the ups and downs

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!)

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<><