Handling Octopus in Peru!


Well the time is here again!!! Tomorrow we receive the leadership for our summer teams, and begin training. We are very excited to have them together to get things underway.

We will spend this week training leaders and then will leave Saturday for Dallas to receive and train the teams. We fly to our respective countries on Thursday, June 25. This summer, we will have teams in Uganda (already there), Chile, Peru, South Asia, and then Panama. All of these teams return to the US on July 22, except for the Panama team. I will take that one two days after returning from Peru. You will be able to follow each team by visiting www.awestar.org and clicking on the trip updates page. There will be photos and written updates.

We are thankful to have heard from many students and parents who were at SuperSummer last week. You have seen several comment here, and many other have friended us via facebook, and told us their stories there. We praise God for how He is using this experience!

Deanna and I have two college students on our team that will serve as Team Directors for us. They are Jordan and Kristin. Kristin, served on BJ's last team in Peru. We are very excited to have the privilege of serving with them, and cannot wait to see the Lord use them in the lives of our team! They plan to update a blog they started just for this trip. You can follow it, if you like, at http://www.peruvianeisegesis.blogspot.com

These two are pretty comical, and as friends enjoy 'testing each others limits.' This should be great for the team!

Deanna and I spent the weekend trying to rest up and prepare ourselves for the teaching/discipleship we will do while away. To be honest, this is one of the parts of this experience I enjoy the most! I love seeing the growth that occurs in their lives! Honestly, I don't know why everyone doesn't want to do this. It is simply amazing.

Our team this year is 23 people. 12 women and 11 men. Their ages range from 13 to...well uhm, Deanna and me. The majority of them are 17 to 18 years old. We cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store for this summer! We will be entering through Lima this year. Each previous year, we have entered through Guayaquil, Ecuador, as it was cheaper... not this year!

I am very excited to return to Huamachuco this year. Some of you may remember that mountaintop village we spent four or five days in last year, where we saw an incredible harvest! Well we are returning to encourage the believers and hoping to see the Lord move in such a way that their numbers are increased! We will also be in Trujillo, Chiclayo, and several areas in between each of these cities. We were supposed to be Jaen and Bagua, on the rim of the jungle, but have had to divert from that region.

We certainly will appreciate your prayer support. I also am hopeful that my brother may have occasion to update here, from time to time. Summer is his busiest time of the year as well, so if he doesn't, we certainly understand.

Once training begins, I will not be updating much.

Have a blessed summer in our Lord! I appreciate each of you who take the time to visit here... both those who comment and those who do not. I pray you spend your summer as missionaries in the places He has afforded you to spend time!

God Bless!


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