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

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

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.

1. Longer than promised by more than a whole day - Check
2. Boat stops at night if the river is low (which you wont find out until it stops) - Check
   
3. Mosquitos trying to devour you and succeeding - Check
   
4. Bed bugs picking up where the mosquitos left off- Check
   
5. Beautiful sunsets- Check
   
6. Other Americans trying smoke all the weed the had before the brazilian border (highly entertaining) - Check
   
7. Showers pumped directly out of the river you just flushed into- Check
   
8. Not showering for five days- Check
   
9. Large Peruvian befriending us and calling us his cousins- Check
   
10. Shirt swap with a drunk guy, at his behest, in a port town (he was drunk, not us)- Check
    
11. Surprisingly decent food- Check
    
12. Phenominal boredom- Check
13. Overall accomidations similar to what the prisoners at Alcatraz had- Check
    

So the boat ride wasn´t as exciting or fun as we thought but we did get to Iquitos late Monday night safe, sound, and stinky. We spent that day visiting with the 40/40s, who are training here for the next several months, and catching up on sleep.

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

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

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

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 :)