Life in Peru

Since Friday's pictures never happened, I am doing them today. And, I am going to post tomorrows post (prayer requests) today as well.

These are pictures of a family God has brought into our lives. They are going to help us start a church in their neighborhood. We spent half of the day with them yesterday and they were so gracious and hospitable to us. After spending time with them I was convicted about so many things, but mostly about complaining about not being able to use the "elevator" and having to walk up 6 flights of stairs with groceries. If you look closely in the pictures you can see the HUGE yellow stairwell that these people have to walk up and down every day for everything. I was deeply convicted and have since changed my attitude to one of thankfulness that I have a covered stairwell that is in a beautiful apartment building and that I have 2 awesome legs. The pictures were taken in their house. This woman cooked us a meal on an electric plug-in stove and a clay pot with dirt floors. It took her 3 hours to make chicken and rice. Although it was delicious, the difficulty of their lives really hit me hard.

This area is called Tres Coronas (Three Crowns). The friendless of the people was overwheleming. One of the neighbors sat us down on her patio and showered us with potato chips and lemonade. They all wanted us to come back today to join their fiesta to one of the Saints. Yesterday was an amazing experience and we can't wait to see what God has in store. I think the first church service is going to start in 2weeks and John is literally going to go door to door inviting people and asking how he can pray for them. By the way, our kids are a HUGE source of open doors there. Most people only have two children so when they see we have four they strike up a conversation with us. How cool is that? Many people thought our children and their ages would hinder ministry. Not so!

Just as a side note, this gentelmen comes from a family of 26 (he is 70) and his wife comes from a family of 15. WOW!!!!!!!

Cultural Experiences:
1. went to my first every cooking class in Spanish. It was awesome! I now know how to make homemade Ricotta cheese.
2. I ran my first race in Lima, Peru. I made a few new friends and a couple from my running club brought me home.
3. We went to the Alliance church by our house and it was great too. We are going back next week.
4. We spent most of yesterday with our new friends in 3 crowns. They are precious.
5. We spoke a TON of Spanish this weekend and feel like we are really getting plugged in and can't wait to start sharing the Gospel.
6. We went to a Kid's Ferria today that cost $2 per person. It was a convention room filled with games, activities, shows and bounce houses for kids. We had pizza for supper that cost $1.25 per personal pizza. WOW! It was a blast and people were so kind to us because once again, we had double the kids that everyone else has.

Prayer Requests:
1. John's Father and John's Family and John. John's father is unresponsive. He does open his eyes, but he can't sp Yesterday his sister said he looked "green."
2. For God to provide money for some or all of us to attend the funeral if/when it happens. Right now we don't even have enough for John to get there.
3. For boldness to proclaim Christ and also gentleness and wisdom as we seek to spread the Gospel.
4. That people would see Christ in our family and the way that we live - not just in our words. That we would be truly Set-Apart and our lives would look radically different.