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.

Prayers...

Right now the team is at a spiritual retreat for the church. Please pray for all those attending, that those who don't know Christ would come to know him, and that those that do would deeper roots in him! There were about 40 people going so this could have a huge effect on our church! Pray for our team as they help minister to kids and adults. Tyson took Kai with him so pray for opportunities for both of them to be lights for Christ this weekend as well! Pray for safety of all as well:) God Bless!

Expecting...

We have shared with many but have not yet blogged about it....we are expecting baby #2 in December! We want to thank all of you who have been praying for us. The first 3 1/2 months were pretty hard. There were lots of unknows and I was having bleeding on top of the normal fatigue and morning sickness. I am now 20 weeks (halfway!) and things are going really well. I am feeling great (if not large) and have had no more complications. We are praising the Lord for his healing in this area! I have been feeling the baby more for a while and Tyson has been able to feel it for the last few weeks. I love it and feel like he/she is giving me a little kick saying "I'm doing good mom" :)We are planning on having the baby in Peru but will be flying to Arequipa where the medical care is better than here in Puerto. We are excited for this new addition. Oh and we will be waiting to find out what we are having. While there is the technology here to find out, Tyson is a big fan of suprises so I am willing to wait since I insisted on finding out with Kai:) Kai is very excited to have a brother or sister and the team (mostly the girls) are excited to have a new baby around:) We appreciate your prayers for continued protection! We will keep you updated!

This is the only pic I have so far. 15 weeks...I am quite a bit bigger now and will continue to post pics once in a while on our family blog here.

Arequipa

Beyond the ministry happening in Arequipa it was just wonderful to be there. Flying into Arequipa I had a flashback to of when we first arrived in Peru (we lived in Arequipa for our first 3 months here). I was shocked at the crazy traffic, the half finished buildings, and the foreign language. This time getting off the plane I looked around thinking “Wow, this place is so modern.” After living in Puerto my perspective sure changed:) Beyond the conveniences (real cars, grocery stores, coffee, hot water, the wonderful cool, dry weather, etc.) it was so wonderful to see old friends again. We stayed with our friends, the Englunds, while we were there and Kai was in heaven playing with their two girls! We were also able to meet all the other cluster families and made wonderful connections and Kai had a great time making new friends with all the kids. The last weekend we were there we had a staff retreat with all of the Extreme Staff. It was a huge group and it was so fun to hang out and relax with everyone. We went to Mollendo a couple hours from Arequipa at the beach. The weather was really cold but Kai and I still managed to get wet! Tyson played soccer both afternoons for hours. It was a good weekend for fellowshipping and relaxing.

Kai and I playing in the freezing water

One of Kai's favorite activities was feeding the birds in the Plaza. This kid has no fear (or disgust) of these things. He would sit down and they would practically pile on top of him. He really wanted to hold one but I was too grossed out to get close enough to help him...sorry kiddo.

We enjoyed a Father's Day/Goodbye dinner with our group from Trevecca and Felix & Liliana Vargas in the Plaza de Armas in Arequipa

Love Extreme Part 3 - Love 2

Following the big event we had more short term projects going on for Love 2. Groups headed out to Iquitos, Pucallpa, Puno and Cusco. Our 40/40s, Andrew and Daniel, stepped up and lead the group who went to Puno. The rest of our 40/40s stayed in Arequipa and worked on following up with all contacts from the event. Our family stayed in Arequipa as well and Tyson lead the short term group doing construction on one of the churches there, Alto Libertad. He worked with Cuarto (who is leading up construction there and also built our house…he is a ball of energy!) translating and directing the short termers.

Tyson with Cuarto

Kai and I went to visit a few times and Kai loved being at the site with Dad!

At the end of the week there was a dedication service for the church and it was awesome to see it filled! Kai and I had a pretty low key week with almost no responsibilities (which was weird and wonderful at the same time). We joined a group visiting an orphanage one day and we had a great time blessing the girls living there. We did nails, painted faces, crafts and made balloon animals. It was wonderful to be part of another awesome project!

Kai and his buddy Thomas helped with balloons!