Hey everyone! I hope you’re all enjoying getting ready for the holidays! I just wanted to send a quick update about what all has been going on here in Cusco this month. Jim and I visited a tiny village about an hour and a half outside of the city a couple weeks ago. We were surprised to find a couple of families in the village are fairly strong believers, but there is no church and they are not meeting. The cool thing, though, is that they are so hungry for the Word! They asked us repeatedly to come back to share with them or to send some people out there to teach them. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a village where the people are so eager to learn.

We had planned to go back the next weekend. Several of the people in our ESL class volunteered to go with us, which was such a blessing because our ultimate goal is to get nationals going to the villages to teach their own people. We were very excited that one of the guys from the class was excited and eager to lead the study when we went up there, then at the last minute the night before the trip we received a call saying we couldn’t come the next day because the village was having a community assembly. Please just be praying that we have another opportunity to go out there and that the guys in our ESL class will still be eager to go.

This month we have been blessed in the fact that more new people have been coming to the ESL class on a regular basis, and they’re still just as eager to learn about Scripture as they are English. Please be praying for a guy named Eduardo that has started coming to class. He’s not a believer but is seems pretty open. Also please be praying for another guy named Ivan. He has been talking some about missions and being open to whatever God wants. We all see that God is really growing him and teaching him a lot, but right now he is in his final year of med-school. He’s trying to figure out where God’s leading him and what that’s going to look like in his life. He’s also the one who had planned on leading the study in the village we had planned to go to, so please just be praying that God will continue to guide him

One last request, Michelle, the girl who had been staying with me, Jim, who has been working here, and Ellen re all in the states or about to be in the states. I think that each of them are struggling with that in some way shape or form because it is a HUGE adjustment to go back no matter how long they’re staying, Please just be praying for each of them. Thank you guys so much for your prayers, and I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

October

Hi everyone! I know it’s been a little while since my last update. Sorry about that. The last couple of weeks have been a little hectic with my roommate Ellen’s term ending and her heading back to the states. It has also put into perspective how little time I have left here in Peru and everything that comes with that, adjusting back to the States, finding a job, all kinds of little things that I haven’t even thought of yet. In spite of all those things the Lord has blessed me with a new roommate until the end of this month, and He continually reminds me that there are still plenty of things left to do here in Cusco until January.

We are continuing with our ESL ministry, which is evolving slowly into not only an English class using Scripture but also a class where they are learning how to study the Scriptures. Our students are beginning to ask more and more in depth questions about not only what we read, but also about faith and the Bible in general. It is evident that their hearts are longing to know about what Scripture really says. I had mentioned before that most of them are already believers, but most of their knowledge is strictly based on what a pastor tells them. They have some knowledge of Scripture, but they’ve never been taught to question the significance of passages. If they are told something they believe it. We have really been encouraging them to dig a little deeper and ask questions that they typically wouldn’t ask. So not only are we trying to help them with their English, but we’re also really trying to encourage them to really think about what we’re reading and not just accept what is said by us or a pastor but to seek out the Lord to find deeper understanding. Also we have been continuing the women’s Bible study on Thursday nights where we have been trying to encourage the same thing.

This month we have some new projects we’re going to begin in order to get some more helpful information for the church teams that come down here. We will also have a couple of teams coming down for short trips to work in the villages surrounding Cusco. So hopefully it will be a fairly busy month.

I would ask that you would be praying for the ESL ministry and the Bible studies and that the people in those would grow in faith because of them. Also there is a guy named Jonatan that comes to our ESL class who is not a believer, but he seems very interested. He just recently changed jobs and has told us that he might not be able to come to class anymore, so just be praying for him and that situation. Also please be praying that I would keep my focus on things here instead of the things that I’m going to have to take care of when I get back home. That is definitely a struggle for me. Thank you guys for all of your prayers and support!!! And if any of you want to know more about what has been going on here over the last few months just shoot me an email!