We finally get to go back to Palenque. First for a wedding, where HE stretched me to be all things from the wedding coordinator, make up artist, decorator, cake maker, and best woman in the Palenque heat (without electricity all day!) Second, we were able to go back to see how everyone was doing. It was good to hear all about how HE was stretching them, all their questions about what they had been reading (yes that is right, they had been reading on their own!!), and then we sat with Ktln to hear what hell she had been through over the past 2 weeks.

To remind you, Ktln is one of the strongest Palenquero believers we have and is our right hand man when we do any kind of ministry. She became a believer over 13 years ago and has made some huge life changes. One of those is that she decided to separate from her husband because he had another woman in another house and would go back and forth between the two women. This is very normal for the polygamous culture that these Palenqueros live in. The women believe that they have to accept this and are treated as objects. With her newfound identity in Chrst, Ktln knew that this was not right and tried to make things right with her husband. He would not hear of just living with his wife, and children and so she separated from him. They have been able to keep their relationship civil for the most part for the past 10 years or so but when he drinks he generally comes around to bother them.

Two weeks ago, his other woman left to sell sweets in another town and he was drinking a lot. He came to Ktln’s home and tried to rape her. He continued this in all hours of the day and night. One night, her oldest son let his dad into the house not knowing he had been drinking and he tried to rape Ktln in her house and on her front porch. The next night, he broke down the door (as she has no way of securing her home) and raped her repeatedly in her home, with her children there present. She was completely broken. She felt like she had no one to help her, as the people of the community have rejected her decision to separate from her husband. She did not feel safe in her own home as she had no way of locking the doors and at any time, this man could come in and do whatever he wanted without any consequences. She decided to seek help from the police in a nearby town (as Palenque does not have police and tend to handle their matters with the 7 elders.) She has sought a restraining order that prevents him from being able to come near her without having to go to jail.

As I sat and listened to my sister, broken and crying out for help, I immediately began pryng that HE would provide someone to fix her doors so that she could lock them and feel safe in her own home until the police could become involved. Just like HE always does, HE reminded me of some money that some friend’s donated to the work and my two amazing brothers on the farm who can build and do almost anything with their hands. HE gave me permission to use this money and ask them for their help.

I had to go home because Bekah was coming to visit but we made plans to fix her house up the next week and I offered for her to come live with me until the police handled the situation. Praise HIM that the next day, the police issued the restraining order and she was able to feel like she had someone caring for her.

So Bekah arrives and I immediately put her to work as I had a new group of youth girls at the house to begin to study with them. It was neat to watch these girls open up to me and share their hearts with me. I am excited to see what HE does through their commitment to study His Words together every other week. The next day, Luz came over for discipleship. I was excited for Bekah to get to know Luz and be apart of our study. The youth team came over to continue our study in Romans and once again I was excited for her to see these youth on fire for His Words and how they were being changed by His Words. After they left, we had some time to talk and I was able to hear her heart and HE revealed to me where she was in her walk with Him and that this week was not about her serving but her meeting face to face with The Creator. So my focus of her week completely changed, I began to help provide times for her to spend time in His Words and just spend time with Him.

Sunday, we headed to El Nido to club because I had offered for Bekah to help lead worship before I knew where she was but it was a neat experience for all of us. And HE used the sermon to speak directly to her and it was neat to see HIM answering my pryrs and meeting her right where she was and not missing a beat. That afternoon, we stayed and ate a community meal on the farm before heading out to Palenque. One of the girls on the farm begged us to let her go to Palenque and of course, we agreed. So the 5 of us head out to watch Him work miracles and answer pryrs in Palenque.

When we arrived, I left Darlys, Bekah, and Erianis in the house to organize all of our things while Jorge and I drove the car to the house where we keep it outside of Palenque. As we walk back to the house, Eliezer (one of the youth) decides to walk back with us and begins to ask us all kinds of questions about His Words. He says he wants to learn how to teach His Words and study His Words better. What? Are you kidding me…youth coming to us and asking us to teach them! Amen, what an Amazing Father we serve! I let he and Jorge talk (what a blessing to have Jorge there to minister to all the guys in Palenque.) I head back to the house to get things ready for the youth to come over and study His Words. And what an amazing night of watching Him use His Words and Love to unravel things they had believed and put Truth in their place. It was great that Bekah and Erianis were able to see Him work in such a miraculous way in the lives of the youth that night.

The next day, we had devotion together and pryr walked in the AM and visited different people. It was a great time of ministering to the people of Palenque and allowing Bekah and Eriainis to see what the life of a M really looks like. That afternoon, Mike and Josh came to fix Ktln’s door. I really wish I had words to describe how His Hands, Feet, Words, etc were used to meet a need of fellow sister. Of course, they had the doors fixed within an hour because HE has blessed them that much. It was neat to watch Ktln’s expressions of joy as she could not believe that two guys that she had not known would come and fix her house. She could not believe that a couple from the states would give money so that her door could be fixed and so that she could sleep at peace at night. She stood in awe of a Dad who truly cares for her when she began to question why He would let this happen. She responded that HE let that happen so she could experience just how big HE really is and what true brothers and sister’s in Chrst look like here on earth! Thank you for pryng and I am making a video of this so that you can see what HE did because of your faithful pryrs!!

That night, we had a group of people over to kind of celebrate Christmas together before having to leave the next day. We played some games and then told the Christmas story. As we began to ask questions, it was so cool to watch Him move among these people who truly did not know His Story. They were so hungry for His Words and to know more but because of time we had to stop the discussion. Seriously, HE is hearing your pryrs and HE is answering in huge ways. I have never seen these people I have spent the past 9 months with so hungry for His Words and wanting to understand what His Words were saying to them. It was truly beautiful! I praise Him who allows me to watch Him work miracles in my everyday life! And I thank Him for each of you who constantly pry for me and this work!!

Sunday, I say goodbye to Aida and Brody and get on a plane to head to Lima, Peru for a week long training. Ruth, Bobby, and I head out together for this training event. It was actually nice to fly with people I know as we talked, they helped me with my bag as my knee is still killing me, and we just enjoyed our time together. We arrive to Lima late that night but after we arrive in the hotel, we decided to go get Pizza Hut. My roommate Christy was there and she wanted to join us. We ate pizza, listened to what is going on in her life, and then went back to the hotel for the night.

Monday, we head out to the affinity office to begin our weeklong training. It was neat to meet new Ms, catch up with Ms we knew, and learn the first part of the oral strategy we were learning. We began by learning the Mark 5 story and connecting it to our testimony as a way of evangelizing. After lunch, they told us to divide up in twos and head out to share our testimony with the Mark 5 story at least twice each. I went out with Melissa and neither of us like to force sharing with people that we do not know. So we began to walk and pry asking Him for opening up doors for us to share naturally and with whom He had divinely appointed. We ended up walking far away from the office, knowing that the majority of the other Ms would stay around that area. We eventually arrive to this outdoor mall right on the Pacific Ocean; talk about beautiful! We continue pryng and walking when we see a group of skaters and decided to sit down. We continued pryng and Melissa asked me if we were going to go and talk to them, and I said no, we would wait and continue to pry. About 15 minutes later, one of the guys came over to us and began talking to us. As soon as he started talking, I recognized his accent. He was from Bogota, Colombia and so I called him a cachaco and he was completely shocked!

Well this of course started an amazing discussion and opened him up to receive us. We had the opportunity to hear his story, share our stories, and as he was commenting about an injury…Melissa tells him what I did for a living and so I start to evaluate his injury. Within a minute or two, I think we were surrounded by 15 or so other skaters with injuries who wanted an evaluation as well. HE is so sovereign in every step. As we left these guys (who asked us to come back the next day), we began praising Him for this appointment and asking Him to raise up a local Peruvian who would continue with these guys. I left Melissa and went to meet up with the Paul’s and Arturo (a local Peruvian who had asked us to help him with a ministry that night.) I began to share with him all that HE had done and told him he should learn to skate. He quickly responded, why Freddie who is in the training is a professional skater, a believer and has been looking for a way to start a ministry with them! Are you kidding me, DAD? That is incredible how HE had ordained all the steps to this week.  That night, I had the privilege to work with some amazing young Peruvian's who are serving Him in neat ways...it was a blessing!

Needless to say, on Tuesday morning I ran to talk to Freddie to tell him what HE had done the day before and he was so excited about what HE was going to do through this contact. That afternoon, we went out with Freddie and it was neat to watch HIM work through each of them and unite them as a group. Because I was a slacker and had not written this until now, I will just say the rest of the week was just like this first day. Divine appointment after diving appointment…watching Him work miracles as we learned and having the opportunity to put into practice what we learned each day. This was by far one of the best trainings I had been to in awhile and was excited to get home and put it into practice with my people.