The Georges in Peru

Today was high school graduation at our kids' school.  Ben's class is divided in 4 sections and he won first place for the highest grades for his section, so I am very proud of him!

Our church is building rooms for Sunday School classes and the first of the truckloads of building material arrived yesterday.  Our church property is below street level, so we had to move the rocks from the street where they were dumped into the church.  We built a chute to roll the rocks down into the church property and started dumping rocks into it.  Evidently, chutes are just as attractive as wet cement and puppies for children and soon several neighborhood kids were helping us and the job was done especially quickly.  The pastor paid them with candy bars!  Pray that they come to church in the future!

Two truckloads of rocks on the street

all done!

Our church is located near the city square of Tiabaya, a semirural community.  On some Sunday nights we have to compete with the noise of election campaigns or fiestas put on by the municipality.  Last night there was a party in the lot next to the church with lots of bright lights and lots of people out on the sidewalk.  Thankfully, they weren't particularly loud.  Ben had to turn up the volume of our music a little bit to keep the song leader from getting out of sync with the music and we could hear our special guest from Chile without much difficulty.  During the sermon the noise suddenly crescendoed and one could hear a lot of excited people.  I turned to Paul and said, "They're having a cock fight!"  After church, the boys and I walked over and looked in and saw a well-lit cock-fighting ring and men walking around carrying either a rooster or a beer (sorry the picture doesn't show much).  I went back and excitely reported to the pastor my freshly-hatched plan for an evangelistic event:  A cock fight!  He correctly assumed that I was joking, though it does make me wonder what kind of event we could put on to attract people in the neighborhood to come through the doors of the church.  

For the chicken lovers out there, Paul stayed and watch a fight and reported that it wasn't the type where they attach razor-blades to the spurs of the roosters and they kill each other, but rather the roosters crashed into each other until the loser cowered on the edge and his owner plucked him from the ring. 

Pray that our church can get these neighbors to attend our church services and make decisions to follow Jesus.

This morning, Mia, Paul and I went to Yura, a village about 30 km from our house to "Trek to the Volcano", an event sponsored by the village.  We met the rest of the hikers at 8:30 and got on the stock truck to head out to the trailhead.  Someone with a farm background and really good skills at imitating cows and other barnyard animals weighed the risks of insulting the local culture's method of transporting humans and soon had the truck 'moo'ing and 'baa'ing.  After the hike, the truck was deemed unsafe for transport (we had smelled burning brakes on the way to the trailhead) and were told another truck would be sent out in half an hour.  After a 3-hour hike, one has a bond with his fellow hikers, so we were having a good time joking and letting the tourism students practice their English with me.  One student asked me what I did, and when I told him I was an evangelical medical missionary he asked me, "What is the difference between Catholics and Evangelicals?"  My kids probably saw me smile as I looked at my captive audience in the back of the truck. "We have a lot of similarities, but I saw a big difference recently, when a teacher at the kids' school died and someone asked the priest, 'Will he go to heaven?'  'I don't know.  But, he did everything he was supposed to do.' But evangelicals believe it wasn't what we do but what Jesus did for us by dying on the cross. We can't earn heaven.  We just have to recognize we are sinners, repent and accept Jesus' dying on the cross for our sins and we are saved.  We don't have to wonder if we've done enough because WE don't do anything."  Everyone listened intently but one of the students changed the subject before I could make an altar call in the back of the truck. (Okay, I wouldn't have done that, but I would have invited anyone that wanted to, to talk with me more!)

The 'herd' loaded up and ready to go.

El Volcán Colorado

I must admit that I don't keep the house as clean as it used to be while Amy was alive.  Part of the reason is that it's just hard to get it all done sometimes.  Another reason is that we had a woman come and clean twice a week before, but since I don't want to be alone in the house with a woman, I've nixed that plan.  At the moment we are putting in ceramic tiles in my bedroom and the office and it has made the house especially dusty and cluttered by things that had to be moved out of the way to put down the floor.

This morning I went swimming and got stuck in traffic coming home (I would have gotten home much quicker walking the whole way).  A patient had arrived 40 minutes early for her appointment and was waiting at the door when I got home so I let her in without a chance to tidy up a bit for the day's events.  I mentioned a while back that many patients bring food as a token of their appreciation for the free medical care.  Today, after looking around, she offered to come and clean the house!  I told her thanks, but my kids are old enough to help clean now.  I'm sure they won't like that I rejected her offer!

New tiles going in.  The blue post-it® notes mark freshly laid tiles that can't be stepped on yet.