Young dogs can learn new tricks

Our dogs "Miracle" and "Max" are only 5 and 6 months old. They are learning so many tricks and have become such a part of our family. 

The Circus came to our town

Our children were excited when the Circus came to our town. It's easy to get the "valley syndrome" if you're not careful. Jon calls the "valley syndrome" the time in which a person gets stuck in a rut of doing the same things over and over and not knowing of what is outside of the valley that our town is in. There is so much more to life than what is in your small valley. 

It was fun to go to the Circus together as a family. We enjoyed the clowns, acrobatics, monkey, tigers, jugglers, and more. 

 Jon brought his glow-in-the-dark toys for the kids to play with before the circus employees would tempt them with all their more expensive toys.

Time together as a family.....Priceless and precious.

Eating at the Puma

The Puma Restaurant is by far the best in the valley. It's a special treat to go there. They have a heated pool and a playground for the children, as well as some of the best food and atmosphere for all to enjoy. 

 Jon tries to remember to bring his steak sauce as they don't offer any at the restaurant.

 It was a special time spent with the Mexican four who are here to help in the church.

 Jon has been counseling the chef "Noe" for a few weeks now. Pray for his continual growth spiritually.

Family trip to Inca Ruins

Our family took the Mexicans along with a Peruvian family to visit the Inca Ruins called "Sondor".

Our girls decided to lay on some rocks where the story is told of where they would have sacrificed things years ago. 

 Our boys decided to make it look more real and came to add to the affects.

 As Nathan takes out his knife and Matthew picks up the rocks, the girls trustingly play along.

 Jon takes out his water balloon sling-shot and allows people to launch rocks off the mountain peaks to watch them break distance records.

 Nathan attempts to do the sling-shot on his own.

 Jon and the boys on top of the Inca Ruins.

 Look closely at the two huts in the middle and above them there are a couple of vehicles. Nisha is sitting in the vehicle on the right enjoying the view, while Jon and the kids climb to the top to get a different view.

 Jon is willing to sacrifice "Aaron", one of the Mexicans staying with us a couple of months.

 While traveling down from the Mountain, we were able to see some Llama's.

 We stopped at a restaurant at the Lake to have some fresh fish for lunch.

Greenwood's have their new baby

Meet Jacob Thomas Greenwood, born in Andahuaylas, Peru on November 6th. He was 9.5 lbs and is a big, healthy boy. The proud parents are Gary and Sarah Greenwood who work as Missionaries in Andahuaylas, Peru. 

 I think Nisha was talking to him during this picture.

 He probably quickly changed his face when she asked him what he thought about...

 and then Jacob responded with the tongue, which everyone knows in baby language means....

 Yes, I'm letting your mind fill in the .... with what you would think it would be. I just thought it was cute.

 The Greenwood's now have five children (four boys and one girl). This is the second to youngest now who is holding his younger brother.

Relationships with Peruvians

Jon finds ways to interact with the Peruvians.

Pray for Billy who after salvation was getting a lot of pressure from his family to not participate with the church. He was wanting and  receiving counsel from Jon, but became overwhelmed by the pressures from outside of the church and we haven't seen him in a few weeks.

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Jon needs special papers still for our mini-van because of the tinted windows. It took him awhile to get all the forms prepared but ready to be submitted. The problem now is that the forms need to be submitted in another city four hours away. 

Alternative to Halloween

Day of the Angeles! In the main downtown plaza they took a day to celebrate "angels". Each child dressed up in an angel costume and the band played different types of songs. Granted it is hosted by the Catholic church but I thought it was handled much better by the city than the other worldly methods. I happened to be going into town at the time of the celebrations and took some pictures.

 On the day of the dead, the Peruvians take the time to visit the graveyards and put new flowers on their loved ones graves as well as recall their loved ones.
The church takes the opportunity to run some fund raisers to raise money for the teens to go to summer camp. We ran one of the fund raisers by selling Nisha's home baked cakes (tortas) and cookies (galletas).

 Catholic boys are willing to read a prayer, sprinkle water with a plastic rose, and share a blessing over a grave for some money.

 This is a picture of the venders outside the cemetary.

 Picture of the entrance to the cemetary.

 Picture of our booth were we sold the cakes and cookies.

 Matthew decides to walk around and help sell the pieces of cake.