Wednesday Update

Today has been another amazing day! The bible story was the story of the crucifixion. Many of the older children are asking questions about faith and what the truth is. Two teenage boys prayed to receive Christ as their Savior!

There are many stories to share, but it has been a long day, so the stories will have to wait. For now enjoy these pictures of some of our activities today and please continue to pray for the children and for us as we share God's love and the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them.

ESL class:

Recreation:

Crafts:

Relay race:

Rocking babies:

Tuesday Update

In yesterday’s update we reported that things didn’t go according to our plan. The main “glitch” came from the fact that we had planned to work with half of the kids in the morning, while the other half stayed in their casas, and then switch in the afternoon. We quickly found out that the house parents didn’t want half of the kids to be in their casas all morning with nothing to do. So, we made changes to our plan and some of our team members went and played and talked with the kids while they were waiting to do our planned activities.

As we share stories with each other of how we see God working, most of the stories are coming from the time spent with the kids in their homes, and not necessarily in the things we had planned. While we didn’t have those interactions in our plan, clearly God did.

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result. Genesis 50:20

Here are some pictures that represent just a few of the wonderful things that happened today:

Preparing for the worship rally:

Playing frisbee:

The guys continued to do really hard work on the school; they also took some time to repair one of the basketball goals. Dick obviously enjoyed this task:

The repaired goal:

The kids participated in a dress-up relay:

All dressed up:

Bible verse puzzle:

The college group taking a break for lunch:

Tracy hanging out with some of the girls:

Heather talking with some girls as they worked on their craft:

Donna getting a Spanish lesson - the girls were telling her the Spanish words for the stickers on their craft, and she was sharing the English words with them:

Finished feet - they say Sigue a Jesus (Follow Jesus):

We cannot say enough about what a gift God has given us in our translators! Carlos is with us 24/7, staying with us at the hotel and helping us in countless ways. He has a team of translators that join us during the day and they are all wonderful! Not only do they translate for those of us who don't speak Spanish, but they also jump right in and help with the kids - playing, crafting, singing - whatever we need them to do. They are also a lot of fun to be around. Several of them went to dinner with us this evening and we had such a good time - much laughter was shared around the table. Speaking of dinner - some of our group went to a Peruvian restaurant that had some unusual offerings - such as guinea pig and goat. None of us tried either of those, but we did try Alpaca and beef heart, as well as some other amazing dishes.

Here's a picture of one of our favorite Peruvians, Carlos:

God continues to bless us abundantly - it is such a priviledge to be here to witness and be a part of the work He is doing!

Monday Update

While nothing today went quite as we had planned, things went beautifully and we enjoyed wonderful times of interaction with the children.

Several team members went in groups to play, teach, and talk with the children at their casas.

The kids loved hearing about our families and seeing pictures of them.

Playing sports:

They came to the chapel for a "worship rally". There was a time of high energy music and then Brother Bruce told the story of the calling of Peter, Andrew, James and John to be fishers of men.

A few of the children were chosen to come up on stage to act out the story, as another child retold it.

More sports:

Craft time:

The children did a wondeful job decorating their fish and impressed us with their creativity and artistic abilities.

When the fish were finished, we tied them to fish nets to be displayed in the children's casas.

Outdoor Bible activities:

While most of our team was busy with the children, three of our guys worked very hard moving sand. They carried it bucketful by bucketful to the second floor of the school, where it will be used to make cement to plaster the ceiling.

Part way through the day, two young men who live in the community outside of the orphanage came to volunteer their help. They worked very hard, and continued after we left.

It was another great day and we look forward to all that God will continue to do this week!

Sunday Update

God has given us an amazing day today! We started with breakfast at the hotel and then rode the bus to the orphanage.

As we neared the orphanage, we drove through the surrounding community of Ventanilla. There were an astounding number of dwellings, side by side, one on top of the other, stretching far into the distance to the hills.

Once at the orphanage, we had the privilege of meeting Miguel, the owner and director. Lisa had brought him a gift, chocolate candy bars – one of his favorite things. The look on his face conveyed his joy and appreciation.

Miguel then began to tell us the story of his life and how the orphanage came to be. We were all moved by his story and the work of God in his life. He shared of losing his infant son 20 years ago to a heart attack. As he was leaving the hospital carrying his son, he passed two children seeking medical attention; they didn't have the two soles (less than a dollar) that they needed to be treated. Miguel took them to the hospital and paid the two soles. One of the boys died and Miguel and his wife buried the boy in the same coffin as their son.

Because of that experience, Miguel began taking food to street children, eventually taking in four of them for the night – they slept in his dead son’s room. The next night there were 8 more children and soon 30 people were living in his house. The neighbors didn’t like this and reported him for kidnapping. He was in jail for a month and a half and when he was released, he sold his home and car and moved to Ventanilla. Finding no place to live, he began building a home for his family and the now 50 children living with him. His “community” continued to grow and now there are more than 730 children.

Miguel told stories of how God has provided time and again for their needs. He said that he is not a man of great faith, but a man who tries to have faith. He told of a time when he committed to be a Christian for a day. Before long he was revising that to one hour, and then finally one minute. Now he tries to live as a Christian one minute at a time.

When he finished his story, he asked if we had any questions. Josey asked about the children, and where they were. He said they didn’t know we were coming – we were to be their Christmas present! What an amazing thought – that God would use us as a gift for these children!

Next, Miguel took us on a tour of the facility. We had the chance to see the sewing workshop, the woodshop, and one of the casas. The children’s shoes all lined up in their casa was a sight to behold.

As we left the casa, we moved to an area where some of the younger boys were playng – what a treat that was! Pictures cannot truly convey the joy of those moments, but here are several that will hopefully give a glimpse of that experience.

One boy began collecting the little plastic circles from the inside of the holes punched in our name tages. He made sure to visit with each of us and get our circles!

Next we went to the chapel where many of the kids were gathered; we were brought up on the stage and introduced to the children who sang to us and welcomed us.

We then filed back out and lined up to greet the children as they made their way to lunch. We now refer to this as the “kissing line”, as the children came by offering us all a kiss on the cheek. We all agreed that we have never received so many kisses before! Lyn commented tonight that she came here to love on the kids, and here they were loving her.

Six members of our group will be staying at the orphanage, so we took some time to get them settled and make a few logistical decisions about our different activities tomorrow.

While there are a lot of unknowns about exactly how things will run tomorrow and the rest of the week, Bruce encouraged us this evening by reminding us that God knows what is ahead of us and we know the final outcome - as Christians we are victorious through Jesus. We must become so conscious of Him in each moment, that we are no longer self-conscious. Please pray that God will give us that moment by moment awareness of Him, so that all our concerns and worries fade away.

Sunday morning

We made is safely to Lima last night. Our flight landed around 11:45; by the time we made it through immigration and customs, boarded our bus, traveled to our hotel, and got checked in, it was 2:30 a.m.

We've enjoyed breakfast at the hotel this morning and are getting ready to leave for the orphanage.



Thank you for your prayers for safe travel - God answered those prayers! We all made it safely, no luggage was lost, and no supplies were taken at customs. Praise God!

We're on our way!

We left the church about 8:30 this morning and made it to DFW and through security with no problems. We're now in Houston waiting to board our flight to Lima!