Last week Wendy and I headed out to José Bustamente y Rivero to get acquainted with the area, for we knew very little about it. When we stopped by the church down the street, to figure out which combis we would need, we ran into my out language school professor, Manola. He's been offered a teaching position through Extreme with the new folks training here in Arequipa for the projects in Columbia and Lima. He just so happens to live in JB. Word! So he not only told us which combis to take, but also the economic and social status of our three territories. He then said that of course, we would plan soon to do dinner at his house as a group. He accepted Christ after Love Extreme, but I'm not sure that he continues to attend church. I plan to put the pressure on for a cell group in his house. :)
With his advice, we left for JB, got there quite easily and began to explore. We knew we had entered JB when we saw the park with all the Dinosaurs...
Later we walked to the municiple center to begin the process of seeking permission for impact events. On the way, we came across a restaurant that makes typical northern peruvian jungle dishes. It also belongs to a family that has more recently stopped attending the Umacolla church after the death of Pastor Genero. We stopped to talk to Juanita and let her know we'd be working in the area. She's a beautiful, tall and poised 15 year old that seems older than her age. I think that she will be a good source of energy behind a cell group. Join us in praying for this family and Manolo's family that we can use their homes and lives as gateways into JB.
JB is a population of upper middle class, which will make people a little more hesitant to respond to the impacts or even to the message at times, than normally happens in the poorer areas. But like we saw with Manolo during language school, you can have a nice home and a good job, a great family, but you can still feel empty and not want to seek a filling of drugs or alcohol. With the sophistication and organization of the upper middle class, we found that the processes will be a little more complicated than in Hunter, but it is well organized and not biased in the direction of any one religion or against religion and therefore we only have to follow a specific process to get the permission we need. It will be very different working in JB than in Hunter and Paucarpata, but I'm very interested to see what God has in store for JB and how he will work in and change the lives of the people there.
José Bustamante y Nieves eres ordenado y limpio
DESDE:WENDY
Es un lugar muy muy bonito, ordenado, tranquilo, muchos lugares bonitos que conocer ese día estuvimos en el Parque de los Dinosaurios es muy bonito para pasar tiempo con amigos, niños, familia, etc.
El viernes nos enteramos que Manolo el profesor de idiomas de Vanessa vive allí, ella estuvo bromeando con el por qué lo encontramos en le centro distrital sobre una célula en su casa y el reía y dijo vamos a ver, pero sabemos y vamos a orar y pedimos su ayuda en oración por una célula en la casa de Manolo también el José Bustamante y Rivero vive una amiga mía llamada Juanita que tiene un restaurant con comida de la selva y ella está muy feliz porque vamos trabajar en esa zona.
Fue también este lugar donde recibí medicina de Dios a través de consejos y palabras muy sabias de Vanessa ahora estoy muy feliz libre de temores, preocupaciones e ideas que no estaban bien gracias Dios te amo…………………… por ser mi padre de amor, cariñoso, misericordioso, perdonador, etc , etc ,etc, etc.
