The Georges in Peru

Today was the first day of school for this school year for everyone but Allen.  Even Amy went since she just started teaching English at the Christian school at the church we attended before.  Most of the kids don't know any English at all.  Besides English, she has the opportunity to teach about life, the Christian walk, and geopolitical current events.  One question they asked was, "Are there any other countries that speak English besides the US and InternetLand?" (okay I'm paraphrasing a bit)  One student told Mia that she likes how Amy teaches.  She doesn't just write things on the board to copy, but she makes them talk and even sing, which they thought was hilarious.  

I did take a picture of Amy's first day of school, but her eyes were closed, so I've included one from a her first first day of school.

It is I think every Christian parent's dream to see their children not just walking in the Lord but serving Him as well.  Sarah has very eagerly taken on the role of children's Sunday School teacher in our tiny new church.  She prepares the lessons and prepares games and crafts by herself.  The kids love her and her flannel graph stories.  When we arrived at church tonight there were 5 kids sitting outside of a house across the street.  The pastor and I talked to them and invited them to come to see the flannel graph stories.  They came!  They had such a fun time with the stories and games that one of the boys asked as it was over, "What time is club tomorrow?"  "Sorry, you'll have to come back next Sunday!"

February is birthday month for all of the women in our household.  Yesterday was Mia's birthday.  After getting her ears pierced (the family rule is one has to wait until she is 12-years-old) in the morning, we had a discussion about whether Ben could get something pierced too, since he's over 14.  He was given permission to rebel by growing his hair long again.  Tattoos are right out.

In the afternoon, Mia went with Sarah and 5 other MKs to the mall to be 'mall rats'.  They went to the pet store and argued animatedly about what was the best way to cook dogs to the horrified stares of others.  We grabbed a bite at Chili's and then went home to watch GroundHog Day and ate birthday brownies and ice cream.  

A short-term team from Virginia planting trees at SIM Peru's camp

Here in Peru, SIM has a children's camp, where each summer, hundreds of kids study the Bible, ride horses, swim, shoot bows and arrows, etc. Many lives are changed for eternity. Last week, a team from Virginia came to help run a camp for the local children and help with camp maintenance, such as planting trees, as you can see in the pictures. As I drove them back to Arequipa at the end of their time here, I asked them, "What was your favorite part?" The teenagers quickly sang the praises of lunch and supper, while one of the [ahem] more mature team members said, "I was so impressed that over and over we were told that we were building this for the local Peruvian church to take over some day. So many times, foreigners can start projects that become their own like fiefdoms, but this is from the start designed to be run by the Peruvians."

We are making big steps toward this goal. On Monday night, the board of directors of the camp just invited 3 more Peruvians to join to help lead the camp as we foreigners try to 'work ourselves out of a job'. Pray that we find good Peruvian leaders to help lead the camp years after we are gone!

Serving with you.

A recently-planted palm tree