LOVE EXTREME 2 IN CUSCO

For Love Extreme 2 I was in Cusco while the rest of the group was here in Arequipa doing visits and consolidation. I was so excited to have my family here during Love and to be able to spend a ton of time with them as well. We were all here for the big event and then after that my family, my partner and me, along with the other short termers, to Cusco.
Even though I was so excited that my family was here I was really upset that it was just my partner and I that were going to Cusco. I knew I was going to miss them but I didn’t know how much I really was going to miss them. I have gotten so close with the people in our group and they really feel like family.
When we were in Cusco we did kids festivals, medical clinics, and other impact events. When I look back on Love 2 the verse that I think of is Romas 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.” There were a lot of things that went wrong but there were also some very powerful things as well.
Some of the things that we did was go to a all woman's jail. We have little manicure and pedicures and one of the ladies gave a very powerful testimony that really spoke to the ladies in the jail. Most of the women in the jail were in there for drug trafficking, or some type of abuse that they have received and they retaliated. We asked if any of them would like to accept Jesus into their hearts and every single one of the ladies stood up. We then handed out bibles and little self care kits as well. One of the ladies approached me and she was from South Africa and spoke english as well, asked me if when we moved to Cusco if we would come back and do a bible study with them. We also made another visit to the young women home another time and did quite a few medical clinics as well.
Then there was time to be touristy as well. We were able to explore the plazas, and even visit Machu Picchu!!

I had a wonderful time with my family and with all the short termers as well, it was 2 weeks that i will never forget. God is amazing and doing amazing things here, but we will never know or could even fathom the plans that he has for Peru.

Technology is not my strong suit./Love Extreme!!!!

So I some how deleted all of my old blogs and I don’t know how to get them back. So I’ll just let you know how Love Extreme went and what’s going on now.

Love Extreme was AMAZING!!!!! We had more people there then what we thought. There were people as far as the eye could see and it was just jam-packed. As we started the day we had no idea how many people where going to come, or how it was going to work out.
Two weeks before the event we were going out and doing promo work. So we were handing out fliers, hanging posters, talking to the taxi drivers and doing a whole lot of praying for the event. And when the big even came we didn’t know how many people to expect or what the turn out was going to be like.
During the event there was a kids festival, medical clinic, food, and conferences for men and women. We had to move our prayer room because there were so many men that wanted to attend the men’s conference. In the women’s conference there were kids, youth, mothers and even grandmas in there as well. Even though there was a huge difference in ages and there was a lot going on, it was silent and we had every ones attention. They were captivated by what was being said and the subject. After the conferences were done God was already blessing the people and really doing his work in the people. By the end of the conferences we had people accepting Christ and wanted to know more about Christ and the church. They were hungry and thirsty to know more and more.
As the day progressed I was able to talk to the short termers and some of the Peruvians that attended to see what they thought and how they were feeling. The short termers were blown away and couldn’t believe what how things were going and how many people showed up. And the Peruvians were talking about there home life and how they wanted something more and different. They were talking about their lives and giving their testimonies and we were also able to talk to them about our testimonies and just talk them through things and what they were thinking.
As the day progressed they were asking when is Nick going to speak, where and what time. there was all this hype about Nick and all the Peruvians said they came just to hear Nick or just to see him and take pictures. And once it was time for Nick to speak there were people as far as the eye can see. Nick’s message was AMAZING!!! He spoke the words that the people needed to here. He did not preach to them or anything like that he simply laid out Jesus and what he had Done in his life. At the end of Nick’s message he asked everyone if they would like to know the same God that he knows. So he asked the crowd “ who ever would like to know the same God as I do to please stand up.” And almost everyone stood. And he couldn’t believe it, so he asked again. And he got the same reaction, so he told the crowd of people who ever would like to accept Jesus into their heart to repeat after him. Them he asked “ who ever prayed this prayer to raise their hand.” Everyone that was standing rose their hands. And once again he along with us were blown away. He said that he has never EVER seen that happen when he has spoken, and he was blow away with how God is working and going to work here in Peru.
Now once we saw who wanted to accept Jesus we took then to another place to get their information so we could call them in a few days and start to make visits. The second part of Love Extreme was to make visits and start stetting up cell groups. The cell groups are just bible studies with the new believers. We will be teaching about God and the very very basics at first and them we will get a little more complicated. Like the bible says in 1Peter 2:2 – “Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation now that you have tasted that the lord is good.” That is what we are doing with the new believers, and with our selves.
Through out this process I have learned a lot as well. The church in the United states does not educate us enough. There is a huge gap between the knowledge of the bible with the Peruvians and with the North Americans. So in going through the bible classes I’m learning more then what I did in church growing up. The first time I realized that I did not know much about the bible was when I went to Olivet and had a Christian formation class. With being in that class and in the classes here in Peru I have never been so spiritually hungry and fed in my life. And I love it.