My trip to the campo (San Juan de Cotabambas and Colca)

This past weekend, it was my turn to experience the windy, curvy mountain roads of the countryside of Peru.  It was amazing to see these huge mountains all around us.  It made me feel so small and realize how great is our God, that he created this amazing earth, from the mountains of Peru to the Grand Canyon.  Thank you Lord for caring for us, even when we feel so small and insignificant.

 

Our goal of this trip was to give gifts to the participants of the nutrition programs in the rural towns of Cotabambas and Colca.  We arrived Friday evening to our hotel in Cotabambas after dark after about a 5-6 hour trip through the mountains.  I was excited to have a nice warm bed and a real toilet.

We got up early on Saturday morning to head to the "posta" or the medical clinic which was about a 45 minute drive further into the mountains.  We started seeing patients, children in the nutrition program, at about 8:30 and finished up around 4:30.  Jen saw 31 patients and had to have translation for only a few who only spoke Quechua.  We gave each child a bar of soap, chewable vitamins, vasoline, and a children's book.  We were also able to give some socks out that were left over from last year.  The parents and children were so grateful.  It was truly a humbling experience.  We had a few children who hated being there and cried the whole visit, but for the most part, they were cooperative little patients.

 

Dr. Jen Brubaker and I are ready for the day.

 

Our little pharmacy and supply table.  We had socks, vitamins, antibotics, books, vasoline, and soap.

Women and children outside the clinic, waiting to be seen.

We finished the day by serving hot chocolate and biscotes which is a type of sweet roll that has small pieces of fruit in it.  We then passed out gifts to the children that were in the program and we even had small gifts for the children that were not in the program, but were hanging around throughout the day.

Loving their toys, the girls got dolls and the boys got plastic trucks or tractors.

 

The entire group at the end of the day, women and children from the nutrition program.  Juana, the nurse who heads Prosim, is the first from the right on the 2nd row.

 

I just had to take a picture of this baby and her baby doll box behind her.  All the mothers here carry their children on their backs like this.  Both Katie & Danica have copied it, which I love.

Sunday we traveled about an hour to Colca where another group of women and children were ready for a hot chocolate and gifts. The women heard the gospel message and had a time of sharing.  Then we did hot chocolate and biscotes another time.  The children in the nutrition received gifts and other neighborhood children enjoyed small gifts of plastic animals as well.

Jen & I passing out bread in Colca.

We attended the church service in Colca which was in Quechua, so I listened to Juana, the nurse who travelled with us, translate it in Spanish.  We headed out after a lunch of chicken and noodle soup and ended up getting back home to Cusco around 8:30pm.  It was a wonderful and blessed trip.  We had very little issue with traveling besides the occasional herd of animals in the road, such has llamas, alpacas, and cattle.  I also learned there is etiquette when driving around the Peruvian mountains, depending where you are, the person driving up the mountain has the right of way and the person going down has to back up if there isn't room to pass on the road.  I wouldn't be one to test this, but this is what I was told :)

 Teammates, Michelle and Bethany enjoying our road trip.

 This road is why I felt carsick on the way to Cotabamabas, they counted curves and it was somewhere in the twenties.

 

Romans 12:12  Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Prayer Requests and Praises:

 

*Please continue to pray for the girls as they finish up the Peruvian school year at Promesa.  They are improving my leaps and bounds in their Spanish.  Hannah has two more test days, Monday and Tuesday, so please keep praying for her especially.  Rose had a meeting with Katie's teacher this week about her progress and it went well, praise the Lord.  Pray for Danica too as she gets ready to go to preschool in March.

 



*Please pray for Chris and I as we adjust to and try to find our best places of ministry here in Cusco.  There are many opportunities and we want to do what is best for our family and the ministries here.

*Please pray for Rose's sister Joanna, she has been having some health problems and they are unable to find the cause of her symptoms.  We are trusting the Lord in this, but it is difficult to be away.

*Praise the Lord for his faithfulness and goodness in all things.  We have felt your prayers and know that you are praying.  Thank you and God bless you!
 

Happy Thanksgiving from Cusco!

We were blessed to be able to celebrate Thanksgiving with other missionaries and Peruvians here in Cusco today.  We had plenty of food and wonderful fellowship.

 

 Danica and Sofia enjoying lunch.

 We had turkey and all the fixings.....

We enjoyed our day and hope that you enjoyed yours.

 

We are beyond blessed in so many ways.  Please continue to pray for us as we adjust to the culture and work on our Spanish.  Rose is going on a trip tomorrow for the weekend to the campo (the country), so please keep us all in your prayers.  She will be posting about her adventures when she returns.

 

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!  His faithful love endures forever.

Psalm 107:1

 



Run To/Through the Jungle



This past Friday, Oct. 18th, was my first trip out into the "campo" or the country.  Myself & 5 others set off ~ 9:30 in what I affectionately call, "The Beast", which would be the 1982 Nissan Patrol pictured above.  The evening before John Kreider & I loaded all of that on the top to make us look like the Beverly Hillbillies.  The furniture, tires, etc. is for one of the pastors out at our destination, Santa Teresa, which is actually down in one of the jungle areas here in Peru.  The trip takes ~ 7-8 hours and we traversed altitudes from 4,330 meters above sea level to down ~ 1,400 meters at our destination.  These trips happen once a month to keep in contact with, encourage, and help out however we can w/the vast chain of churches spread throughout southern Peru.

These are just a few of the examples of the terrain covered during the trip.  I don't think we had a straight stretch for more than 200 or 300 yds.

The one thing I do not have pictures of which I really wish I did was after getting to Santa Teresa we went another good hour or so on dirt roads, not gravel, to deliver the furniture.  The house of Pastor Raul was then a good 15-20 minute hike, uphill, through the jungle, in the dark!  Plus we carried the chairs, dressers, bed frames, etc.  What an adventure & PTL I wore my boots!  We did get treated to coffee & yucca, which was delicious & a combination I'd never tried before.  So neat to be able to help this family however possible.  They were living in another town, pastoring, quite a way from Santa Teresa but felt called to move back, this is their home, & work on cell groups out in the country.  Hopefully on another trip I'll be able to see where we were but in the daylight!  :)                   

The picture to the left is on the street outside of the church in the town of Santa Teresa.  Notice the mountains & cloud cover way up there in the background!

This picture is on the street outside of the church.  If you look closely you can see crosses basically straight behind me on the ledge by the pine trees.  We stayed in a little hostel just down the street, interesting experience also, you can see the white sign just over my left shoulder.  I also wanted to make sure the 2 guys working there were in the picture.  Every day they were working there on the street, either they had a car jacked up & were fixing something or here they're making re-bar for reinforcing concrete columns.  Hard workers!

This group of pictures shows the inside of the church, the lady in the purple is going to be baptized & is sharing her testimony.  Please keep her in your prayers, hers has not been an easy life at all!  The middle picture is of some of us walking down from the church, through the jungle, to the river.  Then in the final picture...how'd ya like to be up on that bridge?!  The town of Santa Teresa had a huge flood in 1997 & it completely wiped the original town out.  It happened during the night but the amazing thing was there were hardly any deaths b/c of the incredible noise of the rushing water that woke the people up.  God is sovereign!  The location of the original town is down by the river and around to the right.  The new town is built much higher.

Not always easy to find a good spot calm enough for a baptism in a Peruvian river!

A new creation through the blood of Christ!  After the baptism we headed back to the church & had a wonderful lunch & time of fellowship.  As you can see from this bottom picture...Ruth LOVES "el helicoptero" as does just about every child no matter where I've been in the world. 

Had a little minor trouble on the way home.  Some of the bolts had worked loose b/t the manifold & the exhaust.  Check out the toolbox on the ground...John is always ready!  This bottom picture shows where we'd been.  No wonder some bolts might have wiggled loose, huh?  Yes...that is the road back there!

And this is the pass through the mountains on the way back.  That 4,330 meters amounts to about 14,300 feet above sea level!  As you can tell by my clothing it was COLD and even some sleet! 

I thank God for a safe trip & the opportunity to be serving Him here in Peru.  The people, fellow brothers & sisters in Christ who will one day be worshipping around the throne are a joy & God's love is obvious & evident in the church in Santa Teresa!  Please keep Rose, myself, & the girls in your prayers.  I have more pictures from this trip that I'm planning on putting in an album on Facebook if you'd like to check some of the rest of them out.

Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy or our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.  Jude 21

Saturday in the Park

So we didn't spend this Saturday in the park, but we did last weekend.  We were blessed to be able to meet up with some dear friends of ours from language school last Saturday.  We ate lunch together and then spent a few hours in a Peruvian Park.  Here are some pictures of our adventure.

 

 The slides were like nothing I have ever seen before.

  There were stairways to get to the top.

 Forever Friends!



Patiently waiting to ride the "Ferris wheel"

 

We felt blessed to be able to spend the day with friends who feel like family.  Transition is difficult but the blessings of our heavenly Father are amazing.  We are so thankful for His gift of friendship.

Perú

After a long day/night of traveling, we arrived in Cusco, Perú about midday on Tuesday, Sept. 10th.  We were met by our team members the Brubaker's and the Kreider's.  We got to come directly to our house, which is about 10-15 minutes from the airport.  We are so close we see jets fly over all day, everyday going to land and flying out of the airport.  Now we are very thankful they don't have night flights since it can be quite noisy at times during the day with all the flights coming and going. 

 

Our house is close to the main road where all the buses are which is nice.  We live about 2 blocks up a hill in a 3 story house.  We have the first two floors and there are renters above us on the third floor.  We feel blessed to have plenty of space for our family and even a little backyard.  We have been settling in and finding our way around the neighborhood.  Our hearts hurt to see prosperity and poverty side by side.  Please pray for us to be able to process this and to have a heart of compassion.

Here are a few pictures of the past few weeks.......

 Katie has already learned to carry her doll like the locals.

 Homemade ice cream at the Saturday market

 There was also a nice selection of desserts at the Saturday market.

 

The girls sporting their Promesa uniforms, they wear these everyday and they have been in school for 2 weeks.  They are learning more Spanish everyday and making Peruvian friends, praise the Lord!

We have trash pick-up twice a week and you know they are coming because it sounds like a party in the street.  Please note the speaker on the top of the cab, they play music, loudly.

 So there are lots of stray dogs in the street, so you don't put your trash out early.  This picture shows the neighbor lady running after the truck to get her trash in it.  The men were very helpful to her.

 Last weekend we were able to visit the church in Lucre, which is about a 30 -40 minutes from our home here in Cusco.

 Here is an adobe brick house in progress.  Notice the bricks drying in the forefront.

 We ate lunch at the trout farm down the street from the church.  The appetizer was cheese and corn.

 The entree:  amazing trout, salad, potatoes, and more corn.

 Our lunch group including John & Cindy Kreider by Katie and Chris.

After lunch we hiked to the future site of the school "Promesa".

 It is beautiful hike but steep in places, so Katie had two hiking sticks.

 Danica taking a rest, she was quite a trooper up the mountain.

Thank you for all of your prayers!  We couldn't continue this journey without your support and we hope you realize how much we love and appreciate you ALL!

Praises and Prayer Requests:

We are so thankful for the opportunity for the girls to attend a Christian Spanish speaking school.  Please continue to pray for the girls as they transition in going to Promesa.  There were many tears the first week, but it has gotten better this week.  So, please continue to pray for them to be able to understand the work and the language and make new friends.

We are so thankful for this home and praise the Lord for his provision.  Please pray for Chris and I as we settle and work on the improvements that need to be made.  Also pray that we might get to know our neighbors and be able to show them Christ's love.

Joshua 1:9

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.