Our Pastor visits us in Peru

Jon flew down to the capital city of Peru, LIMA to meet up with our Pastor (Scott Estell) from our sending church (FaithWay Baptist).

 The plan was to get a little sleep at a nearby church before catching our plane into the mountains early in the morning. But there was a party hall across from the church that extremely loud all night. This is a picture of our Pastor taking a picture of the party hall playing their loud music.

 Pastor and Jon purchase happy meals at McDonald's while waiting at the airport at 4:30 am for their next flight.

 They have to load onto a bus to be taxied out to their plane.

 Pastor is boarding the Star Peru plane to go to Andahuaylas.

 We slept on the plane ride that lasted about 45 minutes but arrived safely.

 The welcome sign at the airport while waiting for our bags.

 The family was so excited to receive items from the States that cannot be found in Peru. Thank you to all who provided the items for our Pastor to bring down for us.

 Pastor is watching a celebration in the plaza.

 Pastor fellowshipping before a church service.

 Pastor visits Leonardo, a carpenter from the church who was asked to prepare the wooden blocks for the Cootie game.

 Pastor is given the opportunity to hold one of their guinee pigs that they are raising to eat.

 Pastor is in front of Gary's house getting ready to go to Sondor which is an Inca Ruin in the Mountains.

 Pastor is given a combi ride which is a van used in the valley for public transportation. It becomes extremely crowded at times but is very cheap transportation.

 The griengos (foreigners) get all kinds of looks.

 This vehicle is called Max, it used to increase ones faith. We took Pastor in Max on the Mountain roads to go see the camp land that was given to the church.

 The tiny spec on the top of the mountain is Pastor who took the challenge of getting a better view from up above.

 Pastor gets a chance to sit in on a class at the Bible Institute on Friday but it was difficult for him not knowing any Spanish.

 Gary translates for Pastor at the Single Adults activity.

 Group photo of the Single Adults Class Activity.

 Gary translates for Pastor's preaching on Sunday.

 Pastor's last night in the mountains, gets invited to a restaurant from one of the families in the church and gets introduced to Peruvian drinks.

 Jon goes back with Pastor to Lima to show him the differences between the coastal cities from the mountain towns. This is a picture of the big Catholic church in the main plaza of Lima.

 We rented a small car and was able to drive all around visiting stores, tourist indian market, Larcomar mall, inquisition museum, and this statue of Jesus which was recently put up to be the statue facing the Pacific Ocean matching the Brazilian one which faces the Atlantic Ocean.

Family Camping

It was a blessing to be able to bring a tent from the States with us. It has been used for camping in the Mountains and can not be found in any stores here in Andahuaylas. 

 Our family decides to camp out in the yard together.

 The children set up an area for a bonfire by collecting the wood and bricks.

 Our family tent from Walmart.

 We enjoy roasting marshmellows for our S'mores over the fire. The liked it when their marshmellows made torches.

 The nights get much colder than the day here in Peru.

 Nathan finds a snake in the backyard. It is not often you see one of them in the high altitude but the Amazon is just on the other side of the Mountain range.

 Just behind our house we see many neighbors walking by carrying bundles of a variety of items along with many animals.

 Our neighbor is here preparing for the winter nights by chopping up wood to burn. The Peruvians here in the valley are hard working.

 Another neighbor here is preparing her land for gardening.

 Nathan is having fun playing with the neighbors cat. He knows that his dad would not care to own one.

Church ministries

Jaime's Family is one of the families in the church

 The Lord's Table is prepared in the church.

 The Bible Institute first starts with bringing in the teacher for a week of classes and than following up the remaining classes via internet on the big screen with microphones on the tables for interaction.

 Pastor Rafael Ramirez will be starting up an Evangelism and Discipleship course this week that will run every Tuesday for two hours via internet. Jon has been put in charge of monitoring this class. 40 people have signed up for the class already from the church.

Church 3rd Anniversary

The church has celebrated their 3rd year anniversary with a banquet and a conference. This is Rebecca at the market where the chicken is purchased.

 Nisha is baking the cakes for 250 people. This is a challenge of cooking in the high altitude of the Mountains.

 Other church people assist in preparing the meal for the banquet.

 Chickens are prepared for cooking as Corn on Bleu.

 Cakes turn out and taiste good.

 200 adults and 60 children show up for the anniversary celebration.

 The church is located on a main street and many times has pedestrians looking in the windows of the church.

 The nursery becomes over-crowded at times.

 The children are in the church while the adults are in the banquet hall next door.

 Matthew and Nathan running the games for the children during the anniversary.

 Milagros is helping cook the chicken.

 Pastor Rafael Ramirez from Venezuela comes to speak at the conference

 Everyone seemed to enjoy the food and fellowship at the conference.