Peru service for Christmas

Four LPA-related people are bound for Peru this Christmas season. Alumna and Peru orphan trip organizer Kailee Barfield shares details of the opportunity with LPA students in the Connection assembly.LPA alumni Nate Thiele and Kailee Barfield – plus her fiancé and helper at past retreats, Titus Bowen – join current student Buck Barfield in a trip to serve at an orphanage along the Amazon River.

The mission opportunity is organized by Kailee Barfield, who finished her LPA studies in 2009. Many new families know her for her leadership of LPA's Drama Club and production of "Cinderella" last fall. The December voyage represents Kailee’s third trip to serve the “street boys” in Iquitos, Peru. The LPA community is invited to support these four travelers in prayer, words of encouragement, and financial assistance as detailed below.

Here are details of the service trip as written by Kailee Barfield:

This time last year I fell in love.

I fell in love with a place deep in the Peruvian jungles along the Amazon River… somewhere foreign and somewhat frightful. Although the presence of piranhas and tarantulas is appealing, it wasn't the scenery I fell in love with. My heart was stolen by 40 brown-eyed faces with bare feet and tongues that did not speak my own language. Yes, I fell in love with the boys of Puerto Algeria, Peru. Kailee Barfield

These boys are known as "street boys," and they come from extreme poverty-stricken situations. A quiet battle rages between these abandoned children of Iquitos, Peru, the streets they are forced to call home, and the society around them that averts its eyes. Because many families in Peru can't afford to feed all their children, the eldest boy in each family (usually age 8-12) is often thrown out on the streets to fend for himself. The only way he can survive is through stealing or prostitution. Suffering brutal beatings from the police and social scorn from the locals, it is the general belief that these boys have been abandoned by God and are without any use to society. Puerto Algeria exists to take these boys in to provide them with safety, shelter, food and clothing, and most importantly to teach them the never-ending love of Christ.

I have had the tremendous blessing of going to Peru twice now to minister to these precious children. December 27, I will travel again with my brother, fiancé, and LPA graduate Nate Thiele to venture back to where my heart feels so deeply called. Please join us in partnering with the ministry we serve with, "Not Forgotten." This ministry is near Birmingham, Alabama and has adopted this specific home to devote all their heart into. Help us show these children that they are not forgotten–not by us and not by God. Not Forgotten invites you to join us as we become the voice of a growing coalition for hope in the streets of Peru. Please visit their website at www.notforgotten.org for more information. You can view a video of the story of the ministry here: http://vimeo.com/27869919. 

For more information, please contact me or visit the website. Your prayers and support are greatly appreciated as we seek to go where the Lord has called us. Online giving is available (please note my name in the "comments" section). All donations are tax deductible. 

May God richly bless you this holiday season! 

Kailee Barfield

Questions? Comments? Words of support? Please send them to mailbox@LPA-SC.com