Peruvian Way

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing i do; Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:12-14. (NIV)

Now as of last Saturday I finished the book of Philippians with the Youth Group. Which going through the book has been a great blessing and a growing experience. The exact thing I taught on it seemed like I went through that same week. It was like the Lord was testing me to see if I was truly living what I preached. In the context of each teaching I saw that I was going through a similar thing like Paul was going through. Even though I know it wasn’t as intense as what he went through but; the Lord was showing me how to apply it to my life personally and see Him do it through me. I have learned that no matter what, that I need to continue to run the race that is set before me. Always looking to Jesus!

Now the cool thing about this is for the past 2 1/2 weeks I have been training for a short 8k run in lima. Which I just ran on Sunday, no I didn’t win 1st place but I had a great time. It’s cool because in training and even running a race you can so easily apply it to our Christian walks. Even though it is hard and so many times you want to give up, even when you are so close to the finish line you feel you just want to stop. They say and even from experience the last mile of a marathon (Full marathon 26.2 miles) can be the hardest but when running it you always look to the finish line; the goal! And even not placing doesn’t matter to you all that matters is finishing, and what great joy there is when doing that, to say I finished, I did it, I did the best I could. And in a marathon no matter what place you get you get a medal. So enough on that what I was going to say is…….

You are probably wondering, “what are you doing in Lima, I thought you were in Iquitos.” Well Albert and I have decided to take a short break, well sort of. Albert is taking a class at the Bible College and I am just visiting friends, helping out with various things at the College and going to different ministry’s. And so far it has been a blessing being here seeing old and new faces and being apart of what is going on here. We will be here in Lima will almost 3 weeks and head back to Iquitos on the 8th of Oct. just in time to get in the routine of things again and get ready for the students to come for there mission trip.

Also one of the cool things about me leaving was that I asked two of the youthes to help take over while I was. Jesus will be teaching this Saturday for the first time with the youth, and Julio is taking over all of the Sunday night prayer meetings and leading worship for that and the youth group. As well Pastor Jose will be teaching the other two Saturdays that I will miss. But it is such a blessing to see the Lord work and raise up leaders in the youth. I know it is just a start but the Lord is going to do great things through it and even through them as they put there trust in the Lord.

Prayer Request:

1. Our time in Lima to be
2. The ministry in general in Iquitos (We are not there for 3 weeks)
3. Continual provision for the church in Panguana

Praise Reports:

1. Veronica is out of the hospital and is doing good.
2. Soon I will be an Uncle 10 times (next year) Wow thats a lot!!!!!

PS. Don’t forget to check out my recent pictures I put new ones up.

“Pray without ceasing” I Thessalonians 5:17

From being done here in Iquitos the Lord has been teaching me about the power of prayer and how important it is to be in constent prayer and fellowship with Him. I mean He is our Father right and we should talk to Him about everything but so many times i see we/I don´t. Why is that?

All to say, the Lord has put on my heart actually about a month ago to start a prayer group with the youth group here, and for so long I put it off. My flesh got in the way, i keep saying to myself, “I don´t have time for that, i am to busy already, i don´t need anything else on my plate” Well finally after two weeks of agruing with the Lord i finally stepped out in faith and trusted Him. Which two weeks ago we started it and about half the youth have showed up and what a sweet riching time with the Lord we have had. It has blessed me so much to see them have a hunger for the Lord and even ones that i know who are struggle with the Lord show up, God is good. If only we/I would obey Him all the time, what AMAZING things we would see, Lord help us!

After a month or so of praying with them i would like to start teaching drama´s with them and give them the oppertunity to share there faith with the people around there community and all over Iquitos. I mean that is what we are here for not for us but for Him. It´s cool beacause we have been going through Philippians and that is what the book is all about, glorify Christ, preaching the gospel even in tough times, counting everything a loss to know Him, always praying, and etc… A desire of mine is that we would be “Ambassadors for Christ”

As well we are praying for direction and guidance in what the Lord has for us and for the Lord to put a deep desire i our hearts to know Him and nothing else. So many of them have said that there walks with the Lord are kind of like a rollercoaster, they are doing good at times but then other times not, but i believe through the power of prayer that God has given us we are going to see life´s transformed, and there walk´s with the Lord to be solid. This is has been my prayer for the youth group here. And you could even say it all starts with me as being the leader, if the leader is not doing it then why would the followers do it. If Jesus did it then we should do it right, He is our Example This is something the Lord has really been working on my a lot, being that example; like Christ.

Also this week we are having a vigilia (all night prayer and worship) at the church. This will be on Saturday after youth group and will last until 5am Sunday morning. If you could pray for that, for the Lord to have his way that night and for us to seek and worship Him. I believe it is going to be a night to remember.

Thank you for your prayers!

Romans 12:1-2

Ps. Picture is of us showing the Passion of the Christ to the youth group.

Prayer request:

One of the girls in the youth group is in the hospital, we just found out that she has dengue, which they say there are two types and the one she has is fatal. If you could pray for Veronica for healing and comfort in this time and as well for the family. She has real bad fever attacks, her body was real swollen but has gone down, she has been bleeding from the teeth i think, her body is real red and iches a lot and some rashes. Thank you so much for your prayers!

Just last week we were able to show the Passion of the Christ in Panguana which was a great turn out. We were all blessed by it. Because we had so much equippment we rented a boat and stayed the night out there, but we usely just stay Thursday and head back that night. As always we had the kids program (songs, story from the bible, and coloring). Also that day was a holiday and the community knew that we were showing a movie so we had more come both kids and adults. But before the Passion of the Christ we showed a kids movie which they loved and even the parents did too. Watching a movie out there is something that they don´t get to do because they don´t have electricty, so being there was a super blessing for me and seeing them enjoy it.

We were able to watch the movie on the soccer field and by doing that more people came out then usual when we have our services once a week. As far as if anyone excepted the Lord i am not sure but i know there were people touched by it. The fruit of it i am sure we will see later on down the road, which brings me to the next thing. The town just donated a piece of land to us to build a church, crazy uh. So in the near future when the Lord supplys the materials to build, we will be out there for a few weeks i am sure building a church and a small house, cool uh. I am excited about that and being able to live out there with them for some time and expeirence how they live.

So if you could continue to pray for Panguana and what the Lord is doing there. Thanks and may the Lord bless you guys.

Panguana´s professional sunflower seed eater´s. This was the first time for them eating sunflower seeds. Yea i got them hooked on them, its like candy to them. It´s funny because after a while they wont take anymore beacuse there jaw is tired from trying to break the shell open, but a couple of hours later they are ready for more.

Psalms 105:1-4

“Oh give thanks to the Lord! Call upon His name; make known His deeds among the peoples! Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; talk of all His wondrous works! Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord! Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face evermore!