A Smile

I'm asking that you all pray for us. Why? Monday & Tuesday, we'll be in a town called Pisco (PEE-SKO). This town was very close to the epicenter of the earthquake & is devastated. Camino de Vida has asked us to go to minister to the kids who are in the streets. Some of these kids are now orphans who have lost their parents in the quake. We'll be doing kids shows with them... games, songs, dances, etc.. just to bring them some smiles & of course, to bring them the life changing word of God. We know God can take what Satan meant for evil, for pain, for destruction.. and He can use it to bring life, to bring healing, to bring restoration. This is what we want.. just to be vessels for Him. That He can use us in this dark time for so many that have lost so much. Lord help us.

The Victorios in Cieneguilla

Somehow, we've managed to fit more things in our already jammed schedule. In our newsletters, we've mentioned an outreach to kids we have on Saturdays to kids in a pretty bad area. The club is called - Los Victoriosos (The Victorious). Well, this Saturday, we started the same outreach here in Cieneguilla (the district where we live) in a squatters village where we started a pre-school.

The Friday before the club, in the morning, Alida & 3 other girls went from door to door, inviting the kids & talking to the parents about the program. We'll do this every other Friday & Saturday. The idea is to build relationships with the parents as well.

So Saturday at 10:00am, we had the first meeting ....40 kids! We had a great time with games, bible lessons, object lessons & as far as we know, the kids had a great time as well! What an honor it is to be able to touch the lives of these young ones. God only knows who they'll grow up to be, but while we have em, we're gonna do all we can to instill the Word of God & His principles in them. We know it never comes back void!!

Shaken...but not Knocked Down

This has been a crazy few days! As many of you have probably heard, Peru got hit with a 7.9 earthquake on Wednesday evening at 6:41pm. The death toll is now over 550 I believe & the cities hit the hardest are suffering. Thank God for His protection! Alida & I had just left the house to walk up to where we catch a taxi & it just started to shake.

Keep in mind, we have tremors here. The first tremor I experienced was during a training here at the camp. There were 30 trainees - 26 ladies & 4 guys (myself and my then roommate Rich, from Florida, being 2 of them). Here comes a tremor & Rich & I are running out of the house like the whole thing is coming down & all the girls are just kinda looking at us like - huh?? Since then, we've probably had about 15 tremors that usually rattle the windows so we're used to it.

So back to Wednesday... you hear sound first.. like a train is coming... then the rattle of the windows.. then the sound of glass breaking & light poles swaying... and the ground just shifting back & forth beneath your feet. It's a pretty indescribable feeling. And this went on for nearly 2 minutes. Crazy! But thank God everyone we know is safe and accounted for.

But please, keep the families in your prayers. Churches like Camino da Vida are taking donations to the people.. and they need it desperately. Our prayer is that God can take what the devil has intended for bad, has intended to be painful, and God can use it to draw all men unto Him. Thank you all so very much for your prayers & your emails. It's good to know you have a loving family that cares about you & is praying for you!