Last Night in Peru

Hey everyone! We went to the market one last time this morning to buy food for some people in need here in the Cajamarca area. To our surprise, Tab and I know more Spanish than we realized; we had no trouble buying the food ourselves with no help. We saw some serious poverty this afternoon when we delivered the food, so I can confidently say we helped those in need. While we are all ready to get home, I don't think any of us are looking forward to the trip. It was a long trip down here, and I'm sure it will be the same going back. We will leave Villa Millagro for the airport at 6:15 am, so you know Kels will be loving that. We will spend most of the day in Lima tomorrow, and our flight for Houston will leave around midnight. Sounds like fun! It has been an amazing trip, and we have appreciated all of your support and prayers.

Connie and Juanice -- We have A LOT of pictures to show you when we get back -- about 2 CDs worth!!

Mom -- Hope you are making it without Dad; I'll call you when we get to Houston.

Hunter and Brad's Cooleist Blog Ever

Kim,

Hey, sorry I didn't get
to talk to you last night but our calling card is out of minutes and there are no more cards. Please tell dad I would have called him and wish him happy Father's Day for me please. Last night we went to the orphange and had a hotdog roast and served them ice cream and when we started to leave a little girl about nine named Leslie asked if I would be back and when I told her no her eyes began to fill up with tears. It broke my heart!!! I miss you guys so much and are looking forward to wednesday. It has been a good trip and God has been with us every step of the way. I will try to call you tomorrow when we get to Lima.

Love you all,
Brad

Hunter's Awesome Blog

To Mom,

Today we got food for Three familes and last night we Had a weenie rost. Me and dad were serving drinks at about 100 mlh. The night before we ate Que. It was good. Tell Haleigh ; I vwill be back.

Sunday Morning From Tab

We are about to leave for Sunday School at Monte Sion. We went to the orphanage yesterday. This was a very humbling experience. The children there have nothing, but they are so gracious. There are so many needs at the orphanage. Please keep them in your prayers. This trip has truly been a life changing event. I hope that church at Fellowship goes well.

Connie- Thanks for taking care of the package.
Juanice-I hope that Josie's arm is feeling better. You were right; you can not express this trip with words.

Hi Sam , Kimberly, Natalie, Matt, Pam, and Brent. We miss you and love you.
Hi Allie and Nathanael. Aunt Tabby is ready to see you. I have a present for both of you. I miss you and love you both!!!!!!!

Walking to Sunday School

There are several of us that going to walk to Sunday school this morning. It will take us about 30 minutes to get to the church. Bro. Nuckolls was invited to preach this morning. I think he will have an interpreter. All of us are especially thinking of you and missing our church family this morning. Our Sunday school class will be in the Spanish language. I can't wait to here today's lesson! I wonder if we will be able to know which story they are telling.

Love in Christ,

April

Matara VBS and Orphanage

Chris' Saturday Night Blog

Looks like I'll be the first to tell you all about the orphanage today. First of all me, John, and Charles replaced some of the benches that were in sorry shape. Then the rest of the team joined us in the afternoon to play with the kids. It was incredibly sad. I've been to this orphanage before, but it still got to me the second time around. I'm sure everyone has a unique story to tell, so I'll just go with mine. There was one little boy there who was totally blind in one eye, and wasn't doing so hot with the other one either. However, this was the most determined kid in the whole place. We gave him some string and some beads, and he would hold it right up to his good eye and string it himself. He wanted no help from anyone. There was another girl who was partially paralyzed who was hobbling around the place with the biggest smile on her face because she was actually getting attention from all kinds of people. I had to carry her (literally) up the slide and she just laughed. The sad fact is that most of these kids will never get adopted. We ate supper with them and they laughed at our Spanish, if you could call it that. I told Tab I wish I could eat Saturday dinner with these kids every week. It is so overwhelming because it seems like they need more than we could ever give them. I wish all of you could come here to experience this just once. Believe me, it puts your entire life in perspective. I could ramble on about this for much longer, but I'll let the others tell their stories. Hope you all have good services tomorrow at church.

Neela's Blog

We have added a slideshow of some of the pictures of the food distribution. I really enjoy this part of the mission trip because you get to go into people's homes. Everyone seemed so thankful for the food.

I hope everyone is doing fine. We miss everyone but it is really a blessing to be here.

Allie and Nate we will see you soon.
Love Ma and Granddad


Hello Sam and Kimberly, Natalie and Matt, Pam and Brent,
We miss you all.

Pam give Rascal a hug for me!

Food Distribution Slideshow

Charles and Robin

Since no one but Connie has written, I assume they can't figure it all out. Anyway, the trip has been great and we're so busy each day that it has flown by! There is so much to tell and it's impossible to describe the experience that you will just have to wait 'til we get back. I just know we will be more thankful when we get home and appreciative of what God has blessed us with. The needs here are infinite and no matter how much you do, there is so much more after that. I am thankful for everything we've been able to do here- it has been a blessing. Take care of Rosie and the store and we'll see you soon. Give Victoria a hug and a kiss! We miss all of you!
Charles

Erin, Kelsey and Kerri's blog

To all my family especially Allie and Nate

Today we painted the wall at the school. I have paint all over me. I think my shoes will be white when we get finished. We are going to the orphanage later today. I miss you Allie and Nate. We will see you soon. hello everyone at church. I am having a great time.

Hi Grandma and grandpa
Erin



Hello everyone,
I miss you. I am having a great time. My favorite thing to do has been visiting the school. They have really good pizza here. It has been hard for me to understand the children but I am trying. Yesterday we played ball with some children while we were delivering food.

Hi Grandma and grandpa. We miss you
adios,

Kelsey



To my family,
Hi dad, I miss you! We painted today. I am working very hard. My shoes got really white today, if they were any whiter they would be snowshoes. Hi Kendele, Hi, Katie I am having a great time. See you soon.

Kerri

A new blog for kim. LOL> : )

okay so.. we aparantly have been named the mission team with the most internet usage that has come up here lol. today we got up, ate a huge awesome breakfast and headed back up into the mountains at over 10,000 ft. above sea level. Once in Matara we picked up our food we purchased yesturday and began delivering it to the different families. To our surprise (me, mr.lorch,ms.lorch, and erin) we had to walk almost a mile up one mountain, passed a cemetary and almost fell off what seemed to be the side of the earth trying to make it to one of the houses. Needless to say we're in horrible shape. It's almost incomprehendable that all those people walk from there to Matara to the market and to school almost everyday (many with kids strapped to their back). At one house there was a 95 year old women stuck on the ground where she was trying to pick fire wood off a tree and could not get up. We helped her into her house and gathered more firewood for her. She was about 4 ft. tall and had no shoes. Later we delivered to a man and woman a food sack and they were so grateful they gave us two baggies of these cookie type looking things although they probably had nothing else but what we had just given them. That was pretty awesome. At VBS me and ms.lorch and ashley were still head of the arts and crafts and we made necklaces today. It's entirely way too hilarious to see us try and communicate with these kids and they just laugh and laugh at our "gringo" talk. There was also a boy probable about 6 or 7 that was in what was made to be a wheel chair. It seemed as if he had cerebral paulsey but im not sure. It made me thankful that Jordan has the things he needs to be healthy and happy. Well the day ended with the always amazing food and dessert. Tomorrow will be our first day at the orphanage and we're serving them a massive chicken dinner. There's two premature babies that only weigh 3 pounds. But it should be quite the experience and we're all pretty stoked! See you guys wednesday! asta louago!

-makayla♥

Hunter and Brad Better Than Ever

Kim:
It has been a long day starting with about 4:30 this morning for me. It is such a blessing to deliver these food bags and see the total appreciation and love for the Lord each one has had. The Peruvian girls where asking about Hunter today and I had to stop them in their tracks and tell them that we were on a mission trip for the Lord and not for Hunter a girlfriend. I miss you and Haleigh so much and wish you guys where here. Give Haleigh a big kiss for me and tell her I love her. Continue to pray for us.
Love You Always,
Brad

Hunter's Awesome Blog

To Mom,
It was fun today. We handed out food baskets to families and did Vacation Bible School. I think today we had over 70 kids come today. Keep praying for us and all these people who are struggling in Peru.
From Hunter

To Issac,
So far we haven't eatin any Genie Pigs or Rabbit but I rabbit's good. I think were eating Genie Pigs and Rabbit tomorrow, I'll tell you how it is.
I'm awesome Hunter

Friday May 30--Cajamarca

We are going back to Matara today. We will be distributing food and handing out bibles in the morning. In the afternoon we will be having another V.B.S. under the direction of Neela (ha, ha). The Lord has really blessed us while we have been here. I pray that eveything is going well at Fellowship. Remember to be at church Sunday.

Bro. Richard

♥ ♥ ♥To Kim, Ms.Connie, and Mom

♥hey kim!♥
i miss you and haleigh belle so much.
i loved your comment on my blog.
it made me all happy inside.
Being the youngest in a family makes
it pretty awesome to be looked up to by
someone younger.
*as always tell the migrants i miss them
(especially valmelec *my fav*)
love you!

♥ms.connie♥
yes it is very sad to see all the animals
i really just want to put them all on a plane
and bring them back home where not only will
they be fed but also get to wear the funny clothes
that we put on our dogs. thanks for writing!

♥mom♥
it's fun down here and the food is awesome.
tomorrow we will distribute food to the families
that we bought at the market today. Tonite we had
a marshmallow roast with a mariachi band that
sung to ms.robin cuz it's her b-day. tell brady not
to stop worrying and to not be too sad. l8r.

Thanks everyone for writing! I enjoy reading them everyday! I miss and love you all..
-makayla♥

Chris' Blog for Thursday

Hey everyone! We had a great time today at the market. We are such idiots in Spanish. We had a great time laughing at ourselves, but we were able to get a lot of food. Thankfully, Elmer, the pastor at Monte Sion, helped out our group. One thing he said that really stuck with me is that even though we don't speak the same language, with Christ, everything just seems to work out. Unfortunately, I think I might lose Tab on this trip. While shopping today, some man gave her his phone number. She even took her picture with one of them! I hope I'm not going to be replaced. We had Bible School this afternoon, and as usual, me, Brad, and John were the heads of recreation and had no clue what we were doing. Tomorrow we will be distributing all the food we bought today, so I will have a lot to say tomorrow night. The girls are doing great; I'm so proud of all of them. Makayla is going to start up a Humane Society for all of the animals down here. She feels sorry for the donkeys having to carry everything. We had a long day today, so we're going to get some rest and get ready to do it all over again tomorrow. Oh and good news -- they had pizza tonight so Kels finally ate a big meal!

Connie -- The bassett hound's name is Frazier and the cocker is Diffey.
Juanice -- We're missing you a bunch down here. The food is still amazing!

From Makayla♥

Um... Okay, so we went to Marata (pronounced matata) today and bought food for the locals. It took an hour to drive there and we approached a much higher altitude. As we split into teams to go from store to store, we handed out bibles, candy, and bracelets that said Jesus te ama (jesus loves you). It was overwhelming at the responses we got. Huge crowds of people were lining up to recieve the gifts. My group (Mr.Lorch, Ms.Lorch, & Erin L.) were followed by numerous people from place to place in hopes of getting the Bibles. The candy was way accepted as well and i believe that's what we ran out of the fastest. All the animals here (cows, dogs, sheep, chickens, cats, etc.) are way different than the ones we have at home. They look as if they haven't eaten in about 10 years and none of them seem as if they have any life at all in them. You can go up to any of them and just pet them and they will act as if they don't exist. The donkeys ecspecially carry heavy loads of things like metal and corn and probably only weigh about 30-40 pounds. Its crazy. The VBS took over really well. There were not only kids there but many women as well. It was pretty overwhelming to teach them how to make a pipe cleaner and paper flower when we didn't even really know how to say the word flower in spanish. It was pretty funny actually. The food here is awesome. It's very different from american food even though they call it the same stuff. But anyways...God has blessed us with a great and safe trip so we're all pretty happy and excited to see what each day brings.
-Makayla♥

Thursday Morning

We are leaving for Matara this morning. We will go to the market to buy food for the families that we are going to give food. We will also do a Vacation Bible School at a church in Matrara. We are all looking forward to the work we will be doing today. Please pray that God will use us to plant a seed today so that someone may come to know the Lord. We were told yesterday that Monte Sion baptized 5 people as a result of last years VBS. We know that God is working here. Keep us in your prayers!

Hunter's post thats awesomer than anyone elses

To Mom,
Like you said the food is awesome.It has been fun here until it's time to go to bed. Today (Wednesday) we went to the school and painted the playground's swings and teetertoters. Tell Haleigh what Arnold Swarsaniger once said: I will be back.
From Hunter

Kim,
I am so glad you are taking care of all the things that are going on back at home. I apologize for the craziness. We are having a great time. We were informed this morning that the Lord saved five people and that He used the bible school from last year to share His message. This has been a great opprotunity for me and Hunter and I know this is hard on you but I believe the Lord is preparing Hunter for great things to come.

We love and miss you,
Brad

April's Post

Greetings family and church family! Kerri and I are having a great time, but we wish the rest of our family was here to share this experience. Katie I'm sorry I didn't get to be home with you on your 11th birthday, but I promise I will be a better mother to you as a result of being here in Peru! Today we went to a Baptist school where we got to love on some precious children. They appreciate all that Fellowship Baptist has done for them. It is amazing to find out that there is a school that is able to stay open because of what God has been able to do through our congregation.

From Makayla To Kim & Nanny

Hey Yo!
Kim-im so glad you "blogged"! it's pretty amazing up here.
i just realized today however that we're gonna miss sunday dinner : ( <<<<(thats im for a sad face lol!) tell the lil migrants i miss them much and i'll know mucho mas en espanol when i come back. I ♥ you and miss you mucho!
Nanny-im goin to try to call you tonite but don't know if ill be successful in reaching you...(*i guess it depends on if ole maxie is there ; ). you have to come next year because it has been an amazing trip. there's are millions of mountains everywhere you look and the people are really nice. the food is awesome but doesn't compare to sunday dinner. but im going to go! have fun with the summer school and help kim handle haleigh belle! i ♥ you mucho!!! tell max he's muy suave compared to these other hombres! lol. love and miss you a ton!!

-makayla♥

From Charles and Robin

We're having a wonderful time. Even though we had been told what to expect, the experience has far exceeded our expectations. Today we went to the school and the children put on a wonderful program and thanked us for the support they receive. The children are so precious and their smiling faces say so much, even though we can't understand many of their words. The tie that binds it all together is when they say "Gracias Dios", and "Jesus Cristo". We are working very hard, Robin is doing great, and the food is wonderful. No matter how hard the work, I can think that the next meal is only 3 or 4 hours away and I keep going! I am already filled with thankfulness, and yet, repentance for being one of Gods spoiled American children. I wish all of Fellowship could be here! It is truly life changing. Robin and I have seen the world, but never experienced joy like this! Pray for us. We miss you Brad, Jessie, Victoria, JoAnn, Bobby and Betty. We'll write again soon.
Charles

Erin and Kelsey's Blog

Hi Sam, Kimberly, Natalie, Matt, Allie, Nate, Pam, Brent, Grandma, and Grandpa. We love you!
We are having a great time.

Chris' Blog

Hey Mom, Dad, Juanice, Connie, Sam, Kimberly, Nat, Matt, Allie, Nate, Pam, Brent, and anyone else I forgot. The first day went great. My trip got much better after I quit taking my altitude sickness pills. The altitude is very noticeable. I got a little winded after walking to the school today. How pathetic. We saw a lot of kids today, and I'm already having to deal with Tab wanting to bring some home!!! Surprise. Juanice, I tried to call you today, but you were at lunch. What are you thinking?!?!?!?!? Hope you all have a good week. I hope to blog more later.

Mission Info

We visited Monte Sion School today. The students did a great job. After lunch we sanded and painted the playground equipment. Everything is going great.

Patty- Thanks for feeding the goats. The girl's name is Cuddles and the boy's name is Brownie. I am sure they are both getting spoiled.
Tabatha

Lunch Break

We are back at Villa Milagro for lunch. This morning the students had a special program for us. They did a couple of Christian Dances and they also sang the song for Cajarmarca. After we finished with the program we visited their classrooms and gave them all stickers. Next we began working on the plyground. Some of the equipment needed to be repaired. We go back this afternoon to paint the playground and then we will do a program for the children.

We're off to work.

We are leaving for Monte Sion School in about 5 minutes. Connie, Tab said to say thank you for taking care of her cat and dogs. Sorry about the cat's manners. Makayla is doing great, Lori. She has a lot of substitute moms to keep an eye on her. Hunter is trying the food, Kim. He is doing well. Everyone else is doing great. Juanice, please email me about your granddaughter on my school's email. Well, we're off to work!

We are here!

We had a very safe trip. We just finished our evening meal, it was delicious. Everyone is doing fine and we are looking forward to our first day of work. We will be going to Monte Sion School tomorrow to work with the children. We will also help repair the playground equipment. Keep us in your prayers.

Saturday, June 7

Just a note to say we all made it home without incident. Our flights were on time, all our luggage made it home and best of all, we didn't lose any people. It has been a long couple of travel days, and everyone was glad to be back in Arkansas, but it was a sad parting at the airport. New friendships were made, along with some great memories. Thanks again for all your prayers and support. We are already planning next year's trip...maybe you will go too!

Friday--June 6th

We made it to Lima today, problem free. We had to leave Villa Milagro at 6;45am to catch the flight to Lima, so we are all a little sleepy. Once in Lima, we have been able to catch up on some sightseeing in the city. We went to the Indian market and then to a local restaraunt for lunch. Great food once again. We saw a total of 1341 patients in all. We had four and a half days of clinic. That´s more people than we have ever seen before on a mission. We are already considering a few people to continue treatment with, but are undecided as of today. We will be leaving the hotel at 8;00pm and our flight from Lima to Atlanta will depart at 12;30am. If all goes as planned, we will arrive in Little Rock around 11;30am tomorrow. We are a bunch of blurry eyed travelers, but all is good. The Lords work has been done, and will continue in Peru. Just an update on Dr. Beller, his finger is jammed, so we think. He´s doing well. Hope to see all of you soon.

Thursday June 5 - from Sarah

Hello everyone from Cajamarca, Peru! They are working us hard here in Peru, but we are having a blast - albeit a tired one :)! Yesterday we were at Matara, a town about halfway between Cajamarca and where we were on Monday and Tuesday in Chancay. We got up with the sun, had a wonderful breakfast (as always) and headed out to Matara. We set up in an old school building and started seeing patients about 9am. The facilities were perfect for our clinic; each 'department' had their own room. We, in the pharmacy, had plenty of room to spread out all our medicines, which initially we thought to be a good thing but after the first hundred patients we started to get a bit worn out.

Our total for yesterday was ~400. We stayed busy all day and worked until the light was nearly gone. We had a nice lunch packed by the wonderful kitchen staff here at Villa Milagro. After we ate Dr. Beller challenged me to a basketball shooting competition which quickly turned into a volleyball game with some of the local children. Exerting yourself at 8900 feet elevation is a bit different than it is in Arkansas!! We had a good time and were almost injury free - our only dentist jammed his finger. We had a bit of a scare when we thought it was broken, but he is toughing it out.

We got back to Villa Milagro just in time for dinner. After dinner, David Miller told us all to grab our coats and herded us outside. We rounded the corner of one of the buildings to see bonefires and a circle of chairs with four in the middle. Turns out they had planned a suprise birthday celebration for Dr. Lambert, Sydney, Gretchen, and Glenna. Then from around the corner came a mariachi band!! They serenaded the birthday group while we roasted marshmellows, and had cake and popcorn. A good time was had by all and many of us stayed up WAY past our bedtimes.

All in all, we had a good day here in Peru. We served the people of Matara, ate some wonderful food, and had good fellowship.

Wed. June 3--Matara

Not much to say about today except Whew! We were overwhelmed today, but we saw all that came and still made it back to Villa Milagro for supper. The dental clinic had some really tough teeth to pull. We saw a couple of young girls from a village about 30 minutes away called Jocus. We went to Jocus about 4 or 5 years ago and found these 2 little girls with severe heart murmurs. We left money for them to get surgery in Lima and today they are healthy young ladies. It was good to see them. After supper tonight, we had a special event. We have 4 people with us on the trip who have had recent birthdays, so we celebrated with birthday cakes, bon fires, marshmallows and a mariachi band. Those celebrating birthdays: Dr. Lambert, Sydney Lambert, Glenna Roberts and Gretchen Cooper. Even though everyone was worn out, most found enough pep to do the line dance around the bon fire...well, of course everyone except Bro. Rick and Uncle Doyne.

PS to the Blankenships--your daughter says you guys should stay home so she can call...she thinks you are having too much fun without any children at home.

Tuesday night, June 3, 2008

Sorry about not being in contact for a couple of days. Sunday morning, after a big breakfast of Nancy's hot pancakes, we were off to church at Monte Sion with Bro. Ricky preaching. Bro Ricky had a very good message and kept it to a quick 15 minutes even with Carlos translating. All went well until after church service ended and we were leaving. Carlos fainted and gave us all a scare. Apparently, (we've decided), he had a little bit of an upper respiratory infection and was a little dehydrated and just passed out after standing and talking for a bit. We got him back to Villa Milagro and went to town and bought an IV (you can do that here) and got some fluids in him. He was feeling better, but not well enough to travel with us Sunday afternoon to our next destination of Chancay, which is a 2 hour drive from here. We really missed him because he was one of our translators. Sunday afternoon we also picked up 2 more team members who joined us from California, Jack and Martha Swartz. It was good timing for them to come because Martha speaks fluent Spanish. This also made us 3 Martha's on the trip--Martha 1, Martha 2, and Martha 3...but I'm not sure which is which.



When we arrived in Chancay Sunday afternoon, we had a grand welcome of several children standing by the road holding signs to welcome us. We stayed at a private home of a friend of Larry Johnson's. This home is a "summer home" for his family to gather for get togethers and it was just right for our group. It was clean and had hot showers, which everyone welcomed after a long dusty ride. We worked in Chancay seeing children all day Monday and saw the adults all day today. We saw a total of 365 children yesterday and 250 adults today. We were very busy! Unfortunately, Martha Robertson got sick yesterday afternoon and today which meant we were even shorter on translators. Uncle Doyne had to give us his job as supervisor and pitch in to tranlate. We recruited Glenna to help see patients and Dr. Beller recruited Cindy and I think even Gretchen got in on pulling a few teeth. It was truly a team effort. Hope Spraggins and Karen Dowdle helped intertain the children, but unfortunately, Hope was not feeling well today and Karen winged it on her on. She did a great job. We've spread our teenage girl's all over the place and they have been a tremendous help. We put Jack Swartz in charge of eyeglassess and I believe he recruited Annie and Sydney to be his optical assistants. Leeanna from Hot Springs has helped in the dental office. Martha Miller and Sarah Cochran have helped keep Vicki sane in the pharmacy. David continues his quest to be the number uno Worminator in South America. We had just a bit of a problem with sleeping on Monday night as there were 2 roosters in the yard of the home we were staying in and apparently they have no sense of timing. They crowed all night long...everyone was just a bit on the cranky side when we got up Tuesday morning and we all had ideas about what to do with those roosters...from bringing in some hens to keep them busy to having chicken noodle soup for lunch to taking the down the street where they have the cock fights...don't know exactly what happened to those 2 birds, but we didn't hear a peep last night.

We saw some really sad problems in Chancay. We saw a young boy with a large growth on the inside of his right thigh that is about the size of a volley ball...Dr. Lambert feels it's probably a sarcoma and will continue growing. He desparately needs surgery. We saw a little 16 month old girl who had no muscle tone...could not hold up her head. Several other things easily taken care of back home in the states. We are all blessed to live where we live.

Have an early day at Matara tomorrow. Will try to post again tomorrow night. Am trying to get some pictures posted to photobucket.com--type in miraclevillage under search and you may have to type miraclevillage in again to find the album. It is the album marked Miracle Village--Medical Trip-May June 2008. I may not get comments posted tonight, but maybe you can enjoy the photos.

Sunday morning from Cindy

As I sit here in the office, I'm overwhelmed at what to write with such little space. Cajamarca is very wonderful, from the people to the scenery, even the music we hear as we race through the streets going to the next clinic. Remember, clinic is whole new experience for me. It's a constant reminder of what we don't actually need to get the job done well. The people are so thankful, with smiles and words I don't understand. On the other hand, the traffic is funny. I can't help but laugh because of the randomness and the bikes that look like cars. Everyone loves their car horn. We use a blinker and they use the horn. The food is great, just like I was told. The landscape is beautiful.. I'm trying to get the next cover of National Geographic, it's got to be in my camera by now. I miss you all, a little. Wish you were here too.