Amanda's turn

Hello.

I know Chris has been discussing in depth each day of our trip. He currently is on Friday. I told him I wanted to share something from Saturday, and he said he has another post for Friday, so this one will be a little ahead of schedule.

So it's been a long week. Today is a day we have been planning for, preparing for, and most of all praying for. Today we are going to a section of San Juan de Luragancho called Paradise. Last year was the first time our USA team had ever been to Paradise. We took a tour of sorts. We, as a team, along with several Peruvians just walked through the area. It starts in a valley, and works its way up the mountain. The houses at the bottom are in better shape. They are brick & mortar, with a couple of rooms. But as you go up the mountain they become more like shacks. Just paper, and trash put together to be some sort of shelter. You eventually reach a point where the houses stop. It's pretty high up, but looking back down is absolutely beautiful. Midway up there is a pig farm to help them make money. It stinks a lot! It doesn't rain in Lima, so the wetness you see streaming down the road isn't from rain, it's peoples feces & such. They have no bathrooms, so they use buckets, then pore out the buckets down the mountain. There's trash all over. It's quite a sight to behold, and not in a pretty way. So last year it was quite heartbreaking for me to see all this.

Now, I say all that so you can understand where it is we are heading. Before I said we were planning for this day. See after last year, Pastor Phil had a vision. That in 2009 we would go back. This time bringing a block party of sorts. We would have games, food, prizes, drama, a message. We wanted to give them a day of fun, but more importantly we wanted them to see Christ. We wanted to give them the hope, joy, peace, & love that we know & experience because of Christ in our lives.

My blessing for the children was face painting. They absolutely loved it! We had wipes to use on their faces to remove dirt,so paint would stay on their pretty faces. I had to quit using wipes, because they all had dirty faces,and I was running out. At first we said just one cheek, but I had plenty of paint left over, and they wanted all the paint they could get! :) These children are truly precious & beautiful. I didn't care that they might have lice, or whatever. I hugged them, smiled with them, played with them; so they could see Christ.

This event wasn't just for the children, although they were the main ones, we reached out the adults too. We had a message of salvation shared by Mr. Brooks, through an interpreter & loudspeaker. It was neat to see people walking on the street, on sitting on the porches listening to the gospel. Christ was shared throughout that mountain that day. Several came forward, receiving Christ also.

Another neat thing to see was the uniting of the church. See the church we are "sister" churches with in Peru, is divided into 12 locations, called sectors. *by the way, the USA is sector 9* All the sectors came together to help with this day. It was so cool to see all the different pastors there, elders etc. United for the cause of the gospel. God is good. He worked this day out on many levels. And I thank Him for putting this day on Pastor Phil's heart. I know it blessed me. It blessed me seeing those children happy, if only for an afternoon. To know that seeds were planted throughout Paradise. They may not have much, but I pray that they will know true riches in our Lord Jesus.

Below I'm posting a few pics of Paradise from last year. Also, there are pictures on our photobucket page http://s752.photobucket.com/albums/xx166/IamaGodfollower/Peru%202009/

I love you all, may you know the love of our beautiful Saviour, Jesus.

Amanda

Friday anyone???

It is finally Friday. Isn't that what we all say here after a long week of working? Well, this was really the only "off" day we had. For an off day, tho, it was very busy. We had no ministry time (services, VBS, drama, etc...) planned for that day, but our whole life there was our ministry also. So Friday was our big time to relax and get ready for our full day of work at Paradise on Saturday. Funny, we sure did stay up late and stay on the move all day for it to be our relaxing day. Hmmmm.... something kinda strange about that.. ha..
So Friday morning we all loaded up and went to the beach area. You can see pics of us there on our photobucket page. The link to it is in one of the other postings. But I will try to remember to put it again at the end of this blog. We had a good time there. First we went to the little mall there. They had a few little stores and some food places. We ended up eating at the Burger King there. It was almost close enough to American food that we were pretty happy. Several people were tired of chicken by this point. We of course got a hamburger and fries. It was pretty good. After that little adventure, we headed down to the beach. Now, it isn't like the beach here on the Gulf Coast with pretty white sand and clear and clean water. It was pretty much just dirt and rocks next to the water, with a bunch of trash washed up on shore. We still had a good time of bonding and chatting with everyone. You can see all the stuff we did from our pics there.
http://s752.photobucket.com/albums/xx166/IamaGodfollower/Peru%202009/At%20the%20beach/
There is the link to the specific page.
Well, I gotta run. But I will finish up about our eventful day when I can.

The best evening in Lima...

In my journal I don't have much written for Thursday in Lima. We were pretty busy the days that we had "off" from VBS. That didn't mean we were "off" for ministry tho.
Thursday was a relaxing morning from what I remember. We didn't do much that morning, but the time that afternoon was spent at one of the Indian Markets in the area. It is a building where there are many little shops set up and people selling goods that they have made or whatever. There are alot of venders there and they all compete with each other on their prices. Alot of pottery and clothing and little trinkets can be bought there. We went around a bought things for our families and prayer partners. It was a fun time, but you can spend money fast and really get tired fast.
Thursday evening, what a night. It was an amazing night for God to show up. This night was the night of the evangelism meetings. All the American pastors were to be split up and go to 4 different sectors. Pastor Phil, Pastor Tony, Pastor Brad, and Pastor Louie (I hope I spelled his name right?). This was the big night to bring unsaved people in and give them the message of the gospel. Lima, like every city in the world, is full of lost people walking the streets everyday. This was the opportunity for those to hear of Christ and His truth.
So we are there at Pastor Gino's church. I can't remember those of us who were staying to do our part, but I do remember that Pastor Phil was our speaker. We will get to him and stuff in a minute. Here we go, we are ready to have our service. The church is open for anyone to come in and hear the gospel. We all start getting the feeling tho that something isn't right. Other than those of us from America and the ones from the church, it seems like there are only about 3 people sitting in this huge church. It just wasn't right. So as we are all looking around, I guess the people at the church knew it wasn't right either. They started grabbing chairs and moving them to the sidewalk, outside, and right next to the street. They moved the speakers, microphones, musical instruments, and everything else that it would take to have a church service outside. Then, the fire in all of us got lit up. We all felt it then. "This is where we are supposed to be. On the street, bringing to them, what they won't come in and hear". The feeling I had that night just came back to me as I was writing about it and I got chills. I can't explain it, but I know that it was an amazing move that changed the mood of the service, the mood of every helper there and the mood of the night it self.
The band played and prayed as people walked by. I remember testimonies being given. People on the street would stop and listen to what they heard. I remember children with their parents walking down the street and the kids wanting to stop and listen, but the parents moving them along. I know one kid stopped for a while and the parent just kept walking, but a little while later they came back and got their kid. It was just interesting to see the people being very curious. In the tiny little confines of our sidewalk, God was still going to do His will and change people's lives. We had only a small amount of space, but we did the human video to "Set Me Free". For us not having much room, it went great. Once again, people stopping to watch at this time. The girls that were with us ended up doing the "Here I am to Worship" dance. I remember seeing a group of people watching that performance. They looked confused but curious. Somehow, during all this time of our part of the service, several people have started sitting in the seats and standing on the side between the seats and the street. It was time for Pastor Phil to give his message. He has been studying Spanish for several years and he has an entire evangelistic message that he knows in Spanish. That is the one that he gave that night. No interpreter, just him with the microphone. But God is the one that draws people to Himself. Pastor Phil may say the words in their ears, but it is the heart that God speaks to. After Pastor Phil was done with his preaching, several people came forth. I don't know if all were for salvation or for giving their lives back to God, but it was an inspiring and amazing night. I am so thankful that God allowed me to be a part of that. I love seeing people come to Christ. I love seeing salvation change a person's heart.
There is a story about this very "change" that I will tell you about from our week in Pucallpa, but that is several more days away. So you will just have to wait in anticipation. For now tho, this was the best evening from our stay in Lima, Peru.

Continuing on....

Ok, to finish up that last post shouldn't take too long. I got a few minutes today so maybe I will get to post a few times to talk about several days.
SO it was Wednesday night and we had the church service. I just wanted to chat for a second about Pastor Eduardo. It was at one of his churches that we had our VBS meetings. He was what seemed to be a quiet man, and I don't remember him even talking to us very much if at all when we were doing the VBS stuff and he was there. He always seemed very tired on those days, but I am sure he was because I think he is the pastor of 2 of the churches there. So he is pretty busy, I am sure.
I saw Pastor Eduardo at the church service Wed. night and I wanted to go talk to him and tell him how much we appreciated being able to have VBS at his church. Well of course I didn't speak Spanish but I told Amanda my desire to speak with him. So she got Cindy, one of the interpreters that she had made friends with last year, to interpret for me. It was my first time of using an interpreter. I was a little bit nervous, but it turned out pretty good. Cindy did a great job. I still remember that night pretty vividly because Pastor Eduardo was a very thankful and gracious man. I told him how much we appreciated his allowing us to use his church and I thanked him. He had alot to say back also. He said that he was thankful and grateful that we came. How those children would never forget us. How they would never forget that we came all the way from America and let God use us. How we showed Christ and that God would use that in those children's lives.
That meant a bunch to me. Because some times we feel like we didn't do enough. We feel like God places us in a situation and we blow it or do get to bring anyone to salvation. The point is that God does things according to His timing. The kids there may not even realize our role and we may not even fully realize our role in their lives, but I believe that because the true message of Jesus Christ and His saving grace was spoke to those kids, we did what we were suppose to do. We are only there to feed or water. God is the one who does the growing. He knows which of those kids listened and which ones have turned their hearts towards Him. If we were some small part in that, then praise God for using us.
I just continue to pray that God will use us ( but more specifically ME ) in roles and opportunities to show our friends true salvation and the truth of Christ.

We're back.... finally

Ok, so with our busy schedules there is not much time to just sit and write on here. Sorry to anyone who is actually out there reading this.
Wednesday finally came and that was the last day of our VBS in Lima. It turned into a mad house. There were kids everywhere. The last day, our craft was to have the children make or color a crown and then glue little shiny thing on them so they would look like jewels. Well, kids went everywhere and were pretty crazy. We handled it as good as we could but we learned to NOT do it the same way next time. When we did the same craft the next week in Pucallpa, we didn't put the "jewels" on them. So we said "adios" to all the kids, we loaded up and went on back to the church and hotel. We had a great time with those kids tho. It was special and they were all precious little ones.
Later that night at the church service. The ones of us who were musicians in our American group, got to play for the church. Luke played guitar and sang a little bit. I played bass, because Hunter was sick. Michael played drums and Joe played keyboard. Pastor Guillarmo sang the songs in Spanish, and then Luke would sing them in English. It was pretty cool.
Well, I will have to finish up the rest of this night later. For now tho, take care and God bless.

Does Amanda have anything to say?

Hello everyone. The last several posts have been from my husband. You may have been wondering where has Amanda been, is she ever going to write again? Well, here I am. ;)

I haven't been writing because I just plain didn't know what to write. You see I went to Lima, Peru last year, for one week. So to me going back this year, was sort of "routine" you could say. Up until Thursday of the 1st week I didn't feel like I was getting much out of Peru. But, God had a reason for me going to Lima again. It wasn't until Thursday night I realized that I some unresolved personal issues to work through, in order for God to work through me. I'm not going to discuss what all happened that night, because like I said it was personal; but I will say this. I am very much appreciative & thankful for Sabrina Butler. She helped me through those issues, and I thank her for caring enough for me to talk to me, and I thank her for allowing the Spirit of God to work through her towards me. THANKS SABRINA! So after Thursday night, I finally felt at peace. I hadn't felt peaceful since about the time I signed on for Peru 2009. God reminded me that He is in control, and He does have an ultimate purpose for allowing things to happen. As Romans 8:28 says, He works all things for good, to those who are called. He does everything for our good, and His glory. So once I had my pity party, and allowed God to show me things I needed to let go of life became much better. I was actually able to enjoy Peru after that night. Thank You Jesus for that.

So I guess what I want everyone to know is this. God loves you, God allows bad things to happen to you. Why? So He can be shown mighty & wonderful! Because if you allow Him, He will save you. Not just from an eternity without Him, but from sorrow, grief, anxiety, rejection, you name it! Jesus is a Healer, Counselor, Friend, SAVIOUR! Let Him be.

I will try to write again soon.

Shine for Jesus!

Amanda

Tuesday in Lima... or there abouts...

The journal that I kept while in Peru is very interesting to go back and read. I usually had time to journal the next morning about the day before. I just read what I wrote on Wednesday morning about Tuesday's events. The first few sentences read... "Well Lord, I LOVE being here in Peru. Away from my normal life. Away from the day to day of MY life. It is very peaceful when you are in the will of God. The continuous running of cars, business of traffic, running around doing ministry work, waiting and doin whatever to fill the time, it is all very peaceful." Looking back, I don't know if I have ever heard anyone describe Lima as peaceful. But that is how I felt. I remember those first few days and just knowing that this missions trip was exactly where I was suppose to be, and in that, there is peace. In my journal I talk about knowing that God was using me and being comfortable in the midst of chaos.
Ok, so now last time we talked about Monday in Lima and now I will talk about Tuesday. Funny how it works out that way, huh? So Tuesday was a good day. We went to Pat's Place. It was really my first time of understanding what God had done there. Pat's Place was a home for women to come and live and learn how to make money on their own to provide for their children and themselves. The transforming power of Jesus Christ did many great things in the women's lives that had passed through Pat's Place. We got to see dances from the children and from the ladies that lived there. These women had come from abuse and hatred. Their husband's had beaten them and abused their children. It was great to see some of these children with big grins on their faces, even though their lives early in life had been the target of the devil and his work of evil. But that is the power that Jesus can have in a life and a home when He is the head of that house. We ended up buying a few jewelry pieces before we left there Tuesday. We had a busy day and were not able to stay very long.
So shortly there after we headed back to VBS. There was a little fellow that day who was making himself a memory in my mind that brings a smile to my face. He was mean at times to the other kids, biting them and hitting them, but he really like me and well, now that I think about it, he bit me a couple of times too. When VBS started that day tho, he would jump off this little wall by the windows and into my arms. He did this several times before singing time started, and we were having a good time. Then I would tell him "One more" in Spanish and he would hold up FIVE fingers. So he would immediately leap at me, so I would have to catch him. Then I would say "No more" and he would laugh and jump again. We went back and forth with that a few times and then I just had to walk away. One of the Peruvian men that was helping went over to him to get him to jump on him so he could make Joel (that was the boys name) stop jumping and start singing. Well, Joel didn't want anything to do with that guy and pointed at me to come get him. So I did then I sat him down in a chair after he jumped again. Once Joel settled down in the chair, I found out why he was so fiesty. It wasn't long before he was asleep. He slept through most of VBS. Through the story, skit, and other things. He woke up near the end and was back at it again.
While we were there, near the end of VBS, a couple of little girls and a boy started talking to us in Spanish and we had no clue what they were saying. The ended up asking Heather to interpret to us. It was funny. The schools there in Lima and I guess most of Peru had been shut down because the swine flu was just starting to enter South America. They were asking us if it had reached the U.S. yet. We told them "YES". Then they screamed and ran away from us like we were diseased. I guess with all the hype from the H1N1 virus, they were fearful. Maybe it has been stirred up there just as much as it has here. We never watched TV there. Most of what I have heard about TV there is they have no restrictions on what they can show, so we pretty much are asked to not turn them on. Probably a good thing since watching certain shows would not help us in our missions work.
I wrote in my journal about how I pray that even with just the few days that we were there at VBS, that God would speak to those children. He loves all of us and I even pray now that God might speak to someone reading this blog. Maybe you never have truly accepted God's free gift. There is no hope in those children's world there in Peru. Just like there is no hope in our world here in America. The only hope that we have is in Jesus Christ.