Alrighty, here is the second try at this. Internet has been acting weird lately here in Coracora.
The summer is quickly coming to an end, I can't believe it is already here. We only have 4 days left in our village and 11 days left in all in Peru. The summer has just flown by so fast.
So this past week has been great. We have been informing everyone of when we would leave and have been saying good-byes to people and taking tons of photos. We went to a bullfight in Chumpi for two days. It was absolutely amazing and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I got to meet some professional matadors and got to talk with them for a good while. They even let me come with them to the ring for their introduction and I stood to the side taking photos. We met one of the professionals here in Coracora one night while at the Pizzaria and he remembered me when we saw him in Chumpi.
Katya (a woman that we have been discipling here in Coracora) was able to hook us up with some seats with her friends in Chumpi and we just had a grand time. The second day we went, the matador I knew was able to hook me up with two banderillas and a Peruvian pin type of thing that they tie to the tails of the bulls. I felt pretty special because the people we were sitting with kept telling me that I would not get more than one banderilla, which I would have been fine with because there was a place outside of the ring where I could buy one to match the one I would get. But I ended up getting two anyway and it was really awesome. And the matadors, during a break would always come over and start talking to me and the people we were with. It was pretty awesome.
After the bull fight, we headed back down to the ring and a ton of people wanted to take pictures with us and interview us and even the matadors wanted to take pictures with us. It was pretty awesome! The matador I knew, let me use his cape and his gorro (the hat) to take a picture and I enjoyed it thorougly. As we were leaving, people would come up to us and start video taping us and asking us questions and a man came up with his voice recorder and started interviewing us and we sent him straight to Allen because none of us could understand him at all. I felt like I was someone famous in Hollywood with paparazzi all around. It was insane, the amount of people we were surrounded by.
Okay so back to everyday life. We have been holding Bible studies almost everyday and it has been awesome! This past week, we have had to Bible studies twice a day because people weren't able to make it to the early one but could make it to a later one and people couldn't make it to the later one but could make it to the earlier one. So all that to say that we just started doing two in the early afternoon and then later afternoon.
At a Bible study at Katya's house, we saw her friend/maid/sister (not exactly sure who she is towards Katya) come to know Christ, her name is Nelly. It was amazing how God moved so quickly during that time. As we were having Bible study, you can just see her face change and show how much in need she was and she asked a ton of questions about how would she be able to recognize Christ when she saw Him and other very deep questions and then she told us that she wanted to accept Christ, it was amazing! We gave her a Bible that day, it was so moving and just pumped us up so much! We had a Bible study the next day at Katya's house again and she was there and had even more questions from what we were reading out of. I must say that I love Nelly a lot and I am praying that there will be someone to disciple her after we leave.
During the early afternoon we have been having Bible study with Flor and that has been going great, she has actually been reading her Bible and one night she wanted to lead us in the closing prayer. Wow, does that not sound Baptist or not. She prayed and thank God for us and for how much we have impacted her life and the witness that we have brought. Saying bye to Flor is going to be so hard because I have just been reaching out to her this whole summer in love and wanting to see her come to know the Lord. This brings me to tears just writing that out and thinking about how she prayed over us and was so thankful for the witness we have had on her. Honestly, if Flor isn't already saved she is sure close to accepting Christ. Earlier this summer, she told us that she doesn't read the Bible and now she is coming to all our Bible studies and is reading the Bible while she is at home and it has just been awesome!
Here is a HUGE prayer request. Yesterday when we were leaving our hostel for church, we ran into a guy who stopped us and asked us what we were doing here. We begin to talk to him and tell him that we were Christian missionaries. Well he didn't seem to agree to that so we started talking to him and found out that he doesn't believe in God. Allen asked him what would happen to his spirit when he dies and he believes that his spirit will just wonder around the earth. Allen started talking to him about hell and heaven and the Bible and he just disagreed with everything we had to say. His name is Treveña, please keep him in your prayers. Pray that we had some sort of impact during the 30 minutes that we got to talk to him. He seemed to like us a lot and said it was very nice to meet us but he just didn't agree with what we had to say about God. My heart is really breaking my heart for him.
Also please pray for these next 4 days and for our trip from Coracora to Lima. It is going to be a 19 hour bus ride and I am not too excited about it. For the first 10 and a half hours, we will be on mountain roads and it takes a huge toll on my stomach. That is the trip from Coracora to Nazca. After Nazca, the road is flat and straight all the way to Lima. Pray for our safety, after Greg's death I have been really nervous about traveling on these mountain roads. Especially since the drivers like to drive as close to the edge as possible.
Thank you all for your prayers during this whole summer. I will be definitely updating this at least one more time before I get back to the States so keep your eyes opened!!! I love you all, I truly do and I am so thankful for your support!
Coracora
My City!!!
Monday, July 21, 2008
Saturday, July 12, 2008
A Calling Home
Okay so this past week has just been so hectic...In fact, I just don't even know where to begin. I am sitting here in just stupidity not knowing where to start. Okay...
So we were suppose to receive the Creative Ministry Team in Coracora on July 5th but there was bus was so late arriving to Nazca that we didn't see them until 8:30 a.m. the next morning. But back to the night of July 5th. Albee and I decided to wait in the plaza for the CMT's arrival while the Ben and Allen led a Bible study back in our hostel. But before Bible study started the guys waited for the Popular Grove team from Tennessee and brought them to the plaza to meet us while we waited for CMT. Meeting Walt, Tammy, and Greg was so awesome! They were all so cool...While waiting in the plaza, I decided that I needed to go eat a dinner. So Albee and I went to a Hamburgesa stand and I ordered me one hamburger and french fries and a coke. After eating, we went back to our hostel and grabbed a couple of alpacha blankets because it was getting to the point of freezing in the plaza. We went back to the plaza and some kids started talking with us and then they just start running through the garden picking flowers of all sorts and giving them to us. Albee and I have no idea what to do, we just sit there and say thank you as they bring us flower upon flower. Well Albee decides that maybe we can start giving the flowers back to the kids, so we start handing the flowers back. Next thing we know, the kids start ripping the flowers apart and begin showering us with the flowers. There are flowers and peddles everywhere on us. We get up to shake it all off and the kids start chasing us with peddles and pine needles and whatever else they can find. At this point, Albee and I decided the best thing to do is probably leave the plaza for a few minutes. When we come back all the kids are gone but the plaza is now a mess with flower pieces and peddles and it was just a hilarious time.
Well 9:00 p.m. comes around and the guys finally come back to the plaza and Albee and I head to bed. At this time, I start feeling really sick to my stomach for some reason. Not sure why but I am feeling super sick to my stomach. So I decided instead of trying to wait it out for the 10:00 bus from Puquio, I need to get in the bed and try to sleep. At about 3:30 in the morning, I just start throwing up. I think that I got food poisoning from the hamburgesa stand, I don't think she deep fried my hamburger enough. I only threw up for about 5 minutes and I tried to catch me some sleep thinking that it was all over. At about 8:15, I woke up feeling sick again and it ended up being diarreha. All day, I either layed in my bed or was on the toilet. I even took medicine for nausea and all it did was send it out the other way. It was not a good day at all.
Besides being super sick on July 6th, we also found out that day about a summer missionary here in Peru that was killed in a car accident. It hurts a lot to think about but Greg's death has brought us all a much deeper passion to see God's kingdom come here in Peru. We have a much deeper purpose now, time is so short. I am definitely learning that serving the Lord comes with a price, whether it be time, or health, or even my own life. I am serving the Lord wholeheartedly! Greg had just graduated with an engineering degree from Ole Miss and had a great job awaiting his returnal from Peru. In fact, we found out at mid-summer about him passing his final test to become an engineer. It is all just crazy, I met Greg at LTC and then we talked a good bit at Orientation and at mid-summer debriefing. There were two other missionaries in the wreck, Lydia from Georgia and Claudia from Peru, but they are both very good. The team was about 3 hours outside of Cuzco looking for villages to do demographics for and to research about to try and find State side partners to sponsor those villages for future missionaries. The driver of the vehicle lost control and ran into an embankment. Both girls are good and were both stable enough to be flown back to Lima to be checked up on there. I can't imagine how hard it must be for them, please keep them in your prayers during this time. I am sure that they are having their ups and downs with this. On the day of the 6th, the CMT and I spent the morning sleeping while the Popular Grove team and Allen, Ben, and Albee went to church that morning. In the afternoon, Allen took the teams to the orphanage and the CMT did a presentation there. I am not sure how things turned out there because I was stuck in the bed all day.
Also we found out on the 7th that there was going to be a huge worker´s/bus strike beginning on the 9th. The Popular Grove team and two of the girls from CMT were told that they needed to leave that day to get back to Lima before the strike begin. So Walt and the Team and Beth and Elza from CMT left Coracora about 2:00p.m. to head for Nazca and then to Lima the next day. We begin to wonder what the rest of the CMT would need to do but they were still missing one member who went to visit his old village for a day. They could not leave Coracora without the guy, so they contacted Mike and Mike told them that they needed to stay in Coracora until they called Mike again and asked if it was safe for them to leave. On the 7th, we took the Popular Grove Team and the CMT to a technical school in the morning. This was the only school meeting with all the strike talk going on. The CMT performed a skit and we did some music and then Tommy from CMT shared a message. We saw a lot of people raise their hands to accept Christ, just pray that their decision is genuine and that our team here in Coracora will be able to disciple these people within the next two weeks.
We started seeing some strike action on the day of the 8th, but it wasn't dangerous enough to keep us from being out in the city yet. With the CMT, we held two events in the plazas on the day of the 8th and it was lots of fun. Didn't seem like any strike action going on, there was a lot of people there in the plaza. The strike just made Coracora seem very dead, every store was closed and there was no place opened selling anything unless they sold through the bars on the door. It was really interesting. We saw our picarones lady come to know the Lord and that was amazing! We saw several older adults accept Christ and many children to raise their hands to accept Christ. Pray that these people are also genuine too and that we will be able to disciple them within the next two weeks also. We also held a Bible study this night in two groups. One with 4 kids and the other with 3 adults. The kids told us about a tremor in Coracora at 4:00 in the morning. I pretty much slept right through the tremor and am definitely sad.
So, to the day of the 9th. The huge strike day. The whole city was dead besides those screaming up and down the streets about whatever they were screaming about. I am not exactly sure who they were screaming at either. We are about 19 hours away from Lima and the only thing that is hearing these people are the mountains. We don't quite understand the point in having a strike if nothing is changed and the person you are striking at can't even hear you. On this day we decided to take the CMT to they Hot Springs to get away from the city and how dangerous it could be. About halfway there, Katherine (from CMT) and I turned around and came back to the city. Neither of us were feeling really well. I had still not gained back energy from the day of stomach bug and Kat was sick with a cold. We came back to the hostel and hung out with Nick (from CMT), who was sick, and Ben who was starting to get a sore throat so didn't want to try and push himself to get to the hot springs. We had a grand time napping and watching the strikers and just hanging around talking. We also found out this day that a huge earthquake (like a 6.2) had hit Arequipa and the tremors that hit Coracora yesterday morning was the effects of that earthquake. On the afternoon of the 9th, we took the CMT back to the orphanage to hangout with the kids and it was just a grand time. I was so glad that I got to join them this time. On the way there we saw how crazy the strike really was. The roads were filled with huge bolders blocking the roads and they were everywhere.
On the 10th, we all kinda slept in and the CMT spent their morning packing stuff up. The team should have left yesterday but there was no way with how strong the strike was. We heard that it was way to dangerous to even try and travel on the Pan-American highway because there would be strikers everywhere, throwing rocks and bottles through the windows of any vehicles traveling on the road and putting rocks in strategous places to cause a vehicle to run off the side of the mountain. People just get crazy here during strike time. Thankfully though, the strike ended at about midnight and that was also when all the rocks and glass were being removed from the roads. Albee and I ate lunch with the girls from CMT and Ben and Allen ate lunch with the boys from the CMT. It was a great time just being able to talk to them and being able to converse with other girls. All three of the girls are absolutely amazing! They left on a Sanchez bus at 3:00 and I was sad to see them leave because they have all encouraged me so much in my walk and in my ministry.
Now, we literally only have 14 days left here in Coracora before heading back to Lima and that is just crazy to me. The time has flown by so fast and I cannot believe that we are starting to have to wrap things up. Just pray that our focus remains here on Coracora for these next 14 days. I am definitely afraid that I am going to lose focus as the time grows nearer. I am so sad to be leaving this place but at the same time I am so ready to get home and see my family and my dog and get back to Miss. State and see all of my friends and eat more food than rice and chicken and bisteck everyday. Pray for a leader to become apparent to us within these next two weeks. We are praying for someone that we can leave behind in this community and that will continue the mission and continue Bible studies.
So we were suppose to receive the Creative Ministry Team in Coracora on July 5th but there was bus was so late arriving to Nazca that we didn't see them until 8:30 a.m. the next morning. But back to the night of July 5th. Albee and I decided to wait in the plaza for the CMT's arrival while the Ben and Allen led a Bible study back in our hostel. But before Bible study started the guys waited for the Popular Grove team from Tennessee and brought them to the plaza to meet us while we waited for CMT. Meeting Walt, Tammy, and Greg was so awesome! They were all so cool...While waiting in the plaza, I decided that I needed to go eat a dinner. So Albee and I went to a Hamburgesa stand and I ordered me one hamburger and french fries and a coke. After eating, we went back to our hostel and grabbed a couple of alpacha blankets because it was getting to the point of freezing in the plaza. We went back to the plaza and some kids started talking with us and then they just start running through the garden picking flowers of all sorts and giving them to us. Albee and I have no idea what to do, we just sit there and say thank you as they bring us flower upon flower. Well Albee decides that maybe we can start giving the flowers back to the kids, so we start handing the flowers back. Next thing we know, the kids start ripping the flowers apart and begin showering us with the flowers. There are flowers and peddles everywhere on us. We get up to shake it all off and the kids start chasing us with peddles and pine needles and whatever else they can find. At this point, Albee and I decided the best thing to do is probably leave the plaza for a few minutes. When we come back all the kids are gone but the plaza is now a mess with flower pieces and peddles and it was just a hilarious time.
Well 9:00 p.m. comes around and the guys finally come back to the plaza and Albee and I head to bed. At this time, I start feeling really sick to my stomach for some reason. Not sure why but I am feeling super sick to my stomach. So I decided instead of trying to wait it out for the 10:00 bus from Puquio, I need to get in the bed and try to sleep. At about 3:30 in the morning, I just start throwing up. I think that I got food poisoning from the hamburgesa stand, I don't think she deep fried my hamburger enough. I only threw up for about 5 minutes and I tried to catch me some sleep thinking that it was all over. At about 8:15, I woke up feeling sick again and it ended up being diarreha. All day, I either layed in my bed or was on the toilet. I even took medicine for nausea and all it did was send it out the other way. It was not a good day at all.
Besides being super sick on July 6th, we also found out that day about a summer missionary here in Peru that was killed in a car accident. It hurts a lot to think about but Greg's death has brought us all a much deeper passion to see God's kingdom come here in Peru. We have a much deeper purpose now, time is so short. I am definitely learning that serving the Lord comes with a price, whether it be time, or health, or even my own life. I am serving the Lord wholeheartedly! Greg had just graduated with an engineering degree from Ole Miss and had a great job awaiting his returnal from Peru. In fact, we found out at mid-summer about him passing his final test to become an engineer. It is all just crazy, I met Greg at LTC and then we talked a good bit at Orientation and at mid-summer debriefing. There were two other missionaries in the wreck, Lydia from Georgia and Claudia from Peru, but they are both very good. The team was about 3 hours outside of Cuzco looking for villages to do demographics for and to research about to try and find State side partners to sponsor those villages for future missionaries. The driver of the vehicle lost control and ran into an embankment. Both girls are good and were both stable enough to be flown back to Lima to be checked up on there. I can't imagine how hard it must be for them, please keep them in your prayers during this time. I am sure that they are having their ups and downs with this. On the day of the 6th, the CMT and I spent the morning sleeping while the Popular Grove team and Allen, Ben, and Albee went to church that morning. In the afternoon, Allen took the teams to the orphanage and the CMT did a presentation there. I am not sure how things turned out there because I was stuck in the bed all day.
Also we found out on the 7th that there was going to be a huge worker´s/bus strike beginning on the 9th. The Popular Grove team and two of the girls from CMT were told that they needed to leave that day to get back to Lima before the strike begin. So Walt and the Team and Beth and Elza from CMT left Coracora about 2:00p.m. to head for Nazca and then to Lima the next day. We begin to wonder what the rest of the CMT would need to do but they were still missing one member who went to visit his old village for a day. They could not leave Coracora without the guy, so they contacted Mike and Mike told them that they needed to stay in Coracora until they called Mike again and asked if it was safe for them to leave. On the 7th, we took the Popular Grove Team and the CMT to a technical school in the morning. This was the only school meeting with all the strike talk going on. The CMT performed a skit and we did some music and then Tommy from CMT shared a message. We saw a lot of people raise their hands to accept Christ, just pray that their decision is genuine and that our team here in Coracora will be able to disciple these people within the next two weeks.
We started seeing some strike action on the day of the 8th, but it wasn't dangerous enough to keep us from being out in the city yet. With the CMT, we held two events in the plazas on the day of the 8th and it was lots of fun. Didn't seem like any strike action going on, there was a lot of people there in the plaza. The strike just made Coracora seem very dead, every store was closed and there was no place opened selling anything unless they sold through the bars on the door. It was really interesting. We saw our picarones lady come to know the Lord and that was amazing! We saw several older adults accept Christ and many children to raise their hands to accept Christ. Pray that these people are also genuine too and that we will be able to disciple them within the next two weeks also. We also held a Bible study this night in two groups. One with 4 kids and the other with 3 adults. The kids told us about a tremor in Coracora at 4:00 in the morning. I pretty much slept right through the tremor and am definitely sad.
So, to the day of the 9th. The huge strike day. The whole city was dead besides those screaming up and down the streets about whatever they were screaming about. I am not exactly sure who they were screaming at either. We are about 19 hours away from Lima and the only thing that is hearing these people are the mountains. We don't quite understand the point in having a strike if nothing is changed and the person you are striking at can't even hear you. On this day we decided to take the CMT to they Hot Springs to get away from the city and how dangerous it could be. About halfway there, Katherine (from CMT) and I turned around and came back to the city. Neither of us were feeling really well. I had still not gained back energy from the day of stomach bug and Kat was sick with a cold. We came back to the hostel and hung out with Nick (from CMT), who was sick, and Ben who was starting to get a sore throat so didn't want to try and push himself to get to the hot springs. We had a grand time napping and watching the strikers and just hanging around talking. We also found out this day that a huge earthquake (like a 6.2) had hit Arequipa and the tremors that hit Coracora yesterday morning was the effects of that earthquake. On the afternoon of the 9th, we took the CMT back to the orphanage to hangout with the kids and it was just a grand time. I was so glad that I got to join them this time. On the way there we saw how crazy the strike really was. The roads were filled with huge bolders blocking the roads and they were everywhere.
On the 10th, we all kinda slept in and the CMT spent their morning packing stuff up. The team should have left yesterday but there was no way with how strong the strike was. We heard that it was way to dangerous to even try and travel on the Pan-American highway because there would be strikers everywhere, throwing rocks and bottles through the windows of any vehicles traveling on the road and putting rocks in strategous places to cause a vehicle to run off the side of the mountain. People just get crazy here during strike time. Thankfully though, the strike ended at about midnight and that was also when all the rocks and glass were being removed from the roads. Albee and I ate lunch with the girls from CMT and Ben and Allen ate lunch with the boys from the CMT. It was a great time just being able to talk to them and being able to converse with other girls. All three of the girls are absolutely amazing! They left on a Sanchez bus at 3:00 and I was sad to see them leave because they have all encouraged me so much in my walk and in my ministry.
Now, we literally only have 14 days left here in Coracora before heading back to Lima and that is just crazy to me. The time has flown by so fast and I cannot believe that we are starting to have to wrap things up. Just pray that our focus remains here on Coracora for these next 14 days. I am definitely afraid that I am going to lose focus as the time grows nearer. I am so sad to be leaving this place but at the same time I am so ready to get home and see my family and my dog and get back to Miss. State and see all of my friends and eat more food than rice and chicken and bisteck everyday. Pray for a leader to become apparent to us within these next two weeks. We are praying for someone that we can leave behind in this community and that will continue the mission and continue Bible studies.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Happy 4th of July
Nazca was amazing, I didn´t get to see the Nazca lines though. But it was an amazing time with everyone. We stayed in a nice hotel, Hotel Alegria, that had heaters and fans and a swimming pool and it was just a fantastic time. The time with everyone was amazing and very encouraging. God definitely opened up my eyes to more things and our purpose here in Coracora is now more known because of other teams testimonies and hearing stories of what everyone has been doing. Before Nazca, we had just been trying to become one with these people and planting seeds and having Bible studies. Now after Nazca, we are praying for the harvest and are preaching more of salvation. We have a different purpose now.
The trip back from Nazca was very interesting and definitely an experience I will never forget. We were the last team to arrive in Nazca and one of the first to leave. We left Nazca on the night of the 30th at about 11:30 at night (our bus was suppose to leave at 9:00 but didn´t show up until 11:00) and arrived in Puquio at about 3:00 a.m....We then found out that nothing would run to Coracora until about 5:00 a.m., so we went inside the bus stop and waited. I slept on the floor on top of Ben´s poncho, it was still freezing cold though. Then at 5:00, we found a taxi that would take us to Coracora and it cost us 200 (that is 50 a piece) soles to go. The price was super high but we just didn´t care enough to argue him down.
On the road, we needed to make a restroom break but there are not really any cities between Puquio and Coracora so we pulled over on the side of the mountain and found bushes/rocks to hide behind and go to the bathroom. As I was climbing to a good hiding place, I stuck my hand on a cactus. Thankfully, I had my gloves on and only had two pieces of cactus stuck in my hand. Needless to say though, I had to jerk the pieces of cactus out. It was not a pleasant feeling and you can still see the dots on my hand where they poked me. They landed right in a muscle, it is still very tender but nothing that is unbearable.
Okay, so we arrived back to Coracora at about 9:00 in the morning and me with my upset stomach and Albee who had been throwing up all night, head straight to bed. I slept all day, I woke up at about 1:00 in the afternoon, ate a few crackers and some potato chips to keep something on my stomach and fell back asleep at about 1:30. I woke back up at about 6:00 and decided that I needed to try and eat a dinner if I could. I go knock on the guys' door to see if they want to go eat but they didn't answer. I just head downstairs but no restaurants were opened so I ran to a grocery store and bought some yogurt and cereal and a gatorade. I get back up to the room and eat a little and then the guys come and knock on my door about dinner. They had just gotten back from a bull fight in another small city. They said it was pretty cool and stuff and they got some good pictures. We are going to go to a bullfight later in July as a team that is hopefully going to be better than the one that they went to.
We were suppose to head up to a volcano before the Creative Ministry Team and the Popular Grove team comes to Coracora but I had a very deep conviction about leaving right before they come and not being here to prepare the way for them. So we have moved our trip to after they leave. We have had a lot of chances since staying here to do a lot of outreach and let people know of our plans. We have also ran into a couple of roadblocks that we are hoping will fall before the teams get here. Both teams will arrive in Coracora tomorrow afternoon and will stay until the 5th so pray for them as they come to us. We are praying for safe travels and that God will move beyond compare as they bring the message of salvation to these people.
(This three paragraphs below were added July 5th)
We started our first Bible study in our hostel on Thursday and it went great. Pray for Albee and my neighbor, we invited him to our Bible study but he denied the offer because he is agnostic and doesn't believe in God. Pray for our ministry with him in the very short time that he is in Coracora. We had our second Bible study last night on John and invited Flor the English teacher in Santa Maria and Andres the English teacher running around Coracora trying to find people to teach English to. It was good and Flor had some good questions and Andres had some good words of wisdom. We also gave Flor a bilingual Bible last night so we are hoping that it comes into good use. She leaves Coracora come July 27th so we are praying for an impact with her before we leave.
We celebrated the 4th of July with fried chicken, french fries, and cokes. We then found a place here in Coracora that sold firecrackers and bottle rockets so we bought a few to celebrate on the roof with. We found out that we weren't the only ones celebrating, we heard some firecrakers going off in another place too but there is also a couple here from Illinois that is heading back to the States tomorrow and headed back to Lima today! It was cool running into them in the internet cafe. Pray for Allen, as we were celebrating on the roof with fireworks he accidently stepped on a board with a nail in it and it went into his foot. We cleaned it out pretty good but his foot swole up today and is causing some nerves in his neck to start hurting. So we have him walking with a stick and are using water to try and ice his foot since the water is very cold here. The hole isn't deep but it is very painful.
We are expecting both the Creative Ministry Team and the Popular Grove Team today so pray for their safety as they come to us and pray for their safety as they leave us. We are all very excited about their arrival. Pray that, that excitement doesn't leave once they leave! I am so ready for them to be here but I don't want to fall out of that excitement once they leave and fall back into a complacent just living in the city situation so pray that our ministry doesn't stop after they leave.
(This next part was written on July 4th)
We will be leaving the 10th of July for Sarasara (the volcano) and will be spending a day in a city and then heading up to the crater on the 11th. The crater is about 16,000ft up so pray for that because it is going to be a challenge getting up there and not being short of breath. Then we will come down a little ways to about 10,000ft and spend the night on the mountain and head back down to the city on the 12th. We will then be doing some ministry in the city and talking to some of Yulber´s friends about Christ. Pray for that: pray that we will not be worn out completely from the trip, that we will get a good nights sleep on the mountain, and that none of us will run into physical barriers going up. We will have a few donkeys to go on, so some of us will be riding donkeys and the rest will be hiking. It is going to be lovely. But I am very excited about our trip up! It is going to be great and I can't for the views. This is a once in a lifetime chance and I am so excited about being able to do it. Just pray for safety!
Oh Happy 4th of July everyone! I hope it is a great one for you all!
The trip back from Nazca was very interesting and definitely an experience I will never forget. We were the last team to arrive in Nazca and one of the first to leave. We left Nazca on the night of the 30th at about 11:30 at night (our bus was suppose to leave at 9:00 but didn´t show up until 11:00) and arrived in Puquio at about 3:00 a.m....We then found out that nothing would run to Coracora until about 5:00 a.m., so we went inside the bus stop and waited. I slept on the floor on top of Ben´s poncho, it was still freezing cold though. Then at 5:00, we found a taxi that would take us to Coracora and it cost us 200 (that is 50 a piece) soles to go. The price was super high but we just didn´t care enough to argue him down.
On the road, we needed to make a restroom break but there are not really any cities between Puquio and Coracora so we pulled over on the side of the mountain and found bushes/rocks to hide behind and go to the bathroom. As I was climbing to a good hiding place, I stuck my hand on a cactus. Thankfully, I had my gloves on and only had two pieces of cactus stuck in my hand. Needless to say though, I had to jerk the pieces of cactus out. It was not a pleasant feeling and you can still see the dots on my hand where they poked me. They landed right in a muscle, it is still very tender but nothing that is unbearable.
Okay, so we arrived back to Coracora at about 9:00 in the morning and me with my upset stomach and Albee who had been throwing up all night, head straight to bed. I slept all day, I woke up at about 1:00 in the afternoon, ate a few crackers and some potato chips to keep something on my stomach and fell back asleep at about 1:30. I woke back up at about 6:00 and decided that I needed to try and eat a dinner if I could. I go knock on the guys' door to see if they want to go eat but they didn't answer. I just head downstairs but no restaurants were opened so I ran to a grocery store and bought some yogurt and cereal and a gatorade. I get back up to the room and eat a little and then the guys come and knock on my door about dinner. They had just gotten back from a bull fight in another small city. They said it was pretty cool and stuff and they got some good pictures. We are going to go to a bullfight later in July as a team that is hopefully going to be better than the one that they went to.
We were suppose to head up to a volcano before the Creative Ministry Team and the Popular Grove team comes to Coracora but I had a very deep conviction about leaving right before they come and not being here to prepare the way for them. So we have moved our trip to after they leave. We have had a lot of chances since staying here to do a lot of outreach and let people know of our plans. We have also ran into a couple of roadblocks that we are hoping will fall before the teams get here. Both teams will arrive in Coracora tomorrow afternoon and will stay until the 5th so pray for them as they come to us. We are praying for safe travels and that God will move beyond compare as they bring the message of salvation to these people.
(This three paragraphs below were added July 5th)
We started our first Bible study in our hostel on Thursday and it went great. Pray for Albee and my neighbor, we invited him to our Bible study but he denied the offer because he is agnostic and doesn't believe in God. Pray for our ministry with him in the very short time that he is in Coracora. We had our second Bible study last night on John and invited Flor the English teacher in Santa Maria and Andres the English teacher running around Coracora trying to find people to teach English to. It was good and Flor had some good questions and Andres had some good words of wisdom. We also gave Flor a bilingual Bible last night so we are hoping that it comes into good use. She leaves Coracora come July 27th so we are praying for an impact with her before we leave.
We celebrated the 4th of July with fried chicken, french fries, and cokes. We then found a place here in Coracora that sold firecrackers and bottle rockets so we bought a few to celebrate on the roof with. We found out that we weren't the only ones celebrating, we heard some firecrakers going off in another place too but there is also a couple here from Illinois that is heading back to the States tomorrow and headed back to Lima today! It was cool running into them in the internet cafe. Pray for Allen, as we were celebrating on the roof with fireworks he accidently stepped on a board with a nail in it and it went into his foot. We cleaned it out pretty good but his foot swole up today and is causing some nerves in his neck to start hurting. So we have him walking with a stick and are using water to try and ice his foot since the water is very cold here. The hole isn't deep but it is very painful.
We are expecting both the Creative Ministry Team and the Popular Grove Team today so pray for their safety as they come to us and pray for their safety as they leave us. We are all very excited about their arrival. Pray that, that excitement doesn't leave once they leave! I am so ready for them to be here but I don't want to fall out of that excitement once they leave and fall back into a complacent just living in the city situation so pray that our ministry doesn't stop after they leave.
(This next part was written on July 4th)
We will be leaving the 10th of July for Sarasara (the volcano) and will be spending a day in a city and then heading up to the crater on the 11th. The crater is about 16,000ft up so pray for that because it is going to be a challenge getting up there and not being short of breath. Then we will come down a little ways to about 10,000ft and spend the night on the mountain and head back down to the city on the 12th. We will then be doing some ministry in the city and talking to some of Yulber´s friends about Christ. Pray for that: pray that we will not be worn out completely from the trip, that we will get a good nights sleep on the mountain, and that none of us will run into physical barriers going up. We will have a few donkeys to go on, so some of us will be riding donkeys and the rest will be hiking. It is going to be lovely. But I am very excited about our trip up! It is going to be great and I can't for the views. This is a once in a lifetime chance and I am so excited about being able to do it. Just pray for safety!
Oh Happy 4th of July everyone! I hope it is a great one for you all!
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