As of May 26th, 2012, we have been officially accepted to join YWAM Peru’s staff! We will be partnering and co-laboring with the Allen family who is pioneering a YWAM base/school in Cuzco, Peru. (Yes, Cuzco, as in the inspiration for Walt Disney’s movie release in 2000, “The Emperor’s New Groove”. David and I promise to be singing the theme song as we arrive). 

Wait, how did Peru come up, you ask? Weren’t these two just on the other side of the world in Thailand?  Who decided that they should switch continents and go to Peru, you wonder?  The short version is: The Lord.  

The longer version is that in October 2011 we attended a 2-week conference in Chiang Rai where the founders of YWAM, Loren and Darlene Cunningham, were the speakers.  There was a lot of worship, celebration and prayer during those two weeks. In one of the prayer times that David Hamilton was leading, we were to spend some alone time asking the Lord for a specific nation (to pray for, to ask the Lord about serving there, ect.) and both David and I got “Peru”.  We later learned that at this Southeastern-Asian conference, out of the many people who were there, there was one guy from YWAM Peru, Clark Bernard. Why was Clark at an Asian conference that week? Let’s call it a faith journey.  So we invited him to lunch to talk about what the Lord was doing in Peru (in Iquitos and in Lima) and to hear his story/walk with God and we had a great time catching up.  David and I told him that we knew that we had a pioneering call on our lives to start a ministry of some sort and how we had just been given the idea of Peru.  Clark politely explained that he doesn’t have to “recruit” people to join YWAM Peru.  It’s totally dependent on the Lord.  Simply, if you’re called, you come and if your not, you don’t.  So from that divine appointment onward, David and I began to pray and discern if Peru was the next step after our DTS.  Awhile later, Clark put us in touch with the Allen family (a beautiful family with 3 kiddos who have been in Peru for over a year now) who are pioneering a base in Cuzco and we contacted them several times before applying to be on staff with them.  Peru kept coming up in our day-to-day lives as little confirmations from the Lord (i.e. strangers in a cafe sit next to us and are discussing all things Peru (at Miguel’s Tex-Mex in Chiang Mai no less), a friend has a book about Peru on her coffee table when we are invited the first time to small group, 1976 VW vans pass us on the road everywhere, we looked at the Allen’s blog for the first time ever and they have a VW van!, and through words from friends). It’s the little things…

 

So in late September/early October, David and I will embark on a journey to Peru, to come under the Allens and their vision for YWAM Cuzco and to learn as much as we can about pioneering a base/school while we are there.  Our plan is to serve for at least a year, possibly more, God-willing.  We know that besides assisting the Allen’s on staff, we will also be attending a language school to “estudiar mucho español.”  

 

Please be in prayer for us as we are preparing to make this transition in the fall, for the Allen family, for Clark Bernard/ his family and YWAM Peru, for the strengthening and revival of the Peruvian church and that we would trust in the Lord’s provision.