My good friend Mary came for a visit at the beginning of April. I had a wonderful time showing her the city, introducing her to the church members, and talking about all that has happened and is happening in Peru. We took a short trip to Iquitos which is in northern Peru for vacation. We saw birds, went fishing for piranhas, and scanned the Amazon for dolphins. It was an opportunity to get away from the work for a short time and just be an American without having to worry about my verb conjugation, or if I used the right word in the right way.
The library has been going well. There are a few new faces and a few old ones. Since beginning the new approach to the reading incentive program there has been a bit of a decline in attendance, but since the beginning of the new phase coincides with the beginning of school we are unsure if the lack of attendance is due to an increase in the children's other activities or because they just don't want to come anymore. We have added computers to the library with Internet access and once the children have read their book, they have been using the Internet to do further research for their projects. It is an opportunity for them to learn basic computer skills and is an added incentive to complete their books.
The week after Easter Sunday, the church split into two groups. One group meets in the Porvenir library and the other group rotates in three Peruvian homes. We are also planning to begin meeting out in Naranjal sometime in June or July. While normally the idea of a church split is bad, for us it is good since it means that the group has become too large to continue meeting as a whole. Etelvina has joined the Tuesday afternoon small group that meets at my house and it is exciting to see how three very different Peruvian ladies interact with each other and encourage each other in their faith and daily walk with God.
Ken and Suzanne Smith, Ken is an elder at Cedar Lane Church of Christ, came for a visit at toward the end of May. They came to see the work and encourage the church. I was able to take Suzanne shopping for a few souvenirs and she accompanied me to my Wednesday night bible study, where she was able to meet and share a meal with some wonderful women.
On Wednesday nights we have completed our study on discipleship and have begun studying through the Old Testament. We began in Exodus, since the group had already done a study on Genesis with Greg, and are just finishing up the passover. The study is intended to bridge the gap between Jewish history and the New Testament, giving new significance for why we practice, and believe some of the things we do. In addition to Luz, Lola, Paty, and Coki, Luz and Lola's boss has joined our group. Karem is a Seventh Day Adventist and it has made for some interesting moments. She seems to be searching for something that she is missing from her own church and enjoys the meetings. My prayer is that she will continue to attend our meeting and eventually show interest in meeting with us on Sunday as well.
The month of May ended with the Smiths, Ken and Suzanne, returning to the states, and the team preparing for the second annual Peruvian Missions Summit which took place the first few days of June. The retreat was wonderful. We spent time in worship and prayer, as well as talking through our teams various strategies, what has worked and what hasn't. Unfortunately, the team from Cusco was unable to attend but we were able to reconnect with the Lima team and offer them encouragement in their work. It was a great way to begin the winter (summer) season which is always busy with interns and special events.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
What happened in February and March
Since I will obviously never be a successful blogger, and not all of you read or receive my sporadic newsletter, here is the text from February and March:
The past couple of months have flown by. A small group of us went to Sylvia's parents house overnight, to study with her parents, and encourage them in their faith. We also took them a large print Bible, so that they would be able to study more easily. Her parents live on an alpaca farm in the Andes Mountains. We took a five hour bus trip to the small village near her parents house, then walked for over an hour, before finally reaching this beautiful valley high up in the mountains filled with alpaca. There was no electricity, or toilet facilities, and we slept in a large room, in our sleeping bags on top of alpaca skins. It was a time of fellowship between church members, and a time to share and pray with Sylvia's parents. The following morning, before returning to the village to catch the bus back to Arequipa, one of the alpacas gave birth to a new baby, and we had the privilege to watch the whole thing. It was weird, gross, and seemingly painful for the new baby. Overall the trip was a blessing for all, bringing the group of us together in a special way.
The work out at Naranjal with the children's Bible class continues to go well, and Greg, having returned from furlough is once again leading his adult Bible study with some of the members of the community. In addition to the studies that are happening at Naranjal we just completed our second latrine and there are plans to begin construction on a third. The agreement with the residents is that they must dig two holes of the right depth, width and breadth, and a group of men will construct the structure and plumbing that sits on top of the holes.
Megan returned with a large number of books for the library, and we have just started the third phase of our incentive program. We have structured this phase differently from the last two phases. I realized over the last several months that while attendance was up, and the children were eager to earn points, they were more focused on earning as many points as possible, rather than reading for the joy of it. Therefore, this time around each child over the age of 7 must read a chapter book which has been approved by either Larissa, Megan, or myself. We have a few children who come where are under 8, and those children are given the option of reading a book on their own, or working with an adult on reading skills/comprehension. The kids will complete an individual project of their choice to be presented to the group in order to attend the incentive party, rather than earning a specified number of points. I hope that this new approach will help them become invested in a longer book and learn to love reading rather than merely work toward earning a prize.
The church has also grown, with two baptisms at the end of March. Unfortunately I was sick and unable to attend the the baptisms, which one of the women gave me a hard time about when she saw me at church the next Sunday, but was told the service was a time of celebration and worship. The church has grown so much that we have begun the discussion of splitting into two locations! It is so exciting to see the church grow to the point where we fill a house. I look forward to the day when we once again have so many members we have to divide again. I continue to meet weekly with several of the women in the church studying with them and encouraging them, as well as planning the children's Bible curriculum and recruit volunteers to help with the teaching.
Thank you for all of your prayers for me, for the Christians here in Arequipa, and for the lost. Please pray for Lola, she has studied a great deal, with Greg, me and others, but has not yet made the decision to give her life to Jesus Christ. So I ask that you will pray for her, that she will make the decision to claim and proclaim the faith that I already see in her life.
The past couple of months have flown by. A small group of us went to Sylvia's parents house overnight, to study with her parents, and encourage them in their faith. We also took them a large print Bible, so that they would be able to study more easily. Her parents live on an alpaca farm in the Andes Mountains. We took a five hour bus trip to the small village near her parents house, then walked for over an hour, before finally reaching this beautiful valley high up in the mountains filled with alpaca. There was no electricity, or toilet facilities, and we slept in a large room, in our sleeping bags on top of alpaca skins. It was a time of fellowship between church members, and a time to share and pray with Sylvia's parents. The following morning, before returning to the village to catch the bus back to Arequipa, one of the alpacas gave birth to a new baby, and we had the privilege to watch the whole thing. It was weird, gross, and seemingly painful for the new baby. Overall the trip was a blessing for all, bringing the group of us together in a special way.
The work out at Naranjal with the children's Bible class continues to go well, and Greg, having returned from furlough is once again leading his adult Bible study with some of the members of the community. In addition to the studies that are happening at Naranjal we just completed our second latrine and there are plans to begin construction on a third. The agreement with the residents is that they must dig two holes of the right depth, width and breadth, and a group of men will construct the structure and plumbing that sits on top of the holes.
Megan returned with a large number of books for the library, and we have just started the third phase of our incentive program. We have structured this phase differently from the last two phases. I realized over the last several months that while attendance was up, and the children were eager to earn points, they were more focused on earning as many points as possible, rather than reading for the joy of it. Therefore, this time around each child over the age of 7 must read a chapter book which has been approved by either Larissa, Megan, or myself. We have a few children who come where are under 8, and those children are given the option of reading a book on their own, or working with an adult on reading skills/comprehension. The kids will complete an individual project of their choice to be presented to the group in order to attend the incentive party, rather than earning a specified number of points. I hope that this new approach will help them become invested in a longer book and learn to love reading rather than merely work toward earning a prize.
The church has also grown, with two baptisms at the end of March. Unfortunately I was sick and unable to attend the the baptisms, which one of the women gave me a hard time about when she saw me at church the next Sunday, but was told the service was a time of celebration and worship. The church has grown so much that we have begun the discussion of splitting into two locations! It is so exciting to see the church grow to the point where we fill a house. I look forward to the day when we once again have so many members we have to divide again. I continue to meet weekly with several of the women in the church studying with them and encouraging them, as well as planning the children's Bible curriculum and recruit volunteers to help with the teaching.
Thank you for all of your prayers for me, for the Christians here in Arequipa, and for the lost. Please pray for Lola, she has studied a great deal, with Greg, me and others, but has not yet made the decision to give her life to Jesus Christ. So I ask that you will pray for her, that she will make the decision to claim and proclaim the faith that I already see in her life.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
My Bedroom
Here are the long awaited pictures of my bedroom. It is finally clean! I've included a picture of my bookshelf which features some things from home.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Furniture (Part 2)
The guest bedroom. For those of you in Tyler, this is where the money you collected went. Thank You.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Strike!
Peru's beloved president Alan Garcia has decided to export the country's natural gas, which is used to power Southern Peru's vehicles. This will of course cause the price of petrol to increase, in turn raising the fare of all forms of public transportation from taxis to buses.
In protest of Garcia's decision, the majority of the buses in Arequipa went on strike today. This meant that when I walked up the hill this morning to catch the bus to language class I couldn't. I might have stood there longer, but Kyle drove by and shouted at me that the buses were on strike, so I should take a taxi. Well, my team mates will be the first to tell you that I avoid taxis at all cost, because I'm cheap, and I would rather walk. So rather than pay a taxi to take me to class, I took a collective downtown which was more than bus fare but less than a taxi. From there I walked about 1 1/2 miles (well that's a guess, it might not have been that far) to class. Thankfully in place of the buses, collectives were running back up to Graficos (my neighborhood) so I was able to return home without much trouble.
Later, I walked about a mile to catch a collective to take me up to the national school where I volunteer two days a week. When I arrived at the school, however, there was not the usual milling around of students and teachers as they arrived for classes. The gates were shut, and I realized that school was canceled due to the strike.
So today, I walked more than usual, spent more than I wanted to on transportation (though I really am quite cheap, and shouldn't complain) and accomplished less than I intended.
For those of you who don't know a collective (or collectivo) is a taxi that goes to a certain location that people can share to reduce the cost.
In protest of Garcia's decision, the majority of the buses in Arequipa went on strike today. This meant that when I walked up the hill this morning to catch the bus to language class I couldn't. I might have stood there longer, but Kyle drove by and shouted at me that the buses were on strike, so I should take a taxi. Well, my team mates will be the first to tell you that I avoid taxis at all cost, because I'm cheap, and I would rather walk. So rather than pay a taxi to take me to class, I took a collective downtown which was more than bus fare but less than a taxi. From there I walked about 1 1/2 miles (well that's a guess, it might not have been that far) to class. Thankfully in place of the buses, collectives were running back up to Graficos (my neighborhood) so I was able to return home without much trouble.
Later, I walked about a mile to catch a collective to take me up to the national school where I volunteer two days a week. When I arrived at the school, however, there was not the usual milling around of students and teachers as they arrived for classes. The gates were shut, and I realized that school was canceled due to the strike.
So today, I walked more than usual, spent more than I wanted to on transportation (though I really am quite cheap, and shouldn't complain) and accomplished less than I intended.
For those of you who don't know a collective (or collectivo) is a taxi that goes to a certain location that people can share to reduce the cost.
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