Somehow, the cost of following Christ seems higher when you decide you want to be baptized in the 40 degree wild waters of the Pacifico Ocean in the middle of winter. This last Sunday, five of our family members were baptized and we were able to celebrate this time together as a family, as a team and as a church.

?

On the beach.

Mark and Saul giving a demonstration of how the baptisms were going to be done.

And now...for the baptisms!

Gabriel or ¨Gabo¨as we call him, briefly told us his testimony and his desire to now publicly express his decision to follow Christ.

Gabo being baptized.

After each person was baptized, someone was waiting to receive them with a towel and pray for them.

Excitedly watching!

Saul was taxi-ing one night when he picked up Shaun and Amanda to take them home. As they started up a conversation, Amanda and Shaun invited him to our church. Two weeks later, Saul came. For the last several months, Saul has been a part of our church body, and this last week, he shared with us that he had given his life to the Lord back in 2007 and that he was making a public display of his decision to follow Christ.

Saul´s baptism

Prayer.

Gustavo was hit by a car earlier this year and the impact damaged his jaw and caused him to loose many of his teeth. He has given his life to Christ, and he sets the example of following Christ for his two siblings and mom. Oh, one thing I didn´t mention: Gustavo is only 11.

Praying for Gustavo.

Raquel is from the jungle. She lives about an hour away and travels by herself to be with us weekly. She is 19. She works in a purse manufacturing factory in Lima.

Going to be baptized!

Praying for Raquel.

Nichole is 8 years old. She is able to clearly hear the voice of God. He speaks to her in dreams, through his word and through daily life. Pray that she continues to grow in her profetic gift as she follows Him and is an example to her brothers and parents of how to follow Christ.

 Nichole sat in my lap for a while before she went into the cold water. It was a special moment for me as she just sat there and clung to me. 

The baptizees!

Congratulations to Saul, Nichole, Raquel, Gustavo and Gabo! 

Sunday was such a special day for all of us, not only for those who were baptized, but for those of us who got to celebrate. Please pray for their continual growth, and that God would protect them against discouragement and give them strength to follow Him.

This post is a long time in coming, but I wanted to recap some really neat things that have happened over the last few months.

One of those was Jane, a precious woman from England who has a heart for prayer and seeing people drawn closer to the Lord through art.

Jane desires to see people lives healed and operating out of wholeness. Many of the things she prophesied over our lives personally and as a team have already come to pass even within the last several weeks and months since she´s been gone.

When Jane first arrived, we went to get beads and other supplies for her time that she would spend in Lima. We had a blast hanging out, getting to know each other and of course SHOPPING!!

 

Karina and I in downtown Lima. Karina is over our church´s (Oikos) children´s ministry 

And of course, Jane treated us to a yummy lunch of typical Asian-Peruvian food. Yum!!!

We finished up shopping for beads, and we were ready for Pacifico! (After a good night´s sleep of course)

As you already know, Pacifico is where we as a team have been ministering and it is where I spend a majority of my time. 

Here are some pics of Pacifico to get an idea of what it´s like.

The little red busses you see pictured above are the busses that that take us from our neighborhood to Pacifico. It costs 15 American cents to get there, and it takes about 10 minutes to get there.

Jane spent lots of time ministering to the women and children of Pacifico. 

The following pics show some of the time she was able to spend in the childrens and pre-teens ministries. 

This is one of the art projects Jane did with the kids. 

The colors represent the hope God floods our lives with.

It was amazing to see Jane working with the woman of Pacifico as well. I was one of the main people translating for her during her time in Pacifico, so I felt privileged to see so many lives changed through her testimony, prayers, and art. 

Making earrings with the ladies in the cell group I lead on a weekly basis.

 Someone either passed gas or said something funny...or maybe both ;)

The ladies of my cell group all modeling their newly-made earrings.

Making greeting cards out of newspaper and sticks teaching that God makes beauty out of our ¨ashes.¨

One of biggest visions God had given Jane for Pacifico was to paint a mural representing hope in the midst of hopelessness. The mural was to be painted on the side of this house where we hold our weekly church service for Pacifico. 

About four days before Jane was scheduled to paint the mural, we discovered that the house had been painted pink.  Okay, we thought....we can work with this....

So, we began to paint.

And paint.

 

And paint.

And paint.

And....VOILA!!!! After many long hard hours of painting, it was finished. Shown above is a picture of Jane and Ines, wife, mom, grandmom, and spiritual leader of the house.

Now, for the before and after. =)

Before.

After.

The words written above say ¨the wind and waves came against the house, but the house stood firm because it was built apon the Rock.¨ 

The words written above say ¨the wind and waves came against the house, but the house stood firm because it was built upon the Rock.¨ 

This has been such a prophetic painting for this family. The winds and waves of life have definitely blown against Ines and her family, especially in the last few weeks. Please keep her in your prayers, and that she and her family will remember to keep their focus on the Rock.