Hello once again!
First of all, thank you all who read this every week! I know some people *cough, cough* can type about anything and everything and make blog posts a little more than you might want to read. Thank you for continuing to read though and praying for the team and also for the special people here in Matucana.
We have been busy this week. We’re busy with visiting with people (maybe for the last time) and also with finding new people and meeting with them.
Andy has been vigorously working translating an 11 page document for the Matucana municipal office. The document is tourism info for the area and since Matucana wants to also appeal to the gringos, they would need an English version of the information. Andy said he would do it for them as a gift to the city. It’s looking really good and I’m looking forward to seeing the finished document.
Our last English class was on Wednesday night and it was suggested by Jose’ Acosto that the theme of this class should be prayer. WOW. It’s still shocking to me that the government allows us to not only pray, tell a Bible story, but to teach them from the Bible how to pray. That was for the entire length of class! After class was kinda emotional for all of us, they were thanking all of us (even though I just sit through the entire class) for being there and willing to teach them. It was so great. They want us back on this coming Wednesday night to eat chicken and also to “conversate” with them. That will be a nice ending to our last day here I think.
We are continuing to meet with our regular people and things are going well with them.
Independence Day here in Peru is on Tuesday the 28th. This past week everyone has been painting and cleaning the outsides of their homes and businesses. Next week there will be many celebrations with concerts and other activities. We are allowed and are going to participate because they aren’t catholic related festivals! The Creative Ministry Team is coming on Monday and they’ll be able to do a lot of things in the squares and we are hoping to have a game day at the school on Tuesday. Pray that that works out because we haven’t been able to meet with the right people to get that set up.
That’s I have for now. I hope you all are doing well and had a good/ are having a good week! Please continue to pray that are last days here are productive and we get as much done as possible. We’re leaving on Thursday to go to Chosica for debriefing and Sunday night at 11:30pm we’ll be on our way home! I will be posting 1 more blog, then watch for a post from each of us the week of our return. It’ll be a post about our summer from our own perspectives.
See ya’ll in a little bit!
~Chelsea><>
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Day 56
We are going on our 9th week here in our summer home of Matucana.
As most of you have read, we had a fun start to our week. Both Andy and Josh spent the night in the bathroom Sunday night. They were out for the day on Monday. The day before, Tommy left to go with his new group to Surco, which is about 25+/- minutes from here. He and the church group from Tennessee came to Matucana for a few hours on Monday to get some items and to have lunch with us. It ended up being only with me because of the boys’ conditions. It was nice to be with them and they asked a lot of questions about the college summer missions program from REAPsouth. While the boys spent the rest of the day in bed, I was able to get some things done on my own.
The next day Andy felt well enough to go to the school, while Josh wasn’t quite stable enough. Tuesday was the last day of school for us while we’re here because they are off school until August 2nd. I am happy we were able to make it on the last day. After our last class the 5th graders wanted to play soccer. I hung out with the girls while Andy played football(soccer) with boys. I let the girls play with my camera and they took really nice pictures :)
That afternoon we were able to meet with Julie at her shop and we did the story of the firm foundation found in Matthew 7:24-29. This story has been very good for the new Christians here to encourage building something worth building on rather than something unreliable. We then had the English class at 6pm. It started at 7pm. But we had a nice time with the 4 ladies who came. Andy introduced them to Reese’s cups. “Muy rico!” they said, which means “That tastes really good!” Everyone seems to like Reese’s even in Peru. Btw, you know how they say “There’s no wrong way to eat a Reese’s”? There is. Just watch one of the kids here eat one. It’s funny but at the same time disgusting and wrong. ;)
Wednesday Josh was still not feeling well, and we had 2 guys coming in to learn how to story. Mike and Heinz arrived at 2 pm. After they had a quick lunch, we had a meeting at our hostel at 3 (3:30). Jonathan, who is one of Gary’s friends, came. So we had a 5 on 1 Bible study. He seems very interested, but he hasn’t made that decision yet. Please be praying for him. He went back to Lima and I don’t think we’ll be seeing him the rest of this trip. We though we had a meeting with Selia at 5, but due to a mis-scheduling on my part, that meeting wasn’t until the next day. We had planned a meeting at the police station, but we weren’t able to because the police commissioner wasn’t there that day. we went back several times but they said that we may be able to have one on Tuesday.
On Thursday, Josh was feeling better. He was able to go with us to yet another meeting we had planned with Felicia at 9 am. Yet again she was not there. Her son was there and told us to come back the next day in the afternoon. We normally story (or try to story) with Maria on Thursday and Friday mornings, but she wasn’t there both mornings because both of her chicos were sick. We spent our day talking to and inviting people to our Saturday night meeting. Then at 5 we had our meeting with Selia. We let Mike and Heinz practice storying with her and they did a great job. We were able to get done in time for the English class at 6. We didn’t have it because no one came. Jacob, a man that we’ve been trying to meet with was there though and he talked to the boys about music, etc.
Friday we dedicated to visiting people we hadn’t seen in a while. We were finally able to meet with Maria in Huaripache. At the time when she was busy so we asked when we could come back. She practically said she was to busy for anything anytime soon. If it’s not with her business then she’s busy with her studies. We invited her to our meeting if she had time and left it at that. She seems very nice and I hope she gets time soon. We were all over town that day. That afternoon we had all done something we’ve been wanting to do since we’ve been here. We went to a bull fight! To much of the boys disappointment and to my happiness, they did not kill the bulls :) It was very interesting and there were a lot of people there. 2 things set our group of 5 apart from the other hundreds that were there: 1. We were white 2. We were sober. I don’t know what was more entertaining, the Matadors fighting the bulls or the bulls going after the drunks that appeared in the arena. It was fun and exciting and now I can check “Go to a bull fight” off my bucket list :)
Yesterday we went to visit another Maria in Cacachaqui (Kah-kah-chah-kee). Thanks to the Jackson Memorial clan, we have new contacts down there! It’s part of Matucana but another section. This Maria came with her 4 kids to our Saturday night meeting 2 weeks ago. Her prayer request that night was for her delicate health. I am unsure of what that means and how delicate her health is, but yesterday we talk to one of her girls and she said she wasn’t feeling well that day. we were not able to meet with her :/ . On our way back we split up and invited people to the meeting at 7. Josh and Andy went to Huaripache to find a lady who was asking about getting a Bible and wanting to study the Bible. That’s pretty exciting. That afternoon, I was able to hang out with Rosa one on one. Rosa is the 15 year old daughter of the hostel keepers Maribel and Emilio. I asked her a few weeks ago if she could teach me how to knit. She makes beautiful scarves and gloves among other things. She said yes and was excited about it, but we weren’t able to because of our schedules. But it ended up that yesterday at 3 was a good time for both of us. With the help of the pocket translator that a friend gave me, Rosa was able to teach me some basic things. It was really nice, even though we couldn’t communicate very easily, to spend some time one on one with another girl. I haven’t done that since Ellen was here about a month ago. We had fun. 7pm came very quickly and I told Rosa I’d be back after the meeting. The meeting went well and Jose’ and Elizabeth even came. Another man whose name is Marcelo came to. Everyone there was a Christian and after some Praise and Worship time, Josh did the story on the Master and the Talents in Matthew 25:14-30. We had a very good discussion afterwards. After we all said our goodbyes, I went back to hang out with Rosa and her mom Maribel. It was a nice ending to my day.
Well, I about typed out. Thank you all for your continued prayer support. We see how your prayers are helping us everyday. Honestly! We now have 10 full days left in Matucana before we go to debriefing in Chosica on the 30th. Please be praying that we finish out strong and that we won’t waste what precious time we have left here. Also, Mike and Heinz left today for Lima and they are going to Huaricherri on Tuesday morning. Their main purpose of going is to disciple and baptize the only Christian in that town. I believe her name is Lusianna and she is 16 years old. Thank you again for your prayers!
~Chelsea><>
Monday, July 13, 2009
prayer request
Hey everyone!
I know that Josh just updated this yesterday but I need you all to be praying. The boys were both up all night sick with countless trips between them to the bathroom due to throwing up and the other nasty. Please pray for a quick recovery. We may not be able to go to the school for the rest of our trip because they get out on Wednesday until August 2nd and I doubt with how intensely sick the boys are, we’ll make it there tomorrow. Times like this I wish I knew Spanish :/.
I am unsure of what they got, but with the symptoms, I don’t think it’s a parasite. I think it was something they ate yesterday at lunch, because I didn’t go with them yesterday, and I feel fine.
We had a lot of stuff scheduled today and tomorrow, but it looks like we’ll have to put them off until they get better.
Thanks for your prayers and we look forward to seeing you all in 3 weeks!
Love y’all!
~Chelsea><>
P.s. The kids are out of school for that long for Peru’s Independence Day which is July 28th. From the info we’ve gathered, it’s a huge holiday! Let the festivities begin!
I know that Josh just updated this yesterday but I need you all to be praying. The boys were both up all night sick with countless trips between them to the bathroom due to throwing up and the other nasty. Please pray for a quick recovery. We may not be able to go to the school for the rest of our trip because they get out on Wednesday until August 2nd and I doubt with how intensely sick the boys are, we’ll make it there tomorrow. Times like this I wish I knew Spanish :/.
I am unsure of what they got, but with the symptoms, I don’t think it’s a parasite. I think it was something they ate yesterday at lunch, because I didn’t go with them yesterday, and I feel fine.
We had a lot of stuff scheduled today and tomorrow, but it looks like we’ll have to put them off until they get better.
Thanks for your prayers and we look forward to seeing you all in 3 weeks!
Love y’all!
~Chelsea><>
P.s. The kids are out of school for that long for Peru’s Independence Day which is July 28th. From the info we’ve gathered, it’s a huge holiday! Let the festivities begin!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
"I´ve never had breakfast with a man in his underwear, but now I have"
This last week has been pretty crazy! We had a group from Jackson Memorial Baptist Church come in from Virginia. We were not really sure what to expect from them because they had not contacted us that much. They arrived on Thursday the 2nd and when they got out of the Car 4 out of 5 of the team had gray hair. A completely different team then the last one that had come here. However, we formed a closer bond with this team. We didn’t waste much time, but got started showing them the town and talking with people setting up meetings. They were awesome because many times when stuff would not work out or things were not going exactly to plan they just went with the flow and made things happen. We all really just want to thank them for coming and being flexible.
During the week we had so many great stories where they were able to help and just have fun with us. For example I ended up getting really sick for about a week and one of the ladies, Eileen, is a pharmacist, so she was able to help me with what type of food I should eat to help my Body get better. Then also Andy made a great connection with one of the Guys named Tom. They joked around a lot and always kept it interesting. One day the Jackson Memorial group and Andy went out for Breakfast and Andy had just woken up, so he went down to breakfast in his shorts and a tee shirt. Well Andy has long legs and his shorts looked really short on him, so it looked like underwear. Tom made a remark that, “I´ve never had breakfast before with a man in his underwear, but now I have.” That was pretty much the tone for the entire week of comradery. We had a great time with them. We were able to also split up and do multiple things because they had two fluent Spanish speakers. We were able to go up to Marachanca twice, and then go out to Huaricina three or four times.
This week we also had a guy named Tommy come into town. He had been here in Peru three years ago and last year doing what we are doing now. He was travling back to the states and wanted to help out here in Peru, so Reap south sent him here. It was awesome having him here. It was really what we needed as a team because he knows how it is to be in a town with people you barely know and work among the Peruvians. He gave us a lot of encouragement and constructive criticism. He was going to be with us the entire next week, but reap south pulled him to translate for another team, but while he was here he was an extreme blessing.
We also got to go to Lima this weekend with the Jackson Memorial team and take some time to go shopping and get some American food, like Chilies and Starbucks. It was really good for our team. We are now back in Matucana and ready to go.
Please pray for our team that we stay health for the rest of the time here in Peru. We only have 17 days here in Matucana, so please pray we take advantage of everyday that we have here. Please pray for the Christians that are here that they would become passionate about learning the word of God and telling others about what he has done in their lives. We want to have a Bible study here when we leave that is self sufficient, so there is still a lot that needs to be done here. Please pray that God would provide the leaders for the group or even groups.
Thanks for all your prayer and keeping up with us. We realy appriciate it all
*Josh
During the week we had so many great stories where they were able to help and just have fun with us. For example I ended up getting really sick for about a week and one of the ladies, Eileen, is a pharmacist, so she was able to help me with what type of food I should eat to help my Body get better. Then also Andy made a great connection with one of the Guys named Tom. They joked around a lot and always kept it interesting. One day the Jackson Memorial group and Andy went out for Breakfast and Andy had just woken up, so he went down to breakfast in his shorts and a tee shirt. Well Andy has long legs and his shorts looked really short on him, so it looked like underwear. Tom made a remark that, “I´ve never had breakfast before with a man in his underwear, but now I have.” That was pretty much the tone for the entire week of comradery. We had a great time with them. We were able to also split up and do multiple things because they had two fluent Spanish speakers. We were able to go up to Marachanca twice, and then go out to Huaricina three or four times.
This week we also had a guy named Tommy come into town. He had been here in Peru three years ago and last year doing what we are doing now. He was travling back to the states and wanted to help out here in Peru, so Reap south sent him here. It was awesome having him here. It was really what we needed as a team because he knows how it is to be in a town with people you barely know and work among the Peruvians. He gave us a lot of encouragement and constructive criticism. He was going to be with us the entire next week, but reap south pulled him to translate for another team, but while he was here he was an extreme blessing.
We also got to go to Lima this weekend with the Jackson Memorial team and take some time to go shopping and get some American food, like Chilies and Starbucks. It was really good for our team. We are now back in Matucana and ready to go.
Please pray for our team that we stay health for the rest of the time here in Peru. We only have 17 days here in Matucana, so please pray we take advantage of everyday that we have here. Please pray for the Christians that are here that they would become passionate about learning the word of God and telling others about what he has done in their lives. We want to have a Bible study here when we leave that is self sufficient, so there is still a lot that needs to be done here. Please pray that God would provide the leaders for the group or even groups.
Thanks for all your prayer and keeping up with us. We realy appriciate it all
*Josh
Thursday, July 2, 2009
week 6
Here we are, in the middle of our 6th week. Time for me these past 2 weeks have flown very quickly!
This past weekend the guys and I went on our midsummer “R&R” in Nasca, Peru which is about 7 hours south of Lima. We spent about 11 hours in busses and taxis on Friday to get to our desert destination. Nasca is famous for their “Nasca Lines”. Google them and you’ll see what they are. Josh was able to take an airplane up to see them and he took lots of pictures. It was definitely a tourist town and a bit different from Matucana. It was great place to find souvenirs. Andy seemed to have a good time getting to be around other people as well. I on the other hand was sick all weekend. Without going into detail Ms. Kathy Weaver named off some symptoms which I had and told me to go get some antibiotics to get rid a the parasite I apparently picked up between Matucana and Nasca. It’s a common one that can be in a single drop of water. I’m just surprised (and thankful) that none of us had gotten it earlier.
Last Wednesday, Tucker Swamp Baptist Church from Virginia, arrived in Matucana – all 14 of them plus 3 translators and a driver. We were only able to spend 2 days with them before we had to go to Nasca. We left them with all the info we could give them in that time period and they made great use of it. They decided to spend their time and use their resources in Huariquina where we’ve had the most difficult time. From the notes they left us they seemed to have made a lot of new contacts for us. With their 18 people they were able to do a lot more for the town than the 3 of us ever could all summer. Thank you Tucker Swamp!
There has been a huge festival going on in Matucana all day everyday for over a week now. This means that school is pretty much optional for the kids. We were able to have a class last Monday then again this Wednesday.
We have a group who just arrived from Virginia today. They will be here until next Friday. We are hoping to go to Marachanca twice with them and also go to Huariquina and follow up with what Tucker Swamp did there last week.
That’s all I have for now. I’m still a bit tired but I feel a lot better than I did 2 days ago. Please continue to pray for our health and for our safety. We are more than halfway through our trip, which is hard for me to believe.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!
~Chelsea><>
This past weekend the guys and I went on our midsummer “R&R” in Nasca, Peru which is about 7 hours south of Lima. We spent about 11 hours in busses and taxis on Friday to get to our desert destination. Nasca is famous for their “Nasca Lines”. Google them and you’ll see what they are. Josh was able to take an airplane up to see them and he took lots of pictures. It was definitely a tourist town and a bit different from Matucana. It was great place to find souvenirs. Andy seemed to have a good time getting to be around other people as well. I on the other hand was sick all weekend. Without going into detail Ms. Kathy Weaver named off some symptoms which I had and told me to go get some antibiotics to get rid a the parasite I apparently picked up between Matucana and Nasca. It’s a common one that can be in a single drop of water. I’m just surprised (and thankful) that none of us had gotten it earlier.
Last Wednesday, Tucker Swamp Baptist Church from Virginia, arrived in Matucana – all 14 of them plus 3 translators and a driver. We were only able to spend 2 days with them before we had to go to Nasca. We left them with all the info we could give them in that time period and they made great use of it. They decided to spend their time and use their resources in Huariquina where we’ve had the most difficult time. From the notes they left us they seemed to have made a lot of new contacts for us. With their 18 people they were able to do a lot more for the town than the 3 of us ever could all summer. Thank you Tucker Swamp!
There has been a huge festival going on in Matucana all day everyday for over a week now. This means that school is pretty much optional for the kids. We were able to have a class last Monday then again this Wednesday.
We have a group who just arrived from Virginia today. They will be here until next Friday. We are hoping to go to Marachanca twice with them and also go to Huariquina and follow up with what Tucker Swamp did there last week.
That’s all I have for now. I’m still a bit tired but I feel a lot better than I did 2 days ago. Please continue to pray for our health and for our safety. We are more than halfway through our trip, which is hard for me to believe.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!
~Chelsea><>
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