Beginning Our Ministries

One day we started talking about what ministries we would like to focus on in Leoncio Prado.  This was a pivotal moment for us,  moving beyond pure survival mode into intentionality!  Praise the Lord, we made it!  Recognizing that the opportunities are plentiful, we decided it was time for a three day in home family retreat asking the Lord to guide us.

One fruit of our retreat was born the idea of a Healing Ministry.  So many people were sharing with us they or a family member was sick with: cancer, diabetes, degenerative arthritis, chronic pain, serious liver damage, etc. It felt like a heavy burden wondering what to do for these people.  The Lord was telling us to bring people to him, and the weight was lifted.  We scheduled a three day healing retreat while the SSME (Summer School of Missionary Evangelization) group was in Peru to help us kick off this ministry.

Praying over Max before he begins his talk on Jesus the Healer

Cate translating for me during the Healing Retreat.

The second ministry we decided on was to schedule a day of the week when we do home visits.  We have already met many of the sick, elderly, and extremely poor in Leoncio Prado.  Making sure we have a time each week to visit these people is important to us, and a way we can love those around us.

Visiting Petronila, as she suffers her last days of life.

Bradler and Cecelia struggle to feed their four children.

Some other ministries we are beginning are Isaac teaching chess, Inge teaching dance, Gemma collecting books for a library, and Jason beginning some house projects.

Isaac has been putting in a lot of work to prepare his chess classes.  He made his chess board from plywood, measuring the exact spacing to fit his chess pieces.  He is also working hard learning chess lingo in Spanish, in order to have the right words to teach with.  He has been able to tell the goofy kids to head home, and really affirm the ones who really want to learn. He would like to have a chess tournament for them, and give a chess board as the prize.

Isaac's chess class.

Inge has been offering a Monday evening dance class.  There are a number of 8-11 year old girls who are checking it out.  Some of the younger girls have been asking about dance classes, but it might be too late for them to join in the evening class.  Inge might need to discern if she should offer an earlier class, but the real issue is the midday heat.

Jason has been able to put in cement floors in a couple of houses that had pure dirt floors.  Giving a cement floor brings so much joy to Jason.  He has more house projects to tackle in the months ahead.

Gemma is slowly collecting children's Spanish books to offer a library.  Her love for reading has her determined to figure out how to get more books here.  She desires to give the children of Leoncio Prado a chance to gain a love for reading like she has!