"How beautiful on the mountains are the feet..." Isaiah 52:7

las amazonas

2006-08-05T16:13:00.000-05:00

sooooo matthew and i had a killer time in the Rio! he's getting things ready for his flight out tonight and i'll be anxiously awaiting my departure on the 7th. it will be so exciting to see our family and friends and Brothers and Sisters...but it will also be difficult to leave. so please keep us and the people we're leaving in your prayers. thanks for spending so much time on your knees for us in intercession. we couldn't have done this without your partnership in prayer for the Declaration of the Gospel! So...USA --here we come!

in His most Amazing Grace,
jess<><

good news!

2006-07-30T22:47:00.000-05:00

sooooo Matthew made it off of Tocllaraju and back to Lima safe and sound! He got in around 5am this morning. Sarah was able to get her flight changed to get back to the states- she's on board right now! Matthew and I leave in the morn for Puerto Maldonado and the Amazons! thank you all soooo much for the prayers and encouragement thus far! our time in Lima with the other missionaries has been wonderful...saying goodbye was of course a little sad. we have an incredible bond thru the Spirit of our Lord and Savior. thank you thank you thank you for all you've done. we pray the Lord's blessings upon you all:) I'll try and update you again with our adventures from Las Amazonas when we return before heading out for the old USA! (Matthew flies out on the evening of the 5th and I fly out on the evening of the 7th.) I leave you with this final encouragement/exhortation, it's what we're carrying around in our hearts:

''For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity... devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have...Practice these things, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.'' 1 Tim 4: 16-20

we made it:)

2006-07-26T22:05:00.000-05:00

ATTENTION: your Corongo team has safely arrived in Lima- well minus Matthew! He is currently summitting a mountain in Huaraz over 6000 meters tall! Say prayers for his ascent... he is to return to us in Lima on the 29th. It´s a four day, three night climb. Thank you for all the prayers and encouragement thus far! I´ll keep you posted.. more pics to come soon.. i´m off to bed!

if the internet would work... i´d be a happy camper!

2006-07-20T15:56:00.000-05:00

An all out update for you, pictures first and then my crazy phrases:

So the posting site for our blog hasn´t been very cooperative in the last.... oh 10 days! I hate to leave you guys uninformed! So here´s some quick updates!

1) America and I in the plaza one night for hangtime with the jovenes (aka youth). She has yet to receive Christ so please continue to pray! 2) Some of the youth girls during hang time- the three of them received Christ later on in the week!! 3) Matthew and some kids with the guitarra...they love that thing! 4) Virginia, the Alcalde´s daughter, who accepted Christ while Markham street was here! She and her brother David! 5) one of the view´s from Sarah´s birthday walk- beautiful Corongo! 6) Soccer time with the Markham Street Team 7) Martin & Virgina (and their youngest baby) getting prepped-- Bobby served as the minister and Daniel translated- We had a Peruvian wedding! Martin became a believer 2 years ago thru MSBC´s ministry in his village and he is already pastoring the evangelical movement in that village, about 3 hours away from Corongo. MSBC team went and picked him up so that he and his wife could have a Christian marriage among the people who led them to Christ- Beautiful! 8) Sarah taking pre-ceremony pics with Marialena in her lap 9) I caught the bouquet!!! Now all my Peruvian family says it means I must return here to get married within the next year! I don´t think that was part of my plan... haha!10) Birthday cake time- we celebrated four birthdays this week! 11) Daniel and the Corongo Team- Saying goodbye to our brothers and sisters who came up with Markham street was tough, we´re gonna miss these guys!

We have seen around 30 people come to Salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ over the last 10 days! Glory to God! It was such a help to have 5 more translators here while Markham Street was with us....the entire force of the Gospel was enlarged by these 23 other believers joining in to help us. Props to MSBC:) Thanks so much for all your time and prayers and help....for sending them, for coming, for stocking care packages, feeding us, and loving on us and Corongo!

Please pray for us as we continue to work to finish things up here in the next 4 days before heading out. The task is not finished. We still need adults to step up and lead in a house-church capacity. We still need to disciple the new believers and encourage them before we have to leave them on their own. Of course we know that they are never really on their own... matt 28:20 says ´´He will never leave us.´´ But can you imagine being one of about 50 believers out in the middle of nowhere in a surrounding population of about 2500. It can be so lonely as a believer here- spiritually, mentally, emotionally. We also will be taking a bus out of Corongo instead of riding in a truck with Daniel (who came up with Markham Street). One of their combi´s broke down so they had to shove everyone in the other three vehicles. Please pray for our safety and the arrival of all our luggage that we´re gonna have to travel with on the autobuses.

Hopefully the internet will hold up over the next few days! Gloria a Dios! Love from Peru- jess<><

pictures to pray over:)

2006-07-10T10:45:00.000-05:00

Hope you enjoy them!

1) TEAM CORONGO- just chillin with a llama:) in Huaraz 2) The ending of the Festival in Corongo- this is San Pedro being carried thru the streets. 3) Anyone scared besides me?
4) School girls all dressed up in their costumes for the Festival´s Procession 5) teaching in the schools 6) our team with Jenny the English professor 7) the Barnabas team washed our feet- poor people!!! we LOVE them! 8) our team and Tito 9) our bonfire with Tito and his friends 10) Matthew eating ´´cuy picante´´- guinea pig!!!

in the Grace of the One in whose name we have come- jlr<><

our Holy Holy God

2006-07-08T17:23:00.000-05:00

i´ve tried unsuccessfully to update the blog 5 times now over the past few days... everytime i get the latest happenings typed up(4 days worth now!)... the computer crashes, the internet goes out, or the site stops working! so here is what you need to know: a girl by the name of Clarissy who lives in Miami and visits her grandmother here in Corongo each summer accepted Christ on Wednesday and Sarah is beginning to disciple her. We were able to lead 6 young men in the prayer of salvation Wednesday night. one of them showed up for discipleship today- his name is Eduardo. I dont have the other guys´names with me right now, they´re in Matthew´s journal. Tito is becoming ever closer to receiving Christ. He returns from his weekend trip tomorrow- please continue to pray for him. Also, there´s a 15yr old named America who seems to knock on my door late in the nite quite frequently--in regards to English lesson questions from school! She really wants to be able to speak English and travel, I continually share the gospel with her. She has lots of questions and reservations but is dilligently pursuing a relationship with me that is open and comfortable. please pray for her salvation as well!

My upper respiratory infection is ALMOST gone (four weeks now haha!) but Matthew´s is in the full-blown stage. Pray for his healing. Also, we both got a little yucky stomach thing earlier today- pray for protection over all of us.

We have our FIRST house church tomorrow morning! At 10am we will be gathering together and singing praises to our Father, learning from the Word in a bible study-like set-up and teaching what it means to be in a LIVING RELATIONSHIP with Christ instead of being bound by dead religion. Everyone that we´ve invited has liked the idea of an intimate gathering where you can ask questions and truly learn. So far, there´s all sorts of people coming: some already evangelical christians, some ´´catholics,´´ and some lost friends seeking the Truth! Pray dilligently!
i hope to put up some pics of us soon... got lots of pics of new believers and people to pray for in regards to salvation! you never got to see our travel pics- sorry! Let´s just say corongo´s internet has been less than appetizing lately and that they almost lost a few computers due to my throwing stones!

i´ll try again later to update with the pics- thank you for the time you spend on your knees! we love you ALL:)

Gracias a Dios! Gloria a Dios! Que Dios les bendiga!- jlr<><

WOW!!! ADDING TO THE KINGDOM:)

2006-07-04T22:51:00.000-05:00

The Barnabas Team of ReapSouth arrived in our village yesterday. These people are AMAZING. They travel to all the villages encouraging the IMB summer missionary teams of ReapSouth which are spread out all thru Peru. They were a total surprise because we weren´t expecting them til late tonight (the 4th)or tomorrow (5th)! Well last night we actually had our first ESL lesson of the mens/womens group in over two weeks and this was OUTSTANDING because the fiesta is still going on and everyone is so taken by it that we figured no one would come. SInce Tito specifically told us on the bus ride that he wanted to meet with us, we prayed dilligently and walked to the lawyers´office where we meet. Sooo... i gave my little english lesson on indefinite pronouns and people descriptions and since we´d talked with Tito on the bus ride about wanting to share the Word with them in our ESL lessons...we pressed on!

As we finished the ESL lesson...the lights went out. ALL of Corongo was pitch black. SO we stepped outside into the moonlight and matthew began trying to share, but the music from outside was filtering up over the roof and it was getting hard to hear....Tito led us to the back of the building where the moon was shining even brighter and the noise was far less abnoxious...This man really wanted to hear what Matthew wanted to share with him. Matthew, by the way, has an incredibly testimony that these people NEED to hear.. a testimony of the incredible grace of God and His ability to love us, forgive us, receive us just as we are, and change us to be more like Him. These men who are constantly drunk, who cheat on their wives, abuse and neglect their children...they need to hear of our mistakes. And so Matthew shared....the Barnabas team was in the ´´hallway´´ next to us praying dilligently. Matthew spoke of his salvation experience, and the Holy SPirit gave me the words for everything in Spanish. Tito is very enthusiastic about learning more. He told us he doesn´t go to mass here because ´´due to the facts of life like Matthew´s´´, he feels like he ´´just cant.´´ We are praying for the Lord to wash Tito with His grace and bathe him in the Blood of Christ- the only thing which can save us! HE is so warm, so receptive....he could very easily be our Peter or Paul of Corongo. He is so influential as the head-lawyer here in Corongo, a natural born leader, very charismatic, very warm, and a very useful vessel! PRAY FOR TITO!

Now for today... we went to the schools and taught ESL... we actually had about 30 min alone with one of the classes while the teachers were having a meeting. So we took this oppurtunity to play SImon Says and have some fun with them:) Then all my Mexico mission trip experience came in handy and I taught them Father Abraham in Spanish! So after we had about a 20 min ESL lesson upon the teacher´s return, it was time to head out for the day and we announced to the kids that we´re having a youth night on friday in the plaza...lets just say i lost some hearing in all the excitement! How wonderful! Pray for their hearts, their receptiveness to the Gospel, their freedom from religion and tradition and idolatry, their courage to come forthe with questions and decisions! Pray for us as we try and minister to who knows how many kids of how many ever ages!

Soo... this afternoon we went prayer walking thru the village with the Barnabas team and it was an incredibly experience as to how we could feel the SPirit moving to answer us, comfort us, encourage us. Sarah, Michelle and I went up to the top of the road and looked down over the village, begging for the hearts of Corongo to be given over to us... calling out scripture and callign forth the Promises of God in His Word. Afterwards, we drove over to Aco- a village on the other side of the mountain.We´d been wanting to go because there´s a ´´growing evangelical house church there´´...With Withrow (of Markham Street, our adoptive church) took us up to meet one of the members before the Markham Street guys left us here for the summer. Soooo.. we went up with Michelle and Todd and Jared since they had a vehicle. (Praise the Lord) We wanted to go and encourage the believers there because we´d promised to do our best in getting there at some point this summer. The boys decided to hike up the hillside to try and find the house of the elder and find out what time the church service started. We girls stayed behind in town, talking with some villagers, discussing the work of the Lord, and searching for a place to eat. We met a couple in the plaza and I asked where we might find some food for dinner. They led us to a ´´random house´´ where a woman cooks ´´pensions´´ for people coming thru. So we asked about some dinner...she told us it´d be ready around 7. The boys were off hiking to find the brother´s house. They got back about 640.. earlier than expected. We girls were expecting to eat alone...so I ran down to the house and asked if she could possibly make three more plates. She offered us rice and fried eggs and papas fritas ´cause there wasn´t enough meat to go around. Soooo.... we immediately felt the hospitality and kindness of this family-- its the first dad that i´ve seen sitting in a home and playing with his children while his wife cooked their meals. They had chickens, guinea pigs, and dogs running amuck in the kitchen with us! And then a seeminly out of place TV with a DVD player?! So the oldest daughter (Liset, age 10) asked us if we´d like to watch Titanic in english... we agreed as to appreciate their hospitality! But it was such a beautiful thing, after dinner we asked if we could share a story from the bible and they were very enthusiastic-- hungry for the word of God. So Todd began to share his testimony and I translated-- I dont really remember the words that were coming out of my mouth which is pretty phenomenal, can we say Holy Spirit?! After reading a parable to them and incorporation TOdd´s testimony, we asked if they would like to have this eternal life, this salvation, this relationship with Christ that todd spoke of and they said emphatically YES. We explained to them the trials that may come up, the persecution that may arise in their village, AND the ´´PEACE that transcends all understanding´´ through our love relationship with JESUS CHRIST! It was PRECIOUS... all 6 of us haven´t been able to stop praising the Lord. Sonya and Wilmer both prayed to recieve Christ as their Savior tonight and they are now our new Brothers and Sisters!

Tomorrow is our meeting with the Alcalde... he´s taking us to see the lagoons- please pray for more oppurtunities and deeper receptiveness of the Gospel! Thank you praying saints, this would be impossible without you!!!

Revival is coming to Corongo... please claim that promise in your prayers!

Gloria a Dios, Gracias a Dios! Que Dios les bendiga!!!

-jess<><

pic: my amazing team, here we are in Huaraz! First bathing experience in over a week- still no ´´real´´showers!...

okay, so the internet is slowing down so more pictures of travel experiences and the past few days ASAP!

safe and sound in corongo!

2006-07-03T14:03:00.000-05:00

well, when i sent out the first email to you guys from nazca letting you know we´d made it safe and sound, i also told you that the blog had been updated...and it was! but as soon as i hit send on the email and publish on the blog, the computer froze! the email went out, but i lost the blog entry:(

i´m gonna do my best to recap to you the answered prayers, amazing times of restoration, and the readying of the Harvest in Corongo- bear with me! I´ve got 7 days to cover! And we serve a BIG and MIGHTY God! The internet is giving me fits right now so I´m going to stick up a few pics and then maybe some more tonight or tomorrow!

PICS: 1)Matthew soaking up the Word of the Lord as we embark on our treacherous trip to Huaraz 2) the road to Huaraz 3) okay trust me when i say that there´s no way i´m sleeping. this is me thinking, ´´maybe if i dont look at the road, i won´t feel like my life is being threatened!´´ 4) but man, Huaraz made ALL the bumps and dust in our face worth it! This is in the Cordillera Blanca, the mountain is Huascaran, the 2nd tallest mountain in South America - around 23000 feet!

rollercoaster.. of Love

2006-06-25T21:39:00.000-05:00

well....we´ve had some really successful, productive days here lately... good conversations, divine appointments, the Gospel going out to men and women of Corongo...and so now we are waiting for the Lord to move in their hearts. we are praying for the preservation of our relationships, ministries, and ´´groups´´ while we are gone to R&R in Nazca. please pray that the Lord will be ripening the harvest in our absence, pray for the safe travel of all the teams, and the time that we have together in Nazca.

there, of course, have also been some let-downs regarding ´´bible study groups´´ where the host-man who is an ´´evangelical christian´´ showed up an hour late and drunk... or the esl group that still is ever-flippant and fickle. however, our spirits are high because whenever we feel we´ve ´´missed out´´ on one oppurtunity the Lord is quick to put another person in our path who needs to hear of His love and the gift of Salvation:) Also, we were blessed to run into some fellow missionaries today ´´just passing through on a visit.´´ They are evangelical Christian missionaries in a town outside of Lima-- the lady is from Switzerland! Another gringa! Her husband is from Peru and they´ve been working as missionaries for 40 years now. They came to church tonight and we all worshipped together, it was a great encouragement to them and us as well! Also, while having breakfast the other day a woman approached me. She said her daughter had spoken of the missionaries who were teaching in the schools and that she knew we were evangelicals...we chatted for a long while. Her husband is a pastor in a nearby village, another struggling church buried in the Andean mountains. But these people know where the Joy comes from and it is always so encouraging to find people like ourselves:)

so long for now... we leave in the AM for Huaraz!

thank you to all our praying saints! gloria a dios! gracias a dios! que dios les bendiga!
-jess<><

the ups and downs

2006-06-22T16:37:00.000-05:00

1)matthew and cecil...an amazing soccer kid who has really taken to us! 2) kids in the classroom 3) greens! okay well a few spinach leaves and about five tomatoes topped with cheese! this is our ´´salad´´ that Anita served to us after cleaning it with ´´good´´ water! Praise the Lord, to this very day none of us have been sick! 4) a beautiful sunset two nights ago

gosh... life as a missionary...

we are all eating the Word, spending nights on our knees, and days with our hands raised in constant praise for the One we are so privileged to serve when He could accomplish it all without us.

we know that these are the things necessary to press on through the roller coaster ride we wake up to each day. let´s see our ESL classes in the colegio as of late have consisted of us belting out English love songs! The english professor picks a song, finds the lyrics...and we work with the kids on pronunciation. For any school teachers, ESL specialists, linguists.. you know that ´´singing´´ is one of the best ways to teach and learn another language. So it´s fun... until you´ve sung ´´My Heart Will Go On´´ from Titanic 30 times per class... need i mention that this song is taught in three classes?! What else.. Whitney Houston´s ´´I Will Always Love You´´ and the Righteous Brothers´ ´´Unchained Melody.´´ I think tomorrow is Billy Joel haha! You guys should see Matthew belting out these love songs in a high voice! Sarah and I ...well we croon our hearts out too!

We´ve had a frustrating time with the mens-womens ESL group... the Corongo Festival begins on Saturday and the teachers´have dance practice for the theatre part of the festival every night...they are therefore unable to come to the group right now. Also, the lawyers of the group have been working in another village trying to get work done in advance and they have been unable to return before ´´class time.´´ 3 nights of no-show= very discouraging! This ´´fiesta´´ really gets in the way of things! It begins on Saturday and we dont leave for Nazca until Monday. Please pray for the days ahead of us...

we´ve had some good food too a couple of times over the last few days, praise be to God for that! we´ve also been very successful with kids´play time outside of the classroom with frisbee and soccer. They ask lots of questions while we´re in the classroom too, such as ´´why are you in corongo?´´ And then we get to tell them that we´re here as missionaries and explain that we are evangelical Christians. Matthew has a habit of writing ´´evangelical phrases´´ on his arm in marker haha!...such as ´´DIOS ES AMOR´´ and these always spark interest. In fact, today at the end of class there were several 6th graders tatooing themselves!

Please pray as we try and witness and bring others into the Kingdom. It is very difficult to witness to the population.. they all consider themselves ´´ christians.´´ Religion is more about family tradition, less relationship, less lifestyle here. They also have a bad taste in their mouths about evangelical Christians because they´ve been told that we don´t allow dancing, partying, etc. This is there way of life here, the things they look forward to the most ( like this blasted fiesta!). Its very hard to explain to them what kind of dancing is okay, what it means to have ´´Joy´´ in our Salvation, what its like to have a true relationship with Jesus Christ, and what it means to worship a Living God instead of statues or appealing to Him through a priest who visits the village once a year...if that often. Their passed down ´´religion´´ is comfortable and it allows them to do what they want. We know that so few here know of Salvation through Jesus Christ...and it is heartbreaking. Please pray for their eyes and ears to be opened and that the Holy Spirit would move in their hearts. That they would see what the Lord has to offer them thru Salvation.

We have a bible study group set up to meet on Sunday afternoon with some men and women who are friends with a shopkeeper here. We trade with him and converse with him... he claims that he is a Christian...he is also frequently parading through the streets drunk hollering ´´Gringas!´´ at me and Sarah. Please pray that if he does know the Lord, his life will reflect that. And that if he doesn´t, the Spirit would bear witness to him in his need of Salvation.

TRAVEL ITINERARY: Please pray for our safe travel, as well as the other teams as we head to mid-summer debriefing. We leave Monday for Huaraz, Huaraz to Lima, Lima to Nazca and reunite there on Wednesday morning thru Thursday evening. Then we return to Corongo on Saturday or Sunday.

Romans 7
´´I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question? The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of this world to do something totally different...´´

Que dios les bendiga! thank you, you praying saints... gloria a Dios!

Happy Fathers Day (late!)

2006-06-19T13:25:00.000-05:00

Wellll... we took pictures with our 1)´´happy fathers day´´ duct-tape sign...but we couldn´t post anything yesterday because Manuel´s shop closed since he´s a dad too! Also: 2) us enjoying ice cream! 3)matthew trying to clean up..a painful process here! 4)the procession of San Pedro (idolatry anyone?). 5) matthew and i passing time in the internet cafe which is sometimes dreadfully slow!

So the last few days were of course... interesting. When is life in Peru not? Sarah gave her testimony Saturday night and everything went well. Matthew preached last night in the evening service and the Holy Spirit really showed up during our time of worship. It is so good to experience His Presence in as´´the tongues and nations´´ give Him the praise that He is more than worthy of! I am beginning to feel a little better, please continue to pray that my teammates dont catch my cold! Also, one of Mateo´s soccer kids showed up at the service last night...played the drum during worship and promised to come back with some of his friends on tuesday for the next service. Please pray that this will continue to happen with other children and men and women of Corongo-- that the Living God of our Salvation would touch their hearts and that we, in the boldness of Paul, would share with them our testimonies of what He has so faithfully done in our own lives. Please continue to pray against the language-cultural-social-generational barriers. We taught again at school today, our relationship with Jenni (the english professor) continues to grow as well. We really enjoy working with her. Our mens-womens ESL group meets again tonight at 730. And Matt and Sarah may have a soccer game with the school kids this afternoon...this is always a great oppurtunity for bible-storying. Please pray for us as we continue to story...it can be quite difficult to story to kids in a language that is not your own. Please pray that the Word would be clear and that the Holy Spirit would deliver to us all the words that we need! Also, please pray for us as we are making arrangements to leave our work here next week and reunite with our other mission teams in Nazca (southern peru). We have the furthest to travel and we are very sad about deserting our work for a week (travel time is two days, two days in mid-summer debriefing, two more days for return trip). Please pray that we will be able to go right back into the swing of things with the mens-womens ESL group, the kids soccer games, and the english classes at the colegio. Also, the Festival of Corongo begins on the 24th-- it will involve patriotism, paganism, dancing, idolatry, drunkenness... and who knows what else. It´s a huge deal around here..the kids at school always want to know íf we´re gonna be around for it, it´s all they talk about! Please pray for us as we try to decide our best method of actions during this time and how we can best be a Witness to the Gospel, but still be set apart as His followers.

Gracias a Dios! Gloria a Dios! Que Dios les bendiga!- jess<><

what a happy birthday!

2006-06-16T13:29:00.000-05:00

We are staying oh-so-busy! Yesterday we taught in the school for a few hours in the morning and because the schedule changed, we had no afternoon classes. Soo... we had an afternoon of rest and adventure for matthew´s birthday! We kinda bathed haha (baby wipes are a gift from God) and fixed ourselves up...matthew spent about 10 bucks on a dress up outfit! Sarah and i used our church clothes...and Anita...pictured below with Matthew fixed us some of the BEST fettucini alfredo any of us had ever eaten! Sarah and i went on tuesday and arranged to have a special meal and cake...and it turned out SPLENDID. The kids insisted on singing happy birthday to him at the school yesterday mon...and they took the holy candle from the Jesus shrine in the corner (can we say awkward) and asked him to blow it out as tried to sing happy birthday in english... it was so amusing! Last night we had church and they asked matthew to speak again on Sunday night. Sarah is also giving a testimony on Saturday night. This is encouraging...we feel as tho we´ve been able to encourage them since they´ve asked us to ´´preach´´ again. Pray for sarah and mateo as they prepare and as i translate! So hen matthew got hugs from all the church members as they sang ´´feliz cumpleanos a hermano!´´ It was such a blessed day! We felt productive in the school...and blessed by our Lord as we celebrated Matthew´s Birthday!

The kids are really taking to us...asking lots of questions. Relationships are developing. Please continue to pray for all the ESL classes we are teaching...as they are our primary time for evangelism. Thank you-- all you praying saints-- for the hours you spend on your knees. We are alive and well and ´´predicando la palabra de Dios´´ to ready hearts because of it:)

GLORIA A DIOS! QUE DIOS LES BENDIGA!
- jess, sarah, and matt<><

2006-06-14T19:04:00.000-05:00

okay really quick--we´re about to go start our second session with the adult ESL group...so i don´t have enough time to give an all out update, but tomorrow is Matthew´s birthday! sooo please if you have a chance email him at thekaramajong@hotmail.com! one of our sweet cooks here is making ´´fetuccini alfredo´´ for him ummm peruvian style of course haha! and a cake as well! things are going well.... we´re constantly in the classroom either at the school or at the lawyer´s office- teaching english (and jesus!) all the time...so much so that my brain hardly works in either language at the end of the day! we are really building significant relationships with the people... of all ages!! please continue to pray as you have been! we are seeing the results daily:) Gloria a Dios!

pictures: 1 & 2) matt and sarah in the classroom, 3) our soon to be birthday boy, matthew, guzzling a coke much too large for him!

all i can say is wow

2006-06-12T12:26:00.000-05:00

so here we are! the first picture is from i believe saturday...when they served us potatoes, rice, and cau-cau...aka cow intestines and cow tongue!!! ahhhh! poor matthew accidentally ate some of the meat..and then felt pretty sick after that. the sunshine picture is one of the most beautiful days we´ve had here! and then finally there´s me and sarah on the death bus at 6:00 yesterday morning..explanation to follow soon.

Remember us being excited about some hot springs where the people go to bathe in their clothes...well Jessica told us that we could catch a car with her that was leaving to go out of town at 6:00am sunday morn. we said we had to be back intime for church at 10:30. she said, oh it´s only an hour hike back. well okay! let´s just say that the CAR was a BUS-- the ones we talk about not wanting to ride! and then the HIKE back was well over 2 HOURS! we were soooo tired, we missed church, and were starving when we finally made it back to town around 1145. grrrrr! okay but the rest of the day went very well. matthew gave his sermon last night at the church- the biggest crowd we´ve seen there yet! so he spoke and i translated and the people were so receptive...we even had some teenagers slipping in the back and listening. our prayer is that they heard HIS words and not mine or matthew´s. also last night, i had a divine appt with the son of a preacher from a nearby village. He came in and sat down next to me in the internet cafe and we talked for about an hour. His name is David, his father´s name is Luis. He is here visiting family in Corongo for a couple of weeks and we´re gonna hang out with him, hopefully be an encouragement to him and also learn from him as well.

Today, we will be teaching the mens´group at seven! prayers please! they are very eager to learn...pray that we will be able to teach them a whole lot more than the english language!! we are very excited about this oppurtunity. also...tomorrow we start our teaching at the school at 8am! our days are getting very full...we start on mondays and don´t finish till late thursday nights with ESL teaching (either at school or to the business men), bible-storying with the kids, soccer playing with the teenagers and then the village men´s team, and finally writing sermons and learning spanish worship songs in order to lead the congregation! what a privilege it is to be used by our lord! ps. food has been better lately:)

que dios le bendiga! - jlr<><

´´for as the Heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways´´

2006-06-09T09:58:00.000-05:00

PICTURES ABOVE: 1) the school... ´´el colegio´´ 2) me and some chicas in the town square playing their favorite pointing game which i call ¨how do say this in english´´ haha it pretty much drives me crazy after awhile! 3) our spaghetti dinner at anita´s which i wrote about a few days back...it was heavenly!!! 4) sarah with a happy plate! 5) hey--we love each other a whole lot!! we were passing time waiting for our dinner date with Julio -ps. matthew and i are making the same face without knowing it!

To say that the past few days have been interesting is a short-coming of the english language! By the way... we all speak, dream, and pray in spanglish now unintentionally!
ON wednesday, we were supposed to meet with the head of the english department...which was a no show because it was marching day in the town square. then on thursday...we were supposed to go to the lagoons with alcalde (the mayor)...but he forgot to come get us at the cafe. so quite discouraged about our uselessness and lack of productivity...i came in here to check some emails and look up some possible ESL lessons for the group of men who have asked us to teach a course (PRAISE!!!). so i leave the little internet cafe and ask manuel, the store owner what exactly they want to focus on language-wise...he tells me to follow him down the street to another office to speak with the man who originally asked us. so while waiting for this man ( the village lawyer and judge?!) his apprentice who is also a lawyer begins talking with me about culture, why i´m here, what i believe etc. He is a jehovah´s witness! So he begins to ask me questions...the man i´m supposed to be talking to is nowhere to be found so Julio and i get to talk for quite some time. i tell him i´ll bring him a bible..he´s excited. so i invited him to have dinner with us, he accepts, and goes to church!

dinner by the way -- we found a new resturant and it was soooooo good! we had ´´broasted´´ chicken. announcement: ME, Jessica Lauren Roberts, at MEAT off the BONE! only because it was white meat and seasoned well and i was starving! and of course they served us papas fritas too... french fries. i know my friends and family are astounded! we all enjoyed the meal and the woman is of such sweet disposition! we are looking forward to building a relationship there as well. she´s cooking beans for us today! yipee!

okay, so julio, he enjoyed the service - and is coming back sunday! it was made very obvious to us why we were forgotten and appointments were missed...God had bigger plans! Yesterday afternoon, we went back and talked with the judge about the course...it´s a group of professional men here in town who want to learn- they are astounded that we are not charging anything. we plan to teach grammar and vocabulary and also include a devotion from the Word at the end of every lesson. last night...the service at the church was so amazing...so much music and testimony by the members as to what god had done in their lives recently. i understood almost all of the sermon. sarah and matthew are doing so well picking things up too! then we went into town, checked our emails about some current situations at home etc and bought some desserts aka candybars. at this point we all had upset tummies from the fried meat and potatoes which we hadn´t had in awhile...then things got really interesting. we headed back to the house-- it should be noted that they turn off the water here in the village at a certain time in the evening, around 5pm. so if you use the toilet...it stays there ´til morning. yuck.

following is a story in pictures:
1) there was a hole in the street where some men had been doing some ground work...and there was a boy named matthew walking down the street with two girls, all sharing their chocolate and cookies
2) he then, in the dark (this street´s light wasn´t working) happened upon this hole in a very personal way and face planted in...
3) the mound on the other side of the hole while his bottom half was submerged...
4) in the contents of the hole.

and then...(no picture available)...two girls lay dying of laughter in the street practically using the bathroom on themselves and cookies and candy bars just falling out of their mouthes...
´´are you okaaaay mateo?!´´.... ´´yeah other than the fact that i´m covered in CRAP!!´´

and we were still singing that wonderful song ´´HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD:)´´
Gloria a dios!!!- jlr<><

progress

2006-06-06T12:09:00.004-05:00

Finally- pictures! i´m gonna post twice ´cause it works better that way. 1) Mateo playing soccer with the men of the village 2) Saturday- Matthew sooo thankful for the food before him....2) Matthew realizing it´s the same food he´s had for 5 days straight! 3) Sarah and I...all bundled up together cause its sooooo coooold! this is the day we bathed:)

and more progress!

2006-06-06T12:09:00.000-05:00

more pictures! 1)sarah and i with clean hair and smelling good right before church...which we didn´t get to have due to the elections. 2) Felecita and Mateo in her garden 3) some of the children we play with in the village...pray for their hearts:)

today, we met again with the director of the school...we are to return tomorrow morning to meet with the english coordinator. i´m going to be working in the classrooms teaching ESL helping the english teachers. sarah and matthew may be going back and forth between teaching in the classrooms and helping with PE. they like the idea of PE better i think! they were both such good sports yesterday in the classrooms even tho they´ve had little spanish schooling. the attitudes of my teammates are wonderful! on our way back from town we were stopped by a man of good dress and speech...there´s a group of men here who want to learn spanish. they meet in the resturant in the town square on wednesdays and fridays. they want us to teach them! god is opening doors EVERYWHERE. these people are approaching us right and left. we are heading back to the house here in a little while to do some more bible-storying. we hope to spend some time with the kids this afternoon telling them of the stories in the old testament.

ALSO, on a lighter note- the food homefront- we got beans and rice yesterday for the first time in a long time! and then last night we took our spaghetti noodles and tomato paste to Anita- she kind of operates a resturant and bakery out of her home. she made us spaghetti! hallelujah! we practically made ourselves sick. we spent some time in the square with the kids while she was preparing our food. after dinner..we had what we refer to as ´´group reading time.´´ it´s kind of a nightly occurence...we´re learning a lot from the books of previous missionaries in the Word and books published since:)

thank you for the prayers and messages and support. pray for our ESL lessons...we didn´t really come with ´´material´´ haha! and pray for us as we story in spanish and break down barriers or ´´religion.´´ gloria a dios! gloria a dios! gloria a dios!

praises and pictures

2006-06-05T13:04:00.000-05:00

so i updated a lot yesterday... and at the end of a very trying day... the computer froze and i lost all the updates. i will try to recreate them to the best of my ability. the weather here has been very flippant...rainy and cold, hot and sunny. the rain really hinders our morale and our ministry because we can´t do much outdoors then and there aren´t many people out and about.

two of the three of us really had trying days yesterday. there are many frustrations: the weather, the language barrier, and the lack of food yesterday. they had national elecitions...and no one wanted to cook for us and even when we bought our own food felicita wouldn´t let us use her kitchen. so we ate bread and jam for breakfast, ritz and peanutbutter for lunch, ritz and jam and trailmix for dinner. que triste! we are trying to remember how fortunate we are though because many people have nothing to eat at all. let´s just say we´re really tired of rice and it´s only week 2!

please pray for felicita, the woman whose house we live in. please pray that our relationship with her would be intentional and purposeful...that she would come to know the Lord.

we went to the school today, the mayor himself escorted us! so when we got there we were some sort of a specatcle for the children. we kinda felt like we were a zoo exhibit! they were all just standing outside the principal´s office peering at us. so anyway, we met one of the english teachers who was very excited to have us...and then they seperated us! we taught in three different classrooms! mateo and sarah embraced the challenge even tho they haven´t had much or any spanish before! and in the midst of all that... i feel at home with these children in a classroom setting. i know that God is working on my heart in that area. sarah and matthew are doing a fabulous job putting forth efforts with the language barrier. we sang some songs with them and taught them some random english stuff... the director asked us to come back tomorrow and make lesson plans to continue teaching them twice a week for a couple of hours. foot in the door there! gloria a dios!

please pray for the children...everytime i try and upload their picture it fails, even tho i´ve downsized it. satan! pray for our relationships with them...especially the teenagers, they are always hardest to pull in to the circle. also, please pray for each of us on a personal level. it has been our prayer that the Lord would make us more like Himself. this of course doesn´t come without pain or burden....so as He works on each of us, some moments are harder than others. we sweat together, eat together, cry together...we´re growing together. please pray that we continue to be able to spur one another on as we have thus far.

we are under spiritual warfare as there is much oppression here in corongo...we try to remember that such attacks should be taken as encouragement...satan doesn´t mess with those who are no threat...and it has been our prayer that we may be a threat to the kingdom of darkness and we serve as ambassadors for the King of Life. what a privilege!

on friday, mateo was able to bond with some of the men folk here in a soccer game! what a praise! and people are beginning to ask questions of us....what kind of missionaries are we...which church do we go to here, the catholic or the evangelistic. they do not understand why we dont make the catholic sign across our chest or celebrate fiestas of the saints or practice witchcraft or believe in superstition. they are all so curious...pray that we will be able to use their curiosity to pull them in and then tell them of the works of our Savior! that they would lose interest in us (as we gringos are somewhat new and exciting to them right now)but gain interest in the One whose name we come in!

pictures- mateo playing soccer with the men! he even scored a goal! the computer and internet are being very fickle right now... so i´ll try to upload more of our pictures later!

en el amor de jesucristo- jlr<><

they say when it rains it pours...

2006-06-01T19:32:00.000-05:00

so this top picture is me and sarah when we actually took showers...this is our night in Chimbote...the last big city before heading up to our village. this was sunday....i haven´t showered since then. gross eh? the picture with our jackets hanging is on our goats´feet clothing rack lol. yeah, that´s right, they use goat´s feet as the hook- look closely. the bed is sarah´s which is on the right side of our massive (empty lol) room. the picture of what looks like a night stand is actually my closet. that´s right ladies and gentlemen...this is what each of us is living out of as far as clothing goes:). it was very very very cold today-- we´re at the end of the rainy season. so when it rains, no one is outside. and there is no way to get warm- no such thing as heat or ac here. so we turn the lights on to stay warm lol. only to find out that tonight, our abuelita doesn´t want us to do that anymore because its expensive. so yeah, today, well it was actually kinda depressing for us all. we stayed bundled up. we did a lot of praying and a lot of bible-storying and a lot of praying and just team bonding. please pray for the sunshine to come out tomorrow. we need it- for warmth and for sanity and for sharing the gospel! this is what happens when it rains in a peruvian village...

by the way i cannot get the duplicate pictures of mateo off here....what can i say- he´s a ham! i hope you all have a wonderful day. god speed. - jlr<><

photos!

2006-05-31T11:38:00.000-05:00

TOP L to R: Sarah, myself, and Mateo in the street right before With, Michael, and Daniel left us for the summer!
BOTTOM L to R: Sarah, Matt, Daniel, Michael, myself, and With looking into the village below at an ´´overpass´´ (the village is Aco).

i have more updates to give about the way the spirit moved in the church service last nite but we will wait until today passes so i can fill you in all at once. please be in prayer for our brothers and sisters who are alone and spiritually oppressed. also, daniel michael and with came back thru today after their time at yupan. it was a suprise to hear an american voice saying our name in the street this morning lol. they leave for good tomorrow after breakfast. they will be dearly missed. please pray for their safe travels again. en el amor de jesucristo- jess<><

las obras de dios

2006-05-30T22:03:00.000-05:00

I can´t even begin to describe to you the work of the Lord here...Ephesians tells us that He is able to do éxceedingly beyond what we ask or comprehend´ and all i can say is ámen´. our living situation as far as money and person is amazing. she is the sweetest little woman...a widow named felicity. pray for her...that she would be set free from religion and cling to christ as a born'again believer. tomorrow we are going to work the fields with her and then two men asked our team to come into their home and teach them from the word of god-they´ve been trying to study it alone. the children told us they are catholic and asked what is a christian. strange that those two are not at least comparable here. they want to learn about us. and we also have an oppurtunity to go into the schools and teach english. it is important that we clarify what we are missionaries of...there are sometimes others who come thru- mormons, seventh day adventists, etc. pray that the Gospel would be clarified. that jesus would be glorified. that His kingdom would grow. that His truth would be heard and understood.

corongo is spiritually oppressed. please pray that these people are set free. there is a cultural religion of sorts here. it´s mixture of catholicism -very different from american catholicism- mixed with witchcraft, ancient traditions, and paganism.

on another note, mateo killed a giant spider in the bathroom tonite...little scared now to take a shower. i am gonna try to add some pictures. thank you all so much for your prayers.

ARRIVAL TO CORONGO

2006-05-28T20:13:00.000-05:00

Hola! Estamos en Corongo! We are here in our village...thank you all so much who prayed for heavily yesterday and today during our travels. The intercessions granted us safety through some of the most narrow mountain roads i´ve ever traversed and the sheerest drop-offs i´ve seen from a vehicle......about 2000ft. Buses careen off the sides frequently....you pass a lot of crosses on the way up. We are staying in a house which we will be renting from a lady here. They usually stay in a hostal when they come up to corongo (the missionaries from our adoptive church- Markham Baptist in little rock, AR- but they have tried diligently to get a hold of Manuel, the hostal owner all month to no avail. and when we got here he was closed, come to find out he was actually down at th soccer fields but during that time we started to ask around about other places to stay. and then we found this woman. the Lord surely has a reason for all of this. the house is open air, the back hallway looking into the garden directly below and the mountainside directly out in front with beautiful flowers growing on it. this all is an open door for sure...the owner, Felecitia, she´s a widow and if she doesn´t already know the Lord we are hoping she will come to know Him through our staying there. Her sister owns the village ¨restaurant.¨ They are giving us a serious deal to provide food and lodging for us daily for the entire summer.

We had egg sandwiches for supper. Our lunch was a soup (sopa) of wheat and butter and broth...chicken gizzards included. And no i didn´t partake of those. I kinda just left them floating in the soup lol. I also had some great chocolate and peanut butter bars (chocolate con crema de mani) -- Cody´ll love this, they´re called ¨princesa¨aka princess lol. We are all pretty tired...strange how traveling 15 hours over rough mountain terrain with four people crammed in the back seat of a hilux can wear you out lol. i feel very at home here. it will be hard to leave....the children took us up to see some ruins this afternoon and we talked witht hem the whole way up and back. they asked me to pray for them after i told them i was a missionary. and sarah and matthew are quickly picking up on the language. pray for all of our ears to be opened. the children also want us to teach them english....we are going to speak with the principal about offering a class to them- another open door. they want us to teach them from books as well because theydont use any here. they write everything in their notebooks that the maestra puts on the blackboard. i am overwhelmed with the peace that i feel here and the Spirit is guiding us so strongly. i feel so at home.

please continue to intercede for us, we have felt your prayers thus far and we know that it is only by His might which you have envoked that we have even made it this far...please do not cease in prayer. my spanish is flowing better now, the enemy was really attacking me with feelings of inadequacy over the last week. please continue to pray for wisdom from the lord, he can cross all language barriers. pray against the curses and witchcraft, pray that their eyes will be opened to the Truth and Freedom in the Lord Jesus Christ. pray that the Lord would break down the laws and traditions in these peoples minds. They practice a lot of traditional catholicism mixed with witchcraft and paganism-- we want them to come clean from any misunderstandings of that and live in th Freedom of th Gospel. pray that He would give us spiritual mental physical emotional strength. that he would continue to form relationships, that the Spirit would discern to us about needs in people´s lives. that the Lord would make us like those we wish to save...that we could become like these Quechua women and sit beside them in the carachas and learn the trades of knitting and weaving (carachas are kind of like terrace farming plots). The women often travel up the mountain to take food to their husbands and to tend lifestock as well.

i pay less than a dollar an hour in this little ïnternet cafe¨ which is a major hang out for the jovenes (youth). pray that we would be able to find common ground with them here. i will probably be updating our adoptive church twice a week and i will try and do the same here. please be faithful in prayer and be missionaries there at home...we are all to testify to this Gospel. please , i beg of you to be good stewards of the Knowledge you have been so blessed to receive. to God be all glory and honor.

en el nombre de jesucristo- JLR<><

2006-05-27T00:03:00.000-05:00

well i am about to head up stairs for bed.... i got to see the pacific ocean a lil while ago, repacked my stuff, i need to unpack myself if you know what i mean lol- our american missionaries here fed us quite possibly the best Thanksgiving feast ever tonight. it was phenomenal. first time i´ve ever like sweet potatoes! strange i know, i come to peru and start likin sweet potatoes...i mean seriously i like a good ol´southern dish like that better in SouthAmerica than i do back home- strange what being abroad does to your appetite! we meet our stateside missionary guide tomorrow morning for a lil debriefing about our specific village...and then we head out! it will probably take our team a couple of days to get where we´re going?! not sure:) i have to come into ´´town´´ biweekly to update my supervisor in lima via email-telephone-blog. so hopefully this will keep you guys back home updated as well. pray for our health and safety as we travel. our bodies will have to acclimate themselves to the high altitudes...i get to see a stretch of ten peaks that are all about 18000ft high tomorrow. i´m psyched. team members are Matthew Pierce and Sarah Mathews. please lift up all the other teams going out to the distant areas of peru as well. this is your corongo team signing out. my love and peace to you all...in His all sufficient Grace- JLR<><

2006-05-25T21:00:00.000-05:00

Hola! Estoy in Peru:)

Hello friends and family. I am currently blogging from my hostal (open dorm-room style hotel) in Lima. I spent today in orientation with the REAPsouth team learning all about how to prevent insanity, sickness, conflict, and injury- no worries mom and dad;)

My concerned family should be happy to know that I ate in a TGIFridays tonight- a grilled chicken sandwich and french fries. and i finished it all! lol and then had coffee at a starbucks for dessert. my spanish is well...picking up. i´m pretty rusty after not having a class this semester but the starbucks barista told me i spoke well:) heck yes! much-needed encouragement from the Lord! After stuffing my face, we went to a WONGO. It´s like a Publix and Wal'mart on steroids lol. and then we got lost in the streets of peru looking for an internet cafe...whoops. so i´m back safe and sound in this little hostal. ready to go to sleep on my bed after staying up with my awesome new teammates and getting to know them all better- we have great chemistry. the Lord is so evident in these men and women. by the way- my feet hung off the end of my bed last nite. catch that?! hope that keeps ya laughing! i love you all. press on as my brothers and sisters in my absence. i hope that you all have stories of how YOU have shared the gospel when i return home! que dios bendiga! en el amor de jesu cristo- JLR<><

2006-05-24T08:19:00.000-05:00

well, it's 0826-- I'm finishing up the last of my gathering and stuffing before leaving the house for the BHM airport. I fly BHM to Houston at 1305. Due to arrive in Houston at 1455. I then fly Houston- Lima and I'm due to arrive there at 2300. Here's a big thank you in advance for all the love and prayers over the last few months and over the months coming. I love you all in a very special God-invoked way...please continue to be missionaries at home while I am abroad.