Arriving to Chontabamba

We began in Chontabamba on March 15th. We arrived to find the house we are renting being repaired and worked on still. We began opening up boxes and assembling items to make the house livable and comfortable. These last two weeks have been spent moving into the house and evangelizing in the area. We have been able to visit surrounding ministries and preach in churches. 

Our door bell rang at 6:00am by our neighbor to warn us that the river was overflowing and causing flooding. This news alarmed us since our house is only one block from the river. Upon further investigation, it was a comfort to know that our side of the riverbank was higher than the other side and that the river was flooding the other side. It's also a comfort to have a three story house that if needed we could be elevated. After three straight days of hard rain many things were affected. We have been told that there are fourteen areas on the main road leaving the jungle that have been destroyed or blocked and would take a long time to repair. The internet signal for the town was down and not working. The flooding lasted two days and affected select areas. 

 The tunnel that collapsed a few months earlier had just been repaired and has opened back up.

 Magnets from different places that we've visited in the States remind us of home.

 I got to preach in different churches.

 The girls have been a big help with the move.

 Our dog, Max, has made adjustments into his new area as well. It didn't help that a small neighbor dog entered into our walled yard and bothered our dog who was chained up causing a fight.

 Max stays outside while our cat Kit remains inside so not to bother each other.

 The garage was worked on with a wall, new door and lights.

 Visiting the ministry of Missionary Johnny Farfan.

 Neighbor kids continue to come and visit to play table games and play with our dog.

Trip to Huancayo

With Jon starting the trip from Oxapampa to Lima than to Cusco than to Andahuaylas and now arriving into Huancayo has been almost two weeks. It was a blessing to stop in Huancayo to fellowship with our friends and see how Potter's Baptist Church was doing. We spent almost three years helping establish this church and praise the Lord that it has a permanent leader and is independent. We're praying with them as they look to buy their own church property and continue to grow. 

Trip to Andahuaylas

After retrieving the family and pet from Cusco we planned our trip to return to Oxapampa. It took three days to travel through the mountain roads during the rainy season. We are thankful for the prayers for safety. We were able to witness so many things on our trip from bungee jumpers, rainbows, and beautiful scenery.

 Our first day's goal of was to go from Cusco to Andahuaylas. It's normally about a seven hour trip but with a dog and weather took us about 8 hours. Andahuaylas is where we were on our first term at Abundant Life Baptist Church. It was a blessing to reacquaint with friends. We were told that the post office might still be holding some of our mail from the last four years.

 When Nisha went in and asked if we had any mail the postman wondered when we were going to come receive them. There were over thirty letters for us.

 The second day of traveling was from Andahuaylas to Huancayo. It took us over eleven hours on roads we had never traveled that proved to be an adventure for me with a 4x4 but and scary dangerous trip for Nisha who doesn't like to put herself in harms way with one lane muddy roads and steep drop offs. I was able to sneak a few pictures while driving but was not allowed when it began getting dark, raining and windy.

 Other cars were getting stuck in small rivers and needed help to get through. God gave us safety and allowed us to arrive in Huancayo about 9:30pm.

Trip to Cusco

Once finished with all the paperwork and obtaining supplies from Lima it was time to travel to Cusco to get Nisha, the girls, and our dog. The trip took two days, about 19 hours to complete. 

The mountain views were breathtaking in more than one way. The height at times was over 16,000 feet, with many curved roads. 

 I arrived to Cusco safely and was able to stay with the Ricker family for a couple of days to preach in their church and understand his ministry better. We're thankful for their hospitality and care for our family.

 Cory Ricker and I went to parks where the deaf were meeting to invite them to church and to the upcoming conference. Peru has certain festival traditions and customs that take time getting used to and understanding, like throwing water balloons at complete strangers or spraying shaving cream/soap at people but not done out of hatred.

Trip to Lima

It was now time to travel to Lima to receive final papers for our new vehicle. Now that the title was processed in our name, it was time to put the license plate, exhaust papers, and tinted window permission into our name as well. 

 It's a time consuming thing to get paper work done in Peru especially with so many law changes each year. After visiting the police transportation office I was told that the window tint on our vehicle that passed last year was now too dark and needed to be changed in order to be approved.

 After changing the window tint I was told to return after four days to receive the paperwork. I was able to stay with veteran missionaries Tom and Caroline Pace and enjoy the fellowship at some of the Lima churches and ministries. I visited La Molina Christian School and Fetzer School for missionary kids to see what God is doing in their ministries.

 Missionary Tom Pace took me for a ride in his Model-A car as we visited a car museum and surrounding areas.

 It was a blessing to visit and fellowship with Missionary Stan Templeton.