We would be lying if we told you that January has not been a difficult month for us.

After David and I came back from our border run in Bolivia, we were only granted 60 days on our visa. We have been trying to obtain our Peruvian residencies (which would eliminate the border runs and allow us to work in the country). After four times of trying to submit the paperwork (and this time we had gotten further through the process than our previous attempts), it wasn’t meant to be. After a month of waiting on God and trying to figure out what He wanted for our family in all of this, we have heard Him speak that our next adventure is to come home to the States.

 

While it is bittersweet to have to announce this news to our amazing friends that we have made in Cusco over the past year and a half, we are sure that this is the right choice for our family. This was the only option, given our residency situation and God kept reminding us of our original vision of coming here: “that we are to learn how to pioneer from the Allen family.” That was it. He didn’t say anything to the tune of “join an amazing church family and get plugged in there” or “you are going to Peru to have a baby” or “you will run a DTS and stick around to see it grow…” 

We believe that obedience to what God says to do is the most important thing we can do. For our family, this means that if we miss when God says to leave Cusco and we were to stay, that would be just as disobedient as ignoring his plan for us to move here in the first place. 

Selfishly, we wanted to have Miriam here in Cusco and to give her the gift of dual-citizenship. Selfishly, we wanted to stick around and lead another DTS, and to see YWAM Cusco grow into different ministries. Selfishly, we love our church family at La Uncion and we wanted to be able to do life with them as a community. Selfishly, we want a lot more.

 

But God has shown us how faithful and in-control he is of the situation. We were blessed immensely by the generosity of new friends when we came here. Twice, God has given us places to live that were full of furniture and we always had more than what we needed. God had allowed us to partner with our amazing family of supporters and together, we have seen Him provide many miracles in answering our prayers.  Thank you for sharing your lives with us, for your encouraging words, for giving us a safe place to vent when we needed to and for believing in us and our work in Cusco. Thank you to Amauta and Jesus, our first Peruvian friends, who have become more like a brother and sister to us.  We wouldn’t have learned as much Spanish and how to live in this culture without these angels. They will be missed more than words can say. 

 

We would also be lying if we said that we weren’t excited to be on this new part of our adventure. Until we go home, we will be wrapping up the DTS here in Cusco. The students will get back from outreach this weekend and they will graduate February 19th. We will be coming back to South Carolina on March 3rd and taking the month of March off to see family, friends and supporters. 

 

Thanks everyone for your prayers and encouragement this past month! We appreciate you more than you know! Love, David, Jen and Miriam

 

This week, we met with Amanda Buthe, who is one of the Social Enterprise team members for NFS.  She is co-leading a team of 4 research students (from Korea) and they are studying the economy of Peru and the implications of using sustainable business opportunities to prevent and provide an alternative to forced labor or prostitution in Peru. This team will be coming in April-May to Cusco to continue their research and a partnership has been established between NSF and YWAM Cusco. Truthfully, many missionaries and volunteers in Cusco don’t know much about the extent of human-trafficking (especially of minors) in our city.

It’s well hidden and not talked about (unlike other cities in the jungles of Peru where the hotel sign bluntly displays “Casa de Sexo”).  Amanda told us that Cusco is a “transit point” in human-trafficking, meaning that most people are coming or going to the jungle, and pass through on buses. It is also estimated that a bunch of the businesses that are geared toward the tourists and backpackers (ahem…massage parlors) are facades for trafficked victims.

The team of research students will be able to investigate Cusco’s needs and access areas where we (YWAM Cusco and other volunteers in Cusco) can begin to combat a problem that lives and works in the shadows. The team will also be working in The Meeting Place Cafe (a strategic cafe in Plaza San Blas that YWAM Cusco is looking to take over in the possible future) as well as other local ministries that we work alongside of.

YWAM Cusco looks forward to continuing to partner with Not For Sale in the future and having a fruitful relationship as we both work together to eliminate slavery in Cusco.

Did you know??? There are more slaves today than have ever existed in human history. Human-trafficking and forced-labor is a global problem that enslaves 30 million people. How do we combat this problem at its roots? The reality is that God has a solution to every crisis and problem in the world and this issue of slavery is near to his heart.

Not For Sale is a global non-profit organization that “{uses} business creation, supply chain evaluation, and aftercare aid. By creating enterprise opportunities for vulnerable communities, offering social services to survivors and those at-risk to human trafficking, and evaluating the use of forced labor in mainstream supply chains, Not For Sale works to ensure that no one is for sale.” NSF has initiatives all over the world, including in Peru. Currently, they specifically work in Lima, Puerto Maldonado and Pucallpa. To learn more about their work in Peru: http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/global-initiatives/peru/

photo courtesy of Not For Sale logo

 

 

 

A short drama performed by our students, “The Flea Killer”.

The students, Edgar and David are serving alongside Pastor Bernardo and his four churches in Pisac (45 minutes away from Cusco) and some of it’s surrounding mountain villages. We know that numbers do not define what success is–rather obedience to the Lord defines success,but we want to give you a glimpse into what God is doing on week 1 of the team’s outreach:

*20 people have given/recommitted their lives to Jesus! Yay for increase in family and the Kingdom!
*every student has dedicated many babies, and have been able to bless parents who want to give their children/family to God
*the team is spreading joy and the love of God in the Sacred Valley! More Lord!!

Here are some photos from the week:

 

 

 

 

 

This past Friday marked the official end to our DTS lecture phase! We were really encouraged by our speakers this week, Markus and Diana Buser (from the YWAM base in Cartagena, Colombia) who taught on “Gifts and Missions”. Later that night, we had a commissioning service for the students where the staff treated them to a nice, home-cooked meal, served them, washed their feet, and “sent them out” with prayer, encouragement and prophetic words.

Markus y Diana Buser–these guys were SUCH a blessing and encouragement to us!

Children of King Jesus: Princess Bailey, Princess Maddie, Prince Logan, and Prince Nicolas

One of the strange and wonderful events of the weekend was witnessing the grand opening weekend of the new mall in Cusco, Real Plaza. Rumor had it that only 3 stores would be open this past Friday, so David and I went to window shop this afternoon. Literally half of a half-a-million people were there. You have to keep in mind that some Cusquenos have never ventured outside of Cusco before so this was probably amazing for people. The fact that you can walk into Plaza Vea (the Peruvian equivalent of a Wal-Mart or Target) and buy for example: milk, batteries, a tank-top, Captain Crunch and a blender all in the same place really is incredible. People were losing their minds like it was Black Friday in the States. Families with 2-3 kids in their buggy crammed with 6 3-liter sodas (because they were on sale), plastic tupperware, Barbie dolls and socks, while pulling along grandma by the hand behind you (because she’s completely overwhelmed at what she’s seeing in one place). Some people have protested the mall while phase 1 was being built (in the center of a neighborhood), but it has created hundreds (and soon thousands of jobs). It has really transformed the city of Cusco so far. (Cusco prides itself on the historic traditional, hence why there are no golden arches downtown advertising McDonald’s and one can forget that this, along with Starbucks and KFC exist in the Plaza de Armas unless you are looking for them). As far as the Carter household goes, we can’t complain. As joyous as it was to see the reactions of other people, I’m sure our faces reflected the same. It makes it a little more easier to live here knowing that we can get “everything” in one place (verses scouting the city and “hoping” you run into what you need).

We are particulary excited about the upcoming additions of phase 2 and 3 when they open the Papa Johns, Infanti (the baby store) and the Cineplanet Movie Theater. We think about doing future “treasure hunt prayer outreaches” at the mall with teams or DTS students and then reconvening at Dunkin Donuts to swap stories about what God did. It’s very strange to think, “wait, we’re still in Cusco….15 minutes from where we live…” However, this has been a “long-time-coming” for Cusco and we are grateful to live in a beautiful place that is embracing convenience.

The cool thing is that you can look at the giant infrastructure and say “it’s just a mall”. It looks like any other newly constructed mall in the States. It’s nice and clean inside. But what we are seeing is God using it to bring more cultural identity and value to the people of Cusco. Every Tuesday night for the past year and a half, our leaders host a “Prayer For the City” night. After dinner, we pray and worship over our city because God said that it is the key to transforming our city. We have been praying for cultural transformation and we are seeing it with the building of this mall.

We felt like God was saying:

“Cusco is worth having nice things. Cusco is just as worthy of a city as Lima (or Atlanta or Charleston or Pamplico or Swansea). The people of this city are coming out of the old, or maybe traditional ways of living and stepping into a new season. It’s symbolic of the growth in the city but also a growth to be hungry for change. A change that will be created by Me.”

Meanwhile, everything is going well with the school. We are all getting ready to go on outreach, making final plans for the churches that we’re visiting. We’ll explain just a bit about how the outreach phase of the DTS works. Our goal is partner with and work alongside of local churches. So to that end we generally stay with a church for a week at a time, serving in whatever capacity needed. As a team, we come with a set of things that we can do to serve the local group of believers (dramas, teachings, kids programs and preaching) but at the same time we are flexible and try and do our best to meet the needs of the individual church. David will be going on the first week of outreach to some communities in the Sacred Valley (Dec. 16-23). Then they will be coming back to Cusco for three days to do some Christmas outreach in the city and to celebrate Christmas. After Christmas, the students will leave with Edgar and Saulo to visit two more communities in the Sacred Valley, then off to two weeks in the jungle (Puerto Maldonado), then to Arequipa (Peru) and Iquique (Chile).

Prayer Requests:

1. for the DTS students’ financial provision by Dec. 15th so that all of them can leave for outreach, and for their evangelism and service alongside the churches they will work with over outreach phase, for open hearts of the people to receive salvation, healings and miracles!

2. for financial provision for our family (we are going to Bolivia at the end of December) to renew our tourist visas (good for 6 months).