Ready. Set.

Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.  The real work begins…

I’m in desperate need to write a blog.  It’s been awhile, so I’m going to summarize a little of what has happened, and what’s happening, and what’s going to happen.
What’s happened? So all of December was basically a waiting month.  We finished school like the 3rd of December and ended up signing a contract a few days later to move into our house in Puno the 4th of January.  December went by fast.  I climbed Chachani, had a great Christmas, and slept through the New Year.
Now what’s happening?  So we got here in Puno the 5th of January only to find a house that wasn’t near ready for us.  As I sit here now it’s not even ready.  No big deal though, we’re missionaries, we can endure being crammed on one floor.
The pastor here in Puno wanted us to get settled down, no?  We’ve only ever visited this city, we’ve never stayed like permanently.  At first, I was like, “Eh, let’s get our districts right now and get started and go out and do big things and build churches brick by brick and memorize the names of everyone in our district and eat 2 sol lunches and be incredibles.”  But no, it was a great idea, I need to get used to the city as much as possible. 
Last week while we didn’t have our districts yet, we went to all the districts that are close and we prayed over each one and gave them to God.  As for me, I have given 2011 to prayer.  I realize we can’t do anything we want to here, it’s not what we want.  And the only way we get what God wants is through prayer.  It’s not that I never knew that before, it’s just that I never lived that before.  It was so great to go through the districts.  The first one we went to was Jayllihuaya (hi-lee-why-ya) and it was absolutely gorgeous.  We moved on to Salcedo by combi.  While in the combi I couldn’t help but cry.  Whuuuuaaat???  Yeah you know me, I never do that.  Well, I couldn’t help but feel the overwhelming sense of the spirit of God.  I can’t explain it either.  From there we went to some more districts inside the city, and prayed some more.

Friday morning came, and we knew that we’d get our districts that morning.  It was easily more exciting than Christmas morning.  I woke up that night at like 3 and couldn’t sleep because of the excitement to start what I’ve waited for.  So here’s what I got: Jayllihuaya, Salcedo, and Rinconada de Salcedo.  I encourage you to follow those links and watch the videos (although Rinconada doesn’t have a link because it’s basically an extension of Salcedo.)  Below you see the city of Puno, and then just outside to the south is basically my districts.

They’re great, I can’t really say that they’re much more than farm towns surrounded by beautiful rocky terrain.  Salcedo is a little more advanced, more cityish.  I haven’t been to Rinconada de Salcedo but the pastor said it’s just like Jayllihuaya.  Pictures will be up more and more.  Below is Jayllihuaya.

So, the question now is: what’s going be happening?  The goal is that in each district the end result is a start of a church after a year and a half here, started by my partner Geremías and I.  How we do that is completely up to us, which is the best part.  My partner and I can work how God wants us to work, with no demands on how we get there, just that we get there.  Prayer is key here, and in every decision we make, it will be backed by prayer.  I will be appreciate every one that you guys can provide.

The time is here that I’ve been waiting for, I’m super excited but nervous at the same time.  I believe these 3 locations have been given to us as a direct answer to prayer.  They fit us perfectly.  In the next year I hope for positive blog posts, winning souls for Christ.
It all starts here.

The Chachani Challenge

So I wanted to give a pretty detailed account of my mountain climbing experience for all out there who saw my pictures.

For a while now, we’ve wanted to climb Misti.  Finally we set a date to climb Misti and we went to the tour agency (Quechua Tours) to get some information.  They ended up talking us into climbing Chachani.  It was around $90 with all gear included, not a bad deal at all.

The morning of the first day, we left the house at about 7:30 AM for the tour agency, which is downtown.  Got there at 8 and started packing our stuff.  Ours bags were huuuge.  Mine weighed a good 40-50 pounds, and I then realized that we’ll be carrying these things for 2 hours.

So we took off at 8:30 in two 4x4’s and rode in them for about 3 hours.  They dropped us off as far as they could go.  There was one point where we had to get out and walk up the hill while they tried to get up.  It took my truck about 5 tries to make it up that part.  We gathered up our stuff, put it on our backs and started up a hill.

This is where the mental process started.  It was a tiny hill, in comparison to the rest, but I just started to feel pain and started telling myself that there was no way I could ever do the rest of the mountain.  Well that might’ve been the easiest part of the trip, haha.   We continued on and only climbed about 200 meters that day, although the terrain was mostly a bunch of boulders.   That part would’ve been super fun just to mess around in and hop on the boulders, but we had these huge back packs that made it a little difficult.

Two hours and a bunch of breaks until we finally reached base camp.  We were all exhausted, and thought that part was really hard.  To the left shows me reaching base camp with the cold coming in very quickly.   I thought it was hard and I couldn’t wait to get to bed.  We set up camp (tents, sleeping bags, etc.) and had a nice dinner of vegetable soup and spaghetti with tuna sauce.  It got cold just like that and we went to bed at about 5:30 PM.

The next few hours were pretty rough.  I had the second worst headache in my life, and I kept saying random stuff in my head in Spanish.  I was annoyed, frustrated, and couldn’t sleep.  I just kept praying for the gift of sleep, multiple times.  I finally got up, trying not to wake my tent buddy Chad up.  Turns out he was awake too.  I took some medicine and went back to bed, trying to think of different things to get me to sleep.  That was the last I remember until being woken up our guide at 1:00 AM for breakfast.  Chad looks outside of the tent and says, “whoa” and I’m like “what, what?”  He said that he’d never seen so many stars before.  It was crazy, because camp was still not lit up with headlamps.  You could see all the belts and everything, I can’t really explain it very well.  We ate at 1:30 AM, and took off at 2:00AM with our small packs that contained water, snacks, and our crampons. (what are crampons?)

This part was surreal.  We were all walking in the pitch black with just headlamps, everyone silent except the sound of our feet.  It was so crazy to be there at that time, and I happened to have some soundtracks playing on my headphones which made it even more epic.

It only got harder and harder and steeper and steeper.  Minimum of 60 degree angles, climbing up switchbacks, no air to breathe.  It only got worse.  We had one turn back, but the rest of us trekked on.  Some would stop and rest for a bit, but I knew that if that was me, it would only demoralize me further to see people way ahead of me.  I kept with the guide, a half step behind him the whole time.  I had it in my mind that I could make it rest to rest, not base camp to summit.  We rested more often as we got higher, and the rests became less satisfying as the air became thinner and thinner. As it got steeper, we were told to put on our crampons.  Well my left crampon ended up staying on for about 5 steps because it was missing a nut.  You can see that in the picture below, and you can see how much of a help a crampon would be.  This was great. It only made things harder because it basically made my left leg lame on 90% of the mountain.  There was one part where the whole group got split up because of the difficulty of that particular section.  We were up far enough that I couldn’t tell who was who below.  Basically at that point we were two groups.  The guide told us he was going to take us past one ridge then we were on our own as he went to ask the others if they were coming. 

The guide left us, and the crater of the volcano was to the left, a ridge to the right and I saw a cross in the distance, signifying the summit.  4 of us went on, and I gave almost all that I could give to reach the top.  I reached it, then fell down on my face tout of fatigue.  I had done it, I couldn’t believe it either.  The rest of us 4 made it up within 5 minutes.  I took some pictures, then laid down for a little rest.  I ended up sleeping for about 30 minutes, and about 45 minutes after summited, the last of us summited.  We were all sleeping, the guide said it was the first time anyone had slept, let alone the whole group.  All of us, passed out, then I started to get frustrated.  I couldn’t breathe like I wanted and I was actually starting to get nervous.  I asked the guide if going back was just the same way as going up.  He said yes, so I took off, I had been up there long enough.

I started booking it down, trying to get more oxygen, and ended up almost killing myself.  I decided it was a good idea to slide down the mountain, I discovered I could do it on the rocks.  So I was sliding down the mountain, with no one in sight and the rocks turned to snow.  And the slow speed I had on the rocks turned to really fast.  I had nothing to stop me, and I was headed right for a group of boulders.  I stuck my one crampon in the snow and it basically grabbed the snow and wrenched my foot back.  That hurt a ton.  I pulled it out quickly, and tried it again while speed sledding down the mountain.  I managed to stop, using that crampon, but learned my lesson.  I waited for some others, and got the ice axe from the guide to make up for my missing crampon.

Going down was frustrating, and my feet got all bloody from the pressure on my toes.  Towards the bottom, I started to sled again.  This time it was fun and I had an ice axe to stop me.  I could get some serious speed.  I finally reached base camp, and started to pack up my stuff.  We were at like 15,000 feet which might be hard for most, but I was more than happy to be at 15,000 feet with the more or less abundance of oxygen.  To the right is me and Sixto arriving to base camp.  I packed up and took off with three others and a guide, not waiting for the rest as I wanted to get back to the car and take off for Arequipa.  We ended up having to wait for the others, because they wanted us going in the same truck in which we came.

They eventually came maybe 40 minutes after, but it was good to sit in the truck and rest.  2 hours back to Arequipa, and I can say that I’ve never been so happy to see that city at a cozy 8,000 feet.

My New Years celebration was sleeping in my bed.  I went to bed at 8:00 PM and woke up at 11:00 AM, so I got in my 15 hours of sleep.  I woke up this morning not feeling sore in my muscles, but in my lungs.  I feel like I pulled a lung, if that makes sense.  I think I was trying to breathe in so much that my own body stretched my lungs further than they can go.  That’s the best way I can describe it.  Other than that, a few bloody toes, and a sore ankle, I made it up and down safely.  Those picture show the extent of my injuries,  thanks be to God.

Like I’ve said before: It was worth it, I would highly recommend that you do it, but I will not be doing it again until I forget how difficult it was.

 

As far as what is going on for why I am supposed to be here: This month has been a month of waiting.  We found a house in Puno and we’re moving there the 4th of January.  Christmas was great, but I can’t wait to get started with the work I’m supposed to be doing down here.  Please stay in prayer and thanks for all of the prayers so far.

Una Visión

We went to Puno to find a house this weekend.  And we had a task at hand, for sure.  We searched for a day and got nothing, then another and still nothing promising.  Seven people left, but some of us stayed to look some more.  On the third day of looking, we were able to make a deal and get a house.  I don’t actually have a picture of it though…oh and did I mention we didn’t actually see inside where we’d be living.  It’s kind of a long story, but after a lot of faith in the pastor and just an overall sense of peace, we made a deal.  We made a deal to rent a house of 2 floors for 3 months.  That way we’d have somewhere to land in Puno.  We also only signed for three months to give us the option to find somewhere else, if this place doesn’t work.

 

That’s all well and good, buuuut more interestingly, I had a revelation or however you call, it this weekend.

 

So on the way to Puno, we pass through the city of Juliaca.  Now Juliaca is bigger than Puno and even has it’s own airport and it’s about an hour from Puno.  It’s actually a really ugly city.  It’s in the middle of nowhere and it looks like no one finishes any building.  It’s just dirty overall, but it is home to the factory of the world's best coffee. I had been thinking about Juliaca earlier in the week, and even looked up on Extreme’s website if it was going to be a district.  I watched the video online about Juliaca, and well just set it aside.

On our way up, we passed through Juliaca and I had this burning feeling for the city of Juliaca.  Almost a burden for the city, but impossible to explain.

Cool.  Well, later that night my partner Geremías comes up to me and says, “Hey you know I was talking to this lady today and she was from Juliaca.  She was a really nice woman and I was just wondering if anyone will be working there in Juliaca.”  I said, “Waaait, have you been thinking about Juliaca today?”  He said that he had been, and I explained to him the story I just shared above.  Crazy?  We decided that we’d pray about it and ask for direction.

It keeps going.  The four who stayed, went back on Wednesday morning.  On our way back, I had a vision.  The first one in my life, that I can recall.  I didn’t really know what to call it, or that it was a vision until I was explaining to Chad what had happened.  Then he was like, “So you had a vision.”  Anyways, we were on our way back, about thirty minutes outside the city going through this district called Paucarcolla.  A tiny mud hut town of about, my guess of, 1000 farmers of cows and alpacas and stuff (more animals than people.)  Well, we were going through it and I saw myself living there.  Whaaaat? Living there?  I saw my partner and I building a mud brick house, with tin roof.  And living there, with the people.  100% immersed, 100% showing them what it is to be a Christian through actions, not just words.

One of my friends here was telling me a story about how he was working with people, showing them what it is to serve.  He said, “If we’re just simply telling people about the gospel, not showing them and loving them into a relationship with God, we’re nothing more than the Mormons or Jehovah’s witnesses.”  Very true, I had known this before but not really put it into words.

It’s all an answer to prayer, because in reality, I have been stressing which districts would be for best…which should I choose?  Well it only makes sense that they would choose me, isn’t that the best way anyways?  More prayer, fasting, and I’m sure I’ll be confirmed about these districts.

On a side note, we were actually able to experience weather in Puno.  99% here in Arequipa has been the same.  While we were there it rained, it poured, and it hailed, too.

Psalms 91 --- Click It!

So Thankful

The important thing here is that to be thankful shouldn’t be limited to today. But everyday.  It seems impossible, but one day a year also should seem impossible.

Being down here has given light to many things and has made me more thankful than ever.  That is no understatement, I have never more thankful for the things I have than now.  I have compiled a list of things in which I am thankful.  The majority of these things I don’t have, and that is why I am so thankful for them.

Family.  The importance of family is revealed to me everyday.  I have realized this upon building a new family, and being away from my own.

Cars.  More specifically, my own car.  The complete luxury it is to be able to hop in your own, and go exactly where you want.

Silence.  Is golden.  And I would like a day of silence for my birthday.

Alone time.  Always being with someone is not good.  It makes someone who normally sleeps in get up an hour before everyone else.

My own space.  I once had a Garren space, and I didn’t realize how awesome it was (not because I was in it) because it was my own.  It didn’t smell bad, it smelt Garren.  It was always just the way I liked it.

Not cars.  I’ve lived without the constant sound, smell of cars for my entire life.  The roar and odor of 3rd world country cars has made me wish for the country.

The weather.  More specifically, the changing weather.  Rain. Snow.  Cold. Hot. Humid.  It’s nice to throw a little bit of variety in there.  (Oh what I’d do for a thunderstorm.)

The weather.  More specifically, the constant, perfect weather.  I’m so thankful for a 75 and sunny type of climate.  I never knew I would love it that much.

Friends.  I’m thankful they come in all shapes and sizes, and that has helped me a lot.  Since being down here I’m thankful that God has shown me who my real friends are, who I consider my real friends, and how much I truly love them (those in the States, and here.)

Money.  I am so thankful for money, and the fact that I have it.  Being reduced to the monthly allowance has really tried me and forced me to adjust.

The Bible.  Got so much to rely on with this one, and so much to be thankful for.  I wouldn’t be here without it.

Food.  Who ate food before? Not me.  But now I am thankful for every type and the time/hard work it takes to put it all together.

Being able to communicate.  Without having to think.  Being able to talk to the clerk or the neighbor without hesitance.  Being able to express your absolute true feelings and thoughts.  That doesn’t come easy when you have to start from the bottom up.

Cardboard.  Moreover, the stuff I get in the 6 sides of cardboard.  Always so thankful for the stuff you send and the care you have.

Fall.  Autumn.  Otoño.  Without it, everything is…the same.

Computers.  I can’t imagine doing the work I do without being able to stay connected with my family and friends back home.

The Fridge.  Countless times I used to walk over to the fridge, open it up, look up and down.  Then 50% I would close it, and the other 50% I’d get something out.  That is soooo luxurious.

Wal-Mart.  Being able to go there.  Being able to go there, have everything you need, and not having to talk to anyone.  Them having the lowest prices, where here the equivalent of Wal-Mart (I use equivalent lightly), have the higher prices as compared to the markets (which smell great, bppppt.)

The Ol’ Any Time Shower.  Or not having to have the sun to be out to get a shower, a warm shower at least.  Cold ones are always available.

Dishwasher.  Put the plate in, done.

Music.  Music. Music.  Being able to play it loud in my car.  Being able to play it.

Carpet.  Soft, fluffy, warm.  My feet long for the feel of carpet.

Grass. To go along with carpet, but outside.

Much more.  The small stuff.  The stuff I never used to think about.  That’s what gets me.

I am so blessed to be here.  This is an amazing opportunity, and all those little things that I miss that I mentioned above don’t add up to be even close to the job I get to do on a daily basis.  I ran into some missionaries from South Afrika.  They said we have “greatest job in the world.”  Without a doubt.  I can’t be more thankful than this opportunity I have.  It truly is the greatest blessing.

Both Extremes

Not much going on lately.  We’ve been in school and just recently have had a break from it.  Tomorrow we’re going to Lima to get the process started of getting our residency cards (holla!) which is going to be really exciting.  I’ll be bonafide Peruvian coming up here before the years end.

 

The main entry of this blog comes from two stories that I think you might find interesting.  These stories spawn from almost opposite ends of the spectrum, so including them in one blog post makes perfect sense.

 

So a little over a week ago Roy, Nelson (the Peruvian partner of Micah), and I were sick of being in the house, so we took off downtown to get some ice cream and music.  We were walking by the main plaza and turned a corner.  We were in a very touristy section of town, with a fair amount of people.  About 100 feet after we turned the corner, this huge hairy man came running at us screaming.  He was babbling, screaming, and spitting nonsense right at our face.  It’s not like anything I can explain, but much easier to show.  He wasn’t babbling Spanish, he wasn’t screaming English, but now (afterwards) I realize that it was demon. 

So this guy picks us out, out of all of these people.  At the time, I thought it was because we were gringos and didn’t think too much about why us.  I looked at him, and was like what the heck and continued my pace.  But then he followed us.  Oh no, now it gets to the point: what do I do?  Nelson veered off to the right to go into a store and I kept pace, still.  A couple steps later I didn’t here him anymore.  I looked behind me and saw Roy walking back to me.  Roy was like, “Duuude, that guy was all up in my face spitting and everything and I started to quote Bible verses and say ‘Jesus, Jesus I rebuke you’ and the dude took off running.”  We had just had an encounter with a possessed dude.  As soon as I saw Roy coming back to me and he had that look on his face, I knew that this guy had demons.  I mean, I can’t explain that even 50% correct.  It was like nothing I’ve never encountered.  And I’m so glad it happened early on in the process because now I know how to handle it.  But man, after that, Nelson, Roy, and I had some good laughs about what we’ll do if we meet him again.

So the other story is quite different as I said, and as you’ll see.  Our support family told our group that we should do a group fast today and use our lunch money to help somebody somehow.  My Peruvian partner and I decided that we wanted to go to a place that we had never been before on a bus that we had never been on.  And that we did.  And we ended up in the middle of nowhere.  I wish I would've brought my camera.  It was like the desert, with these stone walls that were people’s houses.  My partner wanted to get off at a market if possible, but there was none.  No market.  Which is saying a lot, because these people live in markets.  So we got off on a dust road and my partner says, “What are we going to do here??”  Well I had no idea, but he didn’t need to know that. 

We saw a person off in the distance and headed that way, towards humanity.  This lady we saw, stared us down up until the point in which we asked her if there was a market around.  She said no, then wanted to know what we were looking for and said that there are small stores.  She asked what our business was here and I told her what we were here for and what we were doing.  My partner went off saying what we believe and stuff (which annoyed me to a point.)  I told her we just wanted to know if there was anything we could to help her.  She didn’t understand what we meant by that.  I mean who helps other people?  She took us to the little store, which was a little odd because she could’ve just told us where it was.  I kept asking her if she needed anything, and even threw in some suggestions.  She wanted something, I could tell, but she didn’t want to say.  It wasn’t too hard to arrive to the conclusion that she, Sovina was her name, wanted oil.  So we bought her some vegetable oil and some evaporated milk.  Ooooh, she smiled and grabbed the food and took us to her home to meet her husband (after all, I was from the great United States and we just bought her some groceries.)  We went back, met her husband and got to talking with them.  They said that they wanted to come to church to visit us.  It was so good to make a contact for the other missionaries in this town, although I still don’t know who would take over in this place.

We took off after that, and walked around a bit more.  The idea came to me to collect plastic bottles for Sovina, because that was her job.  She goes around and collects plastic bottles and sells them back to the recycling plant.  That’s her living.  So instead of throwing mine away, I’ll definitely be collecting them within our house and stuff.  They also told us to come visit them again.  I’m going to Lima but after that we’re going to go visit them, bring them some bottles and possibly a Bible.

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All Moved In

I hope you like the new creepy Halloween theme of the blog.  No worries, I'll change it after.


So we moved into our new house on Saturday, and it was quite a chore.  The beds we were using were metal triple bunks, and they couldn’t fit in to our new rooms.  So we had to disassemble them first.  Then bring them down 2 floors to cut, weld, and reassemble them.  Then from there, we brought them 2 blocks down the road to our new apartment.  Re-disassemble them to get them through the bedroom doors, then re-reassemble them inside the rooms.  Ay ay ay, that was the worst part.  While we were doing that we also were bringing (by foot, and pickup truck) loads of our stuff.  It was an all day thing, I went from 6:45 in the morning to about 5:30 at night. 
One bonus, I got to drive the truck!  And it was stick, which was even greater of a bonus.  I was super nervous because I haven’t driven in 5 months, let alone stick in like a year.

I’ll explain the pictures above:
Top left: The second floor dining and hang out area, which is the girls floor.
Top right: Our view from the second floor, where they are constructing a mega complex with a pool and everything.
Middle left: They guys hang out area, now complete with entertainment system.
Middle right:  My bed that I like to be covered, because it blocks a lot of stuff out when I’m sleeping.
Bottom left:  Our armoires in our room, my whole life fits in one.
Bottom right:  Our laundry room, go DragonBall Z Towel!

Our spirits are up, you must know that.  To be in a building that is like a home, and not like a dorm setting inside of a church gives me a feeling of comfort.  To be part of a community and not locked away inside our own little world.  We have our own little pad, own kitchen, and I only share a room with three other guys.  It’s too bad we’ll only be here for a month and a half though, because we’ll be graduating soon from school also.

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You Got Change?

One of the hardest concepts to wrap my head around comes from Romans 13: Submission to authorities.  Ughhh baarff.  I had talked about this to Roy about two months ago.  We had a good conversation and Roy told me that what the passage says is what it means to say, no way around it and I wasn’t taking it in wrong.  Paul explains that any authority is God-given and we must obey it.  It’s impossible to comprehend when the person in authority doesn’t do things that you agree with.  It’s a lot easier said than done.  Why am I saying this?

I will be frank, this week Extreme sent home a 40/40 in another cohort based on various things and I do not agree with that decision that was made.  I wanted to revolt, I wanted to pull an “A Bug’s Life” move like on the grasshoppers, I wanted to stand up for myself and what I believed to be right.  It made me mad, and it kept on bringing me back to Romans 13.  So I ripped that chapter out and now it doesn’t count. Joke.  Submit, submit, submit.  I didn’t want to, I didn’t agree with that decision but the best thing that I could do was to do what was plainly in front of me.  One of the ways I study the Bible is going through a bunch of steps that I have made every time I read.  You know what the last step says?  LIVE IT.  And I then noted that to be the most important step.  Nooooo, I trapped myself.  While I still don’t agree with the decision nor the way they handled it, I take into account many things including that I don’t know the whole story.  And it gives me a peace to arrive at this decision.  Though throwing fists might give me peace equally as much.

This week also, we say goodbye to Cohort 3.  Or say a half-goodbye.  They finish school this week and head off to be full time.  Congratulations to them!  A part of them go to Cuzco and the other part gets to stay here with me (hence “half-goodbye.”)  So we’re going to have more room around here, more room for all of our tons of stuff.  I am seriously excited to see what they do while we’re still in school.  They will be working full time and I am excited to see what they sow.

With the departure of Cuzco, we are moving to the other apartment.  Pics will be posted once we move in.  To be honest, I am so-so about the move.  I’d just rather stay here and tough it out for 2 more months before leaving for Puno.  But it doesn’t matter because we’ll be moving and it’ll be just fine, probably better.

One final note, I am climbing this lady:

Volcan Misti.  The wife of Chachani.  Around Thanksgiving I will be summiting, and not submiting to this volcano (inactive.)  That’s a blog post I’m super excited about writing.  I’ve been running to get my lungs in shape to make this easier.  Just a thought to look forward to.

Click here.  Haz clic aqui.