The following is a post by Dianne Miller.

By the time you read this, we will be home. It has been a very full 12 days! We have heard the stories of many while we have been here. The one commonality – the one thing that ties all the stories together, has been the message of the gospel. We came to encourage – to walk alongside those who are already doing the work of building God’s kingdom here in Lima and Santa Rosa. While here, we have been encouraged, and also challenged.  What a blessing to connect with another piece of the body of Christ! As our intent was to serve, we were also served. As our intent was to pray for, we were lifted up. In our effort to learn more about all that God is doing, we were challenged to ask, “What are our next steps?” “What does God want us to do with the stories we have heard?” “How have I been impacted by the people we have met and talked with and laughed with and cried with?” “What now?”

We want to thank our churches, family, and friends for the opportunity to come to Lima. To be the hands and feet of Christ has been a great privilege and honor. We have had times of weakness and times of strength; times of joy and times of sadness; times of weariness and times of the kind of strength and energy that only God can provide; times of worship and prayer; times of digging deep into God’s word, and asking hard questions of ourselves.  Please continue praying that our hearts are tender toward God’s molding and shaping us for His use. Please continue to pray for our friends here at Palabra Hecha Hombre (WMF), our friends that are struggling in the street, our translator friends, and amigos in Santa Rosa. Pray that the gospel continues to be shared in their lives AND ours at every opportunity. Pray as we seek God’s direction in determining “What’s next?”

Team 2 is in Peru!

Hey all! This is Diana - just wanted to share some pictures and stories with you guys about our trip so far! I want to say first and foremost thank you for all the prayers that have come our way. Our team is all healthy and people are being reached! So please continue to lift this team, family, and people up in prayer as we continue on the second leg of our trip this week.

Ok so these are a different combination of pictures I've taken from my iPhone and my real camera so if some of the images aren't super-great quality...here's my formal apology ;)

So let's start with Thursday! We started out by going out to the Word Made Flesh Center (Palabra Hecho Hombre) to do our devotion and hear the history of the program. After that, we went to the soccer field to play soccer with kids in the program and some of these little kids came to! They all flocked to Haley.

This is the soccer field.  Renaldo, Joe, Geoff and I (Diana) took a bit of a beating trying to keep up with these teenagers but we did our best! Lots of laughs had by both teams...whether it was with us or because of us...well that's still questionable. There was a lot to be laughed about! :)

It's kind of amazing how these guys are so good. They are so young! But don't be deceived. They. Are. Pros. 

Pablo (Right) is a friend of one of the workers at WMF and he came with us to the soccer field. He gave his testimony (very powerful) to the teens. José (left) asked Pablo and Geoff to pray - he accepted Christ as his Lord and Saviour!! Glory be to God. 

Ok so Thursday was awesome. We came back, talked about the day, and called it a night. Friday morning! Friday Diana (haha..funny to narrate myself in third person) led us in a devotion on "The Greatness of Our God" just as a reminder of who we serve and how while things may not go "according to plan" this weekend, they really are going according to plan - God's plan. After the devotion we headed out to Santa Rosa (pictured above). If I were to spin around you would basically see this in every direction (however photos take a long time to upload so...just put like 8 of those pictures together and you have it.) Definitely different from Lima. Once we got our stuff in our rooms we headed out in 2 teams with our translators to invite the community to an event, a bonfire at the church! We brought s'mores! One group also made a visit to pray for a family. 

We loved the children. This girl wanted to come with us while we walked around inviting other kids so haley happily threw her on her back and walked around :)

Ok so here's the story. In Santa Rosa, we're right by the ocean - so it was like...50 something degrees out AND like 98% humidity. So we're like...literally walking through a mist of water. So all of our wood was wet - we couldn't use it for a bonfire. SO. Here we are with enough s'mores to feed like, 100 people but we can't make them! So we brainstormed...and decided to have like a hang out thing in the church, and then at the end, we brought in a little stove and made the s'mores over that. None of these kids had tried s'mores before! The excitement and joy was contagious. Joe gave a message and included a little bit of his testimony and Erik (one of our translators, left) translated for him. All in all the night = successful.

Bryan and Nehemiah enjoying their first s'more ;)

precious children. and Diane ;)

playing sharks and minos with the kids!

Little Andy passed out on Joe for a good 2 hours. :)

 Diane and Haley tag teamed the lesson for the Kids Program from 3-5. We talked about the power of the cross and did a very cool craft!

Sunday was Joe AND Geoff's birthday!! So we had a cake after Renaldo gave his message about sharing the gospel...which was awesome. 

Diana (myself) and Tito led worship with Joe playing the box drum Sunday morning and multiple times throughout the weekend. It was so cool to sing songs with the congregation, songs that they sang in Spanish that some of us knew the english. Way cool.

Our team picture from Santa Rosa. :)

Thanks so much for all your prayers and support! We will post again before we leave! (even if it's me...hahah) Seriously though we all can't wait to tell of the things God has done and will do! Love you all!!

- Diana and the Team.