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!
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
The Last of the Last Week!
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!
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!
Friday, July 23, 2010
Quick Update
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!
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!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Health Updates
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
And Then There Were Three (at least temporarily)
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!
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!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Big Week Update!
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Breakthrough!
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!
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!
Monday, July 12, 2010
Big Week!
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!
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!
Friday, July 9, 2010
Death Strikes the Conima Team!
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.
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.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Gatorade and Snickers make it all better
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!
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!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Locked In and Looking Up
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!
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!
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Christmas!
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!
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!
Friday, June 25, 2010
Dancing and Drinking
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...
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...
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Quick Update
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!
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!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Random!
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 tenÃa entonces ninguna forma. Todo era un mar profundo cubierto de oscuridad y el espÃritu de Dios se movÃa 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!
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 tenÃa entonces ninguna forma. Todo era un mar profundo cubierto de oscuridad y el espÃritu de Dios se movÃa 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!
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Conima!
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!
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!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Cooking and Other Skills
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!
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!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Finally Here!
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!
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!
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
Leaving!
I am about to pack the last few things and leave the house! Pray for our whole team while we are flying tonight and tomorrow. Speaking of the team, here is our group of college student summer missionaries:
Me
Emily
Alison
Sara
Kelsey
Jeremy
Thanks for your prayers! The next post will be from Peru!
Me
Emily
Alison
Sara
Kelsey
Jeremy
Thanks for your prayers! The next post will be from Peru!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Almost Ready!
Well, it's about 31 hours before I fly out. After that, it's Peru for 7 weeks! It has been amazing to see how all the money I have needed has come in so quickly. Thank you so much to all of you who have prayed and donated! Once again, it has been so cool to see who God has used to make this possible!
I'm pretty close to being ready to go. Yesterday I put almost everything I'm taking into my camping backpack that I'm using as my luggage just to be sure it would all fit and wouldn't make me fall over. The good news is it all fit and actually wasn't too heavy! Hopefully the last few things I have to add won't bust any seams.
It still doesn't quite seem like I'm leaving. Things have been really chill around here, so I haven't felt the last minute rush. I still have a fair amount of miscellaneous stuff to get done today though. Here is my cryptic to-do/to-pack list for the day:
watch battery
fingernail clippers
pasta
book
jacket
charge ipod
download pics
print form and mail form and check
underwear and socks
thank you notes
blog
phone calls
At least now I can check "blog" off the list! All prayers are appreciated as I prepare to fly out tomorrow! Also, my recurring back pain has decided to flair up again, so I would also appreciate prayers that it would go away for the rest of the summer.
We'll see if I can get in another post before tomorrow. Adios!
-Heather
I'm pretty close to being ready to go. Yesterday I put almost everything I'm taking into my camping backpack that I'm using as my luggage just to be sure it would all fit and wouldn't make me fall over. The good news is it all fit and actually wasn't too heavy! Hopefully the last few things I have to add won't bust any seams.
It still doesn't quite seem like I'm leaving. Things have been really chill around here, so I haven't felt the last minute rush. I still have a fair amount of miscellaneous stuff to get done today though. Here is my cryptic to-do/to-pack list for the day:
watch battery
fingernail clippers
pasta
book
jacket
charge ipod
download pics
print form and mail form and check
underwear and socks
thank you notes
blog
phone calls
At least now I can check "blog" off the list! All prayers are appreciated as I prepare to fly out tomorrow! Also, my recurring back pain has decided to flair up again, so I would also appreciate prayers that it would go away for the rest of the summer.
We'll see if I can get in another post before tomorrow. Adios!
-Heather
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
This Summer!
Hey Everyone!
On June 11, I will be going to Conima, Peru for seven weeks as a summer missionary. First Baptist Church of Willow Park (near Fort Worth), just adopted the Aymara people group and is sending 6 college students this summer to begin building relationships with the people there. The ultimate goal is to start a church in Conima. The purpose of our trip is to further develop these relationships and form new ones that allow us to build trust, share the gospel, and plan for the future. Hopefully also be able to do things such as teach Bible or English at the local school, hold sports clinics, host backyard Bible school, or assist at the medical clinic. A lot of what we do will be determined as we meet the people and see how we can best serve them. You can follow my perspective of out work and adventures on here, or the views of everyone on the church-wide Peru blog at http://fbcwpperumissions.blogspot.com/.
I would really love your prayers and support. This summer will be very different and challenging. We will be living in a village, eating local food, and trying to communicate with people who have a vastly different culture. We will also experience freezing temperatures at night (it’s winter there) and an altitude of around 13,000 feet. Please pray that we will be able to adjust to the environment and not be distracted by our physical conditions. Also, please pray for our ministry there. There are strong indigenous beliefs and it can be difficult to introduce a new way of thinking. Pray that the people are open to what we have to say and that they will not be distracted by other influences.
Also, due to all the pressure and excitement of graduating, I have not been able to put as much time into fundraising as I have needed to. Right now I still need to raise $700 to cover the cost of my trip. I have already been amazed at how God has used different people to make it possible for me to go. I would really appreciate you considering letting God use you to support me this summer. Checks can be made out to me and mailed to my address. Given the short amount of time between now and June 11, I would really appreciate a timely response :)
I'm looking foward to this summer. I hope you enjoy following along on this blog!
-Heather
On June 11, I will be going to Conima, Peru for seven weeks as a summer missionary. First Baptist Church of Willow Park (near Fort Worth), just adopted the Aymara people group and is sending 6 college students this summer to begin building relationships with the people there. The ultimate goal is to start a church in Conima. The purpose of our trip is to further develop these relationships and form new ones that allow us to build trust, share the gospel, and plan for the future. Hopefully also be able to do things such as teach Bible or English at the local school, hold sports clinics, host backyard Bible school, or assist at the medical clinic. A lot of what we do will be determined as we meet the people and see how we can best serve them. You can follow my perspective of out work and adventures on here, or the views of everyone on the church-wide Peru blog at http://fbcwpperumissions.blogspot.com/.
I would really love your prayers and support. This summer will be very different and challenging. We will be living in a village, eating local food, and trying to communicate with people who have a vastly different culture. We will also experience freezing temperatures at night (it’s winter there) and an altitude of around 13,000 feet. Please pray that we will be able to adjust to the environment and not be distracted by our physical conditions. Also, please pray for our ministry there. There are strong indigenous beliefs and it can be difficult to introduce a new way of thinking. Pray that the people are open to what we have to say and that they will not be distracted by other influences.
Also, due to all the pressure and excitement of graduating, I have not been able to put as much time into fundraising as I have needed to. Right now I still need to raise $700 to cover the cost of my trip. I have already been amazed at how God has used different people to make it possible for me to go. I would really appreciate you considering letting God use you to support me this summer. Checks can be made out to me and mailed to my address. Given the short amount of time between now and June 11, I would really appreciate a timely response :)
I'm looking foward to this summer. I hope you enjoy following along on this blog!
-Heather
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