A Season Of Harvest

A number of young members of our new church family
being baptized. 

Wow, where has January gone??? This month has flown by for me. I was in Cusco for New Years, which was quite an experience. One thing that was really fun about it was that they set fireworks off everywhere, and they were not very concerned about pedestrians. Someone would just set some down next to a crowd of people, and as soon as they started going off, the crowd would back off. It was exciting, and something completely new to me. A couple of days after we headed to Machu Picchu and all that stuff that I mentioned in my December post, the trop finally ended with a day and a half excursion in Lima in-between my flights. I made it back to the mission on the 9^th, and life quickly returned to normal.

            When I got back, there was a youth program going on called “Caleb.” Every year in January, because that’s when school is out for the summer, they have a countrywide youth rally. They pick a different city in Peru to hold this rally every year, and this year it was here in Pucallpa. This youth rally really isn´t like any other I have seen in the states. They send the youth out into the community by day to help in all different kinds of community service and outreach projects. Some work on cleaning up dirty streets, others plant trees, and some go door to door handing out books and giving bible studies. They all have their different jobs. Then throughout the week they would have different meetings in town with all of the groups from around the country. The group that was assigned to us helped with medical clinics and evangelism. They also had a number of meetings in the evenings with the whole group. It was an amazing week. We really focused in on a small little community not far from us. This community has not had any real Adventist presence until we started going and working there in the November. We had been doing a number of bible studies there, and while we were all off at the end of December to renew our visas, we hired a bible worker to keep these studies going. When the “Calebs” came, we held a week long evangelistic meeting there, and the result was a brand new group of believers.

Other young member of our new church that are
being baptized. 

            It is really amazing to see God work. The first couple of nights that we were having our evangelistic meetings, we really only had the community children showing up. However, by the third night, these children had started to bring their parents. The children brought in the parents who had an interest, but did not want to venture out on their own. It really taught me to never get discouraged when you are doing God´s work. At times you may not think you are being successful, but it you are willing, God will use you in some way, even if you do not see the results at that time.

            After the Calebs returned to their homes, we returned to our work here at Amor. We are a little less thinly stretched right now because with it being summer, all of the schools are out. A lot of what we do here is associated with schools, so it really has slowed down. The dental school is out, and the doctor who had been helping me went back to be with his family in Lima this summer. So my dental work has almost completely stopped for these two months. There are other things too that have slowed, but it has allowed us to focus on our bible studies, and me to on focus training in my replacement to keep the books here once I leave. It has been a nice change of pace, I stay busy, but don´t feel as over worked as before. In another couple weeks it will start picking up again, I will be running hard till the end I´m sure.

            It really has been nice to be back. After leaving and coming back, I have realized how much Peru has made an impact on me, and it really has started to become a part of me. It felt like home when I came back. Last week we had the opportunity to go over and help Peru Projects, another local Adventist mission about forty minutes from us. There were a number of people down for a couple weeks from the States, and it was refreshing to listen to them talk, and see that American Culture. However, it seemed a little strange. All of us SM´s immediately were saying, “Wow, they are so ‘American.’” It is amazing how in only five months you can become so accustomed to a completely different way of life and culture. It´s not hard to believe that it has been five months already, but it is hard to believe that I only have three more left. I am definitely excited about going back and seeing people that I left behind, but it really leaves a bitter sweet taste in my mouth. I have learned so much about life, and have grown so much here.  

              

              

              

December Travel

  

The Floating Islands at Lake Titicaca

          December was a busy month, but full of fun. I spent the first couple of weeks doing dental clinics and getting my financial work squared away for the following weeks I would be gone. I was really busy, and when the 16^th of December came, I was ready for a break.  You may be wondering what I am talking about as far as a break goes. All of the SM’s can only get a visa into Peru for 180 days max. Sometimes it is hard to even get that, and you are at the grace of the immigration official. All of us needed to get a new visa at some point around the middle of the year. So around Christmas time we all had to leave the country. They encourage us to travel a little bit to help deal with being away from home and loved ones over the holidays. So for this reason I did a little traveling over the holidays.

         I chose to go to Bolivia with a couple of the other SM’s. We also had the dentist that has been teaching and supervising us come as well. We started by flying to Lima, where we had a one night layover where we met up with Dr. Juan Carlos. The next morning we flew to Cusco, Peru where we spent the day planning out and arranging the last minute details of our trip. It is surprising as much tourism as Peru has; it is really hard to do some of the stuff online. That night we got on an overnight bus to Puno, Peru. Early the next morning we took a tour out to the floating Islands on Lake Titicaca. These are extremely impressive man made islands that the locals have created out of the reeds. They live on them and there are whole communities of these islands.

Mountain Biking the World's Most Dangerous Road in La Paz, Bolivia

After returning from the island tour, we continued on our way. We crossed the border into Bolivia and continued on our way. We made it to La Paz, Bolivia at 10:30 that evening. We then took the next day to relax and recover from the trip. Along with the long traveling, the altitude made us feel even more tired as La Paz is almost 12,000 ft in elevation. As you could guess, the climate was much cooler than that of the Jungle. It was a welcomed change, but I was equipped for the hot jungle, not the cold mountains. However, by layering up a hoody and my rain jacket, I was able to stay sufficiently warm.

         While in La Paz we ventured out and walked around the city. We went shopping for alpaca sweaters, which are really cheap in Bolivia. There are currently seven bolivianos to one dollar, so your dollars really stretch. We also went mountain biking down the world’s most dangerous road, appropriately named the death road. It has the most deaths on it annually by percentage that use it. However, there is a new road that allows most traffic to go around now, so I do not think that it still has the most deaths annually. Still, I would not want to be on a bus driving on that road, but on a mountain bike it was a lot of fun, and the views were pristine.

Dr. Juan Carlos and Myself in a shop in Cusco

        From La Paz, we went to the little lakeside town of Copacabana to spend Christmas. It was very cold at night. Dropping down to freezing at night, but warming up into the sixties during the day. This was my favorite place as a whole of the trip. It was so peaceful and beautiful. While there we took a tour of the Isle del Sol, the island of the sun, which was absolutely beautiful. We also rented motorcycles for a couple hours one day (for $12) and headed into the countryside to see what almost no tourist sees, little villages of farmers. We passed a number of shepherds out watching their sheep and others taking the cows out to graze; all living a very different life than the one that you and I know. It was really nice to see this and just take some time to relax in this little town.

          After our time in Capacabana, we took another overnight bus to Cusco. In Cusco there was so much to see. Cusco was the center of the Incan empire and has so much history within its limits and in the surrounding area. We were also very happy to get back to Peruvian food. I didn´t realize how much Peru had begun to feel like home until I left and came back again. During our time in Cusco we went to a number of historic Incan sites and temples. The grand finale being, Maccu Piccu. To Maccu Piccu we took the cheaper student route. This also included a lot of walking if you really wanted it to be cheaper. We walked so much over those couple days. I’ve never seen so many steps in my life. It took me three days to be able to go down steps again without pain. We climbed and descended 3,000 ft. elevation that day. Almost all of the way was steps. However, it was all totally worth it, and I felt much more appreciative of the location after walking all the way up there. It really was an experience and I was so lucky to be able to see these places.

          Now I am back at Amor Projects and have begun to catch up on my work here. I am happy to be back and to be working again. I really am happy to be a part of Amor Projects and the work that that is going on here. Thank you so much for you continued prays.