Update

Everything is going well, today we had the group get in from Pensacola Christian College with Go Forth Baptist Missions. They had a great trip and everything went smoothly. Upon arrival (at 5am) they couldn't check into their hotel rooms yet, so we had to take them to breakfast and entertain them until around noon when they were supposed to get their rooms. When the went back to get into their rooms at noon, you guessed it, they weren't ready. They had actually just built some new rooms onto their hotel and were still getting the beds and everything else in, so they had to wait around till lunch (2pm) and go eat at our house, after that they went back and finally everybody got into their rooms at around 3pm.
They got some rest and are now on their way to Hunter Baptist Church. They are probably going to get to give some testimonies and sing and different things like that. The reason I'm not going is because Katie got her wisdom teeth pulled today and I have been staying home to take care of her most of the day, I went with her to the orthodontist along with my sister and brought her home, etc. Please pray for her that she would be feeling better soon, she has already shown some major improvement from this morning and tells me she is feeling much better. I am sure she will be fine by tomorrow, but still keep her in your prayers.

Tomorrow we are taking the group up to the Bible College and they are going to work there getting eveything take care of for the Medical Clinic, we have to set up divisions for the different doctors and nurses. I will put pictures up tomorrow and show you how everything is going.
God bless,
David

Strike is Over!

I just wanted to drop a small note to let everyone know that the strike is over and everything is getting back to normal. I guess somebody came in and made negotiations, whatever it was and now everything is fine. We will be going up to the Bible College to work on the Medical Clinic today, there is a lot to be done. We will be holding a press conference this week at Faith Baptist Church and we will be having many of the city's newspapers and, hopefully, tv stations there to ask questions and publish this around the city. We are also going to be setting up banners all around the city and publishing it on radio. Please pray with me that God will bring the amount of people we are hoping to see. I will give you some more updates as soon as I can. Thanks for keeping up with us.
God Bless,
David

Sunday Services and Nationwide Strike

Everything went well yesterday, we went to both morning services (8am and 11am) there was a total of 375 or so. That is a very good number, considering that the strike has not allowed many people to come in from around the city.

The evening service was pretty neat also, they had their annual "Pastor's Night" where they showed their appreciation for their pastors. They had some great specials and a wonderful message preached by Felipe Choquehuanca. They gave Alonso Montenegro, Jose Luis Ramirez, Chris Gardner, Mike Staley and their families gifts to show their appreciation. It was exciting to see people taking care of their pastors.

Be praying for the strike that is going on down here right now, there are people that aren't happy with the government right now and the whole country is pretty much frozen because of this strike. There are people protesting in the streets and also punishing in car that is in their path. It isn't bad at all if you obey the rules and stay away from all of the commotion, but it's still not good for the country because many people can't get to work and its just a big problem.

Anyway, today I am on my way up to the Bible College to see about how we are going to be splitting the rooms up for the Medical Clinic and just organizing all of that. Please keep praying for all of the medicines, etc.

Thanks for keeping up with us, its fun to know people care about what is going on. I have a few more pictures for ya. If you want to see a bigger version just click on each picture Here you go:

Delays Delays Delays

We finally made it last night at about 8pm. Our flight from Atlanta to Miami was delayed for 2 hours from 5:25 to 7:25 and our flight in Miami was delayed for 1 hour. After that we finally made it to Lima at about 5am. Once we arrived in Lima we stayed with a pastor of one of the churches there. He is a very good friend of ours and we are so glad that we got to stay with him for a few hours. I got to sleep for about two hours and then we got up and saw a little bit of the city. I took Katie for her first bus ride in Peru and we also rode in a "mototaxi"! It's a motorcycle that has been adapted to a three wheeler with two seats in the back for the passengers.

We had a wonderful time and it was a good break from all the delays. Please pray for Ruben Effio and his assistant pastor Luis Gutierrez. Here is a picture of them.

I will put up some more pictures after I finish writing so ya'll can see what we have been up to.

After being in Lima for the day, we went to the airport expecting our flight to be heading out by 2:40pm which was cancelled because of the strikes here in Peru. Our second flight was scheduled for 4:50 but guess what! Yipeeeeee! We got delayed again!!!!!!! We finally left lima at about 6:00 and arrived in Arequipa at 7:00pm.

Now that we are here everything is great, a little cold, but great. I obviously have already made a couple of stops at "El Turco" (the best restaurant in the world) and I'm heading there for lunch in the next half hour.

Chris and I have already been to the Bible College to see how we are going to set up the Medical Clinic. We had a meeting with some of the people that are helping set up and everything seems to be running smoothly, thanks for your prayers and we will let you know of anything new.

Here are some pics:

1. Getting started on the trip (obviously)

2. On the bus

3. In the moto taxi

Almost Packed and Ready To Leave

Well, it's 11:20pm and we are finished with most of our packing, we just lack packing our toiletries and "carry ons". Please be praying for our trip tomorrow and everything that God is going to be doing in the next month in our lives, I am really looking forward to all of this and know that He is going to use this in our lives to bring us closer to Him and also to grow us in our personal lives.
My parents will be picking us up here in Dawsonville and taking us to the airport around 12:30 or 1:00, our flight leaves at 5:25 and then we have a layover in Miami. Our flight leaves there around 10:50pm and we arrive in Lima at 4:50am. It will be a, somewhat, long trip and I hope everything goes as well as planned.
Thank you for keeping up with the blog, and I hope that I can keep up with this daily while in Peru.
God Bless,
David

God Answers Prayers

With this group going to Peru we have been working very hard on getting all of the paper work finished for us to get all of the medicine into the country (1/2 a million $). As much as we have been working and trying every possible way to get things worked out, it seemed like there was hardly any way to get the medicine in.
Well, we didn't know this, but there is a man that goes to Faith Baptist Church (where Chris pastors) that was worked as the assistant for the former Vice President of Peru! So he got Chris in touch with the former Vice President, who is still very involved in the government, and he said that he will help us with whatever we need and will even meet us at the airport and be with the group when they go through customs!
Praise God for all of his goodness, just when we didn't know what to do, he took care of everything.
Please be praying that everything will still go through smoothly.
Hope you enjoyed this, I sure did.
God bless,
David

Leaving for Peru on Wednesday

Well, I have been mentioning a Medical Mission Trip that a group is taking down to Peru in my prayer letter, and we are finally leaving for this trip on Wednesday. We will be gone from July 11th until August 9th.
I am very excited about this trip and I hope that you will be praying for us while we are down there. Bradley Edmonson, from Calvary Baptist Church in Ashland, Oh. has organized the people to go on this trip, there are between 60 to 65 people that are travelling down there. 28 are nursing students from Pensacola Christian College and the rest are from around the North.
The plan is to have a Medical Clinic running at the Bible College during the same week of the Youth Congress, which makes it very hectic, we are hoping to see anywhere between 2000 to 5000 people come to this clinic to receive medical treatment and before they can get their prescription, they have to speak to one of our counsellors that can share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them. Please be praying for all of this. There are so many details that I want to share with you, but I will be sure to share those with you in a little while.

I will definitely be keeping you more updated while we are in Peru, so keep up with our blog every day, I will be sure to post news, pictures and anything else I can think of.

Thank you so much for keeping up with our blog.
God bless,
David

An Atheist and a Bear

I came across this joke and thought I would share it with the rest of you. I will be posting a little bit of what has been going on a little bit later today. Enjoy:



An atheist was taking a walk through the woods, admiring all that evolution had created.
"What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!", he said to himself. As he was walking along the river, he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. When he turned to see what the casue was, he saw a 7-foot grizzly charging right towards him. He ran as fast as he could. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the bear was closing, He ran even faster, crying in fear. He looked over his shoulder again, and the bear was even closer. His heart was pounding and he tried to run even faster. He tripped and fell on the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up, but saw the bear right on top of him, reaching for him with his left paw and raising his right paw to strike him.
At that moment, the Atheist cried out "Oh my God!...." Time stopped. The bear froze. The forest was silent. Even the river stopped moving.
As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky, "You deny my existence for all of these years; teach others I don''t exist; and even credit creation to a cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?"
The atheist looked directly into the light "It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask You to treat me as Christian now, but perhaps could you make the bear a Christian?" "Very well," said the voice.
The light went out. The river ran again. And the sounds of the forest resumed.
And then the bear dropped his right paw ..... brought both paws together...bowed his head and spoke: "Lord, for this food which I am about to receive, I am truly thankful."