We are about 3 weeks to our Matching Fund Deadline with Bricks of Hope (see www.iris-sudan.org).  We were going to get together after Easter and brainstorm. . .what’s a good time for you.  Michele is here in Orange Park for Friday afternoon and Saturday morning before heading for Miami and then back to the Sudan.  I’m the taxi while she’s here.  I could get with you Thursday afternoon or evening or perhaps Sunday afternoon?  Next week is pretty much wide open for me.

May 15th is our matching fund deadline for Bricks of Hope.  Currently we are at 26% of our Bricks of Hope goal of 193,000 bricks or $400,000.  All pledges or donations received by May 15th will be matched up to $200,000.

We desperately need individuals, churches, youth groups, civic organizations that will help us get to goal.  Bricks are only $2 each.  A wonderful, made-to-order project for young people. . .kids helping kids!  People can help us by PRAYING that we sell just the right number of bricks to enable moving the children in Michele’s care onto their new property, SHARING WITH OTHERS by word-of-mouth and the internet, and of course by BUYING BRICKS.

If you know of individuals or organizations that might be interested in helping us that I can contact, please let me know.

I look forward to hearing from you.  Thank you for your interest and your willingness to help us,

Diane Perry (for Michele)

Maybe for some, but not for me.. Last night we went up to the Fleming Island High School football game and worked the booth on behalf of the parents of the players on the team. It was one really, really busy night so it was not an outreach for the faint of heart. When we finished at 11pm everybody was wiped out but charged up for having touched so many people in a very small way with the love of Christ.

Journey Church is a small but growing congregation of people who really seem to be trying to follow in the footsteps of Jesus by serving the world around them. I am proud to say that since our inception we have averaged 1-2 outreaches per month and internally people are serving like crazy on the ministry teams.

Mary Jo and I were sitting down talking about church the other night before going to bed and we had just helped put together her list of people who would be serving in kids church over the next 6 weeks. There were some 37 names on that list. I was completely and completely blown away. If you add the people who are serving in worship, guest services, on outreaches, as small group leaders I would not be shocked if 50-60% of the people in the church on serving on a regular basis.

That is simply, simply amazing.. God I am so grateful to be surrounded by a group of people who are seeking to live out their lives to make a difference in the lives of others.

A special thank you to all of you who came out to serve last night. We are doing it again Sept 19th when Fleming Island is playing Orange Park. It will be the biggest highschool game of the year in the county. So sign up now to serve at that event. You will work hard.. but you will be touched by serving others!

Check out the pics on the right hand side of the blog to view these awesome servants of God.

Eric

On my final day in Peru I spent some alone time at a Monistary for about 2 hours. It was a great time of reflection and a way to decompress. The pictures are in the photo album.

The final pics from Peru are from Lima. Stovall, I and a few others slipped out to the beach during the layover. Some pics are fun from the airport to.

Yesterday was an incredible day. The culmination of months of preparation for Pastor Mike Sehon and his team, for Pastor Mike Pier, and a week of very hard work getting the church ready to open my our EDJ team and all who went down to help open it up.

All of it paid off yesterday as 262 people came to the first service. The atmosphere was electric from the second the worship started. Pastor Stovall came up afterwards and preached an incredible message of forgiveness. In his trademark fashion he had to come up with a great analogy to crack people up. In this case it had to do with the water. In Peru the default water is pretty much undrinkable, even taking great caution, most of us have gotten sick this week. So everyone drinks bottled water. In this case "AUGA CON GAS!" which is essentially seltzer water which virtually explodes every time you open the bottle. Or Auga SIN Gas – which is normal "FLAT" water. So pastor challenged them to live thier lives for God Con Gas – not flat.. It went over very well.

So after service it was fun time for the team. It happened to be the final day of Carnival in Peru so everyone was on the streets having a crazy time spraying people with liquid foam. Of course the Gringo’s had to get into the mix. It this case Clay looks to have been on the losing end of that particular battle.

As the night heated up things got even crazier and poor Sean ended up falling down into some metal spikes and pierced his hands and knees pretty bad. The picture on the left is Mike Pier digging into the holes with a q-tip and various medicines. Morgan is praying..

Of course you can’t be in Peru without getting something stolen. Apparently if things are not attached to you they will get stolen. So in this case Alex Tran had his camera stolen, and once again Morgan steps up in prayer..

So we are on out way home shortly. 2 more teams are coming between now and August. I have been invited back for the august trip to continue to do some more leadership development and training. The experience has been great. Challenging my faith. Reminding me that my problems are not nearly as big as they seem. Can you believe the average wage here is $100 US per month. Per month.. I feel spoiled. wow.. It really helps to put some stuff into perspective.

Mary Jo – I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

I am still kind of tired, I will blog more later, and will do my best to upload pics, but right now we finally have some free time and are going to head out shopping.