Matthew's 1st Christmas

Navidad - Children Ciudad Nueva

We were able to have a nice party with all the children from the church with some chocolate milk and "paneton", played some games, and remembered Christ. There were no gifts this year for Ciudad Nueva because we couldn't get enough donations, but the children enjoyed the time anyways. Then a few days later we took all the children to see a house that puts up different nativity scenes representing all the major cities in Peru. Afterwards we took them to the new water park in front of the downtown church. It was a fun time and blessing for all of us.

Escuela de Futbol

Brunner from Local Central has blessed us in Ciudad Nueva with his voluntary service to train as many kids as he can for futbol. Day one had 15 kids and Day three made it up to over 30. This number will surely continue to go up as school ends and summer vacation begins. He is helping the children learn discipline, teamwork, respect, and also showing them how to be loved through it all.

AWANA moment to remember

We had our AWANA club meet out on the soccer court last week because the church was decorated for Ciudad Nueva's anniversary Sunday service. Because of the change we had over 25 new kids participate. Most of them came back this week as well.

The best moment of the week came when two kids began fighting in front of the teenagers and one of them hit the other in the back. He started crying so I called the aggressor over and told him to ask forgiveness for hitting him. When he finished I asked the other child if he would forgive him and give him a hug. When they began to hug they both started crying and saying,

"I didn't mean to hit you so hard."

"I don't want to be mad at you."

"You are my friend"

"Let's now fight again, okay?"

Among other things...me a couple of the guys from the youth group got all worked up and teary eyed. It was awesome to share a real moment like that with the guys!

Enrique's Baptism

Enrique had been thinking about this decision for over a year now and a couple weeks ago he came up to me after the Sunday service saying he was ready. I couldn't help but be excited after waiting patiently for Enrique to make the best decision of his life. So last Sunday in an emotional thank you to his mom and us "tios" he had a few of us crying before he was finally baptized before all of us.

Lima

Lima

We had to be in Lima for a couple days to register Matthew at the embassy and get his and my passports. We were able to have a little pleasure time as well. Here are some fun photos to enjoy!