Feliz Aniversario

This past weekend was a blast. We had a celebration for the second anniversary of the operation of the annex in La Villa Milagro. And I'm tired. I had a new experience Saturday morning. I went to a huge open market in Chiclayo with Walter and his wife Jessica. i got to see a lady hack a whole chicken in half with a meat cleaver. After that fun experience, we had a big puppet show in La Villa for the kids in the village. Sunday was the actual celebration. Walter and I went out in the morning and decorated. Kids started showing up an hour early because they saw us out there. Early! That doesn't happen here. So I kept decorating with the sunday school teachers while Walter entertained children. We ended up with over 100 kids for the first part. After Sunday School, we all moved over to the construction site and had a church service. The church in Reque brought chairs out and people came from there and a couple other annexes. Each class of kids put on something for the people. Afterwards we fed everyone. I counted 80 children that we fed and there were probably 60 adults. Our estimate was that we were able to feed around 150 people. Once we got through that, Walter and I spent today searching for adobes to continue work in Milagro. It was kind of fun. there are just random adobe pits around the ravine in the country behind Milagro. We just set out walking through the hills and we'd talk to the owners of the adobe pits we came across. This trip has been far more exhausting than last time, which is wierd because I did so much physical labor last time. All of the walking and planning and thinking is tiring. But I love it. I have had chances to be in many homes, meet lots of new people, go to new places, and stock up on fun stories to tell.

I'm Back!

Hey Everyone. I am finally back in Peru. The trip was kind of interesting. There is a bridge between here and Chiclayo, which is where the airport is, and they have been working on it for a while. Because of all the rain in the mountains the river flooded and washed out the bypass. We had to cross some planks and a muddy stretch to get all of my luggage across the river. But I am here. This also causes troubles with every other aspect of life: the grocery store is there, our construction materials come from there, some students live there, some teachers live there, Ken's kids go to school there, and the list goes on and on. Please keep us in your prayers as we decide how to handle all of these situations. Also, Ken and I are going to be talking a lot about what my job will be after we return in the end of December, so keep that in your prayers, also. Now that I will have internet access a little more regularly than before I hope I can get you better updates.

I'm Official!!!

Well, we had a board meeting last Tesday and I now work full-time for LACF. The first year is going to be spent fundraising and then I will be pretty free to do whatever. They liked all of my ideas from the drama/praise group to the internship program. As soon as we can get the organization on solid ground, then we can start expanding. I am so excited to begin this next step. My next trip to Peru will be from Nov 1 to Dec 29 and then we will have another meeting to more fully describe my position and duties. Please keep my continued travels in your prayers.

Church tour

Hey everyone. Sorry it has been so long since I have updated. Well here is what is happening so far. I have been in the country for 3 weeks and it has flown by. I've already made one trip, driving, to Ohio. That was a fun road trip. I got some new musical soundtracks memorized. Haha. What the schedule looks like right now is that I will be in Kansas for the rest of September. On the 21st I am speaking at Pleasant Prairie COG in Satanta and then on the 28th I will be at Redline in Palco. October has me back in Ohio and then in Illinois for the first few weeks. I'll be back in Kansas on October 19th to speak in Sterling at the Methodist Church and a Sterling College chapel. That is also the weekend of Sterling's musical, so I will get to see that, which I am excited about. I have never seen a musical there. Been in a few, but never watched one. Teh tentative plan is to return to Peru in the first part of November. Please pray that I will be able to get the funds together to buy those plane tickets. Also, keep October 7th in your prayers. I am scheduled to meet with the LACF board and will need the Lord's guidance in what I would or should propose to them concerning my calling to fulltime missions work. Thanks for everything and I will try my hardest to keep this thing updated more frequently.

105! There were 105!

The Sunday School is growing so fast that there is absolutely so room for them. I am starting my journey back today. While I am gone for the 2 months they are going to finish as quickly as possible and fill in the parts that they can't get to with adobe bricks that can be knocked out later. They will set up straw mat dividers inside the property to start having classes there instead of in the guys house. Oh, and we also had 3 new adults! There were 114 in total not counting me, Walter or and of the teachers who come from the church here at the school to help out there.

73! There were 73!

God is so good. The Sunday School in La Villa Milagro has been averaging roughly 45 kids each Sunday and 5-6 adults. This is awesome because of the placement of the Sunday School on the edge of the village and considering that the other 3 annexes have about 30 kids. Milagro has been the biggest annex for a while. When the work camps were here, the numbers went up a little because everyone down here knows that gringos bring candy and toys when they come. Well the last 2 Sundays have been awesome. Last week there were 61 children and 4 adults. Walter had me take an extra table from the church here out with me one day when I went to work because they lacked table space for 61. There wasn't enough space in the room for the tables that we had, but we crammed one more in. This week I counted as the children left and there were 73! I almost fainted. It was unbelievable. And with only one gringo...me. We need more tables! What a great problem to have. No more major updates, I was just really excited about that one, so I thought I'd write. Excited to see everyone in 9 days.

Final Full Week

I have 10 days until I leave Peru for a while. Mixed feelings. Most of me is extremely excited to see my friends and family. There is a part of me, however, that knows I will miss Peru while I am home. Another part knows that the church tour will be long and tiring. Right now I am really excited about it, but after driving to so many states I may not want to ever drive again. the board is looking at having me stay in the states for 3 months now. They were originally going to put me on a 2 month tour and have Ken come back in January to do one month. Because of the possible weather issues in January, he mentioned that maybe I could just do 3 months and go to the places they would have had him speak at in January such as Colorado and other places that would have rough winter weather. The states we are looking at are Ohio, Kansas, West Virginia, Illinois, Texas, Colorado, Minnesota, Florida, Washington and possibly Illinois. It will be crazy, but fun. The only places I am for sure speaking at right now are my home church August 31 and First United Methodist in Sterling, KS Oct 19. You should come if you can. I'll try and update my tour schedule on here so you know if I am coming close to you. I may also be speaking at a Stelring College chapel. That one is extremely exciting, because I would love to get Sterling started on bringing work camps. They take so many trips each summer why not Peru? And I could totally use Sterling as a feeder school for the internship program that I am trying to get started.

Work is coming along well. We are almost all the way around the main property with the main wall. I know that seems slow to those of you who do any construction in the states, but you have to remember that we are working in Peru. Nothing makes sense, and since we do everything by hand including leveling the ground and diggin gthe trenches and mixing and pouring cement, it takes a while. I am looking forward to hopefully seeing some of you when I am in the states. Dios te Bendiga!

My new life

Great news! I have finally felt the calling into full time missions. The plan right now is that I will be the stateside missionary for LACF. I will take over a lot of the fundraising and organization of the actual sponsorship program. In order to do this, I will have church supports like Ken does for pay. The main way that we will accomplish this is by instating an internship program. For one semester each year, we will have a small group of interns, paid, who will get opportunities in missions stateside and in Peru. I will be working with them first hand and be with them when they come down to Peru. This will give young people who are interested in missions an opportunity to gain experience in several areas. They can help with the paperwork side, setting up church tours, searching for funds, doing medical and pastoral things in Peru, and many other areas that people don't always think about when looking at missions. i am really excited and a little bit scared. Please pray for guidance and discernment for me, the board, and Ken as we decide where I will be stationed, what my first steps will be and who I should contact for backing. I will stay on the Milagro project down here until May and then start immediately after that in the states. Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers and I will update everyone as I know more. Dios te bendiga!

It's Official!

Well, a lot of people have been wondering what my next step will be after August. Ken and I talked this morning and have a definite plan. I will return to the States August 27 and spend a little time in sterling then head home to recooperate a little. After that I will begin a 2 month church tour to spread the word about LACF and all of our projects. We don't have definite contacts and churches yet, but the way we were talking, I could end up in West Virginia, San Antonio, Indiana and Ohio. After those 2 months (it will then be the first part of november) I will return to Peru for 6 months. This will take me up to May, which is what the board and I agreed on, May to May. After that, who knows. I haven't felt a definite calling either way yet. I may try to make it as a Director, I may puruse the teaching gig, I may end up in Peru. Or another country. I am pretty open right now. Or maybe I will come home after August for a few years until I find a wife who can help me down here. (only partly a joke). It's hard to get everything done in a day without help. Again, I am open for anything God leads me into. Please keep all decisions that I will be making this next year in your prayers.

Construction is coming along. We have taken a little break this past week trying to decide what is priority for the funding we have left. Our goal before I leave is to have the perimeter wall completed and straw mats set up inside as divisions so they can start using the church. Once I get more funds, they (and me when I return) can start building all of the interior stuff like the sanctuary, classrooms, kitchen, etc. Please keep funding in your prayers, but also pray that churches will open their doors to us so we can spread the word about God's awesome work in the country of Peru. Thank you for all of your support up to this point.

P.S. Pray for Ken. I am tired from helping with the work camps, but he is absolutely exhausted from it. He helps the campers every possible way and manages to maintain his job and family. Just pray for strength and encouragement. And rest.

Update

Hey everyone. I know my updates have become few and far between. Our internet here has a mind of its own and we have had very limited access for quite some time. The computer guy came in today and we now have wireless in the offices. Hopefully it will not go in and out now. Another reason I haven't gotten on is that we have had a work camp here for the last 2 weeks. Time with them has been great. English speakers! yay. I haven't had much time outside of helping to entertain them to accomplish other things like email. This group will leave us Friday and we will gain a work camp of 21 that same day. That work camp is back to back with yet a third. Most of the campers here now are from Indiana, but the 2 groups after them are Roma Lee groups. i will miss this group of people a lot, but am excited to see Roma Lee again.

We have been making great progress on the building; however, are now at a little standstill. We have a pretty good portion of the wall bricked in. these last few days have been spent trying to make the work camp switch. We also are a little low on funds and materials, so we are trying to decide what our priorities are before we continue. We will start work again on Monday and be taking part of Roma Lee's camp out with us to help. That will be great.

Please keep praying for the decisions I have to be making. I need to decide what will happen after August and also what will happen after this year is finished in May. Also pray for Ken and the LACF board as they help me in making some of these decisions.

Quick Update

Building is coming along great. I have added a video tour of the property. It is about 2 minutes long. Sorry for the bad cinematography. I was using my digital camera's video thing for the first time and didn't really start with a plan of action. Hope you enjoy it.

One man's trash is another man's church property.

I found out the other day that the property used to be a landfill. That finally expalins all of the garbage we found about a foot below the surface. I tell you one thing, diapers are murder to dig through.

A little about the food. I love it for the most part. A few things have been interesting. I eat Peruvian food for lunch every day. The school cook, Ruth, sends it out to me with lunches for other workers. She is awesome. Every meal consists of rice, a little protein, and a salad, and then a drink. The protein is almost always chicken or fish. Occasionaly beef. The salalds here are one of four things: lettuce and tomato, diced onion, diced radish, or diced onion with diced relish. Same salad dressing all of the time, lemon juice. It's actually more of a marinade than dressing. I hate onions, but in the citrus marinade, they don't even taste like onions. Some other things I've had here are a tamale type thing with beef and hardboiled egg inside and a dish called ceviche, which is raw fish marinated with onion in citrus juice. The drinks here are always hot. And with sugar. Peruvians have a huge sweet tooth. They never (yes never) drink straight water. Evne at the school where the water is clean and drinkable. Water mixed drinks are always hot and things like pop are always room temperature. They don't even refrigerate milk. They freak when I put ice in my drinks. It cracks me up. I always take a frozen water bottle out to the workplace and they make fun of me everyday. Such a foregin idea. The main water mix drinks are tea, lemonade, and chicha. i love chicha. It is boiled purple corn with a little sugar. I usually have to drink it hot, but Ruth puts ice in mine sometimes and it is great.

Building update: We started laying brick today on the main wall. yay. We have the foundation poured on the front and one side of the main property. The footers are poured on the back and other side, but we are waiting until we have more rebar to tie into columns to pour the foundation there. We also have some trenches dug inside the property that will become bases for the sactuary and kitchen/bakery. We have a new formeman named Alex. Oscar still works with us and there were no hard feelings, because Alex is far more experienced. Work now is sailing along. With Alex's organization, it seems like the work days are much easier, but we accomplish so much. Of course they may also seem easier because I am building strength and endurance.

I hurt my hip a couple weeks ago and tried working through the pain for a week. A couple days ago they noticed it hindering my ability to work and made me take a day off. It is much much better now, but could still use some prayers. I think it is just some inflamation from doing work it is not used to. Thanks for your prayers on everything so far.

Latest News

The kids at VBS at my home church decided that they wanted to donate their offerings this year to the Peru Project. We very rarely hit $200 at our VBS's, but this year they raised $600! I am so amazed. I found out yesterday that we got a new foreman. Oscar is going to keep working with us, but some guy named Alex is taking over on Monday. That may prove to be an awkward day, so pray for that. I am glad Oscar is sticking around, because I like him a lot. He is a lot of fun. Kind of a quirky 43 year old man. They call him Tigre here (tiger) because he is a really hard, fast worker. Of course comparitively, he isn't that small here, but to me he seems small and mighty. Everyone around here is around 5 feet tall. I try to tell them that in the US I am average, but they don't believe me. I am an inch or two taller than Ken, so they think I am so tall. Everywhere we go everyone stops to stare at the tall gringo.

Building is coming along. We didn't do much else than dig more foundation trenches this past week. Supposedly, we start brickwork next week. I'll let you know how that goes.

Pray for us

Hey everyone. Most important updates: we are thinking about purchasing a small plot of land next to the current one to serve as a breakfast program, Ken is looking at starting a partnership with the Church of God schools in Chepen and some other town which would be awesome but needs prayer, and we need prayer for funds to continue the project. We have a little over half of the original estimate, but it will require more because of the bigger land. Not a big need, but keep it in your prayers. Also, LACF is looking for sponsors for children. If you are at all interested, please visit lacf.org for more information. I will write with more updates as they come.

Just an update

Things are going well. We have started ppouring cement and working on the first inside walls for the classrooms. We have also decided to buy a plot of land next to the church that will serve as a kitchen and dining room for a breakfast program. There will be food and devotions there in the mornings and it will hopefully help in building the congregation.

I got to spend some time with the Birons (the missionary family) last night. We went into Chiclayo to a mall and I had Pizza Hut pizza. Didn't taste the pizza hut I know and love, but it was still a good change. The kids were fun and it was nice to get out.

I am still working on adjusting to lifestyle changes. Things like dusting and sweeping every day because of all of the sand get old, but when I slack I pay. I also haven't gotten used to having to hang my clothes outside. Never thought I would miss something like a dryer. The construction is still moving along well and I pray we will be able to get a substantial amount done this summer. Or winter. Depending on what country you are in. We are moving along and will get some help from work camps, but I don't know if where we are is good or bad from here. It is slow for me because of the lack of technology and power tools, so I can't really understand how progress is really going. We do have official architects plans for the church and everything now and it is pretty cool. I am going to try and see if I can get it online somehow. The temple (or sanctuary) is curved and in one corner and the benches are going to be set up from the stage to look like sun rays. At least that's the concept. Then we will have 2 stories with 3 classrooms each in another section, bathrooms and a small patio area. The original donated plot is going to eventually be a parsonage and then the purchased land for the breakfast program. I will update more when I know more.

Construction update

Oscar, our foreman, is really cool and I love working with him. We also have an 18 year old kid named Alex (called Chino) and a 16 year old named Gokey who help. The future pasotr of the church, Walter, helps out when he can. We also have the help of a man who lives out there named Juan Carlos. The first few days were rough. We had to dig out the foundation trenches by pick and shovel and it took two days to get about 3/4 finished. And we still haven't dug out the rest yet. We had other help then whcih was nice because Brittany and I have never been that sore in our lives. She made it home all right by the way. We then made rebar columns and spent the last 2 days pouring concrete footers. We have to mix the concrete my hand on the ground and wheelbarrel it to the trench. Backbreaking work, but I am building muscle and endurance. It's great. God is good and continues to bless us and I will let you know more later.

I have an internet connection?

Hey everyone. Things are going well so far. I feel lonely sometimes and miss America, but I am loving it. We got even more land donated!!! God is so good. We work from 7:30 to 5:30 every day and it gets dark at 6:30, so I don't do much else than work other than on weekends. It is really rough, but I am building muscles and endurance and enjoy the guys I work with. Spanish is coming along really well. I understand way more than I ever thought I would, but speaking is still slow. I get stared at everywhere because I tower over everyone and I am a gringo. Making a lot of friends. Ken's family is really welcoming. Continue to read, because I will keep updating at things come along. Oh, by the way. We have rebar columns up and footer poured (by hand) for two sides of the wall that will protect the property.

Final plans and Information

5 days. Wow. time flies when you're having fun. Well not much has changed since I wrote last. I am leaving Liberal Saturday to go spend some time in the Sterling area before leaving. Brittany and I are scheduled to fly out at 10:28 Tuesday morning. We are supposed to land at 10:30 that night in Lima, but we'll see if that actually happens. I don't have much faith in airlines anymore. We will then spend the night in a hostal (Oscar's Hostal) with Ken Biron, the missionary. Our flight from Lima to Chiclayo is early Wednesday afternoon. A short bus ride will get us to the school. And by short I mean about 10 minutes. I don't exactly know what will happen after that. I don't know when building will begin or anything. That will all be determined once we get there. I do know that a second plot of land has been donated. It is about 10 meters bigger each direction, but is a block away from our current building project. That is awesome, though. We can have two venues. The building will start on the smaller plot because the paperwork and plans are done for that. The other will be another project I guess. We'll see. Thank you for prayers so far. We have raised 13,000 of the estimated 25,500 dollars for the project. I am excited about this.

Now, many of you have been asking about mail and care packages. I will not be able to send or recieve any of this while there. The Peruvian government goes through all mail and takes what they want, so there is not a very good chance I would get anything that is sent. There are ways to help, though. If you really want to send something like a care pakcage this is what I suggest to do. Figure out what you would spend on items and shipping. Send that money to one of two addresses below. That can be wired down to us and then I will be able to distribute it however I feel necessary. So in a way I get to pick out what is in your care packages, haha. The top address is probably best because I don't know if Mitch wants to receive a lot of smaller donations. My church is going to send everything they get once a month in large sums, but it really doesn't matter. If you would rather the ckeck go straight to LACF, that is fine. Remember to keep checking in and I will update when i can. Thanks.

South Church of God
708 S. Washington
Liberal, KS 67901
(memo of Peru Fund)

LACF
c/o Mitch Dooley
PO Box 25
Chaffee, MO 63740
(memo of Milagro Fund)

Still working on stuff

Well the fund total now is about $11,500. I am so excited. Learning Spanish is going all right. I have been working everyday until my brain hurts. Tomorrow night I am going to go to the service of our Hispanic congregation to test things out and see how much I can understand in full-speed talking instead of from CDs and the workbook. If anyone has any long-term overseas packing tips I would love to hear them.

Getting Ready

Well. 26 days to go. Right now I am trying to cram as much Spanish in my head as I possibly can. Kind of nervous about that, but not too much. Also, the work camp has become a single volunteer. Brittany Small. I am excited about this, though because she has been to the school before and I trust her to help me get moved in.

Funds. Right now my home church sits at $8500 and I have received $2100 from the Methodist church in Sterling (where I went to college). Oh, and I graduated last Saturday. Yay. Anyway. The goal for the entire project is $25,500. That includes building estimate, moving in costs, flights, and monthly food allowances. We still need money, so if you know anyone who would like to sponsor the trip, send donations to South Church of God in Liberal, KS. Just write checks out to South Church of God with Peru Fund in the memo. Well, I will keep everyone updated. The whole blog thing is new to me, but I like it.