The fruit of the labour :)

I have had the great pleasure of meeting the one of the first kids ever to be taken care of by Avis,





back before there was an orphanage, back when only the church was built. He was ten years old when he found himself in the streets of Pacasmayo alone, abandoned by his own mother. He didn't have any documents to prove who he was, so when the law got a hold of him it would mean trouble. After wondering the streets begging for money for food for a while it didn't take very long until he got questioned by the police. "What's your name son" "do you have your DNI (national identification document) the officer asked. "No sir" came the reply. And then the strangest question, now you have to understand that to find an officer who would go out of his way for even a child was hard to find. "Do you believe in God?" Figuring that his chances would be better "yes" he replied. "Get into the car" came the stern demand. Obviously very scared he climbed in obediently. It didn't take long and the car stopped in front of a huge building. Opening the door the cop says, "this is your new home".
After a few knocks the door swings open to reveal a happy lady who called him in and gave him food, and just loved on him, Avis Goodhart. Unfortunately there was a rotten apple in the house, I believe unbeknownst to Avis. This person was not happy with the fact that Avis was starting to take in kids, she liked it the way it was with just the church, so to keep this story short this person won the battle and all the kids had to go back out on the street, because Avis was not an official orphanage. Our young boy was shipped of into the jungle because that's where he said he was from. And for years he did all he could to be able to eat every day. Today he is 22 years old, and life was getting increasingly more difficult to get by without any documents. You can't even travel without an ID. In thinking of what he could do, and getting frustrated by being turned down by anyone who might be able to help him, he remembered a godly women who had once taken him in. So he put his shoulder to the wheel all he could for one month, and he managed to work up enough money to get himself to Pacasmayo through "undercover" transportation.
Don't underestimate how difficult this was, we are not talking about America. If he gets caught by the police he might get thrown in prison and tortured because they think he could be a terrorist. But he finds himself to the orphanage without getting caught and he rings the door bell and asks for Avis, a name he will never forget. The paperwork has been started, it's a long process but he is on his way to having an identity Praise The Lord. He has managed to find himself an under the table job here while he's waiting. He has dreams of going to school and making something of himself.
We spent the day eating and playing volleyball and going to the beach to swim, and he wants me to teach him English so he's gonna come here every Sunday to hang out and learn English. God is a very good God.

Pineapples and papaya

Pineapple and papaya, Peru has some of the finest,

ya this life is tough :) it's been a busy good day, we started cleaning out our "guest house" for some people coming from the states, man I tell ya people don't realize how much cleaning goes into preparing rooms for people, if a house sits for any period of time it gets covered in dust. On another note, the government is giving us a mighty hard time renewing our residence cards for the kids, when we first got the cards we gave them the original birth certificates for our kids and never got them back, now they want another copy of an original :) yep fun, please pray cause the devil don't want us here. On an other other note, man I'm on a role. It's that time of year to start with civil defence, every year we have to have an enspection done on our facilities, it's S/.2000 Right off the bat, than comes the list of things that they didn't like and we have to change, some of which we can fight off - more money. other things we have to change- more money - your doors can't open far enough, you can't have glass in your windows, and so forth :) yep lots of fun. Tomorrow I have to go tell our school teachers their contract will not be renewed :( we are moving on to different people, more fun :) I'm thankful for a God who in the midths of trials of all sorts he is able to keep you perfectly content, we have next to no material possession and no less troubles as we did before but I have not known contentment before we came here, thank you Jesus. And I'm thankful for papaya and pineapples :) bless you in our precious Lord Jesus Christ 

One Year Later

Here we are! Back in Pacasmayo, Peru. Praise the Lord for smooth travels once again! I think our kids were born for this, they did great. So proud of all three of them! Our suitcases were packed full thanks to all the kind donations of clothes and gifts we received. Thank you thank you Lord for brothers and sisters who care for us!

We are still tired physically but so energized spiritually. Our 7 week visit back in Canada was just what we needed.  After 10 months of being away it was such a blessing to see our families & friends again, and our awesome church family at Selah Fire.  Baby Tahlia finally got to meet her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins for the first time. We were all loved on like crazy and invited to so many wonderful dinners that I almost started to miss cooking...almost :) It was good to get a break. Thank you to everyone who cooked for us! we had missed our Canadian food! And along with all the good Canadian food, we also enjoyed some awesome Canadian weather, even the thunderstorms, we had missed that too in Peru.  We enjoyed some relaxing camping with family, had some good bon-fires, met new people, and at the end of our visit went to the Catch the Fire conference in Toronto. We were both very blessed by our time there and learned so much from the many great speakers and worship leaders from all over the world, but Jake had an especially good experience. The Lord touched him in an amazing way, and it left him changed. But how could such an amazing encounter with our Awesome, Almighty God not leave you changed? Praise God.  What a perfect way to end our visit and come back to Casa de Paz.  

We were very warmly welcomed home by the kids and all here at Casa de Paz. They couldn't believe how much Tahlia had grown since we left.  We were happy to hear that everything had gone good while we were away. A few new kids came in and a few more have left, and altogether we are down to just 27 kids now.

More good news - Pacasmayo finally has fresh water coming in! This means no more hauling drinking water, and finally there is hope for our garden! After only a couple weeks of watering the garden is coming back to life. God is good! 

Jake and I both feel like this is a new beginning for us at Casa de Paz, a new chapter.  It's exciting! 

Exactly a year ago we made the big move down here not knowing what was in store for us...and here we are now a year later, the new president of Go Ye Ministries. Wow who would've known? God's plans for our lives are always bigger and better than our own plans.  

I'm not sure what this new role all involves, but I'm sure we have lots to learn and we will need lots of prayer for wisdom, guidance, strength, and grace as we continue to walk in faith.    I'm so glad we don't have to do it alone.  ThankYou God for providing all our needs.  Thankyou for the body of believers, brothers and sisters who are constantly praying for one another and working together to let Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. 

I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. Psalm 86:12

Peace and Joy in Abundance

Wow, I'm having a hard time believing that we've been in Peru for just over ten months! And here we are now just a week away from our big trip back to Canada. This week will be spent packing and getting ready for the trip. We really don't have a whole lot to pack, so that should be easy. It's the traveling with three kids part that scares me a bit, not sure how well our 4 month-old will handle traveling.  Praying that it will be as smooth going as the trip here was.  Saturday night we get on the bus to begin the long trip back, and if all goes well we should be landing in Toronto Monday night.  We are all SO excited!  Mateo has been asking every day, about ten times a day, if it's time to go in the big airplane yet...I guess to him it still feels like a long way off!  The kids have missed grandma and grandpa and all their cousins. They have two new cousins yet to meet, and our families have yet to meet our little Tahlia.  Seeing all our loved ones I'm sure will be the highlight of the visit. This has definitely been the hardest part for me these past 10 months; being so far away from family, especially during the time Tahlia was born.  Not having them there to be the first ones to meet her and hold her was tough.

But, as much as I have missed them so much,  Somehow this has also been the most peace and joy filled time of my life.

This amazed me over and over as I kept asking "How is it possible?  How can I miss them SO much yet at the same time be so content, so at peace, so filled with joy, Lord?"

And every time His answer was the same: "Because you chose ME".

Jesus said: "Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. (Matthew 10:37,38)

"And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life." (Matthew 19:29)

The answer is so clear - Jesus wants us to choose HIM over all.  To love HIM most.  To follow HIM at all costs.  It's all about HIM.  When we choose Him we choose peace and joy, and receive the promise that "we will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life."  Wow. ThankYOU Jesus!  His promises are so GOOD.  Maybe he has blessed me with a hundred times as much peace and joy as I would have had had we chose not to follow him here...what an amazing thought! And in times of doubt, this has been a constant confirmation for me that we are exactly where we are supposed to be . And there really is not better place to be than right where God leads you to be.  He can use us wherever we are when we follow his lead, when we go where He tells us to go, whether that is across the street, or half way across the world.  For us right now it just so happens to be in Pacasmayo, Peru.  We get the great privilege of showing the love of Christ to the precious kids at Casa de Paz.
We feel honored and blessed that God chose us to be here.  It really has been the greatest adventure!

Sometimes we still can't believe we are actually here, and how crazy it is how we got here. We came with no plan, no real idea of what exactly we would be "doing" here or for how long. We only knew that this was where God was calling us, and we wanted to serve in whatever ways needed.  So in faith we went, trusting that God would reveal His plan for us when we got here.  And He has been, one day at a time, one step at a time.  Every new day has been so different, each filled with it's own trials and victories.  It's been a time of learning.  Learning to trust more, to love deeper, learning to lean on our heavenly Father, to rely on Him for our every need.  One thing I have learned is that we can't do anything for God that doesn't also benefit ourselves.  When we bless others, we get blessed in return.  We came here to help and to bless others, but in doing so WE have been equally blessed if not more, and it has helped us in so many ways to grow in our faith.  God works through us and in us at the same time, it's perfect!

God is so good, and He's doing great things, and we get to be a small part of it.  How awesome!  We look forward to sharing more of what God is doing in Peru, and can't wait to see what He has in store for the next chapter...I have a feeling that this is only the beginning.. :)

And as we continue on this great journey the Lord is leading us on, our prayer is that in all things and always, God would be Glorified.

Well the time is coming up quickly now for us to head back to Canada for a visit. And it brings a whole mixture of feelings. Sad to be leaving everyone here, a little nervous because both us and Avis will be gone from here for a month, and even tho you line things up the best you can you still get scared that something might go wrong. Especially when there isn't enough money to carry them through the month. But when you put it in Gods hands then it 's his problem. Very excited to see our families and friends, show off our new baby Tahlia, share about life in Peru and catch up on all we have missed. But also a little nervous, I know it's the enemy but thoughts enter your mind like, what if I didn't live up to what everyone thought we should be doing, what if they will be disappointed in us, after all we are asking for support for the things we do here. And what if once we're in Canada where the grass is green and life is easy we won't want to come back here anymore. The mind is a roller coaster of thoughts, so many things we think that we never say to anyone. We chose the things we say in hopes to build ourselves up, we keep from saying things that make us vulnerable. I think maybe we aught to change that, stop protecting our reputation, and we might find our reputation to be honest and humble. All in all we can't wait to get there, I pray that it will be a God filled trip.

Lots of things going on around here, we had an offer from someone to take over the school, it was a good offer. Right know the teachers that run it give up to fifty of our kids free education for the use of our building. Our contract with them runs out this year so we are in prayer about which direction to go, do we stick the current teachers or do we hand it over to a new group. There is some detail around this that makes it a hard decision so please pray for God to guide our minds. 

There is a plot of land that Avis had purchased years ago, but someone had lost the paperwork on it so it seemed for a while that she had lost the land. (Peru works a little different than what we are used to, it's hard to understand how you could lose the land) but this last week it has resurfaced, there are other people that bought land there as well and they are fighting to get water brought in, Avis spent thousands of dollars digging a ditch to lead the water up to her land but as of yet there is no source. There is too much involved to explain it all in detail but I have high hopes for this, our new secretary knows a lot of people and is really good with this kinda stuff so I am thankful God has brought her in. God always has a good plan even when we think we are in a time of despair. 

Everyone has been feeling sick lately, I haven't gotten off my tush for days. I don't know if its a demonic attack but there is just no energy, I'm tired all the time and just wanna sleep, and my bones and muscle hurt, it's no fun. Avis and a couple other people are going through the same thing. Our kids threw up a couple nights. But it's all good, the enemy can't win. You know what's nice is when you already know ahead of time who the winner is, it gives you courage and strength to move on. Praise you Jesus, thank you all who pray for this ministry. Bless you in the name of The Lord. 

In the Beginning....

In the beginning God made man and woman, and he made them in his love, to be like him and to be his companion, to do work on the earth according to His will. To love each other and have compassion on one another, to be a servants one to another and to worship Him together.

Psa 33:1  Sing joyfully to the LORD, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him.
Psa 33:2  Praise the LORD with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre.
Psa 33:3  Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.
Psa 33:4  For the word of the LORD is right and true; he is faithful in all he does.
Psa 33:5  The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.

I am seeing more and more that with God the beginning and the end are really the same thing, God is both, and in a human way of thinking I think there is only beginning. Everyday is a beginning, a start to worshipping Him. our time on this earth may have an end but we no longer live for this earth do we, we live for the glory of God in heaven, and that glory will never end. for an eternity we will worship, no end only beginning. There is no greater joy than to serve one another faithfully and in so doing we serve God himself. 

I have heard it said numerous times that there is a fresh start coming for Casa de Paz, a turning of the leaf, a new beginning. Well I hope for that to always be the case, not knowing what God will do tomorrow, only walking by faith in him and not by sight, lest we see ahead and make our own plans for tomorrow. 

For months we anticipated a team coming from the states, a team that would be at Casa de Paz for only an afternoon after being worn out from a long journey of going from place to place to serve God, worn out they arrived here to do one last service for the needy in Peru. It started off with a lost bag and an unsuccessful hunt for it. But God was not done yet with them, God started stirring hearts as Only God can. There is talk of an adoption happening for two of our teen girls, there is talk of a beautiful soft hearted talented woman coming for long term work, there is talk of a couple coming to visit for a week, and after that possibly long term. And thats only the things I know about, who knows what else is brewing. Time and again I heard it said how Casa de Paz was the highlight of the trip, I look up to God in awe, how do you do it Lord? I did not see it coming. Our God is an awesome God, He reigns in heaven and earth with wisdom power and love, our God is an awesome God. If there is one thing I can tell you about God stirring your heart, Don't ignore it or push it off, God nudges gently and guides with an unthreatening voice, the choice to either accept or not is all yours. Let me tell you its a lot easier to just suppress the feeling to do something "crazy" and just keep living your routine life. I think so many people miss out when they let the enemy convince them to wait and see if God confirms the calling. Don't get me wrong you need to wait on God, but when he speaks you gotta do your part, and if you understood him wrong, you can bet that he will honor your act of obedience the best that you knew how. and he will bless you for it.

I don't think much about the negative things going on all around, every so often I hear of someone who got murdered, or a bus got held up and robbed, or the guy who took the suitcase, or the guy who jumped our wall to stake out the compound. And I just thought about why I don't think about it. Because Good Always wins, and believe you me there is plenty of good present, when you watch a movie you always think about the good guy, you cheer him on in your head and you hope he will save the day, and so it should be in life, Jesus is the good guy and we already know how it ends, so lets watch how battles are concurred, focus on the good guy, this guy is not a mere actor, hes the real thing so praise him worship him, cheer him on, his victory is your victory. 

Yesterday is history; so learn from what happened and move on, tomorrow is a mystery; it is not here yet so don't try to live in it. Today is the present; a gift from God in your life, if you deal with this gift like a good steward and don't let it go to waste, tomorrows gift might be just a bit bigger. Bless you dear brothers and sisters, I love you in the name of our lord Jesus Christ.

Sunday

It's been a rather quiet Sunday at Casa de Paz. The power went out early this morning and was out for most of the day and came back on late afternoon. Here in Pacasmayo this is just a normal part of life. It happens often, and the people are prepared for it; every house keeps a supply of emergency water, flashlights or candles, and the few people around here fortunate enough to own a stove have ones that run on propane. Light, heat, and water and we're set! ThankYou Lord!

 It was a much quieter church service this morning without the loud music playing during worship, instead only beautiful singing voices were heard. I almost prefer it that way :) A few of our girls were feeling extra beautiful today, wearing their brand new Sunday dresses that were brought down from Canada with John and Cyndy. The girls were so excited, two of them came knocking on our door 7 o'clock this morning (2 hrs before church starts) already with the dress on and hair done, wondering if Karlita might have an extra pair of shoes they could borrow to wear with the dress. I am thankful for kind donations like this. Little things like wearing a new dress on Sunday mean so much to these girls.


Right after church, Jake and Avis headed off to Trujillo airport to meet Marti Pieper, the writer of Avis' new book. We're excited to have Marti stay with us at Casa de Paz for a week while she and Avis will be working on the book. 

For me and the kids it was a fun afternoon of playing ball, racing, and hide and seek. Not as much volley ball these days with so much fewer older kids. So many have left and gone back with relatives. We are down to only 30 children now, mostly little ones. Really praying for the few older ones that are still here, and so happy that a few more have been declared abandoned just recently, meaning they are up for adoption!  With one adoption currently in the process, and one of our girls being sponsored, we are Praising God and praying for more!  My heart goes out to the older ones. Their chances of adoption are less, yet they are the ones who want it most.  One of the 15 yr old girls asked me if I could find adoptive parents for her when we go to Canada.  I can't promise her that - as much as I want that for her with all my heart - but I can pray. I don't know what God's plan is for this young lady, or for any of the other kids, but I do know it's a good plan.
His plans for our lives are so much better than our plans for our lives, and if we only let Him show us we will see. This is something I am learning more each day as God proves Himself faithful over and over, through every trial He brings us through. Let go and let God.  Let Him do what He does best, because He knows best. Everything is better when we learn to trust God and let Him be fully in control. He is faithful. He is good. And I am thankful!

Hard changes for the better

Seems like there's been a lot of changes lately. We are currently down to 34 kids, quite a few kids who

were here for a long time have gone back to their parents. We had three boys here (I can't use names for the privacy of the kids) one of them had been molested, the molester is in prison and has been of a number of years. About two weeks ago the two younger brothers went back home to the mother who just moved into a new home, from what I hear she has bettered her life a lot from a couple years ago. The oldest was left behind out of his own choice, but after visiting day the mother must have gotten the better of his emotions and he jumped the wall an hour later. Of course we knew the first place

to look and sure enough he was safe and sound with his mom. What makes them jump the wall when they could leave by just saying so, I'm not sure. Another boy who was here for two years went to live with his grandma, I have seen better houses, almost the entire place was outdoors, only one tiny little garden shack room for a bedroom. But the love in the grandmas eyes is worth more than concrete floors and a roof. The one I'm a little concerned about is a beautiful girl who was here only for a little while, she could not read or write when she came but with some help she started getting a handle on it. She is now back home. I pray that she gets the help she needs to get a decent education. These kids have seen a

different life, especially for the ones who were here a long time it will take some adjusting to go back to living more poorly, and where they may have to work a little harder. But these changes are good, the best place in the world is safe with your own blood family, even if it means a bit of hardship. Sometimes I wonder if the kids get spoiled here, they get really well looked after. That is thanks to all you who so generously donate to this cause. I know life isn't always easy, theres always bills waiting to be paid. But we know the reward being stored up is much greater than the reward we could by with the money we donate to kids who would otherwise not have a future. Thank you, I pray for God's favour  on you. The love of God is ever pouring out on his beloved. Bless you in the name of our lord Jesus Christ.

Faithful God

He is like a rock; what he does is perfect, and he is always fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong, who is right and fair.  Deuteronomy 32:4

Have you ever fallen for a scam, or a lie, a rumor you believed to be true. Did what you believe make true what you believed. No not really, I can believe all I want that I can bench press three hundred pounds, but believing it will never make it true. Vice versa then is also true, you can deny all you want, but the truth will stand nonetheless. As a Christian how often do you see a clear sign that God is real, I bet pretty often. But to a non believer it is either coincidence or science can explain it. Their minds have already been made up before they see the evidence. So our goal should be to make people want to be christians without any proof. Is being a christian exciting, you bet it is, so lets show the world how much fun it is.

For those that don't know, we don't have drinking water at the orphanage, so we haul it from a nearby town with a trailer that back in Canada would long have been deemed unfit. Full of water the tank weighs well over a ton. On our way to get water today, about a mile from the town our tire popped. The tire was completely wore down its no wonder it popped, but why did it pop on empty when just a week before it carry well over a tun of weight. Probably just coincidence huh. The tires are an odd size for Peru, Just a year ago a volunteer here looked for tires in all the surrounding tires and found non. Today we pulled up to the tire place, which is outside on the sidewalk in a little corner, thinking the trailer would sit there for at least a few days.Well it just so happened the guy had a used tire sitting in his house that was just the right size. He Summoned a moto taxi to go pick it up. And we were on our way again in exactly one hour. O and do you remember inner tubes, well in Peru they are still in style, but he had one of those in our size as well. I love God. Sometimes I think, wow what a scary world it would be without God, I mean all alone in this great universe, what a comfort to know there is a mighty God who can do limitless things and he's full of love for us his children. I lay my life in his hands. To God be all glory amen. Bless you.

Fathers Day

Not only is he an amazing Daddy to our three children, but he has also become a loving Papa to the kids at Casa de Paz.  For some the only father they have ever known, lack of a  father being the reason many of them are here in the first place. With the father out of the picture and the single mother not able to support the children on her own they end up here. And for others - ones that come from abusive homes where all they know is to fear their father - Jake is their first picture of of what a loving father really looks like.

I love watching Jake with the kids. Whether he's holding baby Tahlia, or playing cards with the boys, there is no doubt about how much he loves his kids. Sometimes after a long day of fixing broken pumps and pipes or gates, and sorting through problems with people, and all the other little things he deals with everyday, I know he would rather just sit down at the end of the day and relax, but instead he goes out and spends time with the boys. Jake and I both know what it means to grow up not having a dad around to spend time with, he put food on the table but other than that we knew to just stay out of the way; not that it was really their fault, it was simply the culture they were raised in. ( today they are different people) So to see kids coming in here looking very timid and afraid, our hearts go out to them. Jake has a way of approaching them where they soon turn that timid face into a smile when hes around. He often comes in with his shirt all stretched out of shape and I know he's been wrestled down by a whole bunch of little (and some not so little) boys wanting to be tossed up in the air, sometimes his throat is sore from them hanging on his back with their little hands wrapped around his neck.

Fathers Day gift from the boys

Today for Fathers day Jake got three gifts from three of the kids, something they had worked on as a school project. One of them came to our house bright and early cause they just couldn't wait! I thank God that this year a few more kids had someone to give their fathers day gifts to.

At long last, a nice hot shower :)

Deuteronomy 31:8 It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

What a great promise, God who made the whole world will walk before you. And all tho we fuss and fret about this and about that, The Lord does not shake. He does not need to stop and think, he will not get back to us later, he does not need to sleep on it. He knows the right answer right now.

Well Mr Bruce is gone to Canada to take care of some personal matters so

that leaves me to be just a bit busier. But there is a blessing in that, it gives me the opportunity to see more and be more involved. Tuesday I drove Gina and Veronica to San Pedro, we picked up a half rib cage and shoulder of a cow from a friends out and brought it to the meat market to get it cut up.

After that we stopped in at the judges office and Gina comes running out with excitement and announces "Rica is declared abandoned". Later sharing the news with my wife she smirks and says how strange it sounds to rejoice at the abandonment of a child, but the sad part of this story happened years ago, today is a happy day, a day in which the future looks bright. Rica is 14 and has been at Casa de Paz for three years waiting to be adopted to a new home, and know that day is finally near, with a family already waiting in the United States and the abandonment statues complete, the adoption process can start. I am so very great full for people out there that care enough to bring one of these children into their home, and to call them their own. Another happy sad story, two beautiful boys who have been here for four years went back to their mom yesterday, the mom moved into a nice home which she is renting and things look promising for their future. It's sad to see them go but at the same time it's such a joy to see a family reunite. 

Our in-well pump stopped working a couple weeks ago so it meant getting a new one installed. Our above ground pump quit last week, we managed to get it repaired for less than a new one would cost. Two of our washing machines are not working so that means we are down to one. I would like to raise money to buy a commercial machine that will handle the amount of laundry we go through. On a normal basis we have three machines that run about 8 hours a day or more. Household machines just are not standing up to the demand. Please if you haven't already, like our Facebook page (In Jesus' name amen) to get updates about this, we have a donate button on there through PayPal. Tomorrow me and Aurelio will be going to Chiclayo to see if we can find a good machine for a reasonable price. 

On a more upbeat note, I can finally say we can now take hot showers in our house using our homemade solar water heater.

It will be quite a project to get hot water in all the houses but eventually that is the goal, I'm sure some of you have seen one before, it's a system that does not use any power whatsoever (other than getting the water into the tank). There is no moving parts so its perfect for our saltwater. 

Word is that next month the town will have fresh water in the new pipes, so please pray that this is true and there will be enough water to supply all our needs. Salt water is very destructive, we continuously replace faucets, hoses, shower heads and toilet parts because the salt just destroys it. At the same time this orphanage could not have survived without that well, so I am grateful for it. 

We currently have 38 kids, everyone is healthy and happy. Maggie has been helping some of the girls with their English assignments.

 I don't spend as much time as I would like with the kids, but it's fun to walk the stretch between our house and the office and hear the kids call out your name and run up for a hug. This week I took two of the boys out to buy new shoes and socks, when they show you the cracks in the bottom it's hard to argue that they don't need new shoes again. 

Every day I am thankful that this is not my ministry but God's, I am but a steward entrusted to a bit of God's property. I pray that God will grant me wisdom to handle it correctly. Bless you for caring hearts, I pray God reward you in this life and in the one to come. In Jesus' name amen. 

Its a sad happy day when someone leaves the orphanage, Mateo will miss his friend as she leaves with her four siblings back to their parents. Care is taken to make sure the home is fit for the children but you can't help but feel a little nervous about them going back. and at the same time you know in the long run the best place to be is with your own family. I am grateful to have gotten to know every child and when they go you wonder if you couldn't have spent just a little more time than you did. I don't know why it always turns out this way but we were gone again to Lima working on Tahlia's visa when the kids left, so no good byes. It seems to make no difference how long they were here, when they go its always hard, 8 kids gone in the last two weeks and 5 new ones came. I love watching as their faces change over the first few days, some don't change as much but some are just like night and day.


Bruce is gone to Canada so we are on our own again, it makes it a little difficult but you learn to just prioritise and do what you can. Just another three and a half weeks until John and Cindy come for a visit, I am very much looking forward to that. And a week after that a team of doctors and nurses are coming for a day visit to do check ups for the kids and VBS. Its gonna be great. God is always moving, sometimes we can't see it but he's always planning and working around the decisions we make. To us it sometimes looks like God makes quick decisions we see a need met and we think wow God sent that person at just the right time, but what we don't see is how long God prepared that person long before we knew there was a need. So if God is putting you in a situation that just doesn't seem to make sense, just trust Him, He may be getting you ready for something you are completely unaware of. Jesus I praise you and thank you for the privilege to be in your presence. Glory to God in the highest, praise his name amen. bless you.

I don't have any problems, I gave em to God :)

Well it's been awhile since I've done an update. God continues his faithfulness. When you tell God what His issues are He does something about it. No that's not a typo, but maybe I should rephrase. When you tell God that your problems are his, than he does something about them. God is not interested in fixing Your problems, he's interested in fixing His. When you try and do something on your own strength you will have many problems unfixed. But when you do it on God's strength you will have many problems...or at least that's what they look like from our view. But the beauty is THEIR NOT YOURS! Haha being a kings kid is good. So you can bet that at the other side of the "problem" is God's glory hallelujah!!

Our streets are still all torn up with construction, they have been for the past two years. The whole town is getting new sewer pipes and water pipes. And Pacasmayo is a fairly big town, and labor is done manually by hand. I saw one backhoe for a couple days but other than that it's pretty much done by hand. So it's quite a process.  I often think about back home and chuckle as I think about how many things just would not be ok back home. A six foot deep trench completely exposed to the public, no fence no caution sometimes a little wooden bridge to make crossing easier. I've heard it from a birdie that we are getting water in the new pipes in June or July, but another birdie tells me they don't have a water source for the new pipes which covers a significantly bigger area than the old pipes did. At this point there is acres and acres of residences who never had any town pluming in the past but now have it at their front door, just two issues. One - There's no water in the pipes. And two - Most of them can't afford the pipes to hook up their house, a lot of the houses don't even have a toilet or sink or anything. Water is fetched from the nearest public water station in five gallon pails. But this is a start, the town is moving up. A birdie tells me we are getting a Tottus (sort of like a Walmart) soon. And they've been working for a while on a new gas station, along with three huge buildings which could be department stores or hotels or something like that.

Inside our walls not much change. Kids come and go regularly, I try to keep you all updated thru our Facebook page "In Jesus' name amen" about new kids. We had a run away some time ago. A new girl about 14years. She was here only a couple weeks, and seemed happy. But one morning we found her missing and found the spot she had jumped the wall. We try to keep this place from looking or feeling like a prison but its hard when there are those that just don't want to be here.

Avis is gone to the US for about two months, it always feels empty here without her. She has a way of energizing and exciting everyone. Everyone misses her when she is gone. I am thankful for the help I get from Bruce, I could not ask for a better person to watch the welfare of the kids. And all the house moms and office staff have been getting along very well. Everyone who's ever worked along side other people knows that there is at times some conflict, it's to be expected because of the different personalities of different people. But I am so impressed with the way everyone here works together.

I want to praise God for the financial support Casa de Paz has received the last two months. There was honestly a time when we had no idea how we were gonna pay the bills just days before they where due. Avis used to tell about times like these and you wondered if she was exaggerating, but I have now found out there is no exaggeration. God does not give us human security in an abundance of wealth, but he does give us his word that we are more valuable than the birds of the air that he graciously feeds everyday. God is not looking for a holding tank, he's looking for a distribution system. So if God gives more than we need to give more, so that he can give more so that we can give more so that he can give more so that......well you get the point. But also so we get a huge reward in heaven! Isn't that cool, when we give it really is a win win win. We feel great right away, and the the receiver feels great, and God is glorified, And will get a reward when we get to heaven. I can not think of anything better. Sometimes it's hard to keep up with God, in our bodies of flesh we are weak, so we're inconsistent. I speak for myself. But God knows we're human and forgives our weakness Praise Jesus.

May you be blessed in The Lord.

School

The kids have been going to school for almost a month now, and so far they are loving it! This is Jardin (kindergarden) class - a small class of about 6 of the Casa de Paz kids including Karlita and Mateo.  This year we have a teacher coming in to do classes right here at the orphanage. She teaches at a school in the morning then comes here in the afternoon to teach Kindergarden from 3 to 6pm.  The teacher does not speak any English, so Karlita and Mateo are picking up the language fast!

Pastor Victor

Proverbs 11:2 NIV
When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

So we took a trip to Lima this week to pick up the residence cards for Karlita and Mateo. That part when real smooth. We had in mind to take care of the paper work for Tahlia as well but that turned into a bit of a chase around the bush. Turns out we can't get the DNI (identification card) anywhere other than the Provence the baby is born in, and we couldn't do anything else until she has her DNI. So all the way back to Pacasmayo to get that and then all the way back on th to Lima to do the rest of it. Fun fun.

But the absolute highlight of the trip was getting together with Pastor Victors family. On our trip here with the team in 2012 Victors family came to Pacasmayo to take part in our ministry and to be taught by pastor Jeff (he talked about that and was so grateful for all he learned from Pastor Jeff) and his wife Mariela was in our group, and she became fond of Maggie. And vices versa. While in Lima Maggie had a prompting to update her Facebook status to say Maggie checked into Friends House with Jake, we chuckled thinking no one would know what that meant (friends house is a name of a hotel in Lima) but of course Pastor Victor happened to see it and within two hours his whole family was at the hotel to pay us a visit. We chatted for a bit and we agreed to come for lunch the next day. It was a great chat as you can imagine, and then they started praying. The room was so filled with the Holy Spirit I almost broke into tears of joy and immediately started praising and thanking God for this Divine appointment. Victor had promised to come pick us up the next day for lunch at their house. I only realized later that he does not own a car and picking us up meant hiring a taxing. But come he did and off we went.

We reached his house and I can't tell you how humbling it was to walk into their living space. I give you my

word I am not exaggerating, I have seen bathrooms bigger than their kitchen (which acted as the living room as well) the room was probably 8' by 8' with a small table, a tv, and a bookshelf/computer desk. And through a small doorway another room about 6' by 8' which was the kitchen/storage room (which by the way some of the must amazing food I've ever eaten came out of). This is in an apartment building, and if you go out into the hall, the next room is the one bedroom where the parents with the four kids sleep. I did not get a good look at the size but I would guess about 10' by 12'. Needless to say I feel pretty stupid for expanding our living space as I blogged about last week.

I know a lot of people that would be pretty miserable in a situation like this, but the joy in this family is unreal. Always a smile on everyone's face and ready to help where they can, just so beautiful. I learned later of some of the things Victor has done in the past and the money he has spent into his ministry, he could have paid for a house ten times the size by now. But he chooses to serve others before himself.

In case you are missing my point, I am not throwing a pity party for Victor, I'm throwing a celebration party because of the wealth he's storing up in heaven. I always ask God to bless anyone who reads what I have to say, "bless you" or "God bless" are famous ending words for emails or letters or what ever. But I think we need to remember God uses his children to bless people. So be a blessing and be blessed in return.

Birthdays

Feeling a bit 'partied out' today after two birthday fiestas in row this week.  If anyone knows how to throw a party - it's Peruvians!  Birthday parties (and pretty much every Peruvian celebration) includes LOUD music, lots of balloons and confetti, too much candy, cake, singing and dancing, pinata, and of course fun party games for the kids like musical chairs, and balloon-popping games.  Loads of fun.
Not every child at Casa de Paz gets a birthday party every year - thank goodness. That would be too much partying for anyone!  But this week we celebrated 2 very special birthdays.

Our youngest member at casa de paz turned 1 on Friday.  This sweet little guy came here as a newborn.  Having a severe head injury when he was only a few days old he was brought to the hospital by his mother, where she then abandoned him, and casa de paz took him in.  The head injury caused some minor brain damage and he is a bit behind, but praise God he is in good hands now and healing well!  With the needed therapy and lots of loving care, we are expecting a full recovery.  We are so proud of our baby boy and how far he has come in one year. Happy birthday little guy!

The other birthday celebration was for one of the young ladies 15th.  Here in Peru the 15th birthday is a big deal for the girls.  It is tradition for them to have a quinceanera (which means fifteenth year) to mark the transition of a girl going from childhood into womanhood.  At this special party the birthday girl gets to get all dressed up in a beautiful gown and tiara, and her father will dance with his daughter.  Since most of the girls here don't have fathers, Jake, and another volunteer Bruce got to share in the father roll for the beautiful birthday girl.  Happy birthday beautiful Princess!

Living Addition

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. (Romans 12:9, 10 NIV)
I love those verses sincere love is acting in the ways of love and doing it with the right motives. Any one can do actions of love. Holding the door open for someone, helping with the dishes, letting someone in in front of you in a traffic jam are all actions of love. But if the "feeling" of love isn't attached to the action then good chance the motive was wrong and it counts for nothing.

So now that we have an extra person in our family we felt a little cramped in our 672 square apartment. So after thinking through some options and considering opinions from our great friends we decided to go with Mr Tony Giesen's idea. The room next to our used to be occupied by another volunteer who was a house mom and teacher here for almost a year and a half, but she is gone now. So we decided to open up a door way between her 286 square foot room and ours giving us a total of two bedrooms and 958 square feet. Doing this type of construction here is a little different than it was back in Canada, Wow does it ever get messy, the walls are literally made out of mud covered with plaster. And of course I got my Peruvian buddy to show me what's the best way to go about it. Well he grabs a strait pick and just starts bashing the wall with it, and before long he's got a good size hole. It amazed me how clean and accurate the hole was when it was done, the door jam fit in perfectly.

This option was much quicker and easier than building a whole new room, but of course now we lost a boarding room for upcoming volunteers but we will cross that bridge when we get there. We currently have one small and one large apartment available so we're good for now. We are lacking on volunteers right now which is costing us a lot of extra money for hired house moms, but God will provide.

There are certain things that are hard about living at an orphanage with your family. For legal reasons the kids are not allowed in our home or anywhere on the volunteers premises so it's often very hard to go "home" and close the gate so the cute little girl can't follow you. And on the other hand it's hard to see the sad face on your own child when they see daddy giving so much attention to the other kids. And I don't want my little Tahlia to grow up too fast but it will be sort of nice when she is a little older so mommy will have a little more free time. God has been so good to my family I truly feel very blessed. I am humbled every day by the love we receive from every direction. Thank you to all who pray for Casa de Paz and our family, your prayers are being answered daily. Bless you and may your day be filled with God's great love and mercy.

                         

Introducing our Newest Addition ~ Tahlia

On March 23, 2013 at 8:55am, we finally got to meet our newest addition - Tahlia Jade Hiebert. Born in Trujillo, Peru.  Praise God for a beautiful, healthy baby girl, weighing a perfect 7lbs.  It's hard to believe she's over two weeks old already! Seems like just yesterday we had her...but at the same time it feels like she has always been here.  We sure can't imagine life without her, she just fits into the family so perfectly!
We were blessed with a smooth and quick labor and delivery, and our doctor (who arrived only15 minutes before she was born) did and amazing job.  And having no family here, we are ever so grateful for Avis, who helped us out with the kids. "I'll be your Peruvian grandma!" she told us :) We don't know how we would have done it without her.  ThankYou Lord for always providing our every need.

A House of Peace for the Innocent

Change is good, change teaches you things. Either you are going backwards and the negative change teaches you what you need to do different next time to move forward. Or you are going forward and you still learn from it and embrace the next change. If you don't make changes happen, they will happen on there own but probably not for the better, so we should always strive to move forward into the next positive change.

At Casa de Paz change is an every day thing. Right now we are battling "Mindes" (the law) with a new rule; kids either need to be abandoned completely or taken back by the parents. A lot of our kids are here for protection from violence in the home. In Peru marriage is a rare thing. You get together with some one, have some kids and move on to someone else, seems to be the trend.  So very often the "new boyfriend" is violent to the kids or the mom is left on her own with no way to take care of the kids. Trust is another issue. Rather than getting together with a neighbor and striking some sort of deal like "take care of my kids while I get out and make some money and we will split the money" the kids get left behind all on there own for 12 hours or more while the mom is out somewhere trying to earn some cash. Often times the kids are very young. 

We just got five new kids that were found on the dump site, someone from the community finally called child services after the oldest 12 year got raped. The sad part is when the parents are found and the judge decides that the home is suitable to send the kids back. Nothing will change, the rapist will not be found and the chances of it happening again are very high. This is real life for too many children. Most of our children come from towns other than Pacasmayo where our orphanage is located. Pacasmayo has greatly improved since Avis Goodhart started her ministry. Casa de Paz which means ''house of peace'' is is exactly that, a house where children come and find peace. We make every effort to make this as much like a real family setting as possible, spending time with the kids and teaching them what they are worth in the eyes of God. little things like taking the boys out and buying them a bag of chips or and ice cream or playing cards or just plain old sitting there watching TV with them means the world to them. You can not walk around out in the yard without someone coming running up to give you a hug or wanting to be picked up, its pretty cool to live here. God has blessed my family in sending us here to help Avis with day to day operations, and we hope to do more and more as Avis goes out to speak at different church's in America to drum up support to keep Casa de Paz going.

If God ever touches your heart to donate and you are in Canada, please contact me at hiebert83@gmail.com and I will give you the details on how to do that and get a tax receipt. If you are in the USA simply click the GO YE link on the home page of the blog to go to Go Ye ministries web page and click donate on there, and you  will get a tax receipt. I pray for Gods blessing and anointing on you today and for ever in Jesus name amen.

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. 

First full day with Avis's brothers

It's been a good day, our first full day with Avis's brothers and friend here. We got a quote here in town to get the comby fixed. It's crazy how cheap some things are here. The roof literally has holes rusted through and on top the windshield is totally rusted out, so to get that filled in and repainted S/.300.

We got the old comby running. it's not road worthy, the body is about to fall apart and the block is cracked so it has no power but it was fun to try and get it running. Fred is a great guy he loves to play around with stuff like this. They are all great guys George and tony have been spending time with the kids and are planning a trip to the beach tomorrow.

We tryed joining our church back home via google hangout for there "fire starters" training but of course it kept crashing because of our poor Internet.

I've got Rosa sitting beside me chatting with her adoptive parents back in Canada John and Cyndy, she's such a happy girl. I just love when someone's love for God is proven by action, the result in this case is one very blessed and happy girl.

Bless you dearly, let the love of Christ flow through you.

Beer and Bibles

Every now and then I think about how much joy there is in serving God. I think about how unsatisfying and boring it would be to live a life for self, and I feel a real sadness for people who don't know our awesome God and Father. The days are passing by so quickly I have to stop for a second (or an hour :) ) and just thank God and praise him for who he is and what he does in our lives.

Today while me and Pete were in town we got called over by a guy sitting with his friends having a beer. (Our van is covered with advertisement about the church and orphanage) and he pointed at the van and then put his hands up over his face. I was pretty confused at first and didn't know if he was making fun of us or what. But I walked up to him and asked what he was trying to say and again all he did was put his hands in front of his face and said "leer"(read). So I asked if he wanted a bible, "si si"(yes yes) he says. So I explained that I didn't have any in our van but I could run over to the orphanage and get some. So we rushed home grabbed a few Spanish bibles and went back. I had Mateo with me and he wanted to help so I gave him one of the bibles to hand to our new friend, and I proceeded to hand bibles to his friends but they said "no no" with my poor spanish I couldn't understand what else they said so one of the guys took a bible and handed it to Mateo and motioned him to give it back. So I understood they wanted the bibles handed out by my little three year old son :) he makes me proud. There was five of them sitting around a table so I opened up an extra bible I had brought and opened it to John 3:16 and they all frantically followed me to find the passage. One of the guys read the verse and they all smiled and nodded. And after trying to explain that God loved each one of them so much that he gave up his own son on the cross, they asked what church we where from. And of course I explained it to them and said I hoped to see them there Sunday morning. I was so caught up in the excitement I didn't think about praying over them on the spot but we need prayer for these guys, so would love if you would say just a little prayer for them and ask God to make the seed grow that's been planted in their hearts. I have to say that made my day. Just going about our day looking for some hardware in town and God sets up a Divine appointment for us to give these guys a bible.
God has been guiding our steps so much these last two weeks. From leading us to a lubricating shop to pray over the owners family to supplying us with the bearings we needed for our water trailer. It's so cool when your clueless as to what's next and then God just sort of nudges you in the right direction. May God's blessing rest on you, I love you dearly.