Looking up...

Things are looking up a bit in the village of Iscos. You may remember that our last post was an urgent plea for prayer after our Kid's Club was attacked and our presence in the town was under persecution. A couple of weeks later, the mayor and the city council members (I use these terms very loosely... it IS NOT the same as in the USA) had a meeting regarding the oppression that we were feeling and the harassment from the local school personnel. The city officials decided to call a meeting of all involved parties - the mayor, city council members, local school director, local school teachers, directors of surrounding schools, our staff, and our lawyer.

During the meeting, our lawyer had a formal reading of the agreement/contract that we have with the city. Each point in the agreement was discussed with the committee - this was not news to them, as they all had to read it and sign off on it before we began work in the village. He also explained our goals and purposes for being in the community and working with the children of Iscos. He was very upfront in stating that our #1 purpose is to teach the word of God and share the love of Christ with the community, and our #2 purpose is to educate the children who do not have an opportunity to attend school.

In the end, the city council voted in our favor and the mayor spoke on our behalf. The mayor also said, "This town NEEDS more love and we NEED someone to teach the word of God here. We are glad that you are here." This was a huge victory!!!

Since the meeting, the local school director has greeted our director with handshakes and kind words in the mornings. The verbal abuse has stopped and things seem to be going well. No, we are not so naive as to believe that everyone has come to love us overnight, but we do believe that God can do ALL things and use ALL things for good. So, we are moving forward in Iscos and continue to work with our students and teach the love of Christ and hold Kid's Club on Fridays.

Thank you for your prayers!!! We do believe in the power of prayer and we do believe that your intercession on behalf of the children made a difference. Thank you. To God be the Glory!

Urgent Plea for Prayer!

Dear Family, Friends, Brother & Sisters in Christ, Supporters, Church

family:

It is with such a mixture of emotions that we write to you tonight with

this urgent plea for prayers. God never said that this job would be

easy. In fact, the Bible promises us that it will be difficult - that there

will be trials and troubles and that the road will be rough. Today, we

have truly come face to face with The Enemy and this has surely been

the toughest day that we have faced so far. We write to you today

because we are in need of URGENT PRAYERS.

Some background… At the beginning of this month, we began the Kuyay

Talpuy school in the pueblo of San Juan de Iscos. We have the

blessing of the municipality, the mayor, the city council, etc. We have a

contract with the city that states what our goals and objectives are.

The city even blessed us with a classroom within the city hall. We have

reached out to children in the community who cannot afford to attend

the local school because they cannot afford the uniform, school supplies,

or even food. Our goal has always been to get them into a school

setting and provide for them all that is needed to succeed. We are

preparing them to enter the local school system and we have sponsors

from the USA who provide their school supplies, uniforms, teacher

salary, and a hot, balanced lunch each day.

Since the first week of school, we have been under attack (quite literally)

from the local school officials. They have tried to undermine our

efforts by spreading rumors in the community that we are trying to

steal children and send them to the USA, that we are poisoning their

food, that we are giving drugs to the children of the community, that we

are undermining the community morals through reggae music and false

teachings, etc. They succeeded in cutting our student attendance in

half . We went from serving 30 children (and a waiting list) to only

having 17 students. The local school told the parents of our students

that our school was illegal and if they attended, they would not be allowed

to enroll in the local school when the time comes. They even

called the Ministry of Education and tried to have us closed down…

which didn’t work because we are completely legal and have all of our

contracts, permissions, and papers, plus all of our teachers are certified

and licensed, as are we. We do not charge money for our services and

we do not take students away from the local school, therefore, the

Ministry of Education had no cause to disturb us and walked away from

the issue.

During our first week of Kid’s Club (a weekly children’s bible study/

fiesta, much like Vacation Bible School in the USA), we had 80+ children

in attendance. The next week, we had less than half of that

number and we realized that the local school did not allow children to

leave through the front gate as usual (the front gate faces the park

where we hold Kid’s Club). We also realized that there were several

teachers and the director standing at the gate watching Kid’s Club.

When Club began, the teacher’s stepped out and most of the local

school children screamed, grabbed their backpacks and ran away. A

couple said, “Hurry! Run! Teacher is watching!” We began to get a

glimpse of what was occurring in the school. However, we continued

with Club as usual and refused to be discouraged.

This week, we learned that the director of the local school held a

meeting with the teachers and the parents. She told the audience that

the children were prohibited to attend the Kid’s Club because we are

evangelicals, we are plotting to give drugs to their children, we are

actually the devil in disguise, we are teaching bad morals, and we bribe

children with crafts and candy and prizes.

Today, in Kid’s Club, once again, children from the local school did not

exit through the front gate. But they still came to Club (in smaller

numbers, but they came). When Club began and we started the singing

and the music, the director stepped out of the gate and watched

while a teacher stormed across the park swinging a leather belt and

screaming at the children to go home and leave Club. She swung the

belt at children and attacked the Club while the director looked on.

Almost every child ran into the hills. We were left with about 10

children and a handful of parents.

I must say that I am VERY proud of our team. They did not succumb

to their knee-jerk reactions to fight with the woman. We did not

allow her to actually make contact with children, but we did not fight

with her either. We continued to lead Club, telling the Bible story for

the day, teaching the lesson, and loving the kids who remained. We

will NOT back down in the face of persecution. We WILL stand up

for the name of Christ and continue to proclaim it in the pueblo of

Iscos.

Brothers and Sisters, we will face more trials. This is not over. We

were literally attacked today, both physically and spiritually. Our

hearts are broken for the children. We literally broke down and cried

at the end of club today. Together as a team, we prayed over this persecution. We prayed for the local school and for the director and the teachers. We prayed for the children of Iscos, for their families, and for the city officials. We prayed right there in the middle of the park, where

we were attacked during Club today. We know that this is not over, and that it is likely to get worse before it gets better.

So we write to you tonight to ask for prayers for this situation. We ask for prayers for our team, for our family, and for the children we serve.

We ask for prayers of safety. We ask for you to pray for our courage to stand firm in the face of persecution. We ask for your support as we continue to teach the Bible and share the love of Christ. We ask for you to pray for protection. But most of all, we ask for you to intercede on

behalf of the children… to ask God to do mighty works in Iscos and to command The Enemy to stand down!

We have but two responses to every situation… fear or faith. We can fear that we will be overcome, we can fear for our safety, we can fear that the children will not hear the Word of God or will not feel the love of Christ… or, we can have faith that God can do all things! We can have

faith that He is bigger and stronger and more powerful than anything that can be brought against us. We can have faith in His plan and in His promises. We can have faith in the Bible and in the Word and in all that we know to be Truth in Him.

One of our team told us today, “You are in Jonah’s shoes and this is your Nineveh. You can’t back down. You have to tell them about Christ’s love.” We have been studying Paul and his journeys… he met with many obstacles, with much persecution, and with much suffering. And yet, my favorite Bible verses come from these times - from Paul’s writings on perseverance. A very dear friend pointed out to me many years ago that the root word in “persevere” is “severe”. This road is hard, Friends. We need your prayers.

Please join us in prayer. Please share this prayer request with as many as you can. We have friends all around the world… please help us literally circle the world with prayer for the children of Iscos. Please take this plea to work with you, to Sunday school, read it in worship on Sunday,

email it to friends and family… we need as many people praying for this situation as possible. We believe in the power of prayer and that our God is Greater than All Things… he is Todopodoroso! (All-Powerful)

Thank you! Blessings in His Name,

Laurie & Billy

Busy, busy

Sorry!!! I realize it has been almost a month since my last blog entry! So, what's been going on? Well...

• The Kuyay Talpuy school is finally open. We opened on August 10th in San Juan de Iscos. For info on the school and to see photos, go to www.kuyayperu.org
• Today, Billy is in Iscos helping the little school move into it's permanent home. Yes, we spent three weeks in a temporary classroom awaiting the repairs and final construction of our "real" classroom.
• We went to Lima to pick up our new missionary team members at the airport. The McEuen family arrived here after spending a year in Costa Rica in language school. We are SOOOO happy that they have finally arrived!!!
• We began our homeschool curriculum with Sarah and have now completed 6 weeks. We are having a lot of fun with it and she is learning so much and so quickly!
• Billy has been working long-distance with Ron Phillips to get the kinks out of our medical database in the computer. The system is really awesome! When patients come to receive medical/dental/optical care, they put their finger on a fingerprint scanner and the computer finds them, enters their data, and they are tracked through the system of services. After the first medical campaign in July, we have beefed up the computer memory and worked on refining the system. As of today, we are ready to test-drive it again on the next medical campaign - beginning Saturday!
• Laurie has been studying and taking an online course through the Institute for International Medicine (INMED) to help further prepare for the medical missions. Medicine and Health practices are VERY different in other cultures and it is crucial to understand the culture and the language and the underlying ideas when dealing with medical issues in another country/culture.
• We have been preparing for the next two medical campaigns. One begins this weekend in Puerto Bermudez (jungle). The next will be in mid-September to Iscosazin (jungle). These will be very different from the last medical mission to the mountains in that they are in the jungle (different diseases, illnesses, climate, etc.) and that they are in completely different cultural groups (jungle cultures are NOT like mountain cultures).

So we have been busy! Sorry to have neglected the blog site... maybe I'll do better in September...

I promise not to...

This week has been a practice in patience and a lesson in trust. We have been working to enroll children in the new Kuyay Talpuy education center that will open on August 10th. The purpose of the Kuyay Talpuy school is to make education available to children who do not have the economic resources to attend school in Peru, to get them off the streets and out of the fields, and to witness to their families by loving their children. There are LOTS of these children out there (over 25% of children in Peru are in this situation - the percentage is higher in our area). In trying to meet the families and find these children, we have been met with distrust and fears that we didn't expect:

• People who don't trust us to feed their children lunch each day because we might put chemicals in their food and poison them.
• People who are afraid that we are part of a child smuggling scheme and we are just trying to steal their children and send them to other countries.
• People who are afraid that we are just trying to gain entrance into their lives so we can steal their livestock.
• People who are illiterate themselves, and so are very afraid of the forms that they are signing.
• People who are afraid that we are from the government and are trying to find out what they might be doing wrong.

And so we have had to be very patient. And we have had to literally promise not to poison their children, steal their livestock, sell their children, etc. Slowly, step by step, we are gaining some confidence. At first, we only signed up 2 children in one day. Then 2 more on another day. It seemed that we would never fill the classroom! But then we enrolled 7 one day, and 10 the next! And we realized that the children are our focus, but we will also be ministering to their families through the LOVE that we show to them and to their children... step by step, they will see that we are trustworthy and that we aren't to be feared and that we were sent by Christ to love them.

Ridiculous things that we wish we had...

We don't miss a lot of foods from the USA, but there are a few things that we have missed over the past couple of years and we are slowly finding ways to bring them into our lives in Peru (okay, I am perfectly aware that this is a ridiculous list of items, but it's the truth):

• Ranch dressing... there's no such animal here. One day I found a bottle of liquidy stuff that was labeled as ranch dressing, but wasn't even close to what my mouth had in mind. THANK YOU JESUS for allowing someone to come up with the idea of Ranch dressing in packets/envelopes! I bought some dry mix while we were in the States in June and it is so wonderful to have real ranch dressing for dipping my veggies now!!!
• Kool-Aid... again, no such thing here. I, myself, am not such a giant fan of Kool-Aid, but Sarah and Billy are. And I have to admit, there is just something about drinking a glass of Tropical Punch or Cherry Kool-Aid that really feels very American and homey.
• Any drink mixes... I know, Kool-Aid is a drink mix so this is a little redundant. But a recent short-term mission team left us with two containers of powdered Gatorade and I will be eternally grateful. They also gifted me with several left-over mixes of those little single-serving mixes you dump in a water bottle... don't know what they are technically called, since they arrived on the scene post-Drums-in-Texas a couple of years ago. Yummy!!! I really love the Lipton Green Tea on the Go!!! And the lemonade flavor really made me realize how much I miss Country Time lemonade (not as good a fresh lemonade from our own lemon trees in Costa Rica, but really yummy still.)
• Tacos... we have found one place that has something they call tacos, but they aren't, really. And that restaurant is 10 hours from Huancayo, so we won't be making it a habit to eat there. We did bring back a few taco seasoning packets, which is better than nothing.
• Blue Bell... enough said!
• I really wish I could figure out how to make something similar to a Cherry Limeade or a Cherry Lime Slush or a Lemon Berry Slush from Sonic... que rico!

Maybe I'm just hungry...

Crazy week

It has been a long, crazy week...

• We returned from the medical campaign in Panao and we were BEAT! Seeing 1600+ patients in four days is exhausting, not to mention the fact that we were also translating and helping to lead the team. Took a day to do nothing but sleep (which Billy took very literally and DID sleep for the better part of 10 daylight hours), then a day to travel back to Huancayo and get ready for the week.
• Went back to teaching on Tuesday to a fiasco. Not only had my classes not been covered, nor had my plans been taught or carried out for the past 10 days, but the entire country of Peru decided to close school because of the possibility of swine flu! It isn't a choice whether to close or not - it is a mandate from the government, punishable by heavy fines and penalty of revoking your license - teaching certificate for 6 months. So my school closed down until August 3rd (two and a half weeks). Since I was already planning to finish my teaching commitment on July 24th, my career came to a quicker end than anticipated.
• On Tuesday night, we got the "go ahead" to move into the house down the street. We had been excitedly waiting for this to happen, and the McEuen family is going to take our old house when they arrive in August. So, we began the process of moving our stuff down the street. Two of our bible study teens showed up to help, then Maria and her kids showed up to help, then our new neighbors jumped in and helped... it was really cool! On Wednesday morning, we finished the process with the help of Maria's kids, Karina from Cochas, and Liz.
• Also on Tuesday, two of our dearest bible study girls (really, more like two grown daughters of ours) found out that they would be leaving on a journey that will take them out of Peru forever. They have been hoping for this for over a year (and we had been hoping it wouldn't ever occur). Can't go into details, but we were devastated by the news and we pray for them and fear for their safety. After a long goodbye and lots of tears, they were gone.
• On Thursday, Billy and Darwin and Milagros spent from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. waiting to get a contract signed by the mayor of Iscos, who wasn't even there for the meeting, then didn't show up to work all day. Also, the lady who scheduled the meeting to meet with parents and sign children up for the new education center decided not to show up and sent word that she would be available to meet again on August 5th. Billy was LESS than happy...
• We love the new house! We don't love the hassle of moving fixtures (water filters, pumps, etc.) or of moving services (phone, cable, internet, etc.). None of this happens easily or quickly here. The plumber has been with us for two days so far, and he isn't finished yet. As he left today, he said, "I thought I had it fixed (the pressure pump), but when I turned it on, it blew up. I'll see you Monday." And that was it...
• Billy is finally on the mend from his bout with who-knows-what last week and part of this week. The fever only lasted two days, but the cough and congestion has been horrendous for the entire time and he has been super tired. After we changed his meds at the beginning of the week, he started to improve. Today, he seems almost back to normal (which never was "normal", but...).

So here we are at the end of a crazy week and looking at the coming week... a planned transportation strike on the 21st (never pretty), meetings with the city officials in Iscos to hash out some issues with the opening of the new education center, national fiestas and parades for Peruvian independence day... it never stops, does it?

Okay - there were great things, too. Sarah has a new friend that is her same age and lives next door to our new house. The weather is fabulous!!! I didn't have to work this week, which sure made moving to the new house a much easier process. We had lots of help moving, and they did it happily, willingly, and only got pizza in return for their efforts. The new house is great and will provide us with many more opportunities due to space.

Hope you have a great up-coming week! Please pray for us to experience a smooth week, in comparison to last week. We'll pray that some our fantastic weather and temps blow your direction! :)

New Adventure

We are off on a new adventure.  We are headed to Panao, Peru to receive a medical mission team from the States and to translate for them as they strive to meet the needs of the people here.  This is new and challenging on several levels for us:

• We will be translating for the doctors and the patients, so we will be working our brains in both directions - English and Spanish, and also in more detailed terms (medical Spanish).
• We will be working in an area that we are unfamiliar with.  Billy has been in Panao for a day or two to help set up the pre-mission stuff, but other than that, we don't know the people or the area or the culture there.
• We will be piloting the new database system that Ron Phillips wrote especially for this purpose... we will be logging every patient using a fingerprint scanner and typed data.  In this way, we can track patients and better monitor the medications that they receive and the doctors that they see.  In the past, there has been an issue with people mysteriously changing identities ;) and getting back in the patient line, only to receive opposing medications, etc.  Not good.  Hopefully, the new system will work like clockwork and all with be wonderful!
• This area is relatively new to "gringos" - like the first gringos in the area were within the last 20 years.  So we are still strange creatures to this people group.  Also, we will be facing the legend of the pishtaco... an Andean legend about gringos/light-skinned people who come to steal organs or suck the fat out of children to use in American factories as machine oil.  I know it sounds ridiculous to us, but it is a very vivid story/belief in many minds here and we are hoping that it doesn't pose a problem for us.  :)  When Billy was setting up the pre-field mission stuff, lots of people hid around corners and children yelled "pishtaco, pishtaco!" and ran away.  

We'll post more about the trip when we return.  Please pray for safety and for many medical successes as we work to serve the people of Panao in the coming week.