Coming Home

By the time most of you read this, I will probably be back in the States. I have done a poor job of keeping you all informed over the last 3 months and for this I apologize. However, I thought I would take a few minutes to fill you in a little before I get back.

Yesterday I finished up my work here in Peru. The last week was full of "despedidas" which are pretty much goodbye parties. I had one every night last week, with 3 on Wednesday and two on Sunday. When you work with so many wonderful people, it is really hard to say goodbye. At times while I was here, I felt like I wasn't really doing much, other than just taking up space. Over the last week, with all the kind words that everyone had to say, that is all I needed to do. It is amazing how much of an impact you can make by just being you. With so many churches to work with and so many things to do, it was hard to make a lot of one on one connections. I did preach quite a few times and aome people were able to get to know me through my broken words, but it was hard to form close relationships and that is something that I regret.

But that is not to say that I didn't form any. No church will ever take the place of MPC, but in each and every church I worked in here, I felt welcome the first time I walked through the door. I never felt like a forienger, as much as I stood out. The people here taught me what it truly means to be family in Christ. Some times I know that I take for granted all the things that I have, my family, my friends, but here I have learned that those are the most important things that one can have.

While it was hard to leave my family, friends and church family behind last August, I left them knowing that I would be returning in a year, what seemed like a long time then. But I have found that it is even harder to say goodbye here with people that I have grown to love because I don't have that assurance of coming back in a year. In saying goodbye here, I can't say, "I'll see you in a year." But I know that God has a plan for my life, and that he has a great plans for the Church here.

Thanks for being devoted readers of my blog this year, even if I wasn't a devoted writter. I look forward to sharing much, much more with you in a few short weeks! Now, I'm off for a week or so trek in the Amazon! See you soon!

Hitting home

Hello long lost friends! Yes I am still alive here in Peru. Sorry for the LONG lag in updates! But I appreciate your faithfulness in checking in and hoping for some news from Peru.

Things are going great here, and its hard for me to believe that my time here is only 3 months from being up. It is even harder to imagine that a year ago this weekend, I was just finding out that I would be coming to Peru. While there is much to tell, I am going to focus this blog on something that has really opened my eyes here in Peru.

Way back in December, I wrote a blog about a trip I took that included a one night stay in La Oroya. I had the opportunity to go back there a few weeks ago. A youth group from Allen Park, Michigan came down during Holy Week and the week following to get to know some of the people here in Peru, participate in some worship services, and most importantly, get the word out about the condition of La Oroya.

La Oroya is ranked one of the top ten most contaminated cities in the world, and the most polluted city in the western hemisphere. There is an American company that owns a smelter there that pollutes the environment in unbelievable amounts. About 97 percent of the children there suffer from lead poisioning. Lead poisioning is considered anywhere about a level of 10 units in a person. In the US, kids are treated when they have lead levels of 2 or 3. On average the kids in La Oroya have a level of 38. Its a big problem.

I had read about these problems and heard people talk about what was going on there, but never really thought that much about them. And even after 3 days of working with some of the youth from the area and talking with the mayor, it was still just a story to me. That was until I met Allison. Allison is a 10 year old girl that lives right across the river from the plant. Her brain and body have been seriously affected by the lead in the water and air where they live. I met her on our last day in La Oroya at the community wide awareness rally that was held in the coliseum. At the end of the night, after the songs, dramas and dancing, there was a time where everyone was invited out to dance along while we sang. She was right up front, dancing and singing her heart out. Did she know the words? No, but that didn´t matter. As I took her hands and we danced, the situation in La Oroya became real to me. After the dancing and the music was over, her mother came up to me and told me her story. Her husband has left her with 3 children, 2 of which suffer from severe lead poisoning. I learned later that 7 years ago, she sued the company and is still waiting to go to court. Her mother told me all the mental and physical problems that she has. But then she told me of the great things that her little girl loves to do. She loves to use the computer and things that have buttons. She loves music and dancing. And most importantly, she loves to pray. Her mother told me that whenever she forgets something when they are praying, that Allison will be sure to remind her. She gave me one of her school pictures and we exchanged emails and phone numbers. She told me that I am Alison's new dad and to be sure to pray for her and their family. La Oroya and especially Allison are forever in my prayers and in my heart.

Photos from the trip:

http://unc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2128886&l=c6162&id=2717014
http://unc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2128901&l=cf630&id=2717014
http://unc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2128915&l=2adff&id=2717014

More info about La Oroya:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/april/37.70.html

Another sunset in paradise

I believe it was sometime in the first month that I was here in Peru that I had a conversation with another YAV about sunsets. Libby is serving her year in Belfast, Ireland and had posted some pictures taken from her window of a beautiful sunset. At that point, I was just wishing to see the sun here in Lima, which didn't really come out for another month or two. She assured me that one day the sun would come out, and I would be able to see a Pacific coast sunset. A few weeks back the Peru YAVs had a retreat and stayed in a beach house in the northern part of Peru (link to pictures is below). It was a great time of sharing stories, looking inside ourselves, and, oh yeah, swimming, catching some sun, and playing volleyball! We each took turns at night preparing the evening meal and doing dishes. One of the best parts of the day, was taking fifteen minutes to all go out on the beach together and watch the sunsets. It seemed like each day they got more and more colorful and beautiful. This was what I had been waiting for! Being able to think back on the conversations and happenings of the day and just be still, listen to the waves and watch God's painting on the sky change with every passing second. I took so many pictures, but they can't even begin to do it justice. There was just something calming about watching the sun slowly melt into the ocean on the horizon.

I thought that that was about as good as it got. But I was wrong. It wasn't until I got back here to Lima, that I really experienced a sunset. It was my first day back to work after our "spiritual retreat" and I as really ready to get back into it. I was feeling a renewed sense of my call to be here, and I hadn't spoken much Spanish for over a week and was afraid I was losing it. I was expecting a pretty normal day. We went and played soccer in the morning, which has become a pretty normal thing. I was excited too because I had had a whole week to practice with some pretty good soccer players. Too bad it didn't make any difference. I still got beat by the 13 and 14 year olds. Granted, they have at least 5 years of experience on me, but still, it doesn't feel too good for them to fight over which team Jamie has to play on. I'm just waiting for the day they invite me to play some basketball so I can show them that I am not horrible at everything! The afternoon wasn't as normal as I was expecting because this was the week of their EBDV, which is like VBS. It was fun to be able to participate in that with them, even if it was for just one day. As I was getting ready to go, the tutor that I work with asked me if I wanted to go with them to visit a member of the church for her birthday. Always up for a fiesta, I joined in. This particular church is already pretty far up in the sierras (fancy name for mountain without trees), but this woman's house was even further up. As the 12 of us settled into her little "salón" I look out her window and could see all Carabayllo below. As we sat around singing hymns and choruses, sharing words of encouragement, and passages from the Bible, the sun set over the "pueblo joven" (new town) where I live and I couldn't imagine seeing a more beautiful sight in all my life. I was pretty sure when I left the beach that it would be a long time before I saw another sunset like the ones we saw there. In fact, I remember saying on Friday night before we left that this was the "last sunset" we'd see. But as I sat there singing praises to our Creator with my Peruvian brothers and sisters, watching the sun set over one of the poorest places I've ever visited, I felt a new love for this place that will forever be a part of me, and the people here that call it home.

Photos from Mancóra:
http://unc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2112076&l=78da4&id=2717014

Photos from the baby shower (commentary to follow):
http://unc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2112049&l=32df4&id=2717014

Checking in!

Hey everyone! Its been a while since I've had a chance to update and I don't have a lot of time to do so right now. I just thought that I'd give you a brief update of the goings on here in Peru.

I received a package from my dad with some DVD footage of MPC's Youth Sunday, the Christmas cantata and some basketball games. I have faithfully shared the Youth Sunday with some of my kids here as well as my host family, all of whom were very impressed, even though they didn't understand a word of it. I actually have some girls that want to learn the sign language to Who am I.

I am back into all of my work, with not a lot of time to spare. I have been teaching 3 guitar classes, I started a new English class, and still work with 4 churches a week.

I do have a few prayer requests if you guys have some time for me! There are several churches here that are in search of pastors and their main problem is that they cannot afford one. Two of the churches are trying to buy the buildings that they meet in so they can stop renting, and one of the churches is in the midst of remodeling. My host mom is due in a little over a month and it is REALLY hot where we live and some days are pretty difficult for her. The YAVs here are going to be going on a 20 hour bus ride to the northern part of Peru to spend a week in reflection...at the beach. We also have to cross over into Ecuador to get a new visa. And on a personal note, I am having a tough time trying to decide what comes next in my life. I know I still have 6 months here, but if I am to start seminary then I need to be applying for that and financial aid now. Just keep me in your prayers that I can stay focused on my work here and that I get a better understanding of what God wants for my life after this amazing year in Peru!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone and I will give a better update when I come back from the beach...all nice and tan...in February!

I'm a Tar Heel born,
I'm a Tar Heel bred,
And when I die,
I'll be Tar Heel dead.

GO HEELS!!!

Playing and Preaching

For the past 2 weekends my schedule has had me at what I consider to be my "home" church here, the church of my host family, Primavera. I am lucky enough to also be with them for the following two weekends as well. When I don't have anything else to do on weekends, I spend my time there, even if I am not scheduled to be there. Primavera is where I hold my guitar classes and where I start teaching English next week. Primavera has a youth group of about 10-15 teens, a Sunday School attendance of about 35, and their worship service usually has about 30 people or so attending. Since my host dad and his father are the pastors of this church, they have wanted to make sure that my time there has been well utilized. They have basically planned out every minute of every Saturday and Sunday that I am with them, which is great.

My Saturday's so far have been pretty much spent with the youth group. They begin at 9:30 in the morning with visitation. Two of the youth and I go around the neighborhood and visit the youth that usually are at our meetings and invite them to come that night and to join us for some volleyball in the afternoon or some ping pong in the morning. Then we head over to the church and break out the paddles for some intense ping pong action until lunch time. For lunch, I go and eat with a family of the church and spend about an hour or so visiting with them in their home.

The afternoons are spent out on the field playing volleyball. Since it is out in the park, we have lots of kids come and play, and try to get them to come to the service at night, but so far, that's not working as well as we had hoped. After playing volleyball for 3 hours and having your arms about fall off, I get about an hour to shower and have dinner in another home before the youth service. Their youth service consists of a few songs, some games, and then a lesson by the pastor.

This past weekend I rediscovered something about myself that I don't like and am trying to change. I don't like to lose. Now those of you that know me well may find this hard to believe. I don't know how many of you have been around my during or a few hours after a UNC loss, but its not pretty. I am a pretty competitive person, and sometimes this is not a good thing. When playing sports, it is the same way. I have to do the best I can, and if I don't, I get "upset." One time I drop kicked my baseball glove across the outfield during a church league game...yes...church league. So that’s just an example, but I don't like to lose, it makes me "grumpy" as some people have described me. This came to light again while playing volleyball on Saturday. I was on a team that wasn't bad, but wasn't playing like they wanted to win. For some strange reason, they were out there to just play and have fun! Is that possible? Then I got to thinking...yeah, that is what it is supposed to be about, not who wins or loses...but that you are playing together, making friendships, and having a good time. I felt pretty bad for being so competitive, especially in something that really didn't matter. Actually, all this didn’t come to me until later that night. I spent the afternoon pretty much being a sore loser. The realization came to me during our youth service. We were divided into groups…competing against one another in building a tower using newspaper and tape. The other group ran out of tape, and I offered to give them some. Everyone else in the group didn’t want to because we would definitely win if they didn’t have any tape. But I gave them some with the reply, “We are all Christians here.” When those words left my mouth, I was like wow…did I just say that. Then I started reflecting on the afternoon and how I had acted. What was the difference then and when I was playing sports or watching basketball! So, now I have a job to do. (Although I think the basketball part will be a challenge!)

This past Saturday, after all that was over with, my work really began. I was on to preach on Sunday! I had to translate my sermon that night. I had written it in English, and needed to write it out in Spanish…with the aid of a computer of course. I finally got home about midnight. Sunday morning I had Eduardo look over it and make some corrections and then I was ready to go.

I was a little nervous, but I have found that I don’t get too worked up about getting up in front of people here…mainly because I have to do it all the time, and I know that I am not going to be perfect, so I just don’t worry about it. I had to read the whole thing, but I am pretty sure everyone could understand what I was trying to get across. My sermon was on how as Christians, we are all called to be missionaries, whether that means leaving your home, or ministering in your neighborhoods, where you are.

This weekend, the youth have a beach trip planned for Sunday. I am looking forward to that, even though that will probably be more tiring than what I normally do!

New Photos!

http://unc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2101738&l=b6495&id=2717014

http://unc.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2101740&l=88762&id=2717014

Catching Up

Its been quite some time since I've gotten a chance to fill everyone in on life here in Peru. My last entry was about Christmas so I guess I'll start from there!

A few days after Christmas, David and Kori (2 other YAVs) had family come in and they decided to go do some touring in other parts of Peru. Since my friends weren't coming in til the 30th, I decided to go with them. We took a bus about 3 and a half hours south to a town called Pisco. We set up a tour for the next day of a national park and the Islas Ballestas. They showed us pictures of what we would be seeing, but none of them did justice to what we really saw. We saw this giant form of a candelabra etched into the side of a sand dune that had been there for hundreds of years...probably done by aliens of course. Then the boat took us out to the islands. Here we saw hundreds of sea lions sunning themselves on the beaches, many different species of birds including pelicans and penguins, and learned how to harvest guano, the bird poop, from the island to sell to other countries for fertilizer. Then after some time for everyone to try some ceviche, the national dish of raw fish soaked in lemon juice, we headed on our bus tour of the Paracas National Reserve. This park used to be a rain forest millions of years ago...now it is a vast desert that our tour guide told us he got lost in with a group of tourists before. We got a chance to visit a rock formation known as "The Cathedral." As with much of the coastline here in Peru, there is a huge cliff overlooking the beach. We walked down a path to the beach and then got to go inside a small cave and discover the reason they named it a cathedral. Our tour guide told us that when the tide is high the water bouncing off the walls of the cave makes a sound similar to a pipe organ. We then climbed back up the mountain to see the overhead view. Then after a break for lunch in a small fishing village, it was back to Pisco to chill. The hotel where David and his parents were staying had a rooftop lounge, which was a table with some chairs, so we hung out up there at night and caught up on happenings in the states and shared a little about what was going on down here with us. The next day we returned to Lima and I awaited the arrival of Jim and Jane!

It was hard for my to wrap my mind around what was really happening. I was actually going to see someone that I had known for more than 4 months! I still didn't really believe it was real until I saw their smiling faces through the glass windows. Boy were they in for an adventure! The best way to welcome them to Peru, was definitely a cab ride to the hotel. I have gotten so used to the traffic here that it was a lot of fun watching their reactions to the way our cab driver was driving and the way everyone else was driving too. We got back to the hotel pretty late, and after some catching up, and a lot of "I can't believe you are actually here"'s we went to bed.
We spent the next several days discovering different parts of Lima, finding out that absolutely nothing is open on New Year's Eve or Day. We tried to visit several museums, and even see the changing of the guards at the palace, but it must have been like the one day that it doesn't happen. Tuesday was the day that we came out to my barrio (neighborhood) to see where I live and meet my family. It was really a great afternoon. We ate lunch, played some games, and shared stories and pictures. It was also probably the longest afternoon of my life. While Jim does speak some Spanish, I spent the afternoon translating English into my poor Spanish. By the time the afternoon was over, I couldn't think in Spanish or English!

Wednesday we spent with Eduardo in Lima Central doing some shopping for gifts and things and then we meet up with Kori and went to visit the zoo. We got to see animals from different parts of Peru including some of the tiniest monkeys I have ever seen! We were there as they were putting the animals up for the night and got to experience something that I've never heard before. As they were trying to get the lions in their sleeping quarters, they started roaring. There were 3 lions total and it sounded like we were in the middle of Africa.

Thursday was the start of another adventure. I had such a good time in Pisco and Paracas that I knew I had to take Jim and Jane while they were here. We went down that night to find a place to stay and to book our tour. I had planned on staying at the same place where David stayed but it was full. Luckily, 3 gringos with backpacks stick didn't have much trouble attracting attention. Apparently we looked like we needed a place to stay, as soon as we stepped out of the taxi we were surrounded by people telling us about their hotel and about tours to take. We found a place and a tour and then grabbed some dinner and got rested up for the next day. While the tour was good for Jim and Jane, I was a little disappointed having been there only a week before with different tour guides, both of which I ran into. But it was still fun to get to share it with Jim and Jane. After the tours we packed up and headed to Ica, about an hour further south where we were to meet up with David and Kori that night. After meeting them for dinner, we headed out to Huacachina where we were to sleep for the night. Huacachina is like an oasis. It is a lake in the middle of a desert where there are lots of hotels. We got our rooms and then arranged the next days activities, dune buggy rides and sandboarding! Now, I had read about such things in my trusty Peru tourist guide, but I had no idea what we were in store for. I imagined the car taking us over the sand dunes at a leisurely pace to the places where we would be sandboarding down. Boy was I wrong. I'm not sure how fast we were going, but it was better than any roller coaster I have ever been on...EVER. And then the sandboarding. I've never tried snowboarding, and am not very good at skateboarding, but I thought I'd give it a shot. And it want much like you would expect...not very well. We got 2 "small" hills to try it out on, then it was on to the big guns. The last one we did was HUGE. You could walk to the edge and barely see the slope...straight down. It took a lot of thought and praying before I went down, but it was extremely fun! If you ever make it to Peru, I definitely recommend it!

We then spent the afternoon touring some places where they make wine and pisco. Our first stop was a place that was completely mechanized, from the pressing to the fermentation, to the bottling. From there we visited two more that were completely done by hand, er, foot. They held big festivals in the summer months where everyone would jump in and stomp on grapes...yes, just like the "I Love Lucy" episode. From there it was back to Lima.

Sunday was spent back out in Comas where I live for what can best be described as a wedding shower. Eduardo's brother is getting married in April and all his family came over for a big party which we were invited to attend. They played some games and opened some presents and we all shared some words or well wishes to the lovely couple. Afterwards, Jim and Jane got to experience a little bit of a Peruvian worship service. I was glad that they were able to visit one of the churches that I work in and get to meet the absolutely wonderful people that I get to work with each day. Monday was also spent getting to know 2 of the Compassion sites that I work with and some of the people and kids there. It was really great for me to get to share that with them, and while all the touristy stuff was fun, the best part of my time with them, was when they got to see what it is that I am actually doing here.

Monday night I had to say goodbye to Jim and Jane and try to assure them that it wouldn't be that much longer til August when I would see them again. It was really good to get to spend some time with them and get caught up on things that were going on in their lives and the life of our church. They were able to bring me letters and some gifts from home that made me realize again how much support I had from my family and church back home. It also gave me a renewed sense of mission to complete the things that God, and all of you, have sent me here to do. Starting with Sunday...when I will give my first sermon in Spanish! Thank you all for your gifts and prayers!