Greetings everyone, it has been A LONG TIME since we have updated our blog. Most of you know that there has been some major life events that came up over the past 8 months that has been part of the reason for the lack of updates. Trust me though when I say that the lack of updates does not reflect in a lack of incredible ways that God has showed up in our lives over and over and over. Someday soon, I would like to share more about what God did over these past 8 months, but that is for another post…. For now, we want to share with you some really exciting things that have happened over the past month since we have been back in Peru.
This Tuesday was Kaleb’s first day of Kindergarten here in Peru. It was a really wonderful day that we have all been waiting for! When I woke him up at 6:30am, he jumped out of bed and said, “YAY”!!! Do you remember those first day of school feelings? A new year, some familiarity, but a fresh start. In most cases, we grew physically and emotionally during that break. The days leading up to the first day were filled with excitement, a little nerves, and a whole lot of expectation for what was to come... When we boarded our plane to return to Peru on July 7th, that is how we felt. We were coming back to our Peru where we call home after being gone for 7 months. Change and growth had taken place in us, in the Peru that we left, and in the church Camino de Vida and we are so excited to share it all with you!
Personal Life:
In the past month, we have moved into a new apartment and new neighborhood. We have been able to re-connect with family and friends we haven’t seen over the past 7 months. We are thankful to still be near dear friends who also have kids that Kaleb can play with and that we can do life with. We are incredibly grateful for those who helped us move into our new place! We enrolled and had Kaleb start Kindergarten. We already received 5 birthday party invitations just for the month of August!!! We attended our first in person church service in Camino de Vida since March 2020!!! I cant tell you HOW GOOD it feels to be HOME?!!! There hasn’t been a service yet that I have left there with a dry face. We have resumed all our medical checkups that have been on hold for the past 7 months and I have begun PT. And we have been able to re-integrate into our service areas both in person and online.
Camino de Vida Church:
As mentioned, Camino de Vida returned to in person church services while also maintaining online services. Many of the ministries and programs have created a hybrid of services in both in person and online.
The children’s ministry will begin in person services at the end of August and will keep online services as well. We were able to participate in the volunteer meeting for the children’s ministry that has not met in person since 2019!!! It was so wonderful to hug people after such a long time serving virtually. We are excited for the re-opening that will happen end of August.
The youth and young adult services returned to in person services 2 months ago; and maintain online services as well. This also includes an area of volunteers who connect and support people with disabilities who attend services.
The return to receiving mission teams has also began again! We had the pleasure of being able to serve alongside a mission team who was here the second week we arrived. And our outreach team has really never stopped during the pandemic but now there are more open opportunities for others to serve as well.
I know that we have been working all this time during the pandemic, but to me it seems like this return to in person has been a new awakening and a fresh breath of new life for the future and it is so exciting. So let me tell you about a few really big things that have happened and are in the midst of happening during this last month.
Before we go into the details about what’s new, can we share with you a very special story that we got to be a part of.
Madeline is a bright and beautiful 20 year old young lady with special needs who also happens to be the daughter of very dear friends of ours. She LOVES to be social with familiar people and a lot of times has a gift of finding people who she connects with. Over the past years before the pandemic, she became friends with another young lady named Daniela (a bit older than Madeline and worked as a lawyer in Lima). Then the pandemic hit and everyone was isolated. However, in May 2020 we helped to form a small group with a few volunteers and a few young ladies all who were teens at the time and have special needs. The name of the group….Extraordinary moments. Daniela was invited to be Madeline’s buddy and form part of this small group (virtually of course). For 2 years, Daniela and Madeline stayed connected online-and even stayed friends when Madeline and her family moved to the US. Last year Daniela was chosen to lead the special needs area in the junior high youth group. With her leadership, the area has grown tremendously. 2 weeks ago we received a video call from Daniela telling us that she feels so passionate about improving the rights of people with disabilities in Peru that she has decided to return to college to study public policy specifically for disabilities. She shared with us that she has found her purpose in how to connect her profession to support people with disabilities!!! Wow! All we could say was wow! Thank you God. What an honor it has been to be able to see how Madeline- being her wonderful self has inspired Daniela to do more for disability rights in Peru in the future!!!!
Service area:
So what are we doing now? What are the future plans?
We will continue to participate in the wheelchair distributions. We continue to deliver wheelchairs weekly at the church. We are excited about the next container arrival of wheelchairs that is expected to be here in September!! We are beginning to plan trainingings to help re-certify people who have been out of practice and want to continue to participate in the team of volunteers.
We continue to coordinate and help mentor the scholarship recipients of the LSEE scholarship.
We have already been able to serve alongside a mission team from a church in the US who came down the end of July to serve. They had a heart for children with disabilities so we were able to help them give a workshop to parents at a local special needs school while their children were cared for by volunteers! Many of the moms were surprised that we wanted to care for their children while they listened to the workshop. Lunch was provided and each child left with a special gift. In total 38 parents attended and 16 of them prayed the prayer of salvation!!! This same team also helped give out 5 wheelchairs to children in need of the gift of mobility and they also helped to pack up the therapy room in one of our church locations because it will be sold soon. (See pictures above)
The BIGGEST news!!!
If you are wondering where the therapy room will be relocated to, I will tell you for a few months, we didn’t know either! There were many times where we wondered if this was a door closing. However, little did we know what was to come. Just before we came back to Peru we found out some really incredible news. Our children’s pastor Chana, requested more space in our main campus to use for the children’s ministry. Within that space included a room specifically for kids with special needs who are not able to be included into the regular classroom!!!! In the past, we had made due with a small space in a corner. All the age groups for the ministry were super pressed for space, so we took what we could and made it work. We dreamed of one day having a room where we could better serve these kiddos AND help them to learn about God’s love through adapted lessons. We are so happy to announce that NOW that special room will be used on the weekends as room for kids with special needs; AND during the week will function as the therapy room!!!! It seems like both areas close to our heart have collided and we could not be happier! As I write this, I just can not thank GOD enough for his GOODNESS!!! It is far better than we ever imagined! The wonderful thing is that we can receive these children and their families into the church, and offer support for therapy as well as connect them to the other supports that our church offers including the small group curriculum for parents with special needs that will launch in September!!! This is something that is not offered anywhere else in Peru that we know of so we are incredibly thankful. The dream is to not only provide occupational therapy but also physical and speech therapy. We will share more in the future as things develop regarding other therapies.
What do we need now you might be asking?
You may not remember but I announced in December that the main church building that has been rented out for the past 22 years was finally able to be purchased by the church!!! Praise GOD!!! That means, we don’t need to act like a mobile church site anymore which is how we are able to have the therapy room there and can actually have everything set up for the special needs service on the weekends!! That being said, the mortgage has doubled what the rent was in price each month. So, having all the supplies for the therapy room to be used for the special needs Sunday school is a huge win! But there is one big need that we are looking for help to make happen.
In order to have a room on ground level where there is no steps to enter, we will be sharing an area with other small aged children that has 4 rooms in it. All the rooms have 1 main door to enter (see pics below) and need to pass through a room to get to ours. For the safety and accessibility of the children we serve, we have asked for a door and personal entrance to be installed. We have already gotten an estimate of this door and the labor costs. It will be 10,900 soles.. In USD that averages out to be 2809$ .
As you know, as missionaries we do not receive a salary here in Peru so we can’t just work more to get the money. Our earnings are received solely on the generosity of people like you who believe in what we are doing. We are grateful for your personal support and ask for you to please prayerfully consider making a one time additional donation for this special project to install a door. This donation would 100% go to the door expense. If you are interested in being a part of this, please contact me privately OR leave a message for me to contact you in order to share how you can make a donation through the churches non profit organization in the US. Your donation will be tax deductible. Thank you SO much for considering.
Notes about the pics. The first row of pictures shows the old therapy room and the space where we had our special needs area in one of our mobile church locations. The second row is the room we get to use now-first full of stuff and the last is the most recent having been painted. The other 2 pictures of windows and doors shows how we will have a door to replace the windows that will allow us to have our own entrance and exit instead of using the main door pictured as well.
Thank you everyone! For your prayers and support. We are grateful and excited about the future projects we get to be a part of here in Peru.