At Kel´s party with Carlos and Betsy and Kel´s new jewelry

The paint crew hard at work

Our Lion Masks at the new kids program

After going star gazing here one night....the view is amazing!!

Chilling with our friends in the plaza...like usual haha

First off, I must apologize for how much time has passed since our last update. At first we did not update because there really was not too much going on, but now we haven´t had anytime because we have been so busy. I wish the words I type could truly describe to you what an incredible time we are having. Hm...where to start.....Well last week the main church we do a lot of work with took a team into the jungle for a week because the pastor, his wife, and about 12 others left, we were asked to help out by taking over 2 of the 5 weekly services. The first service I spoke about love: Agape, Fileo, and Erros. I have been learning a lot about this, especially after reading 1 Corinthians recently. There were not too many people there because of the mission trip and also because right before the service it was raining very hard, but it still went very well and if anything I left the church extremely challenged by my own words. For the second service, our very own Kelly Brill got up and shared her testimony and I translated for her. She talked about how through a horrible sledding accident, God became very real to her and how life is so short that we shouldnt waste it on things of this world. We definitely had to practice a few times before and two of our friends Isai and Jorge helped me figure out words that could replace 4-wheeler and sled and other things that most Peruvians who have never seen snow wouldnt understand. It was awesome to see Kelly share and Isai´s father Pastor Bazalar, who is another local pastor would like her to come share in his church sometime as well.

Our kid program continues to go well and on Sundays we have started another kids program working with Pastor Bazalar about a 30 minutes walk away from where we live. In our weekly kids program the kids know all the songs, many of the stories, and an incredible amount of Bible verses from the memory verse program we have going on. But in the new location the kids hardly know anything, but it is so much fun teaching them. Last sunday we shared the story of Daniel and the Lion´s den and talked about God´s faithfulness to Daniel. We then made lion masks to help remember the story. Afterwards we just hung around a few hours and played volleyball, and the the first time won a little bit of money instead of losing like usual. By the way the betting here always very small amounts of money, like one sol or 2 soles which equals about 30 to 60 cents in American money. It is a huge cultural thing here, everyone does it. It is such a great way to build relationships with the people that live here, especially when there can be a language barrier.

In other news, 5 Americans from the Adventures in Missions team were sent from the jungle to Nauta on a fast boat to be tested for Malaria and Denghe fever. I met them at the port and took them to the hospital. All the tests came out negative and they were all told they had a bacterial infection and given antibiotics to treat it. 4 of them woke up feeling a little better, but one girl woke up with incredible pain which everyone thought to be appendicitus. While the 3 went back to the jungle, Molly, the team leader Jesse, and our house mom Chris left for Iquitos to treat her. While she was gone, we decided to get busy and do some physical labor and house work to surprise Chris when she returned. She has been meaning to paint our walls for a good while now. They were kind of a mixture of concrete and some green paint. So we all woke up early and began. Kelly and Sarah began washing the walls, which was the messiest part of all. I decided to take on the job of ¨mowing the lawn¨which in Peru translates to Machete time. Our backyard has been growing out of control, so I began chopping away using my machete ¨skills¨that I picked up last year in the jungle. After about an hour, about 13 neighborhood kids showed up , many with their own machetes to show me how it is really done. These kids have the most amazing work ethic, they didnt want anything, they just really love us and wanted to help. About three hours, many blisters, and a bit of sunburn later it was done. I went down the corner store and bought some cookies and coke and we all relaxed in the shade, it was so much fun, those kids are so precious. By that time, Kelly and Sarah finished wall washing. We took a break and met up with our new friend Patty who showed us a new swimming spot named Playa Del Amor, or translated The Beach of Love. After all the work it was relaxing to cool off and swim...no worries we did not find any romance on the beach..but we did have a lot of fun. We returned, prepared and had our kids program and then began painting away. We had two of our friends and old students from the institute helping us paint, it was actually successful...more paint ended up on the walls than on us. Sadly, Chris showed up in the middle of our surprise, but she definitely appreciated it. The doctors in Iquitos said that Molly had a urinary tract infection and not appendicitus and so she is now at our house recovering until the rest of her team arrives in Nauta today or tomorrow.

Last but not least, yesterday was a very special day. Little Kelly Brill turned 20 years old. We had a great day. We woke up to amazing chocolate chip pancakes which Chris has been planning for awhile because Kelly and I would always talk about how they are our favorite. We then went with some friends to this huge garden of all sorts of plants. Our one friends knew so much about the plants. There was cotton, coconuts, and lot of medicinal plants as well. We ended up overlooking water and had a nice view of Nauta. We came back and had a great lunch and then went and played so basketball. Kelly and I went and got some of Nauta´s best french fries and then we headed back to the house and had cake and ice cream. About 20 of our friends came to celebrate, it was an awesome time. Our friend Jorge and his mother knit Kelly a beautiful wall hanging that said PAZ...which is peace translated. Another friend Betsy made her some beautiful jewelry and our friend Cesar, the joker of the group finished with the best present, the Peruvian tradition to crack an egg on the birthday girl...which I think we all enjoyed much more than Kelly did. Anyways we are headed to Iquitos this weekend. It will be a nice break.

God continues to do awesome things. More and more people are interested in the gospel. I was just sharing last night with a friend who always seems so full of joy. He really opened up that he is absolutely empty inside and has even contemplated suicide. His best friend committed suicide last year and he is really struggling right now, from family problems to financial needs. He said he just wants a new life...to start over. That is exactly what we get in Christ...the old things pass away and God gives us a new life. Please continue to pray for the youth here. There is so much hopelessness and emptiness that only God can fill.

Congrats if you read this all. We miss you and love you so much.

Paz