1. Our church plant has seen unusual summer growth over the past couple of weeks. For collegiate church plants and planters, summers are a time to catch your breath, solidify the core group, do some fun events, and really gear up for the fall. We made a few crazy risky moves at Aletheia Tampa this summer. Instead of just tightening down, not changing anything up too much, we decided to move locations and times. The results initially were a bit discouraging but as the weeks have gone by, we’ve seen growth, tons of new visitors, and the idea of taking risks in church planting has been reinforced.

2. If you haven’t heard yet, Aletheia Tampa got a brand new site. Check it out here and be amazed. Thanks mostly to Graham Cochrane who also had some help from Ashlee, Emilio, and Ace. The site looks incredible!

3. My two boys are growing up way too fast. Drew turned 3 on June 16th and Asher is pushing 5 months, although he is as big as Drew was at 7 months old (yeah, he is a beast!) Even though I lose my patience frequently with my two little fire crackers, I really am seeing more and more as the days go by that “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord , the fruit of the womb a reward.” Check out this pic that my wife took a couple days ago…

4. Although performing wedding ceremonies aren’t my most favorite thing in the world to do, I’ve had the privilege to marry off some pretty spectacular people in recent weeks and months.

5. At the end of this month, Kevin and Jackie Anderson, along with some of their team members will be heading to Florida to probe one of the major Universities in the state as a potential spot for the next Aletheia Church. We are excited to say the least about what God is going to do with that, whether He sends the team to Florida, or to some other state.

6. In August, Aletheia Tampa will take it’s second and third respective global mission trips. We will continue to make world outreach a main focus of what we do as a church in the coming years. One team will head to Haiti to help the struggling quake victims in that nation while the other team will be heading to Tuxtla, Mexico, to support our church planters Mark and Abby (and their new baby Rachel) Huffman and their ministry at Aletheia Tuxtla. Please pray for these trips, that God will use our people to impact the people in those nations.

So that’s about it from the update front. This summer has been extremely productive, and it’s only half over. I’m really looking forward to serving God in the coming weeks and months and seeing what He does through the Aletheia Network during that time.

Day 1 December 13th – The day started at 12:43am with an early morning departure from Tampa to the Miami airport. We were able to reunite with some of the Aletheia Harrisonburg crew in the San Jose, Costa Rica, airport during our layover. It was great to reconnect with Jay and Matt. Once in Lima, we connected with Halterman and dad. Our team had successfully been brought together. We then connected with pastor Jaime, the pastor who we would be working with the first few days. Then, we grabbed our rental cars, and headed out of Lima towards the city we would be ministering in for most of the week. Lima was an interesting city. 8 million people, dusty, dilapidated, and worn down. The driving conditions are not much to write home about so we escaped that and headed south. Through Megan’s connections, we were able to crash at a beach house all week and it was pretty awesome. It was our retreat away from the madness of the larger city we served in. It was definitely still a Peruvian house stay though. We took cold showers, ran out of electricity and water at certain times during the week, and used butane tanks to cook our food. Pretty cool!

Day 2 December 14th – After recovering from an almost 24 hour travel day, we immediately went to Canete to do what we do best, evangelize. We got into some great conversations and saw some people come to Christ. The first guy I talked to was a book vendor who was working right in the middle of a park. He stopped everything he was doing to talk with us for a half hour. He prayed to receive God’s free gift of salvation that couldn’t be worked for. His name was Angel. It was a great start to what would be a great week of evangelizing. Later on in the day, we were able to hit up an open air market, that smelled of dying dogs and feces (great combination), but had the best fruit ever. Anytime you can lead people to Christ and find some incredibly tasting fruit in the same day is a victory for me. For those of you who don’t know, fruit is one of my secret loves. I could probably live off of plums and watermelons.

Day 3 December 15th – It was Halterman’s birthday but this day would be no celebration. We were recruited to help rebuild the roof of a lady who attended Pastor Jaime’s church in Canete. Another “you may no know moment” here is that I am not a handy-man. And to be honest, we didn’t have too many handy-men on this trip. Really Jay was our only go-to-guy. We were asked to help rebuild a roof that was made of thatch, bamboo, and plastic tarp. One thing you may need to know is that Peru is by a land slide the dustiest place I have ever been too. At the end of each day, we were all so dirty and dusty. but this day proved to be the dirtiest and dustiest. We accomplished our goal though and did a pretty darn good job. We all got roasted by the hot Peruvian sun, some more than others One other thing I must note is that we did not really have adequate tools and we had to make shift things to stand on to get high enough to rebuild the roof. That was interesting. Imagine standing on a rickety chair, with another chair on top of that, and a step stool on top of that. Yep, that’s how we rolled. But we got the job done!

Day 4 December 16th – This was the best and most eventful day of the trip. The day started with us having no power. This would be the case for 8 hours. The previous two days, we just drove into town to meet up with Pastor Jamie. On this day, he called us and told us he was coming our way because there was a strike going on in town and that riots had broken out. In his words, it was “not safe!” So he came out to the beach house and told us what was going on in more detail. Evidently, the people of Canete were upset because the government which had previously promised to build a new university in town had backed out of its promise. The people were furious and decided to take it out on their own people, city, and property…go figure, right? We made it to town pretty easily though so we weren’t too worried at that point in time. We saw a burning car, lots of rocks had been thrown on the roads, and police with riot gear on. But still, like I said, it was smooth sailing getting to town. And on this day, God wanted us to be there. We headed straight to a busy park again and ended up talking with dozens of people. All in all, we saw 16 people come to know the Lord, many of whom were young teenagers. It was incredible. We were rejoicing knowing that God had ordained these encounters from the beginning of time. We gave all of these new believers Bibles, discipleship courses, and pushed them all to Pastor Jaime’s church which was just around the corner. It was spectacular. The last guy we spoke with was a bar owner named Elvis (sweet name I know). He was born in Cuba but had ended up making it to Peru. This guy was one of the most sweetest dudes I have ever met. he offered us to sit down and brought us out some water. We talked with him for about an hour. He believed in God but didn’t really understand how to have a personal connection with Him. We shared the Gospel message and right there he prayed to receive it with us. It was amazing. We followed all of that evangelizing up with a spontaneous soccer game in the plaza with a bunch of 13 year old’s. It was great and we held strong in the beginning until we started to get gassed. That’s when those little dudes put it to us pretty good. We had fun and they loved playing against the big Americans. It was probably one of the best times of their lives.

Little did we know that this day was about to get a whole lot weirder. After spending about 5 hours in town, we decided it was time to head back to the beach house. What we were not aware of was that the riots had intensified. We saw that traffic looked a little worse to get to the main road so we took a detour and found our way back. Once on the main road, I could tell that something wasn’t right. As we kept driving I looked out of the corner of my eye only to see a guy throwing a boulder at our car (which was a Fiat Fire for those of you interested in knowing). We barely escaped realizing that the mob had grown increasingly larger, angrier, and violent. We wove our way through the masses, the boulders, the burning cars and the hi-jacked buses, only to find ourselves trapped in a gas station parking lot with police officers telling us to stay put. We had seen the worst of it and survived but there was still one more crowd coming our way. That is where the video below picks up the action. We didn’t get the best stuff on video but you can get a glimpse of the adrenaline that was pumping through us. This was from Halterman’s car’s vantage point. I was behind him. If you look closely, you will see buses with shattered windows and blown out tires, and of course tons and tons of people.

We made it out of there alive, in tact, and surprisingly without a scratch on our sweet Fiat’s. It was a crazy adventure and one that I surely never want to repeat again. Once home, we relived what had just happened and thanked God for preserving us. It was unbelievable.

Day 5 December 17th – We woke up with another surprise…no running water. We also got a call from Jaime who said that the riots had intensified even more. To us, this was all we needed to hear. We decided that our time in Canete had come to an end. Originally, we had planned on staying in Canete until Friday, but knowing what we knew, and experiencing what we experienced, we decided to pack up, clean the beach house (remember without any water), and head up to Lima to spend our last few days. While we were preparing to leave, we got word that one of our team members was not feeling well. It was Matt Johnson and he was really sick. After violently throwing up for about ten minutes, he appeared to have it out of his system. This was a good thing seeing as though we had a two hour car ride in front of us. We made it to Lima at 1:30, met the pastor who we would be working with there for the next few days, and headed out to evangelize. We ended up seeing another two people pray to receive Christ. I talked with a chef-in-training who was waiting for his 8 year old niece to finish her ballet lessons. He opened up and told us that the message made sense and that he wanted to accept Jesus into his life. After finishing doing ministry, we headed back to our place to rest because a couple more of our team members got hit by a Peruvian microbiological attack. The day ended with some rest.

Day 6 December 18th – Pastor Brian wanted to take our team to see the sights of Lima. But the problem was, we had to follow him in his van. He was the scariest driver on the road already full of the scariest drivers in the world. To say we almost died on multiple occasions would be the understatement of the year. But we still had fun as always checking out a 600 year old city with all of it’s old buildings and 8 millions people. The coolest part was eating at a cafe that overlooked the pacific. It was nice to relax after what was a crazy non-relaxing week. But the week was not over yet and there was still some more work to be done.

Day 7 December 19th – Emilio and J.R. left us this day so our team decreased in size. One thing about Lima is that it is such a loud city with what I counted was car horns that go off every 3 seconds (even during the middle of the night). It never stops. We didn’t sleep much while in Lima but we still had lost of fun. On our last day, Pastor Brian wanted us to go with him to check out the daughter church which was located about an hour and 15 minutes away. We got to the little town and it reminded me of all my visits to Mexico over the years. Lots of stray dogs, shacks for houses, and no running water…and everything stunk really bad. About 400 children showed up for this clown/magic show put on by the shipping company DHL. It was great but we were not really putting our time to good use. So, 5 of us left and headed back to town. But no trip would ever be without some type of adventure for us on this mission. We got pulled over by a cop. He told us that the back seat passengers were not wearing seat belts. We found out later that it is Peruvian law that a non-citizen cannot be cited for a traffic violation. But we didn’t know that at the time. So dad, as was not surprising, began to talk his way out of it. he gave the cop every detail of who we were and what were doing. We learned from Brian that the Peruvians are very mystical and that once police officers find out you are a pastor they will generally leave you alone as to not conjure up bad karma in their lives. That was not really the case with us. He told us he was going to call the station and he kept showing us how much we owed for breaking the law. Well, dad and I kept talking, and he finally just said “Look, I need for you guys to give me some money so that I can buy my kid’s Christmas’ presents.” Nothing like a good old bribe by a cop on your last day in Peru. So we gave him a few bucks, he shook our hands again, and we were on our way. We wanted to spend our last day evangelizing and that is what we did. We went to the near-by park and got into some great conversations. Halterman and I spoke with two guys who worked together. One was 19 and the other was probably about 38. The 19 year old was just blown away when we told him that salvation in Jesus only comes through repentance and faith. It was overwhelming to me to see this sink into His head. He was immersed in a culture that promoted belief through works and mysticism and here he was accepting Christ’s sacrifice through the right means. It was incredible. Our day ended with one more conversation with a mechanical engineer named Fred who dad kept calling “Fritz.” It was awesome. The guy was so friendly and he prayed to accept Christ also. What a fitting way to end a crazy week of ministry.

Day 8 December 20th – We woke up, packed up, cleaned up, and headed to the airport. We were all pretty exhausted and happy that the trip was over. We got to the airport, unloaded our cars, checked in, and went to our gates. The travel day was pretty eventful but it didn’t compare to the rest of the week so I will save you the details. Let’s just say we got home, much later than we anticipated, and for me, got to see my wonderful wife and son. That was a great way to end what was the most incredibly amazing mission to Peru.

The memories I have will stay with me forever. God assembled the perfect team to do His work in a dark country with little hope. I have to say a big thank you to Megan, J.R., Emilio, Johnson, Jay, Halterman, and dad, for being the most incredible servants of Jesus on this trip. You guys made this trip by far the most funny and interesting mission trips I have ever been on. The small impact we made I’m sure was even greater for those who God had us encounter. How important it is to serve God globally. This will continue to be a core value of Aletheia Tampa and the Aletheia Network…at least as long as I’m alive Thanks for reading. Leave your comments and let me know your thoughts.

We were scheduled to land in Dulles at 11:20pm last night which, because we had to catch a cab to go pick up our cars, made it so that we wouldn’t have arrived in Harrisonburg until 2 this morning. Our connecting flight was in Atlanta and we arrived earlier than scheduled so we were able to miraculously catch an earlier flight and I was able to surprise Ashlee by arriving home at 11:25. Usually I can’t keep surprises from her but I played this one off pretty well. It was so amazing!

Our journey to Puerto Rico and our time there was nothing short of God-directed. 9 people committed their lives to Christ for the first time. Emilio’s grandparents gave us their condo for the week so we got hooked up big time there. JR was able to audition for American Idol…Yep that’s what I said. AI was holding auditions in San Juan and we randomly got off at a train station one day to stumble upon it. Of course I was too old so JR was our next best option. It was so funny. I will definitely be posting a youtube video of that one day soon. He sang “Jesus Paid It All” and explained to the judges why we were in Puerto Rico.

The trip was unique in that we didn’t have the overwhelming amount of opportunities to share Christ with people. This is true especially when compared to the past trips we have taken to other Latin American countries. Since we quickly realized this after the first couple of days being there, we started asking God to send us to those few people who were so ready to hear the Gospel. And that is exactly what God did. I think we shared the truth with 15 people while we were there and 9 of them accepted Jesus. And those 9 people were so genuine in their commitments.

Other than being away from my family for so long, and experiencing the worst sun burn of my life (trust me if you saw my face right now you would run away), this trip has to rank up there with the top mission trips I have ever been on.

Thanks for your prayers and thanks to Emilio, JR, Dad, and Mom for their willingness and sacrifice to go on this trip to reach out to the wonderful people of Puerto Rico. Trust me, the stories we have of changed lives are worth writing a book for. Ask me about the encounters we had sometime and I’ll fill you in.

Thanks to everyone who came out to church yesterday for an amazing morning of worship and teaching. God is once again surprising us this year with incredible productivity. There is so much momentum right now and I hope everyone is riding the wave. Now (more than ever) is the time to invite your freinds and family out to Aletheia Church because what God is doing is something that I have never seen in ministry before. There is an excitement that is so contagious right now and I want to thank all of you for the parts that you have in making it happen. Please continue to allow God to use you and let’s continue to see great things happen as a result.

The band finally released “On Learning In WarTime” yesterday. Thanks to all of you who spent the $5 to pick one up. Believe me, the band is extremely grateful. If you have not heard the album yet there is a complete stream of it on our myspace page. If you like it then you can pick up a digital copy or if you are so inclined, a hard copy directly through our page. Please support the band. Thanks!

I hope everyone is doing well. I’ll leave you with this…

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” Psalm 133:1

God loves it when we are all in unity. He accomplishes much more when we do so.

I blogged about our mission to Mexico in December a few weeks ago describing in words what went down.

Well, now you can literally see for yourselves the amazing things that God did during our short time there.

Hit up this link and enjoy.

Mission Mexico

Getting right down to business we saw close to 70 people accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. There were at times, people trampling over one another, to get to us. And what did we have in our possession that would cause people to scratch and claw their way to us? Nothing more than the shirts on our backs, 15 Bibles, 20 Discipleship courses, 200 “Good News” fliers, and a lot of love and genuineness. On Sunday, there were as many as 50 people who came to Christ after we shared the “Wall and the Bridge.” It was amazing! We faced very little rejection and really saw God transform lives right before our very eyes.

The Mayan people are full of despair for the most part. Many of them earn on average $7 a day. That is the minimum wage in California for goodness sakes! Many of them are Catholic or Animists, and most of them do not know how to have a true connection with God. There is a cloud of darkness over that country but the Spirit of God is moving in people’s hearts as we saw. Those that prayed with us did it unhesitatingly after they heard the true message for the first time. It was something that I am not accustomed to seeing in America sadly enough. In our country, people hear the truth over and over and over again and they do not respond. We saw the complete opposite. There exists a great hunger of hope in Mexico; a hope and a yearning for truth. We had the amazing opportunity to bring hope to those wonderful Mayan people. Forever we are changed. Experience it yourself. Learn some Spanish and go. A little Spanish goes a long way.

Besides the lack of modern ammenities, we are having a blast. Thanks to all of you who have prayed for us while we have been gone. Keep praying for us as well as the team in Costa Rica.

We have really been challenged during our time here and what was supposed to be a real growing time for the 70 kids we are ministering to this week, has turned into a sharpening time for us as well. We have been stretched beyond our limits this week and are utterly exhausted but God has given us strength go past our physical limitations.

Tomorrow evening we will be home in our comfortable homes with our comfortable ministries. I know I am coming home a changed man. Who wants to go to Montana with me in the future. It’s pretty sweet here.

Talk to you guys later!

your bro, aaron