This week has been hard. David and I have been in charge all week while the Allen’s have gone to Lima to get the kid’s residencies finalized (I think they did it! I think ALL of their kids now are Peruvian residents! YAY!) and meanwhile back here it seems that at every turn things happen that are out of our control. The Lord has pulled through for us yet again and reminded us of all of our blessings and His goodness. So I’m going to write about His goodness, instead of focusing on our problems:

1. He managed to bring a fun-tastic group of Brits and Americans together for a dinner party in a broken down VW van on the side of a roundabout in the rain. We talked about Cusco, and home, the Spice Girls, what the Lord is doing now and all things “chav”.

2. We met a nice, new mechanic named Corneilio who after having the VW for 2 days fixes the gear box for an amount that was cheaper than expected and that we had in the team ministry money account. His wife thought David was a well respected man (because of his beard) and C. equated me with Jennifer Lopez (because of my name and good looks of course).

3. The team hiked up Mt. Pikol while I was sick. Didn’t know at the time, but as I was sick one of the team members hurt his knee on the trail and couldn’t walk. So they carried this person down, but because of the slow-going, someone in the group (not on the team, but hiking alongside) alerted the Volunteer Fire and Rescue squad. Eric and I got to rescue the rescue squad (twice) because of a lack of gasoline in their van. Yes, they drive a mini-van…up mountains. After a 10-hour ordeal everyone came off the mountain and is ok. Even the team member with their knee will be ok after a few days of rest and some medicine. My sickness disappeared as I was driving with Eric up to the base of the mountain.

4. We had amazing worship this morning as we watched a worship session from Bethel Church  (on iBethel.tv) and got ready to do a treasure hunt at Cristo Blanco. Well the VW broke down again and the team managed to get to the top of the lookout by taxi. A few hours later Corneilio came and helped David and even in the pouring rain, I got to have an inner-healing prayer session with one of the girls on the team. Hooray for releasing the Kingdom and Jesus releasing freedom and forgiveness. In my opinion, it was totally worth the rain.

5. Valentines-Day with David was very nice. After a chaotic day of feeling sick and skipping Spanish lessons, to my surprise, my tutor Amauta LOVES me. She and David came back to the house (with cake) and our assignment was to create V-day cards in Spanish for one another. After a day of driving people around and translating at doctor’s offices and running errands, we were able to have a nice dinner at home (homemade pasta with MEAT sauce) and he bought me a whole sleeve of Twix (which I’m sure cost more than it should have).

(David Writing)

6. Even though things have been tough we have been learning amazing things. I was able to add several new spanish vocabulary words (all dealing with cars and automotive things), namely the word for tow-truck, clutch, gear box and “start the car”. All-in-all not a week I would want to re-live but I feel accomplished and re-assured that God gave the wisdom to make decisions and the ability to communicate well enough to work through the many problems. Our life is not always easy or simple, but it’s never boring. We feel so privileged to be serving God here and wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.

Starting this summer (in July/August) we will have two 2-week sessions at YWAM Cusco for high school students, aged 15 and up, to come with their youth leaders/parents/chaperones/even whole families to experience serving in foreign missions. We want this to be an introduction to what a Discipleship Training School is like (but for youth who are under 18). Therefore, for two weeks students will pray, worship, live in Christian community and serve at our various outreach locations while they are in Cusco. We want this to be a growing experience for high schoolers who are already walking out their Christian faith, but are craving more. We are putting together a World Missions 101 packet of information that will be finalized by the end of this month. If you, or your church family would like more information about this exciting summer program, please drop me an email and I would be more than happy to get that to you. We love how Daddy God is providing the resources and creativity for this program and would be thrilled if you could join us!

The MAD (Music, Arts and Dance) team from Brisbane came Tuesday afternoon  after a record 65+ hours of traveling! After they rested for a few days and had orientation, we jumped right into their “Vision Week”, or the week when they practice hearing from God. After watching “Finger of God” and “Furious Love” (They had watched “Father of Lights” at the base before they left), we put it into practice.  Part of “Finger of God” shows students from Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry doing “Treasure Hunts”, or prayer outreaches around Redding, CA.  Basically the students hear from God about who to look for, or where to go, or words for people and then they compare notes with each other. Then they go out into their city and it’s like “Blue’s Clues” with God because He shows you the clues you got beforehand.  So, we applied this same model with the team. Our Peruvian friend, Andres, joined us for the hunt.

 

We spent Saturday morning in prayer and worship and the Lord was releasing his freedom. People confessed, forgave, sang, danced and got rocked by the Holy Spirit. Awesome. Then we each went off to pray by ourselves and then came back to compare notes on what we heard. Common themes were: “blue hat”, “old man with kids”, “person by the fountain” (purple jacket), “brokenness”. There was more, but of course we leave it up to God to tell us in the moment too.  Once we got into town we split up into teams of 2-3 and here are some stories of what happened:

 

(Jen Carter, Amanda and Christian): Christian took his camera (film student) and began filming. Encounter #1: We went for the fountain in the Plaza de Armas and there we found a girl, Janelle, (who was obviously Muslim with a purple head scarf). She was also wearing a purple jacket. She was with 2 friends, Nadine and Rachel from the UK on holiday. Got to talk with all 3 and pray over them as a group; for traveling & protection, university graduation and jobs. God showed us that Janelle wasn’t offended (like I thought she would have been). They all left with JOY on their faces.

Encounter #2: Got a word for my friend Sandra (who works as a restaurant hostess next to our language school). Asked her if we could pray, but she couldn’t because she was working and didn’t want to cause trouble with her boss, but 2 girls that were offering massages (Sabrina and Reina) overheard our conversation and wanted prayer. They invited us to their massage parlor (literally, a closet) and wanted prayer for their families and business. They were curious about what we were doing and seemed like they were searching for more in their faith. God protect the truth that you’ve put in their hearts (someone had given them a tract from a cult and they were very curious as to how we were different from the tract. Didn’t bash the cult with words but tried to explain that the Bible is the ultimate truth. Go with that, not the pamphlet).

Encounter #3: We were sitting on the cathedral steps and lots of vendors came up to us. We got to talk and pray to a teenaged girl selling bracelets, Roberto (the charango player) and Endro (the artist) who thought they would walk away with money, but since we had none, they walked away knowing that God loves them and prayer for health and family issues.

 

(Andres and Jen T.): Found “old man with a kid” and were able to pray for them about blessing his family. A group of shoe shiner boys (one with a “blue hat”) came over and they started talking about how they were praying and hearing from God and the kids thought it was pretty cool. When Jen asked the kid in the blue hat what they could pray for him (since God had told her to find someone in a blue hat), he started crying and said that his mom was an alcoholic and he didn’t want to go home because she beat him. Then he asked if they had any Bibles (which they didn’t, because we don’t’ go with an agenda, but only to love) so they went to several stores (with the kid following them) and they bought him his first Bible (from a store that Andres said was never open, but today they just so happened to be open and they were selling Bibles). Praying that God will help this little boy understand what he is reading and keep him zealous and protected.

 

(Elizabeth, Misha and Johnny): Johnny prayed for a wooden saxophone vendor on the street (found out he was a Christian too) and then the guy started praying for Johnny. Then the man took him out for coffee to talk.  Misha found Pedro at a café and they struck up a conversation about how he was also a Christian and he used to go to church and found out that they both have a background going to a Presbyterian church. She was able to pray and encourage him. Before we went out, Elizabeth got a picture of “a woman with 3 braids” and later she found her on the street and even though she looked Peruvian, when E. asked her if she spoke any English the woman started speaking in GERMAN. (E. is from Germany!) So E. and Marta talked for an hour about her life and E. got to pray for her and her boyfriend, Cesar, who is an alcoholic and works in the mines. Marta lived in Germany with her first husband, but is now divorced but lives in Peru for half the year to be with her mom. E. told her about when they were in Australia they prayed for a man on the beach who was in a drunken, coma-like state to “get up in Jesus’ name” and the guy stood up and any indication of alcohol was out of his body. He could walk, talk and function normally.  God could do this same miracle for Cesar too. E. got to pray with her and got an invite to M.’s house to pray with her mom too.  At first M. didn’t want to pray because her friends were next to her (and believed in spirit worship/nature) and would be offended. E. told her that she respected her for that, but that she respected Jesus more (boom!) and that she could pray for her without her eyes closed and in German (just like a normal conversation), so M. loosened up and even wanted prayer a second time! Pray that Johnny, Elizabeth and Christian, who all speak German, can continue to build a relationship with Marta/her mom/Cesar.

 

Kale was able to talk to a guy from the UK, Tom, about his life and what he is doing in Cusco for holiday and love him as a friend for an hour. He got a wicked sunburn for it too.

 

David felt like he should be the intercessor while all of this was happening, so we put worship music on his iPhone and prayed in the Plaza. He said while he was sitting on a bench a bunch of kids (some selling stuff and some not) kept coming up to him wanted to talk to “this gringo” so that was encouraging for him. Also, he was able to encourage Kale to go sit with Tom at the beginning.

 

God really blew everyone’s opinions and expetations away this weekend (like he usually does)! It was such a joy to find people that God had highlighted earlier (if you try to rationalize why someone is wearing 3 braids, you can’t do it and then later you realize that God is making it VERY OBVIOUS who the person is). Praise be to God for all of the divine encounters we had. Praise be to him that this outreach team was bold and pushed through fear and awkwardness to love on people and to talk with them. Thank you Daddy that you love the people in Cusco so much that you would tell us, perfect strangers, to go tell them. Thank you for open hearts to receive the words of encouragement we had for them. Thank you for safety and fun! And we boldly ask for more next week! (The team was so pumped up that we want to do this every Saturday afternoon, if possible with the schedule). MORE LORD!!!!!!!

In the past 2 weeks, we are resting and getting ready for the next Brisbane team coming at the end of this month. We are doing a lot of “behind the scenes” work to get ready. We also have finished language school  and instead of going every day for four hours, we want to continue to practice with Jimmy and Amauta for 1 hour each every week. To celebrate 3 months of hard schooling, Jordan and Joy treated us to dinner at this posh, organic, gourmet restaurant called Sara’s. Highly recommend.  Our final “test” was to watch “The Lion King” in Spanish without subtitles to see how much we could pick up.

We were going to take the next two weeks to collect all the necessary paperwork for our residency process, but this week we found out that the organization that we were planning to go with has lost its credentials and ability to grant anymore residencies after this coming week.  We talked to our friend, Eric, who has just recently gotten his residency through a Baptist church in Lima. It is this church’s ministry to help other missionaries get their residencies through a non-Catholic visa (which the government is making it harder for missionaries to obtain).

Please be praying for our residency process that things will run smoothly and quickly and for God to be in our conversation with the lawyers and church.  Also pray for us to be able to rest this month until the new team arrives, and for Jen’s health.

We love you all! Thanks for all of your prayers and encouragement!

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone!  We are looking back on a year of blessings and thankfulness. In one year we graduated from DTS in Thailand, moved four times, received jobs for 7 months and learned/are learning Spanish.  I nannied 2 of the cutest kids over the summer. David learned about constructing houses and (in the words of Jacob Graudin) “learned how to dig holes and then fill them back up.” We walked through dry seasons and arrived into new seasons in faith journey with God. 2012 was a learning year. God loves to provide in every way possible.  We learned that despite our circumstances our decisions can’t be made based on fear.  We are so blessed to be encouraged by our old and new friends. As for the New Year, it has been said by some that 2013 will be the year of “missions and for missionaries to be called forth.” Yep, we receive that one and a whole lot more!

Some of our dreams/goals for 2013:

1. To continue a season of generosity and hospitality. We have seen over the past year seeds being sown in God’s economy. We have personally seen and experienced the rewards of being generous to others and want to keep at it.

2. We want to be granted Peruvian residency (the equivalent of a “US Green Card” in Peru). Yes, we can assure that we will still be full US citizens; however with a Peruvian residency one is allowed to live and work in the country as “non-Catholic missionaries” and receives the same benefits as Peruvians would (ex. you can have bills in your name, open accounts, drive, own a car, ect.)

3. We want to live out worship and prayer in Cusco. We want to staff and help establish a YWAM Cusco base (help raise a property or location to house classes and students for long-term), and this includes a Discipleship Training School (DTS) for youth of all ages to receive missionary training and to send them out.

4. We want outreaches for God to encounter every type of people in Cusco: the backpackers and tourists, the Quechua people, Peruvians/Cusquenas. We want to maintain and build relationship with other missionaries, local churches and programs while at the same time building our base.

5. We want God to dream over us this year. When our dreams and plans become aligned with His, good stuff happens. We look in joyful anticipation to 2013. Here’s to the New Year!

our DTS class

we got to spend lots of time at Camp St. Christopher (again!)

David and Hadrian Hobbs participated in their 1st Sprint triathlon

we found community (in US and in Peru)

and got to spend lots of time with family and friends.

Thank you 2012, goodbye. Hello 2013.

This week has felt very busy with the anticipation of Christmas. The team came back from hiking the Inca Trail to Macchu Picchu and had an adventure of their own. They were able to talk to about 20 other hikers of all different nationalities (2 were from SC, hooray!) about what God has been doing in their lives and encouraged people. A bunch of the other hikers had a bad image of Christians/Christianity before this trip and the team said that “seeds were planted in so many conversations that changed people’s outlooks and lead them closer to accepting Christ.” Praise the Lord! They invited the whole group for Christmas dinner and 5 gave them a “maybe”, so perhaps some will come to Larapa for a Christmas meal away from home.

Meanwhile, in the city, panetons (Christmas fruit bread) replaces the entire cereal/oatmeal/quinoa aisle at the grocery stores. People are making stock-piles of fireworks for Christmas Eve. Our phones keep text-messaging us about special Christmas offers from Claro. This time of year is also a great opportunity for many churches, Catholic and Evangelical alike to host “chocolatadas” or hot chocolate socials for the communities surrounding Cusco and the homeless. These functions provide a wonderful opportunity to share the Gospel and love of Jesus to people who might not otherwise hear it. It keeps the “Christ” in “Christmas” from all the commercialism that believe it or not still exists in countries outside the US.

This past Saturday, we went to 2 chocolatadas with some of the team. The first one was with the Allen’s friends, Jose Luis and Samuel and their church in the village of Mishkiunu (in Quechua, it means “Sweet Water”) which is “just over the hill from Cusco.” The team played some games with the kids, sang songs and performed a skit. Turns out another church had planned a chocolatada for this town on the same day, same time so we just combined into one big party. We set up a distribution center in an abobe room for the community to hand out clothes for all the men, women and children. Lots of mud in this village which has mining construction next door to mine gravel. But today, there was much joy on the faces of kids who were receiving bread, hot chocolate, and presents. More importantly, the love of Christ was definitely displayed. We had to leave this event early to catch our friend Eric for chocolatada #2 in Pucamarca with the Quechua.

When we arrived in Pucamarca we had an hour of play time with the kids to attract people to the chocolatada. It’s so funny how kids in pretty much every culture, but especially this kids were entranced with balloons, or in Spanish “globos.” We could hardly tear them away to play soccer or tag. We did introduce to them what a “Scream Race” was. What was neat was aside from us playing with the kids, Eric put the Quechua in charge: cooking, serving bread and hot chocolate, sharing the Gospel and giving testimonies. It was really awesome to see the Quechua hungry to spread the Gospel in their own village and it wasn’t “just the white people coming in to hand out free stuff”. The pastor that helps Eric with his Wednesday night discipleship group in Pucamarca (that we went to this week and it was awesome. We started with 3 people and ended with 15) handed out “Jesus loves You” hats and t-shirts. The kids were so happy and we really enjoyed it. David and I also got a chance to translate (more or less, interpret) for the team and speak to the Quechua that knew Spanish. It made almost 3 months of language school so worth it to understand and speak it all day long. PRAISE GOD!

Please pray for the Christmas Eve outreach we have tomorrow night where we will go downtown and pass out sandwiches, hot chocolate and blankets to the homeless of Cusco. Many people sleep in the plazas who are from the country villages who have come to sell their goods at the Christmas Eve day markets. Pray for God-encounters in conversations and that we would be able to bring hope and love to people this Christmas.

We were delighted to meet Victor and his wife, Peggy at the Cono Norte Conference. This couple now lives and works in Colombia. Peggy was a part of an outreach team that came to Cusco in 1989 when YWAM Cusco existed for 10 years. This is her story she shared with us:

“(In 1989), a group of about 400 YWAMers gathered in Cusco to pray over the city during the Inti Rami Festival. 400 was considered a big group back then. This festival is a ceremony held every year by Inca tradition that worships the sun god, Rami. If the sun shines while the ceremony is taking place, then it means that the sun-god is pleased and it will be a good year for crops. If the sun doesn’t come out, then it will mean a year of bad harvest. It was at this gathering that 3 women out of this group held themselves up in a hotel for 3 days and prayed that during the ceremony that clouds would cover up the sun and that God’s glory would be seen and worshipped instead of a sun-god that doesn’t exist, but is kept alive through spirit worshippers. She said that at the ceremony that year it was a clear day, not a cloud anywhere and once the ceremony began, clouds came and blocked out the sun. There was a terrible harvest that year, but God made his presence known that year.”

She asked how the spiritual climate was over Cusco at the present time and we said that in general, people are open when you ask to pray for them (in our experience) and we know the curses spoken over our city, but we hope in God’s grace and transformation of hearts. We want to continue to be rooted in prayer. (If God can do it in Cali, Colombia, he can certainly do it in Cusco and in so many other cities). Her last suggestion was to “serve. When things get crazy and there’s a lot of fighting even between ministries or whatever; serve. When you serve, you love.” Thanks God. Thanks Peggy.

The Cono Norte Conference took place at the YWAM/JUCUM base in Leticia, Colombia from December 8-12th. Bases came from Colombia, Venezuela and Peru (Ecuador was absent this time). Craig Hill was the keynote speaker, focusing on covenant relationship we have with Father God that carries over into our marriages or relationships with other people, our kids and families and our finances. How do we bless our families? What does that look like? How can changing our mind-set of how we bless our families change a nation?

The first night we had a time of inner-healing prayer (called “Sendas Antiguas” or “Ancient Paths”). We worshiped, prayed and heard reports of all of the bases in attendance and heard about their ministry opportunities and needs. For the record, a lot of bases in all of these countries need volunteers to help with children’s ministries, maintenance work and staffing YWAM schools (if you’re interested). It was very encouraging to meet new friends with ministries and leaders and to practice our Spanish. We felt lost trying to comprehend the meeting announcements, but we noticed that we are faster at responding with answers to questions. Some points that stuck out for us (and these don’t just apply to marriage, but any relationship):

⇒As (future) parents, we shouldn’t rule over our (future) kids with control, but with the holy authority given by God. Depending on age appropriateness determined by the parents we should offer our kids choices and a consequence (good or bad) follows that choice. Ex. “eat peas and watch TV”, or “don’t eat peas and don’t watch TV”
⇒ Ways to bless your family: 1) meet once a week for a meal with real conversation, 2) forgive them 3) affirm them with words, 4) pray with your kids and bless them at least once a week (raises their identity and value), 5) pray with your spouse every night, 6) invite other friends and family to see how you’re doing it
⇒When you pray with your spouse every night, you can keep it simple: 1) forgiving each other, 2) sharing what you’re thankful for, 3) blessing and affirming one another (ex. Numbers 6). Pray together for the next 30 days. After that it becomes habit.
⇒Every person is looking for value. Even asking “how are you?” can be a blessing to that one person because they know that they are being cared about.
⇒ Deuteronomy 5 – honor your parents. If you bless them, call them, love them (even if it’s hard), you will heal wounds. And form relationship.
⇒Keep covenant with your marriage. It was never a contract. (Heb. 13:5) (Rom. 5:8) (Mark 10:1-12). (Craig wasn’t bashing divorced people in the room, but he was saying that from this point on, look at every relationship in covenant as unconditional, irrevocable and unilateral).
⇒ We are seeing that when divorce and remarriage happens in one generation, adultery, abuse, abortion and abandonment follow in the next generation. People believe the lies that 1) God cannot redeem a broken marriage and that He cannot restore and 2) creates a cycle of performance basis to earn love (ex. THIS IS A LIE. “My dad left my mom so how do I know that God will not one day leave me too?).
⇒ Keep covenant with God: if God says, “All that I have is yours!” (Deut. 9), then find out what He has. If you don’t know what you can ask for, you won’t ask. God is a promise-maker and a promise-keeper. Read David vs. Goliath. David is successful because he knows what it is to be in relationship with the Father, he knows the provisions of that covenant (if God tells you that you will one day be King, hold fast to that word) and has the confidence to force that covenant into action (all he really had to do was show up, but he chose to fight the giant)
⇒ Keep covenant with your finances: (Matthew 6:24) “give to God what is holy”. Yes, tithing is good. Do it. (Lev. 25 – The Year of Jubilee) God set it up to have a debt purge every 50 years…Craig made a point of how we see this “involuntary debt purge” in the world’s economies every 70-80 years. It’s called a depression. The last “Jubilee” was in 1930s. (Prov. 13:22) talks about the wealth transfer. (Psalm 37:21) God gives to the generous and those who show mercy. (Matt. 5:5) (Proverbs 22:6). Do what these words say. Be generous, meek (Meek: not weakness but a fruit of power; when a person has power/resources, but when prompted by the Holy Spirit will use less than 100% in action), set up investments, give to offerings (ex. Spread your money out, don’t hoard it all in one place). Eliminate your debt. Ask God what to do with the money you have. Steward it well.
⇒ God loves to multiply! But he can’t multiply nothing, as in 0. He turned a little boy’s lunch into a feast for 5,000. He turned one jar of oil into many. You have to give, even if it’s only a little bit (the widow’s 2 cents) and God can do miracles with it.

At least 10-15 people came up to us and told us that back when YWAM Cusco existed in the 1980s-1990s (it puttered out after 10 years) that they had pioneered work in Cusco, or done a DTS there. Now they were in YWAM for 20-30 years later still doing work in South America and around the world on outreaches! People seemed very excited and interested in Cusco having a YWAM presence again. We are honored to have listened to their stories about what the base and Cusco was like in the past and to continue their momentum in praying and worshipping over the city. Read “Peggy’s Story” to hear one story we heard about YWAM Cusco’s past.

The traveling to and from the Cono Norte Conference was by far the craziest adventure we have ever had in our lives to date. Therefore, I’ll talk about what happened and write a separate post with conference notes and cool stories.  For now, here is our traveling story:

We left Friday morning on a flight to Lima (which we were bumped up to an earlier flight….thanks Lord!). All goes well on the flight to Lima which was celebrated with some Dunkin’ Doughnuts Boston Cremes.  Then, when we tried to get our tickets at the counter for the flight to Iquitos the different airline had declined our credit card with our round-trip tickets. They failed to mention that a week ago when we bought them. However, the problem was that our bank had accepted the charges and wouldn’t issue a refund until they could contact the airline (which they still can’t).  Still waiting to hear something about a refund. We had to buy new one-way tickets with very little money we had left. All 8 ATMs in the airport would not function past $100.  We flew to Iquitos that night. A shout-out goes to Rob, Becky, Sandi, Joe and Addie at the Iquitos base for such wonderful hospitality and understanding of our situation.  Also, a huge thank you to our friends and family who spotted us some cash to purchase food, the hotel at the conference and return tickets. We couldn’t have done it without your generosity. THANK YOU.

We determined that Iquitos, which is an island at the base of the Amazon River reminds us of a lot like Thailand.  We woke up at 4:30am to catch the 5:00am (which didn’t take off until 6am) boat for the 10-hour trek up the Amazon. It takes 10 hours going 60mph. It takes 3 days by a boat with one motor.  Every hour or so we would pass villages with houses made from thatched palm fronds and dug out canoes.  We saw a rainbow. Finally around sunset we reached the 3 Frontiers; the checkpoint where Peru, Colombia and Brazil meet on the river.  After checking out of Peru at Santa Rosa, a town that resembled a very dodgy Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville, we crossed the river by motor-boat to Leticia.  Leticia is beautiful. Picture a Folly Beach-sized town where you can walk around 6 blocks of houses with color schemes from the Bahamas, but on the edge of the Amazon River.  Our hotel had the biggest cockroaches I’ve ever seen in my life.  It also tends to rain a lot in the rainforest.  You can walk 4 blocks down from the YWAM Leticia base and find yourself at the open border of Brazil. In 4 blocks the signs change from Spanish to Portuguese, you realize that Leticia is much cleaner and well-planned city, than it’s neighbor, Tabitanga (Brazil). Both cities boasted colorful music and culture.  A huge shout-out goes to Beth and Clark Barnard who helped us get through check-points, hail a motorboat taxi, find the immigration hut and in general treat us around Leticia. You guys are such amazing adopted parents.

 

Fast-forward through an awesome conference. On the way from Leticia, we spend the night in Santa-Rosa in a sauna of a hostel.  Then the next morning at 2:30am we went down to the docks to leave for our 10-hour return trip.  The boat left the port at 4:30am. At 7:45am one of our motors stops functioning. Fortunately, we are near a small town where we hang out for 4 hours (because it takes a smaller boat much longer to get us the part fixed). We get back on in time for lunch. Around 3pm the same motor goes out. We get stuck on the side of the Amazon while the crew argues to keep going or wait. We keep moving, but the boat has an uneven keel and we are moving at 20mph.  I asked God for a porpoise or some natural beauty (like the rainbow earlier) to know that he would provide help for our boat.  Around sunset, David saw a fin. As night fell at 6pm it gets increasingly dangerous to be on the river. We’re hitting logs and it seems that every 100ft we go, we stop; plus the boat is leaning to the left.  We loose contact with the “rescue boat” coming to deliver the part.  It rains. It was the Lord’s goodness that people were for the most part, calm.  After a lot of praying, the rescue boat comes at 11:30pm. We all leave our stuff aboard the broken boat. We managed to get to Iquitos at 3:00am. Around the same time, the broken boat (we find out later) got stranded on a sandbar and had to get help in the morning.  Our bags arrived with the boat at 11am the next morning.  People lost all composure.  We are thankful that Cusco doesn’t have boats.  It was a blessing that the crew tried their best to be so helpful and communicate what was happening and they opened the packages that were going to Iquitos so that we could have dinner of a pack of crackers, a CapriSun and a lollipop.

Later, the taxi to the Iquitos airport ran out of gas. We got to Lima without problems (praise you, Daddy!).  We slept so well at the missionary guesthouse, thanks Rosa! We felt so well taken care of. Then our flight to Cusco had “technical difficulty” and was delayed 2 hours. However, we are safely home in Cusco.  We don’t mean to complain so much. We just want to be detailed at how sometimes even missionaries get in stressful situations. It’s not always “fun.” What a crazy adventure we have been on!  I’m sure there’s a lesson in here somewhere, but we are so thankful to God that he provided calmness on the river, friends to help us when we were frustrated and an abundance of patience and grace at the airports. We’re thankful in the ways that he provided financially for this trip. In the end we did receive 6 months until our next border run, as well as an awesome story for our future kids.  “When I was your age…we had to trek, uphill both ways…up the Amazon…in the snow…on a boat.”