Kris is up on a mountain today, so I (Matt) am guest blogging!  It has been a great past few days.  First of all this morning some of us (Caleb, Indya, Kris, and Arturo) went on a hike to a waterfall because a friend we made here, Daniel said he would take us to it.  It was beautiful! It was marvelous to see the majesty of God´s creation.  Here is a picture of it.  It was at least 100´ tall and probably more.  

We also got to talk to Daniel for a while.  He is a Christian but claims he has drifted away from God since he moved to Lima a few years ago.  Also, he is in Matucana because he was beaten and robbed and moved back from Lima to Matucana to recieve medical attention. This is because his medical insurance was good only for Matucana.  We got to pray with him and share on the necessity of Christ´s sacrifce for our works to be good in God´s sight.  On the way back a woman stopped us and wanted to let us know how much she enjoyed our skits and music from the mother´s day celebration.  It is wonderful to see how God is working in people´s hearts here.  After talking with many of the locals, I have noticed a pattern that many people here are simply blind in their religion--following rituals for rituals sake and lack a real faith and a personal knowledge and relationship with God.  On the way back from the waterfall we saw this shrine:

It was explained to us that people make sacrifices to this shrine in the side of the mountain because they believe God will bless them for it.  Please pray that God would open the eyes of the people here.  Pray that He would allow them to see that only He is worthy of worship.  People in Matucana worship many things--some alcohol, some worldly living, and some worship their traditions instead of the Living God.  It would do all of us well to reflect and see in our own lives if we are doing things just for the sake of doing them or do we really do things in faith and in love out of a vibrant relationship with our Lord.

After the waterfall, a group of people (Kris, Indya, Andrew, Martin) hiked up to Collana.  They will be back Wednesday morning.  They will be encouraging the local pastor, visiting homes to share the gospel, and helping around the small school in that village, so please keep them in your prayers.  The rest of us (Caleb, Cathleen, Caitlin, Arturo, Priscilla, and I) went to go tutor a student we met the other day and play with his brothers and sisters.  Their father cheated on their mother and left them six months ago.  The mother washes cars for a living and has five kids.  The oldest, Ian, didn´t have the motivation to stay in school, so his mom asked if we would talk with him.  So we´ve been going back and helping him with his studies and encouraging him and his family.  Please pray that he would get involved in the local church here.  Even though his earthly father left, there are brothers and sisters in Christ who would love him and remind him that his Heavenly Father loves him even more than that!  We plan on going back tomorrow.

Tomorrow the plan is that Cathleen and Caitlin will go with Arturo to teach Bible stories at the school and Caleb, Priscilla, and I will go around a portion of the town we haven´t been to yet and share the gospel and tell them about the local church, so please pray that both of those things will be fruitful.  Thank you for reading today´s blog. God´s blessing be with you!

PS--here is a picture I thought my sweet wife would enjoy: dogs cooling off in a small stream.  These dogs followed us on our 1.5 hour hike to the waterfall.