Fiestas Patrias

Today, July 28th begins the two-day celebration of Peru's Independence. Bright red and white flags are flying on nearly ever home, and the stores are filled with patriotic decorations. Normally the celebrations, known as "Fiestas Patrias," include shows, parades and countess special events. This year many of the events have been cancelled due to the spread of the swine flu.

Once again we are able to celebrate the freedoms that Peru offers her citizens. We again feel blessed to live and work here in this wonderful land! Happy Independence Day Peru!




We hope you'll take a few moments and listen to Peru's National Anthem. The hymn is actually quite long. The above video only includes one of the seven verses!

Another 10 Great Days of Ministry

We've just completed a busy ten days of ministry with a group of visitors from Psalm 150 Ministries. The group, mostly from Virginia and Tennessee, came with lots of energy and a desire to serve. They were able to do an incredible amount of work and accomplished more than we could have ever imagined. They divided their time between the building project and working with our neighborhood children. We hope you'll enjoy this brief presentation of pictures from their time here:



If you don't receive our email updates and you'd like a more complete trip summary you can read them by visiting our online community.

Out of This World Experience

Today was the first day of Elizabeth's "winter" break. She'll be out of school until August 12th when she heads back to start third grade. To celebrate the day we headed to a new park about a mile from our home. Peruvian children are still in school and so the park was nearly empty. After a few minutes of family play time a little five-year old boy came up to chat. He was quite interested in our family and had lots of questions. "Do you speak two languages? Why did you come to Peru? Do your girls go to school?" His questions came one right after the other. When he found out we were from the United States he was especially excited, and said: "Really! I've never met someone from another planet!"