Archive for July, 2007
Sewage in the House
July 30th, 2007 | 
Author: Alex Mamani has been pastoring Source of Light Baptist Church here in Arequipa now for around 5 years. I was planning on writing this letter to see what we could do to raise money for him to buy a piece of property. His church has raised $600 of the $6000 needed to buy the property. If anyone would like to help with this need, please let us know at gardner@uttermost.net.
The story I got from him just the other day though was horrible. This family has a very hard time making it through each month. They are in desperate need of basic things, sometimes even food. Well, he and his family returned home after church to find out that the sewage line outside his house had major problems and that all the sewage came and flooded the little room that he rents for his family. He came home to a house that was stinking and saw all of his belongings floating in a literal cesspool. Needless to say, he is in desperate need of some money to replace his belongings as well. I would like to see if we might be able to raise $500 to help him replace some of his stuff. This is a major setback for him and it would be a blessing if he could see how we work together. May God bless you in all you do for him.
Chris
Posted in 
Everyone got in OK
Well, I am tired, after a 20 hour work day I am finally at home supposedly resting, but I guess that comes after the blog. Things went crazy today. Our wives are cooking for around 100 people, a small elephant could have bathed in the pot my wife was using today for green beans. It was crazy. Pray for our wives, this is definitely not easy. All the medicine got in just fine and everything is going great. David, my brother will be taking the group to see the convent. I think I am almost done with all the interviews at TV stations and radio stations. Please keep the clinic and the youth conference in your prayers.
Chris
Largest Group ever
Well, we are going through an exciting time now, we have close to 80 people here visiting with us. We have rented 2 hotels, and the missionaries houses are full as well. Many of the people that are here, are here with a group of Doctors that are helping the ministry here. They have been helping people every day and I am sure we will see great things happen because of their labor of love. The rest of the people that are here, are here for the Youth Conference that is going on at the same time. Pray for us during this time, especially for the missionary wives as they are cooking for everyone. Thanks for all you do.
Chris
3rd Happy day
Well, the Lord allowed us to adopt our children 3 years ago. On the 26th of July, after years of begging God for children, the Lord led us to adopt a child. It turned into both Jacob and Hannah. God has been so good to us. We love our kids and cannot imagine life without them. Pray for us as parents that we will do all we can to raise them to honor and serve God with all of their lives. I took one meeting this morning at 8am but the rest of the day will be spent with the kids. God is so good to us. We are so thankful for all that he has done for us. Jacob and Hannah are definitely one of the greatest blessings that God has given us. By the way they named it Happy Day so I guess that is what it will be from here on out.
Chris
Met with the mayors counselor this morning
Well, at 8 am we had a meeting with the counsel for the presidente de la region. A person in charge of not only the city but the state of Arequipa as well. They wanted to let us know that if there was anything that they could do to help that they would be willing to do so. This medical clinic has really opened up a lot of doors for us. We are excited about all that God is doing. Pray for the group as they are flying out this afternoon and they should be arriving tomorrow morning here in Arequipa. They are also coming along with some members of our home church Vision Baptist Church. Keep everyone in your prayers.
Chris
Economic Growth in Arequipa
Well, I was just riding in a taxi the other day and saw something that amazed me. Arequipa is a city of over 1 million people, but we have not had many american restaurants or anything of that sort down here. A few years ago, Burger King, Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken came down here. The really launched out with a lot of risk and it seems to have done well for them. Well, as I was riding in the taxi, I noticed that Dominoes Pizza was opening up in another part of the city. This is huge for the city. This means that after studying other businesses in the city that they think that it will do fine. We are really excited about it not so much for the food but because of what it implies.
Chris
Just got a call from the Mayors office
Well, I just got a call from the mayors office and we are going to meet with him tomorrow morning. We will be with him right around 8 am. Pray that this meeting goes well, he could do a lot to help us with this clinic. Pray for the Lord to put the necessary words in my mouth.
Chris
Andrew had his first bad fall.
In Peru, our houses, are on very small plots of land so this means that the houses go up not out. Most houses are multi level houses. Well today, Hannah decided to go down the first flight of stairs and forgot to close the gate behind her. Andrew was in his walker and decided that it was time to follow Hannah down the stairs. Well he followed her and got down the stairs a whole lot quicker than Hannah. He flipped a couple of times in his walker. Needless to say he wasn’t a happy fellow. After a few minutes of mom holding him everything settled down. We kept him awake for a while and he is doing fine now. I don’t know if anyone else cares to hear too much about this but the grandparents are always happy to hear about the kids so I figure we will do it for them.
Chris
Immediate results from the Press Conference
Well, I have had a busy day today with different appointments. I have been on the radio and TV live today. We have had a great time and many people are asking us about the clinic. We were on 4 TV stations today, 2 of them were some of the largest TV stations in a city of 1 million people. Needless to say this is not an easy place to get into the media. On two of the largest stations in the city, we were given 5 minutes in a 30 minute news cycle. It is exciting to see all that God is doing here in Arequipa. Please pray that we can see thousands of people treated and that many can hear about the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are people everywhere asking about what we are doing. Continue to pray that God will do great things. We have 20 different press agents coming the first day of the clinic as well. We are excited to see all that God is going to do. Please keep us in your prayers.
Chris
Press Conference was a hit
We had a great time at the press conference today. We had a total of close to 50 people from newspapers, TV stations and radio stations. We will be on the TV stations discussing the medical clinic tomorrow. We will be on 3 stations tomorrow and others are interested in having personal interviews. We went out live today on 10 radio stations. It created quite a buzz. We had a great time. Please be praying that all that is done will bring honor and glory to him.
Chris