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.

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!