La Paz, Lima

Today i think ( maybe ) is going to be the last post, for this specific mission trip. 
Right now we are in Puno, we are taking a bus to go back to Lima, we just spend a night here ( close to the titicaca Lake ).

Last Week we were at La Paz, a beautiful place. Pastor Alejandro ( from Montevideo ) made all the arrangements to go to different chruches, we start the ministry on tuesday, we attend to a women fellowship, it was so beautiful how Leona was able to share with the ladies, as well on thursday with other group ( bigger one ), because they are ready for a festival called "Esperanza", they have been praying for about 10 people each that do not know the Lord, and they are going to take this people to this festival, it will last 3 nights. 
So Leona shared with them, how our feelings and problems in our personality can hinder the Gospel, and also she taught through the book Jonas, how they can have a heart for the lost. 

On Friday, we visit the youth group, it was beautiful how young people was so open to learn, and to know more things about the Faithfulness of God. Leona shared her experiences in the mission field, it was intense.
Finally on Sunday, we perform the drama of Judas for the last time in this mission trip, and Leona shared about palm sunday. How some times we have expectations that are not God's plans. That Was a powerful message. In the afternoon Carlos and Jenny taught about the children ministry with sunday school teachers, and the parents also. The amazing thing, is that the Pastor told everyone who was in the children ministry class, that they have as a task to apply what they learnt to a real situation in their homes as well at church.

Praise the Lord for all things that he has been doing.

Thank you all for your prayers.

Thank God for taking care, and teaching me all this time.

Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

We left Santa Cruz yesterday sunday. we have spent 8 days there.
When we arrived it was carnaval. Here Carnaval is celebrated from Sunday ( right after we arrived ) until Tuesday, therefore, we were not able to go out after 2:00 p.m. because they use painting to play, not just water, they have music, and bands, but all of that is to prais some kind of god. And they do that to finish right on Ashes' Wednesday, so they can go and ask for forgivness of all things they did during the carnaval. This can give you an idea of the things that they do. During those days, the churches in general go to different camps, or just go outside of the city. So we were in the morning to do shopping for lunch, and afternoons we stayed at the hotel.
So on Wednesday we started to do outreaches in the plaza, and the Lord gave us the opportunity to see people coming to the Lord, 5 that first day, at night we were able to go to church for prayer meeting, it was a very good time, and it was full of young people. 
On Thursday,  some of this young people that is working with kids came to our hotel to talk and learn a little bit about kids ministry. It was a good time, and they where so thrill about it, that they ( the young people ) organize a meeting at their church for Friday  to have couple hours of introduction/training about children ministry. 
On Friday, we went again to do some outreach, and again the Lord kept surprising us for the openness of the people to listening the Gospel. And people accepting the Lord. Afternoon we went to church, and we spend couple hours explaining Children Ministry, it was such a good time.
On Saturday  we went out for an outreach, and we found such interesting people this time, for example Jenny talk to a girl who is "hare Krishna" , and her boyfriend thinks that he is god. But again the people was open to listen the Gospel. The seeds of the word of God, were planted. At night we attended to the youth meeting, more than 50 ( i think way more ) young people came to this "small church" and they were so excited listening the stories of God Faithfulness in Leona's life. An interesting thing is that seems that at least the third of the church speak english. 
Yesterday, Sunday, we went to church. Leona share about palm Sunday. It was very good, a lot of people, the church was full, and can you imagine, there was a lot of people who spoke English. At the end, I didn't need to translate for most of the people, they were able to talk straight with Leona, and I found Christy Holcomb at this church, we were able to talk a little bit, it was very nice. At church there was a couple, there were tourists, they spoke just English, so there were happy to be able to listen a message in English. Such a blessing.

We left Santa Cruz at 5:30pm, and now we are in La Paz, waiting for what the Lord has for us.

Asuncion, Paraguay, Bus Terminal

Today, we are leaving Asuncion, it has been such an incredible experience. 

When we arrived, we realized that the hostal where we were thinking to go, was 10 km ( 6 miles ) from the bus terminal, so we decided to stay in a hotel close to the bus terminal. After we settle in the hotel, we were informed that downtown was very far from here. So we just visit downtown 2 times, because the Lord had other plans for us. We decided to go to the bus terminal, to share with the people, and we had so many divine appointments.

An old man, who ended asking to have what the Lord can give him, and he prayed for the Lord to change his life. A woman whose things were stolen, and had anger in that moment, other woman, she is a christian woman, asking for prayer for her son who has HIV, other woman who recently lost her father and brother, and the other brother is sick, and a young man who took the step to start walking in the Lords path. 

And so many more stories.

I am not a writer, but i could talk about those encounters for hours i guess. Just can say that the Lord stopped us to be in downtown of Asuncion, and He placed us in this place, that the people say is dangerous, to reach these people. He really knows how we are, and that sometimes we want to do the things in our way, but He knows us perfectly to engineer the situation for his will to be done.

PRAISE DE LORD

Montevideo, Uruguay

Today Sunday is our last full day here. So i will try to summarize everything that happened since our arrival.
The trip from Mendoza to Montevideo was very good and comfortable, the bus was a little bit old, but the service was very good, one of the best so far. You know, God is faithful in those little details.
When we arrived Laura ( who is the pastor's sister ) was waiting for us with one of the youth of the church. They took us to the Hotel. We arrived to early so the rooms were not ready yet. But finally we were able to get our rooms. it was good and nice, though there was no air condition, and for whoever don't Montevideo is HOT, and we arrived during the HOTTEST days.
The next day, we had to do some paper work ( getting visas ), and also we were able to see the city, It is a beautiful city. 
On Wednesday in the morning, we presented Judas drama in the plaza Independencia, people walking, few people just resting, but there were some Peruvians ( they work in the ships ), and also some construction workers, they do not have a house. We were able to talk at the end with one of them, his name was Marcelo, Leona share the Gospel with him, it was very nice to see the seed being planted in his heart. So pray for him, that more witnesses come to his life.
At night we started the session of teaching about Christian Counseling. There was not many people, but God knew who needed to be there.
On Thursday we went to a Park, a beautiful park with a lot of people, and kids waiting to play soccer others waiting for the swimming pool. And we use a questioner to approach people and then open doors to share with them. We put on our costumes and then we started the drama, it was good, the kids observed, and the adults from a distance were observing too, because kids were around, Leona asked me to share a bible story, and because of the short notice, the first bible story that came to my mind was about the vision of Isaiah, I told them, the kids learned it, and at the end they decided to do the same as Isaiah, "to go" to others to tell them the bible story.
At night there were more people at church for the teaching, and the work of the Holy Spirit trough the teaching became more obvious, the reaction of the people showed that.

The next morning, we went to a corner, to keep doing street evangelism, there was a lot of people but they were walking fast, rushing. Carlos and me were able to approach a young guy, who declare that he haven't ever told a lie in his life, neither stolen. He presented himself as righteous. We know that there is no one righteous. It was a short conversation, but after that, we saw a woman sit on a stair, we were led to her to talk, and it was incredible, She shared with us her life, how she was in depression, the diagnosis of the psychologist and  and psychiatrist, how she can not see her grandchild, and how she is dealing with pain, and forgiveness.
In the Christian Counseling, I learn, that many times christian people do not understand the problem or the root of the problems, but try to give answers, and We do have the truth as an answer, but if we do not know the problem we can not deliver the truth in a proper way, so I was able to just say, can i pray with you. It was a goon encounter, I hope to see her today at church. 
At night were more people, and was the last session of the Christian Counseling, they prayed a lot, it was so good, at the end we heard testimonies, and difficult situations. 

On the next day ( this is Saturday ) we went to a supermarket to invite people and pass tracts, we were able to talk with a young woman who was drinking her "mate" She was waiting i guess for the bus or something else. We talk about the mate and the customs of the people in Uruguay and Peru, after that, we talked about life and death, and if anyone is good or not. She started thinking that she was a good person, but after showing her some of the commandments she started to rethink that, she realized that no one is good. Sadly we couldn't finish the conversation, but we pray that God put some other witnesses in her life.

That evening we talk with the youth, they had their youth group, it was very nice to see young people together, and Leona was invited to talk about missions. She shared her testimony and the Faithfulness of God during her years on the mission field. I saw how that touch their lives, now they are having that in their minds, that thought "am i called to missions?".

On Sunday Leona taught about Rut, it was a beautiful message, I could see how God was touching the life of the people there. And after that we said bye to all of them. A very sweet group of people. A very nice time. A powerful God working.

 The Lord knew why He brought us, The Lord is in control, The Lord planned it from the beginning. So, Praise the Lord.