A Farewell Toast to Peru!

On February 27, 2014July 9, 2023 By David CarterIn #peruLeave a comment

A few things we will miss about Peru (in no particular order):

The beauty of the Andes Mountains and for high altitude (which makes your lungs “stronger”; David at 14,500 feet at the village of Siusa)

Our neighbor’s dog, Paco. He was the perfect “pet, without having to own a pet.” He basically hung-out with us to say “hola” and that’s all we wanted.

Our missionary friends! (pictured with Eric, Jen, Carrie and the Allens). It was so nice to converse in English and practice our Spanglish with friends.

The best polleria in town: Los Toldos…1/4 roasted chicken + fries + salad + choice of drink = 13.50 Peruvian soles = approximately $3.75 USD

Our Peruvian family. Jesus, Amauta and their families (pictured here with Papito Claudio y Mami Janett, a study abroad student and Alejandra)

Our precious church family at Iglesia La Unción

Meeting our DTS students, seeing them grow for 5 months and sending them out as official YWAMers. We love you and know you will do great things: Bailey, Nico, Logan and Maddie!

Exploring up the Amazon River en route to Leticia, Colombia for a YWAM Conference

Seeing a wonder of the world: Machu Picchu (and being able to share that experience with David’s parents), who were gifted tickets by their precious church family (Thank you First Baptist of Swansea (SC) for giving us/them that gift!)

Getting to partner with friends, Eric Lovin and Jen Smith and their ministry, Spirit-Led Expeditions, while working with the Quechua in Chinchero and in Pucamarca. The village started their own community feeding program, a ladies knitting co-op and a discipleship class in a neighboring village in a little over a year!

I’ve had the privilege to buy turkey for Thanksgiving and cook it ourselves, TWICE…I’ve conquered my fear of basting and dressing the turkey, since this year the face and feet came inside the bird in addition to the bag of giblets….for the record, oven bags make a very succulent turkey.

Fresh bread, empanadas and pastries at every panaderia, for cheap! 1-2 soles each = 0.28 to 0.55 USD

Learning Spanish with Jimmy

one of our tutors at Mundo Antiguo Spanish School who brought us along to meet his beautiful family and that one time we went up to tour Senor de la Huaca (a Catholic pilgrimage/blessing site to christen his mom’s bus and having a picnic in the mountains.

All of the prayer and worship nights with DTS Staff: The Allens, Saulo and Edgar

Beautiful friends from Charleston stayed with us in our first apartment in Cusco before they hiked the Salkantay Trail to Macchu Picchu and it was wonderful to hang out with the Strauss family!

The best landlord in all of Larapa, Cusco: Senor Roque Milton-Medrano (and friend David, thank you for making us feel so welcomed to Peru).

Our mentors and friends: Clark and Beth Barnard. Thank you for connecting us to Peru and her people and for this tasty fish dinner in Iquitos! Thank you for being a dad and mom (I know to so many), but especially to us homesick Americans! We will feed you pancakes Clark, anytime!

Thank you, Peru for all of the memories! We hope to bring our kids to visit you someday!

DTS Graduation!

On February 21, 2014July 9, 2023 By David CarterIn #peru, TestimoniesLeave a comment

I was listening to a Bethel podcast this morning and Eric Johnson was talking about “ministry is not defined by what you do. It’s not about what job you do. Your ministry is defined by who you are.” When we truly believe our identity as a son, or a daughter of King Jesus, God can use each of us to do more than we ever thought possible. This is your calling and destiny: know who you are and God will open many doors and exceed your expectations.

The DTS graduated this past Wednesday night. Congratulations to Maddie, Logan, Nico and Bailey! These guys may “officially” be YWAMers, but more importantly they know who they are in Christ. These guys have all experienced tremendous personal growth over the last five months and have also seen God do some pretty amazing things.

Over the course of their 2 month outreach phase, they saw God provide financial miracles to cover school tuition. They saw Him lower bus-ticket prices overnight and get the students safely to their outreach locations despite mudslides wiping out the roads. They saw Him restore relationships within their own families. They were able to speak to and minister to over 1,500 people and saw 150 people commit their lives to Jesus!

Each of these students will move-on to do incredible things for the Kingdom of God, whether they remain in their home countries, or if they travel abroad. Whether they enroll in university, or start a job in the workplace, God has many dreams for each of them to fulfill throughout their lifetime!
God gets all the honor and glory for this school….nothing we did could have made it this successful!

A Perfect Day Off in Peru

On February 10, 2014July 9, 2023 By David CarterIn #peruLeave a comment

Because some might be wondering what a perfect day off looks like for the Carters…

After an unexpected drop-in from a friend (very early this morning), he gave us some fresh bread and yogurt for breakfast. This specific kind of bread is typical of the countryside and comes in a flat, round shape. We decorated it heavily with large amounts of butter, cinnamon and brown sugar and lightly toasted it in the oven. It was delicious, paired with the french-pressed, Peruvian coffee.

Just finished reading The Veil, by Blake Healy. If you are looking for a great read to stir your soul, this would be it. The book is Blake’s story of how he “sees in the spirit”, meaning that he sees angels and demons, just as clearly as you might see a dog or a tree in the physical world. I won’t spoil it with a book review, but both David and I read this in less than two hours….it’s that good!

David, Miriam and I popped in on the students, who just got back from outreach yesterday. They are all pretty tired, but today is their free day before we start debrief tomorrow. Then we left, to run some errands at Plaza Vea (the Peruvian version of Super WalMart). Hey, if you have to do some grocery shopping, why not at the mall…?

David bought me a surprise lunch-to-go (note: David has always been a fan of the “hot-lunch” offered at grocery stores, particularly the Clemson Bi-Lo), so I laughed when we met back up on Aisle 7 and he has added a rotisserie chicken and a styrofoam container of fries to our cart.

We went home and wolfed-down our yummy chicken and fries with cold Schwepps (David had “the perfect glass of ginger ale” (on ice, out of a mason jar) while watching the ever-important The Walking Dead (Season 4 mid-season premiere). What are you thinking, Carl?!

Afterwards, the three of us took a nap. It was one of those naps where you only intend to sleep for 20-30 minutes, but find yourself waking up two hours later to the sound of a thunderstorm….whoops, guess we really needed that… I awoke myself with a hot shower in our bathroom, which has a glass ceiling) while the rain beat down inches from my head—glorious. Then, our family of three snuggled.

Just a perfect day-off in Peru.

YWAM Cusco DTS Outreach Team goes to Puerto Maldonado, Peru

On January 27, 2014July 9, 2023 By David CarterIn #peruLeave a comment

Some photos from the team when they went to the jungle (courtesy of Bailey Jo Bowen) of Puerto Maldonado. The day before the team left, they didn’t think they would be going at all because of the mudslides, but thankfully they got through and were about to spend 2 weeks in Puerto Maldonado. They did construction at the new El Arca Children’s Home (that is moving locations from Cusco to PM), served a local church and volunteered at a local school.

It’s BO-time!

On January 7, 2014July 10, 2023 By David CarterIn #peruLeave a comment

Time for Bolivia, that is. While Bolivia may not have been introduced to Bojangles yet, they have made friends with Subway and Burger King.

A short musing of our visa renewal for Peru by going to La Paz (otherwise known as a “border run”):

We left Cusco on Thursday, January 2nd and expected to be home the next day, January 3rd. We arrived in La Paz, paid our visas, and commandeered a taxi to our hotel. La Paz, Bolivia is a city in a hole (literally the altiplano drops off a cliff and the city is built downward). Although Andean culture would say that Cusco and La Paz are similar in a lot of ways, we experienced a refreshing change of scenery. The architecture is pretty eclectic (ex. Picture skyscrapers built next to a big house that looks like it belongs at Hogwarts, next to an office building made entirely of glass). There are lots of parks and urban green spaces (they were all pristine and we didn’t see a single stray dog). Since we were only planning on being there for a night, we made the most of our time and went to dinner and then to see The Hobbit 2: The Desolation of Smaug (in English…highly recommend it although it is lengthy to sit through if pregnant).

The next morning we arrived at the airport….5 minutes after the flight “closed”. The lady at the counter was not exactly helpful or sympathetic to our cause. She said we could fly back to Cusco on the 8th. Yep, 5 days from now. Um, great, so now what do we do? Our ears, nor our bank account had been prepped for the extension of our stay. After running around to the airline counters and comparing prices online, we found out that it would be cheaper to spend an extra 5 days in La Paz than to book the next day back (through Lima or Chile). Hmmm…ok, we are going to take it as a “favored vacation” from the Lord.

Turns out, the hotel where we stayed (The LP Colombus–very nice on TripAdvisor) gave us a promotion of 3 nights for 2. We ended up only paying for 4 nights. We were able to visit the mall and find some baby items that Jen wanted that she couldn’t find in Cusco. We were able to find the Amazonas office on Sunday and thank goodness they were open and got our flight changed from the 8th to the 7th (today). Probably the best thing that came out of our trip was being able to spend some much needed time as a family and to cast vision for the future. Just being able to dream again with God together was great!

The trip back to Cusco was an interesting one, but received more favor when our flight was running behind and they let everyone on our flight sit in the VIP lounge for 15 minutes. Yes, we can say that for the first time, we helped ourselves to coffee in a VIP lounge. This time, coming back into Peru we both only received 60 days (until we need to leave Peru again).

Friend, we need a miracle to have our residency process started…in less than 60 days. I know that we have asked for prayer for this obstacle in the past, but we REALLY need to seek God’s direction on this one. We have a baby coming and don’t picture ourselves traveling (by plane or bus) when Jen is 9 months along. Not cool. We are praying and after failed attempts to talk to anyone at immigration or the US Consulate about the process or where we stand as non-Catholic religious volunteers, we think we might have a lead with a friend “who knows a guy” in Lima. PLEASE PRAY even for just a minute that God would open up just 1 door for us to get clearance for our Peruvian residencies in less than 60 days (once the process starts we won’t have to leave again).

Thank you friend for your well wishes and prayers from three weary travelers who are happy to be home in Cusco 🙂

Team Carter's Big Adventure

Category: #peru