I'm Back!

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!

Additions to My Blog

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!

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.

My Birthday -- Training and Chifa!

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!

Servolution

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.