Many have been e-mailing and asking, what’s happening in my life…I haven’t posted any blogs lately! Well, here’s a rundown…
Los Jardines is happening. Our main ministry site is Los Jardines and assisting Pastor Nester with his church and community. God is providing great things in this community and will continue to do so in the days to come. Our first week on site was a time of confusion. I didn’t know what our ministry there would be, and with most of the World Race, our ministry is what God makes of it…there aren’t any real definite plans on ministry. Our group went to the community and asked what they wanted…and many said they would like a garden in their community (a park…not a vegetable garden, a park with trees and grass and flowers). This came as a huge shock to me…in the pit of destruction of the earthquake last August (and the damage is ever so present) and they want a garden? They don’t want to have us do something that will only help them…they want the community to benefit from all help. In the USA we wouldn’t be like that…it annoys me that the people who have the least give the most. So we set out to make it happen. There is an area in Los Jardines that is set aside for a recreation area…and it happens to be where the temporary structure stands for Pastor Nester’s church.
We wer
e trying to find a way to fund the project when we found out that we needed permission from the mayor’s office in Chincha, along with some other government office. We had to go through the strings of getting permission, which took about a week…and during that week I was discouraged and thought that it wasn’t actually going to happen. Still, we pressed on in the community by playing with the kids, and helping Pastor Nester rebuild his personal house which 2/3 was destroyed by the earthquake. Then it happened. We got the permission to build the garden/park…and the government gave us 45 plants to go in the garden!!! We pressed on and started to work the ground and plant the plants…and wanted the community people to work on it so that we could really embrace the culture here and help encourage people to come to Pastor Nester’s church. By the end of the project, not only were community people helping us out physically…they brought more flowers and plants!
Our next task: our team decided to help the church by organizing a vacation Bible school. Our first day was today, Monday January 21st…and much to my surprise the kids showed up…one by one…until we had nearly 80 kids! More to come on that.
What does our ministry look like next? Los Jardines is about to have their world turned upside down…in our month here their community has gained a garden, and is currently having Vacation Bible School, and is about to get electricity and bathrooms! Currently Los Jardines has no electricity, no lights. Soon they are going to have lights! That wasn’t enough, we inquired about their bathroom conditions…there are a few privet bathrooms (don’t get excited…it amounts to a 8 foot hole in the ground), but if the family is not that lucky, they carry their bathroom bucket to a local river/ditch…not exactly sanitary. I prayed that a bathroom plan could be made, and found out that there are sewer pipes about 50 yards away from the public recreation area. Needless to say, God provides, and the trenches to put the plumbing pipes are being started Tuesday morning (being dug by hand!).
What has all of this taught me? God provides. God provides for every need through prayer. I gave up…the garden wasn’t going to happen…but it did…and didn’t cost us much of anything. I gave up…vacation Bible school wasn’t going to happen…there were more than 80 kids on day one (and projected to be 100 on Tuesday) …I gave up…this community wouldn’t get lights, and Pastor Nester won’t be able to easily read his Bible and preach to the community at night…the lights are soon being installed…I gave up…Los Jardines wasn’t going to get a bathroom…the trenches start being installed tomorrow!!!!!!! My advice? don’t give up…instead trust God to provide!
Be sure to keep up with the pictures on my picture site at http://web.mac.com/mstratmann/World_Race_Site/My_Photos/My_Photos.html
