The Difficulties

I have heard many people tell me that living in a foreign country (especially a non western one) is extremely challenging. Not being able to speak the language, a lack of organization and efficiency, and a unfamiliar culture will definitely test your patience. Plus the fact that you will be separated from your friends and family for two years can be emotionally straining. But in all honestly, living in a foreign country hasn't been all the difficult… at least not in the way you would think.

God has really blessed me and provided me with a nice three bedroom apartment that is in a really safe neighborhood. I have internet, a washer/dryer and warm showers. I have a great social group of friends that I hang out with on a regular basis, and two Peruvian roommates who have been great company and both to which I admire greatly for all the ministry work they do at the International Christian school that is a few blocks from our house. Besides getting a wisdom tooth removed, I have not gotten seriously ill or had any serious medical issues that would hinder my ability to get around. I have been able to eat well. The Peruvian cuisine is fantastic. Plus, most of the food I enjoyed in the US, can be found at the grocery store which is a five minute walk from my house. Because I took three years of Spanish in high school and one in college, and because my grandma is from Mexico, and my mom speaks Spanish, the Spanish language is not at all new to me. Plus, the simple fact that English and Spanish have so many similarities has main the task of learning the language quite painless. I would have to be a real pompous jerk to complain about any of the living arrangements that I have at this moment in time.

But by far the most difficult part of living in Peru is the ministry work, which is exactly the reason I am here. In case you didn't already know, my goal of being here in Peru is to share the gospel with the Japanese population here in Lima as well as help start a church within the San Isidro district here in Lima. San Isidro is one of the richest districts (if not the richest) in Lima. My supervisor and I are hoping to start a church that is a hybrid of business professionals as well as Japanese Christians.

What makes ministry so difficult is just the pure fact that it is very difficult to reach out to this specific group of people. Not only are these groups of people very closed off the gospel, at the same time their work ethic is unbelievably strong making it near impossible to find a time to meet with them. Another frustrating thing about Peruvians, is they often are afraid to tell you "no" because they feel it is rude. So if you send an email to them inviting them to an event, their version of now is to simply not respond to your email or just not show up. Sometimes you really just wish somebody from this people group would come up to you randomly on the street and ask you, "how I can inherit the Kingdom of God?"

On a positive note, there is a large demand for business professionals who want to learn English, so we have used teaching English classes as a door to share the gospel. We have several Japanese students who we teach English with several times a week. While this process is slow, it's been a great way to share bible stories with the students.

Because our students will often cancel bible studies and English classes, I often find myself with a lot of free time, which can be a blessing or a curse. While I do enjoy my alone time and relaxing, it is very easy to get distracted by TV shows, hanging out with friends and looking up trivial information on the internet. Before I left to go overseas, I thought that being a missionary in itself would in a way automatically make me grow in Christ. This is completely false. Just like being in the United States, you have to be diligently be reading the Bible and seeking after Christ in order to see any spiritual growth. You can be here for months, and not grow spiritually at all if you are just going through the motions and aren't spiritually disciplining yourself. This has definitely been a huge struggle for me. I am one of those people who thrive when I have clear direction and explicit instructions. But when your ministry often revolves around uncertainties and maybes like this job, it is often quite difficult for me to stay completely on track.

I am definitely one of those people who have a guilty conscious. A week ago I was in a state of guilt about the lack of progress I had made while I have been here in Peru. I prayed and ask God for forgiveness for the lack of effort and randomly ran across this verse in the bible:

"Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgive, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit." Psalms 32:1-2

God is good. I hope you can continue praying for us as we reach out to the Japanese and business professionals here in Lima. Keeping praying that I will be constantly seeking after Christ and looking for more opportunities to meet people and share the Gospel.

The Uniqueness Of Peru

Before I came to Peru, I really didn't know much about the country. I honestly just bunched it in a large clump with Chile, Argentina, Mexico, and all the rest of the Latin American countries. It was easy to come up with the conclusion, "They love soccer, they speak Spanish, They're all Catholic, and they drive cars as if there were no rules." While all of those may be mostly true, there is much more to the country than I realized. Here are a few examples which set Peru apart from other countries. 1) Peru is well known for it's cuisine among other countries. In recent times, a famous Peruvian Chef named Gaston Acurio has helped bring foods such as iconic dish "Cebiche" (A dish that consists of fresh fish drenched with lemon juice, and mixed with onions and cilantro) to the eyes of the modern world. Another really popular type of food here in Peru is known as "Chifa," which is a hybrid between traditional Chinese food, mixed with ingredients found in Peru. 2) Peru has a beautiful landscape. Unlike many countries that consist of one single topography, Peru has tall beautiful peaks, a vast jungle, a long coastline and sandy deserts. So whether you are looking to surf and relax on the beach, trek through the world's tallest peaks, or discover new critters within the Amazon, Peru has it all. 3) It was the center of the Inca Empire. The Inca Empire was a vast Kingdom that stretched from modern day Ecuador through Peru, Bolivia and into parts of Chile and Argentina. In the 16th Century, the Incas were weakened within from a brutal civil war which led to them being easily defeated by the Spanish. The Incan culture is still present within many communities that live in the rural mountainous regions of Peru. Many people of Incan descent come to Lima in order to find work and sell souvenirs. While Peru shares many similarities with other Latin American countries, it has its own unique charm that you can find if you look a little deeper.

Teaching English

The majority of my ministry here in Lima revolves around teaching English. Because English is the main language for international business and American influence in all forms of media is so prevalent, many of the locals are interested in learning English. I teach an English class once a week at a Japanese spice company called Ajinomoto, teach a few night classes on Monday and Thursday nights, and also teach English to two Japanese teenage girls who are trying to get into an American private school. All in all, it's not a bad gig. The goal of my ministry is to help start a church in an upper/middle class district called San Isidro within the Japanese community. Because the Japanese are traditionally closed off to Christianity, it is definitely a harder than normal job. Fortunately, there are so many Japanese who are interested in learning English so I have been able to that as a bridge to share the gospel. In every lesson, I will take time to tell a bible story or share a lesson from the bible with my students. While it is at times slow, I know I am constantly able to plant seeds that will hopefully sometime sprout up.

Six Months Of Silence

So I've been really bad about updating this blog and I'm hoping to resurrect it in some way. My computer was having issues a little while back so I wanted to wait until I went back to the United States and bought a new one so I wouldn't have to type updates on my iPad. Not a great excuse, but I'm going to try and be a little more diligent. From the beginning of February until the beginning of May, I was in language school learning Spanish. In those three months I drastically improved my Spanish and can get around the city just fine. I still struggle in situations where I talk about more complicated issues and more advanced tenses but I'm constantly learning. But all in all life is pretty good down here in Lima and I am looking forward to God's will being done.

The Story So Far

It’s been a while since I updated my blog and I figured I might as well do that before all my friends and family back home gave up on it. But after the baseball clinic I moved out of the guest house and into an apartment several blocks away. My new apartment is very nice. I live on the fourth floor of a five story apartment building. Fortunately it’s in a very safe neighborhood so I am able to walk by myself in the surrounding areas without the threat of imminent danger. Lately I have been enrolled in a school called El Sol (The Sun) in order to learn Spanish. This has been coming along quite well and I am learning a lot every day. It’s tough because the entire class is conducted entirely in Spanish but fortunately for me, I have a good head start on the Spanish language because my mom and grandma are of Mexican descent and spoke a good amount of Spanish around me. Also I found out recently that I had a Peruvian baby sitter when I was a baby who used to speak Spanish to me. It could be a good reason why I have never had trouble with the pronunciation of Spanish words. The school has also been great because I have made several friends within the school during this short period of time. I have been hanging out lately with a guy named Trevor who I met at the school who is also from the US. He’s a cool guy, and what’s also cool is the fact that he is a Christian and went on several long term mission trips when he was in college. It has definitely been a challenge to learn a language because in a way you are relearning how to speak and it’s only natural to use the expressions you already know in English to speak Spanish even though many of them do not directly translate. The next few months I am going to be heavily focused on learning Spanish to prepare for the ministry I will be doing among the Japanese in the coming months. A few weeks ago I had to have one of my wisdom teeth pulled because it had began to swell up after I had eaten dinner one night, and because it was partly covered with skin, it was highly prone to infection. It was scary to have a semi serious medical procedure in a foreign country but with a lot of prayers from all my friends and family back home, everything went according to plan. Praise God! I hope all of you back home will continue to pray for me everyday while I’m here in Lima. A few things you can pray for:
-I will be able to swiftly grasp the Spanish Language within the next few months
-I will recognize and take advantage of all the opportunities I have to witness to the people here in Peru
-I will use my time wisely and not forget the reason why God has me here

Baseball Clinic

So this past week I had the opportunity to help out with a baseball clinic here in Peru. Every January, a group of 9 men from the United States come to Lima, Peru to teach kids basic techniques about baseball as well as share the gospel with them. One of the coaches was a former pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, another coach is currently playing AA baseball for the Los Angeles, Angels; and the other seven are coaches (or former coaches) for college level baseball. It was an amazing opportunity for kids from the ages of 10-18 to learn baseball techniques from professional players and coaches. Plus the clinic was entirely free. The coaches taught two sessions everyday from Monday through Thursday. All in all, close to 300 kids participated. At the end of every session, one of the coaches would present their testimony, another would present a bible story, and an opportunity would be given for each of kids to accept Christ into their lives. Usually half of the kids would raise their hand to let us know that they wanted to accept Christ into their lives. We found out a couple of the Peruvian translators told the kids who didn’t raise their hands; “Raise your hands. Why wouldn’t you want to accept Christ in your lives?” With kids it is always hard to find out who actually wants to accept Jesus into to their lives, who is only doing it to please you, or who is feeling pressured into doing it. The next few times, we assured them of the importance of only making the decision if they honestly were making it out of their own free will. At the end of each session, several of the kids talked to the coaches about Christ and had many good questions about the Bible, Heaven and what it meant to follow Christ. Even though not every kid who raised his or her hand was genuinely making a decision for Christ, it was evident that several of them wanted to give their lives to Christ. The fact that nine coaches would go halfway around the world to teach baseball to a group of kids in a far away country touched the hearts of the Peruvian people. The kids as well as their parent felt honored to be taught by coaches from the United States, especially the two who played in the major leagues. It was evident that they looked up to these coaches. The coaches did not even mind when all the kids wanted them to sign something of theirs, no matter how unrelated to baseball the object was.

Arrival

I arrived safely into Peru late Monday night, early Tuesday morning. I have been staying in the guest house the last week and will probably be here for another two weeks until I move into my apartment. It’s a really nice place and has all the modern conveniences of America such as a washer/dryer, warm showers, nice bed and best of all Wi-fi! Being in Lima over the last week has been a really great experience. I live in the Miraflores district which is a really clean and safe part of the city. It’s also right by the ocean so the climate is very mild. It rarely gets above 80 degrees or below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. My supervisor has been showing me around the city the last few days so I have been becoming quite acquainted with the area. Fortunately, my Spanish is well beyond a beginner’s level due to the fact that my mom and Grandma speak Spanish and I took several years of it in high school and college. This next week I will be helping out with a baseball clinic that we will be hosting for kids and youth ages 10-18. The clinic will be taught by nine men from Florida who are all former baseball players and coaches in the minor leagues. All the coaches are Christians and will be presenting the gospel message to the kids at the end of the week. Pray that God will open up the hearts of the kids and that many will accept Christ into their lives. Many of the people involved with the baseball clinic are going to be Nikkei, which is the people group I came down here to work with. This is going to be the first time I have interaction with any of them so pray that I will be able to make many contacts and start building relationships with them.