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August 31, 2007
The month of August in Peru
"I will love You, O LORD my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." Psalm 18:1-3
I have seen the Lord give me His strength this month as I have seen such devastation and at many times felt so helpless.
First as all of you know there was a huge earthquake here. I canceled all of my classes for a week and teams were sent out everyday to different villages and towns that have been badly affected by the earthquake. Entire communities are now living in the streets as they are scared to death to go into what is left of their homes. We have given food to thousands of people, and blessed people with blankets and water and helped take down and build up where possible. Sometimes the only thing that they need is just someone to be there and hold their hand while they cry. I can't even imagine the despair that so many of these people must feel as they have lost their homes, their loved ones and virtually there very existence. But praise the Lord as we had great news to share with them. That they can have a sure foundation in Jesus Christ, and that He will be their stronghold when everything else has crumbled He will always be faithful.
Secondly all of the Bible College Students arrived this last week...almost 40 of them! It has been great getting to know them and see what the Lord is going to be doing in their lives. One of them even asked me about the ESL class as she would like to teach ESL in the future.
My ESL classes are going well. I give all of the students a verse that they have to memorize each week and the majority of them had it memorized. It was such a joy for me to hear them using the word of God as a tool to learn English. I am teaching 4 days a week from 10:00- 6:30, there are five different levels. Each level has two parts that are 8 weeks long. In only five weeks the first part of the levels will be completed and many of the students will move to the next level. Please pray that the Lord will provide someone to come alongside and teach as right now I don't have the time or energy to create a place for these upcoming classes by myself.
I am also enjoying the blessing of cooking breakfast each morning for the Bible college students. This weekend I will be joining all of the girls from the Bible College as we go for a retreat. Please pray that the Lord will speak to me personally and also that He will use me as a blessing to these girls.
Prayer Requests...
- Please keep the people who have lost their homes and loved ones lifted up
- That the Lord would minister to the Arab families in Israel that I was sharing with before coming to Peru
- That He would give me His strength and patience to teach English
Praises
- That I will be able to spend this coming weekend at the feet of Jesus
- That my mom is home safe and sound in Arizona
- That there are people praying for me and supporting me.
- That God is always faithful to keep His promises
- That i was able to speak to and see my whole church in Arizona through the webcam this last Sunday
May the Lord continue to bless you and keep you, I miss you!
Love in Him, Grace
19:21 Posted in Blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: Peru, Jesus, Missionary, Earthquake, Life
August 19, 2007
Life after the eathquake in Lima
Thank you so much for your prayers over the last couple of days. Peru is in an aftershock in everyway imaginable…
It happened at about 6:40 pm on Wednesday, I was just finishing up my last English class of the day when the whole building started to shake. I was thankfully on the bottom floor and so I walked out into the parking lot that is in the middle of the Bible College . Everyone thought that it would quickly pass, but it just kept getting stronger. Within a couple of seconds all of us were huddled together in the parking lot.
It was an awe inspiring experience to feel the very earth sway under our feet…like riding some sort of wave. We all grabbed hands and started to pray…then there was a huge flash of light and all of the power went out.
We found a radio and heard that the earthquake had hit off the coast and the center was only ninety miles south of Lima . We felt the earthquake for an entire two minutes. And praise the Lord we only lost power and water for a day and a half. But there wasn’t any damage to the Bible College .
“The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knows those who trust in Him.” Nahum 1:7
There are several villages that were brutally hit and devastated by the earthquake, but haven’t been seen on the news. One of these was the village called Canete. Yesterday we had the opportunity to go and help the people of this village.
Their living situation without this terrible earthquake is far from “adequate”. Their homes are made of sand blocks which crumble very easily, also very few of their homes have foundations, and therefore when shaken so fiercely just crumbled like a house of cards. They are so poor though that they can’t afford anything better than this, and now what little they had is all gone.
All of the people are now camping out in the streets at night for fear of another aftershock bringing the walls of their houses crashing down upon them. Remember that it is winter here in Peru , and therefore it is very, very cold at night and they don’t have adequate shelter or blankets.
We were able to bless several families with tents, and also help build up walls that had fallen down, and tear down walls that had been destroyed.
I was able to meet a woman and she asked me to come into her house. She shared with me and we talked about the earthquake and how it has affected her and her family…she was very sweet and I was able to share how our foundation is in Christ alone.
We are going back to Canete Sunday after church, please pray that the Lord uses us once again to bless the people there and share with them the practical love of Jesus. There is a lot of need here if you feel led to give I will use whatever is given bless these families.
I will continue to keep you updated…if you would like to give go to www.sgwm.com you can find me under Latin America .
God bless you and keep you all!!
Love Grace
I will continue to keep you updated…if you would like to give go to www.sgwm.com you can find me under Latin America . God bless you and keep you all!! Love Grace
00:00 Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: peru, earthquake, lima, Jesus