New Blog

Hello Everyone!

I know it has been a long time since the last time I have blogged, but I would like to notify you all about the new mission the Lord has me doing. The Lord has lead me to move to Miami and assist with a Church plant and continue my education down there as well.

www.joshuainmiami.blogspot.com ~ Here's the new blog...check it out!

Thank you all for your continuing prayers!

I'm in America!!

Hello Everyone!

So, I have to apologize again for the time between my last post and now...lol...sorry. Busy Busy Busy!

I would just like to say thank you to all of my supporters and faithful prayer partners! This summer has been amazing and I have thoroughly enjoyed being used by our Father. Please keep me in your prayers as I pray for God's direction for me for next summer. I have already been asked to do two different things in Peru next summer and I am not even sure if God wants me to go back or go somewhere else. He will tell me in His timing....usually not mine...lol!

Also continue to pray for my other Peru friends (42 of them) and myself because we are all having intense Peru withdrawals!!

Things that have been really weird!!

1. Throwing toilet paper in the toilet
2. Having a toilet seat
3. Having a toilet!
4. Having water
5. Having water - pressure (kind of hurt the first time back)
6. Having to take a shower everyday
7. Hygiene in general
8. Speaking Spanish.....I am having a hard time speaking English
9. The HEAT!!....I about died getting off of the airplane!
10.Having more than three choices of what to wear
11.Wal-Mart was horrible....I cried (we are truly spoiled Americans)

Well, God has definitely taught me so much! I have been a very emotional person this summer just because of my Grand-fathers death and the way that God is working in my family. Nevertheless...God has still been faithful and gotten me through all of it.

My heart is torn. Half my heart is back in Peru with all my new families in Christ and children especially. The other half is here in America. Sleeping is hard because there has not been one night that I have laid my head down at night that I have not thought about the hungry people in my village. The hunger I am talking about is not physical, but spiritual. They long to know and have a personal relationship with "this Jesus"...........how will they know if no-one tells them?
What a priveledge it has been to be one of the first people to tell someone about the Love of Our Father!!

Through all of the physical battles and emotional battles, I believe I would do it again in a heartbeat. Looking back, when I was doubled over a trash can and the toilet with 30 degree weather, I did not want to return. Now, I have seen how God has grown me and how much He has taught me. It is not about me and what I go through, but about reaching the people of the world for Jesus Christ, no matter what it takes. You know, I am okay with that.

Father, my prayer is that you would continue to use me, no matter how much I complain when trying times are put before me. I desire and long to be sent by you to people all over the world that needs someone to tell them about this person they are searching for, but cannot find Him. I want to tell them about Jesus! My two favorite quotes have always been "How will they know, if no one tells them? Dad, if they try to kill you, will you fight back?....no son, because they are not ready for heaven, but we are."~Nate Saint~ Oh Father, that is my prayer....that you would send me, so that I can tell! Thank you for what you have done this summer! I also pray for all the people of Pausa and of the Paucar de Sarasara. Father that area is so consumed with there traditional lifestyles and idol worship. Despite all of the sin in that region, your light shines brightly and pierces the darkness.....wow....I just love that! Thank you for using me to be a shining light in that region of Peru this summer. I still pray for the peoples' hearts and lives....Father, that they would be changed and that they would continue to have a hunger to know you and to read your word. If I am not the one of the ones that you have chosen to return there, I pray for the ones that you have chosen, that you would start preparing there hearts and minds for the amazing ride that you will have them on. Thank you Father for everything! I love you!
~Joshua~

As the week ends.....an update

Hello to all of my faithful prayer partner's and supporters!
Sorry I have not written in a while. We have all been traveling and we have not been able to get to internet to update.

Well, while Logan was gone to the Mines to work along with a team from the states in order to evangelize the men there, Cindy and I traveled to Cacire and to San Sebastian. Monday night, Cindy and I traveled to Cacire to say goodbye to the people there in the house church. Honestly, I cried as I said my goodbyes to my woman of peace there in Cacire....Dona Maria. She is an amazing woman that is passionate about the Lord and traveled with us to Raurripa (that hike that about killed us gringo's). She is an OLD Quechua lady that I just feel in love with and her I as well. Please pray for her as she continues to serve the Lord.

The next day, Tuesday, Cindy, Pastor and I traveled to San Sebastian to encourage Tania (Quechua House church leader). We also went to do some follow up from the medical clinic. God had another plan. Tania has been going under persecution in her village because she professes that she is a Christian. She was not discouraged, but needed some encouragement and some wisdom from Pastor and I. She wanted to share with the people that were persecuting her about the Awesome God she serves. Please pray for her and for the marvelous work that she is doing there. While we were there, a lady came to her house and said that she wanted to hear about this awesome relationship with Jesus that Tania had. Pastor spoke with her and she accepted Jesus Christ....Praise the Lord! Tania's nephew came over as well for lunch. He accepted Christ in Lima, but has been struggling to live the Christian life. Pastor spoke with him as well. Cindy, Pastor and I helped Tania prepare lunch. In a Latin culture, there lunch is huge. We had soup, corn for appetizer, rice, bisteak and an onion, pepper, and lemon juice salad. It was really good. We all had an awesome time preparing the food. Tania also shared with us that a Christian lady that teaches school wants to start teaching the Bible principles in her classroom....Praise the Lord! We will be sending Bibles with Pastor to give to the teacher.

Logan returned to us on Wednesday, along with the Marcabamba team from the states. They took us to one of the villages in our region that is more unreached. Quilcata. This place is REALLY cold. The altitude is at about 12,500 feet. We arrived and started doing some door to door evangelism from the surveys taken at the Medical Clinic last week. We were able to find a lot of the people at home, however there were a great number out at their fields. Pastor and I met two families that were excited about there relationship with Christ and had us come back and have a Bible study with them. We also found some of the people that accepted Christ at the Medical Clinic. We were able to encourage them....of course under the power of the Holy Spirit. We later held a house church under the hostel where we stayed. 27 people attended the house church....Praise the Lord! This was the first house church meeting in this village. Please pray for Juan Castro. He is a man that is on fire for the Lord and wants to start meeting at 6:00pm with the children on Tuesday's and at 7:00pm with the adults. This is the vision that we were going to share with them, but they beat us to it. Praise the Lord, the came up with the vision on there on! Logan was sick, so I assisted Pastor Antonio with the service. The people wanted to hear Cindy and I's testimony, so it was up to me to translate. Praise the Lord, he gave me the language and the people understood it all. God totally spoke through my mouth! I shared my testimony and also the prayer that we have for them to continue to meet. They quickly said, "every Tuesday"! Pastor will be returning every Tuesday next month and prayerfully training Juan Castro to lead the people. I translated Cindy's testimony as well and I praised God for giving me all the words I needed in order to translate.

We woke up the next morning and I froze to death! It was so cold!!! We rode back to our village about an hour and a half, on the top of a sheep truck...that was amazing. Well, I have some more funny stories that I will blog later about our adventures.

Hope and pray that all is well with you all.....Blessings!
~Joshua~

Just a few things....

Hello to all!

Okay, so I have had a few e-mails asking me to tell a funny story.

Well I have two........

In this wonderful country, we take buses to where we need to go. Riding with chickens and well.....just about anything. The bus that we took from Nasca (after mid-summer debriefing) is called Wari. Well, it was about 12 in the morning and we were in some village and I just had to pee. The bus stops and lets people use the bathroom and get out to buy some "snacks" from the street vendors. Well....the bus does not have a bathroom and we had already been on the bus for about 6 hours. I had been drinking my water and I really had to go. Imagine climbing to about 16,000 feet and it getting REALLY cold and you needing to pee....not so pleasant. Well, I get off the bus to use the bathroom and on the walk back, the bus is leaving!!!!......the locals are shouting.....(in spanish of course) "Stop the bus, you left the little skinny "gringo" They were running after the bus for me and I was thinking, "Lord, I know you put me in the middle of nowhere, but I am really in the middle of nowhere and no place to stay."....."Please get me back on that bus!!" Well, finally the bus stops and I am already out of breath from running a short distance at that altitude. I get on the bus and my fearless team leader had told the bus assistant that everyone on his team was on the bus. He didn't do it on purpose......he was just really tired....I was never so happy to see my gringo friends when I got on that bus. It is a scary thing to be left somewhere like that, but the people were really concerned with me getting back on.
So Joshua about got left in the middle of nowhere....in the middle of nowhere.....that's pretty bad huh??

Okay....funny story number two.......I saved the best for last!;)

Well, last week was the medical clinic where I had the awesome opportunity to translate for one of the doctors. Now, I am use to seeing mothers breast feeding there children in public with the "bottle(s)" exposed. This doesn't bother me anymore since my 3rd mission trip.....this is my 12th. Well, I was sitting next to a mother breast feeding one day at the clinic in San Sebastian. I notice out of the corner of my eye that she is "shaking one of her bottles". I then feel something splash my side........yep.......the "bottle" squirted me. That my friends........invaded my personal space......I never thought that could happen overseas. God continues to reveal "new" and "exciting" things to me to have to share with others.

On the flip side: 3 people were baptized today in the river.....Praise the Lord! One of the persons was the house church leaders husband in San Sebastian. We had a glorious time!
God has been so good!

Prayer Requests:
Logan- He is traveling to the mines with four others from the states tomorrow and Tuesday to evangelize the people there. God put all the men together for a reason.......so we can minister to them all at once. Pray for his safety and the safety of the team and of course for fruit and seeds to be planted with miracle grow!

All of us- We only have one week left and then we go to Lima for debriefing for a week.

FOR GOD TO CONTINUALLY BE GLORIFIED HERE IN THE PAUCAR DE SARA SARA!!!

~Joshua~

New Report

Hello to all!!

Praise the Lord......the tally's are in.....

Clinics: # of Salvations:

San Sebastian 36

Quilcata 47

Total: !83!

God is so good!

Well, today........was another adventure.

Logan and I got up early and took a bus to San Sebastian to meet with Tania, the house church leader there. We went to encourage and to give her the names of the people that accepted Christ and also the names of the ones that did not accepted Christ. She is one of our strongest house church leaders....please keep her in your prayers. After meeting with Tania, we hiked a bit to the next town....Lampa....we adventually caught a truck that gave us a lift. We arrived in Lampa, which is the town that is not receptive of christians because of the nuns in the town. We meet with Doris, which is one of the two christians in that town that are secretly meeting. We encouraged her and to our surprise, we found out that God has answered one of our prayers that we pray when we prayer walk this town. The two nuns that were there got changed out. Two new ones are there now. And.....Praise the Lord......they are respectful of Doris and the other christian in that town. They do not kick them out of the town like the others did. They respect them being christians and do not bother them. So now, they do not have to meet in secret!! Well, Logan and I continued prayer walking for almost two hours today in Lampa and also spent a lot of that time praising God for the Good News!! We then hiked to Marcabamba, where the Parkridge team from the states are.(they just arrived) Logan and I hiked over, under and through farms and cliffs and walls and well, just a lot of things. We enjoyed ourselves.....and I didn't hurt myself....Praise the lord! Finally, we reached Marcabamba and met with the other "gringos" (americans). They had a lot of american food that they were eating for lunch.....Logan and I had a smores pop-tart. We were so happy. We then spent time debriefing with the team about progress for there area and work in the Mines that are in there district. After that, Logan and I caught a ride back to Pausa in the back of a mining truck. We jumped in and I rode on gold all the way back to Pausa. It was pretty cool actually. The only thing was that the driver was not the best in the world. His wheels didn't always stay on the road when riding along cliffs.....don't worry mom, my angels were with me....the top of the truck hit the sides of the cliffs to our right because it was so tall....that was weird. We finally arrived to Pausa and I have still not taken a bath....I won't tell you how long....but I think I will shower tonight when we get water pressure....Hopefully.

Well, that is all for now...I will write later.....chau
~Joshua~

Medical Clinic

Hello to all prayer warriors!!

Well, I guess you are wondering why I have not posted in a while. Well, a medical team from the states came in to host a week long medical clinic in two different villages. Half way through, I got incredibly sick. I almost had to go to the "hospital" here in my village. But, THANK GOD, the doctor and two nurses that was part of the medical clinic, took good care of me. I have no clue what I had, but it occured about midnight on Friday and I did not start feeling better until Monday morning. I could not get out of bed the entire time without assistance. I had not eaten in three days, so on Monday.....I ate all day. I would describe to you what was wrong with me, but it will probably gross you all out. So I will save you the info.;) But, praise the Lord.....I am on medication and I am doing so good now.

Medical Clinic......
Well, the clinic went amazing. We first held a clinic in a small village called San Sebastin. This clinic lasted from Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of last week. There were several that accepted Christ at this clinic. We are in the process of tallying the surveys now. The Quilcata clinic was from Saturday and Monday. The team ran out of medications and we had to cut back one day of clinic. Several were also saved at the Quilcata clinic, again we are tallying the surveys. Amazing things were done in these places and in the peoples heart's by the work of the Holy Spirit. All glory honor and praise goes to Him for everything that was done. Sickness and all.

Back in Pausa

Hello to all!!
Well, I am once again safely back in Pausa, Peru.
The story......
We arrived at out bus station at about 2:30pm and waited until about 6:00pm to jump on a bus....and as the night grew.....the COLDER it got....we all seriously about froze. We were traveling at about 15,000 feet or more in the middle of the night....and not the bus is not climate controled. Haha....as a matter of fact, there was a windom near my seat that would not close....so yeah I froze. We had a flat tire and then finally arrived in Pausa around 8:00am the next morning....this would be Sunday. Well, I was stupid and forgot to drink. I was extremley dehydrated. But I am better now. I am still extremley sore from the great falls from the sand surfing and I also realized that I am allergic to cow stomach...we had that today for lunch. I broke out in hives and felt really funny. But no worries, I took a Benedryl and I am fine now....haha....so many things happening to my body...it probably hates me now.

Well, tomorrow is the 4th of July and this will be the first one that I have spent out of the country. It is also when the medical team arrives from the states. They are already in Peru, but traveling on their way here to Pausa. When they get here, it will be EARLY EARLY mornings and lots of translating.
PRAYER:
1. Please pray for my language skills in sharing my testimony. I am extremley nervous about sharing my testimony in Spanish just because of the language.
2. Boldness in being a leader.
3. To be better physically and Maintain a healthy system for the next week and a half.
4. For the medical team.
5. For the response of the people that attend the medical clinic.....souls to be won for the Lord.
6. Sensitivity to the holy spirit....DAILY
7. Continue to grow in the Lord.

Well......the emotions of being here, missing family, eagerness to continue serving the Lord, making decisions at home and well, just a bunch of things.....I feel like I am going to explode. The three days in Nasca was good. I had enough testastarone and was happy to be around some girls and speak english. A good resting moment. I am just feeling the pressure of a missionary. My heart wants so bad to go everywhere for the Lord and to serve Him greatly. I just feel burdened. I know this is nothing but Satan burdening me down. I just wanted you all to know that I am going through the missionary stage of feeling overwhelmed. Haha....I have no clue if what I just wrote made any sense, but I guess just pray for me. That would be great.
If you all want to email me.... josuesarco7@hotmail.com or you can leave a comment. I would love to hear from you all.

Please do not worry about me.....I am fine! Hehe....GOD is so amazing. I really am loving it here.

Joshua:)