PERU - WHAT’S UP DOC?

Sure glad you asked that questions! You jogged my mind and now I remember I haven’t blogged since Thursday morning of last week. So, while I finish my breakfast of a “substitute steak sandwich” (better known as a peanut-butter and grape jelly) which is accompanied by a small glass of peach fruit juice and Starbucks coffee (travel packets), I will attempt to bring you up-to-date – THAT IS IF I CAN KEEP THE EXCESS PEANUT BUTTER FROM GETTING ON THE KEYS!

Thursday & Friday, September 23rd - 24th:

Both days were not filled with anything more than continuing the process of recording the classes for The Development, Scope and Study of the Bible. I would like to tell you that everything went smooth, but I would not be telling the truth. But we finally were able to make some adjustments and now have 5 sessions complete but that is only about 20% of the total. So we have a long way to go.

This week I will have two different interpreters but we are not able to start until Tuesday, so Monday becomes a lost day.

Saturday, September 25th:

Everything was geared to getting ready for the second of a two-part series on The Will of God. There are four churches who have at least one combined youth meeting each month on Saturday at 5:00 pm. I was asked to speak to them about the importance of discovering God’s will. There seems to be a basic cultural philosophy of just getting an education or training and then getting married without any real concern for what God may want out of their life. And because of the culture, their families place a lot of demands upon them beyond what is biblical.

So the first week I shared with them how easy it is to discover God’s will: receive Christ, then serve Him full-time – your “vocation” as Paul calls it then discover your “hobby” (defined by me as the job which will give you the finances you need to accomplish the task of serving God in their “church” – not “the Church.” “Their church” is describe by the place of employment where God places them. They have a “pulpit” to “make disciples” and to “train them” as they have been trained. Plus, the only difference between them and their pastor is that God has called him to earn his living by serving the Church in the capacity of one of the 5-fold ministries described by Paul in Ephesians 4.

Saturday, the challenge was to “Place Your Life Before God.” And the basis for the teaching is found in Romans 12:1-2. I simply went through the verses explaining the words in basic terms which would describe their life.

That completes Saturday!

Sunday, September 26th:

I was only supposed to have one service, but because I needed an interpreter and the ones I generally use are pastors who have services on Sunday morning, I asked David Hodges, who’s service is at 5:300 PM to accompany me as my interpreter for the morning.

My assignment was to speak for the first year graduation ceremony of six students from Ancon, Iglesia Cristiana El Camino pastored by Walter & Clarisa Villajuan. Ancon is located about one hour from my present location – the apartment I call “home” – on a Sunday (during the week it could take up to two hors to get there).

But to be able to use David, knowing we would not get to his home and church until about 5:00 PM, I volunteered to speak for him. So off we went! The day began with a 10 AM departure and ended with a 11:10 PM return. However the day was a success both for the graduation and for the time with Iglesia Vida in Jicamarca.

Now it is Monday and because we will not be recording, I will have time to complete preparation for the final recording sessions.

And “maybe” get my hair cut! Oh, get off of it! I still have some “hairS” which need to be cut!

God bless and continue to pray.

Dr D