Jungle Adventures Chapter 1: Who told the pastor I'm the visiting preacher??

Ever since the end of last year, I'd been talking with Lisi and Meche, two of my good friends from church, about taking a trip into the jungle. That's the one part of Peru that I hadn't explored yet and I had an itching to go (I still have an itching....but now it's from mosquito bites!) Meche has a brother and a sister who both live in the jungle, in a town called Salvación, so we had contacts and somewhere to stay. We had a bit of confusion as to when we would leave. We were hoping to be able to hitch a ride into the jungle with Meche's brother, but he ended up leaving almost a week later than we wanted to leave, so we decided to take a bus in. 5:30 PM they said the bus left. So I got there around 5. I began to worry a bit when people began to say that we shouldn't take a lot of weight, that the roads were bad and that it wasn't safe. I'm used to traveling adventures in Peru, so I wasn't too surprised, but it was a little disconcerting. I met up with Meche's sister Doris and we began our trip. Meche and Lisi said they'd meet up with us in Huacarpay, since the bus was going right past there anyhow. We stopped in San Jeronimo (where I live) to eat supper. They said we'd have half an hour. We decided to go for chicken and fries (very typical). We were just eating our chicken when one of the other occupants of the bus, an acquaintance of Meche's sister, came in and was like "The bus is about to leave!" So we asked for bags for our chicken, got another order of chicken for Meche, and ran back to the bus, only to sit there and finish our chicken before the bus left. Hurry up and wait. We finally left Huacarpay around 7:00 and began our journey. By this time it was dark, so we weren't able to see much and we were tired, so we tried to sleep. We were awakened by our arrival in Paucartambo, the last main town we passed through and a popular tourist destination, where we took a pit stop around 11 PM. The rest of the night after that we were not able to sleep because the bus was lurching back and forth, bouncing and jouncing over potholes and sounding very much as if the screws holding it together were going to come unscrewed. At one point, they turned on the lights, said "Everybody off the bus" and we had to walk around this one big hole in the road. The bus went through minus passengers and we all got back on on the other side. Actually, the road was not too bad for our trips in and out. It could have been worse. We could have gotten stuck or rolled over or something like that. Both have been known to happen. But we made it, safe and sound, after having crossed a shallow river in the bus, at 6:30 Saturday morning. After a basically sleepless night, we were all tired, so we took a short nap in the morning and a longer one in the afternoon. We made lunch for ourselves and Meche's sister and brother-in-law. When we gathered for lunch, they had coconuts for all of us. Coconut milk is okay, not my favorite, but definitely drinkable. They say it's very good for you. That evening, refreshed by our napping, we helped to make bread to sell to the local stores. That is one source of income for Doris and Wilbert, Meche's sister and brother-in-law. It was fun to see how the bread is made, though we could tell we weren't professionals. Our bread turned out large, small, flat, puffy, heart-shaped, you name it. Wasn't too bad for our first time though. Sunday morning we got up and got ready to go to church. The church in Salvación is a small, cement-block structure with no windows, doors, or sound system. Doris said there are about 50 people in all who attend the church, though we only ever saw about 30 at a time. The service was fine, but the really funny part came after the service, when the pastor walked home with us. He looked at me and said "So, you're going to bring the word tonight?" I stared at him, rather stupefied. We had plans to go to a lake that afternoon, so I checked with the girls whether they thought we'd have time to go and come back. They did, so I told him I would. It was kind of hard to say no when I could tell he was expecting me to say yes, though I didn't particularly want to preach and felt a little strange that he had asked me specifically and not all three of us. We spent the afternoon at Machuwasi Lake, where we saw lots of beautiful jungle scenery and some birds as well. It was a fun afternoon. We got back home just in time to shower, change clothes, and head to church. There is no public street lighting in Salvación, so we went to church by flashlight. I preached on 2 Cor. 5:17-21, what I'd been studying in my own devotions. It went fine, though nothing super spectacular or anything. I don't think I'll quit my day job and become a pastor. Monday morning we decided that at the Wednesday service we wanted to try to teach the church some new songs, since they'd sung basically the same songs in the morning and evening services the day before. So we spent the morning thinking of songs we'd like to teach them and writing down the words. It was a long process, but fun. Then it was time to make bread again. After all that heat and work, we were ready for a swim. So we went down to the river - cool, clear, beautiful water rushing over smooth, colorful stones. Yeah, it was pretty beautiful. The river wasn't deep, so Meche got a creative idea. Why not put rocks on each other's backs like they do in a spa? I was first. Then Lisi put rocks on Meche's back. Then I got up and put rocks on Lisi's back. It WAS relaxing laying there in the water, cooling off, with little colored rocks on our backs. We stayed there until it was getting dark and cool and then went back to the house. I was glad for the chance to relax. Little did we know all the adventures we'd have in the next few days...

For more pictures, follow this link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=267051&id=610351019&l=cb87e7538f

Merry Christmas and Happy 2011!

I guess you could say an unofficial (because I've never written it down or anything) New Year's resolution is to blog more. Hopefully it will help to have Internet all year this year... :)
So I guess that means I need to tell you what I've been up to! Well...
School ended with a bang. The last day of school was Wednesday, Dec. 15, followed the next day by an 18-hour workday making report cards (till 1:30 AM), followed the next day by the closing program of the school year, followed the next day by the first PROMESA sixth grade graduation. Needless to say, we were all QUITE ready for summer vacation, after all that! The next day was Sunday, and I got a new roommate. Her name is Mary and she's been a blessing and quite a lot of fun the last few weeks. The next week we were finishing up grades and final paperwork until Thursday. Thursday afternoon, we celebrated Christmas with Marga here at our house. Friday was Christmas Eve. Mary and I went to the annual Santurantikuy Christmas Eve market in the Plaza de Armas downtown that morning. Despite the drizzle and the huge crowds, it was quite enjoyable. That afternoon, we headed out to Huacarpay and "helped" (mainly just watched) cut up an entire lamb to make lamb soup for the service that evening. The service was fun. There was a short message and time of worship and then it was opened up for special numbers, which included a lot of dancing and singing and lasted till midnight. At midnight we ate the lamb soup (very yummy!) and gave everyone hugs, then went home to sleep. Christmas Day, we were in Huacarpay for the morning, waking up and eating breakfast. We got home around noon and got ready to go to the missionary Christmas dinner. That was delicious! Then, in the afternoon, I left to talk to my family and go to Marga's house for a bit. I felt very blessed and surrounded by many loved ones. The next week was filled with different social activities - birthdays, cookie making, game nights, etc. New Year's Eve, we headed back out to Huacarpay for the birthday of some friends' mom. Then we went to the church in San Jeronimo for a New Year's Eve service filled with all kinds of music and some really fast Quechua that I had a hard time keeping up with. And of course, food. Nothing in Peru is complete without food. That is literal. Rice, salad, chicken cordon bleu, some traditional desserts, and the oh-so-yummy and very traditional fruitcake and hot chocolate. We went to Marisol's house stuffed and spent New Year's Eve with Mari and her family and Norminda playing Uno. At midnight, we all went out to the street and watched the fireworks lighting up San Jeronimo like multi-colored fireflies in a field on a summer's night. After wishing everyone a happy new year and praying blessings over the year, we went back inside and watched the first part of Inception, till we got too tired. We finished in the morning, then went back home. The new year began on a delicious note (can you tell there is no shortage of food in my life here?) with a major grilling session with Rolando, Francisca and Christian (the owners of our house and their son), Mary, the Kreiders and I. Chicken, beef, kebabs, sausages, garlic bread and veggies, plus dessert, all on the grill....delicious!
Christmas Eve, as I looked around my church, I realized that these are my Christmas presents. These people, these relationships, these memories, my family worldwide - these are the blessings of Christmas, the blessings that I have been given in abundance.

On that note, I posted some pictures on facebook of my Christmas celebrations and a bit of the craziness. :) For those of you not on facebook, here is the link to the album. Enjoy and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from me to you. Blessings!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=255426&id=610351019&l=b63b1161eb