Chachani

Thanks for all your prayers for this past Saturday. We had 15 kids show up including 3 teens. We also had a mom show up with her three kids. Emily told the story of creation and the rest of the team and I did hand motions to help the kids remember. It was a great first class in Chanchani and I ask you all to keep praying for this area.

Chachani

In my last Blog I talked a little bit about Chachani, an area of Arequipa that the Paraguay 40/40 Team will be working in for the next few months following up on leads that have been gathered there. There were just some Short Term Missionaries here in Arequipa who helped hold medical clinics in Chachani, as well as many other areas of Arequipa. In one day over a hundred people were seen at the clinic in Chachani. It was a great first ministry outreach and will help us jump start our work there.

We also had the opportunity to show the Felix Vargas video which talks about his testimony. There were about 30 people who showed up to this video and after the video we were able to connect with a lot more people.

Now that the Short Term Missionaries have headed home the follow up work begins. We have started praying over the contacts, visiting them and will be starting discipleship classes for them in the area. One of the first ladies we visited was someone we had talked to at the clinic and who was very eager for us to visit. We were able to sit and talk to her and get to know her. After a while we asked about her children. She said that her older daughter, who is 11, was having a lot of problems in school and this was something that she was very worried about. She tries everything she can to help her daughter but sometimes feels helpless because the daughter needs help with homework that the mom doesn't understand. The mom also feels that the girls teacher doesn't believe in the little girl. This creates a sense of helplessness in the mom, but this is a small snapshot of many of the families in this area who are struggling. These are the families in Chachani that we are looking forward to helping, discipling, and loving.

I am super excited for this area and the work God is going to do in it. Today, Saturday, we are starting our first class with the kids. We plan on teaching a lesson, hanging out, getting to know them and having some fun. It is going to be a great day.
I ask that you all be in prayer for the area of Chachani and for the Paraguay 40/40 team and as we go and work in this area.

Praise, Prayer, and some very good Chocolate Cake

This past week provided me with an awesome chance to relax, hang out with friends, see more of Peru, and get to know my Peruvian Family better.
First it started with a BBQ with the Kuhn's, the Webb's, my Spanish teachers, Emily, Rayann, and I. We roasted hot dogs over an open fire, which my Spanish teachers had never done. It was a great time hanging out with everyone with the additional treat of some awesome cookies!
This past weekend I also got to visit a different city here in Peru, Cuzco. My Peruvian family, Emily, Rayann, a friend of my Peruvian Family, and I all went. We were suppose to leave about eighty-thirty Thursday night but did not end up leaving until 10 o'clock. It should take about eight hours I think to get to Cuzco from Arequipa but it took us about 12 hours instead. It was a long car ride at night and it was also FREEZING! (Yes, I had to use capitalization... it was that cold) We also stopped for about two hours and Ytalo and Luis (my Peruvian dad and the friend of the Family) slept a little bit. We finally got there at about 10 Friday morning and the first thing we did was get some coffee and then we went sight-seeing in the Plaza de Armas. The Plaza de Armas in Cuzco is huge and has tons and tons of tourist. It is also super pretty! I enjoyed walking around down there and taking pictures. The next stop was the place we were staying which was an hour away from the Plaza. When we got there the house was... rustic is I guess how I could describe it. After we came home and had dinner I went out again with the Family to the Plaza de Armas. When we went back out it was dark and so the plaza was lit up with a bunch of lights. It was great time spent with my Peruvian family. Plus at the end of the night we had some awesome chocolate cake! It was sooooo good!

The next day we walked to the water fall that was behind our house. The walk to the falls was pretty uneventful until we came along this stream. Now when I say stream I am not talking about a little trickle of water. It was a pretty decent size stream. So to get across this stream you had to step on a rock and then hop over to the other side. Luis got across and then It was my turn. As I was crossing I slipped and fell into the creek. The water was freezing, and instead of Luis helping me he started laughing at me! However after I fell in instead of crossing to the side I needed to get to I cam back to the original side... I know really smart on my part. So since I had to cross the stream again I just walked across in the water. I figured I was wet already. We finally made it to the waterfall and it was beautiful. It was really green which is not something you see here in Arequipa.

We were leaving that night and since Emily missed out on the Chocolate cake the night before she really really wanted some. So before we left we went to the Plaza de Armas once more some Chocolate cake. It was as awesome as the first piece I had the night before. The ride home was FREEZING again but we made it safe and sound after driving all night.
The morning we got home happened to be Sunday so that meant we had church that morning. Emily, Rayann, and I were hoping to catch a couple of minutes of sleep before church but as luck would have it that didn't happen. When we got home we found out that one of the pipes in our bathroom had broke. It ended up flooding our entire room! The good thing is that the floors in our house are hard wood so we did not have to worry about having stinky wet carpet. The bad thing is that Emily and Rayann had some of their stuff on the ground which meant it all got wet. We finally got all the water cleaned up and we made it to church on time. If you ask me that was pretty good on only about an hour of sleep.
Before I finish this Blog I wanted to tall you all some exciting news of Praise and something I hope all of you will be in prayer about. Here in Arequipa there is a District that Extreme has wanted to work in but have not had the missionaries available to. This district is called Chachani. Chachani is a little community that doesn't have a market and there are no combis that go there. The Paraguay group, which is Emily, Rayann, Mike, Leon, and me, have been given this area to start working in. Our goal over these next few months is to plant a church. I am super excited for the opportunity to work in this community. I have visited this community twice so far and I know that God will be working in this area. This Saturday we are going to have our first event there which is a medical clinic with the short term group coming down. Please be in prayer for this clinic that we will be able to help many people and that we will be able to make connections. I am so excited for this community and hope you will all join me in this excitement and also in prayer.