I can't put into words what this trip has been like. I have laughed, cried, and cried some more. The power of Jesus is evident. My life has literally changed forever. When I leave Peru, there will be a part of my heart that stays here.
I thank God that He allowed me the opportunity to come here and experience this.
God is AWESOME!!!
Greg Traber
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Ni River Update
Last night was another late one so I apologize for being a day behind.
We spent yesterday morning working at Hannah´s Home. We´ve gotten a LOT done there and have before and after pictures to prove it. While we were scraping, painting, varnishing, and knocking out concrete pillars, three of the kids who had previously lived at Hogar de Ninos came by to help. John David and his sisters Erika and Cynthia were at Hogar when some of us were here before, so it was good to see that they are still in the area and helping out ChildReach. They worked right along beside us all morning and had lunch with us.
We worked at Hannah´s Home until 2, then got packed up to go do an afternoon session of VBS in a nearby village. We went across the street and picked up the kids at Hogar to take with us. It´s always good to see them! I don´t think many of them had been on a bus before and they were very excited. A few of them wanted to hang out of the windows while we were on the way b-c the air felt so good (and believe me, it was HOT again yesterday) but we had to pull them back in.
VBS (vacation Bible school) is not the same here as at home. We got off the bus in the village we were serving, split up into 4 groups (the kids from Hogar went with us) and went door to door to tell everyone that we would have VBS in the park in the middle of town. I was feeling a little worried b-c I didn´t see many kids around, but at the appointed time kids came pouring out of homes and shops in droves. The local pastor offered to let us hold the VBS in his church since it was so hot, so it was nice to have a shady area. It´s hard to be exact b-c there was a lot of moving around, but I counted around 75 kids packed into the church once we got started. We did some songs, a Bible story, prayer, craft, and game with the kids and I think it was a big success! It was hot and dusty but seeing the kids come out during part of their afternoon free time to hear about Jesus was very inspiring. I caught myself getting all leaky around the eyes again. : ) We will be visiting another village this afternoon and reaching more children.
After VBS, we dropped off the Hogar kids, went back to Ola Grande for a quick shower and change of clothes, got a bite to eat, and went to church in El Salvador. The service started at 8 and went on for 2 1-2 hours. You would think everyone would be exhausted at that time (the Americanos certainly were!) but it was still an enthusiastic, uplifting service. We are looking forward to working at Hannah´s Home today and holding another session of VBS.
Please keep praying for us! We´ll see you soon!
amy
We spent yesterday morning working at Hannah´s Home. We´ve gotten a LOT done there and have before and after pictures to prove it. While we were scraping, painting, varnishing, and knocking out concrete pillars, three of the kids who had previously lived at Hogar de Ninos came by to help. John David and his sisters Erika and Cynthia were at Hogar when some of us were here before, so it was good to see that they are still in the area and helping out ChildReach. They worked right along beside us all morning and had lunch with us.
We worked at Hannah´s Home until 2, then got packed up to go do an afternoon session of VBS in a nearby village. We went across the street and picked up the kids at Hogar to take with us. It´s always good to see them! I don´t think many of them had been on a bus before and they were very excited. A few of them wanted to hang out of the windows while we were on the way b-c the air felt so good (and believe me, it was HOT again yesterday) but we had to pull them back in.
VBS (vacation Bible school) is not the same here as at home. We got off the bus in the village we were serving, split up into 4 groups (the kids from Hogar went with us) and went door to door to tell everyone that we would have VBS in the park in the middle of town. I was feeling a little worried b-c I didn´t see many kids around, but at the appointed time kids came pouring out of homes and shops in droves. The local pastor offered to let us hold the VBS in his church since it was so hot, so it was nice to have a shady area. It´s hard to be exact b-c there was a lot of moving around, but I counted around 75 kids packed into the church once we got started. We did some songs, a Bible story, prayer, craft, and game with the kids and I think it was a big success! It was hot and dusty but seeing the kids come out during part of their afternoon free time to hear about Jesus was very inspiring. I caught myself getting all leaky around the eyes again. : ) We will be visiting another village this afternoon and reaching more children.
After VBS, we dropped off the Hogar kids, went back to Ola Grande for a quick shower and change of clothes, got a bite to eat, and went to church in El Salvador. The service started at 8 and went on for 2 1-2 hours. You would think everyone would be exhausted at that time (the Americanos certainly were!) but it was still an enthusiastic, uplifting service. We are looking forward to working at Hannah´s Home today and holding another session of VBS.
Please keep praying for us! We´ll see you soon!
amy
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
The Last Couple of Days!
Tonight´s edition is a recap of the last 2 days b-c we didn´t get settled in until very late last night. I added a few people to the list for this email, so if you missed day 1 and want it, let me know and Í´ll resend it. I apologize for leaving out a few email addresses on the first night. Don, Greg says hello and asked me to ask you to email him and let him know if these emails are going on Ni River´s website or if they are being relayed through email.
Monday was quite a day. We spent the whole day with our sponsor children! If you have ever thought that sponsorship programs for poor children worldwide are scams, everyone on this trip can assure you that Compassion International is NOT a scam. Some of us were meeting our children for the first time and some of us were meeting them for the second time, but all of us were touched by the experience. There are a million stories I could tell at this point to let you know how important sponsorship is to these children and their families, but I want you to hear them firsthand. When we get back, ask someone you know on the trip about the day with the Compassion children, but be prepared to shed some tears or for the person telling you the story to shed some! It was very difficult to leave at the end of the day and we were emotionally exhausted on the ride back home. Every time I thought I had regained my composure, some other part of the day would come back into my head and I´d cry all over again.
We stopped off at our hostel in the main part of Lima to pick up our luggage and head down the coast to Chilca, site of Hogar de Ninos orphanage and Hannah´s Home. We had a few "quick" errands to run on the way, the first of which was to pick up 140 cases of tile from Ace Hardware to take down to Hannah´s Home. The stop at Ace tested all three rules of this trip: 1. Be flexible, 2. be patient, and 3. be on time. Our translators and Jeff, our trip leader, went inside to pick up the tile that had already been ordered. The rest of us sat patiently on the bus for 40 minutes and waited. By that time we were all out of the bus and wondering what was going on. The report we got was that our tile was in the back of the store and we were waiting for it to be brought out. After another 40 minutes, giddiness and exhaustion had set in. We had eaten lunch around 1:00 and it was pushing 8:00 at this point!! Another 30 or so minutes later, 100 cases of our tiles were brought out and we were informed that the other 40 cases had to be reordered. We spent another 30 or 40 minutes loading 100 cases of tile, bags of cement mix, grout, and 4 ladders into every available space on the bus. (Ask Travis why he had to go to dinner with black arms and legs.)Picture this...one tour bus with 16 people, all of their luggage, and all the building supplies crammed into it. We were a little worried that if we got a flat, everything would have to be unloaded and reloaded in order to change the tire!! We finally got to dinner after 9:00 and by that point, everyone was starting to gnaw on the seats of the bus. : ) By the time we drove down the coast, checked into Ola Grande, and unloaded all of the luggage, it was after midnight.
This morning we headed to Hannah´s Home and started several projects. We got a lot of the outer walls painted and the kitchen ceiling varnished and the Peruvians working for ChildReach tiled the kitchen. The original plan was that we´d pick up the rest of the tile when we go back through Lima for church tomorrow night, but Jeff found out today that it would be another 3 weeks before that comes in!! It´s too bad that we won´t get to see the tile finished, but we´ll stay busy on other projects for the rest of the week.
We also got to spend a few hours at Hogar de Ninos, the orphanage across the street from Hannah´s Home. It is impossible to describe with words the feeling that came over me when we walked over there during a "break" this morning and the kids came spilling out of the front gate. Someone must have told them that we were coming b-c as soon as we started across the street, kids came out into the road to meet us. Some of us first visited Hogar a couple of years ago, and a few of the same children were still there and recognized us. Little ones jumped right up into our arms and hugged and kissed us as if they had known us their whole lives. A lot of us were moved to tears and that turned out to be the longest bathroom break in history. ; ) The break was good for reenergizing us, though, b-c the sun was beating down mercilessly all afternoon. (It´s the END of summer here and the temp was well into the 90s today. People who tell you it´s not the heat, it´s the humidity, are just plain wrong!!) It made it a little easier to get the work done knowing that we´d be going back across the street at 3:30. We were dog-tired when we got there, but the kids did several dances for us and got all of us to join in, which pepped us right back up. Ed got a lot of footage of that and several people have offered him ransom for the tapes!
We headed back to Ola Grande for dinner and debriefing and planned our activities for the mini-VBS we are putting on in a village near Hogar de Ninos tomorrow. Jeff says we could have from 25- 250 kids tomorrow. Whew! Talk about being flexible! (There are 3 of us who are teachers on this trip and the thought of doing what amounts to lesson plans for up to 250 kids the night before the lesson makes our blood pressure go up. I suppose if we introduce a few children to Jesus that means we´ve made average yearly progress...) We´re praying for a good turnout and to speak to the hearts of those children.
Tomorrow may be a late night again, but I will try my best to get out an email after we get back from church. Thanks for your prayers and support!!
amy
Monday was quite a day. We spent the whole day with our sponsor children! If you have ever thought that sponsorship programs for poor children worldwide are scams, everyone on this trip can assure you that Compassion International is NOT a scam. Some of us were meeting our children for the first time and some of us were meeting them for the second time, but all of us were touched by the experience. There are a million stories I could tell at this point to let you know how important sponsorship is to these children and their families, but I want you to hear them firsthand. When we get back, ask someone you know on the trip about the day with the Compassion children, but be prepared to shed some tears or for the person telling you the story to shed some! It was very difficult to leave at the end of the day and we were emotionally exhausted on the ride back home. Every time I thought I had regained my composure, some other part of the day would come back into my head and I´d cry all over again.
We stopped off at our hostel in the main part of Lima to pick up our luggage and head down the coast to Chilca, site of Hogar de Ninos orphanage and Hannah´s Home. We had a few "quick" errands to run on the way, the first of which was to pick up 140 cases of tile from Ace Hardware to take down to Hannah´s Home. The stop at Ace tested all three rules of this trip: 1. Be flexible, 2. be patient, and 3. be on time. Our translators and Jeff, our trip leader, went inside to pick up the tile that had already been ordered. The rest of us sat patiently on the bus for 40 minutes and waited. By that time we were all out of the bus and wondering what was going on. The report we got was that our tile was in the back of the store and we were waiting for it to be brought out. After another 40 minutes, giddiness and exhaustion had set in. We had eaten lunch around 1:00 and it was pushing 8:00 at this point!! Another 30 or so minutes later, 100 cases of our tiles were brought out and we were informed that the other 40 cases had to be reordered. We spent another 30 or 40 minutes loading 100 cases of tile, bags of cement mix, grout, and 4 ladders into every available space on the bus. (Ask Travis why he had to go to dinner with black arms and legs.)Picture this...one tour bus with 16 people, all of their luggage, and all the building supplies crammed into it. We were a little worried that if we got a flat, everything would have to be unloaded and reloaded in order to change the tire!! We finally got to dinner after 9:00 and by that point, everyone was starting to gnaw on the seats of the bus. : ) By the time we drove down the coast, checked into Ola Grande, and unloaded all of the luggage, it was after midnight.
This morning we headed to Hannah´s Home and started several projects. We got a lot of the outer walls painted and the kitchen ceiling varnished and the Peruvians working for ChildReach tiled the kitchen. The original plan was that we´d pick up the rest of the tile when we go back through Lima for church tomorrow night, but Jeff found out today that it would be another 3 weeks before that comes in!! It´s too bad that we won´t get to see the tile finished, but we´ll stay busy on other projects for the rest of the week.
We also got to spend a few hours at Hogar de Ninos, the orphanage across the street from Hannah´s Home. It is impossible to describe with words the feeling that came over me when we walked over there during a "break" this morning and the kids came spilling out of the front gate. Someone must have told them that we were coming b-c as soon as we started across the street, kids came out into the road to meet us. Some of us first visited Hogar a couple of years ago, and a few of the same children were still there and recognized us. Little ones jumped right up into our arms and hugged and kissed us as if they had known us their whole lives. A lot of us were moved to tears and that turned out to be the longest bathroom break in history. ; ) The break was good for reenergizing us, though, b-c the sun was beating down mercilessly all afternoon. (It´s the END of summer here and the temp was well into the 90s today. People who tell you it´s not the heat, it´s the humidity, are just plain wrong!!) It made it a little easier to get the work done knowing that we´d be going back across the street at 3:30. We were dog-tired when we got there, but the kids did several dances for us and got all of us to join in, which pepped us right back up. Ed got a lot of footage of that and several people have offered him ransom for the tapes!
We headed back to Ola Grande for dinner and debriefing and planned our activities for the mini-VBS we are putting on in a village near Hogar de Ninos tomorrow. Jeff says we could have from 25- 250 kids tomorrow. Whew! Talk about being flexible! (There are 3 of us who are teachers on this trip and the thought of doing what amounts to lesson plans for up to 250 kids the night before the lesson makes our blood pressure go up. I suppose if we introduce a few children to Jesus that means we´ve made average yearly progress...) We´re praying for a good turnout and to speak to the hearts of those children.
Tomorrow may be a late night again, but I will try my best to get out an email after we get back from church. Thanks for your prayers and support!!
amy
We have arrived!
Team Ni arrived in Lima last night after a LONG, tiring day. We had long delays getting out of D.C. due to deicing procedures for the planes and we were all pretty wiped out when we got here. Today it was just gorgeous here...about 80 to 85 degrees with lots of sun! It was truly a beautiful Easter. We headed out to the city square of Lima this morning and toured the San Francisco Convent. Lots of families were out enjoying the good weather and heading to church.
After taking pictures in the square and lunch, we spent a couple of hours in the Indian market. It is amazing how quickly language barriers can be broken during shopping. : )
We attended church in the evening- Iglesia Shalom in the village of El Salvador. That was an AMAZING experience. The members greeted us with big bear hugs and kisses, as if we had known each other for years. The service, of course, was conducted in Spanish, but Ricky, our guide, went up on stage and translated for us. It was nice to be able to follow the message, but truthfully, the energy that was present transcended any language barriers. The pastor spoke about David planning the tabernacle for God and how, even though the structure wasn{t built for a long time, the church was not a building but existed in the hearts and minds of the believers. As we listened, I thought about how strong the Holy Spirit was in that makeshift church on the outskirts of Lima...the lack of facilities (or maybe the lack of permanance) didn{t dampen those people/s faith one iota. In that aspect, Ni River has a lot in common with the congregation of Iglesia Shalom.
Tomorrow is Compassion Day and we will be spending the entire day with our sponsor children. I feel like it{s Christmas!! I{m not sure if I{ll sleep much tonight. I{m sure I{ll have a lot to write tomorrow night.
Adios! Dios te bendiga!
amy
After taking pictures in the square and lunch, we spent a couple of hours in the Indian market. It is amazing how quickly language barriers can be broken during shopping. : )
We attended church in the evening- Iglesia Shalom in the village of El Salvador. That was an AMAZING experience. The members greeted us with big bear hugs and kisses, as if we had known each other for years. The service, of course, was conducted in Spanish, but Ricky, our guide, went up on stage and translated for us. It was nice to be able to follow the message, but truthfully, the energy that was present transcended any language barriers. The pastor spoke about David planning the tabernacle for God and how, even though the structure wasn{t built for a long time, the church was not a building but existed in the hearts and minds of the believers. As we listened, I thought about how strong the Holy Spirit was in that makeshift church on the outskirts of Lima...the lack of facilities (or maybe the lack of permanance) didn{t dampen those people/s faith one iota. In that aspect, Ni River has a lot in common with the congregation of Iglesia Shalom.
Tomorrow is Compassion Day and we will be spending the entire day with our sponsor children. I feel like it{s Christmas!! I{m not sure if I{ll sleep much tonight. I{m sure I{ll have a lot to write tomorrow night.
Adios! Dios te bendiga!
amy
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