A report from a short-term team. . .

Doug Serven is the campus minister of RUF at the University of Oklahoma. He brought down a short-term team of college students back in March. Below is his blog entry/report of their time in Peru and his observations of what God is doing in our mission here in Trujillo:

Peru
3/31/08
I think may have just now recovered from my trip to Peru. We had an overnight flight back to the states, and I can't sleep on planes, so I was up all night. Then I preached at CTK on Easter Sunday. Then, I got sick. Ugh. I think it was the stomach flu from my weakened state, but it may have been something I brought back from Peru. I was out all week long, lying in bed watching Arrested Development all week.

Peru was amazing. I have been to many missions throughout the last ten years in my travels. I've seen a good amount of places, listened to visions, prayed with missionaries. Peru Mission impresses me the most.

The team there is committed to Peruvian leadership. They are there to serve, not to take over. They are raising up, training and encouraging Peruvian pastors and campus ministers.

They're making micro lending commitments to women who are trying to better their lives but cannot get loans otherwise. Some of these women make cards, examples of which are on the website.

They're teaching English and starting schools. They need interns to staff these; one of our own- Katie Gaylor - went down there and served for 8 months. She had a wonderful time.

They're treating people in clinics - people who never could go to the doctor otherwise.

While we were there, we helped with or learned about all of those things. While there, we did conversation classes with university students and invited them RUF. We helped out on the second floor of one of the clinics. We sanded and painted the walls of the expansion project. We also helped haul out the booty of our demo project - they're looking to expand one of the churches and needed to get rid of the existing structure. And we met kids and played with them.

Trujillo is a poor city. There are pockets of prosperity, but it's honestly a third world country. They have a healthy respect for the church and for the gospel, but people need to actually hear it and believe it. They need our help, our prayers, our strength and labor and our people.

I'll be praying for them.

Thanks for the encouraging words, your service here and your prayers Doug!