Daily Sightings

What we see out our front door, almost daily.  Our trash may be someone else's treasure (or food).  Usually, they are looking for things to recycle.  

Lots to Catch Up on!

It's been really busy since Christmas, and we have somewhat settled in to our life here in Trujillo, Peru!     I was about to write we are settled in a routine, but that's not quite true.  Every week has been different, and we have had lots of changes to what would be "routine".  So, for now I'll just say we are more "settled".

It's summer here, and we are enjoying the sun (but not always the hot nights with no air conditioning) and all the neighborhood kids are out of school.  What a blessing it has been that our kids have met friends now!!  We are so thankful!  The big deal here is "carnaval" for the summer months and the kids throw water balloons almost every day!  They spend hours filling them up and then in the afternoons all the kids in the neighborhood get together and chase each other having water balloon fights.  And this is how my kids have met friends.  Who would have known?  Also, what a blessing it is that our children are able to take tennis lessons.  We have a place only a couple of blocks from our house where they can play, much cheaper than the US - they play 5 days a week, and they get exercise, practice Spanish, and meet other kids.  Sam even gets to play!!  They have this special if you have four children the fourth gets to take lessons free (not many people have four kids here!) and so we may have a little tennis pro in our family!  God is good!

 

We have had lots of visitors, Marcus has been busy in the medical clinic, and we have "maintained" a little school work with the summertime here.  Two of our children have had birthdays - Sarah Caroline is now 10 and Ben is 8 ( I think I may cry!!!).  We also have been going to the orphanage every Friday, and I'll be sure to write a post with lots of pictures about that!  I spend lots of time cooking too, and I hope to start sharing some recipes here on my blog!  It's busy here, and some days are really good and some days are tough.  Some days we soak up the sun,  love the precious people we meet, enjoy the fresh mangoes, but some days some of us cry, get overwhelmed, tired, and want to come home.   Regardless of how we "feel" and what our emotions tell us, God is good and continues to give us peace and rest that this is His plan for us.  We have never doubted that this is where we should be.  To me, this is a gift - God doesn't have to give us this peace about His plan - there could be days full of doubt, but I am so thankful that He has been gracious to plant in our hearts security and contentment that this is His plan for our family.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.  Psalm 118:1

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!!).