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!

Dad stories...

There seems to be more and more stories each day. Tuesday was probably one of the worst so yet!

I wasn't feeling too good all night and during the morning and Chiqui had been working hard taking care of Matthew the whole time. So during the morning when I felt he pooed while on my lap I figured the least I could do is change him.

Halfway through the process I unintentionally took a big wiff...the result, lunch coming back up and onto the floor!

While I was heaving, Matthew decided to roll over real fast and get his poop all over himself...look at his leg!

But as always, he seems to be happiest after these moments.

Pears, tongue, and dad

Matthew having some fun after breakfast! I think he likes pears.

Mayhem on the Horizon!!!

Just finished finals week at seminary.

July 23rd to 30th - Christ's Church of the Valley will be here to work their butts off!

July 30th to August 9th - In Lima and other towns with my dad and his wife. Their first time seeing Matthew and first time back since our wedding 5 years ago.

August 9th to 16th - Should have a great friend and his wife be here in Tacna to see the church and projects. He is a pastor and their church is almost positively going to support. Your prayers are welcomed anyways!

August 17th to 21st - We have to go back to Lima to do some paperwork in the embassy for Matthew and for my passport...I have two pages left and it expires within a year.

We have another great friend(one of my longest and best friends) and his wife trying to make it down here before August as well. Hopefully that happens!

In these up and down moments God has overloaded us with a lot of blessings through these visits. It is almost too much, but in this case that is impossible.

Great times in Tacna!

Last night we had a lonche (light dinner with bread and tea) at the church with all the members interested in the future of the church and their involvement. In recent years when we have had meeting like this there would be 6 or sometimes up to ten people interested...last night we had nearly 20. They were all very excited and participating in the conversation, talking through ideas for the future, events that are coming up soon, and how they would like to be involved. It was definitely an encouraging moment after the last few up and down months with the youth group.

A few of the things we discussed that you could be praying for are:

1) Musicians: since the church was handed over to me to oversee we haven't had any musicians. It got complicated when we changed the service to the morning because it was better for everyone (literally). In the meeting 10 people wanted to learn something or begin singing and/or playing instruments for the Sunday service. The need created an opportunity and the church responded. Before when musicians came over from the other churches there was never the opportunity that had to be filled. Once again God responding and turning a difficult moment into an incredibly great moment.

2) 3 more people volunteered to support AWANA's and Sunday school with the children. Another prayer answered. We have been low on help, especially with AWANA's.

3) Unity: We decided as a group that we will be getting together every month and a half to share a meal after service. One of the women who has been a part of the church since the beginning has taken on the task of getting the event organized. She will plan what food everyone needs to bring, how much, and confirm everyone that will be participate. It is one more step toward a mature church that begins to take on tasks for themselves and move us forward.

God is good! I cannot say it enough. In the darkest and most difficult moments he always blesses us with a ray of light. As Habakkuk responded in difficult moments, "yet I will rejoice in the Lord, in the God of my salvation." We rejoice in those moments and now we rejoice yet even more. I cannot say it enough...God is good!

Great moment!

One of Matthew's funniest moments realizing the camera is on him and then letting out a huge burp...unfortunately you can't hear it because of the bad audio on the camera and the keys jingling...still great though!

A new street that opened up near the house...it will make for nicer afternoon walks.

Fun Times with Poo!

matthew didn't poo for a week...but when he did he was on my lap in the living room and it was an explosion of great magnitude!

while changing him i saw poo on his back, his hands, his onezee, his pants, his shirt, and his sweater...it literary passed through all six layers. while taking his clothes off it got on the back of his neck, his hands, and his forehead and feet...cuz we all know how babies stay still when you change them.

when i "finished" i noticed it had also passed through all his layers onto my pants. took them off and there it was on my boxers. took them off and noticed it was on my leg also. so i was half naked and there I noticed another spot (or shot!). took off the shirt and i stood there in my socks with a pile of dirty poo'd on clothes of two sizes, baby and mens, with poo on my left thigh, stomach (actually passed through the huge happy trail), and on my chest...

and Matthew cracking up laughing the whole time!

Depression and Hope

It has been a tough first year in charge of the church in Ciudad Nueva. There have been some really great moments and some days that just take it out of me, days when I could get on a boat in the middle of a storm and fall asleep.

These last couple weeks have been just that for me.

We have a new family that has been coming every week the last month and they are great. We have two single moms that are getting more and more involved in the church and going to seminary classes. We have the husband of a long time member beginning to come more faithfully and showing a lot more interest since we had a men only BBQ the day before Father's day, and he wants to be involved in our house visit ministry and study at seminary next semester.

We have also had two members get into a really bad fight and are having a real hard time reconciling. That can be tough on a small church. There is a member who has caused a lot of strife with stupid comments at inappropriate times. We had a total of 6 men at our Father's day service that we had to start an hour late because there were only 6 people at the scheduled service time. Our youth group has practically vanished within 6 weeks and we have not been able to pinpoint why. Our musicians were from Local Central and they no longer will be playing for us...but I kind of like singing to a CD.

Ups and downs. Moments of great joy and great sadness. It seems each time that something goes really bad God shows a little spark of hope. We know that this is a new year with a lot of things that will change. Our hope is that we can now follow Jesus' example of multiplying and not adding members. We are dedicating to a small group of men and women to equip and empower them to take of ministries responsibly. It is just the seed and I know that God will cause it to grow...but we are so impatient to want to see the fruits sometimes.

Thank you all for your prayers and support!

World Cup

So I will be trying to get as much free time as possible during this month...World Cup Soccer! got to go the US is playing England right now.