¡Feliz Navidad!

Promesa Clausura!

School's out for the summer for Katie and Danica.  Hannah is still studying away with her homeschool, but the other girls are now on break from school until March.  Here is a little snippet from the Christmas program from Katie and Danica had this past Monday morning.

Here is the link to watch Danica's dance....

https://youtu.be/deN5Jj4LWxw

And here is the link for Katie's dance:

https://youtu.be/H0RplCHBSiM


Enjoy and we wish you and your family a very blessed Christmas!

Danica's Promoción Program

The end of the school year here in Peru is upon us.  Wednesday night we were attended Danica's program to celebrate her completion of the 5 year old class, which is the equivalent of kindergarten in the US.  All of Danica's classmates were dressed up, all the girls in fancy dresses and some of the boys were wearing suits and ties.  Danica had a special hairstyle compliments of our house helper Aurora.  The tables were all decorated and there were lots of balloons.  

  Below is a picture of the students and the teacher is introducing them and reading their favorite foods and what their hobbies are.  Danica wants to be a policewoman when she grows up and her favorite pet would be a unicorn.  

The last thing before the clown came out for entertainment was a presentation of frames with individual graduation pictures along with a picture of the class together.  We were also excited that my mom could be here to celebrate with us.

Christmas in Chuyllullo!

This past weekend I had the opportunity to go with Chris and Gloria out to the mountain village of Chuyllullo to do the end of the year program for PROSIM, also known as the clausura.  We left our house at about 4am Saturday morning and headed to pick up Gloria and then the pastor from Chuyllullo, Ronald.  Danica went with us on this trip because I had been gone from her when I was in the States and she was in need of some mommy time.  Needless to say, Danica did great and enjoyed some quality time with Chris and I.  It has been quite some time since I have taken a trip out since being pregnant, then nursing Adeline, but I was happy and excited to go.  This was the first trip that Chris and I took without all the girls.  But we were able to leave the girls in the good hands of our teammates, the Harrison's and the Sommers'.  

We arrived in Chuyllullo around 8:30am and since there is only one road that goes through town, Chris had to turn around in the plaza.  (I will show you pictures of it later.)  We then began unloading our supplies and food and of course the presents for the children.  Chris and I were able to buy school supplies in the States with money that had been donated from my brother Jon's church, First Mennonite Church.  We brought back Crayola crayons, markers, colored pencils, pens and regular pencils along with eraser tops and pencil bags.  We also got some coloring books for the little ones.  Gloria had come over Friday morning and we packed the bags with all the school supplies along with notebooks that she had purchased here in Peru.  (Gloria had a lot of extra  help from Adeline.)

It didn't take long for the kids to gather around and for the moms in the program to trickle in.  Gloria took attendance and then we had a short review of the year and what lessons they had covered.  Gloria reviewed the importance of hand washing, how many times they should be brushing their teeth a day, what causes parasites, balanced nutrition and the prevention of sexual abuse in children.  It was wonderful to hear the children answer questions and be engaged in the education.  Then, Chris was able to share a short message from Titus 2 and Proverbs 31 with everyone.  It was a wonderful opportunity because not everyone in the program is a believer.  Gloria has been very pro-active in trying to include everyone in the community, not just the church members and in this way she is able to share the good news of the gospel message along with the education of good health practices.

Below is a picture of the kids and adults eating a snack of fresh mangoes and bananas.  The church is to the left and you can see the rabbit cages to the left as well.  

Little did Chris and I know, but Gloria had assigned a little craft to the moms in the program to help teach them responsibility and also to give them motivation and confidence.  They were each given supplies to make a small table cloth.  Chris and I were the judges of these cloths.  We judged them on cleanliness, creativity and they were supposed to be dry.  The reason they were supposed to be dry is the part about responsibility.  These women knew they were to turn these projects in on the morning of November 26th, so they needed to be prepared and plan to wash them ahead of time so that they would be dry for the judging.

Below are all the moms from the program with their finished projects.

The winners above, 1st in the middle, 2nd place to the right and 3rd on the left.

Below is the town plaza where Chris turned his truck around.  Lunch wasn't ready yet, so we all headed there to play a few games.

One of my favorites from the weekend.  Chris heading back to the church with some of the children.

We ate lunch when we got back and then Gloria gave the children their gifts.  Our teammates Ryan and Kristie had received donations of children's books, so we added that to their gift and they loved them!  Below is a picture of Chris reading Cinderella to them.  Above is the entire group holding up their books and saying gracias!

We have been so blessed to be a part of this life changing program.  We would love to see it continue but we need financial support to make it possible.  If you are interested in giving please go to www.emm.org and click on the orange Give tab in the upper right, then go to the left to Support a project and click on it.  From Support a project, scroll down to give remote villages access to health education.  From there you can click on the Read more tab and at the bottom of that page you can donate on-line.  If you would prefer you can send a check to our home church Providence Mennonite Church, just be sure that it is designated for PROSIM.  If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!  As always, we covet your prayers and appreciate your continued support!

Happy Thanksgiving! ¡Feliz Acción de Gracias!

Adeline and I just got back to Cusco on Wednesday morning around 10am.  We were excited to be able to make a quick two week trip to Indiana to visit family and friends as I was invited to speak at the Ladies Day at Providence Mennonite Church.  It was a privilege to be able to share the message of missional motherhood and how Jesus himself was a perfect example of how we can and should be missional and nurturing the spiritual lives of others.  If anyone would like to watch/listen to the event you can go to www.inhisprovidence.com and click on the menu button at the upper right hand corner, scroll down to media and then click on streaming.  The ladies day event should be there.  

Yesterday, we were able to celebrate Thanksgiving with fellow missionaries from Cusco.  We had all the yummy fixings, including turkey and mashed potatoes which are a few of my favorites.  We all enjoyed a time of fellowship and singing and sharing what we are thankful for.  We want to say that we are thankful for you and your continued support!  We love and appreciate you all and hope that you had a happy thanksgiving too!

Thank God I'm a Country Boy! Life & times in the mountains.

This blog and these pictures are from a trip taken out to the mountains 3 weeks ago.  These are some of the children in Chuyllullo, one of the towns where we have a church and also the town in which PROSIM, the medical outreach, is focusing.  We are working here number one,  with the Word of God, and then also using the Gardening Project along with rabbit farming as ways to help the overall health in this village.  I took a couple of volleyballs, soccer balls, and an air pump out there.  And as you can see, this was quite a hit with the kids.  We're sitting on the benches which were taken out there back in July.  There are between 30-40 kids in the PROSIM program and we are teaching about the  Bible there as well as basic cleanliness, parasite prevention, and  ways to improve nutrition.

Here is a photo of Gloria, the PROSIM coordinator, myself, and one of the children with the three bunnies that were born out there since we left the rabbits in July.  Only 23 days of gestation! As many of you know cuy or guinea pig is VERY popular to eat here in Peru, but since rabbits reproduce so much faster and give birth to more young we're trying a more practical and relatively cheaper way to get more protein into the diet of the children.

The above pics are of several of the gardens growing out in Chuyllullo.  These are the result of donations made earlier this year to the "Gardening Project" through EMM.  As you can see, the gardens are doing well and the families are quite happy with their gardens.  The lady in the top picture couldn't hardly wait for us to come around and see her garden!

Just after we left her garden we passed by a man in a wheelchair just a little down the hill from her house. We, our little group of four, stopped and talked with  Clemente Romero, & his wife for awhile and prayed for them. I was hoping for complete and immediate healing but God didn't allow that. We head out to this village again next weekend, Sept. 9-11, and I'm looking forward to catching up with them to see how Clemente is doing.

These next pictures are from Sunday August 15 and this is a photo of the gospel being presented in the small town of Ayumaqui. We used the "salvation bracelets" donated by Providence Mennonite Church  as our tool to explain, as well as for the people to remember, the saving gospel of Christ.  No one in this town has accepted Christ as of yet but there is much interest.  Francisco, the President of the community, is very interested and wants to know more as well as a couple of young men, Mario and  Eloy. Serapio, the pastor to my left in the picture, is going to have meetings out there on Saturdays in the evening to continue the teaching and outreach. Please keep this town & group in your prayers. We had an awesome time out there!

We took advantage of this opportunity to do some health teaching there as well. In the photo above you see Gloria, along with Ryan and Kristie Sommers using posters to explain some basic health education.  We were also able to give out anti-parasite pills to everyone who came to the meeting.  Ryan and Kristie are here with EMM's Go program.  They are English teachers serving at Promesa this year.

And finally, the way back home.  These villages are a LONG way out there so I decided to stop & take a nap by the side of the road! (It's hard to see but I am resting on the right shoulder of the road.)

Not really, haha.  Many of you may not know this but... This is the spot where the old church van completely broke down back in June of 2014 on the way back to Cusco w/members of the PMC medical team on board! We all ended up finally getting back to Cusco between  3-4am Monday morning.  I'd been meaning to take this photo for quite awhile but finally remembered to on the way back this trip.  If you didn't know, we now have a brand new church van thanks to the generous donations of people through several churches.  Another huge blessing is that the Peruvian government has really improved the roads out where we have churches in the mountains so it's  a HUGE PTL for both!

Here is a picture of the new church van ready to go out to Marangallay the same weekend of our trip.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers & pray for  the work down here in Peru!

"And the Lord will be king over all the earth.  On that day the Lord will one and his name one."  Zechariah 14:9

Gardening Project ~ Chuyllullo

This post is to thank everyone who was able to donate to the garden project!  These photos are from the last trip out to Chuyllullo.  Many children and families are being blessed by your generosity!

¡Gracias!

 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’  Matthew 25:40

We love visitors!!!

We have been blessed since December to have a number of visitors starting with the Knepp family and most recently we hosted Chris' mom and cousin Coleen and her husband Ed.  We have thoroughly enjoyed each visit and savored our time with these friends and family.  Each visit has been an encouragement and blessing to our family.  God is so good and faithful to us! 

 We welcomed our friends Bryant and Lyndsay Knepp and their three girls over Christmas.  It was a wonderful time of fellowship and their girls playing with our girls.  We loved having them here especially to celebrate Christmas with us.  They brought down school supplies and Bibles amongst many other things for us and the ministry here.

The girls spent one morning working in the school's library.

Bryant accompanied Chris in taking a pastor from the US out to the mountains to do a teaching.  The winding, one-lane, mountainous, gravel roads made quite an impression on Bryant.  

Then, in mid-January we were happy to host our pastor Kevin and his wife Amanda and their children.  They stayed for five days and so we packed as much in that time as possible.  We even got to go to Machu Picchu which was an exciting time for our girls since this was their first trip there.

Kevin was able to preach and Chris translated.

We enjoyed our day at Machu Picchu even though it was rainy and slightly overcast.  We were blessed to have the Swartzentruber family come all the way to Cusco to represent our church family and shower us with love and a few things we miss from the states such as pepperoni, instant chocolate pudding and peanut butter to name a few.  We also realized why they don't import marshmallow cream to Cusco after we found the jars Amanda had brought exploded in her suitcase :)

Occasionally we even get to visit with old friends who are just passing through Cusco.  This was the case with a friend of mine, Brett Etienne.  Chris and I were excited to eat lunch one afternoon with him downtown.  Here is our  picture in the Plaza de Armas.

Then, in February my family came down.  My sister Joanna and her husband Carmen and their two youngest boys along with my sister Theresa arrived on Adeline's first birthday.  Although they were jet lagged and tired, we enjoyed celebrating this special milestone with family.

Carmen and Isaac coming out of the airport with a saw for the wood shop's owners that Chris works with.  They also brought a cooler full of frozen meat from the Odon Locker and colby jack cheese from Rosie's!  We were amazed that the cooler made it through customs, but praise the Lord that it did!  We have enjoyed this taste of home tremendously!

Everyone, minus Carmen since he took the picture,  posing in front of one of the massive doors of the Cathedral by the Plaza de Armas in downtown Cusco.

Carmen and the kids were busy one day picking a fruit called "capuli".  Somehow this picture reminds me of the movie The Sound of Music since Katie is hanging like a monkey from the tree.

Our last meal together shared at Pastor Roberto's house.  Our time certainly flew by!

And last but not least Chris' mom Jeanie and his cousin Coleen and her husband Ed just came to visit us for a week.  We enjoyed being "tourists" for a bit and did some sight-seeing and shopping.  

We love alpacas!

As I have mentioned before, we have been blessed by everyone who has come down to see us.  And remember you are invited too!  We'd love to host you too :)

PROSIM is back! Praise the Lord!

I am so excited to give you the news that we just had our first PROSIM meeting of the year the last Thursday in April.  I am beyond thankful for those of you who have prayed with us and believed with us that this program has a purpose and needs to continue.  We weren't able to meet last month due to the Easter holiday weekend.  So this being the first meeting of the year was exciting and a good opportunity to review things the representatives had learned in the past.  I love that Gloria, the PROSIM coordinator is always coming up with new and fresh ideas of how to teach the representatives and how to best help them retain and be able to teach the information given.

Gloria plans to continue her work in the mountainside village of Chuyllullo.  This will be her second year there, but she wants to reinforce what was taught last year and she has a new idea.  She would like to purchase plants and seeds to help the mothers learn how to plant and grow their own gardens.  There continue to be problems such as malnutrition and anemia due to a diet that mainly consists of rice, potatoes and corn.  Gloria wants to teach the families how to grow their own vegetables so that they can have more balanced nutrition.  If you would like to support this project go to emm.org and click on the 'Give' tab then go to Projects and you can donate on the 'Give the gift of good health' tab.  You can even give in honor of Mother's day!  What a great gift!  

Thank you for your continued support of this ministry!  We appreciate your prayers as we continue teaching preventative health and spreading the saving gospel message.