Mr. Profesor

A pretty neat story that has unfolded since I got here.
I have two profs for Spanish school.  Julissa and Johan, the first of which I prefer over the other (but that is beside the point.)  I knew Johan was not a Christian and I had set a goal of changing him before I finished language school.  So I prayed once for his heart.
He came to the mega-event, I think because he felt mandated to.  Afterwards I was just working by myself, trying to get some sheets for this lady that was freaking out about her sheets.  Johan came up to me and thanked me for being his student and that he can really feel my happiness.  He said the event was really great.  I really didn't pay much attention, because #1: I was busy and #2: He was speaking in English, and you can tell that someone doesn't have meaning behind their words when they aren't fluent.  I kind of didn't really think of that conversation after that.
We had a Spiritual Retreat for Peruvians that wanted to grow more.  Turns out that Johan went to that retreat and accepted Jesus and got baptized.  He said that he wanted the joy that we have.  He could see our happiness, and wanted to know more about how he could have it.
Kristen, Trevor, and I are always laughing in that class.  We're always smiling and making fun of each other and you really can feel the love.  Johan saw that and wanted in on it.  It really expresses how valuable your actions are and how that can be your biggest witness.  All I did was pray once and be myself in class.  That was enough for Johan to want to know more about our joy.  My job here is accomplished, anything else I do down here is extra and there is going to be a lot of extra.

Swang of Thangs

I’ve been in Peru for well over a month now, and the mega event Love Extreme is coming to a close.  The short termers are close to leaving.  Cohort 3 just got super busy with consolidations of the new converts.  They are going to houses and talking with the Peruvians who were at the mega event.  That’s the best part in my opinion.

I don’t think that I have blogged about this yet, but we lost one of our own in our Cohort.  She couldn’t handle the call and returned stateside.  This isn’t an easy call, but no one ever said it was going to be easy.  Say what you will, but we’ve been blessed in return.  A short termer answered the call and is going to be joining our Cohort July 10th.  We’ve been blessed with a replacement, but I will not view her as a replacement.  She’s an absolutely new gift to us, and she doesn’t have to fill anyone’s shoes.

So this week most of us are going to be getting back in to the swing of things (o my look at the title!)  Language school is going to be starting up on Monday.  I’m excited to get back into it.  I’ve actually learned more, and gotten better at Spanish in these two weeks without school than I have in school.  In school, we would speak Spanish for a couple hours then go and speak English for the rest of the day.  Since Trevor moved in, we’re going solo Español in the house.  This is going to frustrate me so much but it will improve my Spanish drastically.

Just a short little update, everything is going great.  It’s not easy but it’s going well.  I’d love to have a bowl of crispix right now, sit in my basement or michaels, pet stupid, and speak english to everyone I see.  But for now, and for 26 more months I will not and that’s just fine.  PS that’s Mister Ostrich and he changed my life forever.

Post Love

Nick Vujicic, the main speaker, called the audience of 8,000 to change their lives.  He called them to stand up if they wanted to make the change.  They stood up in unison as one.  He thought that maybe they misunderstood what he was saying.  He repeated that it was for only people who wanted Jesus to come into their lives for the first time.  They stood up again.  One more time, maybe the message was lost in translation.  And one more time the crowd stood up.  Nick told this to Brian Tibbs after the event that normally only 10 to 20 percent stand up when he calls them to.  He thought that it was possible that maybe they didn't understand, so he repeated it 2 more times.  He said about 60 to 80 percent stood up each time.  He told Brian that the only way that this was possible is if this event was bathed in prayer.  If you have prayed at home, know that you have done a good work.  It is a vital foundation of what we believe here at Extreme and it was extremely powerful this weekend.

We had a goal of 10,000 people to show up to the event.  12,000 came, and there were 2,000 there in line before it opened.  We handed out 96,000 flyers and put up 30,000 posters (and some of us got a little ride with the po po.)  We have an elite team here at extreme, and I love my amigos here.  Felix Vargas spoke at the mens conference, and if you don't know who he is, you should research him.  Ex-drug cartel leader and trained killer turned Christian and overall great guy.  Lonna Vopat spoke at the womans conference, which I have no idea how it went (mainly because I'm not a woman.)  And the main event, Nick Vujicic, the man with no arms or legs spoke as the main event.  There were also concerts going on and such.  The location was at Cerro Juli, which is very much a fairground type of campus.  After Nick spoke, it was around 9 when they had the concert for teens.  This was time to go crazy.  There was probably only a hundred of us but it was the most fun I've had in a long time.  I ended up dancing, tacking, running in to people, making Peruvians get out of their comfort zone, getting stepped on, wrestling, and just going crazy that I puked during prayer afterwards.
On Sunday, we had a celebration day and we also announced the where Extreme is going next.  You can get the details on the Extreme Nazarene website.
First, Extreme Paraguay.  Paraguay is a country that hasn't been reached in 30 years.  Every missionary that has gone there has failed, left, or died.  Through a series of events, Felix Vargas (look him up for sure) has been appointed to be in charge of Paraguay.  We're sending 5 pairs of 40/40's down there to work along side him to open 15 churches of at least 1000 each.  Crazy.
Second, Extreme Columbia.  Home of the largest Nazarene church in the world (and I had the pleasure of meeting the pastor.)  They have 6 services of 2000+ people every Sunday, along with multiple services throughout the week.  Extreme has partnered up with this church, and they are going to build a 7,000 seat coliseum.  And they still want to have 6 services every Sunday. Nuts.
Finally, Extreme Peru 2.  To reach the city of Lima.  There are only 14 Nazarene churches in Lima, which is a city of 8 million.  It's a different approach to what I am doing now, but a very well thought out and Divine plan.
I want to urge each and every one of you reading this to get involved with extreme somehow.  We're looking for 100 mobilization officers to recruit and send out short termers and long termers.  You can be a full time volunteer or just a weekend a month.  You can sign up to be on the 365.24.7 prayer team and if you read above you know how important that is.  I encourage you to sign up to be a cluster support or a 40/40.  Don't say that its not for you or that it's not feasible because I thought that and this is easily the best decision I've ever made.  Donate two years of your life and your reward will be paid in full.  You have no idea how happy I'd be, and others would be, if one of my friends or relatives from the states come down here for Peru 2, Paraguay, or Columbia.  Do not hesitate to set up a skype date, or message me on FB, or email me to learn more and to talk with me about how I feel.

What I've been doing throughout this whole event is just about everything.  I've been running around like a crazy man getting stuff done.  I haven't been to any impact events, besides the actual megaevent, but I've been doing everything that needs to be done.  I had a day of 4 airport pick ups which was absolutely insane.  I had to do security all night after the event.  We have guinea pig mascot costumes in which Trevor and I slept in that night.  It would have been entertaining for someone to wake us up and see us in them.  Other than that, I just want to remind people that they can message me with questions and prayer doesn't hurt at all either.

Arrested Development

Title by Chad.  So today, quite the circumstance came up.
My friend, a missionary from Costa Rica, was with me today hanging up posters promoting the mega-event Love Extreme.  We had already hung up 45 posters or more and we decided to go down a really busy road, that eventually leads to the main square.  We went into the median of the busy road to put posters on the poles of the billboards.  We were on our third pole on this highway when these two policemen showed up next to us.  I can understand a fair amount of Spanish, but luckily Scott is fluent.  I knew that once they got out and opened the back door of their truck, they wanted us to get in.  Apparently, the violation was that we were hanging up signs on public property and they take that very seriously.  They were on their way to taking us to their main station when we (and when I say "we" I mean I just listened to Scott) were working on convincing them otherwise.  We found out that they were on their way to write up a "denuncia," which would force us out of Peru, back to our home countries.  Right then, Scott became very apologetic and took the blame for everything.  He said that they do it differently in Costa Rica and that I had only been down here a month.  This is the best thing to do, just agree with them and bathe yourself in blame.  The conversation started to change, and Scott used the words, "Tengo mucha peina," a lot.  These words mean to feel so bad about what has happened.  While they were grilling us from the front seat in their truck, the driver was popping a zit in the rearview mirror.  It was the most odd situation ever.  Eventually they let us go on the premise that we tell the director of the event to only hang the signs up on private property.  But the story doesn't stop there.  Had we not been picked up by the police, then we wouldn't have gotten a taxi to go back home (because the officers drove for a bit.)  Had we not gotten in the taxi to let us go home, we wouldn't have been able to invite that driver to the event.  We invited him and talked with him the whole ride back home.  He said he was going to bring his family and then we even got to pray with him.  After we got out of the taxi, I was telling Scott how we had gone to both extremes inside of twenty minutes.  And a couple hours later, Scott asked me if I saw the guy popping his zit in the mirror and we had a couple of laughs at that.

Pre Love

So the mega-event begins.  Extreme Love. It's the huge event here with concerts and speakers to try to reach the people of Arequipa.  First is promo, then impact, then consolidation. It's quite huge, we're expecting 10,000 people to show up.  It's the biggest event we've ever done.  With big events comes big responsibilities.  I have a numerous amount of them.  Throughout the three weeks in which this entire event takes place, we have around 380 short term volunteers coming to help out.  One of my jobs on a given day is to take them to a festival for kids, or play soccer at a boys home on another day.  On the day of the event, Trevor, Micah, and I are in charge of some short termers and the three guinea pig mascots we have (as you know guinea pigs are a delicacy.)  Two other days, I am in charge of hosting the "gathering" with all the short termers.  In the church at Umacollo, all of us are going to discuss what happened during that day and just share our thoughts, and I get to lead it.  It should be fun, or I will make it fun. Muahaha.  So now it's Pre Love.  There probably won't be a During Love, because I will be mega busy.  I'll definitely get back to you with a Post Love.  So that's what I'll be doing for the next three weeks.
Some other stuff.  The most intense 3 minutes of my life, are in the shower.  Freezing cold and I am moving fast.  That is enough said there.
One of the hardest things I've had to deal with is how much money I can spend a day.  I live on a $1.20 allowance per day.  Think about that.  That's crazy.  Although, my meals are all made by mi madre, so I can go a day without spending any money.  I walk almost everywhere so I don't spend money on transportation.  It has made me come to the conclusion that spending money is truly an addiction.  It's crazy in America.  We spend money on stuff we don't need for satisfaction, and I used to do the same stuff.  It's very very hard not to spend money anymore.  It's one of the most difficult things I've had adjust to so far.  I encourage you to check and see how much you spend and how much you don't need.  Review all the stuff you buy.  Then change it.  Simple as that.

One thing that I learned today from my Spanish teacher was about Puno.  Puno is the city in which I am headed in January.  She, my teacher, was born in Arequipa, moved to Puno, and then moved back here.  She said that they have a festival every year for a month.  Within that festival, Puno drinks more beer in that month than the rest of the country drinks for a year.  They cover the streets in alcohol because they believe that they need to give alcohol to the "holy earth."  That's pretty insane, if you ask me.  But, it is also coming from the mouth of an Arequipan, who aren't too fond of the people of Puno.
The pictures I put up are from a girls home that of which Micah introduced me to.  It's pretty neat, they take to you really quickly.
Well, I'll try to update again on the fore coming events.

Routinely Unroutine

So. We've been here over a week now.
Escuela Extremo (language school) has been a review so far, thanks to Dr. Marcos at Lakeland.  Although, it's pretty neat to have school outside, in the winter.  When we're not learning Spanish, Trevor teaches us his vast amount of mathematical knowledge.  Here he is teaching us integrals in calculus.  Except not.  The picture towards the bottom is mis companeros de la escuela de espanol.  We have a grand old time.

We had our first Sunday morning service.  After the service, one of the guys, Scott, asked us, "Was that torture for you?" Yes it was.  Scott has been here over a year and he says it's still hard to get the gist of the message from our pastor, which is my host-father, because he is hard to understand.  I appreciate some native speakers more than others because I can understand them, and their dictation makes a world of difference.  I was sick over the weekend, felt terrible in church, and had to pay super-attention just to pick up a few words here and there.  So it was torture.
Today we start our group Bible study, out of Joshua.  I read ahead in the first chapter and it spoke magnificently.   "No tengas miedo ni te desanimes.  Porque el Senor tu Dios acompanara dondequiera que vayas." - Josue 1:9.

Tambien hoy, Micah y yo vamos a preparar la comida para nuestra familia.  (Also today, Micah and I, are preparing dinner for our family.)  We are making pizza the American way.  We bought some pizza crust, a block of mozzarella, some meat close to pepperoni, y some salsa de pizza.  It should be interesting to see them eat our food.  Speaking of food, I think my fellow cohortians are witnessing a miracle.  I found out that I like eggs more than potatoes, pero comi mis papas y verduras (but I ate my potatoes and vegetables) the last two dinners.  And when I say "like" I mean, "don't hate as much."  A true miracle, as those who know me can concur.  I am acquiring new tastes, I think.
We visited Zamacola, where I'll be staying for 5 months.  Hello college dorm life all over again.  Not a bad dealio though because the facilities are of the elite.
One last thing, we lost internet in our house.  That makes it literally impossible to get on after 5 in the evening. This makes it impossible to skype people.  It's possible for the next three months I won't be able to keep in contact very much with everybody back home.  Lo siento.  We'll work things out, but for now no hay internet en mi casa.