TEAM LIMA
Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008

Wednesday was a lot of fun!! But a lot of hard work. It was my group's turn to do VBS today and the skit we did was hilarious! We told the story about Joseph and His Robe of Many Colors. The kids love to see us goof off and make funny faces during the skit. It's such a blessing to be able to be here and hang with these kids. Everytime we see these kids smile we love it! and pour all our hearts and God's love out to them. God has put a good hedge of protection over us by keeping us all safe. There is one thing that touched me the most this week.

One day, Keith Rivers (one of the team students) was playing a game with the kids where every kid had to wait their turn to be spun around in the air. Alegria, a little girl, was up next. Keith then yells out to all the kids, "Uno mas," which meant that he was only doing one more. So Alegria runs back into the crowd and takes her friends' little brother up to where she was. The little boy was the last to be spun around that day thanks to a nine year old girl he barely knew.

Julia Baker

Greetings from Lima.

This was our fifth day in Peru and our third day of our work/VBS ministry.  Everyone seems to be holding out pretty well halfway (or so) through the trip.  Matthew left early this morning (3:00 AM) for Lircay, and arrived safely there in the late afternoon.  The team is now in the capable and compentent hands of Candy Schoelen, and she did very well on this, her first day in charge.   The CedarBrook kids are really putting their hearts into the work and into the VBS time.  It is great to see them playing with the Peruvian children.  The CedarBrook kids are having as much fun as the native kids.  Still, the days are long and busy and everyone was looking kind of worn by the end of Wednesday...  we still need lots of prayer.

Today's schedule went as follows: breakfast at 7:00, quiet time at 7:30, then on the bus at 8:00 to go to our morning work assignment.  We stopped at about 11:00 and rushed back to the Seminary (the place we are staying) for a quick change of clothes, then back on the bus to go to the Santa Rosa school to do a thirty minute presentation of skits, and a dance.  After that, lunch at 1:30, then on the bus at 2:00 heading for VBS.  VBS ended at about 5:00 and we had dinner at 6:30.  After that we had time to work on assignments, or relax, if we happened to be free.  At 9:00 we had a team devotion time, and at 10:00 it was lights out to rest up for the next day.

At the Tuesday meeting before we left for Peru, one of the things Matthew mentioned was that we would need to be flexible, and ready for anything; we would need to "flex and flow", as Matthew put it.  We experienced some of that today when our amplifier broke at the presentation at Santa Rosa.  There were a few minutes of confused scurrying, but we soon were up and running with a sound system borrowed from the school.  At lunch, pastor Moises arranged to have us borrow the sound system from his church until we could get ours fixed.  With God's help everything went off almost as we planned, and exactly as He planned.

Last Sunday, we went to the evening worship service with Moises.  The service was held in the playground of the Perales school, so we were worshipping God in the open, under the stars.  I listened as pastor Moises prayed in spanish. The prayer sounded medodious as we stood with bowed heads under the open sky.  I could not understand the words, but I knew that God could.  As an American, I had never considered the many prayers and worship songs that rise to God from around the globe.  It came home to me forcefully how BIG God is.  We all know it, but seldom think about it.  He is not just an American God looking at us in the U.S.  He is the King of the universe.  He sees the hearts of all.  Language and culture are no barrier to Him.  He is working in the hearts of these people in Peru as he is in the hearts of all who love His Son, Jesus.  The work we do here seems so little.  Pray that God will use it go expand His kingdom and that the benefits would contunue long after we leave.

Glory to His Name.

Love in Christ
Joe Watson