Not a Weather Blog, But . . .

I don't intend for this to turn into a daily weather report, but the craziness continues and it's fun to share the madness with all of my friends from all over the world. "Springtime in the Rockies" is a musical from the 1940s, which I am quite sure I've never seen. But do you remember the song, "When it's springtime in the Rockies, I'll be coming back to you"? That's all I remember of the song, but I always think of it when the goofiness arrives in the spring here.

It's April Fool's Day and they say we're going to get 2-6 more inches, at least in the Denver area. We'll see. Maybe the joke will be on the forecasters. But yesterday was a beautiful, sunny day, albeit breezy enough that it wasn't pleasant to be out there.

I did see some sights that I want to share. The sun shining on the lake was creating sparkling diamonds on the water. If you double click the first picture, you can see some ducks on the water.





The seagulls have found an interesting place to gather - must be having a meeting. They spend a lot of time during the winter on this concrete eyesore - which I keep meaning to call the City and ask what in the world it is, in the middle of our beautiful lake.

I love how the trees frame them.

Back in my yard - the grass is so green now that the snow has melted and watered it. DC must have put fertilizer on just at the right time in the fall.

And the tulips are once again reaching for the sky.

Remember when I've written before about Peru? Our church has sent teams to Peru three times for building projects. The last two times were to Arequipa to build a district center, to be used for educating pastors and other important gatherings. Last summer, when the team came back home, it was with the resolve to complete the project by sending money to the Peruvians, who can get the work done much more economically if they have the funds and the materials.

Imagine our surprise when suddenly Arequipa, Peru became the centerpiece for a huge new project for our denomination. Much of the recruitment for the young people who are taking on the challenge of starting 120 churches in unreached cities and villages in the southern part of Peru is happening with the help of a rolling demonstration of the dream.

This truck came to our church Sunday night and we had a great time of fellowship as we took turns going through the display and hearing about what is going on down there. The young man's picture on the right is our pastor's son - the one who went to Peru as a volunteer missionary several years ago, married a Peruvian girl - they are now missionaries in Argentina and have two beautiful little girls.

If you have 3 minutes to spare, watch this video presentation of the exciting project.

For Such a Time as This

Last night at church we had a wonderful time. We had a young man who came to fill us in on a new project our denomination has begun - called Extreme Peru. There are many aspects involved, but the bottom line is that there will be new church plants in 7 major cities in Peru in the next few years.

Our denomination has been in Peru for many years - the northwest part of Peru has been growing Christians for these many years. The rest of Peru has not been infiltrated with our missions very much. That is about to change.

I was the missions president in our local church for 30 years, just retiring this past May. I was also on the district missions council, so have been deeply involved in missions most of my adult life. I at one time felt a call to be a missionary myself, and that is a long story which I may relate someday.

While I was the missions president, Work and Witness projects began to come to life - laymen and pastors would get together on a project somewhere in the world. The local church raised funds for the building project, the team members paid their own way, took vacation time, and went somewhere to minister - coming back never to be the same again.

I always wanted our church to be able to participate, but we were small and the amount of money seemed overwhelming in those years. Finally the day came when several folks from our church went with a district team. This was a way of getting our feet wet. As a matter of fact, it was a trip to Kenya, working on the college campus where Kevin eventually ended up, and where he met Sema. Then there was a trip to Venezuela. The bug had bit our church in a bit way - we would never be able to go back.

As I sat in church last night, I began "connecting the dots," and was amazed to realize all that God had put together that I can now see. A new pastor came - his son graduated with his master's degree in Spanish after spending time in Costa Rica. Trying to decide God's will for his next move, he went to Peru as a short term volunteer.

Our church went to northern Peru to build a church - DC and Kev were part of that team. Pastor's son was there to be part of the team. It wasn't long before pastor's son fell in love with a wonderful Peruvian young woman. She became a part of our church family, mostly from a distance, when they were married. Before long, they became commissioned career missionaries, and have since been sent to Argentina.

While they were still in Peru, our church took another trip down there - this time to Arequipa, way down in the south, close to the mountaintop Inca citadel of Machu Picchu.




DC went on this trip as well, and their project was the beginning of a district center building. The team members fell in love with this place and decided to go back two years later, this past summer, to continue work on the project. Nothing had been done in the interim.

The group came back from that trip determined that this building would be completed sooner rather than later, and that we were the ones who should do it, since we had so much invested already. They presented the vision and passion to our congregation, and our pledges for mission giving this year were double the norm - more than half to go to Arequipa. The money was to go down there to buy supplies and pay locals to do the work - they can do it much more economically.

Enter Extreme Peru. A dynamic young man was scheduled to speak at our church last night. We were anxious to hear what was happening. Little did we know that Arequipa was scheduled as one of the projects for this new aggressive, assertive project. When the young man came to speak to us, he spent time with our new missions president, who was also the person who had arranged the two previous trips to Arequipa. She was able to fill in the blanks with this wonderful young guy as to our piece of this amazing puzzle.

Rewind to last July - the sad time in our church when Dan died - he was the son of our current president. Dan had been to Arequipa on the first trip and was scheduled to go the next month - instead he went to heaven. The building, when it is completed, will be named in his honor and is scheduled to be dedicated in August. Quite a few of our folks are planning to be there.

At Dan's funeral, a young woman from our church was irrevocably changed. She shared with us last night in the service that the affect Dan's legacy had on her has led her to a purpose in her life. She will be one of the young folks heading to Peru with Extreme Peru.

Do you see what I see? The hand of God has been on this entire project. There were times as missions president that I wondered why we kept concentrating on Peru. Why couldn't we go somewhere else where there were big needs? I see it all clearly now - God had a definite plan, and His will is being accomplished - in such an amazing way. If you're interested in more specifics, check it out here.