An adventure to remember - by Kelsey

SATURDAY

One word to describe today - rejuvinating. I awoke at 6am and had a solid 2 hours of time with the Lord in scripture before morning worship. Jeremy Lou is here for the weekend so singing this morning was greatly enjoyed since our team does NOT like to sing loudly when it´s just the 6 of us. I was appointed as the lead singer so that should give you a picture of how interesting our singing normally is. The scripture we read and dicussed today was the first 9 verses of Philippians chapter 4 - my theme passage at this point in my life when I begin to feel overwhelmed. It was a great time of growing as a group.

After worship the Jeremys, Alison, & I headed out with empty backpacks to scavenge the mountain for fire wood. After over an hour of hiking around in the trees on the mountainside and breaking branches & logs with our hands, legs, and Jeremy´s knife, we returned to the house with 4 backpacks full of kindling & arm loads full of logs. That wood should last us a good while.

Before lunch a trip to the store was needed so Emily, Sara, Alison, & I went to Sophia´s store right next to the house & bought all the groceries we needed at once. It all ended up costing over 42 soles which was alot of food for that little store.

Lunch was peanut butter sandwiches, apples, canned peaches, potato chips, and cream cheese dip. I´m really looking forward to dinner tonight. Alison & Jeremy S. are making stuff for build-your-own-burrritos: shredded cihcken, grilled vegetables, guacalome, homemade salsa, cheese, and rice. And then I´m going to make no-bake cookies & apple cider for us to have upstairs around the fire. Last night Heather & I made the best fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and fried cheese slices. It tasted so good! Needless to say, my cooking skills have greatly expanded in being here.

After lunch the Jeremys, Alison, & I decided to go on a hike. It turned out to be the best adventure we´ve had here so far - better than wading in the lake, boulder hopping, and climbing the mountain in Huancane. We walked probably between 2-3 miles out from Conima along the lake. Then we found some rock cliffs and decided to do some rock climbing. I was the last one to climb, and I was kinda unsure about it. While the others were climbing up, rocks were coming loose underneath then and falling to the bottom of the cliff where I was anxiously waiting. Once Alison reached the top and the boys pulled her up, I set aside my anxiety, told myself ¨You can do this¨, and began climbing with no fear. About halfwat up the cliff, one of the rocks I had my foot on fell out from under me. I lost my footing and grasped the rocks I was holding so hard that my hands turned white. Climbing that rock face made my adrenaline rush, but losing my footing like that was just too much adrenaline for me. My heart was pounding, and my stomach jumped into my throat. Tears began to fill my eyes as I frantically searched for a sturdy foothold knowing that one of the rocks my hand was grasping was moving underneath me and waiting to fall. It I fell down the side of the mountain to the rocks below that sat on the lakeshore, I would be alone until the other 3 found a way down to me. There was no 911 number to call, and we were a good 3 mile walk away from Conima by then.

I heard Jeremy L´s voice from the top of the cliff. ¨Kelsey, Kelsey. It´s okay. You´re okay. You´re doing great. Just find a rock to rest your foot on. I´m climbing down to help you.¨ I felt around for a rock that wasn´t moving and rested some of my weight on it just before aa rock fell out from under my hand and tumbled down the mountainside. By this time the tears continued coming as Jeremy climbed down next to me. Step-by-step he helped me find stationary rocks to climb, and I made it to the top with no more than a few scrapes.

As i hoisted myself over the last rock with Jeremy S´s help, I heard Alison marveling at the view. I made it up and turned around to see the sparkling blue waters of Lake Titicaca laid out all around me. The sky was a beautiful bright blue, and the mountain peaks lined the horizon. We could hear waves breaking beneath us so we walked to the point of the peninsula. A straight shot down the cliff were rocks breaking the waves on the lake. It was too amazing to pass up so our adventurous group of 4 found a crevice to climb down to the water. The Jeremys decided to do some rock jumping out in the water while Alison & I continued to marvel at the beautiful landscape before us.

It was quite entertaining to watch the boys wish they were frogs as they jumped from rock to rock going further & further out in the water. Neither one of them managed to stay dry. In face, Jeremy S. went to jump to a rock, tried to land on it by hugging it with his arms & legs, and ended up slipping & jumping to short. He basically sat in the water right in front of the rock and quickly jumped up out of the cold lake water. The botton of his shirt and all of his shorts were soaking wet. Alison & I quickly asked if he was okay worried that he may have badly hurt himself, but he assured us that he was fine, just a little wet. After we were sure he was okay, we couldn´t help but laugh.

We headed back to the road we had traveled on, this time walking along the rocky shore of the lake. As we walked, Alison & I began collecting some really cool rocks & filling our backpacks. Between the rocks weighing down our bags and some large logs we found to use in the fire, the walk back was significantly more tiring than the walk out.

Finally we reached the house & unloaded all the logs & rocks. Now I´m just relaxing on the balcony enjoying the last rays of sun before it´s time to go cook dinner with Alison & Jeremy. This day of rest was deinfitely needed and thoroughly enjoyed, and it´s not over yet!

Axe Women, Rock Climbing - by Alison

So yesterday we had worship and then the two Jeremy´s, Kelsey, and I climbed halfway up the mountain that is on the outskirts of Conima to collect fire wood. Let´s just say that I could be on the show Axe Men. Then everyone had lunch at the house but I called Andrew and talked to him for a bit, he really encouraged me. Then the two Jeremy´s, Kelsey, and I went on a four mile hike down to Lake Titicaca(four miles total). There were so many good places to rock climbso we decided to go ahead and do it! Jeremy Lou almost fell, a huge rock fell down and hit him in the chest. I started scaling the mountain pretty fast but then I came to a spot where I was stuck so the Jeremy´s pulled me up. Kelsey started freaking out a little bit but she ended up making it up too. When we got on top of the mountain, it was the most beautiful view in the entire world. I took a ton of pictures of course. Then the Jeremy´s decided to hop rocks in the Lake and they both ended up falling in, it was pretty hilarious. We found some more wood and carried it the two miles back, up this huge hill. I thought I was gonna die!!! Not really though. Then we remembed that we told a bunch of kids that we would play soccer with them so we had to do that right when we got back from the hike. I got to be on the kids team and we won!!! Victory!!It was mine and Jeremy´s turn to make dinner so we made build your own burritos with guacamole and salsa and rice and chicken and everything!! I was delicious. Kelsey made no bake cookies and we made some apple cider and headed to the fourth floor where our little meeting room is. Jeremy S. made a fire and we drank apple cider and ate cookies and sang christmas songs! I´m seriously not joking, it felt like Christmas time! Then we worshipped God together and just fellowshiped for a few hours. I loved it!

Today I woke up, cleaned the bathroom and washed all my clothes! It feels good to have everything done. Then I made some yummy potatoe wedges. I´m becomming such a good cook!!! Now I am going to review my story again, we are starting to story tomorrow (tell people bible stories) so be praying everyone!!! God is good, all the time!

-Love in Christ!

Resting and Preparing - by Emily

Hello everyone!

Not a whole lot has happened since I last wrote, but I just wanted to fill you in!

On Friday, Jeremy L. joined our team, and he will be with us until Tuesday morning. When he came, he brought us avocados and cheese, and we were very thankful! Most of the day Friday, we all worked on memorizing our stories. Friday night, we told each other our stories. It seems like they are coming along really well! As for me, I just need to go back and review small things and add hand motions to the story to make it more interesting. I´m hoping to tell a story to someone on Tuesday. Prayer please because I am really nervous! I am more comforted now though because Friday morning a few people on the team shared some scriptures that are really relevant- Exodus 4 11-12 and Jeremiah 1 4-10. These passages show that God can use anyone to speak His Word and share His light with others. I believe that He is going to use our team in amazing ways.

Yesterday was a wonderful day of rest. We started off with worship, and then we all sort of did our own thing for the rest of the day. Sara and I prepared a snack-lunch for everyone, and then I spent the rest of the day reading the book Let the Nations Be Glad, calling my parents, and playing futbol with some of the kids. Some of the others went out to get firewood from the mountain, and then they went for a hike in the afternoon. I´m hoping to do more hiking soon, but right now, I´m not sure that my lungs can handle it because of the thin air.

Last night was so much fun! We had an excellent dinner of chicken tacos with tons of rice and lots of choices of vegetables. Then Jeremy made us some hot apple cider, and we gathered around the fireplace on the fourth floor to have our first fire. Everyone else ate some no-bake cookies, but I enjoyed my Nutter Butters with my cider. We sang several worship songs, but then we started to get a little silly and sing Christmas songs because it definitely felt like Christmas-cold weather, pajamas, hot apple cider, etc. Anyway, we had a lot of fun together as a team.

This morning Kelsey, Sara, and Jeremy L went to the clinic to do some volunteer work. I´m excited to hear about what they do there. The rest of us cleaned the house, and now I´m here. For the rest of the day, I need to work on my story, and prepare dinner. Since I got sick the last time I was supposed to make chicken and dumplings with Kelsey, we are making that tonight.

I am having an amazing experience here in Conima, Peru. The people are hard to talk to sometimes for various reasons (the language barrier, or sometimes they are too drunk to talk), but I can definitely see that God is working out all of the details for us to do the work for His Kingdom this summer. He is definitely drawing me closer to Him and His Word this summer. I am seeing lots of different thoughts and issues from different angles.

We are praying hard for the youth team that is coming in two weeks! It looks like we might put together a backyard Bible club program for them or something. I think that this is a great way for us to get access to more families to tell them more stories from the Bible.

Sorry this is so long. It is nice to finally have the chance to write out a lot of my thoughts. I hope that all is well in the U.S.! Have a wonderful Sunday!

Christmas! ... by Heather

Well, to continue the fun adventures here in the Andes, we decided to have Christmas in June. Remember being in GAs and sending things to the missionaries for Christmas in August? Well, we couldn´t wait that long. So we had a mini Christmas last night.

Saturdays are our rest days here, so we had planned to take yesterday and go visit Suasi Island out in the lake. We heard it is really pretty. There is a huge resort there where it is $350 per night, per person. We just wanted to ride the boat over there and explore. Turns out you can´t go over there without staying there. The lady was very nice and told us it was only $350 to stay... We declined. So, long story short, the Jeremys and Alison and Kelsey went hiking in the morning to gather firewood. Then we all had lunch together. Then the same group went out hiking again. Emily, Sara and I stayed at the house. I was able to spend a lot of time journaling and reading, which was really nice. At 3pm Jeremy and Alison had promised some kids we would play soccer with them. At 3pm the hiking group wasn´t back so Emily and I went out in search of some kids we had never seen and didn´t know where to meet. After a while, we finally found them and they led us to the cool hidden makeshift soccer field on a hill in a backyard. They had goals made out of big sticks stuck in the ground with one across the top to make a pretty legit goal. We definitely learned that soccer will take everything out of you. After just a few minutes of playing on a small field Emily and I were both sucking air and needing to sit down. Soon Jeremy and Alison joined us and we played a bigger game. Luckily the ball went rolling down the hill quite often, so we had a good number of chances to catch our breath. Alison and the Peruvian boys ended up beating the rest of us by 1 pt. After that we headed back so supper could get started. We had chicken burritos-fajitas with guacamole. It´s definitely my favorite meal here. Jeremy and I made almost the same thing, just without the guacamole, a week ago. It´s so good. We´re hoping to get tortilla chips from John and Sonia courtesy of their special shopping trip. You can´t find them most places here. Anyway, while dinner was cooking, Kelsey made no-bake cookies and Jeremy made apple cider. So, after dinner we all went upstairs, started a fire, and ate cookies and drank cider. Then Jeremy L. got out the guitar and played some songs, which soon turned into Christmas songs, because it just felt like that kind of night. It was so much fun. We even sang Feliz Navidad, a family favorite. It was a great relaxing night. I felt like we were missionaries stuck in Peru for Christmas, unable to make it home, so we were all celebrating together. Kelsey wasn´t initially crazy about the Christmas-ness, but she said she would be on board if we went all out. So, the last Saturday we are here, July 24th, we are planning on having a full out Christmas party, complete with reading the Christmas story. It´s nice having fun group things to do together to relax.

Today is cleaning day, so we spent the morning sweeping, mopping and cleaning bathrooms. It didn´t take much time at all. All that is left is any personal laundry we want to do. We have found that Sophia´s store has pretty much everything we need, so we don´t have to do much market shopping like we had thought. Jeremy L., Sara and Kelsey went to the medical clinic to help out for part of the day. Hopefully they are having a good time and are useful to the medical staff. Kelsey is a nursing student and Sara will be starting medical school in the fall.

Friday night we all got together after dinner and shared our stories with each other. It is impressive the memory capacity some of us have for memorizing stories in a foreign language. Jeremy L. was also there to share his story. I have still been struggling with memorizing my story. I have the first page down, but it is the longest so there are 2.5 left. I am actually thinking and praying about switching to the next story in line, the 10 Commandments. Emily and Jeremy L. have both also memorized the Creation Story, so hopefully they will be able to cover it. I just don´t want to waste the next 3 weeks trying to struggle with this one story. The 10 Commandments is shorter and I think I could memorize it faster than I could finish Creation. We will see whether that´s what I end up doing. Pray my memory ability expands! Also pray for the stories that will be shared this week.

I think that´s all the exciting news for now. We have been having really good worship times together in the mornings. We are going through Philippians and sharing about what God has been teaching us. Overall health has been pretty good lately. Trash day is tomorrow, hallelujah! We missed last week because we didn´t know when the truck came, so we have a collection of bags in our garage. In other good news, people seemed to have sobered up after the fiesta this week. I think that is all the good news to share for now. Thanks for your interest and prayers!

Dancing and Drinking - by Heather

Hola amigos! You missed an interesting day in Conima yesterday. We had been hearing since we arrived about a dance performance all the school kids were putting on June 24th. We heard them practicing, and like I think I said last post, all the restaurants were closed in preparation. So, yesterday was the big day. We asked Frannie, who works at the store around the corner, what time the dance was. She told us it was from 10am to 2pm. So, being good Americans we left at 9:45am and were at the school where it was being held at 9:55am. There were other people heading down there so we figured it was at least around the right time. So, we got there and found a place to sit on the concrete stairs. We sat for quite a while waiting for it to start because, being good South Americans, the performance didn´t start until 12:30pm... So, before it even started Alison and I had to take a bathroom break back to the house. Once it finally started it was really cool to watch. All the kids were dressed up in very colorful outfits and performed different dances. Most were telling a story, which we didn´t totally get because of the language and not knowing the cultural history very well. There were kids of all ages, from around 3 yrs old to seniors in high school or older. We saw a lot of the kids we have been playing with in the plaza. I took lots of pictures, so you will get to see them when I get back. We finally left around 2:45 because our behinds were numb from sitting on the hard ground. I think there were only a few more groups left, if any. I also think the announcer was getting drunk, so he would talk forever between groups!

A lot of beer was hauled out to the school by store owners to sell. We didn´t see too much drinking before we left, but we have seen the effects today. A group of men was sitting in the street playing cards and drinking even today on our way to lunch. The plaza itself smells like beer. We don´t feel in danger or anything, we are always together and everything is in the open here. But it´s disappointing to see all these people spending so much time and money on drinking. One big part of the culture here is having fiestas where everyone dresses up in fancy clothes and celebrates and gets drunk. All under the guise of religion and culture. We have yet to see a really big fiesta, just this one. Pray that the people would realize the problem with these fiestas and realize it is not something God supports.

Last night Jeremy and Sara got a cool opportunity to play basketball with some teenagers. Sara decided to use basketball to get them to respect her :) They started off making fun of the gringos but ended up respecting them. So, that´s cool that those relationships were started.

Today is another day devoted to story memorizing. We are supposed to be sharing our stories with each other tonight. I don´t know how I can finish mine. I still have a ton left. Hopefully by Monday though. We have plans to story with people next week. Please be praying for them:

Frannie: She is 22 and works at the store around the corner from our house. She giggles a lot. We think she was drunk the other day when we were talking with her. She has a 6 year old son. Sara has talked to her about sharing a story with her this coming Wednesday.

Gumericinda & Her Husband: The team from Willow Park that came in May got to share condensed stories from Genesis to Jesus with this couple. They own the restaurant to try to visit a few times a week. They have read some in a Bible John gave them and want to hear more stories. The husband has been in Juliaca, so we are hoping he will be here this week. John is going to drive out and share with them more.

Sophia: Sophia owns the store next door to our house and her uncle owns our house. She has been a huge help to us. She sits out in the plaza almost every afternoon and crochets. Emily wants to share a story with her.

Hopefully we will also be able to share with the teenagers from last night. Please pray that we can get these stories down and that the people would be receptive and can understand despite our poor pronunciation.

Healthwise, Sara has a rash that will hopefully go away soon. Also, a virus our group might have brought to Peru is hitting the missionary family and the girls in Huancane. Overall I think stomach sicknesses have been less frequent within the group. Pray we can all be healthy!

Until next time...

Dance, Dance - by Alison

So yesterday we woke up, had worship, and then headed to the high school down the hill to this all dance festival. We got there at ten but it didn´t even end up starting till twelve! It was so cool, I loved all the dancing! I took a ton of pictures! The night before it sounded like they were having a huge party in the street and it sounded like that last night too. The people drink so much here, its seems like most of the men just waste their lives away drinking. Its really sad.

So we got back from the dance festival at around 2:30 p:m yesterday. I fell asleep at three and didn´t wake up till five thirty! We had dinner and then our group meeting and then I worked on my story some more. I think I got it down pretty well, we are presenting them in front of each other tonight!
I was reading through Genesis last night and I kept thinking to myself..."O, how I long to have faith like Joseph´s!" Genesis really encourages me....God kept getting Joseph out of a bad situation and he kept blessing him because Joseph trusted God and worked hard. I was reading through Exodus today and I got such a warm feeling when I read: "Then the Lord asked Moses, `Who mades a person´s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.`" Exodus 4:11-12 This is so comforting to me, especially considering I am in a foreign place where I don´t speak the language but God will give me wisdom and words to say!

Jeremy S. and I played frisbee with four boys for about two hours today, I really enjoyed that! And next week we are going to start telling stories, I already have my eye on the lady who owns the hostile down the street. She has a beautiful garden and I am going to ask her if I can garden with her next week so I can start building a relationship with her. Its all about building relationships with people and showing ALL people love. Pray that God will give us the words to speak and the wisdom to know when to be silent.
-Love in Christ!

Memorizing, a Cultural Dance, Memorizing ... by Emily

The title of this blog pretty much summarizes what the past few days have been like. Wednesday, we all worked for a while on memorizing our Bible stories, and then we got a surprise visit from John Grady and two of the girls from the Huancane group. It was great to see them! John was really encouraging, and he got our group more excited about the work that we are doing. He showed us how to get to the store of the last family that we had pictures to give to. They were so grateful and excited to see pictures of their families.

Yesterday was a bit different. We went around ten in the morning to see a cultural dance contest that we were told would go from ten until two in the afternoon. It ended up not starting until noon, but it was okay because we got the chance to talk a little bit to the people. The contest was really fun! They had concessions stands set up in mud structures, and students at all levels danced. It was great time to be exposed to the Aymaran culture.

Today we are memorizing our stories some more, and tonight we hope to tell each other our stories. Pray for wisdom!

Love to you all.

What do I do when the love isn't there? ... by Kelsey

I have struggled with this dilemma - that I have been brought here to Conima, Peru to share the love & Good News of Jesus Christ, but my heart feels no love for these people. When I was in Haiti, there grew a love inside me for those people from the first day, but here I have talked with the people, played with the children, and lived among them for over a week yet I feel nothing. I pray daily that God will give me His love for these people that I might see them through His eyes, but my feelings remain the same.

As I was reading through the book ¨Let the Nations be Glad¨, I came across a passage that approached the situation in a different light.

¨Have you every wondered what it feels like to have a love for the lost? This is a term we use as part of our Christian jargon. Many believers search their hearts in condemation, looking for the arrival of some feeling of benevolence that will propel them into bold evangelism. It will never happen. It is impossible to love ¨the lost¨. You can´t feel deeply for an abstraction of a concept. Yuo would find it impossible to love deeply an unfamiliar individual portrayed in a photograph, let alone a nation or a race or something as vague as ¨all lost people¨. Don´t wait for a feeling of love in order to share Christ with a stranger. You already love your Heavenly Father, and you know that this stranger is created by Him, but separated from Him, so take those first steps in evangelism because you love God. It is not primarily out of compassion for humanity that we share our faith or pray for the lost; it is first of all, love for God.¨

It is out of love for the Lord and a desire to see His name glorified that I am here. In obedience to His call out of love for my Savior, I have come to Peru to live out the comission to which He has called me. So my love for God should overwhelm any lack of feeling for the Aymaran people. My love for God shoud overflow so much so that my only desire is to see the Lord glorified and praised by all as He deserves.

Abundance of Opportunities - by Kelsey

Interesting happenings of the week:

1. On Wednesday we happened upon 4 drunk men that kept pointing at me as we were having a conversation with a store owner that we will be storying with. They men kept pointing at me, but I wasn´t paying attention. Jeremy said they were motioning for me to come over and whistling to get my attention. Needless to say, we didn´t pay them any attention much less go over to them.

2. I have de-boned 6 chickens this week. Pretty soon I´ll be a professional!

3. Alison has adopted the new spanish phrase ¨Hasta manzana¨ instead of ¨Hasta mañana¨. When she tries to tell the children ¨See you tomorrow¨, they understand her as ¨See you apple¨. That has been pretty comical.

4. Wednesday night we could hear a pretty rowdy party going on while we were all upstairs talking after dinner. I looked out the window to see a party going in full force in the middle of the road with a fire, dancing, yelling, and alcohol. But that´s just something we will have to get used to seeing.

God has continued to place opportunities in our paths to meet people and build relationships. Wednesday we met Susana & Lucian and gave them some photographs Les had sent with me. Susana especially liked the picture of Milagro, her granddaughter. Thursday we all went dow the hill to the high school where the whole tow of Conima had a dance festival competition. We watched lots of different age groups of kids dance to the story of their heritage. Each dance held a cultural meaning to the town. It was a great chance for us t show our presence further as well as experience the culture and be a part of the town. The whole town was shut down, and everyone showed up to watch the dances. Thursday afternoon while I was working on memorizing my story (which I´m almost one with) and preparing to cook dinner with Emily, Jeremy & Sara played soccer & basketball with some teenage boys. They asked Jeremy & Sara to play with them again today so this afternoon I´m going to join them. It just seems like every day we are given more & more opportunities with the people.

Our stories are coming along more quickly now. I will finish memorizing mine today, and we have all agreed to share our stories in front of one another tonight after dinner. We will begin storying with the people next week, and as it quickly approaches anxiety levels have seemed to rise in the team. But I am confident that the Lord will work through us as He desires and will bless our efforts at so studiously memorizing our stories.

Quick Update - by Heather

I´ve been in the internet cabina looking up guitar chords to songs to play for our morning group worship time, so I thought I would post a quick blog.

This morning we got up and had morning worship as usual. We have been reading through the book of Philippians together and discussing it. This morning, as kind of a tangent from the verses we read, we were talking about true Christian community and what the church should be like. As part of our orientation we read a lot about the early church and how they met together to study the apostle´s teaching, to break bread, to fellowship and to pray. We also talked about how they had everything in common (see Acts 2:42). Once we began thinking about it, we realized that is exactly what we are doing this summer. We are living together, eating together, studying the Bible and worshipping. We even have all our money in common. We are also sharing with others and hopefully ¨thousands will be added to our number daily those who are being saved.¨ I look forward to see how our group develops more into a loving Christian community.

Just before lunch we went to deliver more pictures. The directions to the store owned by the family in the pictures were not very clear, so we walked all up and down the main road looking for the ¨grey store across from the blue building with a lawyer´s name on it.¨ Not being able to find it, we went to the restaurant for lunch. The door was padlocked so we figured it must be closed for some reason. So, we walked a little ways to the other restaurant we had seen. We walked in and an elderly lady told us it was a restaurant, but they didn´t have any food cooked today. She mentioned something about the dance. (Tomorrow all of the children in the schools are having a dance competition that is apparently a really big deal. It goes from 10am- 2pm. All of the children have been practicing a lot.) Then she began asking us about the medical team that was here a few weeks ago. She was very hard to understand. After telling her we would come back another day, we went back to the plaza. We then heard about another restaurant, which we walked to, but it was also closed. So we went back to the house and all made our own lunches.

Not too long after we were all working on our stories or doing other various things and we got a phone call from John (the missionary). He said he was knocking on our front door. So we got a surprise visit from John and the Huancane girls, Kayla and Andrea. We showed the girls the house and talked with John about what we´ve been doing. Then he took us to the store we could not find that morning. Then we came back to the house, said good-bye to our visitors and I came here to use the computer!

Keep praying for our stories!

Community - by Alison

So I woke up at 5:00 a:m today. People here like to honk their horns all hours of the night/morning. I don´t get it either. I have been getting deeper and deeper in the word every day, I seriously love just getting to spend some good ´ol quality time with God. Worship was so awesome this morning. We talked about balancing our personal relationships with God and our group relationship. O, how I long to share a community under God...giving and taking because you love God which makes you love each other! That´s how the community of God was intended to be, sharing one another´s lives with each other. The original church in Acts lived together and sold all their belongings and gave to the poor, they were one mind and one heart. Check out Acts 2:44-47. Lets be the living church...we are the church! I´m feeling so passionate today, I´m so excited that God is working through me and using me to further the kingdom of God! I want to walk, talk, and breath love on everyone that I come in contact with. Man, I´m so excited that my God uses me, even with all my weaknesses and imperfections. I´m telling you, just let God use you. Let go of your life. "If you cling to your life, you will lose it, and if you let your life go, you will save it." Luke 17:33 Just let it go.-I love you because Christ loved you first!

Adventuresss - by Alison

So Sara and I made stir fry last night, it only took us three hours! We didn´t have enough chicken so Jeremy had to go buy another chicken and it was frozen! Did I mention that we de-bone the chicken and everything? Jeremy had lunch with a guy yesterday, actually the guy who owns the hostile that we stayed at in Huancane. He said that the guy handed him something that looked and smelled like a huge lemon but it just tasted like water. The guy kept saying "mas, mas!" so Jeremy ate a ton of random foods. He said the guy showed him his favorite bible verses and then just started singing Spanish. So hilariously awkward/awesome. Jeremy said that when the man left the room he just stuffed a ton of food in his backpack so the man wouldn´t be offended that he didn´t eat it all. Its actually pretty amazing that Jeremy could understand the guys Spanish because Jeremy can barely speak Spanish himself. So today we went to the medical clinic in Conima and they ended up asking us if we wanted to ride in the ambulance. The ride in the ambulance turned into five hours, and going the three cities!! We went to a city about twenty minutes from Conima, then to Cupisaya, and then to Tilali which is basically on the border of Bolivia. It was really interesting. In Cupisaya I met an eleven year old girl named Veronnica and a three year old boy named Luis. Luis actually remembered my name and even called me by it instead of calling me gringa! It was a breath of fresh air! Jeremy and I got to do some boulder hopping too, which I think is one of my new favorite things. I´m still working hard on memorizing my story, almost got it down!! Tonight we played duck, duck, goose with the kids for a long time. That was a ton of fun. All this teenage boys are staring at me in the internet cavena and its a little awkward. That´s what I get for being a gringa! I´m off the see whats for dinner!
-Love in Christ!

Random! by Heather

So, the past few days have just been kind of random with unexpected things happening. First, Sunday we met a French couple, Thomas and Jane, who are backpacking across Peru and Bolivia. We had dinner with them and heard all kinds of crazy stories about their adventures walking through the countryside.
Yesterday morning we saw Thomas and Jane off as they headed toward the border to Bolivia. We prayed for them and I gave them some Hot Hands hand and body warmers to hopefully help on the nights they sleep in a tent in a field during the next 2 months in the dead of winter.
In the afternoon we had told the kids we would play with them at 3pm. They knocked on our door all day one day so we decided to tell them we will play at 3pm every day so they are not always knocking and asking. Usually a few kids come and they all just want to play on Jeremy´s longboard that he brought. But yesterday we all went out to play and we ended up with probably 12-15 kids and we put up the ¨patineta¨ and played a game with them instead. At first we played ¨Duck, Duck, Goose¨ because we didn´t know the Spanish words for them. Then we changed it to ¨Pollo, Pollo, Pavo¨ (Chicken, Chicken, Turkey). We had a great time and the kids really enjoyed it. There were also a lot of adults sitting around watching and laughing at the fun we were having with the kids. Hopefully playing with the kids will help us build relationships with some of the adults so we can begin storying with them.
So far we have talked to at least 3 people who said they would like to hear stories. Currently we are all still working trying to memorize our stories. Pray that we will be able to memorize them quickly! It is hard memorizing in a different language, but it is helpful to know we have people to share them with when we are ready.
Today we went to visit the medical clinic here in Conima to give them some hats and blankets Willow Park sent for them to give to newborn babies. We also were hoping to set up a time for Sara and Kelsey to help out in the clinic since they are medical and nursing students respectively. Once we settled all that they asked if we wanted to go somewhere with them in the ambulance for the whole morning. Since it was 9:30/10am already and we didn´t have anywhere we had to be this morning, we agreed. So, all 6 of us piled in the back of the tiny bus ambulance and took off out of Conima with the doctor and 2 nurses. About 15 minutes later we stopped at what turned out to be another clinic in a nearby town. The doctor told us we could look around while he and the nurses met with the staff there. So we looked around the small clinic and read all the posters with messages about Yellow Fever, Pnuemonia, HIV, and Malaria. They had a pretty long meeting and finished up around 11am. So, we thought we would have plenty of time to get back to Conima and have lunch and get on with our day. Then they told us we were going to ¨un otro puesto.¨ So we piled back in the small ambulance. 3 of us sitting on the stretcher, and headed further out of town. We pulled over in another town and had to hike up a hill to another clinic because the ambulance couldn´t make it up the hill with all of us in it. There was another long meeting with the doctors and nurses. So, we sat outside with a man who had come to the clinic and was complaining of vision loss and pain but had been told to wait. We gave him some water and sat with him. While there we also met a boy named Louis and a girl named Veronica, I believe. Veronica was 11 and she said Louis was 2, but he seemed more like a 4 year old. Louis was quite entertaining. After a really long time, the doctor and nurses came out of that meeting and said we were going on to Tilali before going back to Conima. So, we hiked down the other side of the hill and waited by the road for the ambulance to come down. Then we drove close to the Bolivia border to Tilali where there was a larger, nicer clinic. Luckily this meeting was shorter because we were getting hungry. Finally we headed back about 1:30pm. Overall it was a good trip. It showed us the nearby towns, the medical clinics and we got to talk to that man and Veronia and Louis, it just wasn´t what we were expecting for the morning! After getting back to Conima we ate a lunch of leftovers and macaroni. This afternoon we have been taking showers, catching up on blogs and cleaning up after lunch. Emily and I are about to start making dinner.
I think we are all starting to settle in as a group to being here. Time is starting to go by a little faster - the first week took forever! Little things can start to wear on us, like almost always being cold, focusing so hard on speaking in Spanish, having no shower pressure, missing home, etc. but overall we are learning to deal with it and can keep a good attitude. We have been able to develop a loose routine of morning worship, lunch, playing with kids, dinner and a group meeting each day. The sun goes down so early here we have been getting plenty of sleep. Last night was one of the earliest nights with most of us going to bed around 8:30 or 9pm.
For the next few days our focus is going to be on memorizing our stories and continuing to build relationships with people. Pray we can do that and all stay energized and healthy. Health has been an issue for different members of our group all week. Emily threw up in the street and Sara´s tongue turned black, so things are always interesting healthwise. Just pray we can continue doing our work and don´t get sidelined by health concerns. (Emily and Sara are both fine now)
My story as of today:
En el comienzo de todo, Dios creó el cielo y la tierra. La tierra no tenía entonces ninguna forma. Todo era un mar profundo cubierto de oscuridad y el espíritu de Dios se movía sobre el agua.
Entonces Dios dijo, ¨Que haya luz!¨ y hubo luz. Al vez Dios que la luz era buena, la separó de la oscuridad y la llamó ¨dia¨ y a la oscuridad la llamó ¨noche.¨ De este modo se completó el primer dia.
Despues Dios dijo, ¨Que haya una bovéda que separe las aguas para que estas queden separamos.¨

Look for another blog in a few days!

The adventure continues ... by Emily

Today was interesting. Right after worship, we brought all of the blankets, hats, and sunglasses down to the health clinic to give them to the doctor to pass out to mothers of newborn babies.. When we got there, we met the doctor (named Abraham), and then he asked if we wanted to ride in the ambulance. He said that we would be gone all morning, and I could not understand the rest of what he was saying, but I assumed that he and the two nurses going with us could use our help. Since we thought it was a good ministry opportunity, we hopped in. It ended up just being that the doctor thought we might like to see some of the other clinics in the surrounding towns. It was a very neat opportunity. We saw three other clinics and went almost all the way to the Bolivian border. We had the chance to play with some kids and give a sick man some water, and we also got to know the doctor and the nurses a little bit more. I know that God had a reason for this trip, but we didn´t get back until around 1:30pm, so our morning was gone. We ate a late lunch, cleaned up, and now we are at the internet cabina.

Keep on praying! We hope to tell a story to someone by the beginning of next week. It has been difficult to memorize them much less make them sound like good stories.

Hope to hear from some of you soon!

Unexpected Blessings - by Kelsey

Sunday was a pretty easy-going day until evening rolled around. Our team decided that Sundays are our market, cleaning, and laundry days. For dinner Jeremy & I made chicken & dumplings with macaroni & cheese. Things got a little crazy when Jeremy L called us and said, ¨Hey, I´m on my way to Conima with 2 friends. We will be there in about 30 minutes.¨ That caught us off guard! And who were these 2 friends? We didn´t know. So Jeremy S & I continued in our dinner preparations now wondering if we would have enough food for 9 people.

About half an hour later we hear a bang on the door, and Jeremy S goes downstairs to answer it. As I continue cooking dinner upstairs I´m able to pick up parts of the conversation at the door. After several minutes Jeremy S comes back up to the kitchen with a somewhat panicked look on his face. ¨Jeremy L brought 2 French hikers that are backpacking across Peru & Bolivia. I don´t know what we´re supposed to do because we´ve been told not to invite people into the house.¨ Jeremy L had taken his 2 new French friends up to the lookout to see the sunset, and they would be back soon. After several minutes of confusion & discussion, I decided to call John. I explained to him what little I knew of the situation, and he said he would call Jeremy L. A few minutes later we receive another call from John telling us that Jeremy L had invited the backpackers to stay the night with us but that John had made it clear they would have to stay at one of the hostels in Conima. That was a relief to hear. I went on cooking dinner as I heard lots happening in the house. The backpackers returned with Jeremy L, introduced themselvse to me as I was de-boning a chicken & rolling dough balls, and then were directed downstairs where they could take hot showers. They seemed extremely nice & thankful for out hospitality. The young woman was named Jane, and the young man was named Thomas. They looked to be about 26 years old, and although they weren´t married they told us they´ve been together for 6 years.

It was really interesting to hear about all their travels & their stories. Every day after they settle in for the night, they write about their experiences that day. Their hope is to make it all into a book and have it edited & published when they finish their journey and return to France. Not only was it great to hear about them, buit we got a chance to pour into them & bless them. After dinner they came up to the living room with us. We sang a few worship songs and talked for a long time. At one point Jeremy L asked if they wanted to see an example of our storying that we had told them about. They agreed and eagerly listened as Jeremy shared with them the story of Peter & the Ethiopian unic that we had heard during orientation. They they proceeded to ask us more questions about out storying & our purpose in being here. It was just a really neat, God-appointed meeting.

The next morning (Monday) Thomas & Jane returned at 7am upon our invitiation to eat breakfast with us before they continued on their journey. Thomas was especially excited that Jeremy L made crepes for everyone. He & Jane said they haven´t had crepes since they were in France years ago. Before they left we all got some pictures together, and Heather gave them some hand warmers that they were so grateful to receive.

Monday was filled with divine appointments and God-given opportunities. Jeremy S was hiking up a mountainside praying when a man invited him into his home for lunch. Jeremy amazingly understood all that the man was saying in spanish and was few a very big, interesting lunch of eggs, fried cheese, peaches, oranges, some finger-looking purplish green-brown potatoe things, & a big yellow fruit that remains unknown. The ironic part is that he was hiking up the mountain to pray & fast all day. After eating lunch, he & the man shared scripture with one another for a while, and the man even sang Jeremy a psalm in spanish. He is a seventh day adventist.

For lunch, all the girls went to eat at Luis & Gumericinda´s restaurant. After we ate & paid, we gave Gumericinda the photos that Les had sent with me, and Emily explained in spanish that they were for her from our friends that came in May. She told us they want us to tell them more stories so next week we will hopefully begin storying with her & Luis.

Sara spent the afternoon reading in the plaza, and a young woman began talking with her. They spent some time talking, and when Sara asked if she would want to hear a story, the young woman said yes. So we have a storying date with her next Wednesday afternoon.

We promised the kids we would play with them at 3 this afternoon so we all went out to the plaza at 3pm, and sure enough there was a small crowd of kids waiting. That crowd grew as we chased them around laughing & tickling, rolling them on the longboard, doing handstands & kartwheels. Today we played ¨Duck, duck, goose¨with all the kids and then changed the words to ¨Pollo, pollo, pavo¨(Chicken, chicken, turkey). The kids really enjoyed that game, and it got everyone involved & playing. Playing with the kids in the plaza also drew a crowd of older adults that sat on the benches & watched. Tomorrow some of us are going to make a point to begin conversations with those adults.

It has been pretty exhausting lately with things feeling up sometimes & down other times. It changes as the days go on. Sometimes I´m excited & encouraged but others I´m struggling to keep my focus & remain optimistic. I´m tired of up & down, up & down all the time. So after worship Monday morning I went out on the balcony and sepnt a good while talking with God. I prayed for a passioante desire to seek God alone, to be totally consumed with Christ, to spent my thoughts on nothing else, to know my purpse here and focus solely on how God wants to use me. I prayed that God would reveal Himself in mighty & unique ways to each of our team and that He would do immeasurably more than I could ever ask or imagine. And I have already begun to see God answering that prayer.

The French ... by Alison

Last night Jeremy Lou came for dinner and brought a suprise! A french couple! Thomas and Jane, my favorite french people ever. Thomas and Jane are backpacking through Peru and Bolivia and have been for two and a half months. We treated them to dinner last night...chicken and dumplings and then crepes this morning! They were very excited about the crepes, to say the least. We got to have a really great conversation with them. They have backpacked through Asia as well and they lived in Brazil for a year! I can´t wait to be married and be able to do that kind of stuff with my husband! So cool! We got pictures with them so I will upload them when I get back to the states, so not until the beginning of August. Ha. I met a really sweet lady last night with the most beautiful garden and I am going to help her garden one day! I forgot to mention that while we were eating breakfast this morning, Sara walked into the kitchen and her tongue was black! Apparently pepto can turn your tongue black? Who knew. We got to pray with the french couple before they left and send them off with blessings and good thoughts.

Then we all worked on memorizing our stories for about two hours, I´m memorizing the story of Noah and the Flood. Then we went to our favorite little restuarant here, actually there´s only like three but still. Did I mention that there´s only about a thousand people in this town? And of course while we are eating, about ten kids are staring at us. My life here is like being a tiger or something at the zoo, we are the main attraction! Seriously though. So I did this weird little dance for the kids, I´m a loca gringa!!!! Actually, as I am typing this...kids are staring at me. Story of my life. So I´ve decided to do a weird little dance every time they stare and make a weird face. Muahahahaha. My hands are so cold right now! Ahhhh. I´m at an internet cavena right now in Conima, actually the only internet cavena here.

Have I told you guys that we can see Lake Titicaca from our house? Well we can, and its beautifullll!! Please go to google images right now and look up Lake Titicaca so you can see what I have been seeing! There´s a little island with a resort on the lake and I think we are going to try to catch a boat on Saturday to go check it out.

Keep praying everyone, I know you have been but keep it up! We need all the prayer we can get! It gets so cold at night, like my bones seriously feel like ice but it gets pretty nice during the day. The sun is so bright here, my nose is pretty burned right now but I just hate sunscreen! I know my mom is going to read this so don´t worry, I will go and apply sunscreen as soon as possible. Well I have an appointment at three to play frisbee with a bunch of kids and its two right now so I am off to work on my story some more before those crazy kids wear me out!

-Love in Christ! Romans 12:2

Today's post, updated today ... by Alison

So today has been pretty great! I woke up, spent some time with my Lord, and then we had worship! And of course I had a cup of hot tea and some cinammon toast! We decided to study Phillippians as a group, so far so good! I learned today during worship that our group does not have singing abilities. HA. After worship we went to the market, which is every Sunday. People bring all their veggies and meats to the plaza to sell. We got a ton of fresh veggies. YUM! I hand washed some clothes today before lunch and hung them up. Jeremy and Heather made fajitas for lunch so I had veggie fajitas. SO GOOD. After lunch I decided to go to the little courtyard that is attached to the house we are staying at and I pulled weeds for about two hours but I made that garden look good!!! Then I got to take a nice lukewarm shower, showers aren´t really hot here. I even clipped my toe nails today! Don´t judge me world! I haven´t even shaved my legs since I´ve been here, you think I´m joking but I´ll have pictures for proof!!!! Oh yeah, Happy Father´s day!!! I miss you and love you so much dad! Yesterday that multi-tool you gave me really came in handy and I can´t tell you how many times that I´ve used that flashlight, I´m pretty sure that mine is the brightest out of everyone´s!!! I LOVE YOU so much Dad!!!....I love my heavenly father so much too! I´m off to see what´s for dinner! Keep praying everyone, we need it!
-Love in Christ!

The Climb ... by Alison

I haven´t had internet in a few days. I feel like I have so much ground to cover. I just got on facebook and I´m feeling kind of bummed, I feel like all of my friends are off doing all this stuff this summer and forgetting about me. Meh, I´m probably just being a baby. Here we go...

Wed, June 16th
Hello, I am currently sitting on the roof of the hostile, looking over the whole city. Today we are going to Juliaca to go shopping and to get stuff for our home in Conima! It´s only 7:45 a:m here but my days always start at 7:00 a:m. We have worship at 8:30 a:m as usual.
Okay so I´m back from shopping in Juliaca. I went to exchange my dollars bills for soles and they wouldn´t taked my ripped bills, even if it was just a tiny rip! Ridiculous. Sara and I met two of the sweetest, cutest litte girls in Juliaca. We got to eat at the really good restaurant, I had fettucini alfredo. It was so weird to have normal american food. Heather bought a sweet guitar when we were out shopping so we can use it for worship in Conima.
Sonia(the missionary training us) made us a delicious going away dinner! She made hamburgers, potatoe salad, and baked beans...and then a special grilled chees sandwich for me! After dinner walked to a ladies house and had worship in English, Spanish, and Aymaran which was sooo cool! Pastor Rueben told the story of Adam and Eve, John(the missionary) translated. Then on the way back to the hostile Jeremy Lou played the guitar and we sang to the Lord! Sleep time. ZzzzzZZz.

Thursday, June 17th
THE CLIMB
We woke up at 3:45 a:m today to hike a mountain, yes...a mountain. I felt out of breath just walking to the base of the mountain! I literally almost turned back and climbed right back in bed. I´m not going to lie, hiking that mountain in this altitude was the hardest thing that I have ever done physically. We hiked 800 feet up. The whole time I was asking God to hold my hand. I finally got to the top (last of my team because I walked with the Huancane girls and Andrea tore her acl before she came). Let me tell you, that hike was worth it! I got to see the sun rise on top of a mountain, in the middle of Peru. WOW. All I could do was marvel at God´s creation. I hiked back down on the trail (which is harder) with Kelsey and we had a really great talk. We arrived back at the house around 7:15 a:m so I packed all my stuff up for Conima!!! We had worship and then we cleaned the hostile, squeaky clean! Then we packed everything in John´s vehicle. The two Jeremy´s and I had to stay behing and catch a bus because there wasn´t enough room for us. So we waited at the bus stop with Pastor Rueben for an hour and a half! We found out that there was only one bus and it wasn´t going to Conima so if we got on it then we would have to walk an hour to Conima. So we decided to go back to the Huancane girls house and get some lunch because it was about 1:30 by now...our team left at about noon. Andrea made us grilled cheese sandwiches and we played scrabble! After we got done playing scrabble, I started feeling pretty sick so I layed down. I layed down for about two hours and then got up and went to the bathroom, where I threw up about four times. I wasn´t feeling too great at this point so we walked back to John and Sonia´s and I took some medicine. They decided that it would be best to wait until Friday to leave for Conima. I decided to go lay in bed around 7:00 p:m and I finally fell asleep after about an hour. ZZZZzzzzzzzzZZZ.

Friday, June 18th
So last night was my breaking point. I felt awful and I was in a foreign country, far away from home. I wanted to go home, and still kind of do. I know God brought me here for a reason.
So John, the Jeremy´s, and I left for Conima around 9:00 a:m. We took this really pretty route but of course, I started to feel car sick and I was still feeling pretty sick from the night before. So they pulled over and I took some medicine. Lake Titicaca is probably the most beautiful creation that I´ve ever seen, I´m thinking this as I´m about to puke. So we go to Mo to see where to Mo team lives since its on the way to Conima but they aren´t there. But of course, I end up throwing up in their bathroom. We start driving again but my breath is tasting pretty gross so John pulls over so I can brush my teeth on the side of the road, using a water bottle. All this kids are staring at me and I know that their thinking "loco gringo". We finally ariive at our new home in Conima around 11:00 a:m and its so amazing and beautiful! Its a cute yellow house, three stories high, with NO heating and concrete walls but I still love it! John showed us around the city and then I took a two hour nap! We had dinner and then bad time. ZZZzzzzzzzzz.

Saturday, June 19th
I´m hanging out at Lake Titicaca right now, but its really like and ocean! We just got done with lunch and now we are all just hanging out by the water. This morning Jeremy locked himself out of his room so this guy spent three hours trying to get the lock off, and finally did. While the guy was working on the door, we played frisbee with the kids. I´m falling more in love with this place every day! I´m sitting here listening to the water hit up against the rocks and Jeremy is playing with Alex and Jose (two little boys that we met). I caught the coolest looking frog! Jeremy and I decided to take off our shoes and walk in the water, which was a terrible idea because it was freezing!!!! We taught the kids how to skip rocks, which was soooo fun! After we went to the lake, we pray walked around the city...prayer is so powerful! Then Jeremy and I cooked home made spagetti which took about two hours but it was sooo good! We are taking turns preparing meals here since it takes so long! Then we finished off the night was a group meeting and some telephone pictionary! Of course, my drawings were ridiculed but I know that they were all just jealous! Bed time. ZZzzzzzZZZ.

I´m sure that there are so many grammar mistakes and misspelled words so I´m sorry! I´m typing this in a tiny little internet cavena with a ton of kids staring at me, I´m not joking. I´m a gringo which means I´m a rare bread around here!

-Love in Christ, John 16:33

There will be mountains to climb ... by Kelsey

Thursday morning I awoke at 3:30am to bundle up and prepare to take on the challenge of climbing to the top of Mt Poco Paca to see the sunrise & pray over the city of Huancane. As it turned out, I was the only girl that decided to take the trail up the whole way instead of walking the road. I set out up the mountain following John, Jeremy L, Jeremy S, and Rueben when I turned around and saw that there were no other girls behind me. After the first leg of the hike I was thinking, ¨Why in the world did I choose the trail?!¨ The trail is a straight shot up the mountain which is about 500 ft up. Beginning at 12,800 ft above sea level made the hike even harder breathing in such thin, cold air the whole way. I´ve never had such a hard time breathing! That is what made the hike extraordinarily difficult as well as the fact that I could hardly see what was ahead of me hiking in the dark hours of the morning. Once we hit the halfway point I wasn´t sure if I would made it to the top in time to see the sunrise, but I was sure hoping so. Every time I had to stop for a moment I would say a short prayer for endurance and energy before I continued hiking. I kept telling myself ¨You can do this. With the Lord´s help, you can do this.¨

The very last stertch of the hike Jeremy S & I chose to climb the face of the mountain instead of staying on the trail. It was hard climbing all the huge rocks after such an exhausting hike, but the view from the top of the mountain was worth it all. As the sun slowly rose higher, I could see everything below. Lake Titicaca was a beautiful blue expanse surrounded by mountains. All of Huancane sat below us just beginning to stir with activity. All around us were mountains as far as the eye could see. the sun finally rose up from behind the mountain peaks and painted the sky with spectacular colors. I´ve never seen anything like it.

It only took me an hour to make it all the way up the mountain. It was a hard, painful hour of sucking in cold, cold air. My legs hurt. My energy ran low. My eyes began to water from the dry air & cold wind. My nose was running & stopped up from the cold, but the rest of my body was radiating heat under the several layers I wore. But the hike was well worth the effort. I just kept my focus on that mountain peak and did my best to ignore the pain. When you have a mission of purpose, you must keep your eyes set on that and let all the hardships fall behind you.

The hike taught me alot about what the rest of the summer will be like. Hardships will come. In fact, for many of our team members they have already begun. Like John has told us, Satan doesn´t want us here to share the love of Jesus Christ with the Aymaran people, but this is what God has called us to. He has provided and has brought each of us here. To get through these coming 6 weeks, I must seek the Lord whole-heartedly, find my strength in Him alone, and keep my focus on the purpose for which the Lord has called me here.


Rise and shine to a beautiful day in Conima!
Here we are in Conima. Our whole team is finally together after some changes in plans, no buses in sight, and 2 days of traveling. the hour & a half drive from Huancane to Conima was filled with many beautiful sights and alot of dusty mountain roads. At one point John stopped on the side of the road and let us get out to take pictures of the sparkling bright blue waters of Lake Titicaca nestled in the middle of majestic mountains that towered above the calm waters and reached their peaks to the heavens. The mountains of Peru are gorgeous!

Conima is a small, peaceful town, very quaint & slow-paced. The home we are styaing in is wonderful! It sits right on the corner of the plaza looking out at the lake. It is 4 stories so lots of going up & down stairs. The first floor is the garage, Jeremy´s bedroom & bathroom, and a small garden area out back where we can also do our laundry. The second floor is the kitchen complete with plenty of cabinet space, a refrigorator, and a gas stove-top which we brought with us. The third floor is where the 2 girls´bedrooms are as well as a bathroom for each room. Emily, Heather, & Sarah are staying in the larger room, and Alison & I share the other room. The fourth floor is our meeting room with the gas heater John sent with us. The top floor also has 2 doors that lead out to 2 balconies overlooking the plaza, the town, and the lake.

Yesterday was our first day together just the 6 of us in Conima. Jeremy S has gotten out his longboard, and the kids love it! We have played with them for hours, and when we aren´t plaing with them they are following us or banging on our door to come out & play. Yesterday after we played with the kids for a while and a locksmith-type man was finally able to open Jeremy´s bedroom door that had gotten jammed shut, we packed up lunch and hiked down to the lake as a team to have a picnic. After lunch we worked on memorizing our stories and played with a couple of little boys that had tried to sneakily follow us down to the lakeshore. Jeremy, Alison, and I took off our shoes, rolled up our pants, and waded out in the lake skipping rocks for a while. After a while we came back up to the plaza, split up into 2 groups, and prayer-walked around the town for a good while.

Today has been a busy day of grocery shopping at the market, disinfecting all our food, cooking, and hand-washing laundry. We promised some little boys that we would play with them later today, and we all plan to work more on memorizing our stories. I´ve got half of mine down well in spanish with motions & all, but that still leaves the second half to learn as quickly as possible.

The Last Few Days ... by Emily

Well, we have had an eventful last few days. The day that we left for Conima we met at 4am to go hiking up a mountain in Huancane. The hike was hard, but I did not have any asthma trouble (Praise the Lord!). We all made it to the top in time to see the sun rise. It was a beautiful site to see the sun rise over Lake Titicaca from up where we were. We prayed over the town and enjoyed the view until it just got too cold! After hiking back down and having worship, we packed up and cleaned the hostel for our move to Conima.

The drive was gorgeous. We stopped to take pictures at John Grady´s favorite spot since we chose the scenic route to Conima. When we got to the house, we unloaded and got everything set up for the next six weeks. Jeremy S, Alison, and Jeremy L ended up being stuck in Huancane for the night because they could not find a bus out to Conima. The next day we were all together again and started building relationships with the people. We have had a lot of fun playing with the kids and visiting with some of the adults. A lady named Sofia sits out in the plaza every afternoon to knit, and she has offered to teach me how to knit this week. I´m looking forward to doing that with her. Hopefully, I can tell my first story to her. She is actually the neice of the owner of the house we are staying in, and she owns a store right next to the house that we have been doing a lot of our shopping at.

Yesterday, we had a picnic out by the lake, and two of the little boys that we have been playing with followed us out there. They thought they were hiding really well while we ate, but we could see them the whole time. :) Once we finished eating our PB&J sandwiches, some of us skipped rocks with the kids (after they came out of hiding) and the rest of us tried to work on our stories. The lake is beautiful here, and it was so peaceful to just sit and listen to the waves.

Our team is bonding really well. Keep praying for that unity because without it, anything that we do this summer will crumble.

One of the challenges here is that, besides the kids, everyone here seems so much older than us. During worship today, Sara shared the verse in 1 Timothy about not letting others look down on you because you are young, and how even young people can be used for God´s work for His kingdom. It was very encouraging.

Tomorrow we start our first official "work week". Pray that God will clearly reveal to us what He wants us to do and, of course, continue to pray for my Spanish skills and for the rest of my team´s Spanish as well.

Today has been our clothes washing day. While we are having most of our things washed for us, we are saving some things for us to wash on our own. Later today, Kelsey and I are making chicken and dumplings. We are eating very well here, and we are having lots of fun learning new recipes. The rest of the day we will be working on our stories.

Happy Fathers´ Day to all you dads out there! Know that you are loved. Many of us are going to attempt to use a calling card and a pay phone later today to call our dads, but I´m not sure if it will work.

Thanks for the prayers and the encouragement. From this point on, I hope to write a post about every other day unless there is internet trouble.

We Made It! by Emily

Hey everyone! I don´t have much time left on the computer, but I wanted everyone to know that we have made it Conima and are comfortably settled in! The internet has not worked until today, so that is why you have not heard from any of us. If the internet is working tomorrow, I plan to post a blog about the past few days.

God is already working through us here. We have met several children and adults--the relationships are forming! And we are all working on memorizing those stories, so please keep that and the rest of our ministry here in Conima in your prayers. Love to all of you!

Conima! by Heather

We are in Conima and finally have internet access! We got here Thursday and the power, phone and internet were out. The power and cell service came back that night, but internet just returned today. I am squeezed into the corner of the tiny internet bodega in Conima. I have been listening to ¨Por fin!¨ over and over as the kid beside me was playing video games on the computer. Today is a day of rest for the people so we have chosen it as a day of rest for ourselves as well. Unfortunately this morning was spent waiting as a man tried to get into Jeremy´s room. The door was locked and the key would not work. He spent last night on the couch in the living room. Finally after 3 hours of work, he was able to get into his room. We were able to play with some kids in the plaza while waiting for him to finish. After that we took a picnic out to the shore of the lake. We ate lunch, layed in the sun, played with 2 boys who sneakily followed us out there, skipped rocks and just had a nice relaxing time. After coming back we did some kitchen work and dinner preparation. Then we went prayer walking around the city. Now, finally, we are catching up on our emails and blogging. Jeremy and Alison are probably preparing our spaghetti for supper. We´re all excited. We have had so much chicken and not much beef. Tomorrow is market day so we will be able to stock up on a larger variety of vegetables and fruits.

Our house is incredible. It has 4 floors. In the kitchen and even most of the house you would never know you were in Peru, it´s very similar to an American house. Except for the fact your fingers are numb from the cold =) There isn´t any heat in the house. But we do have a space heater in the living room on the 4th floor and at night we turn it on and sit up there. We also have tons of blankets on our beds and warm sleeping bags if we need them. The house is usually colder than outside. Outside it is around 50 degrees but with the sun it feels like 80 or so. You just have to put on sunscreen before going out.

We are working on memorizing the stories we are going to share with people. Emily and I are learning the creation story. ´´In el comiendo de todo, Dios creo el cielo y el tierra. El tierra no tenia entonces ninguna forma...'' That´s as far as I have gotten and can remember right now. Still a lot of work to go!

Well, I should probably go outside and warm up. Thanks for your prayers!

Nightmares, cooking, clothes, and a lot of information - by Kelsey

Catching up...

MONDAY

Sitting on the roof in the morning to spend time with the Lord will probably be one of my favorite things this summer. I sit here sipping my hot coca tea as the sun shines down and warms my body. The cold doesn´t seem nearly as bad now. Last night I was sweating in my sleeping bag so I may goto just wearing one pair of pajama pants & a sweater to bed.

Last night I had nightmares all night long so my sleep wasn´t as restful. Those nightmares felt so real and woke me in a state of fear and trembling. Each time I woke, I said a prayer to calm my anxiety and remind me that God is greater. But despite my prayers the nightmares continued all night, and I sit here this morning with a fear that shakes my insides. It dwells inside me and makes me want to run away. Run from what? - I`m not sure. God´s plans for me, the work He is doing in me, the unknown, what lies ahead of me. I just don´t know. But what I do know is that God is greater than my fears. So I will continue to go to the Lord with my fears and turn to scripture as my comfort. Joshua 1:9 says, ¨This is my command - be strong & courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For theLord your God is with you wherever you go.¨ There are so many other places in scripture where God tells His children not to fear. Therefore, because of the vast power & supreme nature of God as well as His command to His children not to fear, I will stand strong in the face of fear because my God is greater.

The highlight of orientation today was learning to cook at an altitude of 12,800 ft. Sonia helped show the team how to make vegetable soup. Now when I say vegetable soup, it isn´t nearly as easy as it sounds. You have to clean, disinfect, peel, and chop all the vegetables - carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, cabbage, celery, peas, and 3 cloves of garlic. Then you fill the pot with purified water and some buoin cubes and let it cook for at least an hour. It was very tasty with a piece of bread.

We spent time talking aboutworldview, contextualization, time management, living together, and simple church. I especially enjoyed hearing about the Aymaran worldview, contextualization of the gospel to them, and what it means to practice simple church. John is so passionate aboutit all and has a very Biblical view & practice of it all. I get more & more excited every day to begin our work in Conima!

During morning worship we sang a song called ¨Be Thou My Vision¨, and it really touched me. That is my prayer - that God would be my vision. Jeremy also shared the story this morning about Phillips & the Ethiopian unic. It spoke to me in a powerful way about trusting the Lord & faithfully following His lead. If I obediently & eagerly follow Christ, He will alwaysbe faithful to provide opportunities and guidance to share of His great love. I feel like I´m catching on to the story-telling prettywell so I am going to begin my first attempt at memorizing a Bible story in spanish. Updates to come on how that works out.

This evening I checked my facebook really quick and read a message that really upset me. To be honest, I logged off & hurried up to my room to cry. I was confused & hurt. I didn´t know what to think. But as I sat on my bed, the Lord spoke to my heart in a soft whisper, ¨Kelsey, I am your one true love. I am all you need, and I have great plans for you! Seek me with all your heart, mind, and strength, and I will be faithful as I have always been.¨ Then I heard Jeremy L & Jeremy S downstairs in our meeting oom singing. I went down and joined them. Throughspending that time singing praises to God, He captivated all my attention and reminded me of my purpose. This momentary upset is so trivial in comparison to how the Lord wants to use me while I´m in Peru & even well after I´m gone. It amazes me how powerfully God works in my heart if I only allow Him and how He continues to draw me closer to His & instill in me a deeper, more intimate love for my Savior every day.



TUESDAY

The day began when I woke up at 7:30am after unintentionally shutting off my alarm an hour earlier. I quickly got dressed, threw my dirty hair up in a ponytail, brushed my teeth, and walked across the hall to the kitchen where the rest of the team had already begun breakfast & Bible time. I ate a banana with some peanut butter, and then headed up to theroof with my steaming hot coca tea in one hand & my books in the other. I am really enjoying reading through Ephesians in the mornings. Paul´s words encourage me daily in my passion to intimiately seek the Lord and strive to have the heart of Jesus Christ. I grow neaer to God with each passing moment yet I also realize how much more there is to God. He amazes me every day as He continues to reveal Himself to me in real & astonishing ways.

The storyduring morning worship today was about Cornelius & Peter. One thing that continues to speak to me in each of the stories we´ve heard is the confident & obedient faith of the early believers as well as their eagerness to follow wherever God leads them. My heart´´s desire in tohave a crazy love for the Lord & obediently follow wherever He leads me with an eager, confident faith.

Before lunchwe had a lesson with Pastor Rueben y suesposa, Louisa, on how to hand wash our clothes. ¨Strong!¨Rueben told us as we tried our hands at scrubbing some of our dirty clothes. I think I´ve found an effective workout if I want to go back with some muscle! After doing the washing, it kinda makes me wonder how many wear you can get out of jackets & jeans before you have to wash them.

For lunch we got to learn how to piece apart a chicken and cut chicken breast from the bone. Even our team vegetarian, Alison, did it! Then we made polloa la milanesa which is a thinly sliced chicken breast that is breaded, seasoned, and fried. We coupled that with rice & a vegetable salad. What a delicious lunch! Pollo a la milanesa es muy rico!

This afternoon was spent discussing ministry ideas and learning how to do story-telling. It felt pretty long but very productive & helpful. Last night & my lunch break were spent working on storymemorization so I now know the first 6 verses of the Fall of Man in spanish. It´s a slow process, but it´s gettin´there. For dinner we made pancakes, and I got to have myself some banana pancakes. Yummmm!

I have to say that my favorite part of the day came tonight. Pastor Rueben, an Aymaran believer & pastor, came to the hostel and shared his testimony with us. He is such a humble man of God. His devout faithis an inspiration & encouragement to me. We got to ask him questions as well. It´s just amazing to head of what an impact Christ has had on him & his family and what a wonderful transformation has taken place in their hearts. I love hearing people´s stories.

Well that is all for now. I don´t have time to write about today (Wednesday). We are leaving the hostel in the morning at 4am to climb Mt Pico Paca in the morning & see the sunrise. So off to bed I go! Buenoes noches, amigos.

The Rooster Crows ... by Alison

And so my day has begun. Christ walks beside me holding my hand, today and always. Sometimes I walk in doubt but my friend continues to hold my hand and guide me in encouragement. At times I walk in fear but my companion holds on tight and gives me strength. My body aches and I feel as if I cannot go on any longer. My friend gives me water and we continue on our journey, hand in hand. Then I begin to walk in shame and I want to hide from my friend but he holds on even tighter. He tells me all about grace and that his grace will never run out. We go on about our way but my feet are covered in sores so my friend lets go of my hand and carries me. O, what a friend I have!

Honestly, this morning I was feeling a bit discouraged. My stomache didn´t feel too good and I was stressing out bad about the language barrier. As I was sitting with my cup of tea and the word of God I heard a rooster crow and it was an instant comfort. It took me back to waking up every morning in Africa and spending some time with God first thing in the morning and hearing a rooster crow every single morning. Its like that rooster is a symol of something new, a new day that the Lord will use. A new day that the LORD will use, not I. The story above came to me as I was sitting there on top of our building with my cup of tea. I´m not doing this alone, in fact I´m not the one whose doing anything...Christ is carrying me the whole way. I just have to be obedient to God and go when he tells me to go. With that said, I´m learning to get over the worry of the language barrier because I know God is going to use me no matter what!

Today we learned how to hand wash our clothes. It sounds easy but trust me, its harder then it sounds. That water was cold, its cold up here in the mountains. Period. I think that my bones are getting somewhat used to it. I actually enjoyed hand washing my clothes even though it takes forever. I´m really learning to enjoy the simplicity of life. Guess what else I did today!?! I cut a chicken, yes...the vegetarian. I didn´t eat it though! We each got to take turns cutting off the wings and learning how to take of the skin and everything and where to cut it on the joints. Lets just say that I killed it...literally...well not really because the poor guy was already dead! I can´t upload pictures here because most of the computers have viruses. ); So today we had about two hours of down time so the two Jeremy´s and I went and played frisbee on the street with a bunch of kids. We also did hand stands with them. It was so fun! I got to sit down with a bunch of young girls and talk to them, well it was mostly them telling me how to say stuff in Spanish. It was so awesome though! Jeremy said that there was a huge group around me. Everyone was just laughing at my pathetic attempts at Spanish but I tried okay!! Tonight an Aymara man came and gave his testimony, he is now a pastor at a simple church. That was pretty amazing to see the result of the missionaries hard work and prayers. I also got to hear some worship songs in Spanish. Can you say beautiful!?! I need you all back home to be praying for us here. It may get really discouraging here. Its interesting to not have all the luxuries we have in America. I never thought that being able to flush toilet paper down the toilet would be that big of a deal. Or hand washing clothes. Or litterally spending two hours to prepare a meal because it´s completely different cooking food in this altitude. Anyways what I´m saying is that yeah, America is great and we have a lot but living a simple life isn´t so bad. We´ll see how I feel after six weeks here though! Ha. Its still crazy that think that I´ll be here this long. I went to the store today and got eggs, butter, and bread...that´s rights folks! It sounds so easy but not so easy when everyone around you speaks a different language! Ha. The stores here are so different, well obviously. Everything here is different but I can´t explain it with words, its something you have to see with your own eyes. When I get back to the states I can upload all my pictures. Also, I´ll tell you all about what we´ll be doing in Conima tomorrow! This is sooooo long! I´ll leave you with this, get out of God´s way and just let him use you.
-Love in Christ!

Day 3 ... by Emily

Today's blog will be a little bit shorter.... I think.... since others are waiting for the computer. Today was a lot like yesterday, but we had a few different orientation sessions. This afternoon we made vegetable soup from scratch! This means we took the ingredients we got from the market yesterday, washed them, disinfected them, chopped them into pieces, boiled them, and flavored them. It was a great experience! We were also given a cook book with recipes we can make from the ingredients that we can find here. I'm looking forward to learning lots of new recipes.

This afternoon we had four more sessions on worldview, planning our ministry schedule in Conima, adapting our stories to the Aymaran culture, and the "simple church" (basically the church based on the New Testament model). It was all great information, and I had not heard several of the topics that John brought up. There is definitely a lot to think about....

For dinner we got together with the Huancane team at their house and had chicken and rice. Before dinner I went with some of the team to the chicken restaraunt to buy dos pollos, and Jeremy L had me order it myself. It was just a simple sentence, but it's great to be using my Spanish again. My listening comprehension is already coming back pretty quickly, but I still need prayer!

Anyways, that's about it for today. Tomorrow we are learning how to hand wash clothes in a bucket, and we will be making more detailed plans about our ministry in Conima. Adios!

The stars are big and bright ...

- by Alison

DEEP IN THE HEART OF PERU!!! And they are! The stars are so beautiful here! What's up with the no comments everyone?!?! Are you guys even reading this!?! Today we did some more missionary training, we went out and got some candy from one of the stores near by but we haven't gotten to get out a whole lot yet. I am so excited to go to Conima on Thursday and start our ministry. Yesterday at the market Justin Bieber was playing on someone's radio...I wish that I was joking! I don't really miss home at all but I mean I haven't been gone long. I honesty can see myself living overseas for most of my life. I really enjoy this simple living and simple church. I have a lot to say about simple church but I will talk more about that later. I'm praying for everyone back at home, I really want you all to feel this deep fire inside of you that I feel. It's not enough just to proclaim that you are a christian, if your life doesn't show true worship and love for others then what are you doing? Wow, you proclaim to be a christian just like the rest of America...lets see some change in your life! Get out and do something, show someone love! Yeahhh! I don't know about you all but I want to live a life worth following. I'm tired and ready for bed even though its only 9:00 p:m here. I've been a busy bee! Keep praying everyone, God's going to move so much this summer!
-Love in Christ

Cooking and other skills

- by Heather

Since all of you might think we've been starving missionaries eating only rice and beans, I'll let you know that that has not been the case at all! Almost everything I've eaten here so far has been delicious. And besides there being lots of chicken, we've had a lot of variety.

The first night here I was sick, so I did not go with the team to dinner. They went to a restaurant nearby and had rotisserie chicken and soup. The most notable part of the soup was the chicken feet floating in the middle. While I think most everyone was a little disturbed, they said the soup itself was delicious.

The next day for lunch we went to a nearby restaurant and got either a dish with beef and onions over french fries with rice, or fried chicken with french fries. I had the fried chicken. It was better than some of the fried chicken I have had in the states. The french fries were really good too.

That night for dinner we decided to make it at our house. We made macaroni and cheese and crepes/pancakes. Nice combination, right? Jeremy L. mixed up the pancakes and they were delicious. We will definitely be making more of those this summer.

Yesterday for lunch we learned how to make vegetable soup. We had bought all the vegetables at the market on Sunday. We chopped up potatoes, celery, tomatoes, carrots, and I'm sure other stuff I've forgotten. We also shelled peas. The soup was incredibly good. We ate it with the really good bread we have here.

For dinner last night we got together with 3 girls who are missionaries here in Huancane this summer. We bought 1.5 rotisserie chickens which came with fries and soup and we made rice. The soup was the same chicken foot soup from the first night. Since I didn't get any the first night, they put all the chicken feet in mine... I ate a few spoonfuls of soup, but was already full, so that was the extent of my chicken foot experience. Kelsey, on the other hand, was talked into actually eating the meat off of one of the chicken feet. I believe I heard it just tasted like regular chicken, but she probably wouldn't be eating it again.

For lunch today we learned how to debone a chicken! We got whole chicken breasts, bone and all. We learned how to cut through the bones at the joints and cut the breast meat off so it looks just like the chicken breasts you buy in a store. Pretty sweet skill to learn! We then breaded it in flour, egg and crushed up crackers with seasoning. After frying it up in the frying pan, it was delicious! We had it with a vegetable salad and rice.

For breakfast most of us have been eating bread with peanut butter. I have made some packets of oatmeal or grits.

So, all of you parents who were worrying that your kids aren't eating enough should be happy to know that we are eating very well. We might even bring home some cooking skills, if you can convince us to use them after cooking our own meals all summer!

Today we also learned how to wash our clothes by hand. Pastor Ruben, a local pastor who was teaching us, was a lot better at it than we were! He went back after us a few times and rewashed things. We were washing them in buckets of water out on the roof. The water was freezing! After a while your fingers kind of go numb. We got lots of things washed though and know how to do it. We also have the option of paying someone to wash our clothes. A typical price would be 1 sole for 3 pieces of clothing. That's like 10 cents each. Since they will probably do a better job than we will anyway, we will most likely be paying for our clothes to be washed.

This afternoon we are going to be talking about ministry ideas for the upcoming weeks and also really getting into how storying works and how we are going to learn and use this method of sharing with people. Tomorrow we go to the market in Juliaca and Thursday we hike a mountain and then leave for Conima!

Orientation Begins ... by Kelsey

A good night's sleep was greatly appreciated last night - went to sleep at 8:30pm and got to sleep until 6:30am. I am the only girl sleeping in my own room, and I wasn't even afraid of the dark! I was so tired last night that I chose to wait til this morning to shower. BAD IDEA! The widow-maker is supposed to instantly heat the water, but apparently I did something wrong and had to take a cold shower in 50 degree weather. I absolutely hated it! In fact, I hated it enough that I think I might go to just one shower a week. It was miserable. And then I was shivering all morning because staying in a concrete building with tile floors & no heating is horribly cold. So this morning wasn't much fun at all.

We had morning worship together at 8:30. Jeremy L played a few worship songs on his guitar, and John told us a Bible story. I didn't realize he was demonstrating story-telling until almost halfway through. He told us about the beginning of the disciples' ministry & the early Church in Acts 2 after Jesus' ascention into heaven. We talked about the story after he had repeated it several times and I had told it back to him. Between morning worship & all our info sessions, I am really excited to learn more and then be able to use the skills we've learned to share the love of Christ in Conima. Our introduction time included getting to hear the testimonies of John & Sonia as well as learning more about the Aymara people. I love hearing people's stories. god works in such amazing ways!

Sunday is the big market day in Huancane so after morning worship John & Sonia took us through the market. John explained that it is important to build relationships with the people you buy from and then continue returning to buy from them. Sonia showed me how to buy fruits & vegetables and used 10 soles of ours to buy the ingredients for vegetable soup we will cook tomorrow for lunch. When you buy food you say "dos soles de papas", and you will get 2 soles of potatoes. So you ask for food based on how much you want to pay instead of saying how many items of food you want. The market in Peru is very different from Haiti - noone coming up to you bugging to come buy from them. After getting all our groceries we walked around for a bit just taking in the culture and scoping out souvenirs. The women all wear skirts and little hats. They sling a folded up blanket that looks like a pouch on their backs filled with things they bought in the market or even babies.

For lunch today we went to another restaurant and had a dish called lomo sal tado. It was delicious strips of beef cooked with onions & tomatoes served over rice & french fries. Peruvian food is fantastic!

I'm already learned so much and am looking forward to everything else that is to come. There is so much to know! Everything is different - grocery shopping, cooking, showering, making a fire, washing clothes, sharing the gospel, the language, Aymaran culture & beliefs, customs. But it is so fasinating! Well, I'm about ready for bed, and I'm sure we have another long day ahead of us. We are learning to cook tomorrow =) Adios, amigos

Day 2 - by Emily

Today was our first full day here. It was great! We all struggled to get out of bed because it is so cold, but once we did, it was good. We started the day doing our own thing. Kelsey and I sat on the roof to do our devotional.... It was nice and warm up there. After breakfast (a banana with peanut butter), we met everyone for worship. It was a great time of singing, hearing Jeremy S's testimony, and learning to put a Bible story to memory.

Sunday is market day, so after worship we went out and saw the town all set up and busy for the market. It was great getting to see the town in the daylight and to practice my Spanish with a few people. One lady came up and was asking me for medicine over and over again, and I kept telling her I didn't have any. I was very confused.... It ends up that they thought we were a part of the medical team that just left yesterday, and she was hoping that I had more medicine for her. I was happy to know that I hadn't completely misunderstood her Spanish...

After lunch we had several sessions with John about the Aymara culture, village life, culture shock, etc. It was all really interesting. It made me very excited for when we get to see our "home" for the summer and meet the people in Conima. I'm really excited to start building relationships with the people. Hopefully, my Spanish will come back to me quickly. I was able to use it a little bit today, but I am SOOO rusty, so please pray for me to become conversational again quickly.

For dinner we had an interesting (but yummy!) combination. We had Velveeta macaroni and pancakes. We were just using ingredients that we have! Luckily, Jeremy L knows how to make pancakes from memory, and they were really good. They actually should have been crepes because we didn't have baking soda, but for some reason they still turned into pancakes...

A group of us are about to head over to the house where the Huancane group of girls are staying to hang out and play games. Hopefully, I'll be able to post another blog tomorrow!!

Bread ... no pan! - by Alison

Hello everyone! I am feeling much better after getting ten hours of sleep last night. I know, I know...ridiculous. I lied to y'all earlier, I'm sorry! We are actually in Huacane right now with the Grady's. We will be here until Thursday and then Thursday evening we will be going to Conima. We will be doing missionary training until Thursday and we even get to hike up a mountain. HOORAY! I hope all my friends from back home have been keeping up with my blog, I mean it has only been three days. HA. So yesterday I had chicken foot soup, oh yeah...you heard me right. I had two chicken feet in it but I just scooped them out and put them aside. The soup was actually muy bueno! Today we had worship at 8:30 a.m. and then we went to the market place. I loved the market place!!! I swear that I ran into like twenty people but you just say "Oh per miso". I don't know if that was the right spelling for that word. I went to a little store and asked for bread and Fernando (the man at the store) laughed and said its pan not bread! We got a ton of stares at the market place, I just kept saying "Hola!" We went to a restaurant today for lunch and it was pretty good! I had french fries with cooked onions and some interesting sauce and then rice. There's like a million different kinds of potatoes here. Also, we are 12,800 feet up...talk about being short of breath! Ha, but seriously I really have been. Its soooo cold here at night and in the morning. You can go on top of the building here and look over the whole city so that's pretty cool. I am getting a little nervous about climbing up that mountain on Thursday! Well its 7:40 p.m and I need to read my Bible and some information that the Grady's gave us so I'm off! I will try to update this tomorrow. I found out that we won't have very fast internet connection in Conima so we'll see how much I get to update this. Adios amigos!

Finally Here!

- by Heather

Sorry the computer in Lima didn't work out for me to make a real post. Hopefully this one can catch you all up. I met up with the rest of the team in the Lima airport. We had a pretty long layover there and then flew to Juliaca. I didn't sleep much on the long Miami to Lima flight, so Lima to Juliaca I was out like a light. I was awake to enjoy some of the scenery though. The mountains are beautiful. We could see some snow capped mountains out the plane window. We landed in Juliaca, which is where we met John, the missionary we are working with. We then had an hour long bus ride to Huancane where he lives and where we have training until Thursday.

Like I think I explained before, I found out before coming that I was allergic to the altitude sickness pills they recommended we take. So I took Ginko to try to help and tried to drink a lot of water. But last night I ended up sick from the altitude, nausea and vomiting which I'm sure you don't want to hear details about! So I took some medicine and went to bed. Today I feel a lot better. We all still get winded walking around the town, but that is just adjusting to the altitude.

This morning we got up, had breakfast and devotions, then group worship and a short training session. Then we went and walked around Huancane. Sundays are market days, so there are vendors set up up and down all the streets. We bought vegetables for our lunch tomorrow and just looked at all they had to offer. For lunch today we went to a restaurant near the square and I had fried chicken and really good french fries! Now we are back at the house where we are staying. Our next training session starts in 2 minutes, so I have to go! Thanks for your prayers!