So, this is the last "official" leader blog. I do have a request. That the students would do a summary of the trip from their point of view. Hopefully all you parents out there can get your child to do this!
This trip was, needless to say, quite amazing. God has shown me I so much from the students and the Peruvians, and I have so much to process from this trip. Thank you parents for letting your children go on this trip, because each of them greatly impacted me and definitely made an impact for the kingdom of God. This trip has definitely changed my life, and I hope and pray that the students take the lessons they learned from this trip and apply them to their lives at home.
Thank you again. Team, you are all awesome, and I love you. And Lindsay loves you. We are praying for you
So, we´ve slept, we´ve eaten and we´ve showered, and now we´re ready to tell you about our trip to the jungle.
It started on Sunday night, when we went to spend the night in hammocks on our trusty, albeit rickety old barge ¨Calipso.¨ We did a short change to a smaller boat halfway up river, and then we landed in a village called Nueva York (for those of you doubting your Spanish, yes that is New York). We met up with the Real Life team there, and then it was down to work. It was the final stage of the ¨training¨of our Peruvian friends, and they did fantastically at organizing and leading VBS. We had ATLs in the mornings, VBS in the afternoons, and church services or team devotionals in the evenings. If you´re thinking we were a little busy, you´d be correct. We still had time to bathe in the river (well, it at least washed off the first layer of dirt), eat a lot of interesting fruits and make new friends. We went to a second village via the biggest canoe I´ve ever seen (it held 30 people and all of our stuff), and then held VBS there. Now, I know you are on the edge of your seats, wondering what words of wisdom Chris and I have about our team and the jungle, but somehow I think that you might be slightly more interested in what the kids have to say. So here they are, direct from Nauta, Peru on what they loved and learned about the jungle (with a few corrected spellings).
Ryan (see, I told you´d he´d be better!): Every time I come on a trip, I learn something new about myself or I learn a new lesson that can be applied in everyday life. This time around, it had a lot to do with patience, which I lack a lot of times. Whether it´s patience with people, the task at hand, or just plain waiting for something, I´m learning to have it. God has been working with me on that a lot, and I´m glad He´s here to help, as always. Also, the majority of wild ¨delicious¨ fruit is actually hideous-tasting. That´s pretty much it.
Ben: The jungle was really cool. I really loved the hike Chris, Megan, Sophie and I went on. Almost saw a monkey haha. The jungle also really brought me out of my comfort zone for a little while which you could tell by my mood during the first day but it was a great learning experience. It was also really sweet to see all the animals, and to see God move in the Church there.
Shosh: In the jungle I learned how important it is to teach children about God. I learned this when we met a guy who fell on a boat and broke his ribs. We were talking to him about if he was saved or not and he told us he went to church but he was waiting to accept God into his life until he knew more. That hit me hard because we don´t know when our time is up on this world. Children are so willing to step out into faith and this trip to the jungle made me realize I need to have faith like a child, just like it says in Mark 10:14. The letters from Mom and Dad encouraged me to continue and I knew I was being prayed for a lot because Dad LOVES ice cream! Hoping there is a big welcome party at the airport when I get home. Love you!
Ashley; In the jungle I learned a lot. I learned that there are a lot of people in the jungle who believe in God but they don´t fully understand or they don´t read the Bible. I loved being able to see the change as we went to different villages that were close together. The change was really cool. One thing I loved was being able to do ministry to the little kids. Something I´m definitely going to miss is all the wonderful people who I´ve met and get to know. I know that for me it´s going to be hard to leave, cause this is like my second home. But I¨m really excited to come home! Love you guys. xoxoxo.
Sophia; I learned that God has given me a piece of His heart for teens and not for missions as I thought He was. I learned that after all expectations have been surrendered to Christ, all you have left is His call for you to go. Would you still go if your ministry your experience, your team, the place was nothing you expected and all that´s left is Christ? He is all we need and even if our focus is on serving the people or even serving God, it´s enough of a focus change to not have it fully on Christ. At that point, your service becomes merely a good intention instead of a godly intention. Apart from Him, we bear no fruit. It´s really funny how God works. John 15 really didn´t mean much to me at all until about 2 days ago =P; kinda one of those verses I always glanced at and said yeah, uh-huh. But really, God does all the work and we just get to spectate.
Lakin: In the jungle, I learned how selfish I am. There was an older man who broke his ribs and we were able to pray for him to be completely healed right before our eyes. Once we finished praying, he wanted to sit up. It was clear he was in so much pain. I was disappointed because God had not healed him. Then I caught on to what I was thinking. Who am I to tell God what to do then be upset when it doesn´t happen? God taught me how I should pray and how I shouldn´t. God also showed me how to be still Just to be still and know that He is God, that he is in control and he holds the power. Going into the jungle was insane! We all saw more of God´s creations than ever before, but we also realized that no creation is more beautiful than it´s Creator. P. S. Hi Momma and Dad! Love you and will see you soon! Hope you´re not upset, but I really would like to stay in Peru!!! But my visa runs out soon so I guess I need to come here. Don´t forget to bring sweet tea, anti-itch cream, and posters ;)
Megan: The jungle taught me so much about myself, the people of Peru and God. Getting to talk to so many different people, my heart would break at how these people would claim to know Christ, but when asked, wouldn´t know anything. To me, it is the worst to claim to know God, and think you are going to heaven, but in the end have different results. We could try to give them as much knowledge of Christianity and how life is supposed to be walked once you have accepted Him nto your heart, but really what it came down to was prayer, prayer, prayer. A huge part of what I learned in the jungle had to do with Prayer, and how important it is. Lindsay really brought to realization after a team time in the jungle how much we try to depend on our own devices before prayer when really prayer should be our first resort.
Chloe; The jungle was really cool. I learned in the jungle that people really don´t have very much. I thought that the people in Nauta were unfortunate, but so many of the kids had parasites because they didn´t have any clean drinking water.
Well, I supposed that about wraps it up for now. In the the early morning we are headed to Iquitos for debriefing and shopping and then we get on a plane on Wednesday. We´ll be in Atlanta at about noon on Thursday, and then you´ll see your kids on Friday! We´ve enjoyed being with each one of your kids and will miss them very much. I think they started planning a reunion the first week of the trip, so maybe we´ll see each other again. We might blog again from Iquitos, but I would count on it. We´ll write that we´ve arrived in Atlanta on Thursday. We´d appreciate your prayers for travel and final ministry!
Yes, it´s true, we´re alive and very, very tired. This blog was going to be a lot more descriptive, but alas, the page reloaded itself when I was almost finished writing it. Our day started at three am today, so it´s now rather late for us.
Tomorrow there will be a blog written. A real one. But for now, suffice it to say that we are alive, mosquito and chigger ridden, and in love with the jungle. Until tomorrow!
Second, this is going to be our last blog for a little bit. Reason being is we are heading into the jungle early tomorrow morning, and since it is the jungle, there is not much electricity, hence communications will be sparse, if any. If there is an opportunity to call or blog, we will definitely take that opportunity, but there most likely will not be. We will leave bright and early tomorrow morning at 7 am on a barge and travel for most of the day until we arrive at the village we are going to. We will most likely spend a few days at that village, travel to another village, and then after spending a day or two there, head back. We will be coming back on next sunday, so look for a blog next sunday night or monday.
The main purpose of this trip was to create a VBS program that the Peruvians could then replicate and add onto. So, the first week we did the VBS, explained to them what and why we were doing it, and had them help. This past week we split off and went to two different churches, and we split the VBS program. They were responsible for half of it, and we did the other half. This week is the final stage. It is going to be like the first week except reverse. The Peruvians are going to be running things and we are going to be the ones standing back and helping them. This is a great opportunity for them and us, and we are very excited to see how it is going to go. Not only that, but we get to go into the jungle too!!
I want to tell you 3 awesome stories about what God did yesterday.
We did some door to door evangelism, but first we started off with an ATL-- for those of you who dont know, that is AIM lingo for Ask the Lord. For an ATL, you ask the Lord what He wants you to do, for say, the next 3 hours, and then you wait and listen until you ´´get´´ something. Some people get words, others get a picture, and so on and so forth. So our team did one of those yesterday morning. Lindsay then had each team member meet with her, and she wrote down what he or she got, and then divided us into groups. After that we, all prayed and asked for clarity on what these things meant, and then we set off into an area we thought we should go. The teams were this:
Team 1: Lakin, Megan, Chris and Sarah
Team 2: Kelly, Carlos, Sophia, Ryan, and Shosh
Team 3: Ben, Lindsay, Crystal, Chloe, Ashley
During her ATL, Lakin got a picture of a really old woman who was very fragile and has cloudy eyes. A lot of the houses around here have ¨¨Á¨¨ painted on them for a political party, and Megan kept seeing those as well as a girl that goes to our VBS. So we set off to look for this woman and girl. We came to the area that we were doing VBS that week, and we couldn´t find the girl, but were did share the Gospel with the dad of one of the boys that we did VBS with. After that, we started walking again. We walked a really long time, and we made it into town. We were waiting for the Spirit to give us a sign where to go, so we just kept walking around. We had about 45 minutes left, and I was in the middle of saying ´¨Maybe we just need to make our own opportunity and see if God shows up.¨¨ becuase I was thinking maybe He was testing us and seeing if we would just step out in faith. This is where the story gets really cool! I was in the middle of saying that when we met a very very old man. We started talking with him, and come to find out, he was in pain. He has a hernia that he doesnt have the money to get fixed. We asked to pray for him, but he said he had to get the water he had back to his house, so we went with him. Juan (thats his name) led us to his house. I rounded the corner into the house and saw a very old woman in a rocking chair. I turned to Lakin as we were walking in and asked if that was her, and guess what! Lakin said that was the woman she had a picture of! So we prayed for them and for Juan and his pain, that it would be healed. And then we left. It was really cool to see God show up and come through in a very realy way.
Team 2 decided to go look for Carlos´s father--Carlos is one of our translators. He is not a believer, and they were going to go witness to him. They got there and couldnt find him, but they did find one of Carlos´s friends. So they went to her house and shared the Gospel with her and her mother. What is cool is that Indra (Carlos´s friend) was praying to God that He would send someone to her and her family to talk to them about God. And that is exactly what God did. They shared the Gospel with her and her family.
Team 3: During his ATL, Ben kept seeing an image of a soccer field that is down the road from where we are living. So that is where they went. They saw a family, a mother and two kids, and started talking to them and sharing the Gospel with them. The kids were both ones that went to the VBS we had held last week. The team presented the Gospel to them, and started asking the kids about VBS the prior week and the salvation message we shared with them then. The kids had not accepted Christ that week, but when Crystal asked the kids and the mom if Christ is someone they would want to have a relationship with, they all said yes!! And now there are three more in God´s kingdom.
I hope that these three storries have encouraged you and shown you something new about God. He is so awesome.
Last night we went to church after VBS. We did the drime once more. And Lakin and Ryan sahred their testimonies. They both did a fantastic job. Today we got up, ate, went to church, and had an american meal of macaroni and cheese and starburst. We also gave them the letters that we had the parents write to their kids, and they all loved them. Thank you all for doing that!. WE have free time for the rest of the day, and we are getting ready to leave tomorrow.
That the Peruvians would take the VBS and make it their own, and that they would continue it after we left.
It is of strong belief in this region that it is possible to lose your salvation. Pastors here even preach this message, and there is only one guy that we know that does not believe this. Please pray against this lie, and please pray for Gustavo, that he would not be afraid to preach the truth of the scriptures.
Pray for safety in the jungle.
Thank you all for your prayers. Talk to you next Sunday!
Well, to tell the truth, not much has changed since the last blog. It´s the last day at each of our locations tomorrow, and that has been going great! The Peruvians are taking over more and more of the responsibility, and they are doing a great job. We have our free day on Sunday, and then it´s off to the jungle on Monday! We will be writing a blog on Sunday detailing a little more how that will look.
For now, we thought we´d let the kids do most of the talking this time. Here goes...
Chloe- I miss you guys! How is the team doing in Jo´s? I got sick like I predicted! I threw up in the middle of the night, but I´m perfectly fine now. I don´t eat my favorite pancakes anymore! Love you!
Lakin- Hey Momma and Dad! Miss you all so much! Bad news...I´ve decided I want to live in Peru! Hope things are going great at home! Momma, text the girls and everone and tell them I miss them and will see them soon and I love them! Dad, let everyone know at church that our ministry is going great here! Love you all and I´ll see you soon! Keep praying! Love you!
Sophia- Hey Mommy! I think of you so often and miss you a lot! I love you so much! Can´t wait to go to the jungle Monday! Everything is going great so don´t worry! I looooove you! Praying for grandma and uncle eddy and you!
Ashley- Dear family/ Mom, Dad, Matthew and Taylor. I´ve learned so much since I´ve been here and I love it sooo much. It´s going to be really hard to leave since I´m so used to it here but I can not wait to see you all. Love you guys sooo much. xoxoxoxoxo Love, Ashley.
Ben- Dear Mom, Dad, Aaron, Caleb and Sophia, I love you all very much. I just want to let you know that I´m learning a lot this trip and growing a lot spiritually. I miss you all and I hope you´re having fun with the Quinlan being in town and for the 4th of July.
Megan- Hey Mom, Dad and family, I miss you all soo much, but I´m having a blast! The people here are nice, and I love my team! We get along so well together. The kids here are savage, but I love them. They literally mob you, tackle you to the ground and pull your hair out of love, of course. We leave for the jungle Monday! Send everyone my love and blessings! P.S. There are giant silverfish here.
Shosh- Hey Mom, Dad, Zoe (squish), Polie, Evil and Bug! Miss you all a lot! Only 2 weeks until I´m home. Hope HS camp went great. Hope Dad is doing well as the new town attorney! Sad that I missed cousins camp. Wish Savannah and Natalie H a late happy birthday. So we leave for the jungle on Monday and will be spending 8 hours on a boat. Saw some interesting things last night like a tarantula. Scary! Miss you all bunches. Tell everybody I love them and enjoy reading waht they wrote me. Think that´s it. Love you!
Chris-Hey Mom, Dad, Rachel and everyone. Love you and talk to you soon!
Ryan- Actually Ryan can´t talk right now. He´s still scared speechless by the tarantula last night. As soon as he can speak again and gets some color back in his face, he´ll have a comment for the next blog.
As you can see, the kids are having a blast and learning lots (whether it be the Spanish word for chocolate or how God is moving in Peru) and definitely looking forward to our trip down river. A few prayer requests...
Continued safety and health. A few sunburns and a couple upset stomachs, but everyone is quite healthy here, contrary to how the last blog sounded (I am not on my deathbed, obviously...haha).
Finishing VBS strong here this week.
Focus for next week´s jungle trip.
That we would squeeze every ounce of life out of every moment.
The team has had a great few days. A few days ago we went to play some basketball and met up with... what do you know, some other Americans! We knew they were coming, but they didnt know we were there, and they werer quite suprised. We played some basketball with them and the Peruvians. They played the Peruvians first and then left. And then our team, consisting of Lindsay, Kelly, Ben, Ryan and I payed the Peruvians and claimed victory over them. I am only saying this because if we were ever to play futbol they wouyld completely destroy us. But it was definitely a great time.
Yesterday we had our day off. We ¨slept in¨until about 745, ate some breakfast, and got ready to go to the beach. We went to La Playa del amor. Lindsay was not feeling well, and she ended up leaving early. (But she is doing much better today, which is great because we need everyone this week!) At the beach, which was more like a river, we did some exploring, played with some clay, and walked up and down the river. It was a good time to just hang out and relax. We got back, ate some dinner, and played ninjas for about 2 straight hours.
This morning something funny happened. Normally, the boys get up first and go wake the girls up with a song ( we have ranged from ¨ a whole new world¨ to bohemian rapsody to in the jungle) This morning however, because Lindsay wasnt feeling well, we didnt do that. Now normally when we get up in the morning the Peruvians we live with are up, and it is very light outside. Today, they were not up, and it was darker out than normal when my alarm went off. But i figured it must have been a day off for them, and it was raining, so i figured that was why it was darker. Sarah and Kelly were supposed to come at 7 this morning, and they were not there when we got up and went downstairs. So they come riding in on a moto at what I think is 8. I go up and ask them why they were so late, and they tell me that they are not. They are on time and it is 7... which is when i found out that my watch had somehow gotten ahead by 1 hour. Which means that I woke everyone up at 530 instead of 630. OOPS! So most of the team went back to sleep for an hour.
Today was spent prepping for this weeks VBS. Lakin, Sarah and I went shopping today for VBS supplies to prepare for as many as 150 kids total! Which would be absolutely insane! As Lindsay said in the last blog, our team will be splitting up and going to two different churches. Our teams separated today to go and check out the locations where we would be having VBS. My half of the team´s location is in walking distance, so we walked. As we walked there we probably accumulated 4 or 5 kids. And on our way back we probably accumulated 10 more or so. It is so funny because we will walk down the streets and the children will come out of nowhere. I love it because that is that much more time that our team can love on the kids, and our team definitely does a great job of doing that.
I asked each of the team members to write a little something something, so here it is:
Chloe: I got chiggers and I am proud of it. My first exotic thing that has happened to me.
Lindsay: I just had the weirdest craving for candy corn. And apparently Ive built up an immunity to chiggers.
Megan;Has Frank gotten out of the bachelorette yet!?!? And everyone makes fun of me for saying gnarley. >Guess its a Cali thing. PS I love and miss you all. Having a blast
Lakin: Hey momma and dad.
Ashley: Taylor good luck at diabetes camp! I love you family
Shosh: I miss you all. Especially Evil. Tell monica I love her and that her letters are amazing! tell everyone at church i love and miss them too. See you all in 17 days. PS I eat popcorn with every meal.
Ben: Hi mom and dad, aaron and caleb and sophie. Me and megan rode our jaguars to church today. Its rewally fun. We havnt eaten monkey brains yet though.
Ryan: I havnt slept in 4 days... theyre housing a cannibalk in the room next door named ¨Megan Morris¨ I live in fear and mental agony because of it....just kidding. I love you all
Sophia: I miss you so much mom. I love you too!
Prayer requests.
Noone on the team slept well last night. Pray for continued rest and that we would sleep welkl through the night.
That the team would focus on their tasks at hand
Continued health and safety of them team.
That the Peruvians would take what we are teaching them and add their own spin on it. That they would catch fire for these childrens programs and have the confidence to start doing their own after we leave.
That Christ would show His love through us, and that anyone who meets us has to say that there is something different about us because of how Christ loves through us.
Our first week of VBS is finished! We would definitely deem it a success, thanks to God and His grace. We had a great time working with the Peruvians here. We´ve learned lots of new songs and a memory verse in Spanish (which we´d love to sing to you whenever we get home). Every morning, we´d prepare for our skits, stories and crafts, and then perform for our Peruvians friends so they can join in when the kids came. We had an average of about 40 kids come everyday. The story for the first day was David and Goliath, and the second was Jonah and the Big Fish (complete with a balloon fish for craft time!). The third day was the Wordless Book. The fourth and final day was a review of the Wordless Book and the Great Commission. The Gospel was clearly presented and the seeds are definitely planted.
Yesterday was Lakin´s birthday. The day started off in typical Peruvian birthday fashion...a raw egg smashed over her head! Lakin loved it, of course, and has plenty of pictures to prove it. The cooks made a special birthday cake that fed all 25 of the people at the campamento. We went to a church service that night where we performed the drime "In the Light" and Lakin gave her testimony. Before Lakin could begin though, the entire church sang her¨"Happy Birthday" for...I kid you not...about 7 minutes while the entire church came up to greet her and give her a birthday hug. The service continued and during the worship time the pastor surprised us by asking us to give a music special. After a moment´s deliberation, Ben, Sophia, Ryan and Chris got up and sang "Oh How He Loves Us." The service continued with singing for another hour. Something seemed a bit fishy to me, however, and sure enough, I found out they were stalling for time while someone ran out and bought yet another birthday cake for Lakin! We finally made our way home later that night.
Earlier that afternoon, we were told that we were preaching the sermon the next day for the Sunday service. We were a bit surprised. Chris prepared a sermon on how nothing can seperate us from God´s love and that we cannot lose our salvation if we sin. It is a common occurrance to find a pastor that preaches that one can lose his salvation after sinning here in Nauta. In fact, the pastor at the church we attended on Saturday preached that very doctrine. Chris did very well even with his short notice. Ryan, Ben, Chloe and Megan all performed the drime again this morning.
Next week will be interesting as we are splitting our group in two to go to two different locations for VBS. Our Peruvian friends will be also splitting in two groups to join each of our teams. This will definitely improve our teamwork as we will be a bit shorthanded.
God has been teaching us so much about His grace and how it covers so many of our mistakes and shortcomings. He´s also been teaching us that He is glorified in our weaknesses. We praise Him for this everyday.
Prayer Requests;
For our team to rest and recuperate on our day off tomorrow (going swimming!)
For our team to focus completely on the task at hand.
For continued health and safety.
For the Peruvians to catch the vision for a children´s program in the areas of need.
For our teamwork with each other and the Peruvians as we will be stretched this week at VBS.
For our preparations for the Jungle and the VBS there.
For the spiritual growth of each our team members; Shosh, Megan, Chloe, Ashley, Sophia, Lakin, Ben and Ryan.
We are so glad to know that our families and friends are covering us in prayer back home. More updates to come soon).
I wrote this first part while I was awake in the airport in Lima, then i will update you on the rest of what we have bee doing.
6-22-10 at 5:06 am.
Well, at this moment the team is sleeping, and it is my turn for guard duty. We are all in a ring aroud our luggage that is against the wall. To our right is a money excangers place, and across the hall is an expensive jewelry place--I didnt realize it until now, but this is probably one of the safest places we could have chose in the airport to set up camp and sleep.
Can I just say how awesome our God is? So far our trip travels have been awesome, and the Lord has answered all of our prayers. The day for leaving from training camp came quickly. We left for the airport at 2:30 in the morning on monday, needless to say we did not sleep much that night. We caught the first flight to fort lauderdale and had an 8 hour layover--during this time we slept and played a lot of games, kemps being the favorite. We boarded and left the aìrport at around 5 o clock and arrived in lima around 10. All of our luggage arrived safelty (answered prayer), we arrived safely (answered prayer), and we even got our 10 member team through customs without being checked--which was another andswered preayer. We found the spot by the bank, circled up, ate, and slept.
We went through secutriy quickly in the morning and made it to our gate with plenty of time to leave before 11.
Present:
Before i go on i do have to say one thing. this group has been fantastic, and there is no other way that i can exp`lain it other than the Lord. this team has meshed so well and worked together so well that it has been amazing!!
So, we leave from the lima airport to go to iquitos. the flight there was awesome. the airlines in peru are much cooler than the ones in the states. they played music and served some interesting food, but it tasted great! and the scxenery out of the window was phenomenal. We met up with Crystal (our contact), pastor Williams (our host) and sarah and kelly (translators) and headed to Nauta. When we arrived at our lodging, we set up our mosquito nets and ate dinner. They made the most fantastic pancakes I have ever eaten (yes mom, better than those nasty protein ones ;-P).
Our schedule is pretty crazy. We will be getting up around 630 every morning to pray and do devotionals, breakfast, a teaching time, and chores and then lunch. The after noons will consist of working with the local churches and conducting Vacation Bible Schools. Next week we will be going to two churches in the area to do the VBS there, and then the following week will be spent in the jungle on the amazon. At least, this is the schedule that we talked about, but things could definitely change. So, give Jesus some praise for answering all our prayers of safety during our 40 hour travel period. He is great.
Prayer requests: Our host said that whenever gringos (thats us) come on trips they get a surplus of people in chruch, but after we leave it dies down. Pray that the people that do come would hear the Word and desire a relationship with the Lord and that they would come to Him and surrender their lives to Him. and that the Lord would show these people His amazing and unconditional love.
Pastor Williams and his wife are the main missionaries in this region. Pray for them, that God would provide for them all their needs that they would be able to raise up leaders to minister to the surrounding areas.
That the Lord would give this team the energy, focus, and desire to show these people love and for the Spirit to lead us in the direction that He wants us to go. That we would be effective in proclaiming the Gospel, and that these people would recieve His Word. And that He would continue to teach us His ways. And that the language barrier would not frustrate us.
The team is very excited for what the Lord is going to do with us here, and already they have thrown themselves headlong into loving these people. Thank you for all of your prayers. We need them, so keep praying!!
The team has arrived safe and sound in Peru after a very long day and night of travel. They are tired but very excited about what God has in store for them.
