As most of you are aware, we made it home safe and sound exactly one week ago. The flights went smoothly and we arrived back in Boise right on schedule. It was fantastic to be reunited with our families after the long summer. We immediately started indulging in our favorite American guilty pleasures (drinking tap water, flushing toilet paper, speaking English, etc.).
Ryan and I are now getting back into the swing of school. Today was the first day of school. We are both going through the paces of our Junior year.
I just checked the Extreme Nazarene website (extremenazarene.org) and found that Ryan and I are the "featured volunteers" for the month of September. If you go to the website and click on the "featured volunteer" link it will take you to a page with a short video, an outline of our trip, and some of the pictures we took this summer.
This is likely to be our last post on the blog. I would like to thank everyone for their prayers and support. It has been fun to have you all along for the ride.
--- Chadwick & Ryan
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Finish Line In Sight
First I apologize for neglecting the blog for the last 11 days or so. To catch everyone up to speed, I will give a Sparknotes version of our adventures since last post.
We left Wednesday the 5th on a bus bound for Puno. Puno is a town, located in the southeast corner of the country, that sits right on Lake Titicaca. Trivia fact for today's blog is that Lake Titicaca is the worlds highest navigable lake (according to my Lonely Planet guide book and a local tour guide). While in Puno, we were able to gather data on 15 of the future church plant locations for that region. On one of our days of work, while we were visiting a town on the border, we were able to venture across to Bolivia (just so we could say that we had been there). We also had the pleasure of playing futbol (soccer) with the pastor and some of the kids in his youth group. This is noteworthy because we were playing at an elevation of over 12,500 feet! On our last full day in Puno we took a boat out to the islands of Uros and Taquile. The Uros islands are artificial floating islands that are made of reeds. Indigenous peoples have been living on these islands for hundreds of years. Taquile is a natural island out in the lake. From the shore of Taquile you can look across the lake and see the snow capped mountains of Bolivia. We got on a bus headed back for Arequipa last Wednesday morning and arrived here in the late afternoon.
Since returning to Arequipa, we have downloaded all of our pictures (over 1,600 of them) and video to the Extreme Nazarene hard-drive. Just yesterday we finished labeling all of it and putting it into folders. The next step for all of our raw footage is that it will be handed over to Eleseo (I'm sure I just botched the spelling of his name) who is one of our Peruvian counterparts at the office. He will do all of the finishing touches and make the footage into videos that will be distributed to the sponsoring entities (churches, individuals, etc.) of the different church plant locations. Ryan and I had a chance to do some grunt work on Thursday afternoon. We were able to help grout tile in one of the local churches here in Arequipa. It felt good to do a lil bit of manual labor. We have one more day of work ahead of us, mostly just wrapping up loose ends and such at the office, before we fly out on Monday afternoon.
I think that should clue you all in to what we've been doing while we've been off the radar. As always, thank you all for your support and especially your prayers.
--- Chadwick & Ryan
We left Wednesday the 5th on a bus bound for Puno. Puno is a town, located in the southeast corner of the country, that sits right on Lake Titicaca. Trivia fact for today's blog is that Lake Titicaca is the worlds highest navigable lake (according to my Lonely Planet guide book and a local tour guide). While in Puno, we were able to gather data on 15 of the future church plant locations for that region. On one of our days of work, while we were visiting a town on the border, we were able to venture across to Bolivia (just so we could say that we had been there). We also had the pleasure of playing futbol (soccer) with the pastor and some of the kids in his youth group. This is noteworthy because we were playing at an elevation of over 12,500 feet! On our last full day in Puno we took a boat out to the islands of Uros and Taquile. The Uros islands are artificial floating islands that are made of reeds. Indigenous peoples have been living on these islands for hundreds of years. Taquile is a natural island out in the lake. From the shore of Taquile you can look across the lake and see the snow capped mountains of Bolivia. We got on a bus headed back for Arequipa last Wednesday morning and arrived here in the late afternoon.
Since returning to Arequipa, we have downloaded all of our pictures (over 1,600 of them) and video to the Extreme Nazarene hard-drive. Just yesterday we finished labeling all of it and putting it into folders. The next step for all of our raw footage is that it will be handed over to Eleseo (I'm sure I just botched the spelling of his name) who is one of our Peruvian counterparts at the office. He will do all of the finishing touches and make the footage into videos that will be distributed to the sponsoring entities (churches, individuals, etc.) of the different church plant locations. Ryan and I had a chance to do some grunt work on Thursday afternoon. We were able to help grout tile in one of the local churches here in Arequipa. It felt good to do a lil bit of manual labor. We have one more day of work ahead of us, mostly just wrapping up loose ends and such at the office, before we fly out on Monday afternoon.
I think that should clue you all in to what we've been doing while we've been off the radar. As always, thank you all for your support and especially your prayers.
--- Chadwick & Ryan
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
A Day/Week In The Life Of...
We are now back in Arequipa. We arrived early Saturday morning and will be heading to Puno (a city which borders Lake Titicaca) Wednesday afternoon. It's a short trip (a mere 5 hours) so we should be there by nightfall. Bear in mind that I say we "should" be there by that night as opposed to saying that we "will" be there that night. Peru has made me SO laid back when it comes to scheduling. Ryan and I have learned that if you don't just roll with the punches (5 day boat rides that were promised to be 3 days, bus rides where the motor forces the bus to stop 4 times...) you will be very stressed out and unhappy.
At the behest of my mother I have decided to give you all an in depth look into what it is that Ryan and I have actually been up to all summer. So without further a due here we go:
Almost all of our trips start with Ryan and me heading down to the bus station to purchase tickets from "location A" to "location B." Our travels have consisted of 1 boat ride (from Pucallpa to Iquitos), 1 plane ride (from Iquitos to Lima), and too many bus rides for me to count (math has never been my strong suit :)
After we arrive at "location B" we meet up with our local contact, a pastor who lives in one of the 7 major cities (Pucallpa, Iquitos, Cuzco, etc). We have been lucky enough to be hosted by all of our pastor contacts (whether that be living with the pastor and his family or staying in designated housing facilities at the Nazarene compounds). The first day that we spend in our new location we talk to the pastor and lay out a rough "game plan" for how we will attack the next couple of days. The pastor will tell us how many of the locations are reasonably close and easily accessible. Sometimes we go to 15 future church plant location (as we did in Cuzco) but other times we are only able to go to 8 or 9 future church plant locations (as we did in Iquitos). The church plant locations have been selected for a variety of reasons. Some of the locations have social problems (prostitution, alcoholism, etc.), in other locations the pastor has a contact there that will help start the new church there, other locations were selected simply because they have large unchurched populations.
Day 2 in any given location means that we are hitting the road with the pastor. Depending on how close the locations are (both to each other and to where we slept) we will visit anywhere from 2 to 5 future church plant locations. Once we arrive at one of the future church plant locations we break-out our cameras (Ryan's weapon of choice is the point-and-shoot camera while I wield the video camera). For each future church plant location we obtain one short interview with a local resident (anywhere from 5-10 questions) and take a bunch of pictures of the community. The questions that comprise the interview range from questions on local culture, to social issues present in the community, to the role played by religion in the community. As we have found, some people are much more enthusiastic about giving an interview than others. We also do an interview with the pastor who will be overseeing the planting of the 18 churches in his region over the next 2 years. All of the information that we gather will go on the Extreme Nazarene website (www.extremenazarene.org) and will be used to make short videos for the churches (most of which are in the US) who are sponsoring the future church plant locations.
The first interviews that we conducted in Arequipa got off to a rocky start. Ryan and I were straight out of our 3 week crash-course of language school and on our own without a pastor. We struggled to find someone who would oblige us with an interview. The first interview that we did had to be scrapped because the street noise was too loud. As we were sitting on a park bench an old man rode up to us on a bicycle and started chatting with us. After a while we asked him if we could interview him and he agreed. We shot the interview but caught little of what he was saying. Upon returning to the office we showed our work to one of the guys at the Extreme Nazarene office. As Scott watched the video I explained to him that I was totally lost as to what the guy who we interviewed had said. Scott paused the video and said, "Well, right now he is saying something about his colon." I was quite dismayed because there is not one question that remotely relates to the colon (or any other internal organ for that matter)! All I could think was, "This is going to be a LONG summer!"
After leaving Arequipa things went much better. In the other locations we had pastors that would accompany us and find someone who would agree to be interviewed. In most cases the pastors also asked the questions (which allowed them to be more specific and elaborate if necessary). Ryan and I also became much more proficient with our Spanish as the summer wore on. We had to be because none of our pastor contacts speak any English.
After 3-5 days of visiting all of the church plant locations that we have access to, we head down to the bus station and purchase bus tickets to our next location. We have done this routine for Arequipa, Pucallpa, Iquitos, Puerto Maldonado, and Cusco. We are now off to do the last location that we are responsible for (Puno). Originally we were going to go to Tacna too, but due to some setbacks we will not be able to make it out there. Tacna will be profiled by someone else after we leave Peru.
I hope that gives you all a better idea of what it is that we have been doing for the last few months. I'm sorry that it took us so long to write a post like this. As always we thank you for your prayers and support! God has been SO good to us this summer and we anticipate that these last 2 weeks will bring us more of the same!
--- Chadwick & Ryan
At the behest of my mother I have decided to give you all an in depth look into what it is that Ryan and I have actually been up to all summer. So without further a due here we go:
Almost all of our trips start with Ryan and me heading down to the bus station to purchase tickets from "location A" to "location B." Our travels have consisted of 1 boat ride (from Pucallpa to Iquitos), 1 plane ride (from Iquitos to Lima), and too many bus rides for me to count (math has never been my strong suit :)
After we arrive at "location B" we meet up with our local contact, a pastor who lives in one of the 7 major cities (Pucallpa, Iquitos, Cuzco, etc). We have been lucky enough to be hosted by all of our pastor contacts (whether that be living with the pastor and his family or staying in designated housing facilities at the Nazarene compounds). The first day that we spend in our new location we talk to the pastor and lay out a rough "game plan" for how we will attack the next couple of days. The pastor will tell us how many of the locations are reasonably close and easily accessible. Sometimes we go to 15 future church plant location (as we did in Cuzco) but other times we are only able to go to 8 or 9 future church plant locations (as we did in Iquitos). The church plant locations have been selected for a variety of reasons. Some of the locations have social problems (prostitution, alcoholism, etc.), in other locations the pastor has a contact there that will help start the new church there, other locations were selected simply because they have large unchurched populations.
Day 2 in any given location means that we are hitting the road with the pastor. Depending on how close the locations are (both to each other and to where we slept) we will visit anywhere from 2 to 5 future church plant locations. Once we arrive at one of the future church plant locations we break-out our cameras (Ryan's weapon of choice is the point-and-shoot camera while I wield the video camera). For each future church plant location we obtain one short interview with a local resident (anywhere from 5-10 questions) and take a bunch of pictures of the community. The questions that comprise the interview range from questions on local culture, to social issues present in the community, to the role played by religion in the community. As we have found, some people are much more enthusiastic about giving an interview than others. We also do an interview with the pastor who will be overseeing the planting of the 18 churches in his region over the next 2 years. All of the information that we gather will go on the Extreme Nazarene website (www.extremenazarene.org) and will be used to make short videos for the churches (most of which are in the US) who are sponsoring the future church plant locations.
The first interviews that we conducted in Arequipa got off to a rocky start. Ryan and I were straight out of our 3 week crash-course of language school and on our own without a pastor. We struggled to find someone who would oblige us with an interview. The first interview that we did had to be scrapped because the street noise was too loud. As we were sitting on a park bench an old man rode up to us on a bicycle and started chatting with us. After a while we asked him if we could interview him and he agreed. We shot the interview but caught little of what he was saying. Upon returning to the office we showed our work to one of the guys at the Extreme Nazarene office. As Scott watched the video I explained to him that I was totally lost as to what the guy who we interviewed had said. Scott paused the video and said, "Well, right now he is saying something about his colon." I was quite dismayed because there is not one question that remotely relates to the colon (or any other internal organ for that matter)! All I could think was, "This is going to be a LONG summer!"
After leaving Arequipa things went much better. In the other locations we had pastors that would accompany us and find someone who would agree to be interviewed. In most cases the pastors also asked the questions (which allowed them to be more specific and elaborate if necessary). Ryan and I also became much more proficient with our Spanish as the summer wore on. We had to be because none of our pastor contacts speak any English.
After 3-5 days of visiting all of the church plant locations that we have access to, we head down to the bus station and purchase bus tickets to our next location. We have done this routine for Arequipa, Pucallpa, Iquitos, Puerto Maldonado, and Cusco. We are now off to do the last location that we are responsible for (Puno). Originally we were going to go to Tacna too, but due to some setbacks we will not be able to make it out there. Tacna will be profiled by someone else after we leave Peru.
I hope that gives you all a better idea of what it is that we have been doing for the last few months. I'm sorry that it took us so long to write a post like this. As always we thank you for your prayers and support! God has been SO good to us this summer and we anticipate that these last 2 weeks will bring us more of the same!
--- Chadwick & Ryan
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Cuzco
Since our last post we boarded another lovely bus and headed to Cuzco. Cuzco is a beautiful city nestled in one of the many valleys of South-Central Peru. It is the ancient capital of Peru and there is tons of history in and arouncd the city which dates back to the pre-Incas.
We arrived in Cuzco on Sunday morning and by Thursday night we had finished gathering data on all 15 future church plant locations that are easily accesible in and around Cuzco. For the last couple days we have been playing tourist. We have visited Qoricancha (the Incan Sun Temple), St. Dominic`s Cathedral, The Incan ruins at Pisac, the Qoricancha museum, the museum of contemporary art, the museum of popular art, La Cathedral (which is joined to Iglesia del Triunfo and Iglesia de Jesus Maria to form a cathedral compound), the ruins of Tambomachay, the ruins of Pukapukara, the ruins of Qènqo, the ruins of the Temple of the Moon, the ruins of Saqsayhuaman, and the Museo Inka. I would encourage everyone to google some of these sites, as many of them were miraculous in scale and craftsmanship. You could say that we`ve made the most of our time here (and we still have yet to go to Machu Pichu). We plan on heading to Machu Picchu on Monday but, as with everything in Peru, those are only speculative plans that may be subject to change, due to strikes etc.
After we get back from Machu Picchu we will be heading back to Arequipa to drop off all of our information and rest up for a couple of days before heading off to Puno (again these are speculative plans).
We are in good health and spirits. As always thank you all for your prayers.
--- Chadwick & Ryan
We arrived in Cuzco on Sunday morning and by Thursday night we had finished gathering data on all 15 future church plant locations that are easily accesible in and around Cuzco. For the last couple days we have been playing tourist. We have visited Qoricancha (the Incan Sun Temple), St. Dominic`s Cathedral, The Incan ruins at Pisac, the Qoricancha museum, the museum of contemporary art, the museum of popular art, La Cathedral (which is joined to Iglesia del Triunfo and Iglesia de Jesus Maria to form a cathedral compound), the ruins of Tambomachay, the ruins of Pukapukara, the ruins of Qènqo, the ruins of the Temple of the Moon, the ruins of Saqsayhuaman, and the Museo Inka. I would encourage everyone to google some of these sites, as many of them were miraculous in scale and craftsmanship. You could say that we`ve made the most of our time here (and we still have yet to go to Machu Pichu). We plan on heading to Machu Picchu on Monday but, as with everything in Peru, those are only speculative plans that may be subject to change, due to strikes etc.
After we get back from Machu Picchu we will be heading back to Arequipa to drop off all of our information and rest up for a couple of days before heading off to Puno (again these are speculative plans).
We are in good health and spirits. As always thank you all for your prayers.
--- Chadwick & Ryan
Friday, July 24, 2009
Puerto Maldanado
Today we finished up our last video in the little jungle town of Puerto Maldanado. Puerto will be the first town to have the long term missionaries living in it, they should arrive in about 3 months. We have been staying with Pastor Freddy Zapata and his family. We have had some interesting times here in Puerto. We spent a day visiting with an old college professor and watching a local baker make some delicious rolls. And another day exploring the city on old Honda motorcycles. In all our stay here has been enjoyable, although Chadwick and I both agree we are ready for the climate in Cuzco, which is similar to Mccall. The jungle has been great but we are ready for a little less humidity. Tomarrow we head back across the mountain passes on a 20 hour bus ride. Today we found out our bus has a dvd player, but no bathroom. So we are saving our last empty two liter bottle of water, and being grateful God gave us a y chromosome.
Thanks for your love and support
Ryan and Chadwick
Thanks for your love and support
Ryan and Chadwick
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Lima and Beyond
Well we continue to enjoy safe, if not always comfortable travels. The past few days have been a superfun barnstorming of Lima and the south coast of area. We spent a day in Lima visiting the national museum and San Domingo monastery, where we got to see walk around some catacombs with about 25000 bodies. We spent friday night in Huachichina, a small oasis town of about 200 catering mostly to backpackers. In the morning we sent on a death defying dunebuggy ride which was a lot scarier than any theme park ride we could have done at home this summer. We also got out first experience with sandboarding. Tonight we are holed up in hostal in Nasca waiting for a chance to climb in a Cesna in the morning and see the famous nasca lines.
Thanks for all your prayers and support the cards were really nice Thanks.
Ryan and Chadwick
Thanks for all your prayers and support the cards were really nice Thanks.
Ryan and Chadwick
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
On and Off The Boat
The best way to describe our boat trip down the Ucayali and the Amazon rivers is to give anyone out there who may be considering a similar trip a check list of what to expect.
Our first full day in Iquitos was quite an adventure. This morning we visited a neighborhood called Belen, which literally is on the river. Some houses in this area have been built on stilts while others float on pontoons. May through August is the dry season so the river is low now and some muddy streets are emerging from the river.
Another story: while in Belen taking pictures a theif about 18-20 years old ran by and snatched my camera. I took off chasing him as fast as I could and Chadwick was close behind me. We figure we ran about a 400 meter dash, weaving through the house stilts, hopping canoes and little streems. We eventually caught him when he tried to veer back to his right and saw Chadwick who had also split right coming directly at him. He handed over the camera without a fight. So we left Belen with some adrenaline pumping and a whole lot muddier than we planned. We have the next week to map the communities near Iquitos which should be fun since most can only be accessed by boat.
Thanks for reading and praying for us,
Ryan and Chadwick
- Longer than promised by more than a whole day - Check
- Boat stops at night if the river is low (which you wont find out until it stops) - Check
- Mosquitos trying to devour you and succeeding - Check
- Bed bugs picking up where the mosquitos left off- Check
- Beautiful sunsets- Check
- Other Americans trying smoke all the weed the had before the brazilian border (highly entertaining) - Check
- Showers pumped directly out of the river you just flushed into- Check
- Not showering for five days- Check
- Large Peruvian befriending us and calling us his cousins- Check
- Shirt swap with a drunk guy, at his behest, in a port town (he was drunk, not us)- Check
- Surprisingly decent food- Check
- Phenominal boredom- Check
- Overall accomidations similar to what the prisoners at Alcatraz had- Check
Our first full day in Iquitos was quite an adventure. This morning we visited a neighborhood called Belen, which literally is on the river. Some houses in this area have been built on stilts while others float on pontoons. May through August is the dry season so the river is low now and some muddy streets are emerging from the river.
Another story: while in Belen taking pictures a theif about 18-20 years old ran by and snatched my camera. I took off chasing him as fast as I could and Chadwick was close behind me. We figure we ran about a 400 meter dash, weaving through the house stilts, hopping canoes and little streems. We eventually caught him when he tried to veer back to his right and saw Chadwick who had also split right coming directly at him. He handed over the camera without a fight. So we left Belen with some adrenaline pumping and a whole lot muddier than we planned. We have the next week to map the communities near Iquitos which should be fun since most can only be accessed by boat.
Thanks for reading and praying for us,
Ryan and Chadwick
Last Day in Pucallpa
Our last full day in Pucallpa turned out to be by far our most exciting. We left the house before six in order to catch an autotaxi to the church plant sites outside of Pucallpa. Our trip ended at a police roadblock that was demanding our passports. Since neither of us had planned to leave the country that day we had left our passports securely hidden away in our rooms. We then got hauled off to the Campo Verde police station where we would get to spend the next two and a half hours. Dario (the pastor we had been living with) went back to Pucallpa and searched for the aformentioned passports. When we finally became free men again we continued our journey eventually visiting five church plant locations. It turned out to be a very productive day. A quick thanks too Dario Santa Cruz and his family who helped us out all week. We could not have been nearly as succesful without them.
Thanks for reading,
Ryan and Chadwick
Thanks for reading,
Ryan and Chadwick
Monday, June 29, 2009
Pucallpa
We arrived safely in Pucallpa on Friday morning, after learning a thing about Peruvian bus rides. Here is a summary of our lessons:
1: If you haven´t been served dinner by 11 that does not mean it´s not going to be served. It probably means it is getting closer to being served.
2: The bus company is like a stubborn date. Let me explain. Even if some things get messed up, and the schedule is a little behind, they will still provide you with dinner and a movie (even if that movie starts at midnight and you just wanna sleep).
3: If your bus drives away while you are using the bathroom don´t worry it will probably come back for you.
4. THE BUS WILL BE HOT. THE BUS WILL BE HOT. THE BUS WILL BE HOT.
In our time in Pucallpa have been very productive. We have 6 churches mapped out so far. Tomorrow we are planning an ambitions itinerary, including 6 churchs and several hundred kilometers. Dario Santa Cruz (the Disrict Superintendant for Pucallpa) has been an amazing guide for us the last couple days and kindly agreed to accompany us tomarrow. We could not have been so productive without his help.
Thanks for your prayer and support!
Ryan and Chadwick
1: If you haven´t been served dinner by 11 that does not mean it´s not going to be served. It probably means it is getting closer to being served.
2: The bus company is like a stubborn date. Let me explain. Even if some things get messed up, and the schedule is a little behind, they will still provide you with dinner and a movie (even if that movie starts at midnight and you just wanna sleep).
3: If your bus drives away while you are using the bathroom don´t worry it will probably come back for you.
4. THE BUS WILL BE HOT. THE BUS WILL BE HOT. THE BUS WILL BE HOT.
In our time in Pucallpa have been very productive. We have 6 churches mapped out so far. Tomorrow we are planning an ambitions itinerary, including 6 churchs and several hundred kilometers. Dario Santa Cruz (the Disrict Superintendant for Pucallpa) has been an amazing guide for us the last couple days and kindly agreed to accompany us tomarrow. We could not have been so productive without his help.
Thanks for your prayer and support!
Ryan and Chadwick
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
On the Move
First matter of business:
When the word ¨the¨ appears in a title should it be in caps? Help me out here people! And if You were my former English teacher, and you are following this blog, I am sorry that I have let you down. I am also guilty of starting a sentence with the word ¨and.¨ Oh dear, I better just say what I need to and log out before this gets any worse!
In other newz:
We made it to Lima (15 hr bus ride from Arequipa) and tomorrow we head to Pucalpa (20 hr bus ride). That should be LOADS of fun! Our ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) in Pucalpa is around 9:00 a.m. Friday morning. We should be to work shortly after that.
Random facts about the last few days:
Ryan and I have broken 2 pieces of glass in the last 3 days. Ryan stepped on a skylight, on the roof of the office, and I shattered a piece of glass that was attached to the stove (it´s a weird setup and hard to explain). I also managed to chip a tooth by biting my fork at dinner tonight. Ryan says that this is evidence that I need to slow down when I eat. We are destroying things at an alarming rate but, as always, we are staying safe (this last bit is mostly for those of you who like to worry about us: moms, grandmas, etc.).
Thanx for all of your prayers and support.
Yours truely,
Chadwick and Ryan
When the word ¨the¨ appears in a title should it be in caps? Help me out here people! And if You were my former English teacher, and you are following this blog, I am sorry that I have let you down. I am also guilty of starting a sentence with the word ¨and.¨ Oh dear, I better just say what I need to and log out before this gets any worse!
In other newz:
We made it to Lima (15 hr bus ride from Arequipa) and tomorrow we head to Pucalpa (20 hr bus ride). That should be LOADS of fun! Our ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) in Pucalpa is around 9:00 a.m. Friday morning. We should be to work shortly after that.
Random facts about the last few days:
Ryan and I have broken 2 pieces of glass in the last 3 days. Ryan stepped on a skylight, on the roof of the office, and I shattered a piece of glass that was attached to the stove (it´s a weird setup and hard to explain). I also managed to chip a tooth by biting my fork at dinner tonight. Ryan says that this is evidence that I need to slow down when I eat. We are destroying things at an alarming rate but, as always, we are staying safe (this last bit is mostly for those of you who like to worry about us: moms, grandmas, etc.).
Thanx for all of your prayers and support.
Yours truely,
Chadwick and Ryan
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Another Last Days in Arequipa
Alright folks, we had hoped to be off and on the road by now, but unfortunately that has not been possible. A small town on the road to Cusco has been maintaining a road block, keeping all buses from traveling to and from Cusco. The town in protesting the government's treatment of Indians and demanding the resignation of President Alan Garcia, among other things. As the prospects of President Garcia obliging them seems unlikely, and the determination of the town no longer in doubt, Chadwick and I have made plans to travel to Lima on Tuesday and head to the jungle city of Pucallpa directly from there. This week we made 7 church plant videos for future churches in and around Arequipa. Here are some pictures of where those future churches will be.
Thanks for reading,
Ryan (with editing help from Chadwick)Note: these are not the ACTUAL locations only the neighborhoods that have been designated for a church plant. There are no current plans to plant churches in the middle of the street, as these pictures might suggest :)
Monday, June 15, 2009
Last Days (in Arequipa that is)
Yes we are still alive. My appoligies that we have neglected to update our blog in over a week. I will get you caught up to speed with a Sparknotes version of the last week.
Monday: Last "free day" (or so we thought). We decided to do touristy stuff. We went to the Santa Catalina Monastery in the center of Arequipa. It's a huge monastery/convent that dates back to the 1600's. It is the size of a complete city block and took us over 2 hrs to go through. We had lots of fun exploring the compound.
Tuesday: We were introduced to the pastors that we will be interviewing and staying with for part of the time. There was nothing that we needed to do in the afternoon so Ryan and I hiked in an awesome canyon by our house. We spent the afternoon tracing the river through the canyon and walking through the terraced fields that lined the canyon. We spent a good 3 hrs in the canyon and climbed out just after the sun set. Side note: we also found some cool caves and Ryan fell into the river with all his clothes on and his backpack with his camera and such. Everything was fine, he was just wet for a while.
Wednesday: We had meetings with the pastors and plotted out around 50 of the future church plant locations using Google earth. We also found that we wont be traveling to all of the 120 locations because some of them are too far out there (ie a 4-day boat ride each way for one location).
Thursday: Exciting stuff in Peru. The government has been trying to kick the natives off their land in the northeast of Peru (Amazon area). The natives aren't exactly thrilled about that so the started to clash with police (and by "clash" I mean kill them). Anyhow, they picked Thursday to stage anti-government protests in the north and Lima. There were a few small protests here in Arequipa but nothing big (we did get to see one of about 50-60 people but they were fairly low key or as low key as protests come). We went to work and plotted some more locations using Google earth. On an unrelated note, our little sis down here, Ema, had a fever of 104. We found out that when you call the hospital here in Peru they send an ambulance of sorts out to your house to make a house call. It was pretty cool and convenient.
Friday: We tried to make our first video and it's not quite as easy as we thought it would be. We went to a plaza and tried to get some interviews. It's tough because we have to listen closely to try and figure out what the people are saying. We learned a lot from our first day on the job. For example, we learned that it's not a good idea to try to interview someone who speaks softly right in front of a busy road. You might have thought that we would have seen that problem beforehand but practice makes perfect (or at least better).
Saturday: Very anticlimactic. I played football (soccer) with a bunch of locals, most of who attend church here, as we do every Saturday. Ryan was feeling a little bit under the weather so he stayed in all day. I don't remember doing much that day so we will chalk it up as a day of rest and relaxation.
Sunday: We went to church in the morning and in the afternoon we went exploring. Ryan was feeling better so he, our family that we are staying with, and I went for a drive. We end up on the other side of the Cayma Canyon (the same canyon that we hiked on Tuesday).
Monday: We planned our next 6 weeks of travel. We will be hitting Puerto Maldonado, Cusco, Iquitos, and Pucallpa to gather information. We also planned for a couple vacation days in Cusco and Lima so we can see Machu Pichu and such.
Chadwick & Ryan
Monday: Last "free day" (or so we thought). We decided to do touristy stuff. We went to the Santa Catalina Monastery in the center of Arequipa. It's a huge monastery/convent that dates back to the 1600's. It is the size of a complete city block and took us over 2 hrs to go through. We had lots of fun exploring the compound.
Tuesday: We were introduced to the pastors that we will be interviewing and staying with for part of the time. There was nothing that we needed to do in the afternoon so Ryan and I hiked in an awesome canyon by our house. We spent the afternoon tracing the river through the canyon and walking through the terraced fields that lined the canyon. We spent a good 3 hrs in the canyon and climbed out just after the sun set. Side note: we also found some cool caves and Ryan fell into the river with all his clothes on and his backpack with his camera and such. Everything was fine, he was just wet for a while.
Wednesday: We had meetings with the pastors and plotted out around 50 of the future church plant locations using Google earth. We also found that we wont be traveling to all of the 120 locations because some of them are too far out there (ie a 4-day boat ride each way for one location).
Thursday: Exciting stuff in Peru. The government has been trying to kick the natives off their land in the northeast of Peru (Amazon area). The natives aren't exactly thrilled about that so the started to clash with police (and by "clash" I mean kill them). Anyhow, they picked Thursday to stage anti-government protests in the north and Lima. There were a few small protests here in Arequipa but nothing big (we did get to see one of about 50-60 people but they were fairly low key or as low key as protests come). We went to work and plotted some more locations using Google earth. On an unrelated note, our little sis down here, Ema, had a fever of 104. We found out that when you call the hospital here in Peru they send an ambulance of sorts out to your house to make a house call. It was pretty cool and convenient.
Friday: We tried to make our first video and it's not quite as easy as we thought it would be. We went to a plaza and tried to get some interviews. It's tough because we have to listen closely to try and figure out what the people are saying. We learned a lot from our first day on the job. For example, we learned that it's not a good idea to try to interview someone who speaks softly right in front of a busy road. You might have thought that we would have seen that problem beforehand but practice makes perfect (or at least better).
Saturday: Very anticlimactic. I played football (soccer) with a bunch of locals, most of who attend church here, as we do every Saturday. Ryan was feeling a little bit under the weather so he stayed in all day. I don't remember doing much that day so we will chalk it up as a day of rest and relaxation.
Sunday: We went to church in the morning and in the afternoon we went exploring. Ryan was feeling better so he, our family that we are staying with, and I went for a drive. We end up on the other side of the Cayma Canyon (the same canyon that we hiked on Tuesday).
Monday: We planned our next 6 weeks of travel. We will be hitting Puerto Maldonado, Cusco, Iquitos, and Pucallpa to gather information. We also planned for a couple vacation days in Cusco and Lima so we can see Machu Pichu and such.
Chadwick & Ryan
Sunday, June 7, 2009
School's Out!
Paco and Ursula, our Peruvian parents
Me with Chadwick and my Spanish teacher Roy
My spanish teacher CarlosExciting times here in Arequipa Peru. Chadwick and I both completed our time in language school and got our "diplomas" Friday. We bid our family farewell and began our stay with Scott and Teri Englund. We are also enjoying being stand-in "uncles" of sorts for the Englund girls, Kayle (age 9) and Ema (age 5). They are never short on energy and they are filled with mischief. The last few days have been a welcome celebration of American food. On Friday night Mike and Sydney Drinkwater invited us over for a midwinters bbq, and then today we got the chance to enjoy some amazing burritos. Saturday we went to the same mission outside Arequipa and got to have English Day with the kids. We had a fantastic rendition of "head, shoulders, knees and toes" and the kids seemed to really enjoy it. Thanks for praying for Chadwick, he is doing a lot better and his appetite has returned with a vengence.
This week we will be meeting with pastors from all over Peru. The pastors are coming to Arequipa for a leadership conference to give all the pastors a detailed plan for what will be happening in thier districts over the next several years. Later in the week we will start making videos in the areas surrounding Arequipa so we can get some practice while we are still near our tech people.
Thanks for your continued prayer and support,
Ryan and Chadwick
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Saturday
I wish I could sleep like that
Lost puzzle pieces are a global issue
Today we went out to a Saturday program for kids, in one of the worst neighborhoods in Arequipa. We had a short time of songs and games, then we played some futbol for about an hour. After that all had a meal together. It was awesome. For the kids this Saturday time is really special. Many can not afford the books they need to go to school. So these Saturday gatherings at the nazarene mission are really the highlight of their week.
This week prayer would be appreciated for Chadwick, he is struggling with dehydration and a constantly upset stomach.
Thanks,
Ryan
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Peru Education: Midterm
HOLA! Chadwick and I just passed the halfway point in our language studies today. Tomorrow marks the beging of the downhill. Life is good here, today we had a very tropical lunch of salad, diomante fish, which we later found out was acutally shark, and is quite delicious. We finished with watermelon and then washed it all down with fresh squeezed mango juice. Our street smart education is also coming along. Monday we tried to make our first solo trip on the combi and micro system here. A combi is a small bus and micro is most easily described as a 20 year old minivan. We made it to the extreme office without much excitement. On the way back we boarded another micro that clearly said Venezuala avenue on the front, which is near where we live. The micro then proceeded to take us in the exact opposite direction that we needed to go. We took a LONG detour! A good example would be if you were in downtown boise and boarded a bus that took you to Kuna, while making 45 stops. When we got to the end of the line the drivers assitant politely told us we needed to get off. Chadwick and I looked at each other, shrugged, and did what anyone would do, we started walking. Literally five seconds later we heard the same lady calling out Venezuala Ave. We ran to catch the bus and got back on in time to ride the same bus all the way back. Back to the example; we had now taken the same bus all the way to Kuna, walked a block, and then rode it all the way back to the north end of Boise, which is where we really needed to go anyway. In all, it took about an hour and a half to make a ten minute trip. On the bright side, we got to enjoy the cramped micro for an hour and a half and Chadwick got to sit between a man who apparently annointed himself in aftershave and an aspiring singer. Life is good here, thanks for all your prayers and support hope all is well back home.
Ryan and Chadwick
Ryan and Chadwick
Sunday, May 24, 2009
¡Weekend Numero Dos!
This entry will be the first of Ryan and my ¨double-team¨ posts. I told him that I got to write the blog for this weekend but he insisted that he write the portion for Sunday. I have been religated to speaking about Friday afternoon and Saturday. I guess it could be worse. Here we go...
Earlier in the week the Linnells invited us on a trip to the beach. The Linnells are a couple who are down here as part of the Extreme Nazarene team. Their daughter Dawn (who attends NNU with us) is also down here to teach one of the local pastors and his family English. Ryan and I gladly accepted the invite. We left on Friday at around 4 and got to Majia (a costal town) at around 6:30. The bus ride was made more interesting by the fact that we also had 2 children with us. The Linnells had told another one of the couple´s that are working here that they would watch their kids for the weekend. 2 year old Landon and 5 year old Isaiah are 2 of the most energetic little kids that I have ever met and they added to the fun of the weekend. When we got into Mejia we went to the house that we were renting for the night. Upon arrival we found that the block that our house was on was without electricity. When we found the landlord all he said was ¨maybe it will be back in the morning.¨ I´m begining to see that things like that aren´t all that uncommon here. I´m learning to just shrug it off and move on. We wandered around until we found a little hole-in-the-wall resturaunt. We ordered the ¨menu del dia¨ which was chicken noodle soup and roast beef with rice. The ¨menu del dia¨ is the daily special and it is for sale for a bargain price of 5 soles daily (which equates to less than $2 American). We have quickly become big fans of it. As I started to eat my soup I thought to myself ¨this is just like soup at home¨ until I found that here in Peru they serve it with the chicken heart and lungs in the soup. I love all the surprises here!
The next day we spent the entire mornig sitting on the beach, flying the boy´s kite, building sand castles, and taking turns getting burried in the sand. It was a great getaway and much needed after a long hard week of language school. We took the bus back to our house here in Arequipa and ended the night with a little taste of home in the form of game 3 of the NBA playoff series between LA and Denver.
Sunday was a nice day for us to get some extra rest. We tried to sleep in since church starts at ten here, but since the sun comes up at five thirty it seems our bodies just naturally turn on around 7.
If church was a race then this service would have been a marathon, nay maybe the ironman. We had a 50 minute worship session (all standing up) and an hour and twenty minute sermon. Now if you think an hour and twenty minute sermon is long now think about trying to follow an excited Peruvian preacher when your spanish is not quite up to speed. I was amazed at the passion of the people in this small congregation though and I was informed that this type of service is more the rule than the exception so I guess we will adapt.
After church we started another Peruvian tradition we have been learning, the 3 hour sunday lunch. Our Peruvian parents invited us to the birthday party of our madres brother in law. The first salad was served around 1 pm followed by roasted potatoes and a bbqed chicken breast. next we ate a second course of bbqed pork ribs that challenged the chicken for tasties dish. Unfortunetly do to allergies Chad missed out on these fantastic ribs. After the ribs came the steak. By this point we were ready to tap out, but we did not want to ruin Americas reputation as eating champions so we toughed it out through about a 12 ounce t-bone. (note to moms we are not starving here) Cake and ice cream was the the only way to finish the celebration with happy birthday sung first in english then in spanish.
So now as we write this we are digesting way too much food and nursing our sunburns. Continue to pray for us in our language studies as we start a new week of classes.
Thank you for your prayers and emails
Ryan and Chadwick
Earlier in the week the Linnells invited us on a trip to the beach. The Linnells are a couple who are down here as part of the Extreme Nazarene team. Their daughter Dawn (who attends NNU with us) is also down here to teach one of the local pastors and his family English. Ryan and I gladly accepted the invite. We left on Friday at around 4 and got to Majia (a costal town) at around 6:30. The bus ride was made more interesting by the fact that we also had 2 children with us. The Linnells had told another one of the couple´s that are working here that they would watch their kids for the weekend. 2 year old Landon and 5 year old Isaiah are 2 of the most energetic little kids that I have ever met and they added to the fun of the weekend. When we got into Mejia we went to the house that we were renting for the night. Upon arrival we found that the block that our house was on was without electricity. When we found the landlord all he said was ¨maybe it will be back in the morning.¨ I´m begining to see that things like that aren´t all that uncommon here. I´m learning to just shrug it off and move on. We wandered around until we found a little hole-in-the-wall resturaunt. We ordered the ¨menu del dia¨ which was chicken noodle soup and roast beef with rice. The ¨menu del dia¨ is the daily special and it is for sale for a bargain price of 5 soles daily (which equates to less than $2 American). We have quickly become big fans of it. As I started to eat my soup I thought to myself ¨this is just like soup at home¨ until I found that here in Peru they serve it with the chicken heart and lungs in the soup. I love all the surprises here!
The next day we spent the entire mornig sitting on the beach, flying the boy´s kite, building sand castles, and taking turns getting burried in the sand. It was a great getaway and much needed after a long hard week of language school. We took the bus back to our house here in Arequipa and ended the night with a little taste of home in the form of game 3 of the NBA playoff series between LA and Denver.
Sunday was a nice day for us to get some extra rest. We tried to sleep in since church starts at ten here, but since the sun comes up at five thirty it seems our bodies just naturally turn on around 7.
If church was a race then this service would have been a marathon, nay maybe the ironman. We had a 50 minute worship session (all standing up) and an hour and twenty minute sermon. Now if you think an hour and twenty minute sermon is long now think about trying to follow an excited Peruvian preacher when your spanish is not quite up to speed. I was amazed at the passion of the people in this small congregation though and I was informed that this type of service is more the rule than the exception so I guess we will adapt.
After church we started another Peruvian tradition we have been learning, the 3 hour sunday lunch. Our Peruvian parents invited us to the birthday party of our madres brother in law. The first salad was served around 1 pm followed by roasted potatoes and a bbqed chicken breast. next we ate a second course of bbqed pork ribs that challenged the chicken for tasties dish. Unfortunetly do to allergies Chad missed out on these fantastic ribs. After the ribs came the steak. By this point we were ready to tap out, but we did not want to ruin Americas reputation as eating champions so we toughed it out through about a 12 ounce t-bone. (note to moms we are not starving here) Cake and ice cream was the the only way to finish the celebration with happy birthday sung first in english then in spanish.
So now as we write this we are digesting way too much food and nursing our sunburns. Continue to pray for us in our language studies as we start a new week of classes.
Thank you for your prayers and emails
Ryan and Chadwick
Friday, May 22, 2009
school
Here is a picture of where Chad and I go to school everyday. we go one on one with an instructor for about four hours every morning. This week Extreme Nazarene sent out the first set of 40/40 missionaries for church planting training in Iquitos. It is cool to think that someday they will be using the informaiton Chad and I gather to plant churches all over the jungle.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
¡Weekend Numero Uno!
I gave ryan the weekend off and so this post will be my first of the summer.
Disclaimer: I am a horrible speller and this thing doesn´t have spell check so bear with me.
We began our weekend at 6:00 AM Saturday with a game of futbol sala (a mixture of indoor soccer and futsal) with some locals and other members of our Extreme Nazarene family. On our way home from playing, we had an unexpected adventure. The first taxi driver picked us up and dropped us off in the wrong neighborhood, the second taxi driver told us he knew where to go but then had to ask 2 other people for directions to our house. The kicker was that the second taxi driver also feeced us for 15 soles when the rate is 3-4 soles. After it was all said and done we had used 2 cab drivers and spent 20 soles to get home. I guess it is just part of the learning process of being a foriegner in a different country. That afternoon Ryan and I walked to the market. We are starting to figure out were things are so we don´t feel lost all the time. Before dinner our family took us to La Plaza de Armas (the city center). We walked through a bunch of little tourist shops and visited 2 beautiful old cathedrals.
Today we decided to try something new and sleep-in a little bit. We had church from 10-12:30. After church we talked with the other missionaries and members of the congregation so that we could give the taxi drivers better directions to our house. We left church feeling good about our chances of getting home now that we were equiped with a hand drawn map to our house complete with street names. We hailed a cab and asked him if he knew how to get us home. He said that he knew where we were going and could take us there but I am begining to think that if I asked a taxi if he could drive me to Europe that he would still respond with an enthusiastic ¨Si¨. It was no surprise when he had to ask for directions at a gas station and then we finally told him that we had reached our destination when we recognized that he had driven past where we were supposed to go. We decided to walk home using a stadium near our house as our guide. We have now taken more taxis to no where than we have to where we intended. We are learning though because this time our ride to no where only cost us 4 soles (what a bargin) and we were at least close enough that we could find our way home on foot. For lunch we went with our family to our Peruvian Mamama´s house (apparently in Peru Mamama = Grandmother). We had dinner with our families aunts and cousins. We enjoyed a wonderful 4 course meal of tuna salad, noodle soup, beef and rice, and fresh fruit with ice cream for dessert.
We are not looking forward to starting language school at 9 AM tomorrow but we are willing to take the good with the bad. If you ask me, language school started when the plane landed in Lima. Our family is very patient with us and try to help us all they can with our Spanish. We speak only Spanish unless we are totally lost and then they stop and explain to us in English.
Well that´s probably more than any of you wanted to know about our weekend. Ryan has just declared that I am now an ¨official blogger¨ after spending 20 minutes on this update. Oh well, I guess I am what I am.
--- Chadwick
Disclaimer: I am a horrible speller and this thing doesn´t have spell check so bear with me.
We began our weekend at 6:00 AM Saturday with a game of futbol sala (a mixture of indoor soccer and futsal) with some locals and other members of our Extreme Nazarene family. On our way home from playing, we had an unexpected adventure. The first taxi driver picked us up and dropped us off in the wrong neighborhood, the second taxi driver told us he knew where to go but then had to ask 2 other people for directions to our house. The kicker was that the second taxi driver also feeced us for 15 soles when the rate is 3-4 soles. After it was all said and done we had used 2 cab drivers and spent 20 soles to get home. I guess it is just part of the learning process of being a foriegner in a different country. That afternoon Ryan and I walked to the market. We are starting to figure out were things are so we don´t feel lost all the time. Before dinner our family took us to La Plaza de Armas (the city center). We walked through a bunch of little tourist shops and visited 2 beautiful old cathedrals.
Today we decided to try something new and sleep-in a little bit. We had church from 10-12:30. After church we talked with the other missionaries and members of the congregation so that we could give the taxi drivers better directions to our house. We left church feeling good about our chances of getting home now that we were equiped with a hand drawn map to our house complete with street names. We hailed a cab and asked him if he knew how to get us home. He said that he knew where we were going and could take us there but I am begining to think that if I asked a taxi if he could drive me to Europe that he would still respond with an enthusiastic ¨Si¨. It was no surprise when he had to ask for directions at a gas station and then we finally told him that we had reached our destination when we recognized that he had driven past where we were supposed to go. We decided to walk home using a stadium near our house as our guide. We have now taken more taxis to no where than we have to where we intended. We are learning though because this time our ride to no where only cost us 4 soles (what a bargin) and we were at least close enough that we could find our way home on foot. For lunch we went with our family to our Peruvian Mamama´s house (apparently in Peru Mamama = Grandmother). We had dinner with our families aunts and cousins. We enjoyed a wonderful 4 course meal of tuna salad, noodle soup, beef and rice, and fresh fruit with ice cream for dessert.
We are not looking forward to starting language school at 9 AM tomorrow but we are willing to take the good with the bad. If you ask me, language school started when the plane landed in Lima. Our family is very patient with us and try to help us all they can with our Spanish. We speak only Spanish unless we are totally lost and then they stop and explain to us in English.
Well that´s probably more than any of you wanted to know about our weekend. Ryan has just declared that I am now an ¨official blogger¨ after spending 20 minutes on this update. Oh well, I guess I am what I am.
--- Chadwick
Friday, May 15, 2009
Arrival!
After 17 hours of layovers and over 30 hours of travel Chad and I arrived in Arequipa Peru at 530 this morning. We went to the school were we will be studying for the next 3 weeks and also got to meet our host family for those 3 weeks. Our host mom is named Ursula and she will be takin good care of us and making sure we adjust to our new surroundings. We are both exctited at the idea of settling into the neighborhood and not seeing an airport or anything with wings for a few weeks. Thanks for all of you who made this trip possible.
Ryan
Ryan
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Preparation
Hey Guys,
Welcome to the travel blog. Chad and I are enjoying our last few days in the states right now stuffing down all the home cooking and focusing on a few finals (tougher than then ever) before we leave. Thank you to all the people who have supported us and made this trip possible. We will be trying to keep this updated as much as possible during our trip so check back often.
Thanks,
Ryan
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