Gloria’s House in Paradise

In our last post we announced our blanket drive in an area of Lima called Paraiso or “Paradise.”  This is an area where we have a number of friends and an area with great need that we feel God has been calling us to serve.  One of our friends, Gloria, recently had some problems with her house. So, we volunteered to help.  This is the first of many service projects we’ll have in this area.

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For some background, Gloria has lived here for about eight years, she just got electricity for the first time a couple of weeks ago.  Like her neighbors, she has no running water and no sewer system.

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We’ve been working on her “house” a little at a time a coule of days a week for last couple of weeks.  Somehow or another, Gloria’s little house ended up about two feet onto her neighbor’s property and was causing a great deal of drama and stress.  Think along the lines of piles of rocks being dumped on your doorstep.  Anyways, we volunteered to chop off one end and add on to the other… improving and making it a little bigger in the process.

Our trusty wizard of videography, John Mark, made us a video of the beginning of this project…

Today we went out and started painting.  We’re almost done.

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Gloria and her little boy now live in the little house on the hill… just a little to the left of where it used to be… it’s easy to spot… it’s the bright yellow one.

More photos here.

Blanket Drive – La Frazaletera!

Calling ALL friends and family back in the USA! We are desperately in need of your help for a blanket drive! Peru is creeping into winter and it is getting chilly. Our friends in Villa Maria who live on the side of a mountain in homes that are not adequate to keep warm, are in great need of some blankets fast. Team Lima is launching it’s first annual Frazalatera (blanket drive) in order to help the families and especially those kids keep warm during the next few months.

The deadline to raise $1000 is June 15th! We know this is fast but these people are cold, enough said. You can send your tax-deductible checks made out to The Crossing Church (with “Frazaletera” or “Blanket Drive” in the memo line) at the following address:

The Crossing Church
Attn:  Missions / Frazalatera
10815 Bentsen Palm
San Antonio, TX 78254-5365

Also, check out the Frazalatera Facebook page.

It’s hard to express in writing or for that matter, on a blog how crucial this is but hopefully we will be able t0 show you in pictures after we deliver the blankets and you are able to see their faces. We will have a short video of Villa Maria going up in the next few days to help you picture the conditions in which these people live in but we wanted to go ahead and start our drive today to get your minds, hearts and hopefully your wallets spinning :)

How is May almost gone already?

Well… I have no good excuse for not writing an update right now… so here we go.  Obviously, tons of stuff has happened since our last post… if nothing else, our kids are more than a month older than the last time you saw them.  How could I let that happen?  How are you coping?

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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!

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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.

Our Pascua (Passover in Spanish) Celebration

Sorry for the long delay between posts.  Among other things, I started my language intensive study last Monday.  Keep praying, because God is answering my prayers in big ways when it comes to learning the language here.  I went to school every day this week, I’ve learned a lot, and my confidence in speaking Spanish is growing.  A huge praise!

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!

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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!

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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!

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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.

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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.)

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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!

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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!