God Opens Doors

Serving in Peru

Welcome to God Opens Doors to the Nations.  Our family is serving in Peru, South America.  We would love to hear from you and our prayer is you would pray about becoming involved with us.   You can read ways to be involved in the side-bar on the left.  As you read about our daily journey, our prayer is that you are on mission right where you are.  To quote the heart of Wewillgo Ministries, "You can be on mission in your own backyard."  

We've Moved

Although this site will be up for several more months, you can check out our new blog and website at the following link:

Click on the link below.

Website & Blog Link

Quick Update...

Well, I can't believe it has almost been a month since my last post.  I will try to summarize what has been going on here in Peru!  I am in a hurry so if I have a spelling error - forgive me!!!!

• Garrett had a stomach/fever virus for over a week and lost almost 10 pounds.
• I had a touch of the same thing and I am still fighting a sinus attack that started three weeks ago!
• We have been working on getting this mission base set up.  We are finally at a place to receive visitors.  The house we are living in is in good shape, but it needed a lot of little things, like electrical plugs that didn't shoot out sparks and breakers which didn't trip if more than a couple of things were on at the same time!  We now have window coverings also which has been an ordeal.  
• Randy is still preaching on Tuesday evenings and he is really enjoying it.  I look at him and am still amazed at the Lord's working in his life.  Jesus just overwhelms me.  I sure haven't deserved such a sweet man - he's not perfect :) - but never am I!!
• We are prayer walking in the area we want to plant a children's home.  There are many needs there!
• As of Friday, all the papers we needed for the Lima Church (who will be our spiritual covering in Peru) were received and now they will go before a special board in Peru to be recognized nationally as a 'government' approved Church.  We need them to have this before we can proceed with our religious Visa.  Please pray for the Lord's moving in this - July 14 & 15 is the date the meetings are set.
• David and Amy Lancaster are traveling from the U.S. to Tacna with Ms. Kaye Fisher July 10th.  They will be here with us through July 17.  We will be praying together about what we sense the Lord doing.  Please pray for them as they prepare to leave and their travel.
• The jail meetings are going well..however..we have some opposition against the services and some of the ladies are being persecuted for their faith - as well as accusations made against us and the national missionaries.  I will not share the specifics behind this opposition on the blog. We ask for you to pray for Jesus to be glorified and that HE remove the opposition!
• I am leaving tonight at 9:45 p.m. with Yolanda to travel to Arequipa, Peru. We are supposed to arrive there at 7:30 a.m. in the morning.  There have been robberies of passengers and bus wrecks lately.  Please pray for our protection and opportunities to share as we travel.  We are going to meet with a children's home there which was planted by American missionaries about twelve years ago.  I am very excited to be able to go!  The boys have homeschool and Randy has to preach so they are staying here -  please keep them in your prayers as well as they fly solo!  We are supposed to return Tuesday evening to arrive on Wednesday.

I am sure there is more I haven't mentioned!  It has been a hard road getting adjusted here.  We have learned nothing is easy and the enemy doesn't rest.  Why would he?  And why should we?  Eight people were killed on Friday between our city, Tacna, and another city called Moquegua which is about three hours away.  The bus driver was driving fast, hit a guard rail, and the rest is history.  One of the dead was a Police official just 42 years old.  Our desire is to be salt and light in this dark place.  We pray your light shines brightly where you are also!

Her name is...

A few weeks ago, we saw another baby abandoned in the newspaper. Today, Yolanda and I visited the city orphanage. Among the sweet ones we met, I was able to hold the baby I read about in the paper. When An abandoned baby arrives, the baby is taken to a doctor who determines their approximate age and they are given a first name. The police will investigate to see if they can find the mother or if a family member comes forward. The process usually takes about a year. I couldn't believe my ears when they told me baby girl was named Kimberly! Kimberly is not a normal name here. She was so precious. All I could think about was how much Jesus loves her. Oh that Kimberly will know one day Jesus will never abandon her.

Hermana will you take my kids?

I haven't been able to return to the jail this week with all the drama with the move and my back.  I am much better, praise the Lord.  Although on our bus ride to buy toilet lids today, (another convenience item which is not a necessity here), we passed over a bump in the road and Randy says, "Brace yourself." For some reason he was like 2 seconds too late, and the cramp which hit my lower back scared me as I felt I had just gone backwards a few days.  Praise Jesus again, it was just a small set back.

Last week was a hard week at the jail.  One of the ladies there, S., has four children.  She has a set of twins age 14, a boy and a girl, and two younger children, ages 9 and 5.  The girl twin is here in the city living with a lady who can't afford to send her to school and instead she is helping her work.  The twin boy is living in a town 2 hours from here with a neighbor.  He is able to attend school and working afterwards for the family.  The younger children have been with their dad in the same city.  As we were leaving the jail, we saw S. meeting with her father.  He had just delivered the news that her husband had been detained by the police and the younger children were with a neighbor, but they couldn't stay there.  S.'s dad and stepmother and sister who live here in town do not want to keep the children either.  S. looked at me and said, "Hermana Kim, will you take my kids?"  I can't even identify with the pain she feels being separated from her children.  As I choked for an answer, Yolanda was very sweet to explain we are working on this, but right now legally, we can't take them in.  Please pray for S. and her children.  Pray S. will continue to seek Jesus and the Lord will place her children in a safe place while they wait on their mom. 

We are moved - again.

In Latin America, when one moves, you schedule a day to return the home to the owner.  A terminating contract is signed and you are then free and clear.  We found out last Friday that the owner of the house we were in needed to leave Peru for two months and would not be available this week to terminate the contract.  So, Friday at 6:00 p.m. we began getting the house together to move.  I had just returned from locating a moving truck.  The man wanted to know if we could be ready by 5:00 a.m.!  (They get started early in the morning here.)  I said 9:00 a.m. would be better for us.  We finished most of our work by Friday evening at 12:30 a.m.  We were up and going again by 5:00 a.m. and we were moved out with a clean house by 2:30 p.m. on Saturday.  It is wonderful to have a teens who can help out with the work load!  Tyler and Garrett were impressed with how short a time it took us to leave.

The new house has been a blessing.  We have had people in all week doing minor changes - like changing out 10 year old electricty plugs which were sparking fire, putting shower rods in the bathrooms - they usually just let the water run out on the floor, and trying to de-activate the electrical shock we have been feeling with our widow maker.  (The widow maker you can find out about here .)   In the midst of all the unpacking, I have been down in my back - the first time in about 7+ years! 

We now have internet so we will be able to keep things updated a little better.  Thank you for all your prayers.  I have another update on the jail ministry I will post soon. 

Market & Veggies

I left the house today at 6:45 a.m.  As I ventured out to a local market, the scene was very different from what we were used to in Chile.  In Chile, it was hard to find any place open before 10:00 a.m.  In Arica, the streets were densely populated early mornings except for school children.  Here in Tacna, the streets are full of people beginning around 4:30 a.m.!  Now, I haven’t left the house that early, but the people we know who have businesses leave for work at that hour.  Yolanda, the missionary here, has been telling us about a food market we needed to go to.  We actually went there one day, however, it was around 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon and Yolanda advised us to go early in the morning, thus my leaving the house this morning.  (She is very sweet to help us find the places that are the cheapest to buy our food.) 

Other than pastries or bread, it is difficult to find pre-cooked food – well just about impossible.  It is scratch or nothing so I have to be on top of the grocery list because everything has to be prepared!!  From my homemade tomato sauce to baking from scratch, I have to be organized in order not to spend all my time in the kitchen.  As our date for moving gets closer and the mission base is established, time becomes more precious as we have several opportunities in an area close to the base where we will be working.  This is a picture of what I bought today:

 The cost of this mess of veggies is really unbelievable.  While some things are expensive here, veggies are not! 

This is what I paid: spinach, 71¢, eggplant 51¢, tomatoes $2.13 – 6 pounds worth, green beans 88¢ - 2 pounds worth, parsley 17¢, mandarins 71¢ (forgive the misspelling in the picture!), carrots 53¢ - 2 pounds worth, I already used some of the before the picture.  A bargain just about anywhere!  OH, and I forgot to include the potatoes in the picture – 8 pounds of those were only $1.42.

I can remember the sound of my mother’s pressure cooker growing up.  It is a familiar sound around here too.  All those years of watching my grandmothers and mother, peel and snap beans are paying off.  The Lord intricately prepares our lives in such a way that He doesn’t let one detail in our lives go unused.  Although I didn’t like snapping and shelling beans, and even if I most likely tried to get out of doing the work, I learned some very valuable things, which I use to now serve my family and others. 

 

Jail

We had a great visit on Thursday.  I met E.  She is a lady who is about 50 years old.  We talked a lot as she seems very lonely.  E. is in jail for 15 years.  Some years ago, she was suicidal and murdered her daughters of 4 and 8 years old.  E. is very broken and I ask that you pray for her.  People are not very forgiving of a crime like this especially involving children.  She believes she is forgiven, but the ladies around her aren´t so forgiving.

I also met C.  She is very young, only 18 years old.  It was the first time she has visited the jail Bible study.  C. has one daughter with her, who is almost two years old and one in the womb...she is seven months pregnant!  C. is shy ... pray with us believing Jesus for her salvation.

Randy is preaching tonight..please remember him in your prayers and Tyler will be coordinating the music.