Wow...haven't updated this blog for a while. Facebook and email just seem to be more practical and accesible means for posting updates.

Anyway...back in California for now, due to health reasons. It's been three long months since I've been here. My stay so far has had its negative and positive aspects.

Downsides: no job, car, cell phone, or way to pay for the treatment I need at the moment. Not to mention chronic pain and missing my brothers and sisters in Christ in Lima.

Upsides: getting to help around the house by cooking and cleaning, taking care of my little brother and helping him much (especially spiritually), learning to trust in the Lord in very difficult circumstances.

I don't know how long I'll be here for. My desire is to get back to Peru ASAP. But I must resign myself to the will of God.

Soli Deo Gloria.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith--more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:6-7

MUST WATCH!

Weeping for Souls

Paul Washer's heart breaks for those who have been deceived by a false, superficial "gospel". When will we stop looking at people as numbers? When will we realize that they are precious souls? When will we stop playing games with the eternal salvation of millions?

Heartcry Evangelism Conference, Jan '09

The conference was awesome! It was held last week from Thursday to Saturday at the Baptist Church of the Savior in Barranco. Preachers from different parts of the world (Dominican Republic, USA, Argentina, Peru, and Cuba) attended and expounded on themes relating to the biblical Gospel--what it is, how we should preach it, the problem with modern evangelism methods, etc. And of course, brother Paul Washer was there. Most of what they taught I had already learned, but there were specific things that the Lord pointed out to me and convicted me of. Through the preachers He reminded me of some things that I always need to keep in mind. Namely:

-That we need to examine ourselves and make sure that our MOTIVES for preaching the Gospel are correct. We should not preach out of contention or vainglory (to promote ourselves) but out of a sincere desire for the glory of God and to see precious souls saved. The love of Christ should compells us (2 Cor.5:14). We should desire that through the Spirit, Christ's love might be demonstrated through us, helping us love the very people we're preaching to.

-The importance of the doctrine of Regeneration. Salvation is NOT a person's decision to follow Christ, it is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in a person's life. We can't expect a dead person to resurrect himself. A miracle would need to take place in order for a deceased man to receive life again. And so it is with salvation, for those without Christ are dead in their sins. Thus we need to be VERY, VERY careful when we handle precious souls, we don't want to give anyone false assurance that they are saved when they are not. Just because someone makes a profession of faith in Christ, even with tears, doesn't necessarily mean they are really saved. We are not to be superficial in our evangelism, calling sinners to come forward to an altar and "make a decision" or repeat an unbiblical "sinner's prayer," and then send them on down to their homes assuring them that if they were sincere God saved them. We don't have the authority to tell people they are saved, we only have the authority to tell people how to be saved. God tells them they are saved (Rom.8:16). And salvation won't just take "a few minutes"--it will take your life! If a person who is genuinely concerned for the state of their soul comes to us for counsel, we are to stay with them the whole day, if need be, explaining to them the way of salvation and, if prompted by the Holy Spirit, abide with them until they come to a true and real experience of regeneration. The salvation of one single soul is more important than whatever plans we may have. And if a person has really been saved, no one will have to tell them what just happened, i.e., "Congratulations, you have just been born again!"--no, they will KNOW that a change has taken place. You can't go from darkness to light, death to life, bondage to freedom, defeat to victory, and not know it.

...Ok, I'm preaching now. Well anyway, those are some of the things God showed me.

Each day after the conference we would hit the streets to preach the Gospel. On Thursday and Friday we went to Kennedy Park and on Saturday we went to a park in Barranco. We did a lot of open air preaching and one-to-one witnessing.

People from all over Latin America and Peru (including pastors) were able to attend the conference, and I could tell many were impacted. I pray they take these biblical teachings and apply them in their home churches and cities. And most of all, that their hearts BURN for the Lord, to see Him glorified and to take the glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to the lost!









Oh, and by the way, if you speak Spanish here is the website of the Baptist Church in Barranco and the Evangelism ministry they have, "En Los Pasos del Maestro":

http://www.enlospasosdelmaestro.com

Barabbas

POWERFUL VIDEO!!!

Ica Trip

Here are some pictures from our Ica outreach on January 9-10.

CLICK HERE to see them and read more...


Robin and Americo travel to Ica every Thursday to have Bible studies with local believers. I went with them that day. The next afternoon, Friday, the whole team came and we all met up at the hotel to discuss our plans for the next two days.




The folks at the home where Robin and Americo do the Bible studies offered to cook us lunch on both days. They prepared typical Ican dishes. The food was delicious.






We held the outreach in a park in downtown Ica. There were clowns, skits, puppets, and music prepared for the kids. Afterwards we would have worship songs, mimes, and preaching for the youth and adults. Here they are warming up before the show.



Many kids came on the first day.






Americo sharing his testimony and preaching the Gospel at night.



Since the oureach events we were holding began in the evenings (5-6ish), this gave us a couple hours of free time the next day in the afternoon before lunch. Most of us went out to preach the Gospel. We walked through the streets surrounding the hotel and the nearby parks, handing out tons of tracts and getting into conversations with people.

Here I am in the main square right outside the hotel. I tried to open-air preach here but the authortities immediately stopped me. They would allow me to preach only on the conditions that I not get up on my stool, not draw a crowd, not attract attention, not disturb the peace--in other words they wanted me to talk to myself. Scrapping that plan, we decided just to do one-to-one witnessing.




Evening worship at the park.




I got the opportunity to preach the Gospel.




Some of the brothers and sisters doing mimes.

Christmas Eve Evangelism

Yesterday night I walked to Parque Kennedy and joined some of my brothers and sisters from Iglesia Bautista del Salvador in their usual Wednesday night evangelism. Shortly after I arrived many of the brothers left as they wanted to spend time with their families for Christmas. I stayed behind with some others as we waited for a good opportunity to open air preach. There weren't as many people in the park, understandibly, as midnight was just a couple hours away and most people were going to their homes.

We talked as we waited around, and then walked over to the Catholic cathedral and stood directly in front of it, across the pedestrian walkway. There was a life-size nativity scene display there and some people were gathering around to see it. As several people gathered in front of it, one of the brothers stood up on his stool and started to preach. He began by reminding them of why we celebrate Christmas, explaining the nativity scene. He then talked about why Jesus came, and spoke of the issues of eternity, talking of sin, righteousness, and the judgment to come. The people around the nativity scene stood by and were attently listening. Across the street the church was having mass, and there was a good-sized crowd of people standing in the huge doorway of the cathedral, having arrived to late to find a seat. We couldn't wait for the service to be over and the people to come out.

As this brother was preaching two Catholic girls walked over to where I was and started to loudly complain and blaspheme and tell him to stop preaching. I started to witness to them, but left them alone after noticing the loudest girl was "special" and would not listen to reason. Pretty soon after a "serenazgo," or security guard, walked up to the brother and told him to tone down his voice and move somewhere else because he was disrupting the peace. He ignored him, didn't even look at him, and just continued to preach. The security guard persisted in trying to get him to shut up and leave, to no avail. He started to get frustrated and many people listening attempted to reason with the guard, telling him the brother wasn't breaking any laws, and that he should just allow him to preach. Then the "special" girl walked up to him and offered to go and call over some other "serenazgos" that were parked in a patrol car nearby. Some of them came over, and some personnel from the park in suits came over to talk to us as well. But they couldn't get us to stop preaching. These brothers get this kind of stuff almost every time they preach at this park, so they're used to it.

Well, about this time we had a pretty decent-sized crowd due to all the commotion, and even better--the mass was over and the people were beginning to come out of the cathedral. Most of them were headed straight in our direction. One elderly catholic lady started to loudly complain to the guard. A couple other people walked in front of the brother as he was preaching and started to curse and blaspheme and tell him to go away because he didn't "respect" their religion. One lady walked up to me and swore and cursed and told him not to preach. I started to talk to her. She said she agreed with what the Bible says and had repented. I told her that her mouth and actions contradicted her words and hypocrites will not enter heaven. As I was reasoning with her the Holy Spirit gave me several verses to share with her; it was amazing how I just remembered them in Spanish in detail. I shared the Gospel with her and told her that she had a mere intellectual belief but needed to give her whole heart and life to the Lord. She accepted a tract and then left.

Well...it was an interesting time spent yesterday night. Ephesians 5:16 says we need to be redeeming the time, because the days are evil. I can't think of a better way to spend Christmas Eve than proclaiming the glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and exalting His name--all for His glory.

This was the highlight of my Christmas...the rest of it was pretty much "whatever." I just spent it having dinner with my aunt and cousins. Today I have to go to my other aunt's house for lunch. I don't really care much for this holiday anymore; the more the years go by the less appealing it becomes. I celebrate the life, death, and resurrection of my Lord Jesus everyday, so this day isn't really different than any other day for me. Just another opportunity to rejoice in the Lord and glorify His great name!