Our overnight bus ride up in to the Andes mts landed us in the town of Mancos, where we crowded in to taxis for a bumpy ride 30 min further up in to the mts to Musho. The evangelical church we are working with opened up the church for us to sleep! We spent the evening in prayer and praise to the Lord for uniting us and for all He has in store for this month! The Lord has blessed us with 5 translators who love the Lord and are excited to be serving Him- this is making a huge difference!
This is part of our walk every day in to Tumpa. The primary vision of Joshua (23 yr old pastor, who is on fire for the Lord) and Ed MacQueen (our AIM contact here who has done all the leg work) is to start a church plant in Tumpa.
We all felt very strongly that the Lord was leading us to cover this area in prayer before anything else. Tumpa has long been hardened to the gospel and not wanted anything to do with Christians. They have false teachers throughout the mt villages and a spirit of religion that has covered the area, but now the “fields are ripe for harvest!” Our first day we headed out in groups to walk through the streets and pray. We also have teammates dedicated each day to pray during our whole time of outreach and fight this spiritual battle that is raging!
Our “backyard” – the Huascaran mts, snow capped peaks towering 22,200 ft (taller than Mt McKinley)…some of us will be attempting a climb once our lungs are acclimated to the high altitude (no volcanoes around here) 🙂
Precious Mancos children (our neighbors) – I had fun playing with them, and then they joined us for dinner ( the little boys ate 3 plates of food!! I can barely down one!)
The Peruvian people are BEAUTIFUL!! This little girl is dressed well for the day…very cold (down in the low 40s at night) in the morning…
but then the sun usually comes out for awhile so you have to start shedding your many layers…
and be prepared for the every afternoon showers and clouds!
Juana Ardilies and I with her lamb. Our first day in Tumpa, as we were walking through the streets praying, I met Juana. We got to share the gospel with her and she accepted Christ!! Praise the Lord!! Juana has had pain in her stomach for many years and nothing has resolved it. We prayed for her healing and also prayed the Lord would give her dreams and visions. The next time that I got to visit with her, she told me she had a dream the night before… in her dream a lamb came to her and she held it close against her stomach, when the lamb left, she saw all the sickness leave her body! When she woke up all her pain was gone and has not returned!! God heals!!
Stephanie and I returned to visit Juana to have a Bible study with her. We met her daughter Reina, and got to share the gospel with her- she too accepted Christ! I know the Lord will bring salvation to this whole family (her husband and 4 other children).
Our vision in this church plant is to visit every house in Tumpa (pop. of 1-2000 people), share the gospel, and then help the believers to unite and start meeting in homes. Juana was willing to open her home up for more Bible studies and is eager to learn more! The bags in our hands are full of potatoes and other vegees. The people are very generous and often blessing us with produce from their gardens! Most of them spend their mornings out in the fields tending their crops, before the afternoon rains come. They have so little (from American standards) and yet they gladly share from what they have.
In this first week up in the Andes, many have accepted Christ in Tumpa! It is beautiful!! I have had the priviledge to know 9 of these individuals!! The Lord is sweeping through here in a HUGE way and it is so exciting to get to be a part of what He is doing up here with the Quechuan people! A neat testimony is that of Pablo. I had been to his house the day before and talked with his wife Hilda, we shared the gospel with her but she said that she was not ready to accept Christ. Hilda told us that her husband wanted nothing to do with Christianity, and she attended the Catholic church every once in a while. She was willing for us to come back and share with her more the following day, however when we showed up, she had gone to town but her husband opened the door. We explained why we were there and asked him if he knew Jesus. He said, “no, tell me about him.” I felt my heart leap when he said this- we told him how we are all sinners, but how Jesus Christ died for us and wants to have a relationship with us. We asked him if he would like to accept Christ in to his heart, and he said yes!! We told him it was important for him to now share what Christ has done in his life with his whole family and friends! None of the people have Bibles, so we are buying them whenever we go in to town so that the people can grow in the Lord. Pablo was excited to get a Bible and start reading!
Moralez family: Gloria, Laura, Benito, and Emiterio
Leah and I had headed to town early one morning to pray for a lady (Amelia) and her son (Senon- who had suffered with headaches for about 30 years). In my quiet time that morning, the Lord led me to read 2 Kings 4 about the Shunammite woman whos son was out in the field working, his head started hurting, he died, and then the Lord used Elisha to raise him from the dead! Woa! I did not know what the Lord had in store for us that morning, but prayed the whole way! Amelia was not there at first, so we sat outside her house and started to pray. She then showed up, along with her cousin Ermelinda, but her son was out in the field working. We got to share the gospel with them both (and will continue to follow up with them- I am not sure exactly of all the reasons that God directed me to that Bible passage, but I do know He was saying to have faith that He still heals and nothing is impossible for Him!) As we shared with these women, Emiterio walked up and started to listen. When we were finished sharing, he said that his son Benito (38yrs) had been sick for many years, and asked if we would come pray for him. As we followed him to his house, he shared that they had tried many things and had spent a lot of money trying to make him better- they are a poor family and the sickness is a huge burden on their family. When we arrived at his house, Benito was lying in bed. Before praying for healing, we shared the gospel and the love of Jesus Christ with the family. They all accepted Christ!! We then prayed for healing- Benito had suffered from terrible head pain and a burned leg which he had difficulty walking on- after praying he got up and said his pain was basically gone. We sang a Spanish song of praise to the Lord! We are meeting with this family as well to study the Bible together! They asked if we would come back every day- they are eager to learn more! Only Gloria can read, so we gave them a Bible to read together as a family.
There are a lot of parties going on in heaven as many names are being written in the Book of Life!! The harvest is ready, we need more workers to reap it in!! We all feel so blessed to get to be a part of the Lord sweeping across these mts and bringing revival in the villages!
