From Peru with Love,

Hola!

I'm pretty sure Patrick blogged this morning and, if I know Patrick, I know he probably did a great job updating you all on the in's and out's of everything that happened prior to lunch.

After lunch we loaded up the bus for VBS and began another treacherous trip down the steep inclines of the Peruvian dirt roads that had all of us American's covering our eyes and gasping in horror at what would surely be our last moments. We made it, of course, as we always do, arriving to a park full of eager children. Patrick and I immediately picked up the jump rope and began twirling for the children who would line up nose-to-ponytail in fours and fives to jump all at once. Some of our college kids participated as well - Gordon and Michael both took their turns jumping. After rec time it was Bible story time and Bible song time which was welcomed warmly by both the children and the exhausted jump-roped-out youth. During the Bible story skit,  Colby, once again, played the crucial role of "farm animal" and left us all chuckling. Today's VBS craft involved paper plates, glue, beans, and stickers - just the right combination for chaos - leaving each child with a huge smile on his or her face. For what more could we ask?

After VBS and dinner, we packed it up and headed to the Inca market where we were able to test our bartering techniques. My personal best was talking a girl down from 20 soles to 15 (not much to brag about, honestly). After the Inca Market, we headed to the City Square - an enormous area surrounded by massive (and very beautiful) churches. We enjoyed coffee in a small cafe and had the chance to walk around some, taking pictures.

And all the while, there are the most impressive mountains surrounding us - so impressive they almost look fake, like some photographer's backdrop for those portraits your parents make you take when you're five - these mountains that keep us all in check, reminding us constantly of our size and of our God who is able to do this and so, so much more.

I love you, Mom. I wish you were here. You are just what Peru needs.

Keep us in your prayers!

Jessica Phillips

Calm Before the Storm

So that title may be a little bit misleading...  I'm writing this right after lunch before we go to VBS.  We're all relaxing and resting after our morning at the Cuzco market and downtown church.  At the market we spread out and invited people to come see our 'production' that we put on as a conversation starter.  A few, well a lot actually, sang the song "Prince of Peace" and then we acted out the tale of the Good Samaritan from Luke.  Afterwards, Lauren gave an explanation of what the parable meant and how it relates to our lives and the lives of others around us.  We then broke back up into groups and asked those around us what they thought about what we had done and if they had anything that we could pray about for them.  My group went back further into the market and talked to one of the ladies at her stall.  She really enjoyed the music and and the skit that we performed.  After talking with her and praying for her family, I'm so grateful that we have our translators with us as well as others who know more Spanish than I do!  I keep getting the little Italian, Greek, and Spanish mixed up in head so much that I don't know what language will come out of my mouth sometimes!
After the market place, we went farther into Cuzco and went to the church that the High Schoolers went to when they were here.  A few of us sang a set of worship songs, in English of course, and joined with the church's worship band for a song.  Mrs. Brantley was kind enough to record of our songs and we've posted it to YouTube and we'll include the link here later when it finishes processing.

Sunday Morning Worship

Elizabeth also shared her testimony about what she's learned in our short time here, and it was wonderful. We listened to the sermon in both Spanish and English about being on guard about false prophets, and participated in the service along side our Peruvian brothers and sisters.
We came back to our hostel and had another fantastic meal just before Mr. Bailey finally showed up after his marathon travel experience.  We're about to load back into the buses and travel across the valley to the smiling faces of all the children at VBS.  After yesterday, I don't know if I'll be able to go through another four days!  They have so much energy and are so happy to see us!  That's all for now, someone will be back to tonight to talk about our time in downtown Cuzco at the main square.

Patrick Devore

Playing Games....at VBS and at "Home"

At VBS this afternoon, you would have thought we pulled up in an ice cream truck with the way kids came flocking towards us when the bus parked beside the playground. We spent the next hour being showed around the park and loved on by whichever of the kids decided to cling to our sides. One little girl named Nancy stuck herself to me as if we had both dressed in Velcro, and so many of us climbed onto the swing set that I'm surprised it didn't collapse.
They were all so enthusiastic, and their attitudes were positively contagious. By the end of the day I think we were all equally reluctant to part ways, but we did with loud promises to see each other tomorrow. Hasta manana!
Noah, Zack and I were unwilling to let the afternoon's fun come to an end, so we broke out a deck of cards and taught the kid that followed us back to the hostel (don't worry, he was supposed to...his mother cooks our food, and she would have been quite upset had we left him at the park) how to play a new card game we call Secret. Abran then surprised us all be winning the first two hands by a landslide. After dinner we taught two of our interpreters to play as well, and something tells me we have not seen the last of our card games....

~written by Samantha Duke and inspired by Noah Bailey

Just Keep Digging, Digging, Digging....What do we do? We DIG!

This morning my team and I headed out to the construction site for our Morning Ministry only to find that "construction" was quite the misnomer. The wall that the high schoolers built two weeks ago was still standing strong and seemed complete. So what were we supposed to do?
Well, in the interim between our trips, two church members had carved out another five feet of the mountain side, leaving behind a massive pile of sand, rocks and other debris. It was our job to move said dirt to alongside the wall, beginning the process of leveling out what will one day be a magnificent soccer field. We grabbed shovels and wheelbarrows and began to dig. And when we got tired of digging, we dug some more. And then we kept digging. For almost three hours.
Thankfully, we were not alone. The entire project has been organized and put into action by various Corazon church members on a volunteer basis; it has been in the works for about two years, and there is still so much more to be done. However, they have continued working tirelessly. It is truly impressive to watch them work (and to help out, of course) because of the sheer focus that they put into every step of the process. God has called them to build this field for their community, and rather than raise funds to have someone else do the work, every member of the church has taken it upon themselves to help with the "construction."
We can learn a lot from Corazon church and the dedication of her members to this project. It is truly a sight to see, and that doesn't even take into account the magnificent view overlooking all of Cusco that we got to enjoy while we worked. We tried singing while we worked, but at over 11,000 ft, I was the only one who thought singing was worth the extra breath. ;)

~Samantha Duke

Saturday morning

Yesterday afternoon was full of new faces and names--about 50-60 of them. We visited the VBS site and used our spanglish to communicate as best as we could with the children who came to the park, eager to spend the next 5 days in VBS. We played "futbol," jumped rope, swung on the swings, and slid down the slide as the children beamed with excitement. This morning, my work group went to "El Arca" (translanted "the ark" in English) which is a home full of children started by an American family with 9 children of their own. El Arca houses 43 children from ages 2-20. We began the day by asking each of the children, "Como te llamas?" or "What is your name?". The children loved playing games, such as "bear, fish, mosquito" which is a version of rock paper, scissors using hand motions and sounds. They also loved singing songs--Jesus is my super hero being their favorite. After the outside activities, we went inside for some crafts. The children made crowns with jewels and glitter glue and created pictures with markers and lots of stickers. Although we wanted to bring some of them home with us, we told them "ciao," gave lots of hugs, and left for lunch.

-Lauren Allen

We have arrived in Cusco!

After leaving Raleigh at 2:45 PM yesterday, we arrived in Cusco this afternoon at 2:30 (3:30 Raleigh time).  The beauty of the mountains and the area is breathtaking.  We just finished lunch, which was chicken noodle soup and some bread, and are getting ready to go visit our Vacation Bible School site later this afternoon.

Thanks for all the prayers for safety while traveling.  They are very appreciated.

We will be in touch again soon...

One prayer request that we have is that Dean Bailey was not able to travel with us yesterday.  He had some passport issues and had to fly down to Atlanta last night.  He had a meeting with the immigration officials and has procured a new passport.  He has a flight scheduled for Saturday from Atlanta to Lima.  However, he is going to try and get on a flight tonight to Lima via stand-by.  If he is able to get on the earlier flight, he will get to Cusco on Saturday.  Please pray for his safe travels as well as getting onto stand-by today.