I Was Called a Peruvian Sailor Once and The End

Next stop Cusco. This was probably my favorite stop of the trip. I was very blessed to have the opportunity to work at The Meeting Place, which is operated by the awesome Scott Englund. There I served coffee, food and just chit chatted with many of the customers who were backpackers. If you ever go to Cusco please go to the Meeting Place, its in Plaza San Blas, they have amazing waffles and Scott is pretty cool. They also give all of their profit to five different organizations that work in Cusco and house the church that I think goes by the same name...
Anyways we were able to work with many of these organizations. I was privileged to help out at Club C.O.R.A.S.O.N. which is an after school program in a rural part of Cusco. It was pretty rural in one of the places that we went, no taxis, which meant a nice walk. I am not being sarcastic when I say a nice walk, the views were stunning. The rest rest of our group also got to help build a medical clinic that was being helped built by the doctors.
I love Cusco and it is a strong desire of mine to return to that city. I am really praying right now though on how long and for what reasons and when. I had an amazing time in Cusco, we were also able to hand out flowers to the cleaning ladies and they really loved them. We also were able to taste guinea pig, lets just say its not something you eat for the aesthetics. haha.
After Cusco we had the dreaded bus ride back to Lima. However this time we were headed down and were able to view the beautiful Andes as we drove.
Once we got to Lima we met up with the church that would be housing us. The church we were staying with was our leader, Julia's, former church while she lived in Lima. We worked closely with the youth group who were an amazing bunch of people. I will always remember the hospitality and open arms they welcomed us in. It was very different working with people who our age. We played games, football and even beat them in a dance off according to very controversial results. I hope to go back and see them all someday.
While in Lima we helped out with the kids ministries and the mentally disabled programs the church had in place. We were able to through on a kids sports day, which was a bundle of fun. We ended up playing a very heated volleyball match with the schools teachers and were beat pretty soundly. It was a great time, I feel we made an impact on the youth group there in Lima and they made an impact to us.
During this time I got really sick. I was not able to participate very much and frankly I was beat after our long outreach and did not put in the effort I should of this last week. However I met friends there who I did not expect to meet or try to. According to them we had an impact and God really showed me that it is he who in charge, no matter how I try to screw it up.  I learned this over and over throughout outreach, God is in control not you Chris.

So this was the end of outreach. We had a wrap up in Mira Flores, the rich part in Lima and probably the richest part of anywhere I had been. We talked about reentry and what it would be like to be home. Well I thought it was all going to be ok. Truth is I was wrong. I had just had the most amazing time of my life. God rocked my world, destroyed the old me and shaped who I am now. I was leaving this community of friends, where we had all grown together, fought together and seen God together. It was hard and you feel the shock of this when you get home. I have had it easier though, they said you would come home and your friends might not be that supporting of the new you. I however have been blessed to come home to my changed friend Nathanael and his amazing church. I have not been perfect, it has been hard but it has helped.

God has taught me so much over this period of time. I know this is just the beginning of my new life in Him. I encourage you to take this step, haha this is the part where I tell you run to Jesus. I know now what I believe and why I believe this. I do not want it to end here and have been really praying what is next in my life. I dont know if its school or back to Cusco or something else all I know is that I want to go where He wants me to go. So pray for me haha.
Also if you are thinking of going on a DTS, please go. Do not hesitate, procrastinate or put off an amazing period time in your life. God will provide.

Ok so this is it. If you have read all of my blogs thank you. I cant wait to record the next part of my life.
I miss and Love you Xtreme/Backpackers april DTS

The Best Outreach Team

Land Lubbers

So Uyuni.
Its a salt flat.
Gorgeous.
Also it was the next stop on our outreach.

I was personally dreading going to this place. I was just getting over being sick and had no desire to go someplace colder than La Paz.

When we got there I was not disappointed, it was much colder. However God did have plans as i referenced earlier. When we got there, we had just ridden on probably one of the bumpiest bus rides ever and frozen to death, it was also 6 am and no place was open. We had to fight tooth and nail just to get them to let us in. While we are standing outside freezing and praying to God that they will let us someplace warm, we are approached by a gentleman by the name of Geronimo. Geronimo owns the best place in all Uyuni. His restaurant  is warm and open early.

So after meeting Geronimo we ate there probably all four days we were in Uyuni. We found out that he was a christian and that God had put him in Uyuni and he was hoping that his place would be able to show God's love to the backpackers. He allowed us to have our bible study there, the afternoon after we had arrived. After that he allowed us to host a coffee shop in the afternoon for backpackers. We had wonderful conversations with everyone who stopped by and were able to share food and drink and good stories.

While we were there we were able to go on salt tours. So for two days we were stuck in the car with people who wanted to talk. We then proceeded to share our whole life stories, testimonies and hopefully impart a better image of the love of Christ to most people. God used drunk driving and flared tempers for good. He again showed us just how he is in control of any situation.

After that we headed out on a freezing train ride, not willing to risk another bumpy ride and adding another form of transportation to our list. We journeyed to Copa Cabana and were able to ride on a ferry. :) Copa Cobana was quite uneventful and we were only there for a day. While we were there we saw first hand the culture of Peru and Bolivia and how they had twisted Christianity with their own indigenous beliefs. Some of us hiked through all the shrines and the pilgrims who had traveled to visit La Pachamama/Virgin Mary statue and prayed over the town. The sunset we saw was amazing over lake Titicaca.

After this we headed out back to Cusco

Binnacle List

Binnacle List- The ship's sick list


I believe this list would have contained all our names except Julia's (Firestorm, our fierce leader) at one point or the other. One of our sickest moments would probably be once we got to La Paz, Bolivia. Most of us were already sick after the Cuzco bus ride but then add on another 13 hr bus ride less than 24 hrs later and that lead to some sick and tired puppies.

However once we were off the bus, we had a soccer game that we had to attend. I will not lie, I was not in the best mood about playing this game and felt like the bus had been dragging me for the last 13hrs. However I guess playing football at freezing temperature and 4000m does not help you get over sickness, but I do not think any of us really cared. We had to die to ourselves and go do something we did not want to do and it turned out to be an amazing time. The kids we played with were so happy to have us there and we were able to show them God's love when most of us did not feel like it.

La Paz is a beautiful city when you are overlooking it. Once you get on the streets you start to notice how poor this city actually is. We were able to go with our friend Tito, who was an amazing host and we ate like kings from his restaurant while staying with him, to go and bring coffee and cookies to the homeless. I have to remind you how freezing it was there. The homeless in La Paz would stick together sleeping in makeshift shacks and under tarps. While in Costa Rica the homeless would flock to us while we gave out coffee and cookies here however we would have to search them out and find where they were trying to stay warm, some of the time we never even saw their faces. Most of our group was able to go play football with a bunch of homeless a few days after meeting them. A time that really stuck out to me was when we saw an inebriated gentleman standing against  a fence. I was worried he was not even alive because he had not moved for the whole time we had been handing out cookies and coffee. Once we approached this gentleman however it became apparent that he was just highly intoxicated. One thing that really struck me was that he was not dressed for the weather. His clothes were not beat up and looked kind of nice but he had no hat or gloves and had been standing out there for hours. I believe this also struck my friend Aryk and we were able to give him our hat and gloves. Once we had roused him, he would not stop talking. Through this my friend Charlie was spoken to by God. Charlie was probably the most sick out of our group and had decided to come and we had been out for awhile and it was freezing. We were just about to head in when we decided to approach this gentleman. After he started talking he would not stop talking and we could not understand anything he was saying but we listened to him. Charlie, in his story, says how he was getting frustrated and wanted to leave. God spoke to him and said that once we left he was going to be there still listening to this mans complaints and ramblings until his death. This really taught Charlie and me through Charlie, how we need to value people.

We all ended up leaving La Paz very encouraged and with great memories and experiences. Tito and his family, our hosts, was very generous and hospitable. Not only to us but to the people of La Paz and the surrounding communities. If any of you are ever in La Paz I would definitely recommend  getting in touch with him, they have three churches and lots of areas you could help out in :) While we were there we also did kids ministries, played more football, and drank enormous amounts of tea. Our next stop was Uyuni, which was foretold to be much more cold than anywhere we had been so far. It was but as was also foretold, it was a movie set waiting for us to take the places God had for us.

Barnicle

Ok next part, the unplanned part. By that I mean not in our plans but God's.

We were supposed to fly straight to Peru and Bolivia and spend an extra week there. However our flight was messed up by the travel company and we were leaving a week later than we expected. Also I should mention our flight was out of Panama City so we decided to spend out extra week there at the YWAM base just outside of Panama City.

After our first of many long bus rides we make it to the base. There we spent some of our week helping out with a school that is run by YWAM volunteers. There they teach kids who normally would not be able to afford a private school education. There the kids are taught in english from a very young age and are also able to learn Manderin. I thought this was very cool and if anyone wants to volunteer you just have to have done a DTS. At the school we helped clear dirt and weeds for an expansion of the school. We also helped clean up the base. My favorite part was on our free day we were able to go to the largest mall in Central America and the biggest mall I have been to yet.

After working in Panama City it was time to catch our flight to Lima. Once we were in Lima we realized that it was going to be cold and how different Peru was from Central America. We were able to stay in downtown Lima which was beautiful and quite old. Lima was just a stop over for us though and we were trying to get a bus to Cusco. Getting to Cusco however is took some time and we ended up having to spend 2 extra days in Lima. During this time we went out trying to meet backpackers and praying for this beautiful city. Aryk and I were able to meet another large group that was here from Minnesota while doing a bible reading in the Starbucks.

After our time in Lima it was time for our longest bus ride yet. This also turned out to be the worst bus ride of our trip. We rose 4000 meters in elevation, there was a smelly monkey in our bus, and most of us got sick (Dave and I did not). So after arriving in Cusco we find out its much colder and we are sick, also we find out none of the ministries are ready for us because we were not able to get there on monday. So we pray and decide to move on to Bolivia. Our leaders go out to buy our bus tickets and call us and let us know that the Americans have to pay $140 dollars to get into Bolivia. There are three Americans and we find out we have fifteen minutes to figure out if we have the money and if we should still go to Bolivia. So we sit down and try to figure out if we have the money, but our Australian says that we should just pray if we should go to Bolivia and God will provide the money. We prayed and God said we should go and that we had the money in the group. I will skip forward for a sec and finish this story which is an awesome story. Ok so we are back in Cusco a few weeks later, we had used money that was for our ministries and we had to pay it back. Our Australian decides that we should all pray about how much each of us should give and write it down on this piece of paper and then fold it down so the next person cannot see the number. We all do this and im not lying the total worked out to exactly the right amount of money. People who wanted to give more felt they shouldn't give more and people who had money felt they shouldn't give. For me this was huge and showed that God would take us places that we on our own could not go.

Trust in God, he will not let you down.

Pirates of the Carribean

Hello,
After five months I am finished with my DTS but I never finished my blog… I’m sorry. I also know im going to have to keep telling the story of my life changing experience and my story telling expertise will begin to flag. So in attempt to record my last five months I will continue my blog over the next few weeks. 
So I believe where I left off was right before outreach. For the first two weeks we had decided to head to Puerto Viejo as a whole team. Puerto Viejo is a Carribean town that worships Bob Marley and everything hippie. The town is more laid back than the already chill country of Costa Rica.
When we first got to the town we did a prayer walk and saw how many churches there was and how little influence the churches had on the town. We really felt that God wanted us to influence people who can influence peaple and we felt that God wanted us to help unite the churches.
So put those thoughts on hold. When we got there we started doing a lot of manuel labor and did not feel like we were getting anywhere or making an impact. We were sanding the walls of this church we were stagying at, picking up trash around the city only to watch it all come back after a few days, and helping our friend Orlando clean up his restraunt. We started to become disunified and discontent in my opinion. We all felt this disunity and there came a point where we recognized this and unified through prayer and communion. We took all our personal problems and everything that was getting in the way and laid it down before Jesus at the cross. That’s when the fun started.
After this God showed us that all this manual labor and cleaning up the town was not for nothing. It was apart of God’s plan and we had to understand that we were not going to change this town God was. One big thing that happened there was with our friend Casey. He was the owner of an ice cream and coffee shop. We went around the town asking what business owners if there was any way we could help them out for free and that we were a bunch of missionaries. Casey did not understand why a bunch of christian missionaries would want to help a grumpy atheist with his business for free. It turns out we came at a time where he needed the help the most. He had just taken over the business six months ago and had not been able to make changes he wanted and was tired and overworked. His girlfriend was also moving away and they would most likely never see each other again. We were able to help make a new sign for him, paint his furniture and restroom and other small jobs that he would not have been able to do.
After we were able to unite as a team God made it so that we could show this unity to the town. As I said earlier we felt God wanted us to influence people who could influence people, and we felt called to put on a dinner with all the pastors of the city. We knew this was going to be a delicate task there were wounds in the church and some of them did not get a long, however with the help of our friend Orlando God allowed us to get this dinner set up. We had six pastors that were going to attend the dinner at Orlando’s restraunt and he had so graciously agreed to make us dinner. There was six DTS students including myself that had set this all up and it would be the big finale to the amazing week that God had given us so far. We were all excited and ready for the dinner and showed up ten minutes before it was supposed to start. That was our first mistake. We forgot that we were in Costa Rica, not to mention the Carribean side of Costa Rica. We showed up, as I said, and the first thing I notice is that the food is cold and it looks to me half eaten. Then we realize we have no dishes or ice or silverware. We notice this on three separate occasions and I have to ride my bike three separate times to the super market. By this time its around six thirty and I forgot to mention we had no clue where Orlando is. Another good thing is that the guests do not arrive early or even on time because this is Costa Rica haha. I am still freaking out as the guests start arriving, and I turn to God and I say “God this has totally blown up in our faces we are just going to enlarge the rift that is already there, I give up God how do you want this run?” at that point God takes control. The conversation was stale up until that point, Orlando shows up and we find out there is enough food, the pastors turned out to just be hungry and once we get food in there belly the liven up. The coolest thing was at the end everyone is singing old hymns together and saying how they need to do this more often. God allowed us to say in a polite way that was well received how we felt that they need to be more of a force in their community and shining God’s love for everyone to see. I felt like I learned so much from this dinner and God showed me over and over on outreach how you just have to give in to God and that he is in control.
When we left Puerto Viejo we had so many stories. The people in the town had influenced us and God had allowed us to influence them. We were met at the bus stop by many of the people we had worked with over the two weeks with tear. Casey came running out in his pjs, Orlando and his wife were there and some of the pastors as well. It was awesome to see what God has used us to do and the lives we had impacted it was a great start to an amazing outreach.

Im the Dread Pirate Roberts

Hey!
So lecture phase just ended today. We had a great speaker John Stenson from Wisconsin speak to us about Evangelism or more about how to show God’s love to others. Sunday we will be leaving to Puerto Viejo then from there on Monday we will be going to this four day camp called NEKO. They are very secretive about what we will be doing there but it is in a very rural part of the country and we are packed for wilderness survival.
After NEKO we will spend two weeks in Costa Rica probably Puerto Viejo, a beach town on the Caribbean side, doing outreach. After that we take an 18 hour bus ride to Panama City and work with the YWAM base there for a week. Annnndd then after that we go to Peru and Bolivia for 4 weeks then we come back and graduate.
In this paragraph im going to tell you where we are going and what are some of the things we might do while in Peru and Bolivia. If you find that boring you can skip it and move on to the next one where I hope to tell you some things I have learned. So we will be staying in Lima for about a week where we will work with the YWAM base and some local churches, possibly working with mentally disabled people. We will also be most likely working with Veronica’s House which is a house that brings prostitutes off the street and works with the organization Not For Sale. After that we will go to Cuzco for a week where I believe we will work with the coffee shop Meeting Place and a YWAM base that is just starting up there. From there we will head to La Paz, Bolivia for another week and also work with the YWAM base. This whole time we have been riding in buses for countless hours and are pretty far from Lima where are departure flight leaves. So this outreach is backpacker focused and we are going to head back to Lima but stopping on the way to enjoy some sights and spend some time with backpackers at different hostels. It might sound boring but you can googles some of the places I have mentioned if you want or ask me for more details also  Side note we found out there are two Starbucks in Lima Yay!
So God has taught me a lot of things and removed a lot of things during this DTS. These last couple of weeks I have felt that I have finally reached a point where I can start figuring out who I am and who God wants me to be. Throughout this DTS I felt I have had a lot of problems I have had to overcome and I have realized that they were probably symptoms of a bigger problem. This problem I have deduced, and I am about to be quite open over the internet haha, is the perspective I have of myself or the lack of value I see in myself. God has been teaching me this week I should not look for my value in others or even. I am “crown jewels” in God’s eyes. It’s a pretty tough subject that I don’t feel im going to be freed of immediately but God has already helped and picked me up from places I had struggled months to get out of. So I would appreciate your prayers. Thanks
Praise
I have all the money to leave on outreach!
God being my joy and my identity

Prayer Requests
Protection on Outreach and NEKO
That the rest of my group gets enough money to go on outreach
That God paves the way on outreach and we follow his path not our own

The Tides Are Turning

Hey! Sorry these last few weeks have been quite busy and amazing haha.

I have learned so much about how God forgives your own past and makes you a brand new creation. I feel like all the weeks before these last few weeks God had been giving me revelations and working in my own life but until now I have not felt any major changes in my life if you know what I mean. God had torn down walls but I had not started to lay the foundations.

We started the week that we learn about spiritual warfare and the weekend before I really started feeling pressure and doubts. I felt that some of my sins from my past were too large, that they were going to keep me from where I had thought God wanted me to go in my life. I think the devil knew the changes that were about to take place in my life and tried extra hard to stop them.

Fortunately for me I am surrounded by a great community here in San Jose. If I ever need prayer or a friend they are all right here around me. So I prayed and I waited for God and the thing that I really never had done with God was I trusted him to show him self to me when he knew it was the right time not when I thought it was the right time.

After what I felt like was forever, I feel like I was able to free my self completely from my past sins and I knew God forgave me but I had to forgive my self. That was really hard. I had secrets that I was ashamed of and I had to open my life up and air it out to people I really did not want to. What has been so amazing is how they responded. I am so blessed to be surrounded by all these amazing people and I want to thank them for being in my life, it means more than they probably know haha.

I let my fear rule me but not any more. My life is a new creation completely. I am ready to start building my house for the LORD and I cant wait to see what he is going to do.

Praise-
For where my life is at today
For being able to participate in Freedom Street
For the amazing men and women of God being used by God in my life
For His love that has washed me white as snow

Prayer Requests-
That I would become more bold and increase in faith and trust
Protection
That our group outreach would have unity and receive all our finances

So it was a pretty brief overview of what happened and I probably did not make my self pretty clear. I also did not bother to proof read this fyi so that excuses any/all mistakes I made including theological ones (a joke…except I really did not proof read this haha…)

Thanks for all your prayers!