Greetings everyone! I pray that this update finds you all well and enjoying summer. Because of “El Niño” this year, we are experiencing a very mild winter. I am NOT complaining about it. We know it has been a while since we updated so we have much to share.
To start off we thank you for your prayers for the conference in Cusco that was in May! It was a very positive experience for our family and the ministry. Clever and I both shared at workshops and Clever participated in and led a plenary session where he talked about our personal experience as adoptive parents and then about how the local church can be a part of orphan care. My workshop was about disability and the church and how the church can respond the need to include and help people with disabilities feel that they belong in the church. We were also host to special guests from the US who came to share their expertise on disability ministy. We had a couple from Hali’s Project and another couple from Miracle 139 International teach. The couple from Hali’s Project, Brad and Karen shared about their experience about being parents of a child who is medically complex and how having comunity in the church has helped them over the past 30+ years navigate their life in a positive way. Miracle 139 International shared about how it is important to have the church be a equipped both in theory and understanding of WHY it is important to receive people with disabilities in the church and also HOW to get started. Overall, the time in Cusco was very rich and we are excited about the connections that were made there for further conversations about disability and orphan care in the church.
In our January report, we shared about a few youth who had graduated from the kids ministry and were beginning to serve in the church on Sundays. We are so excited to share how positive this first half of the year has been for both of them in their perspective areas of service. Josue is serving in the team of mantainance, where he gets to keep everything clean! He is a super social guy and loves that he can be around people while he does what he loves to do which is keep things tidy. Valeria, has been serving in a much quieter area called logisticas where she helps to serve volunteers who are serving in other areas of the church. She helps to prepare coffee, drinks and snacks for the volunteers . About a month ago it was Valerias birthday and the team who serves with her celebrated her day with such love and care. We are so very proud of these 2 teams who have really grabbed onto the idea of helping these youth find their place to serve God by serving others. We are really hopeful and expectant that this will just be the beginning of people with disabilities serving others in the church!
In these past few months we have had some changes in our leadership where a key couple who was leading our kids ministry special needs program at one of our campus’ decided to leave their position because they felt a call to pursue another area. That meant that for now, we have assumed leadership of that campus with hopes of finding a new leader to take over. We ask for your prayers for that and wisdom to choose the correct person or people for the responsibility. With this change it means that Clever and I divide on Sundays where he leads at one campus for 4 services, and I am with Kaleb at the other for 2 services as we continue to change and upgrade what we are currently doing. Our biggest challenge right now is finding ways to get the volunteers in the regular education Sunday school to learn how to invite our kiddos with special needs into the classroom with their peers because we just don’t have a large enough volunteer base to manage all the kids that attend each Sunday. We ask for prayers for hearts of the volunteers to begin to understand how they can be part of this change to accept and include each child.
The American summer months are our busiest here in Peru in receiving mission teams. Our church this year will have received 35 mission teams by the end of October! And during the summer months, we are receiving 2-3 teams per week! For us personally , we are impacted because each team likes to give wheelchairs as part of their service experience. Just last week between the mission teams, our regular saturday distributions and the distributions in the provinces of Peru, we gave out 70 wheelchairs in just one week! That is 70 people who needed to be evaluated, measured, and approved for the wheelchair based on their needs even before the day of each distribution. It is a lot of logistics that Clever manages to make each distribution go smoothly.
Personal Update
On a personal level, here are a few updates:
Kaleb is now halfway through his 4th grade year!!! Time is flying by!! He just graduated to a grey belt in Jui-jitsu! He is doing well in basketball as well. We are so proud of him and all of his progresses. Kaleb like the rest of the world is crazy for the World Cup games. We have never been more connected to watching games ha ha!
Clever and I were invited to a couple’s retreat 2 weeks ago for 2 nights 3 days all expenses paid for. It was a retreat for pastors, church leaders, and missionaries. 3 missionary couples were invited with the rest being pastors. It was SUCH a wonderful time to rest, connect with each other and invest in our marriage. It was the first time since 2019 that Clever and I have had a night away from Kaleb. We realize that we can not wait that long to do it again. We are so grateful to God for the organization called FootRock who invited us to the retreat.
We are taking a family vacation!! The first in many years! We are headed to Huancayo where Clever grew up for a week of rest and connection with his family. We ask for prayers for a restful and fun time so that we can come back to Lima to serve the second half of the year well!
As you may know, as missionaries here in Peru we do not receive a salary from the church we serve at. All of our monthly income comes from the generosity of people like you who believe in what we are doing here. We thank you for your continued belief and for your commitment to continue to support us so we can focus 100% on ministry. If you know anyone interested in joining our team for support, we ask that you please share our page and put us in contact . Again thank you for allowing us to be the hands and feet of Jesus here in Peru serving vulnerable and disabled people. May God continue to bless you all.
Love,
Clever, Lisa & Kaleb