prayers!

SERVOLUCION from servolucioncdv on Vimeo.