Happy New Year and a Million Thanks!

Happy New Year to everyone reading this blog. I pray that 2010 will be even better than 2009, and I pray that God would continue to do great works this year. Here in Peru I spent New Year's at Scripture Union's Casa Girasoles in Ica. We had a really fun time with all of the kids. Augusto hired a clown, and he did a great job with the kids. We set off a bunch of fireworks as did the rest of the country of Peru. Right when the clock hit midnight the whole city of Ica was filled with the booms of fireworks. It almost sounded like we were in a war zone. After the fireworks and the clown show Augusto opened 2010 with a short Bible study. He talked to the kids about the importance of loving each other, helping each other, and encouraging each other as a family. One other tradition here in Peru is that they make a big doll out of old clothes that represent the old year gone by. Sometimes they decorate the doll with symbols that represent the old year, but our doll was simple. He didn't even have a head! As we begun to burn it, though, the boys had the perfect idea for burning a symbol of the old year gone by. All at once they ran and got all of their old homework and notebooks and set them ablaze on top of the doll. It was a huge fire! To finish the night we sang a few praise songs together, and then it kind of turned into open karaoke. I lasted until about 3:30am, but some of the kids stayed up singing until 6:00am! I have posted a few pictures below, but I encourage you to take a look at my entire photo gallery on Flickr by clicking here.

Clowning around for New Year's

Lighting the doll on fire

Goodbye 2009!

I also want to take a moment to thank everyone who took the time to think of me this holiday season. I arrived back at my apartment yesterday for the first time since Christmas, and the doorman greeted me and said, "Billy, thank goodness you're back. Your mailbox is overflowing and we don't know what to do with it all." In total I received more than 40 Christmas cards from the USA, Canada, and Scotland! My mom reminded me the other day that I have now spent pretty much all of the big holidays away from home this year for the first time. It wasn't easy, and I missed friends and family. But what a blessing to have friends here in Peru to celebrate with and to have friends from home constantly encouraging me with cards and notes! I was really overwhelmed as I stayed up until 1:00am last night opening and reading all of my Christmas cards. Thank you so much!

I also have to give props to my mom and sister for sending me the most creative Christmas greeting of the year. They sent me shortbread Christmas cookies, and each cookie had a letter on it made out of sprinkles. I had to promise not to eat any of the cookies until I decoded the message. My sister didn't trust me, though, so she sent on blank cookie to eat while I was working on the message. You can see what it says below!

Thanks Mandy and Mom!

Prayer Request
As I reflect over the Christmas season and the great encouragement that I have received from friends and family, I cannot help but think of the kids in Scripture Union's homes throughout Peru. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this time of the year is particularly difficult for the Girasoles because as everyone begins to focus on family, the boys are constantly reminded that they don't have a regular family. For me it was difficult to spend Christmas away from family, but I can't imagine the heartache of having to spend Christmas knowing that you really don't have a family that loves you. Some of the boys have been noticeably depressed over the last month, and I know that a few of the boys in our homes have chosen to leave the program over the past month--at least in part, due to the depression that comes with the season for them.

Pray that God would give the children strength to continue to move forward this year, and pray that God would work in mighty ways in the lives of these kids--even the ones who have chosen to leave to program to go back into the streets. Pray for me and even more so for all of the full time staff at our boys' homes. Pray that God would use us to speak truth into the lives of these kids as the world around them fills them with the same old lies-- "You don't matter to anyone;" "You are worthless trash;" "No one cares about you or about what happens to you." Pray that God would break these lies in the lives of the children, and they they would be filled with His unending love. Pray that they would find true healing in the only possible place--a personal relationship with Jesus. 

Even the Tough Times are Worth It!

As I am sitting here ready to write a new post I have to be honest. This week has been one of my more difficult weeks since I have been in Peru. There have been a lot of late nights, and a lot of early mornings.

The week started as usual. I was with a Scottish group all day on Monday at the boys' home, and they were getting ready to fly back to Lima on Tuesday morning. I called the bus driver on Monday night to confirm the transport from the group's hotel to the airport, but he informed me that there was going to be a "strike" on Tuesday. A strike here in Peru is quite a bit different than what our idea of a strike is back home. Basically, when a group of people is in disagreement with any government decision or policy, they will go on strike; this means that they will march in protest, but it also means that they will often block the roads. The idea is that if the roads are blocked, then Peru's economy comes to a standstill, and hopefully the government will start to pay attention. Anyways, my bus driver informed me that the public transport staff was going to strike for a day because they are in disagreement with a new law that increases fines for traffic violations.

The group's original plan was to leave Tuesday morning around 8:30 to make their flight on time. My bus driver told me that we would probably beat the road blocks if we left earlier in the morning--around 5:00. With no other option, I had to ask the group to wake up extra early in an effort to beat the road blocks. Everything was set until about 4:30 then next morning. I received a call from the driver telling me that he couldn't make it to our hotel because people had already started striking and blocking the roads. At that point, there was no more that we could do. The group was going to have to miss their flight back to Lima. The Scripture Union office worked hard to rebook the flights for another day, but the earliest that the flights could be changed to was Thursday. The group was now going to have two extra days here in the Sacred Valley.

Really, from the perspective of the group, there wasn't much of a problem. They would have two more days here in Cusco, and a couple less days at their second stop--Kusi. For me, the delay brought a couple of complications. Originally I was going to have one group leaving Tuesday and a new group arriving on Wednesday. Because of the plane delay, the new group was going to overlap for one night with the other group. We did not have hotel spaces booked for that many people, so I had to rush around Urubamba looking for extra rooms. In the end, I was trying to juggle between two different groups who were staying in three different hotels.

Going to pick the new group up on Wednesday was also an adventure. Normally I take a public vehicle from Urubamba to Cusco when I go to the airport to pick up a group. Because of the strike that was going on, there were no public transport vehicles running. The trek was quite an adventure. I ended up riding in the trunk of a station wagon with two other men. It was a cramped, but uneventful ride thankfully.

On Thursday the group that got delayed finally left, and it was back to the normal routine--or so I thought! One of the ladies from the new group arrived quite sick. She hadn't eaten for a number of days, and she was incredibly weak. On Friday we decided that she was going to need to go back to Cusco to get checked out at a hospital. We left on Friday morning expecting to be at the hospital for 3-6 hours, but when all was said and done she was kept in the hospital for just over 24 hours, and she was diagnosed with Typhoid Fever--a bacterial disease caused by a certain strain of salmonella that is usually a result of drinking contaminated water. It was a nice hospital, and there was an extra bed in the hospital room, so I just stayed the night there, but I was woken up every 30 minutes or so when the nurses came in to check on the lady from the work team. Thankfully the hospital was very nice, and the lady is feeling much, much better now that she has medicine to treat the illness.

This week back in Michigan was our church's Kids' Kamp that the children's ministry puts on every year. I grew up going to this camp, and I loved it so much that when I was too old to be a camper I began working there as a volunteer. To this day, some of my best friends are the families that are involved in Kids Kamp. I found myself feeling a little bit homesick and missing friends and family back home. It was a long and exhausting week, and I think that all of the business wore my immune system pretty thin. I came down with a fever and nausea last night. I won't go into the details, but I was fairly unwell. It must have been just a 24 hour flu or something because thankfully I was feeling much better by this afternoon.

It has been a difficult week, and I appreciate all of your prayers. But as I was feeling down today, God reminded me exactly why it is that I am here in Peru. After taking the morning off to recuperate from my sickness, I made it back to the Girasoles home in the afternoon. Today we celebrated all of the boys who had birthdays during the months of June and July. There were games, songs, dancing, and lots of cake. They even made a pinata! I got the see the joy on the boys' faces as we celebrated their lives and as we reminded them that they are important and loved by God. I left the home today feeling tired but refreshed at the same time. When I signed up for this job, I knew that it wasn't always going to be easy, but I know that even in the midst of the more difficult times IT IS WORTH IT. God has me here for a reason, and he has a plan for the lives of the kids at each one of our Girasoles homes.

Street Children and Girasoles

Every once in awhile, I think that I will write a post to share a little bit of background and information about Scripture Union Peru and its ministries for those of you who are not incredibly familiar with the organization. Because I am currently doing work that is specific to Scripture Union's Girasoles program, I want to start this series of posts by explaining a little bit more about this problem with street children that we experience here in Peru as well as in many other parts of the world. I will do my best to explain the issues to the best of my knowledge, but please have some grace with me as I am fairly new to the Peruvian culture. I do not have all the answers, and much of the following information has been gleaned off of other friends, such as Paul Clark, Billy Clark, and many of the house parents in the different Girasoles homes. I will warn readers ahead of time--this is heavy stuff, but it is real. Even in the darkest places, God is working! This is a longer post, but I encourage you to read through it, and learn how you can better pray for these children.

Where do these children come from?

There is not always an easy, clear cut answer to a question like this. Each child is different, so there is not just one blanket answer. With that said, the root of the problem is almost always extreme poverty. Behind the lives of many children on the street is a single mother who is struggling to provide for her family. In Peruvian culture, Latin American culture, and probably many other places around the world there is a definite double standard between the position of the man and the position of the woman in a household. It is culturally acceptable in Peru for a man to be the macho figure who can do what he wants, when he wants, and with whomever he wants. The sociological term for this is "machismo." It is not uncommon, especially in impoverished communities, for a man to have children with a number of different women. While the man goes around doing whatever he wants, the mother is expected to provide for and care for the children. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, poverty turns into a vicious cycle. When a mother can no longer provide for the children on her own, she is forced to attach herself to another, often times abusive, man for income.

So where do the children come from? Many times the reason that they end up on the street is very simple. From the mother's perspective, she can either abandon one child on the streets or try to care for everybody as the risk of starving the entire family. Paul Clark, the director of Scripture Union Peru, often uses the illustration of a life boat. When the boat is full one person needs to go overboard, or the entire boat will sink, and everyone drowns. There are other cases where the new boyfriend of the mother wants nothing to do with children from a different father, so he puts them out on the streets, or he at least abuses them until they run away on their own.

Other children begin spending days on the streets trying to sell small bits of candy, shine shoes, or just beg to try to provide income for the family. Many times, they are expected to bring home a certain quota daily, and if they do not meet that quota then they can expect to be beaten. Even when they do bring the proper amount of money home, very seldom does that translate to food on their plates. Many times the father will gamble the money away with his other friends or spend it away on beer to feed his alcohol addiction. After awhile, sometimes the boy decides that he would be better off living on his own rather than trying to meet an unreasonable quota and still not getting fed.

Once a child is out on the street, what becomes of him?

Nothing good is waiting for a child who is living out on the streets. To begin with, many of the populated cities in Peru have a fairly mild or sometimes downright cold climate. The leading cause of death of kids on the streets of Lima is pneumonia, among a host of other preventable or curable diseases, during the winter months of June, July, and August. Even if disease does not come upon a child, the streets are a world of drugs, gangs, violence, and abuse.

Street children in Peru's culture are the lowest of the low. They are generally feared and hated. Prostitutes would have higher social status than street children. Billy Clark often tells a story of a time when the work with the Girasoles had recently begun. He had taken some pictures with the kids, and he took the pictures to get developed. When he arrived to pick up the pictures, the man at the store recognized that the pictures were of street boys, so he asked Billy why he would be taking pictures of these nobodies. Billy answered and explained the ministry that Scripture Union has here on the streets. The man looked at Billy and coldly said, "You want a solution for this problem? Well I have one for you--one bullet for each head!"

One of the most common derogatory names used to refer to a street boy is "piraña," in English--piranha. The name comes from a common practice that some of the boys have of descending upon an unsuspecting person in a small pack. When they mug a person in this manner, they will sometimes even take the clothes off of the person's back. Because they are known for crimes like this, they are feared and hated. Thus, the cycle of poverty once again begins.

If a boy is living on the street, he is already categorized as the lowest of the low. So what are the chances that this young boy will get a legitimate job to support himself in a country where the unemployment rate is sky high? He cannot get a job, and he is hated by the majority of the people around him, so he goes and finds a hiding place to get away from the hostile world. If it were not for the sharp pain of hunger, a boy might well spend his entire life in hiding, but there a comes a point where hunger becomes so unbearable that he has to leave the safety of his secret spot.

Without employment, the child's next best option is to try to steal to survive. Sometimes this means stealing an apple from the market, but other times the boys will attempt to pick a pocket or grab someone's watch to trade for a plate of food. Some of the children on the streets become incredibly skilled at petty theft. I have spent a considerable amount of time with different boys living in our Girasoles homes, and they have shown me how easy it could be for them to get a watch off of my wrist or a camera out of my pocket without me even noticing.

Unfortunately, many of the kids--especially the youngest ones who are too slow to make a fast getaway--get caught and end up in the hands of the police. While there are many goodhearted and well intentioned people in the Peruvian police force, there are also many very abusive, corrupt police officers. It is hard to know exactly why police are often incredibly cruel to these children, but they are. Perhaps it is just the hatred that the culture has coming out in a tangible form. Maybe it is because these boys make the officers' jobs more difficult and more dangerous. Whatever the reason is behind the cruelty--it is absolutely unjustifiable. I have heard story after story. Boy's have been taken to a dungeon and used as a soccer ball to be kicked around. They have been forced to drink other peoples' urine. They have had water thrown on them and then electrical wires attached to their testicles. Sometimes a truck is filled with the children, and then they are driven out into the middle of the desert and left to find their way back into the city--some make it, and some don't. They have been fed sandwiches laced with rat poison...and sadly, the list goes on.

After facing this sort of abuse from the police force many of the children on the streets are very reluctant to continue to steal to survive. But what is left? No family to provide, no job to earn a living, no stealing for fear of getting caught. What other option is there? While it seems like the end of the road, there is one other option. It is safer in the sense that they will probably not be bothered by the police, but in actuality it can be far more damaging long term. The last option for survival is prostitution. In Peru and all over the world sex trafficking and sex tourism is on the rise. The boys will extend sexual favors in exchange for a small sum of money or just a plate of food. Sadly, I have heard there are some places on the internet where you can book a vacation in Peru that includes the services of these children. Of course it is illegal, but it isn't always easy to keep track of, and corruption means that sometimes a simple bribe is all it takes to keep the authorities off of your back.

At the end of the day after a boy has done whatever it is that he needs to to satisfy his hunger, he will probably scrounge around for a few coins to buy a bag of glue called "terokal," and he will go back to his hiding spot huffing the fumes from the glue. When asked why they huff the glue, they often simply answer, "Quiero borrarme" (I want to erase myself). We have now come full circle. They will hide once again until hunger drives them out from safety.

Scripture Union's program is for street boys. Aren't there any girls on the streets?

The simple answer to this question is that yes there are girls on the streets, but there are far more street boys. It is hard to know exactly why there are more boys than girls. Perhaps when a mother finds herself in the situation where she has to put a child out on the street so that the rest of the family can survive, she would opt to choose the oldest boy. It could be that she feels that her oldest boy will have the best chances of survival out on his own. Another factor could be that when a mother looks at her young boy, she imagines him to grow up to be just like all of the other men in her life--abusive, promiscuous, gambling, alcoholics who care very little for the well being of the family. On the other hand, the mother want to identify with her young daughter. She might imagine her to grow up going through all of the same abuses, and she may want to try to protect her daughter from the world that she has experienced. For these reasons, the boy ends up on the street, and the girl remains at home.

With all of that said, I think that the number of girls on Peru's streets is growing. There are some organizations who do work diligently with girls from the streets, and Scripture Union has at times partnered with some of these efforts. We have hosted some of these girls at our summer camp programs that we run. At this time, we are just not well equipped to meet the needs of the girls on a long term basis. We would need to have separate facilities from the boys and care for pregnant girls and infants among other resources. Poverty is everywhere, and hopefully we will never become so numb to it that we can just ignore it, but at the same time, because there are so many different problems we have to be really intentional about defining a very specific mission. If we tried to help solve every problem that presented itself, then we would be spread so thin that we would not be effective anywhere.

On a similar note, we also limit the number of boys at each of our Girasoles homes to about forty. The need is so great that we could easily open our doors to hundreds of children, and some places do. But again, we have a very specific mission. We hope to be able to provide not just for the physical needs of the boys, but also mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. We really want the children in our homes to learn what it means to be a part of a loving, Christian family, and that mission would be impossible if we allowed for greater numbers.

How do the boys arrive at the Girasoles homes?

As is the case of many other questions, this one is difficult to answer because each boy has a different story, and there are many different means by which they arrive. To be honest, I am not the most qualified person to answer this question because I have very little to do with this specific part of the ministry. If you ever come to Peru, I encourage you to ask Pablo Lavado, the director of the Girasoles program, or any of the house parents at our different boys' homes. I know that sometime the house parents go out and do street work. They actually go find boys on the streets and tell them about the home. Sometimes word of our homes travels by word of mouth on the streets, and children show up because they heard about us from a friend. There are also times when children are referred to us by different government agencies when a case of abuse or neglect is discovered in the home.

What is the ultimate goal of the Girasoles program, and what have the results looked like?

Before I answer this, I want to reiterate once again that I am not the most qualified person to answer this question. I can say with confidence that the ultimate goal of the Girasoles ministry and virtually every other ministry of Scripture Union Peru is to bring children and their families to the feet of Jesus--the only true means of eternal redemption and transformation. In the case of the street boys, this is often a long process. When you tell a street child, "Jesus loves you," the meaning of the phrase seems so simple, but when you begin to look at it through their point of view, those three words can have a very different connotation. Most of the time, the boys in our homes have very little knowledge of who Jesus is. They have very little experience with any type of church, so Jesus really has no meaning. If they have any image in their minds of who Jesus is, it usually comes from the crucifix that is on display at the many catholic churches all over the country. Jesus is just a dead, bloody man on a cross. The term, "love," is another difficult one to communicate with a boy from the streets. In his world, love is always associated with some sort of sexual relationship. Try to look at it through there eyes--"Jesus loves you," can become an almost gruesome sentence.

While there is a lot of baggage to work through, we still believe that it is important to really explain who Jesus is and what true, unconditional love is. The full time Peruvian staff work day and night to care for and counsel the kids. They really do give themselves sacrificially to this ministry to help communicate this message to the boys. We have also found that the different foreign work teams that come to support Scripture Union also play an important part. A boy who has grown up being told that he is garbage will eventually start to believe those lies. In their mind God loves and blesses good people. Because the foreigners that come all of the way to Peru are usually pretty rich, God must love them. When they think about themselves, they believe that they are bad people, and God does not love them so He has not blessed them. Most of the readers of this blog will know that that way of reasoning is not true, but that does not change the fact that this is the way that the boys perceive the world. For a foreigner (again, a good person in the boys' minds) to come specifically to dedicate time towards bettering the lives of the children sends a loud and clear message to the boys that they are important people and that God does care about them. The short term groups help greatly to reinforce the message that the long term Peruvian staff and house parents are trying to communicate to the boys on a daily basis.

So what kind of results have we seen? As with most ministries of this nature, there are happy stories, and there are sad stories. We have found that no matter how hard we try to help a child adjust to life in one of our homes, there are some who just cannot cope with it long term. Perhaps it is they feel unworthy to live somewhere where they are so well cared for. Maybe after so much abuse, they just cannot grow to trust the Scripture Union staff. Some children have a hard time leaving their addictions to alcohol and drugs, and others just cannot adjust to living under rules and a daily routine after so much time of living without anybody telling them what to do. Whatever the reason is, there are boys who come and then leave our homes. We have an open door policy--we do not keep the children against their will. If we kept them under lock and key, then developing a bond of trust would be next to impossible.

On the other hand, there are many boys who have adjusted well to life at Girasoles. We do have children who I believe have come to a place of genuine faith in Christ. There are some boys (now men) who have graduated from the program and are maintaining a job. Many of our homes are fairly new, meaning that very long term results are yet to be seen, but I know children living in some of these homes who have dreams of being mechanics, bakers, policemen, military, and even pastors! Here in Cusco, our Girasoles home has only been open for just over a year. Most of the boys are between eight and twelve years old, and have a long way to go before they are ready to leave and live on their own. When the time does come, we will not just kick them out and never hear from them again. Just as any family, Scripture Union will always be these boys' family, and we hope to remain involved in their lives.

Other questions or comments?

The questions above are some of the most common questions that I get asked by work teams in Peru and by friends abroad. I know that many of you may have other questions or comments about this ministry. I welcome your thoughts. Reply to this post with a specific question, and I would love to share more.

Prayer and encouragement...

As I promised at the beginning of this very long post, this is not light reading. Even as I write it, I feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the problem. On our own, we can accomplish nothing. On our own, any work that we do is in vain. On our own, we will be quickly drained by the stresses around us. But GOD is bigger than all of that. With HIM we can accomplish anything. With HIM the work we do is for HIS kingdom. With HIM our strength is renewed day by day. Please do not read this post and leave feeling overwhelmed and useless in this world. Instead remember that God is in control, and he has a purpose and a plan. Pray for these children today. Intercede on their behalf that God might reveal himself to each of them--whether they are in one of our homes or not. Pray for the staff that work with the kids on a daily basis, that they may know that their reward waits for them in Heaven. Pray also for the culture here that is so resentful towards these boys. Ask God to soften their hearts--even to break their hearts for these boys. If we remain in HIM, then HE is faithful to remain in us. Be encouraged today by the words from Isaiah 40:27-31...

"Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, 'My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God'? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

Just for Fun

Well, things are still going well here in Cusco and the Sacred Valley. For this post, I just wanted to share a small list of fun, random, happy, or just plain funny things that have happened over the last month. Here we go!

--To start off, I want to give you an idea of the scenery here in the Sacred Valley. I see views like this on a daily basis. What a great reminder of how powerful and mighty our God is!

The Sacred Valley

--Hector, the house father at Cusco, invited me to climb a small mountain that sits right next to the casa girasoles with him and some other guys. It is by no means an incredibly tall mountain, but it is not small either. Thankfully, Hector and the boys are good guides because there were some pretty steep passes. Everyone climbed up and down quite safely, except for the fact that it was almost impossible to avoid all of the spines and sharp leaves of the plants that grow there.

The Mountain Climbing Crew

--A few weeks ago, Kate Bruder and I traveled from Urubamba to Cusco (about and hour and a half drive) in a station wagon called a collectivo where you pay just for your seat, and the car leaves the station when it is full. Well, about half of the way through the trip we were coming close to a police checkpoint when the driver suddenly slammed on the breaks, parked behind the truck, got out of the car, and had another man who was riding in the trunk of the station wagon get behind the wheel. Our original driver proceeded to nonchalantly walk past the police checkpoint where we picked him up and continued onto Cusco...a little shady if you ask me!

--Kate and I happened to be in Cusco during the week of Inti Raymi, the Festival of the Sun. They celebrate during the week because it is their winter solstice (our summer solstice). Even though we weren't there for the biggest festivals, we still managed to accidentally run into about 10 different parades. I kind of lost count. They were all separate local parades with their own patron saints, dancers, bands, men in costumes. Gorilla costumes seemed to be a favorite.

Little Boy in Gorilla Costume for the Parade

Another Parade

--That same week, Kate and I ran across a fireworks show that was about to get underway here in Urubamba. I am not sure what it was celebrating, but it involved men wearing a cardboard form of a bull on their backs that were covered in different fuses for fireworks, and once they were lit, the men ran like mad people through the crowd shooting fireworks everywhere and at everyone. The evening culminated with a big tower of fireworks that was lit off--again with many of the sparklers and fire landing in the crowd. It was quite a site to see, and I have to say that half of the excitement of it all was the adrenaline high that you get, knowing that you might get hit by something! I dubbed it firework roulette. :-)

--I have enjoyed attending church in Urubamba with Hector and the boys during my time here. Last Sunday was particularly interesting because the elementary school children did a very hilarious skit about Abraham and Isaac. Some really good up and coming actors in that church.

--The same night as the funny skit in the church, there was a big parade/celebration in the main square of Urubamba.

--I am enjoying hosting quite a large number of Scottish groups this year. I have picked up a whole new vocabulary.

--I discovered that as a resident of Peru, I am entitled to take the local train to Machu Picchu. The cheapest tourist class train costs approximately $80 round trip. As a resident, I can do it for less than $7!

--Today I took advantage of the local train, and I accompanied the work team as far as Aguas Calientes (the town at the base of Machu Picchu) for their work day. Because I didn't actually enter the ruins, I had some spare time on my hands while the group toured around. I decided to test myself and see if I could climb up the path from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu. By bus, the cost is $7 each way. Walking it is free! The only issue is that it is quite a hike. You begin at Aguas Calientes (6,700 feet), and then proceed to walk down the valley for about 20 minutes to an elevation of about 6,500 feet. After crossing a bridge that goes over the Urubamba River, all that's left is a long uphill hike...probably thousands of stone stairs, although it seemed like millions. Arriving at Machu Picchu at the end of the hike, your final elevation is about 7,900 feet. It is like walking down the stairs of a 13 story building, and then up the stairs of a 94 story building in the middle of the jungle! It definitely felt good to finish.

The Path Up to Machu Picchu

Looking Down from about Half-way Up

--The town of Aguas Calientes literally means "hot waters," due to the fact that there are natural hot springs that you can enter into. I had my first experience with them today, and it was a blast hanging out there with the group after a long hike. We will just ignore the fact that the water was quite yellow and so cloudy that you couldn't see the bottom.

--Tonight after boarding the work team onto their train, I had a few hours before my train left. I killed time walking around the town, and I ran into another parade that was followed by a huge dance/music/comedy/magician performance. Are you starting to notice the pattern with the parades and celebrations here in Peru?

--Lastly, as I was waiting to board the 9:20pm local train to go back to the hotel tonight, I was approached by one of the staff people at the train station. He asked me if I was traveling alone, and when I said yes, he asked me to follow him. He then proceeded to board me on the front seat of the 8:55pm Vistadome because they had a few empty seats (a tourist train that comes complete with panoramic views, music shows and dancing, and food service...not to mention more leg room and more comfortable seats). Usually this train costs people $70 - $80 one way. I paid just over $3!

Well, it is getting late, and that is all I can think of for now. Don't forget that you can subscribe to get my new blog posts sent directly to your email inbox by clicking here or typing your email address into the box near the top, right corner of this page. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

God is Faithful!

Well, I am still here working with the different groups and work teams that come to support the boys' home here in the Sacred Valley of Cusco. I am really enjoying my time with the teams as well as my time to get to know they kids, the workers, and the house family here in Cusco. I arrived last year for just over a week to translate with some of the work teams, but other than that short time, I am just now having the opportunity to deepen relationships and get to know everyone out here.

Last year when I arrived at the Girasoles home here in Cusco, there was a whole lot going on all at once. This is Scripture Union Peru's newest home for abandoned kids. It was opened near the end of March 2008. Hector and Maritza are the house parents for Girasoles Cusco, and at the time that the home opened in March, Maritza was 6 months pregnant. Just a few weeks after the opening of the home in Cusco, she had some major complications with her pregnancy, and she gave birth to baby Marcelo almost a full 3 months premature. Life all of the sudden became very difficult for Hector and his family. In the midst of trying to open a new boys' home, the family was now trying to take care of a new premature baby in a hospital about an hour and a half away from the home.

I know very little about medicine, but ask my sister Mandy. She knows her stuff, and I am sure the she can confirm these facts. Some of the very last organs to develop inside the mother's womb are the lungs, so when a baby is born premature, getting him enough oxygen is a very high priority. This issue was compounded by the fact that the city of Cusco is one of the highest altitude cities of its size in the world, and because the air is thinner, oxygen is even more scarce (elevation of nearly 12,000 feet). I am told that none of the doctors in the hospital expected the baby to live for any long period of time, but they did everything that they could and kept the baby in an enriched oxygen environment for a number of weeks.

Hector's worries did not end with the opening of the new boys' home and with the health of his newborn son. During childbirth, his wife Maritza slipped into a coma due to the problems that surrounded her pregnancy. At one point, the doctors did not know if she was going to live either. For more than a month, Hector and his 3 year old son, Adam, were continually driving back and forth between the boys' home in the Sacred Valley and the hospital in Cusco to visit Maritza and Marcelo.

As I have gotten to know Hector better during this year, I have learned even more about the struggles that the family faced during this time. It was a very dark and difficult period for the family, but Hector has told me how much this situation has taught him to fully rely on God. There was really nothing else that he could do but to trust that God knew what he was doing, and put Maritza and baby Marcelo into God's hands. Thankfully the story ends well. During the time of difficulty friends from all over Scripture Union showed their support. Other house parents and volunteers from some of our other boys' homes stepped up, traveled to Cusco, and helped out taking care of the boys and running the home. A work party that happened to be visiting the home bought the family a small, poratble oxygen tank that made transport to and from the hospital in Cusco much less risky for Marcelo.

THANKS TO GOD, after 15 days in a coma Maritza woke up and quickly came back to good health. Also, Marcelo pulled through after many long, trying nights at the hospital. When I left the home in August, there were 17 boys living at the home. Today that number has more than doubled, reaching the cap of 42 boys at the home here. What a testament to the great work that God has accomplished here in Peru. Hector and his family found themselves trying to begin a new ministry, and they were being attacked in full force by the flaming arrows of the evil one. God is stronger, and he will ALWAYS triumph! Hector remained faithful, and during the times of weakness the body of Christ was there to lift him up in prayer and in providing for his needs.

Healthy baby Marcelo (about 1 year and 3 months old)

God has a purpose, and even in the midst of great trials He is able to work everything for the good of those who love him. The story isn't always one that ends as happily as this one did, but we can rest in the fact that God IS faithful, and He has a purpose and a plan that is more far reaching than we could ever imagine!

The Creator God

As promised, I have another blog entry for you today. This isn't so much an update on my life here as it is an interesting story that I wanted to pass on to all of you. It actually goes way back to the time if the Incan empire before the time of the Spanish conquistadores came to colonize Peru.

To give you a little bit of background about the Inca culture in Peru, it had a very strict organization. The Inka--the emperor--was the only completely free being in the entire civilization. They expanded their civilizations rapidly, annexing smaller indian tribes into the Incan empire. They also imposed their language, Quechua, as the universal language for all of their subjects. The Inka's government regulated almost every aspect of the peoples' lives. There was no personal property, but people were given liscences to use the land. Occupations were predetermined based on the family line and the region where the person lived. No one was allowed to move without the permission of the government, and the government even regulated who one could or could not marry. It is said that the government was so well organized, and the land was so fruitful that it was one of the only ancient civilizations where starvation and poverty was virtually nonexistant. They also are one of the few civilizations that did not employ the use of slave labor.

According to the Incan religion, there are many different gods--all associated with nature. They worshiped the rainbows, the moon, the stars, the mountains, mother earth (Pachamama), and the sun (Inti). Of all of these deities, the sun god Inti was said to be the most powerful of them all. They believed that the Inka emperor was a direct descendant of the god Inti. One day one of the most powerful emperors at the hight of the Incan empire, Pachacutec, decided that he wanted to better become acquainted with his father, the sun. He had his subjects take him down to Lake Titicaca, a huge lake in the high mountains between present day Bolivia and Peru. He spent a number of days alone on one of the lake's many islands, and just observed the sun.

Upon his return to the capital city, Cusco, he decreed to the people that the sun god is not the all powerful being that they had believed. He said that the most powerful God must be free to do as he wants and all powerful, just as on earth the Inka emperor was the only free, all powerful being. But, he said, Inti does not seem to be free. All day he travels the same path in the sky, coming up in the same spot and setting in the same spot. The sun makes no original moves of his own. Pachacutec also stated that the sun does not appear to be all powerful either. Even a mere cloud is able to block its rays from arriving at the earth.

After stating these observations, Pachacutec decreed that there must be some unseen creator God in control of the sun and everything else. In the main temple of Cusco, he had a bunch of gold melted down, and it came out as a formless blob. The Inka decreed that from now on the civilization would also worship this unseen creator God.

What a paralell to Paul's journey to Athens where he found the altar to the unknown God. This story makes me wish that the colonizers might have taken time to learn about the Incas and explain to them who this unknown God really is. They could have told about the real Son, rather than the sun that was presently being worshiped. Unfortunately the thirst for gold and treasure was greater than the desire to spread the true Gospel, and rather than being redeemed, the culture was, for the most part, destroyed. Thankfully, the story here in Peru is not over. God is more powerful than any destructive acts of human beings. Please continue to pray for God's active work of redemption to continue here and around the world!

Additions to My Blog

Well this week instead of writing a new post, I have dedicated my spare time to writing a new newsletter, and posting pictures online. This post will be short; I just wanted to make you all aware of a few new additions to my blog.

1. I have now posted most of my pictures online. You can click here to view them, or you can use the link at the top of the page. Feel free to download any of the pictures and make comments!

2. I have also added links to download all of my past newsletters on the side bar below my blog post archives. You can click here to download my May 2009 newsletter. You will need some version of Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to properly view the files. Also, I send out these newsletters by email. If you are not on the list, and you would like to be, then just comment on this post with your email, or shoot me an email at bgreenman@latinamericamission.org.

3. You can now subscribe to this blog, and receive an email update whenever I make a new post. Just type your email address in the side bar and click on the subscribe button. You will receive instructions on how to complete the subscription process from there.

I hope these additions will make it even easier for me to communicate with all of you back home. Enjoy the warmer weather!

Twice in One Week!

Well, I have to start this blog entry off with a pat on my back. It is the first time since I have been here in Peru that I have even come close to getting two blog entries posted in one week! This has been a busy week--probably the busiest since I have been in Peru--so there is plenty to write about!

On Monday, I had a chance to take a visitor from England to Kawai. For those of you who don't know what Kawai is, it is one of Scripture Union's camp sites/boys' homes located about 90 kilometers south of the city of Lima right on the Pacific Ocean. I really enjoy every opportunity that I have to get down to Kawai because I have so many good memories at that place. When I traveled to Peru with my church youth group, we would always spend a week in Kawai helping with construction, spending time ministering to the street kids (we would throw a big birthday party for them each year that we came), and doing some work in the local schools. One of the highlights of visiting Kawai was definitely having a chance to visit with the kids and the house parents. I first visited Kawai in 2001. That means that some of the kids that I met at the age of 9 or 10 are now 17 or 18 years old. It is awesome to continue to build on old friendships and to see how God continues to show his redemption through some of these boys' lives!

Juan Carlos 2001

Juan Carlos 2009

For those of you who have been to Kawai, practically everyone there sends their greetings to you. I sat down and looked through photo albums that Raul and Rosa, the house parents, have from past work teams. Know that they continue to pray for the teams who have come through Kawai, and if anyone has a chance, they would love to see you come again!

I spent Monday and Tuesday in Kawai, then I headed back to Lima to continue working in the schools. Wednesday was my busiest day in the schools yet. I had the chance to enter seven different classrooms in three different schools with a volunteer from Scripture Union named Manuel. It was really neat again to just spend time with the kids letting them know that they are loved and that they matter to God. They had all different kinds of questions for me. Here are a few examples:

"Does your family have the swine flu?"

"Why are you so white?"

"Is your house made out of wood?"

"Do you like Pisco Sour?" (A Peruvian Liquor)

"Have you been in any movies?"

These were all real questions that were asked all on the same day. As I already said, it was so great to spend time with them. Sometimes the innocence in their questions for me are refreshing as well :-)

After a full day in the schools on Wednesday, I had a chance to go visit some friends from Indiana Wesleyan that had just arrived in Peru the day before to do some work with a local church in Lima. I was really thankful that they invited me over for that night. It was great to connect with a couple friends from a familiar place. We spent a couple hours hanging out at a friend's house singing karaoke (don't worry; I didn't sing!). We then all headed over the the movie theatre together to see the very first showing of the new X-Men/Wolverine movie. It was a good time, but I have to say that I was slightly dissappointed with the movie. It wasn't bad, but the other X-Men movies are better. As I said goodbye to my friends from IWU, they left me with a few presents from home--Snickers bars and peanut butter! Both treats were welcomed.

Even after a late night on Wednesday, I had to make sure to make it to the office early on Thursday morning for breakfast--mainly because the breakfast was being held for me and another couple from England who just arrived to begin working with Scripture Union in the jungle near Iquitos. It was our official welcoming to Peru! But breakfast was just the beginning of the day. As I mentioned in my last post, this past Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we hosted a camp/retreat for high school juniors from a local Christian school. It was the first camp that I have ever been directly involved with in Peru, and I was glad to come along and observe. The theme for the weekend was "Making Good Decisions." I have to say, this retreat took me right back to my days in senior high at Ward Church. We had crazy games, VERY late nights, pranks were pulled, and we had some good times for discussion and encouragement. While all of the kids came from a Christian school, many of them do not profess Christianity. As we had a fun weekend together, my prayer for them is that they would see beyond all of the religiosity and come to a place where they really meet Christ--his love and his power to change and bring healing that many of them need. I hope to have a chance to be involved in different activities with the same students and the same school in the future. Here are some pictures from the retreat:

Devotions

Breakfast (Early Morning After a Late Night)

Crazy Games (They are a House)

The Guys from My Cabin--Juan Carlos, Johnny, and Christian

I came back from the camp yesterday, but work still wasn't quite over. I got to spend a day in Lima with my first American work team of the year. They were just coming back from the jungle on their way back to the United States. It is amazing how small of a world it is. One of the people who was on this particular team is dating an acquaintance of mine from back home! It was a short time together--just lunch, shopping time in the market, dinner, then off to the airport--but it reminds me how close we are to being at the beginning of work team season. It is coming very fast!

I am incredibly thankful that today I had a chance to take a break from work and rest. I literally had 5 or 6 straight days with less than 5 hours of sleep (some days much less). With that said, I really am loving the ministry down here. Right now I only have the ability to see the short term picture, but I put all of the work that we have done over the past week into God's hands, and I trust that he sees the long term picture. I am confident that God is at work in the lives of the boys in Kawai, the kids in the schools, and the youth who were at the camp this weekend.

Now for some prayer requests:

--That God would continue to work in the lives of all of the kids that we have had a chance to work with over the last week.

--Praise God that my mom, dad, brother, and sister officially have flights booked to come to Peru in August. I look forward to their visit and getting to show them all around!

--That God would protect and bless the group that is down here from Indiana Wesleyan. I am not 100 percent sure what their ministry is, but I know that they are in Lima working with a local church and also in some very impoverished communities until Tuesday. Then they are flying to the jungle to work there for about a week before returning home.

--For all of the work teams that are coming to work with Scripture Union this year. There are a whole lot of small details involved with the organization of each work team. Pray that God would help us to figure out all of these logistics.

Lastly, I just wanted to leave you with a video from my church here in Lima. It is basically just a summary of the week of Servolution that I mentioned a couple of posts ago, and I thought it was really neat to see how God can use the church when we step out into the world with the sole objective of serving and shining his love! Take care everyone. Thanks for reading, and thanks for all of your prayers!

SERVOLUCION from servolucioncdv on Vimeo.

My Birthday -- Training and Chifa!

So yes it has been more than a week since my birthday, but I have just now gotten around to downloading some of the pictures onto my computer. Anyways I have to start out by saying thanks to everyone who sent me emails, letters, candy, facebook messages, and phone calls on my birthday. It was a blessing and a great reminder of how many people that I have praying for me and thinking of me back home. Sometimes it is nice to know that I am not forgotten even though I am living so far away. I also have to give a special shout out to Tyler Tagami and Jon Bradbury for being the first two people to call me on my birthday...kind of. It was 11:00pm my time, but back in Michigan they were already celebrating! I guess they even had some sort of cake that evening.

My friends here were very gracious as well, and they made sure that I felt welcomed and cared for...even in the midst of a pretty busy day. After a nice brunch with my friend David to begin the day, we headed to the main offices of Scripture Union in Lima to begin setting up for a training session for SU volunteers in the schools. As I have already mentioned, I am currently working with the schools program down here which is centered around teaching Christian values and Biblical principles in schools all over the country. Most of the people who enter the classrooms are volunteers from a number of different local churches, and at the begining of each school year we host a training program for the volunteers who will be helping teach the classes. Thankfully the session went really well. We had two speakers--one who talked about the value of sharing the Bible with children and different strategies that we can use and another speaker who is a professional teacher who talked about the mechanics of organizing a lesson plan.

Training Volunteers to Work in Schools!

The training began around 4 in the afternoon and lasted until 9 in the evening, but the night was still young! After cleaning up from the training session, a bunch of the staff people and some of our volunteers invited me out to have Chifa (Peruvian Chinese food)...basically the only restaurant that you can find open until all hours of the night. It was great to spend time with old friends as well as to begin to make new friends. Thankfully I avoided the Peruvian tradition of having a raw egg smashed on top of my head to celebrate the day!

Birthday Chifa!

This coming week I will continue to work in the schools, but I also have the opportunity to work with Scripture Union and a local Presbyterian school to host a weekend retreat for juniors and seniors in high school. Please pray for the retreat that will be taking place this coming Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. It is a private Christian school, but many of the students are not Christian. I am excited to have the opportunity to work with them and share how much God loves them! Pray for the organization of the retreat in the days leading up to the weekend. The theme for the weekend is about making wise decisions.

Thank you all once again for your prayers as well as your birthday well wishes! As always, please let me know if there is anything that I pray for you about! Have a great last week of April!

Servolution

In the past week or so I have been very busy. In addition to my work with Scripture Union in the schools my new church joined with a bunch of other churches all over the world for a week of "Servolution." The motivation behind the entire week was to intentionally do acts of kindness and to be able to show Christ's love to the people in Lima without looking for anything in return. I participated in two of the service projects that the church helped to organize last week. Saturday of last week was the kickoff, and nearly everyone in the church showed up to get involved. We spent about a half an hour in prayer and worship, and then it was out into the city...everyone wearing the same red shirts the read "It is a pleasure to serve you." Some groups walked around the streets and passed out bottles of water. Other people went into local hospitals dressed as clowns to visit the children. One group jumped on a local bus, paid every passengers fare and handed out newspapers to anyone who wanted one to read. We were all over the city!

The Congregation Before Leaving to Serve

On Saturday about 50 of us from the young adults group squeezed onto a minibus and left to paint a community center/public cafeteria in a more needy area of town. While one group of us painted, another group of girls offered manicures to the ladies in the community. We sanded and then painted the entire outside of the building in addition to many of the wooden tables and chairs on the inside of the building. Naturally, a group of 50 people all wearing the same bright red shirt attract a little bit of attention from passersby. The community mayor even came by and gave us all bright green visors to wear when he noticed that we were wearing homemade newspaper hats on our heads to keep the sun away. When people asked why we were there it was really neat to respond that we are doing all of this because we love Jesus and because we know that he loves you!

Painting in Our Newspaper Hats!

Then last Thursday a smaller group of about 20 of us got together to give food out to some of the children and the beggars living on the streets in the center of Lima. We spent the better part of the afternoon preparing sandwiches, buying bottles of juice, and assembling all of the meal packs. We then all headed over into the main square of Lima--again with our bright red shirts--and walked the streets handing out the food in Christ's name!

Handing Out Dinner

We closed the week on Good Friday with a big praise and worship concert to celebrate what God had done through the congregation over the past week. On a side note, though, I do have to say that Easter here is very different than it is in the states. Yes, it is a holiday. Many people did not have to work on Thursday or Friday of the week, but most of the protestant churches do very little to celebrate Christ's resurrection on Easter. The local catholic churches do make a huge deal about Holy Week, but their focus is almost exclusively on Christ's death. For instance, many of the country's stores and restaurants are closed on Good Friday but open on Easter Sunday. I was glad to call my family on Sunday to be able to say "CHRIST IS RISEN. HE IS RISEN INDEED!"

Apart from the church activities, I was invited to a friends 18th birthday party this past Saturday. It was a great time, but there was one noticeable difference between Peruvian culture and the USA. The party was supposed to start at 8pm. I happened to spend the entire day with my friend and his family, so I was ready to leave with them before 8:00 so that the guest of honor would be there in time to greet everyone. Well 8:30 rolled around, and we had still not left their house. We finally walked over to the church where the party was at around 9:00, and of course, no one was there yet. People started to arrive around 9:30, and we actually started the party at 10:00pm or so. This is common practice in Peru for any type of party or social event--even weddings usually get started 2 or more hours after the time on the invitation! We had a great time at the party...I even won in a game of reverse charades (the whole team acted while I had to guess).

Winning in Charades!

To leave you with a few points of prayer...

--First, praise God for the week of Servolution and for literally the thousands of lives that were touched by my church and many other churches.

--Pray for the work teams that will begin coming down in May. Pray that God would use each team as his hands and feet in Peru and that the ministry that they come to do would bring people closer to the kingdom of God

--Pray for our work in the schools--specifically that God would raise up volunteers to continue to grow the ministry. This Friday afternoon we are holding a training for all of the volunteers to help them understand how to manage a classroom of students and how to effectively reach the children.

Thanks so much for all of your prayers. As usual, please let me know if there is any way that I can pray for you.

Settling In

So I have heard from a number of people that they are anxiously awaiting another blog entry...mostly my parents, but a few other people as well! Quite a bit has happened since my last post.

First, I have to say thanks to everyone who has been praying for me faithfully--specifically in regards to my concern over finding an apartment. I bought a Sunday copy of the newspaper, and I shopped around. Being new to Lima, it was somewhat stressful to find my way around the city to look at different apartments and trying to negotiate a price with the owners. After my first day of searching, I thought that I had found a suitable place. It was a little bit bigger than I needed (2 bedrooms), but the price was very good...at least I thought. When I came back the next day to sign the contract, however, the owner included a bunch of extra fees that she had not talked about the day before. So, it was back to the drawing board. I spent one more full day looking all over for another place to live, but I had little luck. Eventually I ran out of contacts to call from the classified ads, so I resorted to just knocking on doors of apartment buildings and asking if there was anything available for rent. Needless to say that accomplished very little. I was about ready to call it a day and head back to Paul and Marty's house, when I realized that I had one more landlord's contact information in my pocket. Praise God, the apartment was exactly what I was looking for. There is not much to the apartment itself, but it has everything that I will need. It is in a secure location in a part of the city that I am already quite familiar with, it came pre-furnished--even dishes and pans included--and they are letting me rent the place on a month to month basis without signing any long term contracts. I have been living here for about a week now, and having a place to call my own is a huge blessing. Praise God that his hand was in this long before I even started looking.

Another big praise is that I think I have found a church that I can plug into. It is a fairly large congregation, but coming from Ward Church in Michigan, a large congregation is what I am used to. I went this weekend with a friend who works in the schools program with me at Scripture Union. I really do desire to make friends and fellowship with other believers during my time here, and before my first day there was over I had already been invited to participate in a service project taking place next week. The youth/young adult group that I attended was also very encouraging. There were probably about 300-400 people there between the ages of 17 and 30. I am excited to go back next week and to begin to learn more about the specific beliefs and doctrines that they hold. God is so good, and I know that he is answering prayer.

The work here is going well too. As I mentioned, I am working in the schools right now in Lima. Peru's school year just began in March, so right now our work involves a lot of administration and organization. Before we actually enter the classrooms, we have to visit each different school and talk with the director to coordinate what hours and what classrooms we will be entering. I am feeling a little bit restless because I really want to get in and do ministry with the kids, but this has been a good time to get to know the people on staff. Traveling to all of the different schools in a relatively short period of time also means that I am rapidly learning my way around the city. There are approximately 9 million people living in this city, and it is roughly 2,900 square miles (slightly less than the state of Rhode Island). I welcome any chance to learn how to navigate through the streets.

In other news, I did have a chance for some fun on Sunday evening. I attended my first big Peruvian soccer game! It was a world cup qualifying game between Peru and Chile. Tensions were high, and the police were out in full force, but for the most part my friends and I had a good time. Sadly, Peru lost the game 3-1. I have posted a few pictures below.

Hanging Out Before the Game

Johnny and I at the Game

Fútbol!

Underneath the Peruvian Flag

At the Game

Well, if you made it this far down this long blog post, then you must really have an interest in my life, or care about the ministry here with Scripture Union. I will leave you with a few prayer requests.

--Pray for me as it is slowly sinking in that I am here for a long term. As you have read in my blog, things are going really well, but there is naturally at least a little bit of homesickness that comes with living so far away. Sometimes it is difficult to know that I can't just call up friends back in the States to hang out for an evening, or see family as often as I have become accustomed to.

--Pray for the process of changing from a tourist visa to a resident visa. So far everything is going very smoothly. I went to Interpol this morning to get fingerprinted and to establish a dental record. Now we are at the point where all of the necessary paperwork has been filled out and turned in, but everything has to move through all of the proper channels within the Peruvian government as well as through the FBI back home. If everything goes as planned, then I should have my resident alien card within the next 30 or 40 days.

--Pray for Scripture Union--specifically in Lima. They have decided to sell the land that the offices and boys' home is currently sitting on in downtown Lima and relocate. Pray that God would provide all of the parties involved with wisdom as they begin to plan the relocation process. Pray that God would provide a great environment for the new boys' home to be located, and pray that a good location will be found for the main offices.

Thanks you so much for all of your prayers. Please let me know if there is ever anything in your life that I can pray for! I will try to get back into the habit of blogging at least once a week.

Here I Am!

Well, I am four days into my three year term in Peru. I have said this many times, but it just has not completely sunk in yet that I am here to stay. I have been down here so many times that this trip feels rather temporary at the moment. I am glad to be here though. Right now I am staying at the home of Paul and Marty Clark. Paul is the director of Scripture Union Peru, and they are both very kind and very hospitable people. I hope to soon move into an apartment on my own, but they have offered me a room to stay in during this transition time until I find an apartment where I can get settled.

One challenge of living with Paul and Marty is that they live relatively far away from the center of Lima where the Scripture Union offices and the street boys' center is located. This has forced me to become acquainted very quickly with Lima's public transportation system. Unless you have been to Peru before, I don't think I could explain it to you. The best way that I can think to describe it is if you were to take a city the size of New York, and replace each taxi with a very old 15-20 passenger van/minibus. Each minibus has the name of a destination painted on its outside, and from there you just have to figure it out. Oh, and during rush hour there are easily 25-30 people on the same vehicle with you. Anyways, it takes a little bit of getting used to, but I have good friends who have helped me out, and I have made it all of the way back to the house on my own the last two nights!

Hopefully within this next week I will have found an apartment in a more central location, and I will be able to have a little bit more independence. I looked at a couple of places today, but the first was more apartment than I need (3+ bedrooms), and the second was a room within a family's home. Living there would mean sharing a bathroom with an entire family and possibly sharing a bedroom with one of the sons who lives there. At this point I think I am looking for a little bit more independence. I think I will keep looking...supposedly all of the classifieds and apartment listings all come out tomorrow in the Sunday newspaper. Please pray that all of that works out smoothly.

Lastly, I now have an idea of what the next two months are going to look like for me. As you may have guessed, I will be living in Lima and working with Scripture Union's school program. There are four full-time staff people working with Scripture Union in Lima's school system, and the enter classrooms on a weekly basis to teach the kids family values and Christian principles. I am excited to start partnering with the school workers, and I will enter my first classroom with them starting on Monday.

Whew...this post is already getting quite long, so I think that I will stop there for now. Look forward to stories of the schools and maybe some more pictures in my upcoming posts!

Fund-It Toolbar

So as I have been networking with other friends in the world of missions and support raising, I came across a really neat tool. There is a company that makes customized toolbars for people who are trying to raise funds. Anyone who wants to can download my toolbar and install it on either Firefox or Explorer. There is a search feature built into the toolbar, and every time that someone uses it to make a search and clicks on one of the sponsored links, 10 cents is donated to my missionary account. Just one person on the computer making three or four searches each day translates into about $10 each month. It doesn't cost the user anything. No pressure, but I have posted the link below if anyone is interested in supporting me in this way.

Download this Toolbar to Help Raise Money just by Clicking and Searching!

Commissioning Service

Yesterday my church officially commissioned me to go to Peru. I have said many times that I am so blessed to grow up at Ward Church, and it was very encouraging to be able to receive the church's blessing as I prepare to go down to Peru. It was a nice service. I was given an opportunity to show a video, speak to the congregation, and be prayed for in the company of friends and family. I have purchased plane tickets, and I leave in only 9 days--March 18! After the service, my grandma and grandpa has us all over at their house for a family dinner. I feel so blessed to be surrounded and supported by my family during this last week and a half.

In case any of you missed the video we showed during my commissioning service, here it is (special thanks to Mike Khoe for helping me put it all together!):