I suppose this is mostly directed towards those of you who have faith in God and believe all the Christianity stuff concerning Jesus.
I’m going to Peru for a mission trip in June (18th-26th) and have just barely reached the halfway point of my goal for the trip financially. I would ask that those of you interested in spreading the gospel (we will be running sports days and medical clinics as well, so it’s still a humanitarian trip if you don’t agree with the Christian message) would pray for the team I am going with for our safety, the people we will be talking to, for their health and well being (we will be in a very poor area of Peru) and willingness to hear the Word, and for the finances to continue coming in so I can afford to go.
I currently have $1465 in my account, and the trip cost is sitting at about $2600. It’s too late for me to back out of the trip, so any money that doesn’t come in will be paid by me, which I certainly cannot afford right now. On a side note, if anyone is interested in making a tax-deductable donation, you can do so at www.e3partners.org/sendsam
i’ll be praying for you guys! I just love it that people would sacrifice “so much” for the gospel! Good luck on getting funds and such. Also remember the importance of people. Don’t just present the gospel, live the gospel! If we do not live it what use is it to us?
I could write a very long letter about every little thing, but just know that i wil be praying for you guys.
Thanks! As far as not forgetting the importance of people, that’s one of the biggest reason’s I’m excited to go back! I went to the same city last year on a mission trip, and I’m excited to see the people I got to know again. I think it will be an excellent chance to show them I wasn’t just trying to get them to say some prayer, or acknowledge some idea, but rather I genuinly cared about them.
Please keep praying. I leave for the trip in just over a week, and I’m still low on funds. I’m probably going to have to get into my college account to pay for the rest of the trip.
At this point it’s too late to back out, because even if I did, I’d have to pay for it anyway.
Oh man, I want more than anything to bring my unicycle, but the extra cost of something so large and heavy and oddly shaped would make it not practical. We’ll be flying American (gross ) so they’ll charge you for every bag you try to bring that’s over a certain size and weight.
I plan on taking lots of photos and at least some video, so I’ll be posting them (mostly on Facebook; find me, Sam ‘One-wheel’ O’Neil) for sure.
Today is the first day we AREN`T flying, driving, or waiting to do one or the other. We got in early this morning and got a chance to rest up and eat lunch before attending the training meeting where the national residents who will be hosting us were taught what we plan to do, how we plan to do it, how long we will be here, and how to avoid giving us the squirts
Tonight is the opening rally which will be a worship service and short message mostly in spanish. I love how quickly the spanish begins to come back to me! I´ll hopefully be able to post more updates as the week goes on, but this computer is a little sketchy, and the keyboard is difficult to use. Many of the keys have been worn off so the letters are not visible, and since it is a spanish keyboard, some of the letters are in new places. Forgive me for any typos I make, please
Today was a difficult day. It feels like each time I start to feel like Iknow what I´m doing as a team leader, the enemy sends an attack to try and discourage me. Today I found out that my Peruvian Pastor wants to go to a different neighborhood each day, which means we have to re-teach all the things we´ve taught to the people, rather than building and strengthening the leaders in a single place, who can spread out after we leave. After praying over it,I decided I just needed to trust God and roll with the punches. I may have accidentally gotten myself into some trouble because I rode a donkey. Now I´ll have to declare that I “handled” farm animals when we head back to the states. After feeling semi-upset about that, I prayed and God sent me to 2 Corinthians, where Paul talks about God´s grace being sufficient for him, and Jesus´s perfecting strength in weakness. I have a whole new peace that comes with feeling inadequate for my position as a “team leader.” But that´s just what´s going on with me.
The children´s ministry has been awesome. The kids are so great and they just love being played with. It seems like the culture is more or less “give the kids whatever they want so they will stay out of our hair.” So to have a person spend time actually playing with them and holding them seems to mean a lot to them. Naturally, there are always exceptions to the rule, so I don´t want it to sound like Peruvians are bad parents, it´s just that the parenting style is different here.
Today I met a man who was Catholic who had a lot of great questions about Christianity in general, the differences between Catholicism and protestantism, and even life in the United States. Talking with him was a pleasure, and he seemed very willing to listen. We also met a woman who said she wanted to become Christian, but her husband would not let her, because he did not like Christianity. Pray for her husband to have a change of heart so theat they can find the Joy available in Jesus Christ together.
Sorry if I wasn’t clear. I just meant that I was glad to have specific people and circumstances to pray for in addition to the more general issues (e.g the well-being of Sam and his group, that God’s love would be evident to those they came in contact with).
Sorry if I wasn’t clear. I just meant that I was glad to have specific people and circumstances to pray for in addition to the more general issues of the well-being of Sam and his group, and that God’s love would be evident to those they came in contact with.
) so they’ll charge you for every bag you try to bring that’s over a certain size and weight.
