Hey Everyone,
All is well. We see God moving so visibly on this trip. We are actually so overwhelmed by the vision and excitement of the church body we are working with. We have worked in established children's projects, sharing the gospel and God's love. We have seen over 100 children make first time professions of faith in an environment where they will continue to be discipled. In addition, we have spent evenings training about 140 people from the church in evangelistic tools! They have become so excited by the possibilities of what they can do. Two nights ago, we went out with the church and shared Christ on the street corners. The church shared the gospel using gospel fliers while we were the attraction factor doing our music and pantomimes on the street corner. The church had 800 fliers and ran out!
Then, yesterday morning we went to the sight of their church plant. It is an old mechanics yard full of broken down vehicles, huge truck tires. It's a mess! Still, there is a vision for this place. We prayed for the future of the site and then we went door-to-door (business-to-business) sharing the gospel. We had two team members with an interpreter and we leap-frogged groups down the street. Seventeen people professed faith. One lady said she has heard the story many times but had never been asked to make a decision. It showed us how important it is to make sure that they have a choice. Then on the bus to our next ministry, one of the church members asked for an evangecube. She said "I want to try it" and she proceeded to share with a school boy sitting next to her. He responded to the gospel and she got off the bus saying "eighteen"! It was so cool! The church is being equipped to share. Also, the local residents were so happy that there will soon be a church near by for them to attend.
Finally, last evening, we went to a mall and performed in the food court. We rented a bus to get there and it was completely full of people. There was standing room only. The church proceeded to hand out many more fliers. They said it was the first time a group had been allowed to come into the mall and share! The only requirement was they had to hand out a promotional flier for the mall.
Next week, we will go into 5 schools - both private and public - to preach the gospel. This weekend, we are doing sports ministry and sharing the gospel with the community. It has been a very full trip and the team is so encouraged by all that they have seen. God is so good!
All praise to Him,
Rick and Raeann Velasquez
Peru Team
