Jill's Thanksgiving

As I reflect on all the things that transpired during our short time in Trujillo, my mind swirls with memories. Praise wells up in my heart for how God answered so many prayers and made His presence clear on so many occasions. And to think...for all those moments it was obvious, there were uncountable times that He was at work without our even being aware. We have such a GREAT BIG WONDERFUL LOVING Father God. What a privilege it is to be His ambassador.

Some of the things I am most grateful for is the way God unified us as a team and allowed us to be open and honest with each other. He provided just the right people to accomplish what He had purposed. At the last minute, the Peruvian translator that was to join our team became ill and had to be replaced by Cecilia. She was a God-ordained addition to our team that we almost forfeited because of her additional airfare. Besides helping us to communicate and understand the Peruvian culture, Cecilia was full of energy and her background in business administration was a huge help to Richard and me in many of the finanical and organizational matters we had to address.

God encouraged our team to serve one another and to be prayful throughout the stresses of each day. Thank God for the health, stamina and safety He provided. We experienced favor in the airports without any lost luggage, in averting the midnight mob, as well as not incurring any penalties for our heavy baggage full of supplies.

One of my biggest reliefs as a first-time leader was getting through the church services and Opening Ceremonies where we were obligated to speak on behalf of Joni and Friends, mingle with dignitaries, provide a slide presentation and give television interviews. Thank God for Earle's willingness to share at both church services about his son, Nick. And what a blessing to participate in the church where the founder, Burt Elliott (Jim Elliott's brother), was celebrating his 80th birthday.
I've never sensed God's annointing quite like when the Holy Spirit prompted me to do a spontaneous narration of last year's picture show during that service. I'm so grateful for His empowering as well as His covering when we blunder. I did that quite frequently among the dignitaries that Corazones Unidos was so pleased to have in attendance at the Opening Ceremonies. The local, regional and state governors were present as well as media coverage by 3 national TV stations. Even though I had to ask them who they were (just one of my blunders!), God greatly impacted these dignitaries' hearts with the work of Wheels for the World. The Governor of Huanchaco even returned for our Closing Despadito bearing gifts for each of us.


The actual distribution itself was full of hard work and long hours of adapting chairs to meet individual needs. One late night our energy was revived by the "cockroach dance" that was needed to clear our work area of the infestation from an old chair we were attempting to refurbish. Gabi, a 13 year young lady with cerebral palsy, received one of those lengthy wheelchair modifications.
She was so pleased to have the stability in her new chair to show us how she could write with her mouth like Joni. Her special request was for Joni's book as Gabi loves to read. It was our joy to give her one of Joni's books about dealing with the challenges of life through the power of Jesus Christ.


As you can tell, there are many stories I could relate, but my high point occured on the last day of distribution. One of our primary objetives in addition to sharing Jesus Christ with those affected by disability was to provide training to the volunteers of Corazones Unidos so they can carry on the ministry themselves. It was disappointing to only have one seating specialist among the 81 volunteers...and then to learn that she had only just completed her training as a physical therapy assistant and did not even know Jesus Christ as her Savior. Since she missed the first day devoted to training, I kept Milagros at my side most of the distribution. Cecelia had a big job of translating my problem solving approach for each seating evaluation. Cecilia found time, however, to share with Milagros throughout the week about her relationship with Jesus. We included Milagros in our times of prayer at the beginning of each day as well as before and after fitting each wheelchair recipient. On the last day of distribution I asked my station which included a Peruvian mechanic, Peruvian support person, Cecelia and Milagros to pray instead of only me. To my amazement, Milagros also prayed. The other Peruvians seemed to rouse in agreement with her prayer, although I could not understand their Spanish. Aterward I asked Cecilia what was going on. Praise God...Milagros had never witnessed anyone giving without expecting in return. She was so grateful to learn more about God and wanted to accept Him into her heart.
Of course, we quickly rejoiced and shared more fully with Milagros. It was a joy to have a new sister in Christ! We were able to connect her with the volunteers in Counselling, provide her with a Spanish Bible and encourage her to grow in her new found faith in Christ. We trust this will be the beginning of providing more seating specialists to assit Corazones Unidos in their ongoing ministry.

In addition to Milagros having her name written in the Lamb's Book of Life, 652 became new believers throughout Peru from the WFTW outreaches in Lima, Arequipa and Trujillo. Our records show that we served the families of 134 adults and 15 children in Trujillo by providing a wheelchair, walker, crutches or cane. Of those, 347 went through evangelistic counseling. 130 received God's gift of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, 16 recommitted their lives to Jesus and 73 were already born-again Christians. PRAISE GOD FROM WHOM ALL BLESSINGS FLOW!! May God establish each one in His Truth and use the wonderful volunteers of Corazones Unidos to disciple these believers.

----from Jill, with thanksgiving