What do we do?

When I wasn’t a missionary I often wondered what missionaries spent all their time doing. I had mental images of people dressed in Khaki in the middle of the jungle with tribes of people who had only scraps of fabric tied on with string and body paint as their clothing. I imagined those people using hand motions to share the gospel and then going home to their mud huts at the end of the day. Maybe that was just my imagination but I think I probably saw a movie or read books with those types of images to put the idea in my head. 

Now that I’m an actual missionary I know that there are probably missionaries whose lives look more like that but that’s not really much like my life. (except maybe using hand motions to share the gospel…but I do that no matter what I’m talking about or who I’m talking to.) Anyway, I wanted to share a look into what we do here as missionaries. 

The first aspect and most time intensive part of our work here is church planters and pastors. We have a 3 1/2 year old church that we planted in the main city of Piura and just last week we officially opened the doors of our second stand alone church plant in a smaller town about an hour away called Chulucanas. Over the last few years we worked with a couple from the first church plant so that they can direct the new church plant with supervision from us with the goal that one day once we have gotten the church well established they will be able to be the pastors of that church. Because both churches are relatively young our work just in the church entails pretty much every thing a church staff does. We have been able to grow our team little by little so that we have more laborers helping with things like worship team, the childrens ministry and even things like cleaning the church. But if something breaks Jose is still usually going to be the person going to the hardware store. ;) We also offer free family counseling to the community which is something that we spend a lot of time doing day to day.

One of our recent "Man Church" services 

The second part of what we do is actually something that was birthed once we came here. We really had no idea how pervasive sexual child abuse was here until we actually lived here for awhile. 1 in 3 kids in Peru is sexually abused and usually by a family member or close family friend.  Now that we know what a horrible problem it is we have made it our mission to go into every school that we can in the region to teach the kids about grooming for sexual abuse and how to avoid it and what to do if someone tries to touch them inappropriately. We were connected with an organization that writes materials for children age 3-10 that helps illustrate those things in an age appropriate way and also teaches about values and things like self-esteem. 

Jose with a group of kids from one of the schools we worked with last year.

Another thing we do is about once a month sometimes more often we go into the community to serve. We do lots of different things but some of my favorite have been feeding the homeless and people in hospitals or who had to work on Christmas eve, taking gift baskets filled with stuff for mom and baby to the maternity ward at the regional hospital, and handing out cold water or “bodoques" (a popsicle like treat that is very popular here) to people on the street as they passed.   

some of our team who sacrificed their Christmas Eve to hand out food 

Our fourth aspect is called our training center.  This is a relatively new concept here of combining physical exercise, healthy eating habits, spiritual teachings, focused thinking, and doing it with friends. We call it “Vida Saludable” or Well balanced lifestyle.  What we discovered is that we are reaching a certain group of people that has been left abandoned: the elderly.   This has been a huge undertaking to help bring a healthy lifestyle to a third of the population of our region.  

one of our first "Training center" workshops

The final aspect of our ministry is still in the beginning stages. We always planned to build an orphanage and we are currently in the process of getting that started. Having a son with special needs opened our eyes to the amount of kids here who are like him and need help. But because of the lack of resources most orphanages can’t take them. Most of this part is still in the dreaming stages but we need you to prayers and financial support as we enter into this stage of the ministry.  

March Update

I keep wanting to sit down and write a nice update on all the great things that are happening (because they are. Really) But I'm having trouble getting it all down. Life is kind of kicking my butt right now. (can missionaries say that?) And everything I try to start gets overwhelming about halfway in. I think Zoe realized this about me because she decided to be potty trained and just started telling me she had to go and that was pretty much it. That's the only explanation I can come up with because I honestly did not want to deal with it right now. Or maybe ever.

Anyway, the boys started school this month because the school year here runs March-December. Logan is doing great mostly because he's social and works better with other kids his age doing the same thing as him. The only part that is hard is homework. I thought homeschooling was tough (it was) trying to help a 4th grader do homework in Spanish is ridiculous. I could probably easily help with the homework in english but naming the tools used in a chemistry lab is a little out of my depth. Every day he asks for help and I end up telling him to ask dad when he gets home.

Timothy on the other hand has been struggling with every aspect of school but he's finally getting in the groove. Autism and sensory integration issues are not very well known here. So we are trying to teach his teacher about it while also trying to help Tim with Spanish, cursive, and anything the teacher sends home for him to work on. Thankfully we found a great tutor who doesn't speak any english but is extremely patient and seems to like working with Tim. Timothy can understand her because it's one on one with no distractions and she speaks very slowly. Every day is a new test of my creativity to help him get through different challenges. We have learned he works best with some kind of reward looming in the near future to help him push through the hard parts.  That and lots of squishing, pillow/tickle fights or wrestling are what get us through the days.  




Zoe had her second birthday. I threw my first big party in awhile for her. She adores princesses and it was all pink and princess themed just for her. She loved it even though she only kept her tutu and tiara on long enough to take one picture. I did my best to just be a part of the party so I didn't get very many pictures. But it was a lot of fun and many people who love her were there to celebrate my sassy & sweet little 2 year old. She is constantly surprising us with how much she catches. She loves to sing and dance and draw on things with magic markers. She speaks her own version of spanglish and she imitates people perfectly. She often likes to run through all the names she knows. Repeating "awella" (Manuela) her hands down favorite person in the world. Having a daughter has been an adventure and a challenge but I wouldn't trade her. She lives up to the "life" part of her name for sure.  

For the last couple weeks we have had a lot of rain. Peru isn't used to rain...at all. When I have said it rained I was referring to Peru's version which is basically a light sprinkle. The kind of thing where back home everyone would be asking "is it raining?" Because you could stand outside in it for 10 minutes and still be completely dry. But the last couple weeks it's been good, solid, flood the streets raining a little every day. Because of that we've had a few setbacks, the church and our house flooded. The roof at the church caved in and even the school Logan goes to closed for a day because they had some rain related issues. It's amazing how much damage can be done when you aren't prepared.

God has been doing some really exciting things in the midst of all of this.                                    In coming here we had a few goals.                     One of them was to plant churchES.                 We've been in Piura for 4 years now and have been steadily growing that whole time. This Sunday we will have our grand opening at Powerhouse Chulucanas.                                     The second official church plant of Powerhouse Peru.                                                                       We have a great couple that have been working with us and learning a lot about ministry.           They will run the location and we will go every so often to make sure things are running smoothly.                                                              

This has been a huge undertaking along with everything else going on.                                      But we are so excited to see what happens.  Chulucanas is about an hour East of us here in Piura. It's a beautiful little city that's kind of in the mountains. The famous black and white pottery from Peru originated there.                       The location we found is right in the center of town.                                                                    About one block from the "Plaza de Armas" it's actually about 3 times as big as our Piura location so we are hopeful it will be filled with people seeking a relationship with Jesus.                    Starting tomorrow night we will have our own version of "The glory and the fire" put on by our awesome Powerhouse Peru people!

  

Thank you all for praying for us and to those of you who send us notes of encouragement on Facebook or email or whatsapp or by carrier pigeon.

 However they come they mean a lot to us when the days are hard. 

Thank you also to everyone who supports us financially. 

Your sacrifices help us to continue the work and often come in right at the moment we need it the most. 

We thank God for you and we thank you for you! 

Love from Peru! 

The Lopez's 

My best friend

Yesterday Jose officiated the wedding of a couple from our church.

with the bride and groom

Jose officiating <3 br="">

We wanted to look nice so he got a haircut and I got a manicure. While I was getting my nails done he took the kids and got them a snack and they brought something back for me. Logan brought it up to me because Jose was downstairs with the other kids. The manicurist started asking me questions about my family. She was shocked that my husband was taking care of my 3 kids while I was busy. I didn't really understand why that was surprising and I said "of course, he's a great father. He even changes diapers" "No puede ser" (I can't believe it) she replied. Then she asked if he gives them baths, cooks, helps put them to bed. It was probably one of the funniest conversations I've ever had about my husband. "Yes, he does all those things. He makes some of the best eggs I've ever tasted. My children prefer he put them to bed over me. He's a really great dad." "That's amazing" she said "Peruvian men aren't like that at all."   "Oh, but he is Peruvian" I replied "many american men aren't like that either." I told her that my husband was taught that manhood isn't machismo but servant leadership. I told her that our ministry here is focused on helping men learn to lead their families with love. I told her my husband is teaching men to be like he is. She asked me what our church is called and where it is. :) (and if you were wondering. No, she did not speak a single word of english. I had the whole conversation in Spanish and managed to get my point across...GO ME! lol)

after the wedding enjoying the reception 

I'm really proud of Jose for so many reasons. He has taught me a lot even in the last few months about serving, humility and love. He sacrifices more than anyone could ever understand because of his desire to really truly serve God.

Jose helping a family move into the place he found them to stay 2 hours after they called to tell him they needed a place

He rarely gets a break and never complains when people (myself included) ask him to do "just one more thing." He does things that are outside of his comfort zone just to make me happy. He has one of the funniest senses of humor ever. I mean he can make me laugh like nobody else.

But most importantly to me he loves God more than anything else.

Preaching at the university to psychology students the kids with raised hands got saved that night

No matter what else is going on in our lives I'm confident that he will seek God and listen. He loves me and our kids second only to God. He is always seeking to be a better husband and father. I love him so much and am so grateful to God for giving him to me. I recently heard this song and it made me think of Jose.

Close your eyes
Let me tell you all the reasons why
Think you're one of a kind.
Here's to you
The one that always pulls us through
Always do what you gotta do
You're one of a kind
Thank God you're mine.

You're an angel dressed in armor
You're the fair in every fight
You're my life and my safe harbor
Where the sun sets every night
And if my love is blind
I don't want to see the light.

I love you Jose. 

Thank you for always being there, always showing up and always loving me.

~Kat

life and times

Life has had many twists and turns the last few months.

Last Month we were able to have an important part of getting our visas done.

Hopefully at the end of June we will be able to go back to Lima and have them finalized.

Please pray that everything goes smoothly and we can get that out of the way!

Once that is done we will be able to get all the church paperwork taken care of 

which will help us in many ways. 

One of them being that we will be able to receive the land for the orphanage!

This is kind of what life feels like right now. 

A lot of pieces have come together but we are still waiting on the missing ones. 

 Our church is growing really quickly and is mostly full of new believers. We have outgrown our home already which is about 6 months sooner than we expected. Right now we are praying for a larger place to host our church and the provision for it

About half of the members of Powerhouse Peru

The next few months we have a lot of exciting things going on.

In June we have a vision campaign. We will be going into a neighborhood near us and providing free eye exams and glasses to 100 people that need them. 

In August we have a team from La Casa Del Padre in Lima and they will be helping us build houses.

The daughter of one of our members lost everything including one of her children in a fire a few months ago. We are trying to collect some items for her family and help them build a new home and fill it with some of the things they need. We will also be building a few other houses that weekend.

Every servolution outreach so far has been amazing! 

We always look forward to the next one with anticipation

In September we will be having our first ever Saving the Family conference. 

This is a huge undertaking and to be honest a little overwhelming. 

A team from Powerhouse Church in Katy will be coming to help us and we are so looking forward to the "family reunion" that will be, along with seeing what God does that week. 

We are really excited about some of the doors God has opened and people that will be speaking. 

Once we have everything finalized I will give some more details.  

If you are interested in coming with the team from Katy please let us know. 

We would love to have you!

In other news I turned 30 last month. It was a wonderful day. 

We started it in Lima and I was surprised with a breakfast party 

then we ended it by coming home to Piura and my ladies group surprised me with another party!

I can honestly say that is the first time I've had 2 parties in my honor in one day 

I want to offer my thanks to all of you that have supported us in this venture. 

We know God brought us here and the harvest was ready for us. 

It is hard work but we love it, and we couldn't do this without you. 

Every prayer and every dollar sent is hugely important to us. 

We love you guys!

What is it like?

I broke our laptop the other day. I'm not sure how, but I must have put something on top of it and cracked the screen. So today I am blogging from my phone. That either makes me crazy or amazing. If there are crazy words in here blame it on a combination of my current brain fog and auto complete on my phone.

Several people have been asking us what it's like coming back to America after being in Peru for 8 months. All we can say is it's different. I've started to understand why there are so many small business owners (gas stations, dry cleaners etc...) that are not from the US. Coming here I can see all the opportunities that I never would have recognized before. Also no matter what the economy is doing America is a blessed country. People with "no money" still own cars, live in houses made out of building materials instead of old shipping containers, and have running water. You can turn on most water faucets and have drinkable water. It may not be delicious but at least you know you won't get sick if you drink it. On top of that I see everyone upset about gas costing $3.47 here and I can't think if that's a bad price because in Peru gas is more like $5.

I can see why so many foreigners want to move to America. For them Americans have piles of money just waiting to be scooped up. One of our first days back Jose was in the foyer of our church and noticed several full trash bags, but they had tons of soda cans in them. He was joking that he wanted to go pull out all the cans and get them recycled because in Peru you would never see bags of recyclables mixed with other trash. I was horrified the first couple weeks there because every time I looked outside someone would be digging through our trash. We finally figured out that those people were looking for plastic bottles to recycle. Just wow. Have you ever been that desperate for cash? I know I haven't. EVER

There is a level of moral depravity that is immediately evident in Peru. Pornography is everywhere. Even billboards have nudity that would not be tolerated in America. As I mentioned in a previous post the law enforcement there is little help in most cases. Here they are protectors, there you never know if they are going to protect you or extort money from you. Honestly, I could go on and on but I'll leave it at this. I enjoy not having to see naked pictures everywhere I go and being able to trust the police (when I'm in the U.S.) :)

I also see a huge difference in the ministry world. For one thing the cost of labor is so low in Peru that you cannot find volunteers for ANYTHING. The people with money would rather hire someone else to do the work than do it themselves. The poor people work all the time to feed their family's so they just aren't available to volunteer. It's so weird to us. Jose has such a heart for volunteers and we both think it is an important part of serving God (J and I met volunteering at our church for what it's worth)
On the other hand. Peruvian christians are SO hungry. Everything we share with them is like gold. I've never seen such open hearts to the gospel and to instruction.

Now to be completely honest. I love Peru and I love America. They both have their own things that make me love them. So it's good to be home (so, so good) and it will be good to go back (but I'm not quite ready yet :p )

What do we do?

Sometimes when I read missionary blogs I think. "so what do they do that makes them a missionary other than live in another country" I'm pretty sure other people think that about us. And while we will have a very different focus once we move north I wanted to share this list Jose made of his weekly, bi-weekly and monthly activities. So you can get a taste of our missionary life

With the men

Make video for intense in Spanish to show to la casa del padre
Signing men up for intense
Plan weekly man church Peru service
Plan weekly teachings and schedules for men's network and continue to recruit men


Keep track of books and curriculum to distribute to men
Meet with men's cell leaders weekly to strategize to bring men to next level
Keep track of progress of men ready to be commissioned in September
Plan monthly men's breakfast
Plan year schedule for conferences, retreats and events for the men


Personal growth in Spanish
Attend class on Tuesday and Friday all morning for the focus on the family courses in Spanish
This semester it is Christian counseling, the blessing of the father,
preparation for marriage, potential principle


Oversee the worship team
We meet every other week spiritual cover the team
Oversee the group weekly to be accountable to practices and songs and next level in training another team
Sunday morning make sure team is on stage and ready


Armor bearers
Weekly coordinate with victor who helps me on Sunday for armor bearers
Help train and recruit and use the men who are not serving as lead to help with ushers.
Make sure we have order of service and any final changes clear


Transportation and sound
Every week we coordinate to transport the church to the convention center
for the services.


Arrive early Sunday with team pick up all items and load on trucks and
transport and repeat after service


Continue to recruit and train men to recruit so we have 3 transport teams
before we leave in September
Also make sure all sound is coordinated for the various activities at the church every week


Weekly stay with the boys on Monday and Wednesday and Saturday to help
Kathryn do school with them and spend time with them, use those days to
extensively read, study, pray and take the kids to the park or out so they
can play


Meetings
Conference call with pastor on Wednesdays
Upper Elder meeting with pastor Guillermo on Thursday morning


These happen either weekly or every two weeks
Cell meetings with worship team
Cell meeting with men's leaders
Cell meeting transportation team
Cell meeting with armor bearers
Mentor my wife weekly and date night
Mentor victor weekly
Spend at least one good hour talking to my dad weekly over lunch or project


Once a month we help a single mom with her poor house in the mountains.
We have been helping her rewire her house, help make it secure, fix and
install some fans, buy toys for her, bring her food and
supplies. She takes care of 8 children in a poor part of town and it's our
family outreach while we are in Lima.

He's a busy guy isn't he?
My list is much shorter.

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday I work on School with the boys
Those days I also try to do Spanish lessons and clean my house
Wednesday I attend "women who pray" the women's bible study La Casa Del Padre does
Monday nights Jose and I have date night - a word on this. We are blessed to have Victor and Jose's dad here to help us by watching the boys when we need a babysitter. Without them we would never get to go out. We learned a couple years ago that as hard as we run in ministry we need that weekly date to reconnect. It has been a great thing in our lives and I can't say enough good things about it.
Every other week I help a lady from church with her english. When we get back from the states I am hoping to start english classes once a week

So now you know what we do here.

Carmella

This Morning we went to visit Carmella! Because of the generosity of some friends we were able to get her a rug, 2 fans (one for her room one for the room she watches kids in) some supplies for fixing her wiring, some lights and a tub full of things like food, toiletries and a toy for each of her boys. She was ecstatic! My kids played with hers for a little while which was awesome because of the language barrier. I was so proud of Logan! He was excited about giving the kids their toys so he did that and watched them play with their new stuff.



There is so much more we can do and would love to do to minister to her. But it was such a blessing to us to be able to meet and help this precious woman. Thank you to those of you who gave into this project!