Our God is so Awesome!!!

Hey Guys,

I know we weren't supposed to come back to Huaraz until the 31st, but Tommy's plans changed, so he came to get us early. Hurray for hot showers! The plan is to NOT come back to Huaraz again, so after lots of running around today we were able to get everything done and in order for the rest of our stay in Tapacocha before the team comes.

Well, I have some very exciting news to tell all of you. After almost 2 months of wondering if God was even working in Tapacocha at all, one of the families that we were having Bible studies with decided to follow Christ with their whole hearts and to share Him with their neighbors and friends! Their names are Loucho and Claudia. If you've been on one of our trips to Tapacocha you probably remember Francisca, the older lady who is always so nice to our teams. Loucho is her son and Claudia is her daughter in law. Claudia runs the only resturant in town. (And her food is SO good) They were both already believers in Christ when we met them, but had gotten far away from God and never really grew up in their faith. We started going to their house to read the Bible with them and everything just took off from there. In our conversations we've been talking to them about what the Bible teaches us to do as believers. After reading a passage of Scripture and discussing the meaning, we ask them to think about what God is telling them to do.

First they wanted to invite the kids in the village to their house once a week for a Sunday school. We have now had 3 meetings and have an average of 15-20 kids every week. They also wanted to invite their neighbors to come to their house for Bible studies and we've been doing that for about a month and a half. For both the kids Sunday school, and the adult Bible studies, we've been teaching Loucho and Claudia how to teach on their own when we go back home. In one of our study times they told us that neither of them had been baptized and both agreed that they needed to obey God in that way. So, we will have our first baptisims in Tapacocha sometime next week! The picture at left is where we'll have the baptisms. It's an irrigation pond owned by the village of Tapacocha that fills with water about every four days and is drained by removing a rock that covers a hole. The water flows to the fields below to water the crops. Of course it's freezing mountain water, so we're going to heat rocks in a fire and put them in the pond to help warm the water!

Then, just last week Loucho told us he felt God was telling him that he should legally marry his wife Claudia! Most people in the mountains never marry the person they live with, because its usually very expensive. So, for them to choose to get married now is a huge encouragement to us, because it shows us that God is truly working in their hearts and they are choosing to be obedient followers of Him.

In addition to all that, we've made good friends with Pastor Jose in the town of Cotaparaco, right below us. We were able to attend one of his worship services and meet the group of believers there. They believe the same way we do, and it was nice to see their genuine love for God and spend some time fellowshiping with them. Pastor Jose has agreed to come up to Tapacocha once a week to encourage and continue to teach Loucho, Claudia, and anyone else that shows up after we go back home. We also plan on him marrying Loucho and Claudia. We don't know when yet, but Loucho and Claudia want Zeke and I to be there if at all possible, so it will have to be soon!

We're thrilled with how God is working in the lives of the people in Tapacocha. We've talked with several people who are used to the kind of work we're doing and all of them said that its very rare to be this far along in teaching and dicipling in such a short amount of time. Only God can do that! Praise the Lord!

Now we can hardly wait for the LifePoint team to come the second week of November! I'm so excited! We'll have Louise Becker, Gail Hershey, Abe Kobylanski, Mike Benedetti and the leader of the group, Jonathan Taylor.

Please pray for safe travels for the team coming to Peru on Novemeber 7th. Pray for Loucho and Claudia to continue to be filled with a fire for God. Pray for Pastor Jose as he goes out of his way to support us and the believers in Tapacocha. During the rainy season he'll be walking up the side of the mountain, in the mud and rain, in order to teach the Word of God. And pray for the rest of Tapacocha, that God would open their eyes to the truth, so that they might have a relationship with the one and only true God, and Jesus, His Son.

Peru in the Springtime, or Autumn for you guys!

Hi Everyone!

Here's what's going on.

Last week Tapacocha had their Spring Festival. A little strange since we're used to going into Autumn this time of year. Haha! It was a fun day of games and sports. They had a mummy wrapping contest with toilet paper, a best food contest( Are you hungry for some guinea pig? Pretty good looking, huh?), a potato sack race, and even a guinea pig race. Zeke was part of the fastest eater contest, but lost by one bite.

We're really getting to know the people here better. What seems to work the best in Tapacocha is going into the people's homes and bringing the Bible studies to them. There are two families we've picked out to focus on, but even though we're putting extra effort into them, we're still reaching out to the whole village by having an open Bible study in the evenings, once or twice a week and getting together with the youth whenever possible.

One of the families we're focusing on is the family of our much loved friend, Francisca. I first meet Francisca in May when our team came to Tapacocha. Right away she was very welcoming and friendly to us. She and her daughter in law, Claudia, own and run the only restaurant in town. Now, we go to their house a couple times a week for lunch or dinner and have gotten very close to the whole family. They are the most supportive of our work here and treat us like their own children. We've had 2-3 Bible studies with just Francisca and Claudia, and one with Claudia and her husband, Lucho. (Francisca's son) Francisca's husband is mostly deaf and can't be a part of our studies, but he spends a lot of time reading the Bible. All have professed to be Evangelical Christians, and Lucho and Claudia even asked us how they could teach their children, Jack and Jesus, the truths of the Bible to counter the religious teachings in the school. So, they seem to be on the right track, and want to learn more. Only thing is, Lucho drinks (I'm not sure if any more of the family does or not). He says he knows he should quit, but we showed up to have Bible study with him one day and he was sleeping off a hangover. We had a good Bible study with just Claudia, though, and I taught her some Bible stories to teach her kids. Please pray for the whole family, that they will see the truth, want the truth, and choose to live for Christ in their daily lives.

The other family that we're focusing on is the family of one of our favorite kids in Tapacocha. Anyone who has ever been on any of our trips to Tapacocha knows Pablo, the little boy who constantly hangs around and wants to follow you everywhere. Since coming here in August we got to know his older brother and sister pretty well and eventually their parents. The whole family is very nice. We go over to their house a couple nights a week to play chess, tell jokes and play guitar. Most of our time with them has been relationship building. We've just begun to add spiritual conversations to our time with them. And just this past week we went to their field to help harvest wheat. It's so cool how they do everything by hand. They use a sickle to cut the wheat, then pile it up and have a horse walk over and over it until the wheat separates from the stalk. Then they use a pitchfork to toss the wheat up in the air and let the wind carry the chaff away. Finally, after hours and hours of work they gather up all the grains of wheat and take it back home. Its amazing how many dishes they can make out of wheat! So, please pray for Layo, Alipia, and their children, Elicel, Ester, and Pablo.

Tomorrow, Zeke and I get to meet several of the missionaries serving in this part of Peru. They're having a going away party for one of the missionaries who's term is ending and a welcoming party for three new missionary families. We're having hamburgers(Yippee!) and I'm going to try and bake cookies for the occasion.

Next week is the anniversary of the school, so that will be a three day party. Most of it will be music, dancing, and drinking, so pray everyone stays safe.

We only have a little more than six weeks before we'll be coming home. Please pray that God uses the rest of our time here to make a lasting impact on this village. I'm excited about coming home to family and friends and going back to our awesome church, but I will definately miss Tapacocha.

So, in conclusion, I think everything is moving along and there have been many good things come from Zeke and I being able to stay this long, but I believe our church won't be done in Tapacocha by November. In the future, I can see Francisca's family being the spiritual leaders in Tapacocha, inviting people to their nice big room for Bible studies, with Pablo's family a strong leadership support. Pray that God has His way in everything that we do, so that in the end He gets the most glory from this little village on top of a mountain. Praise God!

This is important! Jk!

Hey Peeps,

I've run out of time to give a detailed report of our past 2 weeks, since its after midnight and we leave for Tapacocha in the morning, but we'll be back in Huaraz on the 26th and I'll post pictures and write out a full account of our adventures at that time.

The most important thing you need to know is that you can make a pizza without an oven. If you have any questions on how this can be accomplished, just ask, and I'll be glad to show you.

All for Him,
Zeke and Joy :)

Update

Well, we've only been gone a week, but a lot has happened in that short amount of time. We were supposed to come back to Huaraz on the 10th to exchange translators, but Mijail agreed to stay with us until the 17th, so we came back for more supplies.

Mijail brought his guitar with him. He and Zeke have been playing all the songs we do at LifePoint Church. It's great! We also learned how to sing Tomalo (Take it All, by Hillsong, in Spanish) We're working on learning One Way in Spanish next.

Last Friday we had a Bible Study with the vice mayor, Franklin and his girlfriend, Flor. It really opened our eyes to how little these people know about God and the Bible in general. We gave them each a Bible in Spanish and marked some good places for them to start reading. I'm told that the average Peruvian doesn't like to read, so pray that God puts a hunger in these people's hearts to read His Word.

Last Sunday we took a cake to the clinic for Doctor Jose's birthday. He turned 25. None of his family were able to come, because of a sick grandmother. Doctor Cynthia, a good friend of Jose's, traveled 4 hours to visit him for his birthday. She made lunch for us and we spent 8 hours at the clinic talking to Jose' and Cynthia. A lot of our conversation was centered around God and the Bible. We were very encouraged by their questions and were able to point out some Bible verses to help them. Pray for Doctor Cynthia. She's a young woman, working in the small village of Paraden, without any family, friends, or spiritual leadership.

We had a group Bible Study, this past Tuesday with 5 people from the village. We 're still trying to figure out the best time to meet, so the most amount of people are able to attend. Please pray that many people will be interested in God's Word and that nothing will hinder them from coming.

Wednesday was interesting. A drunk guy got mad at the mayor, grabbed another man's cane and kept waving it around, threatening people. With no police around the only thing the people could do was close all their doors and stay away from him. Alcoholism is a major problem in Tapacocha. Whenever we talk with the older women in the village their greatest worry is that their children/grandchildren will start drinking when they turn 18. Pray that God will flood Tapacocha with His Spirit and the people will no longer have the desire to drink alcohol constantly.

Also pray that God will keep all evil out of Tapacocha. We've been told by the doctors that the people sometimes go to witch doctors. Please pray that they will stay out of Tapacocha and away from the people here.

While visiting one of our favorite women in the village, Francisca, we found her husband, who is deaf, reading one of the Spanish Bibles we gave them. That was a thrill! He told us he wants to read the whole thing and then ask us questions about it. We're planning on going back to visit them and hopefully study the Bible with the whole family.

To end this update on a lighter note, I would like to inform you all that Zeke and I had the pleasure of tasting one of Peru's greatest delicacies, Cuy. Aka Guinea Pig. (Apologies to any of you that keep them as pets.) We thought it tasted pretty good until Zeke looked closer to find he was eating the mouth, teeth still attached!

God has set His heart on Tapacocha and we plan on loving them with everything we've got these next few months. We love you guys and are very grateful for all your prayers.

Joy and Zeke

Don't Fall!

Well, we left Tapacocha in Tommy's truck, about noon, on Monday, taking with us a construction worker, two Quechua women, a bundle of wood, a dog, and a cat. Thankfully the two women and their pets only needed to go about half an hour down the road, cause we were packed in so tight that Zeke had to ride on top of the truck! We made it to Huaraz about two hours later, where we are spending the next couple days grocery shopping, catching up on emails and Facebook, exchanging translators, and going out for pizza. (Oh, yeah!)


In the past two weeks we've taught English in the school (grammar, ahhh!), played volleyball with the kids and teachers, and made lots of new friends. We had our first Bible Study last week with the village nurse, Jessica and one of the teachers, Rosie. (Her name is actually something a lot longer, but I can never remember it.) We hope to have a few more people the next time we meet.


We are also in the process of starting a Kids Club/Youth Group. The kids are definitely the most interested in us, and like home, there are always two or more of them hanging around all the time.


We had the priviledge of meeting Pastor Jose' from the village of Cotaparaco, as well as his wife Gladys and three boys from their youth group. Cotaparaco is about an hour down the mountain from Tapacocha, (or half an hour for the locals!). Their church is new and small, and we hope to partner with them in reaching our villages.


Please pray that we will continue to have favor with the people of Tapacocha, that they will see the love of God in us, and their eyes will be opened to the truth of God's Word. Thank you for all your prayers.


Joy and Zeke

Tommy's House - Our home away from home...away from home

Some of you were wanting to see what Tommy Smith's house looks like, where we stay when we're in Huaraz. So here it is!

The shower has hot water! This is what we dream of for 2 weeks.

Our bedrooms.

The living and dining rooms.

Our God is able!!!

Thursday, two days ago, Shane gave me an update on Joy and Zeke - they are to call him on Mondays and Thursdays. They are teaching in the school not just two, but three days a week - Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the Religion and English classes. They are using Bible-based teaching materials and each class is one hour long, so that means that the children are being exposed to the truths of the Gospel for six hours every week!!! Also, Joy is leading two of the ladies in a Bible study - pray for the Holy Spirit to give them understanding!!! And pray for the men of the village to have their hearts softened and their eyes opened and that the Lord would give them a desire to know Him.

Our God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we could ever ask or imagine - so please keep asking and imaging that the precious people of Tapacocha would come to Jesus and that He would advance His Kingdom right there in the High Andes of Peru!!!!!!

Joanna