Want to Know A Little More About Peru?

I just want to take this time to thank everyone who has so generously supported our work here in Peru and for those who have prayed for us!  God has been so good and has been so real even just in the first two weeks we have been here!

 

This is an international book fair that took place for a couple weeks just a block away from our school.  We have class Tuesday-Saturday for four hours in the morning where we learn from two of the best Peruvian teachers!  This book fair also had a type of ice cream sent from heaven:  Queso Helado.  It is not actually made of cheese, that is just what they call it.  From what I hear, it is an exclusively Arequipa thing.

This is a seafood rice dish.  Yes, that is a little squid.  Yes, I tried to eat it, but it simply didn't work out.  Also, in the back is a Peruvian specialty called Ceviche.  It is a lot of onions and spice.  My teammate David ended up eating about three plate fulls of his and other people's Ceviche.  No way my stomach would have been ok with that.

This is Brandon holding one of the care packages the guys were putting together for their ministry group.  It contained basic hygeine products.

This is such a cool picture of Sammy, one of the Peruvian 40/40s on the team that is training us here in Arequipa and my teammate Brandon.  They are teaching each other how to read the Bible in the other language using Brandon's bilingual Bible.  The little bulding they are sitting in is a temporary meeting place for one of our home groups and is made of foam blocks.  This is a new style of contruction that Extreme is doing with their churches (though with the permanent structures they use sealant in between the blocks).  The night this picture was taken I had the opportunity to lead the home group in Spanish (by the grace of God it went well).  It was neat to be able to lead that night because my church in Tennessee was down in Peru with us and was able to be a part of that evening.

This is CJ, one of the missionaries in charge of us Lynda, and me at Lynda's house.  She and her husband Ron have been taking care of us while we are here.  We meet with them once a week for dinner and a Bible study at their house and we have Bible study with them four days a week at the school.  This is a strawberry cake desert and oh my goodness, it was so good.

Our professors surprised us the other day with a short field trip to some sights around our school.  This is one of the coolest churches I have ever seen.  We didn't get to see the inside, but I can imagine it is pretty cool too.

This is one of our professors Julissa standing on the oldest bridge in Arequipa.  This bridge used to be the only entrance into the city and it is constructed from leftovers of the Eiffel Tower.

I love this picture on the bridge of the city.  There are so many bright colors.

This is a picture of our team on the bridge.  You can barely see the volcano Misty in the background.  Names of our team:  Brandon, David, me, and CJ.

There are literally cactus everywhere, because we are in the desert part of Peru.  However, it is different than any desert I have been in or seen pictures of:  it is absolutely beautiful.  The air is super dry and it gets pretty cold at night, but the view no matter which direction you are looking is pretty amazing.  I don't think I'm going to get used to it.

These are my friends Jared and Sarah Jo and they are my friends from Nashville.  They work with Extreme in mobilization and are the reason that I am here in Arequipa training to do mission work in Ecuador starting in March.  Love these people!  It has been so neat to spend time with them, and I am so glad that they were faithful to God's leading to talk to me about being a part of Extreme.  They literally helped me out every step of the way with anything that I needed.  What amazing friends and servants of God!

These pictures were taken at another home group they were able to accompany us to.  It was a great time of sharing and talking about serving Christ 100%.  They know what that means!

Ways that you can pray for us:
-Pray for our team as we study Spanish that we would dedicate ourselves fully to the language.
-Pray that we would stay closely connected to God and to each other and that prayer would be central to our ministry and preparation
-Pray for our mentoring team that God would continue to renew and refresh them.
-Pray for our future team members and pastor's family from Ecuador that as they are being recruited that God would work in their lives as well.
-Pray for our future "parents" Chad and Amanda as they are fundraising in the States to come join us in a few months.  Pray that they might be blessed and well-supported.
-Pray for the work that God is doing here in Arequipa.  Lives are being changed and He is at work and moving!  It is so neat to see this first-hand.  Your prayers and support are making a difference!