Smiths in Peru

Last Baptism

2011-04-20T12:27:00.000-07:00

We had our last baptism here in Puerto last Saturday. People from all the 40/40's communities and the mother church were there getting baptized or celebrating the baptisms. In all there were 9 people baptized and a group of about 70 there supporting them. It was a wonderful time!

The group worshiping together before the baptisms

Pastor Freddy with those who were baptized

Baptisms are always exciting, emotional and amazing but it was even more so this time knowing it was the last one we would be at. We are excited for those who made this commitment and we know there will be more in the future! Please keep them in your prayers!

Lessons in Faith from Edith

2011-04-15T20:56:00.000-07:00

In El Triunfo, Ana and Elisa have a contact by the name of Edith who has cancer of the tongue, which has been recently growing and causing significant pain. Over the last few months, it has been a beautiful thing to see her faith and the help of the cell group as she deals with this very difficult situation. I can’t think of a more honorable request than believing and asking her cell group in faith to fast and pray for her situation. The cell group gladly did and not only that helped organize and hold a BBQ chicken dinner to help raise money for her to go to Arequipa for exams. The cell group is doing their part to help a fellow sister with what little they have…this is Acts 2:44-45 happening in this cell group. And this last month God answered a different prayer of Edith’s...just two weeks ago her husband met Christ during a film recently showed in their neighborhood. For anyone that reads this, we want to ask for your continued prayer for Edith as she is currently in Arequipa for medical testing.

Prayer Update

2011-04-08T06:53:00.000-07:00

March flew by and now we find ourselves with only 3 1/2 weeks left here in Peru. Just so you know, I just looked at the calendar 3 times to make sure that was right. I can't believe our time here in Peru is coming to a close so fast. I don't think I have really panicked about that until just right now. Okay, that will be another post:) For now I really just wanted write a little update as to how we could use prayer in the next few weeks.

Leadership Transition: This is huge! Right now almost all of the cell groups our team has started have leaders from the mother church taking over. In most cases the leaders are now in charge and our teams are just there for support so that they are confident and ready when we leave. Please pray for this transition, that the people in the groups would begin to see the new leaders as their leaders, and that the new leaders are committed to the groups and in continuing to share the gospel in those communities. Please pray Pastor Freddy as he is overseeing all and working with the leaders to grow in their leadership and walk with Christ.

Sending of Leaders/Pastors: There is talk of getting a leader/pastor for a couple of the church plants. Please pray for this possibility!

Baptisms April 16th: Our team is planning one last big baptism event on April 16th. Please pray that the Lord would touch the hearts of the people to have the desire to be baptized. Pray for those who do have the desire to be able to come that day. Pray for it to be a day of rejoicing and celebration!

Transition: There is lots to do as we prepare to go home. Our entire team leaves Puerto on May 2nd to return to our homes. Please pray for all the legistics of getting everything ready to go, packed or sold. Pray for our hearts as we prepare to leave the place we have called home, the people we have called family and the work we have poured our lives into. Pray for the transition back home for each of our team members...for jobs, homes, family and returing to our home culture.

Thank you all for your prayers, love and support. I feel like I say this every time, but it is true: we could not do this without you! Thank you!

La Joya

2011-03-24T14:55:00.000-07:00

La Joya is a community outside of Puerto. Andrew and Daniel have been discipling and holding cell group meetings there for the past 9 months. They just recently united their two groups and the group is meeting at a home of one of their contacts, Hermana Guadalupe. Last weekend we celebrated Guadalupe becoming a member of the church! Andrew and Daniel have two leaders from the mother church in Puerto who are working with them and will be continue with the group when they leave. Brother Mauro and his mom, Sister Lurdes are already acting as leaders in the cell group and we are thankful for their commitment to our brothers and sisters in La Joya. Please pray for the believers in La Joya and Mauro and Lurdes as they grow as leaders.

The group gathering outside where they meet.

Sister Lurdes leading the group in scripture (Mauro on the very left)

Sheep welcome

Andrew and Daniel heading out for another discipleship meeting

Mining Strike Taking Place

2011-02-28T19:20:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, we would like to take a second and explain a little of what's going on in our town over the last week and ask for your prayers of protection for our family and team. Gold mining in Puerto Maldonado is the number one industry and brings in a ton of money. The miners have had roughly a year to stop their illegal dredge mining on the river. Just this last week the Peruvian government took action against many dredges and torched them. It is our understanding that they also found underaged prostitutes in the small mining camps and shut them down apparently adding to the already elivated tension. All of this is now resulting in a mining strike in Puerto that just today (Monday) got considerably more involved and borderline violent. Today our motokar was surrounded by 10 miners ready to slash our tires and tonight about 300 ran by our house destroying property while being chased by the police. While it's too early to tell their intent and what will become of this situation we want to ask for your prayers for our team and the ministry over our last few months in Puerto, which are extremely important to the continued success of our cell groups. And since we will not be having our teams go out with this going on, we just ask for a quick resolution, if not for the mining situation, then certainly for the Evangelistic situation. We were unable today to go downtown due to the miners blocking every intersection and threatening stores and people, so we'd also like prayers for the rounding up of food for our team in the next few days and weeks. Thank you all for your continued prayers and we know God is bigger than these skirmishes. God Bless,

1 Peter 5:6-7 "Humble yoursleves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you."

El Truinfo Baptism

2011-02-23T20:02:00.000-08:00

This last Sunday, the 20th of February we joined the cell groups in El Triunfo for a day of celebration. They are currently holding reunions three days a week in El Triunfo including a Sunday morning service since it is located far from our mother church and due to the large number of committed folks attending. This Sunday was special because it was a day to witness what the children had learned during their week of Vacation Bible School that was planned by our missionaries Ana and Elisa. It was also special because following the service they had planned a baptism for 5 of their contacts. It was a beautiful day watching the kids exitement as they received their finished awards and crafts, recite scripture and sing together in front of the church group. Immediately following, we had a Peruvian style potluck with chicken nibblet soup and cake together before heading to the baptism. The baptism took place about 7km outside of town at a little jungle creek that was absolutely perfect. We just love the picture of Kai stepping into the water and getting checked out by the ladies. It was pretty comical because some of the adults had commented on Kai's whiteness, but Kai just responded in Spanish like any good and confident boy would, "yeah the bottoms of my feet are pretty white." We then celebrated the baptism of their 5 contacts and watched as their whole "new" church community came out to support this decision. We're telling you, it was awesome! This is one of the greatest joys that we get to experience in our ministry, the time with our team witnessing God reap His harvest due in part to the faithfullness of those willing to sacrifice for them. (that you!) Additionally, we wanted to include a photo of our two missionaries with the couple that will be taking over leadership of their cell group when we leave this coming May. They are a beautiful couple that is mature in their faith and just love the people of El Triunfo. We couldn't be happier knowing that this cell group will continue to thrive long after we are gone.

Baptisms and Membership in Castanos

2011-02-17T14:30:00.000-08:00

Callie and Carmen have been working hard spreading God's Word in Castanos (an area of Puerto). They currently have a prayer group every Tuesday night and a service on Saturdays (as well as discipleship meetings throughout the week). This Saturday we had a baptism for 3 in their group. Washington, Betsi and Noe were all baptized. We have written about Washington and Betsi before (see New Life) and let me just say how awesome it is to see a couple come to Christ, and the ways the Lord uses to reveal Himself to his children. The night before the baptism Washington and Betsi stopped by and asked us if we would be their "padrinos." This is sort of like a mentor role in their lives and we were very honored! Please pray for these three as they continue to grow in Christ!

Some of the Castanos group at the baptism

Tyson and I with Washington and Betsi

Callie, Noe, Washington (with daughter, Angela), Betsi, Pastor Freddy and Carmen after baptism

Another awesome event for the Castanos group was that 2 of their ladies, Hermana Ericka and Hermana Jovana, became members this last Sunday. Praise the Lord for their desire to be commited to the church!

Please pray for this group in Castanos. They are growing and learning and we are excited about what is happening. Please pray specifically for a strong leader to take over the group when we leave! Thank you for your prayers!

Catch up...

2011-02-17T14:25:00.000-08:00

There were a few blogs I hadn't posted yet from 2010. Just a few memories I didn't want to forget and if you want to check them out click on Paraguay, Puno, Chachani (or just scroll down:)

Church Anniversary

2011-02-13T21:08:00.000-08:00

The 4th of February we celebrated the church’s 3rd anniversary here in Puerto. Pastor Freddy arrived 3 years ago and began the ground work to establish the Church of the Nazarene here in Puerto Maldonado. We arrived 15 months ago and it has been awesome to see how the church has grown. We also celebrated the church arriving at the 4th level (there are 5 levels to the churches here) with 51 (official) members. The 5th and final level comes when they have planted another church (a group of 12 members). It has been a privilege to be a part of this church, to see Pastor Freddy’s passion as he evangelizes and watch many contacts from our team's communities coming to the mother church. The evening was one of celebration with special songs, skits and yummy food after.

Pastor Solano, the District Superindentent, with Pastor Freddy and leaders of the church.

Tyson played Jesus in a drama the youth of the church put on. It has an awesome message and still moves me everytime I see it.

The church fellowshiping and celebrating with food and cake after the service!

Thank you!

2011-01-17T04:45:00.000-08:00

We want to thank everyone for their prayers, concern and offers to help. These past couple weeks at time have been extremely frustrating and difficult, but God has giving us little victories each day to keep us going. He is faithful to care for our needs!
Praises! The airline found our luggage. We currently have recieved all but one of our suitcases. Praise the Lord! This was in my mind a miracle because we had no record on our tickets of luggage and two of our suitcases didn't even have our names on them! Please pray we recieve the other one soon. They did locate it but we just have not gotten it yet for some reason.
Also, we have found a place to live and are moving in today. It was very hard to find places to live here. There are not a lot of apartments and there is no organized way to advertise/find them. We did a lot of driving around and knocking on doors. Just as it was feeling hopeless the Lord led us to knock on the right door with a place that was opening up the next week. We move in today and are looking forward to finally getting settled as a family of four! Please pray for this transition. This has all been really hard on Kai. We have been here and there for the past month and a half and the whole time he has wanted to go "home". Now "home" is a new place (where we will only be for 4 months before moving back to the States). Please keep him in your prayers. He is a little trooper but this has been difficult.
I really can't express in words how touched and encouraged we were by so many of you. Our church has been so generous in helping us cover these unexpected costs, praying for us and encouraging us. So many of you have offered to help in any way you can! Thank you, your encouragment and support of us kept us going when we didn't want to take another step. God bless you all!

We need your prayers!!!

2011-01-08T04:51:00.000-08:00

We just arrived back from Arequipa Wednesday. We arrived to a house that is flooded with sewer water. The tub backed up, overflowed and there is sewer water everywhere in the house. Even if we could clean up the water, there is mold everywhere and there is no way to clean it up and dry it out enough to have it safe to live in...especially with a newborn. All of our stuff is ruined. To top it off all of our luggage from Arequipa is missing...so what we would have had is gone as well. We are staying at a hotel and searching for a new place to live while Tyson works at cleaning up the mess, getting the septic functioning again and getting clean water going for our team upstairs. One praise in all this is for Tyler and Alex. Tyler is cluster support for Cusco and Alex is a 40/40 there. They heard about our problems and immediately offered to come help! Please, please pray for a miracle, that our luggage will be found! Also, please pray for safety for Tyson, Tyler and Alex as they work and for widom each step of the way. Also, I am currently searching for a place to rent...pray we can find something as it is very difficult and expensive here. Thank you for keeping us lifted in prayer...we are in desperate need of it right now!

Below are some pictures of what we came home to.

Tyler and Alex knee deep in gunk...these two definately have servant hearts!

Prayers...

2011-01-02T21:02:00.000-08:00

Well, we leave Arequipa tomorrow morning and head to Lima. It has been a good month of adjusting to life with two kiddos, family time and celebrating the birth of our Lord. You can see more on our family blog here. Tomorrow when we arrive in Lima we have an appointment at the US Embassy to register Grady as a U.S citizen and apply for his passport. Please pray for everything to go smoothly.

We leave Lima and head back to Puerto on Wednesday. We recieved word Christmas Eve that there was flooding at our house. The flood water got into our water cistern and also fried our pump. We sent two of our 40/40s (the only ones there for Christmas) to Cusco since we couldn't do anything from here. They also told us we have "dirty, smelly" water running out of our front door. This is most likely due to the septic issues we have had and thought were fixed. (click here to see pics of our flooding last year). All that to say, your prayers would be greatly appreciated! We don't know what we are going back to exactly but we know we have our work cut out for us and it is a bit overwhelming to think of bringing an infant home to that. Thank you, thank you for your prayers, we couldn't do this without them!

Chachani

2010-12-31T21:55:00.000-08:00

Tyson had the opportunity to climb Mt. Chachani on New Years Eve with 6 other Extremies. Mt. Chachani is the highest of 3 volcanos surrounding Arequipa. Again, I wasn't there so I won't write a lot. Just want to say I am super proud of my hubby. Oh, did I mention how high it is? No, oh yeah, only 19,939 feet. That's right. And he made it to the top. And back (that was the most important to me). I asked him if he had anything to say about it and this was it:

"19,939 feet. Hardest and dumbest thing I've ever done."

Tyson at the summit.

Tyson with Chachani in the background.

Puno

2010-12-31T21:50:00.000-08:00

While we were in Arequipa, Tyson and his mom were able to take a couple days and go visit Puno. They took a day and visited Lake Titicaca and the floating reed islands (Uros). At 12,500 feet, it is the highest, navigable lake in the world. Since I wasn't there I don't have a ton of stories so I will mostly post pictures.

Tyson and Georganne on an island of Lake Titicaca.

This is one of the Uros (floating reed islands). They are man made and Tyson said they are amazing. Their houses, seats, boats, everything is made out these reeds.

Tyson with a couple of the Uros men.

Tyson rowing the boat seen below.

The Extreme team for Puno arrived there just after the first of the year. The Duerres are the cluster family for Puno and we have loved getting to know them. Please pray for them as they share the gospel with the people of Puno.

Puerto Video

2010-12-27T14:23:00.000-08:00

40/40 Interviews in Puerto Maldonado - Entrevistas de 40/40 en Puerto Maldonado from Extreme Nazarene Ministries on Vimeo.

It's a BOY!

2010-12-07T08:09:00.000-08:00

Introducing...
Grady Zane Smith
December 3, 2010, 4:25 pm
7lbs, 19 1/2 inches

New Life!!

2010-12-02T07:04:00.000-08:00

Greetings from Arequipa. We are currently away from our team in Puerto so that Tracy can have better medical attention for the birth of "baby Peru." We've been checked out by our doctor and she is saying that it could come sometime this next week. We welcome your prayers for safety for Tracy and the new life about to join our family and possibly that this little one would come after December 10 when my mom arrives to help out.

Along the lines of New Life we also wanted to share a quick story from the cell group of Callie and Carmen. The story is all about God's grace and His big picture plan.

At the local jail our team has been hosting regular discipleship meetings which have been growing steadily, and about 6 months ago a woman named Betsy (pronounced Bexy) met Jesus through this discipleship class. Our team tries not to inquire as to the reason the women are in prison so we were unaware as to why she was there.

At the same time, Callie and Carmen had been hosting their cell group in "Castanos" (a part of Puerto) in the house of a local contact named Sixto. Sixto's family including their son Washington who met Jesus through the cell group held in their home. During their meetings a prayer request was brought up by Washington. He asked for God's help in freeing his wife who was wrongfully imprisoned on charges of prostitution. Washington had been raising his daughter alone since the situation with his wife took place. The cell group then began praying diligently for his request.

Meanwhile in the jail the guards decided to do a random search of the jail grounds, where they found guns, knives and drugs. The jail then closed the doors to any visitors including our group and any family member for a month and a half. The cell group of Callie and Carmen continued in prayer for Washington and his wife.

Amazingly, as the jail began opening their doors and our group entered again to hold our discipleship meetings, we found out that through a series of amazing circumstances she was to be released in the coming weeks. It was at this point we put the pieces together that Betsy and Washington were connected and called by God at the same moment yet in separate locations. During their time apart both were unaware of Christ's work in each others lives, and we were all reminded of faithful God is. Betsy and Washington are now both followers of Christ and attending the cell group of Callie and Carmen together. Their relationship is continually growing and their daughter will now grow up in a Christian home. This is what NEW LIFE is all about.

This is a picture I took of Callie, Betsy and Carmen after their cell group on November 20, where Betsy preached for the first time an incredible sermon of how God used Moses even when he believed he was unable and unprepared to be used by God. God can change use any period in our lives to change our hearts, our circumstances, our lives and homes. Amen!

For this story I used wife and husband for easier understanding of the story. Betsy and Washington are what's called "Convivientes" or cohabitants, they are committed but please be in prayer that they would pursue marriage in front of God.

Paraguay

2010-11-10T07:32:00.000-08:00

Tyson and I were blessed to have the opportunity to visit Paraguay in November and get a sneak peek at Extreme Paraguay. Extreme Paraguay is a partnership between Felix Vargas and Extreme Nazarene Ministries to jump-start an effort to plant 12 churches of 1000 in the capital city of Asuncion using short term volunteers and 5 pairs of 40/40 long term missionaries. To learn more click here.

We were so impressed with Felix, his leadership, church and family. We know that God has big plans for Asuncion and look forward to seeing how He uses Felix and the Extreme team that will be down there. Please join us in prayer for Extreme Paraguay!

A few highlights:

Felix shared the gospel with the Paraguay national soccer team. They came to know Christ and he now does a devotional and prayer with them before each game. Tyson was able to go to a game and meet some of the team. The man on the left is the goalie and a strong believer who had invited Felix to come share with his team.

One night they showed a movie of Felix's testimony. They had a great turn out and many stood up to make a commitment to Christ. Afterwards we had a BBQ and fellowship to celebrate the birthday of one of the church members. It was a really fun evening and we felt so welcomed by the church!

On Sunday night we were able to go to their church service. They were also voting in leaders that week. It was reallly neat to see people step up and want to lead. Felix has only been at this church for about a year (there were only 2 people when he arrived), and at the leadership meeting before church there were about 20 people attending.

We stayed with the Vargas family. I adored his wife, Liliana. She is such a strong woman and has such a servant's heart. Her testimony is amazing. She prayed for Felix for 7 years...stayed faithful to him even when he wasn't, and showed him Christ's love. They have 3 children and the youngest two are twins just a couple years older than Kai. Kai had a blast playing with them all week!

Inaguration

2010-11-01T16:55:00.000-07:00

The last weekend in October we celebrated the inaguration of our church building. The people of the church worked hard giving their time and money to finish off the tile, ceiling and platform. The service included special presentations from different groups in the church with special music and skits. It was a wonderful time of celebration!

Here is Tyson, Janes & Daniel cleaning up after three days of tiling.

A before picture (the painting happened a few months back)

And after!

It was a full church that night with many people from our cell groups as well

Discipleship in the Jail, Praises!

2010-09-22T08:48:00.000-07:00

Pastor Freddy, the 40/40’s and Tracy visit the jail every two weeks to teach a women´s discipleship class that has been steadily growing. However, the jail had been closed for all of August because the guards had found guns, knives and drugs inside the jail groups. This last week was their first visit in over a month and they found out that one of the women received her release date which will be October 5th. She said before moving home to her city in the north that she is going attend the our church to say thanks and then get information on a church in her town. Another one of the women receives a trial date on the 26th of this month to decide when she will be released, likely within three months but she is from Puerto and has two adolescent kids and wants to join our church when she is released. During our absence she completed the 13 lessons from the discipleship material on her own and gave it to Pastor Freddy to ask if he would review it for her. In their last visit over a month ago one of the women had had a large painful tumor on her neck that was about the size of a tennis ball that Freddy and the team prayed for. The original plan was that she would be transferred to the Cusco jail and have surgery there. However, upon our return to the jail her tumor had gone down and the pain has gone away and as of now is not going to go get surgery. Amen! And one of the contacts of Callie and Carmen’s in Castanos, brother Washington had his wife wrongfully inprisoned for months and after much prayer, time and money she was finally given proper attention and released this last week after months in prison. Please pray that she will join their cell group along with her husband who has met Christ. It was a wonderfully
visit for our team and we are rejoice knowing God is the one behind it all. Please keep these women and our visits to the jail in your prayers.

Cusco Project

2010-09-10T09:54:00.000-07:00

We were so blessed to be able to spend a week in Cusco in August to help out with a short term project there. The best part was...the short term team was from our home church in McMinnville! It was so wonderful to see everyone and it was so awesome to see the heart they have for missions! A lot of construction was done on the 40/40 house and church (see pictures below) and there was a ton of impact as well. A few of the things we did: gave out free hot chocolate and showed the Felix Vargas testimony, visited the women´s jail and did massages, hospital visitation, put on kids festivals in an orphanage and spent a day out at a tent city. The little pueblo had tons of damage from rains and flooding back in February and many people were living in tents. The group had brought down tons of clothes and kits to help them out. We were able to hand out the items, put on a kids festival and pray for individuals.

Thank you to the group that came down from McMinnville. It was really such a blessing to see you all and work along side you! We love you and thank God for you!

Handing out hot chocolate

Playing with the parachute at the kids festival

Lots of balloon animals were made that day...brining a smile to lots of little faces!

The people waiting for the blessings of clothing and basic needs in part of the tent city.

Cusco construction

2010-09-10T09:52:00.000-07:00

Everyone worked so hard on the house and church. It was looking amazing when we left and they still had a few more days there. Thanks all for your hard work...this house will be an amazing blessing and place of rest for the Cusco team and the church a blessing to the community!

Prayers for Cusco

2010-08-12T14:22:00.000-07:00

Our family is headed to Cusco tomorrow to participate in a short term project with friends from our church in McMinnville. Please pray for our time, safety for those traveling from the states (currently) and for the safety of our team while we our gone. Thank you and God Bless!

On an unrelated note...we have had some beautiful sunsets lately and Tyson got some pictures of one the other day....

VBS

2010-08-12T14:15:00.000-07:00

Last week was the last week of a two week vacation for the schools here (sort of like our Christmas break) and so a couple of our teams but on Vacation Bible Schools in their communities. Kai and I were able to help out at one in Enace with Callie and Carmen...don't you love how here you can just meet under a tree:)

Ana and Elisa had a huge turn out at theirs in 7 de Junio with over 60 kids each day. Because their community was close to the church they were able to invite the kids to Sunday School and they did a presentation!

Both teams did a great job and the kids had a great time learning about the love of Christ! Please pray for these little lives touched and for their families!

Spiritual Retreat

2010-08-02T10:27:00.000-07:00

This past weekend our Church here in Puerto held their first Spiritual Retreat. Many of the 40/40´s contacts, church members and even a couple who received the flyer days before the event attended and now their lives are changed forever. Our local Pastor (Freddy) organized everything incredibly and there was no time that wasn´t used well. I believe he said there were 17 themes taught by 5 teachers, including Pastor Freddy, Pastor Herman (from Puno), Elisa our 40/40 and two Brazilian pastors over the 3 days. There were 42 in attendance, 29 adults and was held at a beautiful location outside the city.
Three people were baptized, including our 40/40´s cook Hermana Luz. When she began working for us about 10 months ago, she was not a follower of Christ so it was awesome to see her make the decision to get baptized. Included is a picture of our group (top), Above Kai is officiating the baptizm and below is the beautiful location that it was held. It was a very exciting weekend that cemented people´s faith in Christ and brought the church together. What´s incredible is that from our group, 26 have pre-registered for the next retreat planned in a few months. They call these retreats ¨Encuentros¨ or in english ¨Encounters¨ and that is what God wants is to encounter with us face to face. This weekend brought Christ´s face nice and close. Amen.

Prayers...

2010-07-31T10:14:00.000-07:00

Right now the team is at a spiritual retreat for the church. Please pray for all those attending, that those who don't know Christ would come to know him, and that those that do would deeper roots in him! There were about 40 people going so this could have a huge effect on our church! Pray for our team as they help minister to kids and adults. Tyson took Kai with him so pray for opportunities for both of them to be lights for Christ this weekend as well! Pray for safety of all as well:) God Bless!

Expecting...

2010-07-31T09:54:00.000-07:00

We have shared with many but have not yet blogged about it....we are expecting baby #2 in December! We want to thank all of you who have been praying for us. The first 3 1/2 months were pretty hard. There were lots of unknows and I was having bleeding on top of the normal fatigue and morning sickness. I am now 20 weeks (halfway!) and things are going really well. I am feeling great (if not large) and have had no more complications. We are praising the Lord for his healing in this area! I have been feeling the baby more for a while and Tyson has been able to feel it for the last few weeks. I love it and feel like he/she is giving me a little kick saying "I'm doing good mom" :)We are planning on having the baby in Peru but will be flying to Arequipa where the medical care is better than here in Puerto. We are excited for this new addition. Oh and we will be waiting to find out what we are having. While there is the technology here to find out, Tyson is a big fan of suprises so I am willing to wait since I insisted on finding out with Kai:) Kai is very excited to have a brother or sister and the team (mostly the girls) are excited to have a new baby around:) We appreciate your prayers for continued protection! We will keep you updated!

This is the only pic I have so far. 15 weeks...I am quite a bit bigger now and will continue to post pics once in a while on our family blog here.

Arequipa

2010-07-31T09:44:00.000-07:00

Beyond the ministry happening in Arequipa it was just wonderful to be there. Flying into Arequipa I had a flashback to of when we first arrived in Peru (we lived in Arequipa for our first 3 months here). I was shocked at the crazy traffic, the half finished buildings, and the foreign language. This time getting off the plane I looked around thinking “Wow, this place is so modern.” After living in Puerto my perspective sure changed:) Beyond the conveniences (real cars, grocery stores, coffee, hot water, the wonderful cool, dry weather, etc.) it was so wonderful to see old friends again. We stayed with our friends, the Englunds, while we were there and Kai was in heaven playing with their two girls! We were also able to meet all the other cluster families and made wonderful connections and Kai had a great time making new friends with all the kids. The last weekend we were there we had a staff retreat with all of the Extreme Staff. It was a huge group and it was so fun to hang out and relax with everyone. We went to Mollendo a couple hours from Arequipa at the beach. The weather was really cold but Kai and I still managed to get wet! Tyson played soccer both afternoons for hours. It was a good weekend for fellowshipping and relaxing.

Kai and I playing in the freezing water

One of Kai's favorite activities was feeding the birds in the Plaza. This kid has no fear (or disgust) of these things. He would sit down and they would practically pile on top of him. He really wanted to hold one but I was too grossed out to get close enough to help him...sorry kiddo.

We enjoyed a Father's Day/Goodbye dinner with our group from Trevecca and Felix & Liliana Vargas in the Plaza de Armas in Arequipa

Love Extreme Part 3 - Love 2

2010-07-31T09:37:00.000-07:00

Following the big event we had more short term projects going on for Love 2. Groups headed out to Iquitos, Pucallpa, Puno and Cusco. Our 40/40s, Andrew and Daniel, stepped up and lead the group who went to Puno. The rest of our 40/40s stayed in Arequipa and worked on following up with all contacts from the event. Our family stayed in Arequipa as well and Tyson lead the short term group doing construction on one of the churches there, Alto Libertad. He worked with Cuarto (who is leading up construction there and also built our house…he is a ball of energy!) translating and directing the short termers.

Tyson with Cuarto

Kai and I went to visit a few times and Kai loved being at the site with Dad!

At the end of the week there was a dedication service for the church and it was awesome to see it filled! Kai and I had a pretty low key week with almost no responsibilities (which was weird and wonderful at the same time). We joined a group visiting an orphanage one day and we had a great time blessing the girls living there. We did nails, painted faces, crafts and made balloon animals. It was wonderful to be part of another awesome project!

Kai and his buddy Thomas helped with balloons!

Love Extreme Part 2 - The BIG Event

2010-07-31T09:30:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Arequipa Thursday night and Saturday was the big event. While we had our event going on in Puerto, there were short term projects happening in Cusco and Arequipa as well. We then had more volunteers arrive from the US for the second part of Love Extreme joining up with those already here. For the event on Saturday we had about 300 short termers (I think) there to help. The event was held in a fairgrounds like area and it worked out perfectly. Promotion had been going on all week by the short termers there and weeks if not months beforehand with those based in Arequipa…and it showed. Hundreds of people were lined up outside waiting to get in…it was awesome! We had a building that had Kids events happening all morning so parents could drop off their kids and go to the conferences that were happening.

There was a women’s conference and across the hall, a men’s conference. Tyson worked set up for the men’s conference and when I went to see him they were scrambling to take down partitions and bring in more chairs because they were so full…great problems to have!

Outside was huge grassy area with a stage and there were concerts going on all day. That evening the main speakers Felix Vargas and Nick Vujicic. Nick was born without arms and legs and has an incredibly powerful testimony and the response after he spoke was incredible. He is an amazing man and I would encourage you to check out his testimony online if you can!

Tyson was able to meet Nick before his talk...

Over all there were over 10,000 people that attended the event and about 1000 who made a decision for Christ that day! It was an amazing day and we felt blessed to be a part of it!

Love Extreme Part 1 - Puerto

2010-07-20T08:58:00.000-07:00

We had an amazing group of short termers here in the middle of June. The majority of the group was from Trevecca Nazarene University in Tennessee. They arrived on Friday and Saturday worked hard all day (a long, hot day) at the soccer tournament.

Most of the group at the soccer tournament

Sunday was another big event, our women’s conference with Lonna Vopat. Most of the team entertained/wrangled the kids of the 70 women attending. This was quite a feat considering it was about 3 hours, most of the did not speak Spanish, and the kids were outside (aka, not contained)! I was impressed:) The conference was wonderful and in addition to Lonna sharing her testimony , Felix Vargas’ wife, Lillian, shared hers as well. It was a wonderful balance and between the two testimonies the conference spoke to a wide range of women. During prayer time about 30 women accepted Christ!

The rest of the week was full of activities in different communities. We showed the Jesus film, visited the women’s prison, built garbage cans for one community and planted trees in another. The girls went to houses and pampered the women by giving manicures and pedicures to hard working women. In one of the communities outside the city, La Joya, there were certain areas that had been going without water for many days at a time and when it was turned on it was only for a short time. We ordered up a water truck and the team hauled water around to the people in need. It was a huge blessing to the people in that community! Between the tournament, conference and other events about 80 people made a commitment to Christ! Praise the Lord! We are now in the process of following up with them all with discipling so please keep them in your prayers.

Working hard hauling water in La Joya

We could not have asked for a better group of short term volunteers. They had such a wonderful attitude, were ready to jump in and help in anyway and we never heard complaints! In that short week we grew to adore the group. While we were there to encourage and support them they turned around and encouraged and blessed us! What an awesome group! Needless to say we were sad to see them get on a plane that Thursday as they headed to Arequipa…the good news was we joined them a few hours later. On to Arequipa for the big Love Extreme Event…more to come!

Soccer Tournament with Felix Vargas

2010-07-15T15:00:00.000-07:00

Many of you may be wondering, so how did that soccer tournament go that the Smith’s talked about months ago? We’ll, while the event finished about a month ago we are super excited to finally share how everything went. So for those of you who got the pitch from us about this event and the potential that we saw; we must thank you for believing in this and help see it to fruition. We are very proud to report that because of your faithfulness this event was able to make an impact for our King.

The idea for the tournament was out of a desire to reach the men of Puerto Maldonado for Christ, using their pastime. We do very well with our 6 women missionaries to reach the women, but my thought was that we needed to fight the problem of prostitution, drugs and violence in our city from all angles. We couldn’t just fight the problem of prostitution with our prostitution ministry efforts, we needed to address the problem that the men have as well. We planned the date of our tournament to coincide around two very important factors. The invitation of Felix Vargas and the arrival of 23ish Treveca University Students for a Short term missions project. Without these two factors we also could not have been as successful, thanks to all of you.

Putting on something like this requires a different type of strategy than I was used to in the US. We needed 1) a cash prize for the winner, S/1000 for first prize in order to have participants. 2) other prizes so that the players will attend the final main event with Felix even though their teams may have been eliminated. 3) promotion, promotion, promotion so that they will sign up. We did all of the above very well. We spoke on the television 4 times, radio countless, made banners, handed out forms at the courts, made a commercial, talked with the mayor, etc, but it really all comes down to FAITH. We had a series of deadline, but it wasn’t until the night before the tournament that we had 19 teams sign up, talk about testing our faith. That’s 152 competitors. GLORY TO GOD!

We organized the tourny much like the March Madness or World Cup bracket but with double elimination. In total we had 36 different matches to plan in one single day. We used 5 courts and a small stadium to host the final three matches at night. The response was incredible from the teams, they had never been a part of a bracket tournament like this and on the dawn of the World Cup it was perfect timing. They loved it even if they did end up losing. The matches went steadily from 8:30am to 5pm and then at 7pm Felix Vargas shared his testimony. Felix is an ex-member and hitman for the drug cartel in Cali, Columbia. He shared his incredible testimony and had the group of hardened men, cheering and participating as he shared his story of redemption.

PLEASE WATCH his testimony if you get the chance it is powerful. English Subtitles. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71flRXvja04&feature=related

We are so encouraged to see God make an impact in the lives of these men who play soccer daily on courts within feet from prostitution bars. This macho culture is very hard to change and we are seeing that the work put in by all, and the work that was completed on the cross is sufficient. That night 59 people accepted Christ, 40 of them were men. We were able to get their information following the event and we are now busy doing follow up. To see that these men are breaking free from their former lives and beginning to lead their families is a huge huge deal. Just yesterday as our team of boys went out to meet with one of these participants and during the meeting his wife gave up her life to Christ and together they are being discipled.

Upon planning this event, our desire was that this would not just be a one time thing, and in talking with Pastor Freddy, we decided to promote it as “The First Annual” and that the church would continue this in much past our time here. With the positive response we have received, when I see players on the street, they ask when are we doing it again. Thank you all for your help, prayers and supports for this event.

Oh yeah, and the final match came down to penalty kicks, it was epic.

O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago. Isaiah 25:1

More Coming Soon!!

2010-07-12T14:43:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, we have a ton to update you on and we apologize for the lack of communication over the last month. We´ve hardly had a chance to breath let alone find a second to fight the slow internet. I´m going to write all that we´ve been involved in into one giant sentence because I feel it will give weight to the fact that we´ve been really really busy...okay we´ve organized a short term group of 25 folks from Nashville´s Treveca U, here in Puerto for a week and then our team along with 300+ volunteers helped facilitate a huge 10,000 person event called¨Love Extreme¨ in Arequipa for 3 days and following that event I helped organize an amazing group of men on a construction project at Alto Libertad Church in Arequipa for 6 days and then got 3 days to deal with surprise happenings with our team and 2 days at the beach before returning home to Puerto. I hope you read that in one breath. We are planning to expound on the above but I felt like putting the blogging drout to a short end. We are excited to report in detail because of what God did during all this craziness, HE is always Good and we thank God that his plans are bigger than ours. Stay tuned. Tyson and Tracy.

Update and Prayers

2010-06-07T08:51:00.000-07:00

I am so sorry for the lack of posting lately! After arriving back from our vacation we have hit the ground running and it has been crazy! Along with getting back into normal ministry craziness we are planning for some big events coming up. This Friday 20 Short term volunteers will be arriving for a week long mission project here in Puerto. While there is a usually a group from Arequipa that comes and is in charge of these, this time it is all up to us. Hotels, food and a basic schedule for the week has been worked out...check! Tyson had a vision a while back for a huge soccer tournament here in Puerto. He has worked hard to make this happen and it is planned for this Saturday! There will be games going on in different communities throughout the day and then the final games will take place in a stadium. The awesome part of this tournament and the purpose for it is to get as many men as possible to the stadium that night to hear the testimony of Felix Vargas. He is an ex-Columbian drug cartel member and is now a Pastor in Paraguay! He has an amazing testimony and we are praying the for hearts of men in the city to turn to Jesus through this day long event. Tyson has been on TV promoting it, running around to the different fields talking to players and doing all he can to spread the word. He and pastor have worked to involve the city and they are donating Bibles even...how awesome is that! Also, Sunday we have Lona Bopat coming from the US to share her testimony at a women´s conference we will be putting on. The rest of the week we will be doing kids festivals, movies, visiting the women´s prison and many other events. On Thursday the Short term volunteers will get on a plane and head to Arequipa and we will will be a few hours behind them. June 19th in Arequipa we will be part of Love Extreme. It will be huge day of ministry, speakers, music and opportunities to share Christ with the people of Arequipa. To be honest will all that is going on here in Puerto I don´t have a full grasp of what we will be up to in Arequipa but know that is will be full, busy and wonderful! We will be there for two weeks following the project and Tyson will be working on the construction site helping translate. And then for 3 days in the beggining of July we will enjoy a little break and will have our retreat with all of Extreme. All that to say there is a ton coming up and so much to be excited for...we are anticipating miracles and seeing the hand of the Lord moving!

Prayers

With all of this we need prayers now more than ever! Thank you to all of you who have been faithfully praying for us...here are some specifics:

Pray for the short term volunteers coming down. Pray for their safety in traveling and that they would touch lives here and that their lives would be touched.
Pray for teams to sign up for the soccer tournament (they seem to wait for the last minute here but we are getting down to the wire).
Pray for the stadium to be filled with men and their families on Saturday night...that they would be open to hearing God´s Word through the testimony of Felix Vargas. Pray that the hearts of the men in this city would turn to Jesus.
Pray for the Women´s conference next Sunday...for women to hear the truth and desire to follow Jesus.
Pray for health and energy for our team and family over the next few weeks of intense work and ministry.
Pray for the team in Arequipa as they prepare for tons of short term and long term volunteers coming in a couple weeks as well as for all the ministry events that will be happening. Pray the people of Arequipa to be open to the Gospel.

I´m sure there is more but all in all prayers, prayers, prayers are so appreciated! God bless you all and I will be better about keeping you all updated.

Prayers

2010-04-29T17:24:00.001-07:00

Right now our entire team is getting a much needed break. The Americans are back in the States and the Peruvians are back in their home towns in Peru for three weeks. Please pray that this would be a time of refreshment for our team, that we would all come back with even more energy and excitement. Please pray for the communities, new cell groups that have started and those being discipled. Pastor Freddy and members of the mother church are filling in for our team and we are so thankful for them! Please keep them in your prayers as they do this work!

On a personal note, while hot showers, clean water and yummy food is wonderful, time with family and friends is priceless. This time to connect and fellowship has been so precious to me and I am praising the Lord for this time right when I really needed it! Thank you all for your prayers!

Los Discipulitos

2010-04-14T08:40:00.000-07:00

Each Sunday morning Wendy and I have the privilege of teaching the littlest ones in the church. They are precious so thought I would post a picture for you all to enjoy:) The name of our class is Los Discipulitos (the little disciples) and they are ages 1 to 5. We have anywhere from 5 to 12 kiddos each week. Some days it is craziness...but this day they all sat long enough for a photo! We have class in our living room due to lack of classroom space but it works out wonderful because it is a large clean space for them to play after lessons. They are a sweet group and I am thankful for the opportunity to love on them each week!

Eres Todopoderoso

2010-04-14T08:20:00.000-07:00

Eres todopoderoso (You are all powerful)

Eres grande, majestoso (You are great, majestic)

Eres fuerte, invinsible (You are strong, invinsible)

y no hay nadie como tu! (And there is noone like you)

I love this song, it has wonderful words and truth to it. It is also the song of my son. He sings it everyday...most of the day. He belts it out at the top of this lungs to his Lord. Sometimes he changes the words or mixes them up. My favorite is¨Eres guapo como yo¨ (you are handsome like me). During the short term trip we did a service in a new community and Tyson helped lead worship. They did this song and Kai ran up front and proudly sang next to his Daddy to his Father in heaven. It was precious to me...

Easter!

2010-04-08T09:59:00.000-07:00

We had a great Easter week...totally different than last year, but wonderful and busy! We celebrated Kai's birthday on Friday morning. Our church watched the Passion on Friday night and I took the kids into our house to watch some VeggieTales. Then on Saturday night we had our team down for dinner and introduced our Peruvian family members to the tradition of dying eggs. They were skeptical at first but ended up loving it! Sunday morning we had church and then feasted on a Peruvian/American meal with ceviche (a raw fish dish), a potatoe dish, and deviled eggs...quite the mix! We also did a mini egg hunt in the house for Kai and Eliser (our pastor's son). It was funny because at first Eliser kept looking right at the eggs but only picked up the ones that looked brown...I had to explain to him 3 times that the eggs were all different colors:) It was wonderful to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord with our family and church here!

Rumble in the Jungle

2010-04-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

Rumble in the jungle went awesome. We had a group of 11 youth and 3 adults from the US, plus a team from Arequipa and our team here in Puerto. They did an amazing job and we were so proud of everyone. We put on Kid's Festivals, Jesus Films, skits, sports events, and services. Home church locations were painted and tons of clean up was done to the outside areas where they do kids activities and movies. We had a social action day at a school across the river and over 70 kids had their hair washed, de-liced and cut. Over 2800 people were contacted and over 270 came forward to commit or recommit in a decision for Christ. The teens worked so hard and had such wonderful attitudes. They did not have a lot of words but they shared Christ through their hard work and kindness to the people here. One morning they were painting one of the home church locations and a lady walking by stopped to find out what all these Americans were doing. She asked if she could help and one of our Peruvians hung with her throughout the morning. She asked questions about why they were here and what it was all about. She was impressed at the work they were doing. She asked more questions and ended up accepting Christ! The next day she was out passing out flyers for one of our events. She had been visiting family from Cusco so we gave her the name and information for the church in Cusco! What an awesome example of the witness of service!

Thank you to all who came to serve with us here, you were a joy and a blessing to us and Puerto!

Sometimes you just get really wet...

2010-04-08T09:45:00.000-07:00

Kai and I got soaked the other day when a downpour started on our way home in a mototaxi. The mototaxi has a roof, back, doors and front...yet the water still poured in. I used my son as a shield from the rain....is he old enough for that yet?

Typical Transportation

2010-04-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

This is Pastor Freddy and his family...typical transportion for a family of 5!

Let´s get ready to RUMBLE!!!

2010-03-19T14:16:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow we have a group of teenagers coming for our Rumble in the Jungle project. We are looking forward to a great week of events and to getting to know these young people. Please join us in praying for the impact in the communities, safety for all, that the lives of those coming would be touched and changed and that the Lord´s presence would be felt by all throughout the week! God Bless!

VBS

2010-03-19T13:12:00.000-07:00

The last couple weeks in February our team was busier than usual putting on Vacation Bible Schools in their different communities. Over the course of two weeks our team put on VBS in 7 different communities around the city of Puerto Maldonado. Each VBS was two days long and the kids learned the love of Jesus through different Bible stories and crafts. Some learned about obedience through the story of Abraham, others about the story of Jonah, and others were reminded that God is always near them as they learned about Joseph. They did wonderful crafts, learned memory verses and new songs, played games and finished up the two days with a little party at the end. A cool part of this for me was that my sister´s 3rd grade class at Chico Christian helped make this possible by raising money selling hot chocolate. I know, so sweet! It was so touching for me to know that the Lord used those kids to make a difference in the lives of kids here in our city of Puerto! Thanks Mrs. Zancanella´s Class! It was an awesome couple weeks as so many kids were able to hear about the Love of Christ Jesus!

Headed into the ¨Zona Roja¨ Prayers Needed

2010-02-25T09:16:00.000-08:00

We just ask that those who are following this blog would keep our team in your prayers as we head this Friday into the ¨Red zone.¨ We are headed into the prostitution area of town to spread the Good News and we are unsure as to how that will look. Pray for the Spirits leading and wisdom as we head into the middle of darkness to shed Christ´s light. Pray for our protection and that we would have the words to say that will be convicting and yet show compàssion and love. Thank you all for your time on your knees.

Baptisms!

2010-02-20T10:06:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday we had our first baptism here in Puerto! It was very exciting because 2 of the 3 people baptized are being discipled by our 40/40s! It is awesome to witness them making this commitment and amazing to see the fruits of our work here!

We drove out to a neat little spot out of town. We had a little mix up on transportation so while we were supposed to leave at 8 or 9am, we ended up leaving at around 10:15am...true peruvian style. Most of the group of about 30 crammed into a cumbi (basically a van) and we rode with Tyson in the motocar. It was great...I love how I no longer get frustrated by this sort of thing...I am adapting I guess:)

We started with a hymn to which Tyson played guitar and a short message from Olivia and Elisa who were our pastors for the day as Pastor Freddy is gone for the month. They did an awesome job.

We did the baptism in a little river...the water looks really dirty in this picture...and it was. But, they were still washed clean:)

This boy, Manuel, is from one of Ana & Olivia´s communities!

Gladys was also baptized and is from one of Callie & Carmen´s communities. She also opens her home every week so they do a service...she is an extremely sweet lady!

And after we celebrated with food and play...futbol of course!

It was a wondeful day and an awesome time to witness and celebrate new life in Christ! Please pray for those baptized (the third person was, Carla, a teen from the church) and for our team as the continue to diligently evangalize, disciple and hold services in their communities. More to come about what each of the pairs and all they are doing!

One Year

2010-02-20T10:00:00.000-08:00

On year ago we arrived in Peru. A lot has happened and the time has gone very fast, and also it seems it has gone slow. We have lived in 3 different cities, added 8 members to our family, watched our baby turn 2 and act like it, we have both turned 29, we have learned to speak a new language and live in a new culture. There are also plenty of things I can´t measure, like the love I have felt, the grace I have been given, the faithfulness of our Lord, lives that have been changed. It has been a year I will never forget and will always look back on with joy and thankfulness. But this year has passed and now we look forward to how the Lord will use, mold and guide us through the next one. We don´t know all that is to come, but we can rest in the assurance that he does and he is will be with us and for that I am thankful!

Thank you to all of you who have walked with us this past year. We have so many that are praying for us, who are suppporting us financially so we can be here, who have come and participated in projects and built our home, who are part of our Extreme team supporting us in numerous ways, who have sent us packages or encouraging letters or supplies, who have strengthened us with words of support and encouragement. Thank you, this past year would not have been possible without all of you...and this next year wouldn´t be either. Thank you for being a part of what the Lord is doing here and for the immeasurable love you have given. God Bless you!

Questionable Hiring Practices

2010-02-16T12:35:00.000-08:00

We'll we just found out that their must be some sort of discriminating hiring practices going on here in Puerto, because we have noticed the garbage disposal industry has the monopoly on employing larger than normal Peruvians. Photo evidence included....

Water, Water Everywhere!

2010-01-22T08:07:00.000-08:00

So we woke up to rain yesterday morning...nothing unusual, we live in the rain forest after all. But today it kept raining. Hard. And after a few hours we noticed water was raising in front of our house...and still coming. We have had issues with drainage and water since we moved here but it has never gotten up to our door like this. We have sort of been waiting for it to get worse as we kept hearing about how the "rainy season" was coming. I didn't expect the water to rise so fast or so close the the house. All that to say, please pray. Pray that the water goes down, that we can get it drained out and that in the meantime, it doesn't rain more. Right now it is centimeters from entering our house, our water cistern is covered by the flood water which means there is bad water in there. Given, we can't drink the water from here anyway...but this is really bad water that we don't want to use for showers, dishes or anything. Also, we have water entering our house through the bathtub and drains in the floor. It is gross, but this is not a new problem. We rarely are able to flush our toilet and almost every day have sewer water in our bathtub/shower. I have learned to live with it but it is not my favorite. Please pray we can solve this problem to keep from happening in the future. Can I also just say I have an amazing husband. He was out in the disgusting water (that has gross worms floating in it) working to get us ladies cinder blocks to step on and trying to stop the water from entering the cistern (which eventually became impossible). He has also been working hard since we arrived here (2 months ago) trying to solve these issues of drainage. He has been at the city office mulitple times a week trying to get them to do something and has just finally gotten approval from them to do it ourselves. That is the way it goes here...slow, slow going to get anything done. We are praying this is the solution and would appreciate your prayers as well. Please also pray for the health and protection of our team. Thank you all and God Bless!

from our yard into our house...

Today Tyson spotted a little crocodile outside in the "pond" next to the church....I saw it's little eyes sticking up too but we couldn't get a picture. It wasn't too big...but still a crocodile...yikes!

our front door view

and for the pleasure of all...our bathtub...yummy! I have poured more bottles of bleach then you can imagine in that tub...it helps. But still. Gross.

Monkey Business

2010-01-20T07:38:00.000-08:00

So the other night we had a little visitor…an uninvited one. Elisa was downstairs hanging out with my while I was cooking and I hear “Es un mono?” (It’s a monkey?) Sure enough, I look out the window and see a monkey scaling the house. I was so excited I grabbed my camera and ran out the door to see it…leaving the door wide open. Open doors are apparently invitations to monkeys because it promptly tried to enter the house (those things move fast). Luckily we shut the door in time and yelled up to the girls upstairs to check it out. The money scaled the walls once again and headed to the second story just as Wendy opened to door to see what we were yelling about—she quickly went back in (because again, the monkey tried to get inside) and checked it out from the window. It also climbed up the bars on the window and tried to get in that way (*note* our bars are not monkey proof…thankfully we have glass to shut). A very curious monkey we had on our hands. After a while it came back down and began to check out the church. I had to run in front of it and shut the church door before it got in which the monkey did not like and began to push against my legs to get in…I screamed but did not give in. I would like to say I stopped the little rascal from getting in but it just went up to the window and got in that way. I was worried that it would start playing with the sound system or something but it didn’t seem too interested. I should end this by saying there is a “zoo” down the street from us from which the monkey escaped so this was no ‘fresh out of the jungle’ monkey, but a monkey just the same. A little excitement for the evening was fun…but I am not hoping to see it again anytime soon!

I thought I would through this picture in…this was hanging out in the pond/swamp/gross water that is right next to our house…so we sometimes have nice, pretty animals visit us too:)

4 years!

2010-01-07T08:10:00.000-08:00

Tyson and I celebrated our 4th Anniversary a couple weeks ago. Sometimes it is hard for me to believe we have been married 4 years already. But then I think back to all that we have experienced together and it seems crazy it has fit into only 4 little years:) This past year has been packed full of its own joys and challenges. We have packed up our lives and moved to Peru, lived in three separate cities within Peru (which means we have set up and tried to establish “home” three different times), we have learned (and continue to learn) a new language and culture, faced the challenges of raising a 2-year-old (anyone hear me on that one), we have walked with our team through victories and disappointments, had our own victories and disappointments, learned again and again that the Lord is mighty and great and bigger then our circumstances and have watched him work in the lives of his people.

We have also faced the challenge of learning how to work together as husband and wife in every area of our lives. This has been one of my biggest challenges and biggest joys this past year. We went from a united couple who had our own jobs and ministries, to being a couple fully united and engaged in every area of life—marriage, family, ministry and the responsibilities that go with that. The first few months for me were such a challenge to learn to work together, how to honor and compliment Tyson in all areas, and how to separate family life from ministry life once in a while. I cannot say I have figured it out, but, I am now seeing the fruits of our time and work together in regards to our relationship. I feel closer to my husband now more than ever, I appreciate him and understand him better more and more each day. I have learned he has amazing instincts; his heart is even bigger than I thought; and his honesty is more often than not, just what I need. I love him now more than ever and my loves grows more and more each day. I know the Lord has grown the roots of our relationship deeper in Him and has prepared us to face all that this next year will bring.

This past month has been the hardest for me yet in Peru. I have not struggled much with culture shock until now (a little delayed, yes) and this, along with a mix of other things have caused me to fall back more in the arms of my husband, knowing with assurance that the strength and love he gives me comes from our Lord. I have a loving, faithful, God-fearing husband and we serve a faithful God. The Lord’s faithfulness has been so evident throughout our entire marriage but this past year He has showered us with blessings, answers to prayer and love beyond what I had imagined. Thank you to all who have partnered with us through prayer and support, each of you are examples to His faithfulness to us. Today I ask for your continued prayers—for our ministry but also for our marriage, not because we are struggling, but because we don’t want to wait until we are to ask:) Please pray that we continued to be united, to encourage and lift each other up. Pray that our marriage could be an example of a loving, godly marriage to our team, church and neighbors, and that it would honor our Lord in all circumstances. Four years ago this verse was printed on our program “He is before all things and in him all things hold together.” Colossians 1:17. Those words continue to ring true for us as we have seen the evidence of his going before us, and as we have felt his arms around us and our team, holding us together. We are privileged to serve such a great and loving God!

Christmas in Peru

2009-12-30T10:20:00.000-08:00

We had our first Christmas in Peru! Here in Peru when you ask what special foods or traditions they have the immediate answer is -- paneton y chocolate! That is, fruit cake and hot chocolate. They love it and only have it once a year. So, our teams gave out paneton & hot chocolate in their communities and it was a great time!

Ana & Olivia in 7 de Junio

Carmen with a group of their kids in Enace. Callie couldn't be there since she is at home with her family but all the kids asked for her and she sure was missed!

Here in Peru they also celebrate Christmas at midnight on Christmas Eve. They eat a huge dinner at midnight, open presents, let off fire works and go out into the streets to wish friends and neighbors a Feliz Navidad. We were planning on celebrating Peruvian style but because Daniel and Andrew wouldn't be home until Christmas morning we decided to wait for them. We did go to the Christmas Eve service where we watched an adorable Christmas play. Then we stayed up to midnight playing games and drinking hot chocolate. At midnight we watched all the fireworks from our balcony. The next morning we all slept in---well, I didn't. I really wanted to have Boppa's famous cinnamon rolls for breakfast so I woke up early to make them--totally worth they lack of sleep:) We make stockings for our team and opened them up when the boys got home. We had a lazy, relaxing Christmas and had a big turkey dinner (with paneton & hot chocolate). It was hard for all of us to be away from family for Christmas but I felt blessed to be able to celebrate with our new family here!

Smith Family Visit

2009-12-30T10:15:00.000-08:00

We were beyond blessed to have our family here for a couple weeks in December. It was refreshing to spend time with family and to watch Kai adore his grandparents and auntie! It was also so wonderful to have them experience a bit of what life is like for us--the frustrations and joys we experience every day here! While they were here went on a trip into the jungle and did a canopy walk and a boat ride on Lake Sandoval. We were also able to spend a few days with them in Cusco and saw some of the sights there including Machu Picchu! To see lots more pictures and here some more details check here. Time with family is so precious to those of us so far from home. Thank you Boppa, Pa and Auntie Taryn for coming to see us--we love you all very much!

Challenging Times...Please Pray

2009-12-21T05:43:00.000-08:00

Again, for all of those who are checking this blog, please pray for our team. We are really feeling like Satan is trying very hard to disrupt what we are doing here. Along with various forms of sickness and other issues. Two days ago one of girls visited the doctor for a vision problem and was abused by the doctor. She is fine and okay but she will be taking time off . Please pray for us as we have to deal with this situation and pray for our team as we are all away from family during the holidays. Thanks, The Smiths

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-12-03T12:31:00.000-08:00

We were excited for the chance to share our Thanksgiving tradition with our Peruvian family. Monday we celebrated Thanksgiving a few days late because not everyone was here on Thursday. The girls and I had fun staying up late the night before preparing some of the food. Although we missed being home with our family, it was to be women in the kitchen together, carrying on the traditions of our family. Olivia made her grandma’s rolls and Wendy made the stuffing (typically her dad’s job). Callie and I made the biggest pumpkin pie I have ever seen—thank you Church on the Hill for sending down canned pumpkin for us, it was delicious! Although we couldn’t find a turkey, Tyson cooked 2 big chickens and they were so yummy I didn’t even care it wasn’t turkey. It was fun to figure out how we could make all our traditional dishes using the ingredients of Peru (other than the canned pumpkin;). Pastor Freddy and his family joined us as well and we had a great time giving thanks to God for all He has blessed us with.

After the Thanksgiving festivities had died down Tyson and I brought up our surprise for the team…a Christmas tree, lights and a few decorations. We know that the Christmas season will be very different this year for everyone and we want to make it feel as much like home as we can. They were all very excited and had fun decorating. My favorite part was when Andrew brought out his John Deer tractor ornament his mom had brought down for him and hung it on the tree...a little piece of home;)

I have so much to be thankful for and could go on and on. I have such an amazing, faithful, God-fearing husband who I am blessed to have as my partner in life, parenting and ministry. A little boy who is healthy, creative, smart, funny, energetic and brings so much joy to my life. I have 8 bonus members of my family in the 40/40s and I thank the Lord for each one of them. We have amazing family back home who have loved and supported us unselfishly. I am thankful beyond words to each one of you back home who are supporting us in prayer and finances. I can’t express how much a part of this you are, your generosity allows us to be here in this ministry and your prayers carry us through. God bless you all and we give thanks for you!

November

2009-12-03T12:26:00.000-08:00

This last month has gone by so fast. I apologize for the lack of posting lately. Things have been so busy and we don’t have internet at the house so you really have to carve out time to get anything done. I will try to do a little overview of November.

The 40/40s are out working in their communities. Each pair has three church plants they are doing over the next 18 months. The girls are working in all three of theirs right now, except Callie & Carmen who have a 3rd one aways outside of the city so they will start that one in a few months. Every weekend this month we have been in a different community doing a Jesus film showing on Friday night followed by a Kids’ Festival on Saturday.

There has been a great response and has provided a lot of contacts for the pairs to follow up with. Throughout the week they are evangelizing, visiting people in their homes and disciplining. Andrew & Daniel are out in their communities all week long and we only see them on Mondays for their day off. They have families they stay with while they are out there and have two different communities they are working with. They are doing evangelism, discipling and put on the services that happen in these areas. Please keep each of our pairs in prayer—Andrew & Daniel, Olivia & Ana, Wendy & Elisa and Callie & Carmen. Please pray for the Lord to continue to open doors for them to share God’s love with people. Pray for strength and energy for everyone. Pray for protection for all, especially Andrew & Daniel who are far from the rest of us.

Tyson and I have been trying to take care of all the details so the team can focus on their ministry and trying to get our own home settled a bit. We have been running around getting items for the two houses, fixing and finishing things that need to be done…all part of moving into a new home, shopping for the team, and searching for a cook. We finally found someone to cook lunches who started this week. I have been teaching the pre-schoolers Sunday School with Wendy and Tyson helping with worship.

We have had a few issues with water. The second Sunday we were here there was a huge rain storm and there were not yet gutters on the church. That means the rain that came off the church roof aimed directly into our windows. Kai woke up from his nap screaming “Mom, it’s raining in my bed.” And boy was it, there was a waterfall coming in and his room had about 2 inches of water in it and the laundry room was the same. It took me the rest of the night to mop of all that water and a couple weeks for it to dry out. The drying out is an issue that brings mold along with it. I have cleaned up a lot of mold and it is just have fans going constantly to try to keep things dry. The next Sunday night and all day Monday it rained and we soon found we were surrounded by a lake. By Monday evening we could not flush our toilet because it would come up from our shower drain. Apparently the water was so high it caused issues with the septic. There was no quick fix for this and we had to just wait for the water to go down…for 5 days. There was also a ton of water between our house and the wall which was a great home for frogs, I guess, because there about a zillion outside our window and they kept coming in the house. Kai of course, loved this, but it wasn’t my favorite. Please don’t think I’m complaining, I really just want to remember these memories so I am writing them down...looking back it is fun to see all that we have experienced in our new home in a month;) We know that there is much more rain coming in the next few months so Tyson has been on the phone, talking to neighbors and down at the city office trying to come up with a solution they last 3 weeks. Today he got someone from the city to come out and look at it (which is a huge feat in itself here in Peru) and they are planning to bring in dirt to fill in the pond surrounding us and then they will begin to put in a ditch to move the water elsewhere.

Well, there is much more to tell I am sure but this has already gotten long. We are settling well and excited to be here and be a part of all that God is doing in Puerto Maldonado! I should also add that Kai is loving life here and has transitioned without missing a step…you can check out what he has been up to on his blog here. We are looking forward to the Christmas season and celebrating here with our Peruvian friends and family. We are really looking forward to Tyson’s family coming to visit us for a couple weeks…they get here next week! Thank you all for your prayers and we will keep you updated more often from now on!

Prayers!

2009-12-02T05:09:00.000-08:00

Here are a few of our prayer requests as of late...please be praying for our pairs as now that we have hit the ground running, it is easy to lose sight of teamwork and focus on the task. Pray for strengthened understanding for each person. That they would understand their partners needs for all our 40-40s. Please be praying for those that have decided to give their lives to Christ here in Puerto, that they would continue to seek Christ and have a desire to learn more. (We have had roughly 12 people meet the Lord up to this point). 4 of our communities have designated a location for holding weekly meetings, pray that each location would work out perfectly and that we would be able to find locations to meet for the other 8 communities. Please pray for our family, as we have been going straight since we got off the airplane and we need a break. Please pray that we would find rest in the Lord and time to relax. Thank you all for your prayers!!!

Update

2009-11-11T12:46:00.000-08:00

Just thought I would give a quick update. It has been a week since the short term group left and it has been a whirlwind. We have pretty well gotten the 40/40 house furnished and comfortable for living which was our priority. Our house is still lacking furniture but it we should be better settled next week (I am hoping:). The 40/40s have been visiting their communities and meeting new people and there have already been decisions for Christ! Daniel & Andrew left yesterday for their community which is quite a ways away. Please pray for safety and logistics for them. They left having a vague idea of what to expect but fully willing to go for it. They will stay up there until Sunday or Monday and then come back and this will happen each week. We are looking to hire someone to help shop and cook for the 40/40s so please be praying we can find someone good and trustworthy. Currently everyone is pitching in on cooking and I am learning the art of shopping at the market...I bought my first chicken at the market (and promptly asked them to cut off the head & feet:)! Kai is adjusting well and actually loving life at our house. There is still construction going on for the church so he is in a little boys paradise...equipment and a huge pile of sand to play in...he is constantly dirty but beyond happy:) Tyson and my main focus right now is to get everything settled for the 40/40s and make sure they have what they need. I will also be teaching the 0-5 year old Sunday School and Tyson will be helping with worship. Well, there is a little update...there will be more to come but just wanted to let you know we are settling in but could sure use your prayers through this process. Thanks and God Bless!

Thank you, thank you, thank you

2009-11-11T11:29:00.000-08:00

I really don't know what to say except "thank you" a million times. The short term group of missionaries who built our home and kick started ministry in Puerto left last week. We were beyond blessed to have 9 friends from our church back home down for the trip. They worked so hard...seriously, really hard, in ridiculous heat every day getting our house finished. And can I just say, wow, amazing...the house is wonderful and beyond anything I expected. Here are some pics of them working...mostly doing tile...our house is filled with tile...so much work! My camera battery was dead and I couldn't find the charger so I am using pictures from the Moens' camera. All that to say I am missing a picture of Debbie who most likely took these (and grouted tile for days) and of Jan who was working with the Impact group.

This is where the house was at when they arrived...

And when they left after 10 short days...It really meant so much to have this group here. To see them working so hard to complete our house, to see them experiencing Puerto and the people here. Over 300 people accepted Christ during their time here...amazing! It was not just getting to see friends (which in itself was a treasure) but they were here as we started our ministry here and it was so incredibly special. On top of building our home and serving our community they also brought us a ton of stuff to start out. Thank you to everyone at Church on the Hill for blessing us beyond, beyond what we could have imagined. Our kitchen is stocked with things we have been missing from home (brown sugar, baking soda, spices, etc), we have utensils, measuring cups, tupperware, towels for our kitchen, toys for Kai, supplies for ministry, I could go on and on. Shoes for Kai...not used shoes like I asked for, but brand new ones (he walked around proudly showing everyone his new shoes by the way). Oh and on top of all that (of which I am leaving out a ton) they brought us an a portable air conditioner! I know! Amazing! Thank you, thank you, thank you. Really, we are so incredibly thankful and blessed by you all!

Beyond our group from Church on the Hill there were a ton of other people who worked so hard during their time here. It was wonderful to meet everyone and get a chance to work along side them. Thank you to all who poured their hearts into this project. Thank you to those back in the US who prayed, sent items and supported those who came. God bless you all and come visit again soon:) We love you!

We Made It!

2009-10-30T08:49:00.000-07:00

We made it to Puerto Wednesday and were so excited to be welcomed at the airport by Abby & Daniel (you can see our excitment below)

We then were able to go out to the jobsite to see all our friends from back home in McMinnville. It is really so wonderful to have them here and see how hard they are working. The house looks amazing and they are all working so very hard to get it all done and doing an amazing job. I was in tears not only seeing everyone, but seeing them work on our home...it makes it so much more special.

There is a lot going on with construction and then there are impact groups going to schools, women's jails, and communities. People are coming to know Christ and experiencing His love through this group. It is amazing to have this going on and there is so much for our 40/40 team to come in and follow up on...Praise the Lord!

Prayers: Please pray for the work the impact teams are doing and for the hearts of the people in Puerto to be open to Christ. Pray for the construction team, for safety and for everything to be smooth and to finish on time. Pray for our 40/40 team that will be arriving next Tuesday...that they would be ready to hit the ground running and for safe travels here. Thank you for your prayers for Wendy. She is in Arequipa still but everything is healing well and she will join the rest of the team here on Tuesday. Please pray for Kai, he has had an eye infection for the last 5 days and they are very red and swollen. We are very thankful to have Rhonda from our church here who is a nurse...if this had to happen I would pick now:)

Thank you to everyone for your prayers...God Bless!

Lima...and on to Puerto!

2009-10-27T22:18:00.000-07:00

So we left Iquitos Sunday night. We came with Olivia and Andrew who continued on to Puerto Monday morning. The rest of our team is finishing up school and will leave Iquitos next Monday. We have spent the last couple days in Lima. We finished up Kai's residency process so he is now a Peruvian resident along with us and it is great to have that done. Other than that we have been enjoying things like hot showers, fast internet, American food, starbucks and driving in cars. I actually said these words to Kai today: "Tomorrow we go on another airplane but while we are here we get to ride in cars which is just as fun." And to him, it probably is:) It is so funny what becomes exciting and amazing when you have been away from it for so long;)

Tyson and Kai in front of a fountain in Lima (the big city)

Tomorrow morning we fly out to Puerto, our new home! We are filled with excitement and anticipation. We can't wait to see friends from our church in McMinnville who are on the short term trip working on our house. We also get to see Extreme team members we haven't seen since leaving Arequipa! Mostly, we are excited to finally be in the place we have been praying for, preparing for and thinking about for so long. Thank you all for your prayers and we look forward to sharing pictures and stories of our new city soon! God Bless!

Lasts & Goodbyes

2009-10-27T13:41:00.000-07:00

Well, the past week was filled with lasts and goodbyes. Our last week in Iquitos. I am at a loss for words to express how thankful we are for these last 5 months in Iquitos. We were welcomed with open arms and the people there shared their lives with us and loved us and taught us much. Here are a few picture a few goodbyes and lasts.

Kai's last day of school with his teacher Miss Ruth.

We have been so grateful for Kai's school and his teachers. He has learned so much Spanish in his time there and he really loves his friends and teachers. He comes home singing songs or talking about shapes and colors. It was so refreshing knowing that he was in good hands and that he was learning a lot in the time we were away from him.

Last Monday Night Dinner

We have loved having Monday night meals at our house. We will have many more meals and even more time with our team now that we will live right below them. This is a tradition that will continue, but for our last Monday night dinner/study in Iquitos we did foot washing, communion and worship. It was a great night and we look forward to beginning the work with our team in Puerto!

Last church service. Pastor Antonio, Jim, Tyson and Kai

It was hard to say goodbye to the families we have become close to. Pastor Antonio, his wife, Melena and son, Jim are a very special family and we will miss them a ton. Tyson and Pastor have a special bond as the dads of two special boys that are great friends. We have so much respect for Pastor and his church is a wonderful example of a church family. Kai would run into their house almost every day to play with Jim and they always welcomed him and loved on him. It was hard to say goodbye. I don't have a picture with the Correas but we are going to miss them so much. Cristobal and Noemi Correa were in charge of the training of the 40/40s. We had many meetings, conversations and prayer with them. These last 5 months would have been so much harder without them. They are an amazing couple and we are thankful for their love, wisdom and patience with our Spanish:) They will be having a baby girl in February and we can't wait to meet her when we see them again next summer!

Kai and Jim riding around the house...

Kai and Jim. This was a hard one for me. Jim and Kai have been amigos since the first day they met. He and Jim ran around the church grounds pulling Tonka trucks on shoe strings and learning from each other. Every single day we would have lunch at the church and Kai would barely want to eat so that he could be done to go play with Jim. When Jim would see me leaving class to go pick up Kai he would run after me "Hermana, hermana donde esta Kai?" And Kai would cry a good portion of the time when playtime was over and it was time to go home. But through his tears he would always shout "Chow, Amigo" and Jim would yell back "Chow, Amigo". It was precious. Jim and his mom came to the airport to say goodbye so that Jim could watch the plane fly away to better understand that Kai was leaving. My heart about broke when I watched them stand face to face, both open their arms up wide and give each other a huge hug. Jim was Kai's first best friend, the first friend he was old enough to decide for himself that he loved and wanted to be with. Their time together was precious for me to watch as a mom and I look forward to some day coming back and letting these two amigos reunite:)

There are many more goodbyes and lasts but these were just a few highlights. We were touched by so many people and I can't name them all but we are thankful for each and every one of them. We thank the Lord for these last 5 months and the people he placed in our lives!

Prayers Needed!

2009-10-23T07:26:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

We are asking for your prayers. Wendy one of our 40/40's has had an infected bite in her leg for the last 4 days and the doctors here in Iquitos have not been able to improve the condition. So the consensus is to have her flown to Arequipa where the medical facilities are much better and there are Extreme staffers that have medical know how. There are two bites and poor Wendy has been enduring incredible pain with amazing grit, at the hands of the doctor who have been squeezing her leg for 4 days. She even endured a volcano of hydrogen peroxide coming out of her leg. She is a tough one that Wendy. Please be praying that the doctors and staff in Arequipa will be able to know what to do. Thanks.

Right now, there is an Extreme Volunteer Mission Project taking place for the next 2 weeks in Puerto Maldonado to finish our home and prepare the soil in Puerto with impact events to reach out to the community. Please pray for the safety of those volunteers many of whom are from our church in McMinnville. Who, by the way we can't wait to see. And pray for the hearts of those in Puerto that they would be softened and that many would come to know Jesus Christ as their savior.

Also please be praying for our family as we pack up our house into suitcases for the final time and head to the location that we have been praying about for the last year. This is an exciting time for our team because Puerto has been in our hearts and minds from the beginning, this whole time of preparation in language school and missionary training is for this place. Pray that God would use us in a mighty way, that his hand would be upon every one of our team members and that we would be able to see how God has already been preparing Puerto for his handiwork. Thank you all for your prayers and please let us know how we can be praying for you all. God Bless.

My New Guitar Friend and Mentor

2009-10-11T16:18:00.000-07:00

So I met Luis about 3 months ago when he was playing at a local restaurant down the street from our house. He plays with two friends of his nearly every night. I happened to notice that he wailed with a really cool smooth jazz at 72 years old. I asked him where he learned to play and he learned in Brazil about 55 years ago and he´s been playing with the same guitar ever since. I then asked him if he taught lessons which he did for 10 soles per hour(which is about $3.15) and 4 soles for the taxi ride. We set up a date to jam at my house and began our lessons. Following our first lesson he asked me if I had any vitamins around, which seemed a little odd around. But he has says he can't find good vitamins down here, he needs American vitamins. He was obviously very interested in them so I tolk him I would look into it. I then asked my wonderful parents who thankfully sent down a bottle of Centrum Silver and Cardio. So we decided right there to trade lessons for vitamins. It´s been a wonderful experience and he´s taught me some great harmonic chord progressions and a great spanish worship song. It's the sweetest thing, whenever we talk about Jesus, he just get´s up and jumps around like he´s a little child describing the greatest thing in the world. He puts his arms out like Jesus dying on the cross and then acts out his resurrection describing it with such conviction. It is so wonderful to meet and spend time with this man who loves his savior. Also it is great to see how much he loves to see Kai, they have a great time together, they both are just gitty. We´ll that´s a little about the Luis who has blessed our lives and taught me some great guitar.

Adventure on the Amazon: Raft Race 2009

2009-10-11T15:29:00.000-07:00

The adventure began the day before the race when we found out one, we could bring extra construction items to use in building our raft and secondly, that one of our team mates couldn´t get the time off to participate. So the night before our race Andrew and I headed to Ramon´s house (a friend of ours from church) to see if he would have the time and then to see if he would even be interested. Sure enough he was up to the challenge, yet I´m not sure he knew quite what he was getting into but neither did we. So following our late night trip to his house we went and fetched a few nails, wire and extra rope and then headed home to pack.

The next morning we left for Nauta, 2 hours by bus where we were greeted and introduced during a ceremony and then we were boated across the river to ¨Fisherman´s Island¨ where we arrived and began gathering our 8 balsa poles. After a few hickups by the organization finally began constructing our raft about 2 hours later. We really had no idea how to go about constructing a raft that would last us 3 days and over 21 hours on the river but what the heck we went for it. It began getting dark around the point we started fastening the middle and back braces and then a fantastic lightning storm started and then the ¨rainforest¨ worthy downpoor quickly followed. We were about the only team that continued on our construction throughout the rain but we were in a groove. After we finished and were drenched to the bone we headed into our shanty tent where there were already 4 other competitors laying out. So if you can picture a tent with muddy sand trounced throughout our sleeping area, the rain dripping through the tarplike ceiling and no space to lay down because the other team took up most of the room. Oh yeah and then add the fact that the mosquitos were horrible and then to add insult to misery, one of the other team members says, (in english) let´s sleep sitting up. Yeah, great idea genius with the whole mat to himself. So Andrew and I ended up sleeping literally shoulder to shoulder on the wet sand floor trying to avoid the drips. Sufficed to say I slept probably less than an hour.
The following day we woke up around 5am and began preparing our raft for the journey and at our danty breakfast of one slice of bologne and cheese. So we put it on the water and it passed the float test, but would it pass the whole trip test, we had yet to know. At 8am sharp every group put in and the bell sounded and we jetted off, ramming about two teams trying to get started which put us in dead last place. It took my body at least about 30 minutes to work out the kinks and then hit my stride, but it was great to pass a ton of teams to start out and then finish Day 1 passing another 5 more teams close to the finish line. However, we finished about 30 seconds behind the ¨Mormons¨ or so we thought. We ended up gunning for them the whole 3 days and then on the last day we figured out the weren´t mormons at all. But anyway, it was a good goal to shoot four. Day 2 we just cruzed and beat the ¨the mormons¨ and at one point there was no team in sight behind us and one team in front of us. We got another danty portion of supper and breakfast in a small pueblo and then headed out again for Iquitos which was going to be another 8 or 9 hour day on the river. We paddeled and made really one mistake in reading the current of the river that cost us some time but we were quite pooped at this point. Daniel´s shoulder ¨wasn´t responding¨as he said and Ramon was as dark as a raisin. The final 200 meters was upriver and really killed us, it probably took us 25 minutes to move that small distance. Anyways, it was a blast, I hope to do it again in the distant future and there is much more to write and explain which I do not have time. It was great fun and a great time of bonding for Andrew, Daniel and myself. Thank you all for your prayers, we felt safe the entire time even though we were inches off the water the whole time. One of the Peruvian competitor told me he had seen a Boa during one of the smaller windier sections and was mortified. But we only saw Dolphins and lots of jumping fish. That´s it in a nutshell even though there is much more to say, I´ve included a website here to read a short article (in english) from one of the journalist spectators. http://www.livinginperu.com/travel-920-amazon-adrenaline-rafting-great-amazon-raft-race-2009.

Construction Video of Puerto

2009-10-05T19:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a video that was put together by Extreme that shows the construction of our future home in Puerto. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi3ouzGwhr0. They happened to use a pretty great back up song as well.

Puerto

2009-10-02T08:02:00.000-07:00

Our time in Iquitos is quickly coming to an end...and we leave for Puerto in about 3 weeks! I am filled with emotions--sadness because I don't want to leave this place we have called home for the last 5 months, but excitement about what lies ahead. We have anticipated, talked about, prayed and planned for Puerto for the past year...and we will finally be there!

Right now there is a short term team in Puerto working on building our home and doing outreach in the communities. Please join us in prayer for this team--for safety, for good weather, and for impact on the people in Puerto. We are so thankful for them and the work they are doing to build our home and prepare the community for the work our team will be doing! You can keep up with all that is happening during this short term project at http://www.extremenazarene.org.

Prayers for the boys...

2009-09-24T07:39:00.000-07:00

This morning we said goodbye to Tyson for a few days. The day has finally come for the Amazon Raft Race and we saw the team off this morning.

Team Extreme: Tyson, Daniel, Ramon, & Andrew

Please keep them in your prayers over the next 4 days, for the building of relationships, communication, fun and adventures...and safety too of course! I know Tyson will have a ton to tell when he gets back so stay tuned!

Kai was sad that Tyson was leaving and when I told him Daddy was going on an adventure he responded "Kai wanna go on adventure". Don't we all:)

A year ago...

2009-09-20T13:27:00.000-07:00

A year ago we were wondering what the Lord had planned next for us. You see, we had been praying since January about where the Lord would take us next. We felt that we were ready to make a move, that God had one planned for us, but we just didn't know what it was. I had researched a ton on teaching abroad, and different organizations to serve with, but nothing seemed like the right fit for us. Tyson had applied for teaching jobs and had interviews for ones he was totally qualified for and that seemed to be perfect. But the Lord continued to close doors. So we waited.

A year ago last weekend we went to church just like any other Sunday. We were surprised to find a giant truck in the parking lot. The Extreme Mobile. We went to service and listened to Scott Englund and Brent Deakins talk about Extreme Peru and what they were planning down here. Tyson and I both felt our hearts jump out of our chest wondering if this is what we had been praying for. However, while our hearts were jumping in our chests, our minds were still wondering...where would we fit in this? They mostly talked about the 40/40 program and since we were married that wasn't an option for us. After the service went through the Extreme Mobile. My heart was pounding as I learned about the people on the islands in Lake Titicaca, my heart was broken as I learned about the unchurched in Arequipa. I didn't even get to hear about Puerto Maldonado because I was running late to teach Sunday School. But Tyson was able to talk to Scott and asked if there was a place for a couple like us...and he learned about the Cluster Support position—a family to care for the 40/40s in each city. Perfect! That following week Scott's card sat on our bathroom counter and every time I saw it I would pray about this possibility, what should we do, what is our next step, is this what you have for us Lord?

A year ago this weekend we went camping as a family on the coast. Tyson received a call from Brent Deakins...he wanted to meet with us and talk to us more about Extreme. What an answer to prayer...I still thank the Lord that Brent followed up with us that weekend!

A year ago. How quickly the time has gone. Yet, it seems like so long ago. So much has happened, we have experienced much, watch the Lord work in many ways, have had joys and sorrows, trials and victories, and through it all have seen the great faithfulness of our Lord.

A year ago our lives changed forever. I can't imagine what He has in store for the next year...

Living Life

2009-09-20T11:21:00.000-07:00

We are living life here in Iquitos…not a ton new to report but things are going well. Below I posted a few pictures of the class Tyson taught a couple weeks ago. He did a great job and it was fun to see him in teacher mode again:) He put in a ton of hard work gathering information, photos and videos of Puerto Maldonado and got us all thinking about what is ahead. It was perfect timing as we have a month and a half left and I know since then my mind has been turning with thoughts of Puerto and how to prepare better. The pictures below are of a couple team building activities we did which were great and I loved seeing our team work together. The first one was where they had to all stand on a sheet and flip it over without anyone stepping off…they were very creative and I was super impressed! The second was where each pair has to guide each other across the church property blindfolded…trust and communication were key!

Other than that things are busy and November is coming fast…we are leaving here the last week in October and although we will be sad to leave Iquitos, we are anxious to finally arrive and begin work in Puerto! Please pray for our team during this final stretch of training. That we would learn and absorb all we can to help us in Puerto, that each pair would continue to grow as they prepare to plant churches together and that Tyson and I would know how to better serve our team each and every day. Dios te bendiga!

Jair: Post 5

2009-09-10T15:39:00.000-07:00

We'll it bums me out to be reporting the latest in the story of Jair and Pool, but I know that God has a plan to use this for good. It's been a rough week but it's really a big part of the story with these two young guys. It all went down last Monday night. Bill and Tracy Wertz had arrived earlier that day which we were super excited about and we had been running around that day in the Motokar. It was a great time for them to visit as well as great timing for this Monday night. We had just finished our weekly dinner with the 40/40's at our house and were chatting with the Wertz's when the door bell rang. It was Jair, so I invited him in to meet Bill and Tracy and hang out for a bit. He came in and played with Kai while we talked and hung out. Then at around 8:45, I looked out our window to check on our Motokar that was parked out front of our house and couldn't believe it. It wasn't there. A lot of things ran through my mind: did one of our 40/40's take it when they left, did I accidentally leave it somewhere else or leave it back at the Hotel that the Wertz's were staying or was it actually taken. I ran down with Bill and we asked some questions of our neighbor Nora who hadn't seen anything, but she helped direct us to the police station. As we were trying to figure out the situation Jair came down and was very surprised at what had just happened. We could tell he was very concerned and also helped direct us to the Police. Bill and I said our goodbye's to Jair and went directly to report the missing vehicle. At the police station there had to be about 15-20 Moto's and Motokar's that had been impounded. However, they sent us to a special department of the police that deals only with stolen vehicles, DEPROVE. Knowing that this is the largest city in the world that has no roads leading out in addition to seeing the large amount of impounded vehicles at the Police station, I started to think that maybe there is a chance that we may see this Motokar again. However, we were also told that some of the police are corrupt and organized with the thief’s. Anyway, it wasn't at DEPROVE either and we met up with Cristobal and Pastor Aviatar and we filed all the necessary paperwork that went into a handwritten logbook. Nothing gives you more confidence in a police force than when they write your story and information in a dusty logbook. Anyway, there was nothing else to do at this point but pray.

Bill and I then headed home and upon arrival, Tracy pointed out that she had thought our digital video camera was on our counter, but didn't know where it was. What a great thing to find out after dealing with this already draining situation. So at that point we proceeded to tear apart the whole house trying to find this thing. But as we searched we couldn’t find it anywhere. I was so ticked off at this point, if it in fact was taken it had to have been Jair who was the only person in our house other than the 40/40's. Dispite not knowing where he lived and it being 10:30 at night and there being a storm on the horizon I was determined to find his place at get that thing back. Bill just said “let's go”, so he and I headed out. I was really thankful he was there to help because if he hadn’t been there I for sure wouldn’t have done this alone. We just headed in the direction that he had mentioned earlier, which was in a shadier part of town near the old abandoned airport. Lightning strikes illuminating the dirt street and something jogged my memory because I remembered that they had to sign using their addressed for the Amazon Raft Race that we had been training for. Thanks to Tracy’s time data basing at Church on the Hill she was able to remember their street name. There were two ladies out on the street who I asked if they knew where the street was and if it was safe to be out here at this time of night. They pointed us in the right direction and we happened to be only a block away. They said as long as people are out in the street it should be safe. Fortunately after learning that bit of informatin the rain began to just poor and everyone that was outside left, great. We walked further and asked a young kid if he knew where they lived which was now one house down. Bill suspiciously kept his back against the wall next to the door providing the intimidation. Jair poked his head out the window and Bill gave him the old head nod and he opened the door. I asked him if he had my camera and if he knew anything about our Motokar. He said yes, he had just brought it to his house. He then turned, went inside and brought it out and handed it to me. I couldn’t believe it, I shook his hand and didn't have any words at that point and we just left in the rain. It was coming down at this point and we just wanted to get home, but I was so relieved to get it back.

We got back just drenched to the bone but relieved and confused. It had been such an unbelievable night and this relationship that I’d spent so much time to foster and that I had so much confidence in was just shattered. I didn’t know what to think at this point because I felt so betrayed but I really think and pray that this all took place on the same night for a reason. You see Jair apparently has no problem stealing, but he has no clue of the consequences. However that night he was able to see the consequences of someone stealing on a different level. I know that maybe you’re thinking Jair had something to do with the stealing of the Moto but his reaction combined with the timing of the Moto missing give us reason to believe he wasn’t a part of that. But at this point I hope the story is not over, it certainly changes things for our relationship. But really I hope he can see his actions more clearly and the fact that he just gave it back to me either says he cared enough about our relationship and my family to give it back or either he was scared. I hope that anyone that’s been following this story will just pray that this isn’t the end of the story. You see it had been described by multiple people that night that there is a necessity for some to steal in Peru and specifically in this community, the unemployment rate is in around 45%. It was confirmed the next day when Pool stopped by who had been looking for work all day and couldn’t find anything. He’s seemed quite bummed because he’s likely going to have to join the Peruvian Navy, which is probably a good option for him at this point. Anyways, I just keep them in my prayers and hope they see their sin as it truly is and then that they recall the verses we read together about Christ dying for them despite their sin. Please keep them in your prayers, they know where the church is located, they know that Christ is their hope. They just need something to wake them up and finally see their need for Him.

40/40 Church Plant Locations!!!!

2009-09-10T14:17:00.000-07:00

We'll we got our church planting assignments which are still subject to changes but our team is excited to see on paper where they will be focusing their efforts and prayers. Tracy and I taught three days this week all about preparing for Puerto, we watched interviews from folks in Puerto, analyzed what makes Puerto unique, looked at pictures and did some team building exercises. The three days was designed for us all to begin looking at Puerto through a different lense and really start focusing on how to prepare. The pictures included so that you can see where each of our 4 pairs churches will be. The first picture are the communities that we will be working to plant churches within the city of Puerto Maldonado. The pinks are Wendy and Elisa, the light blues are Olivia and Ana and the orange is Callie and Carmen. The picture below is where Andrew and Daniel will be working to plant churches. Being able to get our minds wrapped around more specifics is helping us to see the reality of Puerto and that it's only 6 weeks away for us. Please pray for these locations.

Texas

2009-09-08T02:58:00.000-07:00

So one of our favorite (and one of the very few options) to eat here in Iquitos is The Yellow Rose of Texas. It is owned by a retired guy from Texas who played for the Longhorns and is a big fan so the entire staff wears Longhorn attire. The Collins family pops into my mind literally every time I walk up to it:) The food is good and offers us some American choices that are rare around here. But for me, the reason I keep going back is the staff. They are warm and loving and you feel like family when you walk up. They also love Kai. The ladies all squeeze his cheeks and then he confidently says "jugo para mi" (Juice for me) with a big "Muchas gracias" when they bring it. They love it. But, Kai absolutely adores one of the male waiters, Jacob. Kai loves to get down from his chair and play with him and if I walk over to bring Kai back (because I'm thinking perhaps Jacob might have other things to do) he wants nothing to do with me...he just wants to play with his amigo. And frankly Jacob adores Kai as well and is more then happy to play with him and asks for him when anyone in our group comes. Two weeks ago Jacob was talking with Kai when our food came and we were ready to pray. So, Tyson invited him to pray with us and he did. That sparked a conversation about where we go to church and when the services are. I don't even know that we had a chance to invite him before he said he would come to the Sunday morning service because it was before his shift at work. Awesome! We let him know we looked forward to seeing him there. And guess what? He came! And last week when we saw him at the restaurant he asked Tyson if he had been studying the passage they were supposed to and said he would be there again the following Sunday. Unfortunately he was not at church this last week. However, I think God is starting something and want to ask for your prayers for him. We are thankful that our team has shown love to the staff at Texas and we are thankful for Kai's personality and how he loves people as it gave us an opportunity to talk to Jacob about church. Please keep Jacob in your prayers...thanks!

Visitors!

2009-09-01T12:41:00.000-07:00

Last week we were super blessed to have Bill & Tracey Wertz come to visit us. Bill is a pastor at our church back home, I worked with him for 7 years and we were in a small group with Bill & Tracey even before we were married. Bill married us, dedicated Kai and we have spent birthdays and holidays with them. Really, they are like family to us. You can imagine how excited we were when they told us they were coming up to Iquitos to see us after they served with a short term project in Arequipa. They were only here for a short time but we treasured each moment with them. I can't explain how wonderful it was to have our pastors and friends here to encourage us in our ministry, marriage and parenting. They were able to meet our team, visit our home, see our church, get to know our city a little, experience an Amazon thunderstorm downpour, and spend some time on the river. It was truly a refreshing time for us. Thank you Bill & Tracey for making the trip up...we love you guys!

Bill, Tracey & Kai on a boat on the river on our way to a butterfly farm

Saying goodbye at the airport

Jair and Pool: Post 4

2009-08-28T14:46:00.000-07:00

Well last week we had a great rowing practice on the Nanay. We borrowed a Canoe and 3 oars and headed out. Jair took the back, Pool the middle and I took the front. It was quite possibly the most frustrating experience of my life because for the distance that we covered on the river, we probably went really twice as far due to our zig zag pattern. We all swam in the Nanay river and returned home after about 2 hours on the river. We need to keep practicing considering the average of day during the Amazon Raft Race is 6 hour of rowing.After our time on the river I had invited them to a Chicken "broaster" event that our church was holding. All the Nazarene churches from around the city were attending so there was a huge group. It was an extremely hot day, the chicken was delicious and football was very footy (mostly barefoot).

The pictures above are of Jair kicking one of our three penalty kicks to break the 1-1 tie and of Pool trying to block the opponents shots. We ended up tying in the kick off 2-2 . It was a great time for them to meet the pastors and spend more time around the community of believers and again invest a little time at the church. Jair also came over to my house and we chatted again about the the ultimate result of sin in our lives and the ultimate sacrifice for that. We read more about the incredible idea that even while I was a sinner, Christ died for me and for Jair, to give us freedom from that. He's hearing it but there needs to be something bigger than me to get through to them so my prayer for them is that God would continue to work on their hearts, my words and actions only go so far. More to come...

This week...

2009-08-23T15:20:00.000-07:00

This week has been busy and hot! Last Saturday there was a youth event at the church and a bunch of churches came and participated in soccer and volleyball matches. We had fun hanging out and watching the games. Tyson played, Kai and I watches and some of our girls sold refreshments. Later that night I looked at the temperatures for the day and it was 95 with 95% humidity and a “feels like” temperature of 109. The only way to bear heat like that with no AC is to sit very still in front of a fan:) The rest of the week has been pretty well the same and we are realizing our first couple months here were actually the cooler months of the year and now we are into the reality of jungle heat!

Ana, Olivia, Hermana Magna and Carmen serving refreshments in the heat!

Sunday we "accidentally" got Kai a couple baby turtle pets…I instantly regretted this decision and after a week we released the sweet little turtles into the river yesterday. You can read more about our turtles here.

Kai adoring his baby turtles

Wednesday night we went to the church that Callie and Carmen are working with and showed the Jesus Film. We had a good group show up and they were able to get lots of contacts of people who wanted them to visit and find out more.

This week we have been meeting individually with each person on our team and your prayers for our meeting would be greatly appreciated. They have been very encouraging so far and we are excited about the direction our group is headed. Thursday was our meeting with Olivia which just happened to land on our 6 months here in Peru…the 4 of us met up in San Francisco last February and made the trip to Peru together! It is hard to believe we have been in Peru for ½ a year already!

Today we had a big combined Sunday School service where a bunch of churches came together and all the kids put on little presentations. The electricity went out in the middle of the night last night and didn’t come on until about noon today. We waited around for it to come back on and then finally started without mics or fans (really hot in the church with all those bodies!) about 45 minutes late…true Peruvian style:) It was a great service and fun to see all the kids from all the churches!

Well, there is a quick update of our event of this last week...all of that on top of classes with a very intense professor...tests everyday and lots of church and Nazarene history! Thank you all for your prayers, we love you!

Jair and Pool: Part 3

2009-08-14T15:36:00.000-07:00

I hope to catch you all up briefly on the last few times that I’ve been able to hang out with Jair and Pool. Our next planned meeting was going to be Thursday night around 9:00 at our apartment. If either of them chose not to show up that could very well be the end. I would have no way of getting a hold of them, because neither of them had a cell or house phones for that matter. I was excited to have them over to our house even though I wasn’t 100% sure of their intentions. Either way I wanted them to know that I meant what I said; “that I’d be here for them.” I was surprised but they were right on time, which is generally not the case with Peruvians. They came in ate up some food and hung out with Kai and Tracy and shoot the old Spanish breeze.
I had seen in a local restaurant a series of oars on the wall that had Amazon Raft Race written on them. So I inquired more and found out that this event would actually be taking place on one of the last weeks that we’d be living in Iquitos. So knowing no more information than Andrew and I wanted to do it and it required 4 people, I asked them if they would want to join us. At that point I knew my language skills were not strong enough to just have a relationship that is solely verbal and knowing they were guys excited about physical exercise I figured this would be a great opportunity to quality time with them.
Okay, back to Thursday; I gave them a Bible that I had gotten for Jair (not considering they would both show up) and I highlighted scripture to read on their own. We then read the 10 Commandments that they were familiar with and talked about the importance they hold in our society regarding law and order. And we then read about the consequences of breaking those Commandments as well as what Jesus had to say about hating a brother and thinking lustful thoughts about a woman. So pretty much they were in agreement that they were guilty as am I of breaking God’s Commandments. At this point as I should I felt the tension building so figured I figured I’d leave the “consequences of sin is death for later.” We left and decided to inquire more about the raft race together in a few days.
A few days had past and all three of us were going to head to walk to the center of town to inquire more and only Pool showed up. I didn’t receive a sufficient reason why which I wasn’t too concerned about. Anyway, we went downtown and the office was closed but it was a good chance for me to connect with Pool like I was able to with Jair. I found out that Pool likes to write poetry and in fact writes love notes for his friends who aren’t gifted with poetic words. He’s the Shakespeare behind the letters and gets no credit, I told him he needs to charge. Anyways, we talked about showing me some of his poems which he has since done and I would show him some of mine. So we were able to connect on this level and Pool is interested in playing the guitar which I hope to follow up on and spend more time with him. Pool has the potential to be a very powerful leader, please pray for his salvation.
So about a week and a half passed by and I hadn’t seen Jair or Pool at this point and I was beginning to get a bit discouraged, but more prayerful for the two. Then out of the blue on a Saturday afternoon we got a ring at the door bell. It was Jair with a concerned look on his face. His mother had come to visit about a week earlier from the jungle and had come down ill with a stomach issue. Jair said he wanted to help his mother and needed 20 soles to buy her medicine. Again, at this point I wasn’t sure of his motives so I was a bit hesitant. I wanted to help but I didn’t want to give him money. Coincidentally, the church property of Extreme was in the process of getting some new paint in the guys and girls dorm rooms and I had noticed the grass outside the church needed mowing. This was the perfect opportunity to have him put in a little sweat and investment of time and energy on the church property, spend time with him and in turn help out his mother. So we got in the mototaxi and went to the church. He joined the whole team for a good lunch and then we started working. We started out cutting pastors lawn with machetes which is quite difficult on the back and following began painting the guys room. I wanted him to have to work hard for his reward, but I didn’t want to send him out to do it alone so we worked side by side in the hot hot sun until we finished what we could in the guys’ room. He was able to meet all the pastors and our entire team which was very important for him to get to know those people who I pray will begin to invest in his life, knowing that my time here is short. I just hope that his investment at the property will allow him to be more comfortable with the church and the pastors. More to come soon. God is so Good. Please continue to pray for them both.

Vacation Bible School

2009-08-13T14:20:00.000-07:00

The last week in July three of our churches put on a VBS for the kids. The turn out was awesome for all three and kids and adults all had a wonderful time. The first day was about creation and the next two days about Joseph and his brothers. I taught the preschool age at our church with another girl. We averaged about 16 kids between the ages of 2 and 6 in our class. The kids had a great time and so did we. The final day they made these little pin wheels and we put on a little presentation for the church!

The craziness that is any presentation with kiddos...our class is in the front row...

The kids loved the pin wheels

Amazon 3 Day Trip

2009-08-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

This last week was our break week from classes so we planned a 3 day trip up the Amazon to help a small village church. Knowing that in the future some of our church plant locations might be 8 hour or more from Puerto Maldonado, this should prove to be an excellent experience for our group. We arrive in Belen, a little floating part of our city to board the boat and they are in the process of loading the boat with diesel that they are filtering using an old T-shirt. The two story boat has a motor sitting in the middle of the bottom floor spitting hot oil and exhaust on passengers below. The upper deck is half covered with hammocks strung up from side to side in preparation for the 10+ hour boat ride and we were last to arrive so we get the sun deck which means that after about 3 hours all the white folks are burnt somewhere. Thankfully the boat does have a toilet for this long of a ride, just don’t slip from the splashing river water below and watch your aim. The trip was long and as darkness swept in fast the rain did as well which of course had to happen and everyone had to squeeze underneath the bug infested hammock area. Callie, Cristobal (our school organizer) and I headed downstairs which was about 85 degrees and a man with a flashlight was tending to the engine with a rag over his mouth to protect for the fumes. As we got closer to our destination which was the last stop on this route, we would pull in drop people off at other villages in the dead of night and every time we did this we were swarmed with mosquitoes because our boat was no longer moving and we all started lathering on the Cutter. We arrived at Famento at 9:20ish and walked with our gear another 20 minutes to the town, where we settled down at the church to put up our bug nets and beds and then headed to pastors Nehemiah’s house for dinner. We all got fish and I do mean fish, the whole thing, and some even got one or two on our plate. The fish had about as many bones as my Spanish dictionary has new words. Imagine swallowing one of those pins from a new collared shirt from Nordstrom and have it stay in your throat for 2 hours. Anyways, this is a normal meal which we were soon to find out, and we knew to always eat and accept what is given to us. The girls had a harder time, but it was very delicious, even the one with the huge teeth. So we woke up the next day, had fish for breakfast and got ready to help the local pastor with his evening service and invite another local village to the service. So we headed to San Juan which was a cool 20 minute walk. It looked to be a slightly larger village than Famento and bumped up to a beautiful oxbow lake. As we split up to invite the community, we began noticing a somber and concerned mood amongst the villagers. The first house we arrived at explained that a local man went missing the previous afternoon on the lake. Each house we went to invite was concerned but not with empathy. It’s difficult to describe but it was as if they had been through this so many times before, they just didn’t display their sadness visibly. It’s as if this sort of thing happens more often than it should, with health issues, dangerous jungle animals and hospital visits out of the picture. We gathered around and followed the local pastors lead in prayer for the family of the missing man. Whether there was a relationship with the pastor and this family or town I could not tell, but my prayer was for open doors for the pastor in that village and peace for the wife. There was a man who went in search of the man the previous day and kept saying that it was likely the large Boa living in the lake. As we returned to Famento, I just thought about how surreal it seemed to me that this happened during the little window of time that we were there.
That afternoon, we played games, tug of war, soccer, relaxed in the heat and prepared for the night service. That evening the service was packed and our team provided some excellent leadership in song and drama. The local pastor seemed to be very encouraged which I gathered was something quite needed.
After the service we walked around the center soccer field and talked with the locals thanks to the village owned 12kw generator running power to the walkway lights. The mosquitoes were something fierce and what’s strange is that the locals have a different name for the ones that come out at night. They’re called San Curos. They were big but don’t worry ma, they didn’t have malaria. The next morning at 5:00am we packed up, ate our fish breakfast and started out on our 4 hour jungle walk out because tThe boat we had headed in on wasn’t available so this was our only option.
As we began we got our packs, dufflebags and handbags, bed mats situated, prayed for the village and headed out with our 14 year old guide. 20 minutes into the hike we came to San Juan and as we passed by many of the local homes we noticed many sitting together talking. As we continued on our route the most surreal part of the trip was about to take place and I didn’t know how to react. The last house we pass on our way out of San Juan had the man’s body wrapped in white laying on a table alone inside the house. There were 10 or so villagers sitting outside the house morning the loss, we stopped to pay our respects, said our goodbyes to the villagers and headed on our way. Apparently, he was found floating in the lake 2 hours earlier and the thought was that he must have fallen in and just couldn’t swim. I never would have imagined that this strange chapter would have come to a close while we were there. We all were shocked at what had transpired and again our prayers were that this would open the doors for Christ in this village. As I read Psalms 136, it struck me that even this situation can fit into the list of how “His love endures forever” even when it seems like a terrible situation, God is sovereign. Our hike lasted an hour and we came to another village with a man who had a sugar cane slash alcohol making operation which he showed us. We were excited when he said he was willing to take us 2 hours up river in his boat to our destination. Beautiful jungle river, like out of National Geographic and then finally and hour by bus and we were back. It was memorable and great for our group to spend this unique experience together and help with what we could. Had our group not been there it’s likely that Pastor Nehemiah would not have visited San Juan and met the community at their point of need. Thanks for reading and sticking with our blog, your support and prayers are so appreciated.

Gabriela Nunez

2009-08-04T11:35:00.000-07:00

This last Saturday we had a great time as a family helping out at Gabriela Nunez with a “health day”. This is the church that Olivia and Ana are working with and they had learned that there are many health issues in the community. One of the main issues is the lack of clean water and the illnesses that go along with that. They organized this health day and brought in an organization with medical students to educate and help the community. The health students put on a couple different presentations on parasites, hygiene, sanitation, diseases, etc. They handed out pills for parasites to many of the people in the community—although there were some that would not take them as it is a very foreign idea to them which was eye opening to me. We washed lots of sweet little heads and did lice treatments. The little boys got hair cuts from Tyson and a few of the other guys and later we trimmed up some of the little girls' hair and a few of the ladies as well. The girls sang songs and played games with the kids and all in all it was a wonderful day. The community is located across the river and so we all piled into a boat to get to it. The village is very poor and the first house I encountered amazed me—just a platform with a roof and a little tiny areas with some plastic around it for sleeping. I can't imagine trying to stay dry and warm in the downpours we have, but that is what they have. This was a wonderful day and I was so thankful for the opportunity to serve these people and show them the love of Christ in a tangible way! Please continue to pray for this community, Ana & Olivia and the work they are doing out there for the Lord!

In & Around the Community

2009-08-04T10:52:00.000-07:00

This is one side of the pueblo...all the houses surrounded this huge green field. From what I understood, during the wet months the water covers most of the area, which is why all the houses are on stilts.

A little boy in the rice field on our walk to the Gabriela Nunez

Fishermen on the river--it is amazing how they balance in that tiny boat while pulling in their nets!

Sweet Faces

2009-08-04T09:40:00.000-07:00

2009-08-04T09:20:00.000-07:00

It was fun to have Kai out there and watch him interact with the people…he always makes a friend and this time it was Jorge, one of the medical students, who was gracious enough to let Kai lead him around most of the morning.

Jair: Post 2

2009-08-02T15:37:00.000-07:00

So if you read my last blog on God's redemption in my life, I was so excited that God presented this opportunity and I wasn't actually sure that this was an answer to prayer or just a night to share God with a young lost kid in my broken Spanish. Our plan was for Monday after our weekly 40/40 meeting at 9:00. I wasn't sure that he would show up or not but my prayer was that this would continue so I headed to the Chifa joint that we ate at previously. As I walked up, I was relieved to see him approach the restaurant as well. However, he had a friend. I hesitated at first because I didn't know if his friends intentions. I wondered if he too wanted the free meal. Either way I asked them if they wanted to head in and get something to eat.

I was surprised at their response. They suggested that we go to the park and talk; their actions suggested that they weren't interested in the food so that's absolutely what we did. As I've been studying and preparing a bible study out of 1 Peter for our group revolving around Discipleship, the theme of the first two verses struck me. God's Love was overwhelming theme, that God loved us before we were born before we could even develop a pleasing character. You see, I only had one thing that I hoped to accomplish with Jair that night. I wanted to get to know Jair and now Pool and explain that I love them, period. Even before I get a chance to know their character. I want them to understand that fact and that two: I can't wait to get to know them because God wants to know us and has excellent plans for us. I explained those things which they seemed to enjoy hearing, we talked for over an hour at the park about boxing, why they box (which is to protect the innocent) Jair becoming a police officer, Pool studying computers, their intense desire to train, why I'm here as missionary and about their families. Pool is 21 and doesn't know his father as well and his mother lives outside of town about an hour, he two lives with his aunt across the street from Jair. That night Pool did most of the talking and was very interested which I was very excited to see that he wasn't there for just the food.

I then asked them if they did want to eat because I did still have reading and PowerPoint presentation to make for class the next day. Their response was that they would love to help me read the material, so I invited them upstairs to our apartment where they met Tracy, saw a picture of Kai and I grabbed my materials. Jair ate the last two grilled cheese sandwiches left over from the dinner on the way out. They were both very polite which I was also glad to see because at this point I'm still unsure of their intentions, I just want them to know that were an open door and that they are always welcome. So we headed back to the Chifa joint they ate some chicken and fried bananas and read my homework. The wording was very theological and it was about missionary church planting which wasn't quite up their ally but they helped anyway. Their consensus after another hour of hanging out was that I would be better off reading it because I was the missionary. Very true, now it's 11:30ish and I haven't read much or prepared anything for tomorrow. Now worries this is why I'm here, so we finished up and decided to meet again together at my house in four days. Praise the Lord for this opportunity, Pool seems very outgoing and genuine and Jair seems a little young and trying to figure out life a bit. I just can't believe this situation; my prayer that they would continue ask questions, that they would show up at our next meeting and that God would do a work on their hearts. Thanks for reading and I would appreciate your prayers for these two!!

Just keep cutting, just keep cutting...

2009-07-31T12:30:00.001-07:00

...just keep cutting, cutting, cutting. This is the song I have been singing in my head all week...to the tune from Finding Nemo. I have been cutting shapes...lots of shapes while everyone was gone preparing for VBS (Vacation Bible School) that starts today. There are actually 3 different VBS at 3 different churches at the same time that our group is putting on. We start this afternoon and it will continue for the next three days. Please keep these activities in your prayers...for kids to show up, for help to show up...and that these kiddos would hear and understand the love of God. Thanks all!

also...the team made it back from their trip a day early and had a great time...I'm sure Tyson will share some stories about their time soon!

Amigos

2009-07-27T10:31:00.000-07:00

Kai has been blessed to have a great little buddy here in Iquitos. Jim is the pastor’s son and just turned 3. From the first day they met these two hit it off and have been amigos ever since. With everyone gone I decided to come to the church and let Kai play with Jim for a few hours since his mom is working. I am currently watching them go from fighting over a ball to laughing to yelling to chasing each other and playing happy…their relationship has lots of emotions but always they are sad to leave each other when the day is over. I am thankful for a friend for Kai…one that he has lots of time with and can be a boy with (right now they are poking at ants with sticks). It is especially fun for me to watch him speak Spanish and learn new words. He is always saying “ven, amigo” or “vamos”…he is really good at the “command” words…ha! Here are some pictures of the “amigos”.

I realize I have not written much about Kai or how he is doing…that is because we have tried to keep this blog more about the mission then pictures of our boy…I have a whole other blog for that and if you want to check it out you can: www.kaismith.blogspot.com

However, I will give a quick little update. Kai is doing great here in Iquitos. He is going to a jardin (pre-school) in the mornings while we are in school and seems to really enjoy it. He is learning more and more Spanish each day and I am always pleasantly surprised when he uses new words that he has learned from being around Spanish speakers. He loves coming to the church and playing with Jim and seeing all of the team. He loves riding in motocars…especially when Daddy’s driving. He is the only one on our team that is not tired of rice. We have it every day here but he is always asking for more “arroz”. He is handling the heat like a champ even though he sweats like crazy and the mosquitoes haven’t seemed to bother him too much. All in all it has been an easy transition for him here to Iquitos and we are thankful for all the people who have helped Kai love being here, by loving him.

Sidenote: Hermana (what we call the district superintendent’s wife who live on the grounds too) just gave Kai a cup of coffee…hmm…not such a great idea but they both seem so happy about it I think I’m going to let it go…it looks really weak so hopefully there won’t be terrible consequences…*here’s hoping* This kid gets spoiled by everyone…one of my biggest challenges of living here:)

Around Iquitos

2009-07-27T09:45:00.000-07:00

Work Party

2009-07-27T08:18:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago our team used their one day off to go work at a church across the river. They worked hard cleaning up the land that a church will someday be built on and building a fence. This is actually the church that Olivia and Ana go out to every Sunday and they have learned that there are a lot of health issues in this community. The main issue is that there is no clean water and the people there either don't have the ability or don't know how to clean and sterilize it. This Saturday Olivia and Ana will be leading a health day out there and our whole team be going to help out...I believe Tyson and I are listed to cut hair:) I look forward to going out and helping and will for sure share about it later!

Movie at San Pablo

2009-07-27T08:01:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago our group helped out at one of the churches in town by showing a testimonial movie. Tyson wrote about it below with the picture of Kai "driving the motocar...here are a few more pictures of the group.

Callie playing futbol in the pouring rain with the kids...what a trooper!

And Callie getting "cleaned off" with the kids...you can't really see it but there is a well right there that the church put in for the community...very cool since there are communities that don't have access to clean water.

The team setting up for the movie

Prayers for river trip...

2009-07-27T06:13:00.000-07:00

The team left this morning for a 4 day trip up the river. They will be on a boat for about 12 hours today before reaching their destination and then be at a church helping out for 2 days...then they will make the 12 hour trip back on Thursday. Please pray for safety and health for everyone on the trip...our 8 40/40s, Tyson, 2 pastors and Cristobol. Please pray also that this would be a great time of service, fellowship and relationships. I am sad to say that I am staying home with Kai but felt that two 12 hour boat rides with an active 2-year-old were not a great idea. I will be spending my time hanging with Kai, catching up on some blogging, preparing for our VBS that will be happening this weekend and praying for our team! Thanks for your prayers!

Jair Post 1: Hopefully of Many

2009-07-20T15:29:00.001-07:00

I want to share a cool story of redemption in my life and a huge answer to prayer. As you know our number one priority is to serve the 40/40's and provide for their needs so that they can more effectively focus on reaching the lost in Peru. That has been our main objective here, but I really felt the Lord calling me to pray for my own mission field in addition to serving the 40/40's. One evening I went out for a walk to our local stadium and sports coliseum which was open for the night and there happened to be a city league basketball game going on. I figured I'd inquire more about the possibility of playing and was told I could try out for "team juvenile." As I left I was excited for the opportunity but continued to pray about a mission field. I was not sure if this was it but I definitely wanted to walk through this open door. My thoughts at this point were on how much time I've put into basketball over the years; practices, camps, playing, coaching and that don't know of any eternal results from those efforts other than personal lessons. As a Young Life leader in College, I coached for 2 years at Lynden HS with the goal of reaching the basketball guys, knowing that most if not all were lost. However, my focus was so intently on reaching them that I neglected that there were other students ready and willing for me to lead them. In my opinion I lost out on an open door on those that I could have made a significant impact. So my prayers is that I would not make the same mistake and that I would see clearly whether this is going to be worth my time and not just because it's fun or that I could use the exercise. The last thing I want to do is waste any time here if it's not going to produce fruit. My prayer is for clarity here in Iquitos specifically, knowing that we're not living here for very long. So they told me to come for a try out, which is a funny story in its own right. But, yes...God allow me to make the team which was the first step in the right direction and step 2 was that they were okay with the fact I could only practice 1 or 2 nights a week.

My first practice with the team turned out to be a very poorly run high school practice, but there were a good amount of college and beyond aged kids. Suffice to say, I felt very welcome and following the practice I received many pleasant grettings. Which in itself was reason enough to go to the next practice.

My second practice was at the Coliseum which is about 5 Peruvian (larger than normal) blocks from our house. I was told it would begin at 9pm but didn't start until 10pm and we didn't get done until around 11:30pm. I learned my lesson about showing up on time for practices. Anyways, as I was walking home I got about a half block from my house and I notice a kid sitting crouched near a doorway with his head in his hands and it was raining quite steadily at this point. I asked if I could help in anyway and he just motioned with his hands that he was hungry. I quickly went home grabbed some money, picked him up off the ground and we went to the Chifa restaurant (Peruvian Chinese food) near our house (that I'm beginning to think is a 24 hour joint). Jair is his name and for about 45 minutes Jair ate and we chatted about boxing, (which he does. and thank you parents for the name), family, American football, school, etc. I learned that Jair is 16 years old and has never known his Dad. His mother lives in the jungle and visits occasionally, but he is currently living with his aunt who he has been having problems and is why he was on the street that night. He was very gracious with my Spanish and I asked him if we could meet again in the next few days to grab a bite to eat again. So we set the date for Monday night 9:00pm after our 40/40 Monday meals.

I couldn't believe it, I just felt like I had been the best gift ever. It was like God answered my prayers using basketball as a legitimate desire to pursue and for the right reasons. Yet He had something totally different in mind and something so much greater. It was beautiful. If you've taken the time to make it through this quite lengthy blog entry, please be praying for Jair and our time together.

2009-07-20T15:14:00.000-07:00

Kai, helping out at San Pablo. It was a wet and muddy trip there but Kai will take any opportunity to ride in a "Byclecycle" as he calls it. This last week we helped out at Andrew and Daniel's church with a outreach film. And anytime dads' not in the front seat Kai is. It was a great opportunity to help initiate some community involvement in the San Pablo area of Iquitos. Each of our pairs are helping local pastors with outreach and discipleship in differnt churches around the area.

First Short Term Project!

2009-07-17T06:12:00.000-07:00

The volunteers for the first of a series of short term projects arrive today in Areqipa. They will be working on the construction of the training facility and church in Arequipa as well as doing activities and events to help start the church planting in Arequipa. The team in Arequipa has been working hard to plan and prepare for this project and we are excited to hear about all that God will do down there in the next two weeks.
Please join us in prayer over the next two weeks for the long term volunteers, the short term volunteers, the safety of everyone and for God to move in the hearts of the people in Arequipa!

Part 1: Monday Night Study at the Smith's

2009-07-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

1 Peter: Lessons in Discipleship
Part 1: Seguridad (Security)

Intro:
Every Monday night we have the 4o/4o’s over for dinner with the purpose of living out together Acts 3:42, here are the notes from our study. We want to be intentional about accomplishing these four things 1. Devoting ourselves to the apostles teaching 2. Fellowship 3. Breaking of bread (eating together and partaking in the Lords supper) and 4. Prayer. Our group of 4o/4o’s are very strong individuals, from dealing with the climate, cultural changes, language difficulty for some, church culture differences and life together we are surprised by their determination at every corner. Everyday is incredibly busy with 6:oo devotionals, school from 8:oo to 1:oo, work three days a week with a local church or hospital in the afternoons for the 4o/4o’s, homework, and church 4 nights a week. The agenda and opportunities to spiritually be stretched are deliberately difficult now to prepare them for a non-stop ride we are all about to experience in a little over 4 months. Because our group is constantly being required to prepare and receive information for classes, we want to make Monday’s a fun time of discussion and practical study in the apostles teachings.

With our goal being to create the foundations of indigenous churches, we really want to distance ourselves from what we have to offer to a church plant in Peru and rather leave that to the people here to shape how it looks. Our role isn’t to bring the American culture to Peru but rather to bring Christ and inspire others to lead these indigenous churches. Thus we have decided that Monday’s we will study 1 Peter, because as I studied it I was struck by it’s perfect outline of how we should begin our discipleship process. I have included our bible study outline for you to follow if you’d like. I have also created an illustration that I hope will help our group to remember this book and the outline for discipleship evangelism. Our goal is to raise up leaders and right now, this is the most important thing we can learn while preparing for our jobs in Puerto Maldonado.
I first read through 1 Peter, God’s grace is what stuck out to me but then as I read it in light of our current situation in Iquitos and my current opportunities with Jair and Pool (whom you will hear about in blog posts to come) that I was struck by it’s perfect description of our walk of faith and outline for discipleship. There are five distinct chapter that perfectly follow the path we should look to follow as we disciple a new believer, with the end in mind of preparing them to become Christ like servants.
Our legacy here needs not be in buildings, intentions, but rather in people. Disciples firm in their faith, prepared to live Holy lives, prepared to submit and suffer and serve for Christ. My hope is that this model will help us all to remember the stages that believers follow as you disciple and raising up leaders.

Illustration:
1. Vs. 1:3 - 12 Security
2. Vs. 1:13 - 2:10 Sobriety (Holy living)
3. Vs. 2:11 – 3:12 Submission
4. Vs. 3:13 – 4:19 Suffering
5. Vs. 5:1 – 14 Service

The video illustration outlines the book and first two verses of 1 Peter and is a result of contemplating the 4o/4o’s current living situation. Rats, bats, bugs, leaky roofs, frogs and cucarachas.

Explanation: Peter starts with here at our basic level of need. Love. Peter is saying that God loved us before he even knew us. I think that says a lot. We typically love people after we get to know their character and who they are. God is saying I love you and I can't wait to get to know you. We all have a desire to be known and a desire to know our creator. And this is what I told Jair the first night we met. That God loved me even when I was junk and I love him even though I don’t really know him. But just as God wants a relationship with us, I can’t wait to get to know him. Getting to know him is inconsequential to me loving him. The same is with Christ dying for people that are currently filled with sin. It's incredible and we need to begin with love and a desire to get to know those that we disciple.

Application:We then read through the following verses and assigned one work descriptions of these verses. For each of the verses this is what they came up with in reference to Security (our shield) in our faith.

1. 1-2: Love: explained Jesus dying for sinners. 2. 3: Mercy: giving us new birth in Jesus through his resurrection 3. 4: Inheritance: imperishable, forever with Him 4. 5: Protection: by God’s power through faith 5. 6-8: Praise: Rejoice: In the salvation we have received in faith

Conclusion: We need to begin our discipleship with love and then follow up with the basic foundational understandings of who, what, when, where, why and how of Christ’s sacrifice. We need to preach that in Christ there is security from our former path of destruction and sin. And a new security, protection and inheritance in Christ that allows us to REJOICE.

We apologize...

2009-07-11T15:13:00.000-07:00

…for our lack of communication and posting these last few weeks. We have been so busy with school, homework and ministry that if we ever do have a little extra time we don’t have brain power left to write anything worthwhile…hence, you have only seen pictures of random things lately because I don’t have to think to post those:) Beyond school we are also doing our best to fulfill our role to support the 40/40s and figuring out all that our job entails. Below are a few posts from me and there will be more to come from Tyson as well. Oh, another obstacle…the internet…it is pretty slow and inconsistent here so I am now saving this to MS Word to post when it comes back up:) Thank you all for your prayers and for checking in to see what we are up to…we will try to keep you all more updated!

There are so many things I love about Iquitos...

2009-07-11T15:11:00.000-07:00

…it really has quickly become home to us. I love the mototaxis, the rain, the sun, seeing full families fit on motorcycles…oh so many things. But for us, the most wonderful thing about Iquitos is the people. The people of this city are really warm and welcoming. The houses here are always open, people sitting on the sidewalks visiting and watching the passersby. The kids that live next to the church always run out to give us (mostly Kai) hugs when we arrive and the boys on our street keep their eyes out for Tyson to play soccer with. Today Kai and I walked to the corner store for a treat and visited with the lady that runs it, then on the way back a neighbor invited us in to visit for a while. We love the simplicity of this life here and the small town feel of this city of 700,000!

Missing...

2009-07-11T14:35:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been really home sick. Not the “I miss driving, Starbucks and hot water” kind of homesick (although I do:)), but the loneliness kind of homesick. I feel lonely right now and I miss my friends. Of course I have missed them all along these last few months…but lately it is different. Lately I have this deep down aching desire to be around people who know me…really know me…in the deep down knowing kind of way. When someone knows your strengths and encourages you in them…but also knows your faults and weaknesses and loves you anyway. When you can be serious and silly all at the same time and go from laughing to crying and back to laughing again in 2.3 seconds. The kind of friendships that take years to develop…or maybe just one girls night sharing life stories with the movie paused:)

Don’t get me wrong. I am by no means alone here. I have my husband who I adore and am so incredibly thankful for. There is now way I could be here without him and that I know for sure. But, our friends have always been an important part of our relationship…we both have them and spend time with them outside of each other. And we have an amazing team and there are wonderful women in the church and all around me. Yes, there are language barriers, different life stages and age differences but I know these friendships will develop and I am excited for those…but right now, at this moment, I just miss my friends and that’s okay. I have to come to the realization that because I having a bit of a hard time does not mean that I am weak or failing or that I don’t want to be here. In fact, I have never not wanted to be here…only wished that I could go home to visit for an evening or that they could come here:) It just means that I miss them and I should…I have amazing friends…more than worthy of some good tears and missing:)

This last weekend when we were in Lima I was beyond blessed to have two wonderful conversations with two of my dearest friends via skype. It was just what I had needed and left feeling encouraged and refreshed by them…thank you friends:) That evening I began to think about friendships and being known and was overwhelmed by the love of my Father in Heaven. A Father that loves me and knows me deeply--deeper and better than anyone else. I thought about how I really don’t know real loneliness because I can’t remember a time I didn’t know that my Heavenly Father loves me and cares for me. How thankful I am that I have a God that knows me deep down…all the ugly and selfishness too…and loves me anyway. We all want to be known and loved in this way. I began to reflect on the people in this city we are in now, Iquitos…and the people of Puerto Maldonado that we will be serving next. How many of them have a deep down aching desire to be known by their creator that surpasses any loneliness I am feeling now? How many of them are hurting and broken and feel unlovable and have an emptiness only Christ can fill. When I reflect on these things I am reminded yet again of why we are here, why we left our family and friends (and hot water and starbucks:)), to share the life and love that only Christ can give to the wonderful people of this country!

2009-06-23T18:48:00.000-07:00

Another Baptism!!

2009-06-19T10:55:00.000-07:00

We were so excited to be a part of another baptism here in Iquitos…but this time it was one of our own team! Callie is committed to following and serving the Lord which is obvious in her day to day life as well as her commitment here in Peru…but had yet to make the decision to be baptized. She had been thinking about it for a while and decided last week that Saturday was the day. We went to a pool down the street from the church and had a mini baptism service. Another one of our team, Olivia, baptized her. It was a blessing to be a part of that day and witness this step in her walk with the Lord. We really can’t say enough about Callie—she is a joy to have on our team. She is our youngest member at 19 but has an amazing maturity and is one of the most positive people I know! We are thankful she is a part of our team and are excited to serve alongside her here in Peru!

The Hunts

2009-06-19T10:15:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago we were blessed to have the Hunts come stay with us here in Iquitos. They are currently based out of Arequipa--Brad is the logistics coordinator for Extreme and Michelle is the medical coordinator…and their 1 year old Tyler is cute as a button. They have also just recently decided to be the Cluster support family for the Cusco group. It was wonderful to have them stay with us and share our lives together for 10 days;) We had a great time together and had a memorable trip on the river their last day here.

This week we recieved news that Brad is having health problems and the doctors believe he may have had a small stroke. They are currently in Lima having tests done to figure out exactly what is going on. Please join us in prayer for this family—that they would get the answers they need and what treatment needs to be done.

On The River

2009-06-19T10:08:00.000-07:00

While the Hunts were here we took a trip on the river. It was a long trip 1 ½ hours each way but we saw many neat things. We went to a native tribe, a animal conservatory and saw lots of jungle along the shore. It was a great opportunity to see life outside of the city. It is amazing to me how people are able to live here. Houses just right out floating on the water. They have so little yet seem so content…it was a very eye opening trip.