It's finally here and boy, are we stoked! July 13th-28th, we'll be on mission in Peru! Though we've had a busy summer, our mission trip to Peru with Climbing for Christ has always been on our mind. With all the training we've done for the trip, it's good to keep the mission on our mind to get us through the difficult workouts. When you remember you're doing it for God, you can endure a lot more.
This will be my second trip to Peru and Rachel's first. Last year, our team traveled to the Cordillera Blanca and the Cordillera Huayhuash of the Andes. This year, we will be focused exclusively on the Blanca. We will return to areas we have been working in and push deeper into unreached areas of the Blanca. There is still a lot of uncovered ground. There's a lot of work to be done for the Gospel.
The people group we will be reaching are the Quechua people. They live in many different areas of South America but ours specifically live and work high in the Andes Mountains at elevations of around 9,000-16,000 feet.
Religiously, there are many different beliefs amongst the people. Some believe in Jesus. Some worship animistic spirits. Many worship both Jesus and the spirits. The Jehovah Witness folks seem to have a strong presence in the area as well. That surprised me last trip that the JW's had made it there already. Also surprising to me was the fact that too many others in the area had never even heard the name of Jesus.
Despite the differences of beliefs, the common thing amongst almost all the people is that they don't have Bibles. So like last trip, our goal is to distribute as many Bibles as possible. Though we will be ministering in many towns, a lot of the people we reach will be literally too far from any church to attend it and get fed spiritually with God's Truth. They need Bibles in their hands to learn that Truth and protect themselves from being deceived.
Along with giving out as many Bibles as we can backpack in, we will be putting on church services, encouraging those who are already believers and seeking out divine appointments to share the Gospel with those who need to hear it.
Last year, God brought divine appointment after divine appointment in our path. It was amazing. I've never seen soil so ready for the Gospel. I truly can't wait to get back and see what God is going to do this year. I can't wait to see how God has grown the seeds that were planted last year. We saw a lot of people come to Christ. I'm stoked to see where God has brought them in a year's time.
I'm also stoked for our team this year. We had a really solid team last year and, even though some faces have changed, I think we're going to have a really solid team this year.
Jordan Rowley and I will be returning members of the team. Jordan works for C4C at their headquarters in Rochester, NY. Then, of course my beautiful wife, Rachel, will be getting to join us this year. We also have Larry Demejo from the Rochester area. Fort Lewis student Kevin Atkinson will also be joining us. Rounding the team out will be Peruvians Jaime Jesus Servat and Edwin Milla. Jaime is our local missionary on the ground there. He is the one who returns to each area we visit to followup and disciple those God connects us with. Edwin is a professional climber and our guide for the trip. Feel free to click on each underlined named for more info on the team member.
Here are some other links that might be of interest to you:
Mission: Peru Daily (for the most part) Updates
Mission: Peru Prayer Bulletin from C4C
Info on past Mission: Peru Trips
Thank you for all the support and encouragement you give! We are super thankful for that! Check out our prayer requests below and keep us in your prayers!
Cheers and God Bless,
Mike and Rachel
p.s. I apologize if there are any spelling or grammatical errors. Running on very little sleep and very little time but wanted to get this in your hands before we left. Thanks for understanding.
If the Lord is leading you to give, follow this link to our giving options:
http://thewallscall.blogspot.com/p/other-giving-options.html
Prayer Requests:
- I've gotten very little sleep in the last few days getting everything ready for the trip. To top it off, we lost power the night before we had to be up at 4 a.m. to head to the airport. Even though we planned ahead, we didn't plan for a power outage that would leave us dead in the water and not able to get what we needed done so we could get a good night's sleep before traveling. All that said, I probably won't be sleeping tonight in order to get the rest of the stuff done now that we finally have power again. I'll be going on 4 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours. Not a good way to start the trip being this sleep deprived. Pray I have energy going forward, will be in good spirits, and get good sleep the rest of the trip.
- We've been getting a lot of spiritual attacks leading up to the trip. Weird and expensive happenings at the house...being attacked by bees while training for the trip when never having an issue before with bees in that area we've run for months before...being completely run off the road by another car after coming home from training for the mission... That's just to name a few of the many things. It's nothing that God hasn't overcome but it's been wearing on us. We're excited though because we know with all that opposition, God must be going to do some big things on this trip. Keep praying for us and our team that God would protect us on this trip from any spiritual attacks. Pray that God would give us the strength to endure whatever comes our way. Also pray for everyone praying for our team because when you pray for our team, you're stepping into the battle as well.
- We fully expect God to change many lives on this trip. Pray that He would open doors for the Gospel to be received and understood. Pray that the Holy Spirit would be working on the hearts and minds of the people we are going to meet.
- On trips like this, there is always the chance of a rolled ankle while hiking or food poisoning at some point in the trip. Pray that God would keep our team safe and healthy.
- Lastly, due to circumstances out of our control, plane tickets were bought much later than we normally get them. With that, the mission is going to be much more expensive than expected or planned on for Rachel and me. We trust God to provide but would appreciate you praying as well that the funding needs would be met. If you would like to give toward the mission trip, there is still time. Go to: Give Now!
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