For He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

Psalm 91 11-12

This was a very timely scripture that the Lord spoke to my heart earlier this week. Over the past couple of days we have heard of many who have fallen victim to robberies. I do not want to scare you so I will spare you all of the details but two of the incidents dealt with taxi's, another with a ploy for help and the last we just heard of yesterday. An orphanage that is located in a very beautiful portion of Lima set away from the city, was broken into. The orphanage was near completion and the family who will oversee it was set to move in within the next two weeks. We do not know many of the details except that $8000 in goods were taken. We have been supporting this ministry and were excited that the home was just about ready to receive children. It saddens our hearts to hear of their loss but we know that God works EVRYTHING to the good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.
(To learn more about this ministry and how you can support it by purchasing delicious Peruvian coffee shipped directly to your home, click here: http://www.calvarychapellima.com/index.php click on the Orphanage tab)

With all that having been said, today was my first day of Spanish classes and I did just fine on the buses or should I say micros. I suppose I should give you a lesson on some of the terms that I will be using here to help you get a better understanding of things. A micro or a combi (I'm not sure if there is a difference yet) is a bus like van. They are often times packed like a can of sardines and they drive like there is no tomorrow. They are EVERYWHERE here, I think there are more of them than cars. Anyway, they are all sorts of colors with names of places they service painted on the sides. There is usually a man, sometimes a woman who works the door. They open it as they approach you, hollering out their projected itinerary and then they scoop you up. If you don't move fast enough you will most definitely trip or fall trying to get on as the van will have already started moving. It takes some getting used to but the first couple of times Eddy and I did it with the kids and two strollers so this seemed like a piece of cake today. Praise the Lord I even figured out which bus to get on. The best part is that for the half an hour bus ride to school it only costs around forty-three cents, sometimes less (church is just one sole... about thirty-four cents). Now you can understand why they are the primary mode of transportation. One of these days I am going to post a video for you with these things zooming all around honking and beeping but until then keep imagining. Oh, and another thought... there seems to be NO LIMIT to the amount of people they will cram onto one of these. If you need to get on, they make room. The safety standards here are unheard of, I Could go on and on with the things that I have seen that would make you gasp... I'm learning to stop gawking in disbelief and just chuckle... this is Peru.

FELIZ CUMPLEANOS (Happy Birthday) JESUSA

Singing Happy Birthday

Eddy's brother Kike, Yessica, Carlita, Eddy's other brother Oscar and his wife Patty

Well this past weekend (Sept. 27-28) we had a few things going on. Friday evening we celebrated the birthday of Eddy's sister Jesusa (Feliz Cumpleanos is how you say it in Spanish) with a family gathering late into the night. Then Saturday we left to visit Eddy's brothers beach house about an hour south of Lima. On the way there we stopped to have lunch. The place was very nice and even had animals located in the back. After discussing how cute they all were I wondered if they would be on the menu. Sure enough, there was rabbit, duck or guina pig (a typical plate in some parts of peru) listed for our dining pleasure. We opted for the duck and a few other traditional plates which I have taken pictures of to show you. I think this is one of the ways to bring you closer to us is to share the everyday things like this.

The outside of the restaurant

The llama of Peru

The bunnies

The bunnies on the menu (conejo)

The inside of the restaurant

Inka Kola - Eddy's favorite

Bistek a lo pobre

Tacu Tacu

Arroz con Pato (Rice with Duck)

Hadassah outside the restaurant

Hadassah playing on the playground at the restaurant

Hadassah helping her Tia (Aunt) Patty sweep at the beach house

This past Sunday we went to this beautiful park here in Surco. The park is near to the church so we walked there with a handful of other Moms and let the kids play It is almost like a small theme park. Here are some pictures of the park and kids enjoying themselves.

A real train that you can ride throughout the park... we have yet to do it though

A pond with paddle boats and a view of Surco in the background

A fun bridge that shakes when you jump on it

Ana with Hadassah & Josiah

Josiah looking on as the girls play

Ayumi monkeying around

Priscilla & Hadassah

Ayumi & Joshua greeting Barney

This train is bound for glory.... the kids from church

Josiah having a good time with Dad

Since I began this update in the early portion of the week I have already forgotten many of the things I was intending to post but not to worry there is always more to share. Eddy is away today (Saturday October 4th) in Santa Rosa de Villa preparing the church there for a medical clinic that will be set up for this coming Thursday and Friday. This is the place where Eddy will be teaching on Sundays for the next couple of weeks while Pastor Brian is away. He is also going to have a chance to teach on a Thursday night for the mid-week study in our home fellowship. These are all things you can be in prayer for. That he would sense the Lord's direction concerning the books or topics that he should teach on. Please also pray for the Thursday night teaching as he has invited many of his family members.

This past Thursday Hadassah started her first day of Nido. A nido is something like a preschool but they start very young here. We were praying about this as it was not something we had planned on doing but it seems as though the Lord has opened the doors and given us a peace about it. Our primary goal in placing her here is to allow her to learn Spanish. They do all sorts of fun projects to teach them different things like their colors, numbers, dancing, singing and a variety of other things. Daddy has went with her for the first couple of hours each day and she has really seemed to enjoy it, it is a lot of fun for her. She also likes the fact that she gets to go to school just like Mommy... I think this has helped her in adjusting to the idea.

Hadassah's first day of school

I took these pictures yesterday as I ventured out on my own with the kids. This is a park right next to the house. There are parks everywhere here but Hadassah is missing the playgrounds. She does enjoy picking the flowers though!

This one is for you Ma!!

Well it is now Sunday, October 5th and I think this post is just about ready as I'm sure Eddy will have a lot to share when he gets home from Santa Rosa de Villa. I was unable to go today as we had planned because Hadassah has developed a fairly strong cold. Eddy is going to be very busy this week making trips to Santa Rosa in preparation for the upcoming clinic. They are expecting hundreds of people and they have a lot of cleaning and building to do before Thursday. I do not know all the details but I will share them with you as I get them. This sounds like a great opportunity to serve the community there while sharing the gospel with them. On that note I will jump to our prayer requests:

• For healing as Hadassah and I have colds and Josiah's face is breaking out again for round # 5. It seems like Eddy may be getting the cold too and he really needs his strength for the upcoming week. I also need to regain my strength as the days are very long without Eddy here to help.


• Pray for the medical mission this Thursday and Friday in Santa Rosa de Villa. Pray that we would not just administer to their physical needs but more importantly their spiritual needs. This is a very poor area (they have not even received running water yet in this town) and there is a lot of addictions associated with the poverty.


• Continued prayer for our safety on the buses and in taxis.


• Discernment as to the length of our stay and our placement in the various ministries here.


• We also ask that you continue to pray for our strength to endure through the fiery trials and the attacks of the enemy.

PRAISES

• The Lord has been so very gracious to us in so many ways. With the blessing of this beautiful apartment, our six month visas, the help of Eddy's family in getting us settled and just the overall peace we have felt through the transition. We have sensed for awhile that this apartment is where we should be and this week another confirmation came to this. The owner of the apartment highly recommended the nido that Hadassah is now attending and so after looking at another we checked it out. I immediately felt a peace about this place once I had a short tour but the price was much higher than the other and there were many other related fees. Since we are on a very limited income we didn't feel we could afford the cost and Eddy shared this with the owner of the nido. She happens to be good friends with the owner of our apartment and she asked us what we were looking to pay and why. She checked with her sister and gave us the lower end of the range we offered. She also waived the registration fee!!!


• For His divine protection. We have been here for almost four weeks now (Wednesday) and He has kept us in our travels as well as in our home. We know that just because we are Christians does not mean that we will never experience hard times but that nothing happens without His consent. We are aware that at some point we may experience some of the small tribulations that others have had to go through as a result of their residing in Peru but we have a peace about it, He has not given us a spirit of fear. Thank you Jesus!


• With Eddy needing to be away in preparation for the medical clinic we ran into a problem as to who would watch the kids while I am in class or would I have to just miss the majority of this week? Thank the Lord He placed it on the heart of a woman from church to come and help us out on the days Eddy needs to be away.

Hadassah's Lambie broke last week (oh no!!) but luckily Uncle Kike was able to mend him (this is Hadassah's praise report)

CHAU (Good-bye) FOR NOW