path to wisdom. peru #7

“whoever walks with the wise becomes wise” proverbs 13:20. we all know we need more wisdom when it comes life. we need to know how to make the right decision when it comes to the dilemma we are facing. what job to take? when to marry? when to move? when to have the tough conversation we know we need to engage in, but how? we need to know how to lead a family in Godliness. we need to know more of we are able to fulfill our purpose in life. we need to know how answer the question: why does God allow bad things like tornadoes to destroy cities like Joplin and Tuscaloosa? these are amongst the many questions i am sure most of us ask ourselves and desperately search for the answers to throughout our lives. we all need wisdom and instruction because they “are our life” (proverbs 4:13). the one who believes he does not, i, along with Gods word, think that one person is an idiot (proverbs 13:10). we need more direction. more answers. more questions. and we need Gods word, His spirit, and His people to guide.

like i mentioned in my last update, i had no idea what to expect once i arrived in lima. all i knew was that i would be spending time with a man named mario. all i knew about mario was that he was the president of the christian missionary alliance in peru (a family of churches in peru and throughout the rest of the world. i also knew that mario was wise, discerning, and that a good friend mine told me that if he could, he would wash dishes in marios house for a few months just to observe and learn from him. that is about all i knew.

i arrived at marios office wednesday afternoon and will admit that the first few hours were a bit awkward and hard to read. simply because mario cannot speak english and the spanish i have learned over the past month and a half can only get me so far in a conversation. after a little bit of down time, later in the evening we had the chance to sit down and talk for a few more hours. mario began tell me how excited he is to have me here. he began to tell me his story. how he came to know Christ when he was 16 and how he realized with full assurance his calling into full-time ministry. how through his time in ministry he was able to lead his mother, father, and a few siblings to Christ and even baptize them. he told me how his relationship had sparked with my faith family back in nashville when he was pastoring the church in comas. he also told me how after that he began to oversee all of the 58 churches in lima. and now how he oversees 372 churches in all of peru. he told me that he never expected any of this to happen to him, but everyday all he desired to do was draw near to the Lord in desperation for Gods glory to be revealed through his life. he told me that above all, if there was only one thing he wanted me to learn from my time with him, it is the importance of a daily relationship with God and of necessity continual seeking and striving to know him more.

he then began to tell me about his family. his smile and joy struck me like a contagious disease as he described each member in intimate detail. he then told me about how his wife, rosa, was diagnosed with cancer a few years back. he described how the first day he began his new role as president, it was also the first day rosa entered into chemotherapy. he vividly recalled the agonizing moments of difficulty he experienced as he attempted to support and encourage his wife through the immense pain she was facing on a moment by moment basis. he told me how every morning he would take care of every need his children needed (breakfast, clean clothes, having a devotional with them, etc) then he would have a devotional with his wife, work all day, come home, take care of his wife as she suffered the effects of her most recent chemo treatment, and somehow find time to sleep a few hours. still smiling, he tells me how thankful he is for the fact that his wife had gotten cancer. thankful? for cancer? i am not even thankful for the cold i received 2 weeks ago and this man is thankful for the cancer that was destroying his wifes body from the inside out. he then described to me with almost shouts of praise how much God has used this what was then devistating circumstance, for His ultimate glory. that God has used this situation to make each of his family members stronger and ultimately more dependent upon the Lord. and now, rosa, is free from cancer (praise God!!”$TG%EG$ $#W%Y# EG!) and continously is sharing her testimony of the miracle she has received through cancer and healing. that regardless if she had never received cancer, God is still God. he is unchanging. matchless. holy. sovereign. and uses every situation in our lives to glorify Himself and further his kingdom.

oh, that God would move us all to such complete dependence and ruthless trust. i was then reminded of a quote from david platt, “we are not saved by God to live in self-sufficiency. but we are saved by God to live in God-dependency.” mario is a man that loves his family and i am so thrilled to observe the way he affectionately loves his wife and kids through continous consistent investment in the person each one of them are becoming. all i can say is that after those 3 hours, i left the conversation a different man. praise God for the wisdom he filled my heart and head with that evening. it was then that i really began to understand why God had brought me to lima to work with Mario for 2 weeks. simply to observe. ask questions. lots of questions. seek wisdom from a man that loves the name of Jesus with everything that is in him. and just to be relationally invested in and guided by a man who is passionate about seeing the glory of God exalted in the church. oh praise God for giving me understanding in this conversation! even though i did not understand every word, i did understand the meaning and subject matter of every sentence. i cannot believe God has blessed me with learning spanish so quickly.

thursday through sunday we spent time traveling through central peru visiting different churches that mario oversees. it was an incredible trip filled with conversation, observation, worship, and many opportunities to just build the friendship between mario and myself. every car ride and moment of down time we were able to continue the conversation we had put on pause from the few hours before. it was awesome to again, just ask questions and learn. i loved the oppportunity to observe him as he preached and interacted with the pastors of each church he oversees. he is one of the most relationally wired human beings i have ever met. he pours himself into each pastor and supports them through investing in them relationally and supplying much biblical encouragement and counsel. it was cool to watch the way each pastor was uplifted by the words mario delivered to them and the respect they gave mario as well. i was moved to worship as i got to experience the mountainous region peru has to offer. i know i exclaimed before that the jungle experience i had in iquitos hurt my eyes through not wanting to blink because of the beauty i found myself immersed in, but that has absolutely nothing on what God blessed me to witness this past weekend. around every corner i expected the sights to somehow diminish in beauty, yet fortunately they did not. tons of massive green mountains. tons. it is almost as if when i blinked and reopened my eyes, more appeared. it reminded me of romans 2 where paul writes, “for his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly percived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.” every blade of grass beckons the worship of our God as sovereign creator and sustainer. i had the privelage of traveling to oxapampa, pichinaki, villa rica and chanchamayo. side note: villa rica and chanchamayo are 2 of the main cities where coffee is produced in peru. so that was freaking awesome to walk through fields of coffee plants and see coffee co-ops where i think the coffee shop i work at in nashville receives its peruvian coffee from. yup, i am a nerd, but it was awesome.

also, mario asked me to share my testimony at each of the 3 churches we visited. at first i thought it was a cruel joke. then, realizing he was serious, i laughed, nervously, and immediately began praying for help. time began to share at the first church friday night…i started talking, somehow 7 or 8 minutes later, i finished. some people had blank faces and some were smiling and nodding there heads as if they understood. i asked mario if he could perceive at all what the heck i was saying, and to my surprise he told me “so so.” i was in shock! i know not every word was correct, and not every verb was conjugated perfectly, but God was able to communicate the message of how he reconciled me to himself through his son Jesus Christ. and some people were able to understand that. praise God for the fact that after a month and a half he has given enough knowledge to share my testimony in another language.

sunday night we arrived back in lima and i had the entire day monday to just rest. read. and rest some more. it was the first day in this entire trip where i could just have the time to myself. after much mental and physical exaustion, it was the perfect medicine for me. yesterday mario and i traveled 2 hours south to visit a pastor who is pastoring 2 churches right now. he is a man that is incredibly passionate about seeing the gospel come alive in peoples lives. he wants to see God transform every heart of every person in this world, he told me. it was a great time of conversation and i left feeling really encouraged by this man. also, in one of the cities he pastors in they are in the beginning stages of building a church. there was a group of people from england working who were all my age and more importantly it was a group of people who spoke english! haha in all seriousness, the first few minutes of conversation i found myself stumbling over words to say as if i had forgotten how to talk in my native tounge. it was great to hear some of their stories and how God had impacted their lives over the few months they had been in peru. overall it was a great day of conversation and provided more opportunities to learn from mario and other pastors.

so now it is wednesday, and i am not so sure what the rest of my time will look like in lima. other than the fact that i know much of my time will be spent with mario continuing to converse about God, our stories, families, and our desires to see God move in our lives. i am thankful for the opportunity to learn from a man that has been filled with much wisdom from God simply because he desperately seeks to find God. i am praying that God would use this time to continue to shape my heart and future as a man in life and ministry. i am praying that my time would somehow encourage mario in his walk with the Lord as well. and i am also praying for all of you, that you would as well, find people around you to be invested in by. God has created us for relationship. with himself and with one another. i pray you would invest in the people around you and ask questions realizing the need we have for more Godly wisdom in our lives, no matter the stage of life we find ourselves in. love you all and thank you again for your continous support. let me know how i can be praying for you.

OH! im glad to see jesus held off on the rapture for at least a little bit longer and allowed 2 huge events to happen this past weekend! congrats to 2 of my friends who got married! kenny and hilary davis. so excited for their future together. i wish i could have been there to celebrate with them. also, one of my bestfriends, mark mattingly, got engaged on saturday to an amazing woman, lindsay pritchet. again,cant wait to celebrate with them when i return. please pray for Gods blessing on all 4 of these people as they all move forward into new exciting and challenging seasons of life.

in christ ans for his glory bubba

yes, they do have papa johns pizza in peru. and it was awesome. peru 6.

just wanted to give you all a quick update. right now, i find myself in comas, peru. before i tell you why, let me catch you up on some sweet stuff God did this past weekend.

saturday. i had the opportunity to preach again at the young adults service. the whole night was on prayer and intamacy with God. it was an incredible time to share with them what God has revealed to me over the past month as to what prayer is and some aspects as to why it exists. i shared with them that prayer must center around Gods glory and exists to proclaim the glory due his name. secondly when pray, we are asking for Gods will to be revealed in our life, not a christmas list of earthly comforts. we ask that our hearts would continually align with His. thirdly i told them the goal of prayer is communion with God. we need continous conversation that is not constricted by a ¨dear god¨ or ¨amen.¨ this produces trust and trust; relationship and relationship; intamacy. we were not made to be aquaintances with God, but to experience true and continuous fellowship. afterwards, the response God produced was incredible! God was moving in a way words could not do justice. for a solid 30 minutes some these young adults were on their face crying out to God. some in very deep thought and reflection. and some asleep. praise God for the maturation he did in all of our lives that night.

sunday. i had the opportunity to preach 4 times. again, i stress the fact that before coming here, i had no idea that they would ask me to preach so much. it has been unsettling, exciting, nerve racking, but above all, it has moved me to become dependent upon God in ways i had not experienced before. just another way, of the many, God has taken me out of my comfort zone and spured me to depend solely upon him. i taught out of romans 3:21-26. i would encourage you to read that scripture as it thoroughly walks a person through the heart of Christian faith. it is the presentation of the biblical gospel. on sunday, i attempted to walk through the biblical gospel and what a biblical response to the gospel looks like. i say with full assurance that i was in no way confident in myself after those messages. yet, i know with everything that is within me God moved in all of the services. i was reminded that his word never returns void and that the gospel is incredibly good news to a hopelessly sinful humanity. i am so stoked to tell you that 8 people (that i know of) came to faith in Christ on sunday. we have some new family members brothers and sisters. wishing we could all kill the fattened calf together right now and start partying together. however, i´m sure God was having a good time for all of us. praise God for the fact that every person he saves is another story of blessed defeat.

anyways, back to the story about comas and what the heck i am doing here. i arrived here on monday, with honestly no idea what to expect. i showed up greeted by my friend marco (he is the pastor to the young adults at another church that Fellowship is partnered with) and also by Angel (who is the pastor of the church in comas, peru). immediately, like most peruvians do, they made me feel right at home with their contagious joy and continous encouragement. i found out when i arrived that i would be staying here till wednesday. i preached for a short time tonight and got to spend most of the day with the pastors of the churches in comas during a meeting they had. it was a wonderful to just be apart of meeting where i witnessed a bunch of men strive together to pursue unity as they move forward in Godly and biblical leadership of the church. thankful for the fact that God was able to put some faces to all the names i had heard about for so long here in comas. my time in comas has been incredibly blessed (included getting to have papa johns and starbucks, which, when all i have had is nescafe for a month, was actually pretty good…sorry jamie) and i wish i could stay longer, however, tomorrow, i am leaving for south peru with the president of the christian missionary alliance here in peru. i am so excited for the new experiences God will provide and yet another day of not having any idea of what i am doing, but being moved to ruthless trust in a sovereign God and constant dependence on a faithful savior. the same exact place i pray all of us would be in in every moment of our lives.

 in Christ and for his glory, bubba

Peru #5.

Another week has flown by my friends and I must admit that it has been one of the most encouraging yet draining weeks I’ve experienced thus far. It has been filled with preaching 3 times with 5 more to go(weds, sat, 3 times on Sunday), eating with a different family almost every meal, and some attempts at sleep. My peruvian family is amazed at how quickly i have been able to pick up a basic level of spanish as i can now have a decent conversation with them! Praise God for that. And thank you for your prayers in that. This week I feel like I’ve really been able to get a feel for how the church is wired, their strengths/weakeness and so forth. 3 weeks of observation and immersion has taught me so much about how a faith family is run, what the role of the leaders should and shouldn’t be, and throughout it all where a church finds it’s source of life, the Spirit of God. I know that no church is perfect by any means, I do know that God is transforming the church into the image of Christ when the body is passionate about the word of God and dependent upon the Spirit of God to see the Word come alive in the context of community. God is restoring his broken bride and making us beautiful in his perfect timing. I praise God for allowing me to learn what I have over this period of time and I know that it all will leave a lifelong impact upon myself and my future in ministry.

Life long memories which occurred this week…

1. On Saturday I traveled with about 30 young adults to a camp where we ended up swimming (I almost drowned a kid, full story needs to be told in person. Needless to say, it was not my finest moment haha), playing futbol, (which quickly turned into mud futbol as it rained for a solid hour and a half. This was definitely one of the funnest experiences I’ve had since arriving here. Oh and I scored 3 goals!! NBD), and just had a ton of time to hang out and play together with the young adults. I had the chance to spend a lot of time with a 20 year old named erwin. Erwin grew up in the church, “accepted” christ when he was young, and continued in casual christianity up until 4 weeks ago. He said for the first time he actually had a passion for God and a desire to know more of this God he had heard so much about for the past 20 years. He told he that Christ has transformed his entire life in the past 4 weeks as he has truly began to realize what it really means to follow christ. Once again, I am beyond thankful for the relationships God has formulated between myself and the young adult group. One aspect about the young adults i have noticed is they definitely have a lack of leadership, which I am searching out as many opportunities as God provides to help guide the potential leaders of the group with biblical wisdom. I often find myself frustrated in these moments because of the inconsistencies they exude and then I realize that they, like myself, are a work in process. I am praying for grace to lead in my every conversation with each leader.

2. Yesterday I had the opportunity to travel about 30 minutes into the jungle to spend the day and night with the yagua tribe. The group I came to Iquitos with last year got to spend a few days with the Yaguas. One day for a church service the other was for a wedding. It was the first time anyone in their tribe had ever gotten married. It was such a cool experience watching a people desire to honor God more with their lives in obedience of His word. As they desired to meet God on His terms and not on their own. All that to say, it was incredible to see some old friends. The time with the Yaguas was filled with a lot of playing and goofing around with kids, long conversations with Ricardo, (the tribe leader/pastor who got married last year), getting attacked by a bat while in the bano, preaching last night on the cost of discipleship and the great reward we have in God, and a 5 am devotional. I am excited about the contiuation of the relationship with this tribe. I was blessed to be apart of what God is doing in and through the believers amidst this group of people.

3. I have the opportunity to preach this next sunday during all 3 services at church. I am so excited about this opportunity but i am also incredibly scared of this opportunity. I trust God will show up and that His spirit will move. I am praying for His word to be stewarded well and that his word would be the foundation upon which every word that flows from my mouth. As I observe and ask people in the church I can’t help but get the feeling that some of the people have come to God on their own terms and are committed to a somewhat shallow gospel. Not most of the people, but some. And in this past week, i continue to find myself immeresed in romans 3. What God has exposed to me through romans 3 is not a shallow gospel at all. It is not just a gospel that reveals  that God loves us and has a wonderful plan for our life. It reveals that and so much more. It presents a God centered gospel that revolves around the glory of God displaying His righteousness through doing what no person ever could. The glorious impossible. In Romans 3 we see Gods grace towards humanity and justice towards sin collide on the cross and in his righteousness he justifies all who place their faith in Christ for the glory of His name. I pray we would progress in our faith as we begin again with the gospel. That we would be satisfied and sustained by the Gospel. That this community would fall more in love with the Gospel on a daily basis. Please pray along with me as God prepares me for this hefty task.

There are a number of other events that took place this week that have left me in awe of Gods goodness but at this moment in time, they are escaping me. Much love brothers and sisters. Know that I am thankful for each and every single one of you. For your prayers, letters of encouragement, and your desire to know how everything is going here. I look forward to sharing with you news about the rest of the week. Also, please pray for the second part of this journey as I head to Lima next monday to begin my travel time with Mario. Pray that God would multiply my rest and my Spanish vocabulary and more excuses as to why i don’t want a Peruvian esposa to combat all the flack I’m getting from the pastor here.

In Christ,
Bubba

we have not been left as orphans. peru #4.

when i flip back through my journals from this past week, i can say with full confidence it has been the toughest, but yet most rewarding week thus far. i will do my best at keeping this one short, but i cannot make any promises as of yet.

so this being my third week into this adventure, i definitely feel like i have grown more accustomed to the culture here in iquitos. things such as… riding on the back of a motocyle while going 80 kmh during pouring down rain, peoples attempts at ripping me off simply because i am a gringo, the fact that everyone here in iquitos laughs when i introduce myself (i just found out that bubba in spanish means spit…real cool.), and continuous conversations with some of the most compassionate and loving people on the face of the planet. it is going to be very hard to tell you just a few of the amazing experiences i had this past week. but, here it goes…

last thursday, i found myself at pretty much the lowest and highest points of my trip. i did not have much to do in the morning and so i spent most of it reading and doing some prep work for preaching on saturday. up until this point in my trip, i had spent a lot of my days wondering if i was doing enough or even if the Lord had been doing anything through me. i was entertaining lies. the enemy had continued to create thoughts and lies of insecurity in my mind. everyday i had been directing my mind and heart to scripture to ground my self in truth and had desperately been seeking the Holy Spirit for comfort. thursday morning, these thoughts continued to surface and i had had enough. i sat down and journaled out all of the lies that the enemy had been propelling my thoughts to and i affirmed the actual truth with scripture and the experiences God had given me thus far. can i just say it was the most free i had felt since i arrived in peru. i was reminded of a quote that a pastor at my church said one sunday, he said, (i wish during my engagement experience with my wife, i would have spent more time just enjoying the process, rather than just worrying the whole time if i was doing everything right.) no, do not worry, i am not engaged. but in a sense, this quote directly spoke to me simply because i had been worrying so much if i was actually doing enough, rather than just simply enjoying the process of transformation God was doing in my heart and in those around me. after asking the Lord to reveal how that truth could be applicably be lived out it was one of the most humbling yet, comforting truths i have learned since being here. it was then that i really began to understand that this trip is not about me. it was then that i began to really come to grips with the concpet that life truly is not about me, but the glory of God. and i was then reminded of romans 12 where paul writes, (let love be geniune. abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good. love one another with brotherly affection. outdo one another in showing honor. do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer). it was one of those aha moments. where something you know in your head, becomes a reality in your heart. my role in coming here was simply to serve this community for the sake of the Gospel. and i have been doing that day in and day out. and i realized it was also okay for me to look at my experience and rejoice in what God was doing in my heart! i know that sounds silly, but it was such a freeing realization. i realized with my heart that it is true, like what john piper has said, (God truly is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him.)

i want to encourage you in this moment, to sit back and do the same in your own life. i pray that you would not let your life be defined by what you are doing and the hustle and bustle you fill your days with, but by the relationship you have with the Lord. that is our purpose and everything else around us that we engage with flows from that. and i pray that you would enjoy the status of a son or daughter of God, and not come to him like a hired servant.

after experiencing this realization, i wish i could say that everyday has been perfect since, but that would be a lie. i am glad they have not been perfect actually, because i am finding out truly what it means that Gods strength is made perfect in my weakness just as paul says in 2 corinthians. i tell you that after having this experience, my heart has been at peace because of the truth God has overwhelmed me with. He continues to provide strength that i do not have in and of myself. i have had some of the most rich and worship filled moments in the word over the past 5 days.

other moments that have moved me to worship.

1. on thursday afternoon i got to sit down with the leadership of the young adult group at the church and begin a study on discipleship. my translator failed in showing up for the study, however, it was amazing to see how God is truly able to speak through language barriers as i sat there and told them where to turn in their bibles and made what ever comments i conjur up in spanish and when they did not understand my words, i began to act it out. (you are all going to want me on your charades team when i get back, because i must say, i have gotten pretty freaking good at it). it was amazing to see this group of young leaders really begin to grasp the concept of biblical discipleship. please pray for them as they continue to grow in maturity and that their hearts would truly recognize the greatest need this world is discipleship.

2. i had the opportunity to preach saturday night to the young people and sunday morning at a sister church close to the one i am working at. the sister church is one that i went to visit last year along with my group and it was a great experience to see some familiar faces. sunday morning i quickly attached myself to raul, a man in his late 60s with a smile that could possibly make anyone in a room fill up with joy. he said he remembered the group from tennesse from last year and that it was good to see me again. i told him i was there by myself this time, and he quickly told me i was not. i was perplexed for a moment and he reminded me, Jesus es siempre con tu (Jesus is always with you). i already knew it was going to be a good morning, but this took it to a new level. i sat back and assured him how comforting it is to know that we have not been left as orphans, but that Christ through his spirit is always with us. raul proceeded in leading worship to myself and about 25 others in this church with about half of a roof covering us. i attempted to try and help raul keep tempo by clapping along with him, but i could do no good as he jumped around with joy, contiunosly changing tempos and singing, or attempting to at least, as maybe 50% or so of the notes were somewhat correct. i must say, it was one of the coolest worship experiences i have ever had. i  then got up to preach, knowing that the Spirit was there, and that it was all in the Lords hands. the Lord had laid the passage of the prodigal son on my heart continuously since i got here. being that this community is heavily influence by catholicism and works bases salvation. a lot of christians in the community still struggle with this having to work for the lords blessing mindset. however, it was incredible to point them to the truth that we have been adopted into Gods family and that we have been justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in christ alone. that we have the status of sons, but the mindsets of hired servants. God did some cool things in that service as i could defintely feel the weight being lifted off some of the peoples shoulders. what a cool opportunity. so stoked about that time. as soon as i finished that service i hopped on the back of my friend joses motobike and we took off for the church i normally work at, where i play guitar on sundays. i was stoked to get to the other church simply because this morning we were having baptisms! 13 young people got baptized. freaking awesome. one of which was my friend gret, who i told you about in my prior email. it has been amazing watching how the Lord has grown our friendship over the past couple of weeks.

3. yesterday, i went to the (beach) here with the pastor, his wife, roberto, his wife, some of their friends and then my friends gret and keyser. it was an incredible chance to just play and have fun with my peruvian family. and let me say, they have literally become family. i have already started calling them mama and papa. as i sat by the water conversing with roberto about his story and how he keeps up with so much work (he pastors a church, works a full time job, and is working at the church i am working at most days of the week). i am learning a lot about biblical manhood as i oberseve Christ likeness displayed in this mans every action. while sitting there, a man selling popsciles hands me one, and says that your friend has paid for it. i look back and see nancy waving at me with a giant smile on her face. the popscicles here are literally one of my favorite things in the world and the pastors wife, nancy, had paid for one and sent the man over to me to give to me. this simple act of kindness and caretaking can somewhat sum up my experience thus far. i was almost drawn to tears and i just sat there and thanked the Lord for the amazing family he had provided me with during this experience. roberto, his wife sonja, the pastor esteban and his wife nancy have taken such good care of me. i have seen Christ exemplified in their lives on a consistent basis and my attempts to describe my interactions would not be sufficiently adequate with words. we have laughed a ton, shared our stories, and i have learned a lot from these people.

these are just a few of the experiences in the past week that have transformed my heart. i am so thankful for this opportunity to be here and am full of confidence that the Lord is at work in and through me. i am thankful for the points of brokeness because they have made me trust in the Lord only that much more. I know that i will not see the fruit of me being here for 2 months in the lives of the people here, but i know God is producing fruit in my own life as he teaches me about patience, dependence, trust, and humilty. praise Him for the relationships he has formulated and been at work at in only way He could do. i am eager and excited about trusting Him and seeing Him move throughout the rest of this journey. also, i had no idea i would be preaching a lot while being here, but starting on saturday the 7th, my schedule looks like this…saturday night preaching to the young adult group at teh church, sunday morning preaching to another sister church in iquitos, monday i leave to go spend 2 days with the yagua tribe which is about an hour boat ride into the jungle where i will be preaching once (the yaguas are the tribe we got to work with last year, so i am real excited about this opportunity), i preach wednesday night at the church i work at, then saturday to the young adults again, and then sunday the 15th i preach at all 3 services at the church i am working at. so it is definitely a lot. i am excited about depending upon the Spirit and stewarding the word of God. please pray for strength, clarity in my messages, and that God would be glorified through the teaching of his word. then on the 16th i leave for lima to meet up with mario to begin my 2 week travel period with him where i will be assisting him and learning from him as we visit multiple churches in south peru. mario is the president of the christian missionary alliance in peru, so it is such a cool opportunity to serve the Lord through serving him and learning a lot about his life and the CMA as a whole.

i am surprised if you are still with me. regardless, thanks for your prayers, encouragement, and your journey with me! i love you all. also, please keep my health in prayer as i have come down with a cold today. thanks again for everything friends and family.

in christ and for his glory,
bubba