Student Work in Peru

As I was sitting on the 8 hour bus to Huaraz, my destination was to be a beautiful mountain valley that I would be spending 4 months in. I had several thoughts - firstly the task ahead of me, which was to set up a Christian Union Group in the University in Huaraz, was like a shadow weighing upon me and I wondered how I was possibly going to do this with hardly any Spanish and shyness that creeped over me and covered me like a bubble. My second thought was simply... this is not going to work and no one else thinks this will happen.

How wrong was I?

Firstly my problem was that I was trusting in myself instead of God. The second was that I was finding my identity in my Spanish and my ability to do things...when it should of been in Jesus.

Student work is different here, there is a different framework however the same Gospel. The same God. All you need is some passionate students that have captured the vision, that love Jesus and want to share Him and you need prayer and a trust in Jesus. We need to be on our knees, lifting up this to Jesus and being thankful for the blessings an situations that come our way. Student work is different in Peru - but its the same Gospel.

So what do we have?

We now have a Christian Union in Huaraz - so far we have had 11 students and we now have a committee. Here it is, missionary work in action - Jesus does it, he opens hearts, provides ways of meeting people and uses us as we are weak and reminds us how we need to trust in Him and allow Him to use us in our weakness and humility. Its always about Him. This is the beauty of it - we are never here to present ourselves or our abilities, but we are here to present Christ, always. 

So, there is now a CU group in Huaraz, Peru. Gracias a Dios :)

Basil not the Brush

Basil the Great said:

'The bread which you keep, belongs to the hungry; the coat which you perserve in your wardrobe, to the shoeless; the gold which you have hidden in the ground, to the needy. Wherefore, as often as you were able to help others, and refused, so often did you do them wrong.'

Fascinate people to the Gospel

There is something about Christians that should be different. We should stand out. 

Shine. 

Go against the crowed. 

We have a message of hope, we carry an eternal promise of truth. We have Jesus. 

Our lifestyles should reflect this truth. We should be courageous in Love, reaching to the dirty, the outcasts, the low in society, the unclean, the hopeless. 

We shouldnt be concerned with social status or jobs, because we wear a different dress code. Our actions and words should scream a different story thats so radical from society:

that promotes Jesus over man, 

that shares the good news, 

that performs acts of extreme love and Joy and hope and not be tainted with worries of success and career and what people think. 

We should fascinate the people to the Gospel, showing them Jesus, showing them how beautiful He is, showing the cross and carrying our cross. 

We should fascinate the world by not being concerned of self image, or trying to buy the latest gadgets, or trying to be popular.

We should fascinate the world by forgiving when it hurts so much, to love when all there can be is loss, to give everything of our things, possesions and ourselves when the world is trying to claim the 'mine' label. Lets not hold on or strive for things of this world.

Lets fascinate the world to the Gospel, not to ourselves, but to Jesus. 

May the world find itself in a moment of fascination over how we live our lives because we are not living for ourselves but for Jesus, because we would rather be amoung the lowly, the poor, the meek, the hurting, the lost then to be with the rich, powerful, proud. We would rather be without and full of Joy in Christ then have everything and still be unsatisfied.

Lets fascinate the world with Jesus.

Gifts

Recently I have been thinking more about the gifts that God has been blessing me with while in Peru. Some things we take for granted, but when you dont have them you soon realise how much a blessing they are when you do have them...

My list of thank yous and gifts:

• Friendship
• Hot Water
• A Team - A family
• A bed and place to live
• A phone to phone home with!
• The bible
• Knowing Jesus
• Older, wiser people
• Food
• Being able to communicate.