July 15th-Characato

So if any of you get my updates, you've probably read something about the orphanage in Characato. If not, I'll give a quick recap. Right now I am Arequipa Peru, studying Spanish before I go to the jungle to work with the indigenous church. I usually spend 3.5 hours every day in class, have at least 1.5 hours of homework, and spend 3-4 hours doing construction at an orphanage that my friend Jose is building. He already owns one orphanage, and the new one is going to be for young girls, especially those who are pregnant, and their children. Even now, there are two girls who just arrived at Jose's orphanage (La Casa Hogar del Amor de Dios). The two girls are 10 and 11 years old, and they are both pregnant. Please pray for them, as it is very dangerous to give a birth when you are that young. This all just encourages me to work harder on the orphanage in Characato so that these girls will have a place that fits them more specifically. It's been amazing to see how quickly the building has progressed these past few weeks, so I thought I would put up some pictures of it. I hope you enjoy them!

July 4th- Happy Birthday America

June 30th- Losing Faith in People

I'll preface this shortly. A lot of times I see things that are so incredibly selfish that I have to stop and think to myself, "Really!?!" Sometimes it's in the form of big things, and other times it's in the form of small things, like a young man refusing to give up his seat for the old lady on the bus (which might not seem like much of an issue, but the bus drivers here in Peru drive in such a way that you hold onto the hanging rail for your life as they whip from street to street). It's one thing to see things like this every once in while, but in reality selfishness is the norm, and genuine acts of kindness are so rare that it's easy to forget that they exist. With this reality, it can be pretty easy to lose faith in people as a whole.

The Bible tells us that God loved and valued people so much that he gave his one and only son for us. We are called to see people through God's eyes, which means we see them as people who are so loved that Jesus died for them. The only problem is that the majority of the time, people act out of selfishness (ie, lie, cheat, steal, etc.). When this happens continually, it's easy to lose faith in people in general. You see it in the lives of people who claim, in one form or another, that because they have God in their life, they can survive on their own (ignore church, walk their faith alone, give up on people who aren't Christians, etc.). There's only one problem with this: It's God's plan to renew the world.

If we lose faith in people, we lose faith in the fact that they can be redeemed. If we lose faith that people can be redeemed, we lose faith that God can do what He says He is going to do. If we lose faith that God can do what He says He will do, we lose faith in God.

June 13th- El Misti

Yesterday I climbed a Volcano called El Misti. It stands 5,822 meters tall (19,101 ft, 3.61 miles). It wasn't the hardest climb, but I was recovering from being sick in Lima, and at about 5,300 meters, I experienced some altitude sickness. After that point the climb got a lot more difficult for me, but I was able to stick it out and get to the summit.

It was certainly difficult to be sick at a time like this, but through a few different illnesses that I have had these past few weeks I have learned to be grateful. I think one of the ways that God disciplines me, and forces me to pay attention to Him is through sickness. When I am healthy, I almost always fall into the temptation to do things out of my own strength, but in sickness, when all of my own strength is gone, I have to rely on Him. I think God uses different things to get our attention, and I would encourage you to see the love in his hand the next time you feel Him discipline you. Remember, "the Lord disciplines those he loves." (Hebrews 12:6).

Here are some pictures. I hope you enjoy them!

May 22nd- Colca Canyon

So, I had the opportunity to go to Colca Canyon this past weekend. We backpacked for three days, and I saw some incredible things. Parts of the canyon are even twice as deep and the Grand Canyon! Anyways, here are some pictures of the trip. I hope you enjoy them.

May 15th

Sometimes there is nothing that we can say to make sense of the things that happen around us. Now is just one of those times that words completely gone from my mind and my heart.

We will all miss you Holly. The world is missing out on meeting the truly kind, smart, beautiful, and funny woman that you would have grown up to be.

May 9th- Missions Part 1

Hey everyone. So I've been thinking a lot about the subject of Missions and the Church, and the next few things I write are going to about this subject. I am doing this mostly because it is something that has been on my mind a lot, but also because I think there are some common misconceptions about the subject. Hopefully this is something that is equally relevant to people who are not interested in leaving their own country as it is to people who are considering a life in a different culture. So here's part 1:

Matthew 28:18-20 "Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Needless to say, I got a lot of different responses from people when I told them about God's call on my life here in Peru. These discussions have inspired a lot of thought about the subject of the church and missions. Additionally in the past 5 years I've been on a number of different missions trips, and I've heard a lot from many different preachers on this subject. Here are some of the conclusions that I have come to through all of this.

Missions is a word that I have heard being used synonymously with evangelism. For example, "I am a missionary in my school." or "I am a missionary to the people that I work with." Though this form of speech conveys information in a way that we understand, it is also dangerous. It is a dangerous way to speak, because in some ways it makes the assumption that there are people in the church who are meant to spread the message of Jesus Christ, while there are others who do not have this call. Otherwise, these phrases that we hear so frequently, wouldn't be necessary at all. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing to speak this way, rather I am suggesting, for clarity's sake, that we re-evaluate our titles.

Steve Saint says, "The goal of missions is not to evangelize the world; that is the role of the church. The goal of missions is to plant the church where is does not yet exist." We are all members of the body of Christ, so we all share the same burden to share the Gospel with the people around us. It is not solely the responsibility of our pastors and missionaries to fulfill the great commission (to go out and make disciples of all nations). We must come to grips with the fact that we are the church, and that it is not someone else's responsibility to share the good news of Jesus Christ with the people who we come into contact with on a daily basis. Therefore if you are talking to the people in your school, or in your work about Jesus, you are not a missionary--you're part of the church. We need to get it through our heads that the real force behind the Kingdom of God cannot be laid on a few people in the church, but that it is something that needs to be taken up by all of us.