I LIKE MY TEAM...

and it´s getting bigger by the minute!

So. Update. Tonight at 8, the guys (Sam, Daniel, and Kyle) arrive to join the craziness that is ministry in Yungay for two weeks. Tomorrow at some point por la tarde, our friends Christie, Alexis, and Estephanie (translator extraordinnaire) drive up from Huaraz to join the work, too, for the remainder of the summer! So. Our team is tripling in size in 24 hours. CRAZY, right??

Here is just some of the stuff God is doing through the increase in size of our team:
With the sizes of our classes here in Yungay, we need help being intentional and one-on-one with the kids! More help! Hooray!
One group is going to split off and start teaching English classes in Mancos - a town about 15 minutes away from Yungay.
Pastor Joel is taking the guys with him to do ministry that he couldn´t do with just us girls.
More of us means typically means more attraction for the church here - and as superficial as that sounds, it´s true that gringos get a LOT of attention here. God will definitely continue to draw people when we leave, but what an encouragement we get to be while we´re here!
AAANNDDD there are tons of people in this town we haven´t gotten to know yet! More people, more coverage of area, more chances for reaching out!

So, your prayers are needed more than ever! Pray for UNITY! Pray for PURPOSE! Pray for INTENTIONALITY! Pray that our God would be glorified through His Work here this summer!

slow internet, a bit of sickness, and the blessing of God

yep. ok, here´s the run down from my last post because my time in this precious internet café is running short!

Sunday - amazing church service! Got to help Hilda teach Sunday school (and for the record, boys are the same in every culture. geez louise. can´t sit still or be quiet for anything.) AND saw the fruit of some of our work - several people we´ve contacted were at church for the FIRST TIME EVER or for the first time in a LONG time! and several of our kids from class came! including Shayle and Jorge. (Jorge even brought his little cousin! so cute) After service, we had lunch (to break our fast) and rested before the PM service. After the PM service, we went to visit little Juan Luis, a five-year-old in Yungay who was hit by a car a few weeks ago and has a broken leg and an aluminum plate in his head after two brain surgeries. such high spirits! he showed me what he was learning in his take-home lessons from school while Pastor Joel and Hilda talked with his family. His father said that he cannot see the hand of God anywhere in this situation and has been really discouraged (obviously), but we took some time to pray and encourage his family... keep praying for open hearts and healing for Juan Luis!

Monday - rest day. good time for refreshing, cleaning the bathroom, washing clothes by hand, etc. etc.

Tuesday - taught class to about 25 kids - most of them NEW! AARRGGHHH. i felt so unorganized - not a happy feeling for me. but God is faithful! After class, Krista was not feeling well, so we went back to the hotel... and both of us got sick. yuck. no fun. therefore...

Wednesday - slept. all day. quite literally. i´m pretty sure i slept 20 hours yesterday. and was still tired. yuck. yuck. yuck.

Thursday (TODAY!) - oh the faithfulness of God! Felt SO much better this morning (both Krista and me!) and got ready for our class. Two girls arrived 45 MINUTES EARLY - which never happens in Peruvian culture. We reinforced what we taught Tuesday since it was so ridiculously unorganized, and taught the Bible story about Noah and God´s provision for him and his family because of Noah´s faithfulness to walk with God - something the kids had never heard before. SO COOL! Shayle and Jorge and Lourdes and Yadira and all their friends were there and paying such close attention! It was fabulous. Played pictionary at the end of the class and then got the customary kisses as kids left. Oh, how I love this place.

So. Now for prayer requests.
Continue praying for the kids here!! We have definitely seen fruit from your prayers and it has been amazing watching God´s faithfulness in drawing them to Himself... it´s the most incredible feeling to SEE people here and have them recognize us (of course, the only fair-skinned people around, but whatever) and stop in the middle of the street to have conversations! SO keep praying!
Pray also that we will be intentional about building more relationships with shop owners that we frequent - especially intentional relationships for the Gospel as many people we see every day don´t have a relationship with the God of the universe...
This Saturday-Sunday, we have four teammates coming to join us! Sam, Daniel, Kyle, and their translator are coming to Yungay since their plans for the rest of the summer doing research haven´t panned out. Of course, we know that man may plan his life, but the Lord determines his steps, so He has got a GREAT purpose in their coming! (especially considering the number of kids we´ve had in classes lately! we need the help!) so pray for safety in travel, unity as a team, and God´s continual guidance in His Will here in Yungay. (BTW - these teammates are GUYS, in case you didn´t notice. Tough transition for us girls here, but SUCH A BLESSING for Pastor Joel, as he is the ONLY guy in our group as of now! So. yeah.)

Thank you so much for your prayers! Keep em coming!

Other random sidenotes -
1. Peruvian fireworks are terrifying. Day and night. EXPLOSIONS. For no apparent reason. People here also get really excited about Father´s Day and play music all night long. Not kidding.
2. Barney made an appearance here today as a part of a political campaign. Yes.
3. Just finished Irrisistible Revolution - highly recommended read for all, second to the Bible, I think, if you need something to read this summer. :)
4. About to start reading Passion and Purity in Spanish. pretty pumped.

BYE for now! Besos!

this is truly an adventure...

so. I was beginning to doubt the title of my blog until, like, yesterday.

Since my last post, Caitlyn got un poquito peor (a little worse) and, after discussing with her mom and our field supervisor, decided to board a flight back to the US on Friday. CAITLYN, WE MISS YOU LIKE CRAZY!! SINGING JUSTIN BEIBER AND TALKING ABOUT STEVEN COLBER IS NOT THE SAME WITHOUT YOU. But before she left, Wednesday we met a girl from CHICAGO here on a life-break, backpacking through Central and South America and stuck in Yungay for the day - so cool to be able to encourage her in English! Also gave our bread to a man who then proceeded to ask for my Coke. Smart man. Thursday we taught our second class (and Caitlyn got to come!) and we taught numbers, the alphabet, and creation. Class went so incredibly well, and we had even more kids than Tuesday!``Passing the voice'`as they say here works pretty well! After class, we loaded an overloaded bus (as all of them are) with several other Peruvian missionaries from a church in Lima to go to a Christian Ministry-Missionary Training Conference thing in Tarica (about an hour ride from Yungay). But first, because there´s no such thing as a quick trip anywhere here, we stopped by the orfanato in Ongo to meet the boys that all of these missionaries have been praying for. Incredible place where these boys learn about the Lord and really find family... Finally got to Tarica, had spaghetti for dinner (yum!), and went to bed on probably some of the most awkward bunkbeds ever - impossible to get onto the top bunk without waking EVERYONE ELSE up - and were serenaded by a choir of sweet missionary women`s snoring all night. How fabulous is that. Friday morning, woke up at 5 to take Caitlyn to the mini airport in Anta (and met two guys from SWEDEN! Caleb, you would totally fit right in. No beard-mustache craziness. Just intense cheekbones and skinny jeans.) Watched the sunrise over Huascaran...probably the most beautiful thing EVER. The stinkin mountain changes colors. It´s really too incredible for words. Or pictures for that matter, considering I didn`t take any. :S Anyway, then finally made it back to the conference center in time for breakfast and the first session. We sang There Is Power in the Blood and I cried. Sigh. Then we listened to some speakers encouraging these missionaries (in Spanish - I could have caught more had I had more than 5 hours of sleep) and met Veronica and Simon from Mexico and Australia respectively - and THEY SPOKE ENGLISH! PRAISE THE LORD! Accent and all, it was such a needed break! Saw someone carrying a TESCO bag and immediately missed London and one pound pasta! After lunch, I took possibly the best three-hour nap I´ve ever had, and then we left for Mancos for our Friday night Bible study and then came back to Yungay. The most adventurous part of this story was the BUS RIDE BACK. First of all, buses here will cram as many people in as possible, which means lots of people are standing as the bus tries to dodge as many potholes as possible (which ends up being not as many as you would hope). Second of all, Krista and I got to sit in the FRONT. Which means that we got to see EVERYTHING - passing another car going around a curve in the mountain, almost hitting people and animals all along the way, etc. etc. And THEN, it starts raining. WHICH NEVER HAPPENS HERE. So amidst wondering if there´s another car comin´ round the mountain, we´re also stressing about hydroplaning off the side of the mountain and keeping the windshield free from fogginess so that the bus driver can see. AARRRGGGHHH. Adventure, right? Right.

TODAY. I have no idea where even to begin. We had planned back at the beginning of the summer to tour the biggest mountain in Peru which is conveniently located right outside of Yungay - Huascaran - along with the groups in Huaraz and Recuay. However, last night, one of the girls in Huaraz fainted twice, and the team took her to the hosital there where she was told that she has a stomach infection and had to stay overnight. So needless to say, Huaraz didn´t join us for Huascaran today. BUT, this morning, we got up early, packed peanut butter sandwiches and chips and fruit and oreos for lunch, and went to teach our class before touring the mountain with Recuay. (more on class to come) Huascaran was beautiful. Rainy, misty, very English Lake District -esque. Except ten times more intense. Got some great pictures and had some good times feeling like we were going to ride off the mountain with Recuay team. Had a translator-guide from Belgium who was a nanny in London for a while (neat to talk with her!) and spent five hours riding up the mountain to Lake Llanganuco (most beautiful teal green glacier lake EVER) and hiked back down. (Yes, we´re pansies for hiking DOWN, but trust me. That was tough enough.)

So back to class this morning... The English class itself went pretty well - we only had five students show up, but we were basically just reviewing from the week anyway, so it was good! Then, after playing BINGO, one of the boys won and his prize was a mini Evangecube. Noemi explains to the kids in Spanish what the cube means, and then asks if anyone would like to accept Christ. and THEY ALL DO. So we sit down in a circle and Noemi leads them in a prayer to receive Christ and be saved.
Oh, how awkward this makes me feel. Garaywa has taught me, NEVER EVER EVER lead kids in a group prayer to accept Christ. Kids WILL NOT TELL YOU NO if you ask them a yes or no question. They want to please you. They want to follow their friends. Aargh. Well, I kept a happy face on and encouraged the kids as much as I could, and we invited them back to church tomorrow to talk more about the decision they had made. Sigh. Stinkin language barrier. And then, the more I thought about it, the more God reminded me that DISCIPLESHIP is really the point. That one-time commitments just don´t cut it. That whether or not these kids´ decisions today were real or not, the point is not conversions. It´s discipleship. We are called to go and make disciples. So that´s what we´re going to do. It is most definitely not my place to judge whether or not these decisions were real. My Father knows these kids´ hearts. It is my job, however, to teach them to observe everything He has commanded us. To show them what it means to be a Christ-follower. To be His disciple.

So, prayer requests for this week. Shoyle. Lourdes. Jorge. Jesús. (and for the life of me, I cannot remember Jesús`s big brother`s name, but remember him too!) Pray that these kids will remain faithful to coming to classes to learn more about following Christ. Pray that they will truly FOLLOW Him and not simply find ``fire insurance'' in repeating a prayer. Pray that they would seek Him with all of their hearts. And continue to pray that God would draw more kids to the classes to hear the Gospel - that although we are hopeless sinners, the God of the universe desires relationship with us for His own glory and sent His Son to reconcile us to Him. Pray for encouragement for our teams all over Peru this summer - that sickness would NOT prevent ministry. And that God would get the glory over all.

Our God is so big, so strong and so mighty, there´s nothing our God cannot do.

GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS.

Oh. My. Goodness.

I can´t even explain to you all how good God is. Él es tan bueno. First of all, Noemi and I went with Tommy to Caraz again today to check up on some plans for future work in schools there, and the director of the school was TOTALLY open to a group from NC coming in to share the Gospel with life values and True Love Waits with the kids there. AND as we were walking in, three adorable 11 or 12 year old girls ran up to me and said HOLA! and were grinning ear to ear as I talked with them in Spanish. SO INCREDIBLE. Then, when we got back to Yungay, we took Caitlyn to the hospital here - she got a drip and a couple of shots to make her stomach better, and tonight now that she´s back at the hotel, she´s the old Caitlyn again!!! SUCH A BLSSING! AAANNNNNDDDD as if that weren´t enough, class today was indescribably amazing. We had probably 20 students, over half of which are not involved with the church. We taught greetings and farewells, played BINGO, acted CRAZY, and got to share the reason why we´re here - to share about our Lord and how good He is. As we taught these students how to introduce themselves in English, we also taught them how they can be introduced to their heavenly Father through His Word - written especially for them. SO COOL. We´re going to teach them John 3:16 in English little by little in hopes that they will not only learn this language, but also they will learn of their Father´s love. And they GOT IT. Several kids are even more advanced than we expected, so we´re starting an intermediate class on Fridays! GOD IS SO GOOD.

So. Obviously, prayers have been answered. Thank you. More than words can say.

El Dios es tan grande, tan fuerte y poderoso, no hay nada que no pueda hacer!
Los montes (como estos en Yungay) son Suyos, los rios son Suyos, las estrellas (en el cielo ahora) son Suyas también. El Dios es tan grande, tan fuerte y poderoso, no hay nada que no pueda hacer. WOOT WOOT!

Mañana

TOMORROW!

We start teaching our first English class TOMORROW at 4 p.m. So prayers are MUCHO appreciated.

In other news, prayer is also muchly appreciated for my teammate Caitlyn. Ella no se siente bien. She´s got the nastiness probably from changing from American water and food to Peruvian water and food. She´s on antibiotics but still has a fever and just feels gross and on top of it all wants to go home (who wouldn´t?) so I know she would appreciate your prayers and our team definitely wants her here with us! Noemi and Hilda have been wonderful with their encouragement - it´s amazing to see these incredible Peruvian women share their hearts about God´s plan for this summer.

Sunday we had church at Joel and Hilda´s - at the Biblical Baptist Church here in Yungay, and it was incredible to have a group of believers (mostly chicos from the orphanage) come and pray and sing together - without lights, without music, without distractions (minus a little wiggling from the 8-year-old in front of me) - making a joyful noise to the Lord. Incredible. Pastor Joel spoke about what it means to be a good father - and to see his encouragement to these young boys - absolutely wonderful. We had lunch with Joel and Hilda and came back to the hotel to rest and then back for church last night with lots of singing (including Because He Lives, or Porque Él Vive as we sing here) and Pastor Joel speaking about SIN and its gravity... so convicting especially with what God´s been teaching me in my own life about self-centeredness...

And today we have been preparing for teaching tomorrow and trying to get Caitlyn better! So pray, friends! Pray pray pray. Pray that God would draw children (and young people and adults) who are ready and willing to learn - not just English, but His Gospel. Pray that God would break down barriers. Pray that nothing would stop His message this summer.

Peruvian tidbits of the day -
the garbage truck here plays mariachi music really loudly every morning as it drives around to pick up trash to ensure that people hear it and bring out their garbage. really loud fun dance music. every morning. i absolutely LOVE this place.
Political campaigns here are out of this world. Music, dancing, parades of taxis with flags, people passing out bread in the market... it´s great. Weddings are very similar, actually. Lots of music and flower-throwing and the most terrifying fireworks that you´ve ever seen. During the day, no less. Pointless if you ask me, but hey! Qué será, será.
Lomo saltado is yummy.
The end.

Ok, friends! Mañana is the day. Pray! Love you all!!

No te preocupes...

No te preocupes. No te preocupes. DON´T WORRY. That´s one phrase I´ve gotten "down pat" this week.

YUNGAY is possibly my new favorite place in the world. Every picture I´ve ever seen from friends´ mission trips to Asia or Africa - yeah, it´s all here. From freshly plucked chickens hanging by their necks and whole skinned pigs in the market (complete with stray dogs meandering around, hoping someone will drop something) to the most adorable kids and the most colorfully-dressed women EVER - it´s all here in Yungay. A small-ish town with probably more stray dogs than people, Yungay is home to more kids than I´ve seen in my whole time in Peru - which just reminds me of God´s faithfulness... We´re staying in a super nice hotel (relatively, with HOT WATER that we just figured out how to use today) complete with a wonderful next-door neighbor, Mr. Gallo, the rooster whose biological clock is a bit off - he starts his singing at 1 a.m. admist the growls and barks of the almost constant dog fights at night. Yeah. It´s one crazy place.

But the reason why I love Yungay so much is because of the PEOPLE here. Pastor Joel and Hilda. I have no words. They are the most hospitable people I´ve ever met. Yesterday Hilda made us breakfast (tortilla de huevos y hot dog. really good believe it or not) and then we went shopping for lunch, which she taught us how to make (aji de gallina - best peruvian dish EVER) and after spending 7 hours at their house, we came back to the hotelto do some laundry - BY HAND, mind you - and then went BACK to Joel and Hilda´s for prayer meeting in the church that meets in their living-dining room. Yeah. AMAZING.

These people have invested in my life more these past two days than any other person in my life, with the exception of my parents. Hilda has told us stories of her growing up and has encouraged us to WAIT, WAIT on the Lord. Joel has made us laugh and has thanked us with his crazy big smile just for being here and serving the Lord with them. Claro, claro. Está bien. Está bien.

And still, it has not been easy. Four girls living together in a hotel room all summer is prime time for some HILARIOUS conversations and great new jokes, but there´s also a lot of opinion, a lot of attitude, and a lot of selfishness - just on MY part. In reading through Matthew, the Holy Spirit has brought to my attention so much self-centeredness in my heart, and for some reason it is so difficult to turn that over to God, to beg Him to give me a clean heart. I have so much pride rooted deep in me...and as much as I want to be RID of it, it´s like Christian spoke about with his cancer - the chemo for sin is pretty painful. As David writes in Psalm 51, I pray that God would create a clean heart in me, restore to me the joy of His salvation, renew my spirit, and make me willing so that I may be able to teach the beautiful children here about the love of Christ that changes our lives for the glory of God - the only One who deserves it... And there´s so much more that I´m struggling with... the temptation to stereotype people and not truly see them for who they are (or who they could be) in Christ... The language barrier is so much more than not being able to communicate - it´s the whole idea of what a person who speaks a certain language should be like... And I never realized it until I came here...

SO there´s a lot on my mind, and my thirty minutes of internet time is up, so I must go for now, but know that I am so thankful for your prayers. After reading Ogles´s last two posts (and crying just a little) I´m reminded of just how important your prayers are - for the salvation of the people here (which that in itself is more important than words could say!) and also for my own heart - for my ability to TRUST GOD, to WAIT, to remember as Hilda reminded us today that I should not be afraid because the Lord my God goes before me.... I need not be afraid. So continue to pray, as I know you have been faithful so far! God is good. God is HERE! And our God is greater than any prejudice or fear I have...

Tomorrow we go to Carhuaz early for some logistic work with a fellow missionary from Huaraz and then when we get back to Yungay we´re going to advertise our English classes at some schools here. Lots of parents have already been asking about us crazy American girls. Here´s what the schedule looks like tentatively for the rest of the summer:
SUNDAY - church all day with Joel and Hilda - every third Sunday we fast for Yungay and for the country of Peru from morning until 3 p.m. - feel free to join us! :)
MONDAY - morning to prepare spiritually and to teach English - evening Bible study in a neighboring village a few minutes´ walk away
TUESDAY - morning for more preparation - English class for children at 4 p.m.
WEDNESDAY - morning prep (again) - MARKET FAIR DAY - prayer meeting at 6 p.m.
THURSDAY - prep - class at 4 p.m.
FRIDAY - prep - Bible study 45 minutes away walking in the evening
SATURDAY - class at 10 a.m. - MARKET FAIR DAY (I think... can´t remember!)
There´s so much here that is unplanned and casual. Meals take two to three hours to prepare and at least an hour to eat. So lots of eating and cooking. Which is fun! haha! So much more to say, so little time. More later!

Know that your prayers mean so much more than you know! Love you all!!!

Saved by translation...

Yesterday, our group took the thirty minute walk to REAP North´s translator ministry for some English conversation and a cookout. Reminded me SO MUCH of CONNECT! Once we arrived at the ESL school, we were led into a room where probably thirty or more Peruvians waited to talk with us native speakers - Southern accents and all. I sat down with Giovana and Mac - a 21-year-old education major and a 17-year-old environmental engineering major and we immediately hit it off. One of Giovana´s first questions was "Are you a Christian?" and when I responded YES, she said, "Great - me too and I have a few questions. See, I have a group of disciples that meet with me every week in the park to study the Bible and one of them is a homosexual. What do I say?" ...wow... She and Mac and I spent the next several minutes reading through some passages in Romans and James and talked about our purpose as Christians in this culture. Both had become Christians thanks to faithful believers who sought them out just to study the Word together. And now Giovanna is fasting for 15 days, just because of her passion for Peruvian young people to come to Christ.

How often do we take the initiative in the States to study the Word of God together with believers and "seekers" alike? One of my teammates for the summer is HERE in Peru thanks to the faithful guidance of a girl who plopped down to eat pizza with her on her first day of college and led her to a closer relationship to Christ. Why is this not something that I do day in and day out? And how often will we deny ourselves of the riches of this world to pray that God would draw people to Himself?? WHY NOT?!

The past few days we have also learned a TON more about what we´ll be doing this summer, and I get more and more excited moment by moment. Our basic goal in Yungay is to support the church there through whatever means we can. We´ve been "trained" in teaching ESL, we have studied important stories from Scripture, and we´ve been challenged simply to GO wherever the Spirit leads. Ok. This is kind of difficult for me, this taking initiative with not so much guidance. So here´s a BIG prayer request - that we will be INTENTIONAL in going out and building relationships with the beautiful people of Yungay... that God will lead us to "people of peace," people with a little more than just basic English skills (for the sake of our communication even though we know that God is sovereign over the language barrier and our Spanish is gettng better bit by bit)... that we will finish the task that God has called us to - the task of sharing His Gospel.

Your prayers really are what get us through the days here! In reading through the New Testament this summer, Matthew 9:35-39 keeps popping out (hooray, Garaywa girls!) and God as shown me that Jesus didn´t ask His disciples to pray for the harrassed and helpless people specifically but rather He told them to pray that God would send out WORKERS - essentially to pray for themselves. PRAY for those who are working in the fields day in and day out... and those fields don´t just include the Andes or the Amazonas - those fields are the offices and workplaces you enter everyday. They are the schools full of children who need guidance and love. They are the grocery stores and shopping malls full of people trying to satisfy themselves.

SO GO and make disciples of all nations.

Pray for Peruvian believers. Pray for believers in the US. Pray that we will all live up to the calling we receive.

Heading out tomorrow for YUNGAY! Eight hour bus ride on the top level of a double-decker bus through the mountains (thankfully it´s a pretty big road we´ll be driving on!) to Huaraz, night in a hostel there, grocery shopping and meeting Yungay on Tuesday!

Love y'all! Hope to update more soon!

Lima Peru is GREAT... Chinese food here... not so much.

Well, folks. I am here. And I absolutely LOVE this city. I´m not even sure where to begin.
Christie and I met at the Jackson Airport Tuesday, said goodbye to the parents without tears (!), and praise the Lord caught every flight we were scheduled for - and even had time for a ´´healthy´´ lunch of pretzels and m&ms. We had a really great time getting to know each other and sharing our crazy excitement for finally being on the way to PERU.
We arrived at like 11:45 p.m. ish and got through customs so smoothly. Rode a bus to the hostel and bsaically went to bed.
Now for the introducciones. My teammates are INCREDIBLE. Krista is a sophomore TESOL major at Union and is absolutely hilarious AND she has a huge heart for the Lord and making sure she is obeying Him without ulterior motives. Caitlyn is EQUALLY HILARIOUS and amazing and is a super senior at Oklahoma (she reminds me a lot of you, LIZ! bio major and teensy bit germ-a-phobe and so very wonderful). We are ALL definitely on the same wavelength, which makes serving together this summer so much more exciting.
There is also a Kevin LaFoosh lookalike here named Mark and a Jaci Shoemaker lookalike named Stephanie and believe it or not a DYLAN MCLEMORE sound-a-like named Sam. not even kidding.
Foods. Oh this is fun. Yesterday we went to a very NANDO´s esque restaurant and i ate BEEF HEART and it was absolutely delicious. more tender than any steak i´ve ever eaten. last night, we had chinese. sigh. and i´ve heard chinese here is supposed to be wonderful. it´s no better than london. bleh. but now that it´s out of my system and i´ve made a contract with my teammates never to eat chinese food again, i´m feeling much better. ew. gross.
also, aly, the lady you will be when you grow up is here - miss liz is HILARIOUS and she has aly hair and she tells stories ALMOST as well as you do and it´s so so great. o you remember how paranoid she can seem? yesh. it´s hilarious.
Liz! We watched UP last night in Spanish. and I teared up for you.
CALEB. GUESS WHAT. ONE OF THE TEACHERS AT THE ORPHANGE WHERE I´LL BE WORKING IS SWEDISH. NOT EVEN KIDDING. :D
matthew 5-7 has been our theme the past few days, and it is beautiful. God has been providing in all kinds of crazy ways - with my team and with peace and better health this morning after a night-full of trials. our God is so good. we´re here to share that with a people who are some of the most beautiful i´ve ever seen. their stares and their whistles and their horn-honking have stolen my heart. (and not in a creepy way). this is good, this knowing you´re serving the Lord of lords and King of kings thing.
i may not update until we get settled in yungay (which is actually pronounced more like ´´young guy´´) but please please be in prayer for our travel - we leave monday on a bus, spend the night in a village pretty close to yungay and arrive to start ministry on tuesday. pray that my team continues to bind together like we have so far and that we really will seek to serve each other. pray for our translator noemi and susana who is opening her home to us. pray for pastor joel and hilda that they will continue doing GOOD, even when it is not easy. and pray that our God will do more than we could ask or imagine only for the sake of His name in all nations.
until the whole world hears...