More Pictures of Last Week

Well, here's part two, I guess one could say, of Saturday's post covering the events which occurred this past weekend. The dashing young man to the left of this writing is myself, Jarron D Brown. I took this picture on Sunday morning in Bro. Nix's office before church. We arrive at the church around 9:30 I would guess, (haven't really noticed the time when we arrive yet.) and the first session doesn't start until 10 I believe. That way I have some time to check emails, listen to the previous week's DISCIPLE lesson, which by the way is what I did yesterday morning, as you can see by the picture below.

Preston (my brother) is a tremendous Bible teacher. As you can see by the pdf, displayed in the foreground, which he so graciously uploads on-line each week for students who are in foreign lands (like myself... actually I'm the only one.ha ) and who are/is/am not able to attend in person. In the background you will notice the media player. This enables me to listen to each of the preceding weeks' lessons, somewhat decent quality, if he'd learn to stop pounding the lectern during important points... jk

As I was saying before the train derailed, and that right early, Preston is a very good teacher and I'm SO thankful that he made this class possible. What we learn in DISCIPLE is what other kids pay big bucks for at national Bible colleges. Well, actually I think most of them are paying for the vacation from their parents, but I digress yet again. :)

Here is, yet again, another snapshot of our not to peaceful traffic. Notice the direction of traffic. Notice also the taxi bus cutting across our pathway. No one was hurt. They seem to have learned to do rather well under completely unsafe driving conditions with no rules or modes of operation.






Directly to your left you will find, if you look closely enough, (you may have to open in another page to view closer) a few water droplets on the ground. This was taken (by mine own hand) during a few minute long not-so intense rainstorm. Hey, this was big news for Lima, seeing as it gets a good rain once every, oh I don't know, 20 years? It's worse than anything I've every heard of in the states. It's drier here than something totally unmoist! What's better is there was a huge rainbow in the sky that showed up in the newspaper the following day.
It kinda flabbergasted me seeing as there was not a cloud in the sky... no really. Continue reading for further evidence...

And here is a picture of the empty sky as it rained/sprinkled/barely dribbled. Well, Sis. Nix said there were clouds, but they're just so thin you can't see them. I guess it happens every once in a blue moon. But apparently the rainbow doesn't normally come with it.

Please feel free to enjoy the next few pictures (no pressure) of the past week's happenings.

Hno. Jose leading prayer service on Tuesday night.

Another Hno. Jose leading worship on Sunday.

This is a view of the church from the street. It was an old cinema they converted into an Apostolic church. This is where the blind man received his sight a couple months ago. That's our car parked out front.

Guess who the usher is. A minister always stands next to the usher during offering time and shakes hands with everyone as they pass by. In the background, you'll notice the ministers standing on the first step. During offering (while music is played) is when they pray for the sick. There's a group of ministers on each side of the pulpit.

Praying for the sick. Our Bro. Jose is in the foreground; Bro. Arnulfo in the background. He was a minister back when my grandpa was here in Peru. He went and preached in the most dangerous of places where no-one else would dare to go because of the terrorists. One of the greatest heroes, I've ever known of. He'd fit perfectly into Hebrews 11.

One of the piano players... also very good.

Altar service. I posted this picture because I was going to tell you these guys' names, but I forgot and am not with the Nixes at this moment. When I find out, if I remember, I will endeavor to share them with you. They are great men.

Baptism during song service just out of the side door of the sanctuary.

Sunday afternoon we ate at Pardo's (great chicken place). These are all delivery motor-bikes lined up out front of the restaurant. Everybody delivers here in Lima, even McDonald's and KFC!

Sunday was an odd day, in that, the weather was completely different than the days preceding it as well as the days, so far, following. It's been really hot and humid lately - all last week and today, except for Sunday, yesterday, which was cool, a little breezy, no humidity, and foggy. It was absolutely beautiful. This picture was taken to try to show the weather. View the building in the center of the picture, notice the top is in the fog. This picture was meant to portray the fog, not the drugstore whose name I have forgotten.

Bro. Nix in his office Sunday afternoon.

As we pulled up to the church, we noticed that our new restroom had been successfully installed! Thank you to all our faithful supporting churches in the states for making this happen! You are all truly a blessing.

On a slightly more serious note, last night's service was one of the most powerful and refreshing services I had been in in a long time. Before the preaching, Bro. Nix asked a group to sing a couple songs. Very worshipful and God really moved. It was one of those times where you just stand there and cry and cry and cry. Afterward Bro. Nix turned it over to Bro. Jerson (one of the piano players) who was to preach. When he got to the pulpit he had us all begin to pray and it didn't end till about two hours later. Needless to say, he didn't preach. It turned into an awesome altar service.

Bro. Jaime praying with someone (backslidden preacher I think).

Pastor Tomas praying with one of the young men.

During altar service, Pastor Nix had the ministers come up and pray for the sick.

Fuzzy pic of Bro. Jerson (who would've preached) praying. Bro. Edwar in the background playing the keyboard.

An itty bitty brother in his itty bitty car with his great big itty bitty family... I wouldn't have guessed it possible to fit 12 people into a tiko!

Another family in a slightly larger car. Only there were 14 or 15 in here.

Below is a no so good recording of one of the songs Hno. Tomas and another minister sang in Quechua on Sunday night at the beginning of service. I love that music!

I hope you all enjoyed this, and have a good night.

Until next time, God bless!

Jarron

P.S. Feel free to comment. :) To do so, just click on the little number on the top right corner of each post. Then type away. :)

Adios!

My Life in Peru Pt 2

Greetings friends and other people!
Things are still going wonderful down here in Peru... except for the weather. :) It's been very hot and very humid. However, yesterday it sprinkled a tad bit which was neat. There was even a rainbow clear across the sky for a couple minutes. Of course, here it rains (if you can call it that) out of a blue sky. Very weird I know, but Sis. Nix told me that the clouds are just so thin you can't see them. Of course it only sprinkled for a couple minutes also. Then it became more humid than ever. :) This excitement helped pass the time while the electricity was cut off for a couple hours. Naturally the house turned into a sauna. Once the electricity turned back on, the water was turned off. I think their "supposedly" working with some new homes yonder from us. The water is still off. I sure hope I can shower before church tomorrow.
In other news, last Sunday's church services were superb. In the afternoon we have youth service. A young man, who is shown next to me in a photo below, named Heliot, preached a message called "Hasta Muerte (Until Death)." He drew from the story of Naboth in the Old Testament. It was a very moving and stirring message. I actually understood quite a bit of it.LOL
I'm currently reading a book I found in Bro. Nix's vast library entitled "Daniel" by Arno C. Gaebelein. Obviously it's about the OT book of Daniel. Very interesting. However, at one point I did get a kick when the author tried to explain the trinity by saying that when Daniel interpreted King Nebuchadnezzar's dream, the king said that surely Daniel's God is a #1 God of gods (aka father), #2 Lord of kings (aka son), and #3 revealer of secrets (aka holy spirit). 1, 2, 3 descriptions must surely mean that God is in three persons! HAHA That's definitely the farthest stretch I've heard of from someone trying to explain that false doctrine. Other than that huge gaff, the material about prophesy is quite interesting. :) I guess he did provide some humor for the reader to enjoy, which is thoughtful.
Bro. Nix, as I have already stated, fits in real well with the drivers down here in Lima. One particular instance occurred the other day. We were in our lane, road jammed with automobiles, when a bus decided to change to our lane, not bothering to let us get out of the way. Worst of all, Bro. Nix didn't even turn or slow down until the very last split second. It scared me half to death and because I was in the front passenger side, I would've been the one crushed. My natural reaction, as is (should be) the case with all Apostolics, was to start praying. While laughing Sis. Nix shouted "Vicki Lives!" Then we all laughed. Today we had a similar experience, only I wasn't scared this time.
Today we went to the beach. Unfortunately I forgot my camera today. It's a nice beach, the sand is much darker than California beaches and the waves are much higher. Lots of surfers too. We also have hammer head sharks, I can't remember if we have those back home. The scenery is beautiful when looking down the coastline toward Lima. The huge cliff that separates the city from the Pacific is quite a sight. Overall it's a cool beach, only one problem, you have to watch out for bares.
I've been eating like a Pefkakian refugee since I got here. Today we went to that super friendly restaurant again. We also went grocery shopping today. That was fun.
Below are some pictures I took this past week. Enjoy!

Pastor Tomas from Ayacucho preached last Sunday night.

A sort of smeared shot of Heliot testifying, just to give an idea.

Hno. Jerson is an awesome keyboardist!

A view of the platform during service

Alter service Sunday night

L - R Bro. Jose Quiñones, the local youth leader and Bro. Edwar(no 'd'), the piano player for youth service.

Last Sunday, Bro. Nix and I went to lunch to a Chinese restaurant. We found this on the menu, and had a good laugh. I think they meant to say "grilled dishes."

Us at the same restaurant.

Sunday morning, first session, minister's class. There were around 30 ministers there.

Hno. Heliot preaching youth service, "Hasta Muerte."

Heliot and myself. He's originally from the jungle. He's been preaching since he was 13.

Myself and Sebastián. He and Heliót are some of the neatest guys. They speak slowly and help teach me new Words and phrases. :)

A shot of a man praying in the altar.

Sebastián during youth service.

He was the Emcee.

Well, I better go. In 10 minutes we have to go outside for an earthquake drill, during which, all electricity will go out for 15 minutes. We had a grade 5 earthquake here today, but neither myself nor the Nixes felt it. I think we were driving at the time. Oh well, maybe I'll feel the next one. More to come next week... Hopefully! Keep praying, especially for safety from unsafe food and water. I really appreciate it.

God bless,

Jarron

My Life in Peru Pt 1

Greetings everyone,

For those of you who have not yet heard, I now reside in the nation of Peru, city of Lima. Beginning in a couple weeks, I will be a supervisor at an A.C.E. school here in La Molina for the next 10 months. I will be working with the Secundaria level (aka high school)... Should be fun. :) I finished my training yesterday, and am now an officially certified ACE instructor. Mother would be soo proud.

I boarded my plane in LA this past Tuesday at 6:50am and arrived in Lima the following morning at approximately 12:30am. Needless to say, yo estuve muy cansado. After I sailed through customs without a hitch, I was met by Bro. and Sis. Nix, Bro. Jaime and Sis. Julia Alva, Bro. Jose (Papa and Mama know who they are) as well as a thousand other people who, unfortunately, didn't seem to really care. :) We got home around 2am.

Traffic is awesome down here in Inca land; the Inland Empire's got nothing on Lima. The broken yellow lines painted down the middle of the streets are nice decoration... when you can see them. Here, the folks are very fond of creating their own lanes - the great thing about it is the police don't seem to care. Of course it creates mass confusion when you have a million huge buses loaded to the door with multitudes getting on and off at the oddest of places in the middle of the street plus a million personal automobiles plus 2 or 3 million taxis, all of them driving like I always wanted to, but Mama never let me... But at the same time its a great source of entertainment while commuting, granting you don't run too many people down on the way to church across town. As fun as all this may sound, it's not the only free entertainment on the road. At certain intersections, when the street light (which show pretty colors every now and then) turns red and after a minute somebody finally stops, it's at that moment that, among all the kids selling their wares from car to car, out come the acrobats. They're really very good - leaping flips into the air, cartwheeling, doing break dance type maneuvers... all in the front of the line of cars and buses honking and so forth. They do all this for tips, which is optional of course. It's also interesting watching them scramble out of the way when the light turns green. Waiting for someone who is in the middle of the street is unheard of. Ranked among the best of drivers here in Peru is Missionary Robert Nix, who, starting tomorrow at rush hour will be giving me driving lessons... JK

Changing the subject slightly, our church in San Felipe is great. The people are great and the building is huge. I will try to take pictures with a my friends at church tomorrow, and post them for you all to see. I met Heliot (H is silent) on Tuesday I believe. He's twenty years old; he's also the regional youth director. He's a really cool guy. It was easier for us to communicate once I got him to talk more slowly - same with Sebastia´n, who's also really neat. I love talking with the little kids too especially, because they speak clearly and slower. As I stated above, I will try to post pictures of the people here.

Thus far I have taken 204 pictures since Houston. (Thanks again for the camera Papa and Mama!) Below are a just a few that I thought you might enjoy.

The adult Bible study class on Thursday night in the lobby.

This man has to read his Bible with a very strong magnifying glass. He rides buses for two hours to church, then two hours home.

People either waiting to jump in a passing bus or to cross the street when the cars come to a stand-still.

Bro. Jaime and Myself. He lived in England for four years, so he speaks fairly good English.

The church in San Felipe. It used to be a cinema.

The night I arrived. At the Nixes home.

He's obviously selling stuff.

A sample of our daily traffic.

The architect said it's supposed to look like it's floating...

I took this from a window in one of the Bible school Classrooms. The Bible School is located directly above the church.

The most hospitable restaurant I've ever been to. All the servers and the maitre d' met us at the door as we left and every of of them shook our hands and thanked us for coming. One even went outside and opened our car doors for us. They sure know how to keep their customers!

Same place

My first Peruvian wedding...

The garbage truck workers around here apparently like their picture taken. :)

Notice all the little huts that cover the mountain side. These are the ¨barriadas.¨

In the middle of the barriadas we passed this Mormon church... didn't quite fit in with the surroundings somehow.

One of the taxis I'd love to ride someday.

The outside of the Nixes house. Most houses are walled for some odd reason.

Dino the guard dog - he doesn't know whether or not he likes me yet.

This is my home for the rest of the year... nice big backyard.

More to come soon...