Celebration!!!

You all might be wondering why I am celebrating a bathroom. You might even be surprised when I say that I actually cried when I saw the bathroom. That is a bit weird you might say! But here is why…. You see, the bathrooms that were part of the original structure of the building that the church rented did not have any bathrooms that allowed for a person who uses a wheelchair to enter the bathroom with their wheelchair. There simply just wasn’t enough space. With ADA not being a thing here, many places in Peru are not accessible to people with disabilities. Our church has rented their main campus space for over 20 years before being able to purchase it during the pandemic. As you may know, it is more challenging to make structural changes to a rented building. So many adaptations that would have made our church more accessible and welcoming to people with disabilities were put on hold. Until NOW!!! Praise God for our amazing pastors who saw the importance of making a wheelchair accessible bathroom a priority since purchasing the building! We are thrilled to FINALLY have a bathroom in our main campus that will give people with disabilities dignity and privacy to care for their basic needs!!!

Another thing to celebrate is that we had an opportunity to give our first international training on how to start a disability area in the children’s ministry at a large church similar to ours! We are so incredibly honored and excited about being about to teach others what we have learned over the years and encourage them to take the step towards inclusion of all people with disabilities into their church body! We are excited that this is just one of many trainings we hope to provide this year to churches in Peru and internationally!!

April 12 was our church wide serve day! This year we invited other churches in Peru and internationally to be a part of this serve day. To do acts of love in the name of Jesus to those in the community with nothing expected in return. This year we combined our 2 small groups that we lead (biblical perspective on disability and caring for vulnerable children). Our group went to a small Christian based therapy center in an area called Manchay. The volunteers served the families as they were waiting for their children in their therapy sessions. Haircuts, manicures and prayer were offered as well as a blessing bucket with several personal hygiene items inside. It was a wonderful opportunity to share with these families that God sees them and loves them. We plan to return to this therapy center to continue to serve them as we are able. One story that impacted us was meeting an 8 year old boy named Tony who has Cerebral Palsy. His parents were told when he was born that he would not live long and to just take him home and love him. The first few years the parents were deeply impacted and depressed by what the doctor had said about their son. And so they really did nothing to help him with his development. This therapy center called Warma Kuna Hope was able to begin to provide therapy for Tony and his parents began to see that he WAS able to do things if given the opportunity to do so. His parents are so grateful for the help they are now receiving for their son and have a more positive outlook of the life of their precious son . We hope to be able to continue to help Warma Kuna Hope continue to serve families like Tony’s. And provide spiritual and emotional support as a church as we are able.

On a personal front- I (Lisa) am healing nicely- We just celebrated 5 months post op! And I just returned to active serving on Sundays in the children’s ministry with kids with special needs!!! We are grateful for your prayers and support during the recovery. We have also been able to “slowly” begin to hike again! We are optimistic that these operations are the last needed and will restore function to even better than before!! There is just too much to do to be only functioning at 50%!

As you know as missionaries 100% of our salary comes from the generosity from all of you! We can’t be here doing what we get to do here without your support. We thank you for choosing to help us be the hands and feet of Jesus here in Peru. We continue to have a deficit in our annual budget so if you know anyone who would like to learn more about what we are doing and hear how we can partner together please don’t hesitate to put is in contact.

With sincere gratitude. Clever, Lisa & Kaleb.

The Hope of Eternity

As I was doing my morning walk today, I was listening to worship and felt God led me to a song that really I haven’t listened to in quite a while, and while I was listening one of the lines went like this.

 “ He shall return in robes of white

The blazing sun shall pierce the night

And I will rise among the saints

My gaze transfixed on Jesus' face”

With the most sincere gratitude, I started crying as I heard those lyrics…a reminder of what we hope for and what we know God has promised us….spending eternity with Him. I don’t know if you ever think about the day when Jesus returns or what eternity will be like with Him, but I do often.  More often in the past few years when I’ve had to face multiple diagnosis, surgeries, and recoveries.  More often now too, when it seems like there are so many around me who are sick, suffering, or have died.  The truth is, those days when I hear of yet another sick person, or someone who has passed away, or I am experiencing a lot of pain, it is hard to be positive and sometimes I get stuck. Maybe you do too. I imagine this is human nature and that I am not the only one who feels this way.  However, I have had way too many encounters with our Lord and Savior to stay stuck.  Remembering those is what helps me to move forward with my eyes on Him.  So, when I hear a song with the lyrics above or any other song that talks about what eternity looks like, it puts a spark of excitement in me, and it reminds me why we are here living this life on earth right now, and more specifically why we are doing what we are, wherever we are. 

This past July a very dear and close family friend of ours “tia” Roxana (in the grey jacket), a second mom to Clever suddenly passed away.  It was heartbreaking.  Her son Alvaro, one of Clever’s best friends from childhood, who lives in the US couldn’t come to the funeral because he too was fighting his own battle of colon cancer. So, when we found out that we would be going to the US for my surgery, he asked us to bring his mom’s ashes to him.  So, we did.  Clever did.  Weeks before Clever traveled to him, his friend found out that he was terminal. With a heavy heart, Clever flew to see his best friend for what was the last time.  It was a short trip, but with purpose.  By the grace of God, his friend opened his heart to Jesus.  You see the miracle in the story of both this mother and son was that 5 years ago they were both in the hospital fighting for their lives from COVID.  Both nearly died.  Neither knew the Lord.  God in his infinite love and mercy saved them both from death 5 years ago to give them more time to KNOW HIM! The mother returned to Peru and grew in her walk with the Lord.  Her life shined with the love of Jesus radiating in her.  While they had different stories of coming to know the Lord, both received Him as Lord and Savior before it was too late. What an amazing privilege to be a part of their stories!   Stories like theirs, is WHY we do what we do.  We have such a loving and merciful Father who doesn’t want even one to be lost and so we continue to do our part.

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.  2 Peter 3:9 NIV

Andrick with his sign language interpreter AnA

This past weekend we celebrated the very first person who is deaf to pray the prayer of salvation during our church service that provides Peruvian Sign Language Interpretation!!!!  This is a HUGE celebration!   The deaf population here in Peru has limited resources to receive the message of the gospel in their own language.  Over the past few years we have developed a small team of volunteers who are interpreting one church service a week!.  And now, after all this time and work invested in this program, praise God, we have our first person who prayed the prayer of salvation during the church service!!! His name is Andrick.  We praise God for the volunteers who have committed their time and talents to help bring people like Andrick to the church and help him “hear” the message of Jesus!  We are excited for more people in the deaf community to join Andrick.

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I know we are ¼ the way through 2025 already and we have not yet shared our goals for 2025.  Recovery from the surgeries, our return to Peru a month ago, returning to some of our responsibilities here, and the start of the school year for Kaleb has kept us very busy.  But now that we have settled into a routine, we would like to share our goals.

For this upcoming year, our mission remains the same.  It is to make a way for everyone to have the opportunity to have a personal encounter with the Lord. More specifically vulnerable people, and those impacted by disability whose circumstances make it more difficult to attend church.  Our specific goals are:

1.      Develop and provide more training to all volunteers at our church to increase awareness and competency to receive people with disabilities and vulnerable children/youth so they can experience a place of belonging and a place to have a personal encounter with God.

2.      Develop and launch a small group curriculum for +35 age group of people with intellectual/developmental disabilities.

3.      Continue to build the community support group for parents/family members who care for a loved one with a disability

4.      Help provide local churches with a vision of why it is important to include people with disabilities in the church body. And then help provide tangible steps on how to do it.

5.      Continuing to be a part of the team who gives the gift of mobility to those in need through the partnership between Camino de Vida and Free Wheelchair Mission.

As you know as a missionary family, we receive 100% of our living expenses from your tax-deductible donations. We thank those who continue to believe in what we are doing here through your support.  We praise God that we have received a few new monthly pledges to help offset the increase in our daily living expenses that have increased. We continue to have a deficit and are looking for new people to join our team so that we can cover our financial needs. If you know of anyone who might be interested, please let us know so we can reach out to them. 

Thank you again for allowing us to have the privilege to give more people the opportunity to know the Lord and look forward to eternity with Him.

 With love from our family to yours.

Clever, Lisa & Kaleb

Shalom

Every year on my birthday, I choose a spirit led word that I hear God tell me to focus on for that next year of life.   The way that I found my word came a little differently than in past years.  You see, just before my birthday I found out I would need another surgery on my neck to hopefully give me more stability and reduce the chronic pain that I experienced.  There was a lot to discuss and decide regarding that recommendation from the doctor.  At the time of my birthday, I just kept thinking, I just want peace Lord. I don’t want to have to keep fighting this same battle of yet another medical event in my life.   A battle within to maintain faith that it will all be ok mostly.  Faith that all things would be provided for that we need.   Faith and trust that it would be for the better…..little did I know that I would end up having 2 surgeries within 6 days of each other.

So, I started to investigate the word peace.  Peace in Hebrew is the word Shalom.   It means, “Taking what is broken and restoring it to wholeness”. It is a complete well-being-physical, psychological, social, and spiritual. It flows from all of one’s relationships being put right -with God, with(in), and with others. It signifies a sense of well-being and harmony both within and without - Completeness, wholeness, peace, health, welfare, safety, soundness, tranquility, prosperity, fullness, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord, a state of calm without anxiety or stress. Wow, I thought. I really do want this kind of peace, don’t you?

As I reflect on this past year, there are a lot of things I can give thanks to God because HE HAS brought this Shalom peace to our lives and for so many that we serve.  Our mission to help people impacted by disability find God, find a place of community, encounter belonging in the church community, and find that “shalom peace” so that they are not alone has remained at our center.  We continue to work on educating the church on how to do that and create spaces for families with disabilities in their lives to feel supported.  Our desire and ultimate goal is that there is a change in the culture that overflows to other churches in Peru and beyond. 

Let me tell you about Jared.  Jared is an 11-year-old boy who has autism. He has been attending our church since he was 4 years old.  He is nonverbal but understands everything. He often gets stuck when he needs to make a choice about something.  Jared often integrates with same age peers for worship and then comes to the specialized room for the bible lesson.  Recently though, our team has been trying to get him to stay with his peers of the same age for longer periods of time.  A few weeks ago, after worship, all the kids were asked to draw a picture of what Jesus might look like and then color the picture.  You could see all the kids eagerly drawing their pictures of Jesus, but Jared was frozen.   He just couldn’t figure out what to do.  His face presented with frustration and anguish in not being able to do what the others were doing.  Without even being prompted, another child noticed Jared’s anguish, came up to him and said, “don’t worry, come with me and we will draw Jesus together”!    WOW!!!!!!   Something so simple, so natural, and really what we desire for the entire church to imitate!!! It was a beautiful moment.  Including people with disabilities may seem difficult, however, like this child, he took the first step by noting the need that Jared had in this specific moment and offered a simple solution for that moment!!!

  I am just beginning to learn and understand the depth of this word Shalom. I will keep searching for Shalom by drawing nearer to the Prince of Peace himself,  even amidst the battles of life. For the families we serve, we dream of a day when all these families we get to serve like Jared will have fullness, harmony, wholeness, “SHALOM” in their lives because they first found acceptance and belonging in the local church.  As we wrap up this year, we thank you for your financial support to allow us to continue to do what God has called us to do.  If not for your donations, we would not be able to dedicate our lives full time to the ministry.  We thank you for believing in what we are doing and for your constant encouragement and support.

As you know as a missionary family, we receive 100% of our living expenses from your tax-deductible donations.  Like many, we have had increases in daily living expenses including rent, food, gas, and Kaleb’s schooling.  Our international health insurance has also increased by 20%. We are looking for new people to join our team so that we can cover our financial needs. We are looking to raise 700$ a month more in support in order to cover those increases. If you know of anyone who might be interested, please let us know so we can reach out to them.  Or if you feel led to make an extra end of the year donation that would also be greatly appreciated. 

 With love from our family to yours.

Clever, Lisa & Kaleb

  “Search for peace and work to maintain it.”  Psalm 34:14

Feeling like Christmas morning

Do you remember as a kid the excitement you felt on Christmas Eve waiting to unwrap the present you had been waiting for all year? And then opening it and feeling like it was the best day ever? We got to experience those same emotions last weekend when our church Camino de Vida celebrated its first ever Disability awareness Sunday!!!

This may seem like something normal to you all, but this is 11 years in the making here in Peru. 11 years of educating, advocating, and sharing stories.

Part of the team of volunteers who serve people with disabilities within the church.

Ps Taylor preaching.  The sermon was broadcasted live to the other campus so everyone received the same message.

“For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”

— Ephesians 2:10 NLT

All this being said, we know that like many amazing Christmas presents you might find out that the package says, “assembly required”. Extra time, sweat, maybe tears could be involved to get your present up and running. It is the same with this next step our church has taken. We ask for you continued prayers and support as we continue to develop new areas of need and refine the areas that are growing so that we can make the church more beautiful and complete.

The following are links to other videos that were shown in the church. Both are in Spanish. (Sorry we don’t have subtitles). The first one is the testimony of a family who finally after 20 years of not feeling that they belong in another church they felt seen, welcomed and loved with their daughter Carla. The second video is of a panel interview that Ps Taylor did with Clever, and I and 2 people with disabilities.
1. https://youtu.be/DXW3q3tzLzw?si=RvfMBAFOVG3sF7f7
2. https://youtu.be/8E4LcZpsKdo?si=2KRodTSs92ZItZrI

The welcome banner for Disability awareness Sunday!

The preparations leading up to the Sunday were many. We are grateful for the staff and volunteers who captured the videos and transmitted raw film into beautiful stories that transmit the heart of God and that of our church.

Not only did Ps Taylor speak about inclusion and acceptance from the pulpit using the story of the Good Samaritan, our kids ministry shared about the story of the great banquet and taught how everyone has a place in the kingdom of God.

Our team of volunteers served on Sunday as a point of contact for people who wanted to learn more, wanted to join a small group, or just needed to talk to someone. It was truly an impactful time. Everyone left with a gift of a pin that had the “I LOVE YOU” universal sign language sign.

We believe that bringing awareness to the church body and to other churches who see Camino de Vida as a model will help bridge the gap that we see in society. That we can begin to see each person as God sees them. As a perfect child of God created in His image and made with a unique purpose in life.

We thank you for your prayers and support over these years. We are grateful that you believe in what our mission is here and support us as we continue to help educate all that there is room at God’s table for everyone.

This video was to visualize that there are many people in our church with a disability and they have found a safe place in the church.

As missionaries, we do not receive any payment for our work here from the church. Our income is 100% based in the generosity of people like you. We thank you for your continued to support. If you know someone who wants to join our team so we can continue to do what we get to do, please have them reach out to us. With sincere gratitude.

Clever & Lisa

We are the church!!!!!

So then, while we (as individual believers) have the opportunity, let us do good to all people (not only being helpful, but also doing that which promotes their spiritual well-being), and especially (be a blessing) to those of the family of faith.

Galatians 6:10 AMP

This past week, we had the opportunity to go to a government residential facility for older adults who have no living relatives to care for them. That is where I met Gladys, and her story has brought me to tears many times since meeting her, because really, her story could happen anywhere in the world, most likely it does. For me, it was a wake up call as I asked myself so many times that day, “where is the church”?

You see, here, culturally most families care for their elderly family members between the family as best they can, but some people find them in a situation where there is no one to care for them. Maybe they never married or had kids, or maybe they outlived their family… Often. this is how they end up in a place like this.

When I met Gladys, she shared with me that she never married or had kids, but that her life was dedicated to the Lord and she spent most of her Sunday in church serving others and attending her church service and bible study. During the pandemic she fell and ended up in the hospital. With no one to care for her, she ended up in this residential facility, which has cared for her basic needs, food, a bed (in a room shared with 11 other women), clothing, but very little more. Really, when she went into this facility, she not only lost her ability to live an independent life, she lost almost everything else. No access to a phone, no privacy, not even the ability to chose what she wanted to watch on TV since there is just one for everyone. She also lost her church family and the things that she daily used to draw near to the Lord. No bible study, no worship music, no church. The only thing she has left is her personal relationship with the Lord who gives her strength and peace each day is what she told me. Of course this is great, but no person is meant to live life alone….

We talked about what she missed most and it was worshiping with others, and her church family. I asked if we could worship together as I looked for some songs on my phone. She chose “How Great Thou Art”. So there while other activities were happening around us, we sat and worshipped together. The first time in over 2 years she had worshipped with another believer. My heart broke. Wondering “where is the church?”!!! She shared that since this all happened in pandemic, she didn’t even know if her church was still there, and who was still alive etc….(here in Peru, most everything was still virtual until 2022.).

“Where is the church”? I kept asking….Then God spoke to me, WE are the church….We need to do something. So, we are searching for contacts to her church denomination to see if we can communicate with them. We also plan to have a connection with her personally as a family. And our church who has a program called “adopt a grandparent” will begin to make personal contact with her.

WE are the Church and WE can do something for people like Gladys whose family IS the church. The story may not be the same but I am sure that there are people where you are who also are feeling lonely and isolated. I encourage to you go out and find someone you too can be the church to. I am SO glad I took to the time to meet Gladys. To hear her story and hope that we can help her recover some of the things she has lost.

I don’t have a picture of Gladys that day.. But we plan to return soon so I can post one in a follow up.

Can you please be praying for Gladys? That she is able to re-connect with people she congregated with? That she can make new friends through our program. That she can feel loved by God in special ways that she knows is from our loving Father especially when she feels alone.

Thank you…Thank you for your support to allow us to care for the vulnerable people of Peru. It is our deepest desire to continue to serve here with people in vulnerable situations including those with disabilities and other needs. We can only do this because of the generosity of others who allow us to continue our work here.

10 years!!!

September 9, 2013

I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around the fact that TODAY I celebrate 10 years living in Peru!!! I’ve been reflecting on this picture at the airport with my parents, saying see ya later, with a lot of excitement but also a lot of unknowns. The only known fact was that God was with me and would guide me…..

I feel like there is so much to say.. So much to share of what I have learned over the past 10 years, so much to even update you all on the past 4 months since my last entry, yet the most important thing right now I can express is GRATITUDE.

I am thankful for every single person who has cheered me on from the very beginning of this journey, supported me (and now my family) financially, encouraged me, and pushed me to dig deeper in understanding what God had planned for me (us). Most of all, I thank God for the life He has designed for me. Often, I sit in awe to see the marvelous work He has done in me personally and the outpouring He has allowed me to give to others because of Him. I am grateful.

I have gone back to my old notes of what I shared in churches when I was being sent off 10 years ago….The same vision that God put in my heart then…HE has made much of it come true…and has given me an abundance of blessings along the way. What an honor and privilege to be the ones to be chosen to do such work. I am grateful.

Many have asked….what next? Our plan is to continue the work that has been started. But always open to what the Lord has for our future… Either way, our answer is still the same as it was 10 years ago…Our future is full of a lot of excitement and a lot of unknowns , and we know that God is with us, and will guide us.

Thank you for celebrating this milestone with me. God is good and faithful always.

10 years later…

The best is yet to come…

It's a jungle out there....

Recently, I was asked to look at a bunch of images and chose one that best described my life at the moment. I was drawn immediately to one that was similar to this image above. Deep jungle….incredible growth, a tree trunk where you can’t even see the branches or growth above, and no clear visible path to guide you…. As I reflected more, I thought about WHY I chose this. The truth is, we have had an incredible explosion of growth in our area of service here. One that was not expected, and not what we had envisioned for this year of 2023. But then I looked back on our last blog, at the end of the year and you know what the number ONE prayer request we had? It was for you all to pray for growth in the area of receiving people with disabilities in the church!!!!! WOW all I can say is…..GOD HEARD YOUR PRAYERS!!!! We are overwhelmed in seeing a direct answer to our prayer made just 4 months ago!!!! Thank you to each one of you for praying.

So much has happened in the last 4 months, but I’ll just be giving you the highlights. We definately would love to share more if anyone is interested in connecting over a zoom call.

In January and February we spent time building up, supporting and guiding the volunteers and leaders in each area of the children and youth ministries. We were able to provide a workshop for volunteers to help better understand and include people with disabilities into their services, and we have had a special ed teacher come in to our kids Sunday school classes to help teach us how to better connect with our kiddos while teaching about God’s love. Summer “officially” ended (even though we are still in temps of 90+) at the end of February with summer day camps for the children’s ministry and all the other youth ministries.

We were able to provide support for 2 children who needed 1 on 1 care during the summer camp which was 2 hours away from the church without parents present. It was a long day for all but the kids and the families were incredibly grateful for the opportunity that their child with special needs was able to participate.

In March we started off with a bang by providing a church wide training event to help volunteers better understand how to welcome people with disabilites into the church. It was a 3 hour long event with an attendance of over 100 people. At the end of the program, we extended an invitation to all to sign up for an 8 week intro class on sign language and training to serve people with disabilities. We are going into our 7th week with very positive results!!!! The desire of our Pastor is that we are able to provide at least 1 service each Sunday that will offer sign language interpretation. We are in the beginning stages of the formation/training of this team.

Hector

This is Hector. Hector is 23 years old and has a severe physical disability. We have known his parents Jimmy and Marissa for the past year, but just recently got to know Hector. We learned how Hector has a heart to pray for others despite HIS own limitations. He LOVES The LORD!!!!

We also learned that it is REALLY hard for him to attend church in person because his physical needs require him to stay seated in the wheelchair during transportation. That means the only way he is able to attend church is if

1. His parents walk from their home pushing him in his wheelchair to church. It is an hour and 15 minute walk one way. OR

2. An adapted taxi which allows him to sit in his chair which is very expensive to maintain on a weekly basis.

We really wanted Hector to experience a youth church service with others his age instead of being with his parents at the regular Sunday service. So a few weeks ago, we were able to organize the taxi to take him and his dad to his very first ever youth service. His dad was over come with gratitude and joy to be able to see his son with peers worshipping God. It was the first time that Jimmy could experience dropping off his son like any other parent.

We are in prayer for logistics in how we can make Hector’s visits to church a regular occurrence . Please join us in prayer for a solution.

On the Saturday before Palm Sunday, we resumed our church wide serve day. It is a day where the entire church is encouraged to serve the community, sharing God’s love. This was the first time in 3 years we have been able to serve the community in this way. We are so very thankful to be a part of this through the service of building and distributing wheelchairs. Here are just a few pictures of that day.

On a personal note, we also have a lot going on and ask for specific prayers.

1. Kaleb started 1st grade! He is already learning how to read!! We are delighted! Kaleb has been in school just 2 months and has already had 3 different viruses! Please pray he stays healthy the rest of the year!

2. Last month our landlords told us that they will not be renewing our contract for the apartment we JUST moved into in July. They have a family member who needs it so we will need to move out in June. Finding an apartment that fits our needs in a good location is like finding a needle in a haystack. But we know that HE has done it before and will do it again so we ask you to join us in believing for the best apartment for us to move into in June.

3. We are traveling to Costa Rica on a retreat with our missions agency TONIGHT. This is the first trip we will be taking as a family of 3 for rest, healing, and renewal. We are expectant of what God will do with our hearts in this time as we have many things to process that we have not yet been able to do. Will you join us in prayer for this time? We are asking also for specific prayers related to our vaccines (there is conflicting reports if we need yellow fever vaccine coming from Lima Peru), and also for our health, we have all been fighting something this past week or so. Please pray for traveling mercies as we will be departing Lima at 2am and arriving at panama for an hour layover at 5:30am. So basically we will have very little sleep.

4. We are coming to the US for the month of July!!!! We will be in Ohio, Michigan, Chicago. IL, and Charlotte NC. We would LOVE to see you!!!! Please email us so we can connect with you personally!!! And of course prayer for all the details to be in alignment. I’ll have my annual check up at Ohio State medical center-prayers appreciated that there are no surprises and it is an uneventful appointment.

Final thoughts….

We just wanted to thank each one of you for your support in prayer and financially. We could not do what we get to do here without your help. YOU are the ones who helped kids with special needs attend summer camp. YOU are the ones who helped Hector get to church. YOU are the ones who have given all the wheelchairs to those in need. YOU are the ones who are making it possible for the church to be inclusive to all disabilities. So that there is a place for every single person to feel welcomed and belong in a church. YOU are the one who is helping to change the culture and thoughts of Peruvians about people with disabilities. Thank YOU so much.

As missionaries we are not able to receive payment for any work we do here. It is only because of your generosity that we are able to continue to do what we are doing. Thank you for supporting us, for praying for us, and for believing in what God is doing through us.

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1Thessalonians 5:16-18

Bountiful harvest- a year end review

You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance Psalm 65:11 NLT

As we were preparing for Christmas this year, enjoying all the little things that make the holidays special, I began to reflect on where we all were last year, and how different our life and circumstances looked. There was so much uncertainty, and waiting. With a diagnosis of what looked metastatic, and having to travel alone to the US for a second opinion because we were still waiting for all the documents to process after Kaleb’s adoption, things were definatly not feeling merry and bright. One of the things that helped us through it all was God’s words telling us to TRUST HIM. So we did. On our hands and knees, we trusted HIM. And wow, all we can say is PRAISE GOD! We are so thankful for the work that God did this year both in our lives personally and in our area of service in Peru.

When I think of 2022 I think of the verse “You crown the year with a bountiful harvest; even the hard pathways overflow with abundance”. Psalm 65:11 NLT Even the HARD PATHWAYS overflow with ABUNDANCE….WOW…..My heart overflows with gratitude when I think of ALL the ways this verse is true and right for us. Last year at this very moment, had you told me this would be the end result of our 2022, I would not have believed it. This year was one of the hardest in our lives, but also one of the fullest, most abundant years in all of our lives. And the bountiful harvest? We have had SO MUCH!!!!! Many of you have followed our story. But we want to take time to highlight the big things because we really can’t believe all of this happened in 2022.

Would you join us in thanking God for the following?

1. For doing a miracle in my body. Turning the tumor into some rare BENIGN tumor. For the safe removal and the recovery process.

2. For freeing me of many fears that I had been struggling with all of my life.

3. For moving the mountain of paperwork and logistics to get Clever & Kaleb to the USA before my surgery.

4. For provision for ALL our needs.

5. For Kaleb becoming a US citizen

6. For the opportunity to connect with family and friends for an extended amount of time in the US. (don’t worry, if we didn’t make it to you, we are coming in July 2023 to connect specifically with you!)

7. For the opportunity that Kaleb and Clever had to experience life in the US.

8. For our return to Peru and reconnecting with friends and family and finding a great new place to live.

9. For Kaleb attending and graduating from Kindergarten at a Christian bilingual school in Peru.

10. For our return to FULL time IN PERSON service and an explosion of fruit from all the work that was done during the pandemic. (more details below)

Here are some amazing stats for the church Camino de Vida in the year 2022

*March 2022 Re-opened our Surco campus after 2 years of just online services.

*April 2022 Re-opened our Lince campus after 2 years of just online services. And re-opened all in person youth services.

*Maintaining both ONLINE and IN PERSON services.

*August 2022 KIDS Sunday school services returned to in person services AND online option.

*Over 5200 people received Jesus as their Savior in both online and in person services this year.

*We blessed over 20,000 kids with a present for Christmas this year.

*We gave over 500 people the gift of mobility with a free wheelchair.

*We welcomed back/received 3 short term mission teams this year after a 2 year hiatus.

*An online recording studio, a playground for the children before/after services, and an updated stage inside the auditorium were added.

SERVICE UPDATE

Wheelchairs

Clever, Lisa and Kaleb continue to serve in the area of the wheelchair distributions. This includes finding those who need a wheelchair, doing the proper vetting to see if they qualify, and then being part of the team who distributes them. Most of the distributions have been in Lima this year with plans in 2023 to travel out of Lima because the need is great throughout Peru. Kaleb participates with the wheelchair distributions every Saturday. He has become quite apt at building the chairs and helping to connect with the kids who come to receive their wheelchair. In November we received our first container of wheelchairs since before the Pandemic. We ask for prayer for the events in China (where the factory that manufactures the chair) to not impact further containers to arrive all around the world.

Disability

This area has grown this year from a seed to a flower to fruit…..We are overjoyed with the growth and the response from all sides to grow this area. Our desire is to help change the culture of the church to be more inclusive to people of all ages with all types of disabilities. We have spent this entire year training up volunteers, leaders, and building up a service area in each ministry that serves people with disabilites. At the beginning of December, we were able to provide a “THANK YOU” lunch for all the volunteers who serve others with disabilites in the church. It was a time to show our appreciation, but also motivate them for the work that is to come in 2023. Here are some updates and some beautiful stories that have personally impacted us.

Volunteer Thank You Lunch

KIDS (children’s Sunday school)

*We have a team of volunteers who adapts the regular Sunday school curriculum every week to meet the kids where they are so that they can learn about who Jesus is and his love for them.

We offer an adapted Sunday school curriculum for both of our 2 in person locations (5 different services) and our ONLINE service (2 different services).

*We finally have our own entrance into the room where we serve our kiddos who are not yet able to integrate into their classroom full time.

*We have successfully integrated 7 kiddos into their regular aged classroom with support as needed

*8 children with disabilities were able to participate with their peers on stage for a Christmas performance the final Sunday before Christmas. This was super special since many of these kids have never been able to participate in something like this before. One mom was so surprised to see her son participate tears streamed down her face with joy.

Get Up (youth services)

*The transition from online to in person services was made in March 2022

* There are about 12 teens identified with needing our support during the services.

*One of the best moments in GetUp was seeing Jonathon invite his friends from school to church and then each weeks see a different friend raise his/her hand to receive Jesus into their heart.

Central (college aged-young adults)

* In Central there are 4 young adults with disabilites who are attending 1 on 1 or small groups online. While challenges such as distance from the church, living out of Lima, or social anxiety have caused it to be difficult for this age group to attend in person, we are thrilled with the growth each person has made over this past year.

*2 of the volunteers have been able to meet with 2 of the young adults outside of their small group online time for a face to face meet. Below you can see a picture of Daphne with her friend Keika and Efrain with his friend Andres. Both in their first in person meet.

Punto (young professionals)

*We were able to close the year celebrating with the first in person service attendance of our beloved Ximena. Her family has been waiting for the day when she would make the decision to transition from online to in person services. It was a celebration for all who were a part. It was a joy and a pleasure to have her surrounded by a community of people who received her well and without discrimination!!! We are excited to receive Ximena and other peers in her age range in 2023 in the church.

*One more impactful thing we want to share is that the young professional ministry chose to serve a school with kids with moderate to severe disabilites for their year end service opportunity. There were 150 young professional volunteers from our church who came together to serve 50 children. They played games with the kids, shared the message of Jesus’ birth through a simple bible skit, and even shared a personal message with their parents to encourage them. We hope to continue to serve in this way both in and outside the church in the next year. Please see some pictures of both Ximena and the outreach.

Families small group with curriculum

*We were finally able to launch our first small group with curriculum for parents with kids with disabilites. We had over 20 families registered and 4 couples who led the families (who also are parents with kids with disabilites). The results were wonderful and the desire for these families to continue to grow and remain in community is evident. Next year we plan to add 2 more series so that we will have a full year of curriculum to help support these families.

*One personal testimony from one of the leaders shared that many of the parents who entered her group are just in the beginning of their journey navigating disability with their child who has just recently diagnosed. Many are grateful for a safe place where each can share their stories, concerns, fears, etc with others who are like minded with an eternal perspective. This group and curriculum is giving hope to those who have been feeling lost in the sea of this new journey.

ONE FINAL PRAYER REQUEST

Maybe you don’t know, but Peru has been in a state of political unrest. I will not go into details as you can find sources online for details, but we have been put back into a state of emergency until mid January due to this. There have been riots, destruction and death. Please pray for peace, protection, safety, and overall wisdom.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Sorry this is so ummm abundant (lengthy) but there is so much to PRAISE GOD for in this year. We don’t know what this next year will hold for us as a family, and in our service area,- we have many plans and dreams of new things for 2023 and know that whatever will come of them will be from God. But we ask you to join us in prayer for growth. For more people to feel welcomed into the church. For more volunteers to serve. And overall for the culture to change to include all.

Yes, God is more than ready to overwhelm you with every form of grace, so that you will have more than enough of everything-every moment and in every way. He will make you overflow with abundance in every good thing you do. 2 Corinthians 9:8 TPT

Thank you for believing in us. For staying with us during one of the most difficult years. For praying for us and supporting us in the most special ways. We are beyond grateful. We are blessed by each one of you who are part of our support team and we could not continue to do what we are doing without you.

If you haven’t already and would consider giving a year end gift, we would greatly appreciate it. The end of the year gifts help us out on the months when the financial support income is low. As you know as missionaries, we do not have any other income other than what we receive. We are thankful for your generosity even in hard times when all expenses everywhere in the world is soaring.

Thank you all for this amazing year. We know that 2023 will be even better, reaching more lives for Jesus.

God ALWAYS keeps his promises!

So now wrap your heart tightly around the hope that lives within us, knowing that God always keeps his promises! Discover creative ways to encourage others and to motivate them toward acts of compassion, doing beautiful works as expressions of love. Hebrews 10:23-24 TPT

HEALED

Last year, at this exact moment, I was in the ER in extreme neck pain. It was the first of MANY many medical appointments I would have, unknowingly. A few days before this event, I was on my daily prayer walk at 5:30am. Thanking God for his goodness that we FINALLY were done with all stress of adoption stuff and things were finally starting to open up from being closed from COVID. I remember thanking God for helping me stay strong in it all. Then, I heard Him say, “The trials are not over yet. Can you stay strong? I’ll be with you.” I HAD NO IDEA what that was all about. I didn’t want to know honestly. But I said “YES”. Then, I forgot all about that conversation with the Lord (mostly because I didn’t want it to be true), but also because I was so expectant of what the year to come would look like as we finally closed the long adoption process with our sweet boy. As I sit here today on the 1 year of when this really hard year happened, I can see SO MANY of the promises that God made to me completed and all I can say is THANK YOU! The promise that He was with me through it all, that He would provide for us, move mountains, make us a family, take away my fears, and doing a miracle in me-healing me. This picture was taken 3 days ago at the top of a mountain that I was unsure I would ever be able to climb again. As I sit here today reflecting on this really hard year, I can surely tell you that I have never seen a more present and loving God in my life and I would not take a single moment away from it all.

I want to share with you another promise that God gave me 10 years ago. One that continues to grow in fruit. One that exceeds my original vision because really, God is the designer of this vision and His ways are always better than mine. Now, it has grown into OUR vision. Ours meaning, Clever, myself, and the local church. WOW….

As you know we have been intentionally expanding our ability to receive people with disabilities in the church. First in the area of children’s ministry for the past 7 years. Now, we have volunteer support and identified need in 5 ministries in the church! Our vision and goal is big! We don’t only want to have a church that just includes people with disabilities. We want to change the culture completely to have an inclusive attitude and heart in all areas of the church. Will you pray for the church to receive this with open arms. Will you pray for more volunteers to catch the vision and run alongside us with this?

To date here are some facts for you.

Kids Ministry: receives an average of 20 children with various disabilities in 2 in person church campuses and 1 online campus. Our goal is to help children integrate with their same age peers with support, and also provide a safe/adapted space for those who need extra support to successfully participate in the Sunday School class. See pics below. We adapt the curriculum that the rest of the age groups are learning so that it is easier for each child to learn about Jesus.

Youth Ministry-GETUP: Receives an average of 6 teens with disabilities every Saturday. See 2 pictures below of our most recent services!

College Ministry-CENTRAL: Currently has 3 people in person and 2 small groups online with young adults with disabilities participating. See the last picture in the bottom right. This is a group of college aged students in a “small group” outing, who understand what it like to to truly receive and include.

Young Professionals Ministry-PUNTO: Receives 4 young adults in person and has a small group online with others as well.

Families Ministry: Has 4 active small groups with 15 families led by parents with kids with disabilites. The small groups are designed for families with children with disabilities and are a curriculum based small group.

Can I share with you ANOTHER promise of provision that God has provided through all of you? Remember a few months ago, we sent out a request of a need for a private entrance/exit for our Kids Sunday school room/therapy room? Well, ask and you shall receive!!!! Thanks to the generosity of all of you, we finally have the door installed and working! It was incredible to be able to receive families calmly and without worrying about sharing the space with all the babies who were in the room next door. Below are some pictures of the work in progress…They will put the final touches on the outside and inside walls this week! Thank YOU ALL so so much for your generosity to make this a reality. We are so very grateful.

Of course as you all know, we continue to serve people with disabilities in the community by giving the gift of mobility through Free Wheelchair Mission. Last week we FINALLY received our first container of wheelchairs since before the pandemic!!!! We are so grateful for this container because many have been waiting on their wheelchair. This past weekend, our niece Cassidy came for a visit and we were able to participate together, building and giving out some wheelchairs to a few kids. Check out the pictures below.

Last but not least, a quick update on us personally. All 3 of us have celebrated another year of life. We are grateful for how we were able to celebrate our birthdays each one of us individually in the way we liked. Of course the biggest celebration was Kaleb’s. On his 6th birthday we invited his entire Kindergarten class plus church friends to participate in a soccer/lego party in the park with his entire class!!!

As we close this update, we want to thank all of you. For your prayers and support financially. We know that all this fruit that we are seeing is because you believe in what we are doing and are helping us to keep moving forward. We pray that in these last 2 months of 2022 you feel God’s presence and love in your lives. We pray that you too see the goodness of His promises kept and know that if you are still waiting, that HE is always faithful.

We appreciate your prayers as we close this year out. Like many, the holiday rush can feel overwhelming at times. We pray that we can close this year with the celebration of our Jesus at the center, and peace in our hearts knowing that next year will be even more fruitful than this past year.

The Lord bless you and keep you, The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-25

update

Greetings friends!!!! Here is an update since our last blog!!! A lot is happening!!

2 weeks ago Peru celebrated Dia de Nino-”Kid’s day”!  The church opened their doors to the first in person event since 2019!  The church had a special program for kids in all of their morning services.  There was music, a show, and even a small gift along with cotton candy and popcorn when they left!  It was officially the launch of our kids Sunday school program returning to in person after 2 years and 5 months.  The attendance for that Sunday in both of our campuses was 1331 kids and their families!!!  Can you believe that!!!!!  Wow!!! A lot of people attend who are invited to the church for the first time.  For our special needs volunteer team, it was an opportunity to make a first connection in person with some of the families who came to CDV during the pandemic!  Many of these families AND volunteers never experienced an in person service for Kids day since they arrived at CDV during the pandemic and participated in virtual Sunday school/church.   It was a really wonderful way to launch our re-opening.  

This past Sunday-August 28th was the church’s first official Sunday where kids were checked into their classes and parents were able to attend the service.  It was a VERY EXCITING day!  Approximately 500 kids attended the 2 campuses!  That is A LOT of kids!!  Before the pandemic we averaged 800 kids over 6 campuses on a regular Sunday!  We are excited by these statistics and the church is now evaluating if we need to open more services at another campus sooner than later!!!.  

For the special needs area-there were a few kids who attended before the pandemic and connected online.   It was really wonderful to see them in person, see how much they have grown, and hug them and their families.  The surprise was that there were a lot of NEW families who brought their kids with special needs!  And were very open about needing help.  This is a huge shift from before the pandemic.  This past weekend we received 12 children in the 2 in person campuses and 3 children online.  We know that there are also a few children who will begin attending in September that were not in attendance this past Sunday.  So, we are excited to see that there is a need!  

We want to share a little more about the structure of the 2 campuses and our setup to receive children with special needs.  

First of all our desire and goal is that each child is able to participate in the regular classroom with/without support. However, we also realized that there are some children who need extra support, an adapted curriculum, and a different environment to learn.  In one of our locations we were given a room for the first time in 7 years! As many of you may know this room will serve as the special needs area on Sundays and then during the week as a therapy room.  The other campus does not have a designated space due to lack of rooms, so the special needs team needs to share with another classroom group which can be both positive and challenging depending on the needs of the child. We are praying that this will change as the need grows. 

I want to share a story about the success of this room in just this first Sunday and how needed this room is for our kiddos.  A new family contacted us through the families ministry.  The parents have been attending all the small group marriage classes with other families with special needs.  They were told there was a space for their children in the children’s ministry.  They were shocked and skeptical based on previous experiences in other places but they were desperate to try again.  This family has 2 boys with autism. The mom explained that she was unsure about bringing her older son  (who is over 5 feet tall and pretty strong) because he had regressed during the pandemic and new behaviors have gotten worse.  The biggest one being running away….We encouraged her to bring him. We explained that we have an incredible team of volunteers,  a room with a door that will help keep him safe along with many multi-sensory equipment to help him stay calm and engaged with the volunteers.  She and her husband were very nervous.  But they brought their kids.  They dropped them off to our volunteers after seeing the space.  She texted the lead volunteer many times through the 1 hour service to be sure that they were ok, expecting us to ask her to come get the boys because they were too much.  The truth is that the boys WERE A LOT of work but we are so very happy to get to be a part of their lives.  The older one DID try to escape through the window and the door many times. But because we had a safe space, he was able to calm down and participate with the volunteers in the space especially designed for him.  After the service was over, the boys were safely returned to their family. The look of amazement and words of gratitude was evident in both parents.  They explained they have never experienced this before in a church here and are beyond grateful.  As we get to know these boys and the other kids that need this space we will be able to tailor the adapted curriculum for them to learn more about God’s love for them.  We are excited and encouraged by this story.  We know there are many more families who need to experience this type of unconditional love.  We are grateful for this opportunity.

PRAYERS & NEEDS

Other than needing a similar space at the second location (please join us in praying for this), we also have determined that we need a private entrance/exit that is also wheelchair accessible for the special needs room at the main campus as we mentioned in our last blog update. Currently, this room has a shared entrance with the area of babies ages 3 months-2 years old. So, every child with special needs and their volunteer needs to pass through the baby room to enter and exit the special needs area.   For the short term, we will make this work, however we feel that there needs to be a private entrance/exit specifically for quick and direct access for the parents and for the overall safety of everyone sharing the space. 

The cost of this project is 10,900 soles. In USD that averages out to be $2809.00.   We currently have received $600.00 for this special project thanks to the generosity of all of you!!!  Those of you who have not yet donated but are thinking about it, would you please prayerfully consider helping us reach this goal so we can begin the work on this door as soon as possible?

Ways to Give:

1. Donate to CDV Life Missions  at https://caminodevida.com/lifemissions/ select Give, make a donation, and chose offering- KIDS HD-Lisa Alfonsi/Clever Sobrino

2.  Donate to TAP (The Antioch Partners) our mission agency who sent us to Peru. Please put Alfonsi-Sobrino support special needs room project in memo.   line.https://secure.qgiv.com/for/TheAntiochPartners/restriction/PartnerSupport/AlfonsiLisaandSobrinoClever

Please feel free to contact us if you have questions. If you decide to donate please can you let us know how much you are donating so we can let the people who receive donations know that it is coming. 

Please feel free to contact us at lalfonsi@caminodevida.com Thank you SO much! 

God Bless,

Clever, Lisa, Kaleb and CDV!!!      

  * pictures above are of the kiddos from this past weekend both in the special needs room and also 1 in the location without the room in a shared space. 

Back to Peru excitement!!!

Greetings everyone, it has been A LONG TIME since we have updated our blog. Most of you know that there has been some major life events that came up over the past 8 months that has been part of the reason for the lack of updates. Trust me though when I say that the lack of updates does not reflect in a lack of incredible ways that God has showed up in our lives over and over and over. Someday soon, I would like to share more about what God did over these past 8 months, but that is for another post…. For now, we want to share with you some really exciting things that have happened over the past month since we have been back in Peru.

This Tuesday was Kaleb’s first day of Kindergarten here in Peru. It was a really wonderful day that we have all been waiting for! When I woke him up at 6:30am, he jumped out of bed and said, “YAY”!!! Do you remember those first day of school feelings? A new year, some familiarity, but a fresh start. In most cases, we grew physically and emotionally during that break. The days leading up to the first day were filled with excitement, a little nerves, and a whole lot of expectation for what was to come... When we boarded our plane to return to Peru on July 7th, that is how we felt. We were coming back to our Peru where we call home after being gone for 7 months. Change and growth had taken place in us, in the Peru that we left, and in the church Camino de Vida and we are so excited to share it all with you!

Personal Life:

In the past month, we have moved into a new apartment and new neighborhood. We have been able to re-connect with family and friends we haven’t seen over the past 7 months. We are thankful to still be near dear friends who also have kids that Kaleb can play with and that we can do life with. We are incredibly grateful for those who helped us move into our new place! We enrolled and had Kaleb start Kindergarten. We already received 5 birthday party invitations just for the month of August!!! We attended our first in person church service in Camino de Vida since March 2020!!! I cant tell you HOW GOOD it feels to be HOME?!!! There hasn’t been a service yet that I have left there with a dry face. We have resumed all our medical checkups that have been on hold for the past 7 months and I have begun PT. And we have been able to re-integrate into our service areas both in person and online.

Camino de Vida Church:

As mentioned, Camino de Vida returned to in person church services while also maintaining online services. Many of the ministries and programs have created a hybrid of services in both in person and online.

The children’s ministry will begin in person services at the end of August and will keep online services as well. We were able to participate in the volunteer meeting for the children’s ministry that has not met in person since 2019!!! It was so wonderful to hug people after such a long time serving virtually. We are excited for the re-opening that will happen end of August.

The youth and young adult services returned to in person services 2 months ago; and maintain online services as well. This also includes an area of volunteers who connect and support people with disabilities who attend services.

The return to receiving mission teams has also began again! We had the pleasure of being able to serve alongside a mission team who was here the second week we arrived. And our outreach team has really never stopped during the pandemic but now there are more open opportunities for others to serve as well.

I know that we have been working all this time during the pandemic, but to me it seems like this return to in person has been a new awakening and a fresh breath of new life for the future and it is so exciting. So let me tell you about a few really big things that have happened and are in the midst of happening during this last month.

Before we go into the details about what’s new, can we share with you a very special story that we got to be a part of.

Madeline is a bright and beautiful 20 year old young lady with special needs who also happens to be the daughter of very dear friends of ours. She LOVES to be social with familiar people and a lot of times has a gift of finding people who she connects with. Over the past years before the pandemic, she became friends with another young lady named Daniela (a bit older than Madeline and worked as a lawyer in Lima). Then the pandemic hit and everyone was isolated. However, in May 2020 we helped to form a small group with a few volunteers and a few young ladies all who were teens at the time and have special needs. The name of the group….Extraordinary moments. Daniela was invited to be Madeline’s buddy and form part of this small group (virtually of course). For 2 years, Daniela and Madeline stayed connected online-and even stayed friends when Madeline and her family moved to the US. Last year Daniela was chosen to lead the special needs area in the junior high youth group. With her leadership, the area has grown tremendously. 2 weeks ago we received a video call from Daniela telling us that she feels so passionate about improving the rights of people with disabilities in Peru that she has decided to return to college to study public policy specifically for disabilities. She shared with us that she has found her purpose in how to connect her profession to support people with disabilities!!! Wow! All we could say was wow! Thank you God. What an honor it has been to be able to see how Madeline- being her wonderful self has inspired Daniela to do more for disability rights in Peru in the future!!!!

Service area:

So what are we doing now? What are the future plans?

1. We will continue to participate in the wheelchair distributions. We continue to deliver wheelchairs weekly at the church. We are excited about the next container arrival of wheelchairs that is expected to be here in September!! We are beginning to plan trainingings to help re-certify people who have been out of practice and want to continue to participate in the team of volunteers.

2. We continue to coordinate and help mentor the scholarship recipients of the LSEE scholarship.

3. We have already been able to serve alongside a mission team from a church in the US who came down the end of July to serve. They had a heart for children with disabilities so we were able to help them give a workshop to parents at a local special needs school while their children were cared for by volunteers! Many of the moms were surprised that we wanted to care for their children while they listened to the workshop. Lunch was provided and each child left with a special gift. In total 38 parents attended and 16 of them prayed the prayer of salvation!!! This same team also helped give out 5 wheelchairs to children in need of the gift of mobility and they also helped to pack up the therapy room in one of our church locations because it will be sold soon. (See pictures above)

4. The BIGGEST news!!!

   If you are wondering where the therapy room will be relocated to, I will tell you for a few months, we didn’t know either! There were many times where we wondered if this was a door closing. However, little did we know what was to come. Just before we came back to Peru we found out some really incredible news. Our children’s pastor Chana, requested more space in our main campus to use for the children’s ministry. Within that space included a room specifically for kids with special needs who are not able to be included into the regular classroom!!!! In the past, we had made due with a small space in a corner. All the age groups for the ministry were super pressed for space, so we took what we could and made it work. We dreamed of one day having a room where we could better serve these kiddos AND help them to learn about God’s love through adapted lessons. We are so happy to announce that NOW that special room will be used on the weekends as room for kids with special needs; AND during the week will function as the therapy room!!!! It seems like both areas close to our heart have collided and we could not be happier! As I write this, I just can not thank GOD enough for his GOODNESS!!! It is far better than we ever imagined! The wonderful thing is that we can receive these children and their families into the church, and offer support for therapy as well as connect them to the other supports that our church offers including the small group curriculum for parents with special needs that will launch in September!!! This is something that is not offered anywhere else in Peru that we know of so we are incredibly thankful. The dream is to not only provide occupational therapy but also physical and speech therapy. We will share more in the future as things develop regarding other therapies.

What do we need now you might be asking?

You may not remember but I announced in December that the main church building that has been rented out for the past 22 years was finally able to be purchased by the church!!! Praise GOD!!! That means, we don’t need to act like a mobile church site anymore which is how we are able to have the therapy room there and can actually have everything set up for the special needs service on the weekends!! That being said, the mortgage has doubled what the rent was in price each month. So, having all the supplies for the therapy room to be used for the special needs Sunday school is a huge win! But there is one big need that we are looking for help to make happen.

In order to have a room on ground level where there is no steps to enter, we will be sharing an area with other small aged children that has 4 rooms in it. All the rooms have 1 main door to enter (see pics below) and need to pass through a room to get to ours. For the safety and accessibility of the children we serve, we have asked for a door and personal entrance to be installed. We have already gotten an estimate of this door and the labor costs. It will be 10,900 soles.. In USD that averages out to be 2809$ .

As you know, as missionaries we do not receive a salary here in Peru so we can’t just work more to get the money. Our earnings are received solely on the generosity of people like you who believe in what we are doing. We are grateful for your personal support and ask for you to please prayerfully consider making a one time additional donation for this special project to install a door. This donation would 100% go to the door expense. If you are interested in being a part of this, please contact me privately OR leave a message for me to contact you in order to share how you can make a donation through the churches non profit organization in the US. Your donation will be tax deductible. Thank you SO much for considering.

• Notes about the pics. The first row of pictures shows the old therapy room and the space where we had our special needs area in one of our mobile church locations. The second row is the room we get to use now-first full of stuff and the last is the most recent having been painted. The other 2 pictures of windows and doors shows how we will have a door to replace the windows that will allow us to have our own entrance and exit instead of using the main door pictured as well.

• Thank you everyone! For your prayers and support. We are grateful and excited about the future projects we get to be a part of here in Peru.
  

Will you trust me?

“Will you trust me? “ It seems to be a resounding theme in our lives. It makes me think of Mary when she was told she would be pregnant with Jesus. It seemed that she was being asked by God, “will you trust me?” And then another example is when Peter wanted to walk on water to go to Jesus. Again the question “will you trust me?” There are so many stories in the bible where this question seems to be the theme. So of course, why not us?

Every year on my birthday, I choose a word that is given to me by God to be my theme for the year. Usually throughout the year, things are revealed to me related to that word and then by my next birthday, it is more clear what I have learned over the year. I just celebrated my birthday in October, and had the opportunity to reflect upon the past year of my life and my word. It was ATTITUDE. Now you may be thinking that is a weird word. But to me it was something that I had to discipline myself to be very intentional about. When I say attitude, I mean, what was my internal dialogue saying about things I was experiencing and thinking. Was I reacting with an attitude of gratitude and hope from God ? Was I taking every thought captive; allowing only the good and positive things to ruminate in my mind and heart? Or was I allowing the pattern of stinking thinking to stay and take up residence in me? Every day that I could in this past year, I disciplined myself to go for a walk in the early morning, and declare over myself those things. It made a radical change in me. In my thought patterns. In my trust in God. It gave me power over my thoughts that I used to think had control over me.

On my birthday this year, I reflected on this past year of growth and thanked God for His good work in me. Then He gave me my words for this year of life. They are “REST, REJOICE, and REVIVE.” I thought, “ok God, I’m finally going to get to rest from all these tiring years. We can finally rest and rejoice”. Yet, what I didn’t know was that maybe the “rest” I am thinking may not be so much a physical rest, but a spiritual “rest” or “trust” in HIM for this next journey in life. I really like Psalms 23:2 in The Passion Translation version.

He offers a resting place for me in his luxurious love. His tracks take me to an oasis of peace near the quiet brook of bliss. Psalms 23:2 TPT

While I am just 2 months into these new words, I am sure that what he taught me last year about my attitude has been in preparation for this new year for me. And I am sure that with these new words, God is teaching me a new thing that will surely draw me even closer to Him.

If I could challenge you in just one thing for this new year that is upon us…Will you ask God for a word for yourself for 2022? And then be attentive to what He wants to teach you.

Ministry update and recap for 2021

Just the other day, I was talking to a friend about 2021. It was an interesting year to say the least. The first half of the year, while the US began to open up more, Peru stayed in pretty strict rules. We continued to wear double masks and sometimes a face shield to go into a grocery store. We had our second full year of all online school for Kaleb. And our service roles continued to be mainly online serving in the areas of disability in our perspective areas . Nearing the 2nd half of 2021 things started to open up a bit more and in November there was in person services that began in our main campus by reservation!!!

The biggest news of all for Camino de Vida came just before Christmas, when Pastor Robert announced that after 20 years of renting the main church location, it has been purchased to be our forever church HOME!!! Isn’t that just amazing!!! During a pandemic no less… The provision came so that we could have a physical church building!!! Below are a few more things to celebrate and thank God for in this past year of 2021!

*Even in our second FULL year of online services, the number of people who connect to our online services averages about 14, 000 people weekly.

*We have had 11, 601 people participating in online small groups!

* We have reached 13, 307 children in Lima and the provinces of Peru this Christmas with a small gift while sharing the message of Jesus Christ.

*we have served approximately 160,000 people through our outreach ministry this year by giving tangible gifts of food, provisions, and sharing God’s love with them. This also includes wheelchairs.

* We have given 500 wheelchairs to those who are in need of the gift of mobility.

*Approximately 1100 people made the decision to follow Jesus in our online church services!

These are just a few of the highlights that we get to be a part of as we serve under the church.

As mentioned above, we have given 500 wheelchairs away this year. Clever is part of the team who finds potential people in need and then distributes the wheelchairs each Saturday. Our hope is that in 2022 we will be able to return to deliver more wheelchairs throughout other parts of Peru.

Clever and Lisa continue to be a part of the team that helps find, connect, and mentor people who are recipients of the LSEE scholarships. (Laurie Schoendorfer Endowment for Education). Since its beginnings there has been 6 students who have benefited from these scholarships. Including one student who received his initial scholarship for a small technical course that has now turned into a scholarship at a university.

Lisa and Clever as a team have provided various workshops about disability awareness to the church staff and main volunteers. Over 200+ people.

We also provided this same workshop to the various ministries including the children’s ministry, youth ministry, young adult ministry, young professional ministry and the families ministry. We have also provided a more in depth training (which is ongoing) for all these ministries so that they can have their own area within each ministry that specifically receives people with disabilities into their perspective ministry areas. While the young adult and young professional ministries are still in early stages of development, the Youth and Children’s ministry areas have grown and flourished. Below is a short story of how incredible the youth ministry has been for teens with disabilities who have now for the very first time been included…

In the last quarter of the year in the youth ministry called Get UP, there were approximately 10 teens identified with disabilities. From those ten, 6 of them participated in small groups according to their abilities (included or in a unique small group). A few of them were able to be fully included with volunteer support in larger services including prayer group and then the much larger church service (online) with all peers. One teen named Maria Paz prayed for the first time in front of others. She was nervous, and her peers were so patient as they encouraged her to pray. At another group time, another girl named Luciana shared that she got a new puppy and showed it to all the other teens in the group. Everyone was so excited for her that they all ended the prayer time with a picture with their pets! This may seem like trivial things to an average person, but for these girls to receive the support and love from their peers in this way is something that they don’t normally receive in the secular world. The church truly is a light for all… so it is important that we make room for everyone to be a part. We are so excited to see what 2022 brings. There is so much growth and potential to be had in this area. we are so thankful to be able to get to be a part of this.

Luciana at the far upper right corner.

We have also helped to develop, a small group curriculum for parents with kids with special needs that will be launched in March 2022. We know that this will be a support to families both at our church and hopefully elsewhere. Something like this does not exist anywhere else in Peru that we know of. So pray it will be a blessing to many. We hope that there will be more to follow after this one launches.

Of course we can’t end this 2021 review without thanking God for His goodness and celebrating the biggest news of our lives up to this point. We finally were able to finalize Kaleb’s adoption just in time to celebrate his 5th birthday with our legal last names!

We are expectant of what 2022 brings both in our family/personal lives as well as our service areas. We know now more than ever that our work in Peru is not finished. We are finally seeing fruit form years of building up trust and teams of volunteers to continue to grow in this area of inclusion for all people with disabilities. Thank you for the opportunity to continue to support us as we continue on God’s mission. While none of us know what 2022 holds, we do know who does know and we can confidently give our YES to Him when He asks us, “Will you trust me"?

Thank you for your support this past year, in prayer and financially. We thank you for your friendship and faithfulness, and above all your belief in what we get to do in Peru for people with disabilities at Camino de Vida.

“May the Lord bless you and protect you.

May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you.

May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.” Numbers 6:24-26 NLT

What we have gained....

I have sat down many times to write this Blog…Actually I started this in July!!! Now it is September and I can hardly believe that I just saw something that said its only 100 days til Christmas!!! Wow!!! Let’s just say, we have been busy and we FINALLY want to share all that has been going on. But first some reflective thoughts from me!

Last week, I got an unexpected surprise!! Something I was not expecting to receive which made it all the sweeter. With all the restrictions we have not been able to return to the orphanage that we have spent so much of our time at. But last week, I got the best gift! I got to go visit to drop off a donated Mic-key button feeding tube that was brought to Peru in just the right time for one of the kiddos. It was a short visit; and I didn’t get to see all the kids. But, I did see many who I have wondered about and prayed for all this time, not knowing the well being of them during this time of pandemic. I really don’t have the words to describe how my heart felt, to see them all. It was like coming home. And when I left there, I noted a fullness in my heart that has been a bit empty for sometime. I am so THANKFUL to God for this special gift.

I’ll be honest, my focus has been a bit off lately. I have been focused on all the things we have lost this past year and 6 months. What we continue to lose….We can all name the things that are global and those that are personal to each one of us. The list is sometimes so unbearable to mention all of it. But I am here to tell you of all the things we have gained in this time.

Every moment we WAIT for this adoption to come through, WE GAIN one more day to build a lifelong bond.

Every moment we SPEND on Zoom calls/video chats , WE GAIN another form to be connected despite restrictions, distance and other factors.

Every argument, conversation, discussion we have had as spouses, WE GAIN unity, intimacy, and understanding.

Every moment we have spent in virtual Church, WE GAIN the ability to get to know each volunteer and person with special needs and their parents SO MUCH more .

Every moment we find ourselves without answers is an opportunity TO GAIN God’s strength, wisdom and guidance.

Today, I gained a new appreciation for the simplicity of a visit…What have you gained in this last 18 months? Truly, I continue to reflect and be grateful for all that I have personally and as a church body have gained in the midst of so much loss.

Things that we have celebrated over the past 6 months…

Clever’s birthday

Lisa’s 8 years living in Peru

We have been able to get out and explore a bit more of nature since restrictions have lessened a little.

Kaleb celebrated with many others in Peru National KIDS DAY in August.

Kaleb now knows how to write his name and all the other letters of the alphabet, he is learning letter sounds, and many more things in both languages!

We want to share with you what has been going on with our work here and our personal lives. We apologize for the long gap in time between our writings. Life has been incredibly busy in a good way and there just doesn’t seem to be enough hours in a day to get all that needs to be done completed. We thank you for your patience with us, and for your continued support financially and in prayer . These are challenging times but we know that we continue to be where God wants us to be.

Service Area updates:

Our church and 90% of the activities related to church continue to be online. However as of just last week there is a plan to return to in person services at a very low capacity while simultaneously providing 7 online services. We are extremely excited about this considering we have not worshiped or congregated with others since March 2020!

While there is a slow plan to return to in person services and activities, the exception is our outreach ministries that has not stopped serving the people in Peru throughout this pandemic meeting real needs including, food, water, and other provisions. Our team has also started a virtual library for 2 districts where our kids club is hosted for children in vulnerable areas. They will start serving this area on Sundays so that the kids can participate in our small groups online that we currently offer.

Distribution of wheelchairs is also in this area of service and continues to be a weekly event where 10-15 wheelchairs are distributed to those in need in Lima. We pray that soon there will be a way for a few of our team to travel to provide for the need of mobility in other parts of Peru.

In August, we celebrated international kids day (like mother’s day or father’s day) by distributing 10 wheelchairs to kids! It was a really special day because it was the first time since the pandemic started that we were able to serve as a family!!! (see pictures) We took a picture in 2018 of our family giving out wheelchairs and recreated the picture to show you all how much our Kaleb has grown! It was a really wonderful day. Many of the parents cried with gratitude for the love we poured out on them especially during this time.

Along with our already defined service areas of wheelchair distributions, kids special needs area, and coordinating the scholarships for people with disabilities; we spent the past few months training all the staff and volunteers of the church on disability awareness under the direction of our Pastors Robert and Karyn Barriger.

a. We have provided virtual sensibility workshops throughout the entire Camino de Vida church for church leaders, pastors and volunteers. In total we have given 15 separate 2 hour online workshops. 

b. We are providing in depth training on how to include people with disabilities in the church in each ministry area. Teens, College age, and Young professionals, family and children’s ministry. Currently the teens ministry has 6 volunteers and 10 teens with disabilities already participating in online services and will soon be participating in small groups that are specialized according to their level of function.

c. We are helping to develop a small group curriculum 24 sessions ( 3 separate 8 week classes) for parents of kids with special needs. We are so thankful for the team who is helping to make this happen and more excited that our families at CDV and maybe even beyond will benefit from this material that does NOT exist anywhere else in this format in PERU.

Our goals for the remainder of this year 2021 and early 2022 will be to fully train and support all ministries, pastors, and volunteers within the church in order to be a more inclusive church in all areas of the church. To help them receive and support families with family members with a disability in all areas of the church in the same form. We pray that this will be both online as it is now, but also in person when the church reopens to in person services in the future.

Personal Update:

Parallel to all the trainings we have given, we are also participating in various workshops, evaluations, etc for the adoption process. The best news is that by the end of September (Lord willing) all of the processes on our part will finally be over and according to the adoptions office here, we should get our YES in the end of OCTOBER 2021!!! Will you join us in prayer that it is so? Once we get the adoption finalized and all the documents are given to us, we will begin the task of filing for his Peruvian passport and begin the process for US nationality. We hope to be in the US by early 2022 and hope to be able to visit many of you in person as we wait for the paperwork to be processed!!!! If you would like to know more about this, or find out how you can help, please contact us by email, or message and we would LOVE to share more. We appreciate your prayers for this as well as we are FINALLY seeing the light of this very long journey.

As always, we are grateful for your continued support and prayers. We are so very blessed to get to do what we are doing here, serving those in Peru with disabilities. As you know, your generosity helps to cover the costs so that we can do what we are doing and we are so very thankful for that. Thank you also for your prayers, your words of encouragement and above all your friendship.

~May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace. Numbers 6:24-26 NLT~

For such a time as this...

 And don’t allow yourselves to be weary in planting good seeds, for the season of reaping the wonderful harvest you’ve planted is coming! Galatians 6:9 TPT

Happy New Year, Happy Valentines Day, and Happy Easter!! So, as you can see, it has been quite a while since we have done an updated blog. This is NOT for lack of progress. On the contrary this has been an incredibly busy, challenging, and stretching time for us… So we wanted you to read all about what we have been up to both personally and in our areas of service.

Personal Life Update:

Life in Peru continues to be way behind the US. We have been in 2 lockdowns since January. The entire month of February, and then again the 4 days leading up to Easter. We try to get out for walks when we can around our neighborhood. One of the pics is of Kaleb hugging a neighborhood dog named Peppa. He would love to have a dog. We are praying about that one still. As you can see in another picture, when we enter any place including the doctor, we have to wear face shield and mask. Masks are required outside and in public places at all times. We have entered our second school year virtually. More people have been infected, hospitalized, searching franticly for their own oxygen and also for ICU beds at any hospital, and many have passed away. It has been a very hard season for many of the members of our church with no end in sight. Vaccine roll out has been very slow. And this past Sunday April 11 was the primary presidential election with the final election in June. All in person. Mandatory voting required. The future of Peru is uncertain with the 2 presidential candidates who are now up for the final elections. Will you please join in praying for Peru?

Our family has been able to stay healthy, thank God, all this time. The physical church remains closed, so 95% of our work is online at home. As mentioned before Kaleb has entered his 2nd year of online preschool. Small children are definitely NOT meant to learn online, but we try to do our best to make it fun. We have also become a peer in his class…participating in all preschool activities; as well a teacher when not connected online. Kaleb is very interested in how things work now, and has grown very fond of using a small screwdriver to take apart anything he can get his hands on!!! Kaleb continues to grow like a weed! We are sure that he will be taller than both of us before he is a teen. We keep telling him to stop growing, but that hasn’t seemed to work yet!

We continue to wait on the adoption process. It is slow and sometimes halted due to issues of the lockdowns. We continue to pray and believe in God’s perfect time for all of this to be completed. Please continue to pray for this process and for our patience.

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Area of Service:

The church Camino de Vida celebrated 1 full year of online services in March. It is indeed a celebration since NOT ONE SUNDAY since we had to close the physical doors have we been without a church service. Not only that, but we are thriving. One thing I have learned in this time is that we keep looking forward. Continuing to find ways to grow, and reach as many people we can for Jesus. Some areas of the church like the outreach ministry has not stopped. They have reached more people in this last year than any other year in the past and now with a much more limited amount of volunteers able to help. Take a look at our recap 1 year video!!

As mentioned, there is much growth in this time, and we are part of that growth. Lisa continues to lead the area of kids with special needs in the children’s ministry called kidsHD. In addition to leading a team to adapt, rewrite, and then record a weekly lesson that is aired every SUNDAY on you tube, there are also live small groups with kids with special needs each Sunday. If you would like the link to watch a class, please let us know! It is all in Spanish. Below are some pics of the smalls groups for kids with special needs with their volunteers.

Lisa and 2 of her dedicated volunteers provided a 2 day workshop on zoom to other churches in Latin America who were interested in how to start a special needs area in their kids ministry. More than 200 people connected each night from churches in many different countries including Argentina, Mexico, Columbia, Chile, Peru and even Switzerland!! We are so excited about this opportunity to share what we have learned with other churches across Latin America! Please watch the video recap below. It is in Spanish, so the key frases are written below:

“Don’t underestimate the potential of a person with a disability.”,

“The best we can do for a child with a disability is believe in them.”

“Focus on the ability, not the disability.”

“The volunteers are there to ensure that the kids are safe, have fun, and learn about God’s love for them.”

Following that training, Clever and Lisa have been asked to lead a small team of volunteers in order to help provide trainings and a plan to include teens, young adults and older adults into their perspective ministries. We are also developing a small group study for parents with special needs. We are very excited for this new opportunity to create a space where all people with disabilities will be welcomed and have a place in Camino de Vida! We know that over the years, the growth and success shown in the kidsHD program has provided for this now much bigger opportunity. As these kids who once were in kidsHD have now aged out, the need for them to be supported in other ministry age groups has led to this moment. We are sure that we have been waiting for such a time as this, to help provide a space for everyone. Will you join us in prayer for wisdom in how to best to do this?

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Clever continues to lead the area of coordinating the area of the LSEE (Laurie Schoendorfer Endowment for Education) scholarship program. As mentioned before, it is a program developed a few years ago by founder of Free Wheelchair Mission to honor his late wife. It helps young adults with disabilities, who are interested in further education be able to study with the help of scholarship money. Clever not only coaches the potential applicants, but also maintains contact with each scholar throughout their studies to help them have success. It has been a very successful program so far. Recently we were able to have a meeting with a few board members of LSEE and the very first scholar Juan Jose. He was 19 years old when a stray bullet hit his car that he was driving as a taxi driver that paralyzed him from the waist down. 3 years ago he received a FWM wheelchair. 2 years ago he received a small scholarship from LSEE to take 1 tech class about cars. He is now enrolled full time at a university with the help of the scholarship and hopes one day to do design the very first Peruvian adapted car. What a privilege it is to be a bridge to help young men/women like Juan Jose have a brighter future.

Clever also continues to be part of a small team that gives wheelchairs to people in Lima who are in need of the gift of mobility. While there continue to be a lot of restrictions on the amount of people gathered in one location, the small team is able to distribute about 10 wheelchairs each Saturday, mostly to family members who are in good health. Clever was also able to train a team of volunteers from another ministry to expand our reach to deliver wheelchairs in other parts of Peru. With each wheelchair, the message of the hope of Jesus is shared.

As you can see, we continue to serve the best way we know how with what we are allowed to do. We are seeing the fruit of seeds planted years ago that are now coming life. We are thankful for your continued support, your prayers, and encouragement. As missionaries we do not receive a salary with the church. So, without you, we would not be able to continue to do what we are doing and so we do thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your kindness and generosity. We pray that you all are well, with good health as you prepare for the upcoming summer. We know you are all busy, but would LOVE to have a conversation with each one of you. Please let us know if you have time to chat on a zoom call or a regular call. We would love to hear how you are doing and what new things are growing in your life as well. May God Bless you and keep you .

Love,

Clever, Lisa, & Kaleb

Light

“Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world, he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life. “
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— John 8:12 NIV

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you who are reading this post. We have all made it to an end of a very unusual year. While many things have changed, our end of the year reflection remains.

Here in Peru, the strands of Christmas lights have 7 options to control how the lights on your tree and home can be presented. Included are random speeds of blinking lights, fading in/out, blinking WITH music and then at the very end of the options is the good old trusty constant light. Many, including Kaleb, love when all the lights blink and the music is playing. But I (Lisa) prefer the good old trusty constant light. It made me start to wonder why I like it so much. The simple reason is that to me, it is more pleasing to my eye. I can focus on just one constant bright light, instead of being distracted by all the movement….THIS is how WE want to remember 2020. How our focus shifted from all the moving lights of programs, events, travel, and social events (all good things mind you) to slow us down and then help us to put our attention on what is most important. The brightest and most constant light.

Here in Peru, we have been in a state of emergency for 290 days. Masks are mandatory outside your house and you can not enter any store if you have a temperature or don’t have a mask. There continues to be curfews at night that are enforced by law. Parties and social gatherings of any kind including church is not permitted. Beaches are closed Thursday-Sunday. Playgrounds continue to be blocked off or removed completely. Things are far from normal here, and much like around the world there are talks of a return to strict lock down due to increased numbers of positive cases. I can continue on, however these are things that we hear worldwide. All the stuff that is heavy and hard…..But, let’s talk about the things we have learned this year. Things that maybe we wouldn’t have learned without 2020. Here is our list…

We have learned that church is NOT confined to a building. We NOW understand what the true meaning of church is.

We have learned to slow down and been able to be more present with immediate family.

We have seen the importance of being intentional with people in our immediate circle and how that can be a ripple affect to others.

We have learned to fear less and be content with what we have, and that the ONLY thing that fills that aching hole in our heart is Jesus.

We have learned that we could not have gotten through this year without the promises that we read in the bible for every believer.

Every year around this time, there are trees all around Lima that bloom with these beautiful yellow flowers. They cover the sidewalks and streets like a blanket of snow. This year when we were thinking about it, it brought a few verses in the bible in the book of Revelation that describes the New Jerusalem. Here it says:

“The street of the city was pure gold, clear as crystal. I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb. The city has no need for the sun or moon to shine, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.” -Revelation 21:21-23 TPT

Then is says:

“Evil will not enter, nor anyone who does what is abhorrent or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Book of Life of the Lamb.” -Revelation 21:27 TPT

***What have we have learned most in 2020?***

We have learned that while the world is uncertain, God is not. We have a hope for a future that has streets lined with gold, with no evil, no sickness, and no death, ever again. Our mission to reach, share, and encourage those who don’t yet have a relationship with Jesus, is more urgent now, than ever. Thank you to every single person who has supported us financially, in prayer, and in encouragement this past year. Thank you for continuing to see how we as part of the local church here in Peru are extending our arms out to so many to bring hope and light to others. Thank you for keeping us here so we can do even more in 2021.

Below are some of the incredible statistics of how by you supporting us we can be a part of what God is doing here in Peru.

*More than 220,000 people reached since March 2020 through donations of basic needs including food, blankets, and a helpline for mental health and physical health.

*There have been approximately 100 wheelchairs distributed since lock down restrictions have been lightened in September.

* There have been 1447 small groups accounted for this year which is more than double than what was in person in the past year.

*Approximately 17,000 Christmas packs (small donated toy, box of chocolate milk, personal size fruitcake) were given to children throughout Peru over the month of December for Christmas. These children most likely would not have received any other gift for Christmas.

~Thank you again for your support~

As we enter into this new year of 2021, may we all continue to remember the promises that God has for us and share that with others who may not know.

Love to you all. Clever, Lisa, & Kaleb

Unshakeable Hope

“So it is impossible for God to lie for we know that his promise and his vow will never change! And now we have run into his heart to hide ourselves in his faithfulness. This is where we find his strength and comfort, for he empowers us to seize what has already been established ahead of time—an unshakeable hope!” Hebrews 6:18 TPT

What a beautiful image of running into the heart of God to hide ourselves in his faithfulness.   We need this reminder right now as we enter the holiday months in this year of pandemic. It is so easy to get caught up in the things that still are not back to normal.  We can focus on all the things we cannot do.  Here the restrictions continue to be intense.  This is the first year for the holidays that many missionaries are returning to the US with an unknown date of return…Then we also have the wait for Kaleb’s adoption process which continues to be long and drawn out.  We could look at the numbers of sick and deaths that continues to rise, and the increase in poverty in an already poor country.  We could look at the division between our fellow Americans in this time of the presidential elections among so many other issues that continue to separate people who once lived in harmony despite having different opinions….The list goes on as we continue in this weird year of 2020….

But can we tell you some amazing things about 2020 that we personally have been witness too? Where God is showing us that He IS here with us. And we can trust in his promises….

1.       Since the pandemic started and our church closed its doors to a physical service in March, we have had up to 14,000 people watching one of our online Sunday service!!

2.       We have had a peak of 17,000 small groups during this season which I more than double what we had at the beginning of the pandemic.

3.       In September the church hosted an online 2 day marriage retreat partnered with Chick-fil-A’s  Winshape foundation in all of Latin America and then one in Europe a week later.  There was so MANY people connected that it literally fried the servers and affected the internet on the first conference.

4.       We have never stopped serving the community in this time.  Our staff and volunteers go to the church building daily and pack bags of basic needs to serve the various communities that are in the most of need. They also are serving first responders with food and water as needed. Over 150,000 people have been blessed in this time of pandemic. Christmas is coming and now there is a huge campaign to bless 10,000 children.

5.       We have started to give distribute wheelchairs at a very small scale again which is a huge need. Clever is happy to be able to get to be a part of this team.

6.       Our children’s ministry has exploded in this time.  A combination of small groups and live online lessons provides a nice Sunday experience for so many children and families in Lima and even in provinces.

7.       Clever and I have provided trainings to the family ministry and youth ministry in how to receive families and their children with special needs into their ministries.  This is an ongoing process to help them continue to see how we can be an inclusive church to all.

8. We continue to help find and assist in the coordination of scholarships for people with disabilities from the Laurie Schoendorfer Education Endowment fund. Up to date there are 5 young adults who have been awarded education scholarships in Peru.

9. There is SOOOOOO much more positive things going on where we can see God shining his bright light on all of us!

So…..this verse above, that talks about running into the heart of God to hide ourselves in his faithfulness.. It is SO good because you can see that even though there is SO much hard right now, there also is SO much good happening.  The heart of God IS where we find HIS strength and comfort. And it is there where we get this unshakable hope for an unknown future.  Our prayer for you all as you enter into the last 2 months of 2020 is to remember that running into the heart of God is the very best place you can be.  May you find ways to do that so that you can feel peace and hope even with so much unknown. 

Thank you for praying for us.  Here are a few personal updates and prayer requests.

1.       Praise God the uterine tumor was benign, and Lisa’s recovery is going well. Please pray for complete recovery.

2.       Our first adoption court hearing was postponed to Nov 30th.  Please be praying that this hearing happens (virtually) and will be a short process to finalize. 

3.       We celebrate Kaleb’s 4th birthday next week and are so thankful to get to be able to celebrate his life!  He is a gift from God to us.

4.       Please pray for us as we will be one of only 2 other missionary families who are staying in Peru during the holidays.  With the restrictions in place there are so many things we know we won’t be able to do.  Please pray for us to find fun ways to celebrate and make new memories.  We LOVE mail, even though we are not sure when it will arrive, if anyone would like to send us a Christmas card we would LOVE to receive them!!! Let us know so we can give you our address!!

***As missionaries, we do not receive a paycheck for the church that we serve under here in Peru. We are here, able to continue this good work because of the kindness and generosity of others. We know that you have many options for giving to good causes and we are thankful that you continue to believe in what we are doing here.  We also thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement.

Play with me

“Play with me” is one of the most common phrases out of Kaleb’s mouth these days. With it just being Clever and I at home with Kaleb, we are his playmates. I have noticed too, that playing with him doesn’t mean you can be multitasking doing something else “constructive” while you are playing. He demands our complete attention. He wants us to be fully present with him. I have noticed that those times are precious and to be treasured. It is in those times that build relation, trust, and a common bond. It got me thinking that God is like that too. He wants our time and undivided attention. In a world full of distractions, it is SO EASY to give Him a multitasking version of ourselves.

In this time of uncertainty of so many things in our world right now, the one thing I know is that God wants us to draw close to him. He wants us to be fully present and not distracted by any and everything that can and does take our eyes off Him. For me, it’s my too do list, stress, worry, and social media that distracts me….what is it for you?

What I’m learning is that when we are present, we aren’t wasting time. We are building relationship. With Kaleb we build a bond every time we chose to be present. The same goes for our God. Being fully present helps us take our eyes and attention off things that we shouldn’t be focusing on anyway and allows us to grow in love.

Update on Serving:

Clever completed his 3 month course called Beyond Suffering to learn about God’s heart for people with disabilities and their place in the church and in the community!! We are so thankful to have had the opportunity for him to receive this training that will help us continue to serve people with disabilities .

Clever also continues to coordinate all communications between the scholarship program called Laurie Schoendorfer Endowment for Education (LSEE). This includes coordination between the endowment board and the scholarship applicants. All these applicants have some type of physical disability.

We are excited to report that after 4 months of not being able to deliver wheelchairs, we will begin to distribute them again in very small amounts at this time to those in the most urgent need. Clever was asked to complete a small workshop to our current volunteers on what some of the changes will be in the upcoming months in order to comply with COVID-19 protocols. We are so happy to be part of the team to be able to be giving the gift of mobility once again to those in need.

Clever continues to lead a small group (virtual) of young adults with physical disabilities. None of these people attended church before the quarantine and/or before this small group. It has been a fruitful group over the past months as these young men are opening up more and hearts are being softened toward the Lord.

Lisa has been full steam ahead with all things related to the special needs area under the Children’s ministry in the following ways:

SMALL GROUPS

There are currently 8 small groups with kids with special needs in each group and many volunteers with hearts of gold who spend time each week preparing for their groups as well as praying for each child and their families. Over the past month we have gained 3 new kids with special needs who were not attending church before the quarantine! 2 of the kids are from provinces outside of Lima! We are so excited to have the opportunity to serve these families in a way that we never would have been able to if we were having services in person!!

ADAPTED CURRICULUM

The adapted curriculum video class every Sunday has been a great success! Every weekend see that there are over 300 views of the video which means MORE children with special needs are being reached in this new platform. We are so excited to continue on this project!

WORKSHOPS

We have been asked to provide a workshop to share with other churches and our own volunteers about how to include children with special needs into their children’s ministry. Lisa is currently working on this project with hopes to launch soon.

Other important news!!!!

This weekend Camino de Vida has begun offering 3/7 online services with LIVE sign language interpretation!!!!

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Family life and prayer requests…

We continue and will continue to be Kaleb’s home school teachers until at least the end of 2020. Kaleb has adapted well and is learning a lot. We are so thankful to be able to teach a blend of Spanish and English curriculum!!!

It has been announced by our head pastors Robert and Karyn Barriger that we will not have in person church services for the remainder of 2020. We long for the day to be together in the physical sense but are so thankful for an incredible team of leaders who continues to provide the most amazing church experience online. That being said we will continue to serve from our homes the best way we are able.

Prayer requests:

There are 2 very important dates coming up that we ask that you be praying for.

1. On August 11, 2020 at 2pm central Lisa will undergo a surgery that requires a c-section type procedure to remove a large tumor. Please pray for negative pathology, against infection of any kind including COVID-19, wisdom and direction of the doctors performing the surgery and peace for our family.

2. On September 18, 2020 at 9am central, We will have our first audience before the judge (virtually) for the adoption process with Kaleb. Pray for favor with the judge. For a smooth and quick process so that by the end of 2020 we can legally and officially be Kaleb’s forever parents.

***As missionaries, we do not receive a paycheck for the church that we serve under here in Peru. We are here, able to continue this good work because of the kindness and generosity of others. We know that you have many options for giving to good causes and we are thankful that you continue to believe in what we are doing here. We also thank you for your prayers and words of encouragement. ***

Day 100

Hi everyone and greetings from Peru were today marks day 100 of our mandatory quarantine! It is surprising sometimes to realize that we have been at home for such a long time! Kaleb has not stepped out of the house since March 13th!!! Clever has left a few times to go to the bank or pharmacy and I have gone to the grocery store weekly! While there is some comfort in routine, we have found that change is good in order to reset our views on growth and new things. Sometimes when life is routine, we tend to not see the growth…We are here to share some really beautiful stories of growth that we have been able to be a part of.

Kaleb continues to grow and learn. He receives a combination of 2 home-school curriculum (one in each language). He loves his school classmates who have stayed connected these past 3 months online and also the learning we are doing in English as well! He now recognizes all the letters of the alphabet in English and the sounds that they make!!! His language continues to explode in a mix of Spanish and English. He loves to explore all things sensory related and especially likes to wrestle with his papa!! Kaleb also likes to “help” when Lisa is recording for the adapted Sunday school class. Kaleb has memorized his very first bible verse along with sign language to go with it thanks to the adapted curriculum we will tell you about below! His verse, “God lives with me and this makes me happy” (Paraphrase from Romans 12:12)

In the past 2 months the Kids ministry has added 2 very big and new things to their program to support children with special needs. This includes offering sign language interpretation for the children’s regular class, AND providing an adapted (shorter) version of the regular class for children with special needs! The adapted class is taken from the same material used for the regular class offered online every Sunday with a few changes. The material is more simple to understand and with the use of multiple resources such as using picture symbols and sign language for the children to learn the bible story and verse of the week. Lisa and small team of volunteers take time weekly to create the material, send it off to those who do the videos, edit the material, and then send it off to the creative team to put it all together! It has been a lot of new learning and a true labor of love.

Lisa has also had the opportunity to be part of an Instagram interview given by Camino de Vida to teach other churches how to do church. It was a very exciting opportunity to share how we can still connect to people with special needs in their homes during quarantine through the small groups we continue to provide every Sunday as well as the new ways we are doing this through the adapted Sunday school class.

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Small groups are a way that our large church can make more personal connections. Our church is a large church made up of many small groups. WE LOVE the ability that we get to help make those connections to help draw others to community with other like minded believers and to ultimately draw them closer to God. Here are 3 small groups that we are currently involved in.

1. Lisa has organized a small group with 3 teen girls with intellectual disabilities with 3 young adult women. Twice a month these girls have 1 on 1 time with their adult mentor and then twice a month they gather as a group of 6 on zoom to share in some group time. All 3 sets of parents expressed worry but interest for their daughters to join. Concerns were, will they like their peers? Will they enjoy their mentor? Will they feel like they belong? This group is now on its 4th week and is going SO WELL. One of the volunteers said that their teen friend cried when they had to end the group for the week. This truly is a special group at a special time when now more than ever these girls need community. We are so thankful for the lead of this group who organizes and takes charge of this group weekly.

2. Clever developed and leads a small group for men who are a mix of those who are believers and currently attend a church and a group of young men who have some form a physical disability and use a wheelchair to get around. This time is a brotherly time for the men to share more about their lives, encourage each other, pray for each other, and “attend” a virtual church service together. Clever has shared that one of the young men who we have had the opportunity to know now for over the past 2 years (because we were part of the team to give him a free wheelchair) has grown in his Christian walk. He has a desire to share this with others and has even asked if he could invite other people he knows with physical disabilities into the small group!!!

3. Clever developed and leads our small group for couples who are in the process or have adopted a child. There are currently 3 couples and this group has been so wonderful to our hearts to be able to share our journey and help support others as we all continue to walk out the adoption process in our various formats.

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Camino de Vida continues to help be a bridge between young adults with physical disabilities in Peru and the Laurie Schoendorfer Endowment for Education scholarship program that provides educational scholarships to wheelchair users who want to get an education but can’t afford it. Right now, Clever leads this project and has been able to identify and help 3 new candidates receive the scholarships! They begin studying in July!! The fact that all educational programs will be online this year in Peru, has made it more accessible for people with physical disabilities to study since they don’t have the barriers that exist in an in-person learning opportunity!!

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The outreach area of Camino de Vida, who serves all of Peru in acts of service sharing the love of God with others without anything in return continues to serve the people of Peru during this time of quarantine by giving out food and other resources to those in need. Despite the mandatory quarantine, we are able to continue to be the hands and feet of Jesus by these small gestures of love.

One of the big ways we do this as a church is to welcome mission teams from the USA and other countries to be a part of serving here. This year because all international travel has come to a stop, we are not able to receive missions teams as we have in the years past. BUT, we still want the churches and groups who have had a desire to come here and serve in 2020 to still have the opportunity to do so. SO, our team from Camino de Vida Life Missions has developed an opportunity for a Virtual Mission trip!!!!! This means that our team will go out and serve the community live with those who want to be a part of serving!! Isn’t that great!!!! We are so excited to be a part of this team delivering wheelchairs and helping in any way that we can! You too can be a part of a virtual mission trip if you like. It doesn’t cost anything but your time to join us when we go out to serve. For more information please connect with https://caminodevida.com/lifemissions/

“Put your heart and soul into every activity you do, as though you are doing it for the Lord himself and not merely for others. Colossians 3:23 TPT”

Thank you all for all you do to support us and allow us to continue to do what we get to do here despite not being able to physically leave our homes. We know that people connect to God in different ways and we are not missing out on this opportunity to connect with those who may never set foot in a church. Now more than ever we realize the importance of our mission to help all people encounter an authentic relationship with our Lord and Savior.

Change

Greetings everyone!  We hope this update finds you all well.  We are now on day 52 of total quarantine here in Peru!  The weather has turned from sunny and warm to cool and grey.  We are entering into Lima’s winter here where almost every day is grey and humid. I remember when I first came to Peru, I could not tell what month or season we were in.  Every day seemed the same to me.  Being from the Midwest, I was used to drastic changes to note the seasons.  But then, I started to look more closely here in Lima, to see if there were signs of change other than just the obvious difference of sun and grey.  To name a few, the position of the sun when it rises, and sets changed.  There are some flowers and trees that do lose their leaves in winter and come back in spring.  And my personal favorite, our house is cleaner because our windows stay shut so the dust from the mountains doesn’t enter!!  So, why do I start out this post on our update in Peru during this quarantine with this story?  Because every day of our quarantine, if may appear to be the same; but when you look closer, we too can see growth and change to mark our time.  A way to show that life continues to move forward, even when it seems like we are standing still.

The full quarantine supposedly will lift on Monday after Mother’s day, but will be in phases 1-4 to slowly start back up again.  The concern here is that our numbers of infected continues to climb so it is possible that once again we will see an extension because the hospital system here is collapsed and there is no room to receive any more sick people.  In all accounts, the church, and our family will be maintaining our quarantine status because church offices are not planned to re-open until at least July and no formal church meetings until 2021.  All our church events on Sundays AND throughout the week will be virtual until 2021.  That also includes Kaleb’s school as it was announced a few weeks ago all schools in Peru will not be in person this school year 2020.   

Before we get into all the things we are doing these days, we wanted to share in our celebration of completing 2 years since Kaleb came to live with us on May 4.  While we still wait on the day we can say that he is adopted legally into our family, we know that it is just a matter of time before God’s promise will come to completion.  We appreciate prayers in this matter.  You can see the picture above of his first days with us and then now. We are so very grateful for every day we have been with him.

We are now in the swing of things for Kaleb’s homeschooling which happens everyday M-F in the mornings.  Along with the curriculum from his preschool which is still small, we have added our own curriculum.   Thanks to a fellow missionary family recommendation, we are following along a pre-school Christian curriculum based in bible stories but also teaches about the letters of the alphabet.  Kaleb is learning all the sounds of the letters (in English) and is beginning to “read” every letter he sees.  It is pretty fun!   Kaleb’s imagination has also begun to explode so that makes play time pretty fun!!! See pictures of us playing “school” with his stuffed animals!  There are challenges to keeping us all in a positive mood while staying inside.  We continue to be thankful for the measures that are being taken but also are a little stir crazy as well.

In the area of service, we are busier now than I feel like we were before.  Clever and I continue to divide our time between our projects and attending to Kaleb’s needs.  Our responsibilities have grown and so now our workdays have extended through the afternoons as well as sometimes on Saturday and on Sundays ALL DAY.

This past weekend our children’s Sunday school ministry launched virtual small groups for the kids ages 3-11 including kids with special needs!!!!!  It was both amazing and crazy at the same time because the logistics involved in making this happen are head spinning.  There were many training sessions for the leaders of each age group in how to receive and direct kids as they entered the virtual zoom room. Plus extra trainings for all the volunteers involved.  Trainings for the parents in how to use zoom.  And then more trainings and planning on how to engage the kids of each group. Ultimately, while this was both stressful and exciting, the numbers and response to this launch was incredibly positive!!!! In total for just this past Sunday at 4 different times throughout the day, there were 380 kids in small groups with the help of 150 volunteers.  Here is the really amazing thing, these kids that attended the small group were not just kids from our church but kids who are in different parts of the world, including Ecuador, Columbia, Brazil, Chile, USA, Spain, Australia, Argentina,  and Mexico!!!  This truly is amazing how far the reach of our church goes beyond people who attend Camino de Vida!!!

For our kiddos with special needs it was a unique experience because it allowed us to connect with the parents and their children in a way that told them that we want to continue to support them and miss their children.  The part I loved the most was when the parents logged their children on to zoom, because I had the opportunity to talk to all of them individually before sending them off to their virtual room for their small group. Many moms were nervous because their child doesn’t sit in one place, or couldn’t talk to respond, but at the end of our time, all  of them were happy to be a part!  One mom reported on her social media page, “ Thankyou kidscdv for opening  a space so special for our kids with special needs. For us, it is like a hug direct to our hearts to see them smile and enjoy this time.  This too will be part of my memories of this quarantine time.”

Clever continues to call families in need, listen and pray with them, and help them with a small financial donation from the church. He also manages and communicates with all scholarship applicants for the foundation started by Don Schoendorfer founder of Free Wheelchair Mission in memory of his late wife Laurie who passed away a few years ago.  He also is working on other projects where he is connecting local businesses who have helped with the wheelchair distributions in the past continue to serve their community in creative ways since right now we cannot give out wheelchairs. We continue to be active in giving out food, provisions, and financial support as a church community to those in need daily.  This includes taking bagged snacks to hospitals for the medical care professionals. Cooking meals for our Kids club families who are in poor areas.  And providing non perishable items to families who have no food. 

As mentioned above, we are busier NOW than ever before.

While we long for the ability to connect with people face to face, the truth is we are connecting with more people virtually than we ever did in person.  The message of Jesus’ light and hope are being spread universally at a much faster rate than ever before.  So while this virus may seem to be slowing us down; the message of our Savior Jesus Christ continues to be spread at an even faster rate!  How incredible is our God?    

So what’s next?  What is in our future?  We are excited to be dreaming up ways to continue to reach out to those with special needs.  Not just children, but now is a perfect time to expand and see how our church can support those in other age ranges as well.  We are excited and expectant in this future season.  Will you please pray for continued vision for this? 

We thank you for your continued support of what we get to do here.  We know that times are challenging and are grateful for your continued generosity and support to allow us to continue to serve those in need here in Peru. 

Our "New Normal"

““Sometimes what we see makes us forget what we hear. Let’s not forget God’s promises. Remember that faith comes by hearing his word.” -Pastor Robert Barriger”

Our first communion as a family.

Teaching Kaleb reason why we take communion.

Kaleb watching the Kids Sunday school program online!

Pray for our beautiful country and world.

Hi everyone, I hope this message finds you all healthy and safe. Here in Peru we are both healthy and safe as we enter into day 16/28 mandatory quarantine . It was extended over the weekend from initially 15 days to now 28. Here, only 1 person per family can leave the house, walking to a grocery store or pharmacy. Yesterday was my turn to go, it was the first time I had stepped foot out of our apartment in 18 days!! With mask (required), gloves (optional) and a baby stroller to carry our weeks grocery’s home, I was thankful to have the opportunity to leave the house! Some say it is such a hassle to go out because of all the new rules and the suggested process of cleaning your food and yourself once back home, but for me it was SUCH A GIFT to be able to leave the house even like this!

Last night the president increased our curfew to 6pm-5am which means that now the places that ARE open will also again reduce their hours. While this little change does complicate life a little since there are long lines at many grocery stores (of course with people standing 3-4 feet apart from each other in line), some people have expressed concern with the new curfew. For us, for right now, it doesn’t seem to impact us much. So quickly, let me give you some statistic updates about Peru as of today.

• 1065 positive cases confirmed

• 190 people hospitalized with 57 in ICU

• 24 reported deaths

• 400 reported recovered

*We are thankful that the numbers have stayed low and we are hoping that the strictness of our quarantine is helping reduce the spread.*

So how are we doing? We are doing pretty good under the circumstances. We are being intentional in making every day count. We continue to homeschool Kaleb, which is now beginning to be more fun for all of us. He really enjoys the one on one time with us. In May, it will be 2 years that we have had him in our home as his foster parents. Clever was just reminding me the other day of the fears I had at the beginning. Will he ever bond to us? Will he be happy? Will he talk and understand english? The unknown was almost unbearable. There were no books on how to care and love him like there are for new parents of newborns. Now 2 years later, we can say that all those things I worried about have been taken care of. Kaleb loves us and tells us regularly in both spanish and english! We are definitely bonded. And he absolutely can communicate in both spanish and english. Just in the past 3 weeks, he has started asking “why” and using the word "but” in both languages in very appropriate and funny contexts. Anyway, the reason I share that story with you is because, we may not know what our future holds with this virus, BUT we do know WHO knows all about our future and He wants only good things for us.

 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. - Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

Clever and I continue to serve in our roles under the outreach ministry and the childrens ministry. It is truly amazing how our church has jumped in full speed ahead with all the online resources and outreach projects that we are doing over the phone or online. We are so thankful to be able to be a part of what is happening here.

Here are a few of the things that Camino de Vida is doing that we get to be a part of.

• 3 live online services on Sundays with communion at the night service. This is really special because we never took communion with Kaleb as a family before this quarantine. It was an unexpected opportunity to teach Kaleb about what it means. Perfect timing leading up to Easter.

• Saturdays there is an online youth service that is live.

• A full children’s Sunday school program including adapted curriculum for children with special needs!!!! We also have a pinterest page with activities to do throughout the week, including a page for children with special needs.

• Online prayer with the pastors of the church 3 times a week

• A hotline for families to call for support, prayer , and/or express needs.

• A team of people reaching out to identified people in our church who need food and are checking in on families.

• Online small groups continue

• And a small team of volunteers (with special permission) alongside the national police have gone to the poorest of areas of Lima to give out basic supplies including food and water.

• Our team of pastors who travel all over latin american to teach how to do church are reaching out to those same churches to help them walk through this time we are in.

This is just SOME of the things we are able to continue to do as a church. We are constantly reminded that church is not the building we meet in but the people who are a part of it. That means you are our church family too! We continue to see this time as an opportunity to instill hope where there is fear. We are thankful to be a part of something so much bigger than us. How can we pray for you today? Please share with us! We really do want to know!

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I want to share with you a story of a family who we were able to talk to on the phone, pray for, and give a small donation from the church to help his family:

Jose and his family are refugees from Venezuela. His oldest daughter 16 years old had problems with her kidney function and she passed away a few weeks ago. About a week ago he and his wife welcomed the newest addition to their family, a baby boy. He worked daily to provide for his family. Now there is no source of income and the expenses of the funeral and delivery of a new baby has put them in dire need. Clever spent over an hour on the phone with Jose. Listening to him share his heart and pray for provision for his family.

We have done this for a week now. Calling and praying with families. Sometimes their stories are overwhelming. Our hope is to bring light and hope to them all. Please keep us in your prayers are we continue to encourage them.

As you know, we can not do any of this without your generosity. We continue to do our roles here from home and we are so thankful for your continued financial support during this time. May God continue to bless you and provide for all of your needs during this very different time.