Today I went up to Llanganuco and the Huascarán National Park for the last time this year with work teams. This beautifully blue-green lake, which is 30 meters deep, is located in the valley between Peru’s tallest mountain, Huascarán, and others in the Cordillera Blanca.

Thankfully, we had beautiful weather for spending the morning at the lake and then walking through the park.

Since Billy was with me this time, we took a photo together – something that has become sort of a tradition over the past few years (in 2008 and again in 2009).

Llanganuco is a post from: A Life in the World.

Here are some photos from the first few days in Ica.

Alexis and Augustito.

Alexis and Augustito, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Piles of new t-shirts that were brought for the boys.

T-Shirts, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Somebody from the US Census Department donated a bunch of white hats for the team to bring. The boys were given markers and a hat to decorate as they wanted, and quickly they all started to ask for us to write our names on their hat to be kept as a souvenir of our stay.

Hats, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Group photo of the current Ica Girasoles.

New Jerseys, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

Boys with their new Dearborn Soccer Club jerseys.

New Jerseys, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

And finally, Billy made a surprise trip to Ica and was able to spend a few days with us at the home. He was here when we went to the Huacachina oasis and despite it being a relaxing afternoon, he still managed to make a few preparations for his next visiting work team!

Billy, originally uploaded by katherinebruder.

More photos from the week in Ica (and the past month in Peru) can be found on Flickr, while videos are online at Vimeo.

Sunny Ica is a post from: A Life in the World.

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!

This wasn’t an overnight decision for me. I have been feeling “the call” for the past few years, but didn’t take it seriously until recently. God has been working in my life in various ways preparing me for this calling – by giving me a love for helping others, a love of travel, the gift of learning Spanish and the confidence, ability and experience during the 2008 and 2009 2 summers in serving Him with Scripture Union in Peru.

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.

After 10 Days in Miami… is a post from: A Life in the World.

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

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.

Floods in Cusco is a post from: A Life in the World.

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.

A few of my favorites… is a post from: A Life in the World.

After the quick trip to Kusi with Billy and his family, we returned to Lima on the night bus and as soon as we arrived in Lima, I took off in a taxi to another bus station where I would take a bus to Ica – 4 hours south of Lima. The entire trip, all 4 hours, was only $9. Unfortunately the bus stops frequently to pick up and drop off passengers, so the trip took more like 5 hours.

Once arriving in Ica, I met the Girasoles house father, Augusto and went to the Girasoles home to see the boys before they headed off to school for the afternoon.

The plan is to stay here in Ica tonight and then tomorrow afternoon catch another bus back to Lima, where I will go defrente al aeropuerto (directly to the airport) to catch my flight back home.

From One House to Another is a post from: A Life in the World.

At about 7:30, the boys were all up (I also forgot that they sleep in on Sundays and don´t wake up at the normal 6am!) and ready for breakfast. Since it is Sunday, they didn´t have their typical morning devotional since they were to meet later on in the day and we proceeded to have breakfast – my favorite Puerto ALegria breakfast, pancakes! But before we ate, Willy, the educator/assistant, spoke to the boys about the team from Nebraska that left the day before, about how they had come from such a long way away to share God’s love with them. Atfer mentioning the team, he changed topics and started talking about how thankful the boys should be for me – for the 2 months I spent playing, dancing, hugging, singing, and supporting them in their lives. (Me?! I was only doing what I thought I should be doing.) This made me realize that these were my last moments with them and, of course, made me cry. Things did not get better when they started to sing one of my favorite songs, La Niña de Tus Ojos, a song I woke up and fell asleep to every night while in Puerto Alegria.

When it was time to go, I carried my bags down to the maloca (the gazebo by the river) where all 43 boys were waiting for me. The littlest, Luis (who I have written about before), ran up to me and asked where I was going. I explained that I had to go to my home, that I loved him very much, and that I would miss him. He said that it was okay because he was going to come with me. After telling me this, he ran over to his Papi Willy and told him that he was going to go with me, wherever I was going. After loading my bags into the chalupa (boat), I returned up to the maloca for the final goodbyes. They charged me and one by one, I said goodbye to each boy. Some came multiple times and the whole time I was hugging them, Luis was standing at my feet with his arms around my knees and his head buried in my legs. Of course by this time I was crying and he asked me over and over again, “Why are you crying? Why are you sad?”

At some point it was time to go, time to make the last trip into Iquitos, time to leave Puerto Alegria for the last time on this trip.

(As I write this, I´m sitting in Billy’s apartment in Lima, waiting for our 11pm bus to head up to Huaraz, where we´ll take a little van to Yungay and a taxi up to our Girasoles home in Kusi. Today I will have traveled by boat, plane, bus and car to go from the Amazon jungle to the Andean highlands – all in 24 hours.)

Goodbye Amazon, Hello Andes is a post from: A Life in the World.

I should note, that this post was written by a great friend, Billy, who is also down here in Peru right now. He has taken some of the most frequently asked questions we are asked and has graciously shared his knowledge here. While this entry is quite lengthy, I do strongly encourage you to keep reading to find out about this unique abandoned boys program.

Thank you Billy for all your hard work in compiling this information.

–

Street Children & Girasoles

- Billy Greenman

Every once in awhile, I think that I will write a post to share a little bit of background and information about Scripture Union Peru and its ministries for those of you who are not incredibly familiar with the organization.

Because I am currently doing work that is specific to Scripture Union’s Girasoles program, I want to start this series of posts by explaining a little bit more about this problem with street children that we experience here in Peru as well as in many other parts of the world. I will do my best to explain the issues to the best of my knowledge, but please have some grace with me as I am fairly new to the Peruvian culture. I do not have all the answers, and much of the following information has been gleaned off of other friends, such as Paul Clark, Billy Clark, and many of the house parents in the different Girasoles homes. I will warn readers ahead of time–this is heavy stuff, but it is real. Even in the darkest places, God is working! This is a longer post, but I encourage you to read through it, and learn how you can better pray for these children.

Street Children & Girasoles is a post from: A Life in the World.

Well, as it is Peru, 20 minutes quickly turned into 2 hours before the fireworks actually started. The firework show we saw tonight would never have been allowed to happen in the States.

The night began with 7  papier-mache bull heads with fireworks loaded on top of them. Each bull head had one person underneath it who ran through the street while the fireworks were going off. We were sitting with the rest of the crowd, just 20 feet from the men running with the fireworks. Each bull started off with sparklers and various colored fireworks, and then quickly turned into shooting fireworks, which frequently landed into the crowd. It could have been described as firework roulette. Definitely not something that would ever happen in the States.

While it seems like the bulls would have been the main attraction, the biggest firework attraction was next. Instead of launching fireworks traditionally like we would do in the States, they had built a tower, or castillo, (castle) of fireworks which were lit one by one. Just as dangerous as the aforementioned bulls, the tower was not even 20 meters from where we were sitting on the steps of the church. Somebody lit the first fuse on the tower and it lit up the sky with shooting sparks and twirling colors. Shortly after lighting the first of six fuses, many little boys ran over to the fireworks and tower to play in the sparks and throw lit fuses and sparklers at each other, which was quite hilarious to watch.

After the firework finale, the band continued to play a few more selections that sound exactly alike and even ended with the same three note progression and people shot some other small fireworks into the sky.

It was a party in Urubamba!

Party in Urubamba is a post from: A Life in the World.

Dancers from one of the 10 impromptu parades Billy and I saw while in Cusco on Sunday.

This parade was to celebrate the patron saint of San Blas, which is a small neighborhood of Cusco. The dancers, which are all  dressed in ornate costumes and lots of color, danced through the streets of San Blas stopping traffic and pedestrians as they passed by.

Parade Dancers in Cusco is a post from: A Life in the World.