Dear Friends and Family,

The red-eye flight arrived into Lima around midnight and all twenty one dreary members of our Spring Break trip pulled fifty plus luggage pieces through customs and the jammed Lima airport. We rested a while on top of all our duffel bags and the next morning around 5:00am we began our week long stay in Huanta, Peru by taking a small plane over the Andes Mountains.

This is the fourth trip that I have lead to Peru in my four years here at Covenant College, and this is by far the largest team. Not only were we surrounded by all of our friends, but Alicia (my fiancée) and her father were also able to join us along with friends from the Faith Presbyterian Church in Tacoma, Washington. Even though the team came from all parts of the world, they had similar goals: to experience the work and ministry of my family in the church, to help the ministry in a small way, and to see where Alicia and I will eventually serve.

Alicia - Nathaniel's Fiancée

The Huanta Police Station

After a restful Sabbath day to recuperate from our long trip we delved right into working on Monday. Eight girls, thirteen guys, buckets of paint and brushes later, the Huanta Police Station had a fresh look and clean patrol cars. This was the first of many of our projects in Huanta. The next day we split up the group and Alicia led the women through the meat market to the market place to buy supplies used for decorating the church Sunday school rooms. Hours later, the rooms were cleaned, colorful and decorated with Spanish Bible verses for the children to learn. Meanwhile, I brought the men to the construction site where we would begin the week-long project of building the roof for the new church's kitchen. Nilton, the architect, explained how we were to cut and bend the piles and piles of rebar, and the guys went to work with out hesitation.

The next days brought much more painting for the women. I was extremely grateful to be working alongside Alicia and to see her adopting this place and work as her own. Every afternoon the girls on her team showed off their freshly painted rooms with pride. While we were there, they were able to paint the dining rooms, the kitchen and the girl's large bedroom for the orphanage. As the girls painted, all of the guys on the team worked on putting together the kitchen roof. This kind of project usually takes about two or three weeks, but we knew that we couldn't leave on Sunday with out the roof being done! Saturday morning and afternoon we found ourselves carrying hundreds of buckets of cement to the top of the kitchen. We got reinforcements around noon when the women joined us to complete our project. Finally around 3:00pm the last bucket was raised and the finish photo was taken!

Cutting and Bending Piles of Rebar

The Kitchen Roof Finished

Living on the mission field for an extended period of time can desensitize you in many ways to things considered abnormal. Someone in our group commented that in the US all we would have had to do is call a cement truck to poor all that cement for 5-10 minutes - it took us 5 or 6 hours! It was not until I began to travel with people who were witnessing my hometown for the first time that I was able to have my eyes open to the strangeness of this place. But it is a familiar strangeness. It is a strangeness that God has called me to and it is no longer strange but normal; not ugly, but beautiful. I love seeing the beauty of God's creation in Peru, and I loved taking this team to Huanta to have a hand in the ministry with us. Alicia and I commented how beneficial it has been to visit the church in Huanta frequently to establish solid friendships. The women in the church have taken to Alicia particularly well and the ties are growing deeper with every visit.

The church is growing outwardly at rapid rates. I spoke with one of the leaders of the church, Ruben Solier, who is also one of my best friends, and he told me that his group has grown from 0 to 35 plus members in very little time. He is really encouraged and from hearing the testimonies of what God is doing in the other members of the discipleship group, people are flocking around the light of Jesus. It was beautiful to hear how the little orphan girls have been winning people for Christ and how their friends are trying to win their parents over as well. Please pray for the Huanta church as it strives to lift the name of Christ amidst much opposition. The city is great but the workers are few. Pray for the Spirit to fill the men and women of our church courageously that He may be glorified and that Huanta might know Him.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support as we were able to accomplish the tasks we set out to do. The Lord blessed our efforts and the church was encouraged. Alicia and I look forward to getting married this May and returning to Peru after a one year internship with Youth for Christ in Tacoma, Washington. Tacoma is Alicia's hometown and the Lord has blessed us with the opportunity of being able to start a Hispanic Outreach Program for YFC for the 15,000 plus Hispanic young people in that area! Please pray for us as we plan to begin that ministry in June.

Thank you again for your constant prayers. We could not do without them! May the Lord bless you!

In Christ,

Nathaniel Gutierrez
PS - The following is a letter from Alicia's perspective.

"I don't want to move to Peru," were the first words I said to my friends Megan and Mary when I walked in the door from being on my first date with Nathaniel. One year later, I was not only helping Nathaniel lead a team of 21 people to Peru, but I was also introducing Megan and Mary, now two of my bridesmaids, to my future home!

Alicia, Her Dad, Megan and Mary

While I had been to Peru twice before, this trip was especially exciting for me. Not only were Megan and Mary coming down, but two more of my bridesmaids, my brother Adam, and my dad were included in the team. I knew that I would enjoy having them down there on the trip, but I was not prepared for how excited I would be to show my new home off to them. Every meal we ate, every walk we took through Huanta, every person in the church we interacted with, my heart swelled with pride to see the ones I love experiencing for the first time where I will soon call home.

Since the guys had the daunting task of building a roof over the church kitchen, the girls broke off into a separate team to work on other projects that the Gutierrezes needed to get done. Decorating Sunday School rooms, baking treats for the team, and painting the orphanage were some of the projects that I led the girls in doing. With each project, I watched the girls, my friends, as they not only helped my future in-laws, but as they worked to build the ministry Nathaniel and I would be a part of. The walls we painted were not just walls, they were for an orphanage that Nathaniel and I will eventually raise children in. The Sunday School rooms were not for just anyone, they were for the children who will be our children's friends. The people we interacted with in the church were not just any people, they were friends who Nathaniel and I will walk with when we serve in Huanta. Everything we did down there was not just for the temporary, but it was for our future as well. To know that my friends were investing in my future ministry, to watch my dad and my brother build a roof on my church's kitchen, were what made me so proud to have people dear to my heart down there.

Painting The Rooms

But that was just the physical part of the trip. Leaving behind friendships and a deep connection with fellow believers around the world was more important to us than anything else. On our last night in Huanta, our team, the orphans, and people in the mentoring group went out for a chicken dinner. As we sat around the table, I noticed that each person from our team had a special person from Peru to sit with. Whether it was an orphan girl, a man from the mentoring group, or even a member of the Gutierrez family, each of us were leaving Peru having connected with someone from there. No one had told our team to intermingle with the Peruvians during dinner, but after spending a week with these people, the team felt a natural connection with them. I watched one of my bridesmaids, Tami talk and laugh with Miriam, a strong member of the mentoring group. I watched my friend Christina discussing Christ with Judith, another member of the group. I watched my brother laughing with Ruben, a faithful leader in the group, and Megan and Mary enjoying Benji, Nathaniel's brother. Those who have been such an important part of my life so far were all of the sudden interacting and connecting with people who are going to be my family, my friends and my support group down in Peru. The Lord had made it possible for both my present home and my future home to connect and grow together, and He did it in the most unexpected yet easy way possible.

One year ago, the idea of moving to Peru terrified me. How could I leave every American comfort and familiarity that I had ever known, to live in a country I had hardly heard anything about! But now, this country has become my home. This country is where my heart is and where my future is going to be. This is where I will raise my children, make my friends, invest my life and heart, and serve alongside my best friend, Nathaniel. Who would have thought a year later I would be showing off Peru as my future home to Megan and Mary. The Lord's plans are perfect and this trip was a shining example of that.

Alicia Skrivan

------------------

Team members included Megan Barber, Ryan Chico, Luke Carrier, Charlie Dey, Nathaniel Gutierrez, Adrienne Haass, Christina Haass, Tom Haass, Mary Lambert, Daniel Levi, Tami Montgomery, Laura Neale, Nelson Pettit, Courtney Rayburn, Jason Roebke, Adam Skrivan, Alicia Skrivan, Tim Skrivan, Jon Voogt, Jonathan Wilson and John Young