Peru 2018 - Visit to Compassion Site and Sponsor children.

After the group left, Joycegina and Katrina and I were transported to a hostel for the next couple of days. 

Erin and Pepe's place is getting smaller these days. : ) 

Was your basic hostel.  

Three beds and a bathroom. 

The windows weren't that well designed for ventilation.  

AND I didn't realize there may have been air conditioning in the room until a day and a half later.  : (  

But we managed.  

The interior was old and very nice.  

Lounge areas.  

Front entrance.  

Only a couple of blocks from Pepe and Erin's.  

Cute store display. 

We spent time with Pepe and Erin and the kids on Tuesday morning and then went out for lunch with Pastor Sergio and family just to relax and share life together. 

In the evening we went out for dinner and had the most wonderful steak once again.  

After a week of Learning and Growing, the steak was just amazing.  And yes, I pretty much finished them all off.  

Katrina was still having stomach issues so we ordered her some soup.   A meal in itself.  

Bed time and soon we were awake and ready to visit with Keysi and Fernando, whom we sponsor through Compassion Canada. 
Our taxi driver, whom we have had for years now, and our ride.  Glad we had air conditioning.  : ) 

Our Interpretor.
She has been interpreting for Compassion for 25 years.  
And yes, I forget her name.  

On our way.  

Haven't seen a LADA in a looonngggg time. 
This one was is very well preserved.  

Architecture.  

Getting closer.  

I'm still amazed at where people build and live in Peru.  

A new tunnel that cuts through the mountain and saves time to get to the community we need to get to. 

We arrived in about 1 hour and 15 minutes. 
They were waiting for us.  : )  

Greetings.  Always nice to see them again.  

Cute.  

Keysi and Fernando made this wonderful poster for us. 
We took it home....after we returned to get it because we forgot it as we left for lunch.  

A nice pic of us together with their mom and their little sister.   

Yes, I video taped our opening conversations.  

This site cares for 150 ish children.  
They have just built a new soccer and volleyball court. 

Keysi is looking forward to playing on it over Easter. 

We met the cooks again. 
Food made with loving hands for the children.  

Rice. 

And a stew of sorts with corn and beans and squash.  

The meat is yet to go in. 

Watermelon.
Good in any culture.  :) 

The drink today is pineapple juice.  

And salads too. 
They eat healthy here as they do in each compassion site.  

Where did everyone go.  : ) 

After visiting the site we went out for lunch. 
She's such a cutie.  : ) 

Our favourite place.  :)  

She just didn't want to smile for me.  

Keysi did. 
She is 18 years old now. 
We have sponsored her (and Fernando) for many years now. 
Keysi is finishing up her nursing studies soon and we are very proud of her.  
We can apparently sponsor her until she is 22 years old now. 
Have to look into what that means, but if it continues to help her achieve her life goals, it's well worth it.  

We gave some gifts to the family again. 

School supplies are always appreciated.  

Fernando playing with his sister.  

A fun picture. 

Once we took this one, Fernando realized he was on the wrong side.  :) 

So we had to take it again.  

These two have grown so much over the years.  

It has been wonderful to watch Keysi grow up in front of our eyes, literally every two years. 
We are well aware that it's very rare for sponsors to see their sponsor children so many times, and I get the sense that Keysi is very aware of that too. 
They only found out 3 days before we visited that we were coming, but they were very excited. 
Without our sponsorship I'm not sure if Keysi would have been able to fulfill her dream of being a nurse. 
Before we parted ways she expressed her sincere thanks for our support of her and, indirectly, her family.  
Her mom also thanked us sincerely for our support of her children.  I could tell it meant a great deal to her.  

Fernando continues to be a quiet boy. 
Few words, but wise words when spoken. 
He wants to be a photographer one day, and if that doesn't work out, maybe a chef.  
He has become a bit more talkative and he is growing up to be a wonderful man.  

Time is short on these visits. 

Before we knew it it was time to go. 

It's been a great gift to be able to visit with them once again. Great that Katrina could see them again too. 

Like in Gamaliel church, 

we are not just sponsors, 

we are family.  Our visits have forged a relationship. 

I realize that our decision to sponsor a child(ren) in Peru was a good decision.  Our 5 visits have helped bolster and give hope to this family. Keysi remembers every visit she says.  And her recall is amazing (as any nurses would be).  I'm glad we can give her memory gifts and we look forward to continued sponsorship and letters back and forth and seeing what the Lord does in their lives.  

Thanks Compassion for the opportunity to come and visit our children, though they aren't really children any more.  : ) 

Before we left, we took time to pray for the family. 

A touching time.  

And so ends blogging of our Peru experience. 

Lots of memories. 

Lots to process. 

Lots to be thankful for. 

Peru 2018 - Day 9: Final Peru pics and videos and thoughts

Greetings those of you who wish to read the the final blog entry about our Peru 2018 experience. 

It's been a couple of days since our return (Joycegina, Katrina, and I) and I'm starting to feel somewhat normal again.  : ) 

Strange travel times make for longer recovery. 

I thought I'd end our Peru time with some pics that may not have made it on the blog because there were on my cell phone.  

Monday was supposed to be our travel day, but due to a computer glitch world wide, we were delayed a day. 

Cornwall benefited in that I was able to get them hotel rooms for the night and food. 

They seem to be enjoying themselves.

We decided to go out for dinner too (well Chris, Joycegina and I were the only ones who wanted to go), and since we had some gifts cards unspent we treated ourselves too.  :) 

Next day it was very early to the airport and a flight to Montreal to wait out the day for our 6 pm flight to Peru. 

Breakfast at Tim's first and then a quite relaxing day, which I think served us well.
  

These three originally were at the back of the plane. BUT, the flight attendants needed those seats so they got bumped to just before 1st Class.  

WAY more leg room.  : (  But they seem VERY happy.  

Sleeping on the plane and NOT gonna loose my glasses either. : ) 

Arrived and settled into Santa Ana at 3 am.  

Room to myself so I can snore to my hearts content.  :) 

We started into things right away on Wednesday, which meant construction work again.  

We painted this wall once again (there's a story about painting.  Apparently in Peru no one paints homes or buildings themselves for fear of doing a bad job, so they hire out people for it.  

When Peruvians see Gringo's painting they stop and watch  - which they did for us - and ask why these poor Gringo's are painting.  Offers up a great conversation starter for the church that we are serving and helping.)  
So, it was well worth the painting effort knowing what we now know. 
   

Brenda sanding away. 

Now,   
I STARTED to sand, I REALLY did, but it didn't last long because I was called away by Gigi.  

Of course, Ella and Andrew and Brenda found that VERY convenient.  : )  

Here's my proof of our conversation, well mostly.  I'm actually holding the phone.  : ) 

Was a good talk about plans for the week and how things are going in the church.  

Better proof.  :)  

Brenda found this class playing, so she took a break from work and played too.  

Whoot.  

At the end of the week, we spent some time with Pastor Sergio and Falicitas and Genesis over lunch. 

 Was a great time of fellowship. 

I still take bad selfies.   

We also visited our Compassion children. 

More on that in another post.   

And our flights left at the same awful hour as the rest of the team, but the plus side is that at 2 a.m. traffic is pretty light in Peru.  :)  Andrea also stayed back to visit with her sister for a couple of days.  She was waiting for us as we arrived, checked in and ready to go. : )   

Katrina monopolized my phone and took lots of pictures while we flew. 

A pretty clear day for flying.  

No idea where we are, but it was pretty.  : )  

Coming close to Toronto. 

We landed, went through customs, picked up baggage (that someone had taken off the baggage claim carousel),  resubmitted our bags, cut through security thanks to a kind lady so we wouldn't miss our connection and arrived at our gate with 15 minutes to spare.  Pretty much boarded the plane when we got to the gate. 

And then we took off for Ottawa.    

Katrina again stole my iphone for lots of pics.  : )  

Landing in Ottawa.  

Home at last.  : ) 

What, no greeting committee?  : (  

A member of our church made this wooden set for Pastor Sergio and his church. 

Pastor Sergio really appreciated the gift.  

Below are some video segments of our trip. 

I hope you enjoy them and I hope you have enjoyed reading through the blog over the past days. 
We trust that all this effort gives you a better taste of the unique relationship that has grown over these past 12 years.  

It's been worth all the work, effort, struggle, mistakes (a.k.a. Learnings), and growth.  

We have returned home, yet for probably all of us, our hearts are still in Peru, with our Peruvian brothers and sisters.  
With our Peruvian Family.  
We are not sure when we will see them again, but we are sure that this relationship is not over or ended.  That was confirmed in many ways during our time visit with our family.  

It may take other forms, and now we discern what those forms will be and what God has in store in the next chapter of this relationship. 

Maybe one day you too will be able to meet these wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ.  

Peru Video's

This video is of us coming to Gamaliel church on Wednesday morning, the first day.  A wonderful reception, as it always is.  : ) 

To get the attention of the marketplace customers our group and the church group did a bit of a dance.  Was neat. : )

Drama at the Marketplace.  

Same as two years ago, but a joint effort this time with Peru and Canada.

During our youth/YA time we shared testimonies together. 

Here's one from one of our Peruvian friends. 

I love how Gamaliel has become his family. 

Very important in this culture. 

Here's a short testimony from one of the Cong members of Gamaliel church. 

A bit of humour, a bit of serious and a lot of sincerity. 

I wasn't able to be there for all the testimonies, and I think I missed some good advice and some fun games.  :) 

After our time with the couples and our time with the youth group we had a church service. 

It was a a wonderful time. 
For many of us it was the best part of the week. 
The culmination of a week of continued relationship building.    
We shared songs, message, games and a meal together.

We also played a fun game together. 
The idea was that there were numbers on the walls of the church.  1 - 6. 
Music played and people moved about and when the music stopped they needed to pic a number and stand there. 
MY JOB was to not look, and choose a number between 1 - 6 and whatever number was called, that group of people were out.  
This clip shows me dancing (you could tell I was having fun: ) ) AND forgetting how to say the number 6 in Spanish.  : ) 

Just before we left for the evening,  the YA group of the church did a nice dance for us.  
They are very talented and seem to enjoy this.  
Makes me wish we could enjoy this a bit more back home too.  : ) Enjoy only a small portion of what they actually did.  

  At the end of the night (which came way to fast BTW) we sang the song we have sung at the end of every time together. 

"My Friends May You Grow In Grace".  

This time, however, we formed one large unified, "sort of circle".  

I say sort of because the church has grown since we have been there and there wasn't enough room to make a full circle. We were outnumbered 2 to 1 at least and that was wonderful to see. 

Enjoy the mixing of culture and language. 

Monday was tourist day. 

We spent a bit of time just drinking in the ocean. 

Here's a short video of the sound of that powerful ocean. 

The one where Andrea lost her flip flop.  : ) 

The pebbles actually cut her and gave her some bruising.  

Very powerful surf, and a cool sound. 

And so ends the blogging of Peru 2018. 
Check out the final blog of our visit with our Compassion children if you wish.  
Blessings to you all.