The event we have been praying for for so long was Saturday, June 19.
There is so much to tell, I'm going to try to do a series about it. Because I could definitely write pages about the awesome things our God did!
For those of you who don't know much about Love Extreme, let me tell you a little:
~Love Extreme is 2 projects, totaling 3 weeks, with around 300 short-term volunteers, including my mom.
~Love Extreme is a Mega Event that took place on Saturday. The goal was 10,000 people in attendance, with 1,000 new converts to Jesus Christ.
~Love Extreme is the jumpstart of a church-planting movement in the second largest city in Peru, Arequipa.
~Love Extreme is just the beginning of what God is going to do in south Peru!
Overview
We have been praying for this event for months now. It has been a prayer request during our Tuesday morning prayer time since I got to Peru. And we said that we can't even imagine what God is going to do here, but he blew our minds more than we were expecting.
See, we have a system of consolidation that will defy the statistic that says that 97% of new converts are not in the church a year later. So we take their information, call them within 24 hours of the decision, visit them within one week, and make sure they get involved in a house church (cell group). So we have consolidators from the church as well as the 40/40s for Arequipa and Cusco, plus 40/40s from other cities. We did not have enough consolidators! We were overwhelmed with how many people were excepting Christ!
And then, Nick Vujicic, a man born without arms and legs (who everyone came from all over the city to see) gave the man salvation message. At the end when he was giving the opportunity to accept salvation, he asked those who wanted to accept Jesus Christ as their savior to raise their hands. The majority of the crowd (which was approximately 8,000 adults) raised their hands! So Nick said to his translator, "Ask them if they understand this is a commitment." Still around 6,000 people motioned that they wanted to accept Jesus Christ. He asked three times! When they left to go to consolidation, we were able to get more than 700 names to follow up with. These are the people who will make up the eighteen churches we are starting in Arequipa. And they are only the beginning! Talk about the harvest field being ready!
See, we have a system of consolidation that will defy the statistic that says that 97% of new converts are not in the church a year later. So we take their information, call them within 24 hours of the decision, visit them within one week, and make sure they get involved in a house church (cell group). So we have consolidators from the church as well as the 40/40s for Arequipa and Cusco, plus 40/40s from other cities. We did not have enough consolidators! We were overwhelmed with how many people were excepting Christ!
And then, Nick Vujicic, a man born without arms and legs (who everyone came from all over the city to see) gave the man salvation message. At the end when he was giving the opportunity to accept salvation, he asked those who wanted to accept Jesus Christ as their savior to raise their hands. The majority of the crowd (which was approximately 8,000 adults) raised their hands! So Nick said to his translator, "Ask them if they understand this is a commitment." Still around 6,000 people motioned that they wanted to accept Jesus Christ. He asked three times! When they left to go to consolidation, we were able to get more than 700 names to follow up with. These are the people who will make up the eighteen churches we are starting in Arequipa. And they are only the beginning! Talk about the harvest field being ready!
Cusco
I headed to Cusco on a bus with Mom on Tuesday the 8th, so we arrived early the 9th. We spent that day and the next in preparation for the short-termers' arrival. The week in Cusco consisted of a lot of impact, lots of leading teams, lots of pictures for Mom, and lots of prayer.
Some of our activities included having a kids festival at the one Nazarene Church in Cusco, visiting a shelter for adolescent moms, visiting a few different schools to perform a skit and share the gospel message, praying at several different church plant sights, serving hot chocolate at a local plaza, and visiting a hospital and praying with the patients.
