Overcoming Impossibilities

"With men this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible."

A few of you out there have been with us since the beginning. You may recall that during our first trip here to Peru we were forced to leave the country for a quick border-hop in order to remain legal in Peru. We had tried to file for legal residence through my husband who is a Peruvian born citizen but ran up against some difficulties. We thought that we would take a moment to share with you all our journey and the faithfullness of our God along the way, we hope you will be encouraged to lean on Him all the more.

While here in 2008-09 my husband ran around Lima trying to get our papers in order but was told "you must go back to New York and inscribe your marriage and the kid's birth certificates there first, sorry there is nothing we can do here." Once we returned to New York we set about this task immediately via telephone calls and emails. We were told by the consulate in NYC that since he had legally changed his name in the United States upon his naturalization he could not "ask" for his wife and family. Their justification for this was that I was legally married to a man whom they had no record of in Peru, this was because both our marriage certificate and the kid's birth certificates state his American name. They would not accept an American document showing the legal name change and recommended getting a lawyer, case closed. We waited many months and when it was certain we would be returning to Peru we thought we would take a trip down to NYC and see what we could get accomplished in person. For those of you who know Peru then you will understand that particular decision. Upon arriving my husband was met by the very person who had closed the door on him earlier... and she remembered him. The nails were hammered into the door as they gave us the same response and basically said "good luck."

Well at this point we had a problem, we were selling everything and moving to Peru because we felt the Lord had said "Go, no questions asked." We recognized that we would need to be able to remain in Peru legal so as not to have to constantly be leaving the country every six months but we did not know how that would be accomplished. What we did know for certain was that God had called us and that He would then need to provide a way for us. We continued in our preparations for the big move and let God Almighty worry about the details.

Once we arrived in Lima various agencies confirmed the consultes words to us, we found favor with no one. As we talked one night with a family member they suggested trying to file for the kid's DNI (national ID card) and if we were granted this then they would have to issue the passport. We thought "what do we have to lose" and walked into our local RENIEC office. We spoke with a lawyer there who looked at my husband's two passports (verifiying that the American guy was really the Peruvian guy) and said, "I can do that, but first you need to send these marriage/birth certificates back to New York to be certified." We had a hard time to believe this man, we thought he must not understand correctly but we took a chance and shipped everything back up to NYC. Everything was approved and after a lot of running around translating ect., the kids were granted their DNI's and then their passports. We were excited but still we had to apply for mine and since we had been in the country more than 90 we needed to leave in order to do that. We trusted that God had not brought us that far to change direction and so we completed our border-hop, applied for my legal residence and waited.

This past Monday we went to pick up my Carnet (legal ID), PRAISE GOD. When all odds were against us He led us by the hand down the path we needed to go. He truly is able to do more than we could ever ask or think. The Lord has expressed to us without a shadow of a doubt His faithfulness to us when we walk in obedience. He is teaching us constantly through the trials He has brought us through and all the while greatly increasing our faith.

So that is our story, we hope it will bless and encourage you all to persevere in faith.

Shocking Youth Message

As of late we have been moved to share with a few people this "Shocking Youth Message" delivered by Paul Washer at a Youth Conference some years back. Many have been touched and even converted as a result of this message and so we thought it a good idea to post it here for those of you who have yet to come across it. We in no way want to lift up any one particular man simply the messages the Lord delivers through him. We've been blessed immensely and hope you will be as well.

In searching for the video to post I've come across a short clip of the background behind the message, I think this also is important to watch in order to understand what prompted the going forth of the message that follows.

Trip to Oxapampa

Click the above photo to view our most recent photo album updated in Picasa.

If you have not been added to our monthly newsletter we send out via email and would like to be please send us an email or post a comment here and we will add you. We also send links out to our updated photo albums to those on our Newsletter lists but will now be adding links here as well. In addition to the Newsletter list we also have a Prayer Team group who has commited to praying for us here in Peru, we send brief updates and prayer requests more periodically to this list of people. You can choose to be included in one or both groups, just let us know.

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