Peruvian Way

“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.” Philippians 3:7-8

“Count all things loss,” what does this mean? As I sit and look back at my life from the day I received Christ until know I have seen a life of counting things loss, but for who, well for Jesus Christ. I am not here to boast in myself and say, “hey guys look at me.” No, but as all Christians we should be living a life like this verse says, and I am still learning this verse and applying it to my life, in trying to give everything to Him. So where am I going with this, well I have just made the decision to move to Iquitos and help with the ministry there, and this verse is hitting home with me now.

I plan on leaving at the end of May or the beginning of June, with Albert, I, and maybe one other Peruvian. We will first go to Pucallpa (another jungle city) to visit Luis who was the kid who was wanting to get off drugs and wanted to go to an orphanage, well we found one in Pucallpa. So we are going to take a bus from Lima to there and visit him to see how he is doing. Then take a boat (4 to 5 day boat trip) to Iquitos. Yea, Wow is what I am saying too, I never thought I would actually be doing something like this, but what an experience it will be. I picture four days on a boat spending time with Jesus journaling and enjoying the scenery and hopefully sharing the gospel to others on the boat. I mean what else can you do.

So as the semester is only 3 weeks away from ending and my chapter of Bible College experience I guess you could say is ending and a new chapter beginning. If you could pray for me and all that the Lord has for me, that I would do. And step out in faith and trust Him. A book that I am reading right now is Absolute Surrender, by Andrew Murray. And it talks about a surrendered life to the Lord, giving everything to Him, and this is what I want, this is what i need so that I can be used by Him as I see in the Bible with other men of great character.

Jeremy

My mission trip to the jungle’s of Iquitos, Peru. Well i don’t even no where to start, but to say that the Lord did an amazing work there in the church, with the hundreds of kids we played with and shared the gospel to, the community’s around Iquitos, and even with the team it self. Our main focus and most of our time was with the church that actually just had its one year anniversary while we are there. It was cool to see the growth, i remember when i went there in 2004 and just a small little group of people and then coming back a few years later and seeing what the Lord has done in those few years was amazing.

During our time there we were able to teach a wednesday night service, youth group, jr. high, and a thursday night service down the river from Iquitos, a womens ministry and as well kids ministry through out the week. We also had the opportunity to do drama’s and puppets on the boulevard right by the river. There we got to see the Lord work through us individually as we talked with people one on one. The one cool thing that i have seen in Peru is that they all have an open heart to hear the gospel, hardly ever do you get someone who just blows you off and goes there way. But we do see a lack of believing, believing in the TRUE SAVIOR who set us free, they hear but do not do.

We also go to go to an orphanage about 2 hours down the river to drop off one of the kids on the streets that was struggling with drugs and wanted to get off of them, so we were able to get him into this orphanage but to our surprise he was to old to stay, but the trip was not a waste b/c we got to share the love of Jesus to the kids. It was also a christian orphange so that was cool to see.

Well i better wrap it up here or i could go on. As most people would say when coming back the one thing that they learn is that, we see how much we could live without and still be fine. And the one thing that i am learning is a continual dying to self, seeing how MUCH of a sinner i am and HOW MUCH I NEED JESUS, and praise the Lord that i do have HIM.

So to leave with this, that you would pray for me as i am praying about returning to Iquitos to serve there in the near future. Some things to pray for there as well: A ministry house, a bible college, and a new development maybe an orphanage, and for the church as the teach the word of God.

Jeremy