Hey friends and family!

The past 2 weeks have been an exciting line-up of events taking place for the upcoming World Missions 101 Program and more importantly, for the upcoming bilingual DTS in September! Our national YWAM director, Clark, came up from Lima last weekend to go over some YWAM DTS principles and we started work on a massive preliminary budget plan for out staff and students. Praise God, we’ve gotten several inquiries about DTS for student applications coming from Ukraine, the U.S., Canada, Honduras, Peru, Colombia…and they are going to keep on coming! Please continue to pray for Latino staff to join us and for Nate, Edgar and Saulo who are discerning about joining our staff. The YWAM Cusco website is up and running: www.ywamcuzco.com. Soon it will be available in Spanish. Tell your friends.

In other news with renting a house, we haven’t been finding much in the newspapers these days. However last week, by an act of the Lord’s spontaneous creativity, our current landlord, Roque, called us and said that he and his wife are thinking about buying a piece of land (in our neighborhood) which already has an unfinished adobe house on the property and fixing it up. We had no idea that he was even thinking about that! We would love it if we could continue to rent from the guy that we already know and love. We’re not sure as to what condition the house is in, or what needs to be fixed, or if it will even be “move-in ready” come late August, but we are praying for a speedy process in finding out. Otherwise, we know that God will make it apparent if it’s not the right one for us (ex. we were 25 yards from the house we were going to look at this weekend, when the owner called and said someone bought it….obviously not the right one).

 

We love Roque! (& Dave Snyder, who we selfishly hope will come back to work with us in Peru)

On a fun, cultural note: to give you an idea of how time works in Peru, after 4 days of traveling back and forth to the Claro store (for a new phone plan) with Jordan, they finally were able to get new data plans. When we went to a printing shop this week to get the new YWAM Cusco receipt books printed, the guy said “come back in an hour.” We came back 2.5 hours later, after language class, and he was on a break. We called the phone number he left on the door and 30 minutes later he came back and started working on our order. I guess he meant “if you come back in an hour, then maybe I’ll start working on it.” When I went into town to meet a friend for coffee, 2 American guys were sitting near us and the 4 of us started talking about the “time difference”. You never think you have a “type-A personality of a New Yorker” until you leave the country (unless of course, you come from New York and you have a type-A personality; then you probably know it).

We hosted our good friends, Amauta and Jesus, for a “Great American Cook-Out” at our place. Turns out, pineapple-edam (a type of bland, white, cheese) burgers have mixed reviews. But the good thing was we talked for three hours, non-stop in Spanish about a hodgepodge of topics (success!). We even forced Amautita to tell a story in English and she did a great job! It was a mind-trip to be able to be so absorbed in her story about her student election campaign in high school because she only speaks Spanish around us and our brains were so enthralled (“Why can I understand EVERY word of what she’s saying?! It’s like she’s speaking English….oh wait, because she is!”). It was pretty awesome.  One day, we plan to road trip together—maybe we’ll start out small, like going to Pisac, but eventually we have dreams of traveling together to Mancora (the beach in northern Peru with the longest left wave in the world, for surfing), and then one day to tackle the Eastern coast of the U.S.

Taken off the internet, Mancora waves; in their amazing left-set glory! One day, I will be surfing this…

Lots of excitement and dreaming this week folks! Thank you guys for praying for 1. the WM101 and DTS students, 2. our Latino and gringo staff that will join us, and 3. our housing situation (either with Roque or someone else) before August. How can we be praying for you? Feel free to drop us a line or call us anytime. Dios te bendiga! Nosotros te amamos!

 

Thanks ya’ll for all of your amazing art forms and how you praise the Lord with them!

This week I was pulling out my journal from a year ago and going through what God was teaching me then and what He is teaching me now. In the hodgepodge of a year ago: coming back to the States for 7 months after our DTS in Thailand, recording and interpreting some crazy dreams, praying specific prayer requests for people (and to see now that their prayers have been answered—Brittany Jones, you now have a new car! Praise God!) and ironically, my own prayer requests from last year are being repeated this week. Last year I had recorded in my journal, “I know that God is telling me to be still. I know that he doesn’t want me to feel lonely. I know that he provides all things….the Lord will fight for (me); (I) only need to be still. (Exodus 14). For the past 2 weeks I have been trying to control things that I can’t control. I want to be able to control certain situations or people or the timing of when things happen and I’m so powerless to do so. I tend to have a really bad habit of striving for things. I had some wonderful alone time with God this week and He reassured me that He’s got my back and that everything is perfect in His time. He is my Daddy and He can take care of me, of us, of everyone. But especially me. So this week, being “Semana Santa”, or Holy Week, I’ve been thinking a lot about what Jesus did for me, for us, so that you or I can sit in his lap and to say “I love you. I trust you. I’m counting on you. I know you. I love spending time with you. I love talking to you. Thank you for taking care of me.”

In other news, between many Skype dates, emails and a surprise care package David and I feel so encouraged and loved. Thank you for your continued prayers and support! Keep it coming! Don’t stop now : ) As you know, David and I have been praying for a house and last week we stumbled upon IT (we couldn’t find the address and only meant to see it from the outside and a stranger in the neighborhood helped us find A-1 Los Portales and we were introduced to Hugo, the owner, who gave us a tour and everything). This house meets all our “requirements” and then some! Winning. Please pray with us this week as we are seeing so many confirmations about it already. We are claiming it in Jesus’ name as ours. That God would set it apart as holy and ours. Pray that we will see this house become ours by the end of next month and pray that God would make it so evident that it is perfect for us!

PHOTOS OF THE WEEK:

My friend, Jen Smith and I went to Chinchero (a Quechua community about 30 min. outside of Cusco) to spend a morning knitting with her and her Quechua discipleship ladies. They have a co-op of about 10 women who make (by hand) incredible creations out of 100% alpaca wool. They literally spin the yarn from the sheared alpaca themselves and are in the process of trying to get their goods in stores in the States. Who wouldn’t want to knit with this back-drop?

 They are in the process of filling an order of “coffee cup holders” (the purple llama)

In town for lunch today we were able to watch the festivities for Holy Week or “Semana Santa”, the week leading up to easter. This particular celebration is unique to Cusco. “Senor De Los Temblores” or “Lord of the Earthquakes” is celebrated every Tuesday of Semana Santa to thank God for protecting Cusco from the earthquakes that are common in this area. One year when there were bad earthquakes, they took the statue out of the cathedral and paraded it once around the Plaza de Armas. Since then, Cusco has only experienced one earthquake.

Happy Pi Day everyone! (March 14, or 3/14 for 3.14) In high schools and universities everywhere, math teachers are trading in the books today for games, shenanigans and eating all sorts of pies for the auspicious holiday known as Pi Day. Today, we salute you, Mr. 3.14159265359….. and maybe after some apple pie we might watch the new movie, “The Life of Pi” which we heard won many awards. Viva 3.14.

 

 

In other news, whether Peru knows that Pi Day is an international holiday sensation or not, we just want to praise God for the many blessings that he has given us this week. This week has not been an emotionally easy one for either one of us. In fact, circumstances beyond our control with people back home in the States (that we are so far away from to be present with right now),as well as our own personal “hash out” times with God over personal circumstances at the present time were difficult. However, we praise God for so many things:

1. The MAD team from Brisbane was able to leave in 2 shifts on Wednesday and Thursday to start their journey back to Brizzy for DTS graduation. It was wonderful to be a part of their debrief session and to hear what God has been teaching them over the past 7-8 weeks. It makes me think back on our own DTS outreach and how the Lord grew me so much and now that I’m removed from that season I can clearly see what the Lord was growing and pruning in my life. 

The PhotogenX team is doing amazing things for the Kingdom!

2. The Kona PhotogenX team (a second-level school that has lectures around the world while doing photo-journalism about social justice issues) is also here from helping Bud Lenz in Puerto Maldonado. Five wonderful girls stayed with us (and the 3 guys got to stay with Eric) for 2 days until the MAD team could move out of the 3rd floor. I know that they will only be with us in Cusco for 2 weeks, but the body of Christ is so amazing! Only through the nature of Christ and His love in us for other people make 8 new strangers feel like family in a few short hours of conversing and eating pizza together. And small world, one of the leaders Andrew, was telling us that their next step after Peru is to travel to Thailand! And when I asked, “Chiang Mai?” he said “Yes, and do you know Emmi? (Emmi is our friend that runs the Christian coffeehouse in Chiang Mai, called WonGen) and the PhotogenX team is going to hep her in a few weeks to serve at WonGen! Wow, small world! (For those of you who don’t know, David and I did our DTS Chiang Mai just outside of the city in Mae Taeng).  

3. Another cool blessing is that as we were saying our “see you laters” to the MAD team (I don’t do well with the word, “goodbye”), Amanda (from Singapore) came up to me and told me that “This is really hard for me, because I love these pants (indicates a pair of emerald green Thai fisherman’s pants) but I feel like God wants me to give them to you, so here you go!” What amazing generosity on her part! But what I told Amanda is that she could not have known this (I never told her, “hey, I’m going to steal your cool pants”), is that I’ve been telling David every now and then, “man, I really wish I would have bought some fisherman’s pants in Thailand…but I didn’t…. (I didn’t bring any “lounge around the house” pants with me) and through Amanda’s generosity, Jesus said “you see how much I care for you? You think that I wouldn’t notice this one tiny desire that you had. But I want to bless you by giving you this tiny wish that you wanted in the back of your mind so that you will trust me for the bigger things that you want and that you will KNOW that I will deliver all of your wants and desires.” Thanks Daddy! I needed those words this week!

 

picture these in an emerald green color: these are fisherman’s pants from Thailand. 100% cotton. 100% comfy. 100% a blessing!

4. To prove those words even further, several financial things have been met this week that we didn’t publicly announce, but through many people, God has provided YWAM Cusco with enough money to purchase all of our bunk beds and mattresses for the new teams that will come in the future! God also provided David and I with enough money to purchase a washing machine from a friend (when we move soon) and to bless one of our friends moving back with his family to Argentina. AND we were able to pay for our one-time property insurance fee with Pacifico (which is giving us peace of mind as well as protecting our possessions while living in Peru). THANK YOU JESUS! YOU PROVIDE IN SO MANY LITTLE WAYS AND WE LOVE IT!

5. We also were able to start saving some for our future vehicle and our new place. Moving note: David and I are moving out of our current apartment before September in order to make room for our DTS students who will be coming! This is a really exciting time to see YWAM Cusco expand and grow! Our friend, Rachel Lenz, has decided to cut her teaching hours down so that she can be on staff with YWAM Cusco! Welcome Rachel! 

 

SO MUCH TO BE THANKFUL TO GOD FOR! Please continue to pray for YWAM Cusco; for Latino/Peruvian staff for this upcoming DTS in September. PRAISE: we have inquiries about students for the upcoming World Missions 101 Summer Program so pray that God will provide financially for these high-schoolers/college aged youth who feel called to come serve with us this summer. Please pray for our residency process to start. Please pray for provision of a new apartment/house (specifically in Larapa/Santa Maria neighborhood, a place with good lighting, space for a garden and a garage)

And please send us your prayer requests so that we can be praying and partnering with you too! We love each and every one of you and thank you, just for being yourself. Blessings amigos, I’ve got a slice of pie to eat!

This past Thursday, I (David) had the chance to go on an adventure. Our neighbor, Eric Lovin, is with Spirit Led Expeiditions, a missions organization out of Elberton, GA.  Eric asked me to accompany him in taking a lady, Nancy to a mission hospital 3 hours away in Curahuasi (pronounced cor-a-wasi). Nancy, a mother of 5 is the sister of  a member of the discipleship group that Eric runs in the village of Chinchero where she lives. Nancy has had two brain surgeries in the past year for “Trichinosis” (also called trichinellosis, or trichiniasis, is a parasitic disease caused by eating raw or undercooked pork or wild game–Wikipedia). The second surgercy did not go as planned and Nancy ended up with severly limited brain fuction. I’m not sure of all the medical exactitudes but at this point she is basically a vegetable. We took Nancy to Curahuasi to seek a third opinion, because the hospital there has an incredible reputation and gives free care to Peruvians. We drove the three hours through the mountains, past landslides and incredibly narrow roads to arrive at the Hospital. After a brief wait (3 hours, brief for Peru) Nancy was seen by the doctors and was told what everyone suspected that there was nothing they could do. I was struck by the doctors care as the entire staff stopped what they were doing and prayed for Nancy. After a brief conversation with the Hospital pastor we were ready to go back.

As we drove home I kept thinking about the unjustice of the situation. (My thoughts) Nancy is 38 with 5 kids, the oldest is 14, she deserves to see her kids grow up honestly I was frustrated at God for not healing. I have no idea why when we pray sometimes people are healed and sometimes people are not. I wrestled with this for most of the ride home back past the landslides, narrow road and beautiful views. I wish I could say that I came to a neat conclusion or had a revelation but all I was left with was the thought of injustice.

We live in a beautiful, harsh, unjust world. Peru sometimes seems more so other places but that’s probably just because we live here. We sat with the family for a while when we returned home as they grieved their mother, I grieved with them. I was able, if only for measure, to share their experience. It’s easy, for us, to think that we are bringing answers/solutions to peoples lives, and while thats often true and there are many practical things that we can and should do. Being reminded of how short I fall is a heartbreaking necessity. 

In our job, we have no option but to be totally dependent on Jesus. Although we forget, it’s good, even if a little painful, to be reminded. To hurt with people is sometimes all we can do. 

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

Galatians 6:2

Loving, fulfilling and imitating Christ. I love my job.

This week the boys (including David) went off to Puerto Maldonado in the Peruvian jungle to help Bud Lenz construct and prepare the land for the kids who will be moving from El Arca’s Cusco location.  When I talked to David on the phone, he said that the jungle was “a man’s playground. We are all running around with our shirts off, wielding tools…digging an irrigation ditch in the mud. It’s a good time. It’s like camping.” Wonderful. He worked with a team from World Challenge which were installing solar panels and also helping to put walls in the dormitories.  When the work in the jungle gets finished, El Arca’s vision is to be totally self-sustainable (they grow their own food, raise their own animals and plan to give the kids skills and trades such as animal husbandry, carpentry, welding, farming, ect. so they have a valuable skill-set when they leave the Lenz’s custody).

The girls didn’t sweat as much as the boys did in the jungle this week, but that doesn’t mean that we didn’t put in manual labor. We spent two days painting Clinica Huanbutio, a free medical clinic run by volunteers about 45 min. away from Cusco. We heard stories from the volunteers from Jordan and Joy’s church tell of a woman who hiked 8 hours through the mountains to be seen at the clinic. We are praying that this clinic (that is fairly new in this community) will thrive by the love of Jesus and be able to impact and provide care to so many needy families in the surrounding areas.

This is the front of the clinic after we were almost finished

The last outreach team that was here, Beach2Bush DTS started the side and we were able to finish their work! (missing you, Laurinda Rapp)

Even though my eyes are shut, we really loved working with Carlotta (grandmother), Carla (mother) and Patty (daughter). Such sweet women!

Cool story this week: Misha needed to pay her student loans and wanted prayer that God would do something amazing because since she is volunteering with YWAM, she is not making a salary to pay off those loans. We prayed for her that God would provide financially and when she went online to pay her loans, #1 loan was postponed until October and #2 loan was showing up as $0.00 owed. YAY GOD!

Also, the team is doing a treasure-hunt today and we felt like God wanted to release them in confidence and freedom to go out by themselves. David and I don’t need to be present for God to reach out and touch people on a daily basis. We don’t need to be the reassurance factor in the equation. So we really encouraged them that they have (AND YOU HAVE) the power and authority to go out and love one person everyday. To be confident that God will speak to you on a walk, or at the grocery store, or while you are on the bus to invest in the life of one person. To ask them “hey, how are you?” is really simple. To be obedient to go and follow God’s instructions. To pray for someone. YOU can do this. Walk in freedom, friends! We know that this team is going to go back to Brisbane and then their home countries to release the power of the Kingdom wherever they go. Excited to hear stories about what happened today, but even more excited to hear about what God is going to do through them in the future!

Our good friend, Jeff Hennessy went on a 3,000+ mile cross-country bike ride across the USA for 5 weeks with our other friend/missionary Simon Guillebaud (Great Lakes Outreach, Burundi) in a documentary known as “Bike for Burundi”. The film was shot by our other amazing and talented friend, David Strauss. Hadrian Hobbs from the UK (and a part of our small group at City Church) also joined in for the last 100 miles of week 5. If you have a free evening, you should definitely watch it! SO WORTH IT! Thanks for supporting our awesome friends and learning about how awareness can support Burundi!

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/59063538″>Bike For Burundi Documentary</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user10959561″>David Strauss Photography</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

Thanks Christian for using your talents as a film-maker and capturing all of our adventures on camera! Looking forward to more. Here is the team working 2 weeks ago at El Arca…

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/59932318″>El Arca</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user13168272″>Christian Eichmann</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

Today, Saturday, we took the team into the Plaza San Blas (the touristy/artsy side of downtown) to do some Treasure Hunting/Prophetic Prayer Outreach. Eric and Jen Smith from Spirit Led Expeditions joined us for a good time. After worshiping and hearing from the Lord, we left for the Plaza. Common words/pictures that people received were: “people on the stairs of the church”, “by the fountain”, “praying over The Meeting Place (a cafe) and “various people sitting in the plaza.” One team member, Jun (the same guy who had inflamed his knee while hiking last week and has been on crutches all week) received a dream last night (and then saw it again in worship of him standing on a stage/dancing). His art form is breakdancing.  He thought that it was crazy saying, “I can’t even walk this week; how am I supposed to dance?” He felt like he should bring his computer to outreach, but was worried about how he would perform and the lack of speakers. We prayed for speakers to be already in the plaza. When we got there, the Saturday craft market was in full swing and (praise God!) there was a stereo attached to speakers blasting Andean whiny music. We split up into groups of 2-3 and got a chance to pray with and talk to lots of people. Christian was able to walk around with his video camera to capture the events unfolding and people were being encouraged left and right.

About 30 minutes before packing it up to leave, Jen Smith catches up to me and says, “Get ready for a show. Jun is going to dance!” So we gather the team, round up some Peruvians that we had just made friends with and go over to the stage area in front of the fountain. We prayed for Jun’s knee one last time that God would bring full healing and amazing dancing ability, 100%. Jun gets up there, we played his song over the speakers and a Peruvian man graciously offered his USB cable to the computer and he nails this awesome breakdancing routine. THEN as a crowd had gathered, he (and Jen Smith) translate his testimony and how he is using his dancing ability for God. The straight-up Gospel and how Jesus loves them. How everyone has a talent for God to use, whether it’s dancing or something else and that he loves using ordinary people. WOW. Way to go Jun! YAY GOD!

The crowd was insistant for another dance, so he did! And his knee, as far as we are concerned is healed. Not only can he walk on it (where he couldn’t for a week put any weight on it) to breakdancing–twice. You could see such joy radiating in this guy, who was super down-in-the-dumps a few weeks ago (especially after the hike) to triumphantly proclaiming what God has done in his life and the joy of being able to dance again.

So what’s your talent? How can you glorify God with your gifts this week?