Mr. Brown goes to "deepest, darkest Peru" (for our Paddington lovers)

The week before Thanksgiving, I was given the opportunity to join some missionaries from Pioneers on a 4 day reconnaissance trip to a native Asheninka community in the region.  The purpose of the trip was to determine the need for a missionary presence in the Apurucayali River area.  Two of our group are also parents of a few of my students and I was very excited to have a chance to experience for myself what some of the families we are ministering to do in their ministries.  To that end we began our long day of travel to the community of Puerto Davis.  The trip was to take around 12 hours total; 5 hours by car and 7 hours by peke-peke.  Our goal was to leave at 4:00am so we could reach the community before dark.  However, as is often the case here, that didn't happen.  I was picked up around 5:00am instead.  This will come into play later (in a good way).  

This was our peke-peke.  Just imagine a canoe with a small motor.

After about an hour or two, out of 8, the river began to get a little wearisome.

 The river ride took longer than expected, but the beauty of God's creation was all around us.  Butterflies flying over the river, birds we referred to as jungle turkey's in the trees, and the trees themselves gave us a peaceful feeling as we went upriver.  We truly live in a beautiful place.

Because of our late start, we weren't able to reach Puerto Davis before night fall.  Instead we landed in the community of Belen which is a little over an hour downstream.  This was all part of God's plan.   Our unintended stop allowed the team to talk with some of the people there and get a feel for the spiritual condition of the community and what needs could possibly be met with a mission team in the region.  It was an excellent start to our goal.

This building is the church, which doesn't receive regular use.  We actually used the stage for our tents.  There is a definite need for discipleship of the few believers that live in the region.

 This picture is of a page from an Asheninka translated Bible.  Close examination of the language may serve to make us appreciate English a little more.

This is the church in Puerto Davis.

 We arrived in Puerto Davis the next morning and were received warmly by the former pastor of the church there.  He has been passing over the duties due to health reasons, but is extremely excited at the thought of missionaries coming back to the region.  Missionaries had been in the area for many years until around 1989 when the terrorist group "Shining Path" came through.  When the missionaries left, none came back for long term efforts to continue the work that had been started. 
Most of our time in Puerto Davis was used talking with some of the people and getting to know them.  The community is said to have around 50 families.  The people were friendly and we felt happy to talk with us.  Most of the people survive using the river for fish or planting plantains, yucca, and other crops in a chakra, basically the Quechuan word for farm.  We were given a tour of the hills surrounding Puerto Davis and treated to some more awesome sights and flavors.  I would have to say that the papaya we ate was the best I ever had.

 Our final afternoon/evening we had a special church service in Puerto Davis.  We shared who we are with those whom we hadn't met yet and were given the chance to share God's word. 

We had a lot to think about from our trip as we traveled home.  Going downriver is much faster so we didn't have quite as much time to think, but I know we have been thinking about those people and the region ever since.

Christmas Outreach

We were extremely blessed to have a Christmas Outreach day with the youth at a local church.  Our kids sang Christmas songs, played games and presented the Christmas story in Spanish before passing out presents. We celebrated at the end with a traditional chocolatada, Peruvian hot chocolate and paneton, a bread eaten at Christmas time.

Time for Christmas Projects!

I admit it happens every year. Its November...Thanksgiving....BAM! Chistmas is here. I always plan to do really cool things with my kids for Christmas and then its on me before we know it. Somehow I thought Christmas would be calmer in 90 degree weather too. No snow days to set the kids into hyper-excitement level....nope. Christmas time must have its own barometric levels because my little bunch is wound. As I type Ella is teaching her brother a new rendition of Jingle Bells that has circulated my classoom all.day.long. But the really cool thing about my kids is that when I say they get excited...they get excited about everything. So bring on Christmas. Eight more school days and we got this!

I LOVE being able to dig deep into the Christmas story! We have been looking at the names of Jesus and the prophecies about Jesus. I think it is so awesome how eveything is woven together in God's plan. And my kids humor me by agreeing when I randomly call out " How cool is that?! during a Bible lesson. We made these little, mini nativities for at home.

The cool thing about having five kids and two kindles is that with a little sharing we can dive into some cool ebooks every now and then. We just finished reading the graphic novel for A Christmas Carol which was more third grade friendly than the original. When we finished we made lego characters for Scrooge before and after his adventure using vivid adjectives to describe him. 

My all-time favorite Christmas book is "Gingerbread Pirates." A little boy makes Santa gingerbread pirate cookies. When he goes to bed the captain works to set his men free before "that cannibal Santa Claus" gets them. In the end Santa makes sure even the pirates have a Merry Christmas. After reading the book, we did a survey of the students at our school of which part of the gingerbread they would take a bite of first. We then figured out how to make a key for our pictographs and rough percentages for our pie graphs. 

I am so blessed to be teaching where I am! Hope your season is starting out just as fun.

Black Friday

We woke up early and loaded the car. We drove for hours to reach our destination. Once there we waited in line to enter. After much elbowing and shoving we were able to purchase...our ticket to see the waterfall! 

Our Black Friday didn't include shopping this year. Hallelujah! Instead we spent the day hanging out at El Boqueron, a town with beautiful waterfalls three hours outside Pucallpa. It was a wonderful, much needed day outside the city.     

                                                                                         

La Ducha del Diablo, the devil's shower was prettier than its name!

 

We travelled with Minori, our awesome principal, her husband John and Olivia and Jennifer, two of our wonderful teachers.

                                                     

 El Velo de la Novia, the bride's veil

  

 

A different kind of Thanksgiving

So I am the first to admit this month has been hard for me. My birthday, usually spent celebrating with my mom who is also a November baby, started my low spirits. It was an awesome day spent with wonderful friends but soon after we came upon Thanksgiving and again I was faced with a special day normally spent with my loved ones. Even living four hours away we never missed a Thanksgiving at our parents' and so as much as I tried to fight it, I felt myself fighting the gloomy Gus inside of me. But God is good, all the time and wherever there was an empty spot He filled it with amazing things. Thanksgiving week was the first time I had all five of my original students together in several months. In honor of our "togetherness" we took our first field trip along with the first and second graders....to Plymouth! We have been loving reading "Thanksgiving on Thursday" and the non-fiction research guide that goes with it so to finish out our book all our Wampanoag Indians and Pilgrims boarded the Mayflower. (As Ella pointed out, the Indians really shouldn't have been on the Mayflower, but hey...what was the Mayflower doing in Peru anyway?!)

Waiting to "board" with their tickets. "If ye don't have thine ticket, ye may be thrown overboard."

Our turkey for our feast, compliments of Miss Olivia. Served with corn....popcorn.

Our turkeys...I mean...pilgrims and Indians, ready to feast! While feasting, we did a virtual field trip of the Mayflower, Plimoth Colony and a Wampanoag Village online. I LOVE technology! 

Thanksgiving Day we spent in wonderful fellowship with 75 other missionaries and MKS. Van and Vanessa Brock and their family, graciously opened their wonderful home to all of us. We feasted on turkey and lots and lots of fixins and shared how God has blessed us this year. The kids swam in the pool...a Thanksgiving first to be sure. Though we were far from our own family, looking around, I knew we were surrounded by family all the same.

I hope your Thanksgiving was full of loved ones, laughter and too much dessert as well and as always, we send our love out to all our friends and family. You are as special to our hearts as ever!

The Thanksgiving gang..a blessed group of awesome people!

School Happenings

 School is in full swing!  Last week we were blessed to share a bit of our "classroom happenings" with parents and friends at our Open House.  It was a fun night with alot of talent!  Marcy's class performed "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" while Mike's high-schoolers created an "Are you smarter than a High-Schooler?" game for their parents.  Afterwards we chowed down on snacks and gave tours of our rooms.

 The whole gang!

 Are you Smarter than a Highschooler?  An awesome side note...our school was in need of a projector.  While we were at the Centennial Conference in Panama, one of the US churches that helped with different things offered us the one they brought with them.  They also donated a brand new keyboard to the school.  How cool is that?!

 Our music appreciation class showing us their rhythm.

Poor Ella was still sick with strep so she wasn't able to participate but the others did great filling in her part and all my kids did an awesome job!

And this is how you do partner reading when its over 90 degrees in your classroom!

Grammy's Here!

The kids have been counting down to "G-day"...Grammy day!  Mike's mom and brother were able to come and visit us in Pucallpa.  The visit didn't go quite as planned...Ella managed to catch strep throat the day before they got here.  But while we didn't get to do things quite as we hoped, the kids did get lots of cuddle time and Ella was given the "ok" by the doctor to go to the zoo on their last full day here.  (Side note...my first trip to the doctor here was very stressful and made me realize how limited my language skills are.  And to make sure I humbly master this skill we have now been to the doctor three times and will probably be there again tomorrow as Liam is having the same symptoms!  I can now say I handle the appointment with a little more grace and a few more laughs thanks to prayer and the wonderful doctor here.)  We were so blessed to have Mike's mom and brother here!  While it was super hard to say good-bye I'm so glad they were able to see our home here and take part in some of our ministry as well.  It was a really great week!

 The zoo!!

 These little guys were not in their cages!  Escapees or jungle folk visiting their captive relatives?  Hmmm...

 A few more monkeys we found:)

Isn't he cute?  *No animals were fed or harmed in the making of this photo*

 A walk on the wild side..

We planned on celebrating Ella's birthday with all her friends while Grammy and Uncle Brian were here but strep throat would visit instead.  So we had a nice little family evening...isn't she getting big?!

And Christmas came early...it seemed a little weird with Christmas carols playing and the thermometer reading 93 degrees.....BUT...it was still awesome to celebrate with the fam while they were here.

One last Christmas present from Grammy, Uncle Brian and Pappy and Aunt Michelle back home.  The awesome thing is here in Pucallpa, we can even use it on Christmas Day!