,

After the Chaos, a Sense of Peace

,
After the Chaos, a Sense of Peace

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 House Churches - April 2021

The House Churches - April 2021

We never thought our house churches would meet virtually for a year! We’re deeply grateful for the opportunity to pray, sing, read, and interact meaningfully as a church every Sunday, though we long to share a table, breakfast, and bread and wine together again someday in the not-too-distant future. We’ve been using the Discover Bible Study process some in our church gatherings and are now sharing the responsibility of choosing a passage and asking the questions for the group’s discussion. Our prayer is that the Spirit would guide the church in its reading of scripture, asking questions about God and humanity, and bringing faith to life in the practice of loving our neighbors.

House Churches: Raising Funds Arequipa Style

House Churches: Raising Funds Arequipa Style

If you read through the book of Acts (as we’re currently doing in one of our discipleship reading groups), you can’t help but notice the incredible things that the Holy Spirit moves the young, small house churches to do in their communities. One of my greatest joys (and part of what gives me constant hope) is seeing the small house churches here serve. At the end of August, they came up with the idea for, led, and implemented a service-oriented fundraiser in order to be able to give food and personal hygiene products for an orphanage with 60 kids.

Orphanage Cookout

Orphanage Cookout

Over the past several years we, as a church, have had the goal to serve others. There have been several newsletter article references to our work and relationships with Pastor José Ingalls and the children in the orphanages that he runs (Paty's article "Being A Church of Servants", Sarah's article "Casa Verde" and Greg's article "McKinzie Reflections on CUDA 2016"). This August we started to visit the kids once a week and help them with their homework. I go with Paty every Thursday to the girls’ orphanage and Jeremy goes either by himself or with others to the boys’ orphanage. This has been a fun opportunity to strengthen our relationships with the children and the "tias" or caretakers. 

My Conversion Story by Liliana Oshoa

My Conversion Story by Liliana Oshoa

Isn’t it amazing when you stop to think of all the people around the world that we will get to spend eternity with? I (Jake) asked Liliana, a sister in Christ here, to tell the amazing story of her conversion over the last few years. Here’s what she wants to tell you (translated from Spanish).

Seeker Services — Team Arequipa Style

Seeker Services — Team Arequipa Style

I plugged in our 220V waffle-maker and waited for the green light to turn on to indicate that it was at the right temperature to scoop in a ladle-full of delicious, pre-waffle perfection, batter into the collection of metal squares below me…

I’m getting ahead of myself. The best churches I know in the US are “seeker-friendly...”

Sharing Faith - Part 3

Sharing Faith - Part 3

While on furlough, I was asked to speak on three consecutive Wednesday nights at our supporting church in Bonne Terre, Missouri. I took them through some of the things we have been learning as a church in Arequipa about sharing our faith this past year. We did the “my gospel” exercise and the Bonne Terre church agreed to set the same goal as their brothers and sisters here in Arequipa – to have shared their gospel with at least one person at the end of one year.It’s almost been one year already since we set this goal here in Arequipa.