Every day is a new day, filled with something new to see. The Photo365 Project is a fun way to challenge myself into seeing the ordinary and mundane things of life in a new way. I am challenging myself creatively and will be sharing my results on a daily (or semi-daily) basis. (Don’t worry, if I miss a few updates to the site, it does not mean I have forgotten to take a photo for that day!)
But more importantly, the Photo365 Project is a way to get into the habit of carrying my camera with me everywhere.
To see photos from the Photo365 Project, follow them on Flickr or in Photo365.
After 10 days of meetings, 3 interviews, and 2 presentations in Miami….
I am an official Latin America Mission missionary appointee to work with Scripture Union in Peru!
This means that I will be moving to Peru to work with Scripture Union full time. This means leading and translating for work teams from the US and UK, teaching English at one of the Casa Girasoles homes, working with the deaf program in Lima, and being the entire communications department for the organization (think website, communication with supporters, photographs, etc). Of course, all of this is just an example of what I will be doing and I expect that this job description will change frequently… It is a Latin culture after all!
You might be wondering why I am involved with the Latin America Mission? Answer is simple, the LAM will be my “sending mission” to work with an already formed partnership between the LAM and Scripture Union Peru. There are already three others involved with the LAM and SU (Billy and Yashmin Clark, Pablo and Bertha Lavado and my friend, Billy Greenman). When I expressed interest in working with SU full time, both Billys recommended the LAM for their excellent support and philosophies. But from becoming more familiar with the LAM over the past few months, I am finding my own reasons for appreciating the organization. One unique thing about the LAM is that its partner ministries are run by nationals in the country – not North Americans coming in to “fix” everything, rather working alongside Latin Americans (and in my case peruanos) to help them in what they are already doing.
Being accepted as a LAM missionary appointee and before I am able to move to Peru to work with Scripture Union, I need to raise monthly support to assist me in this ministry. I need to raise $3,500 a month, which includes things like housing, food, administrative costs, and insurance. In addition to financial support, I am also looking for prayer partners who will commit pray for my ministry, health, and any other needs I will have over the next few years. I will be updating this site with specific prayer requests and updates about my work.
So over the next few months I will be visiting different groups and churches, sharing what I will be doing (and what is already happening in Peru) with Scripture Union. If you are interested in hearing about this exciting new opportunity I will be undertaking, let me know! Give me a call or send an email and I am more than happy to share more about what I will be doing with you, your small group, or congregation.
What some have called “the disaster the world ignored” is now becoming more and more clear as some humanitarian aid makes its way into the Cusco region, after residents of the state have lost their homes due to the recent days of heavy rain. Since the news focus on international disasters has been directed at Haiti over the past three weeks, very little information about the Aguas Calientes/Machu Picchu/Cusco floods has made it to the US version of CNN.
Searching on the internet, one will find plenty of information about the stranded American, Argentine, Chilean and European tourists that were stuck in Aguas Calientes when the rain washed out the train tracks, the only access to the city. You can read about tourists being evacuated in helicopters and presidential planes, the extreme inflation of goods such as bottled water and crackers, and how bad this disaster is for the tourism and agricultural economy of the region. It takes a deeper look, and more thoughtful search to find out how the Peruvians living in this area were affected.
I have found a few different sites or posts (in English) that covered how the nationals are dealing with this disaster and have shared them here.
Two posts from the “…En Perú” blog that show pictures of the region, photos of houses being washed away, flooded farming fields, and what is being done in the area. The first, Humanitarian disaster in Cusco includes the best photos of the current situation and an updated time line of what has been happening over the past week. The second, Emergency declared in Cusco, includes video from the last train leaving Aguas Calientes and returning back to Cusco.
Finally, here is a video from CNN that shows some of the damage that has happened in the Cusco-Aguas Calientes region.
As many of you know, Scripture Union operates one of its homes for abandoned boys in the area, the Casa Girasoles Valle Sagrado (Sacred Valley Home). There are approximately 40 boys living in this home, with house parents Héctor and Maritza, and their two children. Unfortunately due to the flooding of the Urubamba River, which runs along the back of the property, the home has sustained very serious structural damage, but thankfully no one was in the home at the time.
Hector and Maritza had decided to take the boys and staff of the home away for a vacation during the summer holiday, a trip that would be make memories for a lifetime for their 40 boys. Throughout the past year, Hector and Maritza have been very resourceful with supplies and funds and were able to make the 24+ hour trip to Kawai, another home operated by Scripture Union, which is located on the Pacific Ocean one hour south of Lima.
Upon their arrival to Kawai, they learned of the news of the flooding in Cusco. Hector has since returned to the home to assess the damage and salvage whatever can be used. From reports, it appears that the home has suffered major damage and will need to be completely re-built. It is unclear as of right now where the boys from the Sacred Valley home will be living while renovations and construction occurs on their home. Please keep each one of those boys, staff members, Hector, Maritza and SU workers in your prayers.
For some more information about Scripture Union’s abandoned boys home in the region, the Casa Girasoles Valle Sagrado, I refer to Billy’s website about his time in Peru.
Billy writes:
A Big Prayer Request and a Huge Praise
“This past week has presented us at Scripture Union with some difficult problems, and I appreciate your prayers for wisdom in decisions that are going to have to be made in the coming months. You may or may not have heard anything about the flooding in the Sacred Valley in the past week. CNN has been following it because the record flooding has taken out a significant part of the train line to Machu Picchu leaving 2500 tourists stranded in Aguas Calientes.
Anyway, the floods have been incredibly violent, and they have completely washed our boys’ home away. There is basically nothing left of the building. The good news is that for months and months Hector (the house father for Cusco) has been saving money from his budget because he really felt like God had placed on his heart to take all of the 42 boys plus more volunteers and staff workers on vacation to one of our other campsites just south of Lima on the Pacific Ocean. Most of the children had never before seen the ocean, and Hector really wanted to see it. The vacation was originally planned for the first two weeks of January, but at the last minute a situation came up that forced them to change it to the last two weeks of January. Praise God for his timing. I know that it was Him that put this vacation on Hector’s heart, and He is taking care of the boys. The water arrived at our boys’ home in a flash flood in the middle of the night that almost immediately covered over the bottom level of all of the boys bunk beds. Eventually it rose to the top level of the bunk beds too. The building is made out of the traditional mud adobe bricks, and it has now been washed away. I can’t imagine the tragedy that would have happened had the boys not been on vacation. Praise God for his protection over our kids!
A few days ago Billy Clark (my boss) had a meeting with the person who donated all of the money for the construction of the boys’ home in Cusco. As you can imagine Billy was not looking forward to telling this man that his entire investment in this boys’ home had just been washed away. How did the man react? His words to Billy were, “Well, it’s just money. We will have to rebuild–this time with cement and bricks instead of adobes.” He has agreed to donate the complete amount to rebuild the home. Praise God for his provision!
Please join me in praying for the situation at the boys’ home. It is a difficult situation, but what an awesome testimony to these boys of how God’s hand is protecting them! Pray for wisdom as we begin to plan for the work team season in Cusco. Pray for everyone who is involved in deciding how and where to reconstruct our home. Most importantly pray for the lives of these boys who are temporarily without a home (they are currently staying at our campsite on the ocean where they came for a vacation). Also join me in praising God for His faithfulness, his provision, and his protection!”
I can only agree with what Billy has written, thanks be to God for His protecting hand, provision and for the lives of these boys. Many things will be changing for them in the future, and I ask for your continued support and prayers as they continue on.
It’s the time of the year when my home church solicits daily devotional writings for our annual Lenten Devotional book. I have signed up for two, both from Psalms, and have decided to include the first one here today. The first is from Psalm 25, and it is what I wrote for the 2009 book. That being said, I am no longer 23, and no longer necessarily facing some of the same big life decisions as I was last year at this time. Nevertheless, I think this is applicable to today more than ever, and even every day in our lives.
Psalm 25 A Psalm of David.
To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul; in you I trust, O my God.
Do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me.
No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame, but they will be put to shame who are treacherous without excuse.
Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.
Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old.
Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you are good, O LORD.
Good and upright is the LORD; therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.
All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful for those who keep the demands of his covenant.
For the sake of your name, O LORD, forgive my iniquity, though it is great.
Who, then, is the man that fears the LORD ?
He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.
He will spend his days in prosperity, and his descendants will inherit the land.
The LORD confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.
My eyes are ever on the LORD, for only he will release my feet from the snare.
Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted.
The troubles of my heart have multiplied; free me from my anguish.
Look upon my affliction and my distress and take away all my sins.
See how my enemies have increased and how fiercely they hate me!
Guard my life and rescue me; let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
May integrity and uprightness protect me, because my hope is in you.
Redeem Israel, O God, from all their troubles! NIV.
For many people, their twenties are exciting and life-changing times. Amidst the big life changes, it can be a time when some of the most crucial life decisions are made, many of which often set the path for the future. It is a time of self-discovery, new found independence found during the college years, a time of crucial decisions like what career path to follow or with whom you fall in love, and an entry into the “real world.”
As I find myself at 23 facing some of the big life decisions – what I want to pursue, where I want to live, who I want to spend my life with. When I am weighed down with these complex decisions and so many choices, I find comfort in verse 5 (“Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” NIV). Like so many other verses from the Psalms, this verse reminds us of a promise we share with God: if we do our part, God will do His.
We are constantly reminded that if we walk in step with the Lord, He will show us the life He has in store for us. Because of this covenant, we no longer have to worry, be confused, or try to figure it out on our own, all we have to do is trust, believe and obey. He is not a God of uncertainty; He doesn’t want for us to walk through our life trying to worry about our future. He wants to reveal to us the path that is chosen for us, but sometimes like with the beam of a flashlight we can only see so far and have to trust that as we keep going, we have to trust that He will continue to light the path. By slowly revealing each part of our life, it is His way of motivating us to keep going, trusting and seeking. We should not give up and forget that the promise is not a matter of if it will happen, but only a matter of when.
It is especially during these current times of economic strife, growing unemployment, and international conflict that we should not look to man for a solution to our problems. But rather, confide and trust in God, and we will persevere.
While in Kusi, we spent one of our days at the local pool. Everybody loaded up in a bus with swim gear, sunscreen, soccer balls and of course, lunch (which no surprise was rice, potatoes and chicken) to enjoy the beautiful sunny day at the pool.
Here’s a video of the boys going down (and back up) the slide.
After not being too satisfied with the videos I had recorded on my little Canon point-and-shoot camera, I decided to upgrade my video recording capabilities and buy the new Flip MinoHD to record short videos from various trips – most specifically, all the adorable and hilarious things the Girasoles do. Thanks to Amazon.com and their quick shipping, I was able to take my new camera with me over the holidays and record.
Here are three of my favorite videos, two from Ica and the third from Kusi.
After a long day of adventures, these boys from Girasoles Ica were exhausted and ended up falling asleep at the dinner table. Those that didn’t wake up on their own, were carried to bed by Julio, the educator of the home. Notice the boy seen at 23 seconds into the clip that is asleep and still eating!
Anything with Sanchez makes my top ten, and as you can see in this video, he is quite a busy and energetic kid. If he stops running around for just 2 minutes, he quickly falls asleep (as seen by the previous video). Here you can see Sanchez being silly and sharing a little love with Billy while Pampachay practices in the background.
And finally, Kusi. One of the things we brought down to play with the boys was the game, Rummikub. We first introduced this game to the boys in Ica when we were there in June, but I think the meaning and rules of the game were lost on many of the boys. Nevertheless, it was included in our suitcases for Kusi. Maybe instructions were more clear this time, or they just understood better. In this video, Eloy, Cococho and Eli are playing together. Cococho (in the blue shirt) somewhat understood, Eloy (in orange) was getting the hang of it, but Eli (in the blue Southlake sweatshirt), was an expert! If this was chess, he would be in candidate master territory.
This year I was given one of my Christmas presents a little early, and it is probably the best gift I have received. Since I love to travel, explore, and basically, leave Michigan, a safe bet for presents is something to do with packing, traveling, frequent flying, suitcases, camera, etc. My brother, who knows this all too well, gave me a set of travel speakers that I can use on my computer and iPod while on the road.
If that was my “best gift ever, ” this would be a short post and most likely not named “Peruvian Christmas.” If you haven’t figured it out, I was given a plane ticket to return to Peru for the holidays, 12 days with good friends, the Girasoles and the beautiful sunny countryside – all accompanied by my mother and brother.
We leave tomorrow morning, yes on Christmas Day, and will spend 5 days in Ica, 4 days in Kusi (including New Years Eve) and the final day in Lima.
So as of tomorrow night, I’ll be back in one of my favorite places.
(Videos, photos and stories will be posted upon my return.)
This entry has taken me a few weeks to write. It is not because it is particularly long or that I have been procrastinating, but rather it has been on my heart and in my thoughts frequently over the past month.
About a month ago now, I happened to be online at the same time Patty, who is the wife of the director of the Girasoles abandoned boys home in Puerto Alegria – the home I spent 2 months at during the 2009 summer work team season. We connected via MSN Messenger and were catching up with what had been happening in each of our lives over the past few months since I had left the home to return to the States. I asked her if any of the boys had left the home and were no longer living there. She replied that a few new boys had come and gone since I left in mid-August, but one boy had returned to the city of Iquitos and was no longer with them.
It is not unusual for boys to leave Puerto Alegria (or one of the other Casa Girasoles homes Scripture Union operates) to return to their home. Some of the boys just become bored with the lifestyle – the new structure in place, new rules, and having to go to school – or they just simply want to return to their home. This sounds like a great thing, they are returning to their parents or family and life will be great. Unfortunately, in most cases, the boy was visited by somebody in his family who said how much they loved/missed them, how much they (both the family and boy) had changed and how they would love to have the boy back home. While this sounds ideal, it usually is lies and nothing has changed, or it hasn’t changed enough.
So when I heard that one of the boys had left the home, it seemed natural. During the 8 weeks I lived in Puerto Alegria, there were a handful of boys that came and left during that short time. But this boy surprised me. Every time I think about him, I can only remember him smiling and in a cheery disposition. Even though on the outside he seemed like any other teenage boy, I cannot imagine the life he led before coming to Puerto Alegria. In his free time, he enjoyed to dance and invent his own choreographed dances to songs on my iPod. He was helpful and respectful, and just a fun, good kid.
Since it has been at least a month since he left, I do not know if he has returned or what he is doing now. Maybe he has returned to Puerto Alegria, maybe things are better with his family than they were before he first left, maybe… It makes me sad to think that he left a great place to return to a dangerous life, but there is nothing we can do besides pray for his safety and good judgment.
Pampachay Girasoles organization is in partnership with the Casa Girasoles Ica, home to 40 children and adolescents between 3 and 16 who have experienced family violence or who have been rescued from the street.
The project Pampachay Girasoles seeks to implement music workshops, singing and dance for children of the Casa Girasoles develop artistic skills and teamwork. In turn, these workshops and projects will help generate income to ensure higher education studies after graduation from high school.
The purpose of the group is two-fold: use of recycled material for the creation of musical instruments and the formation of a band and recording and selling CDs. “Pampachay” is a Quechua word that means “overcoming difficulties” and Girasoles (Spanish for sunflowers) represent the life that always looks forward.
Pampachay Girasoles started its activities by hiring a professor of music and then the purchase of musical instruments like a guitar and keyboard, which will be used in addition to the recycled material required for the construction of instruments.
On Saturday November 7, Pampachay Girasoles spent the fay making their recycled musical instruments with the help of Telefonica volunteers. At this time they have practiced a number of musical pieces, and together with their teacher are composing and writing new lyrics. Thanks to efforts of the director of the Casa Girasoles Ica, they will produce a new CD soon.
The video is finally done! After months of reviewing hours of raw footage, selecting music and editing pieces together, the 09 video is finally done and ready to be watched.
Each year, the team from Dearborn puts together a video of their experiences while in Peru. Here you can watch the video from the 09 trip to the abandoned boys homes Scripture Union operates in the Sacred Valley, Kawai and Ica.
I will be an exhibiting artist at the International Holiday Botique sponsored by the Dearborn Community Arts Council. Located in the Ford Community & Performing Arts Center’s Padzieski Gallery, the boutique will feature pieces for sale created by local artists.
The International Holiday Boutique offers a wonderful opportunity to view and purchase original artwork and handicrafts made by exceptional artists from our region while supporting Michigan talent. The boutique’s sale will be a chance for residents of the community to find that unique, handmade gift perfect for friends and family.
The show opens this Thursday, November 19th at 7pm with a reception in the Padzieski Gallery.
The gallery will be open weekdays from 12-6 pm and 1 hour prior to performances at the Michael A. Guido Theater, running through December 18. Admission to the gallery and November 19th reception is Free.
Earlier today, members of the CREW Youth Group at First Presbyterian Dearborn ventured out into downtown Detroit to set up tables in front of the Neighborhood Service Organization Tumaini Center.
Every month, CREW prepares a hot meal to share with 175 hungry people in Detroit. This particular meal they served, was a generous portion of Panko Chicken, roasted red skin potatoes, steamed butternut squash, green bean medley, pumpkin pie/apple crisp, fresh baked rolls and a bottle of water. Each full-course serving costs less than $2 per person.
This is, by far, one of our most popular events with the members of CREW.
More photos from the meal can be found on Flickr.
A video about the project can be found here.
