Peru 2006

New Blog

2006-11-30T16:05:00.000-05:00

Hello Everyone!

I know it has been a long time since the last time I have blogged, but I would like to notify you all about the new mission the Lord has me doing. The Lord has lead me to move to Miami and assist with a Church plant and continue my education down there as well.

www.joshuainmiami.blogspot.com ~ Here's the new blog...check it out!

Thank you all for your continuing prayers!

I'm in America!!

2006-08-12T09:44:00.000-05:00

Hello Everyone!

So, I have to apologize again for the time between my last post and now...lol...sorry. Busy Busy Busy!

I would just like to say thank you to all of my supporters and faithful prayer partners! This summer has been amazing and I have thoroughly enjoyed being used by our Father. Please keep me in your prayers as I pray for God's direction for me for next summer. I have already been asked to do two different things in Peru next summer and I am not even sure if God wants me to go back or go somewhere else. He will tell me in His timing....usually not mine...lol!

Also continue to pray for my other Peru friends (42 of them) and myself because we are all having intense Peru withdrawals!!

Things that have been really weird!!

1. Throwing toilet paper in the toilet
2. Having a toilet seat
3. Having a toilet!
4. Having water
5. Having water - pressure (kind of hurt the first time back)
6. Having to take a shower everyday
7. Hygiene in general
8. Speaking Spanish.....I am having a hard time speaking English
9. The HEAT!!....I about died getting off of the airplane!
10.Having more than three choices of what to wear
11.Wal-Mart was horrible....I cried (we are truly spoiled Americans)

Well, God has definitely taught me so much! I have been a very emotional person this summer just because of my Grand-fathers death and the way that God is working in my family. Nevertheless...God has still been faithful and gotten me through all of it.

My heart is torn. Half my heart is back in Peru with all my new families in Christ and children especially. The other half is here in America. Sleeping is hard because there has not been one night that I have laid my head down at night that I have not thought about the hungry people in my village. The hunger I am talking about is not physical, but spiritual. They long to know and have a personal relationship with "this Jesus"...........how will they know if no-one tells them?
What a priveledge it has been to be one of the first people to tell someone about the Love of Our Father!!

Through all of the physical battles and emotional battles, I believe I would do it again in a heartbeat. Looking back, when I was doubled over a trash can and the toilet with 30 degree weather, I did not want to return. Now, I have seen how God has grown me and how much He has taught me. It is not about me and what I go through, but about reaching the people of the world for Jesus Christ, no matter what it takes. You know, I am okay with that.

Father, my prayer is that you would continue to use me, no matter how much I complain when trying times are put before me. I desire and long to be sent by you to people all over the world that needs someone to tell them about this person they are searching for, but cannot find Him. I want to tell them about Jesus! My two favorite quotes have always been "How will they know, if no one tells them? Dad, if they try to kill you, will you fight back?....no son, because they are not ready for heaven, but we are."~Nate Saint~ Oh Father, that is my prayer....that you would send me, so that I can tell! Thank you for what you have done this summer! I also pray for all the people of Pausa and of the Paucar de Sarasara. Father that area is so consumed with there traditional lifestyles and idol worship. Despite all of the sin in that region, your light shines brightly and pierces the darkness.....wow....I just love that! Thank you for using me to be a shining light in that region of Peru this summer. I still pray for the peoples' hearts and lives....Father, that they would be changed and that they would continue to have a hunger to know you and to read your word. If I am not the one of the ones that you have chosen to return there, I pray for the ones that you have chosen, that you would start preparing there hearts and minds for the amazing ride that you will have them on. Thank you Father for everything! I love you!
~Joshua~

As the week ends.....an update

2006-07-21T12:04:00.000-05:00

Hello to all of my faithful prayer partner's and supporters!
Sorry I have not written in a while. We have all been traveling and we have not been able to get to internet to update.

Well, while Logan was gone to the Mines to work along with a team from the states in order to evangelize the men there, Cindy and I traveled to Cacire and to San Sebastian. Monday night, Cindy and I traveled to Cacire to say goodbye to the people there in the house church. Honestly, I cried as I said my goodbyes to my woman of peace there in Cacire....Dona Maria. She is an amazing woman that is passionate about the Lord and traveled with us to Raurripa (that hike that about killed us gringo's). She is an OLD Quechua lady that I just feel in love with and her I as well. Please pray for her as she continues to serve the Lord.

The next day, Tuesday, Cindy, Pastor and I traveled to San Sebastian to encourage Tania (Quechua House church leader). We also went to do some follow up from the medical clinic. God had another plan. Tania has been going under persecution in her village because she professes that she is a Christian. She was not discouraged, but needed some encouragement and some wisdom from Pastor and I. She wanted to share with the people that were persecuting her about the Awesome God she serves. Please pray for her and for the marvelous work that she is doing there. While we were there, a lady came to her house and said that she wanted to hear about this awesome relationship with Jesus that Tania had. Pastor spoke with her and she accepted Jesus Christ....Praise the Lord! Tania's nephew came over as well for lunch. He accepted Christ in Lima, but has been struggling to live the Christian life. Pastor spoke with him as well. Cindy, Pastor and I helped Tania prepare lunch. In a Latin culture, there lunch is huge. We had soup, corn for appetizer, rice, bisteak and an onion, pepper, and lemon juice salad. It was really good. We all had an awesome time preparing the food. Tania also shared with us that a Christian lady that teaches school wants to start teaching the Bible principles in her classroom....Praise the Lord! We will be sending Bibles with Pastor to give to the teacher.

Logan returned to us on Wednesday, along with the Marcabamba team from the states. They took us to one of the villages in our region that is more unreached. Quilcata. This place is REALLY cold. The altitude is at about 12,500 feet. We arrived and started doing some door to door evangelism from the surveys taken at the Medical Clinic last week. We were able to find a lot of the people at home, however there were a great number out at their fields. Pastor and I met two families that were excited about there relationship with Christ and had us come back and have a Bible study with them. We also found some of the people that accepted Christ at the Medical Clinic. We were able to encourage them....of course under the power of the Holy Spirit. We later held a house church under the hostel where we stayed. 27 people attended the house church....Praise the Lord! This was the first house church meeting in this village. Please pray for Juan Castro. He is a man that is on fire for the Lord and wants to start meeting at 6:00pm with the children on Tuesday's and at 7:00pm with the adults. This is the vision that we were going to share with them, but they beat us to it. Praise the Lord, the came up with the vision on there on! Logan was sick, so I assisted Pastor Antonio with the service. The people wanted to hear Cindy and I's testimony, so it was up to me to translate. Praise the Lord, he gave me the language and the people understood it all. God totally spoke through my mouth! I shared my testimony and also the prayer that we have for them to continue to meet. They quickly said, "every Tuesday"! Pastor will be returning every Tuesday next month and prayerfully training Juan Castro to lead the people. I translated Cindy's testimony as well and I praised God for giving me all the words I needed in order to translate.

We woke up the next morning and I froze to death! It was so cold!!! We rode back to our village about an hour and a half, on the top of a sheep truck...that was amazing. Well, I have some more funny stories that I will blog later about our adventures.

Hope and pray that all is well with you all.....Blessings!
~Joshua~

Just a few things....

2006-07-16T21:48:00.000-05:00

Hello to all!

Okay, so I have had a few e-mails asking me to tell a funny story.

Well I have two........

In this wonderful country, we take buses to where we need to go. Riding with chickens and well.....just about anything. The bus that we took from Nasca (after mid-summer debriefing) is called Wari. Well, it was about 12 in the morning and we were in some village and I just had to pee. The bus stops and lets people use the bathroom and get out to buy some "snacks" from the street vendors. Well....the bus does not have a bathroom and we had already been on the bus for about 6 hours. I had been drinking my water and I really had to go. Imagine climbing to about 16,000 feet and it getting REALLY cold and you needing to pee....not so pleasant. Well, I get off the bus to use the bathroom and on the walk back, the bus is leaving!!!!......the locals are shouting.....(in spanish of course) "Stop the bus, you left the little skinny "gringo" They were running after the bus for me and I was thinking, "Lord, I know you put me in the middle of nowhere, but I am really in the middle of nowhere and no place to stay."....."Please get me back on that bus!!" Well, finally the bus stops and I am already out of breath from running a short distance at that altitude. I get on the bus and my fearless team leader had told the bus assistant that everyone on his team was on the bus. He didn't do it on purpose......he was just really tired....I was never so happy to see my gringo friends when I got on that bus. It is a scary thing to be left somewhere like that, but the people were really concerned with me getting back on.
So Joshua about got left in the middle of nowhere....in the middle of nowhere.....that's pretty bad huh??

Okay....funny story number two.......I saved the best for last!;)

Well, last week was the medical clinic where I had the awesome opportunity to translate for one of the doctors. Now, I am use to seeing mothers breast feeding there children in public with the "bottle(s)" exposed. This doesn't bother me anymore since my 3rd mission trip.....this is my 12th. Well, I was sitting next to a mother breast feeding one day at the clinic in San Sebastian. I notice out of the corner of my eye that she is "shaking one of her bottles". I then feel something splash my side........yep.......the "bottle" squirted me. That my friends........invaded my personal space......I never thought that could happen overseas. God continues to reveal "new" and "exciting" things to me to have to share with others.

On the flip side: 3 people were baptized today in the river.....Praise the Lord! One of the persons was the house church leaders husband in San Sebastian. We had a glorious time!
God has been so good!

Prayer Requests:
Logan- He is traveling to the mines with four others from the states tomorrow and Tuesday to evangelize the people there. God put all the men together for a reason.......so we can minister to them all at once. Pray for his safety and the safety of the team and of course for fruit and seeds to be planted with miracle grow!

All of us- We only have one week left and then we go to Lima for debriefing for a week.

FOR GOD TO CONTINUALLY BE GLORIFIED HERE IN THE PAUCAR DE SARA SARA!!!

~Joshua~

New Report

2006-07-13T18:13:00.000-05:00

Hello to all!!

Praise the Lord......the tally's are in.....

Clinics: # of Salvations:

San Sebastian 36

Quilcata 47

Total: !83!

God is so good!

Well, today........was another adventure.

Logan and I got up early and took a bus to San Sebastian to meet with Tania, the house church leader there. We went to encourage and to give her the names of the people that accepted Christ and also the names of the ones that did not accepted Christ. She is one of our strongest house church leaders....please keep her in your prayers. After meeting with Tania, we hiked a bit to the next town....Lampa....we adventually caught a truck that gave us a lift. We arrived in Lampa, which is the town that is not receptive of christians because of the nuns in the town. We meet with Doris, which is one of the two christians in that town that are secretly meeting. We encouraged her and to our surprise, we found out that God has answered one of our prayers that we pray when we prayer walk this town. The two nuns that were there got changed out. Two new ones are there now. And.....Praise the Lord......they are respectful of Doris and the other christian in that town. They do not kick them out of the town like the others did. They respect them being christians and do not bother them. So now, they do not have to meet in secret!! Well, Logan and I continued prayer walking for almost two hours today in Lampa and also spent a lot of that time praising God for the Good News!! We then hiked to Marcabamba, where the Parkridge team from the states are.(they just arrived) Logan and I hiked over, under and through farms and cliffs and walls and well, just a lot of things. We enjoyed ourselves.....and I didn't hurt myself....Praise the lord! Finally, we reached Marcabamba and met with the other "gringos" (americans). They had a lot of american food that they were eating for lunch.....Logan and I had a smores pop-tart. We were so happy. We then spent time debriefing with the team about progress for there area and work in the Mines that are in there district. After that, Logan and I caught a ride back to Pausa in the back of a mining truck. We jumped in and I rode on gold all the way back to Pausa. It was pretty cool actually. The only thing was that the driver was not the best in the world. His wheels didn't always stay on the road when riding along cliffs.....don't worry mom, my angels were with me....the top of the truck hit the sides of the cliffs to our right because it was so tall....that was weird. We finally arrived to Pausa and I have still not taken a bath....I won't tell you how long....but I think I will shower tonight when we get water pressure....Hopefully.

Well, that is all for now...I will write later.....chau
~Joshua~

Medical Clinic

2006-07-11T13:17:00.000-05:00

Hello to all prayer warriors!!

Well, I guess you are wondering why I have not posted in a while. Well, a medical team from the states came in to host a week long medical clinic in two different villages. Half way through, I got incredibly sick. I almost had to go to the "hospital" here in my village. But, THANK GOD, the doctor and two nurses that was part of the medical clinic, took good care of me. I have no clue what I had, but it occured about midnight on Friday and I did not start feeling better until Monday morning. I could not get out of bed the entire time without assistance. I had not eaten in three days, so on Monday.....I ate all day. I would describe to you what was wrong with me, but it will probably gross you all out. So I will save you the info.;) But, praise the Lord.....I am on medication and I am doing so good now.

Medical Clinic......
Well, the clinic went amazing. We first held a clinic in a small village called San Sebastin. This clinic lasted from Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week. There were several that accepted Christ at this clinic. We are in the process of tallying the surveys now. The Quilcata clinic was from Saturday and Monday. The team ran out of medications and we had to cut back one day of clinic. Several were also saved at the Quilcata clinic, again we are tallying the surveys. Amazing things were done in these places and in the peoples heart's by the work of the Holy Spirit. All glory honor and praise goes to Him for everything that was done. Sickness and all.

Back in Pausa

2006-07-03T16:42:00.000-05:00

Hello to all!!
Well, I am once again safely back in Pausa, Peru.
The story......
We arrived at out bus station at about 2:30pm and waited until about 6:00pm to jump on a bus....and as the night grew.....the COLDER it got....we all seriously about froze. We were traveling at about 15,000 feet or more in the middle of the night....and not the bus is not climate controled. Haha....as a matter of fact, there was a windom near my seat that would not close....so yeah I froze. We had a flat tire and then finally arrived in Pausa around 8:00am the next morning....this would be Sunday. Well, I was stupid and forgot to drink. I was extremley dehydrated. But I am better now. I am still extremley sore from the great falls from the sand surfing and I also realized that I am allergic to cow stomach...we had that today for lunch. I broke out in hives and felt really funny. But no worries, I took a Benedryl and I am fine now....haha....so many things happening to my body...it probably hates me now.

Well, tomorrow is the 4th of July and this will be the first one that I have spent out of the country. It is also when the medical team arrives from the states. They are already in Peru, but traveling on their way here to Pausa. When they get here, it will be EARLY EARLY mornings and lots of translating.
PRAYER:
1. Please pray for my language skills in sharing my testimony. I am extremley nervous about sharing my testimony in Spanish just because of the language.
2. Boldness in being a leader.
3. To be better physically and Maintain a healthy system for the next week and a half.
4. For the medical team.
5. For the response of the people that attend the medical clinic.....souls to be won for the Lord.
6. Sensitivity to the holy spirit....DAILY
7. Continue to grow in the Lord.

Well......the emotions of being here, missing family, eagerness to continue serving the Lord, making decisions at home and well, just a bunch of things.....I feel like I am going to explode. The three days in Nasca was good. I had enough testastarone and was happy to be around some girls and speak english. A good resting moment. I am just feeling the pressure of a missionary. My heart wants so bad to go everywhere for the Lord and to serve Him greatly. I just feel burdened. I know this is nothing but Satan burdening me down. I just wanted you all to know that I am going through the missionary stage of feeling overwhelmed. Haha....I have no clue if what I just wrote made any sense, but I guess just pray for me. That would be great.
If you all want to email me.... josuesarco7@hotmail.com or you can leave a comment. I would love to hear from you all.

Please do not worry about me.....I am fine! Hehe....GOD is so amazing. I really am loving it here.

Joshua:)

Debriefing

2006-07-01T12:21:00.000-05:00

Hello to all!!
Mid-summer debriefing was amazing!! We had a lot of really good sessions and had an amazing time with the rest of the summer missionaries. Believe it or not....I surfed down a 2,088 meter sand mountain. Yeah, I hurt myself, but wow it was fun!! We are now waiting on a bus with empty seats so we can go back to our village 15-20 hour bus ride. Pray that we get out on one today at 3:00pm. Sorry I can not write more, I need to go get my things out of the Hotel. Love you guys! Oh...........please pray for Efrin....he was our tour guide for the sand surfing. He is not a christian, but his wife is....we were able to witness to him and he had a lot of questions. I gave him a track and he was really interested in reading it.
Joshua,

Please pray for Dr. Jonny!

2006-06-23T14:45:00.000-05:00

Hello to all!

Here is a prayer request. Dr. Jonny is a believer here in Pausa and is the Dentist in town. He is a very strong believer and loves to read his Bible. He is excited about helping our July medical team with their clinics. Logan and I feel that he will become an excellent house church leader and also reach out to his community with boldness. Logan and I have been meeting with him discussing baptism and after many days of reading the material we gave him, reading his Bible, and asking us questions, he has come to a decision to be baptized July 4th.....How amazing!!! That is on our independance day!! Please pray for him and for the direction that God may led him.

~Joshua~

Wow....God is so amazing - A church was successfully planted in Raurripa!!

2006-06-23T13:52:00.000-05:00

Hello to all!!

Well after a two hour hike down the mountain to Raurripa and only one night spent there, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we were able to plant a house church. See picture on the very bottom. Once we got there, we had to wait for all of the people to return from their Chacra's (Farms). Once they had returned, we had supper. What an experience that was! Then we gathered the christians and had a house church meeting. In March, a team came down and was able to see 6 people come to know Christ in that unreached village. Praise the Lord!! Because of that, planting a church there became easier. Logan and I both felt that one lady, Julia(far right with candle) should be the house church leader until men rise up and take the role of leader. Please pray for her and for the house church. She seems to be a very strong christian and is very passionate about leading the house church. This is also a promenent Quechua village, so the services are done in both Quechua and Spanish. Pastor Antonio (Missionary from Lima) led the group in a Quechua song (very beautiful). I love languages!! Oh sorry for the picture being at the bottom, the internet is weird here and I could not move the pictures around.

The hike back was WOW....so hard.....9 hours. He had the Barnabus team take us to where the road ended when we were going to Raurripa, but on the way back, we did not have a vehicle to come back in. The hike took us 9 hours and PRAISE THE LORD!!! We made it alive. Let me tell ya, when you run out of water half of the way in the middle of nowhere, your faith really starts to increase. You and God become real close. I am thankful for the experience and I really enjoyed spending the entire time with God. We hiked over cliffs (yeah, I honestly about fell off of them....I had to hug the rock to keep from falling off of the cliff thousands of feet down. Again, dependance on God. He is so good. See above for a picture of the hike.....this is at 14,000 feet. We hiked down to 8,200 feet. Across the mountain in the far back of the picture. I made it!

Hiking to Raurripa.....gone for four days!

2006-06-20T09:06:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone. Please pray for my team and I as we hike to Raurripa. Maximum of 8 hours. We will be there in tents until Friday hopefully. We will leave once we establish a house church in that village. This is a RUFF hike, so please pray for my team and I. We will be in about 14,000 or 15,000 feet. Alright, well.....God Bless you all!!!
~Joshua~

Back in Pausa, PERU!!

2006-06-16T15:44:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone!!
Cindy and I arrived back in Pausa after only a 22 hour bus ride from Lima. Praise the Lord it was not 28 hours!! Our bus made good timing. The ride was dusty and cramped, accompanied by chickens, guinea pig, roosters and dogs. Besides the animal smell, the urine smell and body odor smell really made the ride an experience. But God is good and the ride was a blessing to be able to get back to Pausa and to the Ayacucho Quechuas. Today, Cindy and I are resting because we have been both traveling non stop for about four days now. The bus ride tends to wear you out also because of the rapid changes in altitude. Well, all is good and we look forward to going to some more house church meetings and encouraging the people to evangelize their own people. God is so good and I am glad to be back after a great trip to North Carolina for my grandfathers funeral.
~Joshua~
PS. Please send me an e-mail josuesarco7@hotmail.com if you have any questions or would like to communicate directly. ;)

Picture of Pausa from Above - Update

2006-06-13T23:31:00.000-05:00

Hey all!! Above is an ariel picture of my village.

Update- I will not be returning to my village until Thursday morning. The buses do not leave to go to my village until Thursday. I will be staying with the IMB missionaries, Mike and Kathy Weaver. Please continue to pray for myself and my team and for Megan Billings. I accompanied her to the airport tonight to catch a flight out to Tampa, FL. Please pray for safe travel and for God's leading and guidance in what she shall do for the remainder of the summer.
God Bless to All!
~Joshua~

Arrived in Lima

2006-06-13T14:21:00.000-05:00

Hello to all! Well, my visit back home in North Carolina was good. Although my grandfather passed away, we all had amazing fellowship. I believe that is what Paw Paw would have wanted. Also, I am sure that he is super happy because my cousin's wife received Christ at the funeral. PRAISE THE LORD!! I am so happy for her and for her new life with Jesus Christ.

My plane was suppose to leave Atlanta this past Monday at 4:55pm. Well......the original plane had mechanical difficulties and so we had to wait on a plane from Jamaica to arrive and then deplane and clean it and then unload the first one and reload it into the new one. Needless to say, we did not board until 8:00pm and was not able to fly out until almost 9:00pm. This put us in Lima at 2:00am. The runway closes here at that time, but the airtraffic control permitted us to land and so we did. After customs and immigration and baggage claim, I got the "green light". When I exited the last checkpoint, Sara and Kara that are the english teachers for Reapsouth missions this summer flaged me down and we exited the airport. Kathy was outside walking her dog. I arrived at the Santa Cruz hotel and got a room and finally got in bed at 4:00am. Bedtime.....yes!

Today, I had a nice breakfast and helped Megan with her shopping. Oh, please pray for one of my team members. Megan's grandfather is extremley ill and her parents have purchased her a ticket to come home. (One-way) We are not sure if she will be able to come back as of yet. Please pray for Megan Billings and her family!

Pictures

2006-06-07T21:23:00.000-05:00

Above is a picture of my team and I in our village. Behind is the Sara Sara volcano.

Below are some pictures of getting to my village and then in the village.

2006-06-07T21:02:00.000-05:00

Please Pray!

2006-06-02T23:27:00.000-05:00

Hello to all!
I have some sad news to share.
My Dad's dad has passed away. Thursday, he had a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital and went into surgery first thing friday morning. He was recouperating and had another massive heart attack and died. This is the first time that anyone close to me has passed away. It took all day for the word to get to me about what had happened. I was out all day and when I got back, my coordinator Julie spoke with me. This is really hard for me right now and I am in need of your prayers.
I called my parents as soon as I found out and they were on the highway heading towards my grandparents house in North Carolina. Before I called them, I spent some time with God on what I should do. I felt led to stay, but also to go. After speaking with my parents, I feel led to go and come back. I was really hessitant about this when I was speaking to my parents and God affirmed the decision with my father. He said just get here and we will find someway to get you back. He knows that God did not call me here to go and come back. I have a peace that God is going to work everything out. However, one issue is concerning me. It will cost about 700 or 800 dollars minimum for me to get a round trip ticket. If I was to change my returning ticket, it would be more expensive and I also need to keep it so I can get to school when I return.
Please pray for God to supply the money for the ticket some way or some how. I will only be bringing my carryon when I leave early saturday morning to head back to Lima. Also, please pray for this drive because it is a two day trip and I am just now getting better from adjusting to comming here. I have no clue how I am going to pay for the ticket, but I know that God will provide. Continue to pray for me and my family for the next few weeks.
~Joshua~
josuesarco7@hotmail.com

Finally in Pausa!!

2006-05-30T15:02:00.000-05:00

Hello to all!

Well, I have finally arrived in Pausa. We left Saturday and traveled all day with a brake down and an awesome opportunity to witness. We arrived in Nasca just fine. Praise the Lord! Lance had got sick and we stopped in Pucio and had lunch. From then till we reached Pausa...it was nothing but dirt roads and ruff mountain roads. The terrain was ruff, but the view was georgous....wow so pretty. We went through deserts, mountains, lakes, rivers, fields, vally's and pastures. So amazing. We would travel between 14,000 feet and 8,500 feet. Amazingly enough, I did not get sick. PRAISE THE LORD! Although we were travelin on the edge of a cliff on a one lane road, we managed to stay on it...again praise the Lord! We came into some close contacts with other vehicles, but did not hit them.....YEAH!!! We were doing so good until the other truck broke down. We were in the middle of a desert at about 13,500 feet and it had just began to get dark....and wow so cold. We were all so cold and got out to see what the problem was. The battery had came off of its deck or something like that and was falling down into the engine. We had some redneck country people with us, so they got some duck tape and taped that sucker up against the other side. We redneck enginered it, but it worked pretty well. Later on, we got lost in the desert. It was pitch black and the stars were beautiful. Because of the rainy season, the roads were washed out pretty bad. We were traveling through this huge dry river bed and could not find the right road. The main road was washed out and pretty damaged. Because of this, people would just make there own road around the destruction. The truck behind us went the wrong way and fell into a gully. Only about three feet though. We started not to see there lights so we turned around and radioed them. They were so stuck. We tried to help push it out, but the truck was tilted extremly on its right side and in a huge hole. Our truck got a toe line thing and pulled it out. It took some effort, but we did it. Also, I really do not like peeing in a 30 degree climate when the wind is blowing......sorry if that was a little to much information. Haha...anyways...so we were off again. Still lost. We came up to a tiny village and could not find anyone to ask for directions. Finally we saw some lights in a house and we went there and they were able to tell us how to get to Pausa from there. Oh and by the way, we had a Federal Agent driving us, so we were really safe. We got back on the road and headed back the same way we came. Finally, we reached the place where we were to turn off. We were only lost for almost two hours. After driving through rivers and deserts and beside cliff's, we were all ready to get out of the truck. We finally reached Pausa at 10pm. That days trip only ended up being 15 hours. My butt was so numb... When we arrived, the hotel did not have room for us to stay and Logan and I's apartment (a room with two beds and no heat) was not ready yet. Finally, we were able to stay in the hotel, but only for a certain amount of time because some engineers had the hotel reserved. So we got some sleep. Yeah!!! It got so cold that night......oh my gosh I froze.

Made it to our first stop!

2006-05-28T11:50:00.000-05:00

Hey,
I am happy to say that we arrived at our first stop last night in Nasca. We stayed the night there and got some sleep. However........we had some difficulty getting there. We were about two hours out of Lima and our truck broke down. We lost all of our steering control and something about the front right tire or something....I did not understand. But by God´s grace, nothing bad happened. We were stuck for about three hours and we were able to witness to a couple that owned a restuarant where we were stranded. And thank God we were stranded where there was food. It did not look like much of a place to eat, but we had a nice pesto noodle and chicken meal. Logan and a couple of others found a phone and called Budget and they came with another truck....a lot better too. So we were off. We traveled about 11 hours yesterday along the ocean and it was a nice ride.
Today,
We headed up to about 14,000 feet. Everyone except Lance was fine. He blew chuncks and praise the Lord that he was in the other truck. I know that sounds bad, but I did not want to ride with that smell. We saw some beautiful country and mountains. The first part of the ride we were on one side of the mountains where it was desert and dry and really cold. When we crossed through to the other side. (More like the valley) It was green and not as cold. Logan called it the Rain Shadow. Now we are stopped at a town that I forget the name of to eat. Thanks for the prayers and please keep praying because we have about 8 more hours to go, we have only traveled four ( on pavment). The next 8 hours (we hope) are on a dirt rode. For my family, it is like our first trip to Jamaica traveling on the back hills. This is where it gets really steep and ruff. HOW EXCITING!! We hope to be in Pausa tonight. I will send an e-mail as soon as I can. It just so happens that the internet cafe that I am using is right across the street from where we are eating. REMEMBER TO KEEP PRAYING FOR US ALL!!
If you want to e-mail me, send to this e-mail josuesarco7@hotmail.com

In a later blog, I will finish describing all the things that I was blessed to do in Lima. One was, I saw X-Men 3 before it came out in the states. HAHAHA.......only five dollars. Lima was not really suffering for Jesus, but I am now, trust me!

Leaving

2006-05-27T11:35:00.000-05:00

I am leaving for our village....in a hurry so I have tons of things to tell everyone....tell you Monday or Tuesday....pray for a safe trip.....it will be a two day trip.
~Joshua~

First Few Days

2006-05-24T15:40:00.000-05:00

I AM IN PERU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I am finally in Peru. I left Dothan, AL and said goodbye to my family. It was not as hard as I thought it would be. I know I will miss them, but I know that God is with me and He has given me an incredible peace. I arrived late into Atlanta and expected to see Kelly Ann and Megan and Lance; however, they were not there....so I preceded to the train. I had to go to T concourse and then ride the train to concourse E. Once I got there, it was like two miles to my gate.....wow so long. I walked down to the gate and the lights were dark and none was on that side of the terminal....so I started to walk up to the center of the concourse so I could look for everyone. I was walking and had this stressed look on my face apparently and the KELLY ANN said.....JOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I was like Oh my gosh....it is you. She had been sleeping at the gate and was going to walk and get something to eat. I did not see Megan and so I asked her if Lance and Megan were on the flight with her. She said no and so I was starting to ge concerned. Megan had missed her first flight and was able to get on the next one. Lance had taken an earlier flight and was already there. I did not know this and I checked their itenerary's that I had and Megan was suppose to be right beside Kelly Ann.....she said that their was weird man and an old lady...that would not be Megan. HAHAHA so many memories. So we waited for like four hours and finally be began to board the plane. It was a 767 and half empty.........YES!! We were all so filled with excitement that we were crawling out of our skin.
!The FLight!
\well.....this was interesting...and long. The plane ride was so long..6 hours and thirty minutes. I hate breathing recyled air. We laughed and played games...it was good. They showed King Kong and I started listening to it and watching it like half way into the movie. I did not know how loud I was being and apparently everyone on the plane heard me. HAHA....so I quit watching it. I could not sleep. We finally were 20 minutes from landing and we could not see anything..the fog was so thick. Later we were told that they were going to reroute us to Equador and then fly the next day. That would have been fun...they had to do that for Logan when he flew in.
!The Airport!
So easy....Immagration and Customs were so easy. I have never been overseas where it was so easy to get through. The fun part came when we got through. It took us two hours to get through everthing because I think five or six planes flew in around the same time. After the main rush, I preceeded out the door and had went out the wrong way and was heading outside. We were all together except for Lance, he got the red light. We had to keep moving because of the rush...so I was leading the team back to the door to reenter the airport. Let me back up.......when we came to the door...inside the airport were a ton of people holding a million signs. We did not see any that pretained to us. So when we were outside, Ryan Bush was like....are ya'll with Reapsouth and we were like YES!!! We were so thankful to have been found. PRAISE THE LORD!! The little pully that I brought with me to put all of my bags on did not work. I was crossing the BUSY STREET and all of it fell off and went eveywhere....this really nice Peruvian came and helped me and would not accept a tip....PRAISE THE LORD!! We finally made it to the truck like a mile away and cramed in....so much fun. Once we arrive to our hotel...it was time for bed...praise God!!.

!Day 2!
Today was our immersion day in Lima. We went everywhere. We walked all over the place and acted like the locals. I loved it!! We went to the presidents house and all the big sites like we have in DC...I forgot all the names, but they have the same thing here. We went to alot of historical places and saw really old things that were amazing. We were able to visit the spanish inquisition musem and it was FREE. I love that and my Dad would have loved it too. We saw how they tortued the prisoners and all kinds of stuff. We went underground and saw how the people use to live way back in the 1400s and stuff. And of course, I tripped and fell down the steps going into the caves and underground walkway. And yes mom, dad and brandon I am fine hehe. Just a little bumped hehe. We left the main Plaza and went to this 1200 foot high mountain that looked over the city and had a huge cross on it. It was an interesting ride up the mountain. No railbars and oh my gosh I thought we were going to die. But WOW HOW FUN!!! Once we got to the top, it was beautiful, windy and cold and foggy. Next was our taxi ride. Four people in the back of this three and a half foot seat for like an hour. That was fun. The translator that was with us thought that the other taxi that had the rest of the team was going to the next place on the list. Well we get to the next place on the list and wait forever and it is getting really cold and I did not have my jacket. After waiting forever, we convinced the translators to show us the way back to the reapsouth office. We got there in like a 30 minute walk across town and the other team was like, where were you guys.......they went to starbucks....so mad yes. Anyways, it was an adventerous day. I made Logan take me to Starbucks later that night though hehe.....I LOVE THAT PLACE!!

!Day 3!
Well today we went to the beach after waiting up all night for the some of the team to get in from the airport. There are 50 missionaries total and i think 7 came in last night. Myself and some new friends were able to witness to this Israele guy that was staying in the hostal with us. He went to bed before we were able to get into salvation...but God used it as a great seed. He had never heard of christanity and had a lot of questions and could not believe that we were paying to do work in Peru. God is so good!! The group that came in went to do the same thing that we did yesterday and we all went to the beach like three blocks away. I have such good pictures. I will upload later hehe. We walk to this cliff and then walk down forever and got to the ocean. Instead of sand it was rocks. It was so awesome. Kellyann and I decided to be adventerous and we went to this reef and was climbing to the edge and taking pictures when this huge wave came and landed right on us. Wow we were so wet hehe and it was so much fun. Thank goodness for my waterproof camera!! You all are going to love the pictures we got. We then went to KFC and had some Peruvian kentucky fried hehe.

Thank you all so much for all of your prayers. Some things that my team has asked for you all to pray about are for the following>
Gift of language which as already been happening but please keep praying
Megan's ankle, she has pulled something and has a hard time walking, but i gave her an ankle brace and it seems to be helping
Unity to consume the groups and the entire reapsouth missions team.
Opportunites to share as much as possible........

THANKS SO MUCH!!

Previewed Cuisine

2006-02-19T15:40:00.000-05:00

Well, my friend Sarah Castro ~ from Brazil ~ sent me these pictures of the "Cuyi" that I will be eating in Peru. (Guinea Pig) PRAY FOR ME YA'LL!!!

Preparation

2006-02-10T14:29:00.000-05:00

Well, God has opened the door for me to minister in Peru this summer. I am so excited! I knew when God called me to the foreign mission field that I would be ministering in Latin America. It is so cool that I get to work under the IMB. I will also be going as Westside Baptist Churches Student Intern. So far, I have met Logan and Megan on facebook and I have gotten to speak with Logan on the phone and on AIM. I believe that those two people are on fire for the Lord. I can just tell by their excitement in their voice and how they portray themselves on facebook. God is so Awesome! Logan and Megan will be my team members in Pausa.

After speaking with Logan about Peru, (asking questions and such) I have found out some interesting things.

Ministering to the people is a little different than I have experienced before. There cultural religion is: rooted deep into their traditional religion with syncratism mixed with Catholicism and mixed with ancient Incan religions and gods. So ministering to them, you have to make sure that you explain that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven and to have a happy life. They can not just add another god to their list. Logan said that many people are searching for something else. They don't know what it is, but when they find it through you, their expression is priceless. We will be working on planting indigenous churches through relational evangelism. We will also be using T for T material. This is training for trainers. This is a curriculum used by Westside Baptist Church that equips the believers in the community to evangelize their own people.

I knew that we were going to have cold water. I am use to that. I just was not expecting one shower a week! Sometimes it could turn into one every two weeks. Do the math. I will be in Peru from May 24 until Aug. 10. That is like six to twelve showers the entire trip. WOW! What a challenge. I can handle it though. Logan said that it will be very dry and you won't sweat. We will be in some hign elevations and it will be their winter there. Freezing at night and about 70 during the day. The water will be mountain water(living in the Andes: On the side of a volcano as a matter of fact), so that means the water will be about 40 degrees. Yeah, I might not want a shower every day if it is that cold. When it is cold outside and cold inside, a cold shower just doesn't sound that exciting. Baby wipes will be my new best friend.

We will be living in a town called Pausa. This is a 20 hour drive from the capital, Lima. We will be flying into Lima and driving the rest of the way. Pray for me ya'll. I don't do good with riding or driving that long. It is like a narcotic for me, I sleep. I don't think that the people driving us would mind if I sleep, but it just seems rude to me.

Once we arrive, we will be living in a mud brick structure with a tin roof. This will be our base. We will have internet where I will be posting updates, when I find the time to get online. We will have a toilet and a shower also. However, we will be sharing the bathrooms and walls with the native people. We will be living amongst the people there for relational evangelism. Logan said that cats like to play on the roof at night, so sometimes you will have a hard time sleeping. I thought that was bizarre because I have never seen a cat overseas. You won't be seeing any guinea pigs "running" around though.

"Cuyi" is a delicacy there in Peru. This is fixed either boiled or fried. Logan said that it is better fried because you can convince yourself that it is chicken. LOL! What a new experience this will be to eat a guinea pig. On the bright side, Logan said that they eat lots of potatoes. I love potatoes. Atleast I know that I will not go hungry. Spice is not used that much and their meat is not that great, but I will still eat, believe me.

The most common language is Spanish, however, Quechua is a native Indian language there that I will be learning to minister to those certain groups that just speak Quechua. I am so excited about becoming fluent in Spanish. I had some awesome Spanish teachers in High School. So I know a lot, but have not gotten to use it for more than a week when I am overseas. I have almost three months to use it this summer. I am so excited about this.

We will be in high elevations and Logan said that the symptoms are nosebleeds, dizziness, and altitude sickness. I get vertigo when things like this happen. Not a fun experience, but well worth it. Logan said that your body will be use to it after a couple of days.

Transportation will be "on foot". How exciting. We will be hiking about 4-8 hours depending on where we go. I love hiking. (Growing up in the North Carolina mountains has its advantages) Up and down volcanoes and mountains. How beautiful that is going to be.

Well make sure that you keep checking this site to find out more information and updates on what God is doing in Peru.

Bendiciones!