On Day 7 we continued working on prior projects started on the other work days. Most laid brick, while others mixed cement or continued running wires for lights and light switches. More scaffolding was erected in order to reach the ever-growing brick walls along the perimeter. The inner walls of the second floor were given attention next, with courses of brick being added steadily. The bricklayers were working at an incredible pace; course after course the inner walls were built up. At dinner, Jim was presented with flowers for his dedication to the people of Caraz and the mission team itself. We ended Day 7 by going to a church service at 8pm, and said our goodbyes to the church members who conveyed to us that we are all family now.

Today, Victor’s daughter, Bernese, arrived in Caraz (after taking a ten-hour bus ride) to visit her family and the mission crew. She will be riding back down to Lima with the team tomorrow morning. Before working, we finished our devotionals and discussed the final thoughts about Caraz and the mission. Strong emotions were shared by the team, and hearts were touched. In order to truly encapsulate the emotions, I’ll have to paraphrase Janet’s words: What this team doesn’t say out loud, we express through actions. Our feelings run deep within this team. The closing statements during today’s devotional have provided a great wrap-up for our trip, and have prepared everyone for the long day(s) of traveling ahead of us. At the site, we mixed more mortar and laid more bricks, while the electrical crew did the finishing touches on wiring lights. The Lord said, “Let there be light!” and it was so. The building we’ve been working on all week now has light!

At the end of the workday, we said our goodbyes to the workers, Juan and Orlando. We were all very sad to be leaving our friends and the work we’ve been doing behind. We’ve accomplished alot this week with more than 3000 bricks being laid to almost complete the 2nd floor walls. Two bathrooms have been made functional while the plumbing on a third was partially completed. Lights and switches were wired and mounted on the entire first floor.

After a lunch of soup, beans, rice and steak, we met up with Victor and his family and loaded 18 people into a van. Pastor Victor took us on a drive down to “Rio Santa” or River of the Saint as he rode his motorcycle ahead of us. The road we took initially seemed benign and “normal” (and that term is used loosely) for a Peruvian road however, initial thoughts can be deceiving. The road followed the snaking path of the river as it moved through the mountains. We enjoyed the smoothness of a paved road for a few km, until we came across a dirt and gravel road. The bus bumped along the road, with only a couple feet on each side of the bus. On the left side was the rocky wall of the mountains, and on the right was the deep ravine which carried the rapidly moving river. Even though it was a little scary in certain spots, the team agreed it was very beautiful and a once in a lifetime opportunity to see and experience. We all feel truly blessed by God to be on this mission trip and see the beauty he has created.

As everyone has reflected on this trip, we’ve all agreed that our lives have forever been changed. It’s hard to put into words to explain to everyone back home what we’ve seen and experienced here. Life here in Peru is very different from life in the United States. One can only truly understand how their life will be changed and see the hand of God working through the team by experiencing it. We’ve forged friendships with not only the team members, but also the people of Peru, Pastor Victor, his family and church members. Even though we didn’t speak the same language as the people of Peru, it did not matter. We spent the week becoming friends through our work here and our love for Christ.

Tomorrow we begin our journey back home. Mission accomplished!

We awoke this morning to another beautiful morning here in Peru, surrounded by picturesque mountain views and sunny skies. Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs, bread and thick, thick pineapple puree - I think it was supposed to be juice? The team is back up to speed; both team members who were not feeling well are better after taking medicine and resting most of yesterday.

We headed over to the worksite at 7:45am for morning devotional. Today’s topic was about becoming more Christ-like. We discussed how we are often in a hurry for God’s plan and God always has perfect timing. He is never in a hurry and He is never late. He wants us to learn to trust in Him.

Everyone is sunburnt, so before beginning the day we made sure everyone was covered with sunscreen. As promised, the load of 3000 bricks came right after we started up the mixer. Everyone dropped what they were working on to pitch in and unload the truck. We formed an assembly line and handed bricks 2 by 2 down the line until the entire load was done. Lucy headed out to do more shopping for the crew. She has spent much time this week at the hardware store getting plumbing and electrical supplies or at the market buying bottled water and bananas.

The group split into 3 teams with one continuing to lay brick, one mixing mortar, and one running wire throughout the building for light sockets and switches. The brick-laying team is finishing the walls quickly and hope to complete them before we depart on Saturday. The mortar team handed out candy and stickers to the kids as they passed by in between mixing mortar. Some of the kids spoke English to us.

At noon we went to lunch and had lomo saltado (beef, onion and peppers), papa a la huancaina, which is a green sauce over boiled potatoes, lettuce and an olive. It was all very tasty! After lunch, we headed back to work and continued in our same endeavors until 5pm. Right after clean-up was completed, the rain started falling. We’ve been very blessed that the rain has held off until after our work is completed each day.

Dinner this evening began with a creamy pumpkin soup and bread, followed by chicken stew and rice. Drinks in Caraz are served room temperature as they don’t refrigerate much. After dinner, most of the group headed over to a local coffee shop, which is Jim’s secret spot and cannot be divulged on the internet, for coffee and dessert.

Tomorrow will be more brick-laying, mortar-mixing, and electrical work. We really enjoyed interacting with the local kids today and plan to hand out more candy and engage with them more. There will be a church service tomorrow evening at 7pm, where we may say our farewells to some members of the church.

We woke up this morning with a couple of team members not feeling so great. Pastor Victor came by during breakfast and brought medicine to hopefully help them feel better. After breakfast and morning devotional, we began the day cleaning up from last night’s storm by sweeping water off of the floor. Then we moved the cement mixer back outside to the sidewalk in front of the church to begin mixing more mortar for the brick-laying. Several of the crew worked quickly to continue raising the brick wall while others worked together to carry mortar upstairs. Meanwhile, a group was cutting wire to be used to assemble another rebar column; another group was assembling a rebar column and another was working on plumbing for the 2nd floor bathroom.

We broke for lunch at 12pm. On the menu today was Papa rellena, which is fried mashed potatoes with beef, egg, olives and cheese inside served with a white rice pyramid and cucumber and tomatoes in lime juice.

After lunch, we saw an adorable puppy outside of the hotel so we shared some of our leftover lunch with him. We made a new best friend. When we got back to the church, a group began building scaffolding so that we can continue going higher with the brick walls. The local workers have been working along side of us and are excited to learn some new building techniques from us. We have learned from them how to utilize EVERYTHING; nothing is considered scrap. They went behind us pulling small bits of wire that we had thrown aside as scrap, telling us that they could find another use for it no matter how small. The brick-laying crew moved from the front portion of the worksite to the rear portion to begin building those walls. Work continued steadily until we decided we needed another ice cream break today. This will likely become a daily habit during our trip and the local ice cream shop seemed very happy to see us return.

At 4pm, the local news station arrived to interview Pastor Victor and Brother Jim, as Pastor Victor calls him, with Lucy translating for them about what the group is doing here in Peru and what kind of message we are trying to bring to the local community. The story will air here in Caraz on Sunday (after our departure on Saturday) but Pastor Victor will receive a DVD copy that he has promised to share with us. After the interview, everyone pitched in to help clean up. Dea from Texas taught the Maryland crew that used cement bags work great as rags to clean out buckets and wheelbarrows. After clean-up was done, it was a race back to the hotel for showers and hot water. Many lost the race and suffered through a cold shower.

Dinner was served at 6pm. We had green rice, chicken, pico de gallo and hot tea. After dinner, a few decided to walk to the local market. At one vendor it took 5 of us, each who speak very limited Spanish, to communicate a conversation about where our group is from and what we are doing here in Peru. Lucy had decided to stay behind at the hotel and we realized even more how valuable having her along on this trip has been, even though it was fun practicing our Spanish speaking skills. The lady at least seemed to understand we were from America - who knows what else we communicated but she laughed alot.

Daily devotion today was about fellowship and how our lives are affected by having a church family. We went around the group and shared our personal experiences. The team is growing closer each day as we learn more and more about one another and what Christ is doing in each of our lives.

Tomorrow morning 3000 more bricks are supposed to be delivered for us to unload to the 2nd floor. Ummm…..YAY!?

We woke up today to beautiful blue skies and mountains all around us on our first work day. Breakfast at 7am, then over to the church for devotionals.

Our first task was to move a stack of bricks from one side of the work area to the other to clear the way for the brick laying. So we formed a line and began handing bricks 2 at a time down the line. Jeff and James began working on the bathroom in the “pit” and performed a few miracles. Pastor Victor had to make a trip into Huaraz, about 2 hours away by bus, so he wasn’t going to be able to be with us most of the day. After we moved the stack of bricks, a few of the men had to roll the cement mixer down the street from Pastor Victor’s garage to in front of the church.

Lunch was back at the hotel. We had lamb, pinto beans, rice and a tamale. Back to work by 1pm to mix more mortar and lay more brick. The sun was out all morning but after lunch the clouds came in with some light rain. We kept working hoping that heavy rain held off. Early in the afternoon we did have an ice cream break but quickly got back to work to try finishing up before the heavy rain came in. Our prayers were answered because just as we were cleaning up for the day, the downpour began.

We cleaned up to meet for dinner at 6pm at the hotel. Chicken noodle soup, fried chicken, rice, french fries and salad was on the menu. Another tasty meal to end the day.

Tomorrow will be more of mixing mortar and laying brick to continue finishing the second floor of the church addition. Stay tuned…..

(Note - sorry for the late post. With the rain last night we lost internet connection)

Many of us woke up this morning refreshed from a good night’s rest but quickly discovered that the shower was only a cold trickle. Some were able to get hot water to finally come through while others braved through a cold shower. During breakfast we were treated to a parade and flag raising complete with military band and marching in the town square outside of our hotel. Some of the soldiers wanted to pose with members of our group for pictures.

After breakfast we walked the 2 blocks to the church for Sunday morning services. The Peruvian people were very welcoming to our group and expressed their excitement over us being here. Pastor Victor introduced our group and told about his recent trip to visit us in the US while Lucy translated for us. We are all VERY thankful to have Lucy along on this trip!

We were able to take some pictures of the children’s areas during services and hand out some candy. One little boy escaped from class and wanted to hang with us, but he was quickly told by one of the teachers that he would not get the candy we had given to them if he did not return to his class. He wasn’t swayed. Who knew we would be more exciting than candy!

After church was over, everyone went back to the hotel to change for a ’surprise’ lunch from Pastor Victor. He and his wife, Victoria, took us to a place called ‘El Gordo’ and so far this was the first place that we weren’t sure what the food was, but there was ALOT of it. Each item on the plate was wrapped in leaves as that is how they cook it. Therefore we had to ‘unwrap’ our meal to discover what the surprise inside was. There were lots of potatoes, some meat that Pastor Victor said was pork but not real sure as his translation mostly included animal noises. It was a great time for everyone to relax and spend some time getting to know our Texas folks, Dee, Kathy, Bill and Amanda, a little better. Awesome people!

In the evening we returned to church for the evening service. Bill (from Texas) spoke during the service and a few of our folks shared their testimonies. During our introduction, we were all treated to Pastor Victor’s impersonation of Bruce Lee, including a jump kick into the air, as he found it amusing that we have 2 men named Bruce in our group. He is a funny man!

We are all feeling very blessed to be here and sharing this time with the people of Caraz. Tomorrow we are looking forward to getting to work! There is a lot to do!

Gene Posthumus drove us to Dulles airport to begin our journey to Caraz, Peru.
We had two full days of travel with our first stop being Houston, Texas. There were bad thunderstorms in the area, so we had to sit on the runway for about an hour waiting for them to pass.

We arrived safely in Lima close to midnight. Pastor Victor, his daughter Bernice, and Monica were awaiting our arrival to take us to our hotel. We all checked into our rooms around 1:30am for a few hours of sleep before our early morning breakfast. We met up with the folks joining us from Kilgore, Texas at breakfast as they had arrived into Lima before us, loaded our luggage onto a van and headed to the bus depot for our 10 hour bus ride into Caraz.

Very interesting landscape along the way. We drove North along the Pacific. Beautiful views of the ocean, very dry arid mountains and sand on the right. We were all enjoying the scenery when we heard a loud pop and the bus started shaking. Pulled over to the side of the road and discovered the bus had a blown rear tire. Everyone got off the bus and many of our guys helped the drivers get the tire changed. We were off again, praying that the rest of the tires held up.

We stopped at ‘Chetos’ restaurant for lunch, then back on the bus, this time heading North East into the Andes. We made it to Caraz and checked into our hotel , then caught up with Pastor Victor and his wife Victoria for dinner at ‘Pollo la Brasa.’

Sunday is church and a special lunch, but more about that in the next post….

The team spent the day putting finishing touches on the set panels and welding frames for the platforms. The decision was made to forego our “day off” and to return to the work site on Saturday. It’s our hope that by the end of the day, we’ll have all the sets in place so the ministry leaders can see them assembled when they come for pick-up. Each day, our team has been doing group devotionals. Today, we were touched by the story of the writers father who was a missionary, building more than 150 churches in his community. The writer shared that his fathers dying words to him were to “win one more for Jesus”. We are honored to have the opportunity to provide ministry tools that we know will be used by the churches to do just that - win one more for Jesus!

The past few days can be summed up in a few words: awesome teamwork and amazing effort & ingenuity. And today, at the end of our 12 hours at the job site while there’s still much to do to finish the platforms, the panels of the sets that really give them the WOW factor are nearly complete. Even the flat tire on the van being used to transport the team worked in our favor as it gave us more time at the job site. The best part has been seeing the children get more excited as the sets’ appearances are coming into focus. So at the end of the day, we are tired but it’s a good tired. (those of you who have served on mission teams know what we’re talkin’ about, right?) We are all well and send their greetings to family & friends at home!

Thank you all for being patient with the blog. We have been having technical difficulties.

January 15, Day 1:
The team was dedicated during the first service then were off to the airport. Thanks to Christine & Mike for getting us there. After an event free day, the team arrived in Santiago. We were happy to be in the tropical weather and away from the cold in MD! After checking into the hotel, we had a brief planning meeting. The team’s mission is to create & construct sets for children’s ministry in four churches - two in Santiago and two in Santo Domingo - a mission that’s been in the works for many weeks. Many thanks to our imagineer and creative genius, Brian Tetter. His detailed plans gave the team their wings so we can fly through the building process!

January 16, Day 2:
After a great breakfast in the hotel restaraunt, we headed out for a morning of “shopping”. It took a few hours to purchase the lumber and other supplies that will be needed to create the sets. At the job site, we stopped for our morning devotions then it was game on with nothing but the sound of power tools and hammering throughout the afternoon. While the guys focused on frame construction, the ladies began the set decor. It was great reconnecting with old friends and neighbors in the surrounding community but especially the neighborhood children. At the end of the first day, everyone was amazed at the amount of work that was accomplished but better yet was the great teamwork. Once again, God has brought together the people needed for this unique mission.

When we began moving Pastor Oscar and Sister Rosa into their new home, we realized they did not have a working refrigerator or stove. Wayne and Paula told us that we had extra money left over from our mission deposit, so we unanimously decided to use God’s money and purchase them new appliances. We surprised Sister Rosa with a trip to Lowes in San Antonio. God is Good! There was enough money to purchase a matching fridge, stove and an above-range, vented microwave. While the girls were appliance shopping, Howard and Chris picked up all the supplies for Friday’s big lunch surprise. Texan, Dea Thurston and his son, Brent traveled three hours to bring the outside HVAC unit and install in the new home. Dea is a member of Missionary Action Project with Wayne and Paula and installed all of the new home’s HVAC. After another delicious salvadorian lunch, we said “see you later” to Dea and Brent and got back to work installing all of the appliances. Wayne, Gene, Kevin and Scott worked as a well-oiled machine successfully installing the ice machine water line for the refrigerator, the outside venting and a new shelf to hold the microwave above the stove. With some of the spare wood lying around, Dan, Brandon and Howard made a large front door step. In the church kitchen, Chris got a jump start with his crock pot lasagne so it could simmer all night long. It sure did smell good!

Before we wrapped up the day at 5:00 pm, we watched Pastor Oscar and Sister Rosa touring their finished home. It was wonderful to see their smiles :). Following a friendly and competitive game of soccer with the guys and Oscar and Rosa’s grandchildren, we made our way back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.