Time to give!!!

Its that time of year again when we want all your money...but it's for a great cause, God's!!!

The reality in Tacna is that "free" public education is a joke. The education is low quality; the teachers are not very interested in their students; at the end of the day if the students don't pass many can pay their corrupt teachers for passing grades. It is a sad cycle of corruption which seems impossible to defeat, impossible to overcome. At the beginning of each school year the teachers send out a list of approximately $50 in school supplies that each student must purchase in order to begin classes. For many families that only make $150, $200 or $300 a month, having a few kids studying can take up a month or two of salary.

Last year we were blessed to receive donations from six people which allowed us to give out 30 scholarships of $50 each. To see photos click here.

Our hope and prayer is that we will reach over 50 this year so please pass the word along. If anyone would like to give please send all tax-deductible donations to:

Iberoamerican Ministries

PO Box 1493

Monroe, Wa 98272

**Write in the note of the check "Brian Ridenour - Tacna Scholarships"**

We love you all and hope you are enjoying God's goodness. Without your support and prayers all we do wouldn't be possible.

Micro-business Success

I am happy to share with you all what God has done through the micro-business.

We were able to pay out over $2300 in salaries, electricity bill, and internet costs.

Also, God provided the School Supply Store with over $4300 in profits which will allow us to give out over 40 school supply scholarships.

So the church has been able to provide jobs, lower the costs of running the church, and help over 40 families give their children an education to help give them an opportunity to get out of poverty with a donation of $7000 by one family. We have been given two smaller donations and we are looking to expand the micro-businesses this year so we can bless more and God's love can be known.

The final product!

A look from afar.

New Years Eve a little different this year.

We started building the house for the temple guards in Ciudad Nueva. It has been on hold for over five years since we haven't received much financial support for construction, but God provided enough to build the walls and the roof. Thank you Hope Christian and the Rische family for their long time support.

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.

Global Leadership Summit - Lima, Peru

The seven of us were truly blessed to be a part of the Global Leadership Summit in Lima. It was one of the best leadership conferences we have ever been a part of and it encourage us as a group to move forward and build up our leaders to form great teams.

2001 Flashback

We took a little detour on our way back to the park where we were to meet as a group during the retreat in Ticaco. To my surprise we ran into the house module I built in 2001 on my first mission trip! That year we came up here to build the modules because of the huge earthquake that shook southern Peru just a month earlier. It was an encouraging reminder that though the circumstances seem difficult, God uses everything we lift up to him and does a work of endurance.

Retreat 2010 photos

Retreat 2010 - Tarata/Ticaco

We were blessed to be invited to a retreat with the youth group from Local Central. For me personally it was refreshing to be a part of something and not be in charge and thinking about the responsibilities all the time. To be able to spend time with Chiqui and Matthew, read and pray without any worries in the city, enjoy worship songs, small groups, and a couple messages without having to do anything. It was refreshing!

Talent Show

We had our 2nd talent show (or so we call it) and it went very well. This year we only started an hour late and only two groups didn't make it in time. It went well and the youth group got to show off whatever they got and invite some friends to come as well.

If you want to see some videos click here www.youtube.com/user/wt4god98

Non-Catholic Religious Entities Conference

We were blessed to host the Non-Catholic religious entities conference for all the churches in Tacna who wished to be present. The conference was designed to inform the churches in Tacna how and why they should register themselves with the government. We were surprised to find out that we are the only church in Tacna currently registered with the government. It was a very informative meeting and we pray it was a blessing to many churches.

Children's Party

We had our annual children's party this year to celebrate all the children's birthdays in one party. We played the usual AWANA games, then sang some songs together and danced, sang happy birthday and had some cake, and sent the kids off with a little bag of treats. It was a fun afternoon celebrating with the kids.

Videos - Tacna and Matthew

Hey everyone,

www.youtube.com/user/wt4god98

I have been working on a short video with photos from Tacna and realized how easy it is to upload videos edited in my computer to YouTube...so I also uploaded some videos from Mother's Day, our apartment, and Matthew.

Hopefully I can get more and more videos up about the work going on here so you can see it first hand and share it with others who are interested in what God is doing here.

Thank you all for your support, prayers, comments, etc. You are cherished and a blessing!