Here are some pictures of our Family Bible Study Christmas party. Children and their parents enjoyed decorating cookies, lots of fun and crazy games, food, gifts, and an incredible presentation of the Christmas story, put on for the parents by the kids. A friend who has been on staff for several years commented on how amazing it was to see kids, who were living on the streets just a couple of years ago, acting out the story of the coming of our Lord. We are so blessed to see, even if just in part, God's redeeming grace at work in the lives of our friends.

Outside the City

Day three

Day three began with Chi puking in bed which set the tone for our day of staying around the house and relaxing. After the puking incident, Chi perked up and was fine the rest of the day. The following pictures show the events that happen on a daily basis for the neighborhood kids, which include going to the market, playing in the creek, and witnessing the preparations of cow intestines for the local market. We also visited a local pool with brown water later in the day and stopped by a street vendor for grilled cow intestines. Eli continued eating because he thought it was ham. He was not thrilled when he later found out the truth.

Above: Beautiful vegetables and fruit available daily

Below: Cow intestines also available daily

Above: Playing in the creek with the neighborhood kids

Below: This boy sucked on a fish head for about 30 minutes. Our kids wanted to follow suit, but Geoff advised otherwise

Above: A cart that carries people to the other side of the river

Below: Lily got to ride to the other side and help feed the pigs and chickens

Above: Cow intestines hanging to dry

Below: The small shack used to prepare the cow parts

Time Outside the City

Day Two

You know that you're a "bad" blogger when it takes you three weeks to post two days worth of pictures and comments. Our plan was/is to post pictures from each day of our trip...At this rate we should be done around March.

Day two was our favorite day of the trip. We started by visiting with the in-laws (Elita's mother-in-law and father-in-law) before treking through the jungle and up a mountain to the coolest waterfall in the world. (We visited the third tallest waterfall in the world on day four, but this waterfall gets my vote for the "most-totally-awesomemest.") The adventure was led by Elita's father-in-law, who, at sixty+ years of age, hacked his way through thick underbrush and scaled steep inclines to guide us to this hidden paradise. And as if this wasn't impressive enough, he carried Zeke on his back during most of the hike home.

The kids were pretty impressive as well. The hike to the waterfall took nearly two hours and the kids (including Chi) walked the entire way. Raechel and I hypothisize that following a man with a machete (who they now call "machete-man") as he cut a route through the dense foilage of the jungle endowed the kids with supernatural power. I think they could of kept walking for another couple of hours...

In a word this adventure was AWESOME!!!

After the hike we returned to the in-laws' for dinner. We were soaking wet from walking the last 20 minutes in pouring rain and were given dry clothes to change into. (Check out Raechel's sweet, skin-tight, brown garb...She is stunning regardless of what she wears, but I really enjoyed the spandex and striped sweater.) The kids LOVED this house. It was filled with animals (cats - for mousing, and everthing else - including the guinea pigs - for eating). The kids were diffinately in their element.

Enjoy the pictures.

Eli showing off the machete

Amazing scenery

Getting some sweet lemons from a tree right off the path

Chi and mom enjoying some of the lemons

A log bridge that we crossed

Bananas growing wild

Crossing the creek where only a few of us got wet

Dad and the kids enjoyed getting wet climbing in the falls

Zeke being carried home on the perilous path by a 60 year old man

We took shelter from the rain in a very primitive house with an amazing view and some puppies for the kids to play with

After the long hike in the rain

Back at the in-laws house where the kids were enjoying all of the animals

The sweet brown spandex

It was also the home of this regal rooster

The guinea pigs fattening up for the market...yum yum

The fire where are dinner was prepared

Chi and Lily helping to make chifles (fried banana chips)

Our chicken dinner

In the kitchen where the whole chicken was being prepared for the fire and below is coffee beans being dried out and prepared to sell

Time Outside of the City

Day One

On the first full day of our grand adventure, we attended a local church and then spent the rest of the day sightseeing near Pedro Ruiz. We visited a fish hatchery tucked away up in the mountains. After exploring the hatchery, we took a short boat tour on a nearby lake before ending our excursion at a bird sanctuary. The sights, sounds, and smells that we soaked in provided a welcome contrast to the sensory overload we are accustomed to in Lima.

This is the church that we attended. It is pastored by our friend's father-in-law. They asked Geoff to preach several times but he kindly refused for lack of Spanish.

The landscape of the hatchery was drenched with rich floral life.

The kids wasted no time exploring this place and almost fell into the water several times

When I saw the lake, I felt like it was something out of a postcard. It was incredible.

This was the boat that we rode around the lake on while the kids took turns climbing up on the front, which nearly gave me a heart attack

The paparazzi found us...These Peruvians could hardly believe there was a white family of 6 in this remote part of Peru.

This was an old sugar cane press at the bird sanctuary. My kids thought for sure it was a jungle gym.

If you can find the humming bird in this picture, you win a prize.

Time Outside the City

We left on Friday, October 29th, for northern Peru. After a 26 hour bus ride, we arrived at our friend's childhood home in Pedro Ruiz, a pueblo (small town) nestled in the mountains of the Amazonas. Our kids immediately made their presence known in the neighborhood by enjoying some down and dirty play with the local boys. They were thrilled to be out of the city, and we were in awe of God's creative power reflected in the natural beauty of this place.

Our kids enjoyed all of the neighborhood dogs. It was really kind of gross...all the licking, yuk.

We were generously given the bottom floor of a house which normally serves as a living room and kitchen. Sleeping in one room worked for me because I could go to bed at 8:00 with the kids and not feel guilty.

The street in which all of the neighborhood kids gathered and endlessly played.

Walking up to the market, approximately a five minute walk.

The front door of our house for the week.

Our first purchase was three slingshots for the kids for less than a dollar a piece. All of the neighborhood kids had one. It was humbling to be taught by a four year old how to operate a slingshot. By the way, the river in this picture was just outside our front door and offered us a melodic salutation each time we opened the door.