Breaking Through!!

5/25/10—We started out the morning with meetings. But there were no devotions with Pastor because it was raining. Everything is cancelled in Pucallpa when is down pours. This is because of poor transportation. After lunch Nancy & I went to visit 2 families (Roci & Gorge and Francisco). Both Roci and Francisco accepted Christ last Thursday after we showed the movie. So we talked about what that prayer meant and set up a time next week to start disciplining them.
5/26/10—This morning was a rather quick visit. No one seems to be home in the mornings. Afternoons/ Evenings seem to be better to catch up with people. We meet with Esteban to discuss tomorrow night & our first church service!! We then invited everyone we have been visiting to come. Today was our first day of English class—but no one showed up. Oh well God will work in other ways! We plan on holding another class next week to see if we get any other people interested. We continue to meet more people & our schedule is filling up. God is definitely at work here—it is nice to be in the middle of it.

5/28/10 --Last night we had our first church service. We had 9 adults and 6 kids attend. Not too bad! Pastor Dario preached & Nancy sang. Next week we should have more people because this week there was a lot of rain. Laura Bozo was covered with mud and that made it difficult to walk around, especially for the older generations. God is at work here in Pucallpa. I am just truly grateful to be able to share the love of God. Today we had many plans but most them changed. I have learned that it is not my work but Gods—and Nancy & I can plan everything out but in the end it is his plans. We were supposed to meet up with an elderly man. But when we got to his house his daughter said he was asleep and it would be best for us to come back another time. So we started walking & ended up at Nysie’s house. Her sister (21 years old) is dying. And the family actually let us go in this time to pray for her. Thankfully, she has already accepted Christ and was living a life with him. It is a very sad and hard time for the family right now. I can’t even imagine losing my sisters right now. But God is at work in their heart and they seem at ease that her life is in God’s hands. We spent 2 hours with this family and ended up missing our appt. with Louisa. We did however, meet up with Yolanda & her daughter and started the 2nd lesson of discipleship. The daughter was ready the accept God when she got called away to an emergency. All in God’s timing. The next visit was the Katie’s house. She was busy working her little store so we sat and talked for a little bit to see how she was doing. It turned out her uncle has gotten worse. She asked if we would be willing to go to his house and pray for him. So later that night Nancy & I went to this man’s house—we only had direction, didn’t know him personally, and didn’t know the family. We walked up to the house and explained we where friends of Katie. They opened their home to us. As I sat there I was taken by sadness. But why should I be sad this man said he lived his life for God. That he was not afraid to go home to his father. He was just ready for the pain of this world to past. We prayed for him and his physical pain and then talked to the family a little bit. We are scheduled to go back and visit them next week.

5/29/10—Today was a rough day for me. I have been sick for the past two days. Stomach problems…I am feeling better but my body is so tired. For Sunday school Nancy went with our cluster support family (The Fosters) she said that we had 12 kids show up this Sunday.—and that it was the same from the past two weeks and of the families we have been disciplining!She then went to go visit Estaban because we were suppose to start discipleship classes with him and his friends. She rescheduled if for next week and gave him the material to prepare for next week. In this group we have 10 people who want to learn more about the Church of the Nazarene. This group attended another Christian Church. But since then the Church closed and they haven’t found another to attend. So we will start the process with them—probably moving at a faster pace because they are already Christians. But it is important to do the whole discipleship process with them so that when they finish they may equipped to disciple others as well. Tonight we have a celebration at the mother Church (Central). We have invited many individuals from Laura Bozo to be a part of this. It is more of a welcoming party for new members and believers!! It should be a pretty good time and it will be nice to see how much work God has been doing in all Pucallpa!

Nuevos retos

Nuestro sentir.
Estoy feliz porque siento que Kristy y yo hacemos un buen equipo, estamos haciendo un plan de visitas o actividades para cada semana y día especifico, pero a veces no lo hicimos así, porque las personas que teníamos para visitar no estaban en sus casas, los dos primeros días de trabajo de esta semana fueron así, pensábamos que no quieren que los visitemos o que nos engañaron, pero Dios nos enseño a espera en el y tener paciencia, a demás a poner toda nuestra confianza en el y entender que es el trabajo de Dios; nosotros solo vamos y el es quien realiza el trabajo por medio de su Espíritu Santo y nuestras vidas.
Pero esto cambio para el día siguiente porque una familia nueva a quien llegamos estuvo muy dispuesta a escucharnos y quieren que vayamos y estudiemos la biblia con ellos. Y mientras repartíamos las invitaciones para la película que íbamos a presentar el viernes conocimos a Esteban Vela, quien esta muy interesado de que se inicie cultos en su hogar.

El viernes 21 presentamos la película Señor Justicia, en la plazuela de la comunidad y la gente vino y adquirimos mas contactos, fue un tiempo muy bendecido.

Visitando y dando clases de Pre- discipulado (Evangelizando)
Gracias a Dios ya iniciamos el curso CONOCIENDO EL CAMINO DE DIOS (Pre-discipulado) con tres familias que conocimos y están interesados en conocer mas sobre el amor de Dios.
La primera familia es de Don Cesar Paima y Luisa Avila, ambos son muy amables y muestran interés para aprender, ellos tienen cuatro hijos, Luis Enrique(15); Marielena (11); Cesar Alfredo(7); Alana (1) y quieren que oremos por su trabajo, salud y unidad de su hogar, como también estamos orando para que sea una de las primeras familias de la Iglesia del Nazareno en ese lugar.
Jane y sus dos hijas.
Otra familia es la de don Ramón Isuiza y Yolanda Satalaya y su hijas Sadith, el viernes 21 iniciamos estudios bíblicos con ellos.

Escuela Dominical
Desde el domingo 16 de Mayo estamos desarrollando escuelas Dominicales con niños en el Local Comunal del Asentamiento Humano Próceres de la Independencia (Laura Bozo). Este domingo 23 asistieron 15 niños entre 4 y 11 anos de edad. Algunos son hijos de las familias que hemos visitado y con los otros niños estamos tratando de tener contacto con sus familias.

Algunas anécdotas.
Cuando no encontramos a nadie en su casa el martes, solo nos quedo ir a la casa de Luisa porque sabíamos que ella siempre esta allí.
Mientras repartíamos las invitaciones para la película un hombre fue rudo al decirnos...No gracias, yo ya soy un seguidor de Jesús no puedo estar mirando películas.
Anunciamos que dictaríamos clases de Ingles gratis y un hombre se nos acerco y nos dijo que el quiere aprender pero si podíamos ir a su casa el sábado, nosotras fuimos pero no íbamos a darle clases de Ingles en su casa, sin embargo el nos espero listo con su cuaderno y lapicero. Pero fue el inicio para conocer a su esposa quien fue muy amable y le gusta conversar mucho.

Sunday School

We have had two week of work so far. We are currently discipleing four familys. God is truly at work and in the center of everything we do with this community. Doors and hearts seem to be just opening up around us. We don't know how to schedule everyone in one day.

This coming Thursday we have our first culto or church service out in Laura Bozo. We shall see how it goes. But at this point it seem to be a fmaily and their friends. May God continue to soften peoples hearts and prepare the way for his kingdom.

We had our second Sunday School this last week. We had over 15 returning kids. Most of which are from families who we are discipleing. Below is a few pictures of our lession and then some fun time with games and songs with Rico our Extreme mascot!!!

Getting Started!!! 5/10-5/15

We have at last made it to our final destination!! After months of training, praying, and preparing we have started our first church plant. Nancy & I have been working in Laura Bozo (or Proceres de la Independencia) for the past two weeks. On Mandy and Tuesday of last week we spent the time walking around, learning the area (roads, stores, restaurants, people, and needs in this neighborhood).
Things in Peru are not well mapped out and roads seem to be going ever which way. Pastor Dario (the District Superintendent) has a huge map of Pucallpa. But as we where narrowing down our district we noticed that houses, road, and places where left out. From this we mapped out our church plant and drew out the area. Above is our home drawn map—just remember that our spiritual gift is not drawing.
Wednesday and Thursday we had off for a conference for team building. We took this time to recollect our thoughts and come together as a team. During this time we discussed what our expectations are for each other, how we were doing in our church plants and spiritual lives here, and time to relax and recollect spiritually.
Friday morning we meet with the president of our district. This person is almost like a Mayor of the town. The meeting went rather well we have support of the community and they are excited and welling to help out as much as they can to fulfill this process.
Later Friday afternoon we began going house to house to meet people who attended our medical clinic (through Extreme) in February. We have many families who are very interested in starting Bible Studies with us and to begin the discipleship programs. Please be in pray for these families as God continues to soften their hearts and teach him his will for their lives.
Sunday morning we had our first Sunday school in the community center located in the plaza or center of the community. We had over 30 kids attend Sunday school. We played games, sang songs, and talked about being obedient to God and to our parents (using the story of Jonah). We plan on doing this every Sunday morning to allow a place for kids to come have fun and learn good values!!
I am very excited for the next few weeks to come and to see what God has in store for the communities of Pucallpa. Please continue to pray for Laura Bozo along with the other communities in Peru being touched by Gods grace.