Home Sweet Home with much to say

Home.  I love home. I am a bit embarrassed how excited I am to be home.  I also enjoy traveling but coming home is the best.  I am rooted and grounded here having resided in this dwelling for most of my life and spending half of my childhood in a home a few miles away.  More importantly, home is where my heart is as it is where my family is found.  This trip stretched me in many ways, one was the time apart from my husband.  I missed his presence and desired to share the experience with him.  Very honestly, I desired for him to be by side helping me cope with experiences I found to be very much outside my comfort zone.  Many years ago, my late brother-in-law, referred to this man in my life as the 'hum' of my life.  He observed I am much calmer with him rather than an erratic, emotional mess.  I felt incomplete without him on this journey.  Having my husband's support during this trip and the prayers of many others, I made it through and now stronger.  Although I am certain that had he been by my side physically, I would have thrived so much better.

I had one daughter by my side, experiencing the thrill of seeing a foreign land and being involved in ministry.  I had another daughter at home.  There were many sights and experiences I wished to share with her and yearned for her to experience herself.  This was the year of separate family travels as she went on her own journey to Costa Rica in the spring.  She had her own experiences.

I was stretched, pulled out of my comfort zone, into another land and culture.  For a time, on the mountain top, we were where time seemed to not have moved in that past 100 years.  There was a feeling of walking into a text book or National Geographic magazine as we gazed at the untouched landscape and interacted with the beautiful people in their colorful, traditional, everyday clothes.  Without the conveniences of running water or electricity, these people live as they have lived for many decades.

I strive to appreciate and be content in my home at all times.  Although I fail, being human and not perfect.  I live in an old home, over a hundred years old.  Yet compared to the mountain top, my home as been updated to American standards.  I have indoor plumbing including a hot water heater.  I have solid walls and windows with glass.  I have electricity and modern appliances. My return to my abode from the time on the mountain gives me a much greater appreciation for my space and modern conveniences.  I do miss the beauty of the mountains, the brilliance of the night sky in the darkness and thin air, high up in the sky.  My flat land in the plains filled with lights does not compare.

I have much to say about our trip.  I am still processing it in my mind and spirit.  I have notes to sort through to try to put into words about our experiences.  Stick with me, give me a few more days to begin that process.  Right now, I am busy getting back into the home routine.  Laundry, groceries, unpacking, etc.  Preparing for the beginning of the school year, shuttling children to appropriate activities.  I have delighted in hearing from many of my dear friends that prayed for me and am making connections with them.

Now to sort through some pictures and begin the writing to share with you who have walked this journey with me cheering me on and praying.  Soon, my friends, soon.

Leaving the mountains

Morning of Thursday, August 15

We are departing Cusco, Peru.  We have been here for a week and half.  So much has transpired in our time here.  I am still processing it all. This morning I cried as I said my final goodbyes.  Through communication difficulties, cultural mistakes, laughter, and service we became friends and family.  I have been inspired by the dedication and passion of those here working to spread the gospel message, to disciple God's children, to go to the most remote areas to work for God's kingdom.  I am ashamed of my lackadaisical attitude.  I desire to share the stories, to tell of the work, the give you a glimpse of what God is doing here in the Cusco area of Peru, I am returning home changed.

I have experienced, for a few short days, the lack of many luxuries I take for granted.  Running water, clean water, hot water, heat on demand, soft beds, the Holy Bible in my native tongue, the ability to read and comprehend the written word, good roads, wide roads, electricity, automobiles, dishwasher, washing machine and dryer.... The list goes on.  

The staff of ATEK sacrifice the comforts of home and time with family to train indigenous people in Biblical principals.  Their passion and energy seemingly unending.  Despite waning funds, they continue in their work.  They teach the people to read their own language to enable them to read the Bible in the language they speak.  The travel over narrow mountain roads, often walking long distances into remote villages.  They sleep on cold, hard floors to bring God's message to the ends of the earth.

This staff is so busy, I have few pictures of them.  They are rarely together in one room.  Pastor Fredi is gifted in applying lessons to any situation.  We led a few games with the pastors in training, and he applied Biblical applications.  Yoni, the children's director, in her quiet manner, led the children's camp in what I considered the be the most rough conditions with grace, poise, and efficiency.  Moises, with his fun boyish manner, assists in translation.  Luisa is sweet and teaches literacy.  Tomas and Eusebio, fellow pastors in ATEK, teach with love, compassion, and discipline (Fredi, too).  Milagros, beautiful and graceful, traveled with us to the camp as our cook and translator.  In the office, she continued to translate for us as she worked at her desk as secretary and accountant.  The 'kitchen ladies' were always smiling and provided us with much good food.  They even took five of us gringos on an outing to the market food shopping.  That was an adventure!  

We Americans must have been burdensome,  slowing down their work as they tried to include us in their ministry.  Often it is faster to do it yourself than show someone else.  We put forth efforts where we could, washing dishes, peeling potatoes, praying.  Each one of us tried our Spanish language skills.  

The Quechua pastors' desire to know God puts me to shame.  Many struggle with reading, applying themselves for 15 days of training.  They included my daughter in fútball and gave her compliments.  They tried our games that were hard to explain, first being translated to Spanish then to Quechua, patient in learning from us.  

The Quechua men's voices raised in song, with the mandolin accompanying, is a sound I hope to never forget.  Although I did not understand the words, I understood their worship.  As they cried out in prayer simultaneously, my heart pleaded with God to hear their prayers.  The man who shared his Quechua hymnal book with us as we butchered the pronunciation of the Quechuan words sang with gusto, he seemed to appreciate our efforts to sing words that are meaningless to us.

To see their joy on the final night to receive a new Bible in Quechua was a privilege.  They cherish and respect their Bibles, handling them with care.  They joyfully held up their Bibles in celebration and thanksgiving.  

I will miss these mountain residing people.  They endeared themselves to me.  I pray that I will be able to share with you a glimpse of this beautiful land and people, inspire you to pray for them, support them, and ultimately grow in your own faith.

Camp thoughts

Our days of service are mostly finished.  We spent three days helping at the kids camp in the remote village of Aucho, Livitaca province of Peru.  Approximately 150 children from 15 communities were in attendance.  Our hearts were tugged as we learned many of the children walked to camp, some as long as eight hours.  The children came with their Sunday school teachers who have been trained by ATEK.  This camp was a climax to show the skills the teachers learned.  Yoni (pronounced similar to Joni) is the ATEK staff that travels between these remote villages regularly training them.  She is an incredible young woman that traverses the mountains.  She is often alone carrying her gear and materials.  She takes a bus and then walks where the bus line ends.  Sometimes another staff member will take her on motorbike.  I admire Yoni.  She makes many sacrifices for the gospel.  She is away from home and her spouse.  She faces long, lonely, difficult treks to reach the some of the most remote people.  ATEK goes where many will not go.

The camp had a feel similar to kids camps of home.  There were classes and games.  Not very much free time, as the focus was more on teaching God's word in the few valuable days they had with the children.  We heard the children singing, reciting verses, laughing, and learning.  The second day of camp the message of Jesus' salvation was taught.  Our team brought a craft that reinforced the message.  We helped the children put together color bead bracelets, each color bead representing a piece of the gospel message.  By a show of hands, it appeared 85-90% of the children made the decision of receiving God's grace.

As the children left the final day, tears came to my eyes.  Some were shy around us, others followed us around with curiosity, and others loved to have their photo taken.  I cried as I watched these beautiful children head out for home, colorfully dressed in traditional clothes and blanket-bags on their backs. Knowing many will walk for a very long way.  We, in the USA, would not allow our 8-12 year olds to walk this type of distance.  Unthinkable.  

We are back from kids camp!

Hello, everyone!  We are back from Aucho, Levitaca.  Four of the most challenging days of my life.  We think we were at 14,000 feet.  Our travel up in two vehicles with C and Pastor driving provided much adventure.  Winding, twisting, mountain roads that only allowed for one vehicle.  Meeting another vehicle proved to be interesting as we negotiated passing and the edge of the Mountain.  We traveled the most adventurous roads in the dark!  We encountered road construction and had to turn around on the single lane mountain road, encountered road closures in a small town where we scraped against railroad ties and berm while praying our vehicles would not tip.  I had a drunk, angry Hombre chase me as I guided vehicles along railroad ties.  When darkness fell, Pastor's truck decided it did not like the mountain climb and stalled -  we really prayed then!  The 'path' into the village had to be found on foot with flashlights.

We entered Aucho on this path and parked next to a dark home.  We were told to gather our things, via flashlights, off the top of the Landrover and back of truck, and head toward the lit building in the distance.  Foolishly, I thought that was our destination and sleeping quarters.  Due to darkness, we could not see the steep downward walk followed by steep incline upward.  At about, what we believe, 14,000 feet, carrying my sleeping gear and backpack was beyond exhausting.  The brothers of the village church thankfully assisted us as we labored uphill.

The night sky was amazing, beyond description!  The Milky Way looked to be touchable, the stars brilliant and innumerable.  If not for labored breathing, carrying my stuff, and a flashlight, I would have tripped over myself looking at the sky.

We were shown our room for sleeping.  We learned just how primitive our conditions were for our time there.  Oy!  A 12x12 rrom for 7 women and 2 men!  That was not going to work. They found another space for the two men.  It was also our cooking area.  The room had a window with missing glass.  The doors were warped and did not close.  The floor was wood, the ceiling tin.  We were exhausted and stressed, but the children were waiting to meet us.  We were escorted to the church building.  The doors opened to about 150 smiling, anxious faces.  A small cheer arose as we entered.  WOW, their smiling faces, so excited to see us, made it worth it.  The adventure was just beginning.  Pics of our rooms and the building we stayed in below.

Thank you for your prayers, God was faithful throughout and continues to be.  I stand in awe of our God.  My faith has grown, my waist line shrunk, I have been stretched thin.  I can't wait to tell you.

Keep praying as we minister to the pastors in training.

Hugs to all.  We are back where there is electricity and usually running water.  Whoo!

Peru Day 2 - Cusco

Quick update.  How can I say a lot in a few short words?

We arose to find Kim very ill.  She was in no condition to travel.  We made the hard decision to leave her behind in the guest house.  I have prescription migraine meds which I shared with her.  She reports feeling better and will join us tomorrow.  Thankful we were not in a hotel which made it easier to leave her in the care of the house keeper.

The flight to Cusco gave us breathtaking views of mountains.  We are in the offices of a Quechua run ministry (ATEK). They have dormitory housing we are staying in.  More to say on this later....  But Megan is amazing.  She is currently washing dishes, which she promptly volunteered to learn how to do from the group from Canada that is leaving tomorrow.  Jumped right in.  Oh, and she was so great this morning during the hecticness of Kim's illness.  

We have done a bit of exploring and had dinner of spaghetti 'camp' style, served family style.  

Lots of feral dogs, and we are disturbed by the slum look to the middle class area.  We are reminded just how incredibly rich we are in America.  And yet try to understand that wealth is not a driving factor here, survival is primary.

We have tried Inca Cola.  Yummy.  And 'Mate de coca' tea.  

C is taking very good care of us.  We are beginning to understand, or perhaps I am beginning to understand, the true rustic nature of our time in the village beginning Monday.  God is definitely stretching me, I will be thin upon my return :-)

It is chilly, buildings unheated, so being warm overnight may be a challenge here, and definitely will be when we are in the very remote village.  Warm water is precious, but we should be able to have warm showers through a water heater in the shower head.

I am fighting altitude effects and need to go rest.  I will try to journal more soon.

Mountains from the roof top

Kids playing on the street

Peru - day 1

The team less one

We arose early, gathered our prepared bags, and met most of the team at church at 5:45 am.  We transferred our luggage and settled into the 15 passenger van to start our journey to Lima, Peru.  Ample time to check in, meet with our final team member, say goodbye to our two chauffeurs. We effortlessly went through security.  Thankfully, they turned off the body scanner shortly before our turn.

Tiny airplane to Houston. Three seats per row, a total of 19 rows. We departed on time.   Included in our full flight, we were honored to fly with a few military service men and woman.  All of our carry on bags went on board with us without question.  I didn't enjoy the flight overly much, as I struggled minor motion sickness and then acute ear discomfort as we descended,  which felt like a third of the flight.  I think it was the size of the aircraft.

Landing in Houston, our very focused leader led us to our connecting gate, where dropped our bags.  We ladies were thankful to head to the little girls room.  We all found lunch, stretched our legs, and prepared to board a very spacious 747 ( I think 747).   Megan was plagued with a headache, she seemed to do better as the afternoon went on.

 A 2-3-2 seat arrangement, Meg and I sat in the center, with me on the inside where I met a sweet college student seated next to me.  She had an identical camera bag to mine, we got along just fine.  She is on her way to Cusco to serve in an orphanage with some college mates, all from Oregon.

We had personal screens on the seatbacks that provided entertainment of movies, music, and games.  But alas, no internet.  Much appreciated flight accommodations, especially after the first flight.  We again departed nearly on time.  The flight crew was excellent and the food, well, not great, but not bad, we got food!   

We landed in Lima to begin the process, with hundreds of others, to get through immigration and customs.  I was nervous about immigration.  Entirely unsure I had properly filled out the forms.  Those forms were prayed over, even the second set that I redid after I decided I had too many scribbles on the first set.  The immigration lady also received my prayers for understanding and favor.  We all made it through without a hitch.

Then it was time to find our luggage, which all arrived with us! We waited in yet another long queue to clear  customs.  Thankfully, none of us got the red light requiring further inspections.  We made our way out to find our missionary friend (C) and guide.  Wow!  We felt like celebrities with the hundreds of waiting people, all seemingly holding name placards.  C spotted us and told of her surprise at the crowd.  We met up with her friend and taxi driver, split our luggage and people between her and his vehicle, and made it to the guesthouse around midnight.  Taxi ride was a little more adventurous than I am used to, as road rules seem to be a bit less standard than at home, but much less adventurous than Hubby's India traffic experience.

C settled us in the missions guesthouse, where I should still be sleeping.  Shortly, I will arise for my first South American shower, rearrange my luggage, and we will depart for Cusco.

Thank you for praying.  Our travels were smooth and without glitches.  Our luggage made it.  Out spirits are high, but our bodies a bit travel weary.  Our Lord has gone and continues to go before us.  I am excited to see the country in daylight ;-)

Pray for our altitude adjustment.  Cusco is at least 11,000 feet.  We have 1.5 days to adjust and then go to higher elevation for the kids camp.

This is it, we are ready to go!

This is it, the day to depart is less just a few hours away.  We have packed and repacked our suitcases.  Megan and I have redistributed, purged, and rearranged items we find necessary for a 15 day faith adventure.  Our suitcases are under the 50 pound maximum weight.  Our backpacks are stuffed and hopefully will make it into the airplane cabin with us.

Megan has baked several batches of cookies this week, her dad will not starve.  I washed every item of clothing, he'll start out with clean clothing.  Our older daughter is responsible for her own laundry.  I have made lists, cleared clutter, vacuumed, cleaned, created love notes, and tried to make it possible for my very capable husband and older daughter to survive without me with ease.  I like to think they can't live without me.

Admittedly, I have butterflies in my tummy of anticipation.  The nervousness of the unknown and the surreal reality that I am really leaving tomorrow morning.  I feel very inadequate for the tasks ahead.  I do not have language skills other than my native language of American English with accents of sarcasm and mom-ese.  I have attempted to learn a few words as my language gifted eldest child snickered at my attempts and roared with dismay at the program I was using, declaring it sub-par and unacceptable.  I will smile and mime my way through the days.  I will engage the children in games, peel potatoes, and depend on a translator to communicate with the pastors.

 Previously 'the sender', I now am going.  It will be exciting to see Christ's ministry in Peru and to participate in it.  Many have sown seeds prior to us, I hope we are faithful in continuing to water the seeds of faith.

But first there are many miles to traverse.  Two planes to get to Peru.  Another plan ride into the Andes.  And then the bus up into the village.  Later a train to Maccu Picchu.  All modes of 'motorized' transportation being utilized.   Thankfully they are motorized versus the llama type of transportation.

Fun fact:  Today I learned the details of distant relatives in Peru.  Apparently I have two great-great Uncles who traveled to South America, married Peruvian women, and had children.  It is rather fun to think that I may interact with some distant cousins.   I will never know for certain.

I leave you with my pastor's FB status so perfected stated:
“I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me. They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work.” Nehemiah 2:18 NIV Tomorrow, 6 people including myself are traveling to Peru for 15 days of ministry. We will be working at a kid’s camp and at a pastor’s conference. We have already seen God’s hand with us as we have been preparing to go and we look forward to how He will work through us as we touch the lives of others. We ask for your prayers as we travel and as we are involved in ministry.

Next post when I find internet access in Peru!  Stay tuned.