And now congratulations are in order again.  Because my 4 year old has been brainwashed by all the recycling commercials he sees on TV.  When he sees me throwing away anything paper or plastic or metal or glass or anything that looks like it should be recycled Jake asks, “Mom, can we recycle that?” or “No, Mom, don’t throw it away, we can recycle it!”  Well, his persistence is working.  My kid is turning me into a tree hugger.  After we move into our new house I will figure out how we can start recycling here in Lima.

But not only that, lately he doesn’t want to throw away anything at all.  Nothing.  I’m not exaggerating.  Now, I’m sure this probably has something to do with the slight instability in our house right now.  The movers are coming tomorrow to load up our stuff, and I’ve been busy for the last week getting things in boxes.  So our life schedule has been a bit out of whack.  Derek keeps looking for his toys saying, “Wear, wear, wear, r my toyeez?!”  Translation–Where are my toys?!

This morning Jake came running in the room crying hysterically.  I couldn’t tell if he was scared or hurt, but I thought for sure it had to be one or the other.  No.  He was crying because the trash men came and picked up some of our boxes that we left outside with the trash.

It continued throughout the rest of the day.  He didn’t want me to throw away anything.  He said we could recycle it.  He said he could use it to build something.  He said we could use it later.  He said he needed it.  I thought the day of not wanting to throw anything away was finally over when I started getting them ready for bed and got them in the bath.  Nope.  His band-aid got wet in the tub.  I told him to take it off and I’d give him a new one when he got out.  Fearing the truth, he started crying and asked me if I was going to throw away that used, wet band-aid.

Yes, Jakob, I am.

But I want it!  We can save it for later!  Use it again!

We are throwing it away, Jakob.

After the bath, I get him dried off and dig the band-aids out of the box that I already packed them in.  He puts the band-aid on by himself and when he pulls the little white plastic parts off the band-aid–you know, the part that sticks to the sticky side?–I kid you not, the boy asks me if he can keep those little white pieces and not throw them away!

No, Jakob, you need to throw them away.

This time there are no tears.  Apparently he was formulating a plan.  While I’m standing there next to him, washing my face, I see him from the corner of my eye looking for a place to hide them on the floor back behind the toilet!

No, Jakob, throw them away.

He steps outside the bathroom and just a few feet away finds a box that’s been taped up.  Very sneakily, he slips the two, little, white fragments of his band-aid into the crack of space under the flap of the box.

This is the part where I gave up, turned my head as if I didn’t see it, smiled real big and tried not to laugh out loud.

The new Seat Belt Nazi, indeed.  Makes me kind of proud.

Maybe the most noteworthy news item of late is that we had our first of hopefully many medical campaigns this July.

This deserves and will get it’s own post in the next day or two. But the short version of the story is that we had a group of thirty some odd visitors from all over Texas and Tennessee… Among them we had five doctors and five nurses. Those health care professionals plus all the other amazing visitors we had really made our first stab at a medical campaign go about as smoothly as it could have possibly gone… way smoother than I ever expected.

The other big news of late is that we’ve had family visit! First, Stacy’s brother, aka Uncle Ben, is a doctor and came as part of the aforementioned medical campaign.

And then, this week we’ve had Stacy’s parents visiting. The boys have just been beside themselves with Gran and Grandad here in the flesh and not just a picture on the computer via Skype. Unfortunately, grandad had to leave already, but we’ve still got gran here until Wednesday night. Our days have been full of going to the parks around town, visiting the zoo, etc., etc.

Of course our car broke down the day before they got here. So, we rented a car for a couple of days while it was in the shop… we got the tiniest little Fiat you’ll ever see. It didn’t even have power steering; but it was the cheapest thing they had and it got the job done. I also promise more details from the Gran and Granddad visit coming soon.

Oh yeah, one more thing… We’re moving… Again. Of course. If you know us well enough to be reading this, then you probably didn’t just fall out of your chair in shock. But, this isn’t what we expected to be doing when we moved in to our current house almost a year ago. Anyways, this certainly deserves its own post too. So, more to come later in the week.

Yeah, yeah, I know you don’t believe me about all the updates I’ve been promising… But really it’s going to happen. Really.

I’m glad that Peru has a lot of the same nationally recognized holidays as you do in the States.  Mother’s Day and Father’s Day being the most recent ones.  We had a great Father’s Day weekend and even started celebrating how great of a Daddy we have around here a little early.  Like last Thursday.  I asked Jake what he wanted to make Daddy for Father’s Day.  He said, “A paper tree.”  Okaaay.  I’m thinking, How am I going to either get around this one or figure out how to make this doable?  Well, we found an idea in a craft book (borrowed from Alison just in time) and we made it happen.  We made a paper palm tree!  Daddy loves palm trees.  I think they are his favorite kind of tree.  For the trunk we used a Pringles can, and for the palm leaves we traced Jake and Derek’s hands on green paper and cut them out.  Inside the trunk/can we put candy, because Daddy loves candy.  Jakob helped write a note for him and he signed his name!  He’s so big, it’s hard to believe he can already write his name!  And Derek left his mark, too.  :)

Jake LOVES to make things and had so much fun with this project that he couldn’t hold it in.  So Daddy got his present on Thursday before the big day.  We love you, Daddy!

Yesterday we went out to eat for our Father’s Day lunch.  Mark went with us and we had a good time and ate some amazingly yummy food at Benihana.  Yes, there is one here and we are very thankful!

Well… let’s see… right now I’m sitting in bed.  It’s 5pm and I’ve only been out of my bedroom once in the last, oh, 17 hours or so.  I’ve got some kind of stomach bug or something.  Not cool.  But, already feeling better… I just ate some toast!

Obviously, I’m not going to be able to get you all of the details of life since the last post.  So, lets go with some highlights.

Work here has continued to go well and life seems to fly by at an uncontrollable pace sometimes.  We have tons of new friends and relationships that we are continuing to develop.  It’s hard to complain when people say things to me like, “My friend is having a really hard time right now… I told him he needs to be praying and he needs God in his life.  I also told him you would be happy to read the Bible and pray with him. Was that an okay thing to say?”  We’ve been helping a friend rebuild her “house” in a poor neighborhood… which has been a sobering blessing.  In the process I was reunited with a long lost friend that I haven’t seen in months, Ephrain!  And we’re continuing to make lots of preparations for a medical campaign in July.  Our plates are full.

While most of our friends and family in the states are now enjoying warm sunny days of baseball and hamburger cookouts, we’ve begun the long overcast and dreary winter of Lima.  Most days now are 100% overcast with surprising bone chilling temperatures in the low 60′s.  It’s hard to understand until you’ve experienced it.  But, when it’s 60 degrees in your house with 100% humidity it can be a lot colder than it seems.

With the end of Peruvian summer also comes the beginning of the Peruvian school year.. and we are mired in the process of looking for a school for our boys.  Peruvian public schools are horrendous and not even an option.  That leaves home schooling or private schools.  We’ve never had the desire or motivation to home school our kids… so, we’re looking for a reasonably affordable private school.  There is a lot more to this that will get it’s own post soon… let’s just leave it to say that this is our biggest source of stress at the moment and could really use prayers.

Another thing, my camera broke.  Again.  So, after waiting a couple of weeks I took it to the shop here… after keeping it for two weeks they told me they couldn’t repair it without a new part that would cost $400!  Well, I said no thanks and brought it home, depressed.  Then, just looking to see if it would work at all… it does!  I don’t know what happened but they didn’t charge me anything but it seems to be fixed… woo hoo!  That being said… not many pics of late.

Oh, a HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY! to Stacy.  Stacy celebrated her first birthday in Peru on April 23rd… wow… exactly a month ago.  Hmm… what else? Stacy’s been taking some new Spanish classes at a school here in Miraflores… that’s been good.

One more thing, we finally went to the zoo here in Lima.  We’ve always enjoyed going to the zoo as a family… not sure why it took us so long.  The zoo was small but pretty good for the most part.  The boys loved it!

Well, obviously, there’s so much more to share.  Just know that we’re alive and well… still kicking down here in the Southern Hemisphere.

For more… Click here for more of Derek being cute and here for more zoo fun.

Okay, so now about Easter, or Pascua, as they call it here.  We had seven of our new Peruvian friends come celebrate with us!  Including us and Mark, there were 10 adults and four kids there.  We were very excited that God brought them here even on such a short, one day notice.  Here’s a quick run-down of what our afternoon looked like.  I made two pans of my trusty Baked Spagehtii, because I’ve never met anyone who didn’t like it.  And even though they all said they liked it, I think it would have tasted better if I had actually gotten to bake it instead of cut it all into pieces and put it on plates in the microwave, because we ran out of gas for the oven!  Minor detail that the enemy would have loved to drag me down with, but I stayed calm and didn’t freak out.  :)

Anyway, so before the meal, Wes read a scripture passage about the Passover meal, and Mark prayed for us.  The conversation between all of us flowed really well and we all felt comfortable being there together, just enjoying each others company.  It was awesome.  After lunch Wes and Edgar hid the boiled eggs (that Wes and the boys dyed in food coloring that morning; yes we did finally find food coloring by the way) in our backyard.  They don’t have egg hunts here in Peru, so this was all new to them, and the kids were beside themselves excited about it.  So also, as you can tell in the pictures, we couldn’t just run to Wal-mart and pick up some Easter baskets, either.  We had to go with bags from our Wal-mart substitute, Wong, instead.  And made do with just putting some candy in the yard, since they don’t have those hollow plastic eggs here, either.  Regardless, the kids had a blast!  And we did, too, watching them!

After the egg hunt Wes took pictures of everyone.   Now you can have a face with the names.  Which is great, especially for those of you joining with us in prayer for them.  Also, a funny story.  The day after Easter we were talking with Edgar and he told us how his little girl, Danna (sounds like Donna), went home and told her grandma about the Easter egg hunt.  She said, “Grandmother!  We went to The Gringo’s house and hunted for eggs in their yard and got candy!”  We laughed pretty hard.  And Edgar said that Danna’s grandmother didn’t believe her!  Maybe it won’t be too long before we won’t just be The Gringos.  :)

Anyway, Edgar also told us that day that he and his wife, Graciela, were talking and wanted to ask us about some ideas they had.  He said they thought it would be great if we could get that same group together every Sunday and not just have a meal, but have a Bible study and sing some songs, too.  Then he asked us, “Do you think that’s a good idea or a bad one?”  Needless to say, Wes and I jumped on board with that and told him we had had almost the exact same conversation as well!  Our prayer all along has been that our relationships with the people we meet would serve as a foundation for introducing them to Christ.  In our minds we pictured that happening and then finding ourselves in a position with new friends who would want to start meeting together for Bible study.  God has answered our prayers!  The next Sunday not everyone was able to show up, but those that did, taught me how to make Lomo Saltaldo and Ceviche, two Peruvian dishes.  After the meal, Wes led everyone in a Bible study that went really well.  We have been so blessed by their interest in the Gospel, participation in discussions, and in taking ownership to our gathering together!

Sergio

Sergio is 17 years old, lives in a neighborhood close to ours, and he works on our street as a guard.  He is far away from his family, because they still live in the jungle, where he spent a good portion of his childhood.  He has been playing soccer with the guys on Monday nights and we get to talk with him often.  Sergio told Wes this week that he wants to be apart of what we are doing here.  It won’t be long before he finds out what that means, and Lord-willing, his life will change forever because of it!

Graciela, Edgar, and Danna

Wes met Edgar on his way to Monday night soccer.  You can read that story here.  Wes meets with Edgar to study the Bible every Tuesday.  We have been so encouraged by Edgar’s desire to know God more and to become more like Jesus.  You can pray that Edgar continues to grow closer to the Lord and that his wife, Graciella, will come to desire the same thing.  She and Edgar have been reading the Bible together and learning together.  We are excited about her desire to want to be apart of what we are doing, also.

Derek, Juan Carlos, Maritza, Jake

This is Jaun Carlos who is also a guard on our street, and his girlfriend, Maritza (sounds like Mar-eeska).  Wes has been studying the Bible with Jaun Carlos every week and has been getting to know his family and friends in his neighborhood district called, Villa Maria.  Both Jaun Carlos and Maritza have shown a great interest in studying with us and getting to know us better.  (And Maritza thinks Derek is the cutest thing she has ever seen!  I happen to agree with her.)

Sonya, Davidson, and Martin

Martin is a gardener and works for many people in our neighborhood (including us).  He is also the head guy over the guards on our street and does other side jobs like painting.  We found out early on that Martin is well respected in our community.  Wes describes him as a “person of peace.”  His wife, Sonya, is one of the hardest working women I know.  She has the heart of a servant and an awesome laugh!  Seriously, I love to hear her laugh!

You may have noticed Sara and her kids missing in all these pictures.  Well, she hasn’t been able to join us on a Sunday yet, but we are still keeping in touch with her.  We’ve had her over for a couple of meals during the week and are hopeful that our relationship with her will continue to grow.  Thanks so much for all of your prayers for us and our new Peruvian friends!

]]> http://theyoakums.net/blog/our-pascua-passover-in-spanish-celebration/feed/ 4 http://theyoakums.net/blog/jake-turns-4/ http://theyoakums.net/blog/jake-turns-4/#comments Fri, 02 Apr 2010 04:21:54 +0000 Stacy http://theyoakums.net/blog/?p=670 Last Wednesday, the 24th, was Jake’s 4th birthday!  Our little preemie is getting so big, I can hardly believe it.

On Thursday I got to help with Sofia’s birthday party at the Fletcher’s house.  I’m really glad I didn’t miss out on that, because it was an INCREDIBLE experience that taught us a lot about Peruvian birthday parties.  I was so impressed with how Steph did it all.  She did such a good job and you’ll have to read their blog post about it.

Friday we went to the beach with the Thompson’s.  Playa Santa Maria is about a 30 minute drive from town and a really nice beach.  It was a perfect sunny day.  We don’t have too many of those left before Winter comes again, so we are soaking it all up as much as possible.  Sorry, no pictures.  Wes forgot his camera and the Thompson’s brought theirs, but it ran out of battery.

You may have noticed the pictures that Wes put up sometime last week.  He’s been trying to take Jake fishing, because Jake has really missed doing that with Uncle Bruce in College Station.  On this trip, they went to a pier with a few of the other kids on the team.  They didn’t catch anything, but they had a good time.

Lee’s parents were here last week and brought the boys fishing poles.  They are really expensive here, so we were really thankful!  Jake can’t wait to go back.  He also looks around at all the huge mountains of dirt everywhere we go and says how he wants to climb them.  So far Wes hasn’t exactly found any good hiking trails, but we’re working on that.

]]> http://theyoakums.net/blog/visitors-the-beach-fishing/feed/ 1 http://theyoakums.net/blog/rough-day/ http://theyoakums.net/blog/rough-day/#comments Tue, 16 Mar 2010 18:30:19 +0000 Stacy http://theyoakums.net/blog/?p=660 Yesterday I was just not feeling too well most of the day, but wasn’t sure why.  When I picked the boys up from school at noon, we had to make a run to the grocery store.  Did you know that it’s a bad idea to take your kids to the store with you when they are tired and hungry?  I knew that too, but for some reason went anyway.  We head to the produce section–the whole caravan of us.  Jake with his pre-school sized grocery cart and me pushing Derek in the “car cart.”  Pretty cool they have those here, too.  It’s awesome, because I can strap Derek in and he can pretend to drive all around the store.  I can usually get 20 minutes of shopping done before he starts whining to get out so he can run all over the store (I don’t let him, of course).

ANYWAY, so as I turn to go down the next isle to get some apples, Jake is trailing behind me and playing with some tongs that are hanging down in front of some unknown Peruvian fruit.  Next thing I know I hear him screaming and crying, run back over there and find him surrounded by workers and concerned fellow shoppers.  He is holding and staring at his hand, which has several blond, hair-thin, thorns sticking out of it!  I picked out the ones that I could see.  But everyone else around me was highly concerned and eager to help, because Jake was still freaking out.  A couple of ladies were there who spoke English and they asked me if I had any tweezers, because there were more thorns in his hand and they are hard to see.  Needless to say, we found out why those tongs were there–for handling this fruit called a tuna, a cactus fruit.  I guess it’s similar to a prickly pear.

God took over for me, because I felt helpless and clueless.  Those sweet ladies (all of them) took care of everything.  One went to go buy some tweezers and another led Jake over to a sink to wash his hands.  Within 10 minutes all was well.

That evening we went to Chili’s for a birthday dinner for Sofia (Happy birthday, Sof!  Can’t believe you are already 5!).  By this time, though, I was feeling worse and didn’t even order food.  On the way home I had the boys in the car (Wes had left to play soccer) and we had to stop and get gas.  Filling up your tank here is actually quite a luxury.  You are not allowed to do it yourself, so every station is full service.  And in some places, they even have fill stations in the medians of the road, so you just pull over and they fill up your tank and then you are back on your way.  Pretty cool.  I only had 20 soles of cash with me (about $6), so I asked the guy to go ahead and give me a full tank, thinking I would pay with my debit card.  This happened to me once before, so you would think that I would have known that this was another bad idea from Stacy for the day.  He fills up my tank, it ends up being about 135 soles, then my card gets denied.  So here I am in the middle of the road, can hardly speak any Spanish, and have no way of paying for this.  I end up leaving my drivers license and car insurance with the guy and tell him I’ll be back after I find some cash.  Long story short, the Thompsons come to my rescue and I clean them out of ALL the cash they had on hand so I can go back and pay for it.  Thanks again, Alison!

So I’m finally on my way home.  By this time I am really feeling nauseated.  And the drive home, which normally would take 20 to 30 minutes, ended up taking 45-50 minutes because I got stuck in horrible traffic.  I was literally praying the whole time that God would let me at least make it home before I threw up, because I was stuck on the highway with nowhere to go and it would have been all over me.  Lovely, right?  Before I made it home, I called and asked Wes to meet me there.  I beat him home and managed to get a sleeping Derek out of the car and into his bed.  But I had to leave Jake asleep in the car and just waited for Wes to get there, because I was in need of a few moments with the toilet.

I’m learning that Peruvian viruses hate me.  I was sick all night and things got worse after that.  Wes said that when he got Derek up this morning he found Derek laying in his own dried up vomit, but he was happy as a lark.  I know, another lovely sight for you to imagine.  Thankfully, after a bath, Derek’s been fine all day.  I, on the other hand, am still in bed.  But at least I am finding time for updates now, right?

Preposterous!  I was immediately infuriated… no way.  There’s no way there are that many rabbits in that field.  And, obviously, my question hadn’t been taken seriously.  I don’t remember exactly how I responded… I do remember being deeply offended.

Looking back, I don’t blame my dad at all for his response… in fact, it was quite brilliant.  Because, I don’t remember it, but I’m sure that question was preceded by the likes of… How many mice do you think are in that field?  Why? How many trees are in the world? Why? Why is the sky blue?  Why are leaves green?  What do ducks eat? Why do ducks eat that?  Did Adam have a belly button? Why? What if? How?

That endless stream of questions is just part of my make-up… I can’t help it.  And for better or worse, along with my hands and feet, I passed that on down to Jakob… it’s part of his make-up now, too.  Sometimes that endless stream of “why’s” and “how’s” from the Jakester leads to innocently profound questions like the teachable moment Stacy wrote about.  Sometimes it just makes you want to pull your hair out.

Not sure why I wanted to share that… but our little question asker is getting to be our big question asker faster than it seems possible.

Derek, on the other hand, is definitely in the midst of the language explosion that happens at his age.  It’s incredible to watch it happen in both English and Spanish at the same time.  He has things he knows only in English and stuff he knows only in Spanish… amazing.  When asked, “Como estas?” He proudly replies, “Bien!”  When we tell him to “Say Hi” to somebody new, he carefully looks at them and decides by instinct whether to say “Hola” or “Hi.”  And, he’s always right.

He’s getting so big so fast… and even though he’s got my body and my walk, I think he still looks like a little Stacy.  It’s wonderful how children can be their own unique individuals and yet we can look at them and, at times, see little reflections of ourselves.

Click here for more photos.

]]> http://theyoakums.net/blog/unique-reflections-of-us/feed/ 2 http://theyoakums.net/blog/teachable-moments/ http://theyoakums.net/blog/teachable-moments/#comments Mon, 22 Feb 2010 04:35:00 +0000 Stacy http://theyoakums.net/blog/?p=644 The summer between my sophmore and junior years of college I spent about six weeks as a counselor at one of Kanakuk’s sports camp, KAA–the camp for inner-city kids.  Though I was missing my home away from homes, Camp of the Hills, where I had spent the last two summers as a counselor to the same type of kids, I came away from KAA with a lot of lessons learned and some valuable tools.  One of which is called, “teachable moments.”  A very simple tool, but one that has to be intentional and used on purpose.  In training the counselors at camp they told us to always look for those teachable moments.  For example…

When you are teaching them how to steer the sailboat, talk to them about how Jesus calmed the storm and controls the waves, and He does the same today in the storms of life.

When you are giving instructions on how to shoot the bow and arrow, looking at a target with a bullseye, tell them that the definition of sin is missing the mark.

Or when you are on the tree tops, a high ropes course, and they are afraid of falling, tell them that even though we may slip and fall, Jesus is holding on to us and He won’t let go.

Honestly, to most of us young college students at the time looking for these teachable moments, it sounded like “Jesus cheese.”  Like, do people really say this kind of stuff?  And if they do, it’s only because they are supposed to, right?  Even though I knew this was similar to how Jesus taught in parables, I felt like I never was very good at finding teachable moments at camp.  I think those are the only three I ever used, because they are the only ones I could ever remember and I had a hard time coming up with them on my own.  Besides that, who has sailboats at camp and knows how to work those things, anyway?  Not me.

Nevertheless, as silly as it sounded, I still wanted to be good at finding those teachable moments.  To a listening child, they never forget those concepts when they are coupled with real life experiences.

Well, fast-forward 10 years and here I am with two small children of my own. Finding teachable moments is even more important to me now that these are my own kids.  Tonight, I remembered to be intentional about it.

I had gotten the kids out of the bathtub and we were putting on pajamas and getting ready for bed.  Wes was gone, so it was just me, Jake and Derek.  Next thing we knew the lights went out.  It was dusk, so there was still a little light coming in from the window and I could see that it wasn’t just our house, but the whole neighborhood.  Jake was with me and started to get scared.  Derek was in the process of running away from me as I was trying to get his p.j.’s on, so next thing I heard was him crashing into some toys in the darkness of Jake’s room followed by some tears.  Gathering the boys next to me, we slowly make our way down the stairs while my mind searches for a way to find some light.  I can’t think of where a flashlight is, I know where some candles are, but I don’t know where any matches or a lighter might be.  The gas stove wouldn’t light.  So I find my phone and called Wes to find out if he had any helpful advice.  All the while, Jake is hugging my leg and wishing I was holding him in my arms instead of Derek, borderline crying, and saying that we need Daddy here and what are we going to do without any light!?!  Well, after about 10 minutes, the lights came back on and all was well.  We went back upstairs and finished getting ready for bed.  We had our routine “family church,” which is basically a little devo where we read a Bible story or two, sing a few songs, and then pray together.  During this time a little light bulb when on in my head and I thought of a teachable moment.

“Jake, do you remember how scared you were when the lights went out?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, that’s what it is like for people who don’t know Jesus and don’t have Him in their lives.  Jesus is the light of our lives.  It’s a scarey place to be without him, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

A little bit later I was reading a short book to Derek, about to lay him in his bed.  Jake was sitting close by, playing with a toy, when he looked over at me and said, “Mommy?  How can we make sure that Jesus is in our hearts?”

Wow.  Jake turns four years old next month.  This is what Jesus meant when He said to become like little children, isn’t it?  With hearts ready and willing to listen, willing to receive a teachable moment.