March 2006 Great Co-Mission Newsletter

Click here to download our March 2006 Great Co-Mission prayer newsletter. If you have any problems downloading, please email me at allensmith@perumission.org.

Allen's Teacher

One of the great things about one-on-one study at language school is that I've had many opportunities to share the Gospel with my teachers. My favorite teacher, Luis, is an unfaithful Roman Catholic who said that God sent me to him at just the right time.

Luis recently had a student for three months who was an atheist. Luis was close to proposing to his girlfriend he has had for six years, but this student told him, "Marriage is bad. Don't do it Luis, you'll be unhappy the rest of your life!" For whatever reason, his student convinced him not to propose. But even worse, this student placed many seeds of doubt the existence of God. Luis said that he really questioned if there was a God. His whole life seemed as if a little dark cloud followed him everywhere he went.

Luis then proceeded to tell me that ever since I’ve been his student, all we’ve talked about is God and the Bible. Everyday he comes to class with a new set of questions for me; typical questions like,

“Are there many ways to God?”
“How can one get to God?”
“How can I grow my faith in Christ?”
“Why is the cross the symbol of Christianity?”
“If God is a loving God, why is there so much suffering and pain in the world?”

When Luis asked the last two questions, I think God gave him a break through. I told him that his two questions were related. Though there is not a good, quick, all encompassing answer to why there is suffering in the world, the cross is where the answer is met. Jesus underwent the worst suffering and pain on the cross, yet he was innocent and did not deserve such treatment.

Then I explained that the cross is like D-Day that secured V-Day for WWII. In the same way, Jesus defeated the battle against Satan, sin, and death on the cross so that the ultimate war would be won at the resurrection. The cross was our D-Day that insures our V-Day with Christ at His coming. At that moment, Luis put his dry erase marker to his mouth while looking up and said, “Ah, the cross is not just a symbol of death but of victory as well.” The Lord is obviously working on Luis. Pray that God would open Luis’ heart and make him a new creature in Jesus Christ!

Dia de Carnaval

Right about the same time as Mardi Gras, all of South America celebrates "El Carnaval." Instead of throwing beads they throw water on everyone! It does not matter if you are young or old, male or female, Peruvian or Gringo, all are at risk if you walk about town. Abbie and I decided to have our own little private celebration with foam spray....


Ready for war!

Abbie had fun as long as she was the only one spraying.

Three Weeks in Cuzco

The last three weeks have been a very long three weeks at language school. It always seems that time creeps by when you encounter many new things. At least that’s the way it was when I was young. Christmas always seemed thousands of years away at age six. Well, things are getting normal and now time is speeding up.

Last week the girls went to VBS at the local Presbyterian mission church. They didn’t understand much of the songs or Bible stories, but they sure did understand the language of play. In two weeks they'll begin a bilingual pre-school called Chaska Wasi. Abbie is very excited about going to her new "jardin" (Spanish for garden, I guess somewhat equivalent to what we call “nursery”). Adeline has no clue she is going yet. Please pray that Abbie and Adeline will learn Spanish quickly at their new school.

Yesterday we went to the quaint village of Pisaq, just over the mountain from Cuzco. It was about a 45 minute drive; our first time out in the Peruvian country side. It was gorgeous! Here are some pictures we took while at the market and the local playground:


We’re still looking for the right house in Trujillo. The rent has really gone up in the last two years; something we didn’t budget for while raising funds. We want to be wise stewards of God’s money given to us through you. Please pray that the houses we are looking at will come down in price and that He will provide us the best house for our family and ministry.

Recent Video Clips

For those interested, I've just put up some short video clips on our mac family homepage (taken from our Canon Powershot S50). The first is Abbie chasing pigeons at Cusco's Main Plaza. The second is our tour of Chan Chan, just outside of Trujillo, which is the oldest and biggest adobe city in the world. We hope to upload more clips and pictures latter.

We're Finally Connected!

The telephone company finally came and setup our DSL connection! We have a vonage phone and called all our family today. It was like a cup of cold water in the desert. Now we can respond to your emails more promptly.

Hola! from Cuzco

Abbie says, “Hola! from Cuzco”
Tonight I’m am writing from our new home in Cuzco. It is nice to finally settle down for several months. As you can see we’ve been living out of our suitcases for the past two months. We now have our own rooms. The MTW missionary family, Bill and Jeanine Allen, were instrumental in finding us our apartment in Cuzco. We would not be here if it were not for their great help!

Here’s a picture of the great view we have to study from. Even though we’ve only been here one week, we already miss our team immensely. God richly blessed our time in Trujillo as we had fellowship with the Bakers, Bradfords, Dale Ellison, and Roland & Peaches Barnes.

Sandi and I felt overwhelmed our first day in Cuzco. I had no idea how much 10,900 feet would effect us. Bill and Jeanine Allen picked us up from the airport and had us over latter for supper. Over some soup, Dr. Bill Allen said that we might have trouble sleeping the next few nights due to elevation sickness, what they locals call “soroche”. Boy was he right! Sandi and the girls slept fine, but I woke up several times short of breath and with a pounding headache. The tea mate de coca really does help soroche!

The Pre-General Assembly Missions Conference went great. Our former pastor, Dr. Mike Ross, preached five sermons on Acts 2. He stressed the importance of spirit filled churches. Such churches keep the urgency of the gospel at the forefront of all ecclesiastical ministry as well as never straying from the ordinary means of grace as recorded in Acts. 2:42. Many ministers made comments to me how convicting were his sermons. May God’s word sink deep into their hearts.


After the Missions Conference, we toured Chan Chan, the largest and oldest adobe city in the world. The tour guide informed us that the king and 120 of his servants lived within the city while over 30,000 lived outside its walls. That would mean only 0.005% of the total population lived within 90% of the city. As we walked through the ruins the thought kept coming too me, “O that the City of God would come and transform Peru!”



Sandi and I both really like our spanish teachers. Both are very patient and very professional. Please pray that Sandi and I will learn very rapidly so that we can return to Trujillo as quickly as possible.



Sandi poses with the girls in Lima’s Plaza de Armas while Allen gets his shoes shined next to the Cathedral.


Chao from Cuzco!