It has been a full week at our new ministry site in Lima, Peru. Team B left us a week ago to venture up into the mountains and Team A is working in the city with an incredibly vibrant church. Our schedule has been full and our bodies are tired but the Lord is doing some AMAZING things!
Let me first tell you about the area we are living in. Imgaine yourself walking on the beach by the ocean on a very hot day. Now take away the ocean. Now add garbage piles and cement slabs to the sand. Now put buildings on it and some small moto taxis, lots of noise and go ahead and turn that sun on real bright. This is our new home. Lima is a thriving metropolis much like New York. However, right outside the big city are very poor areas like the one we are living in. However, there is an oaisis in the city called Communidad Christiana Shalom. You can´t help but smile when you walk into this church. Every time you enter you are greeted with big smiles, even bigger hugs (sometimes they physically hurt they are so huge!) and kisses on the cheek. Praise and worship time is only comparable to one other experience I had in Africa. You don´t dare sit down while singing. Instead, you run up to the front of the church shouting with joy, jumping and starting a mosh pit. Their praise is so genuine and full of life that my heart overflows. I wish you could see it with your own eyes.
We have been doing street evangelism and school visits in the mornings.
What a blessing it has been to walk right into secular schools and share the gospel with clarity (through the Word of God and through dramas)
In the afternoons, we travel up to a city on a hill called Lomo de Corvina. There, we are doing church planting. We have begun building relationships with the people in the neighborhood and with the children. We are also hoping to physically build a church on this property…
…but we are waiting for the okay from the city. Recently there have been some people objecting to the building. So please pray that they will give us the go to build on this plot of land!
I have enjoyed these folks so much! They make me laugh every day.
They think I am very tall for a girl. Here they are measuring me with measuring tape just to check how ¨grande¨ I am. I had a little chica ask me in Spanish, ¨¨What do you eat to get so tall?¨ I tried to explain to her all about processed foods, but I don´t think it translated.
At night, we attend cell groups. We had the privilege of going to a group that also doubled as a birthday party for a fella that had not had a birthday celebration in his 26 years of life. He was shocked (probably not only at the surprise but at the five strange gringos in his living room). It was there that the entire cell group requested that I sing for him the theme song from the movie Titanic. Ah, what a sight it was. I had to be prompted on the words, but I did indeed sing to a 26 year old man, My heart will go on and on.
Thank you for your continued prayers for me and my team. We are grateful for your support and encouragement more than you will ever know!!
