Mike & Sydney Drinkwater

URL Change!

2011-02-24T08:54:00.000-08:00

We have made a conversion to a different blog site for several reasons. Please update your Readers and Feeders to include the new one.

Thanks and enjoy the rest of your day/night!

Some Pictures

2011-01-23T19:14:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple photos of what will be the ChurchMobile. Look for it soon at a church near you!

You can even book it yourself!

We are back in our house. It has been a long strange 2 years, but God has taught us a lot of lessons along the way.

Gustitos de Chicha Morada Arequipeña had her first bath.

Welcome Home, Chicha

2010-12-16T07:24:00.000-08:00

Meet the newest member of the Drinkwater household...

Another Announcement

2010-12-09T12:57:00.000-08:00

WOW!! Life is crazy.

Good news….Roxanne is recovering well and returning to her normal life. This week she returned to school (if only half days for a while).

On the Extreme front we have BIG news. Mike is returning to a full time position with Extreme. He will be the Donor Development Officer. Some of you may remember our original plan prior to Mike’s illness was to do just this. See this blog post from March 2010. This is a newly created position in Extreme but one that is badly needed. Basically, Mike will be coordinating the effort of ministering to the financial supporters of Extreme. We will be based in the Eugene area but the new position will require a fair amount of travel around the USA and occasionally to project sites.

Traditionally, this role has been left to Brian Tibbs (the director of Extreme) but now the ministry will have a full-time volunteer dedicated to this task. It is a huge job that starts off with the immediate goal of raising $675,000 over the next two years for the upcoming project in Peru.

Like all events in our lives we covet your prayer support. Specifically, please pray that God would open doors and lead Mike so that he can quickly finish task 1-A of funding his own position so that he can focus on task 1-B, raising the $675,000 for the upcoming project in Peru.

Among others, we have learned two huge lessons in 2010. One being that when we think we have plans God often has others. Second, and more important, with enough people praying anything is possible.

Roxanne is Home

2010-11-09T07:31:00.000-08:00

Roxanne finally was able to come home yesterday evening from the hospital in Portland. It was a long week with some tough days, but she made it through like a trooper. We know so many of you were praying and we thank you for that. We solicit your prayers again for a speedy recovery for this almost 16-year-old.

She allowed me to snap a few shots of her "hole" we made for her at the end of the dining room. She can't climb stairs for a while, so we've made a little room for her here. You can see many friends decorated while she was gone - thanks, everyone!

Roxanne Update

2010-11-02T10:09:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for your prayers. Roxanne's surgery was very successful. She had a rough night last night in the ICU as she battled the pain, but hopefully they will be able to keep it as minimal as possible as she hangs in there through this tough recovery. Please continue to join us in prayer. We hope she can improve enough to move to a regular room today.

Needing your Prayer

2010-10-29T15:57:00.000-07:00

We just wanted to mention a couple events that we (and our friends/family) could definitely use prayer for:

· Sydney’s youngest sister, Roxanne, is going into a pretty big surgery this coming Monday (November 1^st) – we pray for her safety, her comfort, peace for her and the family, and we pray for the doctor’s hands and mind who will be performing the surgery. May God speed up the recovery process for this almost-16 year old and send her blessings in the process.

· Arequipa, Peru (where we moved from this year) lost a local pastor this week. He had a sudden heart attack and leaves behind a wife, a son, and a recently married daughter. He was actually our pastor, as out of the few local churches there, his was the one we attended regularly. We pray for comfort for the family of this blessed man.

We also would like to announce an addition to this blog post - Pastor Herrera will be visiting Eugene First Church of the Nazarene to speak in the morning service on Sunday, November 7th. Click here for more information.

Anniversary #2!

2010-10-18T09:55:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed celebrating our SECOND anniversary this weekend. Feels like we were just posting about the first one!

Let's see....in just year number two, we...

spent time in 5.5 countries
visited a Wonder of the World
hosted 4.5 project teams in Peru
went to a 60th anniversary celebration
made dozens and dozens of new friends
lived in an apartment with no electricity for 5 days
started a new blog
moved internationally twice
spent our first Christmas away from family
bought fish...killed fish
bought houseplants...killed houseplants
finally got on track with the Peruvian culture by leaving the house 20 minutes after the event was supposed to start
shared a hotel room with a tarantula
sold all our stuff that we had to buy because we had sold all our stuff
greatly improved our Spanish skills
experienced a medical evacuation from a foreign country...that we will hopefully never repeat...
"watched" full Oregon Duck games in the Amazon jungle via text message updates
hosted an American tradition Christmas party in Peru, in Spanish
seen/visited the Pacific Ocean from 2 different continents
fell incredibly more in love with each other

To see more pictures of our fun weekend, click here.

Perfect Patience

2010-10-05T18:36:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard of the Nazarene Church in Cali, Colombia? I bet many of you have…it has quite the story!

In 1987, a new guy took over as pastor of the local Nazarene Church. After pastoring the church of 15 total members for quite a while, he began to feel a burden on his heart for the city of Cali. He prayed and cried out to God for something to happen, for his church to grow, for a breakthrough on reaching the lost, but many years went by…

The Original "House of Prayer" in Cali

Yet, God was not ignoring his plea. God WAS teaching him and all of us the task (and sometimes it can be a real task) of patience. All things only happen in God’s perfect timing.

Well, apparently, Cali became ready for this miracle eventually. Miracle upon miracle began happening. God was using this local church to reach thousands upon thousands! Last year alone, the church added 3,000 people to its average weekly attendance, which has now topped 12,000. That is over 12,000 people who will no longer be entering the gates of hell but rather those blessed pearly white gates of God’s perfect heaven! God used Pastor Adalberto Herrera and his very small church to make a huge impact for Him in the cold and often forgotten city of Cali, Colombia. Praise the Lord.

The latest "House of Prayer" in Cali

On a smaller yet still impactful scale, God is also teaching Mike and me this patience. We are in quite the “unknowing” time of our lives right now and we ask for your prayer as we wait on God to help us make some decisions. We are entering a point where we will learn how God will provide financially in this chapter of our lives. We suspect that God will either provide Mike a bit more business or open a door to some sort of part-time of full-time job. Additionally, we have learned that God could have something in store that we have not considered.

And now some really exciting news! For those of you in the following areas, Pastor Herrera himself will be in the USA sharing with us his story, inspirations, and more. This is a unique and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I hope all of you can participate in.

Nov. 8 - Portland, Oregon - Portland Church of the Nazarene

Nov. 9 - Boise, Idaho - Eagle Church of the Nazarene

Nov. 11 - Columbus, Ohio - Westerville Church of the Nazarene

Each will run from 11:30am – 4:00pm local time and costs $20 per person, which includes lunch. We will also have Extreme volunteers at each event if you are interested in talking about future short-term or long-term opportunities or just want to say hi!

Please email me here if you are interested in more details on a conference. And, remember, all things only happen in God’s perfect timing!

Welcoming the Fall

2010-09-08T18:46:00.000-07:00

Our Eugene summer may have been outrageously short this year, but we are excited for the fall to finally arrive. For Mike, that means college football...

He had fun watching the game with some friends while I had fun making homemade pizzas for everyone!

More recipes and more pictures, click here.

For Labor Day, Mike gave me the official tour of the Oregon coast as I had only been to Florence and Haceta Beach several times. We visited several coast towns and beaches, did a little shopping, and just had a lot of fun.

An Encouraging Story

2010-09-08T18:00:00.000-07:00

We just had our quarterly Extreme broadcast. It's always an exciting time when you know all your fellow volunteers around the globe are logged into the live meeting at the same time. It was great to hear/watch the updates of each department from the Officers, and it was encouraging to hear of recent staff changes with more volunteers coming on board every month. It was inspiring to listen to various stories and reports from the three cities in which 4040s are hard at work planting churches. Please let us share one particular story with you:

Our director, Brian Tibbs, was visiting the jungle city of Iquitos. One afternoon, he went along with 3 of our female missionaries to visit a man with whom they had been meeting for some time. This man was an ex-terrorist who regularly threatened an independent church across the street from his home saying that he was going to kill the pastor. He was very hateful. He didn't believe in the Bible and made that well known amongst his acquaintances. After just talking with and listening to him for a long time, Brian felt a push from the Lord to "preach the Word boldly." He and the other missionaries decided to ask him if he wanted to accept Christ that day. No, he was definitely not interested in doing that, he replied adamantly. They continued talking for a while longer and Brian asked again if he would like to accept Christ. No, he really was not ready for that yet. After a moment, the man spoke up and said something that had obviously been on his mind: the night before he had had a dream in which he learned that God was going to send him messengers from very far away. The God he didn't want to believe in. The God he hated.

Well! They then told him that one of them is from a state that borders Canada, another from California, and the other two from Northern Peru - all 4 were messengers from very far away sent to talk to this man! He at last didn't have a reply. They asked one more time: Would you like to accept Christ? Yes, he was ready. They all stood up, placed their hands on the man, repeated the sinner's prayer and this hateful ex-terrorist accepted Christ Jesus as his Lord! He was immediately a changed man. He physically looked different, peaceful. God is so good and can reach even those who we think are lost forever. One of the missionary girls reported several days later that the man is attending church, sharing his testimony and already helping other people grow in their faith.

This is just another reminder of how your prayers are so powerful and God is using them to do great miracles in Peru. Thank you for partnering with us and supporting us to be able to support our field missionaries. YOU are making an impact.

Lots going on!

2010-08-16T21:38:00.000-07:00

It’s been, as always, an eventful month since we last wrote. Mike couldn’t stay away for too long – he has rejoined Extreme Nazarene as the Local Mobilization Coordinator. He is now part of our team that mobilizes and deploys people to the mission fields. He is definitely enjoying getting going in that capacity.

And in other continents…

Take a moment to visit chilly freezing Cusco, Peru with me, where we just finished a great project. The main goal was to finish constructing the housing where the 40/40s and Cluster Support family will live in just a couple months, but as with all our projects a great deal of community outreach was to be had. Through the events that were held, over 30 people came to know Christ Jesus as their Savior. Now how much better news can I share than that?! God is definitely still working in Peru. What a blessing to be a part of this ministry.

Now heading over into the hot sweaty jungle, we arrive in Puerto Maldonado – the first city to which we deployed 40/40s almost a full year ago. A few weeks ago, they held their first Spiritual Retreat. The 40/40s have been working in several communities and making contacts and bringing people to the Lord for the last year. It was a chance for the 42 in attendance to receive further spiritual training and a few of them were also baptized. What a great update to hear from our missionary friends in Puerto! Please join us as we continue to lift this part of our team up in prayer regularly.

Mike and I also had the opportunity to visit his grandparents and entire extended family in Wisconsin. They were celebrating their 60^th anniversary! Wow! I was so excited to finally get to know his side of the family. Spending almost your entire marriage so far in another country somewhat postpones things like that. J It was a great trip.

I continue to stay very busy with the finances. We are starting to get even busier as we are getting closer to our new projects starting in Colombia, Paraguay and again in Peru. I have recently been asked to add to my duties the role of pre-deployment financial advisor. I basically prepare all of our newly approved long-term volunteers to be ready financially to move to the field. It’s pretty fun!

Lastly, we want to say thank you to all those donors who continue to support us and thank you to those who have recently partnered with us in this great ministry. We hope that you can see how far your dollars are reaching in this worldwide impact for Christ.

Until next time!

Thank You, Dad

2010-07-08T11:02:00.000-07:00

We just want to separately thank Sydney's dad, Bob Mitchell for his tremendous help in our latest transition. He flew down immediately to Peru when the blood clots were diagnosed and we can never wholly describe the help he was to us. He is not only Sydney's dad but an RN and was able to explain the medical mumbo jumbo to us. He prayed with us regularly. He walked with Sydney to the grocery store because she could not leave the hospital on her own. He kept us laughing. He stayed with Mike when Sydney had to fly to Arequipa to close up their apartment. He slept on 3 chairs put together for multiple nights in a row. He was a rock of support for us in this trying time. THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts, Dad. Love you.

Update #8, by Mike

2010-07-08T08:48:00.000-07:00

I would like to take a moment to update what is going on with Sydney and me.

I am glad to report that through tons of prayer and time I am very near a 100% recovery. I still lack some capacity in my calf muscles in situations that require heavy/long-duration exertion. However, outside of that, I have regained all the dexterity/strength/flexibility/mobility I ever had prior to the whole episode.

The doctors we are working with here in Eugene are also satisfied with my condition as we move forward with basic monitoring of the recovery. The best explanation of what happened is that a viral infection I had at the time triggered the whole blood clotting episode. As we found out, I do have a genetic predisposition to accelerated clotting. With the delayed diagnosis (due to the confusion of symptoms of blood clots and a viral infection simultaneously) the clots were allowed to grow for nearly two weeks before treatment started.

Over the past two months God has laid out a plan before Sydney and me that seems to be the route He wants us to take as we reconstruct a life that was left in Peru. We will be based in Eugene, Oregon. Sydney will continue to work with Extreme in basically the same accounting role that she had before in Arequipa. I have opened an engineering company (www.mdrinkwaterengineering.com) as I draw on my career prior to working with Extreme.

As Sydney’s position is a volunteer position, many of you have enthusiastically confirmed that you would continue supporting her financially as we adjust to cost associated with living in the USA. We sincerely thank you for your continuing to partner in this ministry with us.

We ask that you continue to pray as well as there are still needs:

-Please join us in praying for Extreme Nazarene as three new projects will be launched within the next year. Many new volunteers are needed among countless other things.

-Please pray that I would be recovered 110% just because we know that God can do it.

-Please pray for the success of my new business.

I would like to also especially thank those of you have “prayed” us through the last 2 and a half months. Truly, prayer works and you all are proof of that.

Me gustaría tomar un momento para actualizar lo que está pasando con Sydney y yo.
Me alegra informar de que a través de toneladas de oración y de momento estoy muy cerca de una recuperación al 100%. Me falta una cierta capacidad en mi músculos de la pantorrilla en situaciones que requieren de gran tonelaje / esfuerzo de larga duración. Sin embargo, fuera de eso, he recuperado toda la destreza / fuerza / flexibilidad / movilidad que he tenido con anterioridad a todo el episodio.
Los médicos estamos trabajando con aquí en Eugene también están satisfechos con mi condición a medida que avanzamos con el control básico de la recuperación. La mejor explicación de lo que ocurrió es que una infección viral que había disparado en el momento de la sangre entera episodio de coagulación. Como nos enteramos, tengo una predisposición genética a la aceleración de la coagulación. Con el retraso en el diagnóstico (debido a la confusión de los síntomas de los coágulos de sangre y una infección viral de forma simultánea) la formación de coágulos se dejaron crecer durante casi dos semanas antes del inicio del tratamiento.
En los últimos dos meses que Dios ha trazado un plan antes de Sydney y yo que parece ser la vía que Él quiere que tome como se reconstruye una vida que le quedaba en el Perú. Estaremos con sede en Eugene, Oregon. Sydney seguirá trabajando Extreme básicamente de la función de contabilidad misma que había antes en Arequipa. He abierto una empresa de ingeniería (www.mdrinkwaterengineering.com) como señalo en mi carrera antes de trabajar con Extreme.
Como la posición de Sydney es una posición voluntaria, muchos de ustedes han entusiasmo confirmó que continuará apoyando económicamente de ella a medida que se ajustan a los costos asociados a vivir en los EEUU. Sinceramente gracias por su continua de asociarnos en este ministerio con nosotros.
Les pedimos que sigan orando, así como todavía hay necesidades:
-Por favor, únase a nosotros en oración para Extreme Nazareno como tres nuevos proyectos se pondrán en marcha durante el próximo año. Muchos voluntarios se necesitan nuevas entre un sinnúmero de otras cosas.
-Por favor, recen para que se recuperaría el 110% porque sabemos que Dios puede hacerlo.
-Por favor oren por el éxito de mi nuevo negocio.

Me gustaría también especialmente las gracias a los que tienen "rezaba" nosotros a través de los últimos 2 meses y medio. En verdad, la oración funciona y todos ustedes son prueba de eso.

Update #7, by Mike

2010-05-18T11:50:00.000-07:00

Castillano abajo…..

As many of you know I have been put through another series of blood and imaging tests since we arrived back in Eugene. Much of these tests had been completed in Lima, however, as no conclusive reason for the clots was discovered the hematologist in Eugene wanted to investigate further.

After meeting with the hematologist today he is confident that I am free of any form of cancer or serious disease/disorder. Obviously, this is fantastic news that we are thankful to God for. However, we are still left with no solid explanation for the clots.

The hematologist is going to do additional blood tests to explore what effect the virus I was dealing with at the time may have had on the whole situation. However, he did not seem confident that we will ever receive a good explanation.

My recovery from the clots continues at a very encouraging pace. I am basically back to normal so far as normal day to day activities are concerned. The hematologist says I can start running again as soon as my legs feel up to it. I still have a fair amount of blockage in the main arteries to my legs therefore they tire quickly. However, the hematologist says this is normal in my situation, it is safe to exercise, and that I should be full strength in the next few weeks.

As the doctor still wants to do more testing in order to determine how all this will affect my life long term we are still very unsettled about our plans. We just ask that you would pray that we would receive a clear path to follow as we move forward.

We have an overwhelming feeling of thankfulness to all that have been praying for us and supporting us through all this. We are truly very grateful to be here in Eugene and have so much support coming from all over the world.

------------------------

Como muchos de ustedes saben que he sido sometido a otra serie de sangre y pruebas de imagen desde que llegamos de vuelta en Eugene. Gran parte de estas pruebas había concluido en Lima, sin embargo, como ninguna razón concluyente para los coágulos se descubrió el hematólogo en Eugene querían investigar más a fondo.
Después de reunirse con el hematólogo hoy que confía en que estoy libre de toda forma de cáncer o enfermedad grave o trastorno. Obviamente, esta es una noticia fantástica que estamos agradecidos a Dios por. Sin embargo, todavía nos quedamos sin ninguna explicación sólida para la formación de coágulos.
El hematólogo va a hacer exámenes de sangre adicionales para explorar el efecto que el virus que me estaba enfrentando a la vez puede haber tenido sobre toda la situación. Sin embargo, no parecen confiar en que algún día lleguemos a recibir una buena explicación.
Mi recuperación de la formación de coágulos, continúa a un ritmo muy alentador. Básicamente, estoy de vuelta a la normalidad hasta la fecha como el día a día las actividades normales se refiere. El hematólogo dice que puedo empezar a correr de nuevo tan pronto como mis piernas se sienten a la misma. Todavía tengo una buena cantidad de obstrucción en las arterias principales de las piernas por lo que se cansan rápidamente. Sin embargo, el hematólogo dice que esto es normal en mi situación, es seguro hacer ejercicio, y que yo debería estar toda su fuerza en las próximas semanas.
Como el médico todavía quiere hacer más pruebas para determinar cómo todo esto va a afectar mi vida a largo plazo, estamos todavía muy inestable sobre nuestros planes. Sólo pedimos que usted le ruego que íbamos a recibir un camino claro a seguir a medida que avanzamos.
Tenemos un sentimiento de agradecimiento a todos los que han estado orando por nosotros y nos apoya en todo esto. Estamos verdaderamente muy agradecidos de estar aquí en Eugene y tienen tanto apoyo provenientes de todo el mundo.

Update #6

2010-05-04T17:54:00.000-07:00

Español abajo...
We met with a Hematologist this afternoon. It was a long appointment, going through the whole history and story of our last month, but it was a good appointment. The doctor was thoroughly impressed with the lab work done in Lima, but, as we were hoping, wanted to re-do a few of the blood tests just to make sure. We had very good doctors in Peru but they even admitted the technology that the country lacked as compared to the USA. So we are happy with this decision. Mike is scheduled for a cat scan in about 10 days to rule out a few more diseases/cancers and a few days after that we will meet with the doctor once again to go over the results of that and the other blood work.

In the meantime, Mike is significantly improving every day! This was the first time we went out he didn't need the wheelchair PTL!! He still can't walk very long before needing to rest, but God is so good and has taken such good care of my husband. I believe firmly that we would not be this far in the process without His faithfulness to us.

The doctor did confirm that he will need to be on blood thinners for at least 6 more months, if not for the rest of his life. So please continue to pray for the doctor's wisdom in this area and also in the continuation of searching out the cause of this and future prevention of a re-occurrence.

Lastly, we cannot express enough our gratitude for your kind words and prayers. PRAYER is such a powerful thing and we have seen many miracles these last few weeks - number one being that Mike is actually living! So, THANK you from the bottoms of our hearts. The love from our friends and family is overwhelming and a blessing.

__________________________________________________________________

Nos reunimos con un hematólogo esta tarde. Era una cita de largo, pasando por toda la historia y la historia de nuestro último mes, pero fue una buena cita. El doctor estaba completamente impresionado con el trabajo de laboratorio realizado en Lima, pero, como esperábamos, quería volver a hacer algunas de las pruebas de sangre para asegurarse. Hemos tenido muy buenos médicos en el Perú sino que llegó incluso a admitir la tecnología que el país carecía, en comparación con los EE.UU.. Así que estamos contentos con esta decisión. Mike ha sido seleccionado para un TAC en unos 10 días para descartar algunas más enfermedades/cánceres y unos días después de que nos reuniremos con el médico una vez más para repasar los resultados de ese análisis de sangre y los otros.
Mientras tanto, Mike está mejorando significativamente todos los días! Esta fue la primera vez que él no necesitaba la silla de ruedas, Gracias a Dios! Todavía no puedo caminar mucho tiempo antes de tener que descansar, pero Dios es tan bueno y ha cuidado tan bien de mi esposo. Creo firmemente que no estaríamos tan lejos en el proceso sin su fidelidad a nosotros.
El médico confirmó que tendrá que estar en diluyentes de la sangre durante al menos 6 meses más, si no fuera por el resto de su vida. Así que por favor continúen orando por la sabiduría del médico en este ámbito y también en la continuación de buscar la causa de esta y la prevención futura de una reaparición.
Por último, no podemos expresar nuestra gratitud suficiente por sus amables palabras y oraciones. La oración es una cosa de gran alcance y hemos visto muchos milagros estas últimas semanas – número uno es que Mike es realmente vivo! Así que, gracias desde el fondo de nuestros corazones. El amor de nuestros amigos y la familia es inmensa y una bendición.

Update from the USA

2010-05-01T09:06:00.000-07:00

Español abajo…

We made it back to Eugene Thursday evening after a LOT of time in airplanes. We are very fortunate to have a great place to stay at Sydney’s parents and also have solid transportation thanks to my mom and stepdad.

For now we will be stationed here as we work on recovery from the clots and screening. We saw a doctor here in Eugene yesterday that is setting us up with a clinic that deals exclusively with recovery from blood clot issues. Additionally, he has referred us to a hematologist that will review my case and recommend what additional screening should be done.

It is looking like I will need to be on blood thinners for a minimum of 6 months and potentially much longer should some sort of genetic disorder be identified as the cause. Fortunately, my legs continue to improve every day. I am still unable to go on expeditions out of the house that require much walking. However, as I mentioned, improvement each day is noticeable and hopefully I will be more mobile soon.

In the meantime we are going to be as involved as possible with preparations for Love Extreme in June in Peru. Thanks to technology these days there is a fair amount of work that both of us can do to be involved.

We simply ask that you continue to pray for the following items:

-That the cause of the clots would be identified and easily treatable

-That recovery from the clots would continue to go well

Thank you again to all that have been so supportive towards us during this crazy time.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hemos llegado en Eugene Jueves por la noche después de un montón de tiempo en los aviones. Nos sentimos muy afortunados de tener un gran lugar para alojarse en los padres de Sydney y también gracias a tener sólida transporte de mi mamá y mi padrastro.

Por ahora se van a instalar aquí, trabajamos en la recuperación de los coágulos y cribado. Vimos a un doctor aquí en Eugene ayer que nos está creando junto a una clínica que se ocupa exclusivamente de la recuperación de los problemas de coágulos de sangre. Además, nos ha canalizado con un hematólogo que revisará mi caso y recomendar lo que la investigación adicional se debe hacer.

Es que parece que tendrá que estar en diluyentes de la sangre durante un mínimo de 6 meses y potencialmente más si algún tipo de trastorno genético ser identificado como la causa. Afortunadamente, mis piernas seguir mejorando cada día. Sigo siendo incapaz de ir en expediciones fuera de la casa que requieren de mucho caminar. Sin embargo, como he mencionado, la mejora cada día se nota y espero pronto tener más movilidad.

Mientras tanto vamos a participar como sea posible con los preparativos para el amor extremo en junio en Perú. Gracias a la tecnología en estos días hay una buena cantidad de trabajo que ambos de nosotros puede hacer para participar.

Nosotros sólo le pedimos que continúen orando por los siguientes elementos:
-Que la causa de los coágulos se identificaría y se puede tratar fácilmente
-Que la recuperación de los coágulos seguiría a ir bien

Gracias de nuevo a todos los que nos han apoyado tanto a nosotros durante este tiempo loco.

Another Hospital Update

2010-04-28T09:44:00.000-07:00

Okay. Today is Wednesday and I will be discharged from the hospital this afternoon. I was admitted last Monday night so I guess that makes 9 nights in the hospital. Let me just say I am ready to go.

Currently the insurance company is working on getting us back to Oregon. It looks like we will be arriving in Portland Thursday afternoon as we have been planning.

From there I will meet with a doctor in Eugene on Friday morning to continue the recovery process from the clots. Fortunately, I will not need to be in the hospital from here on out and I able to get around the house just fine.

Additionally, we are planning on doing more screening in an attempt to identify the cause of the clots. Please continue to pray for this as it is the biggest concern/mystery still hanging out there. Pray that the doctors would be able to figure out the cause and that it would be easily treatable.

Otherwise I am doing well. As mentioned above I can get around the building/house without much fuss or discomfort. The pain level in my legs has diminished to the point where I do not need pain killers during the day and only a minimal dose at night. The doctors expect me to recover 100% from the clots within the next few months.

Upon returning to Eugene, Sydney and I will be staying with the Mitchells (Sydney’s parents) and continuing to offer any services possible to Extreme from Eugene. Trust me, we both have big roles with the organization and do not like being away. We hope that we are able to return to Peru in June to aid in the big project there at that time but that all depends on a lot of factors.

Thank you all once again for all your prayers and support. I guess at this point I will end it with a couple of the most pertinent prayer requests:

-For us as we transition to the USA, recover, and search for a cause of the clots

-For Extreme Nazarene Ministries as they prepare for a key month if June without us

A Note From Mike

2010-04-23T12:12:00.001-07:00

I wanted to take a moment to do a couple of things. First, I would like to say thank you to everybody out there that has been praying, calling and sending get well wishes. It makes all of this so much more tolerable to know that we have such a massive support group out there for us.

Secondly, I wanted to give a bit of an update on my condition. The doctors are happy with how my body is responding to the treatment for the clots. My legs are now basically back to normal size, I no longer have an IV, and the doctor is even allowing me to walk around a bit. Still, my legs (especially my right) are not working correctly as there is a lot of extreme tightness and inflammation. The doctors expect me to fully recover from the clots but that will be measured on a scale of months rather than days or weeks.

The question right now is why my body decided to make all these clots. A condition such as mine is extremely rare for somebody my age. The doctors here have methodically and thoroughly put me through every imaginable blood and imaging test in an attempt to figure that out. Unfortunately, they have been unable to identify the cause.

Nonetheless, we continue to wait as we see what God is trying to teach us. The doctor expects to discharge me from the hospital sometime next week. Where we go from there depends on what he recommends.

In the meantime we covet you prayers for the following issues:

-That whatever caused this condition will be identified and effectively treated.

-That Sydney and I would receive guidance on where to go from the hospital in Lima.

-That the pain in my legs would be diminished. It is currently just enough to make it difficult to sleep without medication.

Thank you all once again. Please keep in touch and we will try to do the same.

Update from the Hospital

2010-04-20T05:58:00.000-07:00

Last night, Mike’s problem was finally diagnosed. He has serious blood clots in his legs and up through his abdomen. The right leg is fully clotted while the left is clotted partially. He was immediately hospitalized to begin blood thinners. They will also continue tests for many days to see what caused this, as none of the field experts have ever seen this so seriously in someone so young.

We are definitely feeling everyone’s prayers, but we are also scared and tired. Fortunately, the blood thinners all night have decreased Mike’s leg pain significantly, but he is still on complete bed rest. Please continue to pray for this situation. We are fully trusting God to lead us through this difficult time.

Our Latest Trial

2010-04-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

Okay! For those of you who have not heard from our other channels of communication, Mike and I have had a bit of an adventure, to say the least, over the last couple weeks.

Short Story: Mike has been unable to walk due to fierce back and leg pain. The first doctor largely misdiagnosed it as a double herniated disk that needed months of an archaic form of treatment, while the next two, much more qualified, doctors both agreed it was some sort of serious infection, probably contracted from something he ate or was bitten by in the jungle. We have spent several days in Lima visiting doctors, taking lots of medicine, riding in wheelchairs, resting much, and even slightly improving. Mike has talked with the doctor (in English) over the phone every 12 hours or so and reporting the changes in his symptoms and also receiving results on the latest blood work that was finished. We will meet with the doctor one more time tomorrow before leaving on Tuesday for back home to Arequipa, but more than likely it is just a yucky viral infection that has to be waited out. He is finally feeling a bit better internally, but the pain in his constricted leg muscles still makes him unable to walk. He is on regular ibuprofen and muscle relaxers; however, the doctor is pleased with his progress and also with his blood results. We will try to keep everyone more updated on this than we have. Everything else in our lives basically stopped as we tried to work through this small crisis in a third-world country in which we will never perfect the language or culture. Please continue praying for Mike and his healing. We serve a MIGHTY God and our full trust is in him.

Longer Story: if you want the detailed details, email me by clicking here. I've been documenting it.

Rumble in the Jungle

2010-03-31T11:44:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update from Peru. Sydney and I just returned home from Puerto Maldonado where we were helping to host a team of 14 from the USA. This project was only 8 days rather than our traditional 13 as most the people that come down are teens.

Over the 8 days we had 26 different outreach events. In those events approximately 2,800 people attended and 279 made decisions for Christ.

It was a very successful project but Sydney and I are glad to not have plans to return to the jungle. The heat, humidity and lack of air conditioning are taxing. Not to mention I had to kill a full size tarantula that was roaming around our room.

Change Is In The Air

2010-03-13T06:52:00.000-08:00

As we are in the full swing of our project teams here in Peru, I would like to take a moment to share some news on our future.

Sydney and I are being called into new roles with Extreme Nazarene. I have accepted the newly created position of Investor Development Officer with Extreme Nazarene. This position will be second tier in the leadership structure of the ministry. The purpose of this position is to seek and deploy long term financial investors of Extreme Nazarene in order to secure the stability of the organization into the future.

Sydney will continue in her current role with more of a leadership role in developing financial policies at new project sites.

In order fulfill my duties with this new position we are being requested to return to the USA as this is where most of the investor contacts are located. I am scheduled for preliminary training the last week of July in Atlanta, Ga. From there we will either settle immediately in Eugene or hang out somewhere else until the lease agreement on our house expires in January 2011.

We do have responsibilities here in Peru after July. However, our main push as an organization is in June and our colleagues here have agreed to work with us as they will prepare to manage our responsibilities when we leave. That and we will still be with Extreme, just assigned to a different location.

This has been a move that we have been praying about for about 6 months now. We have been working with Extreme leadership and experienced industry professionals to determine if this is the right move for all involved. Additionally, I will be mentored by one of the leading professionals in the field in the Nazarene Church. All parties here are excited to see how God will use Sydney and me in the future.

Just like when we came to Peru this will be a big change for us as this has been our home for virtually our entire married life. Additionally, I will be put into a position that I have little experience in. We ask that you would pray that God would lead us and make the transition smooth.

Like all positions with Extreme Nazarene this is a volunteer position. We will still be referred to generally as missionaries, only now we are assigned to the USA. Our current donor base has been amazing. We truly are thankful for each donation that comes in each month. We ask that, so long as you are able, you continue to support us through January 2011 according to our agreement.

I am glad to finally be able to share this change with you all. This is an exciting opportunity for both us and the ministry. I am proud to have such a committed base of people that have come along side of us to support this ministry.

Cusco Construction

2010-03-07T05:43:00.000-08:00

Straight from the constant heat and humidity of the jungle to the basic climate of Western Oregon in November, I (Mike) have been in Cusco since February 24. We welcomed the Cusco Construction team to Cusco on February 26.

Since then the team has been very busy with construction on the new church and housing facility for the 40/40s to come in November. Also the Impact team did a 5-day Bible school and series of 4 Jesus films in the communities around Cusco.

Personally, I have been working on keeping things running smooth for the team with everything that does not happen on the construction site or at an impact event site. This has been a bit of a special challenge here in Cusco.

As many of you may have heard this year the region is going though one of the wettest rainy seasons in memory. EVERY afternoon at about 4:00pm it starts to rain. Cusco is set in a narrow valley with the main road running down the bottom. Most roads going off this main road into the hills are unpaved and consist of MUD.

The access road to our hotel is set on one of these roads that runs up into the hills. One afternoon the afternoon storm was especially intense. About the time the construction team was due back I noticed a roar in the direction of the access road. I walked to the road to see that the drainage ditch had plugged and overflowed onto the road. The road was now better described as a series of muddy, frothy rapids. These rapids were running into the little stores that line the street. These rapids also made our access road impassable.

Click here to see a video of the rapids.

I quickly called the construction head to advise them to go to a restaurant and wait it out. However, the bus had already dropped them at the bottom of the road and they had begun climbing the road/river. Soon the team started to come into view, trudging through very swiftly running ankle to knee deep water.

Regardless, everybody made it back safely. After the hills finished shedding their water the street became passable for vehicles again. However, all the sediment/mud that was deposited at the bottom closed one side of the main road for the entire next day.

Otherwise, things are going real well. I am looking forward to returning to Arequipa soon.

Pucallpa Project

2010-02-24T08:05:00.000-08:00

The Pucallpa Project has come to an end. It was a complete success. We are always surprised at how well the projects end up going, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by how much prep work the whole team does for each one. We work with some great people!

The whole group.

We are bad at taking pictures now, because we have a new system in place – Jared, our co-worker, is our Communications guy and he collects all volunteers’ pictures and videos over the 2 weeks and accumulates them onto a disc. We tend to now just wait for that disc at each project, so we don’t have many shots of the clinics, but let me just tell you – they went so well! We treated about 900 patients over the 8 days. Many different ailments and problems came through the doors, but God was looking out for those people. While patients had to wait in many lines to finally see one of our doctors, we had people talking and praying with them and sharing Christ with them!

Doctor Mark, Interpreter Ray, and Patient

Alongside the clinics each day were many other activities – puppet shows, soccer, parachutes, face painting, Jesus Films, and much more. Through the outreach events and the evangelizing in the clinics, a few hundred people made decisions for Christ. Praise the Lord! Even if just one soul was reached, this project would have been worth it. I love my job!

Us on Valentine's Day. Look closely and you'll see my favorite food in my hand. :)

The short-term volunteers singing a worship special for Church.

Me and some of the kids at the church.

Quick Update From Pucallpa

2010-02-18T15:19:00.001-08:00

We are here in Pucallpa with the second of our medical teams. Things are going well overall. We are halfway through our clinic schedule with 4 days in the books and 4 more days to come. We have seen approximately 400 patients over the past 4 days. Additionally we have done the Jesus film 2 nights and had a construction team working at the district office.

We ask that you would pray for safety and health and we continue to work under difficult conditions. We also ask that you pray that we would effectively be able to connect new believers to the existing church structure.

Cohort 3 is Here!

2010-02-05T19:13:00.000-08:00

Praise the Lord! All of Cohort 3 (12 new 40/40s, 2 Cluster Support couples, and 2 little girls) and ALL of their luggage arrived safely.

They are very sleepy in this picture as we are taking them from the airport to the school, where they were all safely delivered to their specific host families. But they still had good energy after such long flights and seem like a fantastic group! Please remember them in your prayers as they begin language training on Monday and begin adapting to this new culture.
Yea for new volunteers!

Iquitos - It's a Wrap!

2010-02-03T08:56:00.000-08:00

We are sitting here in “La Pascana”, our hotel for the project team in Iquitos. Everybody is packing up preparing for our departure for the airports in a few minutes.

Despite the intense heat and humidity, when it was not pouring down rain, we had a fantastic project. This was a medical clinic-based project where worked in seven different communities on seven different days. Our doctors saw 1283 patients over the seven days. These clinics are helping to grow the existing church in places and prepare the way for the 40/40’s in others.

Along with the clinics our impact team prayed with over 400 people that became new believers. All these new contacts, along with the nearly 1300 patients, will be handed off to the local church and/or the 40/40’s for follow up.

Sydney served as a translator between nurses and the patients most of the time. I (Mike) tried to work as a translator as well but unable. As approximately 90% of the patients are women and a male nurse is not really accepted in this culture, most of the patients would not talk to me. However, Sydney and I both had plenty of other responsibilities tending to the day to day needs of the project team.

Now we are off to the airport and eventually Arequipa this evening. There we will continue preparations for our next project in Pucallpa - also in the jungle and also a medical clinic. We fly out Tuesday (Feb 9) for that! We will keep you posted!

P.S. Sorry there are no photos - our camera has officially died. We'll get some photos from others so we can share them!

Medical Clinics in Iquitos

2010-01-27T05:48:00.000-08:00

Hi friends!!!! We are doing fantastic in this hot and sweaty city of Iquitos! We have a great short-term team of doctors and nurses who are here doing medical clinics in Iquitos and surrounding areas each day.

Mike, as the Logistics head, has dozens of different tasks to do each day that keep the project rolling. He manages everything to keep the short-termers comfortable, well fed, transported safely, and in general as ready as possible for action when they arrive at the clinic. I (Sydney) of course have my financial responsibilities, but I have been filling my time by interpreting for the American nurses who work with the patients we see.

It is heartbreaking to see the problems the local people have, coupled with the lack of health care in the city as well, but it is such a blessing to see a few hundred people a day through the clinic and be able to touch lives in this way. We also have several impact events that go on during the same time, teaching children and adults about Christ through games and different activities, Jesus films, etc. Our communications/tech teams are still in the process of getting updates onto the main Extreme website, so bear with us – when it’s up, we’ll post a link for you all to see more news, statistics on those many who have already given their lives to Christ this week, more pictures, etc. To generally peruse our website, be sure to click on the black “E” to the right. More updates soon!

Merry Christmas from Arequipa, Peru!

2009-12-27T15:46:00.000-08:00

To all our dear friends and family - we hope you all had a blessed Christmas season. It was a new experience for us being unable to be with family this year, but we made up for it with lots of good cheer and nice friends. :) I think there's no better time in the year than when we can celebrate the birth of our awesome Savior and Lord!

Click here for more Christmas pictures.

We are very excited to move forward into 2010. Our jobs will be non-stop but very fulfilling. We're going to let God take advantage of our abilities, flexibility, willingness, and childlessness as we begin a long series of dynamic projects, beginning in January.

More on those projects to come...for now, we just wanted to let you know you are ALL in our prayers and may you have a wonderful rest of your 2009.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Slower Times

2009-12-09T07:09:00.000-08:00

We realize some of you think we’ve fallen off the face of the planet, but really it’s just our slowest time right now and we’ve had little to relate to you. However, once January comes, the updates won’t stop and you’ll get sick of them! J We have 5 projects in 4 months so we will be extraordinarily busy.

We just wanted to mention that the second Cohort of 40/40s have been in the jungle for their next segment of training for a couple weeks now. They need your prayers. Moving to a hot and sweaty place that doesn’t have as many amenities as even Arequipa is a hard adjustment.Culture shock is setting in again and they need your prayers that God guides them and gives them a peace about being called to minister here, that they continue to grow in their language knowledge, and that they become close friends with their Peruvian pairs. God is already doing great things through these young people.

Katie, Dalila, Victorino, Brittany, Drew, Britaldo, Esther, Katie, Samuel, Kevin, Melissa, Priscila, Brad, Gary, Juliana, Jose, Tim, Kristy, Laura, Emeratriz, Daniel, Nancy.

Another Project Finished Successfully!

2009-11-06T06:07:00.000-08:00

The reason we came to Peru was to support the 40/40 missionaries that were going to be deployed here. It is a new concept that we believe is/will be effective and revolutionary. If you are not familiar with exactly what a 40/40 missionary is, please take a few minutes to review this web page. November 3 was a huge day for Extreme Nazarene Ministries as the first Cohort of 40/40s was deployed to its project city, Puerto Maldonado.

From October 23 until November 4, I (Mike) was in Puerto Maldonado helping to host a team of 30 short-term volunteer missionaries from the United States. This team was charged with completing construction of the building the 8 40/40 missionaries and their cluster support family would live in over the next 18 months. These 8 40/40 missionaries are to plant 12 churches in and around Puerto Maldonado during this time. Once the 18-month assignment is over for this group the building will be handed over to the local church and be used in some way to support what we expect to be an expanding ministry in the area.

Over the next 9 months 72 more 40/40 missionaries will be put into place in 6 cities around Peru. These 72 40/40 missionaries plus the 8 recently put in place in Puerto Maldonado will collectively be charged with planting 120 churches in Peru.

During my two weeks in Puerto Maldonado I had the fortune to work with a group of 30 short-term volunteers that had an attitude and willingness to serve that was truly inspiring. Of the 11 full days this team was in Puerto Maldonado, a number of them worked at the construction site 10 of those days. Further, many of those 10 work days were in excess of 9 hours and all of them were in true jungle heat and humidity.

As part of the Puerto 2 Team we had a number of people working on different Impact events to reach out to the local community. This group led over 300 people to decisions for Christ! They also collected literally 100s of contact cards from people wanting to learn more. This will give the new 40/40s and great base to start their work.

Please join us in praying for the newly installed 40/40s in Puerto Maldonado as well as all the 40/40s that will be deployed over the next 9 months (click on their names):

Ana María

Andrew

María Elisa

Olivia

Callie

Carmen

Daniel

Wendy

Puerto Maldonado Cluster Support Family: The Smiths

To see the rest of Mike's photos from this project, click here.

Re-Cap of the Peru Project

2009-10-31T06:17:00.000-07:00

There are three main components to Extreme Peru:

1. 40/40s

2. Short-term volunteers

3. Long-term volunteers

40/40 Component:

Method: seeking, training, and deploying 40 non-Peruvian and 40 Peruvian missionaries. These 80 young people are sent to share the good news of Jesus Christ through planting community-centric churches using evangelism, compassion projects and systematic, personalized discipleship. The 40 non-Peruvians first go through intense language training for 3 months. Following, they meet up with their partners - they are paired off (1 foreigner, 1 Peruvian) – and go through an intense 6 months of job training to prepare them biblically, culturally, and spiritually for the work ahead of them.

Goal: To plant 120 self-supporting churches in southern Peru within 3 years.

Each missionary is carefully selected as they are the backbone of Extreme Peru. Each pair will be entering very secluded Amazon River villages, small mountain towns, or dense urban areas of Peru armed with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The ultimate purpose of 40/40 is to carry the light of Christ into the dark places of Peru so that God can transform individuals, communities, and entire cultures.

Update: The first of three cohorts has 8 missionaries – 4 from the USA, 4 from Peru. They are finishing their job training in the city of Iquitos TODAY and will be moving to their service city, Puerto Maldonado, in just a few short days.

Short-Term Component:

Method: seeking and deploying short-term volunteers for up to 2 weeks for preparation for and support of the 40/40s. These volunteers participate in many outreaches in the communities – all places where future 40/40s will be working – and also construction projects to build facilities for the 40/40s and their support families to live.

This part of the Peru Project is quite dynamic. There have been 3 projects completed already and the 4^th one is currently underway. Each project takes from 20 to 400 people. People of all ages come. Impact projects consist of women prison’s outreach, plaza evangelism, puppet shows, Magdalena films, Jesus films, Men’s drug rehab center outreach, children’s hospital volunteer work to spending time sharing Christ’s Love with the elderly living in assisted living facilities.

Update: The 4^th and current project is in Puerto Maldonado, where approximately 30 volunteers are sweating a lot in the jungle! Several of them have participated in outreach activities each day, resulting in several decisions for Christ. The rest of them are wrapping up the work on the building which will house the first 40/40 Cohort and their support family, the Smiths, who all move in in a few days! This is a huge moment in the Peru Project as the backbone of why we’re all here is finally beginning. The 40/40s will begin the work for which they were called to Peru and, God willing, 12 community-centric churches will be planted in the town and surrounding area of Puerto Maldonado.

But don’t forget! The short-term volunteers have already had a giant impact on their respective communities. Here are the Decisions for Christ from the first 3 projects:

Arequipa 0: 175

Arequipa 1: 316

Puerto Maldonado 1: 40 Praise the Lord!!

Long-Term Component

As you might be able to tell from above, this type of work takes LOTS of planning and support.

· There are at least 14 people on the ground in the U.S. – most of which work full-time mobilizing and recruiting short-term, long-term, and 40/40 volunteer missionaries for the work in Peru.

· There are now 32 40/40s on the ground with the last 48 being deployed in February 2010.

· There are about 30 other long-term volunteers on the ground, each with a very specific position.

The last bullet is where Mike and Sydney fall. Mike is the Logistics Head. He has a lot of responsibilities directly related to the short-term volunteers. He takes care of their housing, meals, transportation, and much much more. And, believe us, this can sometimes be crazy to manage in a foreign country and foreign language! Sydney is the Accounting Coordinator. She is deeply involved in the finances – writing policies, setting up systems both in the US and on the field, and also maintaining the daily bookkeeping. To see all the other positions that are 100% necessary to keep this giant project afloat, click here.

One could definitely say that this is not a traditional missions organization; however, each and every position is so important to support the 40/40s in their work.

Other Notes:

· Contrary to common understanding, this method is quite different than the Work&Witness model. We are not W&W missionaries nor organization. W&W has had great effect in the world, but we are trying something different!

· Extreme is an incredibly quickly-growing organization and sometimes it is impossible to capture all news/events/updates that go on all over the world. Please also regularly click on the link to the right to view updates on the Extreme website.

We have had a few inquiries as to the statistics of our work here in Peru. Hopefully this helps explain what is going on. We will certainly continue keeping you updated as the 40/40s begin to plant churches.

We can’t say enough how much we appreciate all your thoughts and prayers. For those of you who are supporting us financially, we could not be doing this without you. Already 500 people have come to know Christ because of all your support and prayers. We serve an awesome God!!

Anniversary #1!

2009-10-20T04:06:00.000-07:00

They say the first year’s the hardest, so the rest should be easy, right? J

Anyway, we spent our first anniversary in Cusco, Peru. We spent the weekend being tourists and just getting away from the house and office for a few days.

We did all the typical “Cusco tourist” things: visited Machu Picchu, the Museum of Natural History (which, by the way, probably isn’t very “typical”), and the 12-angled stone. We hung out quite a bit in the Plaza de Armas, and, of course, had to have blizzards from McDonald’s. J We saw lots of other Inca ruins, played games at Cusco’s version of “Church in the Country” with the Peruvian Nazarenes there, and took a long horseback tour around the countryside. We people-watched, took tons of pictures, and did LOTS of walking.

We had the best first anniversary weekend ever!

2 albums of pictures (Just click on the links!):

Museum of Natural History

Anniversary #1

Update From the Jungle

2009-10-15T17:42:00.000-07:00

I recently had the chance to travel to Iquitos and Pucallpa. The purpose was to set the table for the projects that are coming to those cities in January and February, respectively.

Everything went great and I had a good time. For those of you that have never been to the Amazon rainforest near the equator, all I can say is that is hot. The heat and humidity were unbelievable.

I had the chance to spend a little time with the first group of 40/40’s that are in Iquitos for training and will be moving to Puerto Maldonado (their destination city) in two weeks. It was great to see them. I was very impressed how they have adapted to somewhat difficult living conditions and excelled in their Spanish. Most of the conversations on their compound are in Spanish, even between Americans. I had numerous conversations in Spanish with Americans. That was weird.

All else is good. We are looking forward to the Puerto Maldonado II project in a week and then a little break before we head up the project teams in Iquitos and Pucallpa.

Want to Come?

2009-10-13T16:01:00.001-07:00

After reading about a few of our projects, some of you might be wondering how these people are signing up! If you are interested in one of our short-term projects, you can check them out here. If you don't want to explore the website and would prefer a personal phone call, please email us with your number and what you'd like more info on! There's something for everyone from infant to 112 years, so please check it out! You'd even get the distinct pleasure of seeing us! :)

Puerto Maldonado Update #2

2009-10-03T09:47:00.000-07:00

We just wanted to share a little more of what's been happening in Puerto...The construction team has worked very hard on the base camp for the 40/40s. Once finished, the 40/40s will move from Iquitos (where they have been in more Bible training) to their new home for the next 18 months. This is also the location for the Hope House - to provide shelter and vocational training for the many prostitutes that fulfill one of the most prominent businesses in this jungle town. God has big plans for this little city and these short-term missionaries are greatly assisting in the completion of a great tool for the work of Christ.

Click HERE for a short video update.

Puerto Maldonado Update

2009-09-29T16:51:00.000-07:00

Our third project in Peru has been going on for a few days now. There is a team of hard-working short-term volunteers from the States constructing as fast as the heat and humidity will allow in the jungle city, Puerto Maldonado.

Here's a picture of Mike on one of the river boats.

And here's someone who hitchhiked onto their boat....along with a little friend.

Click HERE for more updates on the project!

Second Cohort Is Settling In

2009-09-19T17:20:00.000-07:00

The second cohort of 40/40s has officially been on the ground for 3 weeks. As the rest of us know, that's about when it "sinks in." We want to request a special prayer for these 12 young people as they adjust to this new life. Through them and their Peruvian partners, 36 new Christ-following churches will be planted! PTL! If you like, please choose one of their names and specifically remember them in your prayers this week:

(click on their names for their personal bios)

And, in related news, our district superintendent down here, Pastor Edilberto Solano, is currently working very hard in locating the Peruvian counterparts for the 12 Americans listed above. He has a couple more months to solidify this part of the Extreme Peru project.

Mike Flies LAN

2009-09-16T13:31:00.000-07:00

I would like to take a moment to share about travel here in Peru. For those who travel a lot (or have ever traveled) in the States this should be amusing.

The first thing to understand is that Peru is dominated by one airline, LAN Peru. LAN Peru is probably the nicest airline I have ever traveled with. Just everything about them is very professional and top notch. However, due to their basic monopoly of air travel in Peru they can lack in the customer satisfaction department from time to time.

On this particular day I arrived at the airport about 25 minutes before my plane was scheduled to depart. In the past I have arrived with even less time to spare. When not checking baggage and such a small airport I never heard of this being a problem before.

I walk through the main door into the deserted lobby and the lone LAN employee smiles and waves me over. I go to check-in and obtain my boarding pass. He replies that I may not board because the flight has been closed. I look to my left, though the empty lobby, past the security guard, metal detector, through the departure lounge, and finally the open exterior “wall” to see the plane still sitting there, not 200 feet away on the tarmac, with an open door. Not another traveler in the airport.

As we are conversing in Spanish I assume there had been a misunderstanding. I say no my ticket is for that flight, pointing at the plane. He replies indicating again that the flight is closed. I ask if my seat had been given away due to my late arrival. “No”, he says, the flight is closed. Now enunciating very clearly, in case I did not understand the first three times he said it. He explained that one must be to the airport 2 hours early in order to secure their seat. This is in an airport a little bigger than the average convenience store.

Next I ask if there is time to board. He says there is time to board. Good, I ask please give me my boarding pass and I will be on the plane in 3 minutes. You cannot, he replies in Spanish, again over enunciating as he explained the flight was closed.

By this point the guy manning the security check point and the gift shop attendant were fairly amused by the situation.

I recapped with the LAN employee that there is an empty seat on the plane for me, I had paid for it, there is time to enter the plane but I could not board. He says that is correct because the flight is “cerr-a-do” again clearly and slowly saying one syllable at a time and reiterating that I must be to the airport 2 hours early.

Okay, mister LAN do I need to pay a little bit more money? I ask understanding that I am in a country that may operate a bit different then the USA. No, he says the flight is “cerr-a-do”.

At that point I gave up. I knew that this being the 12:30pm flight it was the last out of Puerto Maldonado for the day and the airport staff was waiting for me to give up so they could go home for the day.

I then asked if he could put me on the first flight out in the morning. This is when I learned that just because this is where the planes are does not mean it is where you buy tickets. That has to be done somewhere else.

So he gave me directions to the LAN office in town. I went out of the airport hopped on a motorcycle taxi and made my way to the LAN office. Upon arrival I sat down with a nice lady who began the process of getting me on the next flight. After about 20 minutes of working on this she explained to me that it was lunch time, 1:00pm, and I would have to come back in 3 hours when the office reopens.

Very well, I did not have anything else to do. I went and checked back into the hotel and returned promptly at 4:05pm understanding that things move a bit slower in the jungle. Finally, at about 4:20pm they opened back up from lunch. After 30 more minutes working with the lady I was on my way with new tickets in hand.

Some Recent Pictures

2009-09-09T15:43:00.000-07:00

The guys down here were able to purchase an internet package which enabled them to watch the Ducks vs. BSU game last week. Way more BSU fans down here, but Mike still had 3 other buddy Duck fans! I made goodies for the game and Mike dressed up as well as he could with what we brought down here. GO DUCKS!!

Take a walk down a Peruvian street...You could run into 14 different people selling 57 different items. If there's something to sell, it'll be out there! You just never know what you'll see or where to find what you want. :) We were coming back from lunch, walking back to the office, and this guy had 3 or 4 whiteboards in his arms. Who knows where he got 'em, but we seized the opportunity, haggled a little, and purchased this little guy. What for? The ideas are endless!

Newbies!

2009-08-31T05:15:00.000-07:00

NINETEEN more people moved down here as long-term volunteers this weekend. 12 new 40/40s, 1 cluster support couple with 3 kids, and 2 other young ladies from Canada who will be managing our FamilyZone project in April.

This is a picture they took in LA, California during their orientation a couple days before arriving here. The extra people are members of the mobilization team who work in the U.S. This picture happened because of their hard work.

Please remember them in your prayers as they learn to adjust to hundreds of new things while living with a local Peruvian family, eating weird foods, and learning a new foreign language.

We're excited to have them all here!

Colca Canyon Tour

2009-08-23T06:15:00.000-07:00

After the project team departed on Wednesday we had our debrief meeting on Thursday and were all assigned to take a long three-day weekend. Sydney and I decided to take a trip to Colca Canyon.

I am not sure exactly how they measure canyon depths but Peruvians will tell you it is the deepest canyon in the world and over twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. Anyway, we were sold and purchased a 2-day tour package.

We stayed the night in a town called Chivay located at the entrance to Colca Canyon at about 12,000 feet above sea level. Needless to say it was very cold in Chivay (about 25 degrees Fahrenheit in the morning), especially in a room without a heater or windows that really seal. However, they do offer lots of HEAVY blankets and hot water.

But the best thing about Chivay is the hot springs that are nearby. The hot springs are fed into a facility with 3 open-air pools nestled into the canyon. The canyon walls glow from the setting sun as they tower over the steamy pools. For being in the outback of South America the hot springs offer unexpected comforts such as free lockers, changing rooms and showers.

On the way to Chivay we went through a wildlife reserve where we saw many llamas, alpacas and vicuñas (like deer sized llamas). We were fortunate to be able to stop and get good photos of them in many areas.

The second day of our tour we stopped at several little towns to take in the local culture. However, the highlight of the day was the visit to the Cruz del Condor lookout. This is the best place in Colca Canyon to catch a glimpse of the giant Andean Condor make its morning hunting commute up the canyon on the thermal updrafts. Our guide said it was not the best day ever to see condors up-close; however, we were fortunate enough to see to condors swoop by relatively close and several from a distance. These are truly impressive birds and the backdrop of Colca Canyon was amazing.

We signed up with a tour agency in Arequipa as part of a 13 person tour including guide. Within the group we had 4 Spaniards, 2 Germans, 2 Brits, 2 Peruvians, us 2 Americans and our Bolivian guide. Having so many countries represented also helped to make a very interesting trip.

Arequipa 1 has Come and Gone

2009-08-23T06:06:00.000-07:00

Well, we are now battle tested. Both the Arequipa project teams have come and gone. The latest team of 79 left this past Wednesday, August 19.

The project team was assigned to working on the Garman Missionary Training Center and doing various outreach activities around the city. Significant progress was made on the building with many people putting in 12 or more hours a day on a few occasions. Outreach activities were also very rewarding. Over 300 Peruvians made commitments to Christ that and will be followed up on by local Peruvian pastors. The team members (from the USA) were also affected as many reported that the project was very memorable and rewarding. See http://www.extremenazarene.org/ShortTermDetail.aspx?ID=2 and scroll down for more Project pictures.

During the project Mike served to make sure that everybody was comfortable in their rooms, well fed, transported, and kept safe. It is great to report that nobody froze to death nor starved. Also, nobody was lost in over 150 bus trips. Mike also served as emergency translator for the teen Sunday school class with acceptable results.

Sydney served to help maintain the finances and run the Extreme Store. The Extreme Store was open at the site where the project team members were staying. She had anywhere from a 2 to 10 times markup on cookies, chips, juice boxes, Cokes, etc. and was still able to sell items at less than USA prices. Sydney also ran the money exchange for the project team members where she exchanged over $10,000 USD.

We now turn our eyes to Puerto Maldonado. The next project team arrives at the end of September and is much smaller at around 15 people but we are very excited.

Somebody Has A Birthday Today...

2009-08-05T04:03:00.000-07:00

My Mom:

Is the only child of Joe & Dera Keen.
Always has the right answer to any of my questions.
Likes putting saltines into a cup of milk and eating it with a spoon.
Has been married to my dad, Bob Mitchell, for 26 beautiful years.
Has always been the parent to enjoy riding roller coasters with us kids.
Paints walls weirdly well….and only fell off a tall ledge once…
Has 4 children: Sydney (her favorite), Janna, Samuel, and Roxanne.
Has the most perfect handwriting ever seen – looks like it’s been typed!
Is a great planner/researcher for family vacations.
Is a wonderful, loving, Christian lady who is the best mom a person could ask for.

Happy Birthday, Mom!!! We love you!

The Last 2 Weeks

2009-08-01T06:50:00.000-07:00

We, Mike and Sydney, spent the last couple weeks very differently from each other. Arequipa 0 was a great success, due a lot to your prayer and the hard work of the volunteer missionaries here. Being as Mike is my husband and this IS our blog, I can brag on him as much as I want. J As the Logistics Head, he did so much behind-the-scenes work, not even I know every little thing he did (mostly due to the fact that I will discuss a little further down). He kept the short-term volunteers fed well, transported well, sleeping well and took care of every little problem and/or complaint that came up. The short-termers were great – there’s just always going to be a million little things that come up when you’re in a foreign country.

Our communications team, headed up by Daniel Duran, did a fantastic job keeping everyone in the loop during the project. Here’s a link to Arequipa 0 Project details. http://www.extremenazarene.org/ShortTermDetail.aspx?ID=1 If you scroll down, you can see news and pictures from most of the days. And praise the Lord, almost 200 people came to Christ during these 2 weeks!

I, however, have a different story. Extreme is trying to get ready for an audit and I had to fly to Boise, Idaho to help my fellow volunteers get prepared for that. Renae is a terrific co-worker to have and was so helpful with anything I needed her to do this last week. I won’t go through all the dull details of accounting (even though I like them!), but we got a LOT done. Maybe one of the coolest things was that my parents/sister were coming through the area to go camping and our schedules overlapped without either party even knowing the other’s schedule ahead of time! I got to spend a day and a half with my parents and Roxanne – plus, my sister Janna drove all the way from eastern Idaho to see me, too! It was such a special little reunion and I thank God for working in our schedules so perfectly. Plus, I got to see Grandma, and cousins, uncles, and aunts, too!

Oh, and I can’t forget – every time I come back into town, my Starbucks friends and I all get together. This time was such short notice, half of them were working, but it was still a really fun night!

Arequipa 0 Begins!

2009-07-17T04:28:00.000-07:00

As you might notice from our lack of posts, we have been terrifically busy preparing for our first project team to come down! And today it all begins!

Here are a few pictures of where we (the long-term volunteers) will spend most of day, greeting the short-term volunteers when they arrive from the airport at different times, get them registered and into their rooms, have/give orientation to the group, and just let them relax for a few hours. This is where they will be sleeping. Later tonight, the entire group will go over to one of the churches (the construction site for this project, too) for dinner. More pictures to come!

Please remember this project and the volunteers in your prayers over the next 2 weeks. God is going to great things in Arequipa!

General Assembly 2009

2009-07-01T12:37:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! Sorry it's been a while...Mike and I have been traveling. But first, a quick update:

Brad Hunt: Doing much better. Responding well to the medicine he was given. Has not had any more episodes. They are sending the results to a doctor in the U.S. just for a 3rd opinion, but they are doing well. To read more, see their blog at: http://inovermyhead-michelle.blogspot.com/ We all thank you for your continued prayers for the Hunt family.

So, for those of you who don't know, we were fortunate to be able to go to General Assembly 2009!! This is an event that happens every 4 years, and Nazarenes from all over the world attend it. It was in Orlando, Florida this year and Extreme Nazarene Ministries has a booth there. We felt like we were very blessed to be able to visit the States again - last time for another year and half, more than likely. We were spoiled with hot showers, Mexican restaurants, drinkable tap water and more, but we are also happy to be home. We arrived back at our house this morning with zero of our suitcases. We hope they come tomorrow?? We're not worried about not having our belongings for a couple days - we just hope they all get here in one piece! And brrr!!! I forgot how cold it is in Arequipa!!

To see more pictures of our adventures at GA, go to: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010999&id=167300181&l=477a0d667c

Brad Hunt Update

2009-06-19T07:17:00.000-07:00

Brad was able to get into a doctor in Lima last night (Thursday night). The doctor in Lima said that the equipment in Arequipa did not produce clear/accurate images/results. The doctor in Lima believes it was a small stroke. The doctor now wants to do a series of tests to see why this happened so that is will not happen again. These tests will take 3-4 days. The Hunts will stay in Lima until the tests are completed and they have sufficient answers.

Thank you for your prayers.

Urgent Prayer

2009-06-18T10:31:00.000-07:00

One of the fellow missionaries in our office, Brad Hunt, woke up with a serious headache and was unable to talk or generally function Monday morning. He was taken to the hospital where he was given drugs and recovered. They performed an MRI, an EEG, and other tests and had him stay two nights. The doctors sent him home yesterday morning saying that they could not find anything wrong.

He woke up this morning in a similar condition to Monday morning. They are now very concerned. They are now at the hospital (in Arequipa) attempting to get clearance to fly to Lima and/or the USA for better medical treatment.

Both Brad and his wife are around 30 years old with a one-year-old son. Please pray that they can receive safe travel, better medical answers, and treatment if necessary.

Thank you.

Website

2009-06-17T16:25:00.000-07:00

We didn't have our organization's website up because they were working on some major changes...And now that the change is complete, I have forgotten to put it back on here! The link is on the left if you want to check it out.

Our Riveting Wall Art

2009-06-02T17:28:00.000-07:00

Welcome to a small part of our house. Just wanted to share with you the 3 pieces of wall art Mike and I have:

1. A cross-stitch from my grandma.

2. A photo my sister sent for my birthday. My favorite piece.

3. If any of you know Mike, this one needs no explanation...

And I've actually bought a couple of shelf picture frames, but just haven't filled them yet. Regardless, we still feel very at home here. Hopefully you share my humor in how silly these pictures are!

Goodbyes

2009-05-21T17:00:00.000-07:00

By far the most difficult part of coming to Peru was leaving our family and friends behind. Fortunately, over the past four months, God has provided a group of people that have become our family and friends in Peru. With this group we have shared good times, hard times, good meals, and LOTS of laughs. Of course nothing can replace our relationships in the States, but this group comes close. Unfortunately, not everybody made it into this photo. There are people not shown that we have grown close to as well.

Today brought another goodbye not so unlike the one we experienced 4 months ago. The first four 40/40s and their support family left Arequipa to begin their ministry training. In the last 4 months we bonded as we have shared many of the same experiences. We are proud of this group and we will miss the extra life they brought to Arequipa. We will pray for their safety and success in the coming years.

What's wrong with this picture?

2009-05-20T04:20:00.000-07:00

Our friend, Brian Tibbs, likes to tell the story of "How you can tell what term a missionary is in."

Goes a little like this:

A missionary in his first term is eating at a restaurant and finds a fly in his soup. He asks the waiter for a new bowl of soup.

A missionary in his second term is eating at a restaurant and finds a fly in his soup. He just takes his spoon, quietly scoops it up, and places beside the bowl.

A missionary in his third term is eating at a restaurant and finds a fly in his soup. He doesn't bother anymore and just eats around it.

A missionary in his fourth term is eating at a restaurant and doesn't find a fly in his soup. He pauses for a moment, looks around, and grabs one out of the air and puts it in his soup.

Needless to say, we are in our first term. I threw this cup of coffee out and started over!

Mike's First Peruvian Business Trip

2009-05-09T16:01:00.000-07:00

This past week I made a trip to Cusco and Puerto Maldonado. The purpose of this trip was to establish contact with the local pastors and begin preparations for the groups of North Americans that will be arriving the next 6-10 months.

Me with the pastor in Cusco and the pastor and his wife from Washington.

Along the way I was able to experience some pretty interesting things. I had a little time to explore Cusco which was the capital of the former Inca Empire. I also had the experience of racing to the airport as the 4^th person on a motorcycle in Puerto Maldonado.

My group spent our evening in Puerto Maldonado in one of the many red-light districts in the city. There we purchased time with 3 different prostitutes to learn about their situation. The 40/40’s assigned to Puerto Maldonado will be focused on ministering to this group of people.

I really did not know what to expect when I decided to take part in this but I can still say that it was not like I expected, if that makes sense. One girl in particular was willing to remove herself from the brothel and speak to us at the church where she was freer to speak openly.

Me and Freddy, the pastor in Puerto Maldonado.

She told us a story of how she found her way to Puerto Maldonado through an employment agency. She had come from Lima work as a “host” at a hotel. Upon arriving at her new job all her identification was taken and she is not allowed to leave the brothel without paying a significant amount of money for each hour she is gone. Like most countries, one is not able to do much of anything in Peru without identification. I believe I was talking to a modern day slave.

We told her about how there is a church community in Puerto right now that wants to help girls like her get of this situation. She went on to tell us about how there are many other girls in the brothels that need help much worse then her. She also told us that she must continue doing this so that she can send money to her older brothers in Lima.

Extreme Nazarene will have 8 40/40 missionaries, 4 Americans and 4 Peruvians, on the ground in Puerto Maldonado by this November. One of the tools the tools these missionaries will have is the Hope House. The Hope House will be a home for ex-prostitutes. Here they will be able to be removed from this sad situation. Our goal is to give them the opportunity to change their lifestyle and live a healthy life.

The brothel where the girl mentioned lives and works.

Here are 2 links to more pictures from my trip:

Cusco: http://www.facebook.com/album.phpaid=16120&id=1617957725&l=3d72cb16b1

Puerto Maldonado: http://www.facebook.com/album.phpaid=16122&id=1617957725&l=ea2ba82ec9

A Few Random Pictures

2009-04-26T17:40:00.000-07:00

Us and our friends, the Correas. Their story is very similar to Mike's and mine: moving to another country right after marrying, missionaries, young, no kids, etc....They have become great friends, but just moved to Iquitos (in Northern Peru) for a year to train the 40/40s. Mike will see them in his travels, but I won't see them till next April when they return to Arequipa.

Me and my 2 buddies from downstairs.

Mike and some of the guys. They went exploring in a canyon one day.

A view from the canyon.

Extreme Staff Retreat

2009-04-26T17:24:00.000-07:00

We had our big staff retreat last week, lasting a few days long. We spent a long time discussing culture shock, its stages, and were we all were at. We heard from a few different people, in depth, on the history of Peru, the history of the Church of the Nazarene in Peru, and the history of Extreme. We had many different group activities, and more. It was a very full retreat.

My group for the week. We would have won this round if Mike hadn't gotten us disqualified. :)

The five darker buildings = the only bathrooms within miles.

Hole in the ground, hole surrounded by human waste (so, yes, you had to step in it), and each had about 50 flies in it. It was fun!

The church plant of my church in Arequipa. In South America, in order for a Nazarene Church to be fully accepted and part of the denomination, it must plant a church. This is in the outskirts of Arequipa in an extremely poor area. This is where our entire group met the first day.

A view from the church.

The 3 teams getting ready to race. Mike has the towel over his head. Little did he know there were worse things he needed to worry about than the sun - all the swimmers ended up with dozens of bug bites all over their legs after this day.

Mike takin' the wide corner.

Me in FRONT of 5 very competitive men. No, I didn't end up winning, but I did end up with a giant bruise on my knee from a fellow driver (not mentioning names) ramming me into a wall!

Getting ready to kick some behind!

The crowd cheering everyone on!

School's Done, Work's Begun

2009-04-26T17:18:00.000-07:00

Mike and I finished Language School on Friday. Yippee! We feel adequately prepared to carry out what we have been called to do down here, but we also have a long way to go. We know all the grammar tenses and have no trouble arguing an electricity bill, buying groceries, or asking/giving directions, but we don’t do it “prettily.” We are going to continue to practice every day, but for now, we are ready to officially begin working. We head to office Monday morning, which will begin the next chapter of our lives. Mike has already been working a bunch at home, so he’s ready to have more time and an office setting. I’m ready to start learning all the financial processes and assist in a few different areas of the organization.

Us with one of our professors, Maria. I had her for much longer than Mike and we became pretty good friends.

Some of the classrooms upstairs.

Here are most of the professors we had, minus a couple. The system of switching teachers periodically was a great help to boost our learning. Different speaking habits, different accents, etc.

Semana Santa

2009-04-26T17:09:00.000-07:00

Holy Week here is a packed-full week of events. With the majority of the population being Catholic or “Catholic,” city roads were blocked, restaurants and stores were closed at crazy times, and everyone was very busy. There were processionals of the Virgin Mary at any time in the streets, especially in the evenings. We typically, as a rule, don’t bring our camera with us when we are going to be out during dark because thieving is such a common occurrence here, so unfortunately we don’t have pictures of the Catholic events. However, our church was quite busy that week also: service Thursday night (no pictures), all day Friday event at a park (see below), Saturday night service (no pictures), Easter service (see below).

Cutie Englund girls crammed into the back of a car on our way to the park.

Mike stuck on a merry-go-round.

Fellow church friend who was baptized.

Pastor's wife (right) and friend.

Roman soldier at the foot of the cross.

Praise God! Jesus is Alive!

Baby dedication.

Crazy Month!

2009-04-26T17:07:00.000-07:00

I’ve been meaning to write several blogs – so many things have happened the last couple weeks, so I’ll try to catch you all up on most of it. I’ll separate them by subject so it’s easier to read.

Mike's Visit to Zamacola

2009-04-08T12:16:00.000-07:00

I recently took a trip to the Zamacola Church of the Nazarene in Arequipa. This is the facility where the short term missionary groups in July and August will be working.

There has been a Nazarene church in this location for years. However, they recently decided to expand and convert the building to a training center with many classrooms and conference centers. As part of this work they are also constructing a new sanctuary on the second floor that has a great view of Chichani. The construction will also include housing for the 40/40’s that are going to be assigned to Arequipa in 2010.

The church currently meets in the unfinished first floor below the soon-to-be sanctuary. The plan is to have the building ready for the short term groups to come and do the painting, tile, and other finish work this July and August. The building should be completely finished once the last short term missionary group leaves Arequipa this August.

Dino Park

2009-04-04T12:07:00.000-07:00

Mike and I spent this morning at a local children’s park for the 2^nd year birthday of Kai, the son of one of our fellow missionary couples. It was a lot of fun, but 2 hours was definitely enough of the “muy fuerte” sun for me! I’m not sure what the park was called, but we just call it the “Dinosaur Park.”

Several of the kids got their faces painted:

Some other pictures:

The birthday boy blowing out his candles:

Eating cupcakes!

A wonderful Peruvian family who came to the party. The father, Ruben, has helped every one of us several times with everything from transporting our luggage, picking up kids from school, running bank errands, and doing anything anyone in the office needs. He and his family are great people:

A crazy fast spinning ride:

The “behind” of the dino:

The dino’s mouth:

The entrance:

It was really a great morning, being able to bond with our fellow team members down here and their kids. To see the full album of pictures, go to: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009953&id=167300181&l=a53b53cbd2

Los Vigilantes

2009-04-02T15:22:00.000-07:00

So for those of you who don't know, we live in a gated community. All gated neighborhoods here have guards. Our security guards are really great. They're picky at letting strangers in - they have to know the name and the apartment number of whom they're visiting - and they're helpful in other things as well.

Well, first, there's a monthly fee of S/.20,00 here (twenty soles), which at today's exchange rate is $6.41. Not bad for great safety and comfort.

Okay, so yesterday they stopped by, rang our extremely-loud doorbell, and Mike went down to our gate to talk to them. (We also, in addition to the neighborhood gate, have a locked gate to our building, where only the Fosters and we live, so extra safe!) Mike returned upstairs several minutes later, reporting that he understood basically nothing of what the man said. Oh great.

I arrived home today about mid-afternoon while Mike stayed at the office for a meeting. The guard who let my taxi into the neighborhood showed up a few minutes later at my gate. I went down to talk to him. I understood SO many words, but I gave up. I only learned that, for some reason, I needed to pay him 4 more soles. Not a lot of money, but I didn't want to be taken advantage of or pay for something I shouldn't be paying for, ya know? So I finally knocked on Sarah's door and asked for a translator. Apparently this particular Peruvian is extra difficult to understand, even for Sarah who's been speaking Spanish a long time...But she knew the context he was coming from and quickly explained that Mike and I were supposed to prepare LUNCH for the guards today. Um, what? But, because we missed it, we can just pay him 4 soles and call it even.

I thought it was pretty crazy at first, but now I think it's a really nice thing to do for them, as they work really hard for us. And it's just a cool little "cultural" thing. There are so many homes in this neighborhood that our next turn will be in about 3 months, so that's good. We'll be "with it" a lot more in 3 months. :)

Thanks for reading my silly guard story! Here's a larger picture of our apartment:

Look for these things coming soon! -->

~Update/Pictures on one of our building projects

~A Picture Puzzle

~Dinosaurs!

~Updated shots of the inside of our house

Mike's BBQ Story

2009-04-01T06:13:00.000-07:00

One day one of my instructors put the idea in my head of purchasing a BBQ. He said they are popular here and relatively inexpensive. However, after searching at the places he told me to go I was unable to find one to buy.

One day I was on the roof and I noticed piles of bricks left over from the construction process. With these bricks and a piece of corrugated roofing metal I was able to construct a BBQ. However, I still needed a grate to cook the food. I was unable to find this at any store. Fortunately I was able to locate a “shop” where a guy makes things out of metal. After talking with the guy he agreed to make a grate for me for about $12USD.

All that I had to do now was figure out what to burn in the BBQ. In order to obtain what Peruvians call “carbón” I had to go to this cave-like place with piles of coal. There a lady comes from seemingly nowhere. She is covered from head to toe with black soot and eating a popsicle. Fortunately she is happy to sell a generous portion of here “carbón” for less than $2USD.

It all came together perfectly. The pictures in this post are from the seasoning burn I did. I had to season the grate with something fatty so that meat will be less likely to stick. The first real BBQ will come soon.

The BBQ is excellent. There is a fantastic view of the mountains, it has handy shelving, airflow control, the grate is adjustable to two heights, and the BBQ itself is easily expandable.

Are You Called to Extreme Peru?

2009-03-22T04:50:00.000-07:00

Click the picture to watch the video:

We are currently looking for more 40/40s. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me or Mike.

Our Phone Number

2009-03-15T13:14:00.000-07:00

Oh, and just to let all of you know, our home phone number (based out of Eugene, Oregon) is officially set up. For those of you who don’t have it and would like to have it, please email me. I’d rather not post it on the internet, but yea! We are happily becoming settled in our new home.

La Iglesia del Nazareno

2009-03-15T12:50:00.000-07:00

Almost every Sunday so far we’ve meant to bring our camera to church, and every Sunday so far we have forgotten it. But not today! We can finally give you a glimpse of what our weekly church activities look like:

Sunday School officially starts at 10:00; however, it is South America….After showing up at 10 the first few weeks and waiting for anyone else to show up for 15 more minutes, we now begin our trip to church at 10. :)

Here is me (Sydney) in front of the church:

Here’s our Sunday School class. There is one class for adults, one for teens, and one for kids.
On the right are the 2 bathroom stalls, completely open to the world. They are on the roof of the building, and girls and boys share. It’s only a little awkward…

On the roof, on the other side, are some classrooms:

Stairs up to the roof:

There are a couple other Nazarene churches in town, so not all of us on the Extreme Team go to this church. Scott & Teri Englund with their 2 daughters, Kayle & Emma; Brad & Michelle Hunt with their son, Tyler; Andrew Kendall; and Mike & I all go to this church.

I don’t know about the others, but for Mike and me, this is honestly a difficult part of our week. We love going to church and fellowshipping with other Nazarenes, but the actual sermon part is quite difficult for us. Local Peruvians say that this pastor is harder to understand (oh great), and then adding a microphone in front of his mouth makes it even more difficult. Every Sunday we get a little more out of the sermon, but not much. We are certainly improving weekly in our language studies, but for some reason, it’s just more difficult at church. So, please remember us in your prayers as we continue to understand and grow as a part of our new church. We have also started to listen to Pastor Les’s sermon back home in Eugene every week. We are so thankful that his sermons are now posted on the website!

Here’s during worship time. Can you find Mike? …
This happened to be our first Sunday when the pastor was out of town. We understand that he was at a Nazarene seminary (either student or teacher) in Chile. We didn’t really catch all of it…So anyway, I don’t have a picture of him or his wife, but I’m sure I will in the future.

Here is a picture of me and 2 ladies. The middle girl is the pastor’s daughter and also the music leader.

The First Four 40/40s

2009-03-03T15:23:00.000-08:00

Here's an update on the Extreme Peru Project, written by Mike!

The first of the 40/40 missionaries arrived in Arequipa recently. (From left to right, they are Wendy Sheets, Callie Pugel, Andrew Kendall, and Olivia Meyer.)The 40/40s are the backbone of the Extreme Peru project. Everybody that is involved in Extreme Peru, from leadership to administration to short term event at tender to financial supporter, is ultimately contributing in support of the 40/40s.

Each of these four new 40/40s will spend the next 3 months in Arequipa at the language school. From Arequipa they will then spend 3 months in Pucallpa, Peru for missionary training. After Pucallpa they will move to their final destination, Puerto Maldonado, Peru. There they will be assigned to church planting activities and ministering to the large population of prostitutes in the area.

Upon arrival in Puerto Maldonado each of the four 40/40s will be partnered with a native Peruvian counterpart. Each pair (1 foreigner and 1 Peruvian) will work as a team to more effectively reach the people they minister to.

The 40/40 concept is going to be replicated over the next 2 years with 40 pairs distributed throughout Peru. Each pair will continue to be comprised of a native Peruvian and a traditional foreign missionary. The pairs will be deployed in groups - similar to the current group of 4. The 40 pairs will be distributed over 7 cities in Peru.

The Smith family (Tyson, Tracy, and Kai) also recently arrived in Arequipa. They will follow the same path as the current group of 40/40s; however, they will serve as “Cluster Support” in Puerto Maldonado alongside the 40/40s. They will basically be in charge of supporting the 40/40s personally so that they can concentrate on the ministry better.

Please pray for the current group of 40/40s and the Smith family. They will face many challenges as they learn the language and eventually adjust to life in deep in the Amazon basin.

Nuestro Departamento Nuevo

2009-02-26T15:23:00.000-08:00

It's official. Mike and I have both signed and fingerprinted the contract for our new apartment in Arequipa, Peru. Yesterday was an especially long day, but after we finally completed the transaction, we went out to check the keys, take a few measurements, and of course take some pictures! We didn't get very many good ones (most were close-ups of cracks in the wall...), and of course we will have more when it's actually furnished and looks better, but here's a first peek! -->

Yes, very pink....We're probably not going to spend the money or time on paint, so pink cabinets we have!

kitchen/dining area.

living room.

hallway down to the 3 bedrooms.

This will be the bathroom all of you use when you come to visit! It's super bright orange. They like their bold colors here, that's for sure. :)

We are meeting up with a local friend we've met here in Peru on Saturday to help buy our major appliances - fridge, range, and washer. Then we'll spend next week buying all the smaller stuff to make it a home! We are so thankful for the family we are living with right now, but we are very excited to have our own home soon. Yea!

Living With a Peruvian Family

2009-02-21T04:03:00.000-08:00

First, just FYI - for those of you with whom we discussed the idea of doing a monthly newsletter, we have decided to only regularly update the blog. We would be duplicating so much information, and this is a better and easier outlet for us to communicate the happenings in our personal lives as well as updates on the Extreme Peru Project.

We just wanted to share some pictures of our current home with all of you:

Here is our water stash under the desk. We recently discovered that "Cielo" brand is bad on our tummies, so we just buy "San Luis" brand now. We probably go through a bottle (2.5 liters) a day together.

Mike sprawled out on our bed.

The front of our bed.

The desk and the closet we share. The desk holds our pants, our snacks, our electronics, our books, and my computer.

I bought that mirror hanging on the desk from a lady sitting on a sidewalk somewhere after I used that 2"x3" mirror next to it for 2 weeks. :)

Our laundry bag. We usually have to do laundry when two of those bags are full.

The view from our window - to the left.

The view from our window - to the right.

The bathroom we share with 4 or 5 other people.

Either the toilet or the shower has been broken about 50% of our time here so far, so it's been quite an adventure! I usually am the one that receives the effects of the broken shower - icy icy water! But the family's good at getting them fixed quickly.

Mike studies out on the couch in the living room. He can concentrate with the noise out there, so I usually study in the bedroom.

In front of our building.

We live on the 3rd floor.

And last but not least, my favorite snack here! It's called maiz tostado - toasted corn. And it is heavenly. It's kinda close to corn nuts, but softer. Very yummy.

Our Address

2009-02-18T17:15:00.000-08:00

In response to many of you desiring to send packages down, we have discovered the best way to receive them. We technically do not have our own home yet (hopefully next week), but it is difficult to deliver to homes anyway - it only works when we happen to be there at the same time. If we miss the delivery, it becomes much more challenging to collect the package. Going through the post office and customs guard can cost us quite a bit of time and money.

All that to say, it would be best to send all things to our office. There is always someone there, and, for some reason, the charges are much less frequent when it's a delivery to a business.

Our address is as follows:

Extreme Nazarene Ministries/**Drinkwater

Avenida Lima 110

Yanahuara

Arequipa, PERU

**If you want this to go to only one of us, just put "Mike" or "Sydney" in front of Drinkwater. :) Easy enough!

Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T08:41:00.000-08:00

This Valentine's Day was quite unique - our first as a married couple and our first in Peru!

Here is my Valentine's gift from Mike. It is probably the best chocolate I've ever tried.

I just had to show this - the expiration date of the chocolate is our 1-year anniversary.

We took a couple hours in the afternoon to go see the Santa Catalina Convent. It's one of the most popular places to see in the city, and it was certainly beautiful. Here are several pictures from our tours:

After the Convent, Mike, of course, needed his daily dose of ice cream. So we bought some and sat in the Plaza de Armas for a long time, just people watching. I feel comfortable saying that Valentine's Day is celebrated more in this country than in the U.S., mostly because it's not just the "Day of Love," but also the "Day of Friendship." If you don't have a special someone to spend the afternoon/evening with, you spend it with your friends. So everyone was out that evening.

Then we walked around for a while, going down some streets we hadn't been down yet, looking at shops and just hanging out. We were at another small Plaza/park when a band of young guys started setting up their instruments. We eventually found out they were from France. They were very entertaining, and we probably stood there for an almost an hour watching/listening. It was really fun.

After we watched the band, we went searching for a place to eat dinner. We eventually decided on a little pizzeria where they cook the pizzas in wood ovens. It was incredibly yummy. Then, surprise, Mike wanted another ice cream cone. We walked down the street a little, found his favorite place, and we could hardly get inside! The streets were officially packed - with lovers and friends. I waited by the door while he waited for his cone.

Overall, we had a terrific first-as-a-married-couple Valentine's Day. Being in Peru made it all the more special.

Language Training

2009-02-05T09:14:00.000-08:00

We are attending class from 9 to 1 every weekday. They pack so much information into every day, it's hard to keep up the studying in the afternoons/evenings. It's definitely intense, but we've both already learned a ton of Spanish. Of course we're nowhere near fluent, but we can at least get around the city with what we know.

Labor is very cheap in Peru, so the school can afford many teachers. There are probably 15-20 students right now and each one has a teacher. I meet with Carlos in the morning for 2 hours while Mike meets with Manolo. The second 2 hours, we switch - me with Manolo and Mike with Carlos. It's been a very efficient system so far, and I know we wouldn't have learned as much in a larger class setting. This is great.

The school building itself is not terribly big, so most of the "classes" meet outside. There are small tables with 2 chairs each - all separated by whiteboards. All of them have either an umbrella or another type of head covering. For those of you who know me, the sun and I do not work well together - my skin basically glows. So my first day was tough, being out there for 4 hours. Come to find out, there were a couple more pairs that met inside the building, Mike being one. The next day we switched, because he didn't mind the outside. So now everything's good!

It's a really fun school - all the teachers are always so happy and nice - and we are learning a lot. Yea!

Trying New Things

2009-01-31T11:34:00.000-08:00

It's been a wonderful Saturday so far. We had a long 2 days of classes - I have no idea how we're going to keep up with 5 every week. It's intense! But we're both learning a lot. This is our main focus right now so we can be proficient as soon as possible. We both studied a few hours each night and this morning, too.

A little before noon we headed out for a few hours. We needed to get a few things from a couple stores, and Mike just wanted to explore a little bit. We took a taxi to Plaza de Armas - the biggest tourist area in the city (pictures in last post). We walked down some of the side streets and explored what types of stores we had around us. I saw this tiny little coffee shop - I'd call it a "hole in the wall" place, but all of the stores basically are. In America those usually were the best restaurants, too! So we explored. We walked down the few steps into it and started looking around. The girl behind the counter told us if we want to drink coffee we have to go upstairs. I was very proud of myself for understanding it the first time she said it. However, I saw no stairs and thought maybe we had to go outside for them. But Mike found them - it was so dark and it was a tiny black circular staircase that I hadn't seen. So we ascended. Upstairs is a small room with very low ceilings. Perfect for Peruvians I guess! We didn't know if we ordered at the little counter or sat down first, but the girl motioned for us to have a seat. We picked a table and she brought us menus. We both decided on getting a simple cup of coffee first, see if we like the place, and maybe come back. We ordered it, it came, and we tried it. I decided I wanted a little milk with my coffee, so Mike asked the girl for me. She looked at us funny and said it's Cebada Alargada and you don't put milk in Cebada Alargada. It wasn't coffee, she clarified. Well no wonder it tasted so different! We definitely learned something new. All 3 of us were laughing. The place also served food, but we decided to eat lunch at a new place and then have ice cream at a third place! We want to try as much new stuff as possible, to become familiar with our new home.

We wandered some streets quite a bit, passing many restaurants. We finally decided on one that looked pretty popular with the Peruvians. We walked up to a counter and tried to order, but the man directed us toward a line at another counter. We discovered you often need to pay at one place and present your receipt to the other place for your food. We tried some empanadas and they were very yummy.

After that, we wandered some more and found a little ice cream stand. It was yummy! We sat around the large fountain in the middle of Plaza de Armas for a while.

Eventually, we decided to walk to PlazaVea (very similar to Walmart), and finish our errands. My hair dryer had killed our transformer (it was actually smoking and very stinky), so I bought a new one that will work better here. We picked up a few more things we needed and then headed to check out. We were in line for at least 30 minutes, I believe. You know how if a cashier at Walmart has a problem, they call or summon a manager and the manager comes and fixes it? Well, there's a similar system here, except the manager apparently has a problem with coming to help. We were at a standstill for a long time and Mike was getting antsy. We eventually began moving again, Mike went to go wait on a bench, and I stayed in line to finish and pay. It was 156,80 soles (a little less than $50) - for what we bought, it was a very good deal.

We took a taxi back home and Mike went down the street to try out the barber. They were closed so he'll have to make due until he finds an open one or buys clippers that work in the outlets here. He's getting pretty hairy. :)

Here are a couple links to a few more pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=8983&l=a72d5&id=1617957725

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9011&l=9f84b&id=1617957725

We are meeting some friends for dinner tonight, so it'll be fun to try out another new restaurant! I'm going to study for a couple more hours until we leave. That's all for now!

From Portland to Peru

2009-01-28T12:22:00.000-08:00

Phew! It's been a constant stream of excitement the last 2 days. We arrived in Peru yesterday morning around 5:30am. It was quite cold - I had to put on my 2 jackets and Mike his hat. Here's a picture of our airplane from Lima to Arequipa. You can also see the stairs we walked down. It was neat.

Let me begin by attempting to describe the exhuastion we were feeling. Neither of us had slept very much since Saturday night. I got a few more hours than Mike on Sunday night, but it was a very short night. Both of us could hardly sleep on the planes despite the drugs we both took (all legal!), so when we arrived on that tarmac in Arequipa, we were about to collapse. After gathering our 4 giant suitcases, for which we paid $400 in baggage overweight fees in Portland, we headed outside, scanning the crowd for the Fosters. We had seen Facebook pictures and weren't sure which one would pick us up, but a blonde gal started talking to us and relief was had by all. Sarah had found us and we could now just depend on her and stop having to think! An older Peruvian man helped us load up her car and, after we tipped him, he actually asked for more! Sarah was shocked and said she has never heard anyone do that before. I thought it was funny....

We traveled about 15 minutes to her house, where we were immediately welcomed by their 2 active young boys, Isaiah and Landon. We also met Ryan, her husband. We had talked with both Ryan and Sarah many times on the phone so it was fun to finally meet them! They made us pancakes for breakfast and let us take showers, for which we were extremely thankful. Oh, and the temperature of water depends on many things - what time of day it is, what area you live in, whether it's solar-powered, etc. The Fosters' water is solar-powered so that early in the day, it was pretty icy water! It certainly woke us up a bit!

We waited for a while for their babysitter to show up and then the 4 of us headed to see the office. I posted pictures of those a while ago, so it was fun to actually see it in person. My desk and Mike's desk are sufficiently far enough away from each other. :) It's difficult to count the number of floors in the building, but there are many landings. I'm a couple landings up from Mike's, which is the second from the floor. I'm close to the top. I think they wanted to keep the accountants and their money as far away from the street as possible, but that's just a guess. We'll eventually take pictures of it now that it has all the furniture and things.

We then traveled to the Language School where we were to meet our Peruvian family. The mother came and we all piled into Ryan's car and traveled to her home. After unloading everything and getting acquainted with our new family, we shut ourselves in our new room. We took a nap!!!!! It was a wonderful and restful couple of hours. We were told earlier that lunch would be around 1 or 1:30, so we went to hang out in the living room a while before that. We talked (or attempted to talk) with the father, Manuel, and their son, Juan Manuel, for quite a while. We realized later that we waited to eat till then to include their other house guest in the meal. He is another American visiting from NYC to learn Spanish. He attends the same Language School and it is held from 9:00 to 1:00. Lunch was HUGE. We each had this large bowl of soup that also had chicken (on the bone), large chunks of a few different types of potatoes, carrots, and rice. It was really good. We were very full. After all the plates were cleared, however, did the second course come. What?! It was an interesting omelet-type dish that had some things in it I could not identify. Neither of us could finish it, but we tried our hardest. The third course was a large plate of peeled and sliced fruit that we could not identify. It was pretty good, but, boy, were we about to explode. It was all very good, and, through all these interactions, we have already learned so much Spanish. The other American being there helped also, because he knew quite a bit more than us and kept the conversation going.

After lunch, Ryan picked us back up. We went to exchange a bunch of cash, purchased cell phones (very long process), did a little shopping we needed to do, visited the office again, and then went back home. That took a few hours at least. The number one thing we needed to buy was water. We can't drink the water, so we bought 4 huge bottles to get us started.

We just hung out a bit until dinner, which was around 7:00. We got the scoop from Ryan earlier that lunch is always the biggest meal so we were looking forward to lighter food. Sure enough, we had these rice/potato thingys that I can't really describe. They were delicious! And we had tea. She set out the tea options and after studying the packages, I couldn't figure out if they were caffeine-free. I needed sleep that night. So we pondered how to figure it out....eventually, Mike told her that "we want to sleep tonight" and she immediately knew what we were talking about. It's so amazing how well we've been able to communicate so far, just imagining how much better it's going to get. There's always a way to rearrange the words and get your point across. Anyway, she got up and gave us other tea that was caffeine-free. Yea!

After dinner, we went back to our room, fiddled around with some things. I unpacked enough for us to be able to walk around, and then we crashed. We slept almost 11 hours!

This morning we started feeling human again. Mike snapped back to normalness pretty quickly, but I'll probably need a couple more nights of good sleep to catch up. Today was another busy day. After a tasty breakfast with the best coffee I've ever had, Adela, our host mom, took us to the biggest tourist spot in the city - Plaza de Armas. It was really cool. We constantly forget to take pictures, but every once in a while we remember! Here are some:

We walked around with her, visited a couple churches, saw some really beautiful areas, shopped at a couple stores, and then headed back home. We found a bookstore with a few books in English, which was nice. We needed something to read....

We regrouped back at the house, mapped out all the places we wanted to visit, and then headed out. We first took a timed walk to our school. It took no more than 20 minutes. It's a nice walk! We'll get at least a couple miles of walking in every day, and when we move into our apartment in a couple months we're going to buy a treadmill - yea!! My knee has mostly healed and I'm ready to begin running again. Mike's already mapped out his first run for tomorrow near our current home. It might end up being more of a walk, he thinks, because of the very high altitude, but you've gotta start somewhere! Speaking of altitude, we are both definitely feeling it - me more than him. Neither of us have had the nausea that's common, but we certainly feel it in our lungs. But we'll get used to it eventually!

On our own today, we have had many taxi rides, done lots of shopping, and have never become lost. It's been a very successful day. We found the big mall in town (big to Arequipa, small compared to American malls), bought Mike a fanny pack, we went back to a couple stores we went to yesterday, and we visited the office again. I was having trouble with my cell phone so a stop to Ryan's desk, our main IT guy, was necessary. He fixed it, and we headed home.

So the story of the fanny pack - I've been very observant of the people and the culture the last couple days and I've noticed many people wear fanny packs, mostly men and boys. Girls use purses but are always holding them tight to their side. I also noticed that the younger, "cooler" guys wore them slung over their neck with the pack hanging in front of their chest. Mike was convinced. We looked a few different places for one and he now has his "manny" fanny pack. :)

I've been working on this blog for quite a while now, dinner will probably be within the next hour or so, and we'll have yet another relaxing evening with no obligations or places to be! This is crazy! Mike and I have been non-stop busy since about September. We are not used to having constantly busy schedules, but we are LOVING IT.

We have figured out so much already, and are truly enjoying our time here so far. We have a lot of Spanish to learn, but the amount we already know has surprised us. Thank you to every one of you that helped us in this process. We could not have done it alone.

Here are a few more pictures of our travels:

ONE BAG SHUT!

TWO BAGS SHUT!!

THREE BAGS SHUT!!!

ALL FOUR COMPLETELY SHUT!!!!

Bryan Berkshire seeing us off at the Portland Airport.

Airport waiting....

View from the front window of our apartment (Misti, an active volcano).

WEDDING PICTURES!!

2009-01-21T18:13:00.000-08:00

Here are links to wedding pictures I finally posted this afternoon:

Wedding Rehearsal: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009196&l=e83b9&id=167300181

Wedding: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009197&l=2879f&id=167300181

Wedding: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009198&l=c48fe&id=167300181

The Wedding pictures had to be split because of the large number I wanted to post. There's no significance to either one over the other. Hope you enjoy!

2 More American Weeks

2009-01-11T14:40:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, we moved out of the house as our renters will be moving into it in a few days. We also sold my car yesterday, which was proving to be the impossible-to-sell car for a while. Praise God for good timing!

There are endless details to still take care of before we move to Peru, but thankfully our schedules are beginning to slightly free up. I finished my accounting job on the 31st and Mike will be working a few more days as a structural engineer. He's going to work till the bitter end!

We will be spending our first 3 months in language school when we get there, beginning on Thursday, January 29th (which happens to be my sister's birthday - happy birthday, Janna!). That'll give us 2 full days to get adjusted and situated in our new home - the home of a Peruvian family, that is.

After those 3 months, we move into our own apartment. Some of our friends who are down there already have this really nice apartment coming open in their building in April. They're going to try to have it held for us for a few weeks before we finish school. We are very excited for this possibility - we won't be totally alone, which will be really nice when Mike does a lot of the traveling he'll need to do. I'll have some American friends close by!

The next 2 weeks have a lot in store for us - need to sell 1 more car, need to finish packing up a few more things for storage, lots of legal stuff, financial stuff, family stuff, etc etc. It will be packed full, but we are so excited. Everything is coming together so beautifully, and we are just thrilled the date is approaching for us to begin this new adventure!

Thanks for all your continued prayers. We expect to have ups and downs as we get used to this new culture, this new life. It's such a blessing to have so many friends and family supporting us and keeping in touch with us.

Correction and Pictures

2008-12-26T14:50:00.000-08:00

Correction: I meant to say in the last post that we'd be on a total of 3 airPLANES but 4 airports...

Pictures: Here are a few pictures of our office in Arequipa. We didn't take them ourselves, in case you were worried we'd secretly left already....

From the outside.

Office parking.

The backyard?

Another outside view.

The entrance.

Some interior views.

This is a shot of typical housing in Arequipa. We'll be living in similar apartments.

Departure Date

2008-12-22T18:11:00.000-08:00

We have officially booked and purchased our Peru plane tickets. It was just a little strange buying ONE-way international tickets...

We are leaving on the 26th of January very early in the morning. We only have to be at a total of 3 airports, for which we are very thankful.

I have 5 more days of work left, and Mike has several more than that. I'm looking forward to being able to fully concentrate on this in a week or so. It's been very busy and we are hardly ever home, but God is good. He is pulling us through this and somehow giving us the strength and energy to finish every day what we need to finish and continue the process of moving to another continent.

We've sold many many many of our worldly possessions, have found hopefully great renters, and many other blessings have happened. We do, however, still need to find 2 buyers for our 2 cars (both very nice!), so if you local people hear of anything, please contact us!

We both received a couple more immunizations today. Should be good to go for a while....We've been home for less than an hour and need to get going again. More later!

To answer some of your questions...

2008-12-09T20:29:00.000-08:00

At this point, our contracts are for 25 months (yes, it used to be 19). We are flying out the last week of January after a very busy last several weeks. We have much to prepare for, including: immunizations, new passport for those who have to change her name on everything, selling many things (2 very nice cars!), finding a renter, setting up residency in Peru, finishing our current jobs here (still both full-time), packing, and of course building a support team here in the U.S. We will need lots of help from all our friends and family in multiple areas.

We just had our first staff meeting with the entire Extreme team, "webcamming" in from many countries around the world. It was cool. We are getting more and more excited every day, regardless of how busy and exhausted we might be. Please continue to pray for us as we travel this journey. We're going to need it!

The Short and The Long

2008-12-02T18:02:00.001-08:00

Short Story: Mike and I are moving to Peru in January.

Long Story: We have been called to serve as missionaries in Arequipa, Peru with the organization Extreme Nazarene. This is such an exciting opportunity God has given us, and we are thrilled to finally be able to share it with all our family and friends. Mike has been accepted to fill the role of Short Term Events Department Head, and I will be filling the Accounting Coordinator position. I will be doing some various kinds of bookkeeping and assisting the Financial Head for the program. Mike will be the head over all short-term work & witness teams that come down from the U.S. and coordinate their experience in various locations around the country. We will be attending Language School for the first 3 months, through which we will live with a Peruvian family to become truly immersed in the culture and language. After that, we move into our own 3-bedroom home for our remaining time there. If you have more questions or would like to know how you could be more involved in this project, please let us know! We'd be more than happy to talk to you about it. We are so excited about this new chapter of our lives and are planning to maintain this blog very regularly with stories and pictures of our Peruvian adventures.

Honeymoon Videos

2008-11-14T07:04:00.001-08:00

Just fyi - I added 4 video clips to the post below.

Honeymoon!

2008-11-11T07:16:00.000-08:00

Haha what are my excuses now? We've got the wedding, honeymoon, and the Eugene Quiz out of the way and, still, I find myself busy. Those of you who know me well probably have the word "duh" written on your face. I'm sorry! I like being busy! Anyhow, some updates:

We won't have wedding pictures for a while, because the photographer will need some time to edit them. But in the meantime, I have honeymoon pictures!

On the beach in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

On the cruise boat - preparing for our mandatory practice of an emergency.

Getting ready for our first formal night on the cruise.

breakfast the next day.

The dock in St. Maarten.

Taking off from St. Maarten (there were 4 cruise boats there that day).

Mike frolicking in the distance on the beach at St. Lucia.

When it came time to go, it was difficult getting him out of the water! This was by far our favorite day. We went shopping a little in the morning and then took a taxi to the beach for the rest of our time in St. Lucia.

Recovery time from the sun for this blue-eyed redhead.

View from our private balcony of St. Lucia.

See the plane arriving?

The St. Lucia Navy, according to Mike. I never figured out if he was kidding or serious.

Our room steward, Clive, always left us towel animals. It was a Carnival thing. This is a scorpion, if you can't tell.

The water on the left is the Atlantic. The water on the right is the Caribbean. This was taken on St. Kitts as we were on our way to our kayaking excursion.

Yes, long sleeves in the Caribbean. And it definitely saved me from being miserable the rest of the week. I also completely covered my legs when we went kayaking, so only my face and hands were showing. :)

Mike getting ready for his first snorkeling experience.

In the front of the kayak. It took us a while to learn to row together, but we figured it out.

That night, back on the boat.

Last dinner on the boat.

Our dinner group. We were assigned that table and ate together all week. It was super fun getting to know them.

Trying to make him smile for the picture. We are sitting on the cruise boat waiting to depart for our Everglades tour we signed up for. We got priority to depart, because our tour was beginning. It was nice to not have to wait very long.

So, the day we arrived back in Florida, it was a freaky cold day. Even the locals thought it was crazy. The sad fact was that we had turned in our luggage for security/customs reasons the night before, and only had t-shirts and shorts for the next whole day. It was supposed to be warm! However, we got a quick chance in the parking lot to open up and grab our jackets. It was still super freezing cold. .....So this is us on the airboat in the Everglades. They go up to 55 mph so we were double cold.

The tour guide said there were about 1.5 million alligators in the northern Everglades, but they don't like the cold (that's why they live in the Everglades! haha). So we only saw a total of 2 that day, because they were all buried in the mud, keeping warm. It was still pretty neat. Kinda scary, too, because we're sitting a couple feet off the water and were a few feet away from the alligator swimming here. That's when the tour guide told us that they could jump very easily.

The other one, half in the mud.

Freeeeeezing!

This guy did a little show for us afterwards with a couple alligators. It was crazy. He actually put his whole head into the alligator's mouth.

Yes, it's alive.

So, yes, we tried the Gator Bites. It was real alligator and it was real disgusting. Actually, it probably wouldn't have been so bad, but we don't think it was fully cooked. It basically made us both sick for a while. Pretty gross. :)

Now that we're back, our routines are returning to us, and we're getting settled into the house pretty well. It's pretty fun redecorating Mike's old bachelor pad. Hope you enjoy the pictures. I'll post wedding soon after I receive them.

We are married!

2008-10-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

Mike and Sydney are officially married. We've been off on a fantastic honeymoon in the Caribbean for 10 days. We've been internet-less, so I'm catching up on everything. I promise to write soon about wedding and honeymoon adventures. Lots to do this weekend before work starts up again on Monday for both of us. We're happy to be back!

This and That

2008-10-06T19:14:00.000-07:00

Twelve days from now I can change the title of this blog to The Drinkwaters. It's so close! Yea! It's been nothing but busy, of course, but we are enjoying it. I did, unfortunately, become quite ill a couple weeks ago and, when I thought I was close to being healthy again, both my eyes were suddenly bloody and painful (to me and others looking at me). Turns out I had hemorrhagic conjunctivitis, a "more severe infection than pink eye," as my doctor told me. Google it - you'll find disgusting pictures. That's how I looked the last few days, but the prescription drops he gave me are seeming to work. So do not worry!

Since I last wrote, I've had my third and final wedding shower. My 2 friends Cindi and Val did a fantastic job putting it on and it was a lot of fun. I'd post a picture, but they didn't turn out very well. Funny lighting and old camera....

Mike went to the Work & Witness Conference in Portland this weekend. I wanted to go when I first heard about it last winter, but I couldn't get the time off and am kinda planning a wedding, too....
http://www.workandwitness.org/

For those non-Nazarene readers out there, this week marks the 100-year anniversary for our Church. We had a terrific celebration on Sunday here at our local church. We set up giant tents on our newly purchased property and had a great time!
http://www.ncnnews.com/nphweb/html/ncn/section.jsp?sid=10005043
http://www.efcnaz.com/

As I am writing, my dad and Mike are in the process of moving my bed to Mike's house. It'll be our bed in a couple weeks and better to get things done now rather than later! We'll drag up the extra mattress from downstairs for me to sleep on for 2 weeks.

Mike and I are definitely ready for the wedding to be here....I am mostly excited to see all my friends and family that I haven't seen for so many years. That's going to be my favorite part of it all, I think.

Wedding and Tie-Dying

2008-09-24T06:05:00.001-07:00

As you might have guessed, it's getting a little crazy around here. I believe the count is 24 more days till the wedding and even as organized as we are, there are always a hundred little things to take care of. Everyone around us have been so helpful in the process - family and church family. Mike and I are both still working full-time, of course, and are involved in other things as well, so you can imagine it is pretty hectic right now.
For those of you who don't know, I coach teen Bible Quizzing and that is going strong. We have our first meet this weekend, for which we had a little tie-dying party on Monday night. We wanted to have our team shirts before the first quiz this year (and not the third, like last year), so we put this together somewhat quickly and we're going to be the tie-dyed team from Eugene, Oregon. How fitting....
Thanks for all those of you who are praying for us right now. This is a huge time in both of our lives and we surely need it and appreciate it.
Here are a few pictures from the wedding shower my work threw us.

(Mouths full of food)

Answers to the Top 10 FAQ

2008-09-03T12:20:00.000-07:00

1. Yes, the registries are complete.
2. October 18th, 2:00 pm.
3. Navy and silver.
4. 4 bridesmaids and 4 groomsmen:
..........Janna Mitchell (Maid of Honor)
..........Jessica Gossett (Matron of Honor)
..........Roxanne Mitchell
..........Tracy Drinkwater
..........Dave Lund (Best Man)
..........Mark Scacewater
..........Sam Mitchell
..........Jon Drinkwater
5. My dad.
6. Eastern Caribbean 8-night cruise.
7. Yes.
8. No.
9. Fine.
10. Super.

Gift Registries

2008-08-24T20:24:00.001-07:00

Well, it's finally done...It was one of the first things I began when we started planning the wedding, but it never was finished. We are officially registered at Macy's and Kohl's. We originally wanted Jerry's (a local home improvement store that's 10 times better than Home Depot), but they don't do registries. So we went to Home Depot - they don't accept any more new ones. I guess they're phasing it out for some reason. That was a few months ago. Tonight I have finally finished our registries, and they are both viewable online (which, I found out from my Aunt Neva, is a much better solution than trying to get a difficult-to-read printout from the store. At least Kohl's anyway...). We were going to register at REI as well, but decided to just limit it. It was hard enough registering for all this stuff - it took me several weeks to get out of the "we don't need this" mode and into the "we could use that" mode. But it is finished. Yea!