day 11

Hello all! We are now into our 2nd week of our Peruvian adventure. As Josh has said in his previous post, we we’re in training all week last week. Not much to say about that on my part except I met a lot of great like-minded people and hope to continue our friendships after we all return to the states in August.
I believe that Josh posted the blog on the day we arrived in Matucana. A lot has happened since then. We have been settling into our hostel and have been shadowing the Brown’s as they show us the “in’s and out’s” of Matucana. Sunday night we had our first home meeting in Jose’ and Elizabeth’s store. They have been meeting every week but find it hard to get people to come. On the night we were there, about 9+ people (not including the gringos) were there along with 1000 little kids. Ok, there weren’t 1000 but it seemed like there were a lot. Ms. Cheryl went out and played with them during our meeting. Josh lead the meeting by telling the story of the sower found in Matthew 13 while Andy did a fantastic job with interpreting.
The next day we were able to go to a nearby town called Huariquina (pronounced hor-uh-keen-nya). Mr. Dennis, Andy, Josh, and I went down there to let them know about a Bible study that was taking place the next day. We were able to have a great conversation with 2 men and we shared a few verses with them.
On Tuesday, when we woke up Andy wasn’t feeling good at all. He caught something and was out of commission for 2 full days! I, on the hand, caught it too but didn’t have as severely as Andy. However, I was out Tuesday afternoon and a part of Wednesday. On Tuesday morning before I was out, Mary, Ms. Cheryl, and I went to the school and taught a Bible story to a 1st grade class and also to a 5th grade class. It was so much fun and I look forward to being able to continue working there this summer.
The group (minus Andy and myself) went to Huariquina that afternoon. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done in that town, but by the end of the summer, I think we’ll be able to give them a firm and true foundation from the Bible.
Yesterday (Wednesday), I shared my first story to a group of 2 ladies and 2 girls. It was a follow-up story about baptism and how, as soon as we accept Christ as our Savior, we need to be obedient and follow through with baptism. It’s a difficult subject for many here bc of their strong Catholic backgrounds but some do follow through. Last night the ladies did not make a decision but, I feel if we continue follow up with them they might.
Speaking of baptism, we did hold a baptism yesterday morning. Julie was baptized by Martin. I’m not going to go into details, but it was quite humorous to watch! Whoever was there knows what I mean ;).
Today the Brown’s and Mary left which means Andy, Josh, and I are the only gringos in town. We will be visited by several groups coming through out the summer. 4 to be exact. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have the ReapSouth soccer team coming to spend a few days here in Matucana.
That’s all I have for now. I’m going to try to call home again and see if anyone’s around.
Chao for now!
~Chelsea><>

p.s. here are some pics from the week. the two boys were just sitting there and i couldnt pass up taking the pic. and the girl´s name next to me is carman. she was visting huarquina while we were there on monday.