Other Birthday In Peru

So I had my 26th birthday here in Peru. It was a great day! In the morning my roomates (Susan and Laura) and one of my teammates (Amanda Ross) took me out for breakfast, they also told my friend Mesha about it, who showed up to the restaurant. Breakfast isn't as big of a meal here in Peru, so you rarely find restaurants that offer pancakes or waffles, however, I'd made a mental note of a restaurant that serves good breakfasts, and so we ate there.

We came home and did some prep work for the party that night. I'd had an appointment for a little pampering, and left for the massage, manicure, and pedicure.

I came back in time to get ready for guests. Birthdays are a big deal here in Peru, and since I've been in Lima a little over a year now, I have a few more friends. Here are some pictures from the party. It was a lot of fun!




From home, I'd received several e-cards, emails, and phone calls. Thanks a bunch!! It was a very good day!

A Breath of Fresh Air: Trip to Huaraz

So this post probably will have the most pictures than any other post so far. Last week I, along with teammates Susan Crenshaw and Laura Hoyt, as well as missionary friend Andrew Eisner (in Cusco), and Peruvian friend Monica escaped Lima to go to Huaraz, Peru. It was once again nice to get away into nature a bit.

We stayed at the Mission Center that MTW missionaries Larry and Sandy Rockwell are in charge of. We also got to do some things with 2 year MTW missionary Anna Echols. Here is a picture of all of us at the Laguna Llanganuco near the peak of the mountain Huascaran.



Here are some other shots from around that laguna. It was quite beautiful there!

(And I love photography.... so here are some shots I took advantage of that day, not necessarily near the laguna)

This second group of pictures are from the hike we took up to Laguna Churup. I cluelessly had no idea of the difficulty of this "trek". The people at the agency made it sound like a piece of cake. It was in itself a rough trail, mostly uphill, but mostly uphill in very high altitude can be rough on someone who lives close to sea level. I, an experienced hiker, struggled for most of the climb. I did get a bit of altitude sickness, and was quite content taking it at my own pace. There were some fun parts of the trail that require a bit of free-handed rock climbing. We finally made it to the top, where we'd eat lunch. Honestly, I was too worn out to even chew... but I did what I could. The view was great though! The "top" was reaching the Laguna Churup, which from what I read online today, it is sitting nicely at 14,600 feet above sea level. The hike back was nice.... mostly downhill. I didn't struggle as much. Truthfully as much as I struggled that day, it was my favorite day of the whole week we were gone. The views were amazing, I love hiking, it was serene, and although physically exhausting, it was emotionally refreshing! Here are some pictures from that day.....

The way up:






At the top!! Laguna Churup:





And the way back...




And here is me sitting over the city of Huaraz at an overlook.

So here is a huge insight into some of my restful days last week. It was hard to choose which pictures to post since there was so much beautiful scenery. Believe it or not, we went at a time of the year when it isn't ideal to see the scenery.... mostly because the huge mountain snow covered peaks were mostly covered by clouds.... I enjoyed what I saw anyways.

I am now back in Lima, which does not come close in any way to the beauty of Huaraz. I am glad I went, and will look often at my pictures to remember what green hills look like. Isn't God's creative hand awesome!

Salamanca Update

So to catch everyone up on the latest in Salamanca (my neighborhood)...... We are in the process of starting a church plant here. Since Mark Berry (my team leader) will only be able to serve the church plant as a part time pastor, we're still very much so in the developmental stages, and don't actually have a church formed yet. What we do have so far is a Sunday school for kids in the neighborhood (most of which come from a poorer part of the neighborhood) on Sunday afternoons. Currently we do not have a set location for the Sunday School, so we are using a public park until we have somewhere to go. It seems to be working out well for right now. We also have a Thursday night discipleship group that meets at Kike and Martha's place. We are within a few weeks of ending one of the studies, but it has been encouraging to see the group grow, especially with new believers. There is a "cell group" that is meeting on Saturday evenings too, it used to be like a little worship service, but it is being changed to a bible study. The hope is to start the church and Sunday worship service in June. Until then, there is a group of people meeting together weekly to plan and develop for the Salamanca church plant.

Any prayers are welcome for all of these areas!