Ps 107:7 And He guided them by the right way, so as to go to a city to live in.

We made the journey down to Arequipa to try to determine whether God wanted us to move down there before the baby comes in September or whether we should wait until next April as we had originally planned. We were going to wait until April because our team was originally going to be 3 families short in Lima from December through April: one was planning on permanently moving to Cuzco, one would be in the States from Dec. through April and one would be in the States for an entire year beginning in December. But the moving plans fell through for the family going to Cuzco, so it began to look like the people left in Lima might be able to manage without us. In addition, we began wondering if the reason our plans to move to another apartment (which we were assured would come to pass the end of April) continued to fall through and the reason we never felt completely satisfied with any of the doctors we had found in Lima could be due to the fact that God had a place for us to live and a doctor waiting for us in Arequipa. So that is why we drove down to Arequipa last week.

We were a little disappointed with the way the week was playing out at first. We had called a realtor the week before and asked her to begin looking for places to show us on Tues. When we arrived in town and called her she asked if we could get together on Thurs at 4:30 pm (we were originally planning on leaving Friday morning). Finally she agreed to meet with us on Wed. at 4 p.m. but said she only had three houses to show us. Anyway, Tues. kind of felt like a wasted day to us.

The first house the realtor took us to was all locked up and the people who were supposed to have the key never could find it so we never got to see the house . . . but it looked huge!! The second house she had the keys to, but apparently they had just changed the locks so we were only able to get in the front gate. However, as we were walking back to our taxi to leave, a man who was working in the yard said one of the windows was unlocked so he climbed through and let us in. This house was huge also and had a half-dozen staircases which did not seem appropriate for small children . . . not to mention the decorative swimming pool/fountain in the front yard which goes beyond mission policies! :) At the third house thankfully the keys worked. We liked it best of all, but there were two serious problems with the house. One was that our stove would not fit in the given space (they like "Barbie-sized" stoves down here) and the only other option was along a wall of glass. :( The other serious problem was that the laundry area was on the third floor/roof and the only access to it was a narrow metal spiral staircase . . . we would definitely have to hire someone else to do the laundry, lest I break my neck trying to get up and down the stairs . . . and I suppose the washer and dryer would have to be hauled up onto the roof over the side of the house. So, all in all, Wed. was a bit disappointing as well.

Thurs. I had a doctors appointment scheduled with a lady who came recommended by two of our fellow missionaries. The doctor was everything I had been looking for and had been unable to find in Lima. We had been praying that God would make His will plain to us through the doctor's appointment and the house search. So far, the house search was not looking so promising, but the doctor's appointment went so well that I was almost in tears as we left her office. I asked Steve whether I could just fly down to Arequipa to have the baby there even if we couldn't find a house! :)

But the house search took a positive turn on Thurs. as well. We have a single young lady serving with our team in Arequipa and that is one of the reasons our team wanted to place a family down there as well. Anyway, she spoke with one of the guards on her street and he said there were two places for rent in that area. One of the houses was furnished, so that didn't work for us. The other house was an older house and the inside looked a little worn, but it had a nice area for Mark to play outside and a good layout of rooms (laundry on the bottom floor) and a fairly reasonable price, and it is located about 2 blocks from our teammate. We actually might not have stopped by to see about this second house except for the fact that the realtor told us she would meet us at 3pm and show us two more houses, though they were smaller ones (and we are thinking, "yes, please show us something smaller!") but then she wasn't at her office at 3pm nor was she answering her cell phone, so we decided to go check out the second house and come back to her office later (and we still got back to her office before she did!). When the realtor arrived she said that one of the houses had been rented just that morning, but she took us to see the other one. It was a beautiful brand new house in a nice gated neighborhood. We went back to our hotel that evening trying to decide which of these two houses would work for us and whether we should still leave the following morning as planned or whether we needed to stay in town to look into the two houses a bit further.

We decided to stay in town for one more day and try pursuing the older house first. Friday was filled with lots of "yeses" "nos" and "maybes"(if such words exist:). In the end, we were glad we had stayed an extra day because it helped us iron out some details. We ended up saying "yes" to both houses and waiting to see what would happen by Monday when we went to our office for approval.

Just today (Tues.) we received the final approval from our office for renting the older house and we are really excited about moving there in a few short weeks. All in all, we feel like God has graciously fulfilled Ps. 107:7 for us during the past week.

Ps 107:4 Some of you were lost in the scorching desert, far from a town.

If anyone is out there reading this anymore, well, sorry for the four months of silence. I think I will begin posting our monthly newsletters up here so that there is at least something for people to read. :)

Ok, so here is the extended version of our recent trip from Lima to Arequipa. As I have alluded to in the title to this post, we felt like we were lost in the scorching desert, far from any human habitation for hours on end. Who knew that you could drive through so many hours of wasteland??? And this wasn't the pretty kind of desert with blooming cactus . . . in general it was more like a litter box or a moonscape. But part of the way is along the ocean and, if winding along the cliffs along the coastline doesn't make you sick, it is quite pretty. The ocean is a beautiful color and the beaches are deserted (no pun intended! :).


If you were to take a bus from Lima to Arequipa it would take about 14 hours: 6 hours from Lima to Nazca and 8 hours from Nazca to Arequipa. It took us longer than that. First, we had the problem of the pregnant lady (that's me!) who had to stop at every bathroom along the way . . . and some places where there was no bathroom! Then we had the problem of a 2 year old boy who can only take so many hours sitting in a car seat. Not to mention the fact that he got sick on the way from Nazca to Arequipa so we had to stop for that and then we decided to take a longer lunch break to make sure it stayed down as well. Our final problem was that no one had told us exactly how to get there . . . all we heard was "stay on the Pan American Highway and it will take you there". Well, we didn't have a map of Peru with us, but we did have a map of Arequipa showing a connection to the Pan American so we thought we could figure it out. Unfortunately, either there are two Pan American Highways near Arequipa or somehow you get off of the Pan American without them ever telling you so. All of that to say that when we tried to match up our "reality" with the map . . . they didn't match. So we wandered around Arequipa for two hours in the dark trying to find a street sign that would tell us where we were. When we started climbing back into the mountains and saw the city spread out beneath us (we needed to be in the center of town), we decided we had better start asking for some directions. Anyway, we finally found our way to the hotel we were staying at, but we never did figure out what went wrong with the map.

Apparently we should have discussed this discrepancy between "reality" and the map with some of the locals before leaving town, but we never did. So, of course, on the way out we decided to try to follow the map and get to the Pan American. Now it was getting dark as we arrived in Arequipa, but still, we thought something ought to look familiar as we headed out of town . . . but it never really did. Eventually we ended up at a large gate with an armed guard asking what we were doing there . . . we had ended up at a mine of some sort. Well, we told the guard we were looking for the Pan American and he said the turn off was about 1 km. back. So we turned around, wondering how we could have made such a mistake . . . until we saw the turn off. It had been marked clearly enough, but the fact that the road called the Pan American looked more like a deserted path through the wilderness must have caused us not to recognize it as where we had hoped to go. So, what to do??? Well, by this point we could have turned back and added at least another hour on our trip or we could try following this semi-paved track through the wilderness and hope it led to the road we had come in on. We opted for the latter. I don't know why I forgot to get out my camera and take pictures of it - sorry! We felt like we were stuck in a Looney Tunes episode and were on the lookout for Wiley Coyote to drop a boulder on our heads as we came around the bend or through the tunnel. I'm sure the guard at the mine had a good laugh about the crazy gringos looking for the Pan American! Anyway, we wandered down this extremely well beaten (in the literal sense) path for about an hour in the hopes that we would surely eventually come out on the road we were looking for. Not so much fun for a pregnant lady, but I was laughing hysterically most of the way because it was just such a crazy adventure.

Apart from that, the trip back to Lima was much less stressful than the trip out: Mark slept better and didn't get sick, and we were able to make the trip faster. We will be making this trip in the car again soon when we move down to Arequipa, but other than that, my vote is to fly!

Oh, I forgot to mention that we did take time to see some of the famous Nazca lines while we were going through Nazca. It costs about $50 per person to do the airplane tour of all of the designs, but there is an observation tower along the highway where you can climb up and see two of them for 1 sole per person (about 30 cents)! It was pretty impressive for 60 cents! Here are some photos (though my little digital camera doesn't do them justice):

New apartment .... and stuff!

Wow, almost two months! That's bad, even for us. But I don't take all of the blame. During that time, we moved into our apartment (yeah!) and began setting up a new home in Peru. However, because of that, we didn't have any Internet for about three and a half weeks while the phone company tried to figure out what to do with us! Our Internet is through the phone line and we had to get the phone before anything else. The phone took about four days to install but not so fast on the Internet. Such is life here in Peru. Some things go fast, some slow!

Not much else has happened yet. We are beginning to learn what we will do as well as doing all of the "busy work", the second year culture and language learning that we are assigned on the field. Besides that, we have sent off 6 enhancement teams to travel to different parts of Peru and help the work in those areas.

Since no post should be totally boring, here is a video of Mark learning to jump (and do the army crawl!). Enjoy!

Feliz Navidad

What a blessing it is to be a part of the family of God and have family members in every corner of the globe! Though we missed our blood-related family members, we enjoyed getting to know our new family members here in Peru. Christmas Eve we spent with the Austin family (our teammates). They invited a good sized group over and we ate gumbo (a first for me . . . pretty good stuff!) and played "dirty santa" (a game where gifts are exchanged and can be stolen). Mark didn't get to benefit from the gift exchange, but the Austins bought him a little plastic car for him to ride around on. Here is a picture of Mark with one of the Austin boys:

Christmas day, Mark helped me fix blueberry muffins for breakfast:

Then we enjoyed opening our gifts:

In the afternoon we got together with about 50 people from our mission here in Lima and had lunch and hung out and had another gift exchange. We ended up with a very furry stuffed monkey, but managed to trade him for a Springform cake pan!!!!

This Christmas, as we have been here in a new place with new people, I have been thinking about the incarnation. On a very small scale (like, possibly even incomparably small) we are experiencing some of what Jesus did when He left His rightful place at the right hand of His Father and took upon Himself human flesh. Wow! What a difference that must have been! But that was just the beginning of how low He stooped in order to make us part of His family . . . He humbled Himself to the point of death . . . death on a cross . . . my cross . . . your cross. And that is why we are spending our Christmas away from friends, family and the comforts of life in the USA . . . to share this message with others that they too can become part of God's family.

Goodbye and Hello

The last few days have been filled with goodbyes and hellos. Here is a picture of us with fellow graduates Jeremy and Crystal Nelson (also serving in Peru) and Henry and Tasha Clary (serving in Uruguay). The next picture is of our good friends Cesar and Scarleth, their daughter Priscilla and new baby Josue.


We were stressed out about packing for Peru because when we flew from the U.S. to Costa Rica we had 6 checked bags: 70 lbs. each, 3 carry-ons: 40 lbs. each, 3 "personal items": 40 lbs. each. The flight to Peru allowed 6 checked bags: 50 lbs. each, 3 carry-ons: 22 lbs. each, and no additional "personal items". In addition, the information we had about luggage requirements said that our stroller would be counted as a piece of luggage and that Steve's guitar was too big to be a carry-on item and would also be counted as a piece of luggage. We praise God that the didn't count the stroller as any of our pieces of luggage and they allowed the guitar to count as a carry-on!

We arrived in Peru at about 3 p.m. (Peru is in Eastern Standard Time in case you were wondering). Everyone told us that we arrived on one of the few sunny days Lima every receives, but either the clouds came in, or I just don't know what a sunny day looks like around here, because the skies looked pretty gray to me. Anyway, we made it and so did our luggage.

Today we went grocery shopping and I wanted to include a picture, but unfortunately the picture didn't come out right. The store is underground but the entrance/exit is at ground level so you put your grocery cart on an inclined moving walkway (like at airports) and the wheels on the cart automatically lock so that when you are leaving with your loaded cart it doesn't roll down the walkway, crushing you in the process. How cool is that!

We don't know how much Mark actually understands of what has happened over the last few days. It seems like he must have some understanding, though, because when our friends Noemy and Melinda came to visit the night before we left he just clung to them and didn't want to let go. Finally they decided to take him around the block in their car since he really seemed to want to go with them. Now I can tell him that I have stayed up late at night (ok, it was like 9 pm, but that's late for him!) waiting for him to come home while he was out driving around with two girls ever since he was 20 months old! Oh, it was kind of funny because we made it a habit to sleep with a fan running to help block any noises "for Mark's sake". Well, we got rid of the fan several days before leaving Costa Rica and guess who couldn't sleep at night! Yep, the big people. One night we heard an awful noise at 2 am - I thought it was a woman moaning and wailing after losing a baby or something. Steve finally decided it was a cat. But that made us wide awake and we couldn't get back to sleep until about 4am and that was when someone decided to turn up their radio and keep us awake until about 5:30 . . . and of course Mark usually wakes us up at 6. Pretty much the same thing happened the night before we left, only that time it was a man who was plagued by the dry heaves right outside our door. It was pretty awful, too, and I must say I wouldn't have been surprised to see a dead body out there in the morning considering how violently he was retching (or attempting to retch). Anyway, we were exhausted on the plane ride and were hoping for a good nights rest in Peru, but unfortunately Mark did not sleep well last night. We are starting to feel the daze of having a newborn around. Well, hopefully we can get some more sleep soon. If this blog seems to make no sense, well, now you know why! :)

So long, Costa Rica!

Well, this will be our last post from Costa Rica. Saturday we fly to Peru where we will begin using all that we have learned in this last year here in Costa Rica. Time has really flown while we were here. Mark has grown extremely fast. I've learned to communicate in Spanish. We've seen some really beautiful places and made some really good friends. Most of our apartment is packed up and tomorrow is my last day of classes. Friday we have our graduation at the Institute. Pray for us as we make this move to Peru and settle into the work that we know the Lord has led us to do.

Here are a couple of pictures to hold you all over until we have Internet again. I'm not sure when that will be, but it could be a while.

Posadas

Wow, how time flies by! It has been another month since we updated our blog! We have been enjoying a visit from Miriam's parents here as well as getting ready for our impending move. Miriam's parents were here for 10 days. It was a great time and Mark really blossomed under all of the attention. He has started talking nonstop and trying to repeat a lot of the words we say. :-)

This last week at the Institute, we had a culture day when we learn more about Latin culture. This time, we learned about "Posadas". This is an interesting festival. It started with the Aztecs and was celebrated in December. It was a 9-day festival to their highest god. The people would purchase a slave who was healthy and they would parade them around the town, feed them well, and pay homage to them as the representatives of the god. On the 9th day, they would be sacrificed to the god.

When the Spanish conquered Latin America, a priest noticed that this festival was at the same time that the Catholics celebrated the birth of Christ, so they decided to "change" it. They started the tradition of "posadas". In Spanish, posada means an inn. They changed it so that instead of parading slaves around to worship a false god, they would celebrate Christ's birth by having processions in the towns. In these processions, the people would go from house to house carrying a representaton of Mary, Joseph and a donkey. They would sing a song asking if there was any room for them to enter because Mary was going to give birth. The people in the house would reply that there was no room. When they came to the designated house, they would be allowed in and would then have a time of reciting prayers. The hosts would then give everyone a small gift (food, money, or something else). This gift was called an "aguinaldo". Also, as part of the celebration, there would be pinatas that were in the shape of a star and had 7 points. The 7 points symbolized the 7 sins of the Catholic church (pride, greed, etc.)

Here in Costa Rica, posadas aren't celebrated much now but in other Latin countries, they are. To learn about them, we also had pinatas at the Institute. However, the teachers told us that we were too polite when recovering the candy that came out and they showed us how it should be done. Here is a picture of some of the teachers "competing" for candy!
An interesting side note, in Costa Rica, by law, the people have to receive a Christmas bonus equal to 1 month of pay. This is called the "aguinaldo". Even the garbage collectors will come and knock on your gate to receive it!