Trip to Chinchil 2015

Please, not my Jello!

I would assume that establishing the relationship with your future in-laws is typically tricky business.    

             What should you call them?
             How do you act in their house?
             Does that change after the wedding?

I would also assume that throwing in the norms of another culture does NOT make it any easier.

            What does their culture say the daughter-in-law should call them?
            In their culture, do grandparents help raise the kids?
            Will they judge me if I don't always prepare for their son the typical cultural food?

Peru has been my new home for the past two months. I've gone to Roman's house countless times since I've been here. His mom has already given me a key to their house and is constantly telling me to come over any time and walk right in! I feel like our relationship as future mother/daughter-in-law was moving right along...until the jello incident.

We were sitting at the dinner table: Román, his mom and dad, his sister Amelia, and me. Román's dad was asking me about the US presidential candidates (of which I know very little) when suddenly Hermana Carmen (Román's mom) interrupts. "Hermana," she addresses me, "Quiero pedirte perdon." --Sister (the typical term used when talking to another Christ follower), I want to ask your forgiveness. --

I'm sure a peculiar look of surprise combined with nervousness came across my face as I sneaked a glance at Román who looked utterly confused. What could she possibly need to ask my forgiveness for?! She confessed, "I ate your jello that you had left in the fridge last night!" An enormous silence filled the room for two seconds before it boomed with laughter. Román, Amelia, and their father were in stitches. I, on the other hand, was trying to control myself due to her serious countenance as she spoke. I tried...but to no avail. I couldn't help it! She seemed so sincere in her apology. I never expected it to be about Jello :) I quickly tried to explain through my giggles that I would not get upset over her eating my jello and that she should feel free to do so at any moment.

I still don't have all the answers to how relationships typically play out between in-laws. I do, however, know that it's ok to eat the jello.


         

The Return

The Return

I have officially been back in Peru for three weeks. It has been a whirlwind of activity getting ready to teach for the first time, finding my place in the church, and realizing my financial support has hit a roadblock.

School

            I arrived two weeks before we were scheduled to begin teacher in-service days. I have never taught before, so I wanted to get settled in my new apartment (located on the school property) and get ready for the students without feeling rushed and overwhelmed.  We ended up starting school two days later than anticipated because of a problem with passports/visas for two of the elementary school teachers. Neither the students nor the faculty minded the two extra days of rest and prep! We had our first day of classes on Friday the 14th. It turned out to be a mellow day getting to know the students and letting them get to know me as a new teacher. I warned them though…Monday we were going to hit the ground running!

One of my Bulletin Boards: Philippians 4:8

            I have loved getting to know my fellow teachers! There are five of us: five young ladies between the ages of 22-29. 

First Day of School
From left to right: Melly Smith (HS English and Office Staff), Amy Brundage (HS Math),  Lura Martinez (5th Grade, JR High Science and History, HS Government), Suzana Clifton (3rd and 4th Grade), Rachel Clifton (1st and 2nd Grade)

We decided to go on an impromptu teacher outing on Saturday to ride horses along the river east of the city. It turned out to be a beautiful “winter” day and we had a great time building relationships. I am the only new teacher this semester, but the other four ladies are always willing to give advice or answer questions about school procedures. I have a feeling we are going to be a close-knit bunch by the end of the semester. 

Fetzer teachers and friends

Church

            During the past few weeks, I have enjoyed attending Good News Baptist Church, which is located about a mile east of my apartment. During my year as an ARRIBA student, I attended a different church but was able to get to know many of the young people from Good News Baptist Church through my host family.  I have enjoyed meeting some of the other church members and will continue to do so throughout the next few months. Immediately upon arrival, the Sunday School Coordinator asked me to teach one of the Sunday School classes. As a first time school teacher, I did not want to become too quickly overwhelmed by giving myself too many responsibilities. (Teaching Sunday School in Spanish requires twice as much prep time for this English speaker). However, we decided that being in charge of the nursery would be a good compromise. My first Sunday I didn’t have any babies in the nursery, so I was able to sit in on Roman’s (my fiancé) class with the adults. I hope to be able to sit in on a few more of his classes throughout the next few months. The following Sunday I had my first baby, Vania. As a a happy seven month old, she was a joy to take care of. I’ve also been thrown into the pianist role. One of the young men named Josué asked me to accompany him for a special song. I am sure this will soon lead to playing for congregational hymns as well!

Funding

            I feel like I’ve transitioned fairly well over the past few weeks: culture, climate, food, transportation, etc. It all came back to me like riding a bike. The only major roadblock I have hit so far is in regards to my financial support. I naively thought that I could be supported as an independent missionary through my local church. I was wrong. I was informed the day before I left Colorado that the church could  not legally hand me a check. I quickly…maybe a little frantically…called the directors of the missionary school seeking advice. They told me to have the church make the check out to Fetzer Memorial Christian Academy. Once the check hit the school’s account, they would retrieve the money and transfer it to me. That’s not legal either. They did, however, inform me that I could simply reactivate my previous Short-Term application from my year as an ARRIBA student in 2012-2013. Why did I not think to do this from the beginning? I thought, “Melly, you’re only going to be teaching for one semester, not even a full school year. Don’t be a burden to the mission board. Just go by yourself!” WRONG-O. No can do. By trying to go on my own, I have made a mess for the missions committee at my church, the mission board, and the directors of the school. Nice going, Melly. By the grace of God, it is an easy fix. An email came in for me this morning asking me to sign an electronic release of liability. That is the only paperwork I have to do. Within two days, I should be reactivated as a Short-Term missionary through Baptist Mid-Mission. 

           What a timeless lesson for me to learn. Second Corinthians 12:9-11 says, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.  For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Although I have endured neither insults, persecutions, nor calamities, I have been relying on my own strength…which is completely unreliable. But in my weakness I see the power of God.  How many more times will I rely on my own strength before I realize I have nothing of the sort? Father, humble me of my pride. Show me my weaknesses so that I may clearly see Your power and might. Continue to teach me to rely on You and You alone.

An overview...How has God guided in the past two years?

Initial Interest in Missions

I believe God has called me and opened doors for me to be a missionary in Peru. When I was young, my pastor had a specific vision for our church concerning missions. He prayed for one family from our congregation to rise from our church each year in order to give their lives to full time missions. Though my family was not one of those families, I grew up knowing that missions was an important aspect of following Christ. Thus, my family encouraged me to go on mission trips. I’ve been to Mexico four times, Haiti, Peru, and many trips within the country. I have always enjoyed participating in Mission trips, but it wasn’t until I came to Clearwater that I realized that God had given me a passion for Missions for a reason. He wanted me to invest my life into a people group outside of the United States.

God’s leading through Academic Majors

            I started my college career majoring in Elementary Education. My mom has been a teacher since before I was born. My grandma was a teacher for many decades before that. I thought teaching was in my blood. I sat through three semesters of Education classes.  The classes were fine. They didn’t bore me to tears, but I wasn’t exactly on the edge of my seat ready to race into a room of second graders. During Christmas break of my sophomore year, I started talking to my parents about switching my major to Church Ministries. At this point I was starting to realize my fascination with missions. I knew I could use teaching on the mission field, but I wanted to broaden my focus. I wanted to learn how to effectively minister to people in areas other than teaching. I looked at the check sheet for Church Ministries and saw that I could take classes in Christian counseling, camp ministries, music ministries etc. Those options simply weren’t available in the course of my very full Education degree. I vividly remember sitting at the kitchen table with my parents a few days before Christmas. After explaining what I wanted to do and why, my dad gave me a pitiful face and explained to me that he didn’t see how a young lady could support herself with a Church Ministries degree. In our church and many similar to ours, the majority of the ladies involved with the ministry are volunteers. However, I could not be dissuaded. They told me to pray about it, and they trusted me to follow God’s leading. So I came back to school under the Church Ministries Major.

An incredible Opportunity

Dr. Abel was my new advisor. We looked at the classes I had already taken and those I would have to take in order to graduate. We realized that all of my elective credits had already been filled with education classes. However, it wouldn’t be a problem. I would still be able to graduate without any difficulty. A few weeks later, I met a couple named Pastor Jim and Becky Carlton. They are missionaries in Peru and also happen to be the in-laws of my roommate from freshman year. They were finishing a year of furlough and were supposed to go visit their families before heading back to Peru. However, God changed their path and brought them to CCC instead. They came to present the ARRIBA ministry opportunity to the students. However, I had no real intention of talking with them about their ministry. I just thought I’d go talk to them about my former roommate and see how she was doing. That conversation didn’t last very long and soon they were telling me about an incredible opportunity. As directors of the ARRIBA program through Baptist Mid-Missions, their job on the mission field is to bring college students (like me) to Peru for one year and give them a first hand look at what missions is all about. Unlike the short-term trips that I had been on before, this trip teaches students the utter difficulties as well as the overwhelming victories that missionaries face each year on the field. Not only do the students see missions up close and personal, they also get a years worth of college credit for it! The Carlton’s told me that students usually take the trip during their junior year. However, since it was already the second semester of my sophomore year, they advised me to go for my senior year. I wasn’t a fan of that idea. Senior year away from my friends? No thanks. I told them I wanted to take the trip during my Junior year anyway. They said they would do the best that they could, but I only had three and a half months to get everything organized.

The organizational Process in Fast Forward

First I had to break the news to my parents that I would be leaving for a year. I think they only said yes because they didn’t think I’d actually be able to pull everything off in fourteen weeks. My next step was to convince CCC to let me go. They had never had a student participate in this program before. The division chairs had to meet three or four times before they decided that they would in fact accept the credits that I would be taking during the academic portion of the year. The next few steps happened in a blur. I had to be officially accepted into the program through Baptist Mid-Missions. I had to fill out applications and get shots and write papers and get references together. I also had to sit down with Dr. Abel again to see if my already full schedule would allow me to take the courses offered by the program and still graduate in May of 2014. Keep in mind that I had already changed my major once. Now I’m trying to add another program on top of that. It was definitely a stretch. Most kids who participate in this program plan ahead and set aside those classes to be taken in Peru. However, I had just found out about the program. I had already taken half of the courses during my freshman and sophomore years. However, Dr. Abel pulled some strings and manipulated my transcript to allow me to graduate with the rest of my class. By the time I had gotten the thumbs up from CCC and had gotten accepted by Baptist Mid-Missions, it was the first week of April. I was scheduled to leave at the end of May. Since one of the purposes of this trip is to give students real missionary experience, I had to raise support. I spent Spring Break sending out letters asking people to help me spend the year in Peru. Then I had to get what seemed like hundreds of shots since I would be living in a developing country and taking trips to the amazon jungle. By this time I was getting ready for final exams and packing up my dorm to head home. I drove thirty-six hours to Colorado, unpacked just to pack again, was commissioned by my church, and hit the ground running to Ohio for three days of orientation with seven perfect strangers. From there we started our eleven-month ministry in Peru. During those eleven months, I fell in love with the country: its people, the food, the missionaries, everything. I came back from that trip a changed person. I knew God was calling me to go back full-time.

The Call: A Personal Experience

Many people say they were “called” into ministry. I had never really figured out what that meant. I’m still not 100% sure how to define it. I’m sure it’s different for everyone. But I know that God has placed a passion in my heart for the people of Peru. He opened doors for me before I even knew they existed. First, he opened my eyes for the necessity of missions through my pastor and through short term trips. Then he led me to change my major when I didn’t even know exactly why. If I had still been studying to be an El Ed major, I never would have been able to fit the Peru classes into my schedule. God changed the Carlton’s path so that they could come to CCC and tell me about their program. He also provided the money for the trip in such a short period of time. He worked through Dr. Abel and the other division chairs to allow me to use the credits I’d be receiving through the trip. Even though I can’t define “God’s call,” I think this series of circumstances is God calling me to Peru. He put a passion in my heart, opened doors, and guided me right into the country of Peru. That’s not coincidence. He put me there on purpose. I believe he wants me there full-time. I am excited to once again be apart of the ministry that is still happening in Peru. 

Day 131: School, monkeys, and things that actually matter

The past few weeks have been full of exciting happenings! I finished my junior year of college, I was bitten by a monkey, and I’ve been able to start working in my internship.

For the last two weeks of classes, I took a bus every morning and afternoon in a town called Chaclacayo. It took me around an hour and a half for each leg of the trip. Pastor Gary Whipple from Baptist Mid-Missions has a church there. He has taught the Personal Evangelism class to the ARRIBA students for quite a few years and always offers it to his church members as well. In the mornings, he taught (in Spanish) how to effectively spread the Gospel to the Peruvian culture. Then in the afternoons, we would go to different parks or markets for two hours to practice what we were learning. At the beginning, I was so nervous to talk to these people in Spanish. I’m not the kind of person who goes and talks to strangers…even in my own language! God was definitely stretching me and taking me out of my comfort zone. By the end of the two weeks, I was feeling more comfortable not only going up to strangers, but also more comfortable with the gospel presentation in Spanish. After the Personal Evangelism final exam, I technically finished my junior year of college. However, I probably have to do three semesters at Clearwater (depending on how many of these credits they accept) in order to finish my degree.

Also this past week, I was able to play with a little baby monkey from the Jungle! What started out as the most exciting day of my cultural experience soon turned into my biggest headache. Let’s start at the beginning. My friend Daniel and I were going into a few different stores at the market sharing the gospel. We go into a certain “tienda” and start talking to this sweet university aged girl named Viviana. We tell her about the ARRIBA program and why we’re walking around the streets of Peru as silly North Americans. I just started telling her my testimony when we hear this noise behind us. We turn around and see this cute little monkey dressed in a sweater on a leash tied to the leg of the table. We practically squeal with delight, while trying not to look like too much of stupid American teenagers. She tells us his name is Martín, he’s only six months old, and he’s perfectly harmless. After she gives us the go ahead to play with him, we walk over and I crouch down beside him. He immediately jumped onto my arm and starting climbing up and down. He was licking me, giving me little kisses, and talking to me in his little monkey squeaks. Daniel tried to hold him and he just kept trying to come back to me. Viviana told us that Martín really didn’t like men that much. She was right. Every chance he got, Martín would look over at me and try to jump from Daniel’s arm to mine. We played with him for quite some time until we remember the reason that we were out and about in the first place. We left the little monkey alone for a while in order to talk to Viviana more about the Gospel. We were able to talk to her for a god hour or so. She would ask us questions here and there letting us know that she was actually thinking about what we were trying to say. After about an hour, Daniel and I finished up our conversation by inviting her to the local church where we were taking the classes. As we were walking out, I wanted to play with Martín one last time and say goodbye. That’s where all my problems started. Since we had been talking to Viviana for quite a while, the silly monkey had gotten a little hungry. He once again jumped up on my arm and was licking and kissing me again. However, being a little hungry, he decided to start nibbling on the back of my hand. It’s not like he opened his mouth and started chomping down on my arm! It didn’t even hurt. I knew it hadn’t broken the skin yet, but I was trying to put him down because I had to go anyway. But he just loved me so much that he didn’t want to let go! He kept nibbling on my hand as I was trying to put him back on the ground. I didn’t even notice that he had drawn blood until we were back at the church for our post-evangelism talk.  I showed Daniel and asked him if it was anything I needed to worry about. He said I should probably tell Miss Becky about it. I was very reluctant because it was barely a scratch, but finally sent her a little text message. She didn’t respond. I took my long bus ride home and enjoyed a nice dinner with the family. Still no response. I text her again to see if she had even received the first message. She calls me back and says “I thought you were joking!” hahah Yes, I’m the type who makes up a story about a monkey biting me just to get a little extra attention. J She told me she’d call the mission’s Doctor in the morning to see what we should do. In the mean time, they take me 3 hours downtown to the sketchiest part of Lima to start my rabies shots. A series of 5 shots that cost S/4. (Less than $2). I was a little skeptical about the validity of these shots, but I didn’t say anything because I wasn’t convinced that I needed them in the first place. Meanwhile, the doctor in the home office jumped to worst case scenario and wanted them to buy me a plane ticket to the states. Miss Becky and Pastor Jim tell her that we’d go to the American Hospital here in Lima first before we do anything too drastic. The next day, Miss Becky drives me 2 hours downtown to the American Hospital. The doctor at this hospital said I shouldn’t have a problem with rabies, but to keep getting the shots just in case. He was just more worried about the herpes that I might contract from the monkey. Who knew?! I certainly didn’t know that Monkeys carried the herpes virus. Sooo…he gave me the prescription to buy some herpes suppressant meds.  We go to the pharmacy and find out the medication will be almost $300! I guess that makes up for the $2 rabies shots! I was not in favor of paying that much for herpes medication when I didn’t even think I needed to go the doctor in the first place! So we call the doctor and ask if there’s a generic brand of herpes meds. He gives us a different name and we find out it’s less than half the price AND I didn’t have to take it as many days. Tough decision…by the time I finally buy the meds and get home it’s about 11:00pm. Longest two days of my life (and I still had to go get four more shots). But through the whole ordeal, I learned a really important lesson. Never fall for a monkey in a sweater.  P.S. It’s been a week and three days and I’m still alive without any symptoms of neither rabies nor herpes.

In all the excitement of finishing a year of college in the middle of September and being bitten by a monkey, you’d think I couldn’t take any more excitement right? Wrong! Over the past two weeks I’ve also gotten a head start in my internship. In November, we officially start our internships working under a missionary in the local church. However, I was able to do a few things a little early. I’ve been sitting and commenting in the Sunday School class for the youth group aged girls at church. I’ve gotten to know them pretty well and really enjoy being in their class on Sunday mornings. Vicky, the one who normally teaches the class, was planning on going on a trip to visit some family members. She asked me to teach the lesson for her while I was gone. I thought she was joking! She wasn’t. So that week in my Spanish tutoring time, I worked on preparing my first lesson in Spanish.  I spoke on the life of Joshua. We looked at the characteristics he brought as a leader of the children of Israel. We discussed the qualities of a leader and applied them to the qualities we should be looking for in our future husbands as they should be the ones leading the family. It was a very applicable lesson that I don’t think many of the girls have really heard before.

Also while Vicky was gone, she asked me to meet with a girl named Erika for a discipleship time. Erika is one of the girls that I’ve been praying about discipling. Vicky has started meeting with her on Sunday nights with the vision that I will take over once I start my internship. I met with Erika for half an hour before church. We were supposed to be talking about what she read in the book of Romans that week. However, we really just talked about her life, her family, her friends. She asked me some about my life too. We just spent the half hour talking and getting to know each other a little better. Although we didn’t get into the book of Romans at all, I went into the church service that night smiling at the new friendship God was building between me and Erika. The next week Vicky was back in town, but she asked me to come to the discipleship time anyway just to be able to continue to get to know Erika a little more each week. We actually did get into the first chapter of Romans. It was a really good three way conversation between the three of us girls. At the end of the time, Vicky asked Erika if she thinks she’ll be able to continue meeting for half an hour before every Sunday night service. Erika says she even wanted to come for an hour before the service. Praise the Lord! Vicky and I were ecstatic that Erika not only was willing to keep coming every Sunday, but that she wanted to spend MORE time in discipleship with us. Both Vicky and I are really excited for the opportunity to watch Erika grow in her walk with the Lord. 

Day 92-100: Trujillo Trip

In the past three and a half months that I’ve been in Peru, I’ve only been out of Lima one time; and that was only to research the Biology that the Peruvian jungle has to offer. This week the ARRIBA team had to opportunity to travel eight hours north of Lima to Trujillo in order to see other kinds of ministries that are taking place within this South American country. We were able to observe the joining of five local churches to offer free medical care to the community. We had the chance to get to know the jovenes from several of those churches. However, most of our time was spent making new friends at El Seminario Boutista del Peru.

     Pastor Jim sent the eight of us off on our own for the first times since arriving in Peru 92 days before. For our first full day in Trujillo, we got together with five local churches to provide a free medical clinic for the town surrounding a new church plant. We spent the day telling the patients about the Gospel while they were waiting their turn to see the doctor or dentist. The goal for the day was primarily to evangelize to the community. However, the churches combined their talents in order to provide for the community’s physical health while informing them of their spiritual need as well. Because we weren’t really confident in our Spanish to explain the gospel to the patients, the ARRIBA students did other odd jobs. I was deemed secretary of the witnessing outreach process. Sounds important right?! All I did was keep track of the tracts that we were handing out and hang onto the cards filled out by each of the patients. We also blew up a “bastante” amount of balloons to hand out to the kids throughout the day. A few of the ARRIBA students were able to help out with some children’s bible stories throughout the afternoon. All in all it was a great day to see how a  “Compaña Medica” is organized Peru. The next day at church two ladies who had heard about the church from the clinic visited the morning service. It was awesome to see the work of the Spirit through the medium of medicine.

     Over the next few days we were able to visit a number of other churches throughout the area. Each church we visited was overseen by either an American missionary or by a national pastor who had graduated from the Baptist Seminary of Peru. We went to a “jovenes” or youth group meeting on Saturday night. The church had a youth/college group of about 30 students. All of the ARRIBA kids were in shock at this. The churches we work in have anywhere from 2-20 kids. However, none of us had been to a Peruvian church with that many jovenes. The next day we went to a different church to see a different ministry. This church was also bigger than any of the churches we are working in. It even had an orchestra of trumpets, flutes, violins, clarinets, etc. The members of the churches in the area are invited to participate in the music classes at the Seminary. We also were able to visit the new church plant of a local church. We loaded up 60-70 plastic chairs in some pickup trucks, packed up the portable keyboard, and headed up the mountain to the new church plant. One of our last days in Trujillo we were also able to participate in a huge reunion of all the churches in the Trujillo area. Over 500 church members attended the reunion. The ARRIBA students, along with the Senior seminary students, were in charge of cooking many different Peruvian dishes for the many people in attendance. We cried over hundreds of onions, got hand cramps from squeezing 700 lemons, and burned out hands from the spicy seeds of the “Aji” pepper. It was fun to be able to get know the seminary students while serving the local churches.

     Along with helping with the medical clinic and cooking for the reunion of churches, we were also able to spend most of our time with the seminary students. We were welcomed to the seminary campus with open arms and were immediately thrown into the campus life of a Peruvian Bible College. We were able to participate in the fun little traditions of the Seminary. Although they were very culturally different, we had fun learning and observing the traditions of typical Christian College students in Peru. We spent the week imitating the seminaristas(seminary students). We woke up with them, ate meals, went to classes, had dorm devotions, etc. All in all, we had a great time meeting college students, and becoming aware of the other missionary ministries throughout Peru.

     Some of the ARRIBA students will be able to return to Trujillo in January to work at the summer camp there. They’ll be able to be counselors along side some of the seminary students that we were able to get to know this week. All in all a successful trip!

Late Day 81 Biology class? Try again

Biology class? Try again

Saturday
An eight hour road trip in Peru: it’ll take you from the foggy, misty Pacific Coast, through the chilly snow tipped mountains of the Andes, and into the warm, humid High Jungle of La Merced. We hired a personal bus driver from a nearby church to drive us from Lima to the Jungle. On our way, we were pulled over at least seven times. We went over a speed bump so fast that the luggage in the back literally flew into the air and toppled on top of a sleeping Alyssa. And half of the group got headaches from the altitude. But finally after eight hours, we make it to the Jungle town of La Merced. Pastor Jim announced that we had reached the campgrounds and our bus pulled over to the side of the road. All I could see was the greenest mountain I’ve ever encountered on one side of the road and a river on the other side. I probably gave Pastor Jim some raised eyebrow look I sometimes get when I don’t believe someone. I kept searching my surroundings looking for some sort of campsite when I saw three cables running across the width of the river. Next thing I know, two men from the camp are pulling their way across the river on a cable car. I got that excited feeling that starts deep inside and shivers its way out the tips of my fingers. We’re supposed to be in the Jungle for three days of hands-on Biology studies. However, as I’m suspended dozens of feet over the river I know it won’t be like any class I’ve taken so far.  

Sunday
We didn’t know exactly what time church would start. Pastor Jim and Miss Becky had been to the church before, but they didn’t really know the pastor and they couldn’t remember the service time. We decided to leave around 9:00. We set out on our mini hike that would take us across the river in the cable car. We got to the church around 9:30. The doors were open and we could see the Pastor at his pulpit teaching the Sunday School class. However, by the time we all got off the bus, the Pastor was outside waiting at the door to greet us. The whole Sunday School class had taken a break and everyone wanted to give us kisses of greeting before the Pastor continued his lesson. After he finished, everyone greeted us all over again before the morning service started. We all felt very welcome, and the Pastor even asked Pastor Jim to preach for the evening service. After church we came back to the campground, all the ARRIBA students wanted to go play in the river that we’d been crossing in the cable car, so we set out to find a way to get there. We ended up climbing through some jungle beds and over some jungle rocks and eventually made it to a giant boulder that we liked. Some of us stayed on the rock enjoying the jungle sun, while others played in the river enjoying the jungle water. When we first arrived in Lima, we encountered the fascination stage of culture shock. Now we’re right back where we started. Everything we see is exciting and adventurous. The jungle definitely is a different culture.

Monday
Botanical gardens, waterfalls, soccer with the kids; Jungle life. We started our day by going to the Botanical Garden. A man with bushy eyebrows and a thin gray mustache came out to greet us. He was only the groundskeeper, but he offered to take us around the gardens. Dr. Deckert (a retired Biology Professor from Clearwater) knew just about every plant within the garden, and the ones he didn’t know, he looked up in his Peru Flower travel book. We spend quite a few hours exploring the Garden enjoying the beautiful Peruvian plant life. Once we got back from the Garden and had a few sessions of Biology learning, a few of us set out to find the waterfalls. We followed a well worn path into the forest and followed the water system that the camp had made to get their water supply. We went up a few steep hills, crossed the river two or three times, and finally made it to the waterfall. We stood in awe for a few minutes basking in the creation of our God. The powerful water surged over the edge and cascaded some dozens of feet to where we stood underneath it.  We played in the water for a while before heading back to the campgrounds. Once there, we immediately turned the other direction and headed to an orphanage not too far away. As soon as we poked our heads over the hill, the kids started running for us. They had no idea who we were or what we were there for, but they started talking to us and inviting us to explore their home with them. We were invited inside the dining hall by the director of the orphanage. We were able to meet all the kids and give share testimonies with them. Then we were able to play soccer with the boys. We played ARRIBA students vs the kids. They killed us, and enjoyed doing it. We played and laughed until the sun dipped below the tip of the mountain.

Tuesday
What do you get when water drips down a limestone ceiling? Stalagmites…or stalactites. I don’t remember which one starts at the bottom and which one starts at the top. However, I do remember that caves are now my favorite sort of adventure. Even after watching a horror movie about college girls getting lost in a cave and getting eaten by nonexistent creatures…anyway…Four months ago, my roommate at CCC, Joanna Feliz, and I were trying to repel down the side of our dorm. Unfortunately we weren’t able to accomplish it due to a slippery wall. However, I can now say that I have successfully repelled down a cave and am anxiously awaiting my chance to do it with Joanna! On our way home from the Jungle, we stopped in the mountains to explore a cave. It wasn’t like the caves I’ve been in the states that have the touristy walkways and hand rails next to the river so people don’t fall in. No, this cave had walls that you had to climb, cliffs that you had to repel down, walkways a foot wide you had to get across, etc with only the light from our flashlights. Mrs. Deckert was not a fan of the whole rock climbing/repelling thing…but we got her through it and now she has a cool story to tell her grandchildren! My favorite part was when we had reached the end of the trail and were about to turn around. We all turned off our flashlights and sang a few songs about the greatest of our God. In the cave of a mountain or in the depths of the Jungle, our God is greater, stronger, and higher than any other!