Stairway to Heaven...(or at least heavenly moments)

Over a year ago we got to know a lady name Sandra, she’s probably 25 and a single mother.  Life has been hard for her.  We went to her house several times, chatted with her outside – she never trusted us enough to let us in.  I guess a while back, some people came through that claimed to be missionaries and kidnapped someone’s child just a few houses down from hers.  We returned several times at an hour that we had chosen together to start discipleship, but she was never around.  We called, but then her cell phone service went out.  We finally stopped going to her house, when the drunken landlord came out and said some choice words to us because we were standing outside her house yelling for her in hopes that she would come out.   We got the picture, not only did she never let us in her house, she was pretty non-committal and then she continued to stand us up, until we finally decided that are time was better used elsewhere.

Well, yesterday she was on bus as we headed out from Zamacola to go to Hunter, minimally a 45 minute ride.  Apparently she sells vegetables out in Rio Seco, farther north than where we live.  We caught up and as it turned out she did want us to come visit her.  Wendy was in the back of the bus, so I made the arrangements to visit her today in the afternoon.  I think that she is less afraid of who we are now that she sees that we’re still up to the same business over a year later…we haven’t run off with anyone’s kids; which is a valid fear.  I don’t exactly look like many folks from around here.

So today, after trudging through lots of rain water, we arrived at the long series of no less than 100 steps that pass by her home.  About halfway up she resides and had been waiting for us.  She came out and was interested in a lesson.  We had the lesson outside on the stairs – Wendy taught and I entertained her daughter Camila so that mom could focus.  She is looking forward to the next lesson and even said that the next time we can enter the house.  Praise God.  I did a split second hesitation to write that, thinking if any of my friends that don’t have faith read that, it will sound so old-fashion and churchy.  But, I decided, no, I will say exactly what should be said.  Praise God.  It’s been a difficult couple of months realizing that we’re not where we were hoping to be and it’s been discouraging.  Although, we’ve come up short on some man-made goals, we find ourselves in the middle of what God wants for us and he continues to show us right where he wants us to be working.  It’s a beautiful thing. 

Faith In Things Unseen

So the end of 2011 brought a few disappointments for us in Hunter.  As you know, we've come to plant a church here in Hunter among other locations.  What has been difficult for us, is that after discipling folks from anywhere in between half a year to over a year, they have really enjoyed having us in their homes, but were not motivated to begin attending the church.  While, we've been doing what we feel God wants us to do here, our reality and are expectations have fairly big gap between them. And I'm experiencing how weak my faith can be at times.

So we've been praying and at times fasting throughout this process.  I just finished Henry & Richard Blackaby's book Experiencing God, which was a good reminder to keep my relationship with God fresh and not just look for answers.  In the midst of our reality we don't want to force our agenda but see where God is working and to join him in that work - another key theme of the book.  So after a 12 day vacation, we've come back to work learning to submit ourselves to God's will, to have more patience, to observe where he is working and to join him in it -- this serves as good medicine for the anxiety that can come from wanting to do a good job and complete the human goals set on the forefront of our time here -- when in all reality we have little visible signs of accomplishing that with just under 4 months to go.  However, there is a solid base of people that we've been discipling that we continue to pray the Holy Spirit will move to become more involved.  And on a positive note, in Hunter we've seen an alcoholic change his behavior and stop drinking as much, caring more for his family, not running away from home for multiple days.  We've seen the faith grow of many folks and teens recognize there worth.   

Sunday, at our first service of the year, no one arrived by the time we typically get started.  We could not enter the auditorium because they had changed the system of permissions for usuage of the auditorium without notifying us and now we have to have a letter of authorization.  So, Lindy, Tricia, and I went up the street so I could show them some properties up for rent, but both are outside of our budget because it's an urban area and everything costs more.  I really was beginning to feel discouraged and allowing myself to waller in it.  Is that a word - waller? Or just a hillbilly notion of a word?  I'm from West Virginia, ya know.

Anyway, coming back down the street we got back as the town meeting was letting out.  And as always, Señora Sonia was there and started talking to us about another auditorium/location that was closer to all the elderly folks we work with and closer to other folks that we disciple.  As we wrapped up chatting with her, a couple of our teens showed up, then a couple more.  So we decided to have service with them in the park in front of the municple center.  Then Zelmira & Abel arrived with Camila and Zel's two sons that are here on summer vacation.  Yes, it's summer here.  Then Nancy and Shirley with two toddlers showed up at the end of the service when we were getting ready to serve a snack during our community building time, "the share".  This was the first time we had many of our regular folks show up, even if incredibly late...and all were at least a half an hour late.  One of the teens is going to lead worship next week and we're going to get Abel involved with the treasury and offerings if possible.  Monday when we were at Zelmira's new house, (they got kicked out of their other place) she said her favorite thing to do is share and encourage.  So we're going to have a time of sharing and she'll be our first testimony in church. 

There are still many others that we disicpled for over a year that are not attending and we hope them to be involved in the family, that they'll be taken care of when we head off.  We need your help with prayer support: one, that the those we've known and been working with for awhile will want to gather together; two, that we can find a permanent location; and three, that we will always bring in new folks or share with them where they're at and that this concept will be passed on to those we've been working with.  Thanks for reading and please keep praying for Hunter and the formation of both believers individually and as a community.

Celebrating Spring

This week in Hunter:
We met with Maribel in her home and talked for a long time about life and what's going on in the house.  We rounded a corner in which it was safe to say that we can choose to shut the door on being a seeker in general and be a seeker soley of the Christ of the Bible.  We've completed the first study book with her and will be moving on to the next which is a more profound look at themes along the lines of developing our understanding of God, the Bible, and what it means to be part of the church. 

The Joves as a group had shrunk to 5 - 6, but it's a much more serious, fervant group.  And we were happy to see Nancy and Laura once again after months of not seeing them.  It's cool to watch this group grow in understanding and commitment. Señor Julio was sober this past Sunday, which was a change from the past 2 weeks prior.  He apparently had changed and instead of drinking all week long he was only drinking on Sundays.  I made a comment to Javier that if we only get to see him on Sundays and he's drunk, it's wonderful that he has changed that pattern, but we only see him during this time and it's a little disruptive - his tyraids of commentaries that losely fit with what's going on.  So, I was grateful to see him present and ready to participate.  Unfortunately, the father of Señor Julio is on his deathbed and we will be going to see him next Sunday.  Be praying for their family and our meeting, if you will.

Things continue to go well at Zelmira's.  We recently taught about baptism, which Zelmira and her father will probably participate in next month.  One church told her that she had to marry first, which is very expensive for the average person here and so she never had.  She intends to marry, but it's not an incredibly easy process for many.  Her father used to read coca leaves to guide people; he was baptised immediately after becoming a believer and never fully understood it.  He's interested in being baptised, fully acknowledging it's simbolism. 

Thursday at the Wawawasi, we watched a video with the ladies there.  Numbers where low, because the owners of the Wawawasies had to go to a work meeting and couldn't attend; I'm grateful that they permit us to use their space either way.  We realized that a group of teens will probably be the next step there because of the average age of attendance for the video.  Maribel came for the first time and a neighbor came for the first time with her daughter.  So I was pleased with the quality compared to quantity. 


Earlier that day we were with the elderly celebrating Spring's commencement and had a coronation.  Thanks to the group of missionaries headed for Paraguay for helping us with the festivities.  We also made a trip to the Founder's Mansion with the elderly folks this week on our free day - good times!

I'd like to wrap up with a couple of prayer requests.  Things fell through with the Youth House.  It's occupied everyday of the week.  We hope to use the municiple auditorium and will eventually go to the administrator for the University to talk about the property in Hunter.  Also, we were out and about visiting other contacts when a regular contact was out of town and discovered that a lot of our contacts play volleyball Sunday afternoons.  I joined in a game and we lost, but it was a good time.  We're praying and thinking about what can come of this natural grouping of people and how we can use this time to reach out to more people. 

Quickest of Updates

We currently are discipling:

The Jove family

Zelmira & Abel

The Wawawasi Ladies (with Vilma & her daughter from the Naz church that died 10 years ago.)

Rosa

Maribel

Natali and her mom (starting tomorrow)

______

Tomorrow we will go to finalize a schedule for the “youth house” where we’ll start having services.

I’ve got a few stories to share that are evidence of God working in Hunter…but I’ll share them at the end of the week.

Pray for all the folks above and Charo & the Sello – that God would open doors.

Don’t go too far…things are just heating up.

Vlog con Wendessa en español!

Hunter Lately

We're in Hunter four times a week: Sundays with Meribel and at the Jove's; Mondays we visit new contacts and check up on old contacts that haven't been able to meet for a long time, as well as - starting tomorrow, we'll be on dirt mountain as I call it, which pertains to Socabaya but has it's entrance on the back side of Hunter; Thursdays with the elderly group at the Health Post and at the Wawawasi (gov't subsidized daycare); and Fridays with Zelmira's family and back on dirt mountain with the 3 women and 13 children.  That's the quickest rundown of what we've got going on.

A couple of weeks ago we had some missionaries from all over Peru and from Paraguay helping us out.  We split up into pairs and went door-to-door.  While this type of evangelism doesn't go over well in the U.S. and isn't a form of ministry I particularly connect with, it was a pretty decent time having the opportunity to chat with more people in our area close to the cell groups and 42 people (40 adults/teenagers and 2 children) accepted Christ.  We've been working these contacts in around the other cell groups.

Tonight at the Jove's, we taught about the Church: it's nature and purpose.  There were five: Javier, Nancy, Señor Julio & Señora Cristina, and Shirley.  Everyone was sober and attentive.  I remember the first few months we were going to the house and Señor Julio would open the door and practically run away.  He wanted nothing to do with us.  Though he tends to fall asleep in almost every lesson because he's so exhausted from their long day's work, he is there and still manages to give a response from his sleepy state.  His wife told us tonight that she is grateful that Julio has changed, and for the better.  I'm blessed to be a part of the body of Christ with them. 

Right before Wendy and I got to their house, we realized that tonight was a dinner on your own night.  And though we get money for these nights, we didn't really have enough money on us because it's the beginning of a new week, end of the month, etc. and we didn't carry enough money.  I remember thinking - well, Lord, we'll just trust you to provide.  Maybe the Joves will have crackers and soda like they often do, and I can just fill up on that.  Well, they did have crackers, little rolls and soda.  I was so grateful, and as they like that you help yourself and can be offended you refuse, I made sure to just snack away.  Then when we were ready to head out they were putting the futbol game on and asked us to hang around.  So without knowing why, we did, and bless their little hearts, after 5-10 minutes they came back in the room with plates of chicken and fries.  Thank you Lord for your provision and for the kind hearts of the people you are using.  After eating dinner with them and hanging out a bit longer, on our way out the door, Señor Julio put six soles in my hand for a taxi home, a little over half the fair.  Not all nights are like this.  I can think of only one or two other times in the past year when they surprised us with lunch or dinner.  Tonight I left their house with a full heart and stomach.

We are currently looking for a house/building to rent in Hunter so that we can begin having services with the 25 or so folks that we are discipling.  That doesn't include the many contacts that we have yet to bring into the fold.  We will be having a medical campaign the first two weeks in August and hope to make some other great contacts for the center of Hunter where we hope to "plant" our physical church.  Please pray with us for a location and for the 2 days that we'll run clinics in Hunter.  As always, thanks for reading and for supporting the ministry that Wendy and I are a part of in Arequipa.

Dios es Grande

After a couple of weeks of short-term projects, a short-but-sweet family vacation, and hitting the pavement again we are witnessing some doors opening that really give us hope for a future church in Hunter.  A few times after more recent meetings Wendy and I have walked away with giant smiles on our faces, rejoicing in what we see God pulling together.

During the time that we had with short-term help we painted at a local elementary school, entertained the students during their recess with a puppet show, a drama, and choreography to Justin Beiber’s  “Baby”.  A few days later we had a kid’s festival at a nearby park and a couple hundred people came out as a result of flyering at the school.  We have several new contacts – one group of women that are encouraged to meet together (5 women & 7 children just in the first meeting).  We are going to do a medical clinic at Nilda’s Wawawasi, which is a government subsidized daycare.  She gets paid 2 soles per person per day.  Needless to say, we're excited to see what lies ahead with Nilda and this group of women.   That’s just one story as follow up to the great couple of weeks.

Another is of a woman named Maribel.  We gave her a call to see if we could visit her later that afternoon.  She said yes and when we showed up she began to tell us that at the time we called she was in the middle of an argument with her husband after finding a photo of another woman in his wallet.  In the middle of their argument he hit her and she said she was at the point of doing something that she’d regret, but we called and she said, “Dios es grande”.  She believes that God wants to be a part of her life and is looking forward to joining us for our cell group at the Jove’s house.  I feel very blessed to be a part of this work.  I’d like to encourage you to check out my facebook for more photos from the events.  We have more short-term projects coming up in August and November if you’d like to register go to www.extremenazarene.org and click on GET INVOLVED.

God is good and we’re excited to follow where he leads and see what he has in store.  Please join us in praying for Hunter, the people with whom we’re working, and for a place to rent out as our church.  We certainly have enough people interested to get going.