I hope that everyone had a very merry Christmas yesterday. I passed it in here in Peru, and thankfully I was surrounded by many friends and lots of good fellowship. It was difficult to be away from my family for Christmas for the first time in my life, but having friends here was a huge blessing yesterday. I actually got to celebrate Christmas twice!
My first celebration was a more traditional Peruvian celebration with all of the boys in Scripture Union's Casa Girasoles. Augusto and Nancy spent most of the day of Christmas Eve out an about buying presents and preparing the turkeys. The kids were excited all day long anticipating the Christmas celebration. For many of them, this was their first Christmas at the boys' home. A number had never even tasted a turkey.
In Peru, most people celebrate Christmas right when the clock strikes midnight.We were no exception. It was a struggle for some of the littler kids to stay awake, but they were not about to miss out on the Christmas celebration. It was really a beautiful time together. Around 11:00pm Augusto assembled all of the boys in the dining room, and we had a time of praise and worship. We sang together; we thanked God for the gift of sending his son to save us; we prayed that God would renew our spirits. Augusto also reminded the boys that while we celebrate Jesus' physical birth on Christmas, that alone is not enough to save us. He reminded them that Jesus must also be born in each of their hearts.
When the clock struck twelve, two huge turkeys came out of the kitchen, and the celebrations began. Augusto really went all out--there was probably about 50 pounds of turkey to feed about 45 people! I was served an entire turkey leg. I have never eaten so much turkey in my entire life. The traditional Peruvian turkey dinner consists of the turkey, paneton (fruitcake), and home made hot chocolate made from scratch. It was delicious.
The Girasoles before Christmas dinner in Ica
Cristian ready for his first ever bite of turkey!
After dinner, it was not yet bedtime--it was time to open all of the presents. The boys were excited for the presents. Brittney and her family had brought a ton of presents for the boys on Thanksgiving, and they were dying to open them all! In addition to that, God really blessed Scripture Union with specific donations for the boys' Christmas celebrations in all of our different Girasoles homes. Augusto and Nancy bought new shoes and new clothes for the boys. The kids were overjoyed to open their gifts, and it was such a blessing for me to see all of this. I have heard the specific stories of many of these children. They come from the streets, from gangs, from abusive families, and from lives full of pain and rejection. Yesterday in the early hours of Christmas morning they had the opportunity to just be normal kids. For them their gifts are not just another toy in their overflowing toy box. They are a rare luxury, and even more importantly, they are a symbol to remind them that they are loved and not forgotten. It was a beautiful night, and it was a great privilege for me to share in the celebration with the boys.
Ready to open the gifts!
Sanchez, our youngest boy in Ica
Miguel Angel with his new toy!
As we began to wrap up the party in Ica around 2:30am on Christmas morning, I realized that it was about time for me to leave. Paul and Marty Clark, the directors of Scripture Union Peru, had invited me to their house in Lima for an American Christmas dinner! I was on a bus by 4:00am for my five hour journey back to Lima. I arrived, rested for a couple of hours, and headed out to Paul and Marty's house. Every year, they have a tradition of inviting missionaries and other foreigners into their home to celebrate for Christmas. Being away from my home, it was a real blessing to be invited to their home. We had yet another huge turkey dinner, and it was great to meet other experienced missionaries here in Peru.
Nothing can replace being home with my family for Christmas. It was hard to be away. But in the midst of the sadness of being far from them, God provided for my needs. I got to experience the day with other people who were also missing their families or wishing they they had a family, and we were blessings to each other!
Last week was very busy, but very good. I just want to share a few highlights with you...
Christmas Cookies
Paul and Marty Clark, the directors of Scripture Union Peru, invited me to their church in Lima for Thanksgiving dinner, and I happily accepted. Thanksgiving is not a holiday here in Peru, so a good Thanksgiving dinner is hard to come by. The plan was to leave Ica on Thursday (Thanksgiving), arrive for dinner, and then spend a day to relax in Lima before returning to Ica on Saturday. I really enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at church, but there were no Christmas cookies; having homemade cookies is on of my favorite parts. When I shared this with my family, they suggested that I make some cookies for myself, and perhaps for the boys back in Ica. For anyone who knows me, I am not a chef or a baker by any means. Apart from scrambling eggs, I am practically useless in the kitchen. I wanted cookies so badly that I mustered up the strength to try making some cookies. They actually turned out alright, and I shared them with everyone here at the home when I returned last Saturday. They were such a hit that Nancy, the house mother, made me teach her how to make them, and we had more cookies on Thursday. Making cookies was quite a personal accomplishment for me...even if I didn't have to bake them.
My Christmas wreath cookies!
New Guitars
After learning about the music program that Augusto has put together for the boys here in Ica, a group of people from Scotland decided that they wanted to support the work, so they sent a donation to purchase some musical instruments for the home. The catch is that it is impossible to buy any quality musical instruments in Ica; you have to go to Lima. Last Wednesday, Augusto and I did just that. We woke up at 3:30am so that we could be on the bus by 4:30am. After 5 hours on the bus we arrived in Lima and headed straight to the music store. We spent about 3 hours shopping around and purchasing instruments, and then we headed back to the bus station to take another 5 hour bus ride back down to Ica. We got back around 6:00pm When all was said and done, we were able to arrive and present the new electric guitar and the new base guitar to the boys at dinner time. It was a long day, but the guitars will be a great addition for the band. The kids here are all lining up to learn to play guitar!
With the new guitars!
Pampachay band
Handing out Bibles
Augusto's church received a number of Bibles from the local chapter of the Gideons to pass out to people who needed them, so on Friday morning, Augusto and I were invited to enter into some of the schools and pass out the Bibles. We really didn't have a ton of time to talk with the children, and they were public schools, so we were fairly limited as to what we could say in the classroom. But I trust in God's promise that his Word never returns void. By the end of the morning we handed out nearly 200 Bibles to kids and teachers at two different schools!
"So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." Isaiah 55:11
Well, I am still here working with the different groups and work teams that come to support the boys' home here in the Sacred Valley of Cusco. I am really enjoying my time with the teams as well as my time to get to know they kids, the workers, and the house family here in Cusco. I arrived last year for just over a week to translate with some of the work teams, but other than that short time, I am just now having the opportunity to deepen relationships and get to know everyone out here.
Last year when I arrived at the Girasoles home here in Cusco, there was a whole lot going on all at once. This is Scripture Union Peru's newest home for abandoned kids. It was opened near the end of March 2008. Hector and Maritza are the house parents for Girasoles Cusco, and at the time that the home opened in March, Maritza was 6 months pregnant. Just a few weeks after the opening of the home in Cusco, she had some major complications with her pregnancy, and she gave birth to baby Marcelo almost a full 3 months premature. Life all of the sudden became very difficult for Hector and his family. In the midst of trying to open a new boys' home, the family was now trying to take care of a new premature baby in a hospital about an hour and a half away from the home.
I know very little about medicine, but ask my sister Mandy. She knows her stuff, and I am sure the she can confirm these facts. Some of the very last organs to develop inside the mother's womb are the lungs, so when a baby is born premature, getting him enough oxygen is a very high priority. This issue was compounded by the fact that the city of Cusco is one of the highest altitude cities of its size in the world, and because the air is thinner, oxygen is even more scarce (elevation of nearly 12,000 feet). I am told that none of the doctors in the hospital expected the baby to live for any long period of time, but they did everything that they could and kept the baby in an enriched oxygen environment for a number of weeks.
Hector's worries did not end with the opening of the new boys' home and with the health of his newborn son. During childbirth, his wife Maritza slipped into a coma due to the problems that surrounded her pregnancy. At one point, the doctors did not know if she was going to live either. For more than a month, Hector and his 3 year old son, Adam, were continually driving back and forth between the boys' home in the Sacred Valley and the hospital in Cusco to visit Maritza and Marcelo.
As I have gotten to know Hector better during this year, I have learned even more about the struggles that the family faced during this time. It was a very dark and difficult period for the family, but Hector has told me how much this situation has taught him to fully rely on God. There was really nothing else that he could do but to trust that God knew what he was doing, and put Maritza and baby Marcelo into God's hands. Thankfully the story ends well. During the time of difficulty friends from all over Scripture Union showed their support. Other house parents and volunteers from some of our other boys' homes stepped up, traveled to Cusco, and helped out taking care of the boys and running the home. A work party that happened to be visiting the home bought the family a small, poratble oxygen tank that made transport to and from the hospital in Cusco much less risky for Marcelo.
THANKS TO GOD, after 15 days in a coma Maritza woke up and quickly came back to good health. Also, Marcelo pulled through after many long, trying nights at the hospital. When I left the home in August, there were 17 boys living at the home. Today that number has more than doubled, reaching the cap of 42 boys at the home here. What a testament to the great work that God has accomplished here in Peru. Hector and his family found themselves trying to begin a new ministry, and they were being attacked in full force by the flaming arrows of the evil one. God is stronger, and he will ALWAYS triumph! Hector remained faithful, and during the times of weakness the body of Christ was there to lift him up in prayer and in providing for his needs.
Healthy baby Marcelo (about 1 year and 3 months old)
God has a purpose, and even in the midst of great trials He is able to work everything for the good of those who love him. The story isn't always one that ends as happily as this one did, but we can rest in the fact that God IS faithful, and He has a purpose and a plan that is more far reaching than we could ever imagine!
As promised, I have another blog entry for you today. This isn't so much an update on my life here as it is an interesting story that I wanted to pass on to all of you. It actually goes way back to the time if the Incan empire before the time of the Spanish conquistadores came to colonize Peru.
To give you a little bit of background about the Inca culture in Peru, it had a very strict organization. The Inka--the emperor--was the only completely free being in the entire civilization. They expanded their civilizations rapidly, annexing smaller indian tribes into the Incan empire. They also imposed their language, Quechua, as the universal language for all of their subjects. The Inka's government regulated almost every aspect of the peoples' lives. There was no personal property, but people were given liscences to use the land. Occupations were predetermined based on the family line and the region where the person lived. No one was allowed to move without the permission of the government, and the government even regulated who one could or could not marry. It is said that the government was so well organized, and the land was so fruitful that it was one of the only ancient civilizations where starvation and poverty was virtually nonexistant. They also are one of the few civilizations that did not employ the use of slave labor.
According to the Incan religion, there are many different gods--all associated with nature. They worshiped the rainbows, the moon, the stars, the mountains, mother earth (Pachamama), and the sun (Inti). Of all of these deities, the sun god Inti was said to be the most powerful of them all. They believed that the Inka emperor was a direct descendant of the god Inti. One day one of the most powerful emperors at the hight of the Incan empire, Pachacutec, decided that he wanted to better become acquainted with his father, the sun. He had his subjects take him down to Lake Titicaca, a huge lake in the high mountains between present day Bolivia and Peru. He spent a number of days alone on one of the lake's many islands, and just observed the sun.
Upon his return to the capital city, Cusco, he decreed to the people that the sun god is not the all powerful being that they had believed. He said that the most powerful God must be free to do as he wants and all powerful, just as on earth the Inka emperor was the only free, all powerful being. But, he said, Inti does not seem to be free. All day he travels the same path in the sky, coming up in the same spot and setting in the same spot. The sun makes no original moves of his own. Pachacutec also stated that the sun does not appear to be all powerful either. Even a mere cloud is able to block its rays from arriving at the earth.
After stating these observations, Pachacutec decreed that there must be some unseen creator God in control of the sun and everything else. In the main temple of Cusco, he had a bunch of gold melted down, and it came out as a formless blob. The Inka decreed that from now on the civilization would also worship this unseen creator God.
What a paralell to Paul's journey to Athens where he found the altar to the unknown God. This story makes me wish that the colonizers might have taken time to learn about the Incas and explain to them who this unknown God really is. They could have told about the real Son, rather than the sun that was presently being worshiped. Unfortunately the thirst for gold and treasure was greater than the desire to spread the true Gospel, and rather than being redeemed, the culture was, for the most part, destroyed. Thankfully, the story here in Peru is not over. God is more powerful than any destructive acts of human beings. Please continue to pray for God's active work of redemption to continue here and around the world!
Hey everyone...I know that it has been more than one month since my last post, and the goal is not to let that happen again. Being one full month since my last post, I have quite a bit that I can write about. Rather than putting everything all into one long post, I think that I will write a number of short posts over the next week or two. Also, make sure to check out my new pictures from May and June.
I have now switched gears--from working in the schools in Lima to working with American and Scottish short term missions teams who come to support the street boys' ministry that we have here. I have enjoyed the switch and the change of pace, but it is quite busy here. I traveled with my first two teams to one of our boys' homes called Kusi. In the Quechua language that is indigenous to Peru's sierra, the word Kusi is used for three separate English words: (1) Contentment, (2) Happiness, and (3) Joy. The word Kusi also fits very well with the name of our street children program--"Girasoles" or "Sunflowers" in English. In Peruvian culture to label a boy with a name like sunflower has no girly connotation as it would back in the States. The reason the boys here and all over Peru are called Girasoles, we hope that they will turn from the darkness towards the Light, the Son of God just as a sunflower turns to follow the light of the sun as it moves across the sky throughout the day. Only when the kids turn towards the Son can they find true Kusi.
Over the past couple of years that I have had the chance to become familiar with the site of Kusi, and for me personally it has certaintly lived up to its name. I have been blessed with a great friendship of the house parents in Kusi, Angel and Rosa, the scenery is beautiful (at the base of the tallest mountain in Peru), and it is always a joy to work with the kids at the home as well as share the ministery with the different short term groups.
At the base of the mountain near Kusi
After my few weeks in Kusi, I headed straight down to Cusco where we have our newest Girasoles home. It opened just over a year ago in March 2008, and there are already 42 children living here. My job from now through August is to work as the site coordinator here in Cusco. It is up to me to host, translate, and figure out all of the logistics of transportation, lodging, food, and ministry for all of the short term teams. I will talk more about Cusco and the ministry here in later posts. I will leave you with this short video (sorry for the poor quality) of one of the new seven wonders of the world--Machu Picchu! While most of the work teams that come here to Cusco spend a tour day at Machu Picchu, I rarely accompany them. In the case of my first team in June, my friend Polly had planned on going with the group, but then decided that she wanted to meet up with a friend who lives in the city of Cusco during the groups Machu Picchu day. I was happy to take the ticket off of her hands, and enjoyed having a tour day with the work team!
Also, I wanted to leave you with a few prayer requests. As I have talked and emailed with many of you, I have been reminded over and over again that so many people are praying for me and the ministry here. Thanks so much. I continue to covet your prayers.
--Pray me as I adjust to the pace of hosting work teams. The job extends far beyond the regular 8 hours a day, 5 days a week time period. When there is a group here in Cusco, I am almost always on the clock. Pray that God would give me strength to be able to encourage the short-term teams in their ministry. I will be in Cusco full time until August 8, then I have a few week break when my mom, dad, brother, and sister are coming down to visit. And after they leave I have a pretty full schedule with work teams through the middle of October.
--Another difficulty that I have during work team season is that life is very much like a roller coaster. Just as I start to become accustomed to one group of people, they leave, and I start over again. I am very thankful for the other Scripture Union staff that live here in Cusco. They have become good friends quite quickly, and they are a welcomed constant here where life has so many changes.
--Pray for all of the work teams this summer. We are know into the middle of the season, and there are traveling within the country a whole lot. Pray for their health and safety. Pray for God to work in their lives--that they would not go home the same as when they arrived here. Pray also for their ministry be it medical, construction, or with the boys--that their hearts would be overflowing with God's love and that God would use their efforts to further His Kingdom!
Well this week instead of writing a new post, I have dedicated my spare time to writing a new newsletter, and posting pictures online. This post will be short; I just wanted to make you all aware of a few new additions to my blog.
1. I have now posted most of my pictures online. You can click here to view them, or you can use the link at the top of the page. Feel free to download any of the pictures and make comments!
2. I have also added links to download all of my past newsletters on the side bar below my blog post archives. You can click here to download my May 2009 newsletter. You will need some version of Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to properly view the files. Also, I send out these newsletters by email. If you are not on the list, and you would like to be, then just comment on this post with your email, or shoot me an email at bgreenman@latinamericamission.org.
3. You can now subscribe to this blog, and receive an email update whenever I make a new post. Just type your email address in the side bar and click on the subscribe button. You will receive instructions on how to complete the subscription process from there.
I hope these additions will make it even easier for me to communicate with all of you back home. Enjoy the warmer weather!
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!
So yes it has been more than a week since my birthday, but I have just now gotten around to downloading some of the pictures onto my computer. Anyways I have to start out by saying thanks to everyone who sent me emails, letters, candy, facebook messages, and phone calls on my birthday. It was a blessing and a great reminder of how many people that I have praying for me and thinking of me back home. Sometimes it is nice to know that I am not forgotten even though I am living so far away. I also have to give a special shout out to Tyler Tagami and Jon Bradbury for being the first two people to call me on my birthday...kind of. It was 11:00pm my time, but back in Michigan they were already celebrating! I guess they even had some sort of cake that evening.
My friends here were very gracious as well, and they made sure that I felt welcomed and cared for...even in the midst of a pretty busy day. After a nice brunch with my friend David to begin the day, we headed to the main offices of Scripture Union in Lima to begin setting up for a training session for SU volunteers in the schools. As I have already mentioned, I am currently working with the schools program down here which is centered around teaching Christian values and Biblical principles in schools all over the country. Most of the people who enter the classrooms are volunteers from a number of different local churches, and at the begining of each school year we host a training program for the volunteers who will be helping teach the classes. Thankfully the session went really well. We had two speakers--one who talked about the value of sharing the Bible with children and different strategies that we can use and another speaker who is a professional teacher who talked about the mechanics of organizing a lesson plan.
Training Volunteers to Work in Schools!
The training began around 4 in the afternoon and lasted until 9 in the evening, but the night was still young! After cleaning up from the training session, a bunch of the staff people and some of our volunteers invited me out to have Chifa (Peruvian Chinese food)...basically the only restaurant that you can find open until all hours of the night. It was great to spend time with old friends as well as to begin to make new friends. Thankfully I avoided the Peruvian tradition of having a raw egg smashed on top of my head to celebrate the day!
Birthday Chifa!
This coming week I will continue to work in the schools, but I also have the opportunity to work with Scripture Union and a local Presbyterian school to host a weekend retreat for juniors and seniors in high school. Please pray for the retreat that will be taking place this coming Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. It is a private Christian school, but many of the students are not Christian. I am excited to have the opportunity to work with them and share how much God loves them! Pray for the organization of the retreat in the days leading up to the weekend. The theme for the weekend is about making wise decisions.
Thank you all once again for your prayers as well as your birthday well wishes! As always, please let me know if there is anything that I pray for you about! Have a great last week of April!
In the past week or so I have been very busy. In addition to my work with Scripture Union in the schools my new church joined with a bunch of other churches all over the world for a week of "Servolution." The motivation behind the entire week was to intentionally do acts of kindness and to be able to show Christ's love to the people in Lima without looking for anything in return. I participated in two of the service projects that the church helped to organize last week. Saturday of last week was the kickoff, and nearly everyone in the church showed up to get involved. We spent about a half an hour in prayer and worship, and then it was out into the city...everyone wearing the same red shirts the read "It is a pleasure to serve you." Some groups walked around the streets and passed out bottles of water. Other people went into local hospitals dressed as clowns to visit the children. One group jumped on a local bus, paid every passengers fare and handed out newspapers to anyone who wanted one to read. We were all over the city!
The Congregation Before Leaving to Serve
On Saturday about 50 of us from the young adults group squeezed onto a minibus and left to paint a community center/public cafeteria in a more needy area of town. While one group of us painted, another group of girls offered manicures to the ladies in the community. We sanded and then painted the entire outside of the building in addition to many of the wooden tables and chairs on the inside of the building. Naturally, a group of 50 people all wearing the same bright red shirt attract a little bit of attention from passersby. The community mayor even came by and gave us all bright green visors to wear when he noticed that we were wearing homemade newspaper hats on our heads to keep the sun away. When people asked why we were there it was really neat to respond that we are doing all of this because we love Jesus and because we know that he loves you!
Painting in Our Newspaper Hats!
Then last Thursday a smaller group of about 20 of us got together to give food out to some of the children and the beggars living on the streets in the center of Lima. We spent the better part of the afternoon preparing sandwiches, buying bottles of juice, and assembling all of the meal packs. We then all headed over into the main square of Lima--again with our bright red shirts--and walked the streets handing out the food in Christ's name!
Handing Out Dinner
We closed the week on Good Friday with a big praise and worship concert to celebrate what God had done through the congregation over the past week. On a side note, though, I do have to say that Easter here is very different than it is in the states. Yes, it is a holiday. Many people did not have to work on Thursday or Friday of the week, but most of the protestant churches do very little to celebrate Christ's resurrection on Easter. The local catholic churches do make a huge deal about Holy Week, but their focus is almost exclusively on Christ's death. For instance, many of the country's stores and restaurants are closed on Good Friday but open on Easter Sunday. I was glad to call my family on Sunday to be able to say "CHRIST IS RISEN. HE IS RISEN INDEED!"
Apart from the church activities, I was invited to a friends 18th birthday party this past Saturday. It was a great time, but there was one noticeable difference between Peruvian culture and the USA. The party was supposed to start at 8pm. I happened to spend the entire day with my friend and his family, so I was ready to leave with them before 8:00 so that the guest of honor would be there in time to greet everyone. Well 8:30 rolled around, and we had still not left their house. We finally walked over to the church where the party was at around 9:00, and of course, no one was there yet. People started to arrive around 9:30, and we actually started the party at 10:00pm or so. This is common practice in Peru for any type of party or social event--even weddings usually get started 2 or more hours after the time on the invitation! We had a great time at the party...I even won in a game of reverse charades (the whole team acted while I had to guess).
Winning in Charades!
To leave you with a few points of prayer...
--First, praise God for the week of Servolution and for literally the thousands of lives that were touched by my church and many other churches.
--Pray for the work teams that will begin coming down in May. Pray that God would use each team as his hands and feet in Peru and that the ministry that they come to do would bring people closer to the kingdom of God
--Pray for our work in the schools--specifically that God would raise up volunteers to continue to grow the ministry. This Friday afternoon we are holding a training for all of the volunteers to help them understand how to manage a classroom of students and how to effectively reach the children.
Thanks so much for all of your prayers. As usual, please let me know if there is any way that I can pray for you.
So I have heard from a number of people that they are anxiously awaiting another blog entry...mostly my parents, but a few other people as well! Quite a bit has happened since my last post.
First, I have to say thanks to everyone who has been praying for me faithfully--specifically in regards to my concern over finding an apartment. I bought a Sunday copy of the newspaper, and I shopped around. Being new to Lima, it was somewhat stressful to find my way around the city to look at different apartments and trying to negotiate a price with the owners. After my first day of searching, I thought that I had found a suitable place. It was a little bit bigger than I needed (2 bedrooms), but the price was very good...at least I thought. When I came back the next day to sign the contract, however, the owner included a bunch of extra fees that she had not talked about the day before. So, it was back to the drawing board. I spent one more full day looking all over for another place to live, but I had little luck. Eventually I ran out of contacts to call from the classified ads, so I resorted to just knocking on doors of apartment buildings and asking if there was anything available for rent. Needless to say that accomplished very little. I was about ready to call it a day and head back to Paul and Marty's house, when I realized that I had one more landlord's contact information in my pocket. Praise God, the apartment was exactly what I was looking for. There is not much to the apartment itself, but it has everything that I will need. It is in a secure location in a part of the city that I am already quite familiar with, it came pre-furnished--even dishes and pans included--and they are letting me rent the place on a month to month basis without signing any long term contracts. I have been living here for about a week now, and having a place to call my own is a huge blessing. Praise God that his hand was in this long before I even started looking.
Another big praise is that I think I have found a church that I can plug into. It is a fairly large congregation, but coming from Ward Church in Michigan, a large congregation is what I am used to. I went this weekend with a friend who works in the schools program with me at Scripture Union. I really do desire to make friends and fellowship with other believers during my time here, and before my first day there was over I had already been invited to participate in a service project taking place next week. The youth/young adult group that I attended was also very encouraging. There were probably about 300-400 people there between the ages of 17 and 30. I am excited to go back next week and to begin to learn more about the specific beliefs and doctrines that they hold. God is so good, and I know that he is answering prayer.
The work here is going well too. As I mentioned, I am working in the schools right now in Lima. Peru's school year just began in March, so right now our work involves a lot of administration and organization. Before we actually enter the classrooms, we have to visit each different school and talk with the director to coordinate what hours and what classrooms we will be entering. I am feeling a little bit restless because I really want to get in and do ministry with the kids, but this has been a good time to get to know the people on staff. Traveling to all of the different schools in a relatively short period of time also means that I am rapidly learning my way around the city. There are approximately 9 million people living in this city, and it is roughly 2,900 square miles (slightly less than the state of Rhode Island). I welcome any chance to learn how to navigate through the streets.
In other news, I did have a chance for some fun on Sunday evening. I attended my first big Peruvian soccer game! It was a world cup qualifying game between Peru and Chile. Tensions were high, and the police were out in full force, but for the most part my friends and I had a good time. Sadly, Peru lost the game 3-1. I have posted a few pictures below.
Hanging Out Before the Game
Johnny and I at the Game
Fútbol!
Underneath the Peruvian Flag
At the Game
Well, if you made it this far down this long blog post, then you must really have an interest in my life, or care about the ministry here with Scripture Union. I will leave you with a few prayer requests.
--Pray for me as it is slowly sinking in that I am here for a long term. As you have read in my blog, things are going really well, but there is naturally at least a little bit of homesickness that comes with living so far away. Sometimes it is difficult to know that I can't just call up friends back in the States to hang out for an evening, or see family as often as I have become accustomed to.
--Pray for the process of changing from a tourist visa to a resident visa. So far everything is going very smoothly. I went to Interpol this morning to get fingerprinted and to establish a dental record. Now we are at the point where all of the necessary paperwork has been filled out and turned in, but everything has to move through all of the proper channels within the Peruvian government as well as through the FBI back home. If everything goes as planned, then I should have my resident alien card within the next 30 or 40 days.
--Pray for Scripture Union--specifically in Lima. They have decided to sell the land that the offices and boys' home is currently sitting on in downtown Lima and relocate. Pray that God would provide all of the parties involved with wisdom as they begin to plan the relocation process. Pray that God would provide a great environment for the new boys' home to be located, and pray that a good location will be found for the main offices.
Thanks you so much for all of your prayers. Please let me know if there is ever anything in your life that I can pray for! I will try to get back into the habit of blogging at least once a week.
Well, I am four days into my three year term in Peru. I have said this many times, but it just has not completely sunk in yet that I am here to stay. I have been down here so many times that this trip feels rather temporary at the moment. I am glad to be here though. Right now I am staying at the home of Paul and Marty Clark. Paul is the director of Scripture Union Peru, and they are both very kind and very hospitable people. I hope to soon move into an apartment on my own, but they have offered me a room to stay in during this transition time until I find an apartment where I can get settled.
One challenge of living with Paul and Marty is that they live relatively far away from the center of Lima where the Scripture Union offices and the street boys' center is located. This has forced me to become acquainted very quickly with Lima's public transportation system. Unless you have been to Peru before, I don't think I could explain it to you. The best way that I can think to describe it is if you were to take a city the size of New York, and replace each taxi with a very old 15-20 passenger van/minibus. Each minibus has the name of a destination painted on its outside, and from there you just have to figure it out. Oh, and during rush hour there are easily 25-30 people on the same vehicle with you. Anyways, it takes a little bit of getting used to, but I have good friends who have helped me out, and I have made it all of the way back to the house on my own the last two nights!
Hopefully within this next week I will have found an apartment in a more central location, and I will be able to have a little bit more independence. I looked at a couple of places today, but the first was more apartment than I need (3+ bedrooms), and the second was a room within a family's home. Living there would mean sharing a bathroom with an entire family and possibly sharing a bedroom with one of the sons who lives there. At this point I think I am looking for a little bit more independence. I think I will keep looking...supposedly all of the classifieds and apartment listings all come out tomorrow in the Sunday newspaper. Please pray that all of that works out smoothly.
Lastly, I now have an idea of what the next two months are going to look like for me. As you may have guessed, I will be living in Lima and working with Scripture Union's school program. There are four full-time staff people working with Scripture Union in Lima's school system, and the enter classrooms on a weekly basis to teach the kids family values and Christian principles. I am excited to start partnering with the school workers, and I will enter my first classroom with them starting on Monday.
Whew...this post is already getting quite long, so I think that I will stop there for now. Look forward to stories of the schools and maybe some more pictures in my upcoming posts!
Well I officially take flight in about 12 hours. I will be flying from Detroit, to Atlanta, and then to Lima, Peru! I have been waiting for this for a long time, and I am incredibly excited to head down and partner with my brothers and sisters down there. I have said so many times how much I love the ministry, and I am confident that God is going to continue to use Scripture Union's many programs to build his kingdom.
In the weeks leading up to today I have been through many different emotions. I have felt excitement about finally being able to take the next step in faith and to follow God where he leads. But I have also felt quite drained and sad to have to say goodbyes to so many friends and family. I just want to thank everyone who has supported, encouraged, and prayed for me over the last few months. I know that it is all of your prayers that have sustained me through this whole range of emotions that I am feeling.
The best picture of all of the encouragement that I have received was my goodbye party this past Sunday afternoon. We sent out invitations less than a week in advance, but in the end I wouldn't be surprised if more than 125 people were there. The entire party was quite overwhelming for me--talking to so many people, catching up with friends, and saying lots of goodbyes--but what a beautiful picture of the body of Christ! I said it over and over again on Sunday, but thanks so much to everyone who participated. Thanks also to my mom's entire small group. With their combined efforts, we had a plethora of desserts to feed all of the guests, the Sunday night youth group at Ward, and then some...and they were delicious!
As I prepare to leave tomorrow, I envy all of your prayers. Please pray for safety as I fly, and for much needed time to just sit back and relax on the plane. Most of all--pray that God would continue to direct my path. I look forward to writing more from Lima!
So as I have been networking with other friends in the world of missions and support raising, I came across a really neat tool. There is a company that makes customized toolbars for people who are trying to raise funds. Anyone who wants to can download my toolbar and install it on either Firefox or Explorer. There is a search feature built into the toolbar, and every time that someone uses it to make a search and clicks on one of the sponsored links, 10 cents is donated to my missionary account. Just one person on the computer making three or four searches each day translates into about $10 each month. It doesn't cost the user anything. No pressure, but I have posted the link below if anyone is interested in supporting me in this way.
Yesterday my church officially commissioned me to go to Peru. I have said many times that I am so blessed to grow up at Ward Church, and it was very encouraging to be able to receive the church's blessing as I prepare to go down to Peru. It was a nice service. I was given an opportunity to show a video, speak to the congregation, and be prayed for in the company of friends and family. I have purchased plane tickets, and I leave in only 9 days--March 18! After the service, my grandma and grandpa has us all over at their house for a family dinner. I feel so blessed to be surrounded and supported by my family during this last week and a half.
In case any of you missed the video we showed during my commissioning service, here it is (special thanks to Mike Khoe for helping me put it all together!):
Well, I think this blog entry is going to be rather short, but here it goes! I am currently writing from New York City where I am on a family vacation! It our last vacation together as a family before I head off to Peru. Hopefully they will be able to visit me sometime in August, but here in the States this is it. Yesterday I had a chance to meet up with some friends from IWU who are spring breaking right now, and today I will get to see a friend of mine from Costa Rica. So far New York is great...I will do my best to post pictures as soon as I get home. I do not know the city very well, so if anyone who does know NYC wants to comment and make some suggestions of good places or tours or whatever, feel free.
[Update 3/9/09] Here are some pictures from NYC:
WITH FRIENDS FROM IWU
OVER THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE
WITH NATALIE FROM MY PROGRAM IN COSTA RICA
WITH MY FAMILY IN THE FINANCIAL DISTRICT
BLUE MAN GROUP WAS AWESOME!
On a completely unrelated matter, I got a new phone number last week that I will be using in Peru. Thanks to the internet and technology I will be able to make and receive calls to the USA and Canada for free! You will also be able to call me for the same price that it would cost to call my house in Livonia. The number is 248-677-5252. I won't use it much until I get down to Peru, but feel free to try it out and leave me a voicemail.
Well, I don't want to spend a long time on the computer while on vacation with the family, so that's all for today. More to come soon...
The past few weeks have been very, very busy. I am officially leaving for Peru in mid March, so I have had to kick everything into high gear. I have finally finished my job as a manager at Baja Fresh. I have worked on and off at Baja since high school, and they treated me really well. It definitely helped me keep up on my Spanish skills during my time in the states, but I just am not cut out to be a restaurant manager the rest of my life! I had to laugh when I pulled out an old personality test from sophomore year at IWU. It gave me some recommendations for different career choices in the future--restaurant manager was rated as the second worst career for my personality type. I have to agree. In case anyone is wondering, the worst career for me, according to this test, was fashion designer :-)
The rest of the month of February into early March is filled with traveling around the US, and beginning the goodbye process. During the first week of February I traveled back down to IWU for the final time. Many of my friends are still studying there, and it was a good chance to spend one last weekend living on campus.
I had a chance last week to make it to California for the first time in my life. I went to visit my friend Paul, who I met in Costa Rica during my study abroad semester in college. Aside from rainy weather almost every day, I really enjoyed my time to reconnect with an old friend. Paul and his friends were great tour guides. I got to see many different parts of the Bay Area! One of the only times that we had good weather was during our walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. What a beautiful place! Here are some pictures...
From San Francisco, I headed down to Miami for a really quick day and a half trip. The Latin America Mission (the missions agency that is sending me to Peru) is based out of Miami. I had to finish up some paperwork before being deployed to Peru, but my trip ended up coinciding with the Miami office's day of prayer. It was such a blessing to reconnect with the office staff and to spend the day in God's word and praying for each other. I had the chance to say goodbye to the old president of the LAM and to meet the new president. It was a quick, but refreshing trip.
That brings us to my current location! I flew from Miami to Nashville on Thursday to visit two different groups of friends. I spent Thursday and Friday visiting some friends from home who are studying at Belmont, and this weekend I am visiting a church that I first connected with over the summer in Peru. Everyone on this trip has been incredibly hospitable, and I have really enjoyed my time. Last night I had to opportunity to see everyone from the work team that I hosted over the summer. After dinner some of us went down and showed me around downtown Nashville. Let me tell you...if you have never been to Nashville, it is quite an interesting place to check out!
Over the next couple of weeks, I am still going to Canada to visit friends and family, and then we are taking a family vacation to New York City. I will post pictures and give a further update in the days to come!
Well, I have finally gotten around to putting together my blog. Most of you know that I am very close to leaving to work with Scripture Union in Peru for the coming three years. This blog will be an informal place for me to record different experiences, thoughts, and events in my life. I will do my best to write an update at least once per week, but you may need to have some grace with me as I develop this new blogging habit. I also hope to post pictures of people and places that I meet. Hopefully you will enjoy!
