Arrival...FINALLY!

PRAISE THE LORD!! All of our Peru Team members have safely arrived in Peru and retrieved all of their luggage! Donna emailed to say they are "tried" - which may or may not be translated "tired" - and will be sleeping until Noon. I understand Walter and Brad had a fast lesson in Lima driving from the airport to the hotel!

Pray for our team to get the rest they need this morning then to be renewed by God's Spirit for the incredible journey ahead. Thank the Lord again for answering our prayers and providing for our team thus far.

Congratulations guys on your safe arrival!

More Answered Prayers

Walter, Donna, Linda & Gloria are on the plane and waiting for take off from Miami. They are scheduled to land in Lima about 4 a.m. Monday morning. Brad and Jackie called. They landed safely in Lima.

Pray our team will be back together - with luggage - on Monday and rested for the next stage of their adventure. Perhaps they can all feast on Guinea Pig for lunch.

An Eventful Day

It's been an eventful day for our Prayer Walking Team. Though everyone had hoped to be on the same flight and landing in Lima around 9 p.m. tonight, our team has found themselves split up again. From the latest accounts, Brad & Jackie were able to get out this afternoon and are hopefully arriving in Peru tonight. Meanwhile, the remaining four members have been meeting various folks at Miami International. Several have commented on the great spirits they seem to have in light of their travels. I think the team is doing walking warm-ups in the airport; no doubt, they are praying!

God certainly answers our prayers and continues to provide for our team. We spoke with the four Miami confined members tonight and prayed specifically for them to be able to make a midnight flight. This flight would send them to Bolivia then on to Lima. Just moments ago, our pastor received information from the team that they had received 4 confirmed boarding passes to depart Miami and fly directly to Lima! Praise the Lord for this miracle. We hope to hear from the team again before they depart Miami.

Here are some other prayer points for you to remember over the next few hours:

* pray for Brad and Jackie who should be arriving in Lima tonight around 9 p.m. (CST); pray they make their contacts and get into a hotel easily

* pray for the midnight flight to occur without any other major setbacks; pray that the remaining team members will be able to rest during this flight

* pray for all the luggage to find its way to each of our missionaries; because of all the flight issues, only God knows where each piece is at this point!

* pray for renewed energy and excitement for the team as they all arrive in Lima and begin preparing for their journey by truck

Thanks for your prayers for Walter, Donna, Brad, Jackie, Gloria & Linda. Praise God for their continued sacrifice and for His undeniable intervention and provision. We don't know when or if the team will have access to this blog, but feel free to post your comments and notes of encouragement. Above all else, continue praying for their adventures!

Travel Begin Stateside

Please be in prayer for our Prayerwalking Team. All have been delayed in Miami this evening. Four from the group arrived in Miami first and were scheduled to be in Peru by this time tonight. The other two team members were to arrive in Peru tomorrow morning. Airplane troubles delayed the first group. The second group has met up with them now and all are awaiting vouchers for a hotel for the evening.

Pray specifically that the team can get rest tonight and that the contact details with the Peru connections will go smoothly tomorrow. Pray also that the team is able to get out tomorrow and arrive safely in Peru. The team sounded tired but still excited about the work God has for them in Peru. Pray that even through these circumstances, our team will be able to be shining witnesses for Christ.

Praise God for preparing the way for them and providing for their needs during their travels.

Departing for Peru.

The Prayer walking team has gathered one last time on Tuesday night to go over last minute packing lists and come up with a plan for our first day in Peru. The excitement and anxiety have been building as most of the team departs San Antonio for Houston Friday. Walter, Donna, Gloria and Linda leave for Peru early saturday while Jackie and I get one last night in the comfort of our own home (we depart Saturday evening).

Everyone is feeling healthy and looking forward to the things that God has in store for us on this trip and future trips.

Specific Prayer needs at this time are:
-Uneventful flights
-safe arrival and rendezvous of teams members on Sunday morning
-safe travel (by road) into the village of Carampoma on Sunday Evening
-continued health of team and families that are back at home

We will post to this blog as often as possible, although we are unsure how many internet connections we will find in rural Peru.


Here is a map of where we will be in Peru and some helpful locations for future teams.


View Larger Map

Prayer Walk Trip in March.

The next step in reaching this region of Peru for Christ is to pray. We are announcing that on March 15th a team of six will be traveling to Peru for the sole purpose of prayer.

We are going on a prayer walking Journey which has a primary purpose of intercessory prayer "on location" in Peru. We don't have to go all the way to Peru to prayer-walk; prayer-walking can be done at church, in our community, on our block or anywhere. In "An Orientation Guide: Part One" by Dan R. Crawford, a missionary couple gave some insight into the purpose of prayer-walking. They said:

We would like to see a spiritual harvest but we are seeing none. We would like to say that we are busy watering seed that has been planted, but neither are we doing that. We'd like to tell you that we are faithfully planting seed for a future harvest, but this has not yet been our ministry. We wish we could share with you that we spend our time breaking up the soil for the planting of seeds. Not so. Quite honestly ours is a ministry of rock moving."

Our job as prayer-walkers is to help in the rock moving. Indeed this trip will allow us the priveledge of walking and praying among the rocks. So please take the time to pray for the prayer walking team as we prepare both physically (for the walking) and spiritually (for the praying).

It's Official!

It's official! On September 23, 2007, University Baptist Church voted to adopt six villages in the Huarochiri province of Peru in partnership with REAP SOUTH of the International Mission Board! UBC has committed to a 3-5 year church planting partnership and will begin work in the two largest villages (Carampoma and San Pedro de Casta) in 2008. It is the church's vision to equip the village residents to evangelize their surrounding communities with the good news of Christ.

Sunday evening was also the occasion for a Vision Casting banquet. Members of the vision trip team shared information that they gleaned from a week-long trip to Huarochiri. The presentation focused on the following elements: strategy and logistics; the people; and needs and teams. The response of church members to the call of missions in Peru was overwhelming - leaving us with the expectation that all of intended trips for 2008 can and will occur! Many people signed up for multiple trips extending through to 2009-2010.

For more information about UBC's mission partnership and promotional materials go to: http://www.ubcsa.org/templates/System/details.asp?id=26975&PID=477794

For more information about Reap South go to: http://www.reapsouth.org/

For more information about the International Mission Board of the SBC go to: http://www.imb.org/