Room with a view

Here's the view from in and around the new apartment! Only lack the pic from my hall window up to the 4th floor where Romina and Gianella can stick their heads out their office window and talk to me!

EXTREME MOVE-OVER Salamanca edition Day 2

So the geniuses with "spacial reconciliation" and the strong guys got all the stuff into the truck and up to my apartment to all the assigned places and left it as if I had been the recipient of "While you were out " treatment But I hd to say goodbye to the my home away from home and all the super sweet memories left there!

EXTREME MOVE-OVER Salamanca edition

Many of you have prayed and heard about my search so here are the pics! It's a great story of God's grace in finding the right place in the same building of my good friends Kike, Martha, Romina and Gianella! having a green space to enjoy and a wonderful team of talented folks to help me pack and move everything over there! God knows just the right way to make it happen, just in time! Last celebration in the house- Kiara's 12th birthday DAY 1 of the MOVE- all my stuff in the dining room in boxes and moving in office stuff in the living room!

Fun in Sunday school

I thought I'd let you see some fun we're having with Noah and the ark this week! I am preparing for the Christmas celebration this coming week!
Tissue Paper Rainbows, banana and jello rainbow snack
Marjorie, Kiera and me

Fight! Fight!

As many of you know Amanda and I have been going to the DOMI house to volunteer. It's a home in our neighborhood for at-risk girls, many who have been on the streets. We have had mixed experiences, the first time we just talked with a few girls and threw frisbees, a novelty here! The pshychologist asked us to create a plan so we decided to commit to 12 weeks and to teach the Fruits of the Spirit found in Galatians 5. The second time Amanda got sick, so I went sola- and taught her lesson on love. I caught myself in the middle of it asking myself, am I really loving these girls because it was not going as planned! The next time we showed up ready with guidelines we wanted to follow and they were getting their hair done by a cosmotologist group practicuum. We invited Elita our Peruvian friend to come with us to get to know the ministry and help us with the slang they use. Each week it's something different, watching a special movie, Oliver Twist, or it's their birthday celebration. They were just finishing up singing to the girls who had had a birthday in October. I thought, how great! But then as we got settled in the tiny "library" we've been using there was a call for cheezitos so they all ran to get the snack, then a few minutes later the cake, then jello the third time. The girls were being pretty rude to us and I was already so it was not a good week. Elita finally told them to stop, she said there's a point to which you can joke but they were going to far. She gave us the full scoop as we were walking back to my house. I was dreading returning the next week when I was to teach on gentleness and the lesson finally came together just before we were to go. Of course, they were a lot more calm than we expected and even a staff member, Rosa, wanted to join. She shared her hope in working with these girls and we agreed that we wanted God's word to go with them as they confront many difficult experiences. Things seemed normal when we arrived on Friday. We got a pretty good group and were just starting the game, Fruit Salad! (A favorite of mine and great culminating activity as we were finishing the Fruit of the Spirit before Amanda headed to the States, literally) When one girl didn't want to participate and so the other had something to say about it and it escalted into an exchange of a few choice words, few of which I understood. When suddenly the both stood up and began kicking and pulling hair. They ended up in a headlock before we could do much and even as we were telling them to stop and let go of one another. A few girls tried to get in between to break it up but they continued to exchange words and kick ( the girls in the midle suffered as did Elita) They finally let go and we told them that that was not allowed and they'd have to leave. They didn't want to and I wasn't sure what to do but I thought to give them 2 options: excuse one another/ask forgiveness OR get out! One said I'll never excuse myself, she started it! We waited for them to respond and they finally chose to forgive one another, not whole heartedly but promised participate correctly. TENSION was high- Emotions were higher! I tried to continue like normal and when I looked over at Amanda she was on the verge of tears and that immediately struck a chord, and it was the best release I knew. I said in a broken voice, I'm gonna pray b/c this is not why we come. I prayed and the girls were all quiet so I tried to move on with the game. God knows what He's doing, giving us a perfect example of their need for Christ to change them and give them His spirit to allow them to have self-control! Amanda was able to teach the lesson and after we did a craft and they asked if she had cried because she was going to the States for a conference. She emphatically said no that it made her really sad to see that. During the lesson, someone called Elita out to describe what had happened and she later told us that the "educator" said that's how they resolve things on the streets! INCREDIBLE! Incredibly sad, actually! Elita was able to mention the affect watching so much television prbably has on the girls. It's a very sad situation at that home, please pray that God would be working ""something" in the lives of those girls and even the staff. I am definitely being taught and molded in our times there. Elita and I will continue go while Amanda is in the States and I hope to secifically talk about Jesus and his interactions with women and girls like them and their need for the gospel. Please pray for continued good ideas and trusting God in the results!
Thank you I'll post pics of them soon-The two girls are Naddia ( with me) and Wendy(center of 2nd, Amanda on right)!

Life in October

Not too much happening here but I realize it's been a month since I wrote! My brithday was a highlight weekend! Very fun lots of food and love! See my facebook for pics and the photo essay. We finish tomorrow with the Day of the Criolla song- they just play music although I think they celebrated this past weekend. No much really! Sunday school continues! Now advances in our at-risk girls ministry. And changing of our pipes here- they're finally switching to PVC after 30 years or so. that's the update from Lima! Our team grew to 3 families and a whopping 5 guys in all! God is good! Any themes you haven't heard spoken on here- I'm taking suggestions!

Inca Trail

As we speak I'm uploading video of our time last week to hike the Inca Trail! I went to Cusco and met the girls one day before we headed out to get used to the altitude. It was not a bad adjustment- I didn't push myself. We shopped around and hit the good restaurants. We ate with Andrew, one of his last few meals in Cusco before he headed back to the states. Got some fun gl-ittens ( cross between gloves and mittens) After we were debriefed about the trip. A lot more showers available and places to buy drinks than we thought. We woke up early to eat breakfast at our Hotel Amaru- a good hotel with pretty wood carved everywhere. We drove 2 hours to Kilometer 82 where we'd start. We met 2 young lawyers from NY, Josh and Seth, that would be in our group. WE passes where Becca went bungee jumping head first the day before- CRAZY girl! We bought our poncho and stick at the tourist trap and found Reeces Pieces- yummy! We unloaded out stuff and realized we had the most stuff...oops! We met the Venezuelan guy also in our group, Juan. Unfortunately our friend Chris didn't make it! Hope he's ok! Then we took a pic by the token sign that you don't really walk through to start! We were pumped, Becca and I had already decided that we should adopt the Appalachian Trail custom to make trail names. Becca picked Ligre-for me a spanish version of a Napoleon Dynamite reference! I thought of a bunch for her but none really stuck. We did well and then tried chicha made by the locals without alcohol before out lunch stop. We also got christened on the trail with bug blood on our cheeks from bugs off the prickly pear cactus. Lunch was impressive in a tent with everything down to handwashing system. We had the first of our digestive teas after each meal and we had time to digest and take in the view!
We kept trucking and arrived at our camp just before it was getting dark to take our birdbaths and a nap before dinner. It was a great dinner with dessert- it was Josh's birthday and the porters had baked a cake- we're still not sure hoe- it was great! Then a Pisco sour and an attempt at a dance session while our guide and a few porteros sang. We slept well once we shifted diagonal so I could fit in the tent. I got a slow start on day 2 gettingeverything situated. We paid the porters to carry our stuff because the second day is advertised as the hardest. I was definitely glad even though they don't do it in the most honest way. There is a law against how much the porters can carry and so we gave our bags to the guide after we passed through the weigh-in station. Had to fill my pockets of my various jackets and pants . We made it slowly up to Dead Woman's Pass- not named for anything that happened, but a rock formation. Then dowhill- I had some time to reflect with God in the sun- so nice! Got to the camp and I had time to have a frigid shower before lunch. I was ready to go on but that was it for the day so we hung out and ate- tea time then dinner 3 hours later- pizza and lomo saltado- crazy combo and flaming banana dessert! I got woken up in the middle of the night for a bathroom trip- that was the coldest night!
I was scared about day 3 to have the backpack back. I toted it all for a bit until the cook, Chu chu came and asked if he could help so he took the seeping bag and a book I brought- (I told you I had too much) and made it the rest of the day very managably. Thanks to him. A little uphill but mostly down hill- nice til after lunch. A very extensive set of ruins gave us time to rest. Lunch seemed quick that day but enough time to dry clothes that had been sweaty since day one. We headed out for what seemed like the eternal afternoon. We finished up with Josh and Seth and played the city, state, country game to get us through and talked about life...interesting perspective! We were suffering by the time we got to camp and it happened to be the camp arthest from the bathrooms! My favorite dressed porters led me to the bathroom but didn't speak any spanish- only Quechua so we had a funny interaction. More team time and dinner shortly after- I was really sore! We filled out the comment cards in that moment unfortunately- our lowest point! Then we went to bed after thanking the porters. We were woken up in the dark to make it to the sun gate for sunrise. It was a very do able hike and great for a little sunday worship- amazing sights! God is so good! We arrived but the clouds just moved the littlest bit to see the wonder of the world! Pretty exciting to be headed there from that point I had seen pointed out in June. There was a large group of Argentinian men making a lot fo noise that day and some Europeans celebrating by lighting a smoke then and there, each celebrates his own way! Fun to arrive so early and see it from way above. Then we walked down to entrance after dropping our bags off. I got a pic with the Hiram Bingham plaque- my new hero-missionary family. Our guide was a little far out but gave a little help on why they call it castellano instead of espanol and how hiram found the place. I wanted to run away from him but luckily we had other time to play and hike around. It seemed more valuable coming from the Trail instead of the train! And we got to go up MAchu Picchu, just enough time. My feet were about done but I made it up and back and met a guy from Asheville in a crawl space amazingly enough! Machu Pucchu looks tiny from the top of Wayna Picchu!
Machu Picchu was my playground this time. We headed down the hill shortly after- cute little 'Chasqui' 8 year old who yelled us down the hill. We ate a great buffet lunch in Aguas Calientes and bought ourselves souvenirs. Spent quiet time near the river and then headed to the train station. Wow what an experience! I thank God for getting us through. IT was a lifetime experience for sure! So glad I did it and highly reccommend it to all the other hikers I know!

Sad story... well the second part

So many of you have heard about the earthquake whose epicenter was 95 miles south of us. I took my intern in June there so see some of the pretty parts of Peru so she wouldn't be jaded by Lima. We did the trip very quickly well, we slept for about 2 hours won night woke up really early to take a bus to Pisco, watch an hour of Spanglish in the bus terminal and then take a taxi to Pisco ( where the earthquake hit, not where Pisco sour's are from) and then another taxi to Paracas, the poor man's Galapagos, they call it! We made it in time to leave at 9 on the boats to the Islas Bellestas! The boat ride was so nice- such peace and the motion ( and my lack of sleep) allowed me to fall asleep on the way to the islands- even though ti was beautiful there- sun and all! We got to see lots of wildlife and learn about guano, burn droppings, that they export apparently! In the afternoon we went to the Reserve- a desert reserve! We didn't see the flamingos nfortunately but the best part of that was The Cathedral, a beautiful rock formation on the coast of the reserve. We stopped to take pictures and a little video- it was SOOOO windy- that's what Paracas means! So we finished with a not so great lunch but came back happy!

So the sad part of the story is that I heard that the cathedral in all it's glory partly fell into the see. I'd say pray for the people that depend on things like tourism and how they'll be affected. I hear the Nazca Lines are open again. ( My roommates kept up b/c she was supposed to be there the day after the earthquake right there!) What we read the night it happened at prayer meeting as repurcussions came, and where I found comfort this summer as I've had a bit of a hard heart... Psalm 62:5,6 Find rest O my soul in God alone; my hope comes from him, He alone is my rock and my salvation, he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.

Art Camp

Now that's I've finished my update after 4 months... I learned my lesson not to do that again! And I can tell you about all the things that didn't get "crunched" in my update. We had a really fun art camp in Salamanca this year and I have fun pics. The kids got to do rythm, drawing, painting and theater. Such a treat for these kids b/c the private schools hardly even have fine arts classes. The team that came from Nashville was a lot of fun. I hung out with the youngest group the most and in theater- they acted out the creation story. the middle group did parables of Jesus and the oldest group did an abbreviated version of the Lion, witch and the wardrobe. The program at the end of the week was pretty amazing. We'll see if I can upload some video! We ate well that week, Martha cooked for all 90 of us. Nathan Reidell totally reminds me of my brother, such a sweet guy! I got some really fun shots or cute lieel Josue, he was the MVArtist even though he isn´t old enough to be in the camp just yet!

WOAH!

I know it's been a super long time. I could make up a billion excuses, I've had to for my teammates- my most faithful "readers" I've been reading friends' blogs and now am ready to take the plunge. I have a list of things I wanna write about since april so we'll see how many topics I can cover.

Marriage Proposal- please read carefully

I thought everyone should know the news...
I was just reminded when talking to a friend yesterday that this had happened since I'd written last!
Alisha and I were riding in a moto- taxi to visit one of the youth and the drvier asked us where we were from and how he could get there. I said you have to get a visa, paid him and we were on our way to a Peruvian's house. A few minutes later he returns to the house and asks the mother to call me out to talk to him. He says will you marry me and I'll pay you to take me to the states! I said no I'm sorry I have another year here and I'm not in that business. He asked me if I had any friends that would be interested, I said no. The mother mentioned our team leader, el pastor, and I said yeah, you're welcome to come to church on Sunday and talk to Mark. I said the best way I know how to get to the States is to work really hard, save your money and get a visa there. So I can't say I haven't ever been proposed to now! It lacked a little romance! but is a great blog material!

EE Niños

While my wonderful intern, Alisha, was here I got to be trained in Evagelism Explosion for Kids. It was a super full week but a great time. We met other people who work with kids in churches around Lima and got a great tool to use. We were able to share the presentation with kids and elderly folks the last day of out training. The second elderly man I talked to wouldn't have any answering of questions and was pretty caustic , but did take the snack we brought! The first man though said he had accepted Christ, as best as wee could hear, his speech was a little impaired. The kids that went with us did a great job with the skit and the illustrations. It is really neat to see children share the hope that is within them. We hope to implement this in our new church plant once we do EE for adults wich starts in September. I wish I had some pics of all our fun crafts and doing the chants of the verses and doing the presentation with hand motions- it helped me so much. After the training I was able to share it with a young girl when Alisha and I went to talk with kids in our neighborhood. She saw the pin on my jacket and asked about it. IT was a good practice although she was hurried and didn't make any decision.