2023—what a year it’s been! We started the year with some time with the Central church in Little Rock, a quick hop through Memphis for me to defend my dissertation, and then a week with the Cedar Lane Church in Tullahoma, TN.
When we tried to get back to Arequipa to prepare for our HULA group’s arrival, the airport was still shut down because of the protests which had reignited. This time they had shut down food and gas supplies to the city, which led us to make the decision to start HULA 2023 in Buenos Aires (Argentina). It was an inordinate amount of work to pull that off (and made possible because of my amazing friend Jonathan Hanegan), but pull it off we did and we launched into an incredible semester with an amazing group of students, for whom we are so thankful. By the time we got to Arequipa on February 20, things were mostly back to normal and we launched into a special time of travel, learning, and connection with a place, a people, its history and culture, designed to form us interculturally and grow spiritually.
The group was with us through the first few days of May. In the meantime, in March Kinney started his 4 year-old school year and Adileen second grade. We connected in special ways with neighbors and friends, our soccer group, our neighborhood anniversary celebration, and the church—concluding with a final, special farewell Sunday where we met as a church with friends and guests of HULA throughout the semester.
Katie and I love HULA. We love teaching. We love sharing our lives and our family and our city with the group. The students and faculty bless us with their energy, their questions, their singing and their stories. And when things come together—HULA and family and the church and our neighbors—in a spectacular combination of food and sports and cultural dances and celebration—that’s really special.
Katie’s parents were with us for a couple weeks in May, and my parents joined us for a couple weeks in June. We said goodbye to Debora and Sira, who had been with us since September. Alongside Caily, our missions apprentice, we relaunched our points of focus and ministry for this next season. There are a lot of things we’re excited about and, as always, plenty of things that are challenging. So I ask that you pray for us.
Please pray for new families that have started participating with our house churches. They’re bringing great questions, energy, and intentionality to our space together. Pray for our Kids’ Club, which meets once a month and is an entry point for those families who want to be more intentional about raising their kids and prioritizing God and kingdom values in their early life.
Pray for our neighborhood. Some families have participated off and on with our church. I’m watching The Chosen with one family. Others are participating in Kids’ Club. With others we’re in relationship and practice hospitality. And as always, our prayer is that God’s reign would come and will be done—in Arequipa, in Hunter, in El Molle—as in heaven.
Pray for Katie and Caily’s special discipling relationships. Pray for Paty and Caily’s ministry to the children’s home “Amor de Dios” that we have been involved in serving for years. Pray for our friends the Wilkes’s ministry with getting foster care started and streamlining the process for Christian families to adopt kids in Peru.
Pray for our sustainable community development kingdom ministries with CUDA. I’ve recently started a spiritual deep-dive with the team (Alfredo, Paty, Lucia, Nancy, and Carlos) on what we’re talking about when we talk about holistic ministry, thinking about our efforts here as part of Jesus’s own kingdom ministry, and seeing people as God sees them. Pray for our team, the 36 teachers and over 1000 students we’re working with this year, as well as the participants of our Microfinance program, and the evolution of that and how we’re trying to impact the holistic wellbeing of communities here.
I ask that you’d pray for specific teaching opportunities that have come up. On Thursday, Friday, and all day Saturday I’ll have four 2-hour sessions where I get to teach about the mission of God from a biblical perspective for a convention of the Peruvian Evangelical Church. In July I start teaching a virtual course for La Hispaniola Bible Institute, a group dedicated to training ministers in the Dominican Republic.
We’re ever more aware of the darkness, the hurt, the brokenness and corruption, the lack of trust and forgiveness that oppress families and individuals here in Arequipa. Please pray for light and life and reconciliation and for us to be attentive to the Spirit’s work of joining and healing.
Thank you for being part of this as we come up on 9 years here, and for many of you 15 years since Team Arequipa 1.0 moved here. In this issue, we share reflections from Debora on her 8 months here, and Carlos on his first 6 months with CUDA’s Living Libraries. I close with a book recommendation and a special announcement.
Before we go on, I have a special request to make. Our missions apprentice, Caily Moore, is looking for additional funding to be able to live and work with us for another year and a half. Will you pray for her work and growth, and consider setting some money aside for her living expenses here?
You can read a bit more about her work and focus here and here. Helping her is helping us, because she's a huge blessing to our family and the church here in Arequipa. You would also be investing in future long-term mission, as that's a big part of why Caily is here learning with us. Caily has what she needs through August (the end of her original 1-year commitment), so we'll be in touch again soon with the specific need.
