What I am doing here

Today I woke up and realized that I have now spent my first full month living in Peru. And I began to think about the things I have done in this past month and what I will be doing for the next six months. Then I was wondering if I had ever fully explained to you all exactly what I'm doing here. So I will explain....

Every week I am teaching three English classes. Before coming here I did this by actually teaching English vocabulary, grammar, etc. But now I am doing this by holding three weekly Bible studies. The students come and are able to practice listening, reading, and speaking. I am teaching the advanced class- and without these people REAPSouth would not work the way it does. What we are preparing them to do by holding these Bible studies is to be translators. Then, when we have missionaries coming in and traveling into the jungle or mountains, these translators get to go and be a part of that.

REAPSouth is based in Lima. Here we are training people to be translators. Then we are sending them into parts of Peru that may have never heard the Word of God before. A group went into the jungle a couple of weeks ago and most people in the jungle had never seen a gringo. They stared at them and even asked them why their skin was so pale. But because of the amazing things REAP has been doing here, these people got the opportunity to hear. This was on a "vision trip" where a group comes from the States and is prayerfully considering "adopting" this area and people group. Then they will start to take regular mission trips down to their area. They will start churches, Bible studies, schools, etc. The possibilities are endless and you never know what God is going to do for the people.

So as I am here in Lima, I am working with the translators. Aside from the Bible studies, my main goal is to build relationships with these people. It sounds simple, but I am trying to just spend time with them, hang out with them, go get icecream, etc. The longest mission trip I had been on before this was two months. Even then we were rushing around to get things done before we leave. And I believe that God has truly blessed me by giving me the opportunity to spend more time here. I am already getting so close to these people that I cannot imagine what it will be like in six months when it is time for me to go home.

I will also be involved in many short term mission trips into the jungle and mountains. I am going to help lead groups from the States. We are working daily on planning where to go and what to do with mission groups. I am really getting to understand what goes into planning a mission trip and I can see how difficult it can really be. (Thanks Ron for all your planning!) However, I do enjoy this kind of stuff. I love being involved in the organization of different activities. February is really slow around here as far as groups coming in, but starting in March we will have spring break trips. Claudia and I have been put in charge of 2 different groups. We are praying about where to take these two. Right now we are feeling that we should take one into the mountains and the other will stay in Lima.

Just because we don't have any groups coming in during February doesn't mean it is a truly slow month. This month is Carnaval. That is why people are throwing water balloons all over the city. And basically here in Lima it means that people party for a month. Most of this happens on Sundays here because that day is like Saturday for us. People stay in bed all day and then eventually get up and that's when they start throwing water balloons and buckets of water. So, even though we have no mission groups coming in this month, I think that I will be kept pretty busy around here.

Ok, so I know that this was a pretty long entry, but I hope that you now can better grasp what is going on here in Peru. Please pray for the people all over the country as well as the translators I am working with. Please pray for the churches in the states that have adopted areas here and also for those who are considering it. Churches have adopted many areas around and if they keep coming in, one day all of the people in Peru will have had the chance to hear the Word and that will be an amazing day!

Please pray for the 28 million people living in Peru and the 10 million of those living here in Lima.