Good to be Home!!

I must say, first, that this blog is very late. I have been unable to have sufficient internet time since I returned to Peru until now.
Secondly, I enjoyed my time in the United States with family and friends, but I was ready to be home, in Peru, by the time I got here. The truth is, "There's no place like home!" No matter where that is or what that is, there is no place like it!
I enjoyed about 6 weeks in the United States, but it was without my husband, because we couldn't get a US Visa for him after 3 tries. I was privileged to speak in 4 churches and my sister's classroom in Walton Elementary School. I also was privileged to go to the 99th birthday party of our dear friend Cora Wigal.


My dear friend, Cora Wigal, at her 99th birthday party!
I hope I look half that good at 99!

Aunt Sharon, Aunt Donna, and Mom with me at the wedding shower.

In the US, I was also blessed with a shower by the women of my home church. With the money we received from friends and family as wedding presents, we were able to finish paying for a property we had purchased, and buy a washing machine. You don't know how much easier that makes life!!!



NEW WASHER!!!

First load of laundry with new washer!!!

The last Sunday I was in West Virginia, I took group pictures of the congregation...It took several pictures to get the majority of people, but we still missed some of the people. The Peruvians sent a similar picture to the people of West Virginia and my home church.

We are continually blessed with the love and prayers of our friends in the US and Peru. Thanks to all who pray for us daily, and please continue to pray for us and our ministry here in Campanilla, Peru.

August 6 - Updates and Reminders

So, as I sit here and wait for Sixto to get out of his interview in the embassy, I decided to write another blog. I have another update on animals...I know, they just keep coming! Well, I got back to Campanilla on July 30, after being in Pucallpa for a week and this greeted me in the back yard...

I am sure I said no to the pig, but he was there when I got home. I do have to say, he was a good pig, and I didn't know he was there until Sixto asked me if I saw him. And, fortunately, he was only there until Saturday morning at 2:00 am. I did hear his last cry, and then the chickens were a little wild for the rest of the morning. I told Sixto they were saying, "Oh my, did you see what happened to PIG this morning? What are we going to do?"

 

Before I went to Pucallpa, I found some pictures I had cut out of an old Mary Engelbreit calendar that my friend, Elisabeth Lewis, gave me. So, I decorated a little in my house. Made it feel a little more homey...

 



And we had the family over for pizza. What a fun time to share with all of them!

 

And we took pictures with the church to share in the states. They are super excited to "go to the states" even if it is in picture form.

So, as I sit here, I am reminded of all the blessings I have had over the past several weeks. What a blessing that pig was only at my house for a few days! And, I know if Sixto doesn't receive his visa, it will be okay, sad, but okay. And he will be waiting for me when I get back to Peru, along with the rest of the family (family family and church family). Thanks for all your prayers!



Update on Animals!!!

So, I only have a few pictures this time, but I will get to that a little later. I will start with an update on the CHICKENS!!!

 Now we have 9 of them!!! At least it is another female and not another rooster. So we have 4 females and 5 roosters at the house...we have two more, I don't know whats, at Sixto's father's and aunt's houses. So I was getting ready to come to Pucallpa, and the newest one started laying eggs that day. We had two that were laying eggs before, so Sixto had made two nests for them, but they decided to use the same one...And now the third one is laying her eggs in the same nest. The day I came to Pucallpa we had 8 eggs. I don't know how that is going to work out when one of them wants to hatch the eggs. In the mean time, we have received two ducks, two guinea pigs, and a reindeer. I told Sixto we started decorating for Christmas early. The youth were playing soccer, and kicked the ball into the bathroom wall. The mirror fell and crashed into the sink leaving a reindeer shaped hole in the mirror. At least there is still a part big enough for my face!

Continuing with the animal theme...I was in my kitchen, cooking the other day, and was ready to pour oil into the skillet, when I noticed ants all over the bottle. I didn't think that oil was sweet, but maybe. Anyway, the oil I was using is from this department (state) of San Martin, so I felt like I was helping the local economy. But, it doesn't have a lid. You just cut a hole in the top. So, like I said, I was getting ready to pour oil in the skillet, again, after cleaning the ants off the outside. I was reminded of Pam Killen telling us that when she went to a missionary's house in I believe in the Samoan Islands (The Johnsons), she started to throw the sugar out because it was full of ants. The kids told her to just tap the side of the sugar bowl and the ants would leave. I wish that worked with oil, but unfortunately, the ants drown and are at the bottom of the bottle. However, I didn't throw out the oil. I used it until it got down to where the ants were. I kept saying, at least ants are clean...they don't go after the things flies go after. I am now buying oil that has a lid. It is more expensive, but it is ant free...The should put that on the bottle!!!

 

Continue to pray for us as we are planning to come to the States in August. Sixto still has not received his visa, but has an interview on August 6 at 8:00 am. If he gets a visa, we will then buy his ticket to come to the USA. If not, we will buy his ticket to return to Campanilla, and I will come to the USA alone to fulfill our responsibilities there. I have my ticket. Thank you for your continued prayers!

Blessings in Disguise

Last week was a little stressful for me. We were having a Zonal Concentration at our church in Campanilla. That is kind of like improve your serve, but it also included a children's camp as well. The event started on Friday night and went through Sunday afternoon. My job was to teach the older kids camp class in the mornings and the children's service on Friday night. I didn't have a schedule or any real information on the event, so I started with materials that I had from when I worked in Pucallpa. Sixto told me there would be another teacher, so I thought we could divide the kids into two groups. I had started working on the materials that I had, and I received a call from the other teacher on Monday. We decided on the exact days we would have each lesson, and that we would have the kids all together for the beginning and again at the end.

 In the midst of all these preparations, we received an unexpected guest. A Bible bookman was passing through, and he stopped to ask if we had someplace he could stay for the night. I told him he would have to talk with Sixto, who was playing soccer at the moment, but he was welcome to stick around and talk with him. So, Sixto made arrangements for him to stay at his brother's house and he would eat with us. We had soup for supper...quick and easy!! That evening, we had service at 8:00 pm, like normal, and after church, I washed all the dishes and we went to bed.

 On Wednesday morning, we were awaken at 6:30 am by the bookman, bringing food that he wanted me to cook for breakfast, including foods that I had never seen before. And I didn't cook them for breakfast. I did cook some of it for lunch, and other of it for supper. However, the bookman brought more food for me to cook for the other meals. I try to plan my meals out every week to make my life a little easier, and this was really messing up my schedule. I have to say, I was not feeling very charitable when I was being told what to cook and how to cook it by someone I didn't know who was coming and going from my house as pleased. And, because I was having to cook these things extra foods (because Sixto and I would have been eating left overs from the fridge), I was not getting very far on the materials I needed to prepare for the weekend. I had a little breakdown on Thursday afternoon, when I was realizing I didn't have the things done that I needed to have done by that time and had another service that night to go to that would take up the evening.

 After that, I had to take a deep breath, and I started to look at the things I was being given. I received some fresh beans that were so many pretty colors.  And then, there was a beautiful rainbow outside my kitchen window. That made me stop and thank God for all the blessings he had given me, and I began to feel a little normal again. The people began to arrive on Friday afternoon, and the concentration was a success. The children had fun at the camp, and learned all about the Good Shepherd, and then, and I say this with much gratitude, PRAISE THE LORD!!, the bookman left on Sunday afternoon! That night after church, I packed our suitcase to come to Lima this week and then I am going on to Pucallpa for another week of ministry there. I am very thankful to the Lord that everything finally came together about 5 minutes before we were to start with the children on Friday night. Thanks be to God for his continued blessings and a short time of rest!



These are some of the very colorful beans
we were given last week. I think some
of them could be camouflage patterns!

 

Chickens!!!!

 Okay, so I must say, I am not a farm girl!!! I can rough it, but don't add animals to the mix, please! I say that to say, I HAVE 8 CHICKENS!!!! My dislike for CHICKENS grew when I lived in Pucallpa and if the door to the kitchen open, the CHICKENS would come in and do their business. It really kind of made me mad. But, I'm not bitter.
 Well, here in Campanilla, the people of the church give their first fruits to the pastor. We have been blessed with cacao (which can easily be sold or toasted to use), plantains (which can easily be eaten), other fruits, and CHICKENS. And these CHICKENS don't seem to understand that I don't like them. They follow me around like I am their long lost friend. We have 5 macho and 3 hembra (that is 5 boys and 3 girls). The other day, they followed me to the tienda (store), and they follow me in the church. And they like to sit in my doorway. I can even handle that if they don't come in my house. I can say, one of them is kind of pretty, but I still don't want her in my house. And Sixto is no help. He thinks it is absolutely hilarious!
 I know it is a blessing to have them. I don't want anything to happen to them. For example, when the young people are playing soccer or volleyball, I don't want them to hurt my CHICKENS, but I don't want to cuddle up with the CHICKENS either. I just have to keep saying to myself, "Thank you, Lord, for this blessing of CHICKENS! They will taste mighty fine for Sunday dinner someday!!!"


The CHICKENS!!!!

The CHICKENS following me!

Kitchen in Order



Well, the kitchen took work, but it is put together now. We picked out the refrigerator and stove in Juanjui and brought it back on Saturday to Campanilla. It took all day Monday to get the kitchen in order. We have "running water" that consists of a bucket with a spout and a wash basin under it. Almost all of the wedding gifts were for the kitchen, and the people bought lots of blue. There was a table cloth too! There was an old shelf/table unit in the storage area, so a couple of the pre teens at the church cleaned it up for me and I covered it with plastic table cloth. Sixto made a shelf to put the things I use for cooking. I am very pleased with the final result, although I will probably add a few pictures on the walls. Nancy and Edwin are at the house a lot. Edwin likes to help me...He is my partner!

Busy With Preparations

Baptism in Libertad

 

Well, so much has happened in the past month and a half. I told you about the Women’s Ministry, so I will start after that. On March 17, we went to Libertad for a baptismal service. There were 8 people baptized that day. Seven were baptized in the creek, and one is bedfast, so he was baptized in his bedroom. Libertad is a small community, that after a short trip from Perla Mayo, you have to walk about 15 - 20 minutes to get to the community. We have Nazarenes in Perla Mayo as well, but there is no church in either place. They are preaching points under the Campanilla church.

Here are some pictures of the baptismal service:

 

 

 

On a sad and a happy note...This is Brother Angel. He passed away

about 4 weeks after his baptism. He is no longer suffering...He is with Jesus!

 

 

Birthday Party

 The following Tuesday, I returned to Perla Mayo with a group of young people from our church in Campanilla, to celebrate the 15th Birthday of Ibani. She was baptized on Sunday, and the youth wanted to surprise her for her 15th birthday. In Latin culture, the 15th birthday of girls is celebrated much like the 16th in the united states. Sometimes it looks almost like a wedding! We didn’t do that, but we had a service and then shared cake and pop with Ibani, her family, and the hermanos who came to the service. Sixto wasn’t able to go because we were going to Moyobamba on Thursday for a pastor’s district retreat, and he thought he needed to be in Campanilla for the Tuesday Service. What I didn’t know is that we were going to be gone all night in Perla Mayo, so I was not exactly prepared as I would have been. Anyway, we had a good time. Oh, and to have colors for the icing of the cake, we used some koolaid that some had sent me from the WVN district. The pink was good (cherry), but the purple was a little sour (blue raspberry). Here are some pictures from that:

 

 

 Easter Sunday

Easter was different that any Easter I have ever had in my life. So, in the states, we get new dresses for Easter Sunday, eat ham for lunch, and sing lots of resurrection songs. Well, here, we had Sunday School and fasted until 4:00 pm. Yesenia and I were put in charge of making the juice for after the fast, so at 3:00 we left to go buy fruit to make the juice. We could only find mangos, but they were good. After everyone left, thankfully (because I don’t like them at all), we killed the chicken to have for Easter dinner. I must clarify… I didn’t kill anything!!! It took Sixto, Yesenia, and Paula about half an hour to catch the chicken. It was quite the feat! That night (the evening service is the BIG service here), I played my flute in the service (“He Arose”), and we had the dedication of 3 babies/children. The two babies were Samuel and Carla, the nephew and niece of Sixto. Here are some pictures of the dedication:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Project in Pucallpa

The first week of April, I went to Pucallpa for a project there. I have finished working for Extreme, but had agreed to help with that project. So I tried to leave for Pucallpa on Tuesday, but, even though I had already bought my ticket on the bus, my seat was taken when the bus got to Campanilla. So I didn’t leave until Wednesday, and I was suppose to leave at 8:00 am, but didn’t actually leave until 11:30 pm. It was suppose to be a direct minivan to Pucallpa, but because I was the only passenger, the drivers decided they didn’t want to go all the way to Pucallpa, because thy are from Tingo Maria, so we went to Tingo and they sent me on a bus from there to Pucallpa. I got to Pucallpa at about 3:30 am on Thursday. It was a great project...the group was mostly from Kokomo, Indiana, and they were very hard workers. We built two churches, a permanent and a mobile, and I am happy to say that one of the churches, the mobile, was in one of the church plants that Emperatriz, Luz, and I started. Glory to God!!!! Here are some pictures from that project:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getting Married…

 

I returned to Campanilla on the 11th of April, and began the final preparations for the wedding on the 20th. On Monday, I made flowers (cala lilies, my favorite) because we couldn’t find any silk flowers anywhere. I had bought some cardstock when I was making invitations to make my samples, so I had that, as well as a big sheet of goldenrod and a sheet of yellow art paper. With this I made the flowers. We had asked some friends to send candies and flags from the states, but when I went to Juanjui on the 13th, they still hadn’t come. They were for the wedding ceremony and reception. So, the post office people said they would call if the package came. I must admit, I was a little nervous that it wasn’t going to come! So, on Wednesday, we went to the hospedaje in Campanilla that had space, because we had some friends coming on Thursday. While we were there, the call came that we had received a package!!! Praise the Lord, because it was perfect timing. I was going to Juanjui the next day to meet our friends, Elisabeth Lewis, and Ron and Lynda Webb and family. So, on top of all that, they are currently working on the road between Campanilla and Juanjui. It is the last part of the main highway that isn’t paved yet, so it will be a blessing when it gets done, but right now it is a headache! The road is only open until 6:00 am, then from noon to 1:00 pm, and again at 6:00 pm all night. We had called our friends to see if they could come early from Tarapoto to Juanjui so we could return to Campanilla at the noon opening, but they were unable to. So Sixto decided it was better if he stayed in Campanilla and helped with wedding preps and I went to Juanjui to meet our friends. I wanted to leave Campanilla at 5:00 am but the car didn’t come until 6:00am. Fortunately, it was raining, so the heavy equipment couldn’t work too much and they had more openings that day. But I didn’t arrive in Juanjui until 10:00 am. I went to get copies of my Carné first, so I could go to Serpost and pick up the long-waited-for package. After I had the package, I went to the two banks I needed to visit, and then I went to the internet, because I thought I was going to have several hours to “kill”. While I was at the internet, our friend called and said that they had gotten a car all the way to Campanilla, so I could go back to Campanilla while the road was still open. So, I got to the terminal in time to go back to Campanilla with Sixto’s cousin, Manuel. We got to Campanilla at about 2:30 pm. It had rained all night the night before, so we made it through the construction easily enough, but then there were large trucks stuck in the mud. Our friends didn’t get to Campanilla until 7:00 pm. They came with cream cheese from Tarapoto. The package I had picked up had some decorations, and lots of candy from the States for using at the reception. That night we had a service at 8:00 pm, and the next morning we started with the final preparations. On Friday morning, Sixto and I had our civil marriage at 10:00 am. So, before that, we had breakfast and made a plan for the day. The plan changed many times during the course of the day, but it makes you feel better to have a plan. You know? At 10:00 am, we went to the municipal building for the civil wedding. After the wedding, we went back to Anibal’s house and waited to eat lunch. After lunch, the ladies, Elisabeth, Lynda, and little Miss Haylie, got started on the “bocaditos” (that’s appetizers). I don’t know what I would have done without these amazing women on Saturday! Meanwhile, the men worked on the electricity and lighting for outside for the ceremony. We had the wedding outside the church because the church is small...it is filled with just the people from the church, so since we had lots of invited guests, we had the wedding outside. We made three batches of cream cheese mints, cut cow tails to bite size, and obsession waffle snacks too. We also had m&m, jolly ranchers, lemonheads, smarties, toblerones, and pretzels and bit of honey dipped in chocolate. Needless to say, everyone liked the candies. On Saturday, we decorated. Luz, my 40/40 partner came from Pucallpa, and she helped me so much on Saturday. She got there at 7:00 am on Saturday, and I don’t know what I would have done without her!! She helped me all day: with the decorations, with my dress, with the reception, and much, much more. Saturday night, I was ready at 5:30 pm for the ceremony that was to start at 7:00 pm. However, the wedding didn’t start until about 8:30 because the car that the superintendant was in to Campanilla broke down and you can’t have a wedding without a preacher!!! So he got there and  the wedding started. When I got there, I was shocked! There was standing room only! What a blessing to have so many friends there to share this special occasion with us! We went to the reception afterwards, and like I said, the candies were a hit! We had chicken with rice and potatoes, but not just any chicken, free range chicken. We were tired, but it was a great day! We were very happy to share it with our friends here in Peru! Here are some pictures of the wedding and there are many more on Facebook! Check it out!

 

The ONLY Honeymoon Photo...at the Blue Lagoon in Sauce, Peru.