My Time in Peru

My wife and I were blessed with the opportunity and tickets to go to Peru with our pastor (Prior to our approval to go on our internship to Argentina) to see the work that He began there many years ago and is still going today. While there, we were able to attend the annual Pastors’ Conference held each year at the Bible college he started. There were about 40 Peruvian and other South American pastors along with about 20 Peruvian missionaries who are missionaries all over South America, as well as about 10 American missionaries that are a part of Vision Baptist Missions. The pastors had about 500 in attendance. It was so awesome to be in the services and hear the word of God preached. I had many awesome experiences, from getting to eat alpaca, giving my testimony, going to a youth meeting, and just getting to spend time with missionaries on the team hearing about their ministries and learning so much from them. For me, there were two events that really made an impact on my life. The first was on Saturday the 7^th when we went to a Catholic monastery where we got to see what they truly believe. Let me tell you it was very hard learning about that. In one room we were told about a woman who walked from Bolivia to Arequipa, Peru just so that the nuns in the monastery would feel sorry for her and let her in as well as through this journey she would earn favor with God. In another room, we were shown a short whip with many sharp ends on it so that it would rip the flesh off the back of the person using it while they walked to mass as well as underwear that had spikes on it which would tear flesh. All this was supposed to help them get closer to God and heaven. But we know that the only way to get close to God and Heaven is through the Son of God Jesus Christ. The second event was on Tuesday the 10^th when I went my pastor Austin Gardner and missionary Shawn Bateman for a drive up the mountain to where people are still claiming land and building shacks to say that it is their land. We also just drove around the city looking for areas to plant churches and found many areas where there were 30,000 or 40,000 people and no church. What a shame. That is why I am going to Argentina for six months so that I can get better prepared to go and plant churches where there are none. This world is in need of the Gospel, and my wife and I want to be ready to help get the Gospel out. Please pray for us that we can get the needed support for our training in Argentina.