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.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
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.
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.
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.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
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.
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.
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