Where am I?

I'll be honest, when I was originally offered the position in Latin America, I didn't have the most thrilling of opinions about the region. I loved the job, but the location was...well, at least there are llamas! Part of it stemmed from wishing I could learn a new language other than Spanish, part was because the culture seemed largely homogenous to an outsider, and part was because there are so many other intriguing cultures around the world that I wanted to explore! 

My opinions have changed since moving to Lima and seeing lots of Latin America. While there are some similarities, there really is so much variety from country to country and city to city! There are a myriad of languages, cultures, and landscapes, and it's all pretty cool. And the region is home to eight cities that we classify as mega cities: Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, Bogota, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Caracas, and, of course, Lima! Around the continent and within these cities you can find pockets of immigrant cultures that are anything but Latin, and there are workers focused specifically on reaching these groups with the Good News. 

When I moved to Lima, Peru, I never expected that I'd have to work in Chinese, but that's what I found myself doing a few weeks ago as I edited prayer cards and videos for individuals here ministering to the Chinese community (which is the largest in Latin America). It was a delightful change of pace- although I'm glad I don't have to work with Chinese script often! I've never been so happy that I only had to learn Spanish to do my job!

While I'm still an outsider in Lima, I speak Spanish and get along quite nicely, but in one cab ride from my apartment I was quickly immersed in a sub-culture where I didn't understand the language or the customs, and everyone was trying to feed me despite my protests! I had a giant plate full of shrimp dumplings at 11am served by an elderly buddhist woman who insisted on bagging up what I didn't eat to send with me. I had fried wontons in a chifa (Chinese restaurant) while my friend discipled a young believer after the lunch rush. And then I had soup, egg rolls, and sticky bean pudding at two in the morning at a closed chifa during a Chinese Bible study on the outskirts of town. It was a whole new experience, a bit like traveling to a new country without ever leaving my city. There were definitely moments where I found myself asking, "Where am I?!"  

Anyway, I highly enjoyed getting an insider's view of the Chinese immigrant community here, and I am always impressed with the diligent work and long hours that our staff puts in to build relationships and share the Gospel. They are faithful laborers! Below is a short video promo of the work with the Chinese community in Lima. Check it out if you have time, and then don't forget to do what you can to support the work, not only with the Chinese of Lima, but with people everywhere! Pray, Give, Go! 

Working Water

In Peruvian slum, clean water opens hearts

Edith Caballa, the neighborhood president of the Rosario de Fatima slum in Lima, Peru, stands next to a water spigot used for washing outside the door of a resident's home. The conditions may still seem primitive for those families who have yet to install bathrooms and sinks, but access to clean running water just outside their door is a dramatic improvement over previous living conditions. The water project headed by International Mission Board missionaries, Quentin and Gina Roberts, has improved sanitation and living conditions for all of the residents and opened doors to share the Gospel. 

LIMA, Peru (BP) -- "Please, can you help us?"

The woman's plea was the first thing Quentin and Gina Roberts heard as they entered an inner-city slum in Lima, Peru.

What they found shocked them.

Lean-to shacks and cracked adobe homes lined a narrow, dirt path in the small community of Rosario de Fatima. There was no water system; the 350 residents used large buckets to collect their sewage. The buckets sat in the sun, covered with pieces of cardboard or empty egg cartons. Once they were full they were emptied into a large hole at the neighborhood's entrance.

Beside the hole was a large sink -- the only place in the community with running water -- where the residents washed their clothes.

Edith Caballa, the neighborhood president and lifelong resident there, said living without running water was nearly unbearable, especially in a community so small and crowded as Rosario de Fatima.

But today the community's unsanitary conditions are mostly a memory.

"We had no water system. We brought buckets with our waste and just poured it in the hole. Then we would wash out the buckets and use them to bring water back to our home for drinking and cooking," Caballa recounted. "That was every single day. And there were so many of us and so much waste, there were fights and people insulting each other. It was very hard."

The Robertses, as International Mission Board missionaries to inner-city Lima, have shared the Gospel and started Bible studies throughout the city. Connections they made in one of their Bible studies brought them to Rosario de Fatima where they hoped to begin another outreach. But they quickly realized the dire water situation provided an opportunity to be Jesus' heart, hands and voice to the community.

"I'd never seen anything quite like that," Gina Roberts said. "I've been places where they didn't have bathrooms, like in rural areas. But in the city there are no trees, no place to dig a hole, no rocks to hide behind. People living there had no sense of dignity.... [T]hings were just totally exposed to everybody. There was a lot of sickness because of it. Our hearts were totally broken by this place."

Thousands of Peruvians in downtown Lima live in quintas like Rosario de Fatima -- individual slums that range from small neighborhoods to large apartment buildings. Sometimes as many as 900 people live in a community without a single bathroom.

"They live very close together," Gina said, "and that breeds social problems as a result."

With financial help from Southern Baptists, the Robertses arranged for a water system to be installed throughout the community. The $15,000 project took nearly two years to complete. Every family was then responsible for installing a bathroom in their home. 

Today, about half of the houses have bathrooms. Some residents still use outdoor disposal systems but each family has a private area that can be cleaned using the water that is piped just outside every home.

During the water project, the Robertses started a Bible study in the community. About 20 people meet to learn God's Word every other Friday night. Although the Robertses still attend, Peruvian believers from the community now lead the study.

"It's sometimes hard," Quentin reflected, "but you have to find that balance between demonstrating God's love in people's physical needs and, then, meeting more than just those needs. Jesus fed the hungry, but there has to be a spiritual component."

Caballa said since the water system was installed, many community members are more open to hearing the Gospel from missionaries who cared enough to help. She attends the Bible study and encourages others to join.

"I was very far away from the Lord for a long time before the [missionaries] helped us," she said. "I didn't have the kind of Bible study that I have now. Little by little, I have been growing in the Word through these studies.

"The neighborhood is still a little bit rough around the edges," she added. "We have a lot of work to do. But now it has a great advantage because it has the water system. It was very tough for us. But now, thanks to the [Robertses], things have changed. We have the Bible study, and we have water.

"Thank God those days are over."

Check out more about mission work in the Americas at Americanpeoples.imb.org. 

The Rosa Bowl

Like many Americans, I consider college football kick-off weekend a national holiday. Apparently it has become so popular that Peru decided to celebrate as well, and closed everything on Thursday, and some Friday, in honor of the beginning of the best season of the year!!

At least I think that's what I like to think happened... Although it might be more likely that kick-off weekend just happened to coincide with an important Catholic religious holiday here: Dia de Santa Rosa de Lima. (Saint Rose of Lima Day)

Thursday, August 30th, was Dia de Santa Rosa de Lima, the first saint of the Americas, and the patron saint of Lima, so it's a fairly big deal around here. Her liturgical feast was inserted into the Roman Catholic Calendar of Saints in 1729 for celebration initially on August 30, because August 24, the anniversary day of her death, is the feast of Saint Bartholomew the Apostle and August 30 was the closest date not already occupied by a well-known saint. Pope Paul VI's 1969 reform of the Roman Catholic calendar of saints, made August 23 available, the day on which her feast day is now celebrated throughout the world, including Spain, but excluding Peru and some other Latin American countries, where August 30 is a public holiday in her honor. She is the patroness of native Indian people of the Americas; of gardeners; of florists; of the City of Lima; of Peru; of the New World; of Sittard, the Netherlands; of India; of people misunderstood for their piety and of the resolution of family quarrels. Locally she is also the patron saint of the Peruvian Police, so the day after hers was an optional holiday in their honor. 

I'm sure she was a very nice person, but based on what I've read, she was also a little nutso. You can read what Wikipedia has to say about her, but the short version is she was always very "holy" and did nice things for the poor and sick in colonial Lima. She took the name Rose at her confirmation because a servant claimed to have seen her face transform into a rose when she was a baby. She subscribed to intense physical penance and fasting, and when suitors began noticing her beauty, she rubbed hot peppers on her face to try to become less attractive. She eventually became a nun, and a recluse. She died at 31 after supposedly exactly predicting the day of her death. 

According to legend, she threw the key to her chastity belt down a well in downtown Lima, so people write letters to her with their wants and needs and go and throw them down the well. Thus on August 30th, her shrine and the well are utter chaos. Since this is a big deal for Lima and we have several projects about the city in the works, I figured it would be a good idea to go down and take in some of the activity, and boy am I glad I did. Although I've lived in Peru for more than a year, it is easy to live in my own little anglicized (semi-)tidy bubble and miss out on some of the things that help you get a real sense of the country and the culture. 

Traffic was sparse since most businesses were closed, so I waited a bit to find a cab and then overpaid to get downtown. Ah well, c'est la vie! (Oops, there goes my French again.) I asked the driver to drop me in the Plaza de Armas, but a couple blocks away traffic was being diverted for the festivities. I had just missed the big hoorah in the square at the Cathedral it seemed, but fortunately, I hadn't missed all the action. Lots of policemen were wandering about in dress uniform. I followed them backwards like a trail of ants down a side street to the mass of people. Apparently they were in the middle of a procession, but the process-ing was so slow that it was difficult to tell. 

A group of men in robes and capes with stylish rope "necklaces" and all sorts of patches and badges indicating their membership in...?some unknown group?... were carrying a large litter bearing a statue of Santa Rosa piled high with flowers through the crowded streets. Faithful devotees walked slowly backwards in front of the statue, some carrying rosaries or their own emblems of Santa Rosa. Every 50 feet or so, someone would ding a large bell mounted on the front of the litter and the men would stop, lower the conveyance, and a fresh group of similarly dressed men would take their place. Meanwhile a band played religious or festive tunes behind them and a throng of police followed. 

Every 100 feet, the procession stopped for a speech, or some sort of tribute at various locations, marked by colorful floral carpets carefully outlined on the street. Someone with a loudspeaker would laud Santa Rosa and explain what she was the patron of and why they were thankful for her. Some would pray. Each stop was sponsored by a various organization or department, and each had a fancy floral arrangement made. One of the priest guys would pick it up, climb up the litter, cross the statue with the floral arrangement, and then return it to the owner. When the stop was over, they'd walk over the floral carpet, party poppers were popped, the music began again, and on the tediously slow herd would move.

One particularly disturbing stop involved a large floral display with an arch of pink roses and a small statue of Santa Rosa on a table with flowers in front. Well, at least I thought it was a statue...until it moved. I then realized that it was in fact a tiny little girl dressed as the virgin saint, kneeling on the table clutching a rosary and stoically regarding the crowd. 

While waiting for the procession to arrive at the church where the statue was to be delivered, I wandered around the crowd. Very few tourists had managed to mingle over into this portion of the event. Most seemed to be devout Catholics venerating Santa Rosa. Many clutched pink roses to be laid at her shrine later, some wore pins or medallions with the saints image. The benefit of most Peruvian processions and parades I have seen is that they're not great at crowd control, which means as a photographer you have a lot more freedom to walk in the street and move around than you might in other places. If you have a big honkin' camera and aren't dressed like you're trekking Mt. Everest (read TOURIST) then they tend to assume you are involved officially somehow and don't pay much mind, at least in my experience. 

In front of the church two grand floral carpets were surrounded by men in suits, obviously officials of some sort. I wandered around them snapping away and deciding where to stand for the best shots of the coming performance. I took up a position over the shoulder of one of the gentlemen in a suit. While I fiddled with my camera he turned and asked me in Spanish: "How much *garble garble garble.*" Yeah... I didn't understand the second part of his sentence, I just knew he said "How much" and was pointing to my camera. I asked if he wanted to know how much the camera cost. He looked at me confused. 

Oh, you don't speak spanish, he says. 
No, I'm learning, I just didn't understand what you said. 
Ah, I wanted to know what the zoom is.

I show him the 24-105mm lens. 

Ah, that's very nice, he says. Are you French?
Haha. Noo. -I assure him I am not French, but I do speak French.

Yes I thought so! I can hear your accent. Where are you from? 

The U.S., I tell him.

That's an excellent camera. You should be careful with it around here downtown. There is a lot of crime. 
Thank you, I know. I live here.
Oh really!

We pause a while, the procession is moving into place and I am waiting for young children to come out and dance the marinera. Conversations in Spanish are stressful to me so I don't generally encourage them. But this older gentleman seems more curious about the tall camera-toting gringa than the somber religious festival taking place.

How did you learn French? He queried.
I was a student in France.  
Oh really? Where? Lyon? Marseille? Toulon?
Paris.
That's lovely. And what did you study there?
International relations. 
Ah yes! Like diplomacy and policy?
Yes sir. 
And you live in Peru now? Are you studying here as well?
No sir, I'm a photographer. 
Oh! You should come stand here and get a better view. 

- He scoots over to make a front row space for me on the curb next to him. 

I work for the police, he tells me, as he pulls out polarized sunglasses and slips them on. (It's winter and perpetually overcast in Lima right now, so I can only assume he is doing this for dramatic effect.)
For the PNP, he says, gesturing to where the abbreviation for the Policia Nacional del Peru is spelled out in the floral carpet that they sponsored. 
Oh that's nice, I say, smiling politely. 
We all do! He says, gesturing at the ring of men surrounding the floral carpets. All of the men in suits, he says. 
Again I smile and nod, not really sure why he is telling me this.
See? - He holds up the official I.D. badge. Apparently I hadn't acted impressed enough by his high ranking position with the PNP and he thought maybe it was because I needed more proof? 
Ah, yes. -I ooo and aaah a little over the badge and he smiles proudly.- So if I stand over here, I'm really secure, right? I ask teasingly. 
Oh yes!! He chuckles. 

He keeps up the questioning a while longer, asking what I think of Peru and, of course, what I think of their food. Peru is an up-and-comer in the culinary world and apparently every Peruvian has gotten than memo, because it is invariably the second question I am asked by random people I meet. At least I can honestly tell them that I love their food! 

Do you have a Hotmail? He asks. 

This question catches me off guard. Hotmail is still very popular down here, but out of context and with the accent I almost don't know what he's talking about. I nod. 

Ok! Then I will give you my email, he says.

I dig in my bag and pull out a business card. They are in English but I have 200 of them, and not many opportunities to pass them out, so I try to give them out when I can. They'll only be valid another 5 months, so I have to hurry! 

Ooo! He says, when I pull out a card, impressed that I have something so professional, I think. He pulls a receipt out of his wallet and scawls his name and email on the back and trades me for my card. The children are about to dance, and the conversation stops, but my new friend watches out for me, making sure I have a clear shot and barking at priests who get in the way of my camera angle. I later notice that the very safety cautious police staffer has given me his full name and email on an ATM receipt. Hmm.

Things dissipated from there. Some people followed the statue into the church. I thanked my new friend and walked down the street to Santa Rosa's hermitage where the well is. I was planning on taking some photos of people throwing their letters in the well, but it was not to be. The line to enter either the church or the hermitage stretched out of the church grounds, around the corner, down a city block and disappeared into the masses. People in the line were literally jogging to keep up with the flow into the shrine to drop off their letters. Daylight was beginning to fade and being downtown alone with all my camera gear after dark isn't high on my list of smart things to do. So instead I wandered around in the street, watching people buy cards and pens from vendors to write their wishes to Santa Rosa on them. Nuns mingled with the crowds as cotton candy and chocolate treats were sold alongside "sacred" Santa Rosa figurines and recuerdos (souvenirs) of the shrine. 

With a full memory card in my camera I wandered back through downtown to grab a cab. I got in to head home, "You're French?" The cabbie asked. *Sigh.* Guess too much time away from Peru this summer let my inner Frenchy-ness take over again.  Might as well start brushing up on my français and just tell them "oui!" 

I hope you had a lovely kick-off weekend and that your teams pulled off a nice win. As always...

GO GATORS!

Peruvians give their all to reach Amazon region for Christ

Peruvians give their all to reach Amazon region for Christ

IQUITOS, Peru (BP) -- Just three days after his wife died, 72-year-old Edison Romero climbed into a cramped wooden boat for a journey down the Amazon. He could have stayed home to mourn, but he took a 12-hour trip from his village to Iquitos, Peru, to attend missions training.

"I just couldn't miss it," Romero said.

The School of Cross-cultural Missions that Romero attends near the city of Iquitos is one of three training centers launched by Peru a las Naciones (Peru to the Nations), a Peruvian Baptist organization. 

Every two months, Romero and about 30 other participants and family members -- ranging from elderly adults to toddlers -- convene outside Bethany Evangelical Baptist Church in Iquitos. They pile into two crude metal buses with their luggage and a half-dozen live chickens for a jarring hour-long ride over a muddy road full of potholes.

When the road ends, the travelers -- loaded down with young children and luggage -- hike barefoot through a swampy mud pit. At the bank of the Nanay River, which flows into the Amazon, they cram into a narrow wooden boat. There's barely breathing room; the air is stifling. Then it's another 45-minute trip downriver to the jungle camp.

After they reach the shore by the camp, they haul their belongings down a dirt path to the wooden cabins -- covered with dried banana leaves and mosquito netting -- that will be home for three days. There's no electricity or hot water. And since there's no refrigeration, the live chickens will provide fresh food each day. The small children must occupy themselves without the help of modern conveniences, toys or physical comforts.

But no one complains.

CROSS-CULTURAL MISSIONS
Leaders of the group are Tommy and Beth Larner, International Mission Board missionaries from Texas. Tommy, who works with Peru a las Naciones, helped to start the training camp. He and Beth lead a team that teaches Bible storying, evangelism techniques, church-planting methods and other missions principles.

Training national believers in missions is crucial to reaching Peru with the Gospel, Tommy said.

"We can't [reach the world] by ourselves. There's just too much to be done," he said. "We could go to an unreached people group. But if I can send a bunch more Peruvians and invest my life in them, I can be more effective sending than I can going."

Cross-cultural missions often implies taking the Gospel to other countries. But the school near Iquitos teaches believers in the Amazon how to effectively share Christ in the many jungle villages throughout Peru.

"These [believers] live in cross-cultural missions," Tommy said. "Their passion is to go deeper and farther into the jungle where the Gospel has not been preached." Read More

Pray for Peru

Join us in praying for Peru.

 Pray that Peruvian believers will be mobilized to take the 

Gospel to their countrymen and around the world. 

Happy Anniversary to Us!

That's right. Today it has been officially ONE YEAR since we left the U.S., said goodbye to family and friends, and embarked upon a new adventure in Latin America.

One year ago today: airport send-off with daddy. 

I'm impressed that it's already April again, but to say that this year went by quickly wouldn't really be true. No, when I start thinking about the myriad of changes and challenges and new experiences that have been crammed into the last year it seems like a very long time. And when I think about how long it has been since I last saw my friends or hugged my parents...yes, then it seems very long indeed. It hasn't been an easy year, but it has been a blessed year.

In the last year I was on 19 flights, moved twice, added 7 more countries to my previous 20 visited, learned Spanish (ok, so not ALL of Spanish- lol), met a ton of new friends near and far, started a new job, ate a bunch of strange foods, took north of 10,000 photographs (the Mac "finder" window doesn't count higher than that), and, somewhere in all of that, I learned to love Latin America.

As I've said before, Peru or any Spanish-speaking country was never on my list of places I really wanted to go. But after a year of learning the language, living in the culture and being fortunate enough to travel quite a bit within the region, it has really grown on me. Every trip I learn just how much I didn't know about Latin America. I assumed that countries that shared a language would be quite similar, but I have been excited to see just how different and unique they are. I have also learned that they don't share as much of a language as it would appear on paper. Oy vey! One day I had to translate in Spanish (don't laugh!) between a Dominican and Peruvian because their vocabulary was too different on some words and they weren't understanding each other. That day I threw my hands up and asked how I was expected to learn this language when they couldn't even come to a consensus among the native-speakers! But regardless of which Spanish they speak, wherever we have gone we've met wonderful people and experienced beautiful cultures. I've been fascinated with the crazy animals (although Lima needs more llamas and I am still on a quest to see a sloth in the wild), the awesome handicrafts and goods, the delicious and new foods, the incredible variety of climates and scenery even just within Peru, and I've had the honor to worship alongside brothers and sisters in Christ all over the continent.

Lest I begin to sound like a tourism ad, we've seen the less fun side of Latin America too. Despite the continued development, poverty is still rampant in many areas and people around the region live in deplorable, dangerous conditions.

Violent crime and drugs threaten individuals and governments alike. (Random fact: Peru is the #1 exporter of cocaine globally, and recent estimates suggest the cocaine industry equals 17% of Peru's GDP.)  Millions and millions of people live in depressing and hopeless situations, but what is even more tragic is that they live trapped in spiritual darkness as well. Although Latin America has been highly evangelized, there are still places and subcultures that have yet to even be touched by the Gospel.

The exciting thing, however, is that the face of missions in Latin America is slowly beginning to change. National believers are beginning to catch a vision for the Great Commission. They are hearing the call to take the Good News to all peoples and nations and they are seeking out ways to be faithful servants. While many North American workers are still involved in "traditional" work with church planting in different people groups, the majority are transitioning to mobilizing rolls. They are now in the position of helping Latin believers understand how they fit into the Great Commission, then training them and facilitating them as they begin to go themselves to their neighbors and to the ends of the earth. The challenges facing Latins seeking to go to the mission field are great. Finances are usually one of the biggest road blocks, as well as difficulty obtaining visas in some places, and the need for training. However, there are so many places that Latin believers can serve more effectively than Anglos and these exciting opportunities to advance the Gospel are worth whatever difficulties may come with them. It does my heart good when I've been privileged to meet with those in Peru currently studying missions in hopes of going to their countrymen and across the globe. Most have already sacrificed a great deal for the work to which they are called and they are passionate about telling others about Christ. I can't wait to see what God will do with these lives that have been so willingly offered up to Him!

Although it's been a year I still try not to think back to the day we left the U.S. because the goodbyes are still too painful, even just as a memory. Yet it is encouraging and sobering to think that I am now closer to saying "hello" to them than I am to those goodbyes. We have only 9 months remaining of our time in Peru and with the busy summer we have planned I can only imagine that they will go even faster than the previous time. Of course, the converse of getting to go back to the people and places I left behind means that I will have to say another set of goodbyes, this time to Peru and a whole different group of cherished family. But for now I won't focus on the sad times past and future, now is the time to refocus on what I want the legacy of my time in Peru to be. It's time to finish well!

Please pray for Brittany and myself as we head into the last 9 months of our time of service, and for the rest of our team as this summer will involve a lot of travel and transition for every unit. Thank you for your faithful prayers!

Where have I been?!

Ok, so I remembered that I have this thing called a blog... and realized that lately I haven't been too good and keeping it updated. Honestly, I knew it would happen. It always does. Any blog, journal, diary begins with the thought, "I'm going to write in it all the time! I will have such a nice record of what I did and what God is doing!" And that quickly turns into, "Well, I'll write in it once a week/month/quarter and that way I'll be able to summarize what's going on!" And then it comes time to write and you can't remember what you were doing that kept you so busy you didn't have time to write before, and the daunting task of trying to summarize all that has happened since the last time you wrote makes you procrastinate because you don't know where to start, ...aaaaand next thing you know it has been two years.

Come on, I know I'm not the only one who does this.

Part of my problem is that I always set really high standards for what I write. I want to craft these well-written insightful profound blog posts. Then things get busy and I don't have the luxury of sitting around thinking brilliant thoughts and coming up with witty wording so I default to not writing at all. Thus, I'm trying to be better about not putting that much pressure on my blog. It's supposed to be fun, after all!

So let's see...run down of the last month. As you are aware, we spent two weeks in Chile for meetings. We enjoyed the beautiful weather and meeting new friends and catching up with others. Right after we returned, a worker from Caracas, for whom we've been doing a project, flew down for a week to go over last details. That meant an intense week of me doing little but editing more of the some 1700 images I captured in Caracas and working on prayer slideshows, etc. Throw in hosting team dinner, teaching some photo lessons, and all the regular work and house work, and it was a pretty crazy week.

In the midst of that, I got a surprise message from a friend in the states asking to come visit. With her flying standby, we were able to work it out so that she could arrive the day we wrapped up the meetings for the Caracas project. I would have wished for more prep time so I could really play hostess, but Laura was great and understanding guest and we had a really good time catching up and exploring the city. Our pretty sunny weather has been mostly replaced by heavy fog and clouds again, but at least it's still warmer. I loved having an excuse to visit the parts of town I rarely do and hit up some shopping in the Inca Market of course! And exploring with Laura reminded me of how much I love Peru and its awesome culture. It was a lot of fun having a familiar face from home and getting to laugh about old stories and enjoy some new memories. Here are a few favorite photos from our explorations when Laura was here:

Touring the ruins of Pachacamac outside of Lima.

Cathedral in Parque Kennedy at night. 

A performer dances during a cultural festival in downtown Lima. 

Department of Justice lit at night.

Marshlands near Pachacamac in the middle of the desert. 

Summer flowers in a Miraflores park.

Cultural performers in downtown Lima. 

Tree silhouetted against Miraflores buildings in the fog. 

A woman walks by an abandoned building in the Chinatown district of Lima. 

TWENTY TWELVE!

Here's a little more of what New Year's Eve in Lima looked like. I toasted with...what else...Dr. Pepper! Decided to craft some ridiculous headgear for skyping in the new year in a few different time zones. Also note that I am wearing a tank top with gold stripes because A) it's the only thing sparkly that I own in Lima, and B)...it was hot. Remember, it's summer here! Got up into the 80s today, and no A/C. 

You can also enjoy this video taste of the ridiculous unregulated fireworks going on across the city at all hours of the night. Keep in mind that you have to magnify the sound by a factor of about 20. And compared to Christmas eve, this was pretty tame:

I also really liked the Decemeber 31st entry in "My Utmost for His Highest," so I thought I would share.

"Security from Yesterday: "God requires that which is past." At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise from remembering the yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God's grace is apt to be checked by the memory of yesterday's sins and blunders.  But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them in order to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual culture for the future. God reminds us of the past lest we get into a shallow security in the present.

Security for Tomorrow: "For the Lord will go before you." This is a gracious revelation, that God will garrison where we have failed to. He will watch lest things trip us up again into like failure, as they assuredly would do if He were not our reward. God's hand reaches back to the past and makes a clearing-house for conscience.

Security for Today. "For ye shall not go out with haste." As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, unremembering delight, nor with the flight of impulsive thoughtlessness, but with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays present irreparable things to us; it is true that we have lost opportunities which will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past sleep, but let it sleep on the bosom of Christ. Leave the irreparable past in His hands, and step out into the irresistible future with Him." - Oswald Chambers


Bring it on, 2012! The God of Israel will go before us.

Feliz Navidad!

A (belated) Merry Christmas from Peru! 

Just been too busy to get this posted in a timely fashion. Although the holiday busyness is over, the work busyness is intensifying with deadlines coming up. So I won't write a lot, but I thought I'd share some photos (and one adorable video) of how we spent Christmas in Peru. We had a great time and a peaceful holiday with many sweet moments with friends. 

Christmas eve we spent with colleagues and friends at the Austins' home. We celebrated with gumbo, a favorite foods version of Yankee Swap, a recycled garbage ornament competition, singing, praying, and of course laughing (especially when all the Austin men put on their elf costumes). Much fun was had by all!

Christmas morning we shared brunch with the Peercys and enjoyed a laid-back meal with delicious homemade cinnamon rolls and sausage. It's always fun to share Christmas with children and live vicariously through their enthusiasm. Check it out! 

Our trash ornaments. Brittany's awesome can diorama won!

Candy getting her gumbo.

Evelyn helping "Noni" open a plate of goodies in the food exchange.

Candy stealing!

We collaborated and took home the best prize! American goodies!

Even if the apartment had a fireplace, it's summer here, so this worked just fine!

Turkey friend.

Hanging at the Austins'

Norah doesn't know what to think about Arnold the Elf.

Taking time to pray for family and friends far away.

Elf mischief!

A "snow ball" fight fight with the Austins.

This is me looking confused with all the random decorations across the street from our apartment.

Good morning!

All the animals are ready to get on the ark...

That's one crowded ark!

Merry first Christmas, Norah!

Evelyn treated us to an awesome dance session Christmas morning. That girl's got talent! Here's a clip:

Love her!

Hope you were able to enjoy fun and sweet moments with family or friends during this Christmas season, and took time to reflect on the wonderful gift of salvation that was made available to us through Jesus. 

Feliz Navidad!/ Joyeux Noel! / Merry Christmas!