Hello everyone!
Wow, things are moving so incredibly fast these days. In ten days we will be back in Canada, and in three weeks I´ll be back home in St. Catharines! Yikes, where did the last five months go?
We had a really good week here in Lima. We visited the famous fountain park on Sunday night! You can watch that video for a bit of the show, but there were lots of fountains that aren´t in the video. It´s hard to appreciate how tall those jets of water are going into the air. There must be incredible pressure under the ground in those pipes. I was quite impressed!
On Wednesday we visited the zoo and saw all kinds of animals! Llamas (We actually saw 3 of the 4 kinds of llamas. Llamas, alpacas, and vicuñas, but there were no guanacos that I could make out.), condors, leopards, pumas, various smaller wild cats, sloths, sea lions (which are actually sea wolves in spanish - lobos del mar), and a whole lot more. We also saw very wide range of different monkeys. In fact, the zoo has it´s very own monkey island, which is surrounded by a small moat. The monkeys run free on the island, and we´ve heard that every once in a while one will escape! I got a little allergic from the fur by the time we got back, but it was worth it.
A few of us are battling colds and other sicknesses, so we would greatly appreciate prayer for our health this week. Flying down here with a cold was no fun at all, and I would really hate to do it on the way back too. Also please join us in prayer as we get ready to hand our work back to the local people and missionaries. We want the work we´ve been doing to be sustainable without us once we leave! It´s hard to think about not teaching English or working with the youth every week, but it´s a reality that is right around the corner - like it or not.
I´ve got a little more news on the home front, too. Steven has officially been accepted to Okanagan College in Kelowna, so our move there is set in stone now! My parents have a townhouse in Abbotsford all set to receive them in July. They have sold our house without even having to put up a sign! The sale is now only conditional on our buyers selling their house too. Finally, my family will officially driving out of town in the moving truck on July 5th, exactly one week after I fly back into town. It´s going to be an interesting situation dealing with so much change while going through reverse culture shock, but I think I´m ready. We´ll see how I feel in a month!
I´ll see you guys in a few weeks!
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Thursday, May 29, 2008
And Many Happy Returns!
Hello everyone!
Our trip up to northern Peru went very well. We saw many wonderful things and met a lot of great people! I think we visited eight different churches in all: in Trujillo, in the Miraflores and El Indio districts of Piura, in Sullana, and several other small church plants. We ran childrens programs, youth programs, we performed our drime in several church services, and we celebrated Mother's Day in three different churches! It's hard to explain what it was like since we did so many things in such a short time. I'll have to show you pictures once I get copies from everyone's cameras!
Now we've been back for almost two weeks. We've fit back into our schedule and we all apreciate being able to see our friends again. We had a fun time on Sunday night as well - we attended an English Bible study run around the corner from our house by a couple from Florida! It was fun to visit with them and see their perspective after living in Peru for four years. Many of the students from our English classes at this church were there also, so we saw a good mix of new and familiar faces!
This Saturday we are going to be visiting a church in Huycan, about two hours away by bus. We are going to perform our drime one more time, and help with a childrens program the church is planning. It's going to be a busy weekend!
Events are passing quickly, and it's hard to believe that we've got less than three weeks left in Lima before we return to Abbotsford. It will be strange to leave what has become normal life over the last few months, but I am excited to learn about the experiences of the Japan team, and to hear what the TREK staff have to say about processing all the things I'm learning.
Now, I've got some more news on top of all that. I will be coming home to St. Catharines on June 28th. However, I won't be staying long. My Mom has accepted a position working at MBMSI (the missions agency that has sent me here) in Abbotsford, starting on July 15th. My brother, Steven, is planning to attend Okanagan College in Kelowna. I am planning on getting a job in Kelowna and living with Steven while he goes to college. I'm really excited to spend this time with my brother! Due to all of these events solidifying so quickly, I will only be able to spend between one and two weeks in St. Catharines before I will be moving with my family to BC. I hope to see you all before I leave!
Please pray at this time for the Fall TREK teams (Germany, Mexico, Panama, Thailand, and Burkina Faso) as they return to Canada for debreifing. In fact, Germany and Burkina Faso will be recieving ACTION teams in a few weeks as well. Please pray also for the Winter TREK teams (Peru and Japan) as our time in our respective countries comes to a close, so that we can bring an awesome conclusion to our time here. Please also pray for my family in this time of rapid change. Thank you so much for being faithful and supportive for these last five months!
Talk to you later!
Our trip up to northern Peru went very well. We saw many wonderful things and met a lot of great people! I think we visited eight different churches in all: in Trujillo, in the Miraflores and El Indio districts of Piura, in Sullana, and several other small church plants. We ran childrens programs, youth programs, we performed our drime in several church services, and we celebrated Mother's Day in three different churches! It's hard to explain what it was like since we did so many things in such a short time. I'll have to show you pictures once I get copies from everyone's cameras!
Now we've been back for almost two weeks. We've fit back into our schedule and we all apreciate being able to see our friends again. We had a fun time on Sunday night as well - we attended an English Bible study run around the corner from our house by a couple from Florida! It was fun to visit with them and see their perspective after living in Peru for four years. Many of the students from our English classes at this church were there also, so we saw a good mix of new and familiar faces!
This Saturday we are going to be visiting a church in Huycan, about two hours away by bus. We are going to perform our drime one more time, and help with a childrens program the church is planning. It's going to be a busy weekend!
Events are passing quickly, and it's hard to believe that we've got less than three weeks left in Lima before we return to Abbotsford. It will be strange to leave what has become normal life over the last few months, but I am excited to learn about the experiences of the Japan team, and to hear what the TREK staff have to say about processing all the things I'm learning.
Now, I've got some more news on top of all that. I will be coming home to St. Catharines on June 28th. However, I won't be staying long. My Mom has accepted a position working at MBMSI (the missions agency that has sent me here) in Abbotsford, starting on July 15th. My brother, Steven, is planning to attend Okanagan College in Kelowna. I am planning on getting a job in Kelowna and living with Steven while he goes to college. I'm really excited to spend this time with my brother! Due to all of these events solidifying so quickly, I will only be able to spend between one and two weeks in St. Catharines before I will be moving with my family to BC. I hope to see you all before I leave!
Please pray at this time for the Fall TREK teams (Germany, Mexico, Panama, Thailand, and Burkina Faso) as they return to Canada for debreifing. In fact, Germany and Burkina Faso will be recieving ACTION teams in a few weeks as well. Please pray also for the Winter TREK teams (Peru and Japan) as our time in our respective countries comes to a close, so that we can bring an awesome conclusion to our time here. Please also pray for my family in this time of rapid change. Thank you so much for being faithful and supportive for these last five months!
Talk to you later!
Saturday, April 26, 2008
A Few Unrelated Events
Hey everyone!
It's been a few weeks since I've posted anything, I know. For the most part, this last month has been pretty routine. But there are a few things that have happened that I can share about now! You may have seen them on the blogs of some of my other teammates, but I'm going to tell you anyway just in case you haven't been checking!
Greg left a few days after my last post, but before he went he took us to a restaurant he knew. It's right on the ocean outside the bay where we go swimming, so the waves are huge (at least twice my height from what I could see)! It's called "The Jump of the Monk" because this guy dresses up like a monk every day and dives from the cliff into the ocean below, then climbs back up the cliff and runs around asking for money! We didn't get to see him, but just walking so close to the water was really exciting. We had dessert since it was a little late for supper, but the real fun happened when we left. Not many taxis come by the restaurant so our waiter offered to have us driven into the city so we could get a taxi. We agreed, and we all (waiter included) piled into a van to head up to the city again. Our first hint of trouble was when our driver came out of the restaurant, got into the front seat, and accidentally turned on the windshield wipers. She couldn't figure out how to turn them off, so Greg reached over to help her! Then she patiently tried to figure out how to put the van in reverse. We started to get a little more worried at this point. But after a few false starts, we were off and running! That is, until we had driven for a minute and reached the hill back up into Lima. That's when we ran out of gas, on a steep grade, in the dark. I told the waiter that it was OK, but he told me he was about ready to cry! The driver didn't know what to do, but Greg thought he'd have a try at getting us going so they switched places. Somehow, the fuel indicator was below empty but the engine started back up and Greg drove us safely up into the city to a gas station where the van could be filled up and we could catch a more reliable form of transportation! We bid our faithful waiter and the driver goodbye and got into 2 taxis to return home. I was in the second taxi, and we had a pretty fun ride back because we caught up with the first taxi along the freeway! Our driver, once he found out that we knew the occupants of the other taxi, stuck right beside them along the road so we got some fun pictures and videos of us racing side by side along the road. It was a pretty crazy night overall!
Most of the month then proceeded routinely until last weekend. On Friday the 18th our team joined up with members of the church leadership team and some other people from the church and English classes. We all visited a hospital in a less fortunate part of Lima a fair distance from home. We were guests in the pediatric ward, where we brightened the days of some of the children being treated in the hospital. We sang songs, told bible stories, played games and handed out prizes! We told the story of David and Goliath, and apparently I was a hit as Goliath. Unfortunately I missed the kids' smiles because I was playing dead at the time. In all, it went quite well. We are going to make some improvements and bring our materials along on our trip to Trujillo and Piura for kids programs.
The next day we went to the concert of Jesus Adrian Romero. It was a very nice concert, although it took a little longer than we'd hoped for the singing to begin! We arrived at the stadium to wait in line at 5:30, got into the stadium by 6:30, and some guys started talking about 7:00. Unfortunately their speech was quite involved and the actual concert didn't begin until almost 9:00. The music was pretty great, although I couldn't understand a whole lot. We ended up heading home at about 10:30, and it was quite a bit colder than I thought it would be! That Sunday our team also performed our drime in church, and we received an enthusiastic response! We will be performing it many more times while on our trip.
The real highlight of the month came unexpectedly on Monday the 21st. We went hiking for the day on the outskirts of Lima, and I wasn't sure what to expect since all we'd seen of Peru was desert and city. We went to a waterfall in the foothills of the Andes, and I have never seen a place like it! It was very beautiful, and we had a great day hiking and taking pictures among so many new sights.
Here is the waterfall from the bottom, where it looks the most spectacular!
Here are a bunch of us standing at the top of the waterfall. From left to right you see: me, Lisa, Martin, Laura, Roxy, Lidia, and Sarah. On the stairs behind us, you can see Breanne, Maria, and Arturo.
At one point, Otto and I climbed farther up the valley than the rest, and we discovered a few interesting sights. Among them was this huge and fun-looking cactus!
We also stumbled into a farmer's field in the middle of what I would consider to be a barely accessible valley. Here was one of his pumpkins (it's still a little green, I think *wink*)! I have no idea he would get them down from there, but I guess they must have been able to figure something out!
Here is the whole group together! From left to right you see: Arturo, Martin, Lidia, Laura, Breanne, Sarah, Lisa, Roxy, Maria, myself, German, and Abel. Laura is holding a makeshift kite she was making with Arturo.
It was really great to get to see a part of Peru that wasn't in the big city or in the desert! We had a great day, and it completely justified the 5 hours we spent on the bus traveling there and back.
The next big thing for us is going to be our trip up to Trujillo and Piura! We leave this Wednesday in the afternoon to arrive in Trujillo in the evening. We will be gone until at least the 18th of May, and I'm not sure how much I'll be able to communicate in that time. So if I'm not answering emails, you'll know why!
I hope you all have a great few weeks while I'm gone, and I'll try to update the blog with the details of our trip when I get back. Talk to you again in a few weeks!
It's been a few weeks since I've posted anything, I know. For the most part, this last month has been pretty routine. But there are a few things that have happened that I can share about now! You may have seen them on the blogs of some of my other teammates, but I'm going to tell you anyway just in case you haven't been checking!
Greg left a few days after my last post, but before he went he took us to a restaurant he knew. It's right on the ocean outside the bay where we go swimming, so the waves are huge (at least twice my height from what I could see)! It's called "The Jump of the Monk" because this guy dresses up like a monk every day and dives from the cliff into the ocean below, then climbs back up the cliff and runs around asking for money! We didn't get to see him, but just walking so close to the water was really exciting. We had dessert since it was a little late for supper, but the real fun happened when we left. Not many taxis come by the restaurant so our waiter offered to have us driven into the city so we could get a taxi. We agreed, and we all (waiter included) piled into a van to head up to the city again. Our first hint of trouble was when our driver came out of the restaurant, got into the front seat, and accidentally turned on the windshield wipers. She couldn't figure out how to turn them off, so Greg reached over to help her! Then she patiently tried to figure out how to put the van in reverse. We started to get a little more worried at this point. But after a few false starts, we were off and running! That is, until we had driven for a minute and reached the hill back up into Lima. That's when we ran out of gas, on a steep grade, in the dark. I told the waiter that it was OK, but he told me he was about ready to cry! The driver didn't know what to do, but Greg thought he'd have a try at getting us going so they switched places. Somehow, the fuel indicator was below empty but the engine started back up and Greg drove us safely up into the city to a gas station where the van could be filled up and we could catch a more reliable form of transportation! We bid our faithful waiter and the driver goodbye and got into 2 taxis to return home. I was in the second taxi, and we had a pretty fun ride back because we caught up with the first taxi along the freeway! Our driver, once he found out that we knew the occupants of the other taxi, stuck right beside them along the road so we got some fun pictures and videos of us racing side by side along the road. It was a pretty crazy night overall!
Most of the month then proceeded routinely until last weekend. On Friday the 18th our team joined up with members of the church leadership team and some other people from the church and English classes. We all visited a hospital in a less fortunate part of Lima a fair distance from home. We were guests in the pediatric ward, where we brightened the days of some of the children being treated in the hospital. We sang songs, told bible stories, played games and handed out prizes! We told the story of David and Goliath, and apparently I was a hit as Goliath. Unfortunately I missed the kids' smiles because I was playing dead at the time. In all, it went quite well. We are going to make some improvements and bring our materials along on our trip to Trujillo and Piura for kids programs.
The next day we went to the concert of Jesus Adrian Romero. It was a very nice concert, although it took a little longer than we'd hoped for the singing to begin! We arrived at the stadium to wait in line at 5:30, got into the stadium by 6:30, and some guys started talking about 7:00. Unfortunately their speech was quite involved and the actual concert didn't begin until almost 9:00. The music was pretty great, although I couldn't understand a whole lot. We ended up heading home at about 10:30, and it was quite a bit colder than I thought it would be! That Sunday our team also performed our drime in church, and we received an enthusiastic response! We will be performing it many more times while on our trip.
The real highlight of the month came unexpectedly on Monday the 21st. We went hiking for the day on the outskirts of Lima, and I wasn't sure what to expect since all we'd seen of Peru was desert and city. We went to a waterfall in the foothills of the Andes, and I have never seen a place like it! It was very beautiful, and we had a great day hiking and taking pictures among so many new sights.
Here is the waterfall from the bottom, where it looks the most spectacular!
Here are a bunch of us standing at the top of the waterfall. From left to right you see: me, Lisa, Martin, Laura, Roxy, Lidia, and Sarah. On the stairs behind us, you can see Breanne, Maria, and Arturo.
At one point, Otto and I climbed farther up the valley than the rest, and we discovered a few interesting sights. Among them was this huge and fun-looking cactus!
We also stumbled into a farmer's field in the middle of what I would consider to be a barely accessible valley. Here was one of his pumpkins (it's still a little green, I think *wink*)! I have no idea he would get them down from there, but I guess they must have been able to figure something out!
Here is the whole group together! From left to right you see: Arturo, Martin, Lidia, Laura, Breanne, Sarah, Lisa, Roxy, Maria, myself, German, and Abel. Laura is holding a makeshift kite she was making with Arturo.It was really great to get to see a part of Peru that wasn't in the big city or in the desert! We had a great day, and it completely justified the 5 hours we spent on the bus traveling there and back.
The next big thing for us is going to be our trip up to Trujillo and Piura! We leave this Wednesday in the afternoon to arrive in Trujillo in the evening. We will be gone until at least the 18th of May, and I'm not sure how much I'll be able to communicate in that time. So if I'm not answering emails, you'll know why!
I hope you all have a great few weeks while I'm gone, and I'll try to update the blog with the details of our trip when I get back. Talk to you again in a few weeks!
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