We love Peru!

We went to the market in Lomas on Sat. morning to buy ingredients for chicken/veggie soup. It cooked all day and Sat. night we hosted an outreach event in the neighborhood for the families. We played with the kids, did balloons, face painting, manicures for the ladies, had music, a stick dance and Scott presented the gospel message in a really powerful way. Then we fed all the people (around 300) the chicken soup and peanut butter sandwiches. (PB is a rare and expensive treat to them. It was great.

Chickens before.....

Chickens after.....

Sully got to carry the chickens. Yummy. Other market offerings. Cow kidneys, tongue and heart. Double yummy.

We chopped carrots, peeled potatoes, chopped onions, shelled peas and Janet and I plucked the leftover feathers out of chickens! I had NEVER done that before. I have even more respect for Laura Ingalls Wilder than ever. One day we were a little late to Lomas to play with the kids and when we got there they had formed two lines and made all of us go under their arms. It was so fun. When we would pull into the neighborhood the kids would all start running along side the bus calling out, "Gringos! Gringos!"

We did a photo scavenger hunt with all the kids......and some of the Moms! It was hilarious chaos. This was Drew Preston and a lady doing silly faces.

Drew Preston was asked to speak at church on Sunday, being one of the youngest in our group (Ellie almost flew under the chair when she was asked). He did a SUPER job and told about what we had been doing in Peru. The preacher is standing next to him and the interpreter has the mike.

Ellie and her friend Nataly.

Ellie on the merry-go-round with Nataly. We took the orphans to a amusement-type park today for Orphan fun day. All the kids had a ball. There were about 4 people (youth or adults) per kid and they drug us all over to every ride and activity. We had to say goodbye to them at the end of the day and it was so bittersweet. It's amazing how quickly they get into your heart.

Ellie and LuzMeri. She gave Ellie the necklace around her neck. So sweet.

Erin surprised Tucker with a cake for his birthday. All the orphans got a piece, too. My baby is in his teens!

Peru

Bella waving goodbye. Her mom told her boss it was her birthday so he would give her the day off so she could come hang out with us. He told her to bring him a piece of cake which is going to be a problem since her birthday is in February!

This is a family I met. The Mom is Melody, the little boy is Alberto and the girl is Ladi. I'm not sure what Dad's name is. When Dad leaves to go to work the kids cry and cry so I got to hold Alberto to wipe his tears while he wailed on my shoulder, "PaPa, PaPa" He was so pitiful but he finally calmed down and got happy.

VBS Peruvian style. This is them singing their favorite song, "Christo es mi Soopahero" (Christ is my Superhero). Tucker, Drew Preston and Sully are helping with the motions.

Craig and his new buddy Brittany. She followed him around all afternoon. This was taken after a spinning session. Craig and Brittany.

We got to go visit a school today to invite them to the outreach event tomorrow nite. All the children stood up when we entered the room and didn't sit down until our interpreter asked them to.

We were on a prayer walk in a market. Yummy chickens. Not rubber. Ellie helping Hayden figure out the measurements for the wall. The dining hall is behind them.

The construction team mixing concrete. Drew Preston is standing on top of the rocks counting shovelfuls of sand and rocks. He stopped them at a certain number so they could run the machine. Very important job.

This is Ladi. The ball was bigger than her.

Tucker carrying around a kid. We ALL carry around kids. They love it.

Ellie and her new pals Christian and Roderigo.

This lady asked us to pray for her to be able to get materials to build a house. She is doing someone else's laundry to earn money.

Roderigo.

Amazing Peru

This is the only pic I've been able to upload, connection problems. This is Ellie doing dishes in the alleyway of a soup kitchen in Peru! Peru is incredible. We are staying at a hostel in Lima, Peru. Our family has a whole room to ourselves, three bunkbeds worth! And our own bathroom. With a shower! Sheer luxury to

the people we visit everyday.

We have breakfast at 7:30 am, then Scott gives an awesome devotion to get everyone pumped for the day. Then we all pile on a bus to drive to Lomas and Chilpa, two villages right across the street from each other. It takes about an hour to get there. We go to the orphanage first where the children are all in school (the school is also within the orphanage territory). What's fun is that the kids all peek at us from the doorways and if the teacher isn't looking they make their escape and come running to us for hugs and "take photos". They're adorable, all in cute school uniforms.

We split into 3 groups. One group stays at the orphanage where they are working on building a new dining hall. (Craig, Sully and Drew Preston have been here both days, and Tucker today.) One group goes to a soup kitchen to help prepare the food for the day. Ellie, Tucker and I went there yesterday and helped serve. The third group goes on a prayer walk through the village. Ellie and I did that today. With an interpreter we go door to door and tell people who we are and ask them if we can pray for them about anything. It was awesome. We got to pray for some precious people and one man even stopped our group to ask us to pray for him.

We all meet back at the orphanage to eat lunch. Then we pile back on the bus and we all go back to the village where we did the prayer walk to have "VBS" for the kids. This is not your typical VBS. Yesterday there were probably 150 kids there and first we played with them, balls, bubbles, jump ropes, stickers, fingernail polish, taking pictures, carrying them around, figuring out childrens names, etc. During story time we sang some songs, told a Bible story (acted out by the Clement kids and others- we did Zaccheus yesterday and The Good Samaritain today). Then we do a craft (too crazy to describe, only we divide into many groups and sit in the middle of the dusty street to do the crafts). After that we play some more and then pile back on the bus once again for another hour long trip back to Lima and the hostel, where we eat, visit the corner store and get some sleep.

All 40 people on our team have been incredible. Everyone is helping and serving and laughing and loving these people. And the Peruvians love us right back! There is a lady from the village church who meets our bus each day and gives us all hugs and kisses. The children come out of the woodwork to come play (today there were at least 200). And they are so sweet! And so beautiful! I've picked out MANY to adopt :). The boys are having so much fun building the dining hall and playing with the kids and hanging out with the young people from the church. Ellie, of course, is still enjoying the princess roll, being the youngest on the trip. She loves the big girls and they let her talk and talk to them and sit with them on the bus. She's made lots of friends with the Peruvian children, too, and is much more outgoing with them then when we were in Mexico. Scott said tonite that it's hard to find Ellie in the gang of kids at VBS- she blends right in with them with her dark hair.

All is good, we're all healthy and happy. One young man on our trip was sick last nite, spent today recovering at the hostel and is better tonite. Will try for more pics tomorrow.

Beach Fun

LuLu's is so much fun! We spent about 2 hours there, eating took about 30 minutes :) .

3 silly girls and 1 silly boy.
Caroline and Ellie having fun in the sand.

Drew Preston, Sully, Tucker and Brady had a great game of volleyball going with a fun group of kids.

My kindred spirit and Ellie's kindred spirit: Jan and Caroline. How we love them!!

Could've sat here all day and watched the kids play!

Lightning show over the gulf. (This was taken from INSIDE the condo.)

I did not mean to take a picture of the dude with the frisbee. I was aiming for the boat and the boom protecting our beach from the oil.

The kids had so much fun burying each other. They each took a turn sitting in a hole and getting buried up to the neck and then they took turns being a mummy.

Poor brother.

Caroline smiles even in dire circumstances!

I love this one.

Busy builder.

Football on the beach, big fun.

Is he cute or what?

We went crab hunting one nite and caught a slew of crabs. This big one had us all squealing and hopping around hoping not to get pinched before Tucker finally nabbed him.

Ellie loves Brady and he sure is sweet to let her climb all over him.

Drew Preston is in that silly face for almost every picture stage.

Summer Pickin'

These pictures are backwards. I haven't remembered to do them in reverse order YET!
The blackberries we didn't freeze- blackberry cobbler tonite!

Blueberries for snackin' on for the next couple of days.
23 bags of blueberries and 8 of blackberries, ready to go into the freezer for future smoothie use. Yum!

The mighty berry pickers.
Long, wide, snake-free rows of blackberries. My kind of garden.

Yum! We even brought home an inchworm. These berries are pesticide free.

Me and my sweet little man.

Ellie is a good picker! Not many red berries in her bucket!

Fat, juicy, sweet berries. One of my favorite tastes of summer (right behind watermelon).