Soccer Tournament with Felix Vargas

Many of you may be wondering, so how did that soccer tournament go that the Smith’s talked about months ago? We’ll, while the event finished about a month ago we are super excited to finally share how everything went. So for those of you who got the pitch from us about this event and the potential that we saw; we must thank you for believing in this and help see it to fruition. We are very proud to report that because of your faithfulness this event was able to make an impact for our King.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More Coming Soon!!

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

Update and Prayers

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

Prayers

With all of this we need prayers now more than ever! Thank you to all of you who have been faithfully praying for us...here are some specifics:

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

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

Prayers

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

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

Los Discipulitos

Each Sunday morning Wendy and I have the privilege of teaching the littlest ones in the church. They are precious so thought I would post a picture for you all to enjoy:) The name of our class is Los Discipulitos (the little disciples) and they are ages 1 to 5. We have anywhere from 5 to 12 kiddos each week. Some days it is craziness...but this day they all sat long enough for a photo! We have class in our living room due to lack of classroom space but it works out wonderful because it is a large clean space for them to play after lessons. They are a sweet group and I am thankful for the opportunity to love on them each week!

Eres Todopoderoso

Eres todopoderoso (You are all powerful)

Eres grande, majestoso (You are great, majestic)

Eres fuerte, invinsible (You are strong, invinsible)

y no hay nadie como tu! (And there is noone like you)

I love this song, it has wonderful words and truth to it. It is also the song of my son. He sings it everyday...most of the day. He belts it out at the top of this lungs to his Lord. Sometimes he changes the words or mixes them up. My favorite is¨Eres guapo como yo¨ (you are handsome like me). During the short term trip we did a service in a new community and Tyson helped lead worship. They did this song and Kai ran up front and proudly sang next to his Daddy to his Father in heaven. It was precious to me...

Easter!

We had a great Easter week...totally different than last year, but wonderful and busy! We celebrated Kai's birthday on Friday morning. Our church watched the Passion on Friday night and I took the kids into our house to watch some VeggieTales. Then on Saturday night we had our team down for dinner and introduced our Peruvian family members to the tradition of dying eggs. They were skeptical at first but ended up loving it! Sunday morning we had church and then feasted on a Peruvian/American meal with ceviche (a raw fish dish), a potatoe dish, and deviled eggs...quite the mix! We also did a mini egg hunt in the house for Kai and Eliser (our pastor's son). It was funny because at first Eliser kept looking right at the eggs but only picked up the ones that looked brown...I had to explain to him 3 times that the eggs were all different colors:) It was wonderful to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord with our family and church here!

Rumble in the Jungle

Rumble in the jungle went awesome. We had a group of 11 youth and 3 adults from the US, plus a team from Arequipa and our team here in Puerto. They did an amazing job and we were so proud of everyone. We put on Kid's Festivals, Jesus Films, skits, sports events, and services. Home church locations were painted and tons of clean up was done to the outside areas where they do kids activities and movies. We had a social action day at a school across the river and over 70 kids had their hair washed, de-liced and cut. Over 2800 people were contacted and over 270 came forward to commit or recommit in a decision for Christ. The teens worked so hard and had such wonderful attitudes. They did not have a lot of words but they shared Christ through their hard work and kindness to the people here. One morning they were painting one of the home church locations and a lady walking by stopped to find out what all these Americans were doing. She asked if she could help and one of our Peruvians hung with her throughout the morning. She asked questions about why they were here and what it was all about. She was impressed at the work they were doing. She asked more questions and ended up accepting Christ! The next day she was out passing out flyers for one of our events. She had been visiting family from Cusco so we gave her the name and information for the church in Cusco! What an awesome example of the witness of service!

Thank you to all who came to serve with us here, you were a joy and a blessing to us and Puerto!

Sometimes you just get really wet...

Kai and I got soaked the other day when a downpour started on our way home in a mototaxi. The mototaxi has a roof, back, doors and front...yet the water still poured in. I used my son as a shield from the rain....is he old enough for that yet?

Typical Transportation

This is Pastor Freddy and his family...typical transportion for a family of 5!