Spring Break Missions Trip

Well, tomorrow morning, I head out with Justin and 10 Aggies on our Spring Break Missions Trip to Trujillo, Peru. We're pumped and eager to serve. Please pray for us:
* For safety in travel
* For the 2-3 times I will be preaching there
* For our students as they experience another culture; especially that God would open their eyes to how He is building the Kingdom of Christ around the world
* For our evening with the university students
* For our evening with the English Language Institute
* For our outreach in the Arevelo parish where we will be doing construction, a VBS for the children of the community, and a potential cookout
* For our faith to grow as we serve the missionaries & Peruvians
* For Christ to bring Himself much glory through this week.

I will try to give regular updates if I can get to a computer there.

Seeing the US of A...

Wow, I feel like I've been away more than at home lately. Two weeks ago, the whole family traveled to McIlwain Pres in Pensacola, FL. It was so good to catch up with our friends that we haven't seen for years there (John was on staff there from 96-99 before we headed to seminary). The church loved on us well, plus our kids had a good time playing with the children there, especially the Looper kids. John spoke to the youth group on Saturday evening, and did a presentation for the adults during the Sunday school hour.

Last weekend, John flew out to Stateboro, GA, to attend the missions conference of Trinity Pres, the home church of Pastor Roland Barnes, who is the Director of Christian Missionary Society which handles the behind the scenes stuff for Peru Mission. Here, I spoke during the youth & college class, plus gave a brief lo-down during one of the worship services.

We're at 38.7%!

To quote my wife, "Seeeeeee!"
My response, "D-oh!"

This is truly a roller coaster ride, but the Lord is faithful. My wife is the optimist and I'm the realist (or as my wife says, "pessimist"). We are at a higher percentage than we had thought. Thanks to the God who provides and to all of you who are riding this roller coaster with us. Keep praying!

Adding a little flavor to the blog with some pics

We thought that we would spice things up a bit by adding some pictures. This first picture is from our trip to Trujillo last summer. We are in the midst of some students who welcomed us with open arms. We had fun practicing our rough spanish, but they were very helpful (there were only a few laughs!). Next to Heather is Ísabel and her husband, Gerado who works with the university students.



On an evening out with the missionaries and a mission team from New England, we went to a restaurant called La Casa de Don Antonio (la comida estúve muy deliciosa). We were treated to a native Peruvian dance & Heather snapped this amazing picture.



Mi esposa y yo estudiamos español cuando podemos encontrar el tiempo. Necisitamos aprender mucho más y estamos ansioso practicar con nuestros amigos en Perú. [Translation (I think this is what I said): My wife and I are studying Spanish when we can find the time. We need to learn much more and we are eager to practice with our friends in Peru.]

Trusting God with our Future

The following quote is by George McDonald, an author whom CS Lewis admitted was a great influence upon him. Heather and I first came across it when we were in Florida back in 1996, a time when we had committed to going to seminary, but had no way of knowing how we would finance it. God came through for us, and proved the truthfulness of these words. Again, in 1999, when we began work with RUF at Texas A&M, the account was 7k in the hole. God showed himself strong once again. Now as we face the daunting and somewhat discouraging task of raising money in order to do mission work in Peru, we find ourselves raising this ebenezer, remembering how God has been faithful throughout the years, and how "hither by Thy help I'm come."

"Because you don't see what can be done, you say God can do nothing--which is like saying there cannot be more within His scope than there is within yours. One thing is clear: if He saw no more than lies within your sight, He could not be God. The very impossibility you see in things points to the region God works in."

Which is just another way of saying with St. Paul, "And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).

20-25% Support Level

Having talked to or visited about 20 churches this fall, we are currently between 20-25% of our needed level of support to be able to move onto the field this summer. We have several missions conferences lined up, including a missions preview weekend at Bay Area Pres in Webster, TX, on Jan. 29th; a missions conf at my home church, Westminster Pres, in Bryan on Feb. 3-5. Feb. 19th, I'm preaching at the missions conf at Spring Cypress Pres in Houston. Feb. 24-26 is the missions conf at our former church in Pensacola, McIlwain Pres. We're looking forward to seeing folks there. It's hard to believe that it has been some 10 years since we have been there! The following weekend I'll be in Statesboro, GA at the Rev. Roland Barnes' church, Trinity Pres. Then after that, I'll be taking a group of Aggies down to Peru over Spring Break. There are a few more churches in the works at this point for after the break. Plus we are in the midst of contacting our friends and letting them know about the change of venue and inviting their partnership.

Keep Up To Speed

We've created this blog to let our friends and family keep up with what God is doing through the ministry of RUF in Peru.