Thank you

Peru was an amazing experience and I want to thank all of you for your prayers and support. I know I was able to help impact the lives of the people in Peru just as much as the people of Peru impacted my life. While I was in Peru I was able to do many different things like painting a church, working with kids, passing out flyers, and hanging up posters as well as taking part in the Mega Event “Love Extreme.”
I spent most of my time in Peru painting the Umacolla Church of the Nazarene. We were painting the church as a surprise for the Pastor, however it was not much of a surprise because we didn’t do it all in one day and the Pastor lives at the church. The Pastor was so grateful for all we did. He also opened the church for us and allowed Extreme Nazarene to use it as our home base. We ate there, had service there, and had all our meetings there.
I was also able to take part in many impact events like going to different schools and performing a skit, participate in a kid’s festival, and visit a girl’s home. The skit showed how much sin can be a burden and how Jesus can take all that away if we only ask. You could tell that the skit really affected the kids. Helping out with a kid’s festival was my favorite thing I did in Peru. What happened with those is we would find a park to hang out on. We would then pull out the jump ropes and soccer balls and start playing with the kids that were coming in. After all the kids were there we would put on a puppet show. The kids loved watching the puppet show. Another thing I did was visit a girl’s home. We preformed the skit there and then some of the women shared their testimonies. There were eight girls in the home and every one of them accepted Christ that day. After that we were able to hang out with them and play volleyball. It was a really great thing to be a part of.
All of the events that we were doing were to help promote the Mega Event, “Love Extreme.” The event “Love Extreme” happened on the last Saturday we were in Peru. So the Thursday and Friday before everyone was doing promotion stuff around the city of Arequipa. My dad and I were put on the same team and walked around hanging up posters and passing out flyers. On Thursday we walked over 4 miles and then on Friday we walked 8 miles so we got to see a lot of Arequipa. During this time we were able to walk around with some of the long term missionaries of Peru. It was so cool listening to their stories and hear about how God lead them to Peru and how God is working in their lives and in Peru now.
The Mega Event, “Love Extreme” was an amazing experience. We had over 10,000 people attend and out of those people we had over a 1,000 accept Christ. That day I helped with the Kid’s Festival making Balloons animals. I think I can now say that I am a professional at balloon animal art. We had about 2,000 kids there and they all left with a balloon animal. My hands were so sore after that. That day I also got to help with the food booths, which was difficult because I did not speak Spanish well and people would ask me questions about what I was serving. It was a tiring day but it was so worth it to see over 1,000 people accepting Christ.
Peru was such a great experience and I think it would take me twenty pages to describe everything that happened. However, all of that is not as important as what I took away from this trip. I have always felt a call to ministry but I just never knew exactly where it would be, but while in Peru God confirmed my call to missions. I have the chance to go to Paraguay as a missionary this coming January for 27 months. So please be in prayer for my family and me as I explore this journey and see where God is leading me. I will be updating my blog (http://kelseyhalterman.blogspot.com/) as I go through this journey posting prayer requests and praise reports along the way and would invite you to join me as I discover God’s plan for my life.
I cannot express how thankful I am to all of you for your prayer and support. I know that I would not have been able to go to Peru if it were not for your investment in my life. Thank you and God bless you.

With Love,
Kelsey Halterman