(Last updated March 11, 9:42 PM EST)
March 4, 2007
Hola amigos!! Travel has been fairly uneventful,
everything has gone well so far and all the details
for our travel have worked out fine. I (Zach) had
to end up leaving all my mountain dew behind so this
week should be very interesting and it will be fun
to see how I adapt to that change haha. Both of our
flights went great and we arrived in Lima on time.
We also got all our bags in ok. The flight was long
and everyone was pretty tired. There we met up with
Kelly Jessen who had arrived earlier from working
in Panama. It felt nice to go from the airport
to the hotel and stay in a bed even thought we arrived
at 2:00 AM and our wakeup call was 6:00 AM. The hotel
that we stayed in was really nice and had 3-4 beds
in each room so we all got our own bed's which was
nice.
As we are writing this we are on our way to Huancayo.
We left the bus station at about 8 this morning and
are now more than half way to Huancayo which everyone
is ready for because I think we are all ready to take
a break from traveling. The scenery on the way to
Huancayo is beautiful and it is amazing to see all
of God's creation. The scenery is very green unlike
Lima and the mountains are always amazing to look
at. The weather is good so far, it's just spitting
rain ,but other than that the weather has been wonderful.
This evening we are planning to get to the compound
sometime around supper and then after supper we will
have out first devotional and prepare for tomorrow.
We think that in the morning we will be going to a
school for our first sports camp so we are excited
for that. Please continue to pray for our team that
the weather is good for us while we are here, and
that we will have great turn outs at all of our camps.
Also pray that nobody gets sick from the food or from
the altitude and that we stay safe. Lastly and most
importantly, pray that the kids will have ready hearts
and will understand that they need to accept Christ
as their personal savior. Thanks to all of you who
are praying for us and, please keep praying daily
because it does make a huge difference. We will keep
you updated on what happens each day and keep you
posted on how the camps and things go.
-Zach and Andrew-
March 5
Hello everybody!!! We made it to Huancayo
at about 6:30 last night. The compound is a very gorgeous
place and the food here is amazing. We are all staying
in the same building, so it's easier to get to know
each other. Huancayo is a very beautiful place to
be in and the people here have been very kind to us.
This morning we met up with a group of 12 Peruvians
from the church Roca Eterna. They are a group of young
people who have a heart to serve the Lord in everything
that they do. It was great to get to know them, and
we have made a lot of new friends-even though they
were making fun of our Spanish haha. Seven of them
were translators and the others presented the gospel
to the kids.
Today we had our first day of sports clinics. We
went to a Christian School in the morning and in the
afternoon we went to a Catholic School. When we went
to the Christian School the principal told us that
even though it was a Christian school that 90% of
the kids were unbelievers. All of us have made a lot
of new friends with the Peruvians and have already
made a lot of memories with them. This morning during
our first session of the week it started to rain,
so please continue to pray that the weather will be
nice. Even though it started raining, it didn't stop
us; we went over to the church by the park and presented
the gospel. 127 people heard the word of God this
morning and 71 came to know the Lord.
This afternoon we accepted an invitation to aCatholic
School. It was still raining so we were not able to
do the sports clinics, but God opened doors to have
us go around in small groups to all the classrooms
and present. We began with presenting how athletes
can become better with improvements to their mind,
body and soul. The soul talk lead to sharing witht
he evangelWe aren't sure how many people were there
but 168 people accepted Jesus Christ into their hearts
and we know that one of them was a teacher. Praise
the Lord!!! So the total of new believers for today
is 238!!! Each person has filled out a card with their
contact information on it which has been given to
the local church in that area for follow up.
Please continue to pray for the rain to stop so that
we can continue to meet new people and present the
gospel. And please pray for our team and the Peruvian
team so that we would have courage to talk to these
people about the Lord. Also pray that no one on the
team would get sick and that we will continue to be
able to share the love of God with the Peruvian children
and their parents and teachers.
~Tiana and Emily~
March 6
Hello from Peru
We had a very busy day today! We went to three different
non-Christian private schools here in Huancayo even
before lunch. We got to teach sports and share the
gospel with the children there. The kids were so much
fun and we could tell they were having a blast too.
We even had a special appearance by Jason as he juggled
three soccer balls to draw a crowd.
We broke them into smaller groups so that Bill, Emily,
Jason, and Zach could share their testimonies. This
was a really sweet time for the kids to connect more
with us personally.
Interesting note, the third school we visited today
was a school we visited last year and had a huge turn
out. Last year painted on their wall were pictures
of Hitler, Stalin and other world leaders. This year
that was now painted over with "A little piece
of Heaven".
In the afternoon, we went to a park across the street
from a local church and no one was there. The pastor
and his congregation came to help us out. First, we
got to go door to door and personally invite people
to come play with us. Almost no one turned us down
and we had a great turnout.
Praise the Lord! He mostly held back the rain until
just as we finished. It never really interfered with
what we were doing.
We are so grateful to the Peruvian translators for
all of the help in sharing the gospel to the people
here. We want to give God the glory for the approximately
780 people who heard the gospel. We received 399 confirmation
cards for decisions made to receive Christ. This included
people of all ages. He is so merciful and powerful.
Some of our prayer requests include:
-Continued good weather (no rain)
-Good health for the team (we had someone stay home
sick today)
-Open hearts for accepting the gospel
-Safety in the games (that there would be no injuries)
We are finding the people of Peru hungry to hear
the gospel. The harvest is truly plentiful. Ask that
God would call forth laborers, for they few.
-Bill and Danielle-
March 7
Hola que tal!
We had another great day today! Everybody is feeling
good and we have really felt God's presence here in
Huancayo. The rains have held out just long enough
to allow us to continue to do our work. This was a
very easy day compared to yesterday. We only visited
two schools.
The first school was located not too far from the
compound. The kids ranged from 5-11 years of age.
There were about 350 children at this public school.
We played volleyball, basketball and soccer with the
children. At the break Jason, Andrew and Danielle
gave their testimonies. We played some more and then
we told the children how they could accept Jesus into
their hearts. 158 of them were welcomed into the kingdom
of heaven. What a blessing it was to be apart of God's
Work.
The second school was in Huachac a village about
45 minutes away from Huancayo. We played all three
sports. On the soccer field they had to dodge a cow
and a sheep. Dark clouds were all around us but God
allowed the sun to shine through. Zack, Kathy and
Andrew gave their testimonies to the children at the
break. After the second round of sports the gospel
was given again. Gary and Don (Kelly Jessen's Dad)
presented the gospel to the teachers and every one
of them accepted Christ. The teachers thanked them
for coming to share the good news. Consuelo (an interpreter
from La Roca Eterna in Lima) and myself (Jeff) noticed
a teacher off by himself. We were able to present
the gospel to him and he also accepted Christ. That
made a total of 18 teachers and 104 students. We are
praying for amazing changes within the school and
community.
In the evening we attended church at Encuentro con
Dios with pastor Augustos (Alexis's uncle). The sermon
was given by Gary. He did a great job preaching to
both the saved and unsaved who were in attendance.
At the end of church, Augusto and other church members
presented both mission teams with gifts to remember
them by. We were all touched by this expression of
love and gratitude.
We cannot wait for what tomorrow brings!
Jeff and Bill
March 8
Today we spent the morning at a school that is just
up the road from where we are staying, so we walked.
We saw some very beautiful scenery. The school had
a really nice area for us to do the clinics in. God
gave us a warm and sunny day. We had a long clinic
at this school so every child was able to participate
in all three sports. We rotated them throughout the
morning from sport to sport and we think they enjoyed
the variety.
Many of the team members were able to give their testimony
because of this. There were 122 students, but there
were also a lot of parents and teachers sitting around
listening to the gospel presentation also, because
of this, there were 131 decisions made for Christ.
A team member had some candy to pass out to the kids
at the school in the morning and a lot of fun followed.
There were about 50-60 kids who were chasing Jason
around the school yard because they thought he had
the candy. A game of "chase the guy with the
candy bag" followed as the SportReach team took
turns running by throwing the bag to each other. Everyone
had a lot of fun and in the candy was all thrown to
the kids and they scrambled to gather it up.
After a nice lunch break we went to a local park.
This stop was not originally planned so we went out
into the neighborhood in three teams. We knocked on
doors and invited the kids to come play with us. We
had 50 people come to the park and of those 50 there
were 38 people come to Christ. Many of these were
teenagers, what an exciting day!
An amazing site was right at the end of our last
clinics someone spotted the most brilliant rainbow
we had ever seen. Kelly said that it was God's sign
to us saying "Well done, my good and faithful
servants." That rainbow stayed in the sky for
over an hour until we reached the camp for the evening.
We serve an awesome God.
We can hardly believe that this part of the trip
is over. But God has worked in a mighty way here in
Peru! The Lord has allowed us to participate with
Him in the gathering of 1,069 new believers
so far. What an awesome privilege He has granted us!
Tomorrow will be a fun day of sightseeing, shopping,
and spending time with our Peruvian teammates and
friends. We are all excited about what we will get
to do. Travel will come on Saturday and Sunday. WOW…it's
almost over. This brings mixed feelings as we have
all seen amazing things here and will miss our new
Peruvian friends, yet miss our families and friends
at home as well.
May God bless you richly, until we see you…
Kathy and Jason
March 9
The team had a great day of hiking, fishing, river
crossing and shopping. It was awesome to see how much
fun the SR team had with the Peruvians. In the evening
we shared a banquet meal with everyone out at the
camp. There were no Americans or Peruvians, only brothers
and sisters in Christ. After the meal very noisy games
and singing kicked in.
Kelly for the team
March 10
After getting up early and a 6 ½ bus ride,
the team returned to the heat of Lima. There was a
short amount of time for shopping, seeing the sun
set at the beach and dinner before heading to the
airport.
All in all it was a blessing to see this team bond
and grow personally and spiritually. Once again seeing
God move mightily in Huancayo as 1662 heard the Gospel
and 1070 made decisions to follow Jesus, leaves me
with out words of how to describe what we saw, all
I can say is You've Got to Go.
Until all the nets are full,
Kelly for the team
