Ingles para mis amigos...

Blessings and Peace through God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
I am currently in Lima with the rest of the REAP SOUTH team that has come to Southern Peru for the summer.
Ojala que fueramos todos bilingues!!
I wish all of us were bilingual, because I have this awful habit of talking in two languages without knowing which one I am using...so sorry!!

I am back safe in Lima after a three day training/orientation in Chosica, outside of the city. All 50 of us college student/summer missionaries stayed at the sweetest Baptist camp and it was like a mini, sweetened condensed MLC session. We had sessions of worship and teaching, a session on "simple church" (I like to call that organic) and sessions on biblical conflict management, making our "little God's lot" and interesting topics such as male-female relationships, what village life is like...what we need to know about safety, security, good water, what to do in case of sickness (some of us will be hours and hours away from medical help), and how to participate in village life....

But the BEST parts were the worship times:
The Team: Daniel, from Korea was our leader, and we loved playing with him. His voice and guitar were a blessing, but even better is his deep love for Jesus and his willingness to serve despite his language barriers, with both English and Spanish. Please pray for him as he returns to the US to continue his medical degree from DBU...he has asked for guidance and peace as he pursues missions through medicine.

Soloman: a wonderful Peruvian brother with a sweet guitar and even sweeter smile. Soloman is 23 and has given up working for the summer to be a volunteer translator for a village team in the mountains of Southern Peru. Pray for him, that the Lord would give him the words to speak, the patience to work with an english-speaking team of three others, and the deep love of Christ that will see transformation in every village.

Joshua Keever: Lovely voice, huge heart for missions. He is studying in Miami and speaks bien Cubano. Pray for him and his team of three as they trek through Southern Peru collecting ethnograhic information, and discovering pueblos that have no Christian witness. Pray that they would be encouraged and united as a team. Pray for Joshua's physical health: allergies in the mountains are not cool.

Allison Crino: Coolest cajon player ever...first day I played a smallish fed-EX box, then that was upgraded to a real instrument; a Cajon Peruano, which is a small Peruvian beat-box. I tore up all seven worship times...:) And sang, too. And because Daniel is still learning the English lyrics, I got to help lead some of the songs. Praise the Lord! they were encouraging times.
Pray for me and my team, the Barnabus team, which does not have one particular village assignment like the other teams, but instead, travels to all those villages to bring encouragement and refreshment to the other teams. Please pray for us, that our team of three (Me, Amy Anderson, and Justin Hesterly) would be UNITED...somos muy diferentes, y aveces es dificil comunicarnos...PLEASE PRAY...if we don't have the unity, we will never be able to bring encouragement to the teams...

We begin our serious training on Monday for one week, and during this time, pray that the Lord would move mightily in each one of our hearts.

Tomorrow is the Lord's Day. All the students and the missionaries here are going to an international movie theater church, and of course, they are excited. Guess where I will be? With the SAINTS IN PERU!!! My brother Chi Ng in Chicago gave me los datos for the church here, so I will be spending the day with the Local Church, and yes, I am so, so, happy about that.
I am turning into a Peruvian...

I know this is long, but I need to say a couple of things:
This is a precious, precious country. And it will be important for you to know that REAP SOUTH, run by my Uncle Mike Weaver and Aunt Cathy, have a semester program that I could roll over into after this summer's work. Please pray for me as I process through what that might mean for me. As many of you know, the academics were really overwhelming for me this year and I had times of deep confusion and frustration. Many doubts. Here in Peru, I am doing exactly what I have been called by the Lord to do: participate in organic church planting among the "least of these" in Latin America. I have not felt so at peace in a long time. Please pray with me during this summer, that the Lord would reveal His good, pleasing, and perfect will for my life, and give me clear direction on whether I should stay through the fall semester and return to NP in January 08. It is a serious possibility, but I don't want to jump ahead of the Lord. I know that the time here will be encouraging and challenging, and will give me opportunity to learn new skills and apply old ones. And more than that, while I am here, I get to participate in the work closest to the Lord's heart..."Ask and I'll give the nations to you...every village and mountain will see your light, as it rises on us...."

With much Love
Allison