Often I start the week without knowing what I exactly will be doing that week. Every week is different working as a missionary here in Trujillo. At the last moment meetings are scheduled or cancelled and more activities are always coming up. Today I want to take you on a journey through a random week of my life to give you some insights into what I am doing here.
Sunday
Sunday morning I usually attend the Cristo Rey downtown church and play in the music group. However, today Maresa and I decided to visit the church in Manuel Arévalo because a friend of ours, Bob Relyea (missionary from Australia), is preaching there and we want to greet him and hear his sermon. We always enjoy visiting this church to meet our friends and brothers and sisters in Christ.
Every Sunday evening we meet in our cell group. We recently changed our meeting place to be closer to our cell group members. Therefore today we meet for the first time in our house. We spend a good time in studying the Bible and praying for each other’s needs. Please pray that we can reach out more to our new neighborhood.
Monday
Today I am working on preparing a sermon to preach Tuesday evening in a church. Every Monday afternoon I meet with Ps. Allen Smith, Emanuel and Esdras to study together materials about leadership development. This is part of the apprenticeship program in which I am participating. This time we all have read a chapter of a book about leadership and share our thoughts and discuss some questions to understand it and apply it to our ministries.
Tuesday
Tuesday morning I have to wake up early to meet with the other pastors for our weekly prayer meeting. We spend time studying a passage of Galatians before we all share our prayer points together and pray for each other. This meeting helps us to know what is going on in the other churches so that we can help each other and pray for the specific needs. This morning we also have our monthly team meeting with Peru Mission in which we talk about all the things which are going on in our ministries and in the organization. Today we spend more time in sharing about our ministries so that we all know what each one of us is doing and how we can help each other.
In the evening we are going to a small town on the countryside, called Carmelo. I have been invited to preach in a small church which was planted by my father-in-law. Emanuel, Esdras and Ps. Allen, who are all participating in the apprenticeship program, are going with us to lead the worship and service. We had a wonderful time of worship and sharing God´s word. After the service they invited us for a dinner, which is the usual way in Peru to give thanks for a visit.
Wednesday
Because of my background as a civil engineer I am also involved in the construction projects at Peru Mission. Therefore this Wednesday morning I have to go to the Manuel Arévalo neighborhood to meet about the plan to build a school beside the church. The plans are almost ready and now we are mainly waiting for the short-term teams to come to help us build the school. This morning we are planning with the builder the work for the short-term teams. Next week we will meet again with the education committee of the church to continue to plan for this project. We have to talk about plans, budgets, materials, teachers and many other things. It is great to do this together with the local people from the church. Because of their involvement at the early stage of this project I believe it has a bigger change to be self-sustainable in the future. The church will be the owner of this project and because of their involvement in it from the early stage they will experience it as their own project, instead of a project done by Peru Mission for them.
Thursday
Every Thursday in the morning we meet with Ps. Scott, Emanuel and Esdras to study theology together. We watch a video with a class and after that Ps. Scott explains more details about the subject and we have a time to discuss the topic. At the moment we are studying the Apostles' Creed, and this week the topic is Jesus. We learn about the importance of His incarnation and His sacrifice. This is part of the apprenticeship program in which theological education has an important place to prepare us for pastoral work and also teaching/preaching in the future.
In the evening we met with the ´event team´ from the church to plan activities for the church in this month. This time we organize the breakfast we have planned for next Sunday. We decided that every cell group will contribute with bringing sandwiches and drinks. We also start planning a day away for the church next month. It will be great to go away for a day to the countryside to have a time of fellowship together to unite the church more.
Friday
At the moment we, as part of the apprenticeship program, are also busy reading the whole Bible in a few months to get an overall picture of the Bible and the big themes in the different Bible books. I thought I knew the Bible well, but by reading it complete and fast I am learning many new things about God. Every time it surprises me more to see how God works through the whole Old Testament with His nation Israel! Every Friday morning we discuss our biblical readings with Emanuel and Esdras, with Ps. Scott leading and teaching us the different themes in the Bible. Today we talk about David as king as written down in 1 and 2 Samuel.
In the afternoon I spend some time with the kids from the orphanage ´Hogar de esperanza´. Maresa is working there and I am also involved as volunteer with different projects. This afternoon we all meet in Norky's, a chicken restaurant, to celebrate Mother's Day with all the mothers who work in the orphanage.
In the evening we play football together with the boys of the church. We do this every week on Friday or Saturday evening. I love playing football and we use this opportunity to invite friends to play with us and to make new friends to invite to the church in the future.
Saturday
On Saturday morning I went to the house of Emanuel to prepare the worship for the Sunday morning service, since a few weeks I am playing the bass guitar in the church instead of the piano I played before. We practice some of the songs for the Sunday service and enjoy making music together.
As you may have noticed, life and work as a missionary in Peru is not boring! My work is very diverse and I enjoy it a lot. I thank God that I have the opportunity to serve Him here in Trujillo in different ways!
