Happy New Year!!!

Greetings everyone….Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you…. On this last day of 2019 I wanted to share something that God has put on my heart.  I hope you find it as comforting and encouraging as I did. 

In July 20, 2019 the lake behind my childhood home (where my parents still live) flooded due to extreme amounts of rain, and then the unthinkable happened.  Part of the road that was a dam to keep the water in gave way and all the water emptied from the lake.  Families were stranded on the other side of the lake in their homes because the only road out was washed away.  The back yard of a home near the breach was washed away and the home was then deemed structurally unsafe to return to and had to be demolished.  It was devastating to hear this news.  To see the pictures.  To hear the stories of my hometown.  I was so sad…grieving the loss of the lake that held so many memories of my childhood and even as an adult carried special memories including the most beautiful sunrise the day of Clever and I’s wedding. 

But just like most events that are considered disasters, the positive was to see the entire community come together to support those stranded.  It was comforting to hear and read the stories on social media from afar.  After 4 long months the road was rebuilt, and the families returned to their homes.  The one thing that remained was that the lake was still empty because they put in 2 very large drain pipes where the breach initially happened.  This changed the entire trajectory of the small current that flows through that area…. From what I heard, that meant no hope to refill the lake at any point. 

For me, that meant more grieving. Knowing that it will never look the same as it was.  That all you would see now is emptiness…. Honestly, that was incredibly sad to me.  BUT THEN I had the opportunity to go back to visit my parents for a week in early December.  The night I arrived it started to snow and the next morning I woke up with a blanket of beautiful snow everywhere.  I decided to walk around the lake to see what it looked like now in person.  To say goodbye to the way it was before…

As I was walking, I saw signs of the life it held before the flood.  Boats docked on dry land.  People with fishing equipment now unused…..and then the empty space of the house that had to be demolished.  A house I used to walk by every singe time I would make that route. I was sad.  But then, as I got to the bridge to look over the entire lake, something I had done so many times in my life, God showed me something new….He showed me that there was still water running in that lake…LIVING WATER.  A small channel of water that filtered through the middle of the now dry lake.  My heart was SO happy!!! God spoke to me in that moment saying, it may seem dead, but there is still LIFE.  Don’t you see the living water that is passing through?  Yes, it is NOT the same as it was before, but it has taken on a new form and it still brings LIFE.  Just wait and see…

You see this year has been a lot like this lake to many people, including me.  Maybe like me, you are grieving the loss of something, someone, or the way it used to be.  This year has been a weird year with a lot of changes in our lives. Some that we had hoped for and others that we didn’t.  But in that moment when God reminded me of His presence…. His living water even though it is in a different form, gave me a peace and a joy for what is to come in this next year. 

So, this is what I imagine….in the springtime, there will be new life and growth on that lake.  Maybe the wildflowers that once were along the banks of the lake in the field near our house will now venture out into the middle of the lake.  Maybe it will be a home for many creatures who are looking for that water to drink.  In summer, I can see full grass out there that is so green that maybe it will not be a place that the geese come to float on the water but will be a grazing place for other forms of life.  In fall, the same trees that surrounded the lake with their beautiful changing colors will still be there.  Surrounding the beautiful field that was once green and is now a golden color…still with the living water running through it. 

When I imagine what the new area behind my parents’ house will be like from now on, I don’t grieve…because I now see new life.  A chance to grow and have something new take place.  As we end 2019 and enter 2020, I am choosing to look for growth from what has taken place in 2019.  Will you join me?

Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I am doing a new thing: now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18-19 ESV

But forget all that—it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new.  See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness.  I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.  Isaiah 43:18-19 NLT

Thank you for all who have supported us through prayer and finances this past year. We feel blessed by your generosity. Because we are missionaries with the church, we do not receive a paid salary. We are only able to be here doing what we get to do because of the generosity of others who believe in what we are doing here serving the population of people with disabilities in Peru. There is still time to make an end of the year donation that is completely tax deductible, or you can make a commitment to support us in 2020. We are so excited to see how this next year will be! Please consider joining us! Information on how you can do that is on our blog page marked FAQ. Thank you and God Bless you all.

Thoughts from Lisa

A few weeks ago, Kaleb had to have his blood drawn for his 3-year checkup.  The actual event of drawing blood from a little who you love so much is hard because you know it is necessary, but you still don’t want to intentionally inflict pain on them.  It was hard to see his little face of shock as his dad held him still and then see the little tears roll down his face as he cried in pain of what just had happened.  But then with a big hug and kiss from us, and a few pieces of candy (you do what is necessary ha ha) to sooth the hurt, he was better… Until later that day when he woke up from his nap and saw the bandage still on his arm.  Suddenly, he remembered the pain and stopped using his arm altogether saying that it hurt. We knew that it didn’t really hurt, but it was the memory of the hurt that he was experiencing.  We knew, that we needed to take off the bandage to help get him over this visual reminder of the pain from earlier that day.  But the tape they used was so sticky that is was hard to remove.  We used baby oil, water, whatever we could think of to try and make the removal less painful.  Eventually we had to just pull it off.  Afterwards, we continued with our day and about 30 minutes later he totally forgot about his arm “hurting” and returned to normal.

Since that day, I keep going back to that example that we all experienced and can’t help but relate it to our own hurts. Sometimes, when we have been hurt or sick, we act like Kaleb.  We keep remembering the pain that happened in a past hurt or sickness and it keeps us in a state of victim.  We walk around with that bandage on giving reasons on excuses why we can’t move on.  “But I’ve been hurt” you might say.  “How can I move on and do X, Y, and Z, if I have been hurt?”  The answer is simple…. You need to start by taking the bandage off the wound.  This may be hard to do, and you may need to use multiple resources like we did with Kaleb to remove it.  Maybe that means forgiving the person who hurt you or taking responsibility for your part. Maybe it is starting to do exercises to recover from an injury.  Maybe it means removing stuff from your life that continues to cause you to stay in this state of victim.   This could be poor influences in your life, or habits you have formed that are unhealthy, or even the thoughts you have in your head that only you know about. 

Once the bandage is removed, just like we told Kaleb that he is ok there is no more pain, we need to all decide to speak words of life to ourselves and others.  Tell them to yourself in a mirror, write them in your journal or on paper and post them where you can see them. Then, also begin to build up others in the same way. 

On this day before Thanksgiving, when all of us gather as family we can be thankful that our awesome God is the great healer of all our hurts.  He loves every one of us the same and He wants us to be healthy and whole and full of His light instead of being held down by past hurts that keep us in a state of victim.  I encourage you in this season of Thanksgiving to take time to ask God to show you your past hurts and THANK Him for healing you so that you can walk in freedom and joy.

 Happiest Thanksgiving to all of you.  We are grateful for your prayers and support today and every day! 

 Bless and affectionately praise the Lord, O my soul,

And all that is [deep] within me, bless His holy name.

Bless and affectionately praise the Lord, O my soul,

And do not forget any of His benefits;

Who forgives all your sins,

Who heals all your diseases;

Who redeems your life from the pit,

Who crowns you [lavishly] with lovingkindness and tender mercy;

Who satisfies your years with good things,

So that your youth is renewed like the [soaring] eagle.

The Lord bless you, and keep you [protect you, sustain you, and guard you];

Psalms 103:1-5 AMP

Monthly update!

Hi there everyone! Thanks so much for your patience with us and the new format that we have for our newsletter and blog. Since this is new, we are trying to learn as we go. So, if something doesn’t look right, let us know so we can try to adjust it!! So, here goes our update from the last 2 months. We hope that we can decrease the lengthy updates by doing it more regularly in the future!

Wheelchairs:

At the beginning of September, we hosted a wonderful church from Houston, Tx for a week of Free Wheelchair Mission distributions. We visited many people in their homes to deliver their wheelchairs and also had a large wheelchair distribution at the end of the week. One of my favorite deliveries was to a sweet little boy, Diego, who was dressed as Spiderman when we arrived. He was shy and didn’t want to take off his mask at first, but then eventually he felt comfortable with us and let us see the real Diego under the mask. He was really excited for this wheelchair so that he could go to school and move around more independently!

We also had the opportunity to host a special volunteer with Free Wheelchair Mission and fellow Occupational Therapist, from Sweden, Pia. She is partnering with FWM to help provide recommendations and improvements to serve the needs of wheelchair recipients all over the world, not just in Peru. It was an intense week of interviews of past wheelchair recipients, hospitals and government offices dealing with people with disabilities throughout Peru. It was a wonderful week helping her to understand the needs of Peru!

In that week before Pia arrived, Clever taught the 4 day Free Wheelchair Mission Certification course to volunteers in the church who are invested in wheelchair delivery program but have not yet been certified. The goal is always to increase the amount of volunteers who have the ability to complete the entire distribution process not only in Lima, but also in provinces of Peru where the need continues to grow. Training the volunteers in an ongoing process, not just during the 4 day training program.

We also have launched a special training program for volunteers who already have received the 4 day certification to learn how to do special adjustments for children or adults who need additional modifications to the wheelchairs. Over the past 2 years our sweet friend Gladys has been Lisa’s right hand gal for these adjustments. We have been giving her more responsibilities including teaching special adjustments workshops to volunteers in the provinces, as well as being in charge of the ongoing workshops that we now have 2 times a week here in Lima. Gladys is so invested and motivated by the service she has learned and can now teach others that it has motivated her to start to study to become a physical therapist! We are so excited that she has taken this next step as she continues to find her purpose that God has put in her. PS, Gladys is with me in the picture with “spiderman” above. She is the woman to the left of spiderman!

Kids with Special Needs (KIDS HD)

This has been an exciting time of growth and new opportunities in the special needs area we provide on Sundays at all campuses. The children’s ministry here called KIDS, and the church as a whole comes together on the 31st of October to have a HUGE costume party and fun festival. This was the first year that we as the area serving children with special needs had a special area with a designated team. The event was from 4pm-9pm! Over 2000 kids attended that event with 20 of them being kids with special needs. Our team was able to provide 1-to-1 support for a few kids who needed extra support including a single mom with 2 boys with autism. We were able to give preferential status in lines for those who could not wait in line, as well as we had our own trampoline that was designated for the kids with special needs. When talking to a mom whose son has special needs, she said there is nothing like this anywhere else in Lima and are so thankful we found ways to consider her son’s needs.

Another special project that is upcoming is the possibility of having the first ever family camp for families with children with special needs. Lisa and one of her leaders were able to travel to a province of Peru to learn how a family camp was run by a non-profit christian organization who has been doing it for years. we are praying and expectant to have our first annual family camp sometime in 2020 Lord Willing. Please be praying for all the details for this to occur to unfold as they should.

Lastly, we are launching our very first trial run of a specialized curriculum designed by 2 teammates and Lisa for Christmas specific to all our kiddos with special needs over all 6 campus locations. We are excited to see how this adapted curriculum will help provide a tangible and easy way to learn about the Christmas Story during the month of December!!!

PERSONAL UPDATE

The past few months we have celebrated many things!

My mother in law, and 2 sister’s in law and I attended the annual women’s conference at the church while Clever served at home by being with Kaleb and then at church in the Compassion International stand.

My sister and brother in law came down for a visit. It was a beautiful time of reconnecting after a year long hiatus.

Kaleb participated in a celebration at his school to honor the national day of Peruvian song, and also enjoyed dressing up in his Marshall costume for our church festival on the 31st.

All 3 of us have celebrated another year of life, of course with Kaleb’s 3rd birthday closing out the celebrations with a bang!

We continue to wait on any movement for his adoption and ask for your prayers for favor and efficiency with his case. We will be spending the holidays here in Peru as we continue to wait on this process. We also ask for your prayers for patience and living with joy in the season of waiting that we are in. It is very easy to see the things we are missing out on while we are waiting, and so we appreciate prayers to remind us of what we have already gained by having him in our home to celebrate each passing day.

We thank you for your continued support of what we get to do here with your help. If it were not for your support , we would not be able to get to do what we do to help support and serve those with disabilities.

WAITING by Lisa

​Greetings!! I hope this update finds you all well. I need to apologize for such a long delay in an update. I pray that most of you know that we are continuing to serve here in Peru based on our social media updates. It amazes me how fast this year has flown by, maybe you have felt that too? It is hard to believe we have just 4 months left in 2019!!! Anyway, here is what God has been teaching me lately.
Have you ever waited on something for a really long time? How long is long? 1 year? 5 years? 10 years or more? Well, for some funny reason, I thought that after the LONG time I waited to find the right match for me (my awesome husband, Clever), for some silly reason, I thought my waiting days were OVER. I was mistaken. Over the past few months, many things have come into our lives with the message of "wait". I'll be honest, waiting is HARD. It frustrates me at times to have to wait yet again for something that is beyond our ability to do anything to help speed up the process. But then, that is the point right? The truth is, we really don't have control in the waiting and so the real question, is what do you do in the waiting? How do you handle life? What is your attitude?

We have our sweet boy Kaleb with us in a foster care situation. We have had an incredible 16 months with him and we love him as if he is our own. We hope and pray that soon we can be his forever parents, but the wait seems like it is going on FOREVER. It has been a challenge of the heart. To dream of our future together but also know that maybe it won't happen the way we hope it will. For a long time, I spent so much time and mental energy with the "what ifs". It got me nowhere. So, this is what we decided. We gave it to God and every day that we are waiting on answers, instead of being frustrated with the system, we thank God for giving us one more day together. We TAKE EVERY DAY CAPTIVE. Nothing is taken for granted.

So, while we are waiting on this answer and many other things in our lives, what we chose to do while we wait matters. We can sit and sulk or complain to others and God about the wait. With a bad attitude the waiting can feel so heavy. Or we can CHOOSE our attitude to be one of being grateful of what has been given. Remembering and enjoying ALL the things that God has given us. Being reminded that God WANTS to give us good gifts. Psalms 103:5 says, He fills my life with good things. He is not withholding what we are waiting for to intentionally hurt or frustrate us. We often don't understand the reason why we have to wait until AFTER the waiting is over. I remember wondering why I had to wait 3 years from the time I decided to move to Peru and the date I actually left. I am 100% sure now that the reason was because I was not yet spiritually and emotionally ready to handle what was ahead of me. Had I pushed and gone earlier, I would have failed within the first 6 months....But God knows what we need and gives it to us in his perfect timing.

So, here is a question for you. What are you in waiting for? Have you given the control up to God. Have you thanked Him for what he is giving you NOW? What is your attitude.

​So in our waiting of greater things to come, here is an update of what we have been able to do here in all of 2019.

In the area of wheelchairs, we have been quite busy.

In the first part of the year, Clever traveled to 4 different provinces in Peru to do 4-day trainings with churches that are connected to Camino de Vida. The idea is that we help them learn to distribute wheelchairs so that they can serve their own community. Our pastor, Pastor Robert loves encouraging other churches to serve their own community. That way it is the local church serving them and there is a better chance they will get connected into the local church.

Clever and I both led a training in Lima where 26 new volunteers spent 4 days learning how to properly build, adjust, and deliver a wheelchair including giving the message of Christ. It was our biggest training yet! We have also done follow up trainings both in Lima as well as in the provinces to teach volunteers how to do special adjustments for children. We have trained 2 incredible women who are now part of the special adjustment training team who do most of the trainings for the special adjustments.
At the end of January, Camino de Vida celebrated their 30th anniversary as a church!! It was an incredible celebration that started with an all day serve day all over Lima on Saturday. While there were many volunteers serving in various projects over the city, Clever and I served and help lead in giving away 170 wheelchairs in 3 hours. There were weeks of preparation to review the paperwork asking for wheelchairs. It was an incredible day!

The following day (Sunday), Clever and I had the honor to host 3 of the recipients who received the wheelchairs the day before at the 30th anniversary celebration in the National Stadium. It was an unforgettable event where we celebrated our Pastors, Robert and Karyn Barriger for starting the church 30 years ago.

We have also been able to help identify potential Free Wheelchair mission recipients for a scholarship (Laurie Schoendorfer Endowment for Education (LSEE) to help pay for the education of technical/university level students. At the beginning of March we were able to give the good news to the first in Peru to receive the scholarship. His name is Juan Jose. He is 24 years old with a spinal cord injury from a stray bullet that hit him as he was driving a taxi a few years ago. This young man has an incredible attitude and determination to move forward in his life. He even adapted his taxi with hand controls so he could drive himself to pick up his wheelchair. It was the first time he drove since his injury. We are so excited to have the ability to follow this young man through his studies and see where he goes in life.

At the halfway point of the year, Camino de Vida was part of a very large event where we distributed approximately 500 wheelchairs in all parts of Peru during the same week. It was part of a larger event that provided medical care and evangelism in all of Peru called One Nation One Day.
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We are preparing for 2 short term missions teams who will be coming to give out wheelchairs in September and November. We love hosting these teams since this is really part of our story of how Lisa arrived in Peru and how ultimately we met!

KIDS HD
We continue to lead and develop the special needs area on Sunday mornings. We offer one on one volunteers at all 6 campuses. We also just began offering support on Thursday evenings during the women’s service that meets once a month.
Lisa was able to attend and help support 3 kids with special needs at our children’s ministry summer camp in March with a team of volunteers. It was really fun to see the children enjoying the summer camp, however it was clear after the camp ended that God was brewing up something in our hearts for something MORE. Read below in Plans for the future……

In June, we received for the 2nd year, a team from a nonprofit called Miracle 139 from California. This year they poured into our ministry, leaving us with many tools, trainings, and recommendations for individual kids who attend our Sunday program. We are incredibly grateful for their support this year and are excited to begin to use the tools they have created.

Every August in Peru they celebrate Kids Day (generally the 3rd Sunday in August). This basically is equivalent to Mother’s and Father’s Day, but for kids. Camino de Vida goes ALL OUT for this day. All the morning services are converted into Kids Church Service, and following the service they had inflatables, face painting, and sweets at each campus. It really is a wonderful opportunity for our team of volunteers to connect with the parents of the kids they care for each Sunday. Here are a few pictures and comments from parents and volunteers…

In the campus Lince: “ We are good! We just finished the 2nd service and Alani and Manuel are VERY happy!”
In the campus La Victoria: “Cielo, Valeria and Marcos all enjoyed the inflatable slides.
Cielo’s mom commented as she was going down the inflatable slide:” The truth is that it is incredible to see her progress! Only those who have seen her years before can believe in what a joy it is to see her now! Blessed be our Lord and THANK YOU Camino de Vida and your volunteers!”
In the campus San Miguel: “Our kids loved the face painting. We even had a new kid (Zacari) come for the first time!”
In the campus Surco: “ Carlita, Zoe and brothers Rafael and Facundo happy in Surco.” “All 4 kids with special needs in the trampoline together. I LOVE seeing how the parents united all at the same time without any help from the volunteers to connect!”

We are also just finishing a 3 month sign language certification class! We now have 12 volunteers who will be certified in Peruvian Sign Language!
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Kids HD Plans for future….

• Our hope for 2020 is to have our very own overnight family camp for families of kids with special needs. This will be an adjunct to the parent retreat we normally host in November each year. This year, we have decided to take off this year, so that we can keep planning for this major plan for 2020. Please keep us in prayer for this as we keep investigate how we can do this.

• The children’s ministry has begun writing their own curriculum!!!! KIDS HD is part of this so we will have our hand in adapting each age group curriculum plus have an individual curriculum for our kiddos who are not able to integrate into the classroom!

• Online trainings for our volunteers

PRAISE REPORT AND PRAYER REQUESTS:

• Kaleb started preschool in March and LOVES his school. He asks to go every single day. His vocabulary has skyrocketed in both English and Spanish as well!

• Clever has his green card so we are thankful that he is able to travel freely back and forth to the US now as needed.

• We are all excited for a visit from Lisa’s sister and brother in law at the end of September! It will be her sister’s 3rd time visiting, but a first for her brother in law!!!

• We have been accepted by the judge to be 1st to be considered in Kaleb’s adoption. This recommendation also needs to be approved by the public ministry in order for us to formally petition for adoption. We hope to hear an answer by the end of August or early September. We don’t know how much longer it will delay but ask for prayers for a final decision to be make before Kaleb’s 3rd birthday on Nov 2 so that we can then apply for a tourist visa for Kaleb and then come to the US for Christmas!!!

Therapy in Perú-A Journey for Long Term Mission