What's it like?

Whenever we go home or talk to people back home we get a lot of questions like "so what's it like?" I never really know how to answer the question. Before I lived here I imagined missionary work a little like being santa claus only instead of toys we bring Jesus. I had lived overseas so I thought I was prepared...Then I lived here and found out that in some ways some of the locals do see us like santa claus. Only the traditional kind, as is evidenced by the almost daily visits from kids or women with kids who will talk in normal voices, even laugh until I open the door. Then their faces go sad and they mumble their plea for food, stuff or money. When we first got here we heard that you should never give money to children who are street performers or begging/selling stuff. Most of the time they are taking the money home to an alcoholic family member or caretaker and not getting any benefit out of it. It's basically considered a form of human trafficking (I had no idea until I saw millions of signs about it in Lima) Now imagine yourself standing at the door with a bunch of children asking you for money or food and you haven't had a trip to the grocery store in a little longer than you should have. What would you do? Not so easy to answer is it? 


Someone recently sent me a list of questions about living here with the purpose of possibly moving here. I thought ya'll would be interested too. (I did remove some that were specific to them)

~What are the people like down there?  Friendly to North Americans? 
We have only lived in 2 parts of Peru and haven’t had a lot of opportunity to travel around but my experience is that Peruvians love North Americans. 
~How difficult is it to get a job down there if you aren't a citizen of Peru?

We have religious visas so we can’t really work legally except teaching so I’m not sure how to answer this.
~Do you ever host groups at your church that want to come down and help in your cause?
Yes. we have a team coming in 2 weeks actually
~We don't really like the idea of homeschooling our kids.  Are there any safe alternatives for schooling besides homeschool?
Yes. In Lima there are several great schools. Where we live there is 1 private school that transfers credit with US schools. There are also multiple private schools here that I hear are excellent
~Do they have grocery stores?
Yes. In the cities we have grocery stores that are chains from Chili mostly
~ Is the exchange rate for money decent?
eh. it fluctuates based on the strength of the dollar. It was about 3.0 when we got here and has been down to 2.5 but has been hovering around 2.75 the past 6 months or so.
~Can you find a decent home that is efficient?
I’m not sure I understand what you mean by efficient? Houses here are different than the states. We live in what I consider a condo because we share walls on both sides with our neighbors. It’s functional but not what I consider cute. That is what most places are like. If you have money you can get a really nice house. The house I wanted to get though was about 3x what we pay at our current place but it was a single family home with a nice yard and was comfortable and pretty.
~Do you have much violence?
We live in the safest part of town. So we don’t get a lot of violence. But Peru has some very dangerous areas. The key here is just like living in the states. If you went to Chicago you could find really safe areas and really dangerous ones. You just have to do your homework.
~Are there a lot of evangelical churches in Peru?
Yes. Where we are there are 200 I think. But most of those are baptist (also mormon I think…they are considered evangelical here.) The other main denominations are Assembly of God and Pentecostal.
~How are the High Schools down there?
Well, They break school into primary, and secondary and then university. Primary is up to like grade 4 I think and secondary is above that. But I’m not sure how all of it works because they are all in one building. Plus, from what I understand the academic level is a lot higher, and kids graduate at 15. A girl I spoke with who went to university in the US told me that she was horrible at algebra in her peruvian high school but in her US university she tested out of the algebra class and it was not hard. But I’ve also heard there are horrible and great schools here.
~ Grocery bill for a month?
This depends on how you eat. fruit and veggies are cheap. Chicken is about $5/lb and beef is more (beef is imported or nasty so I don’t buy it often) Fish is the main thing people eat here but my kids don’t like it so I don’t buy it often. Its probably closer to $3/lb but that depends on what kind of fish you are buying. (also I’m trying to convert soles to dollars and kilos to lbs in my head so I might be a bit off) Still when we aren't being extra frugal I think we spend about $300 per month
~Do you have decent Internet connection?  
For here we do. Where we live the power goes out sometimes and the internet can be slow but we pay a little extra to get the best connection available. We’ve never been without internet for more than 6-7 hours though. (electricity is another story) Theres a starbucks in town that always has wifi available
~Is theft a huge problem down there?
In Lima yes. There are pickpockets and opportunists everywhere. Here it’s mostly opportunists. You have to learn not to leave your valuable things unattended and always lock your car. In certain parts of town it’s best to travel in groups and not flash expensive stuff around. But we have iPhones and stay in the better part of town most of the time and nobody has ever held us up or anything.
~What is the weather and temperatures like during the different times of the year?
Peru has all climates at all times. In Lima it’s always overcast and humid but it never rains. Cusco is south and mountainous so it’s cooler year round I hear. Piura is close to the ecuator so it’s known as the “land of eternal summer” We are south of the ecuator so our season run opposite of the US. Right now it is going into Winter here which is the best time to live in Piura in my opinion. It never gets colder than 50
or so. But in the summer (December-March) it stays in the 90s and most people don’t have air conditioners
~Are they patient with people who don't know Spanish very well?
Yes
~Is Malaria a huge problem?
Not at all but Dengue is an issue where we are and it’s similar.
~What about ticks and snakes?
I’ve never seen either where we are but I’m sure they are an issue in some places
~Is the water drinkable?  I heard it wasn’t.
No, but we have a water cooler/heater and buy the water for it which costs about $15 per month for us. You don’t have to buy the cooler we just like having the hot/cold water available. Without the water cooler you can buy the water with a spigot in the bottle or buy individual bottled water which is more expensive.
~How many people actually own cars down there?
I don’t really know. Public transportation is readily available because mostly the wealthy own cars. We have Taxis, moto-taxis (motorcycles that have been modified to have a cart attached at the back…you’ve probably seen them in movies about india or something.) motorcycles that you can ride behind the driver and busses which are actually more like 15 passenger vans and run a circuit
~Is the food good?  We aren't picky, but I don't want to eat a cat or a bug or anything like that.
The only place you would have an issue is in the jungle or the mountains. In the mountains they eat cuy (guinea pig) it’s not bad, if you like rabbit or lamb it has a similar taste. In the jungle I’m told they eat monkey and they have a fermented drink made by old women who chew the grains and spit it into a jar. (for the record I’ve never tasted this but if you are ever in a situation where this is offered to you and you don’t drink it you might as well slap the host and call them ugly.) I may never go to the jungle for this reason.
As far as the food being good? Peru has one of the best chefs in the world Gaston Acurio. Most of his world famous dishes are based on Peruvian food. I love a lot of dishes here but theres not a lot of variety. They eat a lot of rice. They have a chinese influence over a lot of the dishes too but it’s different than US chinese food.
~How do you go about getting a Visa? 
If you are coming in for less than 6 months you just tell the guy when you come in how long you plan to stay. Pretty easy.
~How does an American pay taxes and vote from down there?  Do you get a ballot in the mail or something? 
You vote absentee. As far as taxes we have a cpa help us with ours. We get a w2 from the church that sent us. And the cpa does all the paperwork
~How have your kids adjusted to a different country?
My oldest son loves it here and does great. Our 7 year old has a much harder time here. Peruvians are very touchy and he doesn’t like being touched. His language skills are not very good because he doesn’t process auditory input well. So it’s a challenge for him. Our youngest is 14 months old so Peru is more home than the states for her.
~Are there any great shopping malls?  
In lima there is a huge one with a lot of US stores.  Coach, Lacoste, I think they are even getting a Gap?
Here we have 3 “malls” they are tiny little things but they have department stores and there are 2 Starbucks, a Chilis and even a Papa Johns and Pizza Hut here in town. 


Those were her questions. Do you have any questions you always wanted to ask? you can leave them in the comments or send me a message and if I get a few I will post them with the answers in my next blog 

Home

I love that word. Home. It's like a warm blanket and cozy fire on a snowy day. None of those things are actually things I need when I'm home so I'm not sure why I chose that particular metaphor but hey, just go with it.

We chose to have the baby in the US knowing that logistically it would be difficult but in my heart I knew I needed to do it that way. I needed a birth experience that would be completely different from Caleb's just to help me get through it. I will post more about Zoe's birth in another blog post. I'm still writing out the story. I want to remember everything about it.

There have been many times that I have looked around me while I've been in Peru and thought. "I miss my home." At those times I thought I would never get used to living here and I would always miss the states. But this trip made me realize something. I realized that Peru is my real home. I missed it so much while I was away. Of course there are still things I don't like. Of course there are things I miss about the states. I think I will now live in a constant state of missing one place or the other. But that's ok. Peru is where I'm planting my roots. Here I have experienced great joy and great tragedy. Here my family has embarked on a huge adventure. Here is where I intend to grow old and watch my children grow up.

When we arrived in Lima, I walked out of the airport and I was so happy I wanted to cry. When I left in February nothing was certain. I knew that I would be in the states until the baby was born and we had her papers to travel. (yes Newborns need passports. Somehow that surprises everyone lol) I knew that my "due date" was April 7th and I was going to have scheduled c-section but I had no idea when that would happen. I knew that Jose was coming March 10th and would be leaving mid April but we didn't know when. There were so many variables.

About 2 weeks before Jose came to the states it became clear that we needed to move out of our church location and find a bigger more permanent situation. He found a place and about the same time got appendicitis. So he ended up getting an emergency appendectomy and not being able to do anything about moving the church. He ended up having to leave the whole thing in other peoples hands. Our timeline was to move this week. (April 21st will be our first Sunday in the new location.) The new building is rough. It needs a few modifications like a roof and bathrooms. But its ours. When we realized we needed to move this week Jose decided to return to Peru April 10th. He knew that would keep him in the states until Zoe was born but would also get him back here to oversee the most important part of the move. He was planning to bring the boys with him if I couldn't make it with the baby.

But God moved in every way possible. Zoe was born perfectly healthy 4 days after Jose got to the states. She was able to leave the hospital with me. (she is the only one of our kids who was released with me) When I filled out her paperwork they told me it would take 6 weeks to get her social security card (which we needed for her passport) but it actually came in that next week. We went to the courthouse to try to get her birth certificate a week earlier than it was supposed to be ready and it was ready. We went to get her a passport and even on the website it says expedited passports take 2 weeks. Hers was ready in 2 days. God was moving behind the scenes in every way and we were able to all travel back home together 4 weeks after she was born.

I'm typing this on my own bed, in my own room. I have my beautiful healthy baby girl laying on my chest, I hear my boys playing in the other room, and all I can think about is how happy I am to be home.

Thanksgiving Missionary style

Yesterday we had the privilege of celebrating Thanksgiving with our Missionary friends here. I only take random pictures and we all got wrapped up talking so I didn't get a group pic. But I did get these

Makes you feel like you were there with us right? check out Logan, looking like he is about to do  something he shouldn't. He probably was. As you may notice the Ens (our friends who hosted us) have 2 boys close in age to ours. They also have an older daughter. Sadly I don't have a girl for her to play with but Timothy thinks they were sent here because he prayed for a boy his age. So God sent the Ens with their 5 year old named Timothy. Our Timothy has dubbed him 2nd Timothy. So we went biblical on the nicknames and call them 1st and 2nd Timothy

1st Timothy swiping some of the cheese ball prematurely

Logan and 2nd Timothy...have you ever noticed how hard it is to take pictures of 

little boys when they haven't seen each other in awhile? 

Real Men help with the food prep

Real men also get food for their kids 

Here in Peru we don't have canned or instant stuff so we had pretty much everything made from scratch

(except for the cranberry sauce I imported ;) 

I learned how to make cheese balls which I've never attempted before but they came out pretty great if I do say so myself. :P One of the girls there made her first ever "from scratch" sweet potato casserole 

everything was amazing. I'm actually a little sorry I didn't think to swipe some leftovers. :)

I will be making Thanksgiving dinner for our church next week though so hopefully I can do 

justice to the food we had yesterday. I'm hungry again just thinking of it. 

I haven't participated in any of the 31 days of gratitude things people have been doing on twitter (and FB I think...) But there are a few things I'm especially grateful for that I wanted to mention.

God and his grace, mercy and faithfulness. I know it sounds like just the right thing to say but I am seriously feeling so grateful for Him lately.

Jose. I could not have found a better man or husband if I searched for 1000 years. He isn't perfect but he's perfect for me. I love him so much

Logan and Timothy. They make me laugh all the time. 

They are always there offering to do all kinds of helpful things. Like sleeping in my bed at night 

or mopping the floor with lemonade before I wake up.

But they are sweet, sweet boys and I thank God for them everyday. 

My life would not be as full without them.

A healthy pregnancy and baby

True friends here in Peru and also in the states. 

As Philippians 1:3 says "Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God."  

It is really amazing to know that there are so many people I could call up and they would 

be happy to hear from me even if I just need to ask for help or prayer or a listening ear.

God is so faithful to provide for all of our needs no matter how big or small. "friends" might not seem like that big of a deal but sometimes they are more valuable than you can imagine.

And now I will leave you with the one picture of me. 

Right before we started eating I asked for this picture to be taken. 

Enjoy our goofy faces.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

life and times

Life has had many twists and turns the last few months.

Last Month we were able to have an important part of getting our visas done.

Hopefully at the end of June we will be able to go back to Lima and have them finalized.

Please pray that everything goes smoothly and we can get that out of the way!

Once that is done we will be able to get all the church paperwork taken care of 

which will help us in many ways. 

One of them being that we will be able to receive the land for the orphanage!

This is kind of what life feels like right now. 

A lot of pieces have come together but we are still waiting on the missing ones. 

 Our church is growing really quickly and is mostly full of new believers. We have outgrown our home already which is about 6 months sooner than we expected. Right now we are praying for a larger place to host our church and the provision for it

About half of the members of Powerhouse Peru

The next few months we have a lot of exciting things going on.

In June we have a vision campaign. We will be going into a neighborhood near us and providing free eye exams and glasses to 100 people that need them. 

In August we have a team from La Casa Del Padre in Lima and they will be helping us build houses.

The daughter of one of our members lost everything including one of her children in a fire a few months ago. We are trying to collect some items for her family and help them build a new home and fill it with some of the things they need. We will also be building a few other houses that weekend.

Every servolution outreach so far has been amazing! 

We always look forward to the next one with anticipation

In September we will be having our first ever Saving the Family conference. 

This is a huge undertaking and to be honest a little overwhelming. 

A team from Powerhouse Church in Katy will be coming to help us and we are so looking forward to the "family reunion" that will be, along with seeing what God does that week. 

We are really excited about some of the doors God has opened and people that will be speaking. 

Once we have everything finalized I will give some more details.  

If you are interested in coming with the team from Katy please let us know. 

We would love to have you!

In other news I turned 30 last month. It was a wonderful day. 

We started it in Lima and I was surprised with a breakfast party 

then we ended it by coming home to Piura and my ladies group surprised me with another party!

I can honestly say that is the first time I've had 2 parties in my honor in one day 

I want to offer my thanks to all of you that have supported us in this venture. 

We know God brought us here and the harvest was ready for us. 

It is hard work but we love it, and we couldn't do this without you. 

Every prayer and every dollar sent is hugely important to us. 

We love you guys!

Pieces of the Puzzle ~Part 1

The last week has been an amazing time of seeing what God has been doing behind the scenes. So full confirmation that what we are working on is what God wants us to be doing. But first let me tell you what God did to bring us to this point. The story is long so we will be breaking it up into parts.


For Jose before he was saved he knew there was some connection for him in Piura, Peru he just didn't know what it was.


For me I knew I was called to missions at a young age. Surprisingly for me God told me to begin praying for my future husbands salvation in January of 2001. Before that I had just assumed I would marry someone who grew up saved. But when God tells you to do something it's usually best to listen. I didn't tell anyone but I prayed for him for 6 months and in June I felt a peace to stop praying for his salvation. That October I went to Russia on a 9 month mission trip.


In January of 2001 Jose had watched his friend go from a broken life to a much better place in about 8 months. Seeing the change and liking it Jose in his carnal way decided he wanted to be a better person too. That ended up making him double minded and affected him almost to the point of suicide. Seeing this, his friend started inviting him to church. Dr Edwin Louis Cole says "When the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change, you change." This was true for Jose. He began attending church in June and was saved June 18th 2001.


For the next 5 months Jose struggled. Having one foot in the church and one foot in the world. Inside he was saved and was being transformed by God. But he was still pulled by relationships and addictions that made it seem impossible for him to fully change. All his life he had run away from his problems. In November the perfect opportunity for him to run away arose. He could go live with his dad in Florida and start a new life. Before he made his final decision he attended a midweek Thanksgiving service at Powerhouse Church. This service would change his life and add another piece to the puzzle that God was constructing. Pastor GF Watkins taught on Abraham building his altar, pitching his tent, and digging wells. That message spoke to Jose that this church was where his new life would begin. This church is where he would worship, sacrifice and grow deeper with God, no matter what else happened around him.


Part 2 coming tomorrow

What is it like?

I broke our laptop the other day. I'm not sure how, but I must have put something on top of it and cracked the screen. So today I am blogging from my phone. That either makes me crazy or amazing. If there are crazy words in here blame it on a combination of my current brain fog and auto complete on my phone.

Several people have been asking us what it's like coming back to America after being in Peru for 8 months. All we can say is it's different. I've started to understand why there are so many small business owners (gas stations, dry cleaners etc...) that are not from the US. Coming here I can see all the opportunities that I never would have recognized before. Also no matter what the economy is doing America is a blessed country. People with "no money" still own cars, live in houses made out of building materials instead of old shipping containers, and have running water. You can turn on most water faucets and have drinkable water. It may not be delicious but at least you know you won't get sick if you drink it. On top of that I see everyone upset about gas costing $3.47 here and I can't think if that's a bad price because in Peru gas is more like $5.

I can see why so many foreigners want to move to America. For them Americans have piles of money just waiting to be scooped up. One of our first days back Jose was in the foyer of our church and noticed several full trash bags, but they had tons of soda cans in them. He was joking that he wanted to go pull out all the cans and get them recycled because in Peru you would never see bags of recyclables mixed with other trash. I was horrified the first couple weeks there because every time I looked outside someone would be digging through our trash. We finally figured out that those people were looking for plastic bottles to recycle. Just wow. Have you ever been that desperate for cash? I know I haven't. EVER

There is a level of moral depravity that is immediately evident in Peru. Pornography is everywhere. Even billboards have nudity that would not be tolerated in America. As I mentioned in a previous post the law enforcement there is little help in most cases. Here they are protectors, there you never know if they are going to protect you or extort money from you. Honestly, I could go on and on but I'll leave it at this. I enjoy not having to see naked pictures everywhere I go and being able to trust the police (when I'm in the U.S.) :)

I also see a huge difference in the ministry world. For one thing the cost of labor is so low in Peru that you cannot find volunteers for ANYTHING. The people with money would rather hire someone else to do the work than do it themselves. The poor people work all the time to feed their family's so they just aren't available to volunteer. It's so weird to us. Jose has such a heart for volunteers and we both think it is an important part of serving God (J and I met volunteering at our church for what it's worth)
On the other hand. Peruvian christians are SO hungry. Everything we share with them is like gold. I've never seen such open hearts to the gospel and to instruction.

Now to be completely honest. I love Peru and I love America. They both have their own things that make me love them. So it's good to be home (so, so good) and it will be good to go back (but I'm not quite ready yet :p )

Language Studies

About 5 1/2 years ago Jose and I really started talking about our desire to spread the gospel in another country. He felt called to Peru because he knew first hand the need there. I had personal reasons for not really thinking Peru was the right fit. (God eventually changed my heart obviously) Jose said I want to move there in 5 years. I thought "yeah ok, that sounds good" because the way things looked 5 years was really far away and yet I thought we would still be living in Texas preparing to go "someday".

2 years ago the call to Peru became more urgent for both of us. We planned our trip to visit and decide if this was really God or as Jose says "bad chinese food" (causing hallucinations) I started using a computer program we had that was supposed to teach Spanish. I learned the colors I didn't know and maybe a few fruit names. Aside from that it was not the most helpful software. We visited Peru for almost 2 weeks in September (2009) 5 years of marriage to Jose with his spanish speaking family helped some. I was able to understand quite a bit of what was said to me. So I got a little bit cocky. I thought "Spanish will be easy for me to learn". Jose's dad got me the Rosetta Stone program and I started using it some. I admit between the cockiness and the feeling that all I was learning on the program was what to call a man, woman, boy and girl I didn't stick to it well.

6 months ago we moved to Peru. I found out that non stop spanish wherever I go is hard to follow. Also I get a headache when I'm inundated with it. I think from all the translating in my head. I have started trying to do Rosetta stone more often. I do great and usually get 100% on my tests at the end of each lesson. Of course I'm still just learning observations. For instance I can tell you "Ellos Cocinan" (they or the men are cooking) or "Ellas Cocinan" (the women are cooking) Go me! But then I get into a situation where I'm trying to talk to someone they ask me how I'm doing to which I respond "bien" then they ask how my children are doing and again I respond "bien". Most people smile and move on but then there is the occasional person who believes their job is to force me to speak nothing but spanish pronounced correctly and in detail. That person would respond "bien, bien, bien. Nothing but bien!?! DAH!" To which I would love to respond "If you asked me those questions in english my response would have been "good" not "bien" so I don't really see what I'm doing wrong here. That is not exactly a get deep into conversation question to ask. Unless of course I were an oversharer. Then instead of "Bien" I could have responded. "Bueno, Timoteo tiene esta erupción extraña en el trasero y yo creo que es de nuestro detergente para la ropa, pero realmente no puedo entender por qué sería sólo en su parte inferior" (Which means -Well, Timothy has this weird rash on his behind and I think it's from our laundry detergent but I really can't figure out why it would only be on his bottom.) But the problem is it would take me a good hour to figure out exactly how to say that unless I had my translating program on me and then I would say pretty much exactly what I typed above even though it's most likely slightly off or incorrect.
But instead of all that I usually just try to avoid people like that and speak the little spanish I'm comfortable with so far. I know for fact that I attach the wrong genders to items and I pretty much hate the fact that in spanish everything has a gender.

On the other hand there are the people who get excited when I speak spanish to them. That is a little embarrassing really. I feel kind of like a dog doing a trick with them. They are all "oh look she's doing a trick isn't that cute?" When what I really want is to not draw attention to myself anymore than I already do. 

After all I look like this... 

 

                                                         

                                                                           Notice the pasty white-ness



In a sea of this

 

So it's really not hard for me to stand out. 

Prayer Needs

This week we have been enjoying a visit from my Grandma Doris. We have done tons of touristy things with her that we had not had a chance to do. I really love Lima. There are times I forget how wonderful this city is but it's fun to see it with a first timer. And I have decided I need to live by the ocean. I absolutely love listening to the ocean and feeling the sea breeze. I always feel so mellow and content by the ocean.

If you are on the blog right now you may notice that I made some changes to the tabs on top. I added a prayer needs tab. I will keep that updated as things change so if you are ever in the mood to pray for us and want to know what we need prayer for you know where to look. At the moment most of our needs are financial. Maybe that is a chronic thing for missionaries. idk? I will post what I said there here so at least right now you don't have to click the tab (unless you really want to)

A few have asked what we need people to pray for so I thought it would be good to post a list of the things we are praying for right now so you can pray with us. As things change I will change our list.


As always thank you so much for praying for and with us!

~ Total financial support
~ 5 Tickets to the U.S. 4 of them leaving by February 20th
~Protection and provision for Victor while he is traveling to the north of Peru for a youth conference the end of February
~ Protection for our family
~ A camera with HD video for filming updates
~ A second computer
~ Visas for all of us
~ Healing for Kathryn (fatigue, dizziness, headaches) and Victor (gout and osteoarthritis)
~ Strengthening of our team
~ Funds to travel to Piura once a month
~ A home in Piura by September
~ Land for the orphanage
~ 40 men from La Casa Del Padre commissioned while we are here
~ 20 men from Peru to Intense in April
~ Kathryn's spanish
~ a fan for victor

Cineguilla

On Tuesday Jose and I went out with a guy from church to an area close to where we live called Cineguilla (I am totally guessing on the spelling there.)


This cute little lady was very proud to have her picture taken


and when I say she was little I mean it. I had to contort my body to stand next to her and I'm barely 5' 2"


We also met a lady who runs what is called a wawa wasi. It's a government program to help single mothers work. They put together 8 moms. One of them watches the kids and the other 7 work. The ones that work pay the mom that watches the kids S/. 2 a day to pay for their water etc...(the exchange rate is about S/. 2.78 to $1) And the government pays her S./ 180 a month. That's about $67 a month. She also gets a little bit of money from her child's father but NOTHING like American child support.
While we were talking to her we really felt God impressing on our hearts to bless her. Like I said above she watches 8 kids including her own and only owns 6 toys and they are old and broken (things like a naked barbie - they don't own any barbie clothes, and an old stacking toy that we would have thrown away,) She also had an 8 year old son with one toy of his own. An action figure that he was super proud of.

Aside from that her home is a shack built of things like cardboard and plywood. Her front door is like a gate that is held shut by a large stick propped up against it. She has no running water but is proud to have electricity.
These are some pictures of her "house" from the outside and some of the other "houses" around hers


We want to help this lady and we need your help to do that. There is a list about a mile long of ways we could help her and we know that we can't do everything but here are the things we can do.
1. Secure her front door.
2. get toys for children ages 6mo-4years
3. get toys for her 8 year old son.
4. get some shoes for her kids
5. give her some teaching materials. Wall decorations etc... she tries to teach the kids and all she has is her own voice.

If you would like to help with any of these things send me an email at jkmission2peru@gmail.com especially if you want to send a package for her. If you want to help financially you can use the link to give through our church (just email me at the above address that you want your donation to go to blessing her) or through paypal. Next time we go we will get some pictures of her and her kids. Jose had the camera when we were there and he was the one talking ;)
We cannot take pictures of the kids she takes care of though. There are very strict laws here about that.


After we left her house we came across some kids playing. All of them live in homes where the parents are not married. We are finding that is extremely common here. It creates an environment where the mother is insecure and the father is unstable. It also makes it difficult to track the divorce rate here. People really don't have to get divorced because they rarely get married


Anyway, the kids stole my heart. The girl in the blue sweater wanted me to take a million pictures of her. She managed to get into most of the pictures I took.

I also think it is very important that you know I climbed up this mountain in what I used to think of as sensible walking shoes

There are "stairs" carved into it but you can't even see them. unless you are right there looking at them.
I am so thankful for paved roads and construction. And don't even get me started on how thankful I am for my home.

You live in a blessed nation. No matter what the news says or how you feel about the current political or economic situation. Next time you spend $67 think about what your life would be like if that was your entire months paycheck

Casa Hogar

Today we visited our first orphanage. (we plan to visit some more to get a better picture of what already works before we move forward on anything)
We went intending to take pictures etc...and quickly found out it's illegal to take pictures inside the orphanage :/ So I'm sorry I can't show you what it looked like but I will try to describe it. One side was all living quarters. They have about 8-10 children in each building with 2 mentors. The houses are separated by age and gender. They have 54 children living there right now. (the director said that is way more than normal because they have a second location which was flooded so they had to combine the 2)

The other side is a school. Most of the kids are the orphans, but there are a few students from around the town.
We were able to get a lot of information from the director but I won't bore you with all of it :)
The best part of the trip was when we met the kids. The older kids where in a large assembly but we got to meet the preschool/kindergarten class. (Oh my word I fell in LOVE with 2 of them) When we came to the door they all ran out and hugged us. One little boy named Jonathon melted into my side while all the other children took turns hugging me, Jose, Victor then Jose's Dad. Then there was a sweet bubbly little girl with pigtails named Andreita (here they add "ita" to everything to make it cutesy) She locked eyes with me when we walked past the class and had to climb over the other kids to get to me. I wanted to keep her.
When we were getting ready to leave the class I looked over and Jose's dad had at least 5 little boys hugging him around the neck. It was adorable. I wanted to keep them all. Bring them home and give them lots of hugs and kisses every night. However, kids in private orphanages are not adoptable. :( I guess that's a good thing because we really aren't quite ready to take on 10 more kids. But I cried. No weeping and wailing but a definite ache came over me. I looked at these beautiful little girls and boys who either have no parents, or were abandoned. And they crave love. Little Jonathon, only had one of my arms but he did not move. His teacher had to tell him to come back in to class. I gave him one last tight hug before I let him go. (and I cried)

Did you feel the mountains tremble?

This morning at 3am we experienced our first earthquake. It registered 5.9 on the Richter scale. Here is a news story about it. To be honest it is not that big a deal here. (Jose and my kids actually slept through it..except for when I reached out for Jose, because for a moment I thought I was dreaming)
I find it interesting because the day I wrote my last blog I almost talked about being nervous about earthquakes. All I knew is they start without warning and can be devastating. It scared the living daylights out of me (there's a little bit of Texas slang for you...proof of my roots) But a few days ago I thought. I wonder if there will be an earthquake here? Then I realized I really wasn't as afraid as I used to be. It's awesome the way God prepares us in the smallest ways for things. 

Speaking of preparing for things. Tomorrow (Thursday) Jose, Victor and I will be going to a local orphanage to talk with the director and see how they run things. There are lots of potential good things going on with that so please keep us in prayer. I'm so excited about this I can't even explain it.
God has already been flinging doors wide open everywhere we go. There is no doubt in our minds that his hand is on this ministry and we want to thank everyone of you that has been praying for us and supporting us financially. We are able to do the things we are doing because of your support. We love you guys

Learning my lesson

o.k. I admit it. I did not have the best attitude about my laundry taking 5 hours. I thought it was a pain to wait all the time just for one load. But then we went to the zoo. 

At the zoo we rode a train that went around the perimeter and I was sitting on the side where you can see outside the zoo.

Imagine living by the zoo.

Even in America the zoo smells nasty.

There is no getting around it.

Now imagine living here.

Yes those are "houses"

If you lived there you would do laundry

here

Or here

Which is also where you would bathe

(I saw people doing that but decided not to take pictures of it...I want to keep this blog "G" rated)

Remember all your washing is downwind of a zoo. There are no words. I am so grateful for my impossibly long washer and dryer.

Our first day in Lima in pictures + update!!!

The first day here was exciting

We were all up early and ready to see what we could accomplish...but we didn't realize Peru doesn't really wake up until around 10 or 11

so we hung out around the hotel for awhile

 

When we did get out to the stores they weren't all open anyway but we enjoyed a nice walk.

In fact we walked and walked and walked.

But the boys still had energy so we let them play at the playground.

They were not the least bit excited about it

  

We ate at my current favorite restaurant

They have a cute little flower cart outside.

After lunch we drove around for a few hours looking for houses with for rent signs outside...we didn't find many but that didn't really matter.

We finished out the day at a grocery store named Wong. Jose got our cell phones set up and me and the boys sat in the little coin operated car area.

They liked this one

We have really seen God's hand and just favor over us the whole time here.

Even when we were flying over here. We checked with the airline the day before we left to find out how much it would cost if we checked extra baggage they said $140 per bag. We decided to buy an extra suitcase and check it because we were just running out of options. Tuesday morning at 4 am we showed up at the airport with our 11 suitcases, 5 carry-ons and 5 personal items. We weighed everything to make sure we weren't over weight and had to move a few things to carry ons. Jose went to check the bags and they said it was only an extra $40 instead of $140. Jose decided to go ahead and check 2 of our carry-ons as well because it was so much cheaper (plus we really didn't want that many carry ons.) The lady called her supervisor over at the end to sign off on everything and the supervisor said "no, you were supposed to charge them $140 for each additional bag" then she told Jose "sir because of our mistake we are going to let you check these 3 bags for free" We didn't have to pay any extra fees for our bags at all!

Secondly when we went out with the realtor she had 2 apartments to show us in our price range, and 2 that were slightly higher than we wanted to pay. We looked at all of them and Jose and I both liked the first one we looked at (which was in our price range hallelujah). All the places in the area we need to be in were unfurnished though. So while we waited to get the contract from the owner we decided to go price furniture and appliances (houses don't even come with ovens here) I'm not going to lie. Looking at how much everything was going to cost and even just trying to furnish a complete house from nothing was a little intimidating. But I serve a big God. That night we went to meet with the owner (a former actress/tv host) We were there for about 2 hours talking about the house/living arrangement/her health/the realtors family/ etc.... this is Peru you don't have short meetings about one specific thing and then move on here. In the process of our conversation she asked if we have furniture. We told her we don't and she said "My daughter lived here for 3 months. She bought everything new and left it with me when she moved. I'll tell you what, if you want I can furnish the house for an extra $200 a month then when you go to Piura you can have it all if you want it. I even have trucks that go up there all the time you can take it in one of my trucks when you go."  All we need to get is linens and some kitchen items to have everything we need for our house.

Third. One minor hickup is that the house is brand new. When we were looking at it it didn't have light fixtures and was still being painted. Because of that the house won't be ready until Friday. But our hotel is only available until Tuesday then we were going to have to move to a different room. Not a big deal for us but it would cost us 4 extra night's in the hotel. Yesterday when we were at church we talking with the pastors and the couple that is in charge of the retreat center. They asked where we are staying and we explained the whole situation. When we finished they said "don't spend your money on a hotel we have a guest house behind our house you can stay there until your house is finished." Then Jose asked if we can start moving our luggage over today and the pastor said "just use the church van. I will send it over to pick all your sutff up on Tuesday so you can move everything in one trip"

We have an amazing God. It is so awesome to see his hand on every step of our journey. It is clear he is Jehovah Jireh our provider. We can't wait to see what He is going to do next! 

Please be in prayer with us for a vehicle. There are six of us so we need something that carries at least six comfortably. We are really praying for an H1 mini van (they carry 12 passengers but look like a mini van) We have called on a few used vehicles but they sell for almost the same as new...cars do not depreciate here. 

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support it is deeply appreciated! And we can seriously see/feel the prayers in our daily life!   

3 Days left...

We are in Florida! Getting in some family time with Jose's family. Tonight we are eating Peruvian food and staying up way too late! We got blessed with a nice hotel room and are enjoying a little bit of chill out time. I'm not sure how soon we will have internet access in Peru so just please pray for us Tuesday we have to be at the airport in Miami at 4am. Logan has been getting motion sickness in the car and we are not sure how the airplane will be because this is a new thing. I have stocked up on dramamine and we are trying everything we can.

Giving Details

I've had several people ask what they can do to help and what our specific needs are.

Overall
PRAYER! We need all we can get and then some. This will only work as long as it has God's hand on it and we desire more than anything to be in his will. Because of that we covet your prayers above all else that He would guide us, our hearts will stay right and that he would go before us and behind us every step.

Financially
One time donation's
We need to raise about $10,000 more before we leave for start up costs. That covers everything we need to get initially established. As you probably know everything we own is currently residing in 12 suitcase (4 are carry-on's) So we will need everything from travel/transportation to a place to live, plus the paperwork fees etc... really boring stuff but important!

Monthly recurring donations
We will need about $3000 a month. The first year we will participate in the ministry school that reaches out to the families of Peru. Most of our budget will go to our daily living expenses. Including traveling to Piura monthly to work on establishing the mission there so when our time in Lima is done the transition will be easier. Anything we are given above that will go into a savings account we will use for the Mission in Piura.

If you would like to give into our ministry one time or monthly you have 2 options.

Option 1 Paypal. I have installed a tab to the right that will take you directly to our paypal account and you can give that way. Our paypal account name is jkmission2peru@GMail.com

Option 2 Tax deductible donation. There is another tab on the right that will take you to our church website. They have set up an account for us where you can give (designated as Mission to Peru.) They will track it and get it to us and mail you a giving statement at the beginning of the year (just in time for tax season) They also email you a receipt and you can track your giving through the website. If you choose to give this way please send me an email at the above address with the amount you are giving and if it's a one time gift or if you plan to give monthly.

Any amount you can give is helping us to fulfill our mission to Peru. Thank you for your support of this ministry!

Jose's story

Before I became a Christian I never had a heart or desire for children. When I was very young I had an accident that the doctors told me I could not have any children. When I received Jesus to come into my heart I realized that from Genesis on, God’s desire was to fill the earth with people made in his likeness and image, not much has changed. This mandate began to grow inside of me to fulfill what God had set out to do. My heart began to change towards children in such a drastic way that I began to serve in the nursery at Powerhouse Christian Center. I remember Pastor Watkins coming back from a trip to Peru and visiting an orphanage in Lima; that night my heart began to beat so fast that I thought it was going to explode and I began to understand the Holy Spirit working in my heart. That night I remember going up to Pastor after service and telling him that if he ever goes back I would like to go with him. I was only born again for about 6 months at that point. A couple years later I had an opportunity to go with Pastor Watkins to South America and what I thought would calm my inner desires to go to Peru increased even more. For 5 years following I engulfed myself in learning ministry. I have been a witness to countless spiritual sons being returned to a right relationship to their heavenly father. I have seen transformed lives through this ministry find purpose and passion for pursuing God. In 2009 the Lord began to work in me more fervently with what he showed me in 2002. In my effort to try and quench this inner struggle I took my family to see what God birthed in me many years before. The word says that God is faithful to complete the work he began inside of us, and that is exactly what happened. I saw myself knowing that I was called to be a missionary to do what God had done inside of me and help others to be raised up. My mandate is clear: Restore order in a world of chaos by bringing back spiritual and natural orphans to a right relationship to our heavenly father through Jesus Christ. My heart is to reach, teach, and send out. Reach orphans, teach the way of the cross, and send them out to other parts of the world.
Jose

Peruvian Children

I've been working on a few projects in preparation for our trip and some exciting things that are coming up.  I came across a bunch of statistics that are really heart breaking. While I don't put my trust in statistics these are a good indication that we live in a hurting and dying world. I wanted to share them so those of you that are interested and/praying for us can have an idea of what we will be working with.

Many children in Peru are sent to work to support their families in spite of child labor being against the law. Two out of ten children ages 6-11 work and there are more than 3 million children working in Peru.1 Due to the high and persistent levels of poverty, Peruvian children are often sent out by their parents to earn money on the streets. This might be by selling sweets or crafts, begging, performing acrobatics, or in one of many other ways.


Studies show that 90% of street children come from rebuilt (with step-father or step-mother) or mono-parental families, or from rural families that had 'given' their child to other people (relatives or not) to be raised by the latter in the city. 2

Children are often blamed and at the receiving end of family disputes so much so that the streets appear as a better alternative than the family home. Too scared and afraid of another episode of violence, the children run to the streets for the comfort and refuge they so badly seek. One research project found that 73% of the street children they interviewed cited family violence and child mistreatment as reasons for taking to the streets. 3 The report also suggests that most street-living boys in Peru are children who had become 'scapegoats' in their family; blamed for causing conflict and stress, and maltreated when their families were going through a crisis.

These statistics illustrate not only the need for a safe haven for homeless children. They also illustrate the need to build godly men to reverse the curse of fatherlessness. Our desire is to teach these “men” that “Maturity doesn’t come with age but begins with the acceptance of responsibility” (-Edwin Louis Cole) and not just accepting responsibility for yourself but for those around you.



1 UNICEF (2008)


2 Bustamante, D., ‘Family Structure Problems, Child Mistreatment, Street Children, and Drug Use’, cited in Schraeder, A. et al, Prevention of Street Migration (1999)


3 Consortium for Street Children

Stream of Consciousness...

Most little girls play cinderella or sleeping beauty. Not me, I played Wendy from Peter Pan. I loved pretending to be a mother taking care of my "lost boys." I should have known God would give me little boys. It's hard to recapture the fun of being a make-believe mother living in a forest when you are wiping noses and bottoms, making lunch and taking care of bloody noses. When you live in the forest it doesn't matter if you have dirt on the floor. The floor is dirt. (consequently my floor might as well be dirt right now. I sweep and before I can even "swiffer wet jet" my floor it's dirty again.)

Sometimes I look at my day to day life and think "wow, how much longer is this going to last?" I have a hard time just living in right now. When I start to see a dream coming true I want to run up to it and wrap my arms around it. I don't like the waiting part. Which you would think I would be used to. A couple years ago when we would talk about moving to Peru I would get kind of nervous. The nervousness that comes from not knowing what your getting yourself into or what it will be like. I still don't know what it will be like. And I'm sure I don't know what I'm getting myself into. But I'm deliriously happy to be going now. When we arrived in Peru last September I was less than dazzled by the airport and exhausted from the trip so I can't remember exactly what my first thoughts there were. I do remember the first day there. I fell in love. The way I hear people describing their feelings for Italy or Paris. That is how I felt there. All I could think was "I get to live HERE!?" So now I'm counting down the weeks and days until I get to go back. Only this time we actually get to do something! We get to minister the love of Jesus to a nation of hurting and dying people.

When Jose initially spoke to the pastor we will be working with the first year he told him our heart is for Piura. He said we were the third couple that mentioned Piura to him and nothing has happened. No one has followed through. Can you imagine what God must have in store for that part of the country? I am giddy just thinking about it.

(aren't we cute...especially him!)

Jose and I were both in wedding's last week. Mine was Sunday (and I have NO pictures) :( His was Saturday. Both had brides named Melissa. (odd) They were both beautiful and I am so happy for both of them. I've been able to see both of them grow up in their relationships with God and I've been able to watch both of their relationships (with their husbands) blossom. I love you girls! I pray for both of you and we take our roles as your sister and brother in Christ very seriously! Congratulations Mrs. Greenwade and Mrs. Echevarria!  

Happy Birthday to me

I figure I am allowed to wish myself a happy birthday since I'm generally in charge of birthdays around here.

Maybe it's because I'm getting older but the last couple years I have gotten very introspective on my birthday. This year I'm thinking about where I've been and where I'm going. As many of you know I've moved a lot...a lot, alot. Because of that I've never felt like any one place was my home. My church is home because I know I'm loved and accepted there. When I was in Peru it felt like home too. I don't have any real reason for that. Maybe it's because that's where I'm supposed to be? In Jose's arms is home because I feel safe there. A lot of places are home. And a lot of places aren't. Sometimes it's surprising where home is and where it isn't. (I sound like yoda..."mmm, much confusion in you there is"...and yes Jose has turned me into a bit of a star wars geek)

Jose and I are celebrating Saturday at a Peruvian buffet. *WOOT* I love Peruvian food (good thing huh?) Today since he had to work we didn't do very much but he made me feel well loved. He tried to get the boys to leave me alone so I could sleep in...brought me lunch and got me an ice cream cake. I'm pretty sure I gained 15 lbs today. I went to the park with the kids today while Jose was at Man Church. I met up with some friends and took my camera to take pictures of our merriment. I got there first took like 5 pictures of myself and the boys but as soon as my friends got there I forgot to take pictures. That is the reason I don't have any pictures of most of my friends. I get too interested in talking and totally forget to capture the moment. *sigh* Anyway my sweet friend Abigail got me froggy cupcakes and a cute shirt I can't wait to wear. (I love presents! Thank you Abi!)

In other (Peru related) news we are leaving houston in less than 11 weeks! Time is flying by right now! So much still to do and yet I am feeling more and more ready everyday

T-Minus

86 days until we move out of our house...
96 days until we leave Houston to visit family and friends on our way to Miami...
110 days until we leave Miami for Peru...

This my friends is what life in fast forward feels like...So much to do so little time