Peru 2008

Back Home

2008-08-08T20:12:00.000-07:00

Wow.
Today I flew into Burlington Airport and was greeted by my dad and my dog, along with the roling green mountains of Vermont. I'm finally home. To back up a bit, we left Laramate 2 weeks ago today, stopping in Ica to share with Pastor Wilfredo and his wife, in Paracus to visit some penguins, then I went up to the jungle to commune with nature for a bit. We debriefed in Chosica and had a wonderful time sharing testimonies and stories, and preparing to leave our friends and return to the USA. We then spent a few days enjoying ourselves, going up to Cusco and visiting Macchu Picchu. It was a treat because we have a connection with a group of Peruvian Christian travel agents about our age who organized absolutely every detail of our trip for us. They also run an outreach organization called Zona Segura that reaches out to young adults in Cusco, sharing the Gospel. I wanted to stay in Cusco to help them with their ministry! Cusco is gorgeous, and Macchu Picchu was incredible. I thank God for the opportunities I've had this summer, and our trip was a great end to an incredible summer.

The trip did not end there for me, however. I met Pastor Waylen Bray, his wife Cherlyn, and Mike McQuitty in Atlanta for the REAP South conference. It was incredible, and really gave us a better perspective on what our strategy should be from this point on. We are so excited to see how God will direct our paths in the future, and as I gear up for my final year of grad school, I am so excited to see where God will lead me, and if that leading includes full-time mission work. I hope that I can be attentive to His call, wherever that may be.

We should be posting pictures soon. Thank you so much for reading our blog-for sharing this trip with us. Your prayers, thoughts, and attention mean so much to us, and I love you all and am so blessed to call you friends.

Que Dios les bendiga.
Liz

Capital of The Incas

2008-08-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

So we are all in Cusco right now after a short plane ride from Lima. The city is very nice, it reminds me of Ayacucho with the bricked roads and all. I enjoy it. Machu Picchu is darn expensive and I do wish in a way I was able to budget more accurately. Oh and we are going there tomorrow.

God is certainly good and he is certainly good all the time. Chosica was nice, it was a packed schedule for the most part again but I got to play and hang out with all of my new found friends. It really was and is a joy to have gotten to know all of them. I will miss them dearly.

What a summer.

- Trevor

lima

2008-07-28T08:39:00.000-07:00

So we are in Lima right now. Using this free internet is quite baller I must say and is quite fast. We went to the Inka Market and saw Batman yesterday, quite a good time. Also went to the most fancy mall area in probably all of Peru and had Burger King. It was quite nice. Can´t think of what else really to write about, but I will probably update before I leave the country. Adios and keep praying for Laramate, Peru, and us.

- Trev

Chillin in Lima

2008-07-28T08:07:00.000-07:00

Hey,

Quick update. We are kind of split up right now. Liz headed out to the jungle lastnight with one of the native missionaries here and some other people to check it out. The rest of our team, Trevor, Emy, Ally, and myself are relaxing in Lima for the next day and a half. Yesterday, I had a huge meal at Burger King for lunch and some Papa John´s for dinner. I honestly don´t know how I survived without that stuff. My stomach is feeling it a bit now though...

Other than that, the blog posts are going to be pretty boring from here on out. Thanks for all your prayers and such. We´ll probably have a quick update after the debreif in Chosica to let you know how the summer went for other teams and such.

Heading to Machu Picchu after Chosica then home. I must say, I really am going to miss Peru and speaking Spanish. Weird.

- Matt

We made it to Ica

2008-07-25T15:14:00.000-07:00

So we made it.

Lastnight was our last night in Laramate and it turned out to be really quite a great good bye. The pastor got to Laramate on Tuesday, without problem. He was really an encouragement to us all, as we were burning out a bit as the summer ran out.

Through the past week we just have been having as many Bible studies as we could with the people who wanted to have them. We have also been having a lot of meetings with Lourdes and Adrien, trying to encourage them as we left. Pastor was the biggest help in this area, just encouraging Lourdes in her future work in Laramate . I believe she feels a lot less afraid and able to keep a ministry going after talking with Pastor.

Also, during one of the Bible Studies we had with Alex ( 2), he brought his friend Jonathan, and Jonathan came to accept Christ during that time. I believe that was on Tuesday. Praise God for that. Him and Alex continued to meet with us everyday until we left, and they seem really on fire despite only being 13-14 years old. They can definitely be leaders amongst the youth in Laramate.

The lastnight in Laramate, Thursday night, we had a get together in the plaza. It was a time of worship, a message by Pastor, and some games. It turned out really well and we had a better showing than any of us thought. It was a great way to end our time in Laramate, and to see the people come out who we had been working with throughout the summer and praising God with us in the square. After that we said our goodbyes, got pictures and what not. It really was sad to say bye to many of the people there . We all have grown to love the village and the people there a lot.

We left early this morning and arrived in Ica without problem. The rest of the day will be spent relaxing and tomorrow we are planning to go see some penguins and partake in the youth service at the Pastor´s church here. Sunday we are heading to Lima. Thanks again for all your prayers throughout the summer. We definitely saw God move in Laramate.

- Matt

...a calculated risk to further bless your name...

2008-07-22T13:29:00.000-07:00

So we leave Laramate on Saturday. The pastor should be arriving very shortly from Ica. I think his wife might be coming. That will be a welcome encouragement. We are all rather tired and since we basically got kicked out of the schools, we have been, well I have been a little bored at times. Lots of reading. Speaking of reading, I will finish the Bible on Friday. Yes, the whole Bible, and if anyone has never set forth a plan to read through the whole Word, I highly recommend it. You can do it in about two months with about 18 chapters a day. It is really cool.

So things here have been really great all summer but I am quite mentally tired to recall all of it in the blog. I don´t really know what to say terribly. I guess I will run through the rest of the summer.

So we leave Laramate on Saturday and we are going to Paracas after that and that looks pretty cool, I just checked that out through Google. From there we will head to Lima for a few days of much anticipated rest and fast food. Whammy. Then we have debriefing in Chosica for a few days and then we head out to Cusco and then to Machu Picchu. Then back to Lima for the better part of a day and then off to NYC for me to chill for a few days with friends and then my parents are coming down. I look forward to seeing everyone from back home and sharing about Peru. I sincerely hope I will be able to lead some people into perhaps hearing a calling from God to go on a mission trip somewhere in this large harvesting field.

So yeah, God is at work at all times. That´s all I have to say about that.

- Trevor

The Home Stretch

2008-07-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

Sorry we haven´t posted in a few days... this is our last week in Laramate. We´ll be heading out this Saturday, on to Paracus for day, to Lima (I´ll be stopping in the jungle for a couple of days!!!), to our debrief in Chosica, and then to Macchu Piccu before returning to the Motherland. We´re all tired and ready to go home, so please pray for us that we will finish out the last week strong and stay positive.

We had our first youth group meeting yesterday, and two girls showed up. We had a great Bible study and then played ¨Go Fish¨... one of my favorites to play with my grandma when I was a kid... I was the worst cheater back in the day.

The Pastor from Ica is coming up tomorrow afternoon, so he´s going to use his fabulous spanish speaking and church leadership skills to make sure that what we´ve started can continue after we leave.

We found out that there is a building in the square for sale, so we´re going to check it out as it might be a great meeting space for the future... I have dreams of starting a library here, and we´ll be leaving a lot of extra clothes here as there are many needy people... for the future i´d like to look into some other forms of aid for the people, especially those in the annexes. Please pray for God´s will to be done here.

We are praying for you... keep praying for us. Can´t wait to see everyone back in the states!
Liz

Lo que cuesta seguir a Jesus

2008-07-17T10:42:00.000-07:00

Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to safe his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it."
Luke 9: 23-24

Crazy summer... if you ask Ally or Emmy, they´ll tell you I´ve been a bit wacky lately. God has been showing me how much He is in control. It is so much better to follow Him than to try to do my own thing, even if it hurts at first...

Yesterday we were going about our business having a pretty chill day after the tornado of gringos happened, when 2 girls showed up at our door and asked us how they could have a relationship with God... okay... wasn´t expecting that, but great! And, they want to lead a youth group here... two prayers answered. A couple hours later, Emmy and I were heading off to the bank when three more women came up to us and asked us how they could know God. Sounds good to me! Another prayer answered, as they live next to a family that wanted to start a home group.

So I give up... God´s got a better plan than I do and He´s got it under control. He´s beating the concept of total surrender into me, and for that I´m thankful. We´ve got a little over a week here, and the professors are planning a big party for us next Thursday. The Pastor from Ica is planning to come up next week to help us set up small group Bible studies. We´re planning to have our first youth group meeting this Sunday. And I´m just thankful to be along for the ride.

Please pray for Matt, who is sick again, and for team unity as we finish out... Thanks for reading! Miss you all a ton and am praying for you.

Liz

the earth will shake

2008-07-16T12:05:00.000-07:00

So I don´t have my journal with me right now so I will just write what I can remember over this past whirlwind of a week.

The Syracuse team left yesterday and the Creative Ministry Team left the day before that. I took a shower yesterday and it was fantastic. God certainly has been working powerfully. I believe over the probably past week or week and a half, we now have about 40+ people who have accepted Christ in Laramate, Ocaña, and Llauta, the majority of those people being in Laramate. Praise da LERD!

This morning we received a knock on the door from two girls who had some questions about God for us and Liz and Emmy sat down with them and shared the gospel and they accepted Christ as well. Amen. After that Lourdes and Adrian arrived for a meeting where we were ironing out what they can do since they accepted the request and calling to be a leader of the people here in Laramate. It seems we will have Bible studies and fellowship continuing after we leave! Praise God.

Yesterday I wrote my first song ever. Mos of the lyrics are from Psalm 63. Hopefully I will refine it, figure out a bridge maybe or a pre-chorus, and then share it for the glory of God! I also figured out two more chord progressions that I like and I am really excited about maybe making those into songs. Love my guitar. Thanks God.

Yeah so two days ago when the Creative Ministry Team left, they were supposed to share and have a presentation in the schools in the morning but we went there that morning and they said that they had exams and teacher evaluations all day. So we left a little dissapointed and the CMT left later that day. So later that night we were talking with Alex from the restaurant family and he shared with us that they did not have exams or teacher evalutions today, but rather were telling the kids that in the news there were reports of missionaries who would come to villages and steal the organs of little kids and turn them into oil. No joke. They have a term for that that sounds like pistachio. So we are now pistachios. Fantastic. So later that night the teacher that we have been working with and teaching English with comes to our place and tells us that they have exams all this week and she is on vacation next week. Later we come to find out that that is also a bold faced lie. So we were facing a bit of persecution and now we can´t teach in the schools, but hey, I guess we are doing things right here. God is certainly moving.

Matt and I are going to cast a mountain into the sea. We just need the faith to do it.

Also a few weeks ago I woke up in the middle of the night and thought I felt an earthquake. Everyone thought I was a little crazy the next day but then we heard on the news that there was an earthquake...like on the other side of the country. So basically I have super-cool earthquake feeling powers.

Top Ten Things I Miss (But these things are not affecting my ministry here):
10. Driving.
9. My Electric Guitar.
8. Syracuse University.
7. Working and making money.
6. My camp.
5. Hot Showers.
4. Peanut Butter-Chocolate Ice Cream.
3. Fast Internet.
2. Friends.
1. My family.

- Trevor

¨look to the day, the earth will shake, these withered walls will fall away¨

No more school

2008-07-16T11:56:00.000-07:00

Here is a little update now that the Creative Ministry and Syracuse teams have gone...

We are now up to 44 people who have made a decision to accept Christ for the summer. I know numbers may not be the most important things ever, but it definitely helps me see how God has been working and using us this summer. This morning numbers two more girls came to Christ, ages 18 and 19. They just showed up to talk more about the Bible, because Egardo had talked to them earlier in the week. They came to accept Christ today and more than that, they have agreed to help us lead our youth study/group that we are starting this Sunday at 3. Please keep that meeting in your prayers, that kids would rememeber and show up and also that we could really help the kids get excited about the Bible and God more before we leave.

Also, on Monday the we tried to get the CMT into the colegio to present their stuff for the kids before they left that afternoon. We got there and they said they had examinations and evaluations so we wouldn´t be able to get in that day. Later on that night, Trevor and I were talking with some kids and found out that we were lied to. There was no exams or anything that day. The kids had been told that in the news there was stories about gringo missionaries who are here to kill children, and take their organs to make oil to bring back to the states. We do not know if the teachers actually believe this or not, but it is what the kids are being told here. Later on in the night, the English teacher came by to tell us that they had evaluations and exams all week and that the next week she would be on vacation so we wouldn´t be able to teach at the schools at all anymore. (We then came to find out that all of that is a lie).

Also, on Monday while we were waiting outside the school to find out if we would be able to get in there, one of the ladies who was very against us earlier in the week was there. She made her body into a cross and faced the wall right in front of us to mock us. There is obviuosly a lot of spiritual warfare going on, with lies being spread and a lot of opposition against us teaching their kids anymore here in Laramate. Please keep that in your prayers, that we would be able to continue to show love here in Laramate and in doing so break down any lies being told against us here.

With this new found time, since we are not teaching in the schools, we are devoting ourselves to getting together groups of Bible studies before we leave. Lourdes has agreed to be our leader, though she is still very fearful and self-conscience about the whole process. Please continue to keep her in your prayers. This morning we had our first meeting about leading here, and she seemed a bit overwhelmed. On a positive note, however, Adrien was also there and is on board as being one of our leaders here. Being that Adrien and Lourdes have a lot of interaction, being that they both teach in the institute, and both travel to Ica often where the Pastor lives, this is a great first step for leadership here in Laramate.

Continue to keep the school situation and leadership issues in your prayers. Also, if you could, pray for me, I woke up pretty sick this morning with all kinds of sinus problems and sore throat and crap. Thanks.

- Matt

Creative Ministry Team showed up..

2008-07-13T12:27:00.000-07:00

Hey,

As Liz said, the Creative Ministry Team showed up. There is a lot of gringos all over the place in this town.

God has really been working here since the arrival of the Syracuse team and the CMT as Liz pointed out. Most recently today, we have four more kids who have accepted Christ. Praise God. Their names are Ronaldo, Paul, Kevin (who is one of our students at the Colegio), and Arturo (the other son of the Restaurant family). Eguardo (the native Spanish speaker that came with the Syracuse team) was talking with them while we all went to the hot springs for ¨guy time¨. It was really cool. Afterwards, Kevin and Paul showed us some waterfalls and swimming holes down the river. God is really cool how He has been bringing people to Himself in this village. It is going to be sad to leave, but for right now we have a lot of work cut out for us.

Continue to pray that we can get people together for Bible studies and that we can continue to press the importance of fellowship to the new believers before we leave. We only have a week and a half left so also pray that we can finish strong in our ministry here for the summer.

- Matt

We´ve Got Company

2008-07-12T07:12:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

It´s been CRAZY here these past few days... there was a strike in Peru on the 9th, and in many of the cities people could not get out. The creative ministry team was stuck in another town, as the people there had put rocks in the streets to make sure that no one got through. Fortunately in Laramate no one really seemed to care that there was a strike. Our stateside team was able to get here on the 9th since they took all mountain roads, but apparently they were yelled at by a man who said they should not be traveling on strike day.

We were supposed to teach at school that day, but the teachers were on strike... basically they marched around town smiling because they had a day off from work. We had our first group Bible study with three of the professors from the Institute, which went relatively well. After our Syracuse team got here, the guys went to study with Martin, and the girls went to study with Sonya. Martin´s wife was at the study, and she received Christ! Edgardo, a Puerto Rican, is on the Syracuse team, and he is able to share fluently, which is awesome.

We spent Thursday in Ocana, one of our other partner villages, and several people received Christ there. They wanted us to stay and share the Bible with them. They were very receptive, and we hope to be able to send more long-term teams there in the future. Yesterday, Friday, we went to Llaute, as Laramate, Llaute, and HuacHuas were competing in sports. Five people received Christ there. We also met Lourdes´uncle. He has a huge house and plenty of spare beds, and said that if we ever come through there, we can stay with him. We shared stories, and peanut butter (the cuse team brought us peanut butter!) and ate some really good bread... also, the creative ministry team showed up! Good times. We spent yesterday evening in Laramate, playing gams and singing with the kids.

This afternoon the creative ministry team is going to do their presentation. Please pray for them. Tomorrow is Alex´s birthday (the son of our restaurant family) and we´re going to make pancakes for him! There are 14 gringos here right now, so it´s a little overwhelming, but we´re having a ton of fun and are also excited to welcome a new team member, Ally, to our team!

On a personal note, my Syracuse email address had 624 messagfes when I opened it this morning, and it´s full of spam... if i´ve spammed anyone, i apologize, but if anyone knows what´s going on with that, please let me know... it´s pretty anoying.

Miss you all and am praying for you! Two weeks from today we head back to Lima, so please pray that we´ll have some sustainable groups going by that time.

Liz

In All Things, To God Be The Glory

2008-07-08T10:22:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I believe Liz has already posted the news about Greg. Please continue to keep his family in your prayers. His mom, is obviously taking this very hard. Their family has decided to use the insurance money from the IMB, however, to start a scholarship fund for future missions in Peru. Also please keep the REAP South staff in your prayers, this week is going to be very difficult for everyone involved.

Additionally, there is a nationwide strike in Peru starting on July 9th. This means that all teams are suppose to stay in their villages and not travel, and even some teams had to get pulled from some areas. It is expected to be violent in some areas, but who knows. Where we are, there isn´t going to be striking or anything so we will be fine if we just stay in the village. Because of this however, our Syracuse team has to rush here today, so please pray for their safety. Also, the Creative Ministry team will be staying in their current village and unable to come to Laramate on the 9th as was originally planned. Just please pray for safety of everyone throughout Peru and for wisdom regarding traveling and such. God is in control, so it´s all good.

Finally, as Liz pointed out, we have two new brothers in Christ, Alex and Adrien. God is so good. Tomorrow morning we are having a Bible study at 10 am. So far Lourdes, Adrien, and Martin are suppose to be coming. Please pray that they are all able and do come tomorrow. This is a great opportunity to start a lasting group between the believers here in Laramate. Additionally, Edwin, a student at the Institute is suppose to come. We do not know whether or not he is a Christian, so please keep him in your prayers.

That is all of the updates for now.

- Matt

This is the Day that the Lord Hath Made

2008-07-07T14:13:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,

This morning I received word that one of the summer missionaries in Peru passed away. Greg Gomez was on a team doing research in the Andes when his truck crashed into the side of the mountain. He was with two other missionaries, Claudia Puentes and Lydia Shiver, both suffered injuries but will be okay. Please pray for these people, their families, and the rest of the missionaries in Peru this summer.

We learned the news right before lunch. We had two appointments at lunch, one to study the Bible, and one for Trevor to teach guitar. We decided not to cancel them, as it was so close to the time of our commitment. Brad, another missionary, came to our village to give emotional support today. After lunch ALex, the son of the restaurant family, and Adrien, a veterinarian and teacher at the institute, came to study the Bible with us. We serve an amazing God, and both received Christ today. We got to share with Arturo as well as he was learning guitar. Matt was able to share the Gospel with Alex using his limited SPanish, and Adrien and I talked about the creation and about how the Bible is our guide. Adrien is a potential leader, so please pray for him. He is really cool, and I´ve been able to talk to him about my studies a lot. He wants to study and get a group together so that it can continue when we leave.

We serve an amazing God. Please pray for Emmy, as she is taking this loss very hard. Greg was a really cool guy, and he had a bright future ahead of him. He just graduated from Ole Miss with an engineering degree and had a job lined up upon return. We saw him a week ago in Nazca. I don´t know what to say except to ask you all to pray.

¨Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.¨
2 Corinthians 4:16-18

In Christ,
Liz

The Most Ridiculous Half-Hour of My Life

2008-07-07T10:24:00.000-07:00

So yesterday was our ¨sabbath¨but Liz decided it would be good to agree to get up and help out with some video these guys were shooting at 8:30 in the morning. When we get there, there are instruments and stuff, and they tell us we need to dance. It turns out these three guys, called ¨Trio Laramate¨are making a Peruvian music video. If you have never seen these, they are RIDICULOUS. We all ended up in red ponchos, each with an instrument: two guitars, a ukilele, and an accordian. ( I know I probably spelled some stuff wrong). We are all standing there dancing, pretending to play in the middle of the town, while the actual song is played on a CD player next to the video camera. The actual band is around us singing and dancing. It was completely ridiculous.

Later Trevor and I took a nice long bath in the hot springs. It was pretty nice. That´s all I have for now.

- Matt

BOOM HEADSHOT!!!

2008-07-05T16:18:00.000-07:00

Well the past couple days have been rather, rather good. Yesterday we had a Bible study with Martin down at the river and that was nice. I forget exactly what we talked about, but we went through Romans 1 and it was good. I really like Martin, he is a very cool guy and I really, really pray that he would become a leader of some sort. Jesus picked his twelve apostles because they were ordinary men. There was nothing terribly exceptional about them. I don´t know why I felt the need to say that, but there ya go.

So yeah we were at the river and it was good. We found a few more hot springs that are like right next to the river. It is really somewhat amazing to just see water basically flowing out of rocks and it is warm. I mean if you think about it that water was probably heated up by magma somewhere deep down and it must have traveled a decent way to get to the surface. Either way I think Matt and I will go down there in our swimming trunks and do a little bath. Fantastic.

So yeah after our Bible study with Martin we are walking back up and naturally, yesterday was the fourth of July, so we were telling him that it was our independence day. So Matt and him are talking and Martin apparently used to be in the military back in the day but I don´t think he saw any serious action, I am not too great on historical Peruvian military campaigns. Either way he has a 70 year old break barrel single shot shotgun and he brings it out and has a little shot in front of the house for our celebration of independence. Woot. Then naturally, it gets better. I forget exactly how, but we decide to go bird shooting. So we walk across the river and around a road and into someone´s field and stalk some birds that are kind of like smaller morning doves. I take a shot at one on a rock down the ravine about maybe 40 yards away and bah, I miss. So then Matt takes it and reloads and takes a shot at a couple in a tree off in the distance and BOOM, POOF, and the bird falls into the deep ravine. Emmy was going to take a shot but the gun doesn´t always set off the primer in the shell so it doesn´t fire and that was the case. So we walk back and have chaufa for dinner (fried rice kinda) and that was good. Oh yeah and later that night we all decide to chill in the girls room and talk for probably like 2 or 3 hours about any and everything. God, heaven, relationships, things we have done (and haven´t). I do believe that the way to get great conversations started is by playing never have i ever and talking about mildly inappropriate, but not really, things. I recommend it.

Soooooo today we were going to have a Bible study with a guy named Adrian but he didn´t show up. This happens alot. After that we went to a field that Martin owns over the mountains. After a jump start from another guy, we are off and it is about probably an hour there, maybe less. On the way there we find many flocks of the birds that we were hunting and hop out of the van (sometimes just shoot out of the window) and blast em. Martin got twelve overall and then handed the gun to me and I hopped out of the van and stalked a big old flock of birds but the gun would not shoot the shell everytime I tried. I would have had a killing spree if it had worked. Then we continue on to Martin´s place and basically climb up into some brush and there is a little water pipe and cement basins there and Martin and his wife clean off the birds and then we make a fire and eat them and some random fruit we had brought. I must say those little birds tasted pretty good charred over a fire with some salt. Granted there is only like 4 bites on each bird, but nevertheless, yum.

That was about it. We came home and were just waiting for Josefina to show up for a Bible study, but hey, we went two for two and she didn´t show up today either...BUT...we were praying in the town square and this kid, Alex, comes up to us and might I say this kid is a gentleman and a scholar. He is about 13 or so but everytime he sees us he makes it a point to shake all of our hands and see how we are. So Liz goes through a little story tract with him and he decides to accept Christ! Amen. Pray that he will realize the miracle of God´s grace and that he will grow fervently in the Lord. Also, we found out that the ladys who we were going to have Bible study with tomorrow morning are not going to be there, but hopefully another girl who Emmy talked to randomly will study with us tomorrow. Pray for that.

So I think that is everything for now. We are off to get food shortly and I am HUNGRY.

- Trevor

Bird Hunting

2008-07-05T16:13:00.000-07:00

So yesterday we had a Bible study with Martin. We went down to the rio and he decided it would be better to sit on the grass on the other side. We crossed where he decided and I slipped and went in nearly up to my waste. Yeah, it´s funny now. I am ridiculous.

Anyway, after Bible study we were talking to Martin about how it was Independence Day in the U.S. Trevor said that we needed to blow something up or shoot something. Martin told us he had a 70 year old shot gun. We got it and we went out to the fields and we went bird shooting. I had one shot, and I killed a bird that was sitting on a tree. I´m not going to lie, it was a pretty nice shot. Anyway...

Today we got up and were suppose to have a Bible study with a man named Adrian, but he never showed. Please continue to pray for him. He actually approached us about studying the Bible so he seems like he wants to learn, he possibly just forgot. After that Martin took us all with his wife to his fields. On the way we stopped on the side of the road and shot birds and then just grabbed them and through them in the van. Once we got to his fields we cooked the birds and ate them for lunch. It was a pretty sweet time.

After returning back to Laramate, we were supposed to have a Bible study with Josephina, but we did not show up either. So we sat in the square outside her door and prayed while we waited. Afterwards a kid who were a pretty familiar with, Alex, came up to talk. Liz started going through a track with him and he ended up praying to accept Christ! Glory to God! He is only about 13 and he definitely does not have strong leaders around to help him grow. Please continue to pray for him that God would bless him with a desire to read the Word and that he would not fall away with a lack of discipleship here. We also are very good friends with one of his friends, Alex. He is the son of the family who owns the restaraunt we always eat at. We are going to get more intentional about sharing with him, so you can continue to pray for that as well.

Finally, we have a meeting with another lady from the Salud tomorrow. Emy went to see if Sonya was around and ended up talking to another lady that wants to study with us. Please pray that she would remember and show up tomorrow and that it would be a good time to grow in the knowledge of God and the Word together. She seems to be a Christian already, but we don´t really know.

Thats about it, Sorry I feel like I get kind of dry with my posts sometimes. Check other people´s for more entertainment.

In Christ,

- Matt

my spoon is too big

2008-07-03T14:36:00.000-07:00

Well I am still in Peru. This is darn crazy. Nazca will still remain quite awesome in the banks of my memory. Things are going really quite well here. I think I will ramble a bit in this entry because I have no clue what I want to write about. I hope my stimulus check comes in soon. That $350 or so will be very, very helpful at the beginning of the year. AUGH I just thought about buying books. That is indeed, never fun. Do you know what is fun? Shooting guns. And daydreaming when you are in schools about terrorists busting in through the door and you whipping out your knife and taking them out with it and then taking (presumably) their AK-47 and blowing the rest of the terrorists away. That is always fun. Do you know what is funny? When you are having a bible study with a new believer and a few kids are sitting around listening and then you hear a little *poot* from the little girl sitting across from you. You know what is funnier? When that girl leaves and then a little boy comes over and shortly thereafter...another little *poot*. You know what is fantastic? Pollos a la brasa. Tonight. You heard me right. That is a quarter of chicken and some fantastic french fries for oh about 2 dollars. WHAMMY.

Wow. That phone that is ringing is quite loud and...loud. We are having a Bible study with another lady who owns a store tonight. We are also having a Bible study Saturday with a new guy. The Syracuse team and the Creative Ministry Team (a traveling team of 6 people who visit many villages and share the gospel through song, skits, and even puppets) are coming next week some time...it should be pretty rocking with them all here.

Well tonight my family is out at the lake shooting off fireworks. I am not. It is quite ok though. Peru is wonderful. I am going to make a full effort to try and find fireworks for tomorrow though. Everyone in Laramate will love America or it will be the end of me. But I digress...

Yeah so I miss basically everyone from back home. Expect a warm greeting when I see you all.
I guess that is all I got. Adios yall. Keep praying.

- Trevor

It is Well With My Soul

2008-07-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Nazca was awesome. It was fun, there was good food, good stories, and it was awesome to see the other team members. We got to hear how the other teams were doing, and we got to worship together. I was really convicted about living only for him, and not for my own selfish desires. God´s got much better plans for my life than I do. Also really cool was the fact that upon return, everyone in Laramate was really excited to see us! I am so excited to be back, and we have a lot of work to do. We´re going to try to start a children´s ministry tomorrow, and we have 3 Bible studies this afternoon. This morning after teaching, 2 professors came up to us and asked if we could study the Bible with them. THen Matt went to the store and the lady there said that she had been reading the Bible we gave her and that she wants to study with us. AMEN! I´m excited. PLease do pray that leaders may be raise dup here. We have just over three more weeks here in Laramate, before we start traveling. I´m so encouraged when I hear people are praying for us. We are praying for you, too.

IN Nazca, one team said that they have been teaching ENglish with the lyrics to It is Well with My Soul. I´ll finish the blog with those lyrics, because they´re awesome. I hope you can enjoy the 4th of July for us!

IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blessed assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

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

Miss you all!
Liz

Back to Laramate

2008-07-02T08:54:00.000-07:00

So Nazca was an amazing trip, here is a recap:

We got there, and stayed in the Hotel Alegria, which has a TV in everyroom and hot showers. It also has a pool, which was pretty fantastic. We ended up going up in a plane over the Nazca lines, which was pretty cool. It´s weird to step back for a second and realize you´re in a plane over a desert in Peru. God is so cool, I would have never expected to be where I am at now.

Through the weekend we had three sessions a day, where we would all spend time in worship together and then hearing testimonies from all the teams across Peru. It was an awesome time to hear how God works in different ways. There are villages which 60 new believers, to villages with none. But we all know that God has us here for a purpose, and that is to proclaim His name, whether it is time for ¨harvest¨in some of these villages or not.

The rest of the time we spent just hanging out, playing cards, walking through the city, playing soccer, eating a LOT of cake and ice cream. It was a very relaxing trip, and awesome to spend time with the other missionaries. Part of me really did not want to leave Nazca.

We got back yesterday, though. We made it without any problems, praise God. We were all pretty tired though, so we napped most of the day. When we got up this morning for our English class at the high school, I had a terrible sinus headache and stated in bed. I found out that people were telling us how much the town was happy to have us back. It is awesome how God has worked in the people´s hearts to accept us here so warmly. We also ran into two people from the Institute, we are having a Bible study with on Saturday and another on Monday, both at their request. God is so good and working in this village.

The biggest prayer request for our team now is to know how to get all the different people we are having Bible studies with together into one place. We have met with, and continue to meet with, various people throughout the week, all at different times. Please pray that we would gain insight and understanding in how to best get all those different people together. We really need this, because we will be gone soon, and we do not want all these Bible studies to die out.

Aside from that, the Creative Ministries team is coming here on the 9th. Pray for open doors in the elementary and high schools that we would be able to use their time here and their talents to the fullest to share the gospel through songs and skits.

Other than that, my headache has really subsided since this morning and everyone is healthy. Pray for our continued health and passion to work to our fullest in the coming month.

- Matt

P.S. Spain won.

top ten and vomito

2008-06-30T19:59:00.000-07:00

So I got sick last night. Throwing up is never fun. Figures that when I am having good food I get sick. Whammy.

Top Ten Foods I Will Eat When I Get Back In The States:
1. Moe´s Southwest Grill - Burrito
2. Twin Trees Pizza - Bacon and Black Olive Pizza
3. Soft serve peanut butter and chocolate ice cream
4. A pita from Marshall street
5. A prime rib
6. Milk, lots of milk
7. Corn on the cob
8. Calamari
9. Sweet and sour or general tso´s chicken
10. Sushi

- Trevor

nazca is fantastic

2008-06-29T14:45:00.000-07:00

ok so i am going to have a lack of proper punctuation for this entry because this keyboard is stickier than normal.

we are all in nazca now and it is stinking awesome. eating great food, chilling with other missionaries, hearing their awesome stories, and enjoying a pool AND hot showers AND a fantastic bed...is quite a nice little vacation.

we went up in a plane the other day and saw the nazca lines. pretty cool. took a video of it.

other than that we have just been chilling quite a bit and being gringos. this rest is relaxing and i thank god so much for it.

pray that we can have large group meetings with unbelievers and share the gospel with them, that we might be able to build ministry with the children and teenagers, that leaders would be raised up from existing and new christians.

fun fact...2 people have come to christ in our town that we know personally and probably overall, within all the towns that the 50 or so total missionaries are ministering to, probably close to 80-100 people have come to know the lord and savior jesus christ. AMEN.

- trevor

PS - germany lost the euro 2008.....sad face...

Quick update

2008-06-28T07:10:00.000-07:00

Well we made it to Nazca!

We had to take a 3 hour long combi ride to get to Papal, which was a pretty painful and terrible ride. But in Papal we were able to take a sweet bus with a movie playing to Nazca. It cost 2.5 soles, which is less than a dollar. When we got to Nazca, we checked into our hotel, which has a swimming pool and we headed for food. I had tropical pizza, and it was fantastic.

Then we just hung out with the other team that got here early, and we got our plane booked for tomorrow. We are going up in a 5 person plane to fly over the Nazca lines. So that should be a pretty sweet time. It is really nice to eat some real food and be in a real bed and just relax for a few days.

Some updates, from before we left... Thursday night we met with Mario. We shared the gospel and asked him if he believed it and ever prayed to accept Christ. He said that he had, and hopefully so. He seems very eager to read and understand more of the Bible, and we have a meeting set up for Wednesday with him.

Other than that no more news, except Spain won. Which is fantastic.

I´m gonna head out.

- Matt

Yo tengo gozo gozo gozo gozo en mi corazon...

2008-06-26T10:19:00.000-07:00

Well, I think Matt and Trevor covered it. Trevor has an amazing mohawk right now, Matt is not sick anymore, and God is awesome. We had an awesome time singing songs at the elementary school, and our two visitors from Ica were so encouraging. The pastor´s wife, Roquel, and I, went to meet with the dentist last night. She was really excited to hear us read the Bible to hear, and decided that she wants to follow Christ! It is amazing to me that the people here grow up in the Catholic church, but don´t know the Bible. She´s really excited, so please pray for Sonya.

I´m reading a book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, called ¨THe Cost of Discipleship.¨ I highly recommend it, even though I´m only in the first few chapters. He talks about cheap grace, and costly grace. Cheap grace is us keeping on sinning, knowing that we can simply ask God for forgiveness, and He will grant it. Costly grace involves us dying to ourselves daily to follow Christ. I know that I fall into cycles of turning away from God, with the understanding that He will forgive me. I wonder why at those times I don´t here is voice. I´m learning that following Him is about believing and obeying, and you cannot have one without the other. Good stuff.

We ae very excited to go to Nazca, but both our restaurant family and out host family say how much they will miss us. I am so glad that we are making good connections, but I know that it will be very hard to leave our new friends at the end of July. Pleas pray for a safe and refreshing trip. I´m looking forward to an actual hot shower, and we´re all looking forward to some familiar food. That´s all for now... happy birthday, Mark and MIchael, and congrats MPA students!

Heading to Nazca tomorrow

2008-06-26T10:03:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Things are going really well here, everyone is pretty healthy and getting used to the food. We are also continuing to meet new people and expand our ministry to different areas in this village.
As of yesterday, we have a new sister in Christ, Sonya. She is a dentist here at the Salud. I do not know much of the story, because I was playing soccer with the guys here. But I know that we went back today after we taught in the school and we are going to have our first Bible study with her on Wednesday of next week. Please pray that she would be filled with a desire to grow in the Word and that the Spirit would fill her with understanding and love.

Also, we were finally able to meet with Martin yesterday, which was awesome. We had a really good talk and he shared a lot of difficult things that he is going through. We weren´t able to give him exact answers, but we were able to encourage him to continue to pray and to live in righteousness and love, God will take care of the rest. Pray that God would continue to give him peace about his new life, and that he would continue to have a desire for the word. The Spirit has given him so much understanding about the Word already, it is very encouraging. Also please pray for his wife, who currently does not want anything to do with the Bible. This is obviously very stressful for him.

This week the pastor´s wife and another lady from the church in Ica were here. It was very encouraging to have them and see their passion to share the gospel and work in Laramate. While they were here, they shared the gospel with a man, and we are following up tonight at 6 pm. He wanted to meet and talk to us about questions he had. This is an awesome opportunity, so please pray for the Spirit´s guidance to give us the words to speak and that communication would go well.

Other than that, we are heading to Nazca tomorrow morning for our mid summer get together for all the REAP South missionaries. This will be a great time to relax and refocus for our work in July.

Continued thanks for all your prayers and support. God has truly blessed our team through the prayers for you all back home.

- Matt

P.S. Go Spain!

updizzle

2008-06-25T14:33:00.000-07:00

Why hello fellow blog readers. I figure it was time to update since I haven´t in a while. There are kids looking over my shoulder right now and it is rather annoying. No matter.

I have a mohawk. We shaved/cut it on Sunday. It is pretty epic. My head is pretty well shaped. I will probably keep it until we leave for Nazca for a little rest and relaxation on Friday. I wear a hat often because apparently in Peru mohawks are not too in style. I just need hair before school begins. It grows back quite quick.

So yeah we are going to Nazca on Friday and Martin (the new believer) is driving us in his combi (van) to Palpa and then we will catch a bus to Nazca. Nazca is the city where there are those famous geoglyphs, large pictures made with stones and such that one can see well from the air. Hopefully if it doesn´t cost too much we might take a small plane up and see them from the air. That would be sweet. We will be staying at Hotel Alegria in Nazca for a couple of days to chill and relax and such and all the other missionaries who were at training with us will be there as well.

Things have been going pretty well here in Laramate. Some people keep missing our meetings we make with them, meaning we set a meeting time with them and they just don´t show up, so that is slightly annoying at times. I guess yall can pray about that. I don´t know if it is really yhe devil trying to snatch the Word out of their hearts or not, but it is something to pray about.

We met with Martin today and please pray for this guy. He is in a very difficult situation. He has two kids who are from another marriage but they don´t live with him and his current wife doesn´t like it when he goes to see them. Please pray for his wife as well that she might be receptive. Martin never ceases to amaze us with his knowledge. For a man who has so recently come to Jesus, he understands alot. Pray that he might floow through and live a life for God. He was saying to us earlier today that some people say that each person can interpret the Bible their own way and it means different things to different people, but in reality there is only one true meaning of the Bible and people need to stick with that. Fantastic. So please pray for Martin. Please also pray for Lourdes, Josefina, and the other lady we met on the hill whose name I forget. All these three are believers and if God raises them up to be leaders and to bring others to God, it would be great. So pray something like that.

Reading 18+ chapters of the Bible each day is fantastic. I was reading Deuteronomy today and it was pretty stinking great. If anyone has about 80 or so days and wants to go through the Bible, I really recommend doing it. If I had my Bible with me I would share exactly what I was pouring over earlier, but alas, I do not. So I will just say that Psalm 19 and I believe Deuteronomy 10 and 11 were particularly encouraging to me today. Check them out.

Hmm, I can´t think of much else. I can´t wait to see you all soon!

- Trevor

This internet is very slow...

2008-06-22T09:28:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone again,

Some updates...

The food has been treating me better. Trevor and I run to the store for snacks and soda every 15 minutes. That helps things. We have the appetite of a pack of pregnant bears. Anyway...

Spain plays at 1:00 pm Peruvian time today, you should all watch and cheer for Spain. Thats all I have to say in regards to that.

On more serious matters, after a few weeks of trying to get ahold of Josefina, we did lastnight. We had a Bible study with her and went over John 3 with her. It was hard to tell, but we think she was either a Christian before lastnight, or she was after lastnight. She agreed with all we said and prayed the prayer that was printed on one of the tracks we had. Glory be to God. It does seem like she needs a lot of discipleship, however. She has a lot of influence in this area from the Catholic church and Jehovah Witnesses and a lot of ¨religious ¨type of stuff. Please pray that we are able to disciple her that she may grow more in Christ and become a light for the Gospel in this village.

Additionally, we talked to the director of the Elementary school on Friday morning and we are set to spend an hour and a half there on Monday morning with the kids. It is going to be a lot of teaching them songs, but we are also going to share the gospel with them using the whole colors thing. Pray that would go smoothly, that God would be working in the hearts of the children and the teachers. We have already heard some voiced concerns with our ¨teaching religion¨in the schools, and this is probably the most blatant sharing we will be doing yet. Just pray against any falsehood and stubbornness of people´s hearts and that they would have softened hearts to the truth.

Other than that, continue to pray for our team and for our endurance here. Things can get draining. Also pray for our meeting with Martin on Monday. We have tried to meet about three times this week and nothing has worked out. Also, we saw his wife earlier in the week and she said she wanted to talk with us this week as well. She seemed very excited. This would be a great opportunity to share with her. I may be getting ahead of myself, but this family could really be leaders in this village if their whole family came to accept Christ.

Finally, pray for the Pastor from Ica. He is suppose to be coming up this week with a team. Pray for safety in traveling. Also pray that their ministry here this week would truly be blessed and that God would work in ways we have not even thought of. Thank you all again so much for all your prayers. We are seeing the benefits from your diligence every day.

Your brother in Christ,

- Matt

FATAL ERROR

2008-06-22T09:23:00.000-07:00

So I wake up this morning on our Sabbath day when we don´t plan to do anything and eat a little bread with some peanut butter and then we are looking through pictures on Liz´s camera and I decide, hey why not load them onto my computer so we can look at them at a full resolution. Only problem is my computer won´t boot up. I get an odd error message and after googling it for a while I think there is something either that came disconnected or something wrong with a hard drive partition. Matt and I are going to try and fix it when we get to Nazca where there is hopefully faster internet and we can create a boot CD and troubleshoot it from there. God, please let my computer not be fried if it is your will. Amen.

Other than that things have been going pretty well here in Laramate. Everyone´s health is pretty darn good. We have been meeting with people for Bible studies and such and that has been going pretty well except for a small smattering of no-shows. Hopefully we will be able to meet with everyone. We met with Josefina last night and chatted about the Bible and her beliefs and such. If I caught the conversation correctly, we might go help her work in the fields some day. That would be neat and a good opportunity to share more with her.

Matt has described our appetite quite accurately. I do believe we could be well described as a pack of pregnant grizzly bears who just came out of hibernation. We have many snack attacks. Actually in mourning my computer´s lapse of life, we are going to have a major snack attack. We are probably going to spend like 10 soles. That´s about 3 dollars.

Ok so keep praying for our health, open doors, and that people would show up for our meetings. Also pray for the pastor from Ica who sould be arriving today and the creative ministry team who is visiting in July.

- Trevor

Te Amo Peru

2008-06-20T10:02:00.000-07:00

This has been a great week, and it flew by. I can actually stomach the food now, and we had visitors this week, which was awesome. We went to the Institute on Wednesday, which is a technical school for college age students from Laramate. The teachers were all hanging out (they don´t have a lot of students) and so we were able to talk to them about Laramate, about Peru, and about God. We had soe really good conversations, so please pray for these teachers, and we also got to see where they raise guinea pigs (cuy-a Peruvian delicacy) and honeybees.

Yesterday we took a wonderful walk along the river, and found some beautiful places. We had been trying to meet with Martin all week, but he had been out of town, so it made my day when we saw him as we returned from our walk to the river. His wife is interested in talking to us about the Bible, so please pray for her.
The people are getting used to us, and seem genuinely happy to see us. I love how friendly they are, and I am so grateful that they are embracing us. The kids at the school love our English classes, and today we visited the elementary school and set up a time to visit them on Monday to sing songs with the kids.

This morning we also studied Philemon, and I was struck by how much Paul was encouraged by Onesimus, a new believer. I was reminded of how much Martin is an encouragement, as our my new brothers and sisters in Christ back home, and so I´´m just putting out a big thank-you to any new Christians who are reading this, for the encouragement you are.

The pastor from Ica is scheduled to come this Sunday, and we are so looking forward to seeing him! In one week we will leave for Nazca, and I can´t wait to see the Nazca lines! I can´t believe we are almost halfway through the summer. I also know that a bunch of my friends graduate in a week, so CONGRATS to any MPA people reading this. I miss you!

We are praying for all of you who are reading this. Thanks for thinking of and praying for us!

Liz

Another day..

2008-06-18T15:03:00.000-07:00

So I decided to try and write another entry...

I am sick again, I might have a parasite. I was in bed all day yesterday with some pretty terrible pain. I am taking a bunch of pills, and I was able to go out with the rest of my team today.

In more important news,

We went to the ¨instute¨today, which is basically their college. We were able to talkto some professors and students. Out of nowhere, one guy asked ¨Can we talk about God¨. So we did. God is so good, He even provides easy opportunities. We read the Bible and shared the gospel. Two people, Edwin and Maria, said they are coming to Bible study on Monday morning. Pray for them, and that they actually do come.

Our ¨Barnubas¨team left this morning. They were a great encouragement for us the time they spend with us yesterday. We all needed a little visit I think. One of the ladies, Jan, was a nurse too. So she was able to get me pills and help my illness.

Also, we are planning on visiting the Elementary school tomorrow. Please pray for open doors and a chance to share Christ with people and children there.

Thats all I have for now. Thanks again for all your prayers.

- Matt

I´m not going to go through everything again...

2008-06-15T10:39:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Everyone gave a pretty good recap. It was a great day. I literally ate 7 large pieces of the chocolate cake yesterday.

Yesterday was such a blessing to our team to be able to get away and have a really fun enjoyable day. God provided in abundance for us. We were all wearing thin and feeling sick and yesterday revived us. You can praise God for that.

Later today we are going to share our faith with the lady who cooks for us at the restaurant, please pray for that opportunity. That family has become like family to us and really is a blessing. I thank God for them as well.

God has allowed my body to adjust more to the food and I have been able to keep it down and I feel much better. To God be the glory.

Everyone else has given a really thorough update, so I´m done. Thank you all again for your continued prayers.

- Matt

A little Obadiah, a splash of humility, a chocolate covered cake, and a Bullfight... it doesn´t get much better than this!

2008-06-15T09:54:00.000-07:00

I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here. Even when I miss people at home, can´t process Spanish, and have chicken feet in my soup, I know that God is using us and is shaping me. These past few days have been amazing.

As a group we have been very diligent about reading 18 chapters of the Bible each day in our devotional time, but we haven´t been studying the Bible together... so we decided randomly the other day to read all of the books that are a chapter or 2 chapters long... so we started with Obadiah. I can´t say that Obadiah is my favorite book, but what we extracted from that study was that we all deserve death and Hell. The Old Testament shows so many examples of God´s punishment, as people groups are slaughtered for their iniquities. We have strayed so far, which is what makes God´s grace all the more incredible and magnified in the New Testament. We see the repercussions of our sins displayed in the Old Testament, and the power of His saving grace in the New. Sweet.

Reading so much is really cool, because you can see God´s Word from so many parts of the Bible at once. I highly recommend it. I also highly recommend having a birthday on June 14 in Laramate, because the whole city will celebrate it. Yesterday was undoubtedly the best day here. Our hostel family helped the other gringos bake an amazing birthday cake for me, which we ate for breakfast. That was followed by an amazing sermon on humility by Mark Driscoll. Check this out:

Pride encourages us to compare ourselves to each other, while humility involves us comparing ourselves to Jesus. Phillippians 2:1-11 shows us humility. The right answer to every question is: What will exalt the name of Jesus?

Cool stuff... so then we went to lunch with our restaurant family, who made some incredible fried chicken, and then 10 people loaded into a station wagon destined for Yauca, a sprawling suburb of population approximately 300. We went to the smallest bullring, sat on rocks, and proceeded to watch the first bull fight we´ve ever seen. Three matadors and three clowns entertained the audience with their taunting of approximately 8 bulls, each in succession. Fortunately only one bull gave its life that day, and I hope it meat was put to good use. Afterwards we learned how to dance the Peruvian way, as a jazz band played into the night. They found out that it was my birthday, so the entire town serendaded me while the band played happy birthday in my honor. We returned to Laramate in the same fashion, and finished the evening by watching Peru play Colombia in soccer.

It was a great day. Thank you for your prayers and birthday wishes from home. This week we will be visited by some missionaries, and we have more Bible studies and ENglish classes going on. PLease pray for more opportunities to share Christ´s love. and Happy Father´s Day!!!

Isaiah 55:10-11
As the rain and snow come down from heaven,
And do not return to it without watering the earth
And making it bud and flourish so that it yield forth seed for the sower and bread for the eater
So is my word that goes out from my mouth,
It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire
and achiee the purpose for which I sent it.

Liz

What a great day.

2008-06-15T08:17:00.000-07:00

Well that was an absolutely fabulous, wonderful, fantastic day. Thanks God.

So I guess it all started a couple of days ago when Matt decided it was a (very) good idea to bake a cake for Liz´s birthday, which was yesterday. So we went here, to the internet, to find a recipe, but that basically didn´t really matter in the end. We, and by we I mean Emmy and Rosario, baked the cake on Friday night. When it was done on Friday night we decided not to eat it yet.

On a side note, there are three kids filling up the remaining compiters here playing Unreal Tournament or something and they feel the need to make all of the sound effects of their own accord. Let´s just say I have a chance to grow in patience now. I mean a well timed BOOM HEADSHOT is a different story...you can laugh now if you are a huge nerd like me.

Anyways...we decided to eat the cake on Saturday morning which was a great decision might I say. We woke up, alot of other family members of our little host family of the hotel were visiting, went into the kitchen room (my patience is being strongly tested with these kids as another side note...haha) and the cake was frosted and had M&M´s on it and it was absolutely delicious. Had some Cafe con Leche (warm milk with coffee) and I always love that, although I must say in Lima they use basically like little super concentrated shots of coffee and it is delicious.

Then we had our little church service which consists of some worship and listening to a podcast sermon from Matt´s or my collection. Worship was good and we listened to a absolutely awesome sermon on pride and humility. It was spoken by Mark Driscoll and I highly recommend you all search it out because we are certainly all more prideful than we think. At least that is the truth for me.

Then we got ready and got some lunch which was chicken, salad, rice, and potatoes and it was fantastic. After that we went with the family from the restaurant to a nearby village called Yauca for a BULLFIGHT! It was pretty cool, I took alot of video of it. It did get rather cold, but it was entertaining. After the bullfight we were getting ready to leave but since it seems this always happens to us, we got pulled into dancing. Emmy even tried to teach me a little swing dance after we thought we were done dancing with the Peruvians. All in all it was a very fun festival.

Got back home and watched a bit of the Peru vs. Colombia soccer game. I was really tired to I went to bed a bit after halftime. What a wonderful day. Yesterday that is.

- Trevor

quick update.

2008-06-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

I must say it is really cold here.
Matt covered most of what happened in the previous post.
Continue to pray for us and have others pray for us as well. I am praying for many of you back home.
Can´t think of much else to say so adios!

- Trevor

Another Day in Laramate

2008-06-11T08:28:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Here in Laramate it continues to get colder, someone seriously should have warned us. It is freezing at night. Luckily I have just enough warm clothes to not die.

On a more serious note...

We continue to have new opportunities to share and have Bible studies with people in the village. Yesterday we had a study with a lady in the tienda across the street. She really has a desire to learn and study the Bible, but is not yet a Christian. It was crowded in the store, so I left to go pray for the rest of my team´s efforts. After they were done, I heard that two teachers from the school came to yell at them for ¨coming into Laramate to change the village´s culture¨and for ¨trying to change our religion by teaching a different one in the schools¨. It was all in response to our using Bible stories to teach English to the kids. Continue to pray that we will be innocent and humble in all future confrontations and be able to love on everyone in the village.

Also, the lady who cooks in the restaurant we always eat at has asked us to share our faith sometime before we leave. That is just another awesome opportunity that God has thrown on our laps. Please pray for clarity of communication of the gospel, as we have had trouble communicating in the past with her.

On a more personal note, please pray that I will get adjusted to the food here. It is making me sick, to the point that I can´t manage to get much down. My body won´t let me. Just pray that God will allow me to get used to the food and for health for myself. Even if I don´t, I know God will provide me the grace to continue ministry here in sickness. Praise the Lord for that.

Thank you all for your prayers and encouraging words on this blog. It is truly a blessing. God is so good and continues to show that to our whole team in a new way each day.

Your brother in Christ,

. Matt

...no words...

2008-06-08T14:28:00.000-07:00

Ok so right now I am completely speechless. Completely, completely speechless and in awe. I am aweful right now. Full of awe. I love making up words.

Where to start. So we all get up this morning, have bananas, rice, and eggs for breakfast. The bananas were fried and pretty good. Then we hung around for a little bit and then went to go explore the hot springs that were being talked about. We walk down to the stream-river and there are a bunch of people washing their clothes there and some little kids taking baths. There are also a few guys who parked their combi (van) near the river to wash it. It was all very scenic and pretty. So we cross the stream and check out where the hot springs are and it is a little enclosed area with some tiled in pools and one of them has about 3 inches of warm water flowing through it. It was really pretty cool and I am sure it is awesome to chill in the hot water when there is more water flowing.

We went back across the river and decided to walk down and have a little adventure. Head down a bit, hop across some rocks, see some cows and sheep, and just explore. Turn back and head back to go get lunch. The aforementioned guys who were washing their van are now a little bit stuck in the river and are trying to get out. Their methods to assist a spinning tire didn´t work, but that doesn´t matter, they got out eventually.

So we get into a conversation with one of the guys outside of the van who is just chilling for now. Martin is his name. We just begin talking about why we are here, how long we are here, and he wanted to know a little about politics or something. Eventually we stay there a while and begin sharing the gospel with him. After a while conversation stalled a bit but he was clearly interested and wanted to know more. We went and got lunch and agreed to meet with Martin at 3PM. So we go have lunch, rice with some beet thing, the rice was pretty good, and then go to Martin´s house.

We continue sharing with him for like an hour or so. I gave my testimony and the girls were the whole time speaking in Spanish to him since Matt´s and my Spanish is lacking. Either way we could see the struggle he was facing about making a decision for Christ. We talked to him for a while and PRAISE BE TO THE GOD WHO WORKS ABSOLUTE WONDERS, we have a new, redeemed brother in Christ this day. June 8, 2008 around 4PM. AMEN!!!!

So, please pray for Martin, we are having a Bible study with him and another believer tomorrow. Pray that the rest of his family would come to know Christ as well and that God would keep working.

My mind is so blown because the circumstances that led to his acceptance of Christ are so absolutely impossible to be put together by random chance. You don´t even know. AMAZING!!! God has certainly chosen us before the foundation of the world!!!

AMEN and PRAY FOR US AND MARTIN!!! PRAISE GOD.

Different... But Not So Different

2008-06-08T14:27:00.000-07:00

Along the Kancamagus Highway in bucholic New Hampshure, a river runs, winding through towns and past ski resorts, surrounded by the beautiful White Mountains. My family loves this river, and my brother, sister, and I would follow my dad, jumping from rock to rock across the river, while mom sat on the shore with a new book, watching us lovingly. Every once in awhile our golden retriever would snatch a rock from the river and carry it back to mom.

This image repeated itself in my head today as we wandered down to the river. Families sat in the water, bathing and washing clothes, while dogs slept off shore. Matt, Trevor, Emmy, and I paraded in line down the river, jumping from rock to rock. Along we went, past the fields of Laramate and by grazing cows and sheep, surrounded by the incredible Andes mountains.

Upon return we were greetd by a man, Martin, or ¨Tito¨, who wanted to know who we were. He started by asking us about politics of the US and the war in Iraq, but conversation quickly turned to the Lord. He confessed that he wanted to be a Christian, but that he was a sinner and did not know if he could follow Christ because he thought himself a hypocrite. He quoted Paul (in Spanish, of course), almost verbatim:

"I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do, no, the evil I do not want to do- this I keep on doing."
-Romans 7:18-19

I was struck both by this man´s honesty and by how much I identified with him, for I echo Paul´s sentiment in Romans all too much. Praise God for His grace. Martin confessed his desire to set an example for his two children, while at the same time wanting to sin. You could see in his eyes that he yearned for salvation. He asked us to his home to talk more about the gift of God.

Today was a divine appointment. We continued to converse with Martin, and in the end, he decided to receive Christ into his heart. We prayed and rejoiced with him, and we will visit him tomorrow to begin discipling him. Emmy and I bumbled through our Spanish, but God broke through the boundaries and spoke to this man´s heart. He obviously had been struggling for awhile, and God had been preparing his heart. As Pastor Koshy says "We do the loving, God does the converting."

Praise God for his faithfulness! Not only did HE work in this man´s heart today, but he worked in my heart. I have been struggling with doubts, and today God reconfirmed to me His sovereignty and His power. "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." Thanks you for your continued prayers. They work.

Liz

To God Be The Glory!

2008-06-08T14:22:00.000-07:00

Today was one of the most amazing days of my life. God is good. We all have a new brother in Christ, Martin. He prayed to accept Christ today at around 4 pm and to God be all the glory. Please pray that God would show Himself to Martin and grab ahold of Him. Here is the story...

We decided after breakfast today to go to the river and check out hot springs that people were telling us about. So we headed down there and when we got there, many people were washing their clothes and some people were washing there van that they backed next to the river. We continued on and checked out the river, but on the way back we noticed that they were trying to get the van out and it was stuck. We tried to offer suggestions but they were fine. One of the men, Martin, stopped us and asked us questions about who we were and such. We got into a conversation and shared the Gospel with him. He had many questions and we were showing Him scripture and trying to answer his questions with the help of the Holy Spirit. He said he had to help get the van out but asked us to visit his home at 3 to talk more.

When we went to his house at 3 we went in and continued to share the Gospel with him. Trevor shared his testimony and we continued to help Martin through his questions. Since I do not know Spanish, I did a lot of listening and praying. God is soo good. Martin decided to accept Christ and we led him through the prayer. Afterwards to gave Martin a Bible to begin reading and we have a Bible study with him tomorrow at 3 pm.

God has showed his power so clearly. We do not know Spanish well. Martin had no reason to trust us. We weren´t even going out to specifically find people to share the Gospel with. God brought all of these things to us and used us in an amazing way. Praise God for our new brother, Martin.

I do not know what else to say, but praise God! Continue to pray for our ministry here, for Martin and that God would help us disciple him.

More to come, but I don´t know what else to say right now, but to God be the glory!

- Matt

unreal tournament

2008-06-06T10:38:00.000-07:00

There are little kids next to me playing unreal tournament. It is pretty stinkin funny to see kids blasting each other on a great FPS up here at 10,000 or so feet. Because altitude has so much to do with that. Nevertheless...

Pray for Matt please, he got sick last night and has been in bed all day so far. Honestly, pray for all of our well-beings because it is a real damper to us if we are feeling terrible, obviously.

We went and saw a festival/parade most of the town had in the center square. They all had flags and I believe it was their flag day. Alot of the kids marched around and the mayor pulled the flag up the flagpole and it was pretty interesting. Got some video of it so maybe in the distant future I will be able to let you see what we were seeing.

Before the parade/gathering we were just chilling in the town square and this lady came up to us and introduced herself as a Christian! The first we have met. The girls were feeling somewhat down after nobody showed up to our English class last night and I think this was a good encouragement. We are having a Bible study with her on Monday and then with some other lady who I believe is not a Christian on Saturday if I remember correctly. Please pray for this and also for more people to join Bible studies.

I am missing home and everything about it, and I cannot wait to see everyone. I feel I will be changed quite a bit when I return home.

- Trevor

News from Laramate

2008-06-05T12:10:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone,

We have a bunch of news right now..

We are starting our first english class for the adults tonight in the municipal building. Pray that will go well and give us an opportunity to share the gospel and make connections with more people in the village. Also we are waiting to hear back about using the municipal building for the use for a Bible study. It would help so much to have an established place to invite people to for Bible study, since currently we do not have a place to have it. Pray for that, it is a great opportunity.

Also, continue to pray for our communication in sharing the gospel. With our limited amount of spanish it is hard to answer many insightful questions regarding the Bible. Also continue to pray that we will find some people who are receptive and invite us to their home for Bible studies.

Finally, you can pray for our strength and stamina for the summer. Currently we are all worn out from a combination of being busy, the altitude, the temperature differences, the food... Just continue to pray for our health and ability to pour ourselves into the ministry here in Laramate.

More updates to follow..

my turn

2008-06-03T18:12:00.000-07:00

Heyoooo.

Feeling better. The stars here at night are mind blowing. It is pretty chilly here, but the temperature varies greatly even from the shade to the sun. Had a bit of an appetite today so that was good. I miss alot of things from back home. People, family, friends, Moe´s Southwest Grill, etc. You know, you know. They have really great tea up here. I am pretty tired right now (it is only 8PM!) so I think without further adue I will head to bed. Continue to pray for us.

Oh, if you want a postcard...I might be able to get you one at the end of June, so leave me your address in the comments if you wish.

That is all for now.

- Trevor

Liz´s Turn

2008-06-02T13:56:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

Well, this is not what we were expecting! Laramate is a bustling metropolis of about 1500, with 3200 total in the greater metropolitan area. We got here last night, after spending a night at a Baptist seminary in Ica. Ica had been hit by the earthquake last fall, and there is still evidence of rebuilding. We saw some USAID construction, and lots of new construction in general. The pastor there has decided to join us in our ministry, which is amazing, because he will be able to bring more teams here throughout the year to continue discipling the people.

As Trevor and Matt mentioned, Llaute was cute but had much to be desired. The Lord closed the door there, surprisingly, when the room we thought we could rent was full for the summer. Honestly, when we got there it just did not feel right. The people we met were nice, but when we arrived in Laramate, we immediately felt at home. We are staying with a really nice family, and I even took a lukewarm shower today! This place is clean, the people are warm, the food is pretty good actually, and this is far more accommodating than I expected.

The pastor from Ica is incredible. He obviously loves God and loves people, and he immediately started reaching out to people. It looks like the Lord has given us a ton of work, and we are definitely not equipped to do it! We will be teaching a lot of English classes. Laramate actually has a lot of places for education here, to become teachers or medical personnel, but they train more people here than they can hire. Therefore, many people have to go to Ica or closer to Lima to find well paying jobs, and they need to know English if they want to work in LIma. English classes are expensive, though, so the people here are incredibly excited about the opportunity to learn. The kids are all very interested in us. Apparently last summer there was an archaeologist from Germany whom everyone loved. At first, they thought maybe we were with his group.

Overall people are receptive to the fact that we are here to share Christ´s love. Apparently, though, in Peru most people are Catholic, but not in a healthy way. The church apparently uses its power to control the people, and for that reason the pastor warned us that the priest would tell people not to listen to us. This is hard for me to understand, because I feel that people should be free to worship. This may be a challenge, and I just pray that we would be a positive witness to these wonderful people. I thank God for this town... it is so so beautiful! If the internet wasn´t so slow, we could upload pictures. As it is, however, we will be more connected to the world than we thought...

...hasta pronto!

Liz

Matt´s Entry

2008-06-02T13:42:00.000-07:00

I´m sure trevor told you all, but we are in Laramate. The internet is really slow, so I can´t check what he wrote without wasting 15 minutes so I´m going to do my own things here.

First of all, Laramate is a bigger city and we have already seen a lot of opportunities for ministry opened today. Pray that God would give us wisdom on which one to spent the most time and focused on in our time here.

We want to start some English classes but where and who to have those with are still questions to be answered. Pray that we can start those soon and use them as a tool for the gospel and to share the love of God through them.

Also we met a man named Edwin today, and he was very receptive of the gospel and wanted us to stop by his home and talk to his family. Pray that he would continue to be receptive and that we could have our first (potentially) Bible study at his home.

Also pray for our team, for health and unity. Also for our language ability and communication. Pray that those of us who cannot have conversations in spanish yet would find God´s will for us here, and that we would be able to use each of our skills to the fullest for the glory of His name.

Also pray for all the teams that will be coming this summer. We picked up a pastor in Ica who will be bringing another team with him later in a few weeks. Also we have a team from New York coming in July, and finally a ¨creative ministry team¨through REAP south who is traveling all through Peru to help the teams in the villages with their work there. Pray for traveling safety and just fruitful work through these teams and that we would all work together and have an outpouring of God´s love and truth through these villages.

I have to run,

In Christ,

- Matt

Laramate

2008-06-02T13:24:00.000-07:00

So right now I would say I am quite mentally exhausted and physically. We drove out from Lima yesterday to Ica where we picked up a pastor in a seminary to come with us for a few days. We stayed at the seminary for one night and then left the next morning for Llauta. There were paved roads all the way to Palpa, and then we took the mountainous roads to Llauta. That was about 3 hours perhaps. When we arrived in Llauta we found out that the place where the girls were supposed to stay was unavailable and they onle had one small store there with a very small selection of food. It also was pretty dirty, the food that is, so we prayed and left for Laramate. Laramate is absolutely gorgeous and I might be able to upload some pictures eventually but it is mountainous and green and very gorgeous. We are pretty high up though, basically on somewhat of a plateau on top of the mountains.

I was feeling pretty sick last night and this morning (most likely from a combination of the car ride here, food, and the altitude). I slept in this morning and when I was sleeping everyone else went out and met a bunch of people and it appears that there are open doors here, so we will be staying in Laramate for most of the summer most likely. We will be teaching English alot and doing Bible studies so pray for those. We found a nice place to stay and eat so it is seeming that we are pretty set for living necessties for most of the summer.

Please pray for -
Our schedule and what we will do weekly.
People to disciple.
Openness to the Gospel.

Well that is all I have for now, my brain is somewhat fried so adios!

- Trevor

My head asplode.

2008-05-31T09:06:00.001-07:00

So we just got done with training for two days and are back in Lima now and are heading out to Ica to pick up a pastor (?) and then head out to Llauta. We might make it to Ica today, we might not. Mike and John arrived here safely. Training was awesome and I see the team bonding well. Certainly God must increase while we must decrease. I will update again when possible. Some girl ate a huge grasshopper and it was awesome.

- Trevor

Cow Heart and Frog Puree

2008-05-28T17:19:00.000-07:00

Hello all,
It´s been a long trip, but we made it. After sprinting to make our connection yesterday, we arrived in Peru in time to check in to our hostel, play Jenga with some new friends, and go to bed. This morning we got to meet the other summer missionaries, and I think that Matt, Trevor, and I are far outnumbered by southerners in terms of geography. I´m working on bringing out my inner y´all, and was asked today if Syracuse University was in California. Hey, that´s cool.

As part of orientation, we spent the day navigating Lima, doing everything from sliding down a fire pole to hopping a bus packed with twice as many people as should be legal. We were on a mission, Amazing Race style, and one of our final challenges involved a choice between visiting Chinatown and drinking pureed frog. Guess what my team decided to do. I finally acquiesced, and we purchased some soda to chase down the inevitable newly dead frog aftertaste. We watched an expert frog juicer kill, skin, and boil a frog before our eyes, and then combine it in a blender with the perfect mix of honey, spices, and broth. MMMMMMMMMM. Each of us tried some, and I must say it was not too bad, as long as I did not think about it too much. Apparently it´s good for the brain. I think my brain is working just fine, and maybe I will need a less than fully operating brain to try that again... but it´s certainly something to write home about.

We hopped a bus out to camp and I just got to try some cow´s heart, which is actually pretty good. It has been a long couple of days, and we are getting ready to head off to bed. Tomorrow we begin orientation and training. As Trevor mentioned, we have picked up a new team member, so while I am still the matriarch of the group, I am no longer the only female. I can´t wait to get out to Llaute to see what God has in store for us. Please pray for Mike and Jonathan´s safe travels to Peru, as they will be taking us up there.

Also, we mentioned we will be reading the Bible in its entirety over the course of our time here. Please consider joining us. Trevor is working on the plan, and we will post it as soon as it is finalized. It looks to be about 18 chapters per day. It would be amazing to hear if people were joining in back home.

I do not think out posts will be as frequent in a few days, but keep reading, as I´m sure there will be some interesting stories.

Thanks for joining us on this trip!

Hasta pronto

Liz

Arrival!

2008-05-28T17:08:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! We got here safely as you might have read from Matt´s blog. Forgive the possible random punctuation points...the keyboards are different here. We are in the village we will be having training in for about 2 days and then we will head out to Llauta our main base of operations. Another girl, Emmy, was assigned to our three man team and that was a plesant surprise. She is going to be a junior in college as Matt and I and is from Alabama.

I am terribly excited to get out to Llauta. Haven´t had much time to think really, we went on sort of a scavenger hunt today to get to our final destination. Good fun and let me just say the old Fransiscan Monestaries...absolutely amazing. The artwork and skill put into the murals, ceramica, and wood carvings are absolutely amazing. Amazing arcitecture as well. We saw the catacombs (basement where they have tons of bones...human bones) and that was fantastic.

We had frog juice today. It is...a frog, the whole thing, blended with some honey and stuff and we had to drink it for a section of this ¨Amazing Race¨ type event. Looked gruesome during preparation, but it didn´t taste awful actually. Oh and let´s just say the frog was fresh...like really fresh.

You might be treated to a video and pictures on the blog eventually if we can figure that out. Matt and I might do a daily picture progression of beards. I might chop off the rest of my hair for the heck of it.

That is about all I can think of now...this internet is surprisingly fast.
Hasta luego!

- Trevor

First Day

2008-05-28T06:49:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

We made it safe, despite having to run, literally sprint, through the Atlanta airport to get on our flight for Lima. I am waiting in a hostel now for our orientation leaders to pay.. there was just some confusion. Our team will be heading out for a orientation camp for three days now before we actually get to our village. More updates to come.

- Matt

t-minus one week and counting...

2008-05-19T19:36:00.000-07:00

This is Trevor signing in for some serious blogging action. Epic blogging action. Bloggin' on the blogosphere. Ok I'm done.

Entries written by yours truly will probably be sporadic and contain any and everything. With that said...

I am kind of scared about this whole thing. Perhaps scared isn't the right word because that implies fear and when fear comes a general avoidance to the object of fear come with the fear. So maybe I am not scared because I am not wanting to avoid this opportunity/blessing/mission. I am excited to go but it feels so completely new. Although I went to Peru last year, only for two weeks, I know that a summer-long venture will be completely different. Wow. I guess it is hitting me. In 7 days, a little more than 168 hours, I will be on a plane to Peru. Yowza.

After a seeming lapse of God (7 days without seeking God makes one week...shoot me now for the pun) after coming back home, I crack open my dusty mind and Bible hidden in a plastic Wegmans bag from packing, and receive a fresh dose of truth. Good Lord (indeed He is), how could I live without Him? Yeah but God certainly has been teaching me things that always transcend what I expect. It always seems to come at odd junctions in His word and my life experiences that I really discover who God is. One thing that I have gleaned is that when we read the Bible, pray, or seek God, we should not be seeking/asking what God can reveal to us. I say this because I believe we should do what we were doing. Seek God. Seek God. Note the emphasis? Certainly when we seek Him we will gain insight to how we should live, but we must first understand God! I was listening to the radio and a caller asked an on-air pastor about what happens to young children when they die? What is their eternal destination? The preacher then explained that there is no specific verse in the Bible that addresses this topic, only certain passages that have a tone that refer to this matter. One was in 1 Corinthians, but for the sake of me possibly butchering his explanation, I will skip to what he made his point on. He went on to say how when we try to figure out things we don't know, we first look to the things we do know. What do we know in this matter? God is just.

Deuteronomy 32:4 describes:

The Rock, his work is perfect,
for all his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
just and upright is he.

Therefore we rest this issue that scripture does not give a clear answer for on a solid truth. God is just. When have you come before God with an issue that you can't figure out? When have you not found an answer? I submit to you this: seek God and who He is and rest on those truths. He gives us a picture of himself so vivid that we can certainly rest our burdens on him. Come all you weary to him and lay down your burdens. Take His yoke, for it is light.

Okay, coming back into the first person non-literary perspective now. My new pack arrived today and to quote a reviewer of this pack "i bet i coould fold a human body into that thing!". It is large. Has a ton of straps too. It is almost confusing. We shall see how it holds up. Got it for a steal, gotta love Amazon.com.

Hmm, what else. Went and saw Thrice on Tuesday with Becca W. and it was beyond amazing. Met the lead singer, Dustin Kensrue, and he is the coolest guy. It is awesome to know that he is a Christian.

Anywho I think that is all I have for now. Adios y hasta luego!

Currently listening to: Thrice/The Illusion of Safety/Trust

- Trevor

In Less Thank Two Weeks...

2008-05-14T18:10:00.000-07:00

...We're off to Peru! It is difficult to believe that it's come so quickly. With finals, graduations, celebrations, and road trips, I confess that Peru has been sneaking up on me. I am excited that we should be able to communicate this summer via this blog. It looks like there may only be one computer in town, however, and that computer will likely have an internet connection that will conjure up nostalgia for the days when you could clip your toenails before a page loaded, but we'll take what we can get.

So far, things seem to be coming together smoothly. God is faithfully providing funding, for which we are grateful. One thing we had thought we would be provided, a translator, however, seems not to be in the current list of provisions. I have taken two semesters of Spanish this year, and Matt took Spanish back in high school, but Trevor's Spanish is limited to a few phrases and I think all of us are a bit self-conscious about our Spanish communication skills. I must admit that I am excited for the challenge, though, so please pray that we will be equipped to do the work we need to do and that we will learn quickly and be able to communicate effectively.

The sad part about leaving home is that life moves on when you are gone. I will miss the wedding of a wonderful friend from my small group, the graduation of many amazing friends from my program at the Maxwell School, a huge celebration for my church family, and the opportunity to spend more time with my family in Vermont, the Adirondacks, and Massachusetts. I felt this way before I left for a semester abroad, but once there I realized the value of such a life-changing experience. I hope that this summer is a time of sharing life with new friends in the Andes, as well as a time of spiritual and personal growth. I think that Matt, Trevor, and I are setting a goal of reading the entire Bible while we are in Peru, and I hope that you will pray that we may achieve that goal. If you'd like to join us, I think we will be reading about 16 chapters per day for the approximately two months that we will be there. It would be incredible to see others meeting this goal along with us.

Thank you for your interest, prayers, and support. I can't wait to start reporting our journey from the other side of the equator.

Liz

Getting ready to go...

2008-04-19T19:05:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I made this specifically for my trip to Peru this summer. Hopefully I will be able to get online while I am there and I will be able to post things up here for you to pray about and to just keep everyone updated.

For some general background:

I am going on a team of 3 people:

Trevor, a sophomore accounting major at Syracuse.
Liz, a graduate public administration major at Maxwell.
Myself.
(We will also potentially have a translator for the summer.)

As far as the location is concerned, we are going to be in the lower Lucanas region of Ayacucho, Peru. In this area there are some smaller villages:

Llauta, our main village of about 400 people or so. This is where we will be stationed primarily.
Huac Huas, which is about the same size, I think.
Laramate, the bigger city, with the bank and restaurants and such.

Right now some things you can pray for:

That God provides peace and wisdom for all our team members as we prepare spiritually for this trip.
That God provides financially for us as we prepare.
That God would work in the people and villages we will be going to, and that He would go before us to do His work.
That we would be seeking God's will in all our actions prior to, and while in Peru.

I pray that God will bless all of you for your concern and prayers for the people of Peru, myself, and my team.

- Matt