“Build yourselves houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat the fruit of them.⁶ Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not be diminished. ⁷ And seek (inquire for, require, and request) the peace and welfare of the city to which I have caused you to be carried away captive; and pray to the Lord for it, for in the welfare of [the city in which you live] you will have welfare.” – Jeremiah 27:5-7-

The Lord has brought up this verse a lot this week and we feel like it captures our heart and vision for what we are doing/want to do in Cusco. We read it as a part of David’s weekly John Piper devotional, and again in “Taking Our Cities For God” (by John Dawson) and again when Jordan brought it up during our staff meeting. We want to seek what is good in our city; find out and intercede for the promises that God has spoken over it. It won’t come overnight and at times it’s really hard to see the good of a city when you are surrounded by the powers of darkness working against you. In our city, there are so many social justice issues (abject poverty, no help for the homeless, human trafficking and domestic violence to name a few) and problems that you could strive to deal with and fix, but namely we are assigned to call out what is good. To seek the peace and welfare of the city and in turn we will have peace and welfare. 

This week we did see the good. We talked to people in the Plaza who had smiles on their faces because we found out that they love Jesus and love their work. We prayed for Vilma and Walter. We small talked with a homeless man. We sat and watched a parade that involved every school in the city “inaugurating” all of the student leaders from each school and each child marched in smartly dressed uniforms, waving Peruvian flags; while their proud parents cheered and took videos.

Jordan went up to Cristo Blanco to cast vision for our city. He told us that he was reminded over and over how Cusco is promised to be “a wellspring bubbling up and flowing out”. How it is prophesied as a “sending place.”  People have and will continue to flock here (because of Machu Picchu and the historic architecture) and then go back to their home countries.  He thought about us, as YWAM Cusco, digging wells (not literally; metaphorically). We are digging wells, searching for water and life, in a desert environment. In a city where hearts are dry and thirsty and most don’t even know it. We are called to just dig them and there might not be a season of rain right away, but one day, the wells we had dug will be running over with living water. Revival and the season of rain is coming to Cusco. People will come to this city because of what God is doing, then they will be filled up themselves and then sent back out into the world.  “What you dig the well with is what you have in your hand…..what do we have in our hands?” (This is something that Jordan said, but what Darlene Cunningham talked about at the DNA Conference in Thailand in October of 2012).

Yes, we can scramble to dig with the thing nearest to us to solve the nearest problem. But really, we need to use what’s “in our hand”, in other words our individual talents and resources that God’s already given us (or what He’s promised to us).  We may be small right now, but the Lord has equipped us with tools to dig in dry places.  For David and I, we are good friends to others. We bring genuineness and loyalty and want real friendship and relationship with others. We just love to love people. That’s one of the tools I have to work with…

What’s in your hand?