First, we planned to just stop by and encourage a bi-vocational pastor. Last year he was living in a shack attached to the church building. There were big holes in the tarp that covered the roof. His family, kitchen and everything was in one room. When we arrived he wasn't there because he was working. A woman met us-either the pastor's sister or his wife. We found out that the pastor and his family were living in better conditions now. So our mission failed, we couldn't encourage him because he wasn't there. But God's plan didn't. A few children showed up, and with encouragement over a megaphone a few more came. Our kids lead in some songs and games. Elva shared the doll, Catherine shared the frisbee and we distributed them. We went to just visit and ended up sharing the gospel.
Next we went to Pastor David's church. Several commented about how much smaller it looked without the sheet partitions. Pastor David carried a megaphone around the neighborhood announcing the program. Around 20 children showed up. Again the kids sang, and helped Elva lead games. the gospel was shared through dolls and frisbees.
After lunch we shared our program a the Dinner Church. As before the crowds were mostly children so games, songs, dolls and frisbees were our tools for evangelism. With each group of children Elva or Catherine would make a clear presentation of the gospel and lead the children in a prayer for salvation.
Our late afternoon and evening program was at the Breakfast church. Since it was in the middle of town there were always people walking by, along with cars and motorcycles. Dawn Morton took some tracts out to the street and handed them out. David told us this service would be more formal since there were a good number of adults there. The kids sang two songs, then the American team did the Sin Box skit. The kids recruited David to join them for a special song. Then we did Chicken skit and Pastor Pablo spoke about what it meant to truly be a Christian. David sang special music and then Elva translated for me as I preached from Psalm 119:8-15. Pastor David was there since this was his dad's church and he counselled four adults who made professions of faith.
On Wednesday morning we packed our bags into the bus and headed to the Balloon church for one more program in Pedregal before driving toward Arequipa. Several children responded to the megaphone and heard the kids and David sing, learned about the Lord Jesus through dolls and frisbees presented by Elva and Catherine.
The bus rolled out of Pedregal, over the dry dusty plateaus, through the tunnel, in and out of the green canyons and two hours later we were at the orphanage in Arequipa. More ministry to come.
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| 'The Kids' were our music worship team for the trip |
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| Children on winter break from school were glad to come to the church for games and lessons about Jesus |
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| Games broke the ice and made the programs fun |
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| When adults were present, preaching was appropriate. Elva translated without a pause. The Lord provided what we needed to do His work. |
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