FBC Willow Park - Peru Missions

Glimmers of Gospel Hope (Jonathan M.)

2011-09-02T09:37:00.000-07:00

This blog is a recap of the trip 4 youth, myself, and another adult took to Peru. I've been meaning to post it for ... oh ... only 2 months now. Better late than never I say. I hope for the other 5 that went, this helps them to re-live our adventures, and reminds us of how we have hope in Christ and for the Gospel in the lives of some of the children in Conima Peru. I hope you enjoy reading about our "tough travels," being "cold in Conima," "McDonald's at midnight," and the "glimmers of Gospel hope." I hope you take the time to read this (even though it's long), because the end is worth it. Also, we'd really appreciate your prayers for those listed at the bottom, that they would come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Tough Travels

What a beginning! We arrive at DFW airport, hug our families, and immediately find out there's not enough time for our bags to switch planes in Miami b/c our layover is only 1 hr. and 15 min. long. YIKES! After Mike D. and myself stressed and prayed (the youth were just hanging out), they were able to get us on an earlier flight to Miami... so early we only had about 45 minutes to get through security rather than 2 hours! We got our boarding passes, got through security, and switched terminals (thanks to the flight change), finally making it to our gate. Mike immediately began his ministry of encouragement to us by letting us know God was in control. Mike had been worried about us not making that layover in Miami, but now we didn't have anything to worry about - or so we thought.

Once in Miami, we decided to sit down and eat at one of the few restaurants still open (it was getting late). Hot Dogs or Chicken was the meal choice. All agreed that the fries were good. We then started heading to our gate (which wasn't that far), only to find out we were pretty much the LAST flight out that night and they were already making the "final call" for passengers boarding - so, we ran again. 2 airports down, and about 150 yards of sprints! We made it, and were on our way all night to Lima, Peru.

We get to Lima and discover one of my bags didn't make the flight (so much for DFW getting us on an earlier one). Lucky for me, it wasn't any of my clothes. Unlucky for the SMs (college students who spent the entire summer in Conima), it was all their gifts from home!

While Mike got me some coffee (he should be called Barnabas b/c he's such an encourager), I come to find out at about 6:00 a.m. that NO planes are flying into the airport we have to get to for the last leg of the trip due to coal-miners rioting in Peru. We finally got some e-mails and phone calls through to our good friend John G. who we worked with last year and he helped us out. We get re-directed to Cuzco b/c it was the earliest flight, but it meant about an 8 hour van ride for us rather than a 2 hour ride originally scheduled. (Can you see God increasing our faith and dependence on Him yet?)

After a nice meal for lunch, working out prices, and visiting with our new friend Omar (who happened to be a translator for a church in Aledo on one of their trips to Peru!!!), we were on our way to Conima. Unfortunately, due to bumpy and windy roads, one of our passengers (Annie) experienced what we'll call "a little motion sickness."

We finally made it to Conima at 11:45 p.m. - a mere 12 hours later than expected. Mike, again, encouraged us by telling us all day that God would get us to Conima on Monday - and He did, with 15 minutes to spare. "O WE of little faith!"

Cold in Conima

With a packed house, we all crashed that first night. Each one of us throughout the course of the week had our "coldest" night of sleep. Mine was Tuesday; some of the others claimed one of the other nights. Coming from 100+ degrees in TX to almost freezing in a concrete building at 13,000 ft. elevation with no central heating is quite a shocker to the body. By Wednesday or Thursday we finally had our space heaters working, which helped some. To give you an idea of how cold it is, while y'all were battling the heat, we got to wake up Friday morning to see it SNOWING ... and it kept up with that and sleet almost all day.

McDonald’s at Midnight

Friday was an interesting day. Throughout the week we were in contact with the airline and the airport in Juliaca (the one we were supposed to fly into) trying to find the "lost bag." They kept changing the day that it would "arrive" for us to pick up. The problem was that it finally made it to Lima, but the airport in Juliaca was still closed due to some damaged equipment from the riots. They kept "reassuring" us that it would be open Friday and on the 9:00 a.m. flight. So, Friday, in the snow/freezing-rain, James, Patty, and myself hop on a cumbi (public taxi) and head out to Juliaca. We discovered a barren airport with only a few people working. Due to the weather, my bag wasn't on that flight, nor were any flights coming in that day - and we are supposed to leave THE NEXT DAY! After a couple phone calls to John G., Mike W. (w/ the IMB and REAP South), and Mike D., we decide to switch our flight to leave Arequipa, a town only 5 hrs away, so as not to have the 8 hour ride we had at the beginning of the week.

At this point, though God had proven faithful, we were still wavering in our faith. My main concern as the Team Leader was "get us all home!" Mike's was the same. Mike and the others also had some other concerns. Since I took Patty, our translator, with me to get travel details worked out, the students, SMs, and Mike were on their own doing the last day of the Bible school at the Elementary School. We had written out what Annie needed to say for questions after her story. Annie's Spanish pronunciation is "top notch" according to Patty. However, the kids were nuts! They were misbehaving, one got bit (either this day, or the day before), one threw a tantrum, and it was sleeting! Satan was trying to discourage us on all sides.

After returning that night and I shared our day, Mike shared the teams', and Mike led us in a time of sweet prayer to get all our minds back on Christ (again, Barnabas - SO thankful for a man of God like Mike to have been with us). We prayed, got the SMs finances in order, packed, and slept.

We woke up early Saturday to find out if Rueben (local pastor 1 1/2 hours away) had found us a van to take us to Juliaca where we would hop on a bus for our 5 hr ride to Arequipa. Thankfully, HE DID! I took the coldest shower known to man - finally experiencing what the others had experienced on Friday (yes, we only showered once that week), we said our goodbyes and were on our way!

We ate "lunch" consisting of Pringles, M&M's, and Powerade. It was great. Then started the scariest charter bus ride ever. Winding mountain roads and a long drop off (ask Mike, Allison, Josh, Jake, and Annie their opinion of it). We likely got the only TWO taxis working in Arequipa b/c there was apparently a taxi strike there, but got to the airport OK (after a little separation), got our boarding passes, and were on our way.

We land in Lima, realize that we were waiting in the wrong line for our flight (which was a good thing, b/c we would have been late. Luckily we were able to find out which line to be in! Our itinerary was confusing). We got our boarding passes to Mexico and they tell us we have an extra 45 minutes since the flight was delayed. This meant WE GOT TO EAT DINNER!!!! So, what did we decide to eat after a week of rice, potatoes, and some chicken? MCDONALD'S!!! (not my first choice, but the kids wanted it). We enjoyed our fries, nuggets and burgers. Then, we headed through security only to hear "last call for flight to Mexico" - so, we ran! Running after having just eaten McDonald's is NOT the greatest idea! We fly all night, get to Mexico, make it through customs, and after a "brisk walk" and a pit-stop so Allison could "realize why we don't eat McDonald's all the time," we made it to our gate and on our flight home.

Finally, we were home, greeted by family and friends (with a banner), and sweating like crazy b/c it's HOT in TX in July!!! A nice meal, nice shower, and sleep is what we all needed, and enjoyed!

Glimmers of Gospel Hope

So, hearing about all of this craziness of traveling, how cold it is in Conima, etc. ... WHY GO? We got to experience God like never before, and see Him move and prove His sovereignty in mighty ways!

First, we met Omar, the translator, in Cuzco. He knew people from Aledo, and we were so encouraged by him.

Next, are what I call, "glimmers of Gospel hope." Throughout the week at the Bible school, the community storying, and even on our hike down to the lake (Lake Titicaca), we saw these glimmers of Gospel hope. Yasmani showed up (a kid I met last year) and hung out with us at the lake. He also came to the evening stories to hear God's Word - and was engaged with us while we shared the stories! He's one that God is working on. There's also Katy (KAH-tee), Gabi (GAH-bee), Jaquelin, and Jose. These are children that we could see God raising up as a new generation that leaves their old ways and the idolatry of their people and follow God. They were so intrigued by the Gospel during the Bible school. They are strong personalities that could be faithful followers of Christ. However, if there's not adults there to disciple these young ones, they'll likely fall into the same sins, idolatry, and drunkenness of their parents. Please pray for these, and all the people in Conima - that God would save many and raise up a generation of believers. That a church would be planted in that town. Our church (FBC Willow Park) only has a little over a year left in our initial commitment to this ministry. We hope to see a church planted there, but I believe it will take longer than 3 years.

Will you pray for these children?
Will you pray and ask God if He wants you to "go and make disciples?"
Will you join us for lunch to hear more stories from the 4 SMs and 4 Youth who went to Conima this summer on Sunday, September 25 @ 12:00 p.m.? We need your help and support and prayers so we can see new believers and a new church in the town of Conima, Peru. Join us on this mission as we work with God to advance His kingdom.

James: Time to Say Goodbye...

2011-07-28T20:01:00.000-07:00

Well, it's my last night in Peru, and I can't believe it finally got here. It's TREMENDOUSLY bittersweet to leave. I would love to stay because I feel like the last few weeks in Conima were really fruitful! And I believe God was really moving more in those weeks than before.

After Ellen and Molly left, our (Patty, Katie, and I) goal was simply to finish strong and not think of home. We had about 9 days left until Patty left. We had to first figure out all the airport flight mess due to the riots that caused Taca to stop flying from Juliaca. But once we figured that out, we went to WORK!

We went out into the fields and talked with a family. We helped them with their field work, which was rather difficult, so they really appreciated the help. Afterward, we shared the Parable of the Sower. The father at least, if not the whole family, seemed to be receptive and understanding. I can't remember exactly, but I believe they were 7th Day Adventists for the most part. However, we really poured into them that they needed to be reading the Word and become receptive to it's and God's message. They needed to read for themselves what it said and not simply blindly follow a pastor or church. They were really appreciative toward us and thanked us for our time and seemed to be left with a better willpower to learn.

Later, we went to a man and his brother in Succuni (sp?) (this is a village on down from Conima). Jonathan, Patty, and I met him on a bus back from Juliaca. He wanted us to come visit him, and we were finally able to contact him and find a day to meet him. They were Christians they said, and it seemed to be true from the little we found out about them. They said they had grown up with Catholic influence but eventually strayed away toward Christianity. (The type of Catholism in Peru is so different and mixed with the Pagan culture here that it's often deemed NOT Christian. They rely heavily on the saints and Mary as well as cultural idols like Pachu Mamma (mother earth).)

Anyway, they told us that they talk to any missionaries or religious travellers they can to ask them questions and see what they have to offer. They said, however, that our answers to their rather tough questions were the clearest and most truthful seeming they had heard. They were asking about Baptism and if it was what saved you, in that was it needed for salvation to be complete. We talked about Nicodemus and how Jesus told him to be baptized with water AND spirit and that the spirit part was what was most important...for the spirit to come upon you. We also talked about Phillip and the Eunoch and how baptism one) didn't have to be a giant spectacle (though it could be a good witness tool to others, we explained) and two) it had to be a PERSONAL choice. We left them with the definite sense that they were hungry to be baptized and make that choice.

We also poured into a young boy named Yasmani the last community story day. We combined the Crucifixion and Ressurection, so it was a big story to listen through and grasp. He brought some of his friends, but they only listened some of the time. He, however, simply stared at us and absorbed every word. You can see the desire to know Christ written on his face. He flat out told us he wanted to know more about Christ's life, so we gave him a Spanish New Testament. HE NEEDS PRAYER! He has SUCH potential to be the future for this village! He is right on the verge to being the light for his friends and everyone else. Despite him being about 12 or 13, he is so mature for his age and spiritually as well. However, he has (probably) no adult models and role models to guide him. He needs prayer that despite his age and possible isolation from other true believers that he can come to know God, Christ, and their love for him, AND that older people will listen and pay attention to him when (not if) he becomes saved. This is my upmost request of prayer from everyone.

But the day came for us to leave. Katie and I stayed with Pastor Ruben in Huancane from the 20th to the 26th. Then we've been in Lima at debriefing until tomorrow. We can't wait to see everyone on Sunday!

Ellen: The End (of this Adventure)

2011-07-19T23:39:00.000-07:00

So I last wrote when we were in Huancané. After that, we went to Conima via a big bus on which was just us and the drivers. That was nice. Pastor Ruben and Louisa saw us off. When we got to Conima, the first thing we realized was that we couldn't use the oven (thus the stove as well) in the kitchen. So we call the ever-faithful Pastor Ruben, and early the next morning, he brought the stove top the team used last year. We spent the day walking around (a lot): we went the beach and waded and then we went to a overlook from which we could see all of Conima and the areas around it. Then we walked to Nancy, a lady who sells firewood and has a great interest in and knowledge of the Bible. We went often to visit her through the weeks and talk about different things. She professed Jesus as her Savior through grace and was always willing to chat.

By the way, despite buying wood from her, we never could light a fire properly in the fireplace that was in our living room on the fourth floor. Funny story: we wanted to have a fire one night but couldn't get just the wood to light. So Patty tells us the word to use to buy stuff to help us in our mission. Katie, James and I all thought she was saying the word for "coal," but actually it was the word for alcohol. So armed with this word that obviously sounds like and certainly means "alcohol" but to us is "coal," we go from store to store, politely asking for alcohol. Somehow we figure out the implications of our request and laugh about how we the gringo missionaries were seemingly seeking a nip late on a cold night. We do go back to each store and explain that we wanted alcohol for lighting a fire only. We get some, but we must simply lack the primal skill of making fire because we personally never did get that thing to light for long.

Our days were different. For most of the time, we went to one of the schools on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. That was enjoyable. We taught English (numbers, colors, greetings, body parts with "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Feet"), Bible stories (Noah & the flood, David & Goliath and the birth of Jesus) and songs ("Padre Abraham," "Eres Todopoderoso" and "El Amor de Dios").

One thing we did the entire time was community storying. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, we would go to the municipal building and tell Bible stories in chronological order to whomever came. We spent a lot of time inviting people; the main group who came were kids. That was a bit hard; we knew those at the church back home would be expecting us to minister to more than just kids - who we saw at the schools, with whom we played soccer and frisbee outside the house a lot, and now who came to the storying - but as a team, we came to except it. If these precious, sometimes wild kids are who God sends, let's embrace it and run with it. So over time, we adapted our stories to be more kid-friendly (meaning shorter with lots of questions scattered throughout).

We still built relationships with some adults as well. Nancy, mentioned earlier, was one we visited about once a week. One man, Juan de Dios, was very welcoming. He lived down this very steep hill in town and always home when we came by to talk. So it was always precarious as to whether we were willing to check on him; that trip usually only produced an unanswered door and five huffing-and-puffing missionaries. But one of the times we checked, he was there, and we had a very good conversation about religion and how one is saved. He is hard-of-hearing, so the conversation could also be described as loud and slightly disconnected between the questions and responses. Another person we really got to know was Sophia, the niece of the man who lets us rent his house and the owner of the tienda a few steps outside our front door. She was always so friendly, probably the most patient with us and our lack of English and change. We saw her many times a day, buying food for meals and other things like matches and these Bolivian chocolate wafers that we fell in love with. I never got very deep with her, but I believe some of the others did.

One area in which we did not sacrifice much was in our bellies. Sure, we didn't have fast food or unbottled water, but we had Patty. She is a marvelous cook. One of our favorite splurges was to buy lamb and make something that sounded like "esto faudo" but that is not the right spelling and I can't seem to find it online. But it very, very good. Another of Patty's specialties was lomo saltado made with chicken. She also made chicken ceviche once - a very popular Peruvian dish. I liked it a lot; it was much better than the pricey fish ceviche than I tried at the Lima airport - that tasted exactly like what ceviche was: spicy raw fish "cooked" with the acid from the lemon. Other successes: Molly and James made some good arroz chaufa (chinese-fried rice) once while the Bible school team was there; Katie made a great spaghetti with homemade marinara sauce; and I mastered the art of french toast. And of raman noodles, our nearly everyday lunch: you crush them, boil them, and junk them up with the packaged flavoring. Of course, I already knew make a delicious bowl of raman before Peru, but not with hen-flavored raman. It was exciting to try, but to those of you who are wondering, it doesn't taste much different than chicken-flavored.

The two things God really taught me were patience and trust. Patience with the very slow life that is to found in Conima, Peru, and trust in his not-always-clear-or-even-logical plan. We did not sweep the community into a storm of evangelizing and baptizing like I had subconsciously prepared myself for. We did not start a church. We did not even have someone come to profess Jesus as Lord (at least while I was there). But you know what, I did get to dance with a precious girl named Katie on almost a daily basis. I did get to glorify in God's creation every time I stepped outside and looked at the lake. I did get to take the weight of people at the medical clinic, from the 70 and 80-year-old Aymarans with their bowler hats and canes to the little babies who never failed to cry in the hands of a gringa. I did get to ask a room full of third and fourth graders who Jesus is and hear them respond with "Dios!" This is a truth God has taught me: The mission wasn't a failure by any standard that matters.

Thank you for caring; thank you for reading. Thank you for any and all prayers. If you would like to continue, there are still two Aledoians there, in Huancané. Patty is one her way home to Lima, I believe. And there is still a community of lovely people in Conima, some of whom believe they have to strive for their salvation, some of whom simply don't know. Some, I believe, are serving God and his Son with their whole hearts - another thing I learned was to not assume we were the only "true" Christians there (1 Kings 19). God was at work there before we came, yet He choose to use us, choose to use me. Quite remarkable.

(A treat for those who endured to the end: For some reason, videos aren't loading onto this blog easily but I have two on this very same blog entry that is posted on my personal blog. Here's the link: ellen-grace.blogspot.com)

I'm Alive!- James S.

2011-07-05T16:46:00.000-07:00

Well, HELLO everyone! We finally have internet again! The team (Ellen, Molly, Katie, Patty, me, and Ellen's aunt and uncle) are here in Arequipa on our mid summer retreat. We were going to go to Puno City, but riots erupted there on Friday or Saturday, so we needed to change.

Anyway, we're all doing great and the city is huge and beautiful! The weather is fairly warm, which is such a nice change. It will surely be missed. Well I haven't been able to read the blogs Miles has been updating you all with, but here's a quick synopsis of what has gone on.

We've mostly been story-ing at the municipal building MWF and teaching at the school as well those days. On TTh we go to a few people that we've made relationships with and individually story with them. However, the school for some reason doesn't really want us to teach anymore, so we decided as a team to not teach there anymore instead of pressing the issue and causing a problem.

Another minor set back per say has been that at community story-ing, it has mostly been kids, which if that is who God wants us to speak to, then so be it. However, we really pray that we can story with more adults.

When the BST came, VBS was very successful. The kids really seemed to enjoy it, and I pray that they will remember what they learned.

This retreat has actually been very well placed because I feel as though we can recuperate and regroup and come up with different ways to talk to people when we get back. But, God has been doing AMAZING things in Conima, and I wish we had internet in Conima to update more thoroughly. We pray that everyone back home knows how safe and great we're doing and doesn't over worry about us. We can't wait to get back home, but it will be bittersweet for sure.

Well, like I said, I wish I could update more, but if I typed everything I've written out so far, you all would be reading straight for hours.

Until next update (which Katie and I will have internet for sure the 22nd of July), God BLESS!

Psalm 18 and 23

Bible School Team long journey to Conima

2011-06-29T05:39:00.000-07:00

The Bible School Team (BST - Jonathan Mansur, Mike Denny, Annie May Denny, Allison Brooks, Josh Williams, Jake Valdez) made it to Lima as scheduled the morning of June 27 to find that the Juliaca airport (final flight destination) was closed due to damage from a labor protest. So after several phone calls and working with LAN airlines, they flew to Cusco and took a 9 hour bus ride to Conima, arriving there at midnight. The Summer Missionaries had a "feast" ready for the BST members consisting of "raman noodles, French toast, eggs, and chocolate wafers and oatmeal cookies” :)

Pray for the team that the Bible School will go well, the Bible stories will be effectively communicated, and that the Aymara people of Conima understand their need of Christ's redeeming love and God's great offer of redemption. Also for the physical safety and health of the BST and Summer Missionaries.

Also the Conima house now has heaters in the bedrooms! Hopefully these will work as expected and make the house more comfortable during those cold nights.

Miles Phillips

Updates from 2011 Summer Conima Team (June 17)

2011-06-17T21:02:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Miles Phillips (Ellen's Dad). The Internet services in Conima are not working so the team has not been able to update this blog( or update facebook or read/send emails). They call family members every few days so I thought that I would share a few updates. Hopefully these are accurate but the team can correct when they get online. Our Bible School Team is scheduled to arrive in Conima June 27 and return July 3rd so they will have some first hand updates to share at that time. Also the team has a retreat scheduled July 4-7 and should have Internet access at that time and can provide us an update. Your prayers for the people of Conima and our teams are greatly appreciated.

James, Ellen and Patty stayed in Huancane with Pastor Ruben and family until Katie and Molly could join them on June 7th, after which the team traveled to Conima. They are speaking/teaching at one of the elementary schools most every day and building relationships with the people there. They were able to share a Bible story with a lady named Nancy and her children, which apparently was well received. Nancy was very interested and our missionaries are following up with her. The team has started community storying sessions Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 5:00 p.m. The first session had 3 or 4 children and one lady and the story was well received. As they meet people throughout the day, they invite people to the storying sessions which hopefully will gather more attendees but even if just one comes, it can be lifechanging. The team has met with Pablo, who now works in the government office and they see him often. Pablo was the young man who made a profession of faith last summer but needs encouragement and discipleship. Some of our team members attended a service at a local evangelical congregation last Sunday, which was unknown to us but discovered by the Peruvian team that went to Conima in May 2011 after following a lead by John Grady. Katie was able to share at this service. The team plans to attend this service again this Sunday and find out more about them. This could be a start of a wonderful new relationship to encourage and minister with this group of believers. Some of the team members have assisted in the medical clinic as well.

Please continue to pray for their physical safety and wisdom. God is directing their steps as they acknowledge Him in all their ways.

Huancane, The Beginnings - James S.

2011-05-31T16:05:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know all of my Blog titles are cheesy =D

Well, I was late to worship after all, but it all worked out. I was just going on Peruvian time is all. Here, relationships mean much more than time, so it's common for people to be late to meetings or or events even when a designated time has been set. The REAPSouth staff prayed over all of the teams, and then we were off!

Before and while we were at the airport, we met Patty's mom who is such a sweet and nice lady, but she doesn't understand much English, so it was very difficult for Ellen and me to talk to her by ourselves when Patty wasn't there. Ellen tried Ceviche at the airport for lunch, which is a dish of raw fish that is "cooked" by an acidic sauce and has some spice of some kind. But, it was a little too spicy for Ellen and a little too fishy tasting for my taste. I'd eat it again though. I had...McDonald's of course! I wanted to get my last "American" meal out of the way befor we got to the villages.

By the way, the Peruvian planes, at least the TACA flight we were on, are SO much nicer than US planes. Tons of leg room and overhead room, comfortable chairs, etc etc...just saying. We arrived safely in Juliaca and got to Pastor Ruben's house in Huancane in one piece. We are slowly acclamating to the environment. Ellen has felt a little sick, but only the first night. I, thank the Lord and praise be to Him, have not felt sick at all. But poor Patty has been sick the whole time since we got here. She just has a congested nose and sore throat, but that makes translating all the more difficult. She says she's slowly getting better, but PRAYER WARRIORS! WE NEED YOU! Pray for her health so that she can be the vital team player that she is. Without her, we are literally mute! Or are walking around with one leg.

So far we've: gone shopping for groceries and supplies, helped clean dishes, helped make food, visited friends and family of Pastor Ruben, ate some local food, washed our own clothes, played with the kids, learned some guitar, successfully showered, and tried many a-new things; all of which occurred in 3 days and in VERY NON American ways.

But we're doing great. The Toledo family are perhaps THE micest, most gracious, most helpful, and certainly most patient people on the planet - and we could ALL learn something from them, and I'm not talking about Spanish. OH! Speaking of...here's a fun fact: the people here don't say they speak Spanish. They call it Castayano (sp?) though I know I jus butchered that. It's just the regional Peruvian version of Spanish but still the same. I don't know, I just thought that was cool (or chevere down here). Today we taught local children "Head, shoulders, knees, and...feet" we use feet because toes and fingers are the same word. On Thursday we will teach them some animals and colors in English. We also visited Luisa's friend Veronica, who accepted Christ 2 months ago, but was very insecure in her faith. She didn't know what would happen to her if she died. She also was confused about Darwinian evolution. I told her the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac and how God provided a substitute in Isaac's place and that Jesus was our substitute sacrifice for God. We also told her how evolution was false and that people are just looking for ways to explain things they don't understand. But we told her man is created in God's image and that we have souls whereas animals do not. We tried to talk to her about getting Baptized but she was scared and didn't know why she needed to. We somewhat ran out of time, but we told her to pray for what God had in his Will for her life and that she needed to make the decision for herself and that we couldn't for her. I said that getting Baptized was like when Jesus was ressurected. Your old life dies, but your new life is risen a-new. Somewhat of a stretch, but it clicked with her somewhat.

Anyway, we're currently trying to make preparations for the Barnabus team (a team from REAPSouth that comes to give us encouragement) who come on Saturday. We're also trying to see if we can get to Conima earlier than expected because Patty said she thought the house was completely ready when she was there in April. But we'll keep you updated.

Until next time, God Bless and Adios!

Psalm 18:1-3

Ellen - Catching up quickly

2011-05-30T16:30:00.000-07:00

Hey, readers!
I am in Huancane, in a noisy internet cafe, and I have only twelve minutes to catch you up on my exciting weekend before it will cost more than one sole (about 36 cents) to use the computer. Anyway, on Friday, our last night in Lima, I went with Patty, James, another Peruvian named Martine, and two other American missionaries to ¨Pizza Street.¨ We went to a karoke restaurant and sang songs while enjoying a juice made of purple corn. It was all very fun. Lima is an exciting city. Saturday morning, I went jogging with Kerrigan, a friend on one of the REAPSouth teams. We went through some of the very nice exercise parks in Miraflores, basically the Beverly Hills of Lima. Then we flew to Juliaca on what seemed a unnaturally short flight. The mountains seen from above were so, so lovely.

Huancane, where we are now, is like that. The town is bordered by mountains, and the weather is nicely cool. We are staying with the Toledo family: Pastor Ruben, his wife Louisa, and their children, Edith (8) and Elias (1.5). They are so wonderful, and it is great to be with them, chilling (ha - get it? it´s slightly cool) and learning my stories better. I have also gotten to read for fun, and it is neat trying to teach the family some English while I struggle (not a strong enough verb) through my Spanish.

Thanks for reading! My prayer requests are just that I can learn to communicate better and that I can measure our success on God´s plan, not on my own. All right - ¡chao!

Onward We Go -James S.

2011-05-28T07:57:00.001-07:00

Well, today is the last day of training, and we'll be having a commisioning send off service today. We've learned so much about the culture and the possible barriers, and I just can't wait to use what we've learned!

While I appreciate what Ellen said in her last post (and while I really try to stay positive and confidient), my spanish is not quite as good as she made it sound (and hers, I'm sure, is much better than she's making it sound). However, the spanish I learned in high school is really starting to flow back to me, and that's exciting. I bought a Dios Habla Hoy (God Speaks Today) bilingual Bible in the Good News translation. It's the Bible John Grady advised us to get. I'm really looking forward to being able to read straight from it in Spanish since I can thankfully read the language well.

But as Ellen said, Patty is SO nice and helpful. She feels bad all the time because she doesn't think her English is that great, but it really is. We found out this week that we'll have 2 teams from REAPSouth visiting us in the villages (Barnabus Team and the Creative Ministry Team), but they're mostly coming to give us encouragement and to let us see new faces.

There's a lot more I'd like to type about here, but I'm running late to getting to worship! So, I'll save it for the next blog post. I hope eveyone back home is doing well, and know that prayers can be felt no matter how far the distance, and you guys have no idea what it means to know there are people praying for us.

We fly out today to begin our journey into the villages. We'll be in Huancane until June 15th when we'll go to Conima. I'm simply in awe of what the Lord will have in store for us and the people.

1 Corinthians 9:19-23

This has been somewhat of a mini-theme verse here, and I hope in every single way, I can live it out. Until next time, God Bless!

Ellen - Cat Eyes

2011-05-27T06:04:00.000-07:00

Hello! I am typing this when I should be going to get breakfast, but hopefully I can write quickly and do both this morning.

The training sessions fill most of the day - we eat, sing, listen, repeat, basically. I appreciate it though; I have grown in confidence about my purpose. Unlike James, my Spanish is still not good enough for carrying a conversation. I really wish I could speak to the people in their heart language, and not through a translator. But Patty, our fellow teammate who will also act as our translator, is great: she speaks English so well. She lives in Lima, Peru, when she is not going on missions with REAPSouth. She is very involved in her church in Bellavista, an area on the other side of Peru. I am very excited to work with her.

I have gotten to go near the beach. It is a very lovely area with parks and statues and big waves. Last night, I walked with a group that went to Parque Kennedy; a neat place with lots of cats. Jackie, one of the Peruvians working with REAPSouth, told us a myth about cats. When their irises are slits, it means to is going to sunny. When they are circles, it is going to rain. (Or possibly the other way around.)

I am reading through Acts. I find the apostles´ missions as examples of encouragement and hope - they trusted God in all that they did. Peter told the council in Jerusalem, "Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead...And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:10,12)

Where to Begin? - James S

2011-05-25T16:52:00.000-07:00

It seems like it was only yesterday when I first started thinking about going on this mission trip, but I'm so grateful it's finally here. Ellen's previous post has most of the flight/travel related things I was going to put down, so I'll talk about the training we are receiving here with REAP South.

As Ellen said we are focusing on storying and how to be effective, which is what our teams from FBCWP have been doing, so I was very happy that we weren't getting any mixed or conflicting training. The main message I've recieved about storying is that you have to relate it to people's lives or things they deeply know about or their experiences. I was actually amazed when we were told that most, if not all, of the people in the villages will believe every single word we say and know it's true (to some extent) but that because they don't see how it's applicable to their personal lives or because it's not presented in a memorable way, it falls on deaf ears.

But then they explained that this is how it's always been done. In Jesus' life when he's talking to farmers or field workers, he talks to them in analogies of the field. Jesus constantly used examples of people's daily lives to teach His message. We have to do the same, or the people don't think it matters to them specifically.

The training has been extremely beneficial, and I'm very excited to see how I'll get to use it in Huacane and Conima. Furthermore, my Spanish is definitely improving; it's really coming back to me from high school, and I can tell the Holy Spirit is really working in me in that area.

I think that's all for now, but please keep praying for us!

Oh, I want to make a special thank you to Pastor Kyle for preaching on Ephesians 6 right before this trip. The passage about the armor of God will DEFINITELY be one I look over daily here, and I seriously think God had a part in allowing that to be preached right before we left.

Until next post, God Bless!

Ellen's Beginnings

2011-05-25T16:05:00.000-07:00

I wrote this Monday, starting at 6:51pm on the plane from Panama City to
Lima. Sorry to be so out of date in my posting.

Traveling has gone quite smoothly, as traveling goes. James
and I are on the Copa Airlines plane in Panama, waiting to head off to Lima.
Both relatively inexperienced travelers, we have succeeded so far. Between our
connecting flights in Orlando, we did have to go through security again because
we were confused as to where our gate was and went too far. But it is neat to
experience the efficiency of airports, even unecessarily. One thing that is not
neat to experience is airport prices. It was a good $9.58 chicken sub,
though.

I scared James at the Panama airport - there was a long line for
the restroom and we didn't have much time to board. But we made it; I just need
to get used to the iffiness of cell phone-less communication.

Mr. Weaver
- the coordinator for IMB REAPSouth teams in Peru - sent us readings, which I
finished up on the last flight. Their common theme was the purpose of missions
and the best way to communicate the good news we are sharing. One talked about
why using stories are more effective than linear-logic sermons. Every culture
uses stories - in daily conversations, traditions, religions - making them an
universal medium of communication. It is also easy to get excited about stories
(at least easier than getting excited about "do's" and "don'ts" or theological
jargon); they are easy to remember. If you teach like they do in many churches
in America, you are in some ways limiting the Gospel to those who can understand
your complicated terms and abstract ideas. They are no dumber than the average
American; some simply have not learned to think about belief and religion the
way we have.

And if you think about it, how did we learn to think like
that? What was our first step? Stories. Simple stories of God's work in the
world. The truth they proclaim is not limited by culture or education. Jesus
came. He died. He rose. We are free to live in his grace and love and peace
forever. What a beautiful, uncomplicated story.

Later, same
flight - 9:56pm
We are about to land in Lima. It was a delightful flight
full of a second free dinner (this time with four Oreos - the other Copa flight
just gave two), Tangled, reading more of Let the Nations Be
Glad!, and trying to say "gracias" instead of "thank you" whenever
possible. I really must appear obviously American because everyone speaks to me
in English right away, not even bothering with Spanish. I was so ready to say
"pollo por favor" when asked which meal I would like. The man asked the
just-as-white-as-me family in front of me in Spanish first, then English. So I
was ready to respond with my "impressive" bit of Spanish. The flight attendant
gets to me...

"Which would you like, miss?"

Quietly and ashamedly in English: "Chicken, please."

"And to drink?"

I became brave: "Agua, por favor."

And that, my friends, is self-enforced language
immersion at work.

"As the rain and the snow
come down from
heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and
making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread
for the eater,
is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return
to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose
for which I sent it."

Isaiah 55:10-11

New Summer, New Team

2011-05-15T21:01:00.000-07:00

So, this coming weekend, May 22, our first few Summer Missionaries (SMs) will be traveling for their 1 week training with the IMB before hitting the town of Conima with the Gospel! We'll have upwards of a dozen at one point and time in the house for a week this summer, with SMs coming and going throughout the whole time.

This is a quick prayer request for those of you who are following. Pray for open doors for the word, boldness in the proclamation, and a love for the people of Conima in the hearts of all going on these trips this summer. God can grow an amazing love for a people group if you just ask Him - ask Him with us to increase our love for the Aymara for the sake of His name and the Gospel.

Here's our SMs list you can begin praying for - staring May 22 they travel:

Ellen P.

James S.

Patty A. (Peruvian native who'll be our translator throughout the summer)

Katie D.

Molly D.

Dave F.

Elaine F.

The BST (Bible School Team) that I will be leading will go out there June 26-July 3rd. We would appreciate your prayers even now for God to set up a great chance for many children at the schools to hear the gospel:

Jonathan M.

Mike D.

Annie May D.

Josh W.

Allison B.

Jake V.

Thanks for praying - Keep it up!

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the
same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to
declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—that I may
make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders,
making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned
with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. (Colossians
4:2-6 ESV)

Living Water - Nov 17, 2010 - Jeremy S.

2010-11-17T08:56:00.000-08:00

So we went out witnessing this morning right after pastor Ruben arrived and we ran into a guy which we started to talk to and he invited us to go with him. We thought he said he is going to the river but he was going to a town meeting which we learnded that

this town is in dire need of a way to get water

because they can't afford to keep paying taxes for it,

and people are dying.

We talked to them about using the lake water but they said they didn't know how.

I feel like this might be a door that God might have opened for us to show not only his love but his provision.

Because they still ask pacchu mama to provide but she hasn't been providing enough. I felt like this was important to send you as soon as posible because god may have given us this doorway to the towns heart.

Nov 15-16, 2010 - Jeremy S.

2010-11-17T06:51:00.000-08:00

nov 15
Today we searched for oportunties to serve the people bt we could
find none. We did have one storying opetunity bt they didn't show. We
did get to play with the kids a lot today. And we did run into the
resturaunt family bt we did not see the husband so we didn't get to
set anything up there. We went out to a place where we knew about some
people building a house to tak them a soda and see if they needed help
bt they were done so we ended up going out into this feild to see if
these farmers needed help and they didn't bt they were thankful for
the drink. And we got to share why we were here. They were really open
to us until we mentioned the name of Jesus.

nov 16
The teachers invited us to a dance they are doing and they asked if
next time we come we could teach them English. We thought it would b a
great oportunity to build a relationship with them. Then we found an
oportunity to help some people unload a truck and it was a beating but
I also helped them several times this summer so I think if we keep it
up it may open a door with them over time. The first one was sophias
husband and the second was the store on the corner of the plaza and
the main street. And the third was a bread making family but I'd
couldn't tell you how to get there I'll have to draw a map for you. I
hope over the next day to get there names but it's not that easy for
me even with my extensive vocabulary in Spanish, just kidding. But I
was wanting to get it for your records. Hey and overall they did pay
us for yeasterday even though we didn't want it we made 16 soles
togeather. Anyway I wanted to try to let you know what has been going
on we haven't found too many people too open to us but we are still
looking and we have got to spend a good amount of time seeking god and
praying over this city. We've done quite a bit of prayer walking.

And yes we did get your emails thank you all for the encouragement.
We have been getting down lately but luckly god knows how to
continually encourage us, just like he knows his plan for this town
and he intends to see it through.

Sunday, Nov 14, 2010 - Jeremy S.

2010-11-15T09:36:00.000-08:00

It's Sunday we had a storying oportunity open up today which hopefully
will go well. We are also making some good friendships with the
teenagers here. I hope to see god ratically change there lives, I know
that they would be a force to be reconed with if they were serving
Jesus with there lives.

But ive also noticed that we seem to feel like people are more
shut off to us now. And we have getting more homesick today than
either one of us have ever experienced before. I don't know if I'm
overspiritualizing it but it seems that we are under some attack now.
Telling us that we r not welcome and to go home.

There is more spiritual warfare going on here than I ever imagined.

I was praying today and I feel like god was telling me lean more toward seeking ways
we could serve the people each day but ofcoarse we will take the
storying opportunities that he opens for us. I would like to know what
you guys think on this and the direction you feel we need to take.
Because we can pursue harder if needed and we can seek storying
oportunities harder. I was just writing to you because we are praying
for guidance but it feels as if there is something here not allowing
us to see as clearly. Not that we are not hearing from god because he
is faithful in answering us but since you are not here maybe you can
hear more clearly without the opression here going against you. I hope
this all makes since I'm kinda scatterbrained right now. Please
continue praying for this city and us that we would be able to
complete the task god sent us here for, and he can get the glory. We
will also be praying for you guys.

Nov 11-13, 2010 Update - Jeremy S.

2010-11-15T09:33:00.000-08:00

Peru Thursday nov 11

So today after we spent some time in prayer and worship we set out to
prayer walk around the town. As we were walking we came accross many
different ppl that we got the chance to share the gospel with. Over a
dozen ppl heard the gospel of Jesus christ on this day. We didn't get
the chance to see results from it bt we know god can use it in his
timing.

Friday nov 12

So today god really ministered to us all morning, it was amazing.
After lunch we set out to go to this lady's house but it turns out the
town is practically empty. We are also without power all day so we are
very limited to what we can do.
So we decided to go out for wood this evening bc the electricity
was still out and we wanted to be able to stay warm tonight. We hiked
out and searched for wood. So we are headed back with our arms full
and we get back after it got dark. When we got back the electricity
came back on. Bt lucky for us we knew of a family in need and took it
to them.
(sry this is choppy I'm writing it on my phone as the day goes on
so that I can give it to you while it's somewhat still on my mind.)

Nov 13

Jeremy L. left today we spent some time praying over the city and
then we went out with some of the teenagers
sry this day is short bt I have to b quick

November Team - Nov 8-22, 2010

2010-11-15T09:28:00.000-08:00

Greetings all! We know it's been a while since we've posted from this Summer, but we now have another team in Conima sharing the gospel. Please be in prayer for Justin L. and Jeremy S. We already have received a few e-mails from them regarding what has been happening in Conima, so these next blogs will be those e-mails. Here's the first one:

Peru trip 1st couple of days

"Well we arived Tuesday around midday after we got settled in and met
the people who owned the place that we are staying, we went around and
visited some of the people we had ministered to and befriended. When
we first went out to talk to people we found Pablo and got to story
with him first day. Also a few of the families that were not open to
us storying to them now seem open to it. One of which was a family
that we became close to, who have a little boy named Paul who we have
been calling baboon. And another which we had befriended there kid
jasmoni, allowed us to come into her home and share a couple of
stories, she had opened up and poured her heart out to us after
hearing the story of the woman at the well. God has opened a lot of
doors in these first few days we have been able to share stories and
the gospel of christ with several people.

We need your help, even though we are seeing the lord open all these
door we are feeling a heavy darkness which is making the words we
speak fall on dry ground. We feel that god is leading us to fight with
everything in us for this darkness to b broken. After sharing with
Pablo and jasmoni's mother (the 2nd time), we felt as if something
came and pulled the passion that was so eager to hear the word of god
only hours before.

We wanted to let you guys know what is going on here and to ask you
guys to join us in fighting in prayer for this. Which we know you are
already doing bt now you know somewhat of what we are fighting out
here and can be more direct with your prayers.

We thank you guys for keeping us in your prayers and we pray that
god continue to work in you guys as well as working here in us and
with us. We are definatly seeing god at work here and are excited to
see what he is going to do in the remainder of this trip, and even
after we leave here. May god bless you guys and his love coninue to
grow in you."

Back in the USA - by Alison

2010-08-02T12:29:00.001-07:00

I arrived home yesterday at like noon. My family and I went and ate at Mexican Inn but I didn't eat much because I was feeling sick to my stomach! My sister and I went to the movies last night and it was thirteen dollars per person for a 3-D movie! Can you believe that!? My sister ended up paying for half of my ticket because I refused to pay that much. I feel like I've become a Peruvian, everything is so expensive here! Today has been interesting, its been hard for me to get used to the luxuries of America. Every time I flush toilet paper down the toilet I feel guilty and have to remind myself that the toilet will not overflow. This is just one of the many things that have been throwing me off. I was shocked last night when I took a shower and the water got hot so fast! And don't even get me started on this Texas heat, oh Lordy! I have to go sign up for classes since all mine got dropped while I was away!
-Love in Christ

Not Complete - by Kelsey (more to come)

2010-08-02T12:28:00.000-07:00

After my first day volunteering in the clinic I couldn't stop thinking about how much I enjoyed it. Getting the chance to care for people & their health when they are in need is a passion God has given me. As I sat by the fire that Sunday night reflecting on the day & all that had gone on in the clinic, I heard a still, small voice speak to me when I was least expecting it. "Kelsey, this is what I've called you to. I have made you to do this for all your life for the glory of My name. All else pales in comparison to the joy you will know serving my children in my name through my love." Suddenly it all seemed to make sense. My desire had become that of the Lord. With the passion He has instilled within me and the love He has given me, God was just waiting for me to understand what it is that He is calling me to. Nate Saint puts it best in the book Jungle Pilot when he says, "Have you noticed that when a man finds the will of the Lord for his life, there always seems to be an evident relationship between the talents or gifts or preparation the Lord has given him and the job the Lord has called him to do?...Now we rejoice in God's gracious care for our lives even before they were entirely His -- preparing us specifically & without any wasted motion for the job He had for us to do!" God gave me the desire to be a nurse & the passion to help people in a medical capacity long before I began to feel any leading toward mission work and certainly before I went to Peru and felt a specific call to overseas medical mission work for the rest of my life. Thinking of all that God is & all He has done, I am taken back in awe. Amazement is the only word I can think of to describe the overwhelming love that has grown in my heart for the Lord, multiplying faster than I can understand. In the light of His glory & grace, I feel so inadequate to be used by Him yet precious & treasured as a child of God who is blessed to be called upon to be used as an instrument sharing God's glory & grace with souls lost in darkness.

As I dwell on memories of Haiti & the love /god has given me for those people, I can't help but see a connection between that and the immeasurable joy I feel in helping to restore health to people. I felt an immense burden on my heart as God continued to speak to me more clearly than ever before. "I have given you the desire to heal people's bodies so that then through you they may also hear of me and I may heal their soul & restore them." Since that evening my mindset on life has changed, and I've seen God teaching me in preparation for the work He has in store for me.

I have always had dreams for my life -- many of those same dreams every other young person has of marriage, a quaint life in a nice house, kids, and a fulfilling job. But God has changed my dreams. He has given me a passionate desire to live a radical life sold out to God. And I can't live a radical life with the same traditional life & dreams as the rest of America. A fulfilling job is nice, but it means nothing if the rest of your life is confortable & self-centered. You can give your 2 cents of meaningful humanitarian work for others and then return home to all the comforts & conveniences you could ever need. You can live most hours of your life indulging yourself while ... (more to come)

Home - by Alison

2010-08-02T12:27:00.000-07:00

We leave today for home, it feels so strange to say that! Sorry that I haven´t updated this in so long, I`ve just been having so much fun in Puno! It was very hard to leave Conima, especially the children considering that they were holding onto my shirt begging me not to go! We have had so much fun in Puno and have been staying at a really nice hotel which is a nice change! We took a tour of the floating reed islands, that was awesome! Yesterday we went and saw some Incan ruins, tombs of their ancestors. The food here is so awesome too! I have to admit that I am excited and ready to be home, especially since I`ll only be home for two days before leaving again! We will land around noon tomorrow. Please be praying for our safety!
-Love in Christ

Debrief and Vacation - by Heather

2010-08-02T12:26:00.000-07:00

Well, we finally made it to Huancane after waiting for the bus for a few extra hours. Monday we got to hang out with the Huancane Girls and the Moho Team and talk about our summers - the ups and downs and what all we saw God do.

Tuesday we had competitions for the End of Summer X Games - Texas (Conima) vs. Georgia (Huancane and Moho). Our team won the fastest mountain hike competition, Huancane girls won the trice (pronounced tree-see) race, and we won the volleyball game. The trice race was probably the most fun. Trices are bicycle driven carts used like a taxi. One person rides the bike part and pedals and two people can ride in the cart attached to the front. John and Pastor Ruben found two drivers who let us borrow their trices for our race. We raced through the main street of Huancane, down and back. It was a lot of fun, but it was hard uphill. Unfortunately our opponents had gotten to practice the day before and they took notes from the Peruvian trice drivers and got off and pushed up the hill. It was a lot of fun though. And Ruben drove us back down the road afterwards. After the volleyball competition we played more volleyball for fun and then Andrea made rice pudding at Ruben and Louisa´s house. We sat around and ate it, then went to dinner. After dinner we came back and gathered in the common room in the hostel. At Jeremy S´s suggestion we had a foot washing ceremony, or whatever you want to call it, for John, Sonia and Pastor Ruben. We just washed their feet and each prayed over them. It was really cool. Lots of tears. I would have been fine if it weren´t for Edith, Ruben´s young daughter, but when I saw her face I started crying too. I think we all were by the end. I´m really glad we did it. Afterwards we played cards and watched Kung Fu Panda :)

This morning we got up and packed to head to Puno for our vacation time. There was supposed to be a transportation strike that would keep us from coming, but it didn´t end up happening, which we were very grateful for. We got here in time to move into our rooms and go to lunch. On the way into town in the van we saw a white couple on the street and we all stared at them because we haven´t seen other white people in so long. Then we realized we are just like the Peruvians. We stared and Jeremy told them ¨Hola!¨ It´s so strange being in a tourist city. There are so many people here who aren´t Peruvian. And it is weird thinking about how everyone here just thinks we are other tourists. We kind of want to tell them, no, we´ve been living here for 2 months and know a lot more about the real Peru than all the random tourists. But it´s nice being in a new place and being able to enjoy nicer things. We had a delicious lunch near our hotel. The best part was the appetizer of avacado filled with essentially a chicken salad. It was really good. Then we walked around the main tourist street. Now I´m back in our wonderful hotel. It was just built in the past year or two. It´s really modern and we got a really good deal on our rooms. Then our room got upgraded to a suite. So, we finally get to have definitely hot showers and there is a jacuzzi tub I know we will all enjoy before going home. It´s so nice to relax after this summer and get to visit cool places here in Puno.

Tomorrow we are going to the floating islands and then Friday we are going to see some ruins. I´ll let you know how it is!

The Last of the Last Week! by Heather

2010-08-02T12:23:00.000-07:00

Well, we´ve come to the end of our last week in Conima. Here is all the news you have been waiting to hear, and some you didn´t know to expect.

Friday afternoon we got out all of our leftover coloring sheets, crayons, foam bookmark materials, frisbees and goody-bags and played with the kids in the plaza for 2-3 hours. We had a lot of fun, attracted a lot of kids and even got to talk to a few parents. Also, while we were playing with the kids, Jeremy L. got to story with Sophia and her husband behind their store. This caught them up to the story we were doing with the community that night, so we invited them to come. They indicated that they would probably close their store and come. That was good and it freed up more of our time that night.

At 5pm Jeremy L., Kelsey and I went to story with the police officers. Two of them were there. We sat in front of the police station and Kelsey told them the story of Elijah and Baal. They talked a lot with Jeremy about it. They thought about it and compared it to their culture and how people worship other things. After that Jeremy told them the story of Jesus´ life. They talked some more about this. At this point it was 6pm, time for the English lesson. Jeremy invited the cops to the community storying that night, but they said they couldn´t come. Then we found out there was not another time they could meet before we left. Since Armondo just tolerates the storying and is not interested in it spiritually, I suggested Jeremy stay with the police officers and finish with them. So, Jeremy stayed to story with the police and Kelsey and I went to our last English lesson with Armondo. We taught him some last things he wanted to learn and gave him the gift bag we put together for him. Then we invited him to the community storying, but when we left and asked if he wanted to come with us, he said he needed to sleep. So, that was unfortunate, but hopefully we planted some seeds with him.

After the lesson, Kelsey and I went back to the house to grab a quick dinner before heading over to the government building. John and Pastor Ruben came in since it was a presentation of the gospel. We went over to the government building and met John, Ruben, Pablo and the Jeremys. Pablo had memorized the story of Peter´s sermon and was prepared to tell it. It turns out it was only Pablo and 2 kids, besides us, so Pablo told the story once and we discussed it. Then John used the story to share the gospel and asked Pablo if he had or wanted to repent and be baptized. He said he did and they talked for a while about what that means and what it specifically means in this culture. Pablo agreed with all of it, but when it came to baptism, he said he wanted to become a better Christian first. To address this, John set up for Jeremy L. and Pablo to meet the next day (Saturday) so Jeremy could tell him about the story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch and about Cornelius to show the urgency of baptism in the New Testament. John also told Pablo that he and Ruben would be coming through Conima fairly often and would love to meet with him and talk to him more. They also invited him to a training seminar in Huancane in August. It was so good to finally see fruit from our labor and how God has started his church in Conima with one young man. Last night Jeremy L. met with Pablo and told him the stories, but Pablo still wants to learn more before being baptized. So, we will just wait and pray about that. Hopefully John or Ruben will get to come out soon and baptize him.

Yesterday morning Kelsey and I decided to climb the mountain henceforth named ¨mud-butt mountain.¨ We left aroud 11:30am. On the way to really start climbing the mountain there is this area of ground that is really wet because water runs down the mountain along that path, but it is all grass so you can´t tell that it is wet until you step on it. So, before we even got to the real base of the mountain, Kelsey found the wet section. Just as she was telling me to be careful, she slipped and landed square on her behind in the muddy grass. But, being as determined as she is, she said we had to do the hike, mud-butt and all. So, I took a path around the water and we kept hiking. Before long, I heard another yell from behind me and Kelsey had stepped on a rock that rolled and landed on her knee and shin. After come recovery, we continued on. Once we passed the more shallow part, the hiking got intense. It was a really steep slope and it was almost all rocks, of all sizes. So, you had to be careful what rocks you stepped on, because it was obvious they got where they were by falling. The altitude also gets to you and it´s hard to breathe. We had to take lots of breaks. The bottom kept getting further away, but so did the top. As we kept going toward what we thought was the top, we would see a new top, higher up, so we had to keep climbing. We kept picking places to eat lunch, but then felt we had to keep going. Finally, we couldn´t go any further and found some huge rocks we could sit on and eat lunch. We could see all of Conima (which was really small by this time), Suasi Island, lots of Lake Titicaca and mountains all around. We enjoyed our lunch of chicken salad sandwiches, chips, granola bars and peach halves. Then Kelsey read and I journaled. It was so nice and peaceful just sitting there, leaning on a rock, journaling and being warmed by the sun. While we were eating we saw a man in the distance. He was herding sheep and a few llamas. He herded them with a dog and by throwing rocks to head them off. As we were sitting there we could hear him whistling and sometimes singing to the sheep. It was a nice peaceful sound. After a while, we headed back down the mountain. So did the shepherd. It seemed crazy, but he herded the sheep down the steep mountain face we had just climbed up. The climbing down was more scary than climbing up. It was really steep and we had to watch every step so we didn´t go sliding down. We made a video telling our families good-bye in case something happened. Maybe a little melodrmatic, but funny. So, we slowly picked our way down, occasionally yelping as our foot would slip. Finally we reached the trees and were able to walk on more stable rocks and hold onto trees on the way down. Stepping onto level ground never felt so good. We made it back to the house around 3:30pm. Kelsey showered and I collapsed on the couch (after hiking up to the 4th floor).

That night (last night) is when Jeremy L. storied with Pablo. After the storying, we had CHRISTMAS! We´ve been planning our Christmas celebration since one of the first few weeks here and last night it finally arrived. We had chicken and beef fajitas/burritos for dinner (it was a Texas Christmas). We also made apple cider and chocolate oatmeal cookies. Us girls decorated the living room using our missionary ingenuity. We started collecting green 2-liter Sprite bottles a while back. We tied them all along a string and stretched it across the living room. We also used our extra yarn to loop down in front of the windows. Alison was wearing red fuzzy socks so sher took them off and we hung them above the fireplace as our stockings. Once everyone was ready we gathered together with our fire, cider and cookies and played games. We played the game people play at showers where you have clothes pins and if you catch someone saying a certain word you get to take one of their clothes pins. Our words were ¨Christmas¨ and ¨home.¨ Jeremy Stanley won in the end. We also took fun pictures spelling out Merry Christmas and other random words.After that was the white elephant gift exchange. The gifts included a huge yellow flower hair clip and a pack of clothes pins, a water bottle and pack of chocolate wafer cookies, a dvd entitled The Condemned of Lake Titicaca (except in Spanish), and a baby rattle. I´ll leave it up to you to guess who brought and received what. After that we ate our cookies, drank our cider and played telephone pictionary (a group favorite) and charades. Kelsey and I ended up dominating charades, but Jeremy L. took home the ¨most entertaining¨ award. As everything was winding down Jeremy L. played a few Christmas songs on the guitar (all without using the word Christmas, of course). After our fun-filled night we went to bed after agreeing to postpone worship until 9am the next morning.

This morning we had worship at 9am, finishing the last chapter of Romans on our last day here. Then Jeremy L. left for Moho, where all of his things are so he could pack up to head back to Huancane tomorrow. After getting some things packed, Kelsey, Alison, Jeremy S. and I headed out hiking. The three of them had been out to this peninsula on the lake and wanted to visit again and I wanted to go. So, we packed lunch and headed out of Conima. We hiking a good ways along the lake and then stopped on a rock wall that jutted into the water for lunch. Then we kept going out to where a cliff face stuck out into the water. We climbed up the steep rocky slope and sat at the top, looking out over the lake. It was really pretty. We hung out for a while and then came back to clean up the house.

We leave Conima tomorrow morning to go back to Huancane. It´s crazy how long we´ve been here and crazy that it´s finally time to leave. I think we are all ready though. It´s been a good summer, but most of us are ready to see our families and friends and start new parts of life.

Pray for the work we´ve started here - for Pablo and his continued growth. Praise God for his salvation. Pray for safe travel to Huancane tomorrow and that our debriefing and vacation time would be good, restful and helpful times. Thanks for your prayers for our ministry here!

Swimmin' in Lake Titicaca - by Alison

2010-07-23T12:24:00.001-07:00

Sorry that I haven´t been writting much in my blog lately everyone, its not because a lot hasn´t been going on...its because so much has been going on! No, but really! I am back in Conima...I came back wed. morning. It feels so good to be back, I missed this place! God has really been working here, keep praying everyone! I can´t believe we leave Monday morning for Huancane for two days, and then Puno, and then home! I have so many mixed emotions, its ridiculous. I´m excited to go home to see everyone but I have honestly fallen in love with this place. Its going to be especially hard to leave the kids, for us and for them. Yesterday was a series of let downs...we had three storying dates with people and they all got canceled BUT Jeremy L. and I got to go story with the police officers this morning. I told them the story of Noah and the Ark and Jeremy L. told them the story of the Ten Commandments and then Kelsey and Jeremy L. are going back at 5:00 p:m to story with them again! We are also storying with Sophia tonight and Armando at the English lesson. And then at 7:00 p:m we have group storying and Pablo (on of the construction workers here) is telling Peter´s Sermon tonight! It will be his second time, God is really working in him. Everyone pray for Pablo! Today has been crazy busy, we have to finish the race strong! So yesterday we totally went swimming in Lake Titicaca with some kids. Actually it was the Jeremys, a bunch of kids, and me. Heather and Kelsey waded in the water but they didn´t want to get soaked. It was freeeezzzzinggg but so freeing! I´m off to prepare and pray for this busy evening, you should do the same! Pray for us that is! Keep Emily in your prayers as well...she has a doctors appointment in Lima today.
-Love in Christ!

Quick Update - by Heather

2010-07-23T12:21:00.000-07:00

Our to-do list yesterday:
Play with the kids
Story with the police officers
Story with Sophia
Story with the community

Done yesterday:
Play with the kids

Yesterday all our plans seemed to be foiled as we tried to story. The police officers were unable to story again yesterday, but rescheduled for this morning at 9am. When we went out to do community storying and story with Sophia, there were lots of people in the plaza and music coming from the government building. Turns out they were having a dance in the government building where we were supposed to do community storying. Also, Sophia had a bunch of men drinking in her store, so she asked us if we could do it today. Jeremy L. and Alison went and talked to Pablo and decided to continue community storying today. So, we had a wonderful time at the lake with the kids, but struck out on all counts of storying.

Today Jeremy L. and Alison were able to tell 2 stories to the police officers this morning and are supposed to go back to tell more at 5pm tonight. We also have storying with Sophia sometime today or tonight, an English lesson with Armondo and community storying! So, busy night. Pray that we will get to tell all the stories we are planning on, and more. We are sharing the gospel with the community tonight, so pray for that.

I´ll let you know what happens as soon as I can!

Health Updates - by Heather

2010-07-23T10:07:00.000-07:00

Well, there´s good news and sad news. The good news is that Alison is back here in Conima, shorying it up today. The sad news is that Emily is on her way to Lima for better healthcare and will be unable to return to Conima.

The doctors in Huancane told Emily she had the start of kidney stones and an inflamed stomach lining, but they were kind of crazy and didn´t seem to know what they were talking about. And the treatment they were giving her was not working. She has still been throwing up some blood. So, this morning they made the decision for her to go to Lima. There are much better doctors there and she can hopefully get the care she needs. Her aunt and uncle are missionaries in Lima and they just returned from a visit to Brazil today, so they will be there to pick her up in Lima. So, that is definitely a blessing among the struggle. We are hoping she is able to recover in the coming days and possibly meet us for our vacation in Puno. We will see. If not she will meet us in Lima to fly home. We really miss having her in the house and helping with ministry, but we are trusting that God is taking care of her.To help with the lack of Spanish skills, Jeremy L. is here to stay. He has been leading the community storying, which has been great. We only had kids show up Tuesday when we were supposed to talk about Jesus, so Jeremy told the story of Joseph instead. Last night Pablo was there, along with Ishmael and a few other kids, so Jeremy told the story of Jesus. Pablo asked a lot of questions to clarify about Jesus being God and about knowing that Jesus really rose from the dead. Tonight we are talking about Peter´s Sermon and then tomorrow we will be sharing a more clearly presented gospel message. We are really hoping and praying that Pablo will come to know Christ and be the start of God´s work in the Aymaran people in Conima.

Yesterday we were supposed to story with the police officers at 4pm, but when we went over there they had a bunch of people around and asked if we could come back at 6pm. At this point Jeremy L. was walking from Moho (4 hour walk) and we also had an English lesson at 6pm, but we told them we would be there. So, we weren´t really sure what we were going to do. Fortunately as we were walking back to the house, Jeremy L. rode up on the back of a motorcycle. So, we ate an early dinner and got ready for the crazy night. Kelsey and I went to the English lesson and Jeremy L. and Alison went to the police station.

At the English lesson we were on the second time through the story of Elijah and Baal when Armondo kept asking random questions about unimportant things and then asked if we could start the English lesson. Because we know he hasn´t been interested in the stories except for the learn English, we went ahead and went to the lesson. The lesson turned into mostly him asking questions about what things we produce in the US, how much it rains, if everyone owns cars and how much houses cost. And we taught him a few new verbs - to work, to play, to sing, to listen and to see. Then he actually did a good job of coming up with sentences in English using those verbs. I have enjoyed teaching the lessons, but I don´t think he is ready for really listening to the stories. We talked in training about investing in people who God has already been working in and who are receptive and being willing to let go of people God isn´t drawing yet. I think Armondo is one of those people. We have done a good thing by teaching him English, but I am okay not seeing fruit from the storying, because I think God just isn´t working on him in strong ways yet. We have one more lesson on Friday. It´s supposed to be the story of Jesus, so we will see what happens with that.

After the lesson Kelsey and I went over to the government building where Jeremy and Alison were doing the community storying. They were just about to start. Pablo, Ishmael and 2 other young kids were there. Jeremy told the story of Jesus birth, life and death. Ishmael, who is probably around 10 years old, does an incredible job of retelling the story. All four of them did a really good job of listen and repeating the story. Kelsey and I even picked up some of it and were able to contribute to the retelling. At the end they talked about what they liked and didn´t like about the story and then Pablo asked his questions about Jesus being God and really raising from the dead. It was a really good discussion and you can tell he´s really interested and is thinking about everything. Pablo is going to try to memorize the story for tonight, but if he can´t, Alison has it memorized in English and will translate.After the storying Alison told us that the police officers were not able to story earlier. There was a bad wreck in Tilali and they had a ton of paperwork and people they had to handle. So, we are supposed to go back there today at 4pm. We also have storying with Sophia at 7pm. We have lots of things scheduled with the kids in the afternoon too.

Overall I feel good about the end of the trip. I think we have done what we were called here to do. We have positive things going on and have high hopes for the next few days. I think we have all grown a lot. I think one of the reasons God has had me here this summer is to prepare me for everything coming up in my life. I have had lots of time to think and pray about job opportunities and other things, so I am excited to come home and begin to pursue all of those things.

Tomorrow we are planning on playing with the kids all afternoon. We are also hoping to story more with Sophia and the police and we will have community storying at night. We will do whatever else comes up this weekend, probably do some hiking, have Christmas Saturday night, clean up the house, pack and head to Huancane for debriefing. Then vacation in Puno, then home!

Please pray for us as we wrap up our personal ministry in Conima, and pray for the future teams from FBC Willow Park as they will be coming to continue the work God has been doing.

Peru as of lately - by Alison

2010-07-20T18:10:00.001-07:00

The FBC Willow Park team left Sunday, we were all really sad to see them go. They really lifted our spirits. I don't even know where to start, things have been kind of crazy lately. Well Kelsey and I painted a bunch of the girls nails on Monday, that was cool. I ended up puking a lot on Sunday night and Emily has been sick for awhile now. So we had to go to the clinic in Conima on Monday. John Grady ended up coming to get us and he brought us to Huancane yesterday. We spent the night here last night and then got lab work done today. It looks like I'll be headed back to Conima tomorrow. Yeah! Emily still isn't feeling well so be praying for her. I'm suppose to story tomorrow but it's been kind of hard to memorize my story with everything thats been going on so pray for that too. Sorry this blog is so short, I have no motivation to go into detail. I'll update this week with more detail!
-Love in Christ

And Then There Were Three (at least temporarily) - by Heather

2010-07-20T13:32:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,
Sorry for the delay in posting. Everything with the youth team went wonderfully! They were such a help and encouragement. And, thanks to your prayers, all of us were healthy the whole time we were doing ministry with them!

The VBS went great overall. The kids were well behaved, listened to the stories and had a great time.

The community storying had ups and downs, but has brought the biggest blessing of a young man who wants to share stories himself. His name is Paul or Pablo, or a combination of the two, we aren´t sure yet. But, he came to all the storying sessions and even told one of the stories himself. He said that God has told us to share his word with everyone and he wants to keep sharing God´s word. He is not a full believer and Christ follower, but we are sharing the story of Jesus tonight and we are hoping and praying that he will be the start of a body of believers here in Conima. Please pray that he would fully accept the Christian message and not hold on to other false religious beliefs he has been taught. Pray for him to become a believer through these last few stories we have to tell this week. Pray for other people who are coming to the stories - Blanca and Solomon. Also pray for new people to come to the storying sessions every night this week. Today and tonight pray for Jeremy L. as he is rushing to memorize the next story.

Jeremy is memorizing this story in one day because we have had more team health drama, as indicated by the title of this blog. The night before the youth team leaving Emily threw up multiple times throughout the night. She also felt nauseous some for the next few days. Then yesterday she threw up blood. Alison had also thrown up once and there was some blood in it. Because this has the potential to be serious, they went to the clinic here and then John came and picked them up and took them to Huancane where there are better healthcare facilities. Today they are undergoing testing in Huancane. Most likely their gastrointestinal systems are just damaged from being sick so much this summer, but it could possible be stomach ulcers or bacterial infections. We are waiting to hear the results of their tests. Please pray for the two girls. This is our last week here and everyone expected it to be crazy, but not this kind of crazy! We are hoping and praying the tests will come back clean and they will be able to return today or tomorrow. Please pray for God to give them peace as they wait for results. Also, pray for Kelsey, the Jeremys and me as we continue with our ministry here in Conima. Jeremy is memorizing Alison´s story to tell tonight at community storying, as I mentioned above, so pray for amazing memorization abilities.

I will keep you all updated on the girls´ health and our last week of ministry. Pray we finish strong and don´t have any regrets!

Wow, It has been a long time! by Emily

2010-07-20T13:13:00.002-07:00

Sorry for the delay in blogposts! The youth team has been here with us, and we have been pretty busy, and I have also been sick off and on.

Anyway, I´ll give a quick summary of the week. Heather and I continued to do English lessons this week, and they all went really well. Also this week, we started community storying at the goverment building on the Plaza. Monday night went really well... 18 people showed up, and Jeremy L told the creation story! Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday there were not nearly as many people, and it was a little discouraging. We think that it has a lot to do with kids running around, distracting and taking away from the experience. Friday, however, there were lots of people again! And the coolest part is that one of the Peruvians (who had consistently attended every night) named either Paúl or Pablo (we don´t seem to know for sure) had asked a couple of nights earlier to learn the story for Friday. Well, he did it, and he did a great job! We will do three more of these sessions next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I am telling the story of the life of Jesus on Tuesday, but I´m having a lot of trouble memorizing this time, so keep me in your prayers!!

Friday we saw our first fiesta in Conima. It was interesting, but also very sad because everyone was all dressed up, dancing, but getting drunk out of their minds. I was told that the fiesta was to celebrate the growth of the potato crop.

Other than that, we also did two stories with Sofia, and they both went really well. Also, another big part of the week was preparing for and having three VBS sessions at the school that I had mentioned before. It went SO WELL! We had about 30 or 35 consistent kids, and they loved coming. I worked the craft station where we did a lot of coloring and gluing. The kids told me that their school does not even own crayons or glue. Everything, including the story, went SO WELL! We got to get close to many of the kids and start building special relationships with them. I think that we really made our reason for being here known by doing that because we have started to hear more talk about us around the community. For example, when we were eating lunch at the restaurant on Friday, a drunk man sat across the room from us shouting at us in Spanish. I didn´t understand at first, but after listening, and with the help of John´s translation, we found out that he was telling us that we didn´t know what we were teaching the people, and we don´t know how to teach the Bible, so we needed to stop. It was very strange because it went on and on for about fifteen minutes while we were trying to ignore him and finish our lunch.

For more detailed updates on the week and VBS, look at: http://fbcwpperumissions.blogspot.com. This is where all of the summer missionaries´posts are located.

Yesterday was a really fun day. We had planned to go hiking with the group, but those plans were canceled by the first rainstorm since we had arrived in the middle of June! I really enjoyed the rain.... It had been a long time since I had heard it or seen it. We just spent the whole afternoon indoors, playing Phase 10 and other card games, making lunch, taking showers, etc. That evening, Kelsey, Heather, and I made pollo a la milenesa for the group, and my sister made some amazing mac and cheese! After dinner (which everyone seemed to like), we went upstairs by the fire for a movie night and watched the Blind Side!! It was my fifth time to see it, but I still loved it!

This morning we all gathered together for one last time of prayer. The youth team prayed over us, packed their bags, and left. They should be getting to the Juliaca airport right now, so pray for safety for them as they travel home!

Today we all cleaned the house and had vegetable soup for lunch. I´m still getting over this stupid bug that won´t seem to leave our group, but at the moment, I feel fine! Tonight I´m cooking BBQ chicken with Heather. We are trying to use up all of our ingredients that we had bought since we will leave Conima in one week.

God is really moving here. Our main focus this week will be our community storying sessions and Pablo/Paúl since he has shown the most interest. We will also be doing more storying with Armando, the police officers, and Sofia this week as well. It´s our last week, so we want to make the biggest impact that we possibly can, and we want to get to the story of salvation with as many people as possible.

Thanks for reading. Hopefully my blogs will be a little more consistent from now on. Love to all!

God is Working ... by Kelsey

2010-07-20T13:13:00.001-07:00

What a week it has been! The short-ter, team arrived on Tuesday, and we began Bible school on Wednesday. Bible school went wonderfully! On Wednesday we arrived at 1:30pm to set up, and the school was locked up. After sitting outside the school for half an hour, a teacher walked up with key in hand. Flexibility was key in setting up & dividing the kids into classes. The first day of Bible school there were 30 kids so we divided them into 3 groups - 5-7 yr olds, 8-10 yr olds, & 11-12 yr olds. We learned about the story of Joseph, made a coloring page of Joseph´s coat with colorful yarn glued on, ate fruit snacks, and did games & songs. Music was at the end with all the kids together. Heather & I taught them I´m in the Lord´s Army, I´ve Got Joy Down in my Heart, and Father Abraham obviously all in spanish. The second day there were 37 kids. That day we learned about Zaccheus, did another coloring sheet with sticks & green tissue paper glued on the tree, ate animal crackers, and played more games. During music at the end we sang all the songs from Wednesday and taught them Whose the King of the Jungle. The third day was the last day. We learned about the Feeding of the 5000, ate goldfish, decorated foam bookmarks with stickers, and played more games like Gringo Grande Gringo, Rojo Verde, & Hombre/Mono/Platano. For music time we sang the 4 songs they already knew and taught them Singing in the Rain. Overall I would say Bible school was very successful. At the very end we gave each kid a goody bag, and their faces lit up with excitement as they looked through all the candy, stickers, & little toys.

As for the storying this week, it seemed that the community storying was beginning to go downhill with less adults & more kids that just wanted to run around and be a distraction. So we prayed even more strongly against the enemy asking that God would do a mighty work in this town. And Friday night it seems we saw God answering our prayers. That night a young man named Paul told the story. After the story on Tuesday he had expressed interest in telling a story. Then on Wednesday we brought him a copy of the story of Elijah & the Prophets of Baal to be told Friday. The group still hadn´t returned from the storying session by 9:15pm, and usually they were back around 9pm. Dave said that must be a sign that things went really well so we continued to pray for them as we all waited gathered in the living room to hear how the story went. Finally at 9:30 Jeremy Stanley returned, but the rest of the group didn´t follow behind him. Then about ten minutes later we hear Alison, Jeremy Lou, Jonathan, Molly, & Cory stomping up the stairs. I asked how it went and sat eagerly as I listened to each of them share parts of the evening. There were 19 people, over 10 were adults. None of the kids were distracting or misbehaved. Paul did a great job telling the story, and since he speaks softly everyone had to play extra close attention to what was being said. After the story Paul had even com eup with some questions to ask the group. Everyone seemed to participate in the discussion very well. Then Paul turned to Jeremy and asked, ¨Why don´t we sacrifice anymore like in the story?¨ When I heard them tell me that part of the evening my first thought was ¨Because of Jesus!!! Because Jesus died to for!!!¨ Needless to say I´m excited for the next story when they will hear of the life of Jesus Christ and His love of each of them. Anyway, Jeremy answered the question with eagerness. Oh, how great it will be to tell the people of the Good News of Jesus Christ next time! Jonathan then asked the people a few questions. ¨In Aymaran history, did the people worship false gods like in the story?¨ A man answered, ¨Alot of people here STILL worship false gods today.¨ Jonathan questioned the man specifically, ¨Do you worship false gods?¨ The man responded, ¨I believe the Bible is true, but in this community & culture it is hard.¨ Then Jonathan assured the man that it is hard in the United States too, that many people claim Christianity but go on living in the ways of the world. That seemed to give the man some reassurance and comfort. After that Jeremy asked the people if they had any questions, and discussion continued on for almost another hour talking about God & Satan, the Trinity, omnipresence, and other topics. The people seem to be growing in their interest of the Bible. Praise be to God! What a blessing it is to be a vessel of the Lord and witness God work in the lives of these people.

On the other hand, my time with the Lord was interrupted on Thursday morning by the sound of drums & wind pipes. I looked over the balocony ledge to see the plaza filled with traditionally-dressed Aymaran men & women. A man began speaking over the PA system. ¨Representatives from every town in the area have come here to Conima for the Fiesta of the Potato Harvest.¨ Then I saw the big red plastic cases come out. Unfortunately, I have come to see those all too often here. Some of the men began passing out the beer to all who were gathered. More people and even more beer continued to fill the plaza as everyone began the tradition of drinking themselves into a drunken stupor. What a stronghold Satan has built in those wretched fiestas. As we stood on the balcony watching things unfold below, we began to cry out to God for the salvation of these people, even just a few people who may continue the work of His gospel when we leave in a week.

Saturday morning I woke up at 6am like always to spend precious time with the Lord. As I sat at the kitchen table eating a banana and warming my hands with my cup of tea, the wond howled outside beating the rain against the window pane. Yes, I said rain. That was the first glimpse of rain we´ve seen in Peru all summer. So our group hiking trip was postponed and eventually called off due to inclimate weather. Morning worship was a wonderful encouragement to our team. This coming week is our last 7 days in Conima. It is going to be even busier and ahrder than before. Everyone is gone now except the 5 of us. We are going to have to push our hardest and give our all. Satan has been at work battling while we´ve been here, and with us trying to get through the rest of the 8 stories & the potential of seeing some come to Christ I only see it getting harder. but as Paul says in Ephesians 6:10-13, ¨A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God´s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers & authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against the evil spirits in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on every piece of God´s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.¨ So we will press forward clad in the armor of God. None of Satan´s fiery arrows will hold us back or strike us down because the Lord is our strength & our shield in whom we take refuge.

Side note: My digestive problems have gotten worse as of late, and it is becoming more of a hinderance than before. There are some nights that I have to miss out so that I can stay close to a bathroom. I´m just so tired of this, and it´s starting to hurt more & more. I wish I knew what was causing it. But God continues to keep me in good spirits. Instead of praying that God would take this away from me, I have begun to pray that my physical hardships would not discourage me and hold me back from the work we have to do here. God is working, and I will not let anything keep me from being a part of it!

You Are God! by Alison

2010-07-20T13:12:00.001-07:00

Yesterday turned out to be pretty amazing. God is God. He is not a God of circumstances, every circumstance is in his hands. I was reminded of this yesterday. Vbs went really well, I was sad to see it end! At lunch this drunk dude kept yelled at us...in Spanish so its not like any of us understood him expect Jeremy L. and John. I went with Emily and Heather to the English lesson and told Armando the story of Noah and the Ark. Then Emily and I came back to the house because she wasn´t feeling too well. Molly, Jeremy L, Jeremy S, Jonathan, Cory, and I went to community storying last night. We were praying that Paúl (the guy I wrote about in an earlier blog that was showing an interest in storying) would show up because he was suppose to do the story. We were suppose to start at 7:00 p:m and it was about 7:30 p:m when Jeremy S. and I decided to go get Yasmani at his house to come to the story. We got back to the government building and Paúl was there, thank you Lord! So Paúl told the story of Elijah and Baal. It actually went really well! The discussion time at the end was amazing, it got really in depth. The two teenagers named Blanca and Salomon asked a ton of questions. Usually during the story times we ask questions and they answer them but we allowed them to ask us questions. They asked about the trinity, why we don´t offer sacrifices any more, etc. About 16 people ended up coming and we talked until 9:30 p:m. God is really working in Conima. Pray for Paúl, that he will have the strength to become a leader here and that he will come to a saving knowledge of Christ.

Saturday, July 17th
I woke up to it raining in Conima! What a nice change of weather. We were suppose to go on a hike today but its been raining throughout the day and its been very windy. Instead of hiking we have been sitting by the fire all day playing card games. Its been very refreshing, I forgot what it was like to relax! The room started getting extermely smoky from the fire so we opened a few windows, the windows are swinging windows. The wind picked up all of a sudden and the window was swinging like crazy! So I went to grab it and almost got smacked in the face but Cory Lee came to my rescue! John (the missionary) was laughing the whole time! So much for missionaries being loving! haha. Just kiddingggg. The FBC Willow Park team leaves tomorrow morning, they really lifted our spirits being here; its going to be sad to see them go! Well I´m off to go enjoy doing nothing. Please keep us in your prayers as we are spending our last week doing mission work in Conima. We gotta keep fighting the good fight!
-Love in Christ

The days are so busy - by Kelsey

2010-07-16T11:39:00.000-07:00

Note: To read Kelsey´s blog, follow the link HERE. The formatting and the length of the blogs proves difficult to copy and paste in Peru.

http://kelseyimmeasurablymore.blogspot.com/

Love crosses all cultures - by Alison

2010-07-16T11:35:00.001-07:00

I am really starting to love these people, I am not using the word love casually like so many people do...I feel such a deep love for these people. My heart breaks for them and longs for them to know the same wonderful and forgiving God that I know.

Wed, July 14th
Vbs went really well! The kids loved the craft (Joseph and his coat of many colors)! There were about 30 kids there. My Dad and I worked on the story of Noah and the Flood after Vbs (I am telling it in English and he is translating). Everyone went and ate at the restuarant at 5:00 p:m but my stomache wasn´t feeling well so I stayed behind and rested. My Dad, Jeremy L, Jonathan, Heather, and I ended up going to the group storying. It went pretty well, it was a little hectic but not too bad! About twelve people ended up coming and most of them were pretty engaged. We got back to the house around 8:30 p:m and had worship and then caught some ZZzZZZ´s.

Thursday, July 15th
The morning started out kind of rough, just dealing with stress and other things. My spirits were lifted, thanks to my awesome God! Vbs went really well...we had 31 kids there. The day was going pretty well until I got on the computer and had a message from Andrew. He just found out that his mother has a disease called Atypical endometerial hyperplasia(complex) which is a disease that can develope into cancer of the uterus. There are four stages to the disease before cancer. She is in the fourth stage. She has a doctors appointment on September 2nd to decide what they will do. They think that they caught it early enough. She will have a hysterectomy to try to get the disease out of her body. In September they will find out how urgent the surgery will be. Just please pray everyone. I trust God and know that he has the situation under control but its hard not to feel discouraged, especially since Andrew is all the way in Washington and I am all the way in Peru. Thank God I am going there on August 4th until August 18th. His mother´s name is Mavis so everyone please keep her in your prayers. I also need some prayer. I am joyful today because of Christ but its hard not to feel a deep sadness. So please pray for me as well and Andrew´s whole family. I can see God moving in Conima and there is no doubt in my mind that God has everything under contol but in the U.S.
-Love in Christ

Welcome FBC Willow Park Team! ... by Alison

2010-07-15T14:41:00.000-07:00

Monday, July 12th
Today we are cleaning sooo much, this place is going to be spotless! Kelsey, Heather and I went to the hostile to invite the lady who owns the hostile to group storying but she wasn´t there so her father told us to come back later. We invited Franny to the group storying as well. Then we made lunch! We had guacamole and salsa on sandwiches (the meat eaters had turkey as well). Emily and I went back to the hostile around 2:00 p:m and talked to the lady. She said that she works at the school during the day and takes care of her father and runs the hostile during the night. What a busy lady! So we decided that I would garden with her next weekend (she´s going out of town this weekend). We storied with Sophia and her friend. I told the story of Noah and the Flood and Emily translated, Heather followed along with me to make sure that I didn´t mess up. Storying is a group effort! It went really well! Sophia and her friend kept asking me to read in Spanish and every time they would laugh so much. My Spanish isn´t the best, which I´m sure that you have all gathered by now. Sophia pulled out a box full of avocados and I said "me gusta" so she boke one open and we split it between the five of us. We are storying again with them Friday! Kelsey and Jeremy L. did the community storying tonight and said that 18 people showed up!! God is so awesome, he is answering prayers left and right! Also, Emily and Heather said that the English class went really well too! Things are going really well in Conima as of lately, goodbye sickness!

Tuesday, July 13th
The team got here today!!!!!! They arrived at around 11:00 a:m. After they got everything settled we showed them around Conima which didn´t take long considering it is so small. Then we went and ate at the restuarant, everyone seemed to really like it! We came back to the house and the FBC Willow Park team slept since they were so tired from flying. Kelsey, Heather, and I went and gathered sticks and bought some yarn for the crafts. We came back to the house and I showered and we worked on preparing everything for the crafts. Then the Jeremy´s and I went to Yasmani´s house (one of the kids we´ve grown close to) to meet his mom but he wasn´t there so we decided to go on a short hike. While we were hiking Yasmani and his little brother and sister showed up so they hiked with us. Then we headed back to the house because Jeremy S. and I needed to get dinner ready! We made beef tacos with all the fixin´s. The kitchen was so packed with 12 of us but we managed! Then My Dad, Kelsey, Jeremy L. and I headed to the Government building to do the community storying. Kelsey told the story of The Fall of Man while Jeremy L. asked questions and kept everyone engaged. It was some what hectic because the kids were running around but 16 people came (actually a few more but some people left during the middle). One of the construction workers that came answered a lot of questions and he told Jeremy L. that he would like to learn a story one day and tell it the way that we did. Yes!!!! So Jeremy L. is going to give him one of the stories and he is going to try to memorize it. The community storying started at 7:00 p:m and we got back to the house at about 9:00 p:m. When we got back to the house we had group worship, it was real gooood. We all went to bed around 10:00 p:m, we were all pretty tired.

Today, July 14th
This morning we had worship at 8:30 a:m and then we went into preparation mode for VBS. We all prepared everything for our individual thing that we are doing. VBS started today at 2:00 p:m so be praying everyone! I´m doing crafts with Emily and Molly. Woot Woot! John and Emily went and talked to the principal of the school and he said that the kids are really excited and that they liked the posters that Heather and I made. Lunch is in about thirty minutes, we are eating at the restuarant again. God is really working here, we couldn´t do it without all of you praying back home! Oh yeah...yesterday when they got here my Dad brought me peanut butter, cheeze-itz, and some nail polish so we can do a girls day our last week here with the young girls in the town. I think the girls will really like it. My Dad also brought a letter from my Meme and my Mom. My Mom included some lipgloss from Bath and Body works in the envelope. What a sweet heart! My Mom also said in the letter that she found her journal from when she was in Bolivia (around the same age as I am now) and she put her journal entry in the letter from June 11th (the day that I left for Peru). On June 11th she had met a missionary from England named Alison. Crazy cool huh? I thought so too. Well I´m off to see what everyone else is up too. Keep praying, I know that I say that a lot but its so important!
-Love in Christ!

Big Week Update! - by Heather

2010-07-15T14:34:00.000-07:00

So, things are for the most part going like we had planned for the week. We have started VBS, had community storying, taught English lessons and storied with Sophia.

VBS went really well. We started yesterday. We had probably 30-40 kids. We had games, crafts, a Bible story, snacks and music. The kids were great. They really paid attention to the story of Joseph forgiving his brothers and easily answered lots of questions about it. They made cute pictures of Joseph´s coat (La túnica de José) complete with colorful yarn glued on. They had fun playing ¨Gringo, Grande, Gringo¨ and they did very well following Kelsey and I in ´Padre Abraham,´ Yo Tengo Gozo,´ and ´Soy Soldado de Jesus.´ It was a lot of fun and they seemed to really enjoy it. Hopefully we are impacting them.

We had another English lesson last night. Given our crazy schedule, we were not able to prepare as much as usual, but he enjoyed learning all the names of the things in our ¨classroom.¨ We invited him to our community storying time instead of having Alison tell hers back to back in the lesson and then for the town. He said he would come, but never showed up. So we will have to continue with the next story on Friday.

After the lesson I went over to the storying session. Alison told the story in English, her dad (Dave) translated, Jeremy helped everyone repeat it and Jonathan and I sat there and made efforts to get the young girls to be quiet. There were around 8-15 people there at different times. It was mostly kids and they would get very talkative and distracting. Jeremy S. took some of them out from the beginning to play in the plaza so they wouldn´t disturb the storying like last night, but others stayed. A lot of the boys were very attentive and did most of the repeating of the story. The girls, on the other hand, liked to giggle and talk and play jacks and come in and out. It was harder to communicate with the adults who were there and we are worried some might not come back because of the kids. There is one guy, a construction working in his 20s who was very interested and attentive. Toward the end he was asking lots of questions and talking with Jeremy L. about man and sin and lots of stuff. We are praying he really grasps onto the next stories. He wants to memorize and tell the story on Friday night. Pray he does it and speaks confidently. There was also an older man there who listened and could tell about the story. The couple who owns this internet cabina showed up after the last telling of the story, but they heard the discussion. Pray they come back and are able to come for the storying part.Today we are doing VBS and the community storying. Pray for Molly as she tells the story of Zacchaeus at VBS today and for Jeremy L. as he tells the story of the 10 Commandments at community storying.

Also, the more general thing we are praying for is for God to show us who to invest most in these last 2 weeks. When we are gone we want someone to continue telling stories and continue the work here. We have this young man at the community storying and the police officers and other people we are storying with. Please pray for God to show us who can step up and keep seeking him once we leave.

In other immediate news: There is a fiesta going on today. After our worship time this morning we heard music going on outside. It is the most ¨legit¨ fiesta we have seen so far. There are leaders from all the surrounding communities and everyone is in the plaza. The elders are all wearing red poncho things and there is a circle of women in navy ponchos. Then lots of women around the fountain with their brightly colored packs. There were two bands playing and lots of beer being passed around. Pray this doesn´t interfere with our ministry in the next few days, or that God somehow accomplishes his will through it.

Lunchtime! Thanks for your interest and prayers! We have definitely felt the prayers of everyone lately after our slew of sickness.

What happens when you share the gospel in power and in the Holy Spirit? ... by Jonathan

2010-07-14T10:06:00.000-07:00

This morning, worship with the team was sweet. The team is going through Romans - we hit Chapter 7 this morning. Paul shared his struggles with knowing what good he is to do for God, yet sin being close at hand. This is the struggle all believers face - we are saved, yet are being saved as well ... part of that is learning to walk in the tension of a divine, spiritual nature while the flesh still remains this side of eternity.

This led us to remember what new believers here will face and how necessary it is for us, back in the States, as their brothers and sisters in Christ, to pray for their struggle. My hope is to see new believers birthed out of this ministry this summer, and beyond. However, leaving alcoholism and idol worship is quite difficult, but God changes lives.

I shared this with our group from 1 Thessalonians 1:

¨For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because ourgospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us, and of the Lord, for you received he word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit ... For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.¨(1 Thess. 1:3-10)

When the gospel is spoken and the Spirit moves in power, people are saved. Not only that, but their faith is known to those around them, they leave idols becasue they know Jesus is better and has broken the bondage that held them captive for so long. This, my friends, is why we are here as ambassadors for Christ. This, my friends, is why we must pray for the Spirit to RUSH through Conima in power and change the lives of those here. We must pray for this. Apart from a move of the Spirit, our gospel - which is the power to save - won´t come in power nor the Holy Spirit. Join us.

Until He Comes,
Jonathan

Breakthrough - by Heather

2010-07-14T09:58:00.000-07:00

Well, the youth team pulled up about 15 minutes ago, so I really need to head back to the house to meet all of them, but I wanted to give you a quick update about last night.

We had an English lesson with Armondo at 6pm. Kelsey, Emily, Jeremy S. and I went. Kelsey told the story of the fall of man at the beginning. She told it in Spanish and then Emily and Armondo read through it in English. It went a lot better than the other time we storied with him. We did it at the end of the lesson and he just wanted to see the English. So, we are glad to have figured that out. And it gives me time to copy his lessons in his book. Kelsey left early so she could go with Jeremy L. to our first community storying session.

When the English lesson was over around 7:05 Jeremy S., Emily and I headed back to the plaza. Jeremy went over to the government building to join the community storying session and Emily and I went back to the house to meet Alison to go story with Sophia. While we were at the house waiting for 7:30 to come, there was a knock on the door. It was Jeremy S. saying that no one had showed up for the community storying. We were all disappointed and felt bad after we had gone around town and invited so many people and so many people seemed interested. We knew they might have just acted interested, but we didn´t expect no one to show up. But it was 7:20 by this point and not a soul was there. Jeremy L. and Kelsey were going to stay though and just be sure no one showed up. So, the rest of us lamented the failure and then us three girls went to story with Sophia.

Sophia´s husband, once again, was not there, but one of her friends was. So, we just talked with them for a while and then Alison told the story to the two ladies and Emily translated. The ladies liked to talk some during the story, especially to express shock over how old Noah was when the flood came (600 years old) and they tried to figure out how many month they were in the ark (150 days). The first comments got us discussing the average life span in the US and Peru. I told them my great grandmother lived to be 104. They said that was really old. Anyway, so we got through the story and talked a little about it. When Emily gave them the hook about the story for next time and asked when they wanted to hear the next one, Sophia´s friend said ¨mañana¨ (tomorrow). But we eventually decided on Friday, because they weren´t free sooner than that. The next story is my story, so I´m kind of nervous, but they are good to story with and others are learning that story as well.

Whew, so much still to tell and I should be back at the house already! Real quick:

So, we girls came back to the house and Jeremy and Kelsey still weren´t back, so we figured one or two people much have showed up. We ate snacks in the kitchen for a while and then headed up to the top floor to turn on the heater and get warm. Kelsey came running up a few minutes later and told us they had 18 people show up! They almost ran out of chairs in the room! The man at the internet cabina showed up, so did the two nurses from the clinic, a few kids and other people we didn´t really know. They told the story 4 times and had them repeat it 4 times because new people just kept coming in. At one point a little boy stood up and repeated the whole story for the group. We were all so excited. We never expected that kind of turnout, especially when no one was there 20 minutes after it was supposed to start. So, we were all really encouraged and just spent time praying and thanking God for what he did. I think last night was the push we needed to stay motivated and see that God really is working here. So, pray everyone comes back tonight and more people come and we fill up the room to overflowing every night! And pray that the message actually sinks into their heart and the town of Conima is changed.

Alright, off to meet the youth team! Thank you so much for your prayers!

Hardly time to take a breath - by Kelsey

2010-07-14T09:54:00.000-07:00

THURSDAY - Not enough hours in the day

Yet another busy & productive day in Conima. Today we ran some errands to ask the school director how many kids are in the school (answer: 70, ages 6-12), left a note on Armando´s door explaining why we weren´t at the English lesson on Monday, and bought some poster paper & scissors from the internet cabina. Side note: We found out at the internet cabina that power is out in the whole town. I am praying that it comes back on in time to contact the team back home about supplies to bring for next week.

The rest of the morning & well into the afternoon we were all gathered in the 4th floor living room sorting out candy, designing the posters for Bible school, and fillig the small goody bags we´d been given to use. There was so much candy, stickers, and little toys that we had to make an assembly line sitting on the area rug to get all the bags filled in any kind of timey manner. We ended up with 81 boy goody bags and 72 girl goody bags. Some of those will be passed out to all the kids on the last day of our Bible school, and the rest of the bags will be kept until one of our last days in Conima when we will play with all the kids in the town that we usually play with in the plaza. That is when the rest of the goody bags will be given out. As for the posters, Alison & Heather completed them this afternoon, and we will go hang them up at the school in the morning.

This evening brought about a new experience for me. I told my first story in front of the people here. At 4pm I storyed with 3 of the police officers in Conima. Emily, Alison, & I sat our in front of the station with them and did the story. Then afterwards we hung around and talked some more. They are such sweet men and so understanding when it comes to my minimal spanish skills. I decided that tomorrow I am going to make a plate of chocolate no-bake cookiesto take to them at the station. As far as the storying goes, it went really well. They were attentive as I recited the story in spanish with a couple of mistakes, and they were all willing to participate in the discussion afterwards. I pray each day that the Holy Spirit will work in each of their hearts through the stories we share & the love we show. My desire is that the Lord will make these stories come to life, that they would hold a meaning beyond mere words. Not only did I get to share the story of the Fall of Man with the policemen but also a few hours later with Sophia. Emily, acting as our translator for the summer (and a very good one I might add), had planned to accompany Heather & I to Sophia´s storefront to share the story, but when 8pm rolled around and Emily was curled up in bed in too much pain to stand up, Heather & I were sent out just the 2 of us. We were to use the spanish knowledge we had between the 2 of us to story with Sophia. Her husband was also suppoed to be there, but he had other business to attend to this evening. Surprisingly, we held a 20-minute conversation with Sophia and then storyed with her & discussed it afterwards. The spanish was a little sketchy at points especially on my part, but we were able to hold our own in the conversation. That storying session also went really well, and Sophia asked if her & her husband could hear the next story on Monday evening at 7pm. Praise the Lord for all the open doors, response, and ethusiasm!

FRIDAY - What a great reward

Today was full of small tasks such as hanging the posters for Bible school, visiting the clinic to ask about helping on Sunday, and making a plate of no-bake cookies for the policemen. It was a fun day. And the later hours of our afternoon were spent at the small homemade soccer field that the kids play on. Jeremy Stanley, Alison, and I played with the kids while Emily watched cheering us on. I got really into the soccer game. If I´m going to play then I play to win. My competitive nature is going to cost me two bruised shins, but Alison & Emily seemed entertained by me.

Side note: I bought a phone card for the first time today and got to talk to Momma for half an hour. It was nice, and we both really enjoyed it. That being said, obviously the power is back up & running in the town. Luckily, it came on last night soon after the sunset.

More good news came this afternoon when Emily told me that she had talked to Armando. He found the note we left on his door yesterday and was eager to continue with the English lessons so we set a lesson for this evening at 6pm. Unfortunately, as it came sloer to time for the lesson Heather wasn´t feeling well. We concluded that the best alternative was for me to go in her place so she reviewed her lesson plans with me. I was to teach him the months of the year, numbers 11-20 picking up where we left off last time, and begin explaining verbs starting with ¨to be¨, ¨to have¨, and ¨to want¨. The verbs were the most challenging to teach, but everything went smoothly. Armando´s joyful enthusiasm made the lesson all the more enjoyable. After teaching & reviewing all the material for this evening, Emily shared with him the Creation story. It was a great time, and our one hour flew by, came & went, and we were still there. The joy I got from being able to share my knowledge with Armando and be a part of sharing the gospel with him was such a blessing - moreso than I would´ve ever thought. I am seeing more & more each day what great reward comes with losing my life to Christ and serving Him & His glory.

SATURDAY - Group hike gone bad

Diarrhea was sent from the devil to torture missionaries. I am now sure of that. The excitement on Wednesday that my diarrhea was gone was short-lived when I jumped up in the middle of my quiet time this morning and pushed Heather out of my way rushing to thebathroom. The medicine doesn´t work so I´m at a loss of what to do. I think I´ve just resigned myself to the reality that I will indeed have diarrhea all summer long. Sounds pleasant huh?...yeah no. That must be some kind of record.

The overall excitement among the team in anticipation of our group hike today was also short-lived when 2 of us woke up with diarrhea and one with stomach cramps. Ironically, this group hike was planned to be in celebration of all being in good health once again after our team-wide, all-inclusive bout with the dreaded stomach virus. So much for being in good health. It wasn´t any really serious health compromises, but Heather & Alison weren´t able to join us on the hike for need of staying close to a bathroom.

Now to some people this kind of open discussion of such a topic may be ucomfortable of even awkward, but I have come to learn that when living in another country there are many unusual & awkward things bound to happen. These things will happen not only to you but to other on your team. The best way to cope with these situations is to learn to laugh about it together. Many times if you can´t laugh at things - continuous diarrhea, difficulty with the language acquisition, catching boxes on fire with the gas stove top, slips while boulder jumping in the lake, and waking up at midnight to the sound of your teammate dry-heaving across the hall - then you will fond yourlsef crying about them. Like Mary Poppins said, laughter is the best medicine. Was that Mary Poppins?...well whoever it was, they were right.

As for the hike, it turned out to be Jeremy Stanley, Emily, and I hiking with Yasmani, his ittle brother, and Pollo. Those are 3 of the boys we played soccer with yesterday that we invited to go hiking up the mountain with us. In case you were confused, yyes one of the boys is named Pollo. He refuses to tell us his real name. Today it was Paul & then Babylon, and evey day it´s different. So Emily told him that until he tells us his real name we will call him Pollo.

The hike was lots of fun. The view from the top of the mountain was spectacular looking down on the town of Conima surrounded by mountains with the sun reflecting off the lake waters on the horizon. At the top of the mountain we stopped to have lunch and enjoy the view before beginnng back down. Emily told the boys that we were going to et lunch on top of the mountain. When she said we brought sandwiches for them, all 3 faces lit up with big grins. I pulled the 3 extra peanut butter & jelly sandwiches out of my backpack and gave them to the eager hands waiting to receive them. After the sandwiches were eaten, we pulled out potato chips, peaches, and as a special treat I packed a chocolate no-bake cookie for each of the boys. It was a wonderful picnic with some of my favorite boys here. After lunch they ran around on top of the mountain playing with rocks & sticks pretending that there were cannibal, savage Indians out to get them. Boys will be boys.

While they were all playing with Jeremy, Yasmani picked up a BIG rock to throw down the mountain. When he went to throw it, the rock fell short and landed on his foot usting open his middle toe. After cleaning it as best I could with napkins & water, I wrapped his whole foot in a plastic bag tying it at the ankle. That kept the dirt out of it until we were able to hike down the mountain & make it back to the house where I retrieved the first aid kit. Sitting out on a bench in the plaza I inspected, cleaned, and wrapped up his toe. The rock that fell on it was so big that I had a fear it might be broken. After having him flex all his toes & fan them out, I was satisfied that it wasn´t broken. So after wrappingh it I gave him 2 ibuprofen for the pain & told him to come back in the morning for me to look at it again.

A large part of my afternoon was spent practicing the guitar. Heather taught me how to strum. As of right now I know 2 songs although they are both still very sketchy. It is just going to take alot of practice.

The other team just arrived so I´ll finish blogging later!

Big Week! ... by Heather

2010-07-14T09:51:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone!
Sorry the blogging has been so sparse lately. Things have been busy and sickness has prevented as many trips to the internet cabina.

Health updates:
I am feeling much better. Still some occasional ill feelings, but overall much better. Overall the team has been doing much better, with just occasional digestive problems. Last night, however, Emily threw up and then again this morning. So, please pray that Emily gets better and everyone else feels well this week. The youth team comes in tomorrow and we really do not want to get them sick. They are only here for one week and we don´t want their week to be spoiled by sickness.

This Week:
This is a big week for our team. We have a youth team of 5 people from FBS Willow Park coming in tomorrow morning. So you can be praying for them, their names are Jonathan, Dave, Cory, Elizabeth and Molly. Fortunately, Dave is Alison´s dad and Elizabeth is Emily´s sister, so they will both get to see family this week! We are really excited they are coming so we can introduce them to Conima, and so we can be encouraged by their presence and help.

Our plans for the week are to have VBS in the afternoons and community storying at night, along with our normal weekly activities.

We have arranged with one of the schools here for us to do VBS in the school building from 2-4pm Wednesday through Friday. The kids are ages 6-12. Alison and I made four big posters that the team put up in the school to advertise. The director really liked our posters and said we could expect about 6 teachers to help us. So, that will be great. We will be having Bible stories, games, music, crafts and snacks. Please pray that the kids come and that we are able to impact them and show them love.

At night, starting tonight, we are doing community storying. Today we are going around inviting the adults in the town to come each night this week to hear stories. At 7pm each night we will meet in the government building and start going through the stories. Tonight will be the Creation Story. By doing this we will get through 5 of the 8 stories. Please pray people come, are interested in the stories, and that they let it change their lives. If it goes well, we might even continue next week to finish the stories. Alison´s dad has been memorizing one of the stories to share in Spanish. Pray for all of us as we continue to memorize stories so we can be prepared to continue through all the stories.

In addition to these new events, we will continue our English lessons with Armondo (Mon, Wed, Fri) and continue storying with Sophia and her husband (tonight and hopefully again). Tonight we have an English lesson, storying with Sophia, and the beginning of community storying, so please pray for all of those things!

We need to go invite people to our community storying, so I have to go, but I will update you on the past week sometime soon!

Floatin´on lake Titicaca ... or actually sinkin´ - by Alison

2010-07-14T09:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a very eventful day, to say the least. I actually got to sleep in...till 8:00 a:m which is late for me. I munched on some Peruvian cereal and headed up stairs to the hang out room. I sat around and talked to the Jeremys and Kelsey for a bit. Jeremy Lou and Kelsey went to the clinic at 9:00 a:m. I cleaned the bathroom and then Jeremy S. and I went on a hunt for "pollo" or chicken for you non-Spanish speakers out there. We literally walked into a least six stores and said "¿Donde es pollo?" or "Where is chicken". Thats about as far as my Spanish goes. Everyone was out of chicken, they were waiting for the shipment to come in so we had veggie soup and cucumber sandwiches. It was yummie and vegaterian. ( ; I´m converting all my team-mates! After lunch I stopped by the Internet cabena and then the Jeremys came and got me to set out for our adventure! We decided that we were going to hike out to our favorite spot and build a raft...and float across Lake Titicaca on it. So we collected at least twenty soda bottles (from our kitchen and from the trash that people throw out on the streets) to help the raft float. So we started building our raft and Jeremy Lou cut his finger open pretty bad so I had to go into nurse mode. I made the sail! (We used a sheet but we didn´t actually end up using it because the wind shifted). Two and a half hours later our raft was complete! It had three parts to it for each one of us to sit on. Lets just say that we didn´t get very far from the shore and we all ended up wet, the boys more so than me! Jeremy Lou came out with leeches all over his feet and I had to pick them off! It was disgusting! We decided that it was about time for us to start heading home considering it was going to get dark soon. So we jogged back (we were so cold we were moving fast) wet and dissapointed. When we arrived at the house Kelsey and Heather were making dinner: pancakes, bacon, and eggs. It was so good! After dinner we headed up to the hang out room and had a group meeting. It went well. Today we are cleaning all day! The FBC Willow Park team arrives here tomorrow! I am so stinkin´excited to see my Dad and everyone else! Keep praying for them! I have great news...my friends Shelby and Brooke made it to Haiti yesterday. What an answer to prayer! Tonight I am telling the story of Noah and the Flood to Sophia and her husband (the people who own the store next to our house) and I am a littler nervous, so please pray for me to have a peace about it. God is doing so much in Conima, its awesome! We are building some awesome relationships, its going to be hard for me to leave. Keep praying hard everyone!-Love in Christ!

Conima July Team Has Arrived - by Jonathan

2010-07-13T15:56:00.000-07:00

Well, after traveling all night, sleeping on the bus ride from Juliaca to Conima (about 3 hour ride) and take a 3 hour nap, we´re ready to go!!! We have a storying session tonight in the Community building with the SMs and begin our 3-day Bible school tomorrow. Keep praying for us, our health, the SMs health, a restful night, and most importantly that the Spirit would move as we share the Gospel, which is the power of salvation (Rom 1:16).

Thanks for all your prayers thus far! We´ll keep you posted later on.

Until He Comes,
Jonathan

Tres Mas Gringas!!! ... by Emily

2010-07-11T17:59:00.000-07:00

Okay--first, let me address the title of this blog. Wednesday morning, when everyone finally felt decent enough to go back to Conima, Jeremy S went outside to wait for a bus. He planned to call us when a bus came, but we didn´t expect one to actually show up for hours. Around 7:45, Jeremy called us yelling ¨The bus is here, hurry!!¨ So we frantically gathered up our things and ran out to catch the bus. We got on, but the second the last one of us stepped on the bus, it starting moving. Apparently, Jeremy, who speaks very little Spanish, was holding the whole bus for us and yelling ¨Tres más gringas!¨(three more white girls!) over and over again. The people must have thought he was crazy! Anyway, we had a good laugh over that.

When we got to Conima, we settled back in and explained to the kids and most of the people we had missed storying with why we were not there on Monday and Tuesday. We went to Armando´s house for the ESL lesson, but he wasn´t there. That got me worried since we had missed Monday´s lesson. I didn´t know what to do, but it ended up working out.

Thursday we went to the police station to tell them the second story (Kelsey did a great job!), and that evening, we were scheduled to story with Sofia and her husband again, but I started not feeling well. With me being the designated ¨translator¨, things were not looking good for doing the story, but Heather and Kelsey decided to go ahead and try it without me. When they came back, they said that everything went really well! I´m really glad that they tried it--I knew that both of them could speak Spanish better they they thought they could.

Friday we went to the school that we will be doing VBS in next week to hang up the posters we had made to advertise it. I was a bit nervous that the director would not like how colorful and ¨flashy¨they were, but he loved them! He helped us hang them up and told us that he thought that around six teachers would be helping us out during the VBS next week. Later, Kelsey, Alison, and I took cookies that Kelsey had made to the policemen. In the afternoon, I found out some AMAZING news! I was talking to my parents on the phone, and my mom told me that I had gotten a letter from the Baylor Graduate school. I had already found out via email that I had been accepted, but the letter also told me the financial aid I would receive. I qualified for a really big scholarship! It was definitely an answer to prayer! Needless to say, I was really happy for the rest of the day. :) Later on, we hung out with some of the kids some more.

Like I said earlier, we eventually found Armando, and we were able to schedule an English lesson for last night. The lesson went really, really well, and I was able to tell my story to him. Be praying for us as we try to figure out how best to incorporate a Bible story into the English lesson.... It´s trickier than I thought.

Anyway, today is Saturday (the day of rest around here), so it has been really relaxing. Jeremy, Kelsey, me, and three of the kids we have been spending time with went hiking part of the way up a mountain this morning. We packed a picnic lunch for us and the kids. The kids were really excited about the food. It didn´t end so well though when Yasmani, one of the kids, accidentally threw a big rock on his own foot and cut open his toe. Kelsey was a very good nurse and made sure it was all wrapped up before walking back down the moutain. He made it to the bottom, and Kelsey ran to the house to get the first aid kit and doctored him up. He is fine now, but it was sad to see him hurt.

Now, the two Jeremys are out building a raft that they claim they will be able to float on Lake Titicaca in to the nearest island.... We will see how that goes. Who knows--maybe I will be surprised!

Well, I´m cooking tonight. It has been fun learning more about how to cook and trying new recipes! I´m looking forward to trying some of them out at home!

Tummy, why won't you get better? ... by Alison

2010-07-11T17:55:00.001-07:00

Last night Jeremy S. and I played hide n go seek in the plaza with the kids, it was so fun! We found out today that the kids used to be scared of us because we are gringos but now they think we are nice, geez...what a relief. The parents here tell their children that white people will catch them and suck all their fat out...no joke. No wonder they are so scared of us! We had a nice dinner last night, pork chops (which I didn´t eat), mashed potatoes, and mac n cheese.

Today we had worship and then Emily, Kelsey, Jeremy S., and some of the kids went on a hike but Heather and I stayed behind because we weren´t feeling too well. I am starting to think that I will never get better! I literally played sudoku for hours, I think that I am kind of addicted now! Today has been pretty uneventful, yet relaxing. Tomorrow we are cleaning the whole house...we have got to kill these germs! Two of my dear friends are leaving for Haiti tomorrow, Shelby Johnson and Brooke Collins so please keep them in your prayers! I will write more tomorrow when I am feeling better.
-Love in Christ!

Death Strikes the Conima Team! (just kidding) - by Heather

2010-07-10T10:12:00.001-07:00

Ok, maybe not death, but it felt pretty close. Maybe the plague...

So much has happened since I last blogged. It has been a week of highs and lows. Very highs and very lows. We went to Huancane for our 4th of July break. The travel to Huancane was not without its share of bus drama and very squished seating for the almost 2 hour ride. Once there we had a very fun 4th of July celebration including the great Texas vs. Georgia Showdown. After a frozen tshirt contest, sack race, tangerine roll, apple bobbing and fast dressing competitions, the teams were tied. We then went to the sudden death egg drop contest - drop an egg from the third to second story balcony of the hostel without it breaking using only the materials found outside the hostel. Unfortunately this did not perform its sudden death function as none of the eggs broke. It then went to the sudden, sudden death egg toss. After multiple throws the Georgia team was victorious after the Texas egg was dropped.
While all these lovely activities were going on, Alison was sleeping in the hostel. Little did we know her not feeling well would result in so much pain and sickness in the group. (Disclaimer: Alison is not to be blamed for all of the ensuing sickness. We prefer to place the blame on the heathens from Georgia who were trying to cripple our team. We´ll get you next time.) The 4th was on Sunday and our team planned to return to Conima on Monday. We planned to take the bus around 11am. We got up, cleaned the hostel and met Pastor Ruben around 10am to help us get on the bus. After sitting on the sidewalk for over 2 hours, we were told there would not be a bus to Conima that day. So, we went to lunch at a restaurant with Ruben and the Huancane girls. After lunch I went back to Pastor Ruben´s house with the Huancane girls and we all made small purses and wallets on his loom. Pastor Ruben makes hats, purses, scarves, Bible covers, all kinds of stuff. He had been showing the other girls how to do it, so after they finished I made one. It was a lot of fun. It was great to hang out with Pastor Ruben and his wife and the other girls. We were able to talk and joke and have a lot of fun. I believe it was the same day, Alison still wasn´t feeling great. She ended up throwing up 7 times in a row. We made supper at the Huancane girls´ house and then hung out at the hostel that night. We planned to get up early in the morning and try to catch the 6am bus to Conima. So we all went to bed pretty early.
At 12:10am Emily and I awoke to the sound of Kelsey throwing up. It was the worst sound I have ever heard. It sounded like she was about to die it was so bad. She just kept throwing up and moaning and going back and forth between the kitchen and her room. I felt so bad for her. I asked if she needed anything but she said no and went back to her room. I woke up again at 12:55 when she started throwing up again. It was so violent. I´m pretty sure I stayed awake for over an hour just praying to God that hers was over and that I didn´t get it.
That morning we woke up around 5:15. We were all slowly getting ready to go but Emily and I started not feeling well. Kelsey and Alison were better, but they both get car-sick so the bus wasn´t sounding great to them either. Long story short, we end up staying in Huancane another day because Emily and I are sick. We stay in bed all day, which was a very long day considering we were awake at 5:15, eating crackers and drinking Sprite and powerade. And we were just stuck in our cold room in the hostel in our sleeping bags with the bathroom on a separate floor. We both felt bad with nausea, and stomach pain and all the other unpleasant stuff you don´t want to hear about. Emily threw up some in the afternoon and felt better, but I still didn´t feel good. The Huancane girls gave us soup for lunch and that night Sonia made us soup and John brought us a heater. We all sat in the common room and read or played games or listened to music. And generally complained about our situation. We all wanted so bad to get back to Conima but to not ride the bus.
The next morning there was supposed to be a bus coming at 8am. During the night I got up and ended up throwing up finally. Which helped for a while, but after getting up the next morning I still didn´t feel great. Jeremy went out at 7am to look for the bus (you never know when it is going to come). I had about decided I couldn´t get packed up and make it to the bus when we got the call at 7:40 that the bus was there. So I had no choice but to hop up, throw my stuff in my bag and run with everyone else to the bus, saying all the way "I´m going to throw up, I´m going to throw up." On the way to Huancane on the bus we had to stand for the first half of the trip because the bus was so crowded. We were all hoping we wouldn´t have to stand, because we would get sick. Luckily when we got to the bus the whole back row was open and we were all able to sit down, which was a huge blessing, for us and those around us. I didn´t feel well the whole trip, but the bumpiness of the road didn´t bother me too bad and the trip was shorter than expected. We finally got to Conima Wednesday morning around 9:30am. We were so glad to be "home," even though it was 3 days later than expected and I still wasn´t feeling well, at least we were in our house and could make a fire to keep warm. I stayed feeling sick for most of the day, but by that night I was feeling a lot better and yesterday I felt fine. Alison threw up again yesterday morning, but has felt fine besides that.
Yesterday we had a really good day. We made posters for the VBS we are going to be doing at the school, put together goody bags for the kids, hung out with youth in the plaza, storied with the police and Kelsey and I managed to story with Sophia without Emily as our Spanish speaker.
Today we have gotten some things done, but now I am feeling bad again. Bad stomach cramps and back pain. We´ll see what kind of sickness this turns into...
Please pray we all get well and stay well. It´s so hard to be and feel effective when you are battling sickness all the time. We have such good days and things happen, but feel so miserable other times. Pray our bodies and attitudes get and stay well. Overall for the team things are looking up, but right now for me things aren´t so bueno.
I´m going to go back to bed. Thanks for the prayers.

Getting ready! ... by Alison

2010-07-10T10:11:00.002-07:00

We have been praying so much for the FBC Willow Park group that is arriving on Tuesday. We are all so excited to see them, I´m especially excited to see my dad! Today we went to the school and hung up the posters that Heather and I made, the director loved them and they even gathered a small group of kids! We will be starting VBS on Wed. at a school that ranges from age six to twelve. There are seventy kids. Be praying that we will be able to communite the Gospel to these kids affectively. I am working in crafts! It´s almost lunch time and my stomache is getting restless! Today we spotted Barnabis (our pet dog in Conima) and he walked with us for a while. He is a bassit hound and I love him, I wish I could take him back with me! I´m off to go see what´s for lunch!
-Love in Christ!

Back in Conima, feelin' good - by Alison

2010-07-10T10:11:00.001-07:00

Wed. July 7th
I forgot to write something on Tuesday´s post...Jeremy S. and I went to the pharmacy to get motion sickness medicine for Kelsey and I. On the way there, a guy on one of the bycicle taxi´s went to greet Jeremy. He literally held Jeremy´s hand for at least three minutes and Jeremy had this "help me!" look on his face but all I could do was laugh! Then we went to the pharmacy and we didn´t know how to say motion sickness in Spanish so Jeremy tried to act it out. Needless to say, the woman thought we were crazy and she kept saying "no intiendo" while laughing hysterically. So we called Emily and she talked to the lady via the phone. My stomache hurt so much from laughing at these awkward events!

We ended up catching a bus to Conima at around 7:30 a:m. Praise the Lord! Jeremy sat out by the curb and called us when the bus was there, so we had to run to catch it! I beat the rest of the girls there and the bus wanted to leave when I got there but Jeremy kept saying "tres gringas" or three more white people coming. It got the message across because they waited. Right whenever the girls got on the bus, that bus shot off like a rocket ship! We got to Conima and of course they charged us more than everyone else since we are white, but Emily told them in Spanish that we knew they charged us to much. They didn´t know what to say, it was pretty funny. We got into the house and went into cleaning mode! Goodbye germs! Then Jeremy, Kelsey, and I went hiking to our favorite spot on Lake Titicaca. We did some pretty intense rock climbing and I got stuck at one point. My hands are scratched up pretty bad but it was soooo fun! We hiked about six miles and brought back some fire wood with us in potatoe sacks. We almost got ran over by a llama that was on the loose! Kelsey and I went running and screaming. On the way back from the hike, that same llama followed Jeremy for a little while. When we got back Kelsey, Emily, and I went to re-schedule to story with the police officers tomorrow. Kelsey and I made dinner...I spilled hot oil all over my foot and then slipped in it. Emily and Jeremy came into the kitchen and Emily started screaming. The cardboard behind the gas stove was on fire! Emily and I started screaming "fire!" while Kelsey began blowing on it. Jeremy stood by shaking his head. Kelsey must have some pretty good lungs because she put that fire out! Heather came running down the stairs in a state of confusion. After dinner we went up to the meeting room and sat by the fire and talked. It was rather relaxing.

Thursday, July 8th
This morning did not start out well for me. I woke up with a stomache ache, and threw up a few times. I swear, I have never been so sick in my life. So I skipped out on worship and slept till around 10:30 a:m. I felt better instantly when I awoke from my nap. I went up stairs to the meeting room and everyone was busy making goodie bags for VBS next week. I joined in the assembly line and boy were we moving fast! We decided to take a break for lunch around 12:15 p:m to go eat at the restuarant. We came back after lunch and Kelsey and Jeremy continued working on the goodie bags. Emily´s back was hurting her so she laid down for a bit. Heather and I each made two posters in Spanish to hang up at the school for VBS. They look pretty impressive if I may say so. I took a nice, hot shower and then Kelsey, Emily, and I were off to go story at the police station. The police officers welcomed us and Kelsey told them the story of Adam and Eve in Spanish. She did so well! I was so proud of my roomie. We stuck around and talked to the officers for a bit. Today (Friday) we are making them no-bake cookies. After we talked to the officers for a bit, we headed to the bodaga (store) down the street but the owners were at a funeral recession that we had actually seen marching down the street earlier (and that I took a video of!). We bought some animal cookies from the store and headed back to the plaza. We hung around the plaza for a bit and played with the kids. Jeremy play-boxed with them, they loved it! The electricity was out all day but we managed without it. We had spagetti for dinner. YUM! Then Kelsey and Heather went to tell Sophia (the lady who owns the store beside our house) the story of Adam and Eve. Kelsey told two stories today and did great! I read for a bit beside the fire and retired around 10:00 p:m which is actually late for me!
-Love in Christ!

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We Should Make a Movie - by Kelsey

2010-07-10T10:10:00.002-07:00

WEDNESDAY

After this long extended retreat to Huancane that turned into a puking party, we were determined to return to Conima today and praying that God would provide the means. The early morning was spent packing our things and cleaning once again. That routine was getting really old. Them Jeremy Stanley went down to the bus stop with his stuff & one of our cell phones. The plan was to call us as soon as a bus to Conima arrived. So while Jeremy waited out in the cold, we finished up all the last minute cleaning. At 7:45am our cell phone rang. We knew whaqt that meant. A bus! All the girls jumped up & frantically ran around grabbing our bags & yelling to Heather that it was time to leave. I collected all the ipods & the pot that had contained Sonia´s chicken soup from the night before. Emily & Alison grabbed the trash bags running down the stairs, and Heather followed quickly behind hauling bags of children´s supplies. I knocked on the Grady´s door and returned the ipods, soup pot, and hostel key while quickly explaining that there was a bus waiting for us. Alison threw the trash inside their gate where John had told us and took off for the us ahead of us. Alsion got on the bus, and Jeremy tried to explain that there were still other girls coming. ¨Tres mas gringas!!¨he yelled pointing down the road where Alison had come from as he was shewd on the bus by the driver. The Aymaran man saw us come up over the hill and waited as we hurried to the bus juggling all our bags and praying that there would be open seats. We made it to the bus, and it pulled away as soon as I stepped on. I walked to the back of the bus where the rest of the team was already sitting in the back row of 5 seats. Perfect! We all had seats & plenty of room. Praise the Lord we were on our way back to Conima!

The bus arrived at the plaza in Conima by 10am, and we all 5 piled off the bus with no car sickness or plastic bags filled with stomach content. Once again praise the Lord! I have never been so happy to see that beautiful little yellow house sitting at the corner of the paza as I was this morning. Everyone is thankful & excited to be back. If for no other reason than this, God kept us in Huancane in that cold, frigid hostel so as to be all the more elated upon our return to Conima. I now realize how comfortable this house feels to me and how much I missed our work here. This is home for the next two & a half weeks. That brings a smile to my face as I write.

Havig missed 2 days of work and with the added preparations for the team joining us on Tuesday, life will be busy in the days to come. After arriving back at the house, everyone immediately went to work unpacking, gathering laundry, doing dishes, sweeping, cleaning. There is so much to be done. After the cleaning, Alison, Jeremy, & I made some sandwiches and packed up our backpacks for a hike. Despite the wary words from Momma, Daddy, & Pawpaw, we had our sights set on doing some rock climbing. This time with an increased confidence we set out past the first peninsula which we had already climbed and went even another mile to a second peninsula which towered higher above the lake waters. The thrill of relying on your own strength & skill to climb those rocks with no harness or safety net is one that can only be experienced, not described. Many aprayer are sent up to the Lord while scaling those rocks only to come back down & do it once again in a more difficult spot. For those skeptics back home, I am sure to remain responsible & reasonable in these adventures. After a picnic lunch of canned peaches, peanut butter Oreos, a granola bar, & a turkey sandwich and several hours of rock climbing & exploring, we turned back and headed home only stopping for each of us to fill a potato sack with small firewood. I´m sure we are a sight to see always trekking back with wood, this time with a large potato sack slung over my shoulder and Jeremy & Alison with theirs tied up for an easier haul. Even the llamas & sheep stare at us as we pass by.

The afternoon was filled with errands to run & people to see. Emily went to give the school director a formal notice asking permission to use the school next week for our 3-day Bible school. We were kindly granted permission & even asked to hang up posters in the school advertising what we weill be doing. After the school we went to talk with the policemen who we were supposed to story with on Monday when we were gone. They were happy to see us and invited us back tomorrow at 4pm to tell the next story. The woman at the hostel that Alison would like to garden with was not there once again although this time the hostel door was open and were were able to walk into the courtyard where the garden is. Susana & Lucian were not in their bogeda when we went to visit. Their daughter said they were at the island & will be back tomorrow. So we said ¨Hasta luega¨and returned home to prepare for our storying appointments. Sophia told us that she was very tired and wanted to hear the next story tomorrow night instead. So that left only a 6pm English lesson & story. Emily, Heather, & Jeremy left to meet Armando for his English lesson and returned banging on the door 15 minutes later. Armando wasn´t home & never showed up for the lesson. We will try to contact him tomorrow. We spent the rest f the evening upstairs around the fire discussing plans for next week - the Bible school, the team joining us, the evening storying. It felt nice to get most of the details set.

What an encouraging day it has been - truly an answer to many prayers. Thank you to all those who have been praying for our team & the Lord´s work here.

P.S. Funny story of the day: This evening while Alison & I prepared dinner we managed to catch the cardboard box behind the gas stove top on fire. No worries though. All was okay, and noone was hurt. I slammed the flaming box against the pantry door (probably not the smartest move) and blew frantically while we were all yelling ¨fire!¨ Heather came running down the stairs right as all the commotion ended and I blew the flames out. Oh, the memories we will have! Truly, with all the crazy things that happen here, we should make a movie.

*Updates from Thursday & today to come soon, but that is all for now.*

The Conima team is infected - by Alison

2010-07-10T10:10:00.001-07:00

Let´s see...where to begin? So last night I went back to the hostile, took a shower and as I was laying in bed I was praying to God that I would be able to sleep through the night without throwing up. My lower back was hurting really bad; I think just from being so sick. I´m laying there and talking to God and thats the last thing I remember. I awoke at around midnight to Kelsey throwing up, I mean puking so bad. I felt terrible for her.

This morning the team and I woke up at 5:15 a:m because we were suppose to try to catch a bus at 6:00 to Conima. Heather and Emily woke up feeling terrible, turns at that the whole Conima team is infected. I actually woke up feeling fine. So Jeremy, Kelsey, and I went to the bus stop. I have never been so cold in my entire life. Let me just give you a mental image: Its below freezing and all the clothes I have with me are a pair of jeans that I have worn for a week straight, some dirty socks, a t-shirt, a hoody, and a thin jacket, oh and some cheaply made mittens (I bought them for 5 soles in Juliaca which isn´t even three dollars). So the three of us are sitting there and I swear that my finger tips are about to just fall off. Everyone is feeling discouraged and not that great physically so of course I´m trying to be the comic relief but its not working. We said a little pray for the girls and that a bus would come but I honestly think all of us were just so beyong feeling discouraged.

So the girls call us and tell us that they aren´t feeling any better. We had back to the hostile around 6:45 a:m, we haven´t even been outside for two hours but it felt like all day. We went and talked to Sonia (the missionary) and told her everything. "Looks like we are spending another night in Huancane" I think to myself and a single tear comes to my eye. Then I metaphorically slapped myself and said, "Get it together girl!" and I did. I read some of the book of John and put my iPod in and listened to some Hillsong and actually got to spend some really awesome, intimate time with God. The girls are still feeling terrible at this point so I decide to grab a blanket and catch some Zzz´s. I fell asleep around 9:00 a:m and was in and out of sleep till around noon. The group gathered together to see how everyone is feeling and we made a group decision to try to catch a bus or a van to Conima tonight if the girls are feeling up to it after they eat lunch. I think we are all ready to be back in Conima, not to mention we have two appointments with people tomorrow. We´ll see. Everyone at home keep on praying, we really need it here. I think that today was one of the most discouraging days for all of us. Not to mention that I went to buy the girls some sprite at the store about half a mile down the street and ended up being short one sole so I had to walk all the way back, which doesn´t seem like a big deal but it is when you are at your breaking point.

I think all of us are at, or close to our breaking point today but you know what...it´s okay because I´m just a silly human being and I find SO much comfort in knowing and believing that my God has a reason for it all and he´s got it under control. There was a point there today when I really started questioning God but once again, he put that joy inside me in the midst of a storm that can only come from him. Hopefully we will get to Conima tonight but if not then its okay because God´s got it under control. Thanks for all your prayers, you all are such prayer warriors!
-Love in Christ!
"You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." John 8:31-32

There are good days and then there are bad days - by Kelsey

2010-07-10T10:09:00.003-07:00

For all you out there following my adventures in Peru, I´ll give a quick review of this crazy weekend. On Friday I was chosen along with Alsion to accompany Sara to Huancane with John in his truck. Before we left, John & Emily talked with the director of one of the schools about using the school building to do a VBS-type thing the week out other church team joins us. Then we ate lunch, and John drove all of us except Alsion to place 10 minutes away & up a mountain where there sits a whole village of pre-Incan Aymaran ruis - homes, burial sites with bones, remnants of gardens & livestock pins. That mountain ride rattled up my stomach and made me miserably carsick all the way to Huancane & the whole rest of the evening. After a long night´s sleep of over 12 hours, I woke up on Saturday feeling better.

On Saturday the rest of our team arrived in Huancane on a crowded Peruvian bus. That afternoon Alison, Heather, Emily & I took a combi into Juliaca to do some intense grocery shopping. We grabbed some souvenirs along the way and ate at The Royal Inn´s restaurant where we all got pizzas. Jeremy Stanley joined us for the pizza after e & John dropped Sara off at the airport, refilled our gas tank for the heater, and met us in front of the grocery store to load up all the groceries in John´s truck.

Sunday was July 4th which meant cookout! The Moho team came in to Huancane on an early bus to be part of the festivities. John grilled burgers. Sonia made salsa, chocolate cookies with peaut butter in them, and apple pie. The Huancane girls brought over banana pudding. It was all delicious and left us stuffed to the brim with food. Later that afternoon Jeremy Lou had planned ¨The Ultimate Showdown¨, Texas team vs Georgia team competing in all kinds of races & competitions. There was a frozen t-shirt race, timed cracker-eating competition, potato sack race, mandarine roll, apple bobbing, and massive put-on. After the 6 events Texas & Georgia were tied so the tie breaker was an egg drop. We had 15 minutes to use whatever we could find outside in the Grady´s yard and make a contraption to protect our egg when dropped one story. Neither group needed all 15 minutes so once we were ready everyone went over to the hostel. We dropped the contraptions made byboth teams, and neither egg broke. So we used the eggs to have an egg toss. The Georgia team won the egg too making them the victors of our 4th of July Ultimate Showdown. After the games the Moho team took a bus back to their house in Moho, and we spent the rest of the day relaxing.

Monday morning I woke up feeling odd, a little queazy. We packed up our stuff, cleaned the hostel, and prepared to go catch a bus with Pastor Rueben. I got to talk to my parents on the phone one last time before we left for the bus stop which was greatly appreciated. I miss them so much! We sat outside by the bus stop for several hours, but no bus to Conima. Finally there was a bus going somewhere else, and the bus driver said there weren´t anymore buses coming for the day. So that meant we wold just have to wait another day and try again tomorrow. Emily, Alison, & I have sat in the Huancane team´s house all afternoon. My stomach hurt, and I was going in & out of the bathroom with diahrea all afternoon. I prayed that things began looking up soon because I was starting to feel really discouraged in our work here. Because we weren´t able to catch a bus out to Conima, we missed 2 storying dates we had for Monday, one at 4pm & another at 6m. There was supposed to be a bus going out through Conima at 6am this morning so our plan was to get up early to take that bus out there.

But wait, there´s no bad news. I was sick throwing up all night. I kept tossing & turning trying to relieve my stomach pain long enough to fall asleep, and then I felt it. It was coming, and there was nothing I could do to stop it so I jumped up out of bed, flipped the light on, and grabbed a plastic bag just in time. I cried myself beyond the point of complete exhaustion as my night went on like that - toss & turn, sit up in bed, grab a bag, throw up until my body was satisfied to stop, and then get up to wash my face & blow all the stomach content outof my nose. Yeah, gross. I know. When I throw up it always comes out both my mouth & nose. Being here it was even worse because I´ve already had problems with my nose bleeding from the dry air & high altitude. So every time I threw up and then blew my nose, it started a nose bleed that was hard to stop.

After that horrible, long night I got upat 5am to get ready to catch the bus. Come to find out, Emily & Heather had caught whatever bug Alison & I have had, and they feel horrible. So we called a team meeting wondering what to do about taking a bus this morning. With the possibility of having to stand the whole 2 hours surrounded by smelly, unconsiderate Aymarans on a bus that wasn´t about to stop for a white American to get sick on the side of the road, we thought it best that Heather & Emily not go. Jeremy Stanley, Alison, & I were going to try to make it back to Conima so we set out for the bus stop in the freezing cold morning air. After sitting in the cold for an hour with no bus in sight, Emily called to tell Jeremy that she & Heather didn´t want us to leave them here. So we came back to the hostel. We do´n´t want to be at the Huancane team´s house or the Grady´s and run the possibility of getting them sick so we are stuck in the hostel feeling miserable & useless. Emily & Heather were both throwing up earlier, but as of now they are feeling somewhat better. After a light lunch of soup & crackers they are going to see how their stomaches are feeling. If they are up to it then we are going to pay to take a combi out to Conima this afternoon so we can be back in a place that feels a little more like home.

Even though these past 2 days have been discouraging & I have been doubting our effectiveness in being here in Peru, my confidence in the Lord remains steadfast because His will & His ways are so much greater than I know.

Waking up to strangers singing in Spanish - by Alison

2010-07-10T10:09:00.001-07:00

So yesterday we had a 4th of July cookout at the Grady´s and both the Georgia teams came too! I ended up going outside after we ate and I layed in the grass and read my bible and journaled for a bit. I started feeling extermely tired as I was soaking in the sun so I decided to take a quick nap before entering in the Texas vs. Georgia competition...I mean I needed my sleep to kick their butts. Well my quick nap turned into sleeping from 1:30 p:m to 8:30 p:m. I guess I was just super tired. I´m alone in the hostile because everyone went to eat and I wake up to people singing Spanish in the room next to me. My first thoughts upon waking up are 1: Where the heck am I? and 2: Why are there people singing in Spanish in the room next to me? So naturally I get up and sneak out, tippy toeing out of the hostile. I walk down to the Huancane girl´s house but no one is there so I headed back to the hostile and John came to the door. He called the Huancane girls and told them I was trying to get in! So I went back over to their house and we watched 27 Dresses, again. We got back home around 10:30 p:m and suprisingly enough I actually fell asleep around 11:30 p:m.

Today I woke up at 6:15 a:m to people singing Spanish...again. I´m starting to think this is a new routine. Turns out the owner of the hostile rented it out to some other people...who really like singing apparently. We cleaned the hostile and packed all the groceries up because we thought we would be leaving today. We headed down to the bus stop with Pastor Rueben at around 11:00 p:m and we end up waiting till around 12:30 p:m so we decided to go grab some lunch with the Huancane girls. We ate and went back to the bus stop and found out we would be spending another night in Huancane which really stinks because we had two appointments to story with people tonight. Kelsey, Emily, and I went to the Huancane girl´s house and watched The Devil Wears Prada. About this time I start feeling pretty sick to my stomache. I threw up twice before dinner and figured I was okay to eat two grilled cheese sandwiches but I ended up throwing up about seven more times after dinner. I´m talking puking out my brains. It was pretty awful. That was actually only about twenty minutes ago. I honestly wouldn´t be suprised if I all of a sudden puke all over this keyboard. Let´s just say that I´m not feeling the best. So please pray that we will be able to find a bus tomorrow morning and that I´ll stop feeling so sick. Thanks for your prayers everyone!
-Love in Christ

Our Weekend Retreat - by Emily

2010-07-10T10:08:00.003-07:00

Hello from Huancane!

No, we did not get to Conima today. Apparently, no bus coming through wanted to go to Conima or even head in that direction. We are sad because we had scheduled two storying sessions with two people and had no way to tell them why we could not meet them. Hopefully they will understand when we tell them tomorrow. We are told that a bus will come through at either six, seven, or eight in the morning, so we are going to be up and ready to go at 5:45 just in case.

Other than that, this weekend was very fun and relaxing. Saturday, Heather, Jeremy, and I went to Huancane on the bus. Riding on public transportation here is...interesting. I can´t complain because all of the teams here have to go through this, but it was very crowded and the people were not friendly at all. But, we made it in one piece, and that is all that matters! When we got to Huancane, we ate a quick lunch at the restaurant and then headed to Juliaca for some grocery shopping! Before we left, we said goodbye to Sara. We are going to miss her! If you are reading this, Sara, we love you!

We had fun in Juliaca. We did some fun souvenir shopping, got all of our groceries (3 carts full--feeding five plus the youth team coming in next week requires a lot of food!), and ate at the Royal Inn. We all ordered pizzas and thoroughly enjoyed them! When it was time to go, we all got onto the little bicycle public transportation cart things and ended up getting taken to two different bus stops. So Heather and I rode on a different bus home than the others, but we all made it!

Sunday, the Moho team and Huancane girls joined us for a Fourth of July celebration! We had a good cook out with burgers, beans, chips, banana pudding, and apple pie. It was so good! After eating we played some games; it was a competition between texas and Georgia, and unfortunately, Georgia won, but only during the tie breaker! I did the sack race, but we also had did apple bobbing, the frozen t-shirt contest, the mandarine roll, a cracker eating contest, an egg drop contest, and an egg toss. It was fun to spend time with everyone. We ended the night by shooting off fireworks with Ruben, Rosmie, and the rest of Ruben´s family, watching 27 Dresses and eating more banana pudding!

Obviously, we have not done much today, but we are rested and ready for a busy week! We are hoping for lots of opportunities to story this week. Everything is in God´s hands, and we are ready to do His will.

Love you all! Have a great week. :)

The Past Week in Review - by Kelsey

2010-07-10T10:08:00.001-07:00

SUNDAY - What I was made to do

God works in unexpected ways. I finally got an opportunity to work in the clinic today, something I've really been looking forward to doing. There were some anxious thoughts in me about it when I woke up thinking about the language abrrier & differences in medical practice, but I voiced those to God in prayer and trusted that He would take care of it. I mean He IS GOD. Sometimes when I really take time to dwell on that & all it entales, I feel silly for ever worrying.

Sara, Jeremy Lou, and I left for the clinic at 8:50am. After waiting for half an hour the doctor was done seeing a patient, and we went back to see him. Dr Abraham graciously welcomed us and introduced us to the rest of the staff, explaining that we would be helping them in the clinic. I had no idea what to expect. Dr Abraham told the 2 other nurses that I would be helping them take histories, vitals, height, & weight of the children. Apparently since market day is Sunday that is also the day that alot of parents take their children to the clinic for check-ups.

After waiting a few more minutes, the 2 nurses said they were ready for me. Jeremy Lou & I followed them down the hall to a big room toward the back. In the middle sat a desk where the 2 nurses sat a single metal chair for the patient. Against the wall was a wooden bench where family members sat. The room also had a wooden table, baby weighing scale, and a refridgerator that housed all their vaccinations and some medications.

I took a place standing toward the corner of the room as to not be in the way, but one of the nurses told me to come close & watch how they fill out their patient history forms. So I moved closer & stood next to the desk. The second nurse came in with an old man who sat down in the metal chair across from the desk. I listened intently as they interviewed the elderly man. Jeremy translated some of it for me, but I was surprised at how much I understood.

The morning continued on like that, and the longer I was there the more I got to do. The first patient we saw was a 9-month-old baby boy who came in for a check-up. He was a chunky, happy baby with chubby cheeks, lots of black unruly hair, and a big sweet toothless grin. I held him while his mother got a tetanus vaccine & paid the nurses for the visit. Next was a baby girl who was only 7 days old. It was crazy to think she has been born since we've been in Peru. She was so tiny but very healthy. She had to get 2 vaccinations while she was there, one for tuberculosis in her arm and another one in her leg that I didn't know. Her father helped the nurses hold her down while they gave her the shots. She screamed so loudly & abruptly that I was taken back in surprise. It was hard to watch such a long needle go into such a tiny, helpless infant, but it was something that had to be done for her best interest. The last patient we saw this morning was another baby boy, this one 2-months-old. But when his mother unwrapped him from the bundle on her back, I was shocked to see how tiny he was. He didn't look any bigger than the 7-day-old little girl. When they tested his development he had no neck control, couldn't hold his head up, and didn't make any kind of response or acknowledgement to the ringing of a bell. I got to weigh him on the baby scale and measure his height. Then he was laid on the wooden table and given 2 oral vaccines, one of which I know was for polio. the ppor thing was crying as the nurses prepared a shot vaccine for him. So I put my hand on his belly to rock him, and he immediately clasped his tiny hands around my index finger & was not about to let go. I spoke to him in spanish to soothe his crying. It worked until the nurses came back over with a needle & an alcohol swab. He continued to squeeze my finger & began screaming as I held him still while the nurses gave him a shot in the thigh. Once they were done, I put his diaper back on him, pulled his pants up, and wrapped one of his blankets back around him. Then his mother came over to pick him up & breastfeed him. The nurses instructed his mother sit in the metal chair across from the desk, and they explained to her that her son is very small & underdeveloped for his age. One of the nurses went to the cabinets in the corner and retrieved a small bottle. She wrote down some instructions and handed them to the mother with the small bottle. "This medicine will help your son grow bigger & stronger. Give him 2 drops in his mouth 3 times a day. Do this every day for 4 months, and come back to the clinic in October." They repeated this to his mother several times trying to stress the importance of the medicine. Those were all the patients we saw this morning. Dr Abraham told us we could come back in the afternoon if we wanted but we didn't have to. I really wanted to go back, but the afternoon was too busy with the cleaning, showering, & laundry. I look forward to the next time I get to go back, and I will be sure I can spend all day there. It was such an awesome experience.

WEDNESDAY - Story Time

This week we have finally begun our storying, and it seems to have lifted everyone's spirits. There seems to be a more definite purpose for our presence here now that we have the first 3 stories memorized and have started sharing the gospel. We thought we could begin storying on Monday, but once the day began we realized that was doubtful. The whoel town was empty & closed down. Out of everything in the town only a couple of the bodegas & one restaurant were open. The schoolc weren't even in session. We found out through asking someone that everyone had traveled out of town for a fiesta in another town and they wouldn't be back until Wednesday. So much for going out in full force to story with people. We went to Gumericinda's restaurant for lunch. Surprisingly, it was open, Emily talked with her after we ate, and Gumericinda asked if we could go story with them at their restaurant on Thursday night at 7 or 8. We talked to John on the phone, and he said he would be able to come out here on Thursday to story with them. For now, John will be doing the storying with them bcause they have already heard some of the stories, and we don't have the later stories memorized yet. Monday afternoon some of us were hanging out in the plaza and started playing with a few little boys while Jeremy Stanley talked with a group of teenage boys. Jeremy was trying to get them to do some break dancing moves with him, but they boys would only watch. Then after a while one of the boys said we should go up to the lookout. So the Jeremys, Alison, Sara, & I trekked up the hill to the lookout with the 3 teenage boys & some little boys we had been playing frisbee with. Once we got up there, the boys were more open to try the moves Jeremy was showing them. I think they didn't want to look stupid in front of people in the plaza so once we went somewhere out of the way, they would try. The next hour was spent watching Jeremy Stanley try to teach these Aymaran boys how to break dance. Alison, Sara, & I watched in amusement for a while and then started doing our own dance moves. I did some swing dancing moves with Alison, picking her up and swinging her around my torso. Sara said that she is going to take me dancing once I get to Belton because she will be in Temple at medical school. Honestly, that sounds really fun even though I'm not the best dancer. The sun began to set and the wind picked up so we called it quits for the day and set up another time to hang out with those boys on Tuesday afternoon. Unfortunately, they didn't show up.

Tuesday was a much busier day. I did my laundry Tuesday morning after worship because I didn't have time on Sunday with the clinic & everything else I had to do. Then once I finished rinsing & hanging all my clothes up to dry, the Jeremys, Alison, & I set out on another hike to retrieve firewood, this time going out to the cliffs instead of up the mountain. Monday night our gas heater ran out of gas so we wanted to make sure we have enough wood to last us through this weekend we go to Huancane for a retreat. We found fallen trees, and the boys used Jeremy Stanley's survival kinfe to cut up the tree trunks for wood. We came back with a ridiculous amount of wood, and it was HEAVY. My backpack was stuffed full of small sticks & overflowing out the top. I used strips of tree bark to tie together a big bundle of logs that I carried on my back sitting between my head & my backpack. And in my hands I carried a very large log that we found sitting on the rocks. The other 3 of our group had just as much wood on them so the 2-3 mile hike back was much harder than before. We had to stop & rest a couple of times along the way.

Tuesday afternoon we had times scheduled to story at 4pm with some man at the police station and 7pm with Sophia & her husband who are the niece & nephew of the man whose home we are styaing in. Sophia told us in the afternoon that she had a headache so she asked us to come tonight [Wednesday] instead. A man came up to Emily while she was sitting out in the plaza and asked if she would teach him English. She agreed and set up a time at 6pm tonight to teach him English & then share a story. The man said he is bringing 5 friends with him.

At 3:50pm Jeremy Lou, Emily, Jeremy Stanley, and Alison went to the police station to tell the Creation story. Heather, Sara, and I stayed behind so as not to overwhelm them. We went upstairs in the living room and prayed from 3:55-4:45pm as the story was being told. Then we went to the kitchen to begin dinner preparations. Just as we began cooking bacon & pancakes, we heard the rest of our team coming up the stairs. I eagerly asked how it went. Jeremy Lou told the story so that Emily vould see how it is done. They said that it went well, the men weren't very responsive in answering the questions afterward, but they were really interested by the hook Jeremy left them for the next story about the Fall of Man which is the story I will tell them. They set up a time to meet again next Monday at 4om because they will be gone out of town the rest of the week. The 2 policemen said they would also invite their families to come listen.

Tonight we ahve 2 storying times, one at 6pm for the English class and another at 8pm with Sophia & her husband. We have tried today to talk with the woman who runs the hostel in Conima. Alison has seen her garden & would love to garden with her, but we've had a hard time tracking her down. We also tried to talk with Susana & Lucian who run a little bodega, but they weren't there when we went to visit. More storying updates to come, and praise God for all the opportunities He is putting in our path.

FRIDAY - Plungers, guitar, English lessons, and a much-needed movie night

In case I haven't already mentioned it, I've had diahrrea since the day I arrived in Peru. That's 3 weeks of diahrrea so far, and no end seems to be in sight. It is starting to get old. Last night alone I had it twice. One of the time I had to run out of the restaurant during dinner and hurry back to the house to use the bathroom. I'm wondering if this is ever going to go away before I leave Peru. Another month of this diahrrea doesn't sound like much fun.

John came yesterday and stayed the night. After we storied at the restaurant last night we all watched Fireproof upstairs in the living room via John's portable DVD player. Having a movie night was really nice.

Thursday wasn't too eventful. I was elected from our group to find a solution to the clogged up toilet on the third floor. Noone knows who stopped it up. Wednesday the Moho team came to visit and used that toilet the whole day & evening. I wondered if maybe someone forgot that they can't flush the toilet paper. So Emily & I got to go ask Sophia about possibly getting a toilet plunger. Of course no one knew how to say "plunger" in spanish so we had to play charades. That was interesting & somewhat embarassing. Come to find out we would have to go to Juliaca to get a plunger and that wasn't gunna happen. The only other possible solution I could come up with was to call John & ask if he could bring one since he was driving out here that afternoon. After having to explain the situation to Sonia on the phone, she said she would make sure John came with a plunger. Yes! I had never been so thankful for a toilet plunger. When it finally arrived, Alison promptly went upstairs to resolve that problem.

Jumping back to Wednesday, the Moho team came to visit as I previously stated. We had a fun-filled evening of worship followed by the serranadings of Tim & his song-writing. He writes country songs, and I must say I was very impressed!

Also on Wednesday evening, Emily, Heather, & I went to teach our first English lesson. Jeremy came along as protection. We went throught he alphabet, days fo the week, and useful phrases like "Hello, how are you?" and "My name is...". The man we taught, Armando, asked if he could come to out house to make us dinner on Friday evening. We had to explain that we can't invite people into the house because it isn't our home. So we agreed to go to his house for dinner at 6pm Friday night and share the Creation story with him & his family. Only 3 of us will fit in his home so Emily, Heather, & Jeremy Stanley will go. Then at 8pm Wednesday night, Emily, Sara, & I got to story with Sophia & her husband in their storefront. Emily told the story well with no flaws, and they appeared very interested. They were very responsive when we discussed the story especially Sophia's husband. We set up another storying date with them next Wednesday at 8pm. So far that makes 3 story dates next week where I will be sharing my story, the Fall of Man.

John arrived here Thursday afternoon to share a story with Luis & Gumericinda, the couple that owns the restaurant where we eat. SO that night at 7pm we went there & ate trout for dinner. I was having alot of digestive problems and didn't want to be a distraction running out during the story to go to the bathroom so I left after dinner with Alison & Jeremy Stanley. When the rest of the group got back later that night, John said the story went great. They had a long discussion after he was done telling the story. Our group tried to set up another storying date with them, but because Luis has been traveling to Juliaca to look for work they didn't know when he would be back to head the next story. But the good news is they definitely want to hear another story.

In other news, I am learning to play a song on the guitar. Jeremy Lou taught me the chord progressions on Wednesday night so I've been practicing that in my free time. I think I'm almost ready to learn the strumming rhythm now. This is the song I chose to learn. I fell in love with the lyrics as soon as I heard it.

You said "Ask, and you wil recieve whatever you need."
You said "Pray, and I'll heal from heaven and I'll heal your land."
You said "My glory will fill the earth like water the sea."
You said "Open your eyes. The harvest is here. The kingdom is near."
You said...
Ask, and I'll give the nations to you.
Oh Lord, that's they cry of my heart.
Distant shores & the islands will see your light as it rises on earth.

4th of July...in Peru - by Alison

2010-07-10T10:07:00.001-07:00

Its interesting spending American holidays in another country. When I was 18, I got to spend 4th of July in Africa, actually we were on a safari so that ruled. I'm not going to lie to you bloggers out there, today has not been the best day. I woke up at 6:15 a:m and lets just say I spent a lot of time in the bathroom, it happens to everyone. I couldn't go back to sleep so I thought that a shower sounded like a great idea. Oh, it gets worse. So I go to step in the shower to get my clean on BUT my foot slipped out from under me and I hit my side on the little step you have to step over to get in the shower and I went to catch myself and landed on my hand. So my left hand is really bruised and hurting but on a brighter note...I haven't made many trips to the bathroom lately. I know you all wanted to get really close and personal with me.
We are at the Grady's in Huancane, we spent the night last night. Today we are having an American style cook out and apparently Jeremy Lou created six different events for us to compete in against the Georgia team, I'm doing the apple bob. I'm gonna get those apples!!!! I'm off to go practice my apple bobbing skills...I can't let the team down!!!!

Gatorade and Snickers make it all better - by Heather

2010-07-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

Today has been a long day! This is our retreat weekend in Huancane, but before the retreat part could start, we had to make it to Huancane. Sara, Alison, and Kelsey went back to Huancane with John yesterday, so Emily, Jeremy and I had to ride a bus this morning. We were not able to buy tickets for the bus from Conima to Huancane yesterday or this morning, so we sat in the plaza from 8am until 9:30am when the bus finally arrived. When we got on there were no open seats so Emily and I stood in the aisle and Jeremy sat in the front with the driver. When we got to Moho lots of people got off of the bus, so we thought we were then able to sit down in whatever empty seats there were. Wrong. Emily and I sat in these two empty seats at the front but this woman climbed back on the bus and told us we had to get up because that was her seat. In the meantime all these people started climbing back on the bus and climbing past us so that is was hard for us to go anywhere ele. Then we ended up getting shuffled all the way to the back where Emily hit he head really hard on the side ceiling, which made it more stressful. And finally these nice ladies saw our distress and asked to see our ticket/receipt from paying. Turns out your ticket has seat numbers on it. So, we then found out we were supposed to be in the very back row, which was about where we were. But, there was a man and his wife with a baby in our seats. The women told them to move but they refused. We finally just put our stuff (2 backpacks and a sleeping bag) in the one empty seat that wasn't ours and decided to stand. But finally the man got up and moved our stuff into the aisle and sat on the far side and he and his wife sat on top of stuff, which game Emily and I one seat to share. So, she sat on top of a bunch of stuff and I sat lower than all of them in a very small seat squished between the nursing mother and Emily. It was a long hour and forty-five minutes. But finally we arrived in Huancane.

When we got here we met up with the rest of the group and went and had lunch. Not long after we finished we had to leave to go to Juliaca to do souvenir and grocery shopping. Which meant getting on more public transportation. At least this time it was a combi, which is a van. In these there are only 15 or so seats and once the seats are full, the van leaves, instead of just piling as many people in as possible.

In Juliaca we were able to do some shopping at one place that had different vendors set up selling gloves, scarves, bags and sweaters. Then we went to the grocery store where we picked up all our groceries for the next 3 weeks, including the week when the youth team is here. John met us and took all our groceries back to Huancane so we didn't have to try to fit them all on the combi on the way back. After that we went to the hotel restaurant and ordered pizzas. They weren't as good as American pizzas but they were good. Then we had to head back to Huancane as soon as we could to avoid riding in a combi in the dark. To get to the combi stop you have to ride little motorcycle driven tricycles. In the confusion of trying to get all 5 of us in the 3-person cycle, Emily and I were separated from Alison, Kelsey and Jeremy. Luckily both groups had a cell phone, so when we ended up at different combi stops, we were able to tell the other we were heading back in different buses. Then we arrived safely in Huancane! Now we are heading over to the Huancane girls' house to watch a movie and I am going to thoroughly enjoy my Snickers bar and Fruit Punch Gatorade I bought!

Is that you God? ... by Alison

2010-07-10T10:05:00.000-07:00

Oh hello world. Today we went to the market in Juliaca, that was fun! We bought a ton of food, I mean a TON. We pretty much stocked up on oreos for life. I brought some sweet headphones at the radio shack here for like ten bucks. Yippeeeeskipppeeee!
So I'm trying to discern if God is speaking to me or if its just my silly ambitions so please pray. I was wondering today how silly I must look to these people here. I am always doing hand motions and speaking english, its a littler embarassing. Its also embarassing that I always mix up my spanish words. I'm kind of a mess here, actually I am.
But seriously, how do you know who God is really speaking to you? I've been praying and reading in scripture so now I'm just waiting for a response. Sometimes I wish that God would just come down from heaven and smack me in the face and tell me what's up.
I wonder if people ask for silly signs like I do. Sometimes I'll be looking out the window at night and I will ask God to send a shooting star to tell me yes. I bet God is up in heaven laughing at me. That's probably what thunder is, God laughing at the silly things we do or just the silly things that I do. Oh God!
I'm ready to hear his voice.
-Love in Christ!

Another Story and Pre-Incan Ruins - by Emily

2010-07-10T10:04:00.000-07:00

I´m back again! It is only Heather, Jeremy S, and me in Conima now. The others left in John´s truck to go back to Huancane. We stayed because we had scheduled a storying session tonight with Armando, the man we are teaching English to. We will catch the 9:00am bus back to Huancane in the morning.

Last night, John came in to stay with us. We hung out for a while, did some planning for the team coming in in just over a week, and then went for an excellent dinner at the restaurant of trout, rice, tomatoes, soup, and cinnamon tea. After that, three of us stayed to hear John tell the family that owns the restaurant the story of Cain and Able. It went really well--the couple was very interested in discussing the story and hearing the next one. Unfortunately, the husband Luis will be out of town looking for work off and on over the next few weeks, so it will be a challenge to find time to story more with them. Keep this situation in your prayers.

After that, we went back to the house to join the others to watch Fireproof. John brought his portable DVD player to hook up to our TV. It was quite a treat--we really miss movies! Hopefully, during our retreat this weekend we will get to watch a couple more. Anyway, last night turned into our latest night yet! We didn´t get to bed until almost midnight! It´s funny how that seems so late now, but at home it seems just right or even early!

Today John drove us out to see some Pre-Incan ruins at the top of a mountain. It was very cool, but the drive up was scary. The dirt roads are very thin and right on the edge of the mountain, but thankfully, John has a good four-wheel drive truck! The ruins were awesome, and the view was incredible! We saw some old shelters and graves with skeletons and pottery in them. When we hiked back down to the car, there were two Aymaran women mad at us because they said that because we went up there, there will be no rain and they are going to die. I don´t really understand it, but it had something to do with making their ancestors mad. I´m sure glad that we don´t worship a god or some ancestors like that!

I hope all is well at home. Send me a Facebook message or email if you are up to it! It is great to hear from home.

Locked in and Looking Up ... by Heather

2010-07-01T14:57:00.001-07:00

For starters today I´ll tell you about my adventure getting locked in the bedroom in the house with no one home. Because the water pressure in our shower is so bad, all of us girls have been taking a shower in Alison and Kelsey´s room. So, yesterday was my assigned shower day and I took a shower and got out and was getting dressed. Kelsey came in and I told her I was there and when she left she closed the bedroom door behind her. Then Alison tried to come in but couldn´t get the door open and I wasn´t out of the bathroom yet. So she left. Unfortunately, in her attempt to get in, she turned the key on the outside of the door so that it was bolted locked. So, when I try to leave their room, I can´t. I can only pull the lever she needed pulled to get in. So, without each other we were both stuck. I knocked loudly on the door and called out, but no one answered. I knew Jeremy L. had gone out to chop wood in the courtyard and had heard it from the window above the shower earlier. So I went back in the bathroom and opened the window. I yelled to Jeremy but didn´t get any response and didn´t hear any wood chopping. So I go over to the one window in the room and it actually looks down into our courtyard and the courtyard behind Sophia´s bodega. Sophia was in her courtyard but I didn´t want to disturb her if Jeremy was there. After just a minute she left the courtyard and went into her store. So I called for Jeremy to see if he could hear me from his room through a doorway from the courtyard. No response. Then I had to start thinking of the Spanish I would need to get Sophia to get someone to help me. Here´s the best I came up with - ¨Hola Sophia! Necessito ayudo. No puedo abrir la puerta de mi cuarto. Llama mis amigas!¨ I waited for probably 5-10 minutes for her to come back out but she never did. Finally I heard someone in the house. I called out and it was Alison. This time we were both able to open our part of the lock on the door and I was free! I was actually hoping to have to use Spanish to get Sophia to help me, but I´m glad Alison came and freed me so I could dry my cold hair!

In other random unfortunate bathroom news, the toilet in one of the bathrooms clogged this morning. I can only imagine the charades Emily and Kelsey performed in trying to describe a toilet plunger to Sophia. Unfortunately, once she understood, she told them they are only available in Juliaca, over 2 hours away... But luckily John was already coming out here and we caught him early enough for him to bring one from Huancane. Yay missionary struggles.

Now, to more holy matters...

Things have been going really well lately. We have been having really good group time and have been learning a lot and we are finally storying, which makes us feel a lot more productive. I have been a lot more excited and motivated this week.

One thing I have done while here, in the last week actually, is reread Donald Miller´s book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. It´s kind of the reason I came to Peru and it´s the inspiration for this blog. I have read multiple passages to the group and this one particularly hit me this time reading through:

¨I believe there is a writer outside ourselves, plotting a better story for us, interacting with us, even, and
whispering a better story into our consciousness.¨

It is interesting looking back at the times God has directed me in my life in the context of him guiding me toward a better story. Like when he told me to go to school as opposed to homeschooling. I could have continued as a regular homeschool kid, sleeping in until 10am and experiencing a more adult version of life and less memorization of facts. But it was a much more interesting story to go to school in 8th grade where I faced challenges with grades and relationships and met people who challenged my views of the world and of God. And it set me up for a better story later - choosing a college. Which involved lots of struggle and artistic drama in and of itself. Long story short, through guidance of some teachers and lots of prayer, I decided at midnight 2 days before graduation to go to Baylor University all the way in Waco, Texas. When I decided I woke my parents up and told them the news. We talked and then at 2am we woke the whole house up and went to Waffle House to celebrate (IHOP was closed, that´s why the story -teller settled for Waffle House). Then the first day at Baylor I met a skinny white kid from Alaska and formed a group of friends that provided all kinds of interesting stories of spiritual exploration and relational drama, including the infamous Awkward Tuesday. The rest of the exciting story includes starting to date the skinny white kid from Alaska (Cody), my family moving to Tennessee where they met lots of crazy but interesting and fun people, choosing a major (Business Fellows), becoming a Community Leader after applying at the last minute on election night which was also my birthday, taking a roadtrip with good friends from Texas to Tennessee, ¨meeting¨ Ben Folds along the way, going with Cody to Kenya on a mission trip where I met the church that inspired my thesis, driving to Chicago for the next year´s spring break and sleeping on the floor of a church, reading A Million Miles in a Thousand Years and deciding to spend the summer in Peru as a summer missionary. When you look at it that way, and consider how God directed each of those things, he does seem like that master storyteller whispering into your consciousness, doesn´t he? Hopefully I´m upholding my end of the bargain and developing as a character.

There is so much more to tell! I don´t have time for it all. In short, we´ve had really good worship times as a team, sharing prayer requests and praying for each other has been my favorite part of the week. The Moho team came to visit to spend last night, so that was a fun time with them.

As for ministry, Jeremy L., Alison, Emily and Jeremy went and shared the Creation story with some police officers earlier this week. They are out of town this weekend but were very interested to see what man did to mess up the perfection God created.
Last night, Emily, Kelsey, Jeremy S. and I taught English to a man who approached Emily in the plaza about teaching him. Emily spoke to him in Spanish and I taught him the English alphabet, numbers 0-10, days of the week and common phrases, including the requested ¨Welcome to this city.¨ He is very eager to learn and was already practicing ¨Thank you¨and ¨Good-bye¨when we left. Some of us are having dinner in his home tomorrow night and sharing the first story with his family. Over the summer we will tell him more stories and hopefully one in English by the end. He invited some friends who didn´t come, but hopefully the class will expand. I really enjoyed teaching it. We are getting advice from the Huancane girls this weekend since they are teaching English classes there. It´s nice to have finally found something for me specifically to do. After the class we had dinner and then Emily, Sara and Kelsey went and storied to Sophia and her husband. They said the husband was very responsive and said he wanted to believe the biblical story over the Aymaran story of creation. We are scheduled to story with them next week again.

John just arrived in town a little while ago. Tonight we are going to eat at the restaurant where we already have connections and then John is going to tell the woman and her husband who own it a story. They heard condensed versions of all the stories when a team was here a few months ago, but have not made any firm decisions. Pray for that tonight.

After storying we get to have a movie night, we´re watching Fireproof. We haven´t seen any movies or tv since we got here, so it will be a nice enjoyable evening. Then Saturday we leave for our mid-trip retreat. We will be in Huancane and will visit Juliaca to get groceries and some souvenir shopping done. Wish I could have elaborated more! Hopefully more to come this weekend from Huancane!

MOOOO .... by Alison

2010-07-01T12:43:00.001-07:00

The Mo team left this morning, I really enjoyed getting to hang out with them! Today´s been pretty uneventful...we played with some kids and Jeremy S. and I made lunch. The most eventful thing that happened today is the toilet getting clogged. Yep. John (the missionary) will be arriving in a few hours and we are eating at a local restuarant and John is going to tell them a bible story. We have actually building a lot of relationships and we are going to be telling a bunch of people bible stories next week! I´m getting really excited!! And our team has been thinking of ideas for the church team when they come. It finally feels like we are really starting to spread the Gospel here! Goodness, I just feel like dancing!! I´m off to do some reading.
-Love in Christ!

And the Storying Begins! by Emily

2010-07-01T12:42:00.000-07:00

Hola! Sorry it has been so long! The internet bodega has been closed for the past three days because of a fiesta or something. Anyway, there is a lot that has happened in the past three days!

First of all, Jeremy S had quite the adventure trying to get rid of our trash that had been piled up in our garage since we got here. We really wanted to get rid of it, but he especially wanted to since it was piled up closest to his room! And, if you didn´t know, we can´t flush toilet paper here, so the trash that we have here is disgusting.... Anyway, we were told that the trash truck comes by at 6:00am on Monday, so Jeremy was prepared to take it out (since he gets up around 4:00am every morning anyway). He thought that we heard a truck out at 2:00am, so he gets out of bed to take the trash and waits for the truck that is driving around and honking. He said that a lot of people were out standing outside of their stores and homes, so that made him think it was for sure the trash truck at that crazy hour of the morning! Anyway, it wasn´t, and Jeremy was not able to go back to sleep. The next day, a man came by with a wheel barrel, filled it with our trash, and Jeremy walked with him outside of the city limits to burn it. Apparently, they don´t even have a trash truck. John Grady warned us that the people here will sometimes lie to you about things when they don´t know an answer so that they don´t have to tell you that they don´t know, and we definitely experienced that!!

Anyways, a lot of great things have happened! On Tuesday, Jeremy L, Alison, Jeremy S, and I went to the police station because we were scheduled to share the creation story with policemen. When we got there, there were two ready to listen named Roldofo and Climente. Jeremy L shared the story, and the rest of us participated and watched. At first, they seemed bored, but they got more interested and interactive as time passed, and then they really loved the hook that Jeremy used to get them excited about the next story (the Fall of Man)! We scheduled to go back to tell the second story at 4:00 on Monday, so pray that we find quick transportation from Huancane back to Conima since we are leaving for Huancane on Saturday and coming back to Conima on Monday.

I was supposed to story with Sofia and her husband that evening, but Sofia asked to reschedule for Wednesday night because she did not feel well. I also ran into a man named Armando who asked if we could teach him and four or five of his friends English. I agreed and we scheduled a lesson for the next day.

This brings me to yesterday. Yesterday was our busiest day yet. I spent the day preparing for and praying about the English lesson and the storying session that I would be doing. I was very nervous all day, and I´m not sure why. Everything worked out wonderfully. Before we left for the English lesson, the Moho came to visit us.

Armando came at 6:00 for the English lesson and said that he could not get his friend to come. We had reserved a room at the government building across the Plaza from our house to teach the lessons in, so Heather, Kelsey, Jeremy S, and I went with Armando to the room. He is so eager to learn English! Heather ended up leading most of the lesson, and she did a fantastic job. We plan to meet every Monday and Wednesday at 6:00 for a lesson, and we would like to share a story at the end of each lesson. I was prepared to share a story at the end of last night´s lesson, but then he invited us over for dinner on Friday, so I decided to save it for when I could tell his whole family after dinner on Friday. He said that he does not have much room in his house, so only three of us will be going.

After the lesson, we had a quick (but great!) spaghetti dinner with the Moho team, and then Kelsey, Sara, and I went to Sofia´s store for me to tell her and her husband the creation story. If I have not already told you, this story is LONG! But somehow, by God´s grace, I was able to get through most of it really well, and they seemd to really understand me and be interested. We had a good discussion comparing the Bible creation story with the Aymaran creation story as well. They are excited to hear the next story that we scheduled for next Wednesday.

When we got back, we shared about the storying session with the rest of our team and the Moho team, had time a worship around the fire, and stayed up late talking about movies, music, and other things from home.

This morning we had worship at 8:30 as usual and said goodbye to the Moho team and Jeremy L. Tonight John Grady is coming to share a story with the couple at the restaurant since they are ready to hear stories that our team has not learned yet. The couple invited us for trout at 7:00 and the story at 8:00. I´m very excited about it.

Yesterday, I was able to finish the Let the Nations Be Glad book. That book is really powerful and thought-provoking. I think that every Christian should read it. One of the best things I learned from the book is what it truly means to worship and give glory to God. Here are a few quotes that meant a lot to me:

Definitition of worship: ¨being satisfied with God¨
¨...the reason worship pervades all of life is that all Christian behavior is properly motivated by a thirst for more and more satisfaction in God.¨
¨The impulse for singing a hymn and the impulse for visiting a prisoner are the same: a freeing contentment in God and a thirst for more of God-a desire to experience as much satisfaction in God as we can.¨
¨A world Christian is someone who is so gripped by the glory of God and the glory of His global purpose that He chooses to align Himself with God´s mission to fill the earth with the knowledge of His glory as the waters cover the sea.¨

Anyway, that´s all I have for today. Keep on praying!

Lots of ground to cover ... by Alison

2010-07-01T12:41:00.000-07:00

I haven´t been able to get on the internet for a few days because the lady that owns the internet cavena has been out of town and that´s the only internet access we have here! So I have a few days to cover, I am just going to write whats in my journal.

Monday, June 28th
People were saved in the Old Testament who did not know the name of christ but in the New Testament the mystery of Christ became known, this was a turning point; it ended the time of ignorance and made Christ known. The New Testament teaches that the coming of Christ was a decisive turn in redemptive history, which makes Christ the focus of ALL saving faith. There are unsaved persons among unsaved people groups who are seeking after God in an extraordinary ways. God accepts this search as genuine, and God works wonders to bring that person to the Gospel of Jesus Christ the way he brought Peter to Cornelius´s house in Acts. Wow, I was just questioning and thinking about so many things yesterday and God revealed thses truths to me. Check out the book: "Let the Nations be Glad!" by John Piper. Sara storied with two teenage girls yesterday, she told them the story of the fall of man. Sara is leaving Saturday because she has shingles and has been really sick, so everyone be praying for her!

Tuesday, June 29th
Last night Heather and I made pasta, fried cheese, and potatoe wedges. Yum!! How am I feeling today? Well I haven´t been home sick or anything, its actually been really good to get away in a sense. God´s been teaching me so much! He´s taught me that suffering is a big part of my christian walk and in my suffering, I am sharing Christ suffering. I can´t help what its going to be like when I get home and am caught up in my busy life. Everything seems so meaningless compared to Christ and sharing his word! Yesterday the Jeremy´s, Kelsey, and I went and got fire wood. We ended up hiking to the place that we went to when we went rock climbing, which is about four miles total. So I cared about fifteen pounds of firewood for two miles and up a huge hill, I thought I was going to pass out!!! Last night Jeremy Lou told two police officers the story of Creation, which was so awesome...even though he told it in Spanish so I couldn´t understand anything. ha! Last night I hide in the meeting room and jumped out and scared Kelsey and made her spill hot water everywhere. It was hilarious!

Today
The Mo team is here with us right now! There names are Tim, Jessica, and Mindy...I like them a lot. Tonight Sara and I are cooking dinner for ten people. Oh my! And Heather and Emily are teaching English classes at six to six people. Then Emily is telling the Creation story to Sophia and her husband (the people who own the store next to our house.) Its so exciting that we are actually starting to tell people bible stories! I have to go start making dinner for everyone. Keep praying everyone!!
-Love in Christ!

An adventure to remember - by Kelsey

2010-06-28T08:40:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-28T08:39:00.001-07:00

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

2010-06-28T08:36:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-28T08:34:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-28T08:32:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-28T08:26:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-28T08:25:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-28T08:24:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-22T15:58:00.003-07:00

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

2010-06-22T15:58:00.001-07:00

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

2010-06-22T15:57:00.001-07:00

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

2010-06-22T15:56:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-22T07:30:00.002-07:00

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

2010-06-22T07:30:00.001-07:00

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

2010-06-22T07:29:00.002-07:00

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

2010-06-22T07:29:00.001-07:00

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

2010-06-22T07:28:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-22T07:27:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-22T07:26:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-19T09:20:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-19T09:18:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-15T17:03:00.000-07:00

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 ...

2010-06-15T17:02:00.001-07:00

- 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

2010-06-15T16:58:00.000-07:00

- 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

2010-06-13T20:07:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-13T20:06:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-13T20:05:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-06-13T14:42:00.002-07:00

- 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!

Day 1

2010-06-13T14:42:00.001-07:00

- by Emily

We have arrived in Huancane! Right now, all of us are just kind of settling in and getting ready for dinner. We are going to a restaurant to get some supposedly really good rotisserie chicken tonight. I'm very excited to have this style of food again.... From what I can tell, it seems similar to the food in Ecuador which I really liked. If we go to the top of the place we are staying this week, there is a gorgeous view of the town and the mountains. It is pretty cold here, but not unbearable. We will be here until Thursday when we leave for Conima! Adios!

A choice to make a difference

2010-06-13T14:41:00.000-07:00

- by Kelsey

So here I am. Finally in Peru. It has been a long night of travel, and we still have the day ahead before we arrive this evening at John´s home for training. We landed here in Lima at 6am after a long, restless 6 hour flight from Mexico City. Now with some breakfast in my belly, I´m still sleepy but ready to face the day. I got 3 hours of rest on the plane so hopefully there will be a couple more hours of sleep for me sometime today.

My mind is so restless thinking of all that lies ahead, and I find myself in constant prayer as I wonder what God has in store for us. I finished reading Crazy Love on the flight from DFW to Mexico City. The whole ninth chapter is filled with stories of people who lived their lives sold out to the Lord and in turn changed lives & impacted the world for Christ. It reminded me of what God has been teaching me through my readings of Genesis, Luke, & Acts. All the people in the Bible from the beginning of creation to the birth of Christ to the crucifixion & resurrection to the beginnning of the early Church and all the way to now - all the people from then until now have had a choice...a choice to love Christ or reject Him, a choice to live for Christ or fulfill self-indulgent pleasures, a choice to make an eternal difference or be consumed with this life. Some people chose to follow where God led them & glorified the Lord with the time they were given while others were consumed with their own selfish ambition & faded into the empty pages of history where they will never be known again. Our time on this earth is short. Think back to Genesis and where your life falls in the grand scheme of things. Your life is but a fleeting breath, a vapor in the wind that is here & then gone. I want to use my fleeting breath to praise the Lord and be solely devoted to all He has to me!

I awoke in the early hours of the morning to a dark, quiet plane very dimmly lit by the flickering lights of television screens. The cabin lay still and silent as many of the passengers drifted in & out of sleep. As I sat in the darkness I began to feel reality set in - I will spend the rest of my summer sharing the love of Christ with people who don´t know Jesus. How awesome!! This is what God has called me to - nothing more, nothing less, nothing different. And there is nowhere else I would rather be than in God´s will doing God´s work.

Summer Missionaries

2010-06-08T10:51:00.000-07:00

This Friday, June 11, our 6 Summer Missionaries will depart for Peru. They will undergo 1 week of training with the Gradys before heading to Conima, the town they will be living in for the summer. The students will be updating more about their trip from this point forward. Just so you can be praying for them, their first names are listed below:

Emily

Heather

Kelsey

Sara

Alison

Jeremy

Another Jeremy will be bouncing back and forth between this team and a team from Georgia that is in the town of Moho, Peru. Keep praying for all these teams, watch this blog for updates from our 6 missionaries, and follow the Gradys for updates on all teams this summer. Thanks for your prayers and support.

- Jonathan