Hi everyone and greetings from Peru were today marks day 100 of our mandatory quarantine! It is surprising sometimes to realize that we have been at home for such a long time! Kaleb has not stepped out of the house since March 13th!!! Clever has left a few times to go to the bank or pharmacy and I have gone to the grocery store weekly! While there is some comfort in routine, we have found that change is good in order to reset our views on growth and new things. Sometimes when life is routine, we tend to not see the growth…We are here to share some really beautiful stories of growth that we have been able to be a part of.
Kaleb continues to grow and learn. He receives a combination of 2 home-school curriculum (one in each language). He loves his school classmates who have stayed connected these past 3 months online and also the learning we are doing in English as well! He now recognizes all the letters of the alphabet in English and the sounds that they make!!! His language continues to explode in a mix of Spanish and English. He loves to explore all things sensory related and especially likes to wrestle with his papa!! Kaleb also likes to “help” when Lisa is recording for the adapted Sunday school class. Kaleb has memorized his very first bible verse along with sign language to go with it thanks to the adapted curriculum we will tell you about below! His verse, “God lives with me and this makes me happy” (Paraphrase from Romans 12:12)
In the past 2 months the Kids ministry has added 2 very big and new things to their program to support children with special needs. This includes offering sign language interpretation for the children’s regular class, AND providing an adapted (shorter) version of the regular class for children with special needs! The adapted class is taken from the same material used for the regular class offered online every Sunday with a few changes. The material is more simple to understand and with the use of multiple resources such as using picture symbols and sign language for the children to learn the bible story and verse of the week. Lisa and small team of volunteers take time weekly to create the material, send it off to those who do the videos, edit the material, and then send it off to the creative team to put it all together! It has been a lot of new learning and a true labor of love.
Lisa has also had the opportunity to be part of an Instagram interview given by Camino de Vida to teach other churches how to do church. It was a very exciting opportunity to share how we can still connect to people with special needs in their homes during quarantine through the small groups we continue to provide every Sunday as well as the new ways we are doing this through the adapted Sunday school class.
Small groups are a way that our large church can make more personal connections. Our church is a large church made up of many small groups. WE LOVE the ability that we get to help make those connections to help draw others to community with other like minded believers and to ultimately draw them closer to God. Here are 3 small groups that we are currently involved in.
Lisa has organized a small group with 3 teen girls with intellectual disabilities with 3 young adult women. Twice a month these girls have 1 on 1 time with their adult mentor and then twice a month they gather as a group of 6 on zoom to share in some group time. All 3 sets of parents expressed worry but interest for their daughters to join. Concerns were, will they like their peers? Will they enjoy their mentor? Will they feel like they belong? This group is now on its 4th week and is going SO WELL. One of the volunteers said that their teen friend cried when they had to end the group for the week. This truly is a special group at a special time when now more than ever these girls need community. We are so thankful for the lead of this group who organizes and takes charge of this group weekly.
Clever developed and leads a small group for men who are a mix of those who are believers and currently attend a church and a group of young men who have some form a physical disability and use a wheelchair to get around. This time is a brotherly time for the men to share more about their lives, encourage each other, pray for each other, and “attend” a virtual church service together. Clever has shared that one of the young men who we have had the opportunity to know now for over the past 2 years (because we were part of the team to give him a free wheelchair) has grown in his Christian walk. He has a desire to share this with others and has even asked if he could invite other people he knows with physical disabilities into the small group!!!
Clever developed and leads our small group for couples who are in the process or have adopted a child. There are currently 3 couples and this group has been so wonderful to our hearts to be able to share our journey and help support others as we all continue to walk out the adoption process in our various formats.
Camino de Vida continues to help be a bridge between young adults with physical disabilities in Peru and the Laurie Schoendorfer Endowment for Education scholarship program that provides educational scholarships to wheelchair users who want to get an education but can’t afford it. Right now, Clever leads this project and has been able to identify and help 3 new candidates receive the scholarships! They begin studying in July!! The fact that all educational programs will be online this year in Peru, has made it more accessible for people with physical disabilities to study since they don’t have the barriers that exist in an in-person learning opportunity!!
The outreach area of Camino de Vida, who serves all of Peru in acts of service sharing the love of God with others without anything in return continues to serve the people of Peru during this time of quarantine by giving out food and other resources to those in need. Despite the mandatory quarantine, we are able to continue to be the hands and feet of Jesus by these small gestures of love.
One of the big ways we do this as a church is to welcome mission teams from the USA and other countries to be a part of serving here. This year because all international travel has come to a stop, we are not able to receive missions teams as we have in the years past. BUT, we still want the churches and groups who have had a desire to come here and serve in 2020 to still have the opportunity to do so. SO, our team from Camino de Vida Life Missions has developed an opportunity for a Virtual Mission trip!!!!! This means that our team will go out and serve the community live with those who want to be a part of serving!! Isn’t that great!!!! We are so excited to be a part of this team delivering wheelchairs and helping in any way that we can! You too can be a part of a virtual mission trip if you like. It doesn’t cost anything but your time to join us when we go out to serve. For more information please connect with https://caminodevida.com/lifemissions/
“Put your heart and soul into every activity you do, as though you are doing it for the Lord himself and not merely for others. Colossians 3:23 TPT”
Thank you all for all you do to support us and allow us to continue to do what we get to do here despite not being able to physically leave our homes. We know that people connect to God in different ways and we are not missing out on this opportunity to connect with those who may never set foot in a church. Now more than ever we realize the importance of our mission to help all people encounter an authentic relationship with our Lord and Savior.