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The major theme in my life has been coming to the surface over the last few years. That theme is simply trusting in my Savior. No matter where I go or what I do I am faced with this theme. The trip to Peru has been no different. This Saturday marked a busy day as we finished up the Children’s program in Cusco. It was such a beautiful day. The sun was shining against the mountains where it is speckled with colorful houses on top of each other. I have still not gotten over the enormous beauty of this city and the mountains that surround it. The city is set in a valley of the mountains at about 11000 ft. It is in this setting that we have had the privilege to proclaim the gospel to a dark city. Cusco is a dark city. It is filled with witchcraft and all sorts of dark cunning. Upon arrival you would not think a city with such beauty would be so dark but once you have been there any amount of time you can sense it. I am only reminded of what God’s word tells us: “greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” Simply trust Him.

Working with the kids at this Seminar has pushed me in areas that I have never known before. I have never thought of myself as a story teller but yet that is what I have been doing for the last two weeks. The Lord just keeps telling me to simply trust Him. As I have observed our team it seems that many of us are doing things we would never think we would do or were even cut out to do. Yet, the Lord keeps telling us to simply trust Him. This is what life is all about: trusting Him. We can do nothing in our own strength. Our eyes must always be fixed on the One who does all things. David tells in the Psalms that “my heart is fixed, oh God, my heart is fixed.” We as a team have been constantly challenged to be fixed on the one who does all for His Glory. It is the eternal purpose for which we live for (Eph. 3:1-11).

I have been challenging the team with this concept and yet it seems the Lord keeps telling me that “you’re the one that I want to teach this to.” Saturday, as stated already, had been a busy day as we wrapped up the Seminar with an all day program. In the evening, we were scheduled to visit a youth group at a local church in Cusco. The plan was simple: We were to speak and do a chalk talk and some of the students would give their testimony. Being the one that was going to speak, I had hoped to have some time to prepare for the message that I was to give during the afternoon but it seemed that all I did that day was run around and put out fires and make sure things ran as they were supposed to. Before I knew it, the day was over and it was time to go and do our presentation for the youth group. I was not ready. I had only a little time to run through the story that we had chosen to do as we drove to the church. Christie (one of the team leaders) wrote an outline of the story and ran through it with me. I was to tell the story while she drew a picture with chalk to represent the message. The theme that kept running over and over in my head was “simply trust me.” We arrived and it was time to begin the program. As I stepped up to begin talking I could sense that the Lord was working. The story came with such clarity and I spoke from heart. The young people were listening with great attention. There were tears as I could tell the Lord was speaking directly to the heart of each one. I was overwhelmed at what God was doing at that moment.

The message consisted of telling how my heart should be Christ home. The challenge was directly to the heart. Was your heart in a place where Christ was the guest and did he have complete control? The testimonies from Ben Nicholson and Kailyn Reesman were so amazing. They were from the heart and gave living proof of the concept that had just been painted in their hearts and minds. All we could do was stand amazed at what the Lord had done that evening. Each one of us were exhausted but it only showed that it is all of Christ and none of us in this life of seeking to glorify Him in all that we do. We definitely had driven in our heart the importance of trusting our Lord. We serve an awesome God and He is amazingly good in all things. My prayer is that we as a team will never lose sight of how trustworthy our God is. We have seen on this trip that Jesus is simply who He said He would be.

Daniel, for the Team

The whole team with the youth group to which Daniel spoke in the evening. These are precious young people we will meet around the throne of God someday. One of them, who worked as our translator all week, shared his testimony about how God was calling him to be a pastor. Please pray for these young people. Cusco is a difficult city for Christian teenagers.

Angela leading a game with the kids.

Nate and Ben illustrating anger and yielding rights by exploding a coke bottle with Mentos. The explosion was kind of small, but the skit was hilarious!

Kat and kids watching the Nate and Ben show.

The view from the church where we are running the kids’ program. The picture doesn’t really do it justice. It’s absolutely beautiful.

A parade that went by the church this morning.

Elizabeth with a couple of the kids who were actually being really naughty. Oh well. It made a good picture.

Making the “treasure of my heart” craft.

Angela and Celina singing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” with the kids. It’s a great time filler as long as you don’t run out of oxygen.

The Gimme Hands skit

The Musical Chairs Skit

The kids gave a presentation to their parents of the songs and Bible verses they had been learning all week.

These kids will stay in our hearts and our prayers!

 

 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at 1:54 pm and is filed under Blog, Peru Trip 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.