We are happy to inform you that we are alive and well and serving the Lord in Peru. We believe with all our heart that we are here because of God's calling, not of our own doing. We are VERY thankful for all your support, love, and prayers. It is encouraging to know that there are fellow believers back home that support our mission here in Peru. We recognize the fact that we are representing Jesus through Hickory Hammock and we thank you for trusting us with such a task. It brings us great joy to be able to serve the LORD Jesus Christ in this manner. We have been completely blown away at the hospitality of the people here. They have taken us in as one of their own. Already several people have told us what a blessing we are, but they don't realize that they are just as much or more of a blessing for us. We can't wait to see what else the Lord has in store for the rest of the time we are here.

We arrived in Peru at 11:30 pm or so on February 15. So far we've been here five weeks. During the first two weeks, Christina lived with Pastor Angel Barrientos and his family while Matt lived with Pastor Enrique Alban and his family. Pastor Angel is the senior pastor of the Christian Missionary Alliance Church of Comas and Pastor Enrique is the pastor of matrimony who counsels wedded couples at the same church. For the first week, we got to meet and fellowship with the pastors, their families, and the school administrators. During this time, Matt was officially adopted as Pastor Enrique's third son and has changed his name to Mateo (it's easier for the Peruvians to pronounce). For the second week, we attended a week-long program for the teachers and administrators at the Jack Goldfarb School, which is a private Christian school born in 1999. This program informed us of the mission, vision, weaknesses, and strengths of the school as well as our duties and responsibilities as teachers/administrators. On Wednesday and Friday of this week, Christina and the two other English teachers at the JG School attended an English-teaching workshop sponsored by the ELT (English Language Teaching) Greenwich program. About one hundred Peruvian English teachers from around Lima attended the workshop. It was an all-day event (8am - 7pm).

The first day of classes for the 2008-2009 school year at the Jack Goldfarb school began March 3 and will end in December with three weeks of vacation. For the first three months or so, Christina´s task at the school is to assist the two Peruvian teachers (Daniel and Guisella) by providing ideas for teaching English to 3 year olds through 16 year olds. This includes any activities, games, songs, hand motions, materials/resources (i.e. visual aids), etc. After Christina feels comfortable enough with the Spanish language and the manner of teaching, doing teacher paperwork, etc. at the school, she will take on her own class as another primary English teacher. Matt is a security guard and disciplinary aid at the school. One of his duties is to guard the door every morning when the students arrive and every afternoon when the students leave for home. Another duty is to ring the school bell throughout the day to change classes. He also assists the teachers and administrators with a variety of other tasks, especially tasks involving heavy lifting. The students and teachers are very appreciative of our presence at the school and we are very glad to be here at the school as well. Every afternoon after the students leave, we get to sit and fellowship with the teachers over lunch.

After the second week of classes, the Jack Goldfarb School held an open-house program for the parents of the students on Friday, March 14. All the teachers and administrators were presented before the parents and were asked to say a few words of welcome and thanks. Because we are new to the school and community, we were asked to perform a short drama in English and/or Spanish about reaping what you sow. As a result, we decided to be a married couple who were farmers by trade. To make a long story short, we planted oranges and apples, but reaped bananas and pineapples. Our drama coincided with Pastor Angel's message, which was about reaping what you sow as it relates to parents and the seeds that they sow in their children. The parents really enjoyed the program, including the food, games, and fellowship.

At the Comas Church, we are members of the Jovenes Ministry (a.k.a. College and Career Ministry), which meets every Saturday night at 7:30 pm for a time of worship, Bible study, and fellowship. As soon as we joined the ministry, there were several opportunities for us to serve...we've been helping with the greeting of current members, the welcoming of new members, the offertory, and the games. Because there are many members in the Jóvenes Ministry, the ministry is split into five smaller groups. Our group (the smallest group) meets every Sunday night at 6 pm. During our small group meetings, we pray, study the Word, fellowship with each other, and play games. During last night's small group meeting, Matt was given the opportunity to share a message from the Bible that he felt was placed on his heart. The message was concerning the cost of being a disciple and carrying your cross like Jesus did. Last Sunday we spent the entire day at two different beaches with 70 or so members of the Jovenes Ministry. Not only was our day at the beach a time for fun, fellowship, games, and swimming, but it was also a time for prayer, worship, Bible study, and spiritual reflection. Every week we grow closer to the members of our small group as they grow closer to us. We both have plans to invite our small group to each of our apartments one day for dinner, fellowship, fun, and spiritual growth.

As mentioned before, we know without a doubt that it is God's will for us to be here in Peru. We were assured of this fact before we left for Peru and we are even more assured of it now. God's hand has been in it every step of the way. However, since we've been down here, Satan has already been hard at work trying to discourage us from our mission. Don't worry, nothing drastic has happened, but both of us have directly felt Satan's presence individually and as a team. It's obvious that the evil one knows that we're down here and won't give up without a fight. However, with God's help and the prayers of everyone back home and in Peru, we've been able to overcome Satan's fiery darts. We ask that you please continue to keep us in your prayers as we know this is not the last of Satan's attempts. In the meantime, we will be praying for ya'll as well and that God will continue to give us the strength, power, and faith we need to presevere in our mission.

WE LOVE YOU AND MISS YOU MUCHO!!!!

Here is a verse that we wanted to remind you of: Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11-12)

FOREVER FAITHFUL, Your Favorite Missionaries, Matt and Christina