Lima

Peru has been a blast, such a blessing. What God has shown me through His Word and experiences is amazing! At this time tomorrow I will be in a taxi headed to the airport to go back to the states. Here are some highlights and lowlights.

Highlights
- Being able to meet and take Josimar, a little boy I have been sponsoring and writing to through Compassion, a Christian organization, for over a year, to the zoo.
-Meeting Jovanna (a woman who is living in a tent) and seeing her growth in the Lord, forgiving people she hadn’t and joyfully depending on Him to provide for her and her family, and thanking Him for what she has.
- Being forgiven for hurting someone’s feelings.
- Seeing God’s beauty in creation, especially the sea, and in babies. How amazing children are, to think I once thought they came from a monkey, so sad. - Hearing the testimony of a young, but mature, Christian who believes her mom is in hell, but believes with all her heart that God is love. Praise God for her faith!
- Best of all, re-realizing we deserve a punishment for our sin: hell. Thankfully, Jesus paid the price on the cross.

Lowlights
- Doubting the reality of hell.
- Not seeing the people who said they would come to church at church.
- Hurting someone’s feelings.
- Seeing people so sick and frail in the hospital.

Read below for my last days.

Thursday, November 8
I got to see how difficult it can be to be a parent. Tracy gets up super early to get ready and then get her children ready for school. That wasn´t the hardest part. The kids had a ton of homework to do when they got home. Tracy and I barely had time to go to a two hour apologetics class at the Bible college, which was good, then we had to come back to pick up the kids. I helped Tracy a little with the homework then I got to donate blood to the young girl mentioned before. It was neat to go visit her and the other five cancer patients in her room. From there I went to the grocery store. I bought food for Tracy´s family and gifts for the family of the little boy I am going to visit Saturday.

PRAISE REPORTS
God makes such amazing kids!

PRAYER REQUESTS
Robin and Tracy for wisdom and patience in parenting and ministry.

Friday, November 9
Apologetics class was good, again. Today we finished talking about God and went on to talk about 7 world views. Afterwards Kate and I went to the hospital to visit Maria Gabriela and donate blood. It was a debacle with the blood donation. They called me in urgently to donate platelets. Kate, who knows NO Spanish, stayed in the room by herself. After four hours at the hospital we headed to Tracy´s house. We ate quesadillas and tortillas with avocado. Kate helped me bring all my stuff to the Bible College. :)

Gino and Kate on our way to the hospital, mulberry eating-throwing

Saturday, November 10
Today I got to go the the zoo with the little boy I sponsor, his mom and little brother. He loved the Bible.We had an awesome time! After that I went to buy gifts for people back home. When I got back I found out that Megan no longer wanted to go to Machu Pichu. That was a little hard to take, because I was thinking, I am in Peru now, who knows if I will come back again. But I know God´s promised to not withold anything good from me (Psalm 84:11), so maybe some other time I will get to go.

Meeting Josimar... So Fun!

Pachamanca! A typcial Peruvian dish, made of meet & yams, put in a hot hole!

An Evangelical Pastor was in that Barney suit.

Reading Josimar´s Stuff
He´s so good in School! Praise God!

Sunday, November 11

Church service was great today. Pastor John taught through Acts 26, but emphasized the importance of Paul´s calling, which is our calling as well, in verse 18:

Open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

1) Open their eyes
Only God can open their hearts, but we can help people see the evidence in favor of Christ´s death and resurrection.

2) turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.
That they would see they need to be forgiven for their disobediance to God, turn from that and turn to God.

3) that they may recive the forgiveness of sins and the inheritance.
That they realize God loved them soooo much He left heaven to come down to earth to suffer and excruciating, humiliating death so that they could be forgiven and go to heaven! And start living the abundant life his promises us (John 10:10) full of joy and peace.

I came back and hung out with Natalie, such a cool girl. We read quietly together and would have break times in which we would share what God has done in our lives. From there we went to believer´s night, which was really cool. Matt, one of the young teachers, taught on submitting to God. How we just have to do it! It´s the best for us.

Monday, November 12
Today has been very chill. I took the mid-term with the class. I think I did better than on any midterm I took in college. I wrote in my blog and helped a Peruvian student with his English homework.

Tuesday, November 13
Today was an AWESOME day!

It started off with a great devotional on Galatians 4:4-7:

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!"
Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

God loved us so much he came to redeem us. He came to pay the price for our sins. We deserve hell, but my Abba Father, in His great mercy sent his Son. And Jesus willingly came to bear my sins on the cross, so that I, and any one who accepts His love, could live with Him forever. He allows us to be His children. Not only that He comes in dwells in us. The Holy Spirit enables us to live a life full of joy, love, and peace. Thank you God!

God´s plans for His children are sooo awesome! We see God´s love and care as was read in today´s devotional in Isaiah 5:1-3:

NOW let me sing to my Well-beloved
A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard:
My Well-beloved has a vineyard
On a very fruitful hill.
He dug it up and cleared out its stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine.
He built a tower in its midst,
And also made a winepress in it;
So He expected it to bring forth good grapes,
But it brought forth wild grapes.

That really spoke to me.
God has been bringing me to choice hills, Winterhaven, Peru, Cambridge, and providing me with everything I need. His Word, as Natalie said, is the choicest of vines, so rich. I have had a tower, in churches (in the people in them), and winepresses, struggles to cause the best to come out, in my character. Praise God!

After that, class was good. From there I went to get cookies for the kids in the hospital. When I was coming back I bumped into Deborah and Kate, two of my favorite people, and they invited me to eat sushi. I accepted. It was great, as was the seaweed salad and fried ice cream (my fave). I had to run back to meet up with the people who were going to the hospital with me. After half an hour of getting everyone together, we left.

The taxi ride as awesome. The taxi driver, Willy was soooo open to the Gospel. It was neat, because I got to share what we learned about hell today: we deserve a punishment for our sins and God is just. I told him about the Lord and he even let me pray for Him. His eyes were all teary eyed when I we finished crying. He didn´t want to charge us for the ride!

From 3-6, Tim and Sterling (two students) and Deb the financial director, went to the hosptial. I got to visit a bunch of cancer patients with my red clown nose, candy, and most importantly Gospel tracts. :)

Our taxi driver on the way home, Jose Luis, was open to listening about the Lord, in fact, his wife is a Christian. :)

When we came home there was yummy Mexican food waiting for us. :) :)

Tonight, it was really hard to read about hell. But finally something became clear: we deserve hell. Not because what people have done, but what people have not done: accepted Jesus. We are already destined to hell for being who we are: sinners. But Jesus in His amazing love, comes to rescue us. :) Then God fills us with His Spirit to live the life we are supposed to, one full of: love, joy, peace, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, patience, kindness, and temperance (kind of like self-control). Praise God!

PRAISE REPORTS
The rerealization above!
Tim was able to donate blood.
Deborah qualified to donate platelettes.
I was able to use something I learned in class today: why hell has to exist

PRAYER REQUESTS
Ursula, who is having a tumor removed tomorrow.
For Willy´s salvation.
For Maria Gabriela, and all the kids I met today: Fortunato, Jimmy, Ruben, and Nicolas, for their healing and their salvation
For Maria Gabriela´s family, that they would have peace, and salvation.