Baby steps.

Yesterday, August 25th was the one year anniversary of our arrival in Lima. It's hard to believe it's been a year. Sometimes it feels like it's been longer and sometimes it feels like it has been only a couple months. The past year has been a time of stretching and growing. Trial and error, and tons of learning.


Last night Jose and I went for a walk and we were talking about our move to Piura in less than a month. In Lima we have been renting a furnished apartment so when we get to Piura we will just have the stuff in our suitcases. Houses here don't come with any kitchen appliances so we will have to get a stove, fridge, along with a washing machine and furniture. So we were discussing what the priorities are considering we are not millionaires. It reminded me of our first week in Lima when we were thinking we would buy everything here. We were looking at big refrigerators, etc... and thinking like americans. That we need the biggest of everything we can find. Here most of the refrigerators are about as tall as me (5' 2") or shorter. The ovens and washing machines are also much smaller. If you want to get U.S. sizes you have to pay a lot more.


This time around we were talking about things like "we only need a small fridge because we mostly use it to keep water, meat and dairy cold, and I don't have to have an oven that lights automatically unless we can get it for a great price." There was a lot more to our conversation and honestly the logistics of furnishing a house on faith can make your head spin. But the conversation we had made me think. A year and a half ago we were giving everything away but we still weren't as selfless as we thought we were. We thought we could live the american dream as missionaries. We expected to live in an American house with american amenities. But reality hit us hard and we had choices to make. We had to choose to give up the nice big apartment for a much, much smaller one. We had to learn to prioritize.


In Piura we saw some amazing houses. But we knew that even if we could afford them they wouldn't be the best use of God's money. So we told the realtor our price that we could pay and asked her to only show us the ones we could afford. She only had one. It was ok. The neighborhood was not as nice and there was only one bathroom on each floor (2 total). It had no closets and was quite frankly nothing like what we thought we wanted. I knew that I'm the one Jose was thinking of as he looked at the house so I told him. "I know this sounds crazy but I think this house can work". It was actually about $100 below our minimum price and I was thinking we could at least live there until the baby came. He looked at me skeptically and said let's think about it.


The next day we found out about a house through a friend. It was one of those "I know a guy who knows a guy" kind of things so we didn't have a lot of details. It took us 2 days to go through all the people to even find out more about the house and then get to see it. We saw it our last day in Piura. It was perfect! There is a small yard, a garden area and 4 bedrooms which is really important to us. There are even 4 bathrooms! Plus, it's on the low end of our budget. And it's ours. The landlord had one other person interested in it but in the end God worked it out so we got it. When we found out about the house I told Jose "I wonder if God had this house all along and was just waiting for us to be content wherever we go."


Whatever it was God had a plan and we are so happy to be a part of it. He is still doing a work in us and we still have a ton of learning to do. But when I think of who we were and who we are now I'm amazed at the grace of God.


As a side note if you have not read the book Radical by David Platt I highly recommend it. Especially if you are interested in missions it is a great book.

If I could live anywhere it would be the beach

This is what I'm loving right now. 

So I thought it was the best way to start this blog.

Jose's cousin, and uncle blessed us by lending us their car

and beach house for a couple days.

It is winter and so there were literally 3 people at the beach with us. 

Locals who were not there to play.

   

 But we played and we froze 

we collected a ton of seashells 

walked up and down the beach 

and watched crabs roll balls of dirt

It was lovely and peaceful. 

kind of like this 

I really love the beach. If Jose and I ever retire I want to live there. If we don't I'm believing my mansion in heaven is built beside the crystal sea. (yes I think there is a beach in heaven. God made a lot of them on earth so he must love them at least as much as I do)  

It was a nice break from the rest of our trip because, well, house hunting is stressful.

Especially when you have a very specific list of needs and most of the houses you see work for half of them.

There is also the fact that Peru has a slower time table. "we need to have something by monday" doesn't mean anything here. We might as well talk like the grown ups on charlie brown. 

My favorite so far was a realtor who wanted to show us a 2 bedroom house that was about $1000 more than we want to pay because it has a big yard. Jose told her no several times and finally spelled out that we need enough room for 5 (well 6 soon) people.

Tomorrow we are looking at a few more houses then making a decision. If we don't find the perfect thing we have at least found a good temporary place. So please keep us in prayer for that.

Another prayer request is for me and the baby. We had a chance to see the dr here in Piura. 

He is an old family friend and I'm really happy to have such a great dr to work with here.

During my exam he did an ultrasound and found that I don't have very much amniotic fluid. 

It's something that can fix it itself and there are a few things we are doing to help. 

I am drinking a ton of water, not lifting heavy things and trying to rest. (hahahahahaha, rest is not easy when you are a mom, wife and missionary who is moving in a month.) Like I said I'm trying.

After I found out I waited a few days to tell other people because Jose and I wanted to just pray. We did and we have peace that this baby is going to live. We are still asking everyone to pray that my body will produce the amniotic fluid, and that we would be able to do everything we need to in the next month while mommy is on light duty. We won't hear anything else about the baby until next month so for now no news is good news.

Lots of prayer requests this week/month.

Thank you so much for lifting us up in prayer!

I will leave you with this

a boat driving down the street. 

I wish I had a boat car...not really

Moving, changing, growing

he bites the inside of his lip. Jose and I both do this so it's hard to make him stop 

One of the wonderful and sometimes annoying things about living in Peru is the pace of life.

                                                                                                                       If you try to go to the store before 9am or after 9pm you will be disappointed. There are no midnight ice cream runs here. Not that, we've needed one or anything.

At least a couple times a month there is some national holiday that is celebrated mostly by the entire city shutting down and going to our neighbors house for a party. 

Those are the kind of days we really love. On a day like that you have no choice but to spend time as a family and relax. 

We have this awesome park we like to go to

It has this huge tube slide that is built on a hill. We call it the huge slide park.

a real smile!

When we go there I make the boys pose for pictures at first because I have this great plan that I'm going to make a photo book for each year of their life. They are 5 and 6 and I just had this idea. So I guess they will just have to try to imagine what their lives were like before

phony smile

Throwing sand and loving it!

He likes to pose and comes up with a bunch of his own 

I love just spending time with our little family of 4 since in 6 months we will have another member

This picture was taken last week when I was 13 weeks pregnant. I should really take a new one... 

For anyone that wonders. I'm doing great while experiencing normal pregnancy symptoms. The main one being that I would be perfectly happy to stay in bed all the time. I'm that tired. Morning sickness comes and goes and usually comes back just when I think I'm over it. 

We are all really excited about the baby. Logan wants it to sleep in his room. Even though he doesn't like sharing a room with Timothy. Obviously he's not spent a lot of time around babies ;)

A couple things we would love ya'll to pray for us about. Next week we will all be travelling to Piura to look for a house. This house will be our home and the base for our church until we reach about 100 members. Because of that we need something with a big living room for church services and somewhat of a separation from the sleeping areas so we can still have a little privacy if we need it. I have a very specific list of what I would love to have in a home and we are praying we find the perfect place for next to nothing
Also since this is our last month in Lima and we are leaving right after La Casa Del Padre's conference, we have a lot going on this month. So we could really use your prayers for wisdom and efficiency this month. We need to get everything done and all still like each other at the end.
Thank you so much for praying!

2 Corinthians 1:11
And you are helping us by praying for us. Then many people will give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for us. 

Pieces of the Puzzle ~Part 4 The Finale

The last week has been an amazing time of seeing what God has been doing behind the scenes. So full of confirmation that what we are working on is what God wants us to be doing. But first let me tell you what God did to bring us to this point. The story is long so we will be breaking it up into parts. To start at the beginning go here

After our initial trip to Lima, one of Jose's spiritual son's Victor came to us and said he knew his calling was linked to ours and he wanted to come with us. Our Pastors agreed that he should go with us. The 5 of us took a 2 week road trip to visit some friends and family and tell them about our mission to Peru. We flew out of Miami, FL the end of August. Between the 5 of us we had 23 bags filled with books, clothes and toys. 18 were to be checked. Jose's dad flew out the day before us so we checked at the counter to see how much our 8 extra bags would cost (we each had 2 free) The lady told us $60 each so we planned accordingly. The next day we arrived and one of the first things out of the desk agent's mouth was to tell us the cost was actually going to be $120 each, almost $1000. Me and victor started trying to figure out if we could make some of the bags carry-on's instead when the boss came over and told Jose that since it was their error in communicating, our excess bags would be free. God was bringing things together.

We got here and got busy but I'm not going into detail on that right now. In November we had planned a trip to Piura. The day we left was a Sunday we went to church that morning and there were some guest ministers who operate in the Prophetic. They called Jose and I up to pray and prophesy over us. Everything they said was confirmation of things Jose and I had been praying about and living out. The main things that stood out from the prophecy was that God is protecting us, will supply all our needs, is sending us out as church planters and will continue to pass this mantle on to the next generation. He also said that our calling has been confirmed over and over and God will continue to confirm the work he is doing in and through us. 

For the next 6 months Jose and Victor saw the need for spiritual fathers and affirmation everywhere. It was made so apparent that the message we carry is needed here.  

Fast forward to last week. 

We had 4 key meetings that brought all the pieces together. On Monday we had a meeting with Jose's cousin's best friend who has been a pastor in Lima for the last 4 years. In that meeting he said (among other things) "There are people in Piura that are waiting for their pastor to arrive." When we told him we are planting a church there next month he got so excited.  

Tuesday Jose flew into a city halfway between Lima and Piura to meet with the director of Surge church planters in South America, Brother Bob Finke. Jose also got to meet the pastor of the strategic church plant in Peru, Pastor Jhonatan Boulangger. There God confirmed the vision he had given us to plant churches. Our vision continues to be expanded. Pastor Jhonatan also told Jose that there are people and connections in Piura waiting for us when we go. 

Jose got back on Thursday and attended a mini conference La Casa Del Padre was hosting for Ministry Fellowship International (MFI). He and Victor had dinner that night with Pastor Reuben and his wife from Chiclayo (a town 2 hours south of Piura) these pastors also mentioned people in Piura who are waiting for a pastor (notice a theme?) They have encounters and other events and people from Piura come to their to church to be involved then go home where they have no church to plug into. 

Saturday night was the last night of the conference. Pastors Danny and Giselle Bonilla are the apostolic covering for the Aguayo's and were the speakers at the conference. Jose and I attended and at the end the Bonilla's prophesied over some of the pastors. They called us up last. They started out by saying that God had called us, sent us and will provide for us. He has confirmed the calling over us and it will continue to be confirmed. They said there are people waiting for us to be their pastors. That God meant for Jose and I to be together and the enemy has tried to take us out and take us apart but He has protected us because he has a greater purpose for us than we can even see now. There was so much more in that time that our hearts are full of encouragement and excitement about the things God is showing us and doing.
The Bonilla's were so excited about what God had shown them about us that they came up to us to talk about it afterwards. In that conversation they shared with us even more. Little personal details that they couldn't have possibly known without God telling them. 


We just want to encourage everyone that reads this blog to continue praying for us. Even with everything here our story is just beginning and you are a part of it. Through trials, stretching, test's and triumphs God continues to be faithful.  

Pieces of the Puzzle ~Part 3

Part 3

The last week has been an amazing time of seeing what God has been doing behind the scenes. So full of confirmation that what we are working on is what God wants us to be doing. But first let me tell you what God did to bring us to this point. The story is long so we will be breaking it up into parts. To start at the beginning go here

For the next several years the missionary thing got put on the back burner and all but forgotten. We had babies and jobs and ministry work. Life was busy and good. Every once in a while Jose would mention to someone that we wanted to be missionaries and I would nod and smile and think it was never gonna' happen. 

In 2007 the pastor from Lima our pastors had visited 5 years before came to Powerhouse. He spoke about Peru showed pictures of the people. Something inside of me broke. I was in tears the whole time he was speaking. I realized that I had hardened my heart toward missions even though I spoke a good game I had no intention of ever doing it. That was the beginning of the end for me. I told my mentor what was in my heart and Jose and I began to talk about going to Peru in earnest. 

Suddenly the future became crystal clear and for almost a year everything fell apart in our lives. We lost material things, friends and family left our church and relationships changed, and our business failed. The enemy tried to destroy what God had called us to do. This was just another piece of the puzzle. 

At the end of 2008 we were just beginning to recover. We still had embers of our vision burning. Jose invited his dad to attend an Encounter and in the beginning of 2009 he did. Jose was his small group leader and it was an awesome time for them. After the encounter Jose's dad told him that whenever we end up going to Peru to start the work he wanted to go with us and be a part of it.

We started making plans to visit Peru as a family including Jose's dad. Jose says he knew that this would either make the desire unquenchable or put it out. One month before our trip he had a meeting with our pastor. We knew that if this was God it would be confirmed by our spiritual authority. He gave us some direction about who to contact in Lima and asked us to report back after the trip.

In August we took a 10 day trip to Lima. Jose and I fell in love with Peru and saw the great need here. We both knew we could never go back to living the "American Dream."

In Jose's follow up meeting with Pastor he said "this is it, we want to move to Peru and plant a church." Our Pastor said he knew and he had just been waiting for us to level out after the shaking we had undergone the previous year. At that time we said we will leave in one year.

We started planning out how we would get there and what we would do. We planned to sell everything except what we could carry in our suitcases.

In March of 2010 our Pastors invited us to accompany them to the Remnant conference hosted by Pastor Larry Stockstill. One of the speakers was Robert Morris. We had heard of him as the pastor of one of the most prosperous churches in America so our mindset was that he was going to talk about money and how to have a prosperous church. Instead he spoke about the heart and having a heart of sacrificial giving. He had written a book called "The Blessed Life" which was basically about being willing to give up everything for God.

Let me just pause and tell you something about how Jose and I operate. We are both givers. We love to bless other people and are known to be a little bit out there in our willingness to give. However I'm usually quite a bit more reserved than Jose. I know that anytime Jose leaves the house anything on his person is subject to being given away. I'm more likely to figure out what the needs are and go from there.

So when we were sitting in this session God told me we needed to give our stuff away. Not sell it. This does not make sense. We planned to buy our plane tickets and maybe fund ourselves a little bit with the sale of our furniture and other personal belongings. But I knew what God told me to do. So before I could push it back or ignore the thought I whispered it to Jose right there. This only served as confirmation for Jose who had been feeling the same thing for a little bit. So that was it. We were going to give everything away.

Part 4 Tomorrow