Practical things: Words from my supervisors (Boots and Katie Holder): "There is one thing that they (the national leaders) and the S.C. churches (churches in the states reaching people near Huancayo) lack, someone who sees the big picture and can coordinate better all the activities of the region so that they can mutually benefit each other. That would be you." I am beginning to get a better idea of what I will be doing. From my last e-mail I will definitely have a Toyota truck! So I will be learning a stick shift while I am here at the ILC! I am pumped because a truck will give me the freedom to go where God wants me for the week! I also received a schedule that has me booked from January 09 till the end of summer 09. We are going to have nearly 60 volunteer groups by the end of 09! Praise God that He is raising up people from the local church to come serve! You know what is cool about my job? I get to learn and do a lot of what a Strategy Coordinator does. A Strategy Coordinator goes to a particular area and figures out a strategy that reaches a certain people group the most effectively and then executes it. With my job I get to practice elements of that, in doing this I hope to figure out if I might want to be an SC in the future.
Language school: Please begin to pray for the family I will be living with in Guatemala. It is the Chan family. Sounds Chinese right? I don't think they are...but I guess we will see. I am really pumped that I finally get to really learn how to speak Spanish! If you want to check it out on a map I will be living in Antigua, Guatemala. A cool website is: www.aroundantigua.com
People group: The people group I will be working with is the Wanka Quechua. These people are amazing, loving and open to the gospel. Some have seen some hardship from the past...a terrorist group called the Shining Path used to have dominion over this area during the 90's and they did horrible acts to many of these people-killing many family members of the people that live there now. These are people that have seen awful things in their lifetime and they are in need of your prayers. The religious belief of these people is a mixture of many things. They are descendent's of the Inca's and therefore many of them believe in spirits that they must worship and please. Since the conquistadors came in the Catholic church has been force on them, so imagine having a belief system with weird spirit worship, mixed with Catholic tradition. These two mixed together gives you Paganism and a need for Jesus Christ. Many have never heard the gospel and think of someone totally different when you mention Jesus. They do have high regard for the Bible and therefore this can be a tool but most don't read very well. The lanugage spoken in many of their homes is Quechua. Quechua is a language that has no written characters--it is all oral. I may have to begin learning some of this because this is the heart language of many of the people that live there. If I was to explain the gospel in Spanish many of them they would understand with their minds but never make the connection in their heart.
Church planting thoughts: I was reading Luke 10:1-7 and in this passage the Lord began to deal with me about asking Him to send more personnel overseas, that I will be a target of the enemy, to pack less and to invest in the men and women of peace that He puts in my path. An idea I had for investing in men and women of peace is to go and live with them for a week at time in the 8 villages I will be targeting. Like I have said before I will live in Huancayo Peru but most likely I will be in the 8 villages in that area more than I will be in Huancayo. There are four church partnerships from the states working in the Huancayo area: Immanual Community Church in Colorado, Council Road Baptist Church in Oklahoma, Grace Baptist Church and Cambridge Baptist Church in partnership from Virginia, and Southside Baptist Church from Arkansas. These churches have been investing for some time already coming 4-5 times a year to specific villages in that area. Like I said there are about 8 villages near there and therfore these 4 churches (or partnerships) are investing in 4 of them. Four more need churches to adopt them and I will be researching these villages and looking to mobilize a church from the states to adopt each of the villages. Please pray that God will give me creative ways to help these churches already reaching the Wanka Quechua.
People I am sharing Christ with: My friends and I have been investing at a local Mexican restaurant. I got to share my testimony with a man named Carlos and my friend Karla shared the gospel with him last week. We are going to go back and have a Bible Study there with him and maybe a few others that are interested. He grew up Pentecostal but Karla and I don't think that he really knows Jesus. So please pray he would come to faith.From the 1 minute update: one of my friends shared the gospel with Sarah and she was receptive! My friend and I are looking to return to the coffee shop so that she can share with Sarah and I can continue my spiritual discussions with my friend Shawn. Please pray they would be saved!
Others: I am eating lunch about every 2 weeks with some firemen that come in and eat lunch at the ILC. We have talked about Jesus and then today I got to know them a little better! Please pray that they might be saved! Their names are Ryan, Matt and Jason.
Other Missionaries: I love these people so much and they are going all over the world! There are so many girls here it is hilarious, so we have decided tomorrow night to have a man night! I am pump
ed about it! Now we can do some grunting and watch a man flick and each man food! My accountability partner Ryan Northup and I had an amazing meeting yesterday as well. He and I got to share some things that really needed to be shared! Praise God for him because he is the only other single guy about my age that is going to be living in Peru! I will need to hang out with him in my trips back to Lima, the capital of Peru! His job will be to disciple many of the people that are won to Christ after volunteer teams come in. Please pray for Ryan and his partners Brittane and Christi that God would equip them to disciple people's all across Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador.
