Lima Debrief

...Sam...

First off, if I repeat anything previously posted on this blog, I apologize but Im really enjoying not using computers or being connected at all. Today will be our first full day in Lima, where we will debrief for a long time before exploring the city. As far as the city itself, I find it really interesting, but overwhelmingly polluted. Its a stark contrast to the largely unspoiled rainforest we enjoyed up until yesterday.

Since weºll be spending much, if not all, of our debriefing time today reflecting on our experiance in the jungle, I thought Iºd share with you a few things that Im sure I will bring up in our discussions today. First, I think we did a great job this year. I think the major accomplishments we made in the physical task of building the park last year freed us to spend more time concentrating on relationships with our friends in the town this year. We worked hard and made some serious progress on the park, but there wasnt the same pressure to carve a park out of nothing, as there was last year. In place of the physical activity that took much of my time last year, I was able to spend even more time interacting with people. It was a unique experience to be invited into many homes and to form friendships not only with the kids, but with their moms as well. I cant even count the number of times when a mom would be looking at our activities somewhat apprehensively, but when we interacted with her and asked her about her life, she suddenly became a new friend, interested and involved in our efforts.

Im being told to wrap it up because we need to start our team debrief, but I wanted to share one last thing. This should be special for Matteo Braund if heºs reading this. One of our favorite boys in the town, Klieson, is now 12 and growing up fast. He really impressed me this year because he is taking a huge leadership role among the boys. Klieson was a great help in organizing his peers for activities, and in the closing ceremony he gave an impressive speech to a big crowd. Its hard to explain how proud this made me, seeing him go from a semi quiet kid hanging out with us last year, to being a obvious example of a future leader. I hope that our time together has encouraged him to take these steps, and I also hope that our friendship and the example of our team will help him to grow in a positive direction.

Well I hope these scattered thoughts make sense. Gotta go, hope everyone is doing well.

PS Molly and I say hi to her family! And also... Hi mom!

...Sam Ziegler...

My First Hair Cut...and his

Yesterday we were appproached by one of the women of the town who wanted us to cut her sons hair. It was the first time that he had had his hair cut, and he is about 4 years old. We found out that a child´s first hair cut is a big deal in their culture, and to have one of their ¨gringo¨ friends would be an honor.
Since I was the only one on the team that had cut hair (I´ve buzzed Cameron´s and my own, but this would be a sissors cut). I told them I was willing. What we found out was that generally this was almost an event and would include some gifts. The family came over to the FH house and I went to work. With about 20-30 people watching the presure was on both of us. He was not a huge fan of the attention and kept looking down, and appeared to be quite tired, but we powered through. You can let me know what you think.

He was not all that excited until after the hair cut I brought out a new hat for him to wear and show off/cover up his new hair cut. (for my fellow Minnesotans, dont be too harsh on me it was a Packers hat).
What a great experience that was, I was able to meet his dad later. This was a great experience, and made a special connection with my new friend Luis Mario.

Mighty to Save

If you´re anything like my mom you probably want to know every single detail of everything we did today, but that gets boring to write. (I love you mom!) So here is a quick summary of the day. This morning Kirk, Heather, and Sam worked at the park in La Merced, planting thousands upon thousands of plants. (Ok that´s an exaggeration but really, it was a lot and from what I hear, they rocked it!) The rest of us went to San Andreas, another smaller village about 15 minutes away, depending on road conditions. We did a our Kids Club with them and then went on a home visit to Jack and Mary Mlsna´s sponsored boy Jerson. (Jack - He seems to be healthy and doing really well!) In the afternoon we did our second Kids Club with the children in La Merced. At dinner, David, one of our translators, bought a rooster (yes still alive and squaking) for dinner on friday. He tied it up and through it in the back of our car to take home. Not something we are very accustomed to but entertaining none-the-less.

Now for the good stuff... After kids club I was walking with a 10 year old girl named Estefita. I´ve connected with her and her brother Glauber, 13 years old, better than most other children the past few days. We were talking and she started explaining why she wasn´t at the Kids Club yesterday. She said her father had gotten drunk and wouldn´t let them leave. Glauber was there because he had been able to escape. As we got closer to her house she looked up at me and told me that she didn´t want her dad to see the music sticks that we had made and hid it behind her notebook. I had difficulty understanding her explanation but it seemed as though he didn´t like them spending time with us and going to Kids Club. This was a difficult thing to hear, as it is whenever you hear of abuse. Unfortunately there is nothing that we can do but pray. This is still something that is in the forefront of my mind and a difficult thing to process and understand but I take comfort in knowing the power of prayer and God´s faithfulness.

We read the letters from some of you earlier this evening. Thanks for all of the encouragement! Speaking on behalf of the team, it was much need and appreciated! As I was reading mine, one verse that gave me particular comfort after this conversation with Estefita earlier today was this-



The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.

- Zephaniah 3-17

Dios es amor

Hey guys. I cannot begin to describe the blessings of the past few days. Yesterday I was sick for most of the day while the rest of the team worked very hard outside clearing a field to make a volleyball court. I started to feel better in the afternoon which was great because I got to play some ultimate frisbee with the kids (or as we call it in Peru, frisbee futbol). The ride home was very interesting...a mix of the men pushing our car and van out of the mud during a rainstorm in the Amazon, one of our translators, David, leading us in a worship singing party between getting stuck in the mud, and the boy mudwrestling in the road. It was a blessing to lift up songs of worship to our Lord while in the midst of a somewhat stressful, yet entertaining situation.

Today we all had a great time working on planting some trees (with LOTS of help from the little ones) and painting the in community park. It was fantastic to see how much work we accomplished in 3 hours and the joy it brought to the kids to help dig holes and plant trees. The kids were so eager to help that everytime I would start a job, a handful of kids would come in to join! It was such a blessing for me to be outside helping because yesterday I was sick for most of the day (don´t worry Mom, I´m fine!). Later in the afternoon we had some activities for the children which was energizing, fun, and joyous to see the children embracing the Bible story and loving the crafts. Each day I am becoming more in love with the communtiy of La Merced and the people here. I am stoked to see what the rest of the week brings and cannot wait to report back to all of you!

Dios es amor (God is love),
Heather

Which of these things doesn´t belong?

Mixing oatmeal cookies

a fantastic week so far...

hello everyone!
I will keep this short, since my goal is to post a bunch of pictures and not ramble on. We are having a great week. So far we have worked on clearing more land for a volleyball and soccer field, planted DOZENS of plants and small trees, painted four new little buildings which will have the roofs put on tomorrow, taught a baking and craft class for mothers in the community, had the first day of children´s programming, toured the community, played with many, many children, and enjoyed our meals in Cori´s backyard jungle patio. One highlight for me was that Food for the Hungry brought an oven to La Merced and I taught the mother´s group how to make oatmeal cookies (apparently, teaching cooking and baking is becoming something I do, who knew). It was rather hilarious from my perspective, but they loved it and were so excited to eat cookies, which are not a common food in the jungle. After the baking, Steph showed them how to create personal journals. I loved this time, just watching this group of women, so excited to not only be together but be treated to fun, simple things. I´m reminded of how much we all desire to be in community with others and of how much God desires to be in community with us, even in the simplest of ways.

Sam arrived here safely yesterday morning before a full day, thank you for your prayers. Our day ended yesterday with an intense rainstorm and an even more intense drive out of La Merced. We got stuck three times in the thick mud and clay and the men of our team, our translators and drivers worked magic pushing the car and van up hills and out of ditches. Every event or challenge has only energized us more and more. It´s fabulous. I could not be more proud of our team and how everyone has put themselves out there, teaching and even preaching and speaking in Spanish.

Well, clearly it´s hard for me to be brief. The next few days are full of children´s programming, work on the park and sports fields and family visits. We are doing well! Love to all!

laura

Created to Create

Today was full. From ripping out tree roots in a field, to getting our van unstuck from the mud on the way home, we have lots of memories. One highlight for me was watching the women in their reflection group.

There is a group of women from the community that meets weekly to talk about their families. Today, we taught them how to make cookies. We realized, though, that there would be time to fill while the cookies were baking. So, we decided to have them make family journals. We encouraged them to use it as a place to write goals for their families. We had lots of supplies we brought for the kids, so we also gave the women some they could use to decorate the fronts- stickers, paper, ribbon, etc.

The women had a blast. I think they could have decorated their journals for hours. Watching them reminded me how we are created in the image of God. There seems to be a draw within all humans to create. There is something powerful that happens when we do art, or even just put raw ingredients together to make a meal. It´s a tie to our Creator.

And, I was going to write something more profound, but I think I´m going to tie to another piece of what God did when he created... He rested, and now I will too.

-Steph

¡Hola!

Hello everybody from Pucallpa, Peru! Today we spent our first day in La Merced de Neshuya. We were graciously welcomed with a ceremony in the community´s church (the picture that is posted is during this ceremony). Everyone there was so excited to meet us and happy that we came. We spend most of the day hanging out with the children in the community playing with beach balls and frisbees...and they loved it! They were so excited to be around us and got so much joy from the sports equipment that we brought. The children accepted us right away by calling us ¨hermono¨ or ¨hermana¨ (which means brother or sister). We saw where our projects will take place which will be working on water wells, helping clear an area to build a soccer field, and plant a garden. Right now we are hanging out as a team in one of the bungalos at our hotel in Pucallpa and now it is time for some team bonding. More posts soon! Miss you guys and much love.

countless palm trees

At 7.30 this morning Laura and another punctual person woke from a restful night of sleep to find everyone had been dining for the past fifteen minutes. This was a great start to an even better day. Pastor Stephanie gave an inspiring sermon at the welcome ceremony today after we exchanged ´open the eyes of my heart Lord´ with the members of the church of La Merced. (exchanged, as in they sang it to us in spanish, while we sang it to them in french). The rest of the day was spent playing volly and frisbee with the kids and touring the community. Molly was transformed into a Queen (or bride) at the playground and soon everyone was wearing the flora of the community.

Safe in the jungle

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to let you know we arrived this morning in Pucallpa, the city in the Amazon that we travel out of to La Merced. We had orientation about La Merced and the Agua es Vida (Water is life) program at the Food for the Hungry office with our good friend Luis, met our translators and cooks (Paola, Zeke-yes, he´s back, David Shika-the crazy one, and Jesus-our constant fabulous chef), had a late lunch together and took the afternoon for some much needed rest after a very late arrival last night and early flight this morning. We´re adjusting to the heat by sweating alot. I realized a couple of hours ago that my ankles were turning into cankles, which sent the women of the team into panic, but its just part of the fun. Haha. Anyway, we are doing well and eagerly await traveling to La Merced in the morning for a Welcome Ceremony and community tour, as well as hang out time with children and families.

Thanks for all your prayers as we travel and get settled. Please pray for Sam as he travels all day through the night Sunday to Monday to meet up with us after standing up in his sister´s wedding today. May things go smoothly for him.

Hasta pronto!
laura

We made it!

Just a quick post to let you all know that we made it to Lima. After a delay and spending an extra 30 minutes in the air because the Lima airport was too busy, we are finally at our hotel. A solid 4 hours of sleep and we will be on our way back to the airport to fly out to Pucallpa.

Four years goes fast

It has been almost four years since I arrived for the first time in Peru. After watching a video shown in my church of the community of La Merced de Neshuya, I was captivated. The people, the language, the poverty. There was no doubt in my mind that I needed to find my way to this small Amazon village. What I didn't know or understand then was that God was going to use this place and these people to transform and shape me, to bless me and to teach me about His plan for the world and His plan for my life- as a follower of Christ, a teacher, and a friend. It's difficult to fully express how these things have happened, so much of it is caught up in my heart and mind and I struggle to outwardly convey what I want all of you to know, but I do know that one trip in 2005 sparked a call to serve others, not only oversees, but within my daily life. Talents, skills and passions that I had only begun to explore were brought to light and have continued to be grown and developed me during the past four years. It has only been the beginning to a beautifully difficult and revealing journey.

This trip will be my fourth trip to La Merced with Blackhawk Church, partnering with Food for the Hungry, an international development and relief NGO. Sometimes when I think about returning, I wonder if I'm being selfish, because I have close friends and amazing experiences awaiting me when we land. I'm excited to be reunited the FH staff and the people of the community. I have no idea if I will be helping or changing the world by returning. I am certain that this trip will refresh my soul and change my heart and so yes, selfishly, I await the realities, lessons, challenges, blessings and renewel that will come from God in the next few weeks. I am who I was created to be when I am in La Merced. There is no crap, no games, no hiding, nothing fake- ITS JUST ME. I thrist for that kind of freedom in my life here in Madison and I already pray I can learn to bring it back to this place, so I can also be fully me, fully confident and fully dependant on a God who provides and gives grace more than I can comprehend. May we all be able to share this prayer.

Along with that, I confess that I am scared. Not to travel or lead or translate in Spanish, but at the possibility of this being my last trip to La Merced. While that is not my plan for the future, as we wind down this community to community partnership it is a reality. As La Merced grows in their community leadership and long range sustainable planning for water and food, we must rejoice that goals set seven years ago are being met and that small cycles of hungry, disease, and poverty are being slowed down and lives changed. Praise God! But my messed up heart finds its way back to sadness and fear over saying goodbyes that could be final ones. If you know me well, you know that normal goodbyes can make me sad, so I ask you think of me and that I may have a peace and joy in knowing this little village will be taken care of and that my experiences and relationships have been of unsurmountable value.

So with that, I'm ready to go. We have planned and fund raised and asked God to go before us, and we are ready. Please follow us in the two weeks to come, we thank you for your continued support, thoughts and prayers.

Dios te bendiga,
laura

Ready or not, here I come!

As I look back on this summer, I am completely blown away by how fast it has gone by. It seems like it was not that long ago that our team was meeting for the first time, and now we are only a few short days away from traveling to La Merced. I am getting very excited for this trip, but also a little nervous. I have never been immersed in a culture different from my own which will be a learning experience and I am excited to see God's work on a more global scale.
As most of you know, I am a team leader for a high school youth group called Young Life. I have been involved with Young Life for the past 7 years. During the summers I have volunteered at Young Life camps around the nation which has been an amazing growing and serving experience. This summer will be a different experience serving on a mission trip and I am not sure what God will use me for yet, but I cannot wait to find out. I am looking forward to meeting the people of La Merced, serving in their community, and building relationships with them.

There is a small country on the west side of South America that holds a special place in my heart. I've only been in it for two weeks, but something about it has captured me and made me desire to go back. One reason may be that I only got a small glimpse of the relationship between the village of Blackhawk and La Merced, for there was striking in Peru at the time when I went down making us change our plans and spend most of our time in Lima. Through all this I learned of the sovereignty of God. All that we had planned failed, yet our trip could not have been more perfectly planned. I think that the most exciting part of that trip was how my perception of God changed into one, that though was nowhere near accurate, was closer than what it had been. This time, only one week away, I can only pray that my perceptions will change again.

Bittersweet Goodbyes

As our day of departure creeps up fast I’m finding myself in a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions about the impending trip. Coming off of both a backpacking trip and local missions trip with high school students, I’m physically exhausted. Additionally, I’ve found it difficult to find time to spiritually process everything that took place. Thinking ahead to this trip, I’m filled with bittersweet anticipation. Along with the excitement of seeing the people there, there comes a heaviness with the thought of saying goodbye for good. As Food for the Hungry’s relationship with La Merced draws to a close it is unlikely that I will ever go back. How do you look a 12 year-old boy that you’ve grown to love and care for in the eye with tears streaming down his face that you’ll never see him again? While he will go on to live and grow, it is a death of sorts.  He will no longer be a part of my life besides in my prayers. I’ve been struggling to figure out how to prepare myself for it, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I can’t. I’ll never be ready, no one ever is. If you pray for one thing for me on this trip, please let it be this.  

"Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken." (Psalm 62:5-7)

How I Landed Here

It’s been 4 years since I first ventured into the Peruvian Amazon for the first time. Having gone on mission trips to both Honduras and Mexico, I had begun to develop a heart for missions work in Latin America. After watching a video of a Blackhawk team that went to Peru, I knew I had to go. That trip in many ways was the beginning of an adventure God is still taking me on. Among the things that greatly impacted me were: seeing adolescent males in a culture saturated in machismo leaving our week long camp with tears streaming down their faces while they said goodbye, the unbelievable generosity and gratefulness of those who are significantly less materially blessed, meeting the boy I sponsor (an incredible story but too long for this post). My heart was torn open to the social injustices of our world, thankfully never to be closed. I returned again in 2007, excited to deepen the relationships I had formed two years prior. As soon as we landed in Lima it was clear that God’s plan was different. But once again He blew me away. Due to strikes in Pucallpa (the city we fly into to get to La Merced), we were unable to go to La Merced as planned. We spent the first week working in various communities throughout the slums of Lima. Fortunately, the strikes ended and we were able to cancel our trip to Machu Picchu and make it to La Merced for a few days. (Again, much more to this story.) It was on this trip that I really began to realize the crazy ways in which God works and learned that if I surrender my life, He’ll undoubtedly blow my mind. Throughout the past two years God has been literally pushing me (at times against my own selfish desires) into youth ministry. Two years ago, I’d never thought of a future in youth ministry, and now I find myself in the midst of a yearlong internship with the high school ministry at Blackhawk, but I wouldn’t change any of it. It’s unclear where God is taking me with all of this but I’m confident of one thing, it’ll be a wild ride but ultimately more rewarding than I could have ever imagined. Thinking about this trip and all the roadblocks we’ve hit in preparing and the unknowns ahead, it would be natural to be fearful of what is to come. But because of my confidence in God’s faithfulness, instead of anxiousness and fear, I’m simply excited for the ways in which God is going to pull through and knock us off our feet. He always does.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7

Perspective

I’ve been pretty stressed over the last few days.

I’ve been worried about the number of things I want to get done before I leave on this trip.
I’ve been frustrated because my son wasn’t eating the food that was on his plate.
I’ve been upset about a slow internet connection.
I’ve been annoyed because of the many cars on the road when I was already running late.
I’ve been discouraged with the clutter lying around my house.

As I reflect on the tension I feel, I realize a common thread.

I am not stressed because of scarcity; I am stressed because of abundance.

From one perspective, the people of La Merced have much less than we do. They are a poor village. They live a simple life. They live in scarcity.

From another perspective, the people of La Merced have much more than we do. American stress if foreign to them. They aren’t stressed by running late because they are more interested in relationships than routines. They aren’t stressed by clutter, because they not only have less, they are content with less. Their belongings may be scarce, but their existence is abundant.

So, as I look towards leaving in a week, I am excited. I am not only excited for what I will give, but what I will gain. I am excited for a new perspective.

Steph

Count Down...Sound off, look for the whole team to share their background

Over the course of the next week you will hear from several people from our team to give you a bit of an overview of who we are. So a bit of background on me and my family. I’m joined on this trip by my wife Steph she is the children’s pastor at Blackhawk. We will be leaving our 2 ½ year old with my family in the Twin Cities while we are gone. We did a similar trip to Honduras about 7 years ago, and have wanted to do another trip ever since. This is a summer of transitions for us as well, I'm going back to school as soon as we get back, so as we are leaving for Peru I'm leaving my company of almost a decade! Between Steph’s children’s ministry experience and my Spanish we should be in a good place on this trip. We are specifically excited to see the water wells that our church is sponsoring throughout Peru and bring some of the exciting news back to Madison on the progress FH is making bringing clean water to remote areas of Peru. We are also excited to build some relationships with the community of La Merced. We'd love you to pray for us, specifically for focus on the trip and relationships in La Merced while there is so much going on in our lives. Safe travel, and more importantly open hearts and minds to change should something go not as planned.

One month to go...

Here we are, just about a month to go before our team leaves for Peru and the village of La Merced. We take off on July 31st and will be in the field from August 1st to the 11th. Some of our team will return on August 12th and some on August 15th. Follow along with us as we prepare and while we're gone. As the weeks get closer we will update with plans, thoughts, and prayers. Thanks for your support! -Laura