Past 2 Weeks

July 31, 2010

Hi All,

Hope this update finds you all very blessed. It has been a busy time since the team left on the 18^th. First we had to go out to Amazonas on an emergency trip to encourage the church. It was a quick trip but fruitful. There is a little Kayleen (Picture Kayleen from Amazonas)

in Amazonas who just turned 2 and now is not so scared of me and the other little Kayleen from Requena turned 1 and came to Iquitos to visit so I got to see both of them which was neat.

(Picture-Kayleen from Requena)

Last Saturday night we had our first children’s lock-in here at the church with about 40 children showing up to stay the night. We sang, had a message, ate, played games, watched a Veggie Tales movie and finally went to bed. The kids all loved it and keep asking when we will do it again. We have a lot of kids that go to the various cell groups but don’t come to Sunday School on Sunday

so our goal was to get them acquainted with the kids from other areas and to get them acquainted with the church so it seemed to be a great success from that standpoint.

Monday we got all ready to go to Yanashi and when we got to the port, someone told us that the boat to Yanashi for that day had broken down. Thankfully we had not taken all of our stuff down to the boat and we returned to the church and left on Tuesday instead. Yanashi is a 12 hour boat ride to get there and a 24 hour boat ride to return as it is against the current. Lucy’s 13 year old niece and 3 year old nephew

(Picture-Carlitos, Maria and I) arrived from San Lorenzo which is a 4 day boat ride away while the team was here and are leaving Monday so they traveled with us. It was a bit more difficult traveling with them only because we had to think more about what we were going to eat and drink. Many times when it is just Lucy and I, we go hungry out in the communities but we couldn’t really do that with a 3 year old so we had to put a little more thought into the trip.

We arrived about 10 pm. Tuesday night and set up our mosquito nets and went right to sleep. The next day was the 28^th of July which is Independence Day here in Peru so we went and watched the different people march and got ready to go to Nuevo Esperanza the next day to evangelize. We took a dugout canoe to Nueva Esperanza which was about 2 hours away and found all of the people in a minga which is where someone makes a big meal and everyone works together to harvest their crops. The people there are open to the gospel though and asked us to come back some evening to have a service and stay the night. The church in Yanashi plans to go there with their youth this next month. While there, I saw 2 snakes…one living and one dead. The dead one here is a type of coral snake, (Photo--Nacu Nacu)

very poisonous and the live one is a loro machaco which is also very poisonous.

On the way back we saw some eagles, macaws and a sloth swimming across the river. It was quite the day of wildlife for us. When we returned to Yanashi, we bathed in the river to get ready for service that night. The church there is doing well and is excited by the thought that they may someday have a church plant in Nueva Esperanza. (Photo-Loro Machaco)

(Photo-sloth crossing the river)

Friday morning we had to get on the boat to return at 6 a.m. and we arrived back in Iquitos this morning. Carlitos and Maria (Lucy’s niece and nephew) have to get on a boat to return to their town on Monday so we had to get back to Iquitos to finish up some things here in Iquitosbefore they leave. I feel absolutely exhausted but tonight I have to teach the youth group and Tuesday night I have to preach in the church in Iquitos. I am not prepared for either of these things and feel like I am going to fall over right now from lack of sleep so I guess I’d better go for now and try to take a quick nap before I prepare for this evening. I keep thinking of all of the things we have to do such as visit the churches in the Tahuayo river and then get ready making the purchases—cement, food ect for the team that is coming in August to put in the cement floor and build the parsonage in Tamshiyacu. It will be more difficult logistically than theIquitos trip as many of the supplies cannot be purchased in Tamshiyacu and we will have to buy the materials, take them down to the port to ship them on the boat then make arrangements for someone in Tamshiyacu to get the materials to where they need to be. I know that it is all in God’s hands but sometimes it is difficult to get my mind to shut off. Well, I miss you all very much. Please write to me and don’t forget me. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.

In His Service,

Kayleen