Headlines from a weekend in Peru

Inside this issue of my blog:
- Peruvian snow day!
- Feliz cumpleaños Marga!
- Chickens in church
- Mud, mud and more mud

Peruvian Snow Day!
There is no snow in Peru, except on the mountains. There are, however, snow days. Commonly, they are known as paros (transportation strikes). Because of the lack of public transportation during these events, no one can go anywhere and stores are generally closed for lack of available business. So they are known throughout the missionary community as Peruvian snow days. Thursday and Friday of last week were paro days, so we stayed in our house both days. So what do you do on a snow day when there's no snow to play in? Well, you get caught up on your emails, newsletter and blog. You enjoy a cup of hot chocolate. You cook and bake things. You can even have an Anne of Green Gables party, like we decided to do. A missionary family that recently left Peru left behind the VHS version of Anne of Green Gables. Several of the younger members of our missionary team wanted to watch them. So we decided to have an Anne of Green Gables pajama party at our house, since we're the only ones with a VCR. It ended up that all the females on our missionary team, plus one of the single Wycliffe missionaries, made it to our house for an enjoyable evening of snacks, fellowship and 4 hours of Anne. My roommate Carrie is the hat queen, so we even had fun hats to wear! It was definitely a fun way to spend a Peruvian snow day.

Feliz cumpleaños Marga!
Saturday was a very special day for us. It was our friend Marga's birthday. Marga has been a huge blessing to us. She helps us out in our house, but is much more of a friend than a maid. She and I have spent a lot of time together the last few weeks and have had many good conversations about anything and everything, from the serious to the hilarious. She invited us to her house for a delicious meal of aji de gallina (rice with a special sauce served with potatoes) and birthday cake. It was fun for us to be able to turn the tables on her and bless her like she has blessed us so many times. We made a Boston cream pie (during the snow day), which turned out really yummy. And then we were able to all pitch in and wash the dishes afterwards. Who knew that washing a lot of dishes with 5 people could go so quickly and be so fun!

Chickens in Church
You never can tell just who might want to come to church. Yesterday I went out to Huacarpay (WAH-car-pie) for the morning service. Getting there in and of itself is an adventure, standing on a packed bus, holding on to whatever I can find to keep my balance, getting squeezed against seats and other people while still others wiggle their way off the bus, wondering how many more people the bus can hold. But I enjoy fellowshipping with my brothers and sisters in Huacarpay. Yesterday we took Communion together. It is a blessing being able to take Communion with brothers and sisters from another place and to know that we are all united in the body of Christ and have all been saved by the very body and blood we are remembering. Yesterday, apparently, two chickens wanted to take part in this blessing too. While Pastor Celestino was reminding us of the significance of Communion, they wandered in the back door of the church. Caleb and Nando were dispatched to catch them and put them back outside. There was some laughter as the chickens tried to outrun and evade the boys but were eventually outsmarted and returned to their accustomed place. And then we took Communion together in peace.

Mud, Mud and More Mud
We seem to frequently do things that cause great amusement for the Peruvians who happen to see us. Yesterday afternoon was a great example. We decided to go for a walk with Carleta, our friend who is here with Wycliffe Bible Translators. There is some beautiful scenery around here, as you can see, and we wanted to enjoy it! Walking for fun, without a destination, is apparently an American thing to do, as the few people we encountered on our walk wanted to know where we were planning on ending up and seemed rather surprised that we were simply walking for the sake of walking. I think they thought we were a little silly. Of course, it may have also been the fact that we were also taking this aimless walk through wet, sticky, squishy, pervasive, weigh-down-your-shoes, make-you-slip-with-every-step mud. It may have also been the fact that we were speaking a mix of Spanish and English while doing all this, walking along like we weren't really used to walking through this kind of mud (which is pretty accurate). I distinctly heard some titters as I passed by one house. They might have thought we were crazy, but people were really friendly. Like the man who kindly helped us remember that the time was getting late and that it would be dark in an hour. Or the family of kids with the little girl who called me Tia (Aunt - a term of endearment in this case) while we were passing by their house. Or the lady who talked to us as we were passing by her chacra (small farm plot) where she and her family were working. We saw lots of God's creation yesterday - animals, mud, clouds, trees, fields, beautiful mountains and flowers and God's beautiful creation of human beings. We may be different, we may fail to understand each other, we may do crazy things like taking a walk through mud just for the fun of it, but we are all God's creation and He loves us just the same, no matter what.