Dear Prayer Partners:

I have been home about 2 weeks now and I feel I am finally beginning to get my feet back on the ground and get back into daily life.  The Missions Trip to Peru was unbelievable because we were able to see the Holy Spirit move in people’s lives as we encountered them.  For me this was a dream come true to go on a missions trip.  Here is a typical daily schedule:

6:00 – 7:30 am                   Breakfast
7:30 am                                Team Information Meeting and Morning Chapel
8:30 am                                Load Buses for the Callao Church
9:30 am                                Load Buses at Callao Church for morning venue & pick up translators, follow up volunteers, & security personal.
10:00 am                              Morning Venue – parks, orphanages, hospitals, prisons.
1:00 pm                                Sack lunch prepared by Callao Church women & some Grace Church women
2:00 pm                                Afternoon venue
5:30 pm                                Arrive at Coliseum to prepare for evening performance
7:00 pm                                Coliseum Performance
10:30 pm                              Dinner upon return to hotel
11:30 pm                              Lights out!!!

Each night we had a full house at the Coliseum of about 4, 000-5,000 people.  One night there was such a long line, beginning at about 4:00 pm that we had 2 performances of 4, 000-5,000 EACH!  There were music, skits, humorous drama, magic shows, unicycle performance, etc…very festive like a circus.  At the end Pastor Dave told them, through an interpreter, why Grace Church from the United States had come – to share the good news of Jesus Christ. 

Tears filled my eyes as I saw hundreds of people come forward after they responded to Pastor Dave’s message.  I hope you get a chance to view the link to the video of some of the whole week’s events.  It is only about 7 minutes long.  Turn up your volume so you can hear the music and dialogues as well.

I want to give you seven (7) of my observations that I took away from the whole experience:

1. Every Believer has a testimony they can share to reach someone’s heart.  As we walked in an old run down market place, I saw and heard how the life stories of our Grace Church people were so wisely matched with the situations of the Peruvian people.  People who have lost children, people who have had illnesses, personal failures…their stories and transformed lives reached the heart of the right person that the Holy Spirit directed them to.  I saw how what looked like gang members and  street women, had tears running down their eyes after they understood that Jesus loved them so much that He was willing to die for them and pay the penalty for their sins.  That they could have a new life …a changed life. The best witnessing happens when our hearts are full of appreciation for what He has done.  God has chosen to  use us to “declare-His marvelous deeds among all peoples
2. The Importance of Prayer and Preparation.  Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance.  The training meetings and prayers offered up on all of the logistics before and during the trip were so felt.
1.  Nailing down airline reservations for 300 people was hard during this time of gas cost increase. 
2. Writing our story of faith in Jesus,
3. Preparing the skits
4. Memorizing the Spanish words to music
5. All of the equipment and ministry items arriving and working
6. Safety in the areas that were not real safe
7. General good health of the whole team.

I listed only a very few things.  Your prayers of protection and provision covered us.  Thank you.

3. Understanding How Great Is My God:  I had asked you to pray that I might be given the opportunity to share the gospel and lead 1 person to salvation.  But God had bigger expectations of me than I did for God.  Through the boldness of the Holy Spirit in my life I was able to lead over 50 people to Christ.  If we believe God is great, we cannot help telling others about him.  Over 6,000 total indicated that they prayed to receive Christ from the whole week.
4. Sharing the Gospel is much different than sharing my faith:  Most people who are around me on a regular basis know that I go to church, am involved in Bible Studies, and my faith is very important to me.  But pure street evangelism, sharing my life story to others and walking them down the path to a saving faith in Jesus Christ is totally different.  Day after day we were in residential areas, hospital, orphanages, prisons, dirt play areas, sharing the greatest gift I could ever give them.
5. I have very little to do with another’s coming to salvation:  I have many illustrations of this point but will share only one.  I was in a very poor housing development, unsanitary with all the garbage all over.  We were doing New Believer Follow-up and trying to find a person who had prayed to receive Jesus a few days before.  Because there are no windows and doors between all of the apartments, another woman upstairs and across the hall heard us talking and yelled out the window “I want to hear about Jesus”.  I found her struggling with cystic fibrosis, with 2 young daughters who clung to her crying, and she said to us she wanted peace with God before she died and to be assured of where she would go.   The Callao church member with us will be going back each week and studying the Bible with her as a follow-up to her decision to ask Jesus into her heart.  This also shows the commitment of our Sister Church to reaching their people in their city.  We truly did work ‘ Hombro a Hombro’ “Shoulder to Shoulder” with them the whole week.
6. The importance of emphasizing the authority of God’s Word:  As I was talking with 2 women on a street corner, one started asking questions about what I was sharing with her.  She asked if we celebrated birthdays.  I probably looked surprised and said “Si – mucho grande!” She asked if we celebrated Christmas of which I answered the same way.  She asked which book I read about my God and I showed her my Bible.  It then clicked in my mind that other religious groups had been there, probably Jehovah Witnesses.  I told her that there was only 1 Bible from God.  It has stood the test of time over 2000 years and not one word has been changed.  Whenever a man would preach to her, she should ask where that is found in her Bible.  The Bible is the only authority of God’s voice to us.  After that she, too prayed with her friend to receive Jesus as her LORD and Saviour.  This is a reminder to emphasize the studying of the Word of God to others for truth.
7. Grace Church has a wonderful, dedicated Missions Team whose goal & vision is never lost. I will not forget what Pastor Dave shared one morning in devotions.  “Life is short & hell is hot.  We want to do all we can to prevent others from going there.  We want to give the peace that only God can give them”  With very little sleep and always a smile, Dave, Rob, Jeff, Kris, & Michelle were some of the team  that worked to make it a memorable trip for all of us.

I am already looking forward to the next Peru trip,  -  but I am going to study up on my Spanish! 

Thank you so much for partnering with me and praying for me and the whole team.  I hope you feel you had a part in all of this, too.

I want to invite you to attend the Celebration Sunday at Grace Church, Eden Prairie on Sunday, September 14th at 9:00 am or 10:30 am for a sampling of what the trip was all about.  I hope many of you can attend.

Here is the link to view and listen to the short video of our trip. Click the tab at the top "Recap Video" and turn on your sound.

http://atgrace.com/dev/august1/

Dios te Bendiga  (God Bless You)

----- Janet Carlson

Here are some pictures from the trip: