I Walk The Line

Peruvians love to cut in line.

In Boston, Massachusetts, where I grew up, this was a crime punishable by death.

If we are in line at the bank, or the post office, or the supermarket, here in Lima, it is nothing at all to have various persons walk right by us and try to transact their business as if we were never there. Barely anyone else in line even bothers to protest, as if line-cutting was just something you have to put up with in Lima on a daily basis. If we were in New York City, though, the line would quickly turn into an unruly mob if somebody tried to cut in. The line-cutter would never stand a chance.

The other thing that people like to do in Lima, when they're not cutting in line, is to demand to be attended by the same person who is attending us - at the same time! For instance, if we're in line at the supermarket checkout counter, it's common for someone to rush up w/ an item or two, plunk down some money, & demand to be attended, even as we are standing there. They don't want to wait for us to finish. Or, if we're at the bank, someone will ask the bank teller to make change or to get deposit or withdrawal forms - while the teller is already serving us! This happens on a daily basis. It drives foreigners crazy. Peruvians just shrug their shoulders.

I remember the frontier-style justice that existed in Boston anytime anyone tried to cut a line. I fear for any Peruvians who live there & try it. They are taking their lives in their hands!

Hungry Like The Wolf

Do you want to know one of the signs that you are growing & having more impact in your international ministry?

When more & more wolves start to circle all around you.

God has blessed us here @ FRC-Lima w/ great growth & impact since we began the church w/ 3 people in our living room a few years ago. As the church has grown, & moved into a cinema, & had a greater & greater impact in Lima and throughout Peru, there also have been more criticism, more attacks, & more hungry wolves lurking both inside & outside the church.

In 1 Kings 3:9, Solomon prayed for "a discerning heart ... & to distinguish between right & wrong."

In Matthew 10:16, Jesus told His disciples, "I am sending you out like like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes & as innocent as doves."

If there are wolves snarling all around you, then in a way it's a good sign. It's like what I posted recently about "good attacks" - when the enemy has taken notice of the big things that you are doing, or about to do, for God & His kingdom. In the same way, wolves lurking at your door are another example of the enemy taking notice of the big things you are doing for God, and the enemy is trying his hardest to topple you & your ministry. We've seen a lot of this recently in Lima.

It is vital that you pray for a discerning heart, just as Solomon did. It is vital that you ask God to help you distinguish between right & wrong, & between sheep & wolves. As God for this discernment, & He will give it to you. Without it, you'll be allowing the wolves to devour your sheep.

It still can be odd to think of attacks & wolves as good signs for your ministry, but they are. It means that you are doing, or are on the verge of doing, big things for God, & the enemy can't stand it! Pray for wisdom, discernment, & the ability to distinguish right from wrong & sheep from wolves, & God will give you the victory.

867-5309 Lima

Peruvians have a unique telephone culture.

If someone is trying to reach me by phone, whether they're calling the church office or my cellphone, & if I do not pick up, then they'll just keep calling & calling the number, again & again, perhaps 10 times in a row, or 20 times over the course of an hour.

And we do have voice mail on all office phones & cell phones! The Peruvian preference, however, in the majority of cases, seems to be to just keep calling & calling, instead of leaving a message, even if I ask them to do so.

In the USA, I'd call someone once. If they didn't pick up, I'd leave a message. I'd only keep calling repeatedly if it was an emergency.

Here in Peru, it's different.

If you're going to be doing international ministry in Peru, be prepared for a constantly ringing phone, & it may be the same person calling you 10 or 20 times!

Good Attacks

God has seen fit to cover us w/ His hand of blessing & favor here @ FRC-Lima. We have experienced growth & impact here in Lima a/w/a throughout Peru. It is indeed exciting to be a part of what God is doing here in Peru & in South America.

At the same time, the enemy has taken notice, too.

Recent days & weeks have been filled w/ a variety of attacks against us as pastors, against our Lima leaders, & against the church.

This is a good thing.

If you're not doing anything for the Lord, if you're just living a fat, happy, & comfortable life - even w/i the realm of a "ministry" - then the enemy is going to leave you alone. Why should he bother w/ you? If you're not doing anything worthwhile for God, then the enemy is just going to continue to let you go your own way. He'll leave you alone.

But if you're doing - or trying to do - big things for God, & you are way out of your comfort zone, & your faith is being stretched beyond what you thought was possible, & you are leading people to the nail-punctured feet of Jesus Christ, then the enemy is going to stand up & take notice of you & what you're doing.

And he's going to start to attack you.

He'll attack you, he'll attack your church, he'll attack your ministry.

You'll be ducking arrows poisoned with jealousy, envy, pride, arrogance, corruption, & rebellion. The wolves will be snarling all around you, baring their sharp fangs.

It won't be easy. There will be seasons of ferocity.

But be happy.

Because it all means that you're doing something, or are about to do something, very big for God.

And He's got your back. God's got you covered.

In Philippians 4:11, Paul talks about being content whatever the circumstances. Paul wrote those words as he languished in a Roman prison. His whole post-conversion life was filled w/ one attack after another. You may be in the same boat as Paul today, facing a seemingly never-ending barrage of barbs & arrows.

Rejoice, b/c it means that you're doing big things for God, & the enemy can't stand it!

Gloria Estefan

Last night Gloria Estefan performed live in concert in Lima, Peru, & we were blessed to be able to go to the show & to meet Gloria backstage afterward.

This all resulted because Gloria's personal assistant, Rosa Rodriguez-Peralta, attends FRC in South Florida, & we were put in contact w/ her to share w/ her more about our church & our girls' orphanage support here in Lima. She passed the information along to Gloria, who generously donated 20 Super VIP tickets to us so that we could take the girls from the orphanage to Gloria's concert. The girls had a ball at the concert, singing & dancing all night long. Afterward we all went backstage & met Gloria. She was extremely generous w/ her time, hugging & kissing & talking w/ all of the girls, & posing for video & photos w/ all of us.

God blesses all of us in international ministry in many different ways, & last night's Gloria Estefan concert in Lima, Peru, was a great blessing to us & to a lot of little girls who had the time of their young lives. We are extremely grateful to Rosa Rodriguez-Peralta & to Gloria Estefan for their great generosity & their enormous hearts!

Dual Citizenship

I am an American citizen, but since I live here in Lima, Peru, I also have a Residential Visa from the Republic of Peru. I've had the visa for about 5 years now.

I am coming up to the time when I may apply for Peruvian citizenship. As a Peruvian citizen, I would be eligible to receive a DNI (Peruvian National Identity) card & a Peruvian passport. I also would be obligated to vote in all local, municipal, & national Peruvian elections, no matter where I might be in the world, under the penalty of a fine if I do not vote. I also am investigating the other benefits and responsibilities of having dual citizenship w/ the USA & w/ Peru.

I am interested in hearing from any of you out there who read this blog & who have dual citizenship. It doesn't matter to me which 2 countries are involved. It doesn't have to be the USA & Peru.

If you have dual citizenship, please let me know the benefits & responsibilities, the pros & cons, the pluses & minuses, the positives & negatives, etc. Your insight & advice will be very much appreciated!

Additional FRC-Lima Info

I have a second blog on the FRC website that specifically caters to our church campus here in Lima. For more info directly related to the week-to-week goings-on @ FRC-Lima, please visit: www.flamingoroadchurch.com/lima-campus.

Check it out today!

Second Chances

I have written a book. It is called "Second Chances: How God Uses Imperfect People For His Great Glory."

One of the great truths of the Bible is that every hero of the faith was an imperfect, sin-stained human being, full of doubts, worries, fears, and spiritual shortcomings. After all, each of them was only human.

Just like you. Just like me.

"Second Chances" shows how God used 20 imperfect beings for His great glory, and how He can use each of us in the same way.

"Second Chances: How God Uses Imperfect People For His Great Glory" is available at www.amazon.com.

A Miracle Story For Easter Sunday

Back in September of 2005, Dorcas and I led a small mission group from FRC to Pachacutec, Peru, a teeming shantytown located on the sand dunes above the Pacific Ocean, about an hour-and-a-half north of downtown Lima.

There are about 350,000 people who live in the shantytown of Pachacutec, Peru. Almost all of them live in extreme poverty. The average person in Pachacutec probably makes about US$1-2 a day. Many of the people who live in Pachacutec are Peruvians who have come to the capital city from the provinces, thinking that there is more economic opportunity available in Lima, when there really is not. They quickly get trapped in extreme poverty, and wind up in a shantytown like Pachacutec.

We regularly go to Pachacutec to serve the people there. On the day in question in September of 2005, I called the pastor of a small church in Pachacutec that we support, and I told him that we'd be visiting that day, and that we'd be bringing lunch for the people in his church. I asked him how many people we should expect. He said 50.

So we went off to E. Wong, the top supermarket chain in Lima, and we bought 15 whole chickens, plus french fries, salad, and Inca Kola (the soda of choice in Peru!). We figured that if we split the 15 chickens into quarters, then we'd have 60 portions, enough for 50 people, plus 10 extra portions.

We packed up all the chickens and headed up the sand dunes to Pachacutec. When we arrived at the small church, I was heartened to see a lot of people outside. I assumed that they were there to greet us.

I was wrong.

The only reason that they were outside the church was because there was no room inside the church.

The Pachacutec pastor had told us to prepare lunch for 50 people.

There were 300 inside.

We entered the church, and the aroma of delicious Peruvian rotisserie chicken wafted to the heavens. Most of the 300 people inside probably only ate chicken once or twice a year because of their extremely impoverished situations. They all looked very excited ... and very starving.

And we had 15 chickens.

For 300 people.

I said a quick prayer, and it went something like this: "Jesus, you fed 5,000 men and their families with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread, so this should be easy! Please do it!"

We began to make plates of chicken, french fries, and salad. We made lots of plates. We made more plates. And more. And more.

We kept looking at the line of famished faces. It barely seemed to move! But we kept filling up plates with chicken and fries and salad.

We just kept filling plates. More and more.

And we filled up 300 plates of chicken.

There were also 15 volunteers from the church who were helping us to fill up all the plates, and we had exactly 15 plates of chicken left over for them.

We were witnesses as Jesus fed 315 people with just 15 chickens in the shantytown of Pachacutec, Peru.

One day when I'm in heaven, I'm going to sit down and chat with some of the folks who were there that day when Jesus fed the 5,000 men and their families with 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. I'm going to tell them the story of the miracle of the chickens in Pachacutec.

But you know, as I think about it now, I probably don't even need to tell them the story. They were all probably glancing down from heaven and watching on that incredible day in September of 2005, when Jesus fed 315 people with 15 chickens in Pachacutec, Peru.

True Cross Relics

If you go onto Ebay, you can find several people selling what they claim to be authentic pieces of the cross of Jesus - what they call "true cross relics." The relics tend to be splinters or slivers of wood, often accompanied by a document purporting to attest to their authenticity. Some of these supposedly true cross relics are going for close to US$3,000.00 on Ebay.

I don't own a true cross relic. I'm really not even sure how you could ever fully authenticate any of the slivers of wood that are being auctioned off. But I do have a wood chip that I once received after a teaching about the crucifixion of Jesus. It's just a wood chip, something that you could buy at any garden center. However, it symbolizes the sacrifice that Jesus made for you and for me when he was nailed to the cross on that "Good" Friday some 2,000 years ago, in order to give you and me and the rest of this screwed-up, sin-stained world the hope and promise of salvation and eternal life.

As I look at this wood chip, and as I think about the sacrifice that Jesus made on that "Good" Friday some 2,000 years ago, suddenly a thought comes over me:

Yes, I do have a true cross relic.

It is me.

I am a true cross relic.

So are you.

So is every person that believes in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

My dusty old Webster's Dictionary defines a relic as "an object esteemed and venerated because of association with a saint or martyr."

Jesus' love and esteem for us, combined with His crucifixion and resurrection, allows us to "associate" with Him when we trust Him as Lord and Savior. And that "association" leads to eternal life with Him in heaven.

I am a true cross relic.

So are you.

There's nothing more I'd rather be.

Easter Weekend At ... The Beach

Holy Week is upon us, with Easter Sunday coming soon, and that means that the majority of Peruvians - Christians and non-Christians alike - will be spending this weekend ... at the beach.

Thursday-Sunday of Holy Week is a 4-day holiday weekend here in Peru. Many stores, businesses, and offices are closed, as are all government offices and schools. Easter weekend also marks the end of the summer beach season here in Peru. It's kind of like Labor Day weekend in September in the USA. In fact, Christmas and Easter are the bookends to the summer season here in Peru, kind of like Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend in the USA.

There are millions of people in the USA and in other countries who only go to church on Christmas and Easter. Here in Peru, however, it's just the opposite: there are many people, including even pastors and church leaders, who go away on vacation at Christmas and Easter!

So as we prepare for 4 Easter services this weekend at FRC-Lima, we are a little bit like the salmon that swims upstream. We are going against the cultural tide here in Peru. While some other churches drop services on Easter weekend, we are adding them. It's one of the rare occasions where we go against the prevailing Peruvian culture, but we serve a risen Savior, and we have a feeling that a lot of other Peruvians and expats are going to want to celebrate with us this weekend as well.

God You Reign

There are certain Sundays @ FRC-Lima when God's presence absolutely saturates the cinema in both of our services. Yesterday was one of those days!

One of the reasons for this yesterday was our FRC-Lima choir's version of "God You Reign" by Lincoln Brewster. Our choir performed "God You Reign" in both services, in both English & Spanish (the song is called "Eres Rey" in Spanish), & they blew the roof off of the cinema - twice!

If you haven't used "God You Reign" in a worship service yet, then definitely check it out. We use a lot of Lincoln Brewster's songs here in Lima, & "God You Reign" is definitely among his greatest works.

Harlem Gospel Choir

Dorcas & I enjoyed a real treat on Saturday night: the Harlem Gospel Choir performed live in concert in Lima.

The HGC has performed all around the world, sharing their faith and their awesome music with millions of people. The HGC has performed with U2, Diana Ross, Harry Belafonte, and many others. On Saturday night in Lima, the HGC performed "Amazing Grace", "O When The Saints Go Marching In", "O Happy Day", "Celebration", "Amen", and many other gospel hits. It was a superb worship performance, full of joy and power.

If the Harlem Gospel Choir ever appears in your neck of the woods, then you absolutely, positively must go and see them. You'll thank me later!

Everybody Plays The Fool

... there's no exception to the rule.

It may be factual, may be cruel ...

but everybody plays the fool.

Today, April 1, is April Fools' Day in the USA, a day for tricks, gags, ribs, and other assorted hijinks. Be wary of any e-mail, text message, phone call, or other type of communication from any American today which seems a bit bizarre or off-beat (except, of course, for this blog post). They're probably pulling your leg today.

Here in Peru, though, it's just April 1, the day after March 31 and the day before April 2. There's no April Fools' Day in Peru today, although they do have the same thing every year on December 28, which Peruvians call "El Dia De Los Inocentes" or, literally translated, "Innocents' Day." As in, "I'm going to play a trick on you today, and you're so innocent and gullible and naive that you'll probably fall for it!"

Paul talks about fools and foolishness in 1 Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 1:25, he writes, "For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom ...." In 1 Corinthians 4:10, Paul adds, "We are fools for Christ ...."

The song sung by The Main Ingredient and by Aaron Neville, "Everybody Plays The Fool", is about being a fool for love, but a lot of the lyrics would seem to apply to ministry as well. Due to bad decisions or serious missteps, we've all played the fool. There's no exception to the rule. They never tell you so in school. It may be factual, may be cruel. But everybody plays the fool.

Don't let your past foolishness, however, keep you from accomplishing your vision or your dream in international ministry. Get up, dust yourself off, and get back on track. It may be April 1 and April Fools' Day today, but April 2, and the rest of your life and your ministry, is just a day away.