Let the Little Children Come
It has been a little while since my last post and man have we been busy. On the road, we have visited a number of churches, small groups and individuals on this journey towards the work of church planting in Peru. We have been so blessed in so many ways, as God continues to show himself to us. In the last few months, we have been able to travel to the Omaha area and make great connections there. We even had the opportunity to share at a local church right here in Carlisle Iowa, only a few miles from our home. As we have met with Churches and individuals, our support has grown some. We currently have 32 individuals financially partnering with our ministry with another 5 that have verbally committed, as well as 9 churches actively giving and one more that has verbally agreed to do so. God is so good. We are now about 2/3 of the way there range. ONLY 1/3 to go! We continue to work and wait on His timing. We are still earnestly praying that God raise up individuals and churches that will partner with our mission to plant Churches in Lima Peru. Pray with us, that by the fall God would raise up 20-30 more individuals to partner with us and 3-5 more churches. We are SO close to being able to go and earnestly seek to leave for the work he has set before us.
As a kid, I grew up going to Saylorville Church in north Des Moines. We left 13 years ago for one purpose only. To help in the planting of a new church, Living Waters Fellowship. When Pastor Jared up at Saylorville asked me to be the missionary for their vacation Bible School, I said yes right away. Having grown up there, I thought I knew what to expect and how to serve. Boy was I wrong! VBS at Saylorville is way different as a missionary now than it was years ago. Jared asked me to show up, hang with kids, and name something they could raise money towards. Of course they’re kids so it had to be a competition. Boys vs Girls! And that was it. No crazy prep. No long presentations, no preaching. Just be with kids, help where I could, and receive the kids offering. Pretty EZ if you ask me.
As Debbie and I joined the army of 150 volunteers at VBS, we were surprised to see over 300 kids arrive for VBS! We prayed that God would save some of these kids as we and the other volunteers had opportunity to share Jesus. It was so fun to share with the kids how I had once been a Saylorville Kid and how God had worked in our family to send us to Peru and how God had saved us. Excitement grew through the week leading up to the big finale on the last night. A number of kids trusted Jesus as their savior! Glory to God! And their were great opportunities to share with the kid’s parents that final night as many had come and had been hearing all week about the fun, music, games, crafts and lessons; all of which pointed them to Jesus.
And what about the offering? We have a need for good technology as we go to Peru. And it has to last longer than it probably would here in the US as tech is VERY expensive in South America. We asked the kids to help us raise money for a computer. We thought maybe $1000 or so would come in. And what a blessing, to get one of two new computers we would need. But God had other plans!
We were told that the biggest offering towards a missionary at VBS was somewhere around $1900 which was a record. The kids brought in an offering of over $3900! We were floored and humbled as they announced the total on closing night. The boys won the contest but God gets all the glory. To move in the hearts of small children to empty their piggy banks and beg their parents for an offering of that size was amazing!
And it couldn’t have come at a better time as we needed a boost of encouragement. I personally had been discouraged as our support level had not had much change in the last several months. Doubts had crept in. “are we ever going to get there?” “how long will this take?” “Lord, do we keep going?” The Lord used little children to humble, encourage, and confirm us. Debbie was moved to tears and I to overwhelming joy. God doesn’t need the biggest business or church to supply our needs. He can use the little children to accomplish his purposes.