To use a cliché, a picture is worth a thousand words

As promised, here are some pictures from the last few days of our time in Peru--enjoy!


The Sacred Valley


Walking around Ollantaytambo (there was no possible way to get an all-encompassing shot of the site--it's too big!)


Jordan, the renowned explorer, in front of the ruins of Macchu Picchu; the mountain in the background is Huayna Picchu (the "young mountain")


Katie and I were trying to get a picture with a llama at Macchu Picchu, but it wouldn't pose for the camera...


Some of my favorite moments on the trip came when we all got nice and cozy in the taxi vans. On this occasion, all twelve team members (including Dr. Hank and Terrance) squeezed into this van, even though we're not all visible in this picture. We had just as much fun later on with Rolando and Wilmer when we tried (and succeeded, if not very comfortably) to fit all twelve of us along with all our luggage into a van and a small car. : )


Mike and Zack at the temple of Saqsaywaman (not to be confused with "sexy woman")


Traditional music and dancing at Tunupa--it was so wonderful that I was constantly close to tears (sigh of contentment)


On a street in Lima: you can always pick out the tall gringos in a crowd of Peruvians...


Jordan with our extremely hospitable new friends in Lima, Rolando and Wilmer

-Jean

"Home again, home again, jiggety jog..."

OK, so the title is a random flashback to childhood nursery rhymes, but I would like to report that all who flew into Wichita have arrived safely, and those continuing on to Sterling have also reached their destination. Thank you so much for your prayers for our travel!

I would also like to give a brief synopsis (well, brief by my standards, anyway) of our adventures since leaving Reque...

Dr. Hank (who joined us shortly before leaving Reque) decided that we couldn't go to Peru and not see Macchu Picchu, which has recently been named one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. Thus, off we went to Cusco, the capital of the Incan Empire. Cusco is in southern Peru, and the mountainous landscape was quite a change from the northern desert we had previously viewed. I would call the mountains and valleys in this vicinity some of the most gorgeous in God's creation. The colors were incredible, and every glimpse we got seemed more beautiful than the last. I don't think I can possibly find words to describe it, so I'll try to post some pictures--though even those can't do the sight justice by a long road.

We got quite a workout in Reque, and that was certainly good preparation for Cusco, where we spent quite a bit of time hiking around the city and the Incan ruins. However, there was an added twist to the physical demands at this location: at around 11,000 feet above sea level, Cusco has extremely thin air, which certainly tested our lung capacities. Even while walking around the city, we had to pause every few minutes to gulp in as much oxygen as we could suck out of the atmosphere before continuing on our way.

Ollantaytambo was the first set of Incan ruins we visited. This holy place is located amidst the fertile land of the Sacred Valley. We had a wonderful tour guide named Juan Carlos who proved himself quite knowledgable about his Incan ancestors and their ways of life. He showed us several points of interest there, including a breakdown of how the Incas shaped the ginormous stones they used in their structures--did you know that it took a month and a half just to finish one stone?

Of course, Macchu Picchu was the pinnacle of our time in the Cusco area. We boarded a train for Macchu Picchu (which means "Old Mountain" in Quechua, the language of the Incas) early in the morning, and four hours and several games of "Liar" later, we arrived at the entrance to the site. The trip was more than worth it, however, and our eyes feasted on the incredible landscapes draped in terraces and walls made of beautifully fitted stones. Our tour guide, Fabrizio, showed us around the most important buildings for a couple of hours and told us of the village's rediscovery by a Yale Professor, Hiram Bingham, in 1911. After that, we were free to roam about for a while, and we took a trip up to the guardhouse, the highest building in the settlement, so that we could enjoy the full view of the ruins and take some awesome pictures. Fabrizio advised us to follow a trail to see the bridge to the next village (which is now closed off), so we ended our visit with a short hike through the jungle to view that site.

We also spent a little time touring Cusco itself, once again with the amazingly informative Juan Carlos. The city is full of sites which show the fusion of Incan and Spanish cultures. Cusco looks far more European than the rest of Peru, but there are certainly details that reveal the influences of the indigenous people. The best example is a Peruvian version of DaVinci's "The Last Supper." Jesus and the twelve disciples are there, but their main dish is cuy (pronounced koo-ee), or guinea pig, which is a delicacy in Peru. (On a side note, Ben ordered cuy at a restaurant one evening, and some of us tasted it--or tried to, at any rate. There is so little meat on them that it's hardly worth it.)

Let me take a quick detour from the account of our cultural experiences to make an observation. One of the things that has hit me the hardest during the last few days of the trip is the presence of pagan cultures that is still very strong in Peru. There are still shamans who keep the old religions alive and continue to bring offerings to the old holy places. One of the villages near Reque is also prone to reliance on witch-doctors. I just thought I'd throw out a prayer request...

I can't blog about Cusco without mentioning our last evening there. We had a voucher for free meals at Tunupa, a buffet of traditional Peruvian food. The food was incredible, but my favorite part was the floor show that followed. Six musicians played Peruvian instuments to perform traditional music as well as some creative arrangements of classical pieces, like the "William Tell Overture." There were also some dancers who demonstrated some traditional dances of the region, and Kami and I got to participate at the end of the evening. : )

Our last full day in Peru was spent in Lima during a really long layover. We left Cusco early in the morning, but our flight to Houston wasn't until 11:45 pm, so we decided to tour the city a little bit. We were very blessed to have a couple of tour guides for this adventure: Jordan's pastor, a native Peruvian, has family in Lima, and his brothers Rolando and Wilmer picked us up at the airport and drove us around the city. We saw a great variety of locations, from the Presidential Palace to the old post office (which is now a market), from the beach at Miraflores (one of the wealthiest parts of town) to some of the poorer residential areas. As a special treat, Rolando and Wilmer's mother cooked for us, and, once again, we got to taste one of our favorite Peruvian foods, papas con huancaina, a potato dish. : )

Well, we have finally returned home, most of us still sporting all sorts of cuts, scrapes, and bruises as evidence of our labors in Peru--if I'm lucky, maybe I'll get to keep a few scars. : ) But though the bruises be temporary, we hope that the new school wing (which should be completed in time for the start of the next school year in March) will still be standing. We've certainly helped to lay the foundation for the new edifice, but we hope that we have helped to lay a spiritual foundation as well by investing in the lives of the kids there. As for the members of Team Peru, we're taking away memories of people who opened their homes and hearts to us and new perspectives on how God works in the lives of His children all over the world.

We've said it before, but I don't think we can possibly say it enough: THANK YOU! Thank you for taking the time to read this blog and keep up with our travels, thank you for the financial support that made this trip possible, and thank you for the prayers that God has answered in what I'm sure are more ways than we know. Please look up any one of the team members if you want to know more about the trip--we've all got plenty of stories to tell!

Dios te bendiga!

-Jean

Finishing our time in Reque

First off, I apologize for the absence of a blog post for a couple of days. We have been in the midst of traveling and have not had internet access...

We were (and are) glad to be done hauling cement. 54.5 tons of it in one day. In ten little buckets and four wheelbarrows. I don't know the stats for the whole week, but I assure you it was much more than I ever want to do again... If I never see a cement mixer for the rest of my life, it will be too soon.

But every one of us was glad to be there. On Saturday we were able to play with the kids a lot more, thanks to the previously mentioned labor. Every Saturday morning, the parents and teachers get together and play some pretty intense soccer and volleyball games. So we all babysat, thanks to a bunch of candy. In the afternoon we travelled to see the "Lord of Cipan" (pronounced see-pan), who is the South American equivelent of King Tut. Lots of Gold. Lots of beads. And a whole bunch of sweet looking nose-rings. We have had a couple of great opportunities to learn a lot about the pre-Incan cultures of northern Peru. We also got to see the ocean for a while. It was cold (it is winter here) but a couple of the more foolish team members jumped in anyway.

As our 4am wake up call came on Sunday, it was hard realizing what we were leaving. Our work has meant so much to the people at the school. It meant a lot to us to be a part of the work here. We had a good time of reflection on Saturday night, which included a prayer walk around the school for the kids, the teachers, the missionaries here, and for the country of Peru.

We will miss the school and the kids, and they assured us that we would be missed as well. Ken, the head missionary at the school, gave us a chance to help sponsor and adopt some of the kids at the school for only $25 a month. The money goes to helping provide two meals a day for the kids and the materials and teachers in the classroms. There were several people in our group that have chosen to make that committment, and let me assure you, the parents of the children were thrilled. If the students don't have sponsors, they cannot attend more than on a preliminary basis. One of the children's mother was so overjoyed that she brought us some homemade apple pie (slightly different than American pie) one evening, and the child and mother could not stop crying and hugging everyone. Another little girl would not stop hugging one of our team members.


If you want to be a part of that, let us know.

More on our travels tonight after dinner!!!!

This is a video of a pratical joke played on our dear friend Jose. Jose is the Architect for the building we are constructing and he is a great guy. So we had to have some fun with him. Notice as terrance calls him over and asks him some random questions. We all slowly close in around him and then at the count of three scream "Duck!" or "Peligro" which means danger. Jose is the short Peruvian in the center. Enjoy.

Friday June, 26 "I guess you had to be there"

Friday June 26, 2009

We did the impossible today. We finished our work a half a day early. Are team did a lot of work today to get the day off tomorrow. Today’s work: Concrete, concrete and concrete! We made, moved, layed 109,000 lbs of concrete. The worked consisted of the Peruvians doing most of the work and then we helped out. We had rock shovelers, we had sand shovelers, and we had wheel barrelers! It was so very tough work. Last night we got rain and I was told, “It never rains here! Like an inch a year.” My shoes were a bit wet this morning. So we had some nice cloud cover and a breeze and then around 10:30 the sun broke out and said hello! Thanks the SPF 70 I am not burned but have my nice Italian tan going on! A special treat was given to us by the Pastor. He bought us Ceviche which is fish cooked in acid from ripe limes for two days. Throw in some fresh red onion, some Peruvian corn and perfecto! It was very good. The pastor asked if I was married and I said “Si, a Ashley.” Then he smiled big and said, “Ah Ashley!!! Si si si.” So he approves! During our lunch today Mike and Zach played chess and Mike was beaten by a 12 year old. I guess he’s there best player. We were feeling very goofy last night and decided we needed to show the Peruvians that we are very funny! So before lunch, the gringos were all gathered and we called Jose over. Now Jose is pretty short, and we’re a all pretty tall compared to Jose. We were just talking to him then Ben, our fearless leader says, “Peligro” which means danger and he all screamed, hit the ground and covered our heads. Now Jose looks tall but is very startled and just kinda jumps in place and then we all laughed together. We got it on video. If you’re not laughing, well I guess you had to be there.
The Lord is great and we are very blessed to get to spend the rest of tomorrow with the Children. We might get to visit some other places. A few prayer requests would be to pray for our health. A few of us have had the rumblies in our tummy’s. Also for our travel the next few days. We love you guys and are so glad that you are thinking and praying for us. God Bless You!

Travis “I guess you had to be there” Tesone

Wednesday June 24th

This post was obviously made a little late but you understand.



Before I begin I would like to make a interesting observation. We are located near Chiclayo which is located between the ocean and the Andes Mountain range. This forms a strip of desert between the ocean and the mountains. We are living in a DESERT. THe average rainfall here in one year is less than an inch. I did my first and only load of laundry last night and I hung up all my clothes outside on a line hoping they would be dry in the morning.

It rained last night.

In a desert.

Seriously.



Moving on...

This past Wednesday we worked all morning while the other team was still here. We said a record in cement mixing. This has got to be a world record. In one morning we made 81 batches of cement in a giant cement mixer. This means the 81 one 60 pound bags of cement were lifted into the mixer. This means that 405 huge buckets of sand were heaved into the mixer. This means the 486 buckets were filled with rock and once again, heaved into the mixer. 405 massive wheelbarrow loads of dense cement were lifted, pushed, and lunged into 9 massive wholes. That morning it was estimated that we moved 50,000 pounds of cement, all by hand.

That was one morning.

We usually work all day until dinner.

Nice job team.



In the afternoon a special day with the kids at the school had been organized but there was nothing "organized" about it. It was mass chaos.

Let me paint the scene for you...


Hundreds of children on a large grassy field.

Thirty children huddled around me.

Six children laying on the ground and holding onto my ankles.

Three children climbing on top of my shoulders.

Two children hanging with the arms around my neck, cutting off any chance of air.

One exhausted American.


We played with the kids all afternoon. We had face painting and we played games such as "Pato Pato Ganzo" ("Duck Duck Goose") and "Tackle the tall white guy!" Weather the kids were playing games or lined up in front of me waiting to be thrown high up into the air, they all had a great time.

I wish I could say more but we have a long day of pouring cement ahead of us and my team is waiting for me.

Hope all is well at home.

If you are still reading this post it probably means you are one of those people I dearly miss.


Te amo.



Zack

Jumping Lizard tails and Crippled Scorpians

Hey all you wonderful followers! Our day started out with a wonderful 4:20 am wake up call from our group "Mom" Jean! Luckily we weren't rudely awaken... (never with Jean) It's always a cheery song! Anyways, the St. Louis group were heading back to the states this morning, so we decided to get up and say goodbye. We then went back to bed, (did you seriously think we would be ready for the day at this time of morning?) When we woke up the second time we really felt the absence of the other group. We were sad to see them go, because the last couple of days we had just started getting to know them. We knew we now had to step up and work twice as hard as before to keep progress going. Before we had 21 hands, and now we are down to 11. So here we were this morning, extrememly exhausted, yet ready to work...(okay some of us...you know who you are :D) I was so impressed by our team this afternoon! We all stepped up and worked super hard and ended up pouring 35 bags of cemement in an hour and a half! Our goal for tomorrow is to finish all our work here, so we can spend our last say of the camp with the kids at the school.Which by the way are absolutely amazing! I thought kids in the U.S were great! Each day they come over to watch us work, greet us, and give us hugs during their breaks. It really is a huge encouragement and motivator to see the kids faces. They remind us why we are here.Please pray that God will give us physical strength tomorrow and help us work through soreness!
So far on this journey we have been fortunate not to have seen any varments until today. Poor Mackenzie was working very hard shoveling gravel when she thought she saw a rock move. She looked down and to her dismay was a 1 inch Scorpian!! She leaped backward and yelled to the boys; who of course decided to capture it and place it in a bucket. Some where along the ride the scorpian got a crippled pincher. After the work was finished the boys and I went to "lizard land" to catch a lizard, in hopes of enjoying a little scorpian-lizard competetion. After about seven different lizards...and a tail later, we finally captured one. Our first lizard escaped us, leaving us with his wonderful tail. Interesting fact: lizard tails jump around when they fall off! Anyways, we placed the lizard in the bucket along with a stick bug (just for the pre show). Unfortunately the scorpian just sat there. Even after Zach eventualy made it mad and practically placed the lizard on top of it, it did nothing. We left it there over night to see who the winner will be in the morning. We all placed bets on the stick bug!
That's all for tonight! Thank you so much for your prayers and support!
Much LOVE!
Kami

For the History Geeks...

For those of you who care little for history, you might want to skip the following long-winded post. Today both teams (ours and the St. Louis crew that is also here) took a day for cultural education of the pre-Inca people of Peru and went south towards the city of Trujillo. This entailed a three-hour drive, which was fairly uneventful, unless you count the time one of the vans was randomly selected to be stopped at a checkpoint.

Our first stop was Huaca de la Luna (roughly translated as the temple of the moon), one of a pair of large adobe structures from the Moche people, who were wiped out by the Incas. The Moches’ religion was all about duality (white/black, land/sea, etc.); ergo, Huaca de la Luna’s counterpart is Huaca del Sol (Temple of the Sun), which has not yet been excavated and is in poorer condition due to the looting of the Spanish conquistadors. The Huaca was built in layers since each new king would cover over the old temple and build a layer on top of it when he came to power. We saw images of the Moches’ principle god on several of the walls, and our tour guide explained the intricate symbolism of the various parts of the design. We also witnessed the rooms formerly used for human sacrifice—one more experience that makes me glad that Jesus is the only sacrifice I need!

Lunch was next on our agenda, and we got our first taste of “real” American food when we took our repast at a food court with all sorts of good old fast food. A large group of us ended up in Papa John’s. Terrance says the Peruvian version of Papa John’s is closer to its American counterpart than Pizza Hut—apparently their pepperoni pizza might have one or two pepperonis hidden in the cheese and just enough sauce to substantiate the claim that they did, indeed, include that ingredient. Before we left the food court, we paid a visit to an ice cream place, and I tried some delicious orange flavor which Marta (a member of the St. Louis group who grew up in Peru) says is from oucuma, a type of fruit.

Through our post-lunch stupor, we managed to stumble into the vans so we could make our way to Chan Chan, a palace of the Chimu people, another pre-Incan, Peruvian culture. The palace, which is one of nine in the vicinity, is located right on the ocean, which explains the importance that the Chimus placed on the ocean and fishing—designs of pelicans, fishing nets, and ocean waves covered the adobe walls.

A three-hour drive home took most of the evening, and we got another taste of Peruvian driving. (I think the goal is to pass as many cars as you can.) We ate a late supper back here at the school and decided to spend some time resting up before another day of work tomorrow—our last with the St. Louis group before they head home. : (

Oh, and one last note: let me set the record straight on Ben’s post from Thursday the 18th: I was NOT the only one to fall asleep in church, but Ben wouldn’t know that since he wasn’t there…

Signing off for Team Peru,
Jukebox Jean

I got a tan today...not :(

Hey everyone! Peru is pretty much amazing! Today was a very unusual day because the sun actually came out which made it really hot out. So we got started at about 8:30 this morning and we made a bunch of metal things. A group of us made grids to put in the bottom of the holes that is used to stabilize huge columns that the other group made. I was on grid duty and let me tell you that was a daunting task, but it was a good time to hang out and talk a lot. Then after lunch we started pouring cement into the holes where the columns were. I had a very important job of counting it was really hard...ok not really I had probably one of the easiest jobs of the day. All of the other workers were doing amazing at shoveling, tossing the buckets of rock and sand into the cement mixer, and pushing wheelbarrows. One of the highlights of the day was when Jordan accidentally hit the water spout with a bucket and the thing flew off causing a huge water geyser. He then tried stopping the water with his hands and was yelling for help. Ben and Zack came running up to try and help him, but weren't very successful. Finally a Peruvian ran up to help them, of course they all were laughing and thought it was one of the funniest things ever, which I would have to agree. So then the Peruvian got cement and put the spout back on. After all of that Jordan tried getting his buckets of water to fill up the tank. Then he turned the water back on and it all happened again because the cement wasn't dry. Jordan was the one clean one after a long day of work. The rest of us were caked in dirt which made us look tan until we actually took a shower. Tomorrow is a touring day which Jean will fill you all in on that tomorrow. Please keep praying for the people here in Peru and for the school. It is filled with such amazing individuals!

-MacKenzie

(love you mom and dad! and Eric)

Saturday June 20 2009

Hi, my name is Mike Jaderston and I am an incoming freshman to Sterling College. I do not know what I am going to study yet, but am excited to play tennis at Sterling. I moved from Gurnee, Illinois (really close to Chicago) to Sterling three years ago.

Today we only worked a half day as does everyone at the school. We mixed cement in a giant mixer and then dumped it into twelve gigantic holes all morning. This will be the foundation for the new classrooms. After the manual labor we got to play volleyball against one of the teams at the school. They are holding Olympic games every Saturday for the children and their parents. This particular Saturday they were holding a volleyball tournament. We had a lot of fun and laughed with the adult team we played against. Even though we were all two feet taller than anyone on the opposing team it was still a pretty fair match.

After lunch we walked to New Reque, a nearby slum village. We handed out candy bags that Katie Sparks assembled for us. We also attended a children’s Sunday school meeting in one of the “houses” in the village (“house”= 4 mud brick walls, a dirt floor the size of most American’s walk-in-closets, and a thatch roof). We watched as the kids sang songs, played games and learned a lesson about how to show love to your father for Father’s Day. Afterward we challenged a group of teenage Peruvians to a game of soccer. We lost 4 to 1. We thought we did pretty well considering Peruvians play nothing but soccer. As we left the village, many of its residents followed us out and were very grateful for us visiting them. One girl even begged Ashley to come up to her “house” at the north end of the village to take a picture with her Mother. Our presence alone really meant a lot to the village. We finished the day with candy bag sorting and devo’s. God does amazing things.

To finish off, I will tell some of my unfortunate mishaps speaking Spanish to the Peruvians. The first one came on day one, when I tried to say “the food was great” to the cooks. Without thinking I said that to them and gave the OK sign. Well, I actually got the Spanish part right, but soon learned from Terrence that the OK sign in Peru is not good. So basically, I told the cooks that the food was great while flicking them off. Oops. Another time, I was playing chess with several of the kids of the village. Their school has a chess club and invited me to play. As we were playing, I made two embarrassing mistakes. The first was saying the word stupid. I made a bad move and said jokingly, “Mi es estupido!” I was then told later that ‘stupid’ is a cuss word in the Peru. But then, I made an even worse mistake. I tried remembering the word ‘turn’ from school, and thought it was ‘toca’. So I was constantly saying, “Me toca,” or “Te toca”. The kids would laugh when I said this, so I thought I was just a funny guy to them. Well, it turns out that “Me toca” does not mean ‘my turn,’ it actually means ‘I touch myself”. So basically I cussed at the kids and told them that I touched myself the whole time I was playing chess. But, in the end, they didn’t seem to mind, as they gave me a computer chess game to play at home and invited me back to play the next day.

Well, got to get some sleep. Thanks for reading and praying.

God loves everybody.

Mike.

Welcome to day Six! Happy Fathers Day!

My name is Travis Tesone. I am an assistant football coach at Sterling College. My wife is the co-leader of the trip and I have known Ben for about seven years. I am so very fortunate to be apart of a special group of people serving the families of Peru. I am amazed by how much Spanish I remember. I also haven’t had this much Spanish at one time since my sister Nina’s wedding! (Love you and can’t wait to see those twin baby girls!!!!)

Today being Sunday and also Father’s Day made the day a lot different. We got to sleep in 15 minutes extra for starters! Once we got ready our team and the St. Louis Team headed to Villa del Milagro where we were moving the dirt. This time we had many children to see. Since Villa del Milagro is not completed, they are only doing Sunday School but soon will be transitioning to a Church. There were about 45 kids there and only 7 adults with four teachers. We gave candy to the children then prayed with the adults. We prayed in particular for Laronzo and his eye sight and also for Walter, the paster of Villa Del Milargo. It was very touching hearing Walter’s story. God is Awesome. After Villa Del Milagro we came back to Roma Lee for Church. Church started at 11:00. Church was interesting. Being Father’s Day they had a few specials. First three boys came out in one of the funniest outfits. I’ll do my best to describe it. The kids had shoes, pants, shirt, jacket and a tie on and lastly a big top hat. But between the shirt and top hat was a painted face on the stomachs! There arms were inside the big top hat. The song was “Pappi Pappi Pappi.” It was pretty funny. There was also a lady who sang acapello. It was beautiful. The Praise and Worship was nice. We knew a few of the songs. The message was about being a good father and good husband. After church we handed out candy to the kids.

Being Father’s Day they cancelled Sunday Evening Service. So we went out to dinner to Chifa China for Chinese food. New foods today were pickled turnips and carrots. I liked it, Ashley didn’t. They served us corn juice, but it comes from a purple corn. I liked it, Ashley didn’t. Then for dinner, Chinese food. I like it and Ashley didn’t, she says she’s not a Chinese person, I said to myself, “I know, you’re an American.” She’s so cute. After Lunch/Dinner I took a nap then we had devos and made a video for our Padre’s. I hope you all like it. Today we are just resting up for the work week. We love you and miss you all and thank you so much for your prayers!

Travis “es un chestoso” the jokester Tesone

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Thanks to all of you that are keeping up with the blog. We appreciate your prayers.


Te amo


Z

Ben died of malaria. Sorry Karin.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Hi, my name is Mike Jaderston and I am an incoming freshman to Sterling College. I do not know what I am going to study yet, but am excited to play tennis at Sterling. I moved from Gurnee, Illinois (really close to Chicago) to Sterling three years ago.

Today we only worked a half day as does everyone at the school. We mixed cement in a giant mixer and then dumped it into twelve gigantic holes all morning. This will be the foundation for the new classrooms. After the manual labor we got to play volleyball against one of the teams at the school. They are holding Olympic games every Saturday for the children and their parents. This particular Saturday they were holding a volleyball tournament. We had a lot of fun and laughed with the adult team we played against. Even though we were all two feet taller than anyone on the opposing team it was still a pretty fair match.

After lunch we walked to New Reque, a nearby slum village. We handed out candy bags that Katie Sparks assembled for us. We also attended a children’s Sunday school meeting in one of the “houses” in the village (“house”= 4 mud brick walls, a dirt floor the size of most American’s walk-in-closets, and a thatch roof). We watched as the kids sang songs, played games and learned a lesson about how to show love to your father for Father’s Day. Afterward we challenged a group of teenage Peruvians to a game of soccer. We lost 4 to 1. We thought we did pretty well considering Peruvians play nothing but soccer. As we left the village, many of its residents followed us out and were very grateful for us visiting them. One girl even begged Ashley to come up to her “house” at the north end of the village to take a picture with her Mother. Our presence alone really meant a lot to the village. We finished the day with candy bag sorting and devo’s. God does amazing things.

To finish off, I will tell some of my unfortunate mishaps speaking Spanish to the Peruvians. The first one came on day one, when I tried to say “the food was great” to the cooks. Without thinking I said that to them and gave the OK sign. Well, I actually got the Spanish part right, but soon learned from Terrence that the OK sign in Peru is not good. So basically, I told the cooks that the food was great while flicking them off. Oops. Another time, I was playing chess with several of the kids of the village. Their school has a chess club and invited me to play. As we were playing, I made two embarrassing mistakes. The first was saying the word stupid. I made a bad move and said jokingly, “Mi es estupido!” I was then told later that ‘stupid’ is a cuss word in the Peru. But then, I made an even worse mistake. I tried remembering the word ‘turn’ from school, and thought it was ‘toca’. So I was constantly saying, “Me toca,” or “Te toca”. The kids would laugh when I said this, so I thought I was just a funny guy to them. Well, it turns out that “Me toca” does not mean ‘my turn,’ it actually means ‘I touch myself”. So basically I cussed at the kids and told them that I touched myself the whole time I was playing chess. But, in the end, they didn’t seem to mind, as they gave me a computer chess game to play at home and invited me back to play the next day.

Well, got to get some sleep. Thanks for reading and praying.

God loves everybody.

Mike.

We captured the picture...they captured our hearts!

Porque Jorge, Porque?

Hello, my name is Zack Yarbrough and I am a junior at Sterling College. I am studying Secondary Education with an emphasis in Math and Physics. I play basketball at Sterling and also lead a praise band for our chapels there. After my first mission trip to Nicaragua last summer I was hooked and had to travel to some distant land once again to see lives being changed. Short-term missions work has found a special place in my heart.

Today was our third day in Peru and for many of us our bodies were even more upset with us than the day before. We have been doing a lot of very hard work but thankfully the weather has been great. It never really changes. It is always cloudy. It never rains. And the temperature stays around 65 degrees all the time.

We started the day once again in the Via del Milagro (Miracle Village) where we spent the entire morning finishing the work with the massive pile of dirt at the church. The floor of the church is now much closer to being finished and it was encouraging to see the progress we had made.

Today my new friend Jorge did not show up at the work site. Yesterday a ten-year-old Peruvian boy named Jorge wandered onto our work site and sat on top of the mountain of dirt we were moving and watched us work. After a few failed attempts to make conversation with him in Spanish, he proceeded to flick rocks at my forehead from the top of the hill. For the first five minutes I liked to believe that this was the Peruvian way of showing loving support and encouragement and that I simply did not understand this gesture due to the cultural rift between us. This was not the case. However I think he just wanted some attention or he enjoyed watching this tall white “Gringo” asking him “Porque Jorge, Porque? (Why Jorge, Why?) . Later we had some more successful conversations and he eventually helped us with our work, a little. The reason Jorge was with us that afternoon was because he was skipping school. After giving him an uplifting life talk about how school is important, I told him that he should go to school tomorrow. As much as I missed his mischievous smile as he flicked pebbles at me, I was glad he didn’t show up because that hopefully meant he was at school.


After lunch we came back to the school and assisted the other team with the building project. We twisted rebar, dug holes, pushed wheelbarrows and in the process, some of us even sustained a few minor injuries. If you have ever read the book “holes” then you know what a day of work looks like for us. Later in the afternoon the girls set up a face painting stand in the courtyard by the classrooms which became a huge success. Some many kids were swarming the girls that I couldn’t even see them. Seeing the smiles on the faces of these kids made the hard sweaty manual labor all worth it.


Friends and family, I miss you dearly and will see you soon enough with many good stories to tell and life lessons to share.


Te amo


-Zack

How do you say “Dirt” en Espanol?

Hello All, my name is Ashley Tesone. One and a half years ago, I graduated from Greenville College with my degree in Health, Physical Education, and Recreation (HPR): Adult Fitness. I now live in Sterling, KS where I manage the Sterling Community Wellness Center and assistant coach Sterling College cross-country and track. Two years and about one month ago I married Travis Tesone. It has truly been an amazing experience being here and serving with him. (Quick note to Nina and Pablo… are the twins here yet?!?!?!) : ) I grew up in Nebraska on a farm/ranch and loved everything about it. I do not know why God chose to bless me with such a great family and upbringing but thank you Jesus and thank you fam! I love you! I also have a TWIN sister whom I especially want to say “Hi” to and can’t wait to see you again! I LOVE YOU! Enough about me… onto the truly important stuff…..

Today, as Ben prefaced to, Terrance took us to Milagro, “Village of the Miracle.” The village of Milagro is quite the amazing story as it was once wiped out by El Nino in 1998. However, I truly believe the Lord is in the business of making the least His greatest! It is incredible what the Lord can do with a wiped out city. Now, rising is a church where they are already holding Sunday school classes for the children there (in Milagro.) Interestingly enough, Terrance (or should I say T-Bone) informed us that many of the adults will send their kids to Sunday school to check it out for them. Pretty soon numbers will multiply and the Lord is completely glorified! Onto what has began in construction there will be a Sanctuary. The land for the sanctuary was actually donated by a local and to hear, the story has God’s fingerprints all over it! HE truly is AMAZING!
Here, in Milagro at the church site, our goal was somewhat of a David vs. Goliath project, us being David and an ENORMOUS dirt pile being Goliath. Our goal was to put an equivalent of 3 and a half truck loads of dirt, with solely shovels, a pick-axe, and wheel barrows in hand, into a room to lay it as the starting point for the floor. Let’s just say Goliath is almost defeated, at least will be by noon tomorrow!!! Hurray! If we weren’t sore from yesterday, we will be from today! Praise the Lord for strong backs! I only pray today we have blessed the people of Milagro as much as I (and I think I can speak for everyone) have been blessed by them. It is truly amazing just being here and seeing. Summed up in one phrase, my ‘roughing it’ is their lifestyle, and I’m no city girl. : ) “Oh Jesus,” I kept saying today, “Please bless them.” Even though I wish we could do so much more the floor we began laying today will without a doubt be only the physical foundation for God’s foundation to be poured out throughout the city!

Sooo Tired

Hello friends, family, loved ones, wife… My name is Ben Swihart and I’m the leader of this group of crazy hooligans. I graduated from Sterling in April with a degree in History with a Religion and Philosophy minor, and am excited about the fall when I begin my new job as the Resident Director of Campbell Hall (one of the guy’s dorms on campus). I just got married, so most of my recent adventures have been things like moving (which is when girls get to buy all new furniture and guys have to throw away all their relics of bachelorhood) and learning how to live with another person (sleeping without covers and getting elbowed in the middle of the night). I enjoy playing baseball (on PlayStation) and eating buffalo wings, while spending time with my darling bride. The best moments in my day are when I can do all three at the same time.

We set out on our journey yesterday morning, leaving behind our world of comfort and arrived this morning in Reque, Peru after a five-hour layover in the Lima airport in the middle of the night. I was lucky enough to fall asleep in the plane from Houston, and on the tile floor of the Lima food court, and the floor of the terminal gate, and on the plane to Chiclayo, and in the van to the school here in Reque. After we had a chance to move in, the kids started showing up, lining up according to their classes. One hundred and twenty “damo-cincos” (high fives) and “Buenos dias” (good morning) later, breakfast was served. After our main course of oatmeal and cereal, we were given the “Peruvian Right-of-Passage” by trying some granadia (similar to passion fruit) affectionately known by American work-crews as “snot-fruit” (which gets its nomenclature from its texture, not its taste, thankfully).

The missionary here, Ken, was kind enough to give us all the morning off, which immediately led to all of us (except Jean) getting some serious REM cycles in until lunch time. Jean was brave (or foolish, time will tell) enough to stay awake and join the others working at the school site. Coincidently (or maybe not) she was the only one to fall asleep during church this evening.

We spent the afternoon doing some pretty tedious labor. We dug holes. We moved piles of dirt from one spot to another. We used a 16 pound sledge hammer to smash a rebar/cement wall. We were exhausted. After a mere three hours of work.

With 25 people sharing three showers and only one small hot water heater, we did showers in shifts, taking us well over 2 hours. Dinner was amazing though. That made up for it. Terrance Volden, our alumni contact here, heretofore known as T-Bone, waxed poetic when he said “Nobody ever starves here”. Obviously, he was referring to people in the camp and not the starving homeless people.

After dinner, there was a Wednesday night bible study at the local church, and a rousing game of “Mafia” before our debriefing time. As team leader I feel like it is important to utilize everyone’s strengths while on the trip. So we had Ashley lead us in a stretching routine before devotions. She teaches a kickboxing class a couple of times a week, so not only is she in the best shape of anyone on the trip, she is also the best pound for pound fighter on the team. Especially since she is the smallest person on the team.

Tomorrow we go to Villa de Milagro, which is Spanish for Village of the Miracle. It is T-Bone’s pet project, and I know he is excited to take us there. We are exited to go.

But more on that tomorrow…

Thanks so much to everyone who has made this trip possible, and to Karin for letting me come. I love you.

Starbucks Blogging!

Hey everyone! the whole team is here in Lima! everyone met up safely as a team in houston, and have been together since. everything has been smooth sailing so far, no delays or bomb threats! woot! we met up with our contact Terrance and are waiting on our next flight to Chiclayo right now. we are able to write this because of free wifi in a Starbucks in the Lima Airport. Hooray for Coffee! flying all day has us pretty beat, but we're excited to be here. our next flight should arrive in Chiclayo later this morning around 5am, hopefully we can fit some sleep in before a hard day of work! Thanks for all your support and prayers! expect more blog entries soon.

Jordan snd Mackenzie

Off we go!

We are all flying out today from various cities in the U.S.(Except Dr. Hank who is leaving on the 25th). Stay tuned to read all about our Peru Adventures!

Love,
Team Peru

And thus begins Jean's blogging adventures...

Me llamo Jean Bosch. Well, my Spanish skills haven't entirely disappeared, but it looks like I need to take a break from brushing up my Shakespeare and spend some time working on my Spanish instead since I will be in Peru in little more than a month! I guess I'd better go find my Spanish copy of The Lord of the Rings before we leave. (Yes, I really am that big of a geek...) Now, this is typically the point where I say that I am a theatre major with minors in history and religion/philosophy, but because I graduated from Sterling a couple of weeks ago, I now get to proclaim that I am the proud possessor of a theatre degree. However, my schooling days are not over yet; I am headed to grad school next fall to continue my coursework in theatre. Performance is a big part of my life, and I sing randomly. A lot. (If you've met me, that comment is probably self-explanatory.) In no particular order, I love dictionaries, Muppets, my grandmother's spaghetti sauce, show tunes, cloaks, penguins, and researching dead British monarchs. Most of all, I love this awesome not-so-dead Jewish king named Jesus, and I love searching His heart through prayer. I can't wait to find out the adventures He has in store for our sojourn in Peru!

Jordan

Hey guys! My name is Jordan Stineman, and this coming fall i will be a sophomore at Sterling College where I play tennis and study Business. I am so excited to get to travel with this team, they're pretty awesome. This will not be my first mission trip, I have been to Mexico several times, as well as Argentina and Uruguay. I speak some spanish, but I am by no means fluent, so conversing with the natives will be an adventure for sure! The thing I am most excited for on this trip is evangilism, I feel a calling towards that aspect of ministry and am anxtious to get out there and win some people over for God! Another reason i enjoy mission work is the travel. different cultures and ways of life really interest me. And then there's the food, never a let down! Well i think that's all for me, if you want to contact me outside of this site my email is jstineman01@sterling.edu

thanks a lot!

Guess what? We're Going to PERU!!!! :De

Hi Everyone! My name is Kami Hodson and I will be a senior this fall! Not sure if I am excited about that or not. I will miss everyone at Sterling immensely, so my goal for this coming year is to soak it all up and love every minute! Believe me, I will carry this same attitude while in Peru. I have never been out of the country before, much less on an airplane! The thought of a new adventure is extremely exciting and I am anxious to see God's plan for us and to carry his light to another part of the world.
I Love kids so I was really excited when I found out we would be seeing LOTS of them in Peru! I will also LOVE the sunshine,working outside, and getting to know all the A-mazing individuals on our team! Until Next Time... in Peru!!! YIPPPEEE!! :D

More About Katie

My name is Katie Sparks. I am from Winterset, IA. I am graduating in December of 2009 after student teaching at the Sterling Grade School. This will be my second mission trip. I went to Nicaragua last July for three weeks through the Sterling missions. I was actually planning on going on the Ecuador trip, but that fell through. Sometimes God has other plans. I could not be happier with my team and the country of Peru. I am very excited about the work that we will be getting accomplished and the bonding experiences while there.

For those who are not well acquainted with me, I will tell you a little bit about me. I am one of the most spontaneous people you may ever meet. I know how to have fun with the little things around me. Even if it involves tennis balls and a camera (haha). I love spending time with people and going outside. I love to spend time with my family and friends, walk, swing, ride my bike, watch movies, traveling, boating, fishing, playing basketball, play with my dog, teach, spend time with children, have quiet time with God, singing, reading, drawing and going on mission trips.

Please pray for Peru as well as our team. Thank you so much to everyone who have helped and supported our team in any way. This amazing opportunity would never have happened without you. Thank you again for everything.

Mac <3

Hi, my name is MacKenzie Stramel and I just finished my second year at Sterling. I'm majoring in Biology and going to hopefully be a physical therapist. My hometown is South Hutchinson, KS. I know I'm not very far from home (that's a plus I think). Here are some random facts about me...I play softball at Sterling, my favorite color is blue, and I hardly ever have blond moments :). I'm so excited to go to Peru and a little nervous! This trip will be a lot of firsts for me. This is my first mission trip, my first time out of the counrty that I can remember, and a lot of firsts that I have no idea about yet. I know God has truely blessed me with the opportunity to go to Peru and blessed me with such an amazing team to go with! Thank you to everyone who has supported financially and through prayers. Words cannot explain the excitement...only 6 more weeks!