Emerging Missions

I just found out about this a few weeks ago.

If you don't know, it is the combined efforts among non-Western missionaries to evangelize the world. This is probably one of the coolest things I've ever heard. The Christians in China have started a movement called Back to Jerusalem. In this they plan to send out 100,000 missionaries over the next 10 years to evangelize the areas between China and Jerusalem. It isn't going to be rushed or anything, but will be done with a patient yet driven passion. The Church in South Korea caught wind of this and decided that they would aid China as much as possible in their efforts. On practically the other side of the world, some other Christians were catching the vision. Ethiopian and Nigerian Church leaders felt God's call to the nations through this, and now both have committed to sending 50,000 each over the same time frame. The goal of all of this is to evangelize the majority of 1040 Window and join together in Jerusalem to watch the Savior come back in 2020, as efforts in other areas by people not of this movement will be continued. This is very possible because if it's God's plan it won't be messed up (Job 42:2). I beg and plead that the American Church gets involved with these efforts as best we can. With God you either get on board, or get out of the way.

Back at IWU

I'm back at Indiana Wesleyan about to start my Junior year... I'm pumped to see what God has in store.

1 Week Left

Well, we´re in Ica now hanging out with Wilfredo and his family again. It´s alot of fun! Yesterday, we had our last soccer game. We won, which was nice. And I also am now 1-0 in international tennis play. This guy asked me if I wanted to play tennis, so I did and won. It was pretty sweet. I´m not sure how long we´ll be here, but I know that when we leave we´re headed back to Lima and then La Finca... One week left! :)

The 2nd Half and TRUTH

Sorry, I have been pretty busy/lazy lately with updating this. Since Nazca... We´ve been to Laramate, took a 17 hr. bus ride to Cusco, hung out there for a few days, went to 3 villages (Oruruillo, Ayaviri, & Chupa) in the freezing state of Puno, and now we´re in Arequipa (2nd largest city in Peru). In those places we played soccer, had Bible studies, fellowshipped, and just relaxed some. It´s been great! I´m still getting to spend a lot of time with God and wouldn´t trade it for anything. I can´t really begin to describe how much more I´ve learned in God this summer. Right now, we have less than 2 weeks left in Peru. We should be traveling to Caraveli, Ica, and then back to Lima. Caraveli is our only technical village left. The place we´re in now has KFC, Pizza Hut, and Burger King. So it´s obviously pretty nice. It also has a volcano on one edge of the city and a glacier covered mountain on another. Nice, but expensive.

I know everyone won´t necessarily agree with my decision to get a tattoo, but I prayed about it and I believe whole-heartedly that it does and will glorify God. I also looked in the Bible and the Scripture in Deut. that says don´t get tattoos is lumped in with commandments about not wearing cloth of two types of fiber and not planting two types of seed in the same field. Both of these seem very Jewish and Old Covenant to me. I believe that everything we do should glorify God, and again I know that this will. The belief and statement that there is absolute TRUTH is a message that needs to be sent to this postmodern world. Truth is not relevant. There is absolute TRUTH, and that TRUTH is Jesus Christ.

Great Pitch and Good Times

A pìtch is a soccer field, just so you know ;)

We never actually made it to Quitoarma as originally planned. Instead, we went to play close to there in Huaytara. It was a great and really fun game. The first time we had grass and a team to play. God blessed us greatly buy allowing us to play an awesome team. They were nice and good, which is a rare combo here. ha We of course shared the Gospel after, and then left the next day. If you haven´t noticed by now, we as the soccer team don´t get to see much if any fruit from our efforts. Just as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3:6-8, ¨I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.¨ We know that our purpose is to plant and the village team is to water and plant in many cases.

After Huaytara, we headed back to Ica to stay with Pastor Wilfredo again. He and his family have been a huge blessing to us. He runs the Baptist seminary in Ica and pastors a nearby church. We´ve stayed with them three times, and this past time they made us pancakes one day and eggs with ham the next. While we were in Ica on this occasion, we finally went sandboarding. It was awesome! The dunes were huge and the dune buggy drivers were crazy. Best of all, we got to do it for 2 hrs and it only cost us like $11.50. I also made a funny, but rather rash decision while in Ica. I wanted a haircut and didn´t really care what it looked like since that´s kinda how I am, for the most part. So anyways, I got a mohawk/mullet and shaved lines in my eyebrows. It was hysterical. Well, I wasn´t sure how culturally appropriate the lines were so now I have no eyebrows and just a small fohawk type thing. I look kinda like a mouse and/or Norwegian. It´s pretty great. I´ll put up pics of that and sandboarding when I can. I don´t regret anything except shaving them this short. They did need a little thinning out anyways though ;)

In conclusion, we´re in Nazca now with our whole REAP South Peru team (all 120) for mid-summer debriefing. It´s nice here, but food and everything is really expensive. I´m currently reading In the Grip of Grace by Max Lucado and hope to start something else soon since I´ll be done with that and already finished Driscoll´s book. We leave here Monday for Laramate... DON´T FORGET TO PRAY FOR THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE HERE AND WATCH THE USA/BRAZIL SOCCER GAME TOMORROW!!! :)

Disabled, Defeated, but Still Sharing

Honestly, the last few days have been kinda rough. We´re in Santiago de Chocorvos, and I have a pulled quad and bruised calf from the game(s) yesterday, I only played in the first one. We lost both games and more than a couple of us got hurt. The reason was we were playing on a field made of gravel that also had some huge rocks in it, also the referees didn´t help ;) It was really difficult to play because of my leg and the ¨field.¨ ha The best part of the day and only thing that mattered was definitely sharing the Gospel after. Today was mainly a day of relaxation, and tomorrow we head back down to Ica for the weekend. It´ll be good to get some food other than rice ;) Please continue praying for the furthering of God´s Kingdom and now for my wounds. I´m pretty sure I´m going to have to sit out the next game and maybe more, but who knows God might completely heal me or I might just take a couple ibuprofen before. ha Thanks and God bless :)

Cordova and Back

We´re back in Ica now for the night. It was decided that it would be best for us to stay at the Baptist seminary here for the night and head to Santiago tomorrow, so we are :) Cordova was great! We played 2 games and shared the Gospel with all who watched and played after the 2nd one. The high school team tied us 3-3, and we beat the town team 1-0. It doesn´t really matter as far as ministry goes, but I figured my dad and cousin Mason might want to know ;) I also pulled my right quad in the second game, but I´ll be ok. Being in Cordova gave me a ton of time to just chill with God. I´m currently reading through all the Epistles (just finished Phillipians) and a book called Vintage Church by Mark Driscoll. The book´s been great so far. You should check it or anything else you can find at the library or from Pastor Tim Mom :) I actually think you´ll like and agree with this guy. He´s got quotes about his book from at least 3 or 4 Southern Baptist staff members from various seminaries on the cover and beginning pages. ha So anyways, I´m learning a lot and believe that God is doing great things here. Please continue in prayer.