Fun Day Saturday... Salt mines and Moray Ruins

Gotta have a little bit of fun!  It is easy for me to get so busy and always on the go here, but it is important to have some time to myself and

rest and explore!  Yesterday was just an absolutely beautiful day!!  My friend Lauren, roomie Katy, and I went on a little road trip to the Salt Mines, Salineras and the Inca Ruins, Moray.  As we were driving out I could not believe the beauty of the mountains!  It is absolutely beautiful here and just breathtaking!  As we were driving I saw this field in the picture with all of the mountains in the background and asked him to stop so I could run out to the middle of the field!!  I am jumping for joy here... :) haha  The first picture is of me walking down to the salt mines, las salineras.  These are natural salt mines where Cusco gets their salt from.  It was so neat to see!!  I tried a little piece and boy was it salty!  Then the next picture is of us three at the Inca Ruins, Moray.  The Incans used this area to bring their crops in order to find the best level of sun, shade, and elevation.  They were watered by a complex irrigation system.  This was such a great day and I am looking forward to spending more days and exploring the many more beautiful areas within South America!  

Housesitting, Strikes, Concert in the Cusco Cathedral

I can not believe how fast this past week has flown by!!  Jess, another intern who is here and I have been housesitting/babysitting for the Allen family this past week and until Wednesday who went to Africa to learn from the medical team there about tuberculosis.  It has been a lot of fun!  It's really been great getting to spend more time with Jess and getting to know her.  The kids have also been a lot of fun and sure have kept us busy!  They have 2 of their own girls, Sarah who is 7 and Noelle who is 8 then they have an adopted Peruvian girl, Cate who is 2.  She is precious!  Then there are also 2 older Peruvians who they have adopted as well.  Jess has been the main one who stays here at all times with the girls while I have been continuing my cello teaching and other activities then come back afterwards for the evenings.  

Last Monday a week ago from today, was the first day the parents left for Africa.  There was a strike, a "paro" here and there was no transportation in use.  I went down to find a taxi or a combie (which is there little vans that they use as buses) but I went down to find just people walking up and down the streets and some people on bikes.  I walked down to the Allen's house from my apartment, which was almost an hour walk, and along the streets there were huge blogs of cement, huge rocks, trees in the roads, fires from burning tires in the middle of the street.   It was crazy!  I saw a man with a machete also!  Thankfully it only lasted a day.  The main reason was b/c of the polluted water here in Peru..  These happen usually about 4-5 times a year.

Last Friday was the Cusco Symphony concert in the Cusco Cathedral in the Main Plaza de Armas downtown.  This was such a cool experience to be a part of!!  Usually you have to pay to get in to the cathedral, but this night it was open to the public.  It is the oldest cathedral in Peru.  A lot of my friends came and it was so fun to see them there!!  I brought the conductor some music from the states and we ended up playing one of the sons, Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring this night.  The Cusco Chorus also sang with a few songs... Gloria from Messiah, Ave Maria...  

I am so excited about Katie and my Dad coming to visit and work on some projects in May!!!  It will be so much fun to show them around here and show them what life is like here.  I can't wait!! :) 

I'm in the Cusco Magazine??

www.cuscosocial.com

Ano 2 N. 4 -2009

Yes, so some friends just told me that they saw my picture in the "Cusco Social" Magazine??  How crazy is that!  I'm here doing missions and within the first month I'm in the magazine?  This is what happened... the second week I was here I went to the very first Cusco Symphony concert here in Cusco.  After the concert a girl asked if she could take my picture and I said... ummm for what?  She said for an article and I said ok.  I told her that I was going to be playing the cello in the symphony.  I had no idea they were actually going to publish the picture.  I thought this was quite funny and wanted to share it with you...  Here is the cover of the magazine and the page where my picture is...  

On this holiday here in Cusco, Good Friday, during the week of Semana Santa... Katy (my roomie) and I hiked up one of the mountains here to the cross at 6 a.m. this morning.  It was a great hike - quite hard b/c of the altitude but worth it!  It was such a great reminder of what Jesus has done for us!!  I think Easter really is one of the most important holidays!  Pictures will be posted to album!

Happy Easter! :) 

More music opportunities, peruvian bible study, orphans, being sick is no fun....

Girl's Bible Study at my Apt.                                        

It is hard to not have favorites at the orphanage.  The picture above is Beltron, and I love him so much!!  He will never be able to walk and has cataraks. (sp?)  

 

I hope you all are doing well!!  I am finally getting around to feeling 100% better.  I'm not sure what I had or what I ate, but definitely was having stomach trouble for about 4 days.  I am sooo glad I am feeling better.  It is so hard to be stuck inside and not feeling well when there are so many things I could be doing!  We can't drink the water here, so you never know if somehow something I ate was washed with the dirty water or what?  And also all fruits and vegetables I buy in the market have to be soaked in clorox to kill the germs and bacteria.  Basically everywhere you go you have to be very careful what you eat, so it could have been anything...

Yesterday I met the director of the Cusco Chorus here.  He is probably about 50 and wants me to teach him cello!  He had called the other cello teacher, Sergio, here in Cusco to see if he could teach him and to see if he would be able to teach cello to the students at a "colegio" downtown, which is a middle school.  Sergio is too busy with students at the suzuki school here so he referred me to him.  I met with him yesterday and it sounds like I really neat idea!!  This is something he has wanted to do for years, but their has never been cello teachers here or money in their budget to buy cellos and ship them from Lima since they don't sell cellos here.  The plan is for them to buy 6-8 cellos next week and I will begin giving lessons each week and a group lesson for all the students each week.  I can not believe how God is making this happen!  I am so excited I get to be a part of teaching these children how to play the cello, something that is so special to me.  I'm sure it will be a challenge teaching in Spanish!!

Last night I led our first Peruvian Bible Study here at my apartment.  I was so thankful for how well it went and what a special time it was.  We had hot tea and baked chocolate chip cookies! :) There were a total of 6 girls and the age ranged from age 13 to age 19.  My room-mate, Katy who is 17, 3 girls from la Arca orphanage, and 2 girls from the church Buen Pastor.  One of the girls, Gabi who is 14 and has been at the orphanage for 9 years now has always wanted to play the cello and when she found out I played got so excited.  She is hoping to get a cello for her birthday in May and I will hopefully be able to teach her.  I would love to help give her a cello for her birthday!  Each of these girls have such a hard past, especially 2 of the girls from the orphanage.  We were able to go around and tell a little bit able ourselves, what we like to do, a little bit about their past and family history, and how and when they became a christian.  It was such a joy to hear about these girl's lives and to pray together with them.  They really have such a heart from the Lord and are really seeking him.  I'm so thankful I get to invest in to these girl's lives while I am here.  It is tough to talk about such deep things in Spanish, but I am continuing to learn and one of the girls from La Arca is American (her family is the one who started the orphanage)  so she is able to help translate some of the harder words.  I really want to love these girls and show them there is hope and how much the Lord loves them.  It is a hard situation for some of these girls having parents who didn't want them and dropped them off at the orphanage.  Please pray that I will be able to show these girls the hope they have in Jesus Christ.  

Th picture above are some of the girls in the bible study that we took at the end!  This is the loft in my apartment!

I hope you all have a nice Easter!  I will miss not being with my family in Miami this Easter visiting baby Grayson! :)  Love to you from Peru!

"We are able to take risks, suffer pain, and even die without despair but with full hope!!"

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."  - Jeremiah 1:5

It is a great place to be when you know you are exactly where God wants you!  There is no greater place to be than in the middle of God's will for your life.  It is the safest place to be and the place where you can experience so much joy!!  As I am reading "Let the Nations Be Glad" - by John Piper I am learning a lot about what God's purpose of missions really are.  I like the quote "We cannot know what prayer is for until we know that life is war."  I think being out on the mission field or doing full-time ministry you really see how much the world is a spiritual battle.  Satan uses anything to try to mess up relationships that are based on God and keep people from doing what they are really here on earth to do... which is spread the gospel to the lost.  God disciplines his children through suffering; and his aim is to deepen our faith.  "He disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness." -Hebrews 12:10

Just a little about what I'm learning right now....  I know this is not going to be an easy next 7 months, but a time of growing and seeking through hard times in order to deepen my faith!  

This past Sunday we tried something new for church.  We are breaking up in to different communities having different home group bible studies.  I am working with the 2 orphanages on Sunday.  It went great!  We all got together and sang songs together to begin and had a prayer time for those who are sick and have diseases.  We split up in to adults and children after; and took the 35 kids up to a room and watched the Jesus film in Spanish.  Afterwards we served lunch for everyone which was a real treat for them to have cookies and coke!  It was a lot of fun!  I have continued to help with the cello lessons out at the music school; last night there was a group class with some of the younger students and there was a girl who was 5 just starting!  I told her I started when I was 5 too!  :)  I went to an English church service Sunday night and was able to meet a few more people and went on a horseback ride through the mountains to some Inca ruins for a few hours yesterday morning.  It was a beautiful ride!  The picture is up in the mountains on the ride -- the view of Cusco down below.

Please pray for love and encouragement within our team here!!  I think it is so important to have that encouragement within a team in order to build one another up!  Part of love is to sacrifice and this is a great time to learn how to serve others and love others how they need to be loved; not how they want to be loved.  I want to learn what it really means to love others and put others above myself...   If I know my identity is found in Jesus Christ; this will give me what I need to sacrifice.

Thank you for all your prayers and encouragement!!

"As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you" -John 20:21

"If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you."  -John 15:20

God always provides...

More and More the Lord continues to show me that he is faithful and provides for his children!  I know there will be times here and in life that are hard and we are called to suffer b/c Jesus suffered for us.  But even though we are going to encounter hard time and trials in life the Lord is faithful and provides for what we need.  When we are seeking him we are able to experience his Joy, Peace, and Love!  The poverty here is everywhere, but even though these people hardly have anything they still experience so much joy and love!  We have so many things in America that we don't need and take for granted.  These 2 boys I ran in to on a walk that I went on yesterday with my Peruvian roommate Cati.  Aren't they adorable?

Friday night I went to the first Cusco Symphony concert that they have ever had here in Cusco!  It was so neat to experience this concert in such a different culture.  This is a new thing to Cusco so they will be having a concert every Friday in different parts of Cusco to get their name out.  I spoke with the conductor afterwards and he is really excited about me playing with them!  It is such an answer to prayer b/c I told him that I was going to order a cello from Lima and have it shipped here since they don't have any cellos here in Cusco, but he said there is 1 cello the government bought for the Symphony to have and said I could borrow it for now.  God is so good!!  Last night was youth group so since I had a cello I was able to play with the praise band!  They played many songs that I was familiar with except in Spanish!  I am so thankful to be able to use this gift of music here in Cusco.  Many of the youth had never seen a cello before or knew what it was.  

This morning I went up in to the mountains to help teach Bible class to a school.  I helped with the younger kids about ages 5-8.  They were so fun!  We told the story about Adam and Eve, played some games, and colored.  I have many more pictures and will add them to the album on facebook!  What a joy it is to love these kids!!  The second picture is playing with the kids after class.  Thank you all for your encouragement!!!  

I have arrived in Cusco!!

I have arrived to Cusco, Peru safely and have been here a week exactly today!  It is absolutely beautiful here with the mountains surrounding the entire town!  I don't know where to begin...   Well, I stayed at the Powlison's home for the first 5 days here.  They are the team leaders of the MTW team here and they live out in the country down a long dirt road.  This is me standing out on the dirt road that leads to their house from the town.  It is a beautiful walk and a great place to go mountain biking!!

The first picture is a picture of the street that my apartment is on to the left.  I am living with a medical intern who is here for 2 more weeks and a Peruvian girl who is in school.  It will be great living with her and using my spanish!  We killed a rat last night using a trap in the kitchen.... guess that was my welcome to the apartment present! :)  It is a great location b/c it is right up the street from the clinic and the church and also the market where you can buy tons of fruits and vegetables.  

Since I have been here I have been trying to get adjusted to the new way of life here, the new people, culture, food, altitude.  It is quite an adjustment here, but I know I will be learning TONS about the very poor people and their way of living and myself.  I really want to serve these people while I am here in any way possible.

I have met the only known cello teacher here who is so excited to have another cellist on board and I will meet the symphony conductor tonight.  We are in process of ordering my cello from Lima so that I can help teach cello lessons and help with the chamber orchestra here.  It was so touching to sit in on a group cello lesson a few days ago and hear the cello being played by these poor Peruvian children.... even though we are so different than the people here, hearing them play the cello is the common bond we share through music.  It brought tears to my eyes...  I am really looking forward to teaching cello in Spanish here, although the names of the notes are all different here. I will have to re-learn all of them... They use do re mi for the notes instead of the actual notes!  Confusing!

I have been to the orphanage, La Casa Josefina where I will be working as well and played with the children and babies there.  They are so precious and I love them already!!  There are a few with mental disabilities who are so precious.  I am looking forward to spending more time with these precious babies and helping to take care of them.  The picture below is after playing soccer with a bunch of the boys from the other orphanage up the street, The Institute.  They get together on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons which I am  really looking forward to getting to know them better and playing soccer with them!

I am learning so much already.  I know I can not do this on my own here.  It is God's strength and not my own and I am trusting him to provide that for me each day.  Thank you all so much for your prayers!  I will try to update more frequently.  Miss you all!!