Our Peruvian Christmas!

Christmas is a bit different here than what we're used to, but regardless of where we are we are reminded that we have a wonderful Savior who came to live on this earth and die for our salvation.  Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!!

The biggest difference here is the weather - it's summer!!  Our temperature is in the 70's every day, and it's amazing to us how we associate memories and events with the weather, without even realizing it.  It's hard to feel like Christmas wearing shorts and flip flops!

                                    


















Another difference is the commercialization of Christmas.  Yes, Christmas is commercialized, but not on the same scale.  Here, we have two malls in Trujillo (a city of almost a million people).  The malls are  decorated with Christmas trees and lights, have Christmas music playing, and "ofertas"  for discounts on toys and electronic items.  But it still isn't the same scale of shopping and marketing and spending as we're are used to seeing (and participating in!).  This has been a refreshing part of Christmas that we have enjoyed!  I went to the mall on the 23rd with all four kids to have lunch and pick up a few things, and it really wasn't crowded - I don't remember ever being brave enough to fight crowds at the mall with four kids during the week of Christmas in the U.S.!  It's also funny to see a big empty parking lot at Christmas - most people take a bus or taxi, and the majority of the population do not own cars (nor do we).

On Thursday before Christmas we went to a Christmas party at the Wichanzao church, where we worship.  It was a little different for us - the party started at 7:00 and dinner wasn't served until after 9:15 - we had to miss out on the dinner because we had a sitter watching the boys and needed to get back, and it's a 20 minute trip from our house.  We enjoyed all of the singing and entertainment, but thought it was a little fun to hear "White Christmas" here!  

Olivia Baker, Sarah Caroline and myself

Pastor Juan 

The pretend campfire with all of the "jovenes" (the young people) sitting around it

A group singing at the party

Here are some photos of some Christmas decorations we found in a park nearby our house.  We loved the creative decorations, and played some frisbee and baseball here on Christmas Eve afternoon.

Paper plate Santas hanging in the palm tree

This tree was made entirely out of plastic cups!

 On Christmas Eve night, we went to Cristo Rey church, one of the churches that is part of our mission team, for a beautiful worship service.  The service was scripture reading and singing, and a couple of Christmas hymns that we recognized the tune to!  Then we headed over to the Plaza de Armes to see the collection of decorated Christmas trees and the manger scene.

The Baker girls singing in worship service

"Moyopampa"

After the service we had paneton (this is a mini one in a box)

In the Plaza de Armes of Trujillo

This was a large, beautiful manger scene set up in the center of the Plaza.  Interesting to us that Joseph is wearing a hard hat - we need to find out why?  There is a lot of mining here, and maybe this scene was sponsored by a mining company?  We are a bit puzzled!

There were lots of people out entertaining, selling things, but this dancer was the most interesting!

Opening a gift at 11pm!  The tradition here is to celebrate entirely on Christmas Eve -  eat Christmas dinner about 11 or 12 (at night!) and open gifts.  Then sleep all day on Christmas!  But our kids were eager to get up and see if Santa (Papa Noel) came, so after being awake until midnight we were up again at 6am!

It's a big deal to find m&m's here - a special treat!!

And Marcus' big smile is over a huge bag of Dr. Peppers, also hard to find!  I had been buying them and saving them for a special gift!

Sam's first bike

A miniature paneton

On Christmas day we had lunch with the Baker family, as well as some of our other friends here in Peru.  We had a great lunch and spent the rest of the day getting ready for Mimi and Dodad to visit - the best part of our Christmas!!  After two seven hour layovers and a  four hour flight (should have been one hour) to Trujillo that had to turn back around to Lima (due to fog!) that resulted in a 24 hour delay in Lima - they are finally HERE!!  We are so excited they made it!  So we've had fun today opening the rest of our Christmas gifts with them and enjoyed getting all sorts of treats from the US - we have a full pantry of chocolate chips and peanut butter now!! Yeah!  They are exhausted but we are so happy to see them!!

Feliz Navidad!!  

Soles for Souls and Practicing Hospitality

We had a fun time this week getting to know 6 ladies who came to work with Soles for Souls (http://www.soles4souls.org).  Their organization gives out shoes to the needy in about 125 countries around the world, and Peru Mission was blessed to partner with them this week as they visited Trujillo.  The six ladies came from Nashville, TN (where Soles4Souls is based), New Jersey, California, and Vermont, and Georgia.  It was our pleasure to get to know these ladies and also give them a glimpse of our ministry and work here in Trujillo!  Here is a video of some of the work they did: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfPdVjFpybM

Tracy, Wendy, Mary and myself having lunch at a restaurant in Huanchaco (the beach) 

Mary and Kelly

Kat and Katie (Katie is the team leader for Soles4Souls trips, and works full time for them.  She travels more than she is home, and goes to Haiti about once a month.)

Marcus with Jose, one of the fellows with our team

One of my jobs as part of the team is to host and entertain and feed people - teams that come visit, individuals that visit, and also Sunday lunch.  For example, the Soles4Souls team had dinner in our home on Monday night.  God has given me a love for food and cooking and we love the chance to be use the gift of hospitality with new friends!  Each Sunday we have a huge lunch with our mission team and the fellows (a post-graduate program for young people to partner with the mission and work for a year in one of our areas of ministry), and whoever else may be visiting that particular week.  The numbers vary week to week, but basically our core group is about 35 each Sunday.  Each family takes turns hosting Sunday lunch, which means my turn will be every 3rd week (until the Smiths return in February).  We have a great time of fellowship, prayer and singing worship songs (in English!) together.

Marcus and I have always loved having people over, and although there are times when it is hard, (like when you are crazy busy and have four little people running around!), but it has always been a blessing to us.  Sometimes we have simply ordered pizza and used paper plates, and sometimes we would go all out and have steak and china.  Regardless of what food is served or what it is served on, the fellowship with friends (and especially new friends - new visitors at church, or newcomers to town)  is always a blessing and certainly the most important part.  We think it is important as believers in Christ to fellowship, encourage one another, and quite possibly bring others to Christ that may not know Him.  I have to say that there are times I've thought "today is not a good day, I'm tired, my house is a mess", but we have never regretted a time that we had company.  My biggest regret would be missed opportunities to having friends (and strangers as well!) over to share a meal with our family.  My favorite book that encourages Christian hospitality is Open Heart, Open Home by Karen Mains.   Here is a description of the book:  An open door, a hug, coffee brewing, dinner cooking in the oven . . . Christian hospitality is all of this---and more. Going beyond Martha Stewart-type hints, Mains's biblical approach to entertaining equips you with the skills to serve rather than impress and to reach out with the gospel in acts of love and acceptance.    

Sam's School Chocolatada

Sam had his Christmas party at school on Monday, and it was precious!  They call it a "chocolatada" and had hot chocolate (although it's a bit different here - with cinnamon and cloves, but yummy!) and serve paneton also.  Paneton is a special sweet bread with dried fruit, and it originated in Italy.  At some point the custom of eating paneton at Christmastime caught on here in Peru, and it is a big deal!!  I'll post a picture of some paneton later!  But the BEST part were the cutie pies all dressed up to act out the story of baby Jesus being born!

Sam was supposed to be singing a trio, but he was pretty quiet!  I did notice he knew the words to the song - in Spanish!

Miss Lina, his favorite teacher

Sam was showing me their nativity scene.  Each child brought a piece of the nativity, and he was trying to find his lamb that he had added to the set. 

We are thankful for Sam's school, but sad the school year is ending for summer break!!  They start back the new school year in March.   It's really strange to be celebrating Christmas with "summer break", and to see Christmas ornaments for sale at the same time as beach towels and swimsuits!  Only one of the adjustments we are trying to make!  And it is about 65 to 70 degrees every day right now (and I hear it's pretty cold in Mississippi now!!).

Our December Update

You can click here for our December  family update: https://app.e2ma.net/app/view:CampaignPublic/id:1351964.6210808786/rid:bc835d64c27b0b9a73e29ed04f1090c3

Goodbyes, Hellos, Lots of Change!

We left Arequipa on October 30 for our final move to Trujillo.  We were all a bit nervous and excited about all that was ahead for us!  The goodbyes to our friends in Arequipa were sad.  We had become attached to our new friends there, and were so thankful for the blessing that these relationships were during our school!  We were so thankful for our teachers, friends, and the children's teachers.  Although I do have to say we weren't a bit sad to leave our little apartment!

Sarah Caroline's friend Alli and Pedro, the Director of ABC Language Institute 

Marcus and me with Julio, our grammar teacher 

Conchito, the lady who cooked for us while in Arequipa - she taught me how to shop in Peruvian grocery stores and markets, which is priceless information now!! 

My friend Suzy (she and her husband Rick will be working in the jungle with Pioneers)

David, our grammar class friend, who is from Korea 

Laura, one of our friends from Germany, playing at a "despedida" (going away party) 

Steffi, also from Germany, and Laura

After a over a year of planning, packing, praying, cleaning out and moving to Peru, we are finally in Trujillo!  We are thankful to be here and are blessed to be living in a home that is more than we deserve, and bit by bit we are getting more settled!  We are enjoying our new friends that are a part of the mission team, as well as other friends we are meeting every week.  Marcus has started strong working in the medical clinic, and has lots of goals set for the next year.  All that is going on there deserves a blog entry on its own!  The older three children have started homeschooling, which is certainly an adjustment for all of us!  Sam is in a wonderful preschool in our neighborhood, and he loves it!  

We celebrated our first holiday in a foreign country, and although Thanksgiving isn't a holiday here, we had a nice day of celebrating with our friends!  We had a great afternoon of worship, food, and football at the Baker's home.  We had a traditional Thanksgiving meal of turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce (sent by my mom with a friend who visited), sweet potato casserole, and much more, plus lots of yummy desserts.  For the most part it was pretty normal - except for trying to make cornbread dressing without cornmeal (had to use polenta) and using carrots for "pumpkin" pie and "pumpkin" bread pudding.  It sounds terrible, but it actually turned out pretty good - you cook the carrots with lots of spices and puree it, and voilee! you have something that looks (and mostly tastes) like canned pumpkin.  Now we are gearing up for Christmas, and trying to adjust to how to celebrate with new traditions.  Thankfully my parents are coming for a two week visit starting on Christmas, so we are really excited about that!!

Wes and Jami Baker, the hosts for our Thanksgiving meal 

Marcus with Stuart Mills, Wes Baker, and Dale Ellison

My new friends Susan, Jami, Susan, and Sara

Stuart and Meg Mills, who lead us in worship every Sunday afternoon when our team gathers for lunch, and they also led us in this special day of thanks.  I am so thankful for Meg's friendship!

Heidi, Lydia, Tyler, and Seth, some of the fellows that work with our team

Sam's new buddy Lulu - they go to school together and love playing together in the afternoons too