Beauty for Ashes: Peru

Hey ALL!!

I have been wanting to write a blog about my team and just some fun things about Peru and the culture… but God keeps moving and I couldn’t help but share this awesome experience!!!! I promise soon I will write about something fun! Anyways, just a little back story for this particular blog, In the summer of 2018, I went to India on a Beauty for Ashes retreat. Beauty for Ashes (B4A) is the women’s ministry of Adventures in Missions.

“We exist to share God’s restoration, hope, and healing with women through ministry and training. We desire for women to walk out of shame and into freedom through biblical stories, testimonies, seeking the Lord’s voice, and sharing their stories with their community. We believe deeply in empowering women to step into all God has for them so they can disciple other women in the practical application of living out the freedom found in God’s truth and His purpose in their lives. Each woman’s story is powerful.” – Beauty for Ashes

On my World Race, I have been entrusted with the role as a Beauty for Ashes coordinator. I was so pumped when I received that news at training camp!!! My role consists of training the women on my team to help host events, lead retreats, and to seek the Lord each month for women’s ministry!!!

SO THIS PAST WEDNESDAY WE GOT TO HOST A MINI RETREAT FOR A GROUP OF WOMEN IN HUARAZ!!!!! IT WAS EPIC. To protect the stories and identity of these women, in the following testimonies I will not state their names.

Let me tell you more. There is a Peruvian couple that lives with us at our host home, the wife of the couple’s name is Nancy. Our team held the retreat for her small group. We welcomed them and did a fun icebreaker! Our first session was called Pause to Connect! A session that encourages women to remember a time they felt really connected with the Lord. Our second session was on Esther. An encouraging session that empowers and teaches women that they have a voice and are important in the Kingdom of God. Our final session was on Identity. This consisted of the individual participants asking the Lord what lies they believed, so they could receive His truth in replace of them. We then ended in communion!! GUYSSSSSS It was SO good!

When the women arrived, they were so shocked! The room was decorated with flowers, candies and candles. Most of the time when there are that many decorations it’s for a birthday party or a wedding! They definitely felt so loved! Each woman that participated received several roses to take home as well! (:

What’s also crazy was that morning we stopped at the store and ran into a long term missionary. She happens to be bestfriends with our ministry partner’s wife. We had prepared for extra seating (since they said 8-15 people would participate) and invited her. I believe we ended up hosting 10 women! Along with that, some of the women in the group were Quechua! The Quechua culture is filled with a lot of shame because of their heritage.

There were two Quechua sisters who believed the lie that they were not smart since they had not had any formal education. When they got to cross out the lies they believed with His truth, it was so powerful!! Other women cried as they discovered their lies, but were feeling relieved when they heard what Jesus said about them. Another woman who was barren felt alone and unworthy since she couldn’t have babies. When the Lord brought her to the truth, she cried! Wow! The Lord spoke so gently to all of them. One woman who was just elected as a leader in her church was struggling with feeling qualified. The retreat was another echo from the Lord that she was exactly where she was suppose to be. GOD IS SO COOL.

The craziest part of all is when we did communion!! One woman didn’t participate and she stated that she was not in the right place. Her friend spoke for her and said that someone had told her that because her son was living in sin in her house, that she was excluded from communion in general (this is not Biblical). She believed she wasn’t good enough and that her son’s sin was also hers. Our ministry host’s wife and the long term missionary were able to help us speak truth into her life. They explained to her that her sin was separate from her son’s and encouraged her to dig into the word about what God says. The woman asked if she could take communion and she did! It was a small breakthrough and a very emotional moment! She was able to participate in such a sweet moment with Lord! She left feeling encouraged with a deeper understanding of how God views her, biblical truth, and a joyful heart. We found out that many Quechua churches in the villages do not take communion and are just uneducated about what the Bible says. Please be in prayer for these churches.

After the retreat was over we talked to Nancy about Beauty for Ashes. She wants to continue the B4A ministry and she sees a deep need in the Quechua communities. Many of the Quechua people do not understand forgiveness and have many wounds on their hearts. This is what B4A is all about!!! There truly is a need here for B4A to continue here. Another World Race team will be her in December and my prayer is that they continue what we have started, which I guarantee they will! It’s so cool that B4A has the ability to be long term here.

Thank you all for following me on this amazing adventure. I pray that God continues to use us to empower women all over the world.

Maia

“- to bestow upon them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.” Isaiah 61:3 NIV