theYoakums.net

I wrote up our latest newsletter a couple of weeks ago.  I’ve just copied the content to the post below… enjoy.  Oh, and if you’d like to get our newsletters via email, just drop me a line and I’ll add you to the list.

A Vision for the Future

We’ve been in Peru for more than a year.  Going in we knew that our first year would be mostly learning language and culture and finding a rhythm for life and ministry.  What we’ve learned is that process is even more important and longer than we imagined.  Over the past several months we’ve been meeting with a mentor here, David.  He’s been a missionary here for over 20 years and now focuses entirely on Christian Coaching for missionaries and Peruvian church leaders.

Through this, over the last several months, with what we’ve learned and experienced, we’ve been working on laying out a new vision and action plan for us as a team and church.  We’re so excited about what God has in store!  We began the process with a deep discussion about the values that we hold dear as individuals and as a team. Working from this starting point we developed a new simple but powerful vision for us as a team and as a church…

life. love. transformation. in Christ.

To us, this simple grouping of words embodies the Family nature of a life in Christ, the Authenticity and Integrity that God desires, our Loyalty to our Lord and the Peace of God that transcends understanding. Moving on from there, we’ve developed a more focused direction, new strategies and an action plan for us to follow together.  We are really exited about all of this and I can’t wait to share more of the details with all of you soon.

Family Update

The first few months of 2011 have been really great for us as a family.  First of all, these are the months of the short but beautiful summer here in Lima. We’ve enjoyed family trips to the beach and both boys are in swimming lessons.  Also, we’ve had the blessing of having interns here with us, the two guy interns are living in our home with us, Kyle and Kyle.  (Yes, that can be confusing at times.)  In Peru, the school year starts in March.  So our boys are back in all spanish “Nido” or preschool.  But, in August, Jakob will begin Kindergarten at a school called the International Christian School of Lima which follows an American curriculum and calendar.  Another big blessing for us is that we sold our car before Christmas and have since bought another one.  It’s a 11 year old blue Mitsubishi Montero SUV and we love it.  Look for pics up soon on our website. More than those things, we have been blessed as a family and we praise God for the way he continues to grow us and our children and provide for us.

Studying the Bible Like Never Before

It seems like everyone we meet here has an amazing story. I want to share a little bit of one of those stories with you now. Her name is Eulogia.  She was born a few more than 60 years ago in the province of Ayacucho.  The town of Ayacucho is a 10 hour bus ride from Lima and she described her home town as a two days walk into the mountains from there.  When she was very young her father left and then her mother died and she was left to live with an aunt that didn’t treat her well.  When she was 10 or 11 she was told that they had found a family to take care of her in Lima and she was sent away to live with strangers.  Essentially, sold as a slave, her hopes that her new family might provide her with the schooling that was unavailable in her home town were soon crushed as her new caretakers told her that she would have to work for her room and board with no time for school.  She lived as an indentured servant with no friends or family to help and with nowhere else to go until she was old enough to finally move away.  Unable to read or write, she took work as a maid.  At least she was earning a wage.

Not long after that she met her husband and began a family, having 4 children, Magaly, Walter, Percy, and Graciela. Together she and her husband squatted on a little plot of land with no electricity or water or sewer on a river in an area that was then farmland and has now been engulfed by the city.  While the youngest baby was just a few months old, her husband left her for another woman, alone to raise her four kids.

Amazingly, working as a maid for decades she was able to keep her kids in school and even send them for training as dental technicians.  Never earning more than a few dollars a day, she has now built up her little plot of land into a comfortable brick home with electricity and running water.  Her oldest married and moved away. But her two sons and her youngest daughter still live in that family home now with families of their own.

We have now gotten to know Eulogia quite well and have been amazed by her story of hardship and struggle.  She has never known the Lord but has seen the change the lord has made in her family and we’ve been “studying” the bible with her for some time.  This is an amazing opportunity.  How do you study the Bible with someone who can’t read or write?  Well, you sit on her couch and eat the juice and popcorn she offers.  You listen to her stories and you read the Bible aloud and you talk about what that means in our lives today.  It’s a slow process, but a beautiful one.  I know that Eulogia is very close to making the decision to give her whole self and life to God.  Mark and I meet with her every Wednesday afternoon.  Please pray for her and the rest of her family that God would show her the beauty of a life lived in Him, the love he as for her and the kind of transformation that takes place when we give ourselves to Christ.

Prayer Requests

• The phyisical health of our team.  We’ve been plagued by all sorts of things from headaches to parasites of the past month.
• Our boys, that they would continue to adjust and thrive in Peru.
• Our team and church as we move forward striving for the vision of the future that God has shown us.
• Our interns, that they might be changed forever by their experience here and that they be used in what God is doing
• We are so thankful for God’s provision in our life here in Peru.