Our trip to Trujillo

Thanking God today for His perfect timing.  So many changes happening in our lives lately, but all seems to be happening in the right order and at the perfect time.  I think about how well everything has been working out for us and how blessed we have been since moving to Peru, and I'm reminded of  Romans 8:28  "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."  God is so amazing and so good to us :)

The past 3 weeks have been a great time with Avis' 2 brothers Fred and George and friend Tony here to visit.  What an amazing family...so glad to have met them.  God has blessed us with many wonderful people in our lives!  The visit went by fast and before we knew it was time to say goodbye.

George and Tony left Thursday, and Friday morning we all hopped in the comby (orphanage van) for the drive to Trujillo where Fred was going to the airport, and we were due for a doctors checkup.  Jake loves driving here...he has become an expert Peruvian driver, and I have learned to just not look, lol.  The kids usually lie down on the seats and sleep for the long ride (they are loving the freedom of not being buckled into car seats) Mateo often rides up front with daddy.  The trip went really well! We made great time and didn't even get stopped.  Normally we get pulled over by roadside police at least once.  Jake just shows them his Canadian licence and we are back on our way. 

After stopping for lunch at the mall and saying our goodbyes to Fred at the airport, Jake, me, the kids and Avis found a hotel and settled in for the night.  Avis' room was right next to ours.  Our small room had 2 single beds, so we pushed the beds together to make one big family bed.  The kids thought that was a fun idea.

We woke up Saturday morning to the sound of water dripping from the ceiling.  It had rained all through the night.  Rain is rare in this part of Peru so most of their buildings are not waterproof, and they have no ditches or sewers, so the streets were flooded with huge puddles.  It was a good day for taxi drivers as people who normally walked took a taxi that day instead, us included.  We arrived at the doctors office 8:30am, half and hour before opening time to get a good spot in line.  Most doctors don't do appointments here, it's first come first serve, so we usually try to be early to get first in line.  It seems that we are not the only ones thinking smart like that, sometimes we arrive almost an hour early and there's already a big line up meaning a long wait for us, sometimes up to 4 or 5 hours.  This was a good day for us though; we were first! and in and out within the hour!  The checkup went really well.  Our Spanish is getting a bit better and I think the docs english has improved too, so that makes communication a lot easier for both of us!  After doing an ultra sound scan (which is done at every checkup) everything looked great!  Now just waiting and if nothing happens in the next week we go back Friday. 
As the time comes closer we are getting very excited to meet this little one, and somehow it feels like everyone else is waiting just as anxiously for this baby as we are.  We are 2 days past the due date now and it could be another week or so.  Babies are very rarely ever born on their due date...it is only an "estimated" date of birth.  I wonder if there is a reason for that...maybe God wants us to remember that He is in control, and He knows when the time is right.  His timing is always perfect.  

Millers

I like to talk about my blessings. Not to brag about what I've done, but to brag about what God has done for me and how much fun it is to serve God. People talk about things that are important, and I'd like to talk about what's important to me.
I have had the pleasure of hanging out with the man that built this place, I mean literally laid the bricks of the walls. Mr. Fred Miller. And of course his brother Mr. George Miller. Avis Goodhart is the official founder of Go-Ye Ministries and Casa de Paz, but I don't think it could have been done without her brothers.  In this time in age with families breaking up through silly arguments, the Millers are a true example of how brothers and sisters should stick together. Growing up they went through some pretty rough times of poverty and constantly moving from place to place (Avis is writing a book about her story and I can't wait to read it. I've read the rough draft of the first three chapters and it is goooood!!) but those rough times is what brought them together and in the end they came out with a bond that could not be broken. The part that gets me is that me and my family get to enjoy the fruits of their hard labor. There is a church, a school and an orphanage all up and running well. And we get to come in and without having gone through the rough times of starting it and enjoy the ministry.
 Fred is normally not much of a talker but once you get to know him, he's the funniest guy I've ever met. So much fun to work with, and he's a teacher. He has patience to let someone else do the work and he just observe and guides, but he's not set in his ways, he is very easy to listen to another opinion. There isn't enough recognition for people like Avis, Fred, and George. They poured everything they had into God's ministry. Not just time but also endless amount of money came straight out of their own pocket. Now lots of people have given time and financing but I have never seen anyone being so humble about it. I have heard Avis and Fred make the statement "Once I've given it to God it doesn't belong to me anymore" this might seem easy for the ten bucks you drop in the offering plate but when you build huge buildings that Cost you thousands and thousands of dollars, sweat and back aches, it's a little harder to look at it and say "Well that doesn't belong to me anymore, it's God's now". And God brought my family into their lives. Now that is a blessing, a blessing that I pray I will never ever take for granted.
I see great things coming for the future of Casa de Paz, God is stirring things up the way only God can and I'm excited about it. My only downfall is I have very little patience and God's plan often involves lots of patience, but that's why he gave me my wife :) she has enough patience for both of us, another blessing in my life. Man it's a lot of fun serving God, I love it. I hope you love it too. Bless you dearly

Fred projects

Trial and error is what it's about, right? Fred and I have been working on a solar powered water heater that has nothing electric and no moving parts, which is ideal for our salt water. An electric water heater lasts a maximum of two years so we've been without hot water for a number of years. Cold water is fine for the summer but the winter gets cold enough to make you think twice whether or not you need a shower lol. Especially for little kids. We put a test model together with materials we could find locally. We had bought a hose that we thought should hold up to the heat but with only standing in the sun a few hours it softened up too much and kinked, not letting water through. So we will have to see if copper is available. I can't wait till we have a true test to see how it works. Our hope is that this will be a beginning of a sponsorship program for people to get involved in. A unit like this should supply water to one housing unit, and at this point we would need about ten units like this. This would include housing for orphan's and volunteers. More info to follow on this as time progresses. 

We've also been working on an awning for Avis's house that she will be able to roll in and out to keep the morning sun off her house. She has no windows on three sides so it gets really hot in there. We have a guy across the street that does the welding for us. I think me and Fred almost drive him crazy with our poor Spanish  He does his best to understand but often we have to point and draw and explain for a long time. We are very blessed to have some local small shops that help us out. We had some electrical work done on the old comby, it didn't start properly. Our electric guy worked on it for a few hours and replaced some wires, and it ended up working great. He charged us S/.30 which is about $12, a garage back home won't even look at your vehicle for 12 dollars.

George has been working hard on his own projects while me and Fred work on ours. He fixed an old copier for us that we had thought unworthy to fix, but George is a genius when it comes to copiers so he got it running smooth. And today he worked on painting some outdoor chairs that really needed to be done.

We just got back from our beautiful friends Auden and Wendy, what a great night of fellowship with all our brothers and sisters. This will be the last weekend Fred George and Tony will be here so it was great to have a get together before they get ready to leave. It sure is good to have teams here for inspiration and help with upkeep and new ideas for Casa de Paz. But it will be nice to have a time of less busy to focus on my family, our baby is due in just six days. I am so thankful for a patient wife, I haven't been around as much as a good husband should and she does very little complaining about it. God knew what he was doing when he hooked me up with her. 

So if you try and you err in your walk with God, learn from it repent from it and move on. You will never reach perfection without going through many errors. God bless you dearly

An Elders Wisdom

Praise The Lord. God has put me in a state of complete joy and contentment. What more can I ask for. There is nothing I enjoy more than working along side someone who has a few years on me. I am a servant by default, so to have someone around with wisdom that comes with age to look up to and serve is a real blessing. I'm not trying to make these guys look old :) First had John, Jim and Craig here for two weeks and Pete for three weeks. And now I have Avis's awesome brothers Fred and George and their Friend Tony here. Its been an ongoing paradise for me. And I have Tony Giesen here for 5 months out of a year. If I'm half the man that the guys are that God put in my life then I'll be happy. 

There are many things I hope to teach the kids here at Casa de Paz, one of the most important things is to respect people, especially your elders. I see too many children growing up in this age that have very little respect for either for their parents or their elders. And I think the way you see your elders is the way you see God. If you can't respect earthly guardianship then how will you respect heavenly guardianship. Most of the kids here have had very little good elder influence in there life, so its hard for them to know how to respect someone who has authority over them but also has tremendous love for them. Don't get me wrong the kids are very loving and very well behaved, but they simply are lacking the Father-child relationship. I would very much appreciate prayer for me to have the understanding and wisdom I need to be a witness and to teach these kids to become honorable respectful young people in the eyes of The Lord. 

Tomorrow is the start of a new school year so all the kids are getting ready for an early start tomorrow for a fresh start to a new year. I'm looking forward to seeing how they all do on their grades. We have an 11 year old that will be starting in kindergarten this year. She has never gone to school before because of her past life. Please pray for her to feel important and for her to catch up for what she missed. 

Bless you dearly, I love you in the name of Jesus amen.

P.S. I will be doing a blog on the projects me and Fred have been working on hopefully in the next day or two.

March is here!

March is here!  We’re in the hottest time of the year in Peru...it has been almost unbearably warm these past few weeks and we are definitely not minding the cold showers these days!

Life has been busy, our days have been full and I’m having a hard to time believing it’s already been 5 months since we made the big move down here!  Hoping the next 5 months go by just as quick as we look forward to our visit back to Canada in August.

We've been taking the kids swimming a lot this summer to keep them cool, and busy, but Summer holidays are almost over now and next week the kids will be going back to school and getting back into routine.  Karlita and Mateo will both be starting kindergarden this year.  They’re excited, especially Mateo since this will be his first time going to school.

Tomorrow Jake and the guys are taking the 2 hour trip out to Chiclayo (which is 2 hours the opposite direction of Trujillo) to find some car parts. It will probably be an all day trip, so let’s pray baby doesn't decide to come tomorrow.  With only about 2 weeks to go till our little one is due, everyone’s getting excited for the baby.  I was so blessed yesterday at the women’s ministry, as we were closing in prayer all the women surrounded me laying their hands on my belly as they prayed for me and the baby.  It was a beautiful moment.  My growing belly has definitely gotten lots of attention from all the kids here too.  The older ones are all counting down the days with me, giving name ideas, and having fun trying to guess the gender, and the younger ones love hugging and patting my belly and it’s so cute how some of them even press their ears up against it thinking they might hear something.  This baby will be blessed with many loving brothers and sisters!  

Life is Precious

Being here and especially with having this little life growing inside me I am reminded more everyday of how precious life is…every life is a precious gift.  And my prayer is for every person to know that.  I pray for the people who have caused children to come in here so broken and abused both physically and emotionally.  I don't know or understand how anyone can treat a life, especially a childs life, with so little worth and value, but it is clear that it is satan's plan...his plan is to hurt and destroy.  But thank God He has a plan too, a good plan, and He is so much bigger than satan. I find comfort in knowing that we have an amazing God who is able to take all the bad in the world and turn it around and use it for good.  His love heals and restores, and I am thankful that we get to be here and watch God’s healing hand at work in many precious lives.  God is Good!

Jeremiah 29:11  For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.