A Brief Review Of 2007 At FRC Lima

2007 was quite a year at FRC Lima!

We began the year meeting at Hotel Las Palmeras, in a function room meant for about 100 people. Troy and his family were there with us right at the beginning of last January. On February 4, we held our first service at Cineplanet Alcazar, a huge blessing from God. In March we had our first beach baptism, with 11 people being baptized in Playa Santa Maria. In April we celebrated our first Easter as an FRC campus. Between May and July, we hosted 4 mission groups from FRC in Florida, including a a second visit from Troy and his family. In July we also held a huge Fiestas Patrias celebration at the cinema in honor of Peru Independence Days. In August we launched our daughter church with native tribes living along the Amazon River in the Peruvian jungle, near Iquitos. Also in August an 8.0 earthquake devastated southern Peru, killing 500 people. The folks at FRC Lima responded quickly and generously, donating one ton of food, clothing, medicine, and other supplies to the relief effort, which we personally delivered to earthquake survivors in Chincha less than a week after the earthquake. In the last week of August and the first week of September, we worked together with a group of 30 people from FRC in Florida to perform the extreme makeover at the girls' orphanage in La Victoria. In September we started a new Spanish service in the cinema. In October we took to the streets for our Lima Halloween Outreach, distributing over 1,000 bags of candy and FRC invitation cards. In November we celebrated Thanksgiving with 40 children at the girls' home in La Victoria. In December we had our second beach baptism, with 8 people being baptized. We also held a Christmas party for 400 children in the shantytown of Pachacutec. The FRC Lima band performed special Christmas concerts outside the cinema, to great acclaim. We also had some of our largest crowds of the year at FRC Lima.

It is both awesome and humbling to see how God has blessed FRC Lima in so many ways in 2007. It's exciting to see the church grow each month, and to see so many people impacted by it and beginning a new relationship with Jesus Christ. We are so grateful to all of the leaders and volunteers at FRC Lima, whose servants' hearts have helped to make all of this possible. We ask God to continue to shower His abundant blessings on FRC Lima in 2008!

1,000 Views Of Iquitos Jungle Video!

Last week I told you how over 2,000 people have already viewed the video of our first beach baptism on YouTube, and now I'm excited to say that more than 1,000 people also have watched the video of our daughter church with the tribes in Iquitos in the Amazon jungle!

It's amazing and awesome to see the huge popularity of our videos on YouTube. Over 2,000 views of our first beach baptism in just nine months, and over 1,000 views of our daughter church in the jungle after just three months on YouTube! I know that God is using these and our other videos to reach many thousands of people all across the world.

If you still haven't viewed any of our videos, then go to www.youtube.com, search for "Flamingo Road Church", and you'll find all of our videos there. Join the thousands of people who are viewing our videos!

International Diversity At FRC Lima!

One of the things that we are most excited about at FRC Lima is the international diversity of our congregation here. Over the course of the past year, we have had people from 20 different nations and 3 different native Peruvian tribes as a part of FRC Lima. We have had people from Peru, Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Canada, USA, England, France, Germany, Italy, Estonia, Russia, Holland, China, South Korea, Vietnam, South Africa, and Australia, as well as people from the Yagua, Bora, and Ashaninka tribes of Peru. What an exciting mix of people, and all joined together in the body of Christ at FRC Lima!

Revelation 7:9 (TNIV) tells us how in heaven there will be believers "from every nation, tribe, people and language ...." At FRC Lima we are seeing a sneak preview of that with our awesome international diversity!

Extreme Makeover Video!

We hope you had a great Christmas with family and friends!

This Sunday at FRC Lima we will be showing the video of the extreme makeover that FRC performed at the girls' home in La Victoria last September. It is an amazing video to see! Many of you worked side-by-side with our friends from FRC in Florida on this incredible project, so be sure to come on Sunday to see the "before-and-after" video of the awesome work that you did together!

A Child Is Born

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

Isaiah 9:6 (TNIV)

Good News Of Great Joy

"And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.'"

Luke 2:8-11 (TNIV)

A Busy Christmas Weekend!

We're wrapping up a very busy and very exciting Christmas weekend here in Lima!

Between Friday night and Sunday morning, more than 400 people checked out FRC Lima. Over the past 2 weeks, in Lima and Pachacutec, 38 adults and children became Christ followers. On Saturday morning we hosted a Christmas breakfast at the girls' home for 40 children. Saturday night the FRC Lima band performed a fantastic concert of Christmas music outside the cinema.

It's been a whirlwind of activity here in Lima over the past couple of weeks, given the events listed above, plus our chocolatada in Pachacutec last week and our beach baptism two weeks ago. It's so exciting to see the church grow, to see more and more people become Christ followers, and to help people reach their God-potential in Lima, La Victoria, Pachacutec, Iquitos, and throughout Peru! We've got even bigger plans for FRC Lima in 2008, so stay tuned and hang on to your hats!

2,000 Views!

More than 2,000 people around the world have now viewed our first beach baptism video on YouTube!

This is extraordinary! We performed our first beach baptism last March, almost nine months ago, and now over 2,000 people have watched the video of it on YouTube. If you haven't seen the beach baptism video yet, then now is the time to join the 2,000 who have! Just go to www.youtube.com, search for "Flamingo Road Church", and there you'll find our beach baptism video, along with videos of our second beach baptism, our daughter church with the tribes in Iquitos, our mission trips to Pachacutec and La Victoria, our earthquake relief project in Chincha, as well as videos of the FRC Band in action! Check out all of our videos on YouTube, and show them to your family and friends!

Don't forget to join us tonight at 8:00 P.M. at La Memoria Del Sabor, Av. Conquistadores 510, San Isidro, as we kick off Christmas weekend here in Lima!

Christmas Breakfast In La Victoria

Join us this Saturday morning, December 22, from 9:00-11:00 A.M., as we host a Christmas breakfast at the girls' home in La Victoria where we performed the extreme makeover. All of the girls will be there, along with all of the boys from the nearby boys' home, a total of about 40 kids in all. We'll be serving breakfast and distributing Christmas gifts to everyone. We need folks to make donations of gifts and food. For more information, or to make a gift or food donation, call the church office at 441-1837 or e-mail me at steve.guschov@flamingoroad.org.

La Memoria Del Sabor

Join us this Friday night, December 21, at 8:00 P.M. at La Memoria Del Sabor, Av. Conquistadores 510, San Isidro, for an extra special service which will also feature awesome Christmas music and delicious food and drink! Be sure to invite your unchurched friends, family, relatives, neighbors, co-workers, and colleagues to this very special time. Remember, too, that we also will be having our other Christmas services at our regular service times on Sunday, December 23, at the cinema (9:00 A.M. in Spanish and 10:30 A.M. in English). Join us on Friday and/or Sunday as we celebrate Christmas together!

A Great Saturday In Pachacutec!

What a great day we had in Pachacutec on Saturday!

Pachacutec is a shantytown of 300,000 people. It is located in the sand dunes an hour and a half north of Lima. It is a place of not just poverty, but extreme poverty, and is mainly made up of people who come from the provinces to Lima hoping to find work, but then do not, and wind up stuck far away from home and with little or no money. The average person in Pachacutec tries to survive on about a dollar a day. Most homes are really shacks, and few have electricity, running water, or indoor plumbing. Many of the homes feature a single mom trying to take care of several young children.

40 of us from FRC Lima boarded a big bus on Saturday and rambled up to Pachacutec. We were loaded with paneton, chocolate, candy, caramels, cookies, juice, and a ton of Christmas toys and gifts. Our folks also prepared a show for the children, featuring clowns, dancers, Santa Claus (or "Papa Noel" as he's known here in Peru), Winnie the Pooh, prizes, confetti, and silly string! The kids in Pachacutec ate it up! They had a ball - and so did we!

In total, more than 400 kids in Pachacutec received Christmas gifts, thanks to the generosity of our folks at FRC Lima. For probably 99% of the kids who were there, those were the only Christmas gifts that they'll receive this year.

I want to say a special thanks to Pati and Adele, who did a fantastic job planning and preparing the Pachacutec party. I also want to say a special thanks to Kuntur, who was the star of the show that was performed for the children.

It was an honor for all of us at FRC Lima to be able to bless our young friends in Pachacutec this Christmas - but in reality I think that we received an even greater blessing than the children did.

Love Sign: A Retro Christmas

This weekend at FRC Lima we begin our exciting new series called "Love Sign: A Retro Christmas." In Part 1 we will stop by Ellis Island in NYC and learn about refuge, and how it relates to our finances, health, and relationships.

Both the Spanish and English services will feature full Christmas music, and the cinema will be decked out in Christmas lights, wreaths, and candles! We'll also have a full report on Saturday's mission trip to Pachacutec, as well as the FRC Lima band's Christmas concert outside the cinema on Saturday night.

It's an exciting time of year as we count down to Christmas at FRC Lima, so be sure to invite your friends and family to come out and be a part of this exciting new Christmas series!

Pachacutec

This Saturday is our mission trip to the shantytown of Pachacutec. We're going to be having a "chocolatada" there for about 300-400 kids. We'll be bringing our young friends paneton, "cold" chocolate, and lots of gifts! It looks like we're also going to have a show for them, too.

Some of you have been to Pachacutec with us before, and so you know of the extreme poverty and desperation there. It will be an honor for us to bless our friends in Pachacutec with Saturday's chocolatada, as part of our FRC Lima Christmas Express project.

If you have signed up to go to Pachacutec with us on Saturday, then please remember that we will be leaving the cinema promptly at 12:00 P.M. Tiempo Americano! Please remember to bring wrapped Christmas gifts to distribute to the children there. Please mark somewhere on the wrapping regarding who the gift is for: a boy or a girl, and approximately what age.

Even if you are not joining us in Pachacutec, we still need you to donate Christmas gifts. Please call the church office at 441-1837 for more information about where you can deliver the gifts between now and Saturday at 12:00 P.M.

We're going to have a great time in Pachacutec as we bring a little bit of Christmas joy to a whole lot of kids who really need it!

New Beach Baptism Video on YouTube!

You already know that we just had our latest beach baptism at Playa Santa Maria last Saturday, and now the video of the beach baptism is on YouTube!

Just go to www.youtube.com. Search for "Flamingo Road Church." Then go to page 4 of the Flamingo Road Church videos, and you'll find our beach baptism video from last Saturday, featuring music by Lenny Kravitz! It's a great video, and we're so excited for the 8 people who you'll see being baptized. Remember that we're planning to go back to Playa Santa Maria on Saturday, March 15, 2008, for another beach baptism, so if you haven't been baptized yet, you're going to have another chance in three months!

More Kidney Stones!

Please pray for my health as I've been suffering from more kidney stone attacks these past few days.

On Saturday I had a minor attack after the beach baptism, then on Sunday I had another minor attack after the services, and then on Monday afternoon I had a third attack which was bigger and more painful and required another trip to the emergency room at Clinica Good Hope in Miraflores.

If you've ever suffered from kidney stone attacks, or if you know someone who has, then you understand how painful and debilitating they are. It's like someone has just stuck a sword in your side! I've now had four separate kidney stone attacks in the past three months, and it's no fun. Paul had his "thorn in the flesh" (2 Corinthians 12:7), so I guess the kidney stones could qualify as my own personal thorns.

Thankfully, I've discovered a natural herb from the Peruvian jungle called "chancapiedra" which works to dissolve the stones and relieve the pain. Dorcas makes it into a tea which I drink after any kidney stone attack, and it works like a charm! They know what they're doing there in the jungle!

A Great Beach Baptism!

We had a wonderful time of blessing on Saturday afternoon at our beach baptism at Playa Santa Maria!

8 people were baptized in the Pacific Ocean on Saturday afternoon. The weather was sunny and warm at the beach, in stark contrast to Saturday's cool, cloudy, foggy, breezy weather in Lima, which caused a few folks to get "cold feet" - literally! - about being baptized. But fear not: we're planning on heading back to Playa Santa Maria in March for another beach baptism, so those of you that postponed your baptism on Saturday will have another opportunity in three months.

We'll also be posting a video of Saturday's beach baptism on YouTube this week. We'll let you know when you can view it.

Earthquake Tremor In Lima!

If you're reading this blog anywhere in or around Lima, then I'm sure that you felt Thursday night's big earthquake tremor!

It was a very forceful jolt. The local TV news in Lima said that it registered 5.8 on the Richter Scale. We felt all of its power right here in San Isidro. It was a long, strong tremor, with two parts to it. It rattled our windows and shook all the lights and ornaments on our Christmas tree!

We hope that everyone is doing fine today after the tremor. A little bit of "shake, rattle, and roll" for us as we get ready for Saturday's beach baptism!

Visitors Center

This Sunday at FRC Lima we are launching our all-new Visitors Center!

The Visitors Center will be located in the lobby, near the Information Tables, and will feature gifts for first-time guests, snacks and/or drinks, the e-mail sign-up sheets, plus a ton of other information and material about FRC Lima. Dorcas and I of course will be there after each service to greet all visitors and first-time guests.

If you are bringing any first-time guests with you, be sure that they stop by the Visitors Center after the service that they attend, and we will be delighted to say hi to them!

Weakness And Strength

This Sunday at FRC Lima we will be concluding "The Domino Effect" series. This weekend's teaching will deal with weakness and strength in our lives, and how we need to be very careful in how we choose to satisfy short-term desires in our lives. The enemy always knows where our weak spots are located, and we have to guard against that and seek God's help when we are tempted to satisfy a short-term desire in a manner which would not be pleasing to God. It's a very important teaching, so be sure to come, and invite your family and friends!

The following Sunday, December 16, we will begin our awesome new Christmas-themed series called "Love Signs." You don't want to miss this "retro" Christmas series!

Also remember to join us this Saturday at 11:00 AM at the cinema as we go to Playa Santa Maria for the beach baptism. There's still time to sign up and be baptized! Just call the church office at 441-1837 for more information, or send me an e-mail at steve.guschov@flamingoroad.org.

Beach Baptism This Saturday!

This Saturday is our beach baptism at Playa Santa Maria!

It's going to be a blast - a time of worship, glory, adoration, and celebration! A bunch of people have already signed up to be baptized, and we are so happy and so excited for them! If you are a Christ follower and you have never been baptized, then join us this Saturday and do it!

If you've never seen a beach baptism before, then watch the video of our beach baptism from last March. Just go to www.youtube.com, search for "flamingo road church", and there you'll find it.

We'll be leaving the cinema at 11:00 AM - tiempo americano! - this Saturday morning to go to Playa Santa Maria together. We've hired a big bus to transport everyone. The bus is free for anyone who is being baptized, and 20 soles per person (cheap!) for everyone else attending the baptism.

When we arrive at Playa Santa Maria, we will do the baptism first, and then we will spend some time just hanging out at the beach and celebrating the great day. We'll leave the beach around 4:00 PM.

For everyone who is being baptized, be sure to wear shorts or a bathing suit, and a t-shirt, for the baptism. Be sure to bring an extra pair of shirts and a t-shirt as well, along with a towel. It's also a good idea to bring sunblock, sunglasses, and any other items that you'd normally bring for a day at the beach.

This Saturday is going to be a great day! Pray for lots of sun and hot weather!

Music Auditions

Don't forget that tomorrow, December 2, is the first of two music auditions for all singers and musicians who would like to be part of the team at FRC Lima. Right after the English service, at about 12:00 PM, in the cinema, Josue Santos will begin the music auditions. Be prepared to sing a song or to play an instrument when you are there. This is your opportunity to use your God-given musical talent to reach hundreds of people every Sunday here in Lima!