Graduation!!!

Graduation!!! We made it back to Iquitos, Peru and tonight is graduation. It is bitter sweet beause now it is all over. I will be leaving the 10th and arriving home the 11th. I cant wait to see everyone back at home but i will really miss the team. We have done some really awsome things and i am going to miss everyone on the team so much. I want to thank everyone for there support and prayers. Love Christopher.

La Paz, Bolivia to Cusco, Peru

Once again i am in Peru!!! Right now it is one week untill we graduate. Last week we were in La Paz, Bolivia. The church that we stayed with was great. I stayed with a family in a house which was a wonderful experience. They really made me feel at home and they spoke English which made it easier. The church was very modern and they really encouraged us. They really had a heart for missions, which is something that you dont always see in churches. Now we are in Cusco, Peru. For the first night both teams, red and white, stayed in one and it was a little tight, but i enjoyed spending the time together. Now we are living in an orphanage and working with the church that runs it. I will try to update my blog later this week when i have more time. Thank you, love Christopher.

Finally in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

I just wanted to update people on our travel in Bolivia. I asked for prayer for that and for prayer for the sick people on our team. Emanuel is better but most of us have colds of some sort so pray for our health. So we started out in Sunday by traveling from our church to the other teams church because it was about forty five minutes closer to the bus station. We slept at their church and then got up early in the moring to catch a bus to a Argentinan, Bolivian border town where we could cross. We were sort of nervous about crossing because we herd they were strick if people were sick. Americans had to pay $135 vengance tax to enter Bolivia, beacuse that is what the US chrages for them to get in. After we go the finances worked and and applied for our visas we were waiting in line and one of our girls passed out. It was high altitude so they said that that kind of thing happens so they still let us into Bolivia. We could not but the bus tickets in advance because you have to be in the country to buy them, so all the buses were full. So we had no place to stay in this little border town. So some of the leaders started looking for churches and we found one that said we could sleep there. The people who were really sick stayed in a hostel because it is cold and they do not heat their churches. Then we got up early again to catch a bus and it was an hour and a half late. We started driving and it was a really rough dirt road through the desert. People we getting motion sick and all that good stuff. It was about a ten hour bus trip. Then we made it to where the other team is staying at about nine oclock at night and we had to hurry to catch another bus. We road on that bus untill three in the morining and then we go on another bus and we arrived here in Cochabamba, Bolivia at about eight thirty in the morning. All of us are pretty tired but the church seems like it is going to be good to work with. I just wanted to share that travel experience we had. We arrived safely which is all that really matters. I would appreciate your continual prayers, we only have three weeks of outreach left and i am sure that they will go very fast. Thank you, Christopher.

Jujuy Argentina

Hey, i just wanted to give an update on how things are going. Sorry that i did not get to update last week. I will try to cover last week and part of this week. Things have been difficult to do outreach for the past two weeks in Argentina. Right now there is a federal ban on meeting in public places such as the plazas. This is due to the swine flu, there is a really big fear of it here. I am not sure how it is back home. Because we cant do outreach on the street we have been working with the churches more, doing services in the church. Last week we painted the outside of the church and did one street outreach before the ban was put in place. Schools have been cancelled so we get to spend a lot of time with the youth from the churches. This week we have a service every night, during the day we go door to door and invite people to the services. This culture is different from many that we have experience already. They like to stay up late, last week it was common to not go to bed untill two or later, this week it is not so bad ushually we get to go to bed by one or so. But they dont get up early in the morning so we get plenty of sleep. Onother cultural thing here is when you greet you kiss on each cheak and also they drink mate here. Mate is a strong tea and it is a social thing that they pass around and everyone drinks, i like it. I think i am preaching tonight. I have some prayer request, that i would appreciate if you pray for. The first request is that we might have trouble crossing into Bolivia on Tuesday so, just pray for that. There are a lot of rumors that the borders are closed and so on. The second request is for a girl on the other team, she is twenty-three and has the chicken pox for the first time. I guess it is pretty bad so just pray for her. The last request is, there is a family on my team and they have for children. The youngest one is three and he is really sick right now. They took him to the hospital at least two times for i.v.s and it does not seem like he is getting any better. They did blood test and hopefully we will get the results back tonight. His name is Emanuel. Thank you for all your prayer support. Love Christopher.

Now in Argentina

Right now we just arrived in Mendoza, Argentina and we are on a lay over waiting for a bus. We were supposed to be here last week but our contact fell through and that is why we stayed in Los Andes another week. Our travel plans were delayed a day because the road through the Andes mountains was snowed shut. This week was a really good one. I would say that our team unity is getting better. We went to a few schools to do outreaches this week, which was a first. It was really cool, the one day we did not have anything planned for the morning because none of the schools got back to us. Then biggest school in Los Andes called the pastor and asked if we can be there immediately. A few of the teachers were sick so some of the students were free for a time. So we quickly went over to the school and did an hour long presentation for about onehundred fifty students. Then they told us that we can have fifteen minutes with the whole school. That was eighteen hundred high school students. So we did a presentation but we did not get to talk to them because they went back to class. It was a great opportunity and hopefully the seed was planted. That is one thing you can pray for is that school. Thank you for all of your prayer support. Love Christopher

Los Andes, Chile

Hi everyone, i just wanted to give a quick update. On Tuesdays ushually we are traveling and we were supposed to today but things did not work out. We have not be able to get a hold of our contact in the next town of Mendoza, Argentina so we are staying in the town that we have already spent a week in. The town is Los Andes, Chile. Right now I can see the Andes mountains and they have snow on them. They are beautiful. Last week it was a more relaxed week because we had rain some days and we could not do the street ministries that were planned. The one day that we got rained out we just walked around the city praying for it. The place we are staying is a house church that just got started up and there is three missionaries slash pastors who live in the house. They are really nice guys and they really have a heart for the Lord. The congregation is small, but strong. We are going to do some door to door ministries today and tommorrow we will be going to schools to put on some programs. Once again, thank you for all of your prayer support. I would appreciate if you prayed for the team and for the people that we will be ministering to. Thank you, love Christopher.

Arica, Chile

Hey everyone, this was our first week in Chile and it went really well. The church here recieved us with amazing hospitality and the youth and we really bonded with the youth. The connection with the youth was so good. They are all in the university and are about our ages. They said if we ever come bak that to remeber that we have friends here. As far as the outreach goes, it was a little tougher than in Peru. The town we are staying in is Arica, Chile. It has world famous surfing here and is a lot more modern then most of the towns in Peru. The people just did not want to listen to what we had to say in general, but some people still came to God. The pastor here is very optomistic and has great faith that the church will grow through the work we have done. Keep praying for our safety in travel, this afternoon we have a twenty-eight hour bus ride to Los Andes, it is going to be a lot colder there. Also, since the people are not so open her, pray that God will prepare their hearts to hear the good news we bring. Thank you for everything. Love Christopher

Greetings from Arequipa

Hey everyone, i just wanted to let you know that everything is going great so far. Right now i am in Arequipa, but only for the day. The previous week we where in a town called Camana, but do to the way the bus schedule worked out we came to Arequipa for the day, before we travel to Chile tommorrow. Camana was a net town, on the coast. If you look at the main high way that travels on the west side of Peru it follows the coast and then turns in toward Arequipa and at that turn is where the town is located. I think its population is about fifty thousand. It is crazy because you are driving a long through the desert and the mountains and then all of a sudden you see a whole bunch of green field, in the middle of the desert. There is a river and that is why they can farm on this narrow strip of land between the desert mountains and the ocean. Our work is going good. A lot of people have commited themselves to Christ, the dramas that we do are very powerful, but of course it is not about us at all. I just wanted to let every one know that on Saturday night we had a youth service and I gave a sermon. I did not like preaching very much but it is something that i had to do. Next time i am sure that it will be easier. Thank you for your prayer, just continue to pray for the people who we will be ministering to in the next town and also pray that everything goes well when we cross the boarder into Chile. With love Christopher.

We made it to Lima

Hey, i just wanted to let everyone know that we made it to Lima and so far everything is going good. At first i did not like it here, but the more time i spend here the more i like it. This has been my first oppurtunity to go to the Internet. We have had a pretty relaxed week, we only are doing two outreaches a day. I have not yet had to preach but you can pray for me because i know that i am going to have to soon. I talked about what God has done in my life during an outreach and i felt like God really spoke to the people through me. Sometimes it is tough doing evangalism. Often we run into people who don´t want to talk to you at all or we run into people who are high or drunk and want to talk but they don´t take anything serious. It is so encouraging when people are saved. Thank you for all of your prayers. On tuesday, well monday night and tuesday we will be traveling south. I am not sure of the name of the town we will be going to but it is a 20 something hour bus ride. It is close to Arequipa but on the coast. Thank you, your brother in Christ, Christopher

Back from the Jungle

Hey we made it back from the jungle!!!! At some points i was not sure if we were going to. This trip we took supplies to dig a well, but that could not all fit on the YWAM boat so me and two other guys went on a launcha two days before everyone else. It took us twenty four hours to get to the town, so we slept in our hammocks on the boat. A launcha is a big boat that they use for transportation and shipping, it is three stories tall and is not to fast. I had a lot of fun and it was great to relax. We dropped the well dinging supplies off at a village and slept in their church that night. The next day we went to the village where Luis, a student in the DTS is from. About three hundred people live there we stayed there for a few days doing outreach and preaching. Then we went to a bigger village called Santa Rita. about two-thousand fivehundred people lived there. We did outreach there for four days. We did door to door evangalism and had kids programs and services. On the last night we where there they had a stage set up for a big party the night before and they let us use it. We did all of our dramas. I think we reached a lot of people who would not have come to church otherwise. Then on monday went to the village to dig the well, it was really flooded. It started out well, but then we started having some troubles. The well kept caving in and it ended up that we could not finish it. YWAM has to come back another time and try again. I am sort of disappointed but at least they will get a well sometime. Then on tuesday we started to head home but the motor was not running to well. Finally it stopped working and we where just floating on the river. A big storm came and the waves got rough.... we made it back safely so it is all good. We had some difficulties, but that should always be exspected. God protected us and it just took long to get home. We are leaving for Lima next tuesday and tommorrow we start classes, Clark is teaching us. I will try to get our itinerary. Thank you for your prayers. Love Christopher

Back from the mini-outreach

hey, we got back from the mini-outreach on Sunday. It was good. We got up early on Thursday and traveled to Nalta via bus, then we got on our boat and traveled to the property that YWAM has. We set up camp and then went to a small village not that far away, by boat. We went around to all the houses and talked to the people, they all speak spanish. In the evening we held a church service where some of the youth preached and others did drama, I was in the dramas. The next day we went to a bigger town and took the whole day to do around the same thing except we had a kids service in the afternoon. Evangalism is challenging for me, but I think i will get more courage with time. It is amazing how these people live. You either live off the jungle, like fruit and that kind of stuff or off of fish. If you get enough you can sell it if you take it to Nalta. They work hard and live simple lives. We met some very strong Christians on Saturday. We always are working with an established church. We did pretty much the same thing on Saturday to. Every night we went back to the YWAM property and slept in out tents and hammocks. On Saturday night i woke up to the sound of my neighbor throwing up. It turns out that half the team got sick. I don´t know if it was something we ate or what, a few people are still sick. Some how i dodged the bullit and i didn´t get sick. Tommorrow we find out our outreach teams. On Monday we leave for the river again, this time traveling seven hours by boat, pray for us and for the people who we will be going to. Thank you for all of you prayer support
Love you, Christopher

Week 8ish?

hey everyone,
I didn´t get a chance to go to the internet cafe last weeked but i managed to make it today. Last week our teacher was from Trinidad. His name was Farouk Mohamad, he was very wise and had a lot of great things to share with us. The two main topics that he talked on were faith and worship. It is great how every teacher who comes to us has had different life experience and through that they are able to share what they have learned. This week we have a teacher from Canada/U.S. but he was born and raised in Japan. Some things that you can pray about is that some people have been getting sick, i am not sure if it was food poisoning or what. Two of them had to go to the hospital, but they are both better now. Just pray that we would have good health. Also the leaders of the DTS have a lot of work to do. All of the cordination with the churches in the towns we are going to is dificult. Just pray that it would all work out and that they won´t be to stress about it. Next Thursday we are leaving for a mini-outreach in the jungle. I am not sure what we will be doing but you can pray for the people who we are going to and for all the staff and students of the school. We will be returning on Sunday. Another thing that I am sort of anxious about is we don´t know how our outreach teams will be broken up. I have become friends with alot of people so i know some of us will be on seperate teams. I will not find out until we go to Lima. Just pray for the leaders and thay they will have guidance in choosing the teams. Thank you for all of your prayers. God Bless. From your brother in Christ, Christopher

Sorry for not posting

hey everybody,
Sorry I have not been updating my blog lately, but i have been very busy. Last weekend we had a mini-outreach in Iquitos. We worked with a local church and we cleared land for them to build on. We used macheties and shovels. After that we went and put on a presentation a neighborhood. My outreach will be much like this. We will be doing mercy missions, or meeting the physical needs of the people and the church, but we will also be doing drama evangalism. As we travel from town to town we will be hosted by churches. These churches will give us food and have work lined up for us to do. We will be doing drama evangalism in that town and then hooking them up with the church that hosts us. This way the people we reach will be given someone to disciple them. It won´t just be a commitment they made because they saw a drama and then we leave and nothing happened. We are hoping for it to be a changing dicision for these people and the church will support them, because we will not be able to. We got some good new that we recieved a donation that made us able to dig a well for a community along the amazon river. I don´t know all of the details exactly when we will be doing this but it will happen. The base has the equipment and we do it by hand, i am hoping to get pictures of it so i can share it with everyone when i get home. Thank you for your prayers. This week was my birthday, i am now 20. On my birthday only a few people said anything, like they forgot about it, but after lunch they had a surprise party for me. I am going close to all the people here. I am getting used to the cultur and I enjoy it. When i get the intinerary I will post it on here so every one can pray for the town i am in, that would be greatly appreciated. Mom said that people are asking about the blog and I am glad that i can stay connected this way. Another prayer request that i have is for the leadership of the base, they are going through some changes and your prayers will help. My spanish is still rough but i think i am learning. Thank you for all of your prayers and the support you have given me so far.
Love Christopher

Week Three

The teachers for this week were Marcos and Diana Buser from the Cartegena YWAM base. Marcos is orginally from switzerland but married diana and is now running the school in Cartegena, Columbia. They taught us about inner healing and how it is an important if you want to grow closer to God. We had a time of sharing and everything was very good. Other than that not to much happened this week. I finished the second book we were supposed to read, it was by Loren Cunningham the founder of YWAM. It was the story on how it started, I enjoyed it very much. Thank you for your prayer. Love Christopher

Week Two

This week Ricardo and Marilu Rodrigoz came from Columbia. They are in charge of all of the YWAM bases in this area. The teaching was about interpersonal relations also know as dating. It was a good week. On Friday nights we have a social time when the leaders plan something fun and we do it as a group. This week we went to Quistacocha which is called a zoo but it is more like dangerous animals behind chain link fences. It was cool to see the different animals, I held an anaconda. There was a lake there and we went swimming and then played volleyball. Some days our food is bland at the base so Aaron and i decided to make salsa. We went to this huge open air market that looks like something you only see in magazines. I cant even describe what it was like. Everyone told us to be carefull with our wallets because that is the worst area for pick pockets. I maybe able to get pictures of it sometime we´ll have to see. Today I went to a CNI game which is the professional futbal, or i should say soccer team. They lost one nothing but it was still fun to go to. Things are going great, your continual prayers are appreciated. With love, Christopher.

First week of school

This week was our first week of the class for the Discipleship Training School. It was great, Don Riling and his son came from New York and taught our class. They taught us on intercession and mentoring. We are kept busy here. I get free time on the weekends but the rest of the time i am in class or doing homework. I am going closer to people here and making a lot of great friendships. Thank you for all of your prayers. For outreach we are splitting up into two different groups, which are determined by our leaders. They need to decide exactly how it is going to be done, i´ll inform you of that later. We will be traveling on a cuircuit going from church to church. We will start here in Peru, then go to Chile, then Argentina, then Bolivia and then back to Peru. I´ll have more details later but that is all i know at this point. We are working on a drama for street out reach right now. This is not one of my strong points but i know God will use me through it. Love Christopher. P.S. Happy Birthday Dad

Back in Iquitos

We got back from our survival camp at about noon today. It turned out that we did not leave for the jungle until Thursday. I got sick soon after my last post so i wasn´t sure i would be able to go on the survival camp. I felt better on Thursday so i decided that i would go. We rode on a bus for two hours and then got on a boat for about an hour. YWAM has two boats a normal one and a speed boat. The speed boat is small and cann´t hold any luggage so we took both boats. During survival camp we made our own food over a fire we had to start. They had split us up into three groups and we had to build a shelter. They gave us plastic, nails, a hammer, machetes and so other supplies. We also did group building activities that were like ones you would do at a small ropes course. We were competing against the other teams and if you won you would get a prize. We won a live chicken, so i killed it and we ate it. The time was fun and helped us grow closer but i have never seen so many mosquitoes. It can not be described how bad it was. A lot of great things happened but i cann´t type all of them in this message. Your love and prayers are appreciated, Christopher

Survival camp

I am leaving tomorrow for survival camp in the middle of the Amazon jungle somewhere.? They told us not to bring our hammocks. Oh yea and today at the base they served us aligator and told us it was chicken. It was good. gtg

A day of rest

today we went to a local church that was held at the base but we get to choose on the other sundays which church we want to go to. Right now we are resting and just hanging out. The DTS starts tomorrow and i am really excited about that. There is a variety of people here at the school. This month there is a carnival going on which pretty much is just people throwing water on you when you are on the street. It would be fun if you are lucky enough for it just to be water but sometimes its paint or urine or anything nasty. They say today is the last day of that. I just wanted to let everyone know that i will not be able to blog every day so dont get used to it. lol love Christopher

Arrival in Iquitos

Today Rob, my small group leader, picked me up from the airport in Iquitos and we took a motor taxi to the base. The motor taxis consist of a motor cycle that was converted to have two wells in the back with a bench seat. They are how everyone gets around town and they are really cheap. There are some cars but mostly motor cycles. My DTS does not start untill monday so i just helped out fixing stuff up around the base. I got to know some of the staff and interns, there are a few students here already but most of them are comming tomorrow. I think that i packed to much. The area we live in is limited in space so i do not have enough room for my clothes. I will just have to learn to live with less but that is not a problem. The language barrier is tough so pray for me that i learn spansh fast, love Christopher.

hey, I just wanted to let everyone know that my fundraising is going well and thank you for everyone who has so generously contributed. My fundraising goal has been met and i am starting to get stuff ready to be packed. I received my jungle hammock in the mail today that I ordered and I am excited to get a chance to use it in Peru. I have my passport and shots all taken care of and of course my flight is booked. I leave in two weeks so it is just right around the corner. Thank you for everything.