It’s Ho Ho H-over!

Guess what!  In Peru, people celebrate Christmas too!  - Amanda

This year’s Christmas I would say has been, well I’m sitting here looking at those words and I have a million words that could fit.  Here’s a few: shut-up, stretching, blessed, numb, unifying, sad, happy, exhausting, relaxing.  I definitely missed the high-strung element of Christmas that most of you in the States suffered through.  Sorry! 

I think there were a lot of things that went through my head this Christmas.  Sometimes I was confused that I wasn’t as upset that I was so far from home for Christmas.  Other times I was frustrated with my partner for not being more excited about Christmas.  On Christmas day I felt disconnected with him and he went to a church service in the evening… I was upset.  But, I was happy to be with people that I love and got to spend such an important day with them. 

This year I thought a lot about Mary and what she must have went through.  Sometimes, I don’t like that it seems that the originality of thought is gone from biblical stories.  It feels cliché to talk about what Mary must have been thinking, and I absolutely despise the song “Mary Did You Know?”  Sorry, all you folks out there that idolize this song… it’s actually a song I could do without the rest of my life.  But, in the story of Christ’s birth represented in Luke 2:19 that Mary stored up the things the Shepherds told her, about the angels and what they said.  It just had to of been wild being her.  These people were real humans.  I think that something we forget about often.  They were not majestic people, but ordinary and simple.  They had thoughts and feelings and it had to of been a complicated mess of emotions and thoughts that Mary was filtering through.  And yet she was faithful.

Because we did not have snow and all the things Christmas staples that make Christmas-time feel like Christmas-time, we had to put a real effort forward to get ourselves in the mood.  One could call it, Christmas foreplay.  I decided to take my lunch money and buy some felt to make everyone who would be here for Christmas a Christmas stocking.  It took about a week to make everyone’s stocking, but it really helped me get into Christmas.

On Christmas Eve we had a partaaaaaay!  Amanda and I baked all day long and even the day before we were working until late at night to make all our awesome cookies.  So, on Christmas Eve we all got together and had communion, then read the Christmas story.  After that it was a free-for-all to the spread.

Then after we were all done eating, we played a few games.  First, we played Bing-o.  There were prizes to be won!  We played like you play the White Elephant.  Prizes could be stolen.  Franci ended up with a soap case and a wash cloth, Joel got notebooks, Allison got chapstick, Ella got a pen, and I got a keychain!  Then we played a game Sixto suggested.  His games are always interesting.  I’ve written three attempts to explain the game and it’s just not worth the trouble.  The gist is you pass two rags around the circle and you have to untie and retie knots in them and if you are caught with the two rags in your lap, you are out.  If you are out, then you get a punishment.  Lindy was a statue and had to let us put him in whatever possition we put him in, Franci had to chug a glass of soda, Joel had to put on lipstick, Vincent had to do push-ups, Gladys had to walk like a duck, and Geremias had to hop like a bunny. 

We had fun fun fun fun!  Later, Garren put on his Christmas pajamas he had gotten from home and joined the kids in their new pajamas.  Then, the kids put out some cookies and milk for Santa Claus.  Thomas had to have chocolate milk in his cup for Santa.

Then, Garren’s family in the States always watched “It’s a Wonderful Life,” on Christmas Eve, so following this tradition we sat down to watch it.  Amanda decided right away she was going to not make it through the movie, so went to bed.  Chad followed soon after, but both were awakened to the following bustle in the streets.  I tried posting the video here, but it’s not working.  Just check out my facebook wall, I have the video there. 

 

On Christmas Day we were all supposed to get together at 7:30 am to open presents, but it’s apparently not as exciting for the Peruvians to wake up really early in the morning just to open presents.  So, we ended up opening presents closer to 9:00.  Chad and Amanda had setup a pretty sweet presentation for us. 

We all got a blanket, toothbrush, razor, 2011 agenda, Choko cookies, and some candy.  

And Chad and Amanda got these stellar hats. 

Then, we crashed and I skyped with my parents!  There was really nothing I could do for them for Christmas, sending wise, it’s even more expensive sending from here to the States, at least it seems to be so.  This is what I decided to do for my family. 

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!  And I hope everyone has a Happy New Year!  We officially are moving to Puno the 5th of January!  Please pray that all of our things arrive in Puno safely! 

Pre-Christmas

Can you believe that it’s almost Christmas?  We have been working really hard to get ourselves into the Christmas spirit.  It’s strange, almost like a chore.  I’ve wondered the years that I was in college why Christmas never seemed the same, and now I’m realizing that if you just let it pass by it’s not going to hold much meaning.  Last year I put up a tree in our humble house and I had friends come over to help me decorate and we made pretty little decorations as crafts.  It was such a good time and I’m making myself sad thinking about it.  Dang it!

I’m glad that I happened to have these pictures handy form last year.  They make me feel good.  The white stars were made out of ribbon, something my mother and sister and I used to make for Christmases.  The white flowers and ball were origami.  The red and gold ornaments were Wal-Mart provided… that dear store.  Now, I’m listening to Owl City and it’s taking me back to the winter drives back and forth from Mount Vernon to home.  I was really naïve to think that the Christmas season wasn’t going to be hard.  If I had known last year where I’d be this year then I would have done better to appreciate it.  Our tree here stands at a lowly two feet tall.  Ooooo.  At least it is thicker than a Charlie Brown tree. 

Maybe not much more…  But this is my favorite picture of the kids with the tree!

There have been quite a few people that have gone home for the Christmas season, so now it’s just Garren and I as the only two North Americans and then the Duerre family.  I think it’s been good for us though, having our time together.  My Christmas wish this year was a DSLR camera, but I don’t think that’s going to happen, I’m going to have to keep on stealing Kristen’s and Amanda’s.  This Thursday is our baking day!  We are making Pill Bottle Cookies, these awesome Soft Sugar Cookies with a Frosting I found, maaaaybe Autumn Cheesecake and some other things Amanda has up her sleeve.  Check out the links, you might find something you like and remember to check out The Handicapped Kitchen every once in a while to see what I’ve got going on in the kitchen.  I’ve also been working on making everyone who is here a stocking.  I got some felt and beads and went to work.  I’ll post some pictures later this week!

To help us get into the Christmas spirit the kids had a Christmas program at the church where they go to school.  I was so excited to go! 

“Jo jo jo, yo soy la Navidad, porque tengo muchos regalos para todos los ninos”	“Vamos hasta Belen, para que veamos los que ha sucedido”

Thomas was Santa Claus and Ella was a pastorcita or a little shepherd.  They both had lines in Spanish too!  We are so proud of them, even though they never speak Spanish in front of us. 

I believe that I’ve shared with you that we found our house in Puno.  One hardship down… here’s another!  One of our best here in Peru has gone home to deal with a difficult situation.  Roy’s mother has been in and out of the hospital and they are now trying to dissolve some clots that she has in her lungs.  His family has said that she seems to have given up hope and he has decided to go home for some time to see if he can turn the situation at all.  He has until the end of January to decide if he can come back and still be able to join the Puno team.  If not, he can join with a future team to a future city project.  Please pray that he is able to make an easy decision.  We are behind him no matter the result. 

Thank you all for your prayers.  I love you all so much and hope you have a very Merry Christmas!  I’ll be sure to post later this week with cookie and stocking pictures! 

Three Days in Puno

Do any of you like to travel via Greyhound?  Believe it or not I’m posting this entry from a bus on the way back to Arequipa from Puno.  Chad has a Internet key you can plug into the USB port of your computer and anywhere we have Claro phone service we have internet service as well.  Who would have thought in Peru we’d have this kind of technology?  We tried watching some T.V. online but it wasn’t strong enough a connection. 

I figure I should give you a heads up on how our house search went in Puno.  We left early Sunday morning to get in Puno in the afternoon and still be able to go to their church service at 6 pm.  Saturday I woke up with the start of a pretty ugly cold.  Sunday morning I woke up feeling the worst I have yet in Peru.  I don’t know what it was, whether it was a cold or allergies, but Sunday morning I laid there and begged God to lay His healing hand on me.  Now from Arequipa we go 7,000 or so feet above sea level to 12,000 feet (don’t quote me on that).   With the heavy contrast in the change of altitude my congestion felt like it was turning into the jaws of life prying my head open.  Some of the others were getting ill too.  So, we definitely were seeing the spiritual warfare as we were trying to find this house.

The first day of searching the city was Monday.  If you’re asking how we knew how to look for homes here in Puno, I was thinking the same thing.  Basically we were told to walk around the city, knock on doors, and simply ask people if they knew of any places available.  There are very few places that will actually advertise in newspapers.  There are also walls around the city where ads are posted. 

(I just quickly want to add as a side note the poster we just passed.  Apparently, coming soon to a city near me is some kind of midget parade… don’t try to read too much into it, it means exactly what it says.  A midget show of some sort.)

We spent the day walking around the city asking everyone we could about houses.  Joel and I didn’t have any luck at all the whole day.  We were assigned to an area where it was basically just commercial buildings and nothing residential.  At the end of the day we all got together and talked about what was found.  One group found an anticresis, but we didn’t know if we would be approved for it. 

By Tuesday I had woken up feeling nearly 100% better, which I believe was seriously a divine healing from God.  So, Tuesday we sent some of the 40/40’s home, because we had already scoured the city and only had a couple appointments to look at a few places.  Chad, Garren, Sixto and I stayed and in the afternoon went to look at this one house.  It was a house the our Pastor used to live in, and he assured us that it would be a good fit.  We met the landlady there and she told us she had to ask the tenants if it would be okay if we could look in the house.  Well, they refused to let us in.  Throughout this whole ordeal we were thinking this would never happen in the States.  Are you kidding me?  Your landlord is here and is telling you to let them show their own property and you are saying no?  You are ridiculous. 

So, the landlady (her name is Asuncion) asks us in to her apartment, which is the third floor of the house she owns.  There, both she and the pastor try telling us it’s a great place and it will definitely work for our 14 people, but we were trying to be insistent that we couldn’t sign a contract for two years if we didn’t see the place.  Apparently, the renters had let Asuncion in with some other interested parties several times before and they were sick of letting more people in their house.  It was very frustrating… very Peruvian.  This house was kind of our last option too, so we were getting very upset that we couldn’t even see what potentially could be the best thing we had found yet, besides the anticrisis.  So, Asuncion told us we could sign on for three months and if we didn’t like it we could find another place.  We did it.

We had been praying for so long for the perfect place and the fact that God hadn’t given us anything quickly has been speaking to me that we needed to be faithful and believe that He would provide.  Now, this was the fifth time that we had come to Puno looking for a place and the one place we didn’t look at is the place that we decided on… and we all felt at peace with it.  Now we just have to tell everyone else on our team! 

My lap is getting hot from the computer.  Thank you all for your prayers.  We still might have to make another move after this, but praise the Lord that He has given us at least “a place to land,” as Chad says.  I’m excited to actually get to see this place, but we will have to wait until at least the 4th of January.  So, it looks like we are going to be spending Christmas in Arequipa! 

Want Want Want

I just posted a few days ago, and I was going to hold this post for another time, but I think I need your prayers now… so I´ll post it now.  I’m writing and backspacing what I’m writing here because I want to choose my words carefully.  I’ve not always been the most humble of people.  To be quite honest, sometimes I can be vain.  It’s probably just growing up, but I’m learning that some of the crap I used to worry about doesn’t matter (i.e. how I look in pictures, the compliments people give me, etc.)  I’m coming to realize those things give me a temporary thrill and then quickly fade… and the hole then quenches further confirmation of self.  It’s exhausting, and my only confirmation I need comes from God. 

All of that to say, I’m a really talented guy.  It’s a shocking statement for me to look at too.  Maybe I’m not as talented as I think I am though, maybe all these people have been lying to me all these years.  But, what I’ve been told is I’m talented.  I: sing, play music, write music, write story ditties here and there, draw, cook, design, learn languages quickly.  Basically, that all falls within the art realm, so we could say… ART and everything therein.  Why am I telling you I’m talented?  Do I need to learn more humility? 

I have no idea what I’m supposed to do with my life.  Some people feel they have a blank canvas of abilities and don’t have anything to choose from, it’s just as hard having a splatter paint art piece and trying to figure out what to let your eye focus on.  Satan really likes to play with me here.  Our insecurities are his playground. 

Recently, I’ve found myself painfully wishing or perhaps desiring to build on one of these talents.  That’s fine!  I’ll go through periods where I love to draw and others when I’d rather do other things.  The problem is how it turns into covetous attitudes.  It’s an ugly feeling.  I hate it.  I love photography, I don’t have the camera I need yet to practice and get better, maybe something I’ll have to wait to get in the States, but I just saw some pictures online that were gorgeous and I had that deep-set pang in my heart.  I wanted that.  Not the pictures, but the ability.  The ability to capture that beauty.  It´s fine wanting to take beautiful pictures, but this strong compulsion is really messing with my focus. 

Satan is doing a good job of picking out my past dreams and aspirations and placing them in my mind as what I want right now.  I can’t afford having this when I’m about to set out on the true purpose for my being in Peru.  I can’t start out like this.  I want to take beautiful pictures here and write beautiful songs about this experience, but not to the point of self-glorification.  Do you understand?  I feel like this has been hard to explain.  I need your prayers.  I want to be able to use these gifts, rather for my glory for His.  My glory can never quench my thirst, but His glory will satisfy. 

Coming To A Close

Turkey, ham, sweet-potatoes casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, paper clips, stuffing, bricks, pumpkin pie, apple pie, booger pie, we ate EVERYTHING for Thanksgiving.  Thursday morning we woke up and all came together as a family to share our Thanks.  Being away from home and being in an unfamiliar place was harder than I thought it was going to be for Thanksgiving.  It was unlike any other Thanksgiving that I’ve ever had, I suppose that goes without saying, but I was stunned by how thankful I was for things like this supporting family here in Peru and even very simple things i.e. hot water.  Thanksgiving, this year, was certainly the most meaningful of the other 22 I’ve had. 

Now, I’m following in the good American fashion of making everything Christmas-like right after Thanksgiving.  So, I’m on the couch writing you this update with earphones in listening to… oh must I say it, Celtic Woman Christmas music!  I’ve been stuffing my ears with other Christmas music too, of course.  I’ll let you in on a glimpse of what I’m listening to right now.

This Chloe Agnew (in the pink) has an absolutely beautiful voice!

Tomorrow is the last day of class as we get ready to move to Puno!!!!  WOW!  I can’t believe that these classes went so quickly.  It’s really amazing.  This last class that we are in is a instructional class about discipleing.  I’ll be quite honest, before this week I was really questioning the call.  I had a pit in my stomach about the work in Puno, the unknown.  This week I went to our cell group and I gave the lesson and it was so encouraging.  I don’t necessarily want each of our cell groups to be so “by the book” or stiff.  I want to people in our cell groups to be asking questions and learning about things that they are interested in or understanding hard concepts they don’t understand.  That’s exactly what our cell group was this week.  Ordinarily, I am the one who stays quiet and if there is any question I let Joel take it, but this time God had been preparing me for this discipleship.  I think even before I would have been unlikely to let ourselves get so off topic, but I was so content in just listening to these people ask these questions and I was so excited to have the answers!  It pushed me back up on the horse for sure.

Has it snowed yet there in the States?  I wish I could be there for the snow.  I want to stand out in the light snowfall and smell the chill in the air and make a snow angel.  Five minutes of that would suffice and then I’d be good for another year! HA!  I was talking to a friend the other day and told her that my favorite season wasn’t fall until I left for Costa Rica and had to miss it.  Having missed the fall made me appreciate it so much.  So, all you winter snow haters you might just have to leave your cold State and go to a place where you won’t have snow for a while so you can come to LOVE driving around town in your rear-wheel drive, squirrely, out-dated clunker in the snow.  You should be getting the hint of the experience I’ve had… my parent’s got rid of that thing so that’s done with!  When I get back I’m sure they are going to buuuuuuuy me something shiny with great MPG and smells like a new shoe inside… that’s another hint.

I want to delve into this a little more, but I want to get this post up ASAP and I’m about to head out the door.  We still have not found a house in Puno.  We are going this Sunday, the whole team, to look for a BIG house for all of us to live in.  Please pray that we can find the perfect house!

Lastly, I have started a new BLOG!  Woooooo!  It’s called The Handicapped Kitchen.  Check it out.  Bookmark it.  You’ll love it.  If I check my stats and see no one has visited it I will be very upset!  It’s a food blog.  Need I say more?  Now GO!    

Two Posts for the Price of One!

The Expensive Woman Named Lima

We call ourselves lucky as we had the opportunity not only to get our residency in Peru, but also to fly to the capital city, Lima, to start our paperwork!  It’s been the itinerary for every group that’s gone for their residency to go by bus, which is a 18 hour drive.  The Duerre’s, thinking of their beautifully behaved children, knew that even angelic blondies like their Thoma and Ellas (Kristen’s new nicknames for Thomas and Ella) would quickly grow horns and pointed tails, breath fire and give an early start to the Apocalypse, decided it would be best for at least them to make the one hour flight to Lima.  Lucky for the rest of the Puno family we found the cost to fly would be just as cheap as to make the 18 hour drive… so why not fly? 

The one thing that we all had in mind when we found out that we were flying to Lima was the Starbuck’s stand in the Lima airport and everyone make it the first priority getting off the plane to book it over to the Starbuck’s counter as fast a possible.  Not having seen the beauty and splendor of the shiny Starbuck’s sign nearly caused a frenzy amongst us as we practically ran to the counter and me in my infinite intelligence blurted out, “Do you accept money?” when I really wanted to ask, “Do you accept dollars?”  My unintential slip up turned out to be pretty funny and I followed along with it and asked the barrista if I could exchange my bookbag for a coffee.  It was a great ice breaker and Kristen told the barrista what we are doing here in Peru and that it’s been six months since we’ve had Starbuck’s and we were just dying to have this elixir of life slide over our tastebuds.  We were almost peeing our pants with anticipation.  Kristen ordered her drink and moved to the otherside to pick up her coffee (even the mechanics of Starbuck’s was beautiful to us, I mean if you know anything about Starbuck’s and how you move to the other side to pick up your drink…) and then I tried ordering.  I ordered a caramel frap and pulled out my quarters to pay and the lady at the cash register said… “Oh no, we only accept bills!”  I was devastated, but quietly she said “It’s okay, I can pay for you…”  I was SHOCKED!!!!  I asked her what like three times.  Then I asked her if she was sure five more times.  She said she would take care of it and said not to tell anyone.  I said…. “I SWEAR!”  But, now look at me… I found out her name is Liz and that’s all I really know about her, but I’ll tell you she was such a blessing to me that day. 

To be completely honest, the flight and the fact that Liz paid for my Starbucks coffee… which turned out to be a caramel coffee and not a frap (which I enjoyed much more than I would have the frap!!!) the rest of our time in Lima was rather depressing.  I named this first post part of two The Expensive Woman Named Lima because this city was very much like an expensive girlfriend… We all ended up spending all of our money, not out of frivolous irresponsibility, but because it was such an expensive city!  We took taxi’s everywhere and they were 10 soles each.  I don’t know if you know what that means, but it’s a lot of money.  By the end we had to pull out money from a future trip to Lima. 

As much as we all were disappointed by the time we left we all know it’s worth actually being residents of Peru.  Also, I had to come back to Arequipa by myself, long story as to how that happened, but basically things got messed up in the booking of the flights.  On the way home I got to meet three great people.  Two when I was waiting at the gate for the plane to come and then a man on the flight back, who turned out to be from Puno and we had a great conversation about what I would find there.  Lately I’ve been trying to be more loving toward strangers.  When I first arrived I put on an unapproachable face and tried to drive people away from me rather than attract them, because I felt that everyone was out to get something from me.  Now, I’m realizing that is going to hinder this work I’m doing here.  I read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 and memorized it as an attempt to remember what love is.  I’m seeing that this is helping already!  So, pray that I can be a better lover!  I mean that in the purest way possible for all those thinking… “THAT’S WHAT SHE SAID!” 

POST TWO!  Brigadeiro

We made this dessert a month ago, but what reminded me of it was when my friend Billie Beth was hankering something chocolaty.  I had found this recipe two years ago and always wanted to try to make it, but never actually got around to doing it.  So, I decided to finally give it a try.  The first time we made it we rolled some of them in peanuts, and then put bananas in the center of others and left the rest just normal.  These things taste like those chocolate Reisen’s that you find in the States.  They aren’t like truffles, but kind of like chocolate taffy, caramels!  They are so good!!!

   

Did I mention this is a really simple recipe?  These are the ingredients you need.  Only three things: cocoa powder, butter, and sweetened condensed milk.  Now I’ve heard that in the States the condensed milk is not sweet like it is here so you will probably need to figure in a little bit of sugar in there too.  But here’s the measurements.  I found this on www.allrecipes.com

- 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 (14 ounce) can of sweetened condensed milk

I wish that I could have taken pictures while I did this next step, but if I had tried I would have ended up scorching it.  But, you just throw all this stuff in a medium size sauce pan and put it on medium heat.  Just stir stir stir STIR!!!!  So, you’ll want the butter to completely melt and the cocoa powder to mix in completely as well.  You’re basically just cooking this mixture down into a thick cream.  The recipe asks that you cook it consistantly stirring for ten minutes, but I found the best rule of thumb is to cook it until it’s so think that as you are stirring it that if you tip the pan a bit and the “dough” seems to pull away from the pan and tries to maintain it’s blob then it’s time!

So, it basically comes out pretty thick like this.  Be careful now, this stuff is pretty hot coming out and you don’t want to stick your finger in there.  At this point if you do a taste test it kind of tastes like tootsie rolls.  It tastes a little different when it’s all said and done. 

This is the chocolate dough placed in a pre-greased bowl.  This is left out on the counter for an hour or two until it is room temperature and then you grease up your hands with butter or oil and pull out little pieces and roll them into about 1 1/2” balls. 

You can roll these things in anything your little minds can fathom.  We rolled ours in peanuts… but then this didn’t work out for me because I placed the dough in the fridge to maybe spur up the cooling process… the dough got too hard to allow anything to stick to it.  So, I acutlaly just took some of the larger peanut pieces and stuck them inside.  It was just as good!  You can also envelop pieces of banana inside the balls or any kind of fruit or goodie that you dream up!

When you get them all rolled up you want to place them on a pre-greased pan, bowl, dish, whatever, and then place them in the fridge for at least 5 or 6 hours!

Featured Post: Epistles of Joel

I had told you all that there would be a new feature called “Epistles of Joel.”  Well, I would like to direct you to this link to read my partners first letter to you!  I’m so excited to get him involved in this special communication that we have.  Just take a jump over there and see what he has to say!  He writes this letter out in Spanish and then I translate it into English for all of you!  Enjoy! (I’m still in the process of formatting his blog… so it’s a little messy, but I just want to get this out there!)

Motion Sickness

I have been blessed with the ability to do ANYTHING in the car, plane, boat, train, blimp, helicopter, submarine... anything that moves.  I can read, write, watch movies, anything that might give other people a headache or send them scrambling for a brown paper bag.  My mother has always called me out on this and doesn't understand how I can do it.  I claim that it's from living in the country, so far from anything valid to call civilization that it came down to survival that I entertain myself in the car.  Long car rides were always a part of my childhood.

This week I've found myself in the center of change... a different motion.  So, here's a quick breakdown of what happened this week:

Monday a member of the Arequipa team, Daniel, was sent home.  I am at peace with the decision now, but don't necessarily agree with the decision.  He was sent home for his attitude.  I don't really want to get more into it, but please pray for him as he readjusts to American living... to be honest I'm slightly jealous of the food he is enjoying right now!

So, all week we were dealing with Daniel having been sent home, the Cusco and Arequipa team were more effected because he was from their cohort, but it was still upsetting regarding how many others had been sent home... it's never good.  Saturday, we all knew there were two major changes, but that doesn't mean we were prepared.  We packed up all of our things and moved over into a new apartment!  The girls have their own floor and the guys theirs.  We took down all of our beds and moved the dressers over... it was a ton of work.  But, at the end of the day we had to say good-bye to another part of our family, the Cusco team.  It was hard to let go of a piece of our family, but it's encouraging to know they are not too far away and that they are doing their mission work.  Please pray for our Cusco team as they start their work!  On top of that... we had moved to an unfamiliar place, which really isn't helpful when your faced with new uncomfortable situations or loss.

To top off a week of change, Sunday, the pastor of the Umacollo church, the church I have been attending, died.  This is also the man with whom Garren and I had lived while we were in language study.  Garren and I were walking back to the new apartment building when we ran into Cristobal on the road and that's where he told us the news.  It's still hard to believe.  We went to a service last night and got to grieve with my adopted family.  There are a lot of mixed emotions concerning the death of Pastor Genaro.  Maybe I'll expand upon that in another post.  His funeral is today.  Please pray for the family of Genaro and also the church congregation as we all deal with this sudden change.  He was just re-elected to continue his pastoral ministry not even a week ago, and now they have to find a new pastor to continue with the church.  He died Sunday afternoon and his birthday was Monday... he would have been 60.  A praise came from the apparent hopelessness of Genaro's passing.  Pastor Solano spoke at the service last night for Pastor Genaro and gave an invitation for salvation and a woman gave her life to Christ.  In the past I've been critical about the amount of people that accept salvation... but I was so happy.  The angels were rejoicing.

This week has truly been a storm.  I can't believe how much change we've been confronted with this week.  Please pray for us as we continue to plant our feet in the firm foundation of Christ.  Satan has been working on us this week to discourage us, but we remain strong in the Lord.

Things I Love and Don’t Love About Peru: Churros/Coffee

Hello Readers!  This is an idea that I had a while back after one of my journal entries.  My friend Garren had made a blog about things that he liked and didn’t like so much about Peru and it inspired me to make a list.  Along the side of each point I had drawn a little picture and thought I could make my creative perogative a form of entertainment for my blog readers.  After all I want you all to be a part of this journey and have as much of a glimpse into my life as you can.  So, I decided that every once in a while I will post a segment called “What I Love and Don’t Love About Peru.”  Along with an explanation of my loves and not loves, I’ve been tuning into my creativity and will post these cartoons I’ve been making with Aviary!  (Check it out!  It’s like a free Adobe Suite!)

Note: It is not my intention to make this a complaint segment.  I hope you don’t view “What I Love and Don’t Love About Peru” as “I Don’t Want to Be Here” or “I Hate Peru.”  Instead, I want you to get the best idea about Peru and what it’s like to live here!


So, that is my intro to this new segment.  I hope that you like it and that you ask questions if you have any!  I would LOVE to share this experience with you anyway I can… so put that on the list of things I love about Peru!  On with this segment!

Love: Churros
Introducing, the churro.  This is also a dessert that will be included in another segment I am developing called “Pieces of Heaven In Peru.”  These little pieces of heaven are a snack that us poor missionaries are crazy about, not only for their deliciousness, but also for the cheap cheap cheap price!  Are you ready for this?  Sixty cents each!  But wait!  It gets better!  That’s before the exchange rate!  So, they are more like a little more than twenty cents!  You just can’t beat that… and they are a five minute walk down the road.  Right, well, let me tell you what this thing is.  It is an elephant ear rolled up and closed at the ends with… hot-lip-burning-caramel inside and then rolled in sugar.  Yea, it’s a parent’s worst nightmare, a kids loftiest dream.

Not Love: Coffee    
So, you thought Sanka was bad?  Peru has the worst instant coffee in the world.  You know, that may not be true as I’ve only seen a small portion of the world, but of the world I’ve seen it’s the worst.  I mean, they have this coffee called Ecco here that’s not even real coffee… it’s coffee flavored barley.  Come on now.  On the other side, Peru does have their own REAL coffee, but it’s so sad… so so so sad.  However, all their great fruit juices make up for it!

*NEWS FLASH*
While writing this post I got a phone call from Saul, I wrote a blog entry about him maybe a month ago.  Well, he had sent me an email that he would get in contact with me and at the time it seemed like he was saying, Leave me alone. So, I got a phone call from him as I was writing this up and he said he wanted to talk!  We are meeting this Friday at the Plaza de Armas at 4:00p.m. so, your prayers would be appreciated! 
Also, I just got out of a meeting with some 40/40’s that I’ve been working with closely to unite two cell groups that we’ve been working with that would get us to the first level of a church plant!  This is huge!  Well, there are some church leaders that are getting involved and starting to make things difficult for our goal.  A lot of the church leaders here in Peru think our work as 40/40s is to grow their church congregation… we are not on the same page when it comes to goals.  So, please pray for us as we meet with these leaders and try to explain to them our Final Goal… a church plant.  If you have any questions, please ask!

That is all for this post!  Here are some other new segments that are coming your way!

• Pieces of Heaven in Peru
  
• Epistles of Joel

Wow, I only have two?  I thought I had more when I started that list!  This is where you come in!  HELP ME!  Give me some ideas about what YOU want to know about my LIFE in PERU that I could do a regular segment about.  I will still be giving you heartfelt entries, so don’t worry I’m not leaving you out of the loop in any way!

Also, look along the right closer to the top of this page and you’ll see the archive for “Things I Love and Don’t Love About Peru” underneath Pages called… Things in Peru!

One more thing!  The story I posted in my last entry got published with Engage Magazine!  Here's the link, if you read the last post you've already read this, but I think it's still noteworthy.

Ketchup!

It’s not very often when you feel your life is impacted in a short matter of time.  There are just those certain events, and I’m sure you all know from your personal stories, when either a person, a lesson, a decision or a mistake seems to alter the way you think.  I feel like someone took a pile of spiritual manure and dumped it over my head this past week.  I guess what I’m trying to tell you is I experienced some intense spiritual growth!
Most of my readers have kept up with this blog and know that every week I have a new class, yes a different class each week.  This past week our class was Spiritual Development of a Missionary… or something along those lines, I’m translating this from Spanish.  Our professor’s name was Jim Lynch.  He is gringo and TALL… very startling sight.  But, honestly I felt a closer connection with him in comparison to the other professors that I’ve had because… well we are both gringo! 
In our class we talked about the importance of prayer, reading the Bible and meditating on it, fasting, healing, and sanctification.  There’s a slight possibility that I may have missed something there, but you’ll forgive me, I don’t have my notes here with me.  One of the things that I learned most about was holiness or the sanctification.  I always thought that holiness was something that only old people could attain or, I’ll say bluntly, was boooooooooring!  I’ve learned quite the contrary, however, that holiness is something that God calls us to.  We read I Kings 8:54-61, you can read it at home too, it was eye opening. 
Later that week we did a study on healing. I normally would have been saying, “Whoa, hold on here!” But, having seen how much I had learned prior to this lesson I was open to hear what the professor had to say.  The thing that resounded in my head above all was that God as never changed, and the God we see in Acts working through the disciples healing broken people can happen all the same today.  We ended up gathering in the back of the room in a circle and the professor asked us if there was anyone in the group who needed healing to step inward and we would pray over them.  We prayed for an hour and a half anointing people within our group.  We know for sure that one person was healed! 
Part of the healing lesson the professor led us through had to do with casting out demons.  Again, God has never changed and he can still do the same work through us.  Well, this past weekend Roy had gone out with Tricia and Lindy and had come across a man who, after hearing about his actions, appeared to be demon-possessed.  I was scared when Roy was telling me about this and I thought… I need to go!  We went out looking for the man, but we couldn’t find him.  I was a bit disappointed, but happy because I answered God’s call and was obedient going out to look for the guy. 
*FLASH FORWARD*
Well, I started this post about a week ago.  But this past week we went to Puno to look for prospective homes.  This is the story of what happened while we were there.  It is posted on the Extreme Nazarene website, but I’ll do you the favor and post it here as well.

We have a praise from the city of Puno!  We recently traveled out to Puno to look for some prospective living places and to get to know the city better.  During some of our free time, we decided to explore the city.  From our explorations, we discovered the most authentic “Punonian” souvenir shop!  Garren and Roy initially discovered it, and then Kristen, Francisca and I met them there.  By the time we had gotten there, Garren, in an attempt to get a discount on a hat, had told the store owner that we were missionaries working in Puno to plant churches.
The store owner, Hector, showed immediate interest and started asking more questions about what we were doing there.  Francisca, being our only native Spanish speaker there, took the opportunity to share more about who we are and what we believe.  Then, she asked him if he was ready to make a decision to give his life to Christ.  There was no hesitation. He immediately said yes as he wiped away tears.  We gathered around him, and Francisca led him through the sinner’s prayer.  Afterward, we were joyful and shared more with him about our Christian walk and tried to feed him spiritually as much as we could in the short time we were there.
I think one of the most amazing things is how he shared how he had been looking for the truth in other religions.  He had gone to Seventh Day Adventist, Mormon, and Living Water churches, but he didn’t find what his heart we looking for there.  He told us that he could feel God’s presence with us.  Then, I think the most amazing thing is that he told us he never has his shop open in the mornings… and that he knew that that day he needed to open his shop.  I told him God had a plan and wanted him to come to him that day!
We gave him the address to the local Nazarene church in Puno, took down his information, and gave it to the Pastor.  Pastor Herman said he would be in contact with him!
We are all blown away with this blessing.  Not only was it awesome to see this man come to Christ, but also to see how God is preparing Puno for us before we are even there!  His hand is working, cultivating the hearts of these people. It is so encouraging to see the evidence.  Praise the Lord!  He is so GOOD!  Keep praying!  The Lord is listening!

It is so true.  The Lord is so good.  I am so excited to see what else He has in store, I know I say that a lot, but how could I not!?  Joel and I are getting along a LOT better.  Today we went out into town and stopped at a restaurant with Kristen and had some Chocolate Fondue.  It was pretty delicious!  So, I’m just excited to be spending quality time with my partner.  Thank you all for your prayers, they are every bit appreciated!

A Leader Is Born

I used to think I was a pretty helpless case.  Watching movies, sometimes I get jealous of the main character or hero or his courage and how he brings his vision to reality.  On the other end of the tube I’d feel weak and foolish imagining myself pushing through the same obstacles.  I never thought I was adequate.

My eyes have been opened to a truth I never thought I would stumble upon.  For so long I had been the follower, just a kid, someone who would find consolation in the shadow of the leader and letting someone else take control.  Over the past couple of weeks I have been seeing a different side of me.  I am surprise, but also am very thrilled to say that I am a leader.

In my interview process of becoming a 40/40 I confess that one of the subjects I was most uncomfortable talking about was my leadership abilities.  I never took on leadership roles in high school or in college.  The only example I could give them of my leadership was a paper that I had to write with two other people my senior year at MVNU (how I delegated power, assumed the leader position etc.).  I think a large part of not considering myself a leader was how I viewed myself.

Since being in Peru I have found myself forced into leadership positions.  During Love Extreme I was thrown into situations having to direct people about the city of Arequipa that I myself had only been accustomed to maybe three weeks more that these short-termers.  One day I had accidentally taken four short-term missionaries out into the mountains about an hour and forty-five minutes away from out Headquarters.  Also, having a pretty decent grasp on Spanish I am often dragged into having to interpret for people. 

After seeing how capable I am of leading after being thrown into similar situations time and time again I’ve been awaken to the concept that I am a leader.  I’ve also noted this when I’m working with my partner.  There are things that I have to iron out in my leadership skills such as control.  I do like to have control and working with a partner is not about having control all the time.  I’ve been working on letting people have some control and not caring what they do with it, but making it their own. 

I am floored at how liberated I feel knowing that I’m a leader.  I feel like I could do anything.  There is nothing to be scared of.  I’m ready to take on about anything.

Attention To the Dreamer

Since I was in junior high I can remember being very intrigued by dreams.  The story of Joseph interpreting the Pharaoh's dreams always stood out to me and made me wonder, how come God doesn’t talk to me in dreams?  I’ve always been a detailed dreamer and when I write out my dreams it takes me a while because I remember a lot of information.  So, about a year ago I went into a Barnes and Nobles Bookstore and found an awesome leather bound journal to record my dreams in.  I remember I had done something similar when I was younger, but I fell out of it.  This happens to be something that occurs with me frequently… that is the falling out of plans, because I started to forget to log my dreams again.

I haven’t had too many dreams that I can remember since being here in Peru, so these past two weeks when I remembered several of my dreams I took notice.  Usually, my dreams don’t really connect with real life.  They may, in a under-the-hood kind of way, be a glimpse into one’s conscience, but these have been dreams that have directly tied into my life.  In one dream I had I bought a car and was driving it around, the next morning my mother sent me an email saying they got a new car!  When I looked it up online I realized it looked a lot like the car I had dreamed of.  Crazy thing is, I remember looking at the odometer in the car and it had 40,000 or so miles on it (I don’t remember the exact number, only that it looked something like 4*,***… does that make sense?)  and when I asked my mom how many miles this car has she said 43,000!  This dream really started to make me pay attention and the next dream I had helped me make a decision about a difficult situation. 

Well, last night I had another dream.  I dreamed that I was being persecuted for doing our mission work in Peru and we were being sent to be executed.  While we were walking I remember thinking how I didn’t want to be a missionary anymore if it meant I was going to die.  I caught myself instantly and knew that I had to be faithful to God and trust in Him.  I remember I was crying and was in hysterics, but I kept telling myself that God wasn’t going to leave me.  I think we escaped, but we ended up getting caught again and then we escaped and then I woke up.  There’s a lot of other details, but that’s the gist. 

I was rather freaked out when I woke up, to say the least, knowing how relevant the others were that I have had recently.  I knew this morning that I needed to write these dreams down in my dream journal (which I so happen to bring with me).  When I sat down to write the down I looked at the last entry… September 22, 2009.  Today is September 21, 2010!  I know it looks like a coincidence, but I think God is really calling me to pay attention to my dreams and this is how.  I never thought I would ask you to pray for me like this and quite honestly I would think I were crazy on the other side of this, but pray that if God is trying to use dreams to talk to me that I would have the ability and wisdom to interpret them correctly.           

The End of a Drought

My friend Kayla sent me a package… I think I mentioned this in the past post too.  Well, she sent me coffee and I forgot that my friend Ashley had given me a Starbucks personal French Press.  This was the whole reason Kayla sent me coffee too!  Well, I’ve been using it like no one’s business.  Here’s a glimpse of my ecstasy:

  

It’s beautiful I know… I weep every time.

On with the serious news though!  We are in the middle of a new class called… Transcultural Relationships and Communication.  We’ve been talking about communication and what it means and also how God communicates with us and why it’s important to communicate transculturally.  So far, class has been interesting… but today really touched my heart in a special way. 

There are some below the surface things that have happened, but to save you the trouble I’ll get to the point.  Cristobal was emphasizing how important it is that we spend a lot of time together with our 40/40 partner… and to be honest, when he was talking I was having an internal battle.  I have not been spending enough time with my partner and I’ve been in denial and stuck in Satan’s lies about the whole matter.  I have had this looming grudge over him for no reason that I could clearly identify.  Towards the end of class I realized how horribly wrong I had been and that I needed to change some of my mindsets.  Here are some lies I was trapped in:

1. We are from two different cultures… I can’t relate to him.
2. My American friends can understand me better
3. He’s too legalistic
4. He is really awkward
5. I JUST CAN’T RELATE WITH HIM!

I didn’t make this list until now, and the truth is I really didn’t even know these were lies that I had circulating in my head, they were more like feelings.  Now that I have them in front of me it’s rather ridiculous to think this is where I was.  I mean, this is one of the things I was most excited for… learning about other cultures! 

After class Cristobal (I failed to mention that he is our professor for the class) told us that we should all talk with our partners.  There is always something to resolve, he said… So, after class I told Joel that I wanted to talk.  We went to the roof of Zamacola and I opened up to him.  I was honest and told him that when Cristobal was saying that we needed to be with our partners more that I didn’t want to hang out with him.  I told him that when I was preparing to meet him that I was excited to meet him and have the great friendship, but what I found was a person from a very different culture.  From our conversation I realized that I had prejudged him.  A lot of these Peruvian guys are very legalistic and because he hung with them I put him in that same slot.  I’ll talk about legalism another time.

It was great to talk to him so openly.  I feel like we made a step in the right decision.  I told him that I want to get to know him more now and that I didn’t want to have to put aside a time specifically to talk… I wanted this relationship to be natural and authentic, nothing superficial. 

Now, I’m on the right track again!  Kudos for Christ!  He loves to work things out.  I should have known.  Other exciting news?  I found measuring spoons aaaaand cups!  Can you believe it?!  I was utterly shocked and have found a piece of my domestic soul in Peru, finally.  We are still not in our new home, we are expecting and hoping to move in by the first of October (a whole two weeks behind schedule).

Also, and I’ll leave you with this, you will note that along the top right hand side of my blog there is a Link that says, “Needs in Peru.”  This portion of my blog is where my supporters/readers/family/friends can check out my needs while I’m here in Peru, whether it be clothing or snacks… not that snacks are a “need” but there are things that are hard to find in Peru and well… you should just click on the link there and it will explain further! 

Push!

Sometimes, pushing yourself to go to work can be so hard.  I remember when I was working at Bob Evan’s in the states as a server and absolutely dreading the drive to work.  I knew in my head, however, that I was going to be fine and I would be with all my friends and I’d end up having a good night at work, though I can’t say the tips ever made my night I would walk out of the restaurant with a smile. 

After not having to really work for some time now, and I mean real work other than just going to class with friends, I found I’ve gotten a little lazy.  Uh-oh!  Wednesday our pastor at Umacollo church told my partner and I to meet him at Parque el Catolica to get on a bus to go to Paucarpata for our first cell group.  He also invited us last week, but things came up and we couldn’t go.  The truth… I was relieved last week that we didn’t have to go.

Let me briefly explain what the cell groups are.  These are practically our church plants.  A plant starts out with a cell group that we work with through discipleship lessons and baptism then through membership classes.  This is the Level 1 of church plants.  Level two is 12 or more people meeting in a designated place once a week and then Level 3 is 30 people, but there’s more regulations that I’m not 100% sure of so I’m not going to try to expand upon that.  But essentially Level 2 is our goal and 3 is our ULTIMATE goal.  Level 3 is a immature church but more a church nonetheless. 

This past Wednesday, when I heard we were going out to Paucarpata I was not excited to say the least.  It’s about an hour and a half bus trip to the other side of the city.  I started getting frustrated with myself for being so negative and by the time class was over that day I was somewhat happy to be going out to see Saul. 

The more I write the more I realize I have to explain!  Saul is a 20 yr old guy who has come to Umacollo church several times and we’ve run into at the Plaza de Armas as well.  He went to one of the churches first retreats and gave his life to Christ.  He was really excited about it.  Well, he is the one person that we have in our cell group in Paucarpata… he is our main focus.

So, we end up leaving Zamacola, (our residence) an hour and a half late… that’s another story, and pick up Pastor Genaro at Pq la Catolica.  We travel out to Paurcarpata and end up meeting Saul right when we hop off the bus.  I don’t think that we had ever set up a time with him to meet him anywhere that day so I thought that was pretty amazing. 

From the people that I’ve talked to about this whole mess that this became, I’ve found out that when Saul made his initial decision to come to Christ at the retreat he was very very excited.  His parents are not supportive at all about his decision and being so far from the church he has no daily support spiritually.  We couldn’t meet with him in his house so we went to a dark cold park to talk where he shared with us his doubts and worries about his decision.  The pastor was giving him a watered-down talk about our spiritual walks and tried encouraging him by telling him after the storm comes the “good.”  I didn’t really feel like he was talking to him from the heart…

An hour and an half later we are on the bus coming back home and Genaro tells us that there are people like this when they make their initial decision and that we (Joel and I) should come to his cell group in Gustamante with his wife.  When I asked him what we were going to do with Saul he said that since we have his e-mail address then we can send him encouraging messages and pray for him… I believe he worded this… “Well, we can just pray for him.”  This was only the second time that he had visited Saul.  I was perplexed that he was so quick to let him go and leave him by himself.  I felt the Holy Spirit telling me that we needed to push to continue visiting Saul.  Joel was thinking the same thing, I found out later.

This is where I am right now.  This Sunday I’m going to be talking with the Pastor.  The other cell group he wants us to get involved now is the largest cell group the church has running and is also being lead by leaders in the church already.  Please pray as I talk to him and try to tell him that we believe there is much more need to stay in touch with Saul.  Even though it doesn’t matter what the pastor says and I can certainly continue to have a personal relationship with Saul, I would like however, for this to be my main concentration.

My friend Kayla sent me a package… it was so nice.  It is the first package I have recieved since being here, which happens to be a hard thing watching other people get packages allllll theeee tiiiiiiime!  Here’s something special she sent!

¡Loco por Panorámicos!

Well, it’s Saturday and I’m sure all of you at home would love to smack me in the face for saying this, but I’m bored.  I’m sitting on Roy’s bed sipping on my Altomayo Instant Coffee.  This stuff is a lot better than the previous “cup of coffee” I displayed months ago (it deserves placement between quotation marks as I really wouldn’t ever don it as anything resembling coffee).  But, I wanted to put up this post with some panoramic photos that I took today.  The first one here is from the rooftop of the church building where I’m living.

 
This is our classroom.  It is really rather large.  The floor is also just as slippery as it looks.  I have taken a spill or two here on this ice-rink.  We just finished our second class of the fourteen that we have to take.  The grading system in Peru is a little strange, as I’ve found out.  The grading scale is based on a scale from 1 to 20.  And that’s it.  Well, the final for our last class, Biblical Basis on Missions, was a shared test.  Each of us worked with our partners.  Joel and I scored an 18.  The highest score was Kayley(sp?) and her partner Ester with 19.  I’m super proud of Joel and myself for taking second place!

This is our dining hall!  It’s really too small for all of us.  When there are no seats for all of us at the tables along the right that you see some spill over into the chairs and sofas to eat.  This is also where all of our internet surfing happens if we don’t want to be in our rooms.  Also, this happens to act as our entertainment room where we watch movies together.  So, I suppose this is more like our Dining/Study/Move Watching Hall.

Here’s the guys room.  On the far right you’ll notice there are three levels to the beds.  Count carefully, it looks like there’s only two.  I sleep on the top third bunk on this very far right set of beds.  Roy and Jeremias got lucky and only share a double-decker.  Sadly, Roy’s bed gets invaded a lot by vagabond Peruvians and North Americans alike.  It’s very often you walk into the room and find someone who is not Roy sitting or laying on his bed.  I, of course, asked permission to be here, so I’m cool. 

You know, that’s all the panoramic pictures that I have for now.  I guess I can give you a bit of a glimpse into how this week went.  As I said we just finished our second class and that’s pretty much all this week consisted of.  We had two presentations for this class, one where we had to read a book about a missionary and the other on a biblical theme.  The presentations are done with our partners so Joel and I did a presentation on Richard Anderson, who did mission work in Guatemala in the early 1900’s, and then our theme presentation was Repentance.  All of our presentations went well, but I’m quickly realizing just how different I am from my partner.  It’s all a cultural thing.  I love him, I think he’s great, but there are things that they laugh at and I’m left thinking… seriously?  That’s funny?  I’m praying about this a lot.  I hope you would as well.  I want to be able to connect with my partner and for me connecting with people hugely depends on humor.  That sounds silly that I’m upset that I can’t kid around with my partner, I suppose, but it’s more than just joking around, rather I need to make a connection and relate to him.  I’m hoping that maybe doing Bible studies with him in the morning will help.  Please pray.

Other than that, everything is great.  Friendships are flourishing and I’m not out of control maintaining them.  God is teaching me so much.  I’m excited to see what this next week brings.  We are starting our next class Monday, Strategies for Biblical Studies.  Catch ya next week.