Huarochiri

My team just got back from our first village, Huarochiri. It was great! It was a 7 hour bus ride away, and it was FREEZING because its in the mountains. But, we really feel like God is using our ministry to the glory of His name. We are the CMT, but we are just as much a team of encouragement as we are a team of dramatics. The village team that was there, Blake and Anibal, was discouraged because the town is very turned off to evangelicals because of past experiences. No one was coming to their Bible study, and many people didn't even want them there at all because they are Baptist. However, the people started opening up to us and I really feel like they trust Christians more now. We met 2 different men who were so excited about finally having a real light in their village. One man said that he had been hoping for something like this for a long time, and that he wishes other people in his village realized that you can never learn too much about God. Our conversation with him was really encouraging.

We played with the kids a lot, which was great for me, because I pretty much love kids. :-) My favorites were Yanela (pronounced Yuhnelah), Leonela (Layohnelah), Abigail (Ahbeehaiel), and Janet (Yahneht). We also did three performances of our puppets/dramas/songs- two for the high school and one for the elementary school. They went much better than I expected, especially the high school ones. The priest of the village highly approved of our being there, which was surprising and encouraging because its the first step to breaking down the Catholic vs. Christian divide. I'm so excited to see what opportunities God has already set in place for the boys (Blake and Anibal)!

The altitude is really going to get me this summer. That and long bus rides. My head hurt the entire time I was in the village, so be praying for health!

I have eaten more ice cream and papas fritas (fries DRENCHED in grease) that I am pretty much grossed out. I could definitely eat ice cream every day (because we do- sometimes more than once a day) but I really don't need to. Impulse eating is becoming a very bad habit.

Here are my randoms from Huarochiri:
1. There was no light in the one bathroom that all 7 of us shared. And you can hear everything that happens in there from every room in the hostel. Needless to say, we're a closely knit bunch.
2. They started playing music- really bad music- over the town loudspeakers at 5:30 in the morning. Like really loud, REALLY bad music.
3. There are tons of dogs there. We adopted one named Blancita (Whitey). She was black.
4. Priests play futbol and wear sweatpants. Really.
5. There were only 2 "restaurants"- we ate at one for lunch and one for dinner. And had papas fritas every night. blah...
6. Only cold water (when they don't turn the water off), so I didn't take a shower for 5 days. I'm rugged, I know.

P.S. You can't flush toilet paper anywhere in Peru. If you even have toilet paper. You Americans better appreciate your toilet paper. A lot. :-)

Prayer Requests:
1. Spanish improvement.
2. Focus and intentionality for the entire team.
3. Safety and health during all of our traveling.
4. Good personal time with God.

Dios te bendigo!


ALSO: My list of places I'm going, in case you want to track me on a map:
June:
2-5: Huarochiri
8-11: Huancapi (in Fajardo)
13-16: Cusicancha (in Huaytara Alto)
18-21: Santiago de Chocorvos (in Huaytara bajo)
23-26: bella Union
27-29: nazca for mid-summer debriefing
July:
1-4: Chumpi (in Ayacucho)
5-7: Pausa (in Ayacucho)
8-11: Marcabamba (in Ayacucho)
13-15: Pomacanchi (in Cusco/Cuzco)
16-18: nunoa- the second 'n' is an n with a wavy tilde on top, but I can't do that on this computer (in Puno)
20-22: Chupa (in Puno)
23-25: Lampa (in Puno)
26-29: Lima for final debriefing
30-3: traveling for my vacation somewhere... I don't know where yet!