Two days ago, I found out the news that a suspension walking bridge in our village had snapped and killed 9 or 10 people, possibly even more since the last time news has come out on it. Of those killed, 7 or 8 children and 2 teachers. There are 14 others in serious condition, but 70 in all that were injured or killed.
My heart is definitely breaking over this. This bridge was something that we walked across constantly to get to the orphanage and to see children at the high school and other elementary school. I'm just in shock, I can't believe it. Of all the places for something like this to happen, my village, my people. It just really hurts. I very much so want to be there with them right now and to hold them in their pain and to love on them like Jesus because love needs no translation. My heart is anxious to learn names, I want to know if I knew any of those children, which I am really afraid that I might. I just don't know what to say. I'm just hurting so bad and the pictures I see on the internet just make it all the worse. I just keep visualizing being there and seeing that happened and my heart is hurting.
Please be in prayer for the people of Coracora, that God will begin his renewal there. I know He is breaking away the securities of life there and using that to bring Him the glory and to show the people their dependency upon Him. Just pray that the missionaries there are able to translate God's words effectively to them and to love on them with all that they have in this time! Pray for the four of us that lived there for 2 and a half months this past summer, all of our hearts are hurting. It is really so hard being stuck in the US and being helpless, all we can do is pray and wait for e-mails/phone calls of any updates. Pray for the future teams that will be going there this summer. They will be reaping a harvest that was planted this past summer! God is starting to grow His people.
Coracora
My City!!!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Final Debriefing
I had some people heckling me to put up a final blog (well more specifically one person and she know who she is) but I am sure a lot of people were wanting me to. Anyway so this blog will be of my last thoughts and I know this is being done over a month since I have left but this has been the only time that things have slowed down enough for me to get to recap on my summer. And it's hasn't slowed down enough, I have a test Thursday and some homework due tomorrow but this week has been slower than any other and I thought I might as well take advantage of it.
This summer has been an incredible journey of highs and lows. Our team had some struggles at times but for the most part we all got along and that is what made the summer the most. We all had very different Spirituall gifts/strengths: Allen was our translator and leader; Ben was our teacher, he knows everything about everything in the Bible; Albee was our girl who loved on the kids, I have never seen anyone love on kids so hard; and I was the music person, I played the guitar and sang songs and provided some sort of entertainment.
The ministry we had in Coracora was left up to us. We didn't have any certain thing we had to do, we were just told to go live among the people, become one with the people and see where ministry needs to be. We started Bible studies and started going to a house church. We also spent a lot of time in the orphanage with the children and that was a grand time and I miss those children so much. I think that is the ministry I enjoyed the most.
Peru was an eye-opening mission trip for me. God took my summer and completely changed it around. I had a lot of expectations to see a ton of people saved and that I was going to become more holy because I spent my summer in Peru but God took that and showed me that it isn't always about the numbers and being more holy than other people. As a team, we personally only saw two people come to know Christ. When the Creative Ministry Team came, we did see a lot of hands raised but never got the chance to personally talk with them. We can only pray that they were sincere in their decision. I definitely did not become a more holy person because of my summer.
However, of course the summer taught me more about myself and gave me more of a passion for international missions. I learned a lot about being more dependent on Christ and giving Him my all. At final debriefing, I learned a lot about how my mission trip isn't over. That God still wants to use me beyond Peru. And how much easier it will be to be a witness to someone because I can actually speak the language and there is nothing standing in my way...The mission trip isn't over and God has been continuing to teach me more and more. Who knows where He will lead me next but at the moment, I am learning how to seek Him even during my hard times!
This summer has been an incredible journey of highs and lows. Our team had some struggles at times but for the most part we all got along and that is what made the summer the most. We all had very different Spirituall gifts/strengths: Allen was our translator and leader; Ben was our teacher, he knows everything about everything in the Bible; Albee was our girl who loved on the kids, I have never seen anyone love on kids so hard; and I was the music person, I played the guitar and sang songs and provided some sort of entertainment.
The ministry we had in Coracora was left up to us. We didn't have any certain thing we had to do, we were just told to go live among the people, become one with the people and see where ministry needs to be. We started Bible studies and started going to a house church. We also spent a lot of time in the orphanage with the children and that was a grand time and I miss those children so much. I think that is the ministry I enjoyed the most.
Peru was an eye-opening mission trip for me. God took my summer and completely changed it around. I had a lot of expectations to see a ton of people saved and that I was going to become more holy because I spent my summer in Peru but God took that and showed me that it isn't always about the numbers and being more holy than other people. As a team, we personally only saw two people come to know Christ. When the Creative Ministry Team came, we did see a lot of hands raised but never got the chance to personally talk with them. We can only pray that they were sincere in their decision. I definitely did not become a more holy person because of my summer.
However, of course the summer taught me more about myself and gave me more of a passion for international missions. I learned a lot about being more dependent on Christ and giving Him my all. At final debriefing, I learned a lot about how my mission trip isn't over. That God still wants to use me beyond Peru. And how much easier it will be to be a witness to someone because I can actually speak the language and there is nothing standing in my way...The mission trip isn't over and God has been continuing to teach me more and more. Who knows where He will lead me next but at the moment, I am learning how to seek Him even during my hard times!
Monday, July 21, 2008
The Countdown
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!
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!
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!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Nazca Bound
Today we leave for Nazca for mid-summer at 1:00! We were told it would be about a 6 hour bus ride, which would put us there at 7 or a little later tonight. When talking with one of our friends here in Coracora, he told us we wouldn´t be getting there until about 1:00 tomorrow morning, so we are expecting to be there sometime between about 10 or 11 tonight, hopefully! We are all very excited about going to Nazca but also very sad to be leaving Coracora this weekend. This weekend is a festival of food in Coracora, and as much as I love food I would almost be willing to start a strike for the buses so we could stay but I really do want to see all my friends again!
Things have been going great this week. We have had a busy week. We went to a school about 8:30 on Monday morning and hung out with the kids, sung a few songs and taught some English. Before leaving, we scheduled another meeting with them on Thursday with guitar and Bible story in hand. On Tuesday we headed to another school at 8:30 in the morning and hung out with the kids, taught them English, and sung a few songs. That seems to be the story for every school trip. We then scheduled another trip to visit them on Friday. This is also the school of the teacher who speaks English. We talked to her that day and Allen was telling her about his bilingual Bible, I told her we had one more and asked if she wanted. She then told us that she doesn´t read the Bible. At that point, things became a mission for me. I really want to work with her and reach out to her with Christ! We could really use her as a translator for a woman´s Bible study and maybe even asking her to do that would be a good way to get her started in the Bible.
On Wednesday we went to the MMM Pentecostal church with our friend Yulber and that is all we really did that day. We didn´t have anything scheduled in the morning so we all kinda slept in a bit. Oh, also this week we have been teaching a woman English in one of the plazas and then playing basketball or suppose to be playing basketball at about 3 or 4 in the afternoons in the municipal building. The two days we tried to play basketball in the municipal building, they ended up having volleyball or soccer or a men´s Coracora vs. Nazca game going on. We just stay and watch and then leave for dinner time. It has been fun to watch games, reminds me of home a bit.
Thursday was a good day at the school, Ben shared a lesson in the Bible and we sang 4 songs with the guitar and were scared we were losing there attention but when we started putting up the music, they asked for one more song. It was a good time with the kids and we are planning to visit them again when the Creative Ministry Team comes to Coracora on July 5-9. We also had Bible study on Thursday night at the Pastor´s house that we have House Church on Sunday mornings at. We actually ran into Flor (the amazing English speaking teacher) in the internet cafe Thursday afternoon and invited her to Bible study, and she came! God definitely blessed that because I really wanted to invite her but wasn´t sure where we would see her again and God just worked there.
That Bible study really opened our eyes to some things that could possibly be happening and something that has really kinda bothered me and question why he would bring something like that up. Towards the end of the Bible study, the pastor started talking about a tall American girl playing guitar in a plaza one day and singing songs of praise but it wasn´t really praise because of the guitar. I don´t think he realized that who he was talking about was me but I really want to know where he bases his belief off of. We are also scared that some other doctrines of his may not be right but that we have been translating what he has said to agree with what we know is right. Needless to say, after that Flor had a lot of questions to ask and she told us how deep she thought the songs were and just talked to us about that time and asked about why he didn´t believe that if someone were to use an instrument it wouldn´t be praise anymore. Like we do with everyone who is new to the Bible study, we invite them to dinner and pay for their meal and she joined as at Junior´s Pollo a la Brasa and we talked to her there.
Friday, we went back to Flor´s school with guitar in hand. They enjoyed that time and instead of doing a Bible story, we sang Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) and explained that song to them. They definitely did not have the attention span that the other school did. After that, Flor cooked us a potato sauce kinda thing that was absolutely amazing and we ate lunch with the students, then we went to a field kinda thing below the amazing swing bridge here in Coracora and tried to play American football with the kids. It was a lot of tackling and just beating up on each other, never really did the football come in play at all. Some older girls from a different school came down to hang out and Albee and I ended up hanging out and talking with them while the guys played with the boys. Albee sang songs in Chinese and I sang songs in English and then the girls sang us a song in Spanish called Amiga, it is a really popular song here. We hear it everywhere and all the girls love to sing it.
Last night we went to a musical festival in one of the four plazas located here in Coracora, it was very fun at first until all the drunk Peruvians seemed to be attracted to us. At that point, we decided it was time to leave and go to bed. I got a video of a very cool Incan group doing a dance on the stage and it was awesome. They had fireworks without the lights and a huge bonfire. The fireworks only shoot up and pop, they don´t glow big lights. We are thinking about getting some of those for the 4th of July, we gotta celebrate somehow!
All has been going great, we have really had an amazing time here and are very excited about the two teams joining us in July. Both teams will arrive in Coracora on the 5th and one of the teams will stay for a full week and the CMT will only stay for a few days. After both teams leave, we will only have two weeks left in Coracora and then it it back to Lima for Albee´s flight to China. It is all coming so fast, I can´t believe I have been here for a full month already!
Things have been going great this week. We have had a busy week. We went to a school about 8:30 on Monday morning and hung out with the kids, sung a few songs and taught some English. Before leaving, we scheduled another meeting with them on Thursday with guitar and Bible story in hand. On Tuesday we headed to another school at 8:30 in the morning and hung out with the kids, taught them English, and sung a few songs. That seems to be the story for every school trip. We then scheduled another trip to visit them on Friday. This is also the school of the teacher who speaks English. We talked to her that day and Allen was telling her about his bilingual Bible, I told her we had one more and asked if she wanted. She then told us that she doesn´t read the Bible. At that point, things became a mission for me. I really want to work with her and reach out to her with Christ! We could really use her as a translator for a woman´s Bible study and maybe even asking her to do that would be a good way to get her started in the Bible.
On Wednesday we went to the MMM Pentecostal church with our friend Yulber and that is all we really did that day. We didn´t have anything scheduled in the morning so we all kinda slept in a bit. Oh, also this week we have been teaching a woman English in one of the plazas and then playing basketball or suppose to be playing basketball at about 3 or 4 in the afternoons in the municipal building. The two days we tried to play basketball in the municipal building, they ended up having volleyball or soccer or a men´s Coracora vs. Nazca game going on. We just stay and watch and then leave for dinner time. It has been fun to watch games, reminds me of home a bit.
Thursday was a good day at the school, Ben shared a lesson in the Bible and we sang 4 songs with the guitar and were scared we were losing there attention but when we started putting up the music, they asked for one more song. It was a good time with the kids and we are planning to visit them again when the Creative Ministry Team comes to Coracora on July 5-9. We also had Bible study on Thursday night at the Pastor´s house that we have House Church on Sunday mornings at. We actually ran into Flor (the amazing English speaking teacher) in the internet cafe Thursday afternoon and invited her to Bible study, and she came! God definitely blessed that because I really wanted to invite her but wasn´t sure where we would see her again and God just worked there.
That Bible study really opened our eyes to some things that could possibly be happening and something that has really kinda bothered me and question why he would bring something like that up. Towards the end of the Bible study, the pastor started talking about a tall American girl playing guitar in a plaza one day and singing songs of praise but it wasn´t really praise because of the guitar. I don´t think he realized that who he was talking about was me but I really want to know where he bases his belief off of. We are also scared that some other doctrines of his may not be right but that we have been translating what he has said to agree with what we know is right. Needless to say, after that Flor had a lot of questions to ask and she told us how deep she thought the songs were and just talked to us about that time and asked about why he didn´t believe that if someone were to use an instrument it wouldn´t be praise anymore. Like we do with everyone who is new to the Bible study, we invite them to dinner and pay for their meal and she joined as at Junior´s Pollo a la Brasa and we talked to her there.
Friday, we went back to Flor´s school with guitar in hand. They enjoyed that time and instead of doing a Bible story, we sang Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) and explained that song to them. They definitely did not have the attention span that the other school did. After that, Flor cooked us a potato sauce kinda thing that was absolutely amazing and we ate lunch with the students, then we went to a field kinda thing below the amazing swing bridge here in Coracora and tried to play American football with the kids. It was a lot of tackling and just beating up on each other, never really did the football come in play at all. Some older girls from a different school came down to hang out and Albee and I ended up hanging out and talking with them while the guys played with the boys. Albee sang songs in Chinese and I sang songs in English and then the girls sang us a song in Spanish called Amiga, it is a really popular song here. We hear it everywhere and all the girls love to sing it.
Last night we went to a musical festival in one of the four plazas located here in Coracora, it was very fun at first until all the drunk Peruvians seemed to be attracted to us. At that point, we decided it was time to leave and go to bed. I got a video of a very cool Incan group doing a dance on the stage and it was awesome. They had fireworks without the lights and a huge bonfire. The fireworks only shoot up and pop, they don´t glow big lights. We are thinking about getting some of those for the 4th of July, we gotta celebrate somehow!
All has been going great, we have really had an amazing time here and are very excited about the two teams joining us in July. Both teams will arrive in Coracora on the 5th and one of the teams will stay for a full week and the CMT will only stay for a few days. After both teams leave, we will only have two weeks left in Coracora and then it it back to Lima for Albee´s flight to China. It is all coming so fast, I can´t believe I have been here for a full month already!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
God Provides
These past few days have been amazing...Jon from one of the Barnabas came to visit us for a couple of days because the whole group wasn´t able to make it earlier in the summer because of our altitude.
As I write this, I have three girls standing over my shoulder watching and asking me questions in Spanish...majority of time, I have no idea what they are asking but I am able to answer some of the small stuff...Internet times are the best here because in the States where everyone prefers privacy, no one here cares about privacy especially when it is a grenga (Spanish for a white girl)...Everytime we come to the internet cafe, there are always children and even some younger teenagers who come up to see what we are doing, it is amazing. They are currently hagging the boys and trying to get them to count to a thousand in English...I told them that I didn´t know how to count to a thousand, good way to get out of that, even if I do look stupid...
Okay so yesterday, we went to a Catholic school and shared a bible story with the kids. It was a great time, they were very quiet, no questions to ask and never really talked to us...Then after going to the Catholic school, we came back to our hostel, grabbed a few things and headed to the Plaza to find out that yesterday was the 183th anniversary of Coracora´s existence...Very event filled day...We hung out in the plaza for a couple of hours, with kids swarmed around us, and two English professors came up to us and asked us to come to their schools. One we will be going to on Monday and the other on Tuesday! We also ran into a woman who wants us to teach her English everyday this week before she has to go to Lima for something so we are going to help her...Just being out and about in the city has really opened up some doors as we saw yesterday! I really enjoyed showing Jon around our city and introducing him to our friends!
Okay so one thing to pray about: one of the English teachers that we ran into is a woman and her English is absolutely amazing! We go to her school on Tuesday, and are actually going to talk to her about possibly being a translator for a woman´s Bible study!!! I hope it all works out, and the woman´s Bible study will be started as soon as possible! Hopefully before mid-summer!
Mid-summer is only 6 days away and my heart is very excited to see people that I haven´t seen since orientation! Mid-summer also marks the halfway point of being home! Not that I am homesick but I have a feeling that things are going to either go by much faster once mid-summer is here! We have two teams come in July to see us, the Creative Ministry Team and a team from the church that is sponsoring Coracora! I will enjoy that time and showing them around. And then after that point, things will only be a couple of weeks away from ending...But I am not near that time now...People are already asking when will we be coming back and all I can tell them is I don´t know...that is such a hard question because I have no idea where God is going to lead me next summer or if I will ever be back here in Coracora! I wish I could give them a definite answer...
As I write this, I have three girls standing over my shoulder watching and asking me questions in Spanish...majority of time, I have no idea what they are asking but I am able to answer some of the small stuff...Internet times are the best here because in the States where everyone prefers privacy, no one here cares about privacy especially when it is a grenga (Spanish for a white girl)...Everytime we come to the internet cafe, there are always children and even some younger teenagers who come up to see what we are doing, it is amazing. They are currently hagging the boys and trying to get them to count to a thousand in English...I told them that I didn´t know how to count to a thousand, good way to get out of that, even if I do look stupid...
Okay so yesterday, we went to a Catholic school and shared a bible story with the kids. It was a great time, they were very quiet, no questions to ask and never really talked to us...Then after going to the Catholic school, we came back to our hostel, grabbed a few things and headed to the Plaza to find out that yesterday was the 183th anniversary of Coracora´s existence...Very event filled day...We hung out in the plaza for a couple of hours, with kids swarmed around us, and two English professors came up to us and asked us to come to their schools. One we will be going to on Monday and the other on Tuesday! We also ran into a woman who wants us to teach her English everyday this week before she has to go to Lima for something so we are going to help her...Just being out and about in the city has really opened up some doors as we saw yesterday! I really enjoyed showing Jon around our city and introducing him to our friends!
Okay so one thing to pray about: one of the English teachers that we ran into is a woman and her English is absolutely amazing! We go to her school on Tuesday, and are actually going to talk to her about possibly being a translator for a woman´s Bible study!!! I hope it all works out, and the woman´s Bible study will be started as soon as possible! Hopefully before mid-summer!
Mid-summer is only 6 days away and my heart is very excited to see people that I haven´t seen since orientation! Mid-summer also marks the halfway point of being home! Not that I am homesick but I have a feeling that things are going to either go by much faster once mid-summer is here! We have two teams come in July to see us, the Creative Ministry Team and a team from the church that is sponsoring Coracora! I will enjoy that time and showing them around. And then after that point, things will only be a couple of weeks away from ending...But I am not near that time now...People are already asking when will we be coming back and all I can tell them is I don´t know...that is such a hard question because I have no idea where God is going to lead me next summer or if I will ever be back here in Coracora! I wish I could give them a definite answer...
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