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.

Oh yeah, I forgot....

One more thing.
If you would like to see a sorta day by day update about our trip to Peru, just check out what Brad from Tennessee wrote on his blog while we were in Peru. It is on their church website an it is 2 pages of blogs...
http://youthimpact.all4jesus.com/blog/?p=1&y=2009&m=7
That web addy there should take you to it if ya wanna read more..
Thanks again for reading and keeping up to date with us all..
and for those of you who prayed and continue to pray for us.. we thank you because we know that God hears them...

Continuing on....

Ok, so I got sick, work has been busy, and I have had a bunch of stuff to do so I haven't really had much time to write even tho I said I would make more time.. duh, that is me tho... You should see my journal, it does the exact same thing... Says how I am gonna start writing more and then it takes me 2 weeks or a month before I write in it again..
We arrived at the airport in Lima and got thru customs and the church from Lima greeted us, grabbed our bags and after a few minutes of "hellos", we headed to the buses. It took us about 30 minutes to get to the hotel. Traffic was heavy, but in Lima, traffic is pretty heavy 24 hours a day. Some times it is heavier than others but it is always busy. I think there are lines on the streets as lane markers but no one really pays much attention to that. Most American drivers would not make it in Peru. But then again, most Peruvian drivers wouldn't understand the way we drive here either. Honking the horn, swerving around and cutting people off are common driving practices in Peru. Anyway, so our hotel rooms are on the 4th floor at the Hotel Kuelap. By the end of the week, my legs were in better shape, but they were so tired from up and down, up and down. They only have stairs there, no elevators. Fun stuff. The bed Amanda and I slept in was not comfortable, but by the end of each day, we were very happy to lie in it to go to sleep. We remembered to bring our earplugs also. The street noise, and other work going on, is always very loud and would wake you up at all times of the night. We slept pretty good tho since we could drown everything out.
Breakfast came and went the next morning. Rolls, butter for them, usually eggs with ham (or something) in them, coffee, and hot chocolate were the staples of our morning foods. We seperated into our groups for VBS and practiced our skits. We had our VBS time in Sector 10. It was Amanda, me, Pat, Sarah, Marilee, Hunter, Lynn, and Tammy.. I think that was all of us in our group on the first week. Gabby was our interpreter the first day. Our skit that we performed for the children was the story of Herman the shepherd. Herman led his sheep to pastures and protected his sheep from predators. I played the bad wolf ( which fit me perfectly, ha ). Then it was time for the children to learn a Bible verse and then they made little sheep puppets out of lunch sacks. It was a good time.
The children there are precious. Dirty faces with messed up hair. They have a look in their eyes that you will not forget. Some or most of them have been abused in some way or another. Only God has kept them alive. One little boy had a black eye. He never smiled all three days we were there at VBS. Some of the kids came from good homes. They were dressed nicer and always looked cleaner, but I am sure they have things happen to them that no person should ever have to go through. Most girls are raped or molested before they reach 10 years old in Lima. I forget the percentage but it is very high. They have no hope outside the hope of Christ.
The eyes of the people on the street showed a lack of that hope. For the most part, the only hope I saw in anyone's eyes, was from those that were a part of the church. Not just the building but the true church body of Christ. There was a look in there eyes of past abuse, yes, some even looked sad or angry at times, but behind there eyes was love. They were not empty inside. One lady in particular stands out to me. I saw her the first night of services at the church. She looked like she had years of abuse. But when the worship music played, she went from a somber sad look, to a look a joy and praising Jesus. It was quite a transformation. I wish you could see the picture I have in my mind right now because it would make you shed a tear of joy for her. These people truly know what a hard life is, but the love of Christ softens even the hardest. Most of what we do in America is easy compared their everyday life. We truly are a blessed nation. God, continue to show your grace upon us.

FINALLY it is PERU

Finally!!!
It seems like forever since we have written anything on here, and well, it has been. Plus, all we have talked about it how our feelings were going and the things God has done in our lives. BUT now, it is time for me to actually start talking about the trip. Might as well, right?!?! It has only been a month since we got back and still haven't written one thing about the actual trip.
We got to our church, http://www.fountainofgrace.us, on Sunday morning. We weighed all the bags and loaded them on the truck. It was a good trip to Atlanta in the van. It was Amanda, Chris (me), Hunter, Nichole (sorry Nichole if I mispell your name), Kevin, and James was our driver. Which, just as an update, the van we were in broke down when they were on their way home from the airport. There was a total of 24 of us that would be boarding the plane to Peru. If I remember correctly, we all chatted in the van the whole way up. Except there were a few attempts at naps from people.
So we get to the airport. As soon as we stopped close to the actual unloading area, boom, we all jumped out and unloaded the bags off the delivery truck. We had an assembly line goin that would make UPS proud. That much luggage was off in no time. All of us worked hard and got the job done in record time. This was just a sign of how the 1 weekers and then the 2 weekers were going to work together as one body in Christ. Unity was evident.
Then it was time for all of us to head inside. We gathered around and made sure everyone and everything was there. Then Pastor Phil went and used his gift of talking :) and Delta brought all of us over to the side and opened up a line just for us. Got us through in a short time. Well, for the Atlanta airport it was short time. So that was one way God made the trip easier for us. Think what you want, but I am saying it was God. He gives blessings to His children in all things (Matt. 7:11).
>>fast forward<<
We are sitting at the gate waiting to load. If I remember correctly the 2 from OHIO were already sitting there. This was the new church going with us. So we get to know them a little bit, and then the group shows up from Tennessee. I have heard about most of these people from others who had gone on the Peru trips and from Amanda, and they were all right in what they had told me. Take that how ya want to, but you Tenn. people are fun to be around. Luke and I struck up a friendship that I hope will last and grow over the years.
So the plane ride was quite long and pretty boring. I watched a couple of movies as Amanda slept.
Once we got to Peru, God showed up again, of course. We had everyone of our prayer partners to pray for us to have "green lights" as we went through customs. God did more than that. When the Peruvians saw all the red shirts (that was the color of our mission shirts this year), security basically said "let all the red shirts go through and skip the buttons". So only those of us who had changed shirts actually had to push the button, but we got "green lights". So God was good to us.
Ok, I have written a bunch, but I have just gotten started. I am going to stop now, but I want to make the comment of how I feel like Pastor Phil is at ROCKSTAR status with the church in Lima. Pastor Tony is too, but I will talk about his ROCKSTAR status later. The church had a big sign waiting for us when we started out the door, and there was a large group to meet us. As we were walking on our way towards the door, before we met up with the church, I saw several Peruvians get very excited and start yelling Pastor Phil's name and jumpin around and waving, and it was just interesting to see their reaction to Pastor Phil and our team showing up.
Well, just so you know, I am going to try to start writing more about our trip. There may be long blogs or short ones, but every few days I am going to start writing. Also, just so you know, all that was just the first half of the first page of my journal I kept in Peru. So I have alot to write. Amanda will be on here writing her view of things too. We were on the same trip, but I know God pointed out different things to each of us. Plus we will probably both talk about how God worked in our lives differently while we were there. He is still changing us to be more like the IMAGE of His Son, Jesus Christ.
God bless

ME

What do I know? I figure that since Amanda hasn't really written about Peru in any depth then neither will I, YET.. I know that my first message was a little vague on the way God has dealt with me over the past year. I will talk about it a bit more in this note.
For so many years I tried to hang on to what this world has to offer and hang on to my "Christian" life, also. Well it is impossible to do. I tried to fill my life with the things that I thought could bring happiness, joy, peace, and comfort to my own soul. I even became more involved with the church and helping out with things there thinking that would satisfy me. I was a youth leader, Sunday school teacher, played in the praise band, and pretty much did everything I could to cram God into my life. Problem is, I was doing all that to make myself feel better. I thought if I did all these good things, then it would make up for all the bad things in my life. God would love me more, or even that God would love me at all.
Since a very young age, I never really felt loved. Sure people gave love, but they couldn't fill up that spot that I felt was empty. Don't get me wrong, I became a Christian at age 5, in my backyard, in the sandbox. Jesus was my Saviour and Friend but I tried to get love from sources outside of God. Another thing that is truly impossible. Through relationships, friends, girlfriends, possessions, and even in getting married, I thought that I could finally get rid of this void of self-hatred in my life. I hated all the sins I had ever committed and tried to earn love. But I never deserved love. I saw myself as a liar, thief, hypocrit, fake, cheater, just anything you can think of, that was how I saw myself. No one could love me. I didn't deserve love.
All of that is true. I don't deserve love. None of us "deserve" any kind of love. But the Bible talks of something amazing. Romans 5:8 "But God commended His love towards us, in that, while we were yet (still) sinners, Christ died for us." This was the verse that I chose for my trip to Peru. If God can love me even when I am a filthy sinner and die for me, then He did the same for the people of Peru. He also did the same for you. The other verse that everyone knows but God has really spoke more to me over the past year with is John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, should not perish, but will have everlasting life."
My life and view of myself is different now. I am unlovable, but God loves me. I am a sinner, but Christ died for me. I do deserve God's punishment of hell for my sins, but my faith, that thru Jesus Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, the payment for my falling short is paid for, allows me to rejoice in the fact that I will spend all of eternity in heaven with others like me who are redeemed by the spotless Lamb's sacrifice.
So am I a little more passionate about sharing my faith? Yep, and I am not ashamed because I know who truly loves me. Peru was just the next step in that process of sharing my life and faith. Lord willing, I will be there next year doing the same thing again.... Growing in Christ....

Til next time,

God Bless YOU!! and He loves you too..

Faithful

Well we've had this blog for a week or two, but have yet to really write much about Peru. I hope you all have taken the time to look at our pictures, they really do describe Peru much better than I could with words. Hopefully we'll have even more pictures once we "get" some from our dear friend Tabitha.

I'd like to share a little of how God brought me to Peru. For years I have always thought that foreign missions was for others, and not for me. The little portion of scripture Matt 28:18 where Jesus says to go into all the world, well that didn't apply to me. I was just fine staying here in Alabama being a witness to my family, friends, co workers, etc. I might go on a mission trip in the States, but not overseas.

My life verse is Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the thoughts I have towards you, says the Lord. Thoughts of peace not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." The reason this is my life verse is because so many times in my life, MY plans, MY thoughts, have been changed. You see as you follow Jesus His plans become yours, His desires become yours, His thoughts become yours. This happens only if your first die daily to yourself, and pick up His cross to walk out this life. But I digress, the point is MY plans were changed.

Ever since coming to Fountain of Grace church, and hearing about them going every summer to Peru I knew I was supposed to go. Again, my plans & thoughts were keeping me from going. But that all changed. In December 2007, we were in Gatlinburg on youth retreat. One of the girls played a video she had made of Peru that summer. My heart was hearing, "this year you'll be there." Then one of the guys came up to me and said, "You should go to Peru." Then later in the evening Pastor Phil mentioned that I should go to Peru. They all thought they were just making conversation, but really the Holy Spirit was making a point to me. So after a couple of years of ignoring the Lord about Peru, I finally gave in. I knew He wanted me to go. In early 2008 I came to the point of surrender. I surrendered my plans, my desires, for the Lord Jesus. As I was praying one day, I came to a point of realization. This is not my life. Yes, I am the one living it, but God is the one who gave me life. Both physical & spiritual. So I had to surrender my life over to Him. I even have written in my Bible, This is not my life Lord's but Yours! So part of my surrendering of my life to Jesus was going to Peru.

I went to Lima, Peru for 1 week in 2008. It was absolutely wonderful! So wonderful I wanted to come back in 2009. And I wanted to come for 2 weeks, because Pastor Phil said we were going to the jungle in 2009. And I wanted my husband Chris to come with me. He didn't go in 2008, and I missed him terribly. I came back to the States, and life resumed. In the fall life became very difficult as me & Chris had to walk down a long, hard, tough road together. I didn't know about Peru 2009 anymore. I didn't want to think about it,nor did I have the strength to think that far in the future.

But God is faithful. You see I believe whole heartedly God called me to missions in Peru. That is just where he has designed for my church (including me) to go. Other churches, and individuals He calls elsewhere. But He wants the whole world to hear the gospel. And God wanted me & Chris to go to Peru this year. Remember, I said that I surrendered my plans, desires, and life to the Lord. Well, I thought that maybe Chris & I shouldn't worry with Peru, but try to work on us here in the States. But God used Peru to help restore & heal our marriage. He gave us a wonderful 5th anniversary while down there (I'll share more on that later). But I realized when making the decision to follow the Lord to Peru what better way to celebrate 5 years of marriage than on a mission trip. What better way for healing & restoration than with a mission trip. So Peru was more than a mission trip. It was healing. Healing took place both in preparing for the trip and in the actual trip itself. I am very thankful to God for His ways that are higher, and His perfect plans & thoughts.

One more thing on God's faithfulness. I have been living by this verse for quite a while too. 1 Thess 5:24 "Faithful is He who called You, who also will do it". God called me to Peru. He made it happen. Last summer I knew I was to come back for two weeks, and with my husband. God made it happen. He brought Chris to the place where He felt led to go, and he brought in the money. The money was a big deal. For the two of us to go for two weeks it cost $4600. That is a lot of money!!! But God brought it all in. Yes, Chris & I gave some of our money. But most of it came from others, and fundraisers! Praise the Lord!

I just want you to know God is faithful. He will never leave nor forsake you. When He calls you to something He will finish it!

I hope this all makes sense to you. Sorry if I seemed to be rambling. It's just hard to put into words all that He has done for me. I know this blog wasn't really about Peru, but it's something I wanted to share with you. I will try to write more about our time in Peru later.

God bless you. Have a Jesus filled day!
Amanda

Photos

We have some photos of our trip to Peru downloaded now...
Here is the page to go look at them...

http://s752.photobucket.com/albums/xx166/IamaGodfollower/Peru%202009/

There are several different categories on the left side of that page if you want to click on them and see all the different things we did while in Peru. Just click them and it will take you there..

More photos to come...

Thoughts on Peru

This is Chris writing this one. I have just been thinking about our trip to Peru. It wasn't a vacation. It wasn't a business trip. It was an opportunity for the gospel of Jesus Christ to be preached and lived out in our lives. God has been showing me things over the past year that have changed my life radically. I guess that is why I changed my email address to jesusfreak4sure@hotmail.com several months ago. I don't care if my friends think I am a "Christiany" type person now, because if I am serious about what Christ has done in my life then I should be a picture of Christ to others. If you want to know more about my Jesus Freak lifestyle, then feel free to write me at my email address. If you read something about our trip that you want to know more about, write and we will respond. I am putting all of the photos I can on a photobucket page (which I will post once I get more photos on it). I hope that it will show that this was a great trip where lives were truly changed. Not just the people of Peru, but those of us that went on the trip.
This was my first time outside of the United States. That plane trip was an adventure itself. Trying to fit my 6'3" and 230ish lb. frame into a plane seat for 6 to 8 hours was not something that I was looking forward to. But God got me through it. Even tho I wasn't sure if I was going to survive the plane trip back to the States, since we left Lima around midnight. But I did sleep from Panama to Key West, FL so I was able to function and not loose my mind completely.
I saw the body of Christ function as one body in unity for the purpose of helping the people of Peru and get them the gospel. Our churches from Alabama and Tennesse have been working with the churches in Lima for several years and so I can see how (humanly speaking) there would be a relationship and things could be accomplished. The true test I wanted to see was how the people we brought, and the church people from Lima, were all going to work together in the new enviroment of the church in Pucallpa. The body worked as one though. There was one vision and we saw God mesh everyone together.
Well, I am going to write more at another time... I figure that once I get some pictures of our days and nights in Lima and Pucallpa I will then write more. The pics should help explain, or at least show the work that was done. Of course I will have stories to tell of the pictures I post on here..
God bless you and shine for Christ,

Chris

Home From Peru

Bienvenidos familia y amigos!

This is a blog designed to share our experience of Peru. We wanted to be able to share with multiple people at one time. Last year when I went to Peru I discovered that it was rather difficult to share my pictures, stories, and experiences so I figured this blog would do the trick! :)

We left for Lima, Peru on July 12,2009. We drove 3 hours from Prattville, Al to Atlanta, Ga. We had 24 people from Prattville, and about 10 from Tennessee, and 2 from Ohio. We met up at the airport, then at 5:15 p.m. we took off for Lima. We arrived safe & sound around 10:30. Peru is on central time, so there was no jet lag for us. Thank you Jesus. On Monday July 20 (Chris's 35th birthday) we flew to Pucallpa, Peru. Pucallpa is the gateway city to the jungle. All roads end (or begin, depending on your viewpoint) in Pucallpa. If you want to go further into the jungle get your hiking boots, or a boat, or plane. We left from Pucallpa back to Lima on Monday July 27. We flew out of Lima back to Atlanta on Tuesday July 28 @ 12:20 a.m. When we arrived back in Atlanta we were quite exhausted. Sleeping on a plane is rather impossible. About 3-4 hours into our flight back to Atlanta Chris looked at me and said "This is the only reason I would not go back to Peru". His knee & neck were killing him. But he has quickly forgotten that pain and is ready to go back. :) After arriving in Atlanta, we ate at a Cracker Barrell nearby for one last visit with our friends from Tennessee. Then we arrived home early that afternoon.

That is all I have for now. This first blog is really just an introduction and welcome. Chris & I are going to try hard to update often. Right now I am still contemplating and decompressing from all of the events of those two weeks. So as things come to me, and I find time I will update this blog with pictures and comments.

I do want to say thank you so much, to all of you who have supported us. Whether it be financially, prayerfully, whatever. You have been an encouragement to us, and we appreciate you so much!

Dios te bendiga!

Amanda