climbing mountains and clearing rubble

Today we have exactly six weeks which means we have four weeks left in our Peruvian adventure. Though I miss home from time to time, I'm in not rush to return to the states. We've experienced so much so far and I'm sure there is much more in store.

I spent the day leading a team of 5 people to a nearby plot of land where we cleared some ruble to make way for a new community center. It was great to get beyond the four walls that enclose our property and make a direct impact in the community. I even got the chance to use what little Spanish I know to strike up a conversation with a local lady who was working with us.

By the end of the day we had cleaned up many wheelbarrows full of rubble, but I believe our impact there was much deeper. Our work was a testament to the fact that we are here not just to build an orphanage, but to help in the process of changing an entire community.

On a different note, on Saturday our team enjoyed a three hour hike to the top of a nearby mountain. We had a spectacular views of our entire little town on on side of the mountain and the expansive pacific ocean on the other side. We were told that we would find some ancient Incan ruins at the top, but we found nothing but a rock wall that didn't look very ancient. But it was still a great time and we had a blast.

I feel like our team of summer volunteers is really starting to bond well together. We seem to be working better together and supporting each other more every day. Even still, we pray for unity every day and that God would use us together to continue to make an impact here.

Until next time,

Kyle

Missions

I've been wrestling with something for the last few weeks. The SVPs have been reading a book together called "Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers." The last chapter that we read talked about having a vision for what we are doing, and it said that we need to be careful not to become so wrapped up in accomplishing our vision that we lose sight of what God has planned, what His vision is. I've been wondering if Americans are so caught up in helping the poor, in giving to them, that they lose sight of what is actually beneficial for the poor.

I don't think I would have ever thought like this before spending this much time in a third world country hosting mission teams each week from the States. I believe that building an orphanage and providing a place where Peruvians can help one another in community by supporting young, abandoned mothers and abandoned children are amazing works that we are called by God to do. But what impact do one week mission teams have on the community? What is the effect when American teams bring down suitcases full of clothes to give away, crafts and candy, and when they pick up all the trash in the streets?

More and more I am beginning to think that after these things happen over and over, the communities will begin to rely on teams to come down, pick up the mess, and bring them lots of stuff to keep. I don't know if it actually helps kids to go in to schools and interrupt classes or educational activities to play games or do a vacation Bible school program. Doesn't that just create inconsistency for them?

My view is that short term mission trips have a much greater effect on the teams that come than on the community around us. I am torn about whether or not it is the right thing to do...but I can't deny the fact that many people become full time missionaries after going on a short term trip. So, I am wrestling with this...

And now I have to go shower because I've taken so long to write this! Ha, but I am learning so much here.

Mas Ollas!

A little story from today...I had to go with our cook to pick up some Peruvian women who work at the local soup kitchen. They were coming because they are teaching our cook how to make "chaufa" a Chinese/Peruvian dish. So, we hop on one of the motos to go pick them up, and when we get there, they have this HUGE pot to bring with them. This was seriously the big momma of all pots! So FIVE of us squished in to this tiny moto taxi and zipped all the way back to Hannah's Home on the bumpy dirt roads. What an adventure! I could hardly keep from laughing at our silly situation, but as I listened to the Spanish music coming from the speakers in the moto, I thought that this would only happen in Peru!

And now the ladies are in the kitchen teaching the cook how to cook chaufa, and I am upstairs writing this blog and probably should be helping :)

I have not fallen off the face of the earth...

It's lunchtime here in Peru. And I have 3 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches waiting for me! Yay! Sorry it has been so long since my last post! I've been busy, and last week was especially difficult in many ways. But it was a good week.

Last week we went out to soup kitchens for the first time. Not like they needed our help! All of the women there were so fast and efficient at what they did! They cook outside where there are dirt floors, and their gas stove sits on top of it. Usually, they would make some kind of chicken soup, rice, beans, or pasta. People can come there are pay about 80 centimos for a big meal, much cheaper than if they would make it themselves. It is possible to do that because the government subsidizes soup kitchens in every community and they can offer food at a low price. People bring all pots and containers of all shapes and sizes to have them filled with hot food for the day. That is why there are so many colorful bags.

This week is unique. We have a football team here from Blue Springs, Missouri, and a church from Fredericksburg, Virginia (the Peterson's home church). This team is full of people from all different spiritual places. Some are not Christians, some are. I am not entirely sure what brought the football team here, I think their coach much be a Christian and has come to Peru before. I am interested to see how this week will play out, and we have been praying for salvation again. I am hoping that they will be changed and impacted this week by what they see and hear.

On another note, it has been fun hanging out with the Ni River church, and I am enjoying getting to know all new people again. We went to a "pronoi" today, which is basically a preschool. We did a mini VBS, did face painting and tatoos, had a little snack, and then we were off! They were soooooo cute!! The children were about 3-5 years old.

Yesterday, (sorry this is out of order) Ansley and Karina were so sick. We think they may have gotten sick from some lettuce they ate on Sunday night, but it is hard to be sure. Anyway, they were throwing up pretty much all day. :( Not a fun time for them, I'm sure. The three of us went back to our apartment early (I went because somebody had to be able to stay away from the toilet!), and Manuela was home as well. She is so sweet. She immediately began to prepare some special tea for the sick girls (who at this moment were on our patio barfing into some buckets simultaneously). When they were laying in their beds, Manuela came in and served tea to each one of us. Then, she took out some herbal oil and told us that it would help. So she put some on Karina's neck, face, and stomach...made Ansley do the same...and then made me do it, just in case! I could hardly keep myself from laughing and she spread the oil under my nose. Here I was, in the middle of Peru, with two sick friends, and a Peruvian grandmother spreading oil on my face. Haha! It smelled really good though, and made me really sleepy!

Thankfully, the girls are doing much better today and have started to drink some liquids and eat a little. Hopefully this passes quickly.

Not much else to report here...every time I go to blog I get blog shy or something! So I am probably forgetting something...sorry! Off to eat my sandwiches!

Journal Entry

Halfway through another week.

A journal entry from a few days ago:

As usual it's been a very long time since my last journal entry. But much has happened since then including graduation from college and a move to a new country. So today I'm sitting here at our little round table on the patio of our little apartment in Las Salinas, Peru. I'm sipping a cup of coffee that will probably do more for my intestinal regularity than my taste buds, but it's hot and good all the same.

Tuesday will mark four weeks that we've been down here which kind of baffles my mind when I think about it. They say time moves slower in South America but that doesn't seem to be the case for us. So I guess the question that begs to be answered is; What have I learned so far from being here?

The answer to that question is something that I'm wrestling with this morning. Is it bad that half a dozen things didn't pop into my mind right away? I guess if I really gave it some though I could come up with a few things that God has taught me about my life and the way I walk through it.

I should start with the lesson that hit me even before we stepped foot on the plane. For someone who likes to have things in order and ready to go and often takes pride in his ability to do so, forgetting my passport was quite a lesson in humility. It was also a reminder from God that he holds all things in his hands even when we screw up or fail. He got us down here a day later without any trouble at all. It was almost like he was saying, “Remember, you can’t do this thing on your own or by your own strength.”

So what else? What else have I learned here? Well I guess I’ve learned quite a few lessons in flexibility over the last few weeks. In everything from living with eight different people in close quarters to dealing with mistakes and confusion on the construction site, flexibility has certainly been the name of the game here. It’s funny how even though I know that in order to be a servant I need to be able to lay down my own wants, desires and preferences for the sake of those of others, I still find myself holding onto them with an iron fist. For some reason I can’t just tell myself, “Don’t care about yourself so much!”

Which takes me to my third lesson, which is finding an unselfish, servant-like love for others starts by finding the same thing with God. I’m convinced that the only way I can truly love others by pulling down the walls of selfishness and pride is by letting God’s love dwell in me. I need to give him control of everything and not try to manage parts of my life on the side. I need to wake up every morning by finding my joy and hope in his love and salvation.

So I guess God is teaching me a few things here and in fact there are many others that I haven’t listed. As usual He’s been faithful and he has heard my prayers and cries for help. It makes me wonder what other lessons he’ll send my way in the weeks to come.

Salvation

It's Saturday evening and for the first time I'm missing home a lot. I think it's mostly because we're missing our annual family weekend at Spruce Lake which has always been a highlight of the year.

I'm sure they are probably making dinner around the camp fire as I write this. My dry eyes are tearing up just thinking about it. :-( I wish I could be there.

But I wouldn't trade our experience down here for anything else and this week especially.

Last night with 40 people sitting around a bonfire we heard testimonies from the group about what God was doing in their lives. It was great to see everyone share from their heart, but two of the testimonies hit close to my heart.

The first came from a lady named Carolyn. I found out earlier in the week that she has been married for 18 years with no children and just recently had a hysterectomy because of medical problems. I could sense that she wanted so much to have a child of her own but didn't really know what to tell her. So I simply encouraged her by telling her that she is kind of like a parent with no children in a place where there are many children without parents. Around the bonfire I found out that those words meant more to her than I realized.

The second came from my friend Neill. I had worked with him almost all week doing plumbing so I got to know him better than some of the others. He shared that before the trip he had been feeling very weighed down by life, but on Wednesday night he gave his life to Christ.

I had prayed on Wednesday morning for salvation for those among the group and I guess God heard me. :-)

A day of rest tomorrow is much needed.

Until next time.

Kyle

Playing with Scissors

God has given us so many blessings this week, especially today. First of all, there is a hair-stylist on the team. Which is AWESOME because Kyle's hair really needed to be cut, and I needed a professional lesson! So, after spending the morning at Hogar de Ninos playing with the kids and watching the team practice their marching for a parade tomorrow, I watched her cut a few of the kids hair from across the street. Then, she offered to teach me how to cut Kyle's hair! So she cut one side, and I cut the other with her guidance. It looks SO much better! Now I think I will be able to cut Kyle's hair and it won't look like he got hit by a lawn mower :) So excited!

On another note, one of the team members is a pediatrician...so, I asked her to take a quick look at my clogged up ear. She cleaned it out a little with some cutips and then put some medicine drops in it. Hopefully, once the medicine is evaporated, my ear will be clear again! Maybe I will actually be able to hear again?!?

So, the Lord has answered my prayers for a nurse or doctor to be on this trip...now I might be able to hear people the first time, and not feel like I'm under water. I'll be able to enjoy it here so much more! Wahoo!!! :)

AND get THIS....while making dinner the other night (Monday), I had marinated chicken breasts in Italian dressing ALL day. And I wanted to bake it in a glass baking dish that we had been using. After it had been in the oven for a while, Ansley and I heard this loud crack! The flames on the burners went crazy, so I rushed to turn everything off. Next, I opened up the oven, and inside, I found our glass dish, separated and cracked into many pieces with all of the chicken inside :( It was so weird. Shouldn't a glass baking dish be able to be in the oven at high temperatures?! Anyway, we ate the chicken anyway and we are still alive. Well, I didn't eat it because I was scared...But I heard that it was still good! Ha. Hopefully that never happens again.

Eating pizza for dinner tonight with the rest of the Child Reach leadership people...I'm guessing it could be a late night. We also were invited to eat dinner with the team tomorrow and Friday night! So we won't have to cook for a few days :) Yay!

Grubs and We got some peanut butter!!

Tried to post this yesterday, but it didn't work...so here it is...

Hellooo...so today was our first day working with the team. It was really great, probably one of the best days so far. It is really comforting to be around people of all ages, old and young. It's a huge team, about 40 people. So there are plenty of peeps to go around.

Karina and I had the task this morning to walk over to Hogar de Ninos, the orphanage across the street, to be teaching assistants. When we got there, we found out that we were actually going to be the teachers because their normal teacher didn't show up! Yikes! I was really nervous to teach a first grade class in Spanish, and it was definitely a challenge. The kids were extremely hyper and would not really listen to anything that we asked them to do. A couple of them were kind of beating each other up, and we had to pull them apart. Eeek. But we made it through, teaching them a few English words. I had to leave Karina with the young kids by herself while I went upstairs to help with the older, 5th graders (I think they were fifth grade?!). But the older kids were so good.

Later, I went back in the afternoon to help the kids with their homework. I think that this has been my favorite thing I've done so far. The kids we helped are the orphans who live at Hogar de Ninos full time. I helped Jose, a sixth grader, to translate a short English story into Spanish and then answer questions about it. I really, really hope I can help him more and more this summer, I would love to help him improve. The children who live there are always so happy to see people, and just love to be with you right away. I can't wait to go back and get to know them! I really hope I can.

On another note, I saw the HUGEST caterpillar I've ever seen in my life. It reminded me of something out of the Lion King! Hakuna Matata! :) See above picture.

Also, we finally got our new supply of peanut butter!! It is ridiculously expensive here, about $6-7. More than I want to pay for two cups of of PB. So I am so happy to have a fresh supply! Yay!

That's all for now, I'll see if I can get my caterpillar picture uploaded!

Spidey

Last night I saw the scariest spider I've ever seen in my life. I will post a picture of it soon. We spent about an hour trying to figure out what kind of spider it was, but with no luck :( I want it to die, but I am afraid it will get me. We found it underneath the deck at Hannah's. Yikes!

Today was spent in Lima going to church then eating "chifa" (Chinese food) for lunch. What a feast! It was quite delicious. Spent the rest of the day hanging out at Jim and Tony Kay Shutz's apartment. They are the directors of ChildReach here in Peru, Dave's bosses. They have been living here for two months. We had a long time of debrief and sharing of testimonies. I was really touched by hearing the Shutz's testimony of why they came down here and how they got here.

Otherwise, I am feeling extremely tired after a looooong week. Hopefully this
week involves a little more rest, but we'll certainly be busy with the team here.

Keep us in your prayers.

Donut Dreams Can Come True

Well it's Saturday night and we've got a break in the action so I'll write a quick blog.

After a sunny scorcher yesterday, today we've had a gray and dreary day. This morning Blake and I finished up the plumbing for the three new bedrooms that are now finished. They look great and I'm sure some kids will have a lot of fun living in them someday. Heck, I would live in them. :-)

All of us have been feeling pretty tired and worn down, but our day was brightened by a surprise from Dave. After lunch he pulled out 2 big boxes of donuts from Dunkin Donuts. I think Karina almost cried with joy. :-) But I think everybody was happy to have a little taste from the States. The funniest part is that yesterday Casey had told us that she had been dreaming about donuts.

Tonight we'll be making some final preparations for the first team that is arriving tonight around midnight. 35 people! We're really excited to see how the first week goes.

~peace~

Crunch time

Teams arrive tomorrow. Yikes. We are scurrying around here to completely finish up two upstairs rooms in the orphanage so that the Petersons (the missionary family that lives here) have a place to sleep during team season! Things are coming along, but we had a pretty late night yesterday. Tonight we can relax, so I am looking forward to that. Dave is headed to a wedding tonight for one of the Peruvian workers who is normally here, so my guess is that he will be up all night working. Double yikes! He is definitely a hard worker.

We've been having a conglomeration of food to eat down here...tonight we are having salad, rice, and eggs. Yesterday was a little more normal; we had chicken stir-fry. One of my favorites, but I put my sweat and blood into it!! I had to cut up a whole chicken, which I have only done once before. So that took me a verrrrry long time! I think it turned out ok, but next time I am definitely buying pre-packaged chicken breast! In the open markets, they only sell chickens whole...and I mean WHOLE...well, minus feathers, that is! :) But it turned out well! Good to have a little comfort food. Actually, my real comfort food is macaroni and cheese with applesauce...but I digress :)

Looks like Karina and I will also have the opportunity to work with the school/orphanage across the street. Teams will probably be going over to help them with homework, play, or be classroom assistants. I am really looking forward to it, and hopefully it is something fun to do!

Sorry for not posting more pictures! I will work on taking more...like of the apartment, the property at Hannah's, etc...So more to come!

Settlers

This week is has been very busy. We are putting together bunk beds, painting, cleaning rooms, and trying our best to get ready for the team that is coming this Saturday. However...we have managed to find time to play many rounds of Settlers of Catan in the evenings! I have yet to win a game!!! Oy.

It looks like we are going to have to spend a few late nights here at Hannah's so we can get everything done. Might be a rough week, but we'll try to get through it. It seems like it's been a little uneventful here lately. With teams coming, I'm sure it will pick up the pace!! I am looking forward to meeting the teams and getting to know them, but I'm a little nervous that I'm not ready to lead anybody! I guess that just gets better with time.

This week we are also starting to read a couple of books as a group. One is called "Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers" and the other one is called "Unexpected News". I'm not sure what the first one is about, but Unexpected News is about looking at the Bible through third world eyes. I think that they will both be very interesting to read as we live in a third world country.

It is kind of crazy to me how people live here. I don't think that I could live that way forever. For example, there are no grocery stores nearby, except in Lima. Everything is only sold at the local open market, and it closes late afternoon. No peanut butter to be found here either. Not too many people have cars, so a lot of them take the bus or ride in a "moto" (I think I explained those in an earlier blog??). I don't know how to explain it...but it makes me miss home and realize how fortunate we all are in the States. We have the convenience to run down to Wal-Mart (even though I hate Wal-Mart...) to grab whatever food that we need or whatever else. We all have access to a car to get around and visit friends who are far away or go wherever. We can take a hot shower every day and have homes with finished floors instead of dirt. We have photo identification...some people who have come from the mountains here can't own property or get a job without ID, and they can't get ID because their papers are back in their hometown, and they can't afford to go back or it is much to difficult to get there. So it is a recurring cycle of disparity in many cases. I haven't traveled the world a whole lot, but after being in several different places (Mexico, Spain, Puerto Rico, Portugal, and now Peru) I realize how extremely privileged we are to even live in the United States. In my opinion, the States are the nicest place to live in the world. Of course, I'm probably biased because I'm from there...but I still think it's so nice. Even in the some of the worst places in any city you can think of you can see that in America we are blessed.

Ok, I think I have rambled enough. Not sure what is for dinner tonight...hodge podge of things maybe?? I'm thinking sweet potato fries :)