Happy Thankgiving!

So no turkey for Thanksgiving this year . . . they don’t get them out on this side of the Andes until Christmas time so we will be having duck . . .I hope. I sent my helper to the market this morning to find me a big duck and hopefully bring it home dead. I know how to do all the killing and pluming, but I really don’t want to if I can avoid it. We are celebrating as a family this year and hope to invite some Peruvian friends over for dessert later in the evening (they do not have vacation here and their kids have school in the morning). Christian is headed back to Tarapoto on Saturday for 3 days and for this we are very thankful. Sara and Gaston are looking forward to his arrival and to learning more about Jesus and the Bible . . . please pray for Christian’s Spanish and a good time of learning and fellowship this weekend.

Have a great holiday!

Tarapoto

So we went to Tarapoto last week. We left our kids with our friend, Tiffany, Sunday afternoon and hoped into the SAM Air Cesna and beat the weather to Tarapoto. We went with the purpose of information gathering. We wanted to meet with key people in the community and see what the needs of the existing church are and how a new “middle-class” church plant might fit – really, we wanted to get a sense if that is where God wants us next.

We had our meetings, met with friends from Pucallpa, who happened to be there and with friends from the MX club in Tarapoto. It was amazing. I will make a long story short: we were supposed to leave on Wednesday and we stopped by our friend’s shop to say hi. Christian went next door to rent a motorcycle for a few hours and I stayed and chatted with the wife, Sara. They are going through a rough time right now. Gaston had asked that we all come back later and pray for them. I could sense that his heart was hungry for peace and truth. After chatting with Sara she told me she was ready and wanted me to pray with her to receive Jesus. I was so amazing. At that moment my Spanish failed me completely and she had to pour her heart out to God herself. It was so special. Later that afternoon we were headed back to their shop to say good-bye as we found out we went leaving town due to the weather. That gave us plenty of time to hang out with Sara and Gaston. Julio shared the Gospel with Gaston and he prayed to receive Christ that afternoon. It was incredible. So, the church in Tarapoto has begun . . .not sure how God wants us to proceed from here. Christian will be returning to Tarapoto for a time of discipleship with them in a week and a half. Can’t wait to see what God will do.

We were stuck in Tarapoto all day Thursday as well. It was good though – we were able to connect with Julio after his month long trip to Africa and the States. He came back from the conferences on fire with SOO much to share with us. So we were debriefed and had plenty of time to read, read, and read some more. (He brought back lots to share with us). We finally took off Friday morning right after the President’s plane landed at the airport. We made it home by noon on Friday with enough time left of the lunch hour to see the kids before going back to class. They had a great time with out us but missed us very much . . .we are blessed to have well-adjusted kids!

I had a great time celebrating my b-day in Tarapoto . .though I missed our kids. I am getting a very special present this year . . .I am going to Lima on Thursday to do our Christmas shopping . . .ALONE! It sounded like such a  great idea a month ago, but after being in Tarapoto for a week I really don’t want to leave again, but asi es. Uncle Christian is teaching my classes on Friday at the school and the kids can’t wait to have him as a teacher.

SIDE NOTE: My stonach issues seem to have died down. After that horrible endoscopy experience the stomach pain doesn’t seem so bad and I have realized that most of it has been due to stress. So, I am fine.

Pray for Christian – he has a horrible pinched nerve in his neck and hasn’t been able to move much since the motoenduro on Sunday. (check out photos at www.quinocay.com/naysha/aniv_14)  Gabe is #43 and C is #160, max is #11

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Cosecha-ween

Last night we had a fun celebration here on SAM center. It was a harvest/Halloween party, jungle style. I call it our “Cosechaween” party (Cosecha means harvest in Spanish). The kids bobbed for apples, we carved papaya instead of pumpkin, made scarecrows, and went for a “hay ride” in the pack of the big blue truck. We all wondered how many chiggers were in that hay, but 24 hours later and no complaints.

Gavin dressed up as a Roman soldier; Max was a doctor;  Beth a hippie; Emma scored herself the perfect dress from her friend and went as American Girl, Kit Kitteridge; and Gabriel went as Marshall – a very skinny version of the Marshall we all know and love, but he had the cloths and the 5 o’clock shadow. After trick-or-treating at the few houses on the center we headed out back for a bonfire. We roasted hotdogs and marshmallows next to a blazing fire in the 85 degree darkness. We had a great time except for the fire ants that came out for the festivities and munched on our toes and climbed up out pant legs throughout the evening.

Everyone came home happy, sweaty, filthy and tired. So tired in fact, we forgot to get up this morning. There was no sun because of heavy rain clouds so no one got up until 20 minutes before school started. I can’t blame them for being tired. It has been a busy week. Last Monday we had friends over. They own a restaurant in town. He is a new believer (with in the past 2 years) she is not but loves the change she has seen in her husband since he has known Jesus. She came to the woman’s retreat with me back in the spring and has been attending church with family ever since. Needless to say the kids were up late that night, Wednesday night is the SAM prayer meeting – bed late for all, Thursday night we had our friend, Will, and his family over for dinner. He is French and he is a hairdresser . . . he didn’t get out of work till 8:30ish . . dinner was eaten around 9:30 pm. Friday night was movie night, Saturday night we had a wedding to attend and Gabe babysat – they went to bed late again. Sunday we had a treat and played hooky in the morning from church and listened to a pod cast from our church in SC. It was soooo refreshing. I understand the sermons in Spanish but I haven’t listened to an English sermon in over 6 months! It was refreshing for all of us. Today after school it poured and poured. The kids played outside and could literally swim in the ditches out side our house. I went to a funeral/wake and then we had breakfast for dinner.  It has been a full week.