It's a BOY!

Introducing...
Grady Zane Smith
December 3, 2010, 4:25 pm
7lbs, 19 1/2 inches

New Life!!

Greetings from Arequipa. We are currently away from our team in Puerto so that Tracy can have better medical attention for the birth of "baby Peru." We've been checked out by our doctor and she is saying that it could come sometime this next week. We welcome your prayers for safety for Tracy and the new life about to join our family and possibly that this little one would come after December 10 when my mom arrives to help out.

Along the lines of New Life we also wanted to share a quick story from the cell group of Callie and Carmen. The story is all about God's grace and His big picture plan.

At the local jail our team has been hosting regular discipleship meetings which have been growing steadily, and about 6 months ago a woman named Betsy (pronounced Bexy) met Jesus through this discipleship class. Our team tries not to inquire as to the reason the women are in prison so we were unaware as to why she was there.

At the same time, Callie and Carmen had been hosting their cell group in "Castanos" (a part of Puerto) in the house of a local contact named Sixto. Sixto's family including their son Washington who met Jesus through the cell group held in their home. During their meetings a prayer request was brought up by Washington. He asked for God's help in freeing his wife who was wrongfully imprisoned on charges of prostitution. Washington had been raising his daughter alone since the situation with his wife took place. The cell group then began praying diligently for his request.

Meanwhile in the jail the guards decided to do a random search of the jail grounds, where they found guns, knives and drugs. The jail then closed the doors to any visitors including our group and any family member for a month and a half. The cell group of Callie and Carmen continued in prayer for Washington and his wife.

Amazingly, as the jail began opening their doors and our group entered again to hold our discipleship meetings, we found out that through a series of amazing circumstances she was to be released in the coming weeks. It was at this point we put the pieces together that Betsy and Washington were connected and called by God at the same moment yet in separate locations. During their time apart both were unaware of Christ's work in each others lives, and we were all reminded of faithful God is. Betsy and Washington are now both followers of Christ and attending the cell group of Callie and Carmen together. Their relationship is continually growing and their daughter will now grow up in a Christian home. This is what NEW LIFE is all about.

This is a picture I took of Callie, Betsy and Carmen after their cell group on November 20, where Betsy preached for the first time an incredible sermon of how God used Moses even when he believed he was unable and unprepared to be used by God. God can change use any period in our lives to change our hearts, our circumstances, our lives and homes. Amen!

For this story I used wife and husband for easier understanding of the story. Betsy and Washington are what's called "Convivientes" or cohabitants, they are committed but please be in prayer that they would pursue marriage in front of God.

Paraguay

Tyson and I were blessed to have the opportunity to visit Paraguay in November and get a sneak peek at Extreme Paraguay. Extreme Paraguay is a partnership between Felix Vargas and Extreme Nazarene Ministries to jump-start an effort to plant 12 churches of 1000 in the capital city of Asuncion using short term volunteers and 5 pairs of 40/40 long term missionaries. To learn more click here.

We were so impressed with Felix, his leadership, church and family. We know that God has big plans for Asuncion and look forward to seeing how He uses Felix and the Extreme team that will be down there. Please join us in prayer for Extreme Paraguay!

A few highlights:

Felix shared the gospel with the Paraguay national soccer team. They came to know Christ and he now does a devotional and prayer with them before each game. Tyson was able to go to a game and meet some of the team. The man on the left is the goalie and a strong believer who had invited Felix to come share with his team.

One night they showed a movie of Felix's testimony. They had a great turn out and many stood up to make a commitment to Christ. Afterwards we had a BBQ and fellowship to celebrate the birthday of one of the church members. It was a really fun evening and we felt so welcomed by the church!

On Sunday night we were able to go to their church service. They were also voting in leaders that week. It was reallly neat to see people step up and want to lead. Felix has only been at this church for about a year (there were only 2 people when he arrived), and at the leadership meeting before church there were about 20 people attending.

We stayed with the Vargas family. I adored his wife, Liliana. She is such a strong woman and has such a servant's heart. Her testimony is amazing. She prayed for Felix for 7 years...stayed faithful to him even when he wasn't, and showed him Christ's love. They have 3 children and the youngest two are twins just a couple years older than Kai. Kai had a blast playing with them all week!

We were so impressed with Felix, his leadership, church and family. We know that God has big plans for Asuncion and look forward to seeing how He uses Felix and the Extreme team that will be down there. Please join us in prayer for Extreme Paraguay!

Inaguration

The last weekend in October we celebrated the inaguration of our church building. The people of the church worked hard giving their time and money to finish off the tile, ceiling and platform. The service included special presentations from different groups in the church with special music and skits. It was a wonderful time of celebration!

Here is Tyson, Janes & Daniel cleaning up after three days of tiling.

A before picture (the painting happened a few months back)

And after!

It was a full church that night with many people from our cell groups as well

Discipleship in the Jail, Praises!

Pastor Freddy, the 40/40’s and Tracy visit the jail every two weeks to teach a women´s discipleship class that has been steadily growing. However, the jail had been closed for all of August because the guards had found guns, knives and drugs inside the jail groups. This last week was their first visit in over a month and they found out that one of the women received her release date which will be October 5th. She said before moving home to her city in the north that she is going attend the our church to say thanks and then get information on a church in her town. Another one of the women receives a trial date on the 26th of this month to decide when she will be released, likely within three months but she is from Puerto and has two adolescent kids and wants to join our church when she is released. During our absence she completed the 13 lessons from the discipleship material on her own and gave it to Pastor Freddy to ask if he would review it for her. In their last visit over a month ago one of the women had had a large painful tumor on her neck that was about the size of a tennis ball that Freddy and the team prayed for. The original plan was that she would be transferred to the Cusco jail and have surgery there. However, upon our return to the jail her tumor had gone down and the pain has gone away and as of now is not going to go get surgery. Amen! And one of the contacts of Callie and Carmen’s in Castanos, brother Washington had his wife wrongfully inprisoned for months and after much prayer, time and money she was finally given proper attention and released this last week after months in prison. Please pray that she will join their cell group along with her husband who has met Christ. It was a wonderfully
visit for our team and we are rejoice knowing God is the one behind it all. Please keep these women and our visits to the jail in your prayers.

Cusco Project

We were so blessed to be able to spend a week in Cusco in August to help out with a short term project there. The best part was...the short term team was from our home church in McMinnville! It was so wonderful to see everyone and it was so awesome to see the heart they have for missions! A lot of construction was done on the 40/40 house and church (see pictures below) and there was a ton of impact as well. A few of the things we did: gave out free hot chocolate and showed the Felix Vargas testimony, visited the women´s jail and did massages, hospital visitation, put on kids festivals in an orphanage and spent a day out at a tent city. The little pueblo had tons of damage from rains and flooding back in February and many people were living in tents. The group had brought down tons of clothes and kits to help them out. We were able to hand out the items, put on a kids festival and pray for individuals.

Thank you to the group that came down from McMinnville. It was really such a blessing to see you all and work along side you! We love you and thank God for you!

Handing out hot chocolate

Playing with the parachute at the kids festival

Lots of balloon animals were made that day...brining a smile to lots of little faces!

The people waiting for the blessings of clothing and basic needs in part of the tent city.

Cusco construction

Everyone worked so hard on the house and church. It was looking amazing when we left and they still had a few more days there. Thanks all for your hard work...this house will be an amazing blessing and place of rest for the Cusco team and the church a blessing to the community!

Prayers for Cusco

Our family is headed to Cusco tomorrow to participate in a short term project with friends from our church in McMinnville. Please pray for our time, safety for those traveling from the states (currently) and for the safety of our team while we our gone. Thank you and God Bless!

On an unrelated note...we have had some beautiful sunsets lately and Tyson got some pictures of one the other day....

VBS

Last week was the last week of a two week vacation for the schools here (sort of like our Christmas break) and so a couple of our teams but on Vacation Bible Schools in their communities. Kai and I were able to help out at one in Enace with Callie and Carmen...don't you love how here you can just meet under a tree:)

Ana and Elisa had a huge turn out at theirs in 7 de Junio with over 60 kids each day. Because their community was close to the church they were able to invite the kids to Sunday School and they did a presentation!

Both teams did a great job and the kids had a great time learning about the love of Christ! Please pray for these little lives touched and for their families!

Spiritual Retreat

This past weekend our Church here in Puerto held their first Spiritual Retreat. Many of the 40/40´s contacts, church members and even a couple who received the flyer days before the event attended and now their lives are changed forever. Our local Pastor (Freddy) organized everything incredibly and there was no time that wasn´t used well. I believe he said there were 17 themes taught by 5 teachers, including Pastor Freddy, Pastor Herman (from Puno), Elisa our 40/40 and two Brazilian pastors over the 3 days. There were 42 in attendance, 29 adults and was held at a beautiful location outside the city.
Three people were baptized, including our 40/40´s cook Hermana Luz. When she began working for us about 10 months ago, she was not a follower of Christ so it was awesome to see her make the decision to get baptized. Included is a picture of our group (top), Above Kai is officiating the baptizm and below is the beautiful location that it was held. It was a very exciting weekend that cemented people´s faith in Christ and brought the church together. What´s incredible is that from our group, 26 have pre-registered for the next retreat planned in a few months. They call these retreats ¨Encuentros¨ or in english ¨Encounters¨ and that is what God wants is to encounter with us face to face. This weekend brought Christ´s face nice and close. Amen.