Church family

            Zunilda and Gabriela

We are excited about the church family that God is giving us here in Cusco with the new church plant.  The young lady above, Zunilda, brought her sister this evening to church and this past Wednesday night she brought her husband.  Zunilda has come faithfully for the past 3 Sundays and 2 Wednesdays.  She told us that she was saved at a church in  Curahuasi (3 hours from us) almost a month ago.  We have started discipleship with her and her husband on Wednesday nights at our Bible study.  Please keep her in your prayers.  She is 22, her husband Fredi is 23, and they have a 2 year old daughter (Gabriela).  

 

Mother’s Day Services

The Lord blessed us with a great Mother’s Day service this morning!  We had 7 in attendance with 2 being first time visitors!  I believe the Lord is giving us a core group.  Please keep the work in your prayers!  Here are some pictures of the day:

            the moms in attendance

                     enjoying some cake

             Zunilda and Gabriela

                The Chavez Family

               Chachi and the girls

 

Happy Mother’s Day!

Happy Mother’s Day to all mother’s! Truly, being a mom is a gift from God and having a mom, especially being raised by a godly one, is an extra special blessing. Where would we be without our mom’s? Where would we be without our wives? I am so thankful for the godly mother who raised me, the godly mother-in-law who raised my wife, and for the godly wife who keeps our household running.  My wife is so much more than a wife and mother.  She is everything one could ask for in a “help-meet”. I love her and wish I did more to show her how much she means to me and to our girls.  I wish her a Happy Mother’s Day and all of you as well! 

                                              Mom and her girls!

 

Second Sunday Service

Today we had our second Sunday services!  We had one plus our family this morning.  Elizabet came this morning.  She is good friends with Rebecca and as far as we know she is going to be a regular attendee.  Tonight she brought one of her friends from University and we also had a lady come with her young daughter; which gave us 3 first time visitors.  They all came about 5 minutes before I finished up the sermon so I had to to a quick recap and then we had a time of refreshment and fellowship after church.Zunilda came with her daughter and said that she had just gave her life to the Lord last week in a church about 3 hours away.  We didn’t get a lot of time to talk with her so Lord willing we will follow up with her this week. The young man Elizabet brought seems to be interested in returning as well.  We are ecstatic.  Praise the Lord with us and please pray as we follow up with these people!

 

First Service

We had our first services at Faith Baptist today.  We are praising the Lord that 3 people came in our morning service and in our evening service also!  After passing out thousands of fliers and doing some advertisements we were expecting more but we are very thankful for those who came.  Please keep us in your prayers!

 

Gearing up for first service

This past week was a very busy one for us.  We are trying to get our new space ready for the first services on April 29th.  We have passed out nearly 1,500 invitations to our first service and we have another 1,500 to give out still!  We have also had some work done to the space. We had to put some railings along the 2nd and 3rd floor for safety reasons, a little platform/deck was put into the entrance way to make it more convenient for people to enter, and the 2nd floor door had to be made a little secure.  We also had our sign put up and lights hung to reflect it at night.  We still have a lot to do during the coming week so please keep us in your prayers! 

New sign

 

New Building

We got the keys to our new church building on Sunday!  We still have quite a bit to do to get ready for our first services in it, but we are looking forward to what God will do.  We are renting out the 2nd and 3rd floors of the building that you will see in the pictures.  The rent came out much cheaper leaving out the 1st floors.  Here are some pictures:

Entrance to the church

View of the front

Main meeting area

another view

 

7 years in Peru

On April 14th, 2005 we left the U.S. for Arequipa, Peru.  The following day after a couple of flights and a long layover in Lima’s airport we arrived in La Ciudad Blanca – Arequipa.  Looking back we were probably so very naive arriving on the mission field.  We praise the Lord that He has saw fit to allow us to serve Him in Peru these past several years.  So much has happened in the past seven years.  In some respects it seems like we’ve been here forever and in other respects it seems just like yesterday that we got off the plane.  We look forward to many more years serving the Lord here and where ever He would have us!

 

Easter Weekend

We hope you all have a wonderful Easter celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior!  In Peru it seems that the emphasis is placed on the suffering and death of Christ rather than His triumphal resurrection.  We have holidays both Thursday and Friday before Easter but on Easter Sunday nothing really takes place.  I know it is also easy to get lost in hiding eggs and chocolate bunnies, but let us remember Easter Sunday (and every Sunday) to celebrate a risen Savior and soon coming King.

Here are some pictures of a fun filled day we had with family and friends yesterday.  One of the highlights was visiting a llama and alpaca farm (which we have been to many times).  I think the highlight of the day was the girls getting to sit on one of the llamas!

Natali on the llama

Neomi on the llama

Leading an alpaca back that got loose

the escaped alpaca

I think this llama wanted out

 

New Space

After much searching and prayer we have finally found a place for our church plant!  We truly believe the Lord provided this place for us and we signed the contract this morning.  A week before it came up for rent I actually saw it sitting empty and rang the doorbell to ask about it but no one lived there.  It was in the paper a week later and I called to look at it.  It is a big space that we can grow into.  We were a little nervous about it being on the 2nd floor but it is right on the main road and the second floor hangs over the 1st to make it more noticeable.  We are excited to get started  The owners are making some modifications and we should get the keys on the 15th of April.  Here are some pictures:

main meeting area

men and women's bathrooms

eventual rooms for Sunday school

one of the rooms