Celebration

This has been an exciting few weeks for all of us in Iquitos.

A few weeks ago we celebrated one year of living in Iquitos and being together as a team (for us North Americans its been a year and 3 months in Peru).

Last Sunday we had a baptismal service for 3 of our church plants within the city of Iquitos. We baptized 8 people and had a time of food, fellowship, and games. We went to a Christian campground close to the airport, we have a service before we did the baptisms. Heather planned and led the service...in Spanish! The ministry of praise from our Belen church, one of the church plants, led the singing! After the service, we went down the hill to a man-made pool, where we did the baptisms...although, it is a natural pool in the sense that it doesn't have chlorine, so it's a little murky. Kevin helped Pastor Antonio from Central church to do the baptisms.

Last Monday our group celebrated Thanksgiving. It was the only day we were all together, so we celebrated it a few days later than the traditional day. We were able to find a turkey this year, and we had most of the usual foods we are accustomed to in the States! Our Peruvians and the District Superintendent's family got to experience a little of North American tradition and foods. We all had a great time and ate well.

Yesterday, we had more baptisms in the 2 other church plants outside of the city. They baptized one person in Tamshiyacu. Kevin went to Nauta with Abran and Britaldo. Kevin actually baptized 4 people and took in 1 member for the church in Nauta! This time the baptisms were in a river close by to the church!

This week is the last week of ministry in our 40/40's first locations. So this week and next they will be visiting, researching, and making contact with people in their other communities. When we get back from vacation in January, they will begin planting 2 churches together for the rest of our 10 months here.

Speaking of vacations...we all have our vacation coming up in just 10 days! Our family will be in Arkansas from December 16-December 31, in Ohio from December 31-January 3, and then in Massachusetts from January 3-January 16. We are so excited and looking forward to this much needed break. We've been working full-time without any breaks since August of 2009. We can't wait to connect with friends and family, rest, and eat some good ole American food!!! We will be at the Alliance Church of the Nazarene on January 2 speaking in the service and in the Uxbridge Church of the Nazarene on January 9. We hope to see as many of you as we can while we're home.

We thank you so much for all your support through prayer and finances. Through our partnership together there are now 5 new thriving congregations in the Iquitos area of Peru and many lives transformed by the grace of Jesus. We are looking forward to the next ten months after we return from vacation to 10 more new congregations and many more lives transformed by the power of Jesus!

Spanish Sermon

Kevin went last night to the service in Belen (Bethlehem in Spanish), where one of our 40/40's churches is located. It is very exciting to see what God is doing in this community. Belen is the poorest area in Iquitos, and there are many needs among the people.

In general in Iquitos people just survive. They've experienced so much brokenness throughout their lives that they're in survival mode. So it's exciting to see God at work transforming them and bringing joy and abundant life to their lives. You can see it in their faces.

There was a great crowd last night along with many youth as well. Laura and Dalila are doing a great job leading this new community of Jesus followers.

I was invited to preach in the service last night. It was an interesting experience for me. It's been over a year since I last preached, and it was my first time to preach in Spanish! It was a crazy week, one of the busiest since we've been here. I had two weeks to prepare, which helped. I prepared and then typed the whole sermon in English. The tougher part is the translation. As our North American 40/40's have said, it's very difficult to say what you really want to say in another language. We can all communicate in Spanish, but it's our second language. I don't know why, but the translation part was stressful for me. Maybe it's because the time was closer and closer approaching. Before I went to the service, I went to an internet place to print off the sermon. I've never been a manuscript preacher reading more or less word for word. So trying to read from the sermon in Spanish and speak it in Spanish was more challenging. I would get lost in where I was at, and I even dropped my pages (which weren't numbered either)! I preached on Mark 1:1-15 about Jesus' announcement that the good news about God's kingdom has drawn near in the person and ministry of Jesus. It was so hot yesterday as well, and it's especially hot in the little living room space of a house where the church meets to worship. By the end of the sermon, I was drenched in sweat. I didn't think to wear a shirt that wouldn't show the sweat! Over all, I think it went well for my first time to preach in Spanish. Ultimately, it's the Holy Spirit that brings life to our feeble words and works in the hearts of the people. I pray that the people were encouraged and challenged to follow Jesus with everything they've got.

Good day

Today, Kevin went to Masusa with Katie, Juliana, and Eliseo. Eliseo works in Arequipa with Extreme doing videography and graphic design. He came to Iquitos for a few days to record some video of our 40/40's. I went with them today to provide a little more security...Kevin the "body guard!" Masusa is a very poor area, and we had some equipment we didn't want stolen. We visited 3 houses for discipleship. Katie and Juliana are doing a great job working. There are great teachers, very patient, helpful, and encouraging for these new followers of Jesus! All of our 40/40's are doing a great job in their work.

Then tonight Kevin went to 9 of October, an area where one of our pair is planting a church, and we showed the Jesus film in a little plaza. There were about 80 people watching the movie. At the end the district superintendent gave the invitation, and 16 people responded by turning their lives over to Jesus!

A long, but encouraging day!

Last Sunday, a group of us went to Tamshiyacu, a small city down the Amazon about 1.5 hours where one of our pairs is planting a church. Kevin wasn't able to go because he was sick, but Heather, Anna, Micah, and others from our group went. They had a baptismal service followed by a time of fellowship with this new community of Jesus followers. There were 8 people baptized! It was a great day. God is transforming lives!

May Newsletter

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Peruvian Periodicals - February

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We Made It to Iquitos

We made it to Iquitos on Sunday! We left the church in Lima at 4:30 a.m. and flew out at 7:30 a.m. It only took 1.5 hours to get to Iquitos which was nice with the 3 kids! When we arrived it was raining which was nice to not have to get all settled with extremely hot weather. The weather is hot and humid, and it's very beautiful here...a little more tranquil than Arequipa.

In Lima we met all of our Peruvian 40/40's and did went through our team building exercises. Everyone arrived safely and has settled in.

Our apartment for the next 5 months is very nice. After the mission training we will move into the trainers apartment for the next 1.5 years. We purchased all of the things the previous Cluster Support couple had, so we don't have to purchase many things. We bought Micah a bed today and need to get a few other necessities.

We begin classes tomorrow morning. We're understanding Spanish ok...enough to get around. We had a meeting today to go over basic info, and we understood most of what he said!

Thanks for your continued prayers, love, and support.

Headed for Lima and Iquitos

We finished our language studies in Arequippa last week, and we have been busy buying necessary things and packing this week. We leave today for Lima for a few days of team-building, and then on Sunday we fly for Iquitos.

We appreciate everyone's prayers as we travel.

Sophia's First Birthday

Here's a video of Sophia's 1st birthday. We celebrated it in several different ways.

Peruvian Periodicals from the Simpsons - Vol. 2

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Sophia's First Solo Walk

Sophia walked for the first time all by herself the other day. She did it three times, and we caught to 2 on video. Here is the second time:

Crazy week

Kevin left to go to Lima on Monday 4 p.m. with the Iquitos group to start the residency process for all of us. Heather and the kids were not able to go because the kids can't start the residency process until one of the parents has started theirs, which is inconvenient, but that's the only thing you can do! Airplane tickets were really expensive at the time, so we had to go by bus 15.5 hours to Lima!!! The buses were really nice though. We arrived in Lima around 7 a.m., and went to the organization that does the residency for free! They are an evangelical group that helps with residency for missionaries coming to Peru. After a few hours of doing all we needed to do for that we went to this mall where they had a Chilis!!! Kevin had chips and salsa and a very good hamburger. You don't really appreciate American food until you haven't had it for a while. It was good to have a little taste of home. He also had his first real coffee at Starbucks since we left the states. We all then hopped back on another bus at 4:30 to take the bus back to Arequipa, which took 18 hours!!!

The family is doing well. Micah's tooth healed up nicely, which was an answer to prayer. We put the kids in school this week to see how that would work out. They really need to learn Spanish, and that is the best place for them to pick it up. Please pray for wisdom as to what we should do concerning school.

Spanish school is going well. We're able to converse enough to do what we need to do. We were happy that a few weeks ago we went to a market down the road, and we were able to talk to people and purchase the things we needed to buy! I can't believe we only have 5 weeks left here in Arequipa.

Please pray for our 40/40's as they learn Spanish. It's tough to learn, but most are getting it. I have found that it easier to listen than to speak it! Some people are easy to understand. Kevin and Heather both have the same professor just at different times, and we both can understand our professor well. She is easy to understand. However, it's going to take some more practicing to be able to understand the majority of people.

Thanks for your continued support and prayer!

First Edition of the "Peruvian Periodicals...from the Simpsons"

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here).

God is already doing his work!

I am in the afternoon Spanish class with one other student, Tim, who is a 40/40. We have two professors. One for the first 2 hours and another for the second 2 hours. One of the class times focuses more on practicing conversation. So last week one professor asked more about why we were here, and we also talked about his church experience. He grew up Catholic, but doesn't have anything to do with it now. He talks a lot about some of the wrongs he has seen in the church here in Arequipa. We we able to share a little bit of our testimony with him.

Yesterday we had another serious conversation. At first it was just practicing conversing in Spanish. But after a little time the conversation turned to how did we decide to come to Peru. We talked about the materialism of our cultures and the emptiness that brings. He was asking how one changes from that, and we told him how Jesus transforms life and gives meaning. He said that he had this emptiness, and we shared how God had filled our emptiness when we fully relinquished our lives to Him. I asked how we could pray for him and he said for the emptiness. He said that he thinks he might go to church on Sunday!

So please pray for this professor!

Kevin

Amazing creation at our front door

They are three volcanoes a few miles away! The one on the bottom is called Misti.

A Little Bit of Arequipa part 2

Here are some more pics...

The fam in front of the cathedral in the Plaza de Armas.

A Little Bit of Arequipa

It's been crazy here with Spanish school, managing the kids, and our responsibilities with Extreme, but God has given us so much strength and direction! We can't believe that it's already been two weeks since we've been here.

Here are a few pictures to give you a little taste of Arequipa:

This is a picture of the house we are staying at

while we are here in Areq

uipa. We live on the bottom floor, and our host fa

mily lives on the top floor. We live about a 15 minute walk from our school.

This is the Zamacola church where we are going while in Arequipa. It is under construction. It is one of Extreme's construction projects where groups worked on it a few weeks ago. Our pastor's name is Pastor Solano, and he is also the District Superintendent for the area.

Friday Lunches

Every Friday all the Extreme Staff and Cohorts meet for lunch to build community and eat. This was our first meeting yesterday. We had a muy rico (very delicious) lunch...stuffed pepper with steak and a potato kind of cake. We also celebrated Heather and Sarah's (our long-term missionary coordinator) birthdays with cake! Here's the picture!

Group Picture in LA

Here is a picture of the group when we were in LA. There are the two 40/40 cohorts, 2 Cluster Support families (one is our family!), and the Extreme mobilization team in the US. Our group is going to Iquitos and the other to Pulcalpa.

Fun in Escuela

Well, we're pretty much settled into some sort of schedule. Sundays we go to the Zamacola Iglesia de Nazareno (Zamacola Church of the Nazrene). We have several from our group participating in that church. There are three other churches in Arequipa that others from our group will be worshipping with.

Heather goes to espanol escuela (school in the morning) from 8:30-11:30 where she has a one-on-one tutoring. Kevin watches the kids and studies during that time. Then we eat lunch together, and then Kevin goes to language school from 1:30-5:30, while Heather watches the kids. Then we have dinner sometime after that, followed by various activities depending on the schedule.

The school is a 15 minute walk from our home. School is going well so far. There's a lot to learn, but we're praying God will grant us quick learning minds for the language!

The kids are adjusting as well as can be expected. They miss their old home and friends.

One of the great things about technology is that we can video chat, email, and post updates on our blog, and it's all free!

Thank you for your continued prayer. Please pray for these 3 months of Spanish school. They are of great importance for the work we will be doing for the 2 years following school. Please pray for our 40/40 missionaries as well as they go to Spanish school too. Their names are Brad, Brittany, Drew, Katie, Kevin, and Melissa. Please pray for their Peruvian partner 40/40's as well. They will be joining us in 3 months.

Dios Te Bendiga! (God bless you)