2025 Church Retreat - The Coast (Mollendo)

2025 Church Retreat - The Coast (Mollendo)

As is the case with a lot of things in Peru, our church retreat started off being planned months ahead of time, and was only finalized in the hours prior to departure. We’re so thankful for the 21 people who were able to spend three days and two nights down on the coast. We stayed at a guesthouse that belongs to Paty’s family who is from Mollendo. That had an extra layer of specialness baked in because Paty and Lola are longtime hosts of the church, and getting to see them in their “happy space” where they grew up was special.

[Power]House Church

[Power]House Church

The world is moving to the city and we believe in a God who is already at work in the city for the sake of life. Evangelism is bearing witness to what God has done (and continues to do) in Jesus of Nazareth. Evangelism encompasses Kingdom proclamation—talking to people about faith, hope, and love because of Jesus—and Kingdom participation—joining in the types of things we believe happen when the kingdom of God is breaking in. In the book of Acts, the Spirit of God tends to lead the followers of Jesus into shared life with the people they least expected or desired to be with. God’s Spirit creates joining.

Mother’s Day, Our Kids, and Prayer Requests

Mother’s Day, Our Kids, and Prayer Requests

My first Mother’s Day in Peru (as a mother, see the picture below), our neighbors, Pedro and Frecia, invited us to spend the day with them because they knew we didn’t have family here and wanted to share that with us. Because of the generosity we were shown that day, I wanted to pass it on. So, this Mother’s Day I wanted to have a full table and I knew if I cooked food, they would come. So I cooked a meal and we invited anyone that was a part of our church meeting to stay and eat with us. Those who don’t have a mother living or who don’t live near family ended up staying and eating and we shared the afternoon around the table.

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After the Chaos, a Sense of Peace

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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.