Dear friends and family,
We hope this new year finds you well! Just wanted to update you all on recent events happening in the Herold household...we’re moving to Peru this year! :)
Here’s a brief backstory:
We met in Lima, Peru in 2005 when Mary studied abroad and stayed with a host family. This family invited me (Daniel) to be a follower of Jesus the year before and were very involved in my life. They are very dear to us as spiritual parents even now, 9 years later. We were married in August of 2006 and returned to the states the next year with the hope of returning to live in Lima one day.
We had planned to return to Peru after a short time in the States but God wanted us to grow a little more. In these past years, we have been a part of Believers Church in Tulsa. While journeying with our church family and through life’s circumstances, He has been guiding and forming us, teaching us about who we are in Christ, and how He wants us to live out the gospel here on earth. We’ve been talking with the Lord for a while about when/if He wants us to return to Peru and what He wants us to do there. We kept hearing, “Wait,” and never had a clear sense of direction.
In 2013, we were connected to New Life Community Church (NLCC), in Chicago through a friend of ours. NLCC is a large church body that meets in 20 different locations all over Chicago. They equip and send out leaders to plant church communities in the neighborhoods. So those who lead and serve in each community live in the neighborhood where the church building is located. At a NLCC church planting conference we attended, they shared their vision to plant church communities with the same model in 10 large cities all over the world and had invited people from several different countries, one of which was Peru, to join in the conference. We felt an immediate connection with the three other Peruvian/American couples that weekend. Over these past two years, we’ve kept in touch with these brothers and sisters in hopes of one day joining them in Peru. They will officially be launching Nueva Vida Lima (New Life Lima) in April of this year in the district of San Borja. Right now they are meeting together in homes in prayer and are building relationships within the community. Please keep them in your prayers.
This past year, they asked our family to join the team in Lima. After much prayer and conversations, we sense that this opportunity is what God has been asking us to wait for and that He is now giving us the “green light” to move our family on mission to Lima, Peru this year. We will start out serving in the area of music and in any other way that we can. Mary and I also want to use photography and teaching as ways of serving the community. We have hope that one day we will be sent out from San Borja to plant a community in my old neighborhood in the district of San Juan de Lurigancho.
Lately, we’ve also felt a heart tug to pray for the “unreached people groups” in Peru, those who have not heard the name of Jesus or do not know the freedom that comes with being adopted into God’s family. As God clarifies His vision for us and places desires in our hearts, we will keep you posted.
So as we prepare to move our family, please keep praying for us. We've listed some specific prayer requests at the bottom of our blog. We would love to hear from you. If you have questions, comments, encouragements, want to get together with us or want to partner with us in prayer or financial support, you can find our contact information also at the bottom of the blog. Down there you will also find a video made by New Life Community Church in Chicago talking about their church community planting model and their vision for planting communities in Lima.
Bless you all!
The Herolds
Our family on mission has been called to Lima, Peru to invite others into God's family by daily living in a manner worthy of the gospel through constant prayer, intentional relationships, and discipleship.
