“Will you trust me? “ It seems to be a resounding theme in our lives. It makes me think of Mary when she was told she would be pregnant with Jesus. It seemed that she was being asked by God, “will you trust me?” And then another example is when Peter wanted to walk on water to go to Jesus. Again the question “will you trust me?” There are so many stories in the bible where this question seems to be the theme. So of course, why not us?
Every year on my birthday, I choose a word that is given to me by God to be my theme for the year. Usually throughout the year, things are revealed to me related to that word and then by my next birthday, it is more clear what I have learned over the year. I just celebrated my birthday in October, and had the opportunity to reflect upon the past year of my life and my word. It was ATTITUDE. Now you may be thinking that is a weird word. But to me it was something that I had to discipline myself to be very intentional about. When I say attitude, I mean, what was my internal dialogue saying about things I was experiencing and thinking. Was I reacting with an attitude of gratitude and hope from God ? Was I taking every thought captive; allowing only the good and positive things to ruminate in my mind and heart? Or was I allowing the pattern of stinking thinking to stay and take up residence in me? Every day that I could in this past year, I disciplined myself to go for a walk in the early morning, and declare over myself those things. It made a radical change in me. In my thought patterns. In my trust in God. It gave me power over my thoughts that I used to think had control over me.
On my birthday this year, I reflected on this past year of growth and thanked God for His good work in me. Then He gave me my words for this year of life. They are “REST, REJOICE, and REVIVE.” I thought, “ok God, I’m finally going to get to rest from all these tiring years. We can finally rest and rejoice”. Yet, what I didn’t know was that maybe the “rest” I am thinking may not be so much a physical rest, but a spiritual “rest” or “trust” in HIM for this next journey in life. I really like Psalms 23:2 in The Passion Translation version.
He offers a resting place for me in his luxurious love. His tracks take me to an oasis of peace near the quiet brook of bliss. Psalms 23:2 TPT
While I am just 2 months into these new words, I am sure that what he taught me last year about my attitude has been in preparation for this new year for me. And I am sure that with these new words, God is teaching me a new thing that will surely draw me even closer to Him.
If I could challenge you in just one thing for this new year that is upon us…Will you ask God for a word for yourself for 2022? And then be attentive to what He wants to teach you.
Ministry update and recap for 2021
Just the other day, I was talking to a friend about 2021. It was an interesting year to say the least. The first half of the year, while the US began to open up more, Peru stayed in pretty strict rules. We continued to wear double masks and sometimes a face shield to go into a grocery store. We had our second full year of all online school for Kaleb. And our service roles continued to be mainly online serving in the areas of disability in our perspective areas . Nearing the 2nd half of 2021 things started to open up a bit more and in November there was in person services that began in our main campus by reservation!!!
The biggest news of all for Camino de Vida came just before Christmas, when Pastor Robert announced that after 20 years of renting the main church location, it has been purchased to be our forever church HOME!!! Isn’t that just amazing!!! During a pandemic no less… The provision came so that we could have a physical church building!!! Below are a few more things to celebrate and thank God for in this past year of 2021!
*Even in our second FULL year of online services, the number of people who connect to our online services averages about 14, 000 people weekly.
*We have had 11, 601 people participating in online small groups!
* We have reached 13, 307 children in Lima and the provinces of Peru this Christmas with a small gift while sharing the message of Jesus Christ.
*we have served approximately 160,000 people through our outreach ministry this year by giving tangible gifts of food, provisions, and sharing God’s love with them. This also includes wheelchairs.
* We have given 500 wheelchairs to those who are in need of the gift of mobility.
*Approximately 1100 people made the decision to follow Jesus in our online church services!
These are just a few of the highlights that we get to be a part of as we serve under the church.
As mentioned above, we have given 500 wheelchairs away this year. Clever is part of the team who finds potential people in need and then distributes the wheelchairs each Saturday. Our hope is that in 2022 we will be able to return to deliver more wheelchairs throughout other parts of Peru.
Clever and Lisa continue to be a part of the team that helps find, connect, and mentor people who are recipients of the LSEE scholarships. (Laurie Schoendorfer Endowment for Education). Since its beginnings there has been 6 students who have benefited from these scholarships. Including one student who received his initial scholarship for a small technical course that has now turned into a scholarship at a university.
Lisa and Clever as a team have provided various workshops about disability awareness to the church staff and main volunteers. Over 200+ people.
We also provided this same workshop to the various ministries including the children’s ministry, youth ministry, young adult ministry, young professional ministry and the families ministry. We have also provided a more in depth training (which is ongoing) for all these ministries so that they can have their own area within each ministry that specifically receives people with disabilities into their perspective ministry areas. While the young adult and young professional ministries are still in early stages of development, the Youth and Children’s ministry areas have grown and flourished. Below is a short story of how incredible the youth ministry has been for teens with disabilities who have now for the very first time been included…
In the last quarter of the year in the youth ministry called Get UP, there were approximately 10 teens identified with disabilities. From those ten, 6 of them participated in small groups according to their abilities (included or in a unique small group). A few of them were able to be fully included with volunteer support in larger services including prayer group and then the much larger church service (online) with all peers. One teen named Maria Paz prayed for the first time in front of others. She was nervous, and her peers were so patient as they encouraged her to pray. At another group time, another girl named Luciana shared that she got a new puppy and showed it to all the other teens in the group. Everyone was so excited for her that they all ended the prayer time with a picture with their pets! This may seem like trivial things to an average person, but for these girls to receive the support and love from their peers in this way is something that they don’t normally receive in the secular world. The church truly is a light for all… so it is important that we make room for everyone to be a part. We are so excited to see what 2022 brings. There is so much growth and potential to be had in this area. we are so thankful to be able to get to be a part of this.
Luciana at the far upper right corner.
We have also helped to develop, a small group curriculum for parents with kids with special needs that will be launched in March 2022. We know that this will be a support to families both at our church and hopefully elsewhere. Something like this does not exist anywhere else in Peru that we know of. So pray it will be a blessing to many. We hope that there will be more to follow after this one launches.
Of course we can’t end this 2021 review without thanking God for His goodness and celebrating the biggest news of our lives up to this point. We finally were able to finalize Kaleb’s adoption just in time to celebrate his 5th birthday with our legal last names!
We are expectant of what 2022 brings both in our family/personal lives as well as our service areas. We know now more than ever that our work in Peru is not finished. We are finally seeing fruit form years of building up trust and teams of volunteers to continue to grow in this area of inclusion for all people with disabilities. Thank you for the opportunity to continue to support us as we continue on God’s mission. While none of us know what 2022 holds, we do know who does know and we can confidently give our YES to Him when He asks us, “Will you trust me"?
Thank you for your support this past year, in prayer and financially. We thank you for your friendship and faithfulness, and above all your belief in what we get to do in Peru for people with disabilities at Camino de Vida.
“May the Lord bless you and protect you.
May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you.
May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.” Numbers 6:24-26 NLT