NEW PICTURES

Hi all . . .I finally got some new pictures posted. It must be a psychological block because I always think it is going to take forever and posting pictures is actually quite simple. This is a visual recap of life here from November thru December. The only regret is that each time we go to Tarapoto I forget to bring my camera to Gaston’s house to get pictures with them . . . next time. I have some great vieos too . . .now to figure out how to post it here.

Over the river and through the jungle . . . .

Christmas in the jungle was very nice this year. It was great to feel like traditions had been started. We could pull the tree and ornaments out of the attic and do something that felt familiar. I knew exactly where to go to buy more lights – we had our own place to decorate . . it was great. We had two weeks off from school which was a welcome break for everyone. We spent the first week getting our home back in order and cleaning out the store room. We had a quiet Christmas Eve and morning and then spent the afternoon sharing a meal with friends and the kids went tubing on the lake at Cashibo . . .snowmen are no longer the norm for Christmas.

The next morning we packed up our friends Land Cruiser and headed out onto the highway for a 720 km throught the Amazon Jungle to Tarapoto. It may not be quite like you imagine. All but 191 km are paved . . . well at least used to have pavement. There are a few parts of the road that truly are at the bottom of the river and others that were covered during recent mudslides . . .otherwise it was a long, bumpy, drive with beautiful scenery.

We made it there in 13 hours – (much quicker than most) – the amazing part was we arrived in one piece with barely any breaks (didn’t know there was a leak and it needed fluid – easy fix) and no horn (didn’t see the switch to turn it on). Christian was amazing. We drove through snow and rain. We were stopped by police and ”payed the toll” to  the local “bounty hunters” that keep the roads safe . . .seriously, it is legit. It was so fun even with all the nausea from the switch back roads over the mountains. We used to take long trips in the car all the time in the States, so this was some welcome isolation with our family in the car.

Friends of ours found us a place to rent in Tarapoto and we had a very affordable apartment. We did some sight seeing. The kids got to jump off cliffs into the waterfall. They walked the motocross track. Visited an Italian castle in the Peruvian jungle. We had a great time. It was a much needed break from Pucallpa life coupled with exciting ministry with Gaston and Sara. We met with them a few different nights for study and chit-chat. We met their daughter and celebrated New Year’s with them. On the 2nd we had our first “service” in their house.

We studied the begining of Acts with them and wanted to help them start a meeting in their house that they could do on their own -by themselves or with new friends. The 10 of us sang worship songs together, shared what God had has been doing in our lives – the kids too. Christian shared some teaching and we all prayed. We grilled up the meal and before we ate we broke bread and shared the wine. It was very meaningful. Christian had the opportunity to challenge Gaston to lead and teach a meeting each week.

We left Monday morning bright and early for the trip home. I don’t teach on Mondays but the kids missed school – it was worth it to stay on Sunday. Now that we had breaks and a horn Christian could push the Land Cruiser to its potential and we made it home in 11 hours – a new record i think. If you subtract all the time we spent with detained by the police in every town we would have made it in 10 hours . . . oh well – it was a great trip and very difficult to jump right back into teaching the next day.  We hope you all have a wonderful 2011 and that God will show you amazing things about himself.