Day 56

We are going on our 9^th 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 2^nd. I am happy we were able to make it on the last day. After our last class the 5^th 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 30^th. 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><>