Volunteer Profile

¡Loco por Panorámicos!

Well, it’s Saturday and I’m sure all of you at home would love to smack me in the face for saying this, but I’m bored.  I’m sitting on Roy’s bed sipping on my Altomayo Instant Coffee.  This stuff is a lot better than the previous “cup of coffee” I displayed months ago (it deserves placement between quotation marks as I really wouldn’t ever don it as anything resembling coffee).  But, I wanted to put up this post with some panoramic photos that I took today.  The first one here is from the rooftop of the church building where I’m living.

 
This is our classroom.  It is really rather large.  The floor is also just as slippery as it looks.  I have taken a spill or two here on this ice-rink.  We just finished our second class of the fourteen that we have to take.  The grading system in Peru is a little strange, as I’ve found out.  The grading scale is based on a scale from 1 to 20.  And that’s it.  Well, the final for our last class, Biblical Basis on Missions, was a shared test.  Each of us worked with our partners.  Joel and I scored an 18.  The highest score was Kayley(sp?) and her partner Ester with 19.  I’m super proud of Joel and myself for taking second place!

This is our dining hall!  It’s really too small for all of us.  When there are no seats for all of us at the tables along the right that you see some spill over into the chairs and sofas to eat.  This is also where all of our internet surfing happens if we don’t want to be in our rooms.  Also, this happens to act as our entertainment room where we watch movies together.  So, I suppose this is more like our Dining/Study/Move Watching Hall.

Here’s the guys room.  On the far right you’ll notice there are three levels to the beds.  Count carefully, it looks like there’s only two.  I sleep on the top third bunk on this very far right set of beds.  Roy and Jeremias got lucky and only share a double-decker.  Sadly, Roy’s bed gets invaded a lot by vagabond Peruvians and North Americans alike.  It’s very often you walk into the room and find someone who is not Roy sitting or laying on his bed.  I, of course, asked permission to be here, so I’m cool. 

You know, that’s all the panoramic pictures that I have for now.  I guess I can give you a bit of a glimpse into how this week went.  As I said we just finished our second class and that’s pretty much all this week consisted of.  We had two presentations for this class, one where we had to read a book about a missionary and the other on a biblical theme.  The presentations are done with our partners so Joel and I did a presentation on Richard Anderson, who did mission work in Guatemala in the early 1900’s, and then our theme presentation was Repentance.  All of our presentations went well, but I’m quickly realizing just how different I am from my partner.  It’s all a cultural thing.  I love him, I think he’s great, but there are things that they laugh at and I’m left thinking… seriously?  That’s funny?  I’m praying about this a lot.  I hope you would as well.  I want to be able to connect with my partner and for me connecting with people hugely depends on humor.  That sounds silly that I’m upset that I can’t kid around with my partner, I suppose, but it’s more than just joking around, rather I need to make a connection and relate to him.  I’m hoping that maybe doing Bible studies with him in the morning will help.  Please pray.

Other than that, everything is great.  Friendships are flourishing and I’m not out of control maintaining them.  God is teaching me so much.  I’m excited to see what this next week brings.  We are starting our next class Monday, Strategies for Biblical Studies.  Catch ya next week.

The Mother Post: Puno

Dear Readers,


(Note:  I am using a new program to post my... well, postings.  I apologize if the format is weird...)
I will have to do my best to cover everything in this one post.  I had been working on a post prior to this, but as we are now living in Zamacola our class schedules and material are a little heavier than before, so that post simply did not get done.  However, I would still like to include briefly what I had had written:

My number one objective to you today is to thank you all for your prayers.  I have noticed God's hand working in many situations.  I want to tell you all that your prayers are affective.  The Lord does listen to His people, and we see the results of those faithful disciples back at home.  Thank you!  And do not stop!  This does not mean that Satan has been vanquished, rather your prayers have helped us fight him.  Please, continue to be our prayer warriors and build us up with the strength of the Lord.
Agh!  I'm just so happy to take a look back at these past two weeks and see how God has given me His wisdom and has directed our group through difficult situations.  He is so amazing in His work!  Praise His Name!

We finished our first week of classes in Zamacola.  At MVNU we have something called J-term, which is a semester that takes place in January.  It’s rather useful if you have a class you want to get out of the way and want to concentrate only on that class for the month.  Our classes in Peru are setup on an even more condensed level as each of our classes only lasts one week.  So, one class down!  It was Foundations of Church Planting (Fundaciones de Plantacion de Iglesias). 
After our first week-long class we had, in our perspective, Spring Break!  This weekend we went to our future home, Puno.  This is where we are going to be doing our mission work and planting our churches.  The plan for this weekend was to meet our future home and get the TOURIST tendencies out of our systems!

We left from Arequipa right after our class ended.  Our bus left at two and our classes usually don’t get out until one o’clock, so we talked to our professor and talked him into letting us out of class a little earlier than normal. 
The bus was comfortable enough, nothing to brag about.  Kristen and I rode together and watched two movies (John Tucker Must Die, and The Wedding Date), played a card game of War and then listened to music until our arrival.
These are some shots I got on the road.
 























Our first real day in Puno we discovered that it is not half as cold as everyone wished us to believe.  Everyone had told us that Puno was freezing cold!  We found out that through out the day the temperature is similar to our Autumn weather in the States and it does get rather cold in the evenings.  I happy to say that I’m not as discouraged with the weather anymore!
We started out early on our first day in the city and went directly to Lake Titicaca to go out to the Uros.  Quick explanation.  The Uros are islands that are made out of layers of reeds that float on the lake’s surface.  We took a 20 minute boat ride to have a little tour.   Here’s a panoramic I took as we were going out to the islands.
 
 These girls were one of the first things I saw.  They look like they are about seven or eight years old!  TO the right of that are the Uros.  They try to make tourists think they they really do live on these islands still, but the truth is they are only there for tourism and go back inland when the day is done.  As Disney-esk as it could seem the culture and idea that people once did live on these islands made it an amazing opportunity.  We had a tour of two of the islands and were taught how the islands were made and how they do daily tasks on the islands. 
 









They let us try on some of their cloths to get the full experience!







You could also ride this boat made out of reeds… it cost S./5… It took the whole group minus Garren, Joel, Fransisca and I.  We decided to save our money, the boat with a motor and cushioned seats took us to the same place… for free.
While we waiting for the boat to go Garren decided to take advantage of the soft reedy ground:
Garren and I thought we’d go to the market with Roy, but when our Peruvians left us behind we decided to hike it to the Condor across the city where we met up with Chad who took up the challenge of The Quest to the Condor!

But we were engañado (tricked)… ooooohmy


607 steps… With the altitude being as high as it was I’m surprised my heart didn’t burst…

I don’t think they wanted us climbing up onto the Condor itself as they had signs threatening electrocution.









As we took our last few steps to the Condor we found this Oracle selling her magic goods!  When I say magic goods I mean candy and cookies.  It was rather surreal as she seemed to be at least 80 years old.  We began to ask ourselves, does she climb 607 steps everyday?  Perhaps the healthiest elderly woman alive.
I told Garren, jokingly of course, that what makes moving to Puno absolutely worth is THIS!
The last thing that I want to tell you all about, and that requires a lot of prayer, is the hotel that we stayed at.  The pastor in Puno that we will be partnered with in Puno told us, after Garren and I had asked him some questions about our future living arrangements, that he had been talking to Brian to buy the hotel where we were staying.  The owners are Christians and are selling the hotel.  After talking to Brian we found out that he is very interested in buying the hotel, not only as a place for us to live, but to also open up more opportunities to expands God’s Kingdom! 

The hotel is in a great central location and is fully furnished.,  If we were to acquire the hotel we would be gaining revenue as well as saving money from having to furnish a whole house for a very very large family of 14.  There is also room on the roof where we could possibly build another level for a new church!



Before we left we all gathered in room 201 of the hotel and prayed over the building and asked God that He would allow us to do more of His work through running the hotel, maybe as another ministry. 

I will leave you with some random photos from around the city.  I’m sorry that this post does not penetrate deeper than the superficial, but I’ve been working on this single post for two hours now.  I bet you wouldn’t think it would take that much time, but I had to go through all these photos.  Thank you all for your prayers and I petition you to please continue praying and also add this hotel to your prayer lists.  I have seen the Lord’s power shown through prayers.  I am still amazed but what He does when his people are faithful and ask Him for their needs. 


         

Welcome to Zamacola
Perhaps I should wait to give you guys a full update on Zamacola, but I'm just so excited I want to let you all know how this is going to far.  We are all moved into Zamacola and I have my new Peruvian partner!  Whew, the Lord is so good.

First, the move.  There is good news about this move here in Zamacola.  It has a soon approaching end!  In one month we are moving, all of the 40/40, to a new home just one block away from the church.  The first floor of the apartment complex is for the guys, the second floor the girls and the third floor for the Cluster Support Family (Chad and Amanda).  This is amazing considering that we have had so many problems with relationships and stuff forming here where we are now because the girls only live in the same building but in different rooms.  How many of you parent's would want your kids going to a coed Nazarene school?  It just didn't make any sense.  So, now we get more privacy and also a better chance for hot showers!  The guys scored big from the luck I got by extracting from my host family an extra electric shower head that they had.  They are letting us use it for Puno also!  So, the happy news is we will have reliable hot showers, privacy, better living situations to keep Satan to himself and well... We have a whole apartment to OURSELVES!  It's so awesome.

My peruvian partner.  I am so excited for what is to come.  His name is Joel and he is 21 years old.  Earlier today at the pizza shop I was trying to tell Kristen, "It doesn't look like he's 21 years old does he?"  and instead I said, "It doesn't look like he has 21 years, does he?"  which is the very Spanish way of saying it!  Joel Antonio Piña Guerra, is his name.  Upon meeting him he asked me for a hug, this is perfect.  I'm so happy about the match.  The Lord is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo GOOD!

A Need For Prayer
You all must be thinking, This Trevor kid doesn't blog forever and de repente (suddenly (I know you don't really think in Spanish, but indulge me here)) he has two blogs in one week?!  I know right?  Well, I've updated the look of the blog and want to show it off!  That and more importantly the Lord has been at work and I just want to share with you what exactly that is.

Roy studying hard.

Kristen being cool...?

With all serious things aside, here are some pictures I'd like to share with you.  This is the new Bible that I bought from my host family.  It's so little and it's got a little clasp.  It's so pretty and it's in Spanish.  I love it!



This is a typical looking plate of food here in Peru.  I've only had the purple stuff twice (Russian Salad), but the portions of rice are dead on.  We eat a lot of rice.  The Russian Salad is made of lettuce, beets and peas.  I thought it was such a pretty dish I had to take a picture.  The green place mat looks nice as a background too!

My Spanish is coming along very very nicely.  I'd even say that I'm more fluent than I ever had been in Spanish.  There have been several times in the post where I've had to backspace a Spanish word out!  Uh-oh!

Well, friends and family, like I said, PRAY PRAY PRAY!  We are meeting our Peruvian partners this weekend and we have our "partner fusion" sessions.  It sounds rather scary and I think most of us are a tad apprehensive... this is, after all, very similar to a Japanese arranged marriage.  Yikes!

Prologue to Chapter 2
A thousand apologies to my readers!  It has been too long since I've given you an update on what is going on in Peru!  I'm so sorry.  I've been waiting and waiting for something action packed to happen so you folks at home aren't falling out of your chairs, passed out dead asleep and get a concussion.  Well, to be honest I don't think that my life is that boring, but I wanted to write something that would maybe make your heart palpitate a couple beats faster per minute.

I have just been going to the Spanish school five days a week.  Last week the 29th was Peru's independence day so there were two days where the city was rather tranquil.  It was very difficult to travel across town, everyone stayed at home even taxi drivers apparently.  Garren and I went to the Plaza de Armas Wednesday, a day before the holidays, to go to Serpost (the post office) to pick up his collection of packages.  They told us the office where he could pick up his packages would open at 6 so we stayed out and about in town so we didn't have to walk all the way home and come back later.

We went to the Plaza center and sat down on a bench next to an older gentleman.  He thought we were French, which I took as a huge compliment, Garren not so much (he's not a fan of anything french).  We found later that his name was Percy.  He was a dirty old man, but a blast to talk to.  He told us about his family and a little about the weather of Arequipa.  It's a universal conversation filler, the weather that is.  Well, when we left him to go back to Serpost at 6 we found out that 1.) The packages had been sitting there for 6 days... and 2.) The office opens at 3:30 pm.  We weren't too thrilled, but it was nice spending the afternoon in the Plaza... getting pooped on by pigeons.

This chapter of my Peruvian life is about to come to a close.  We have two more weeks of Spanish class then we are moving across the city to Zamacola (about ten-fifteen minutes away on the bus).  When we first got here until about three weeks ago I was excited about moving into the Zamacola church.  You see, all of the 40/40's go to live in Zamacola after their language schooling is completed.  We will be moving in with a handful of other missionaries that we have become good friends with.  So, what's the draw-back?  Well, I'm not 100% thrilled by the change of menu... our host family's food is pretty good.  The thing I am not looking forward to the least is the cold showers.  I've been told they are ice cold.  Oh boy.  Anyway, two weeks from now I'll be there in Zamacola accumulating a smell some may call B.O. (body odor) but I'll simply refer to it as C.R. (comfort retention).

Let's take a swim over to the deeper side of the pool, shall we?  You may remember some of my posts talking about friendships and how I've had to re-prioritize relationships and how loco I can become which turns into Control Freak Monster.  If not, here's a quick recap:

"As for the self-exploration I've realized that I've begun to loose a bit of my own self, in that I'm fading from my own individuality.  I've been putting so much of my energy in building relationships with others that I've even been neglecting my relationship with God.  And I'm right where I began maybe three months ago.  Can I tell you how frustrating that is?  Leaving my best friend at home was a wound that I started to patched with a new friendship."

 So, I have been incredibly happy with myself since Mollendo, that's where this "self-exploration" took place. I've been able to stand on my own and not have to depend on what other people do to have fun or make decisions.  The Lord has been filling me with Himself, which has been so satisfying.  This new family of mine has become so precious to me and though it is just that important to me I have to remember where it is in line with God.  I think about our future Peruvian partners and sometimes I get a rush of dread that they could put a drive between some of these friendships that I've made, but then I think to myself, "What the heck are you thinking?"

There have been ten people sent home from the mission in Peru.  Seven of the ten are due to breaking a very simple rule on the field, no dating.  I hope I don't get in trouble talking about this here, but I just think this is something very worthy of your prayers back at home.  I don't know what happened in three of those  but of the five I do.  I think the most frustrating of them all is the most recent two that were sent home this past week.  They were having a secret dating relationship even after we had a HUGE meeting to clarify what exactly "dating" means.  All of which is rather silly, who needs to be told what dating is?  But, I'm not so much mad at the people.  Satan really was able to make a mess through this issue.

But, what I've realized is that having any relationship have priority over God's and mine can be detrimental.  Anything that keeps me focused from the mission that I'm committed to in Peru can be just as harmful to the ministry.  It's sad that some of my fellow missionaries decided they would break some of the rules, but the Lord has a plan and if it's to make a point to the rest of us 40/40 then I suppose that's a price we will have to live with.

My beloved Cluster Support father and mother, Chad and Amanda, took me out to eat last night.  We went to a Sushi restaurant!  I love sushi!  When I left the States I was sad, because I thought I would have to wait two years before I could sample the wonderful alaska roll, or any sushi roll for that matter, again.  But, lo and behold, Arequipa the city of life does have a sushi restaurant.  It was so wonderful eating one of my favorite foods with my parents and their two lovable children (Ella 5yrs and Thomas 3/4yrs can't remember).  I had some great conversations with them about adjusting to Peru and also got to discuss some general concerns.  Overall, I was so happy and felt like we had bonded so much.  I am a huge believer that food has that mysterious property of bringing people together.  I tell you all with so much feeling in my heart that I love my new family so much.  The Lord is so awesome with His provisions.  They are not only great friends, Chad and Amanda, but are teachers through how they live.  I could not have asked for better mentors.

I know this is turning into a rather long post, but you've been out of the loop so long, I'm sure you don't mind! But, I would just like to cover this one last thing.  When the 40/40 missionaries come down to Peru usually part of their "Orientation" is going to El Mercado San Camilo (The San Camilo Marketplace) and tip back a refreshing glass of jugo de rana (frog juice).  Doesn't that sound wonderful?  Well, here are some pictures of the event.

Cooking with 40/40
Here's a special entry for my dear readers!


Espuma Helada de Chocolate
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp flavorless gelatin
- 1 can evaporated milk (left to chill in the fridge a few hours IMPORTANTE)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- cherries or chopped chocolate for garnish

1.) Whip the evaporated milk until the volume doubles and it has the consistency of a thick cream.
2.)Add the sugar slowly as not to weigh down the fluff you just made.
3.)Then little by little add the chocolate.
4.) In a separate dish, dissolve the gelatin in a 1/4 cup hot water.  Add the gelatin little by little and mix well.
5.) Put the mix in whatever mold you wish.
6.) Put in the fridge for two hours or until firm.

----------------------------------------------

Lastly, I would like to share with you what I am drinking right now.  You all may think that being in South American I have access to the greatest coffee in all the world.  The horrible truth is that our coffee in Peru is mostly exported out of the country.  Unfortunately, I get instant coffee every morning.


Look at those wonderful clumps of undissolving instant coffee...

Anyway, that's all hem-haw.  Our cooking day was a success and we learned a lot of new words!

Vacaciones en Mollendo

After two weeks of a lot of work, Brian Tibbs decided to give the Extreme Staff a Extreme Vacation.  It was meant for rest and relaxation, and for me I was able to do some self-exploration.  The photo above is the Castle de Forga in Mollendo.  I don't really know anything special about it except the mayor of Mollendo, Jose Miguel Forga, built it in 1908.

Beth and I climbed up to the house and went inside.  This was a spectacular sight to see.  I didn't take these pictures, but I found this online and it's actually I bit more beautiful that what I saw.  If I had seen this...

The weather wasn't the best that anyone could have asked for.  All this past week the Peruvians were telling us that it was going to be freezing in Mollendo, that it always is this time of year.  It actually started to make me mad after a while.  Who tells someone when they're going on vacation that where they're going will be horrible?

From the moment that we drove into the coast I could tell we were not going to have much sun and there would be little of tomaring of sol (sunbathing).  I've not been to the ocean very many times in the States to make an accurate comparison, but the fog made me think of what I thought Maine would look like.  It was so pretty.  The air was brisk and heavy with moisture, a welcome change from the arid climate of Arequipa.  My lips finally got a break from kissing the Carmex tube every ten minutes.

As for the self-exploration I've realized that I've begun to loose a bit of my own self, in that I'm fading from my own individuality.  I've been putting so much of my energy in building relationships with others that I've even been neglecting my relationship with God.  And I'm right where I began maybe three months ago.  Can I tell you how frustrating that is?  Leaving my best friend at home was a wound that I started to patched with a new friendship.

I took this weekend to force myself away from some people and learn what it is to be me again and to do what I want to do instead of always following people around.  Along with wanting to be myself again has come some instances of anger... I'm still figuring that one out.

On the 4th we had a bonfire to celebrate our Independence Day of the US!  I, however, was bothered and decided to lay down on the beach away from everyone else.  I prayed a lot about what I have been doing to myself, putting priorities on the wrong things and why I was getting so angry about stupid things... and it came back to me again.  It is out of my control.  So frustrating that I have to repeat this lesson.  Overall, I think it was a great weekend and I've had a good time redirecting my heart.

Finally, the second best part of Mollendo was our S./20 (20 soles... it's money) allowance that Brian gave us... mine was spent on ICE CREAM!  The restaurant next to our hotel had a freezer filled with ice cream wonders.  I ate in total six ice cream cones, and five ice cream bars... and two small tubs of ice cream too.  The lady in the shop was amazed at my gorging abilities and my apparent stamina to the chill of Mollendo enough to eat tons of ice cream and not be affected.

I guess this ranks with the second best part of the trip, but I had the most amazing steak I think I'll ever have in Peru.
The waves were rather ridiculous.

New Lesson Learned
About a week ago one of my fellow 40/40 missionaries pulled our cohort to the side after church and told us that  she would be going home, that she was outside of her umbrella of support, and could not handle the change, call, pressure, whatever you want to call it.  We were devastated.  The cohort's become a family, really, and it was hard to have another person taken from us.

Our group that is stationed for Puno lost a person, making our number three.  Tacna only had three and it was their team that lost a member, making their number two.  I never thought we would loose anyone else.  It made me start thinking about the rest of us and even myself and I wondered if any of us could be next.  This occasion has made me realize just how fragile we are on the mission field.  Things can happen and can so easily get out of control.

Our loss has brought to mind the story of Gideon.  His army was so large that if he went into battle they would win and the glory would have gone to the army instead of God.  So, God has Gideon cut down the number of the army so that only He could be recognized out of the victory.  We are the smallest cohort that has come down to Peru.  I think the other cities have six North Americans in their assigned areas, which with their Peruvian partner makes them 12.  If God wants our numbers for these two cities to be small then so be it.  He will be glorified.

All the while that I was contemplating this story I was also praying that it be in God's will that he give us another 40/40.  As you all know, we had our Love Extreme not too long ago, and they announced the other cities that Extreme will be going to next.  They gave the short-termers the oppurtunity to sign up for these projects ahead of time as 40/40's or as short-termers again.  One of the girls said she was ready to come to Peru now to be a 40/40.  They interviewed her and after much prayer they decided to add her to the Tacna team!  Isn't God good?!

Our number is still small, but God answered our prayers.  I don't know if anyone else was praying for another 40/40 but I have been just amazed at the power of prayer since being down here.  First with Love Extreme, now with Kelsey our new sister!  Your prayers at home are so important.  Please, do not stop praying for us. My new lesson learned is the power of prayer and what an amazing tool it can be.  It sounds cold to say it, but it's something the Lord has given us for combat with Satan.

Whoa Nelly!

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to know,

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

This is my point of view right now.  I think it's interesting how monotone our room is... and a weird color at that.  I don't think I gave you folks an update that I made a move.  I changed locations with another guy in our cohort to help my old roommate learn the language a little faster.  I'm living with this amazing guy, Garren.  

The window, that is the blur of white light in the photo, might as well be a hole in the wall.  It does nothing to block the sound of the busy street outside.  Garren said when he and Micah had moved in he told Micah to close the window.  It already was.  

So, I'm sitting in my room listening to the garbage trucks go by playing their little melodies and the taxistas blowing their horns.  And my insides are restless.  I tell myself... easy, easy.  And I realize, I'm a horse!  

Pray that I simply listen to God.  His voice is here in my ear... rather His hand is behind me pushing me forward and my head is saying... I'm not ready yet.  I need to be at ease.  Necesito estar tranquilo.  

P.S.- The culture is so exciting again!  One of my professors gave me a history book to read on Peru.  It's all in Spanish and the words are rather beyond my level, but I want to learn them.  The love for language is coming back as well.  I'm excited to see the Lord moving in my love for the people.  I think today is another necessary step toward loving this country.  

A Job Well Done
This day is nearly halfway over.  I am sitting at our computer desk and am sighing praises to God as I think about this weekend and the way that it unfolded.  I think I gave you a general idea of what this past week looked like, but let me update you.

Love Extreme is the project we've been preping for in Arequipa to jump start the church planting that is going on here in the city.  We want to flip this town and start a revolution for Christ.  This Mega Event is the largest event that the Nazarene Church has put on in this city, ever.  The goal was to get 10,000 people to the event.  People were coming to speak such as Nick Vuijicik and Felix Vargas.  Nick was born without arms and legs and Felix is an ex-cartel worker that left the drug industry and found Christ.

This past week was soaked with hard work.  There were at least 10 different projects going on daily.  We had 300 short-term workers come to the city to help with the event.  We were doing promo events where Taxi drivers were given packets of fliers and whoever got the most people to come to the event won a laptop, we hung 30,000 signs across the city, some people were involved in construction projects in churches and some were sent out to future church sites and annoited the ground with oil.  There were some days where we simply went out to the Plaza de Armas and passed out fliers.  In total we passed out 96,000 fliers! 

Yesterday was the big day.  Garren and I were in charge of the Cuy mascot suits.  (Don't know what cuy are?  Check it out) We just made up a schedule and posted it on the wall for the short-termers to refer to and helped Dennis and the rest of the staff with last minute details or emergancy errands.  There were food courts, a children's festival, medical clinics, informational desks, men's and women's conferences and the big events like Nick Vuijicik. 

From the first few people that came in the gates I saw some young kids that I had met earlier that week at the Plaza when I had been passing out fliers.  They were really excited to see me and they brought a video camera to document the day.  They interviewed me... I don't know how well that went.  I thought it was so neat to see some of the people I had invited some to the event!

At 5pm Nick spoke.  It was very powerful.  I thought it was pivital how Nick's story could relate to those in Peru.  He has experienced an oppresion that not many people in this world can say they can relate with.  It's undeniable that the people of Peru are searching for something.  There were hardly any people that would not take the fliers and every person who took one would read it front and back.  They are under a heavy oppression and I think they could relate to Nick in a distant way.  Nearly everyone at the event asked when Nick as going to speak.

When Nick spoke he gave the salavation message at the end.  At the very end he gave the oppurtunity to say the sinners prayer.  From where I was I could not hear the people in the crowd repeating the prayer with Nick and I was a little disappointed, but then at the end he asked those who prayed to stand up... I didn't see that either.  A few moments later he had people raise their hands who said the prayer and that's when I saw them.  About 3,000 people gave their life to Christ yesterday. 

Later, when Brian Tibbs was taking Nick back the airport he asked Nick how he thought it went.  He said that usually when he gives the salvation message and asks the people to stand to pray he gets about 10%-20% response.  He said last night he got an 70% response from the people in the audience.  I had noticed this also, but he has repeated how important and real this decision was to give one's life over to Christ three times, because he wanted to make sure that the crowd has understood what he was saying!  He was doubting the amount of people that stood!  God is so good!

Today, we had a huge celebration.  The church service was really long, but it was worth it.  There is a team of people that are following up on those who dedicated their lives.  I'm so excited for what God is doing.  Now, I'm dead beat tired and have mustered all I could to get this post up.  I hope you all had a wonderful father's day!