outreach highlight video

hey everyone...here is the official YWAM Pittsburgh highlight video of our outreach trip to Brazil and Peru. Have fun!

Everly

Well...here is one story of many from our trip. On the very left of this picture is a young man named Everly. Everly was part of the group of 20 boys that Ken, Anita and I talked to in the poor, sandy neighborhood in Lima. Here is his story.... Everly's story with Jesus started a few years ago when his mother died in his arms. When this happened, he told God he would never forgive him for this. Well, also in his life Everly's grandma was very abusive towards him and his father was a working criminal. About 2 weeks before we came to his neighborhood he was visited by a person who was part of a "Spiritus" religion. Everly felt do depressed and hopeless he said he was willing to listen to anything. Then our group came... Everly said he was so confused that when we came and Ken spoke to him about Jesus, his confusion went away and God touched his heart. Everly then came to our "Joshua Generation" camp. During this time, Everly sat through a teaching on forgiveness and some consequences in our lives from unforgiveness. This teaching changed Everly, he asked God to forgive him from turning from him when his mother died. After that, he began to work through forgiving the family members that hurt him. He called his father, and they have started a new relationship together.
Everly's life has been completely transformed because of the love of Jesus.

So...when we open our mouths to preach the gospel, we release the glory of God. The Glory of God is now made evident in Everly's life.

We're HOME!

Hello Everyone!

Just to let you know, we are back in Pittsburgh...safe, happy, and healthy. We got back to our house about 5:30 pm Monday. And for those of you who did not hear...we had a little mouse problem while we were gone...aaarrrggg (welcome back to western pa :) So far Matt has caught about 12 mice, (he calls it a massacre)and I am sure there will be more. Just a little side note - I was in South America on the mission field and I never saw a mouse in any of the houses I stayed in.

So we have some wonderful news. From the 9 weeks we were gone we are so blessed to let you know that over 5,000 people prayed with our team to dedicate their lives to Jesus. We worked with approximately 20 churches who are now in the process of following up with these people, getting them bibles, transportation, and discipleship. Some of our team members also stayed back to aid the churches in follow-up.

We have some wonderful individual stories of some of the people we talked to and how Jesus has changed their lives. Tomorrow (or the next day) I want to post their stories. Because it was from your giving that made these stories possible...

We love you all

catch up

hey friends...been real busy lately, but wanted to give some highlights. we are currently working with Joshua Generation in Peru. We are serving as staff for the Peruvian youth that have been trained and are now performing on the streets and sharing Jesus. They are an amazing bunch.

we have about 6 days left...and that is probably a good thing. :) it will be good to get home and get some rest. we get home on monday feb 9th.

some other random highlights...got to watch the super bowl at a big sports bar in lima...it was listed on the pittsburgh post gazette website as an official steeler WORLD spot...so we went to check it out and had a great time. david got his first peruvian hair cut yesterday..and he hated every minute of it. hair everywhere! and both david and abby continue to speak more spanish...david loves to say agua!

we are healthy and doing well...thanks for all the prayers, but keep them coming! we need prayer!

love you all and see you soon!
matt (not the usual poster to this blog! sorry for any lack of quality that you may be previously used to! sarah will be back soon!)

Power of Jesus

Dear Friends,
It has been a busy but wonderful time of ministry here in Lima,Peru. Last night we started our 18 day "camp" for Peruvian youth called "Joshua Generation". Youth from all over the city have come to learn more about their faith and then go out and do ministry in their city. Some good news about this...last week we were in a very poor area of the city. First we climbed up a mountain of sand and then knocked on doors to some houses that were just square blocks made of bricks. Some of the houses had a full roof...some did not. We performed and hundreds came out to watch. After we began to talk to them. I was with my friend Ken and we talked to about 20 young men. I was amazed! Once Ken began to talk about sin and how it separates us from God and the consequences that happen when we sin, you could hear a pin drop with these boys. We shared with them about the free gift of salvation through Jesus and they all wanted to pray to accept Jesus into their lives. We then asked them if any of them go to church and they said that they really wanted to go to church but they had no way to get there (no car and no money to pay for a bus). The church we were working with brought a bus back to that area the next day and picked up those boys to bring them to church. Two of those young men have come to join us at "Joshua Generation", YAY! Yesterday our group went back to that place to give them food and other groceries since many of them do not have very much.

So far we have talked to over 2,250 people with about 1,000 praying to accept Jesus as their Savior. I am forever humbled because it really has nothing to do with what we do...we can have a good performance or a bad performance. We can talk like an amazing charismatic speaker or fumble around with our words. It really has nothing to do with us. It is the power of Jesus working in the lives and hearts of these people that we talk to. Many of them tell us "I never come to this park/place, but today I came and now I know that I was sent here by God so I could meet and talk to you."

Friends, if you are struggling in knowing more about Jesus or do not know him, the same spirit that has been working here can come alive in your life too. Our relationship with God transcends bad relationships with Christians or bad teachings at churches...He brings self-worth, value, and LIFE.

Street Children

Sorry...no pictures yet. But some great updates. First, we met up with a Catholic group who went out to give presents to street kids and then we talked to the families about Jesus. We had a great time working with them. And yesterday, after our time on the streets, the street kids followed us back to the church. The church was so happy, because now the kids are going to come back again today, and hopefully for a long time to come.

We are in Peru

After 2 long days of travel - one by bus, one by plane - we have made it to Peru. We do have more internet access here, so I hope to post more from our trip. When I have some down time I will try to post some more pics of Brazil - and some from Peru.

Just a note - Abby was sooo cute today. We were at a park doing outreach and there were many kids. Abby thought they needed some "prizes" so she found a stamp that she got and lined them up to give them a stamp on their hands. The cutest thing about it was that no one was translating for her - she just did it on her own. She also let a little street girl her age sit in her stroller to watch our show and then later gave that street girl a balloon that Abby had received from someone else. She makes our heart very happy.

Outreach in Sao Paulo

Our ministry times have been wonderful. There are many stories and many lives are being changed.

Saturday we performed at a park/shopping area in front of a church. I talked to a family who watched our performance and they said they go to church and pray some times. I talked to them for a while about their relationship with Jesus and we prayed together. They said that they see Christians in that area all the time but the Christians usually only pass out some sort of tract, no one has ever performed for them and then talked to them about Jesus. They were so thankful to me, and they said they felt different after we prayed because God was working in their hearts.

Sunday we did outreach by a market/park. The church we work with does outreach like that every Sunday morning and then they have regular church service in the evening. I had a wonderful time at church last night. It reminded me of our church in Kentucky back when we were in the tabernacle at the campground. The building was the same, the kids danced with dancers in the front, and at the end we went up to minister to the people and MANY came up to the altar. We had people waiting in line to pray!! Also, during the ministry time, they released the children from children’s church (because the service went too long) and the kids were running around. JUST LIKE GCF. It was the greatest. It brought back so many wonderful memories.

It is such a pleasure to be here and we are so honored to be working with such beautiful people.

Merry Christmas

We have just celebrated our first Christmas away from home in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It is very hot so no snow and no Christmas trees. Also, even though the food is really good, it is not Grandma’s Christmas cooking. So…we miss our family and our traditions, but we were able to make a Christmas here. I just remind myself that Jesus left His home too. We plugged the ipod into the Peavey’s we use for outreach to play Christmas music, bought some lights to decorate the house we are staying in, and wrapped some presents for the kids. Our friend, Aaron, made a Christmas tree for us. We have a picture of the kids under the Christmas tree 

Oh…and Abby even got a Christmas dress she picked out to wear to church. Being that it is so hot, it was a pink sundress.

We had some wonderful ministry on Christmas Eve. We went to a shopping area and talked to people sitting around. We talked to a girl waiting for her sister, and she said that she just prayed to God that if He would help her, she would start going to church – and she said that God must have sent us to her – so we talked to her about Jesus’ love and how Jesus longs for a relationship with us more than just going to church, and she accepted Jesus. As we were talking to her, her sister (I think step-sister) came and was listening, but tried to look like she really wasn’t listening. After we finished talking to her sister, I asked her what she thought, and she began to talk about how she used to hate listening to Christian songs but lately every time she hears one, she begins to cry. So I asked her if she wanted to pray for a relationship with Jesus and she told me she does, but not today, she will do it sometime before she begins to travel. I then asked her when that would be, and said it sounded like Jesus has already been pursuing her and He wants her life now, not later. She then began to cry and we talked some more about her life and we prayed together and she gave her life to Jesus.

One of my favorite people in the whole world, Debi Tunney, told us this, and I am beginning to believe it… “If your hearts desire is to lead people in to a relationship with Jesus, then Jesus will move Heaven and Hell to get those people to you.”

Day Off

Sorry it has been so long since I blogged. We have not had much internet access in this area.

Here is the high light of our last day in Rio –

These pictures are from our day off last Monday in Rio. We spent most of the day at the beach. It was beautiful!! The kids had their usually routine at the beach – lots of sun block, cheetos, and orange pop. We had a wonderful time. This was the first time Abby actually put her feet in the ocean water without crying, and David got to drink from an actual coconut.

Needless to say…we usually have very long days doing outreach and it was nice to take a day off and spend time together as a family.

Brazil continued...

We are having a wonderful time. We are talking to many people and there are some remarkable stories from just the last few days.

We went to a church that was created for CHILDREN. The church specifically focuses their entire service to reach the poorest of the poor children in their community. The pastor was crazy. He needs his own TV show. We were going to put on a performance for them, but they ended up putting on a performance for us, and the pastor made sure we joined in on the fun. It turned into a 15 minute karaoke/dance party. I put a picture up for now...I'll put a video up later. Abby and David love to go to do performances and talk with people. David especially has been quite the "star" here because of his big blue eyes and smile.
Abby has some wonderful friends here. The two boys in the picture are Vinny and David - they are brothers of one of our interpreters.


The church had baptisms for about 30 people, but when it came time to drain the pool, the water overflowed from the drain so some of the pictures are of us cleaning up the water from the pool in the church...David helped too.












There have been many wonderful stories from our time here and I can not type them all, but God is transforming many peoples lives and we are just amazed to be used by Him to see it happen.

Highlights from Brazil

Here are some wonderful highlights from Rio so far...

Went to a neighborhood to do dances and dramas - there was a moving truck full of furniture in the spot we had planned to perform in. We helped the people unload their truck so it could be moved for our dances. Many people came out, especially to see the "Americans" unloading a truck. We had a great time and many people gave their lives to Jesus.

Coffee is "Muito Bem" or very good. And the Food is AMAZING.

We are staying with a Brazilian family. They are very nice and very sweet. But they know about as much English as we know Portuguese. I have some great stories about some of the talks we have had together - however, some would not be appropriate for blogging. Just ask us when we return.

We went out to perform, but it started raining so we decided to talk to people stranded under tarps at the local sidewalk bazaar. My group talked to a little girl who got so excited she took us to her older sister and insisted that we tell the story of Jesus to her. The older sister accepted Jesus as her savior. Halleluia! All because of a little obedience and a little girl.

The children I work with giggle all the time, and always ask me to say their name. I thought it was because they liked me, but I have come to find out they just want me to talk because they think my accent is funny. Hey, if my funny accent attracts more people to hear about Jesus, I can accept them laughing at me.

That is it for now. We love you.

We're HERE!

For everyone who has been wondering...
We have made it to Brazil. We did have a slight glitch (which really turned out to be a blessing)- we missed our flight from Atlanta to Rio on Wednesday because our flight before arrived late. So...I called my cousin Greg at 10 pm, who lives in Atlanta, and asked if we could crash at his house since the next flight to Bra zil did not leave until 8:40 the next day. It was the best thing that could have happened to us. We had such great time with Greg, Susan and Garrick. We had such a good time I was actua

lly hoping they would overbook the flight so we could spend another day with them. The pictures are the kids in the guestroom bathtub. Greg said it took an act of God (meaning bad weather to delay our plane) to get anyone in the family to visit him. Well...Matt and I are in the "God Business" so it just seems right that we would be the ones chosen :) to be able to visit.

So we flew overnight on Thursday, the kids did great on that flight - Abby LOVES to travel - you should see her pulling her princess backpack on wheels through the airport - very cute.

And now we are in Rio. We had a full day of outreach and Jesus is doing wonderful things. We have a bed to sleep in, a shower with warm water, GREAT FOOD, and many beautiful Brazilians helping us. I hope to write more later.

PLEASE...IF YOU READ THIS BLOG, WILL YOU MAKE SURE OUR FAMILIES KNOW WE ARE DOING GREAT. THANKS

Bathing in the Sink

We are just about a week from going on outreach to Brazil and Peru. What a privilege it is to be the hands and feet of Jesus to those who are lost and hurting in this world. Please pray for us in these last days of preparation - for calmness, joy, energy, and for our monetary provision. When I think of outreach, I do think of some of the things that will not be normal (aka...the language, our sleeping arrangements, heat instead of snow on Christmas, etc...) but then when I look back on things from my life that were not so called "normal" I have so many wonderful memories. For instance...when I was little, my Grandma only had a shower, not a bath tub, and so instead of putting me in the shower which they knew I would hate, they gave me a bath in the sink :) After that...I always would prefer getting cleaned in grandma's sink more than getting in my own bathtub at home. I got to share this experience with David in New York. There were no bathtubs...so I used the next best thing...a sink. It was fun and some girl's got some photos of it. So as we are preparing to leave, I look forward to some of this "not so normal" stuff and the memories/impact it will have on me, my children, and those who Jesus is preparing to come into His Kingdom. Because...as I am coming to a greater realization...nothing in Christ's Kingdom is anything close to what our world views as "normal". And it is the "not-so-normal" things that, many times, make the most impact.