Volunteer Profile

Love Extreme Part 1 - Puerto
We had an amazing group of short termers here in the middle of June. The majority of the group was from Trevecca Nazarene University in Tennessee. They arrived on Friday and Saturday worked hard all day (a long, hot day) at the soccer tournament.
Sunday was another big event, our women’s conference with Lonna Vopat. Most of the team entertained/wrangled the kids of the 70 women attending. This was quite a feat considering it was about 3 hours, most of the did not speak Spanish, and the kids were outside (aka, not contained)! I was impressed:) The conference was wonderful and in addition to Lonna sharing her testimony , Felix Vargas’ wife, Lillian, shared hers as well. It was a wonderful balance and between the two testimonies the conference spoke to a wide range of women. During prayer time about 30 women accepted Christ!

The rest of the week was full of activities in different communities. We showed the Jesus film, visited the women’s prison, built garbage cans for one community and planted trees in another. The girls went to houses and pampered the women by giving manicures and pedicures to hard working women. In one of the communities outside the city, La Joya, there were certain areas that had been going without water for many days at a time and when it was turned on it was only for a short time. We ordered up a water truck and the team hauled water around to the people in need. It was a huge blessing to the people in that community! Between the tournament, conference and other events about 80 people made a commitment to Christ! Praise the Lord! We are now in the process of following up with them all with discipling so please keep them in your prayers.

We could not have asked for a better group of short term volunteers. They had such a wonderful attitude, were ready to jump in and help in anyway and we never heard complaints! In that short week we grew to adore the group. While we were there to encourage and support them they turned around and encouraged and blessed us! What an awesome group! Needless to say we were sad to see them get on a plane that Thursday as they headed to Arequipa…the good news was we joined them a few hours later. On to Arequipa for the big Love Extreme Event…more to come!

Soccer Tournament with Felix Vargas

The idea for the tournament was out of a desire to reach the men of Puerto Maldonado for Christ, using their pastime. We do very well with our 6 women missionaries to reach the women, but my thought was that we needed to fight the problem of prostitution, drugs and violence in our city from all angles. We couldn’t just fight the problem of prostitution with our prostitution ministry efforts, we needed to address the problem that the men have as well. We planned the date of our tournament to coincide around two very important factors. The invitation of Felix Vargas and the arrival of 23ish Treveca University Students for a Short term missions project. Without these two factors we also could not have been as successful, thanks to all of you.

Putting on something like this requires a different type of strategy than I was used to in the US. We needed 1) a cash prize for the winner, S/1000 for first prize in order to have participants. 2) other prizes so that the players will attend the final main event with Felix even though their teams may have been eliminated. 3) promotion, promotion, promotion so that they will sign up. We did all of the above very well. We spoke on the television 4 times, radio countless, made banners, handed out forms at the courts, made a commercial, talked with the mayor, etc, but it really all comes down to FAITH. We had a series of deadline, but it wasn’t until the night before the tournament that we had 19 teams sign up, talk about testing our faith. That’s 152 competitors. GLORY TO GOD!

We organized the tourny much like the March Madness or World Cup bracket but with double elimination. In total we had 36 different matches to plan in one single day. We used 5 courts and a small stadium to host the final three matches at night. The response was incredible from the teams, they had never been a part of a bracket tournament like this and on the dawn of the World Cup it was perfect timing. They loved it even if they did end up losing. The matches went steadily from 8:30am to 5pm and then at 7pm Felix Vargas shared his testimony. Felix is an ex-member and hitman for the drug cartel in Cali, Columbia. He shared his incredible testimony and had the group of hardened men, cheering and participating as he shared his story of redemption.

PLEASE WATCH his testimony if you get the chance it is powerful. English Subtitles. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71flRXvja04&feature=related

We are so encouraged to see God make an impact in the lives of these men who play soccer daily on courts within feet from prostitution bars. This macho culture is very hard to change and we are seeing that the work put in by all, and the work that was completed on the cross is sufficient. That night 59 people accepted Christ, 40 of them were men. We were able to get their information following the event and we are now busy doing follow up. To see that these men are breaking free from their former lives and beginning to lead their families is a huge huge deal. Just yesterday as our team of boys went out to meet with one of these participants and during the meeting his wife gave up her life to Christ and together they are being discipled.

Upon planning this event, our desire was that this would not just be a one time thing, and in talking with Pastor Freddy, we decided to promote it as “The First Annual” and that the church would continue this in much past our time here. With the positive response we have received, when I see players on the street, they ask when are we doing it again. Thank you all for your help, prayers and supports for this event.

Oh yeah, and the final match came down to penalty kicks, it was epic.

O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago. Isaiah 25:1

More Coming Soon!!
Hello everyone, we have a ton to update you on and we apologize for the lack of communication over the last month. We´ve hardly had a chance to breath let alone find a second to fight the slow internet. I´m going to write all that we´ve been involved in into one giant sentence because I feel it will give weight to the fact that we´ve been really really busy...okay we´ve organized a short term group of 25 folks from Nashville´s Treveca U, here in Puerto for a week and then our team along with 300+ volunteers helped facilitate a huge 10,000 person event called¨Love Extreme¨ in Arequipa for 3 days and following that event I helped organize an amazing group of men on a construction project at Alto Libertad Church in Arequipa for 6 days and then got 3 days to deal with surprise happenings with our team and 2 days at the beach before returning home to Puerto. I hope you read that in one breath. We are planning to expound on the above but I felt like putting the blogging drout to a short end. We are excited to report in detail because of what God did during all this craziness, HE is always Good and we thank God that his plans are bigger than ours. Stay tuned. Tyson and Tracy.

Update and Prayers
I am so sorry for the lack of posting lately! After arriving back from our vacation we have hit the ground running and it has been crazy! Along with getting back into normal ministry craziness we are planning for some big events coming up. This Friday 20 Short term volunteers will be arriving for a week long mission project here in Puerto. While there is a usually a group from Arequipa that comes and is in charge of these, this time it is all up to us. Hotels, food and a basic schedule for the week has been worked out...check! Tyson had a vision a while back for a huge soccer tournament here in Puerto. He has worked hard to make this happen and it is planned for this Saturday! There will be games going on in different communities throughout the day and then the final games will take place in a stadium. The awesome part of this tournament and the purpose for it is to get as many men as possible to the stadium that night to hear the testimony of Felix Vargas. He is an ex-Columbian drug cartel member and is now a Pastor in Paraguay! He has an amazing testimony and we are praying the for hearts of men in the city to turn to Jesus through this day long event. Tyson has been on TV promoting it, running around to the different fields talking to players and doing all he can to spread the word. He and pastor have worked to involve the city and they are donating Bibles even...how awesome is that! Also, Sunday we have Lona Bopat coming from the US to share her testimony at a women´s conference we will be putting on. The rest of the week we will be doing kids festivals, movies, visiting the women´s prison and many other events. On Thursday the Short term volunteers will get on a plane and head to Arequipa and we will will be a few hours behind them. June 19th in Arequipa we will be part of Love Extreme. It will be huge day of ministry, speakers, music and opportunities to share Christ with the people of Arequipa. To be honest will all that is going on here in Puerto I don´t have a full grasp of what we will be up to in Arequipa but know that is will be full, busy and wonderful! We will be there for two weeks following the project and Tyson will be working on the construction site helping translate. And then for 3 days in the beggining of July we will enjoy a little break and will have our retreat with all of Extreme. All that to say there is a ton coming up and so much to be excited for...we are anticipating miracles and seeing the hand of the Lord moving!
With all of this we need prayers now more than ever! Thank you to all of you who have been faithfully praying for us...here are some specifics:

• Pray for the short term volunteers coming down. Pray for their safety in traveling and that they would touch lives here and that their lives would be touched.
• Pray for teams to sign up for the soccer tournament (they seem to wait for the last minute here but we are getting down to the wire).
• Pray for the stadium to be filled with men and their families on Saturday night...that they would be open to hearing God´s Word through the testimony of Felix Vargas. Pray that the hearts of the men in this city would turn to Jesus.
• Pray for the Women´s conference next Sunday...for women to hear the truth and desire to follow Jesus.
• Pray for health and energy for our team and family over the next few weeks of intense work and ministry.
• Pray for the team in Arequipa as they prepare for tons of short term and long term volunteers coming in a couple weeks as well as for all the ministry events that will be happening. Pray the people of Arequipa to be open to the Gospel.

I´m sure there is more but all in all prayers, prayers, prayers are so appreciated! God bless you all and I will be better about keeping you all updated.

Prayers
Right now our entire team is getting a much needed break. The Americans are back in the States and the Peruvians are back in their home towns in Peru for three weeks. Please pray that this would be a time of refreshment for our team, that we would all come back with even more energy and excitement. Please pray for the communities, new cell groups that have started and those being discipled. Pastor Freddy and members of the mother church are filling in for our team and we are so thankful for them! Please keep them in your prayers as they do this work!

On a personal note, while hot showers, clean water and yummy food is wonderful, time with family and friends is priceless. This time to connect and fellowship has been so precious to me and I am praising the Lord for this time right when I really needed it! Thank you all for your prayers!

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