Kari Bussell in Peru

it has been such a cool experience to get to hang out with street boys in kawai, lima, & cusi. ive only got to spend a few hours really so far with each group & still so many have captured my heart with their smiles, joy, affection. im learning how much you can communicate without words. if you have a camera & you like playing games, then you can make many best friends with these amazing kids.

ive fallen in love with one little boy in particular. he´s ten years old & his name´s david. he was one of the street boys at the lima center. even though i absolutely loved all the kids there & played games with a lot of them, david would never leave my side. at one point during the night i looked down to see david tying a beautiful red, blue, & pink bracelet he´d made around my wrist. ¨para ti¨ he said (for you in english) & then drew a heart on my wrist. id call him ¨mi hermanito¨ or my little brother.

later the next night, billy, one of the leaders of scripture union, talked to us after dinner about some of the things these boys had been through. it was unfathomable really, that that precious little boy who held my hand & smiled up at me had most likely been abandoned by his teenage mother, starved, sexually abused, tortured, & left for dead. it broke my heart to hear billy talk. i kept picturing david´s face in my mind as he spoke. i cried as i wrote about it in my journal that night. in many ways peru is a very dark place but God has graciously placed lights in the darkness, scripture union & the boys centers among them.yesterday was our first day of hard manual labor at cusi.

i spent about an hour making adobe bricks (which after the 4th time i started to get the hang of) & then spent the rest of the time shoveling mud into wheelbarrows. it was incredibly exhausting work & i was completely covered in mud by the end of it, but it was actually a lot of fun & i felt really good after it was over. & let me tell you food has never tasted so delicious & sleep never felt so good as it did last night.

today was our day off, touristy, sightseeing day. we walked
through a busy market this morning & sam picked out an adorable guinea pig & named him henry. sadly, henry´s life ended at the restaurant we went to for breakfast when the cook broke his neck in front of us & then cooked him. even though there wasnt too much meat on him, henry tasted pretty good, kinda like greasy chicken. i got some amazing before & after pictures :).

then, we took a bus up to glacier lake. the guys had really wanted to jump in but mr horton wouldnt let them. something about dying from hypothermia...it was aboslutely gorgeous up there. i have never seen anything like it in my life. it was incredibe to be surrounded by towering mountains all around & to see mysef as i really should view myself all the time: very small.

one final thought before i go. i read revelation 5 two nights ago about the blood of Christ ransoming people from every tribe & every tongue. that verse took on new meaning for me in the past week because for the first time im being exposed to a culture & people completely different from myself. though so so many things are different between me & one of the street boys here, one thing remains the same. the blood of Christ saves us both. oh how wondrous & powerful is the blood of God which penetrates into all peoples, cultures, & languages to save man from sin & give them life everlasting.

Alix Bowman in Peru

there are two interns here who are 19. one of them is from nottingham england and the other is from scotland. they are so cute and are helping me a lot with my spanish. the boys are so cute and i adapted really well to the culture by sunday. i would stay here a lot longer!

we went dune buggying on saturday, and it was very roller coastery. we also sandboarded, and i cut up my arm, but it was well worth it.

the boys in kawai were not as outgoing as the boys in lima, and i think we are going to see the lima boys again on saturday before we leave for houston. we traveled all day monday to get to caraz, which is where i am right now and we will be here until friday night.

we had our first vbs and work day yesterday, and there were little girls there and the school as well. two little girls, leidy and julia, clung by my side nonstop. they were so cute and i got lots of pictures with them. today we went to a glacial lake and went hiking, which was absolutely gorgeous. i didnt get to enjoy the hiking part as much though there were no bathrooms :) but i got lots of pictures. tomorrow and friday we will go to the same school and hang out with the kids.

i started making bricks with katie out of mud, because they use those to build the school. it was really fun and i got really dirty. we are going to travel on the bus all night on friday night to get back to lima, and i hope we are going to see the boys there again. one little boy who was about thirteen thought i was his novia, which is spanish for girlfriend. ha ha ...he was cute too.

well that about covers it!
love alix

Sydney Sweet in Peru

Peru is amazing! Yesterday (Tuesday) was our first work day at Kusi and also our first Vacation Bible school, it was amazing. The children were delighted that we were there to help. We were honestly all sore last night. Once we returned to the hostal, due to the amount showers being taken the power went out. Yet again another freezing cold shower, haha, I must admit though, I am getting used to them. The power finally did come back on during worship. Today we went to Huascaran, where we went on small boat rides, the lake was FREEZING, but the scenery was breath taking. We then went on a hike down a mountain trail. We hiked for a hour and half. It was beautiful, but not easy. We all made it through the trail and back onto the bus we then headed back to Caraz to spend the rest of the day going to the market. This trip has been amazing and I am loving every second of it. Like brian said, it is a painful site sometimes, but God truely has great things planned for this area. I love and miss you all!!!! We are all safe and we appreciate all your prayers!!!

peru misc. from miss jackson

"You don't understand, Miss Jackson...You have no idea what the air pressure is doing to my stomach." - Alix Bowman

"All your brickmaking was nothing"- Farai, giving the girls a hard time because the boys had to carry lots of big rocks.

"You think YOU had a mudparty!" - Clare, who had been mixing mud and straw with her feet to the girls who were making the bricks.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" - Sam falling backwards into a mudpile (multiple times)

"Ow!" - Sam hitting her head on a tree.

"I like it." - Kari referring to her first taste of guinea pig.

"You guys are sick and need help." - Lauren talking to everyone eating guinea pig.

"We should put our soles together and buy that rooster. Then we can kill it!" -Several students who were a little irritated with a rooster that woke them up at 5 am.

"Did she say water would come out of the door?" - Katie Roberts when shown her shower....with no curtain....and only a shower head in a small room.

Lotion - what Karissa accidently put in her hair while taking a shower in the dark because the power went out.
Coca Tea - everyone's favorite tea.....guess why....

Polar Bear Club - an unofficial group of really manly students who decided that swimming in a glacial lake would be fun.....they later decided it wouldn't be such a great idea. Group members included: Nick, Andy, Evan, Robby, and others.

Henry - the name of the guinea pig that Sam picked out for breakfast.

65 million - number of guinea pigs eaten every year.

"Squeak!" - Henry's last words.

1 hour, 6 mins - time it took to hike from the glacial lake, past water falls and huge boulders, back to the bus.

Picarones - Evan's favorite Peruvian desert; sort of like a homemade donut with honey

Peanut Butter - Andy's favorite alternative to Peruvian food.

Inca Kola - everyone's soda of choice.

Hola from Brian Powell

hey friends and family,

i am sitting in a hostel in caraz. i miss home a lot, i miss all of you. but it is good here. hm...what in the world to say? i have not seen the face of god. my faith is not flawless. i havent even experienced a spiritual high. but it is good. sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious, always eye opening. so much beauty. secret cities in the clouds, i love flying. stark deserts with insane dune buggy action. biggest mountains ive ever seen in my life. and kids you want to hold onto and never let go of.

yesterday we hung out with boys in the center at lima, and i met my peruvian twin, gerardo. he is 20 years old and tall and skinny. he wears glasses, plays guitar, and likes to scream. we sat trading the guitar back and forth for probably hours, playing everything from worship to system of a down and green day. we sang together. he would get along well with the guys back home.

tomorrow we start construction, so well see how that goes. but so far its been great. i am glad to be here, and i will be glad to see you all again.our god reigns supreme in the darkest of places, and he does great works we will never know. i am privileged to see him working here this week..i love you all so much, and hope all is well in los estados unidos.
praying for a heart awake,
brian

Estamos en Peru! (from Kelsey)

One of the first things I noticed about this trip is how long each moment seems to last. It has only been three days and already seems like a life time.

When we first stepped out of the airport, we were surrounded by at least a hundred people holding signs for cab companies or waiting for friends and family. It was pretty overwhelming until some people from Scripture Union stepped forward to show us where to go. This year, Scripture Union brought along a welcome present for us: two translators, Gillian and Kate. Gillian is from Scotland and Kate is from England, but both have been here for the past few months to help teach classes for Scripture Union.

On the first day here, the group took a trip to Las Islas Paracas. The islands were breathtaking. Birds flew overhead by thousands (poor Ani Arntz was splattered twice), and the seals basked in the sunlight. The caverns everywhere reminded me of stories about pirates and hoards of buried treasure, though it is likely that the caves are only home to bats and marine life.

Later that day, we visited a part of Peru that seemed to be a scene from Arabian Nights. There was sand everywhere (including our shoes, hair, and mouths :-) ). We took the dune buggies up and down the dunes to a fairly high spot where we were each given sand boards and sledded all the way down Mr. Cernuto went the farthest, showing up all the students!
By the end of the day we were pretty exhausted and ready for the nice dinner that was prepared for us when we returned to Kawai.

The next day, our group led church with the street boys at Kawai. We sang some songs and studied Psalm 23, the verse for our trip. Some of the boys came up and sang songs or recited poems to us.
We spent that afternoon playing soccer and hanging out on the playground with the boys. When it was time to leave, they all came out and said goodbye as a group, giving out as many hugs and kisses as they could.
After a two hour bus ride, we arrived in Lima and set up our mattresses on the floor at a hostel owned by Scripture Union. That evening was amazing: everybody played with the street boys in an indoor court. We spent hours playing soccer and basketball and dancing with the littlest boys. Brian was surrounded with little kids as he played songs on his guitar- the boys knew the Spanish version of the songs Every Move I Make and Open the Eyes of my Heart.

Early this morning we had an adventure with a rat that found its way into our room and decided to scratch at the door. It only ran off when Ms. Jackson came at it armed with a camera and flashlight!
After breakfast we had a ten hour bus ride to Caraz. The views were spectacular! At the beginning of the ride we could look out the windows and see straight down a cliff into the ocean. Later we were surrounded by snow-capped mountains and wild valleys. As we drove further into the mountains, the villages became more ramshackle. There were houses made of dirt whose roofs had collapsed, and stray dogs fighting in the streets. It was hard to believe that people actually lived in places like this, and helped us to better understand the lives of the street boys we have been working with.
Tonight we spent some time worshiping the Lord though prayer, song and devotions. So far this trip has been amazing and we have a lot to thank God for. We have had so many opportunities to show God´s love and we are all well and content. Thank you so much for your prayers! I know God is protecting us and helping us to do his work!

First Peruvian Moments from Miss Jackson

Hola!

I just wanted to give you all a brief update! Kelsey Huber will be adding some more later!

The first few days were great! It included a long flight, lots of driving, stinky birds, fat sea lions, dune buggies and sand in our ears, and lots of amazing kids in Kawai and Lima! Sunday morning we were able to help lead the church service for the boys at Kawai and the students did an amazing job!

Brian, Kelsey, Ani, and Katie lead the boys in worship.....in Spanish! YAY!

Lauren, Kari, Sydney and Sam, after working very hard, were able to present two skits communicating the truth about God´s protection and provision for us.

Farai, Nick, Clare, Ani, Sam, Katie, and McKenzie shared a choreography that very clearly showed the gospel.

It was such a great time to celebrate what God has done with the boys at Kawai! I have been so proud of our students!!

There is more to come, but I will leave that to Kelsey!

Blessings and ADIOS!
Trish Jackson aka Miss J

We're goin' to Peru!

Hola to all the Parents and Southlake Folks (and all others who may be reading),

We are all looking forward to getting on airplane this morning! God has already shown us His favor and mercy. As of Wednesday, Evan Scott had not gotten his passport...and after the prayers of many and lots of phone calls, it arrived yesterday! YAY!

Check back for updates about our trip. I will have the students do some of the the blogging this year. It will be Monday evening before we have access to a computer, so check back then!

Please pray for us! It is going to be an amazing trip and I know that God is going to work in the hearts of our students as they step out in faith to serve Him in a different context!

Blessings,
Trish Jackson

Queens Cup Steeplechase

I got to play dress up today!! I felt like I was in a movie....maybe My Fair Lady, where she dresses up and goes to the horse race and pretends like she is someone that she maybe is not and then gives herself away by what she says. I didn't give myself away....maybe everyone else around me was playing dress up too. It was fun!

Lisa and I

Amazing jump...too bad it wasn't the horse I picked to win!

Playing dress up :)

thank you, Father!

Today: I ran a 10k in 62 minutes. I ate some really good salad. I enjoyed some great worship music. I felt the breeze and saw the colors of Spring. I had a choice as to which sweatshirt I wanted to wear.

It was a good day! My body did what it is supposed to do, I had food to eat, and I had clothes to wear. Thank you Father God!

I hope that if these things were not true, that I would still be able to praise God!

Philipians 4

4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near.
6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

12I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.
13I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

happy 4th birthday cheyenne!

My niece is so beautiful!
We had quite a fun afternoon at Papa Smurf and Gigi's...
along Momma, Nina, and Aunt Trish-wa


Kota, who bought you that super-styling shirt for Christmas?
Must have been Aunt Trish-wa!

the true sun

" This is how I distinguish dreaming and waking. When I am awake I can, in some degree, account for and study my dream. The dragon that pursued me last night can be fitted into my waking world. I know there are such things as dreams...I know that a man of my reading might be expected to dream of dragons. But while in the nightmare I could not have fitted in my waking experience. The waking world is judged more real because it can thus contain the dreaming world; the dreaming world judged less real because it cannot contain the waking one. For the same reason I am certain that in passing from the scientific points of view to the theological, I have passed from dream to waking. Christian theology can fit in science, art, morality and sub-Christian religions. The scientific point of view cannot fit in any of these things, not even science itself. I believe Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. "

CS Lewis, The Weight of Glory, 139-140

library nostalgia

I went to the library today. I walked by the books. I saw the books. I smelled the books. And I remembered: I love books. I love to read. That is all.

Forever

I am taking a class at UNCC called Murder, Marriage, and Mayhem: The Golden Age of Spanish Theatre. Interesting title, right? Actually, it has been a really interesting and very challenging class. We read whole plays in Spanish. YIKES :)

So, tonight, we were talking about an the last play that we read called El Burlador de Sevilla (the play that is the basis for the famous opera Don Juan). In it there is an allusion to the myth of Cupid and Psyche. When I was in elementary school, I used to check out Greek mythology books to read just for fun (nerd = needs extra reading daily). Anyways....so I was familiar with the myth. The brief version is this:

There was a young girl named Psyche who was very beautiful. The goddess Aphrodite was jealous of Psyche and sent her son Cupid to pierce her with one of his arrows so that she might fall in love with an ugly man. Instead, Cupid himself fell in love with her. He married her and came to her every night, but told her she must not see him, because he was a god. Out of jealousy, her own sisters warned to that he might be a dangerous serpent and that she should light a lamp while he slept to find out his true form. Disobeying, she lit a lamp and at once was saddened by what she had done because she realized that it was the god of love himself, and she had betrayed him. A drop of wax fell on him, and he awoke and fled.

The idea that we discussed in class was that of in one instance seeing paradise and then losing it. My mind flashed back to CS Lewis' book Till We Have Faces, which is a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche with a lot of variations. Although certainly a work of fiction, Lewis is a master of capturing and conveying true truth through story.

And if it was a dream, Sister, how do you think I came here? It's more likely that everything that had happened to me before this was a dream. Why, Glome and the King...seem to me very like dreams now...You could see it was a god's house a once. I don't mean a temple where a god is worshiped. A god's house, where he lives. I would not for any wealth have gone into it. But I had to...for there came a voice so sweet-sweet? oh, sweeter than any music, yet my hair rose at it too- and you know what it said? It said, "Enter your House" (yes it called it my house), "Psyche, the bride of the god." Till We Have Faces, CS Lewis, 112-113.

Cupid and Psyche are a myth.

This is the truth: those who belong to Christ are His bride, and one day, they will be invited to spend all of eternity with Him....in paradise! In a place more beautiful than we can imagine!

No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him Isaiah 64:4

All of this flashed through my mind in an instant when she mentioned Psyche glimpsing paradise and then losing it.

My heart cried out: I want paradise! I want an eternity with God! I want to spend eternity with Christ, the lover and savior of my soul! I want to hear Him say well done and invite me into His house to live and enjoy and glorify Him forever. I don't want to miss that...

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!
In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living
hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—
kept in heaven for you! 1 Peter 1: 3-4

I will praise you, O Lord my God,
with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. Psalm 84: 12

i love kittens :)

Night at the Opera

I love the Opera!

Time to go to the Opera! Spanish 4 went to see
Miguel de Falla's La Vida Breve!

Andrea and Katie are excited about the opera!

Enjoying Spanish food at MIRO in South Charlotte

not betty crocker

I am a little grumpy.

The other night I went to a fellowship dinner with some ladies from my church. Everyone brought these yummy recipes to swap. So, tonight I decided to try my hand at making a yummy desert that we will just call "little oreo balls of delight"...there are only three ingredients and seven easy steps: grind oreos, mix with cream cheese, roll into balls, chill 1 hour, melt white chocolate, dip balls in the chocolate, cool.

Simple right? Not for Trish....I can't even melt chocolate!!!! I think I might have over melted it (aka burned it)....it never got to the point where I could actually dip something in it.....or maybe it was past that point....I DONT KNOW....i dipped the oreo balls in, and they fell apart as I was trying to cover them in chocolate....all I was left with was "little balls of disaster" and no fun christmas treats for my friends.

I am bummed. I don't like white chocolate anymore. I don't like oreos. And I don't like cooking!

little miss distracted

So, I just opened up my freezer and what did I find? A frozen roma tomato....no I'm serious...a tomato!!! The other day I was making a salad and I thought to myself, "hmmm...I like my tomatoes cold...I should put it in the freezer a few minutes." Somewhere between getting out the lettuce, putting on the cheese, and adding some yummy balsamic vinagrette dressing I forgot about my tomato.

And that brings us to today when I was looking for some chocolate. No chocolate in our freezer, just a bright, red, frozen tomato. In fact, I dropped it on the floor....ya know...just to see what would happen....nothing! Just a ice thunk on the floor. So we played a little frozen tomato soccer and then tried to tempt the cats into playing with us.

The sad thing is that I don't just forget about tomatoes. The same night I left the tomato in the freezer I left chicken in the oven. I was baking some chicken to use for sandwiches later that week. Luckily, my roommate, who came home at 9:30-3 hours later-decided to make some food for a work party. She found the chicken and saved us all from a potentially fire-y death.

And then this morning, I woke up and I realized that I forgot I was supposed to play in a softball game the night before. GRRRRR....How does this happen?!

The sad thing is that I don't just forget about silly things. I forget about important things....like trusting God...and loving my friends and family well.....about knowing who I belong to.

I am grateful that God does not forget.

Lord, help me to remember....who you are....what you have done, that I might learn to trust you and love you more.

Psalm 105

1 Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name;
make known among the nations what he has done.

2 Sing to him, sing praise to him;
tell of all his wonderful acts.

3 Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.

4 Look to the LORD and his strength;
seek his face always.

5 Remember the wonders he has done,
his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,

6 O descendants of Abraham his servant,
O sons of Jacob, his chosen ones.

7 He is the LORD our God;
his judgments are in all the earth.

8 He remembers his covenant forever,
the word he commanded, for a thousand generations,

thoughts from cs lewis and the bible

It seems to me that we often, almost sulkily,
reject the good that God offers us because,
at the moment, we expected some other good.
- CS Lewis, Letters to Malcolm

LORD, you have assigned me my portion and my cup;
you have made my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.
- Psalm 15:5-6

softball memories

YAY! I got to play softball tonight. I know it doesn't really sound that exciting, but it has been so long since I last played.... It was a little cold at first, but once you started throwing the ball and moving around, the weather was perfect. It feels so good just to be doing something sporty and active.

It definitely brought back a lot of college memories! We used to organize an intramural team for the Lee Symphonic Band....go LSB Ladies. I can't say that we were amazing, but we had a lot of fun. Eric Eledge, the official intramural organizer and writer of the "Intramural Insider" even gave us an honorable mention....One line of fame was all we had. Ahhh....memories...some of my favorites:

1. Randy Cantrell's chant: "Who plays the best positions? Musicians?
2. Katie Bredamus yelling "3 up, 3 down"
3. Hunting for players at the last minute so we would have enough
4. Choosing softball over studying for very important Dr. Bowdle tests
5. Getting made fun of in during band accidentalism (initiation) for being a little overexcited about softball.
5. Jamie Nichols, Jen Miles, Jen Small, Katie Bredamus, Nikki Gorman, Jessica Porter, and others.

So, here's to softball and college memories!