March-Lions and Lambs

I was remembering an old saying when I was growing up…March comes in like a Lion and out like a Lamb. I think that was in reference to Spring and all that entails in the US. We want to share with you our own version of how March came in as a lion and out like a lamb.

WEEK 1

The first week of March we welcomed our dear friends and mentors Brad and Karen Thompson from Texas to come and share their wisdom, their experience as parents of a beautiful adult daughter, Hali, who has special needs, and to encourage others.

Here is just some of what we were able to do with them in their 5 day visit.

1. We hosted a volunteer appreciation event for all our volunteers who serve on the disability team throughout the church. Brad and Karen shared words of encouragement to everyone, while Clever shared the vision for this next year. We also had the special honor of having our head pastor, Taylor participate as well!

2. We hosted a parent support group for parents with kids with special needs who attend our church. We had a great turn out for this event and parents left feeling supported and encouraged.

3. We recorded our 3rd video small group curriculum for parents with special needs. Brad and Karen have so graciously offered to record all their wisdom into 3 separate small group curriculums so that we can share this with so many more families. We are excited to see the results of this final small group video series done more professionally, and are praying for their return in fall to re-record the previous 2 series that were recorded in their home during the pandemic. Our desire is that these videos not only bless our families at CDV but can be a resource for other churches to use as well.

WEEK 2

Week 2 presented us with an opportunity to share our experience at a 4 day long conference called ACH (Christian Alliance for Orphans). The conference focused on how the local church can participate in the call to help serve with vulnerable populations. This includes, foster care, adoption, mentoring, and disability. We were able to share how the local church can be a support for people who are caring for a loved one with disability. It was a great opportunity to share with other churches and organizations the importance of including people with disabilities in the church body. We are grateful for the opportunity and look forward to further opportunities like this in the future.

WEEK 3

The 3rd week we were full force participating in our central churchwide serve day. Lisa and Kaleb served with the children’s ministry and Clever served in wheelchair distribution. Our church on that one day reached over +15,000 people doing acts of kindness to everyone with no expectations in return. It was a beautiful outpouring of our Fathers love for us to share with others.

Along with the serve day, we had our wheelchair distribution partner Free Wheelchair Mission present the entire week performing an audit on how we are doing. We have been able to grow and improve our area of service to the community thanks to the direction and guidance of Free Wheelchair Mission.

WEEK 4

The final week- Holy Week really was just as busy as the entire month. In between fun Easter activities such as egg hunts and coloring eggs, we also served in our Thursday and Friday night special Good Friday services in the children’s ministry with kids with special needs. Saturday and Sunday were finally days of rest and a very special way to thank God for his precious son-the Lamb of God who died on the cross for us and defeated the grave and rose again. What a gift….

Overall, we have found that indeed this month was about ONE LION and LAMB. The Lion of Judah and the Precious Lamb of God….Jesus. We do all this because of Him. What a gift it is to be able to share with everyone we know the importance of the gift of His life for us. We thank you so much for continuing to believe in what we are able to do here to make a way for all people with disabilities and their families to have a place to draw closer to Him.

Many of you know that we are a missionary family that receives 100% of our financial support to live here from the generosity of others. We know that you have many options of worthy causes and we thank you for your generosity in supporting us both financially and in prayer. If you know anyone who might be interested in joining our team, please share this blog with them and send us an email to reach out to them.

Together we can continue to make an eternal impact for the Kingdom of God. Thank you and may God bless you richly as we continue serving people with disabilities in Peru in 2024.

Baptisms

Viviana is a young woman who has been attending the church for over a year. She has grown in her faith over the past year, and has made a new group of friends in the young professionals service held on Saturday nights. Viviana has a medical diagnosis of multiple sclerosis which impacts her ability to walk, and move about independently. She uses her wheelchair to get around. For the past 4 months, Viviana has been able to witness other peers be baptized in a small kid’s pool during the church services. She expressed her desire to be baptized like her peers, to publicly dedicate her life to Jesus, however always felt that her physical limitations impacted her ability to complete this very personal and public decision.

At the same time, there were 2 other young ladies with a similar story, who expressed their desire to also be baptized. They are Carla (22 yrs old), and Hayli (14 yrs old).

Alongside the youth ministry pastors and our head pastor, Ps. Taylor, we were able to organize a special baptism for these 3 ladies who desired to take this step of faith.

Just like the story in the bible where paralytic man who was carried by his friends to see Jesus to be healed, Viviana, Carla, and Hayli were carried into the water by their friends, and surrounded by their friends and family were finally able to be baptized! It was a very special time of celebration for everyone!!

Thank you for allowing us to help the church in Peru become more inclusive to people with disabilities! We thank you for your continued support to allow us to continue to serve others in Peru.

January 2024!!!

January 2024

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Greetings to all ! This has been an incredible first month of 2024! We pray it has been for you as well!!! Here we are full swing into SUMMER!! With soaring temps, kids out of school, and no AC that only means one thing….LOTS OF ICE CREAM!! No really, I’m not kidding…Ha ha!!

35 Year Anniversary CDV

This month there is SO MUCH to share about! Our church Camino de Vida celebrated their 35 year anniversary 2 weekends ago with a really wonderful celebration to honor the founding pastors Robert and Karyn Barriger, and then make the official transition of lead pastor to their son Taylor and his wife Chana. It was a really special weekend and we are truly honored to be a part of this church and under their leadership.

Last Saturday we were able to host our very first parent support meeting with parents from our church who have kids with special needs. The title was called “Hope for the Future”. It was designed to help parents to begin to dream about their child’s future. To understand and remember that God has created each one of us with purpose that HE has designed us for. That includes their kids too! It was a really special time with 18 parents who attended. We were able to invite an inclusive catering company to provide empanadas and the owner shared her own personal story of why she started the business- her sister, Nataly, who has down syndrome!

There was a time where parents were able to share their child’s positive qualities and begin to openly dream for their future. While the parents were in their time, childcare was provided for their children. Our incredible team of volunteers put together a program that included gross motor play, making a sensory lava bottle to take home, a craft with the verse Jeremiah 29:11, and most definitely, snack time….

We are incredibly grateful for the amazing team of 25 volunteers who took their Saturday morning to pour into the lives of these families. One parent mentioned that they were so surprised with what they received and grateful to be invited to this event and hope to be invited to the next one.

Our plan is to offer 2 more events this year but on a much larger scare where we can invite all 70 families who have children with disabilities to participate. We ask for prayer for wisdom, logistics and topics to address as we begin to plan out the next 2 events.

We thank you for your continued support financially and in prayer to allow us to continue to serve the people with disabilities in Peru. As our Ps Robert says, we want everyone to have a seat at the great banquet, so we must continue to build longer tables so that everyone fits. We are grateful for the opportunity to continue towards this goal.

Rafael

Greetings and Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year! We hope that this holiday season has been filled with special moments with those you love.

We wanted to take a quick moment to tell you about Rafael. We met him when he was 6 years old (see the first picture) when we first started serving kids with special needs in the Sunday school program. He has participated in both in person and online kids church for the past 8 years with the support of our special needs volunteers. Rafael is now 14 years old and in November transitioned from our kids Sunday school program to the youth service for teens with the support of our newly formed volunteer team to buddy with each teen who needs extra support. Rafael LOVES being with other teens! On his second teen service, the youth pastor gave the invitation for anyone who wanted to receive Jesus as their Savior to pray the prayer with him. That day, Rafael made the decision to receive Jesus in his heart!!!!! All those years of planting seeds of God’s love in his heart in the children’s ministry culminated to bring Rafael to this point where he was ready!!! What a glorious day!!! The second photo of him is him worshiping with his friends at the youth service!

Rafael’s life is now changed for eternity because of the programs you have allowed us to build here in Peru to support children and adults with disabilities. The time invested in each life so that they can live in eternity with Jesus is priceless. Thank you to all those who have believed in us and what we get to do here to serve people with disabilities.

Financial needs update

Many of you know that we are a missionary family that receives 100% of our financial support to live here from the generosity of others. We bring home 3000$ a month for a family of 3. Not including our health insurance which now has increased to 2000$ a month which we also have to pay 100% for. Due to an increase of expenses and loosing a few supporters, we are in need of gaining new support that is 2000$ per month.

We know that you have many options of worthy causes and we thank you for your generosity . We ask that you prayerfully consider making an extra end of the year donation or increase your current giving to help support us so that we can continue to do what we are doing here. If you know of people who might be interested in joining our team we also ask that you share this blog with them and send us an email so we can connect with them.

Together we can continue to make an eternal impact for the Kingdom of God. Thank you and may God bless you richly in this next year 2024.

Christmas in FULL SWING

Greetings from sunny Lima, Peru!!! Yep, while you guys are all bundled up sipping your warm drinks, we are entering into summer and the sun and heat that comes along with it! I’ll be honest, it took some getting used to, but now I don’t quite mind celebrating it this way. As I am sure you are also experiencing, there are many activities going on as we close out this year with celebration. We want to thank you again for helping us make it possible to do the things we get to do to serve people with disabilities and we give God ALL the glory and honor. Here are a few quick updates. Next week we will be sending out our year in review and plans for 2024!

YOUTH MINISTRY END OF YEAR SERVICE

This past weekend the church hosted a church service for all 3 youth ministries combined to celebrate the end of the year and encourage the youth for the next year to come. The event included youth from ages 13-35 (a large age difference, but with the purpose to encourage the upcoming generations to live their life with Jesus as their center. It was a very beautiful night of worship, teaching, and community.

We had a team of 15 volunteers who were able to receive and accompany 12 people with disabilities for this event.

Ps. Robert (our head pastor) called on the young people to give their lives to serve God from wherever they are. He invited those who had made this decision to stand up to declare this publicly. The entire auditorium of youth stood to proclaim their decision.

Among them was Aylli, a teen who has a physical disability and uses her wheelchair for mobility. She is new to church and at this event she gave her life to Jesus!

What a privilege it is to be in the front row to get to see the miracle of restoration and healing in her heart as she made the decision public.

We are thankful for the opportunity to be a bridge for people like Aylli to have a personal encounter with Jesus. And we thank you for allowing us to do it.

CHILDREN’S  MINISTRY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL

This past weekend our children’s ministry sang a song in front of the entire congregation.  This is the second year we have done this and each year more kids with special needs have participated as well.  This year 10 of our kids were able to participate (with volunteer support) in this special moment as they sang for the church.  Tears of joy and surprise were expressed by the parents who were able to see their child on stage just like any other child.  Many of these kids have a difficult time with changes in routine.  Going to sing on stage is a huge change in routine, but with preparation from our team, each child was able to participate and enjoy the moment!  It was a really special moment! Thank you for allowing us to be a part of this as we continue to make the church shine brighter as we make it more accessible for people with disabilities to be included and belong.

Once again, we thank you for allowing us to help make the church more inclusive for people with disabilities. These 2 stories today is a testament to God’s desire for his church to be full with all of His people and there is purpose for every single one of us.

As you know, as missionaries we rely 100% of our income from generous supporters like you. Thank you for continuing to support us in our efforts to have an inclusive church here in Lima, Peru. If you would like more information on how to make a donation, please connect on the give button to make a tax deductible donation. Thank you again for your support so that we can continue to see His church shine.

Giving Tuesday

Greetings!!! We hope that your Thanksgiving was wonderful and filled with good food and the ability to celebrate with friends and family. We may have been able to celebrate in the USA with our extended families, but we were able to gather as a church family, 22 of us (Americans, Peruvians, and 1 Australian) to celebrate the day and thank God for his goodness. We are so very thankful for the ability to set aside a day to give thanks for all that has been given to us. It was fun to sit around the table and hear the stories of each person, how they were led to Peru, and what their heart is to serve others in Peru.

We left there filled with FOOD, but also filled with gratitude in knowing that while we all have different focus groups that we serve (kids, teens, adults, orphans, widows, poor, disabled ), we all serve for the same purpose to bring more people into the Kingdom of God. As we sat at that table talking, and sharing, it reminded me that God’s table is so big, that He wants it completely filled so that we can all enjoy his banquet.

We know that TOMORROW is giving Tuesday. We know that you have many great options of causes to support. We ask that you prayerfully consider supporting us as a family so that we can continue to do the work that God has set for us to do. To fill his table with more people who are marginalized. Help them to learn their worth and purpose in the eyes of our loving Father.

As missionaries, we do not receive any salary from the church. We receive 100% of our living expenses and ministry needs from the generosity of people like you. Please consider making a 1 time or monthly donation to help us continue to do what we are doing.

May God bless you abundantly in this holiday season and then next year 2024!!

Part of something bigger than us....

Greetings to all of you and Happy (almost) Thanksgiving!!!! We are so very grateful to be able to report to you some really exciting things that have happened over the past few weeks. We thank God for his goodness in allowing us to serve others who have disabilities in Peru and also serve by hosting a very special group of people who came to give free wheelchairs away.

Don Schoendorfer (founder of Free Wheelchair Mission and a friend of ours) came with a team of volunteers to help give out free wheelchairs to those in need. A team from CDV (our church) which included our support team of translators, wheelchair techs, and pastoral staff traveled with the FWM team first to a small village in the Andes mountains and then back to Lima to give out more wheelchairs. It was a very special time.

The final day we were able to visit 2 of Laurie’s Scholars in their homes, have them personally meet Don and we were able to record their stories. Laurie’s Scholars is a non profit scholarship program that Don developed to honor his late wife Laurie (and co-founder of FWM). Laurie’s Scholars is designed to help people with disabilities with financial assistance in order to help them earn an education to help improve their life and future. The 2 students who are currently receiving scholarships in Peru started out with a small course to now both are attending 5 year university career programs!!! We at Camino de Vida help to find potential cases who might benefit from this program and present them to Don and the board at Laurie’s Scholars. It is a wonderful way to keep Laurie’s memory alive by helping to build the future of people with disabilities through education.

Ultimately, this week was incredibly meaningful for Clever and I. Two years ago during this week was when all my health issues with my neck began. Being able to serve together with this wonderful team of people who are so passionate about giving the gift of mobility all over the world, is truly an honor for us. We are so very thankful that our church Camino de Vida partners with Free Wheelchair Mission to serve the people of Peru in this way. We are so very grateful to get to be a part of something so much bigger than us and we thank all of you who support us to allow us to do so.

We are so grateful to Don for saying YES to God all those years ago.  For seeing the need in developing countries and for doing something about it.  His Yes,  has impacted so many lives over the past 20+ years, including ours.  

On this giving TUESDAY, there are SO many worthy causes to give your donation, I just named a few in this post! We encourage you to prayerfully consider helping us continue to do what we get to do here in Peru. By supporting us, YOU too are part of something bigger than just you. As you know , as missionaries, we live 100% off of financial support of the generosity of people like you. Please know we are grateful for your support and if you know anyone who would like to join us please share our information.

“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 6:24-26 NIV

So many good things are happening!

Hey everyone! Here is a quick update of some of the things we got to be a part of at Camino de Vida this past week!

On October 31st our church hosts a fun day festival as a fun alternative to other events. The whole message is Jesus is the light of the world. There was a mini theater performance all about how Jesus’ light shines in us always. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it!” John 1:5. This year was the first since the pandemic and it was a success!! Approximately 390 kids with 480 adults attended this event!!! Our team of volunteers who serve in the children’s special needs area, helped 8 families who brought their children with special needs to the event be able to have a positive experience by allowing them to have special access to everything without having to wait in long lines. They also helped support these families by coming alongside a few families who needed 1 on 1 support. All the families and children enjoyed this day!

That same night at 10pm after all the inflatables and evidence of the fun day fest was cleaned up by our amazing volunteers, 308 teens ranging from 13-17 years old participated in an ALL night lock in called INSOMNIA!!! This night is incredibly impactful for all involved. Many who attend have been invited by a friend and it is the very first time some hear about Jesus!!! The night was kicked off with competitive games. Then around 1am worship, then a message from the youth pastor, then more games. The event ended at 7am. Hayli is one of the teens who was able to attend for the very first time. Her family is new to the church and recently she started attending the youth church services. She was incredibly happy to be able to participate in this event with the help of our volunteers trained to help with any needs she may have and of course communicate with her parents who were pretty nervous about the whole thing. All in all, it was a really great experience for her and all of the 308 teens and volunteers who attended.

Thanks to you, every week we get to serve people with disabilities in Peru to help connect them to the local church, know God, and build community.

As missionaries, we receive 100% of our income from the generosity of donations from YOU. Thank you for investing in our lives and those of who we get to serve in Peru. If you would like to join our team and donate or even make a 1 time tax deductible donation, please click on the give button to learn how. Thank you all!

Thanks to you....

Greetings!!! We want to thank you for your generosity and for being part of what is happening in Peru. Here is an update of what we did in the past 2 weeks.

MINISTRIES

Thanks to you…

Hector was able to attend the church service for college aged youth with his newly donated ramp that adapted to a mini van taxi.

OUTREACH

Thanks to you….

We were able to receive and unload a container of 500 wheelchairs from Free Wheelchair Mission and began to give out the wheelchairs. Thank you for helping us continue serving God through the gift of mobility!

SPECIAL PROJECTS

Thanks to you…

Lisa began to provide occupational therapy services to 5 year old Julian.

Thanks to you, every week we get to serve people with disabilities in Peru to help connect them to the local church, know God, and build community.

As missionaries, we receive 100% of our income from the generosity of donations from you. Thank you for investing in our lives and those of who we get to serve in Peru. If you would like to join our team and donate to what we get to do, please click on the give button to learn more.