McDonald Road Youth Mission Trip

Yesterday (April 3) was the baptism at the Peru Projects airbase for several churches, including the baptisms from the evangelistic series we did while in Peru.  Look at the pictures here!

Talk about having time to kill!  This is Heather, btw.  Our flight landed around 3pm, and we've been in the Lima airport since.  Our flight leaves for Atlanta at 1:20am, so you can probably imagine how bored we are, and how tired we will be by the time we board the plane.  I don't have much to say right now, so I (and probably a few others) will keep y'all posted on what's going on.

We're in the Pucallpa airport, waiting for our plane.  I guess saying goodbye is always hard, but this one is a bit more difficult than most...at least for me and Heather...we're definitely looking forward to coming back next year though.    (Hint hint Pastor Cook, we will mutiny if we're not coming back next year!!)  hahaha   Today we just got up a bit later than usual (meaning not 4:30 a.m.), packed, hung out a bit, and finally left for the airport.  Funny how it feels so much cooler in the airport today than when we first came in!  Haha.  We're all going to freeze back in the States. 

Well, I guess we'll see you tomorrow (unfortunately).  Yeah, we love you all, but...well, we really want to stay! 

We are all well now and we have finished our work here!

Well, we are just about done with everything.   We have a skeleton crew at the church wrapping up little odds and ends.  Girean is painting a new sign for the church and Dan and Cord are there doing various other things (Mr. Specific strikes again).   

It's raining right now.  Apparently winter is here (haha) which means the rains have started.  The river has risen an astonishing amount.   Our cafeteria is now on a peninsula and almost an island!  We have to use a bridge to get to it. 

Right now I'm sitting on a porch overlooking the river and watching a couple of guys net-fishing off a dugout canoe.    And now a couple of long barges are motoring their way loudly toward the harbor.   This river is a constant freeway of canoes, barges and water taxis.   I have even seen a water-ski and just now a speed boat (though it looks like a souped-up local job). 

Across the river I can see huts that now open up directly into water.  You can't even see their stilts.  I wonder what they do when the river goes even higher? 

Well, illness keeps haunting us.  We had a another three of our teen girls get sick this morning.  Thankfully, whether it's heat or a bug, they seem to all be recovering well and rapidly.    The worst case so far has been the daugher of one of our staff members.  Hers was a separate one caused by an injudicious and spontaneous act of local food ingestion.   Yet she recovered so fast that in just one morning she went from GI nightmare to skipping to the cafeteria for lunch! 

Pray for us as we finish our stay here.  We now just have Sabbath School and church and then a baptism and then our mission is done!  

 

Hey all,

I thought I would put in a blog myself instead of relying on Kristen to send it in. 

Yes, construction is going very well.  We just have odds and ends to complete tomorrow. A bit of painting, a bit of siding, a bit of door hanging and a WHOLE lot of dirt to move

   Tomorrow we do the final dirt load and get it all packed in around the building in order to hold the dirt that's inside in.   Very primitive, I know.  This is definitely the most primitive I've experienced in a LONG time.  Even though we can drive a half hour to a bustling city, most houses here are just thatched roof  wood structures.  We are truly on the edge of nowhere here.  In one of the villages that Orville flies to they actually had someone from a "lost tribe" just stumble out of the jungle.  He learned Spanish and basically he comes from a people that are nomads and live under the jungle canopy.  They have not yet been discovered by "civilization"! 

As far as our group goes, we have been doing fairly well, but have had some sickness  to deal with.  Besides a very mild diarrhea that's been going around, we have had a few struggle with heat issues.   We have two girls who spent today recovering from it and another who will need to rest more tomorrow.  Please keep us in your prayers.  We are doing our best to keep everybody well-hydrated and not over-worked.   This heat is so intense that they get sick faster than we can catch it at times.  Yes, this is true even in a cooler rain day. 

The VBS is going great.  We have had a steady crowd.  We have also had mothers who have expressed great appreciation and even an interest in Adventists from them.  One told us that her pastor had said not to come because we would all just be dancing.  So she came to see if it was true.     Now she seems interested in our church. 

The evangelistic meetings have been averaging 8 plus visitors each night.  The church seems to be thrilled to have this little boost in the arm. 

O.K. Time for bed.

Don't let the bed bugs bite you as much as they are me! 

David

 

 

from David

This is from David.

Well it's Sabbath afternoon and I've got updates from Savannah and Caroline!   As a bit of a background, today we got up, had a delicious breakfast, and headed out on a two-hour boat trip to a remote jungle church.  After visiting there and putting on most of the program--two skits, lots of special music, and a sermon by Pastor Cook, we headed back down the river, stopping at a small village en route to eat a delicious meal that I can't remember of the name of; however it's a semi-traditional (semi because it's been changed for vegetarian tastes ) Peruvian dish made of rice, meat, egg, and olive wrapped in a big leaf and boiled.  Anyways, after that we walked through a small village and looked at (but didn't buy) some crafts and then headed back to the base, where we took cold showers!!   and are now relaxing before supper and game time.  I'll let Savannah and Caroline tell you all the rest.