For those of you who are unfamiliar with our church's previous trips, here is a summary of LifePoint's activity in Tapacocha.
August 20, 2008from Shane Tucker's blog @ shaneandellen.comWhat an amazing couple of days. I’m intimidated at the thought of capturing everything I’m learning and all that God is doing. And, equally intimidated at writing these things into words that express the goodness of God. I’m a little emotional even thinking of these things.
Here goes... I’m in Peru on a vision trip so that I can have “vision” on where and how to lead a team from our church when we come back this fall.
Earlier in the week I was reading in Isaiah: 40: 3-5. It says, “A voice cries: In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord: Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level and the rough places a plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” Typically in my life scriptures are not used so literally but in this case, I’m literally in the middle of the dessert where I need to prepare the way for the Lord. I need to determine a way for my team to make it back to Peru where the mountains are not such an obstacle, in other words, the mountains need to be made low and I need the cracks to fill up so that the glory of the Lord can be revealed to these people.
I’m thrilled to say that I feel like God prepared the way for himself to be revealed to us. Here are some of the highlights. After a few hours of driving away from civilization we (myself, Tommy and my translator Fernando) arrived in Tapacocha. Tapacocha is a small town of about 380 people that is strategically located close to three other small towns so as ministry expands from Tapacocha there are approximately 1000 other Peruvians who the Gospel can filter to. About 2 minutes after arriving I stepped out of the truck to meet two of the town mayors (or our equivalent to mayor), another city official and the town nurse. 10 minutes later I had a place to stay, the needs of the town, some Christian contacts, email addresses, and a clear vision of what is next. This is such a blessing and a relief. I often feel like you can’t make the wrong decision as long as you are deciding to do ministry but in this case I needed to make the more righter (yes I know this is not a real word) decision. The decisions made on this trip directly affect our church and ministry in this area for at least the next four years.
Father, thanks for helping me to perceive the new things you are doing as Isaiah 43 says and that you literally filled up the cracks and brought the mountains low for the sake of sharing Your gospel. Please continue to lead us in the right steps.
November 1-8, 2008from Shane Tucker's blog @ shaneandellen.comMy primary goal of this trip was to establish a presence and gain some trust between our church and the village of Tapacocha.
Upon arrival, we unpacked, etc..., the first thing the next morning, I sent the team out into the streets of the village to begin prayer walking and to meet as many people as possible. While I was out, I took a translator and met with the town sub-mayor and the school director, we were able to make arrangements to meet with the whole school for two days, and were given permission to meet in the only building in the village big enough to hold all of us (which happened to be the local catholic church building), and the list goes on...too easy.
The next day we spent time playing soccer, hanging out with the locals, teaching about America, our church and why we are in their village, doing more prayer walking, and then closed out the evening with a worship service that the whole village of 380 people was invited to. As a pastor, it was so rewarding to sit back and let the people of our church operate out of their gifts and accomplish so much. We watched a video in Spanish that allowed us to communicate with the locals about who Jesus is and how His sacrifice makes a difference in our lives, gave some of our testimonies, sang some songs in English and Spanish, and gave them bracelets that represent the Gospel story.
The end results of the trip are that there are about 125 new believers in the village, our first Peru team did a fantastic job communicating the love of Jesus to this village and we’re very much looking forward to going back in May to see what else God has planned for Tapacocha.
I’m so thankful to God for allowing us to be a part of His plan to reach the unreached places of the world, that He went before us to prepare the hearts of his unreached people, and that he uses these experiences to help us love Him more.
Here are some things that we need to continue to pray about:
1) There are huge cultural barriers to these trips and even to their understanding of the Gospel. Pray for the 125 new believers that they will sustain their faith in the absence of faith leaders or Scripture.
2) Pray that God raises up leaders for this village and that these people will be willing to work with LifePoint to spread God’s love to this village.
3) Pray for future trips to this village, that we will have the same access (if not more) to the schools and government of the town.
4) Pray for resources such as Bibles, and discipleship materials that will help us bridge the language and cultural barriers.
5) Pray that God would begin to stir the hearts of LifePoint members to go back to Tapacocha and potentially provide summer or full time missionaries to this area.
6) Translators are crucial to the success of our communication, please pray that God blesses us with competent translators that not only know English but who also know Jesus.
May 2-9, 2009
Written by Joy Lackey
This was my first overseas mission trip with our church. It was amazing! You have no idea, until you go, what God is going to do in and through your life.
To start - we drove to the village of Tapacocha on a little dirt road that was cut out of the side of the mountain. You could look out the truck window and see way down into the valley. Very cool view!
While we were in the village we played volleyball with the kids, went to their school and told them about how we each came to know and have a relationship with Jesus Christ, told Bible stories, held meetings in the Catholic church building, etc. My favorite part was teaching them a couple of Christian songs in Spanish. They loved it and asked over and over to sing them. They even wanted to know how to sing them in English.
We were only in the village four days, but it was easy to see what is needed. They don't need material things like food and water, but they are starving for someone to lead them to Truth and thirsty for the Word of God. They wear the name of "Christian" like a good luck charm, and are relying on their good works to get them to Heaven. They don't understand the difference in a religion that's trying to earn them a seat in Heaven, and a relationship where you give your life to Christ and trust Him for salvation. Therefore, we all have realized that our goal as a church, as a team and as individuals must be to lead Tapacocha to true faith and maturity in Christ!
