Summer Teams

I was very excited to come to Lima and get to see how our team works with teams from the states. We have a team coming in tonight and said goodbye to a team a week ago. It's a busy time! Our team focuses all it's attention on the work with the group that is here and continues a few regularly scheduled activities. The last team came to do a VBS in our neighborhood- Salamanca. We had it in the basement of an apartment building where a family who came to Christ because of our team lives. They continue to be a huge success story of Christ's changing power. We had meetings with the men and women and kicked off the sunday school that we'll be continuing every Sunday afternoon with children. We had over 80 kids come troughout the week which will be great contacts as we continue to build more relationships in the community. It was a family team from Atlanta, Georgia- I got chill bumps when the 8 year old girl from Kennesaw shared her testimony to the Peruvian kids! The team was very generous; bringing about 8 suitcases of things to distribute to the churches and leaving all their sport equipment and art supplies they had used during the week when they left. It is really neat to be a part of God's work on both sides: to see some fruit of the team living and working here and to get excited about what He will do in the next 2-3 years. This week's team will be doing an art camp in Huaycan where our after school project takes place. The church is basically working on its own but we'll be there to translate and help direct the kids. We saw one of the moms whose children are in the project selling caramels in front of a grocery store with her youngest daughter. It brought home the reality of these families' every day life. Please pray for our team and the one that is coming to be a light and help make new strides in the community. Thanks!

Lima: Estoy aca!

Well, I can't show you photos- you'll have to go to photobucket for that! Sorry it's been a while... leaving Arequipa got to be a busy time; trying to focus in on my Spanish the last few weeks. But I arrived in Lima yesterday morning after a 15 hour bus ride- great deal really! It's crazy to have just been getting to know Arequipa and move to a city the size of NYC. It was funny to hear all the opinions of Lima from the Ariquepenans ( I need to learn how to type Spanish). At first I was overwhelmed by it all; realizing that this is my home for the next two years and what to do first but the team is great to let me wase into it all. Yesterday a team arrived and one left so my roommates are very busy! We celebrated Laura's birthday last night. I'll go visit a VBS they're having in our neighborhood today and slowly get oriented to the house, the city and how the team works. Hopefully, this will be a step in the direction of starting a church here in Salamanca. That's the word here... thanks for checking in...

The Bossa Nova revealed!

I let my friends here in on a little secret- why my blog´s called The Bossa Nova. I was able to celebrate my favorite holiday in a big way yesterday- thanks to encouragement from back home! After Canada was well represented July 1st (Cananda Day) at the Institute, we could not be out done! Amanda invited me to make star sugar cookies on Saturday with Kayla- it was fun and I introduced them to the music of novelty dances. Later she made a cookie cake with the flag that she brought to the Institute. We both dressed up in our true colors! We played the national anthem twice- I couldn´t finish it ...and home of the brave ( I´m not feeling so brave these days). I had a long ride on a bus- took the one going the wrong way- I got to know the other half of the route! I played octopus and elbow tag with the kids a the YMCA post in Horacio. Then headed home to get ready for the party- red, white and blue ballons and little flags that my mom sent. (Thanks-they arrived just in time- the night before!) I ordered pizza( Hawaiian and pepperoni, the Americanos not so North Americano), had big sturdy plates and hefty napkins- unusual here! Ginny sent cotton candy ( a little flat but same great taste) and I made sweet tea- not too many takers! I brought down Napoleon Dynamite for the early comers and we ended up watching the first part- a little hard for foreigners to understand- even for some North Americans! Then we moved some furniture and we danced-I couldn´t believe it - they all participated! I started them out easy and ended with Bossa Nova! They liked New York, New York- they recognized the song!, got some idea of Amos Moses though there was not circular group motion and the Irish girl knew Agadoo! Who´d a thunk it! The piece (pun intended) de resistance was the apple pie ( not really incredible as far as pies go, but nothing´s as American as apple pie, they say) and ice cream we enjoyed after- I even made a black cow! It meant so much to me that my friend´s came, even three of my teachers, and that they got so excited with me! It´s a special group here! God is good!