En Peru

We are in Peru! We felt very welcomed at the airport. 8 people came to pick us up, including Brian & Betty´s older kids, Marco and Ana. We have been spending this week catching up on some sleep and getting acclimated to things. Dan and Kathy are with us and were a huge help in the airport with all the bags. Dan got sick on Thursday night and is starting to feel better this morning. Sometimes my spanish is really good, and then all of a sudden I won´t be able to understand a thing! Poco a poco, so they say (little by little). We are trying to find an apartment. We looked at one place on the 4th floor along the main highway. It looked really nice and clean, but there was nothing in the kitchen. No stove, refrigerator (which we knew would happen), but also there was no cabinets, no counter, and no sink. There was nothing but walls! So, we are praying to find another place in the paper on Sunday. Ultimately, we will go where the Lord leads us, no matter what the place is like. The weather is cold. It´s winter here. It´s not too terribly cold, you just get a chill that just won´t go away. We´ve gotten some chances to drive around and see some of the city. Yesterday we took a drive out to Punta Hermosa. There are some really awesome waves there with some guys surfing. Brian said the waves are much bigger in the summer (your winter). I got some pretty cool pictures. I´ll get some up when I can. The kids are doing good. They are eating the food well. They just love Brian and Betty´s kids. We can hardly pull them away at times! It will be good to get settled in an apartment and get a routine going again, with homeschool and that sort of thing. Brian and Betty have been wonderful. Betty, Alicia, and Abuela have been cooking for us. They are helping us with finding an apartment. They are an encouragement to us. Thank you for all your support and prayers.

Well today is the day!!!!!!!!

We leave tonight for the airport at 9pm. Our flight isn't till 1:35 in the morning. We will get to Lima Peru at 6:05 in the morning (which is 7:05 Florida time). It feels sort of weird because we've been saying goodbye for about 3 months. Very surreal. It's like being somewhere in between the twilight zone and la la land. We are getting excited. Hopefully we'll get some pictures up soon. Not sure what availability we'll have in Peru in the beginning. Well, bye for now!!!

Love you all!!!

Kilaine at Jamie's birthday party last Sunday.

I flew to Albuquerque on Monday for a 3 day women's conference called S.O.S. (Serving Our Sisters). It was the first time that Shepherd's Staff put on this conference.

I saw this, flying to Albuquerque. It was really cool looking from the plane. All the land looked like circles. I wonder what crop they were growing...

Anyways, the conference, it was awesome! I got to meet a lot of wonderful women. Many of them had a lot of wisdom from being on the field for many years already. They loved on me. I felt so cared for.

I finally took pictures the day we all left. Left to right: Anita Saunders, Debbie and me. Anita was in the Philippines for 15 years and now has been in England for 5 years. Debbie was in Moscow, Russia for 3 years. They both were very encouraging to me.

Cherie, me, and Jennifer. Cherie has been working in Bulgaria for over 10 years, and lived there full time for 3 of those. Jennifer lived in Scotland for 4 years. Jennifer was my roomate. We stayed up late both nights just talking, having some sweet fellowship, and some wonderful prayer time together. Cherie taught on raising kids in the field, which was great to hear about. There really isn't any books written on the subject and at most of the conferences, the men don't give that perspective in their teachings. Thank you, Lord, this conference was just what I needed.

view of mountains from the plane ride.

We went to our house the other day to check on a few things and say one more goodbye to our neighbors. It really doesn't feel like our house anymore, which is good.

Tim and Jamie had their baby!!! I really wanted to be there for the birth, but she went into labor while I was in New Mexico. It's a girl, Cadence Ari Bartlett, 6 lbs, 9 oz. She's such a little peanut!

Jamie, so happy. I will miss her dearly. I am thankful to the Lord that I've had her friendship for so many years. And I know there are more years to come.

Liam, being, you guessed it, silly!

3 more days till we leave for Peru. I think that we have entered the whirlwind stage!

6 more days

The day is getting closer. June 19, we fly out @ 1:35am; so we have to be at the airport on June 18. Everything is in order and ready to go and now our time spent with family and friends. These last few weeks seem surreal, I don't think I'm processing that we are leaving and won't be back to visit for 2.5 to 3 years.
Tracy is in Albuquerque, NM for a womens mission conference, Serving Our Sister. This conference is geared towards woman who will be caring for missionaries that are in the field. They also have some special courses for women who are going to the field. Tracy said she is having an awesome time and truly being edified. This conference is hosted by Shepherd Staff
they are the missions group that is facilitating our donations. Check them out they offer many great resources as well as short-term and full time missions training, which is the training we attended.
Thank you guys for all of your prayers, God has been faithful and answered them all. We desperately need your prayers as we begin our this new chapter of our lives. Also pray for Dan and Kathy Whisman, they are traveling with us to help us with all our bags and to help us get situated once in country. They will return to the U.S. on June 29. We praise the Lord for His provision in providing Dan and Kathy to be hands and feet and so much more for us and for the advancement of His kingdom.

Robin

You may have read when I posted last Monday about Billy. Monday evening I wrote a little about him and asked for prayer for him. He had stayed at the church in a tent in the back for 5 or 6 weeks. Some people from the city came by and saw the tent and said that he can't stay there any longer. No one at the church wanted him to leave. So they fixed up the back of the old work truck so he could stay living in it. He didn't really feel comfortable with the idea and said that he was going to leave. He said he would keep coming to church and to the Bible studies and helping out at the church. He also started to give all the things back that people had given him; clothes and blankets, and things like that. Last Saturday morning, many gathered together and prayed over him. We saw him that night when he came to our worship night. That's when this picture was taken. On Tuesday morning, he committed suicide. He laid down in front of the train. We are praying for his parents, Bob and Alice. They have been praying for him for a number of years. He also has a sister, although I don't know her name.

There is nothing we can do for him now. So what do we do? There are many more troubled kids out there. They need love. We don't have to be able to relate to them in order to love them. We don't have to be a theologan, or to live a perfect life to love them. Help us, Lord to be an expression of your love.

more updates

Having fun in South Florida for 2 more weeks...

This is our good friend Dominick. He came over and we got to visit with him for a couple of hours, which was nice. We lead worship together for about a year on Wednesday nights with Matt Neff. Dom & I both played guitar and sang and Matt played djembe. That was a couple of years ago now. Those days were sweet.

The kids love to climb on him. Liam says he's spiderman.

Last Sunday a band played at the church. The worship team got together and played a worship set before the band played. It was good. We haven't really gotten to go to our church that much since we've been back in Florida, because we have still been visiting other churches. So, it was good to hear the full worship team. It was a bummer that Robin was sick and had to stay home.

Yes, that's Dominick again...

(I am laughing right now. Dominick gave us a hard time because there were pictures of David Caplivski in our blog 2x and none of him. Well, now there's 3 of Domincik right in a row, and I didn't even plan it that way!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!)

Kaulana and Kelly

That's Tyler there in the middle. (he's 14!)

Cassy. She's planning on coming next summer to Peru to stay with us for about 3 weeks or so. That will be a blessing. We've gotten pretty close over the last couple of years. I had the opportunity to teach her piano for almost 2 years. She is such a sweetheart, and loves the Lord so much. I love her lots.

On Memorial Day, we went to Doug's house for some food and fellowship. We got to swim, too! Liam is so weird. When Doug put him up on his shoulders, Liam just started licking his head! We laughed our heads off at that one. He just kept doing it.


I took this picture after we left from signing a contract on our house. That's right, you heard me... we have a buyer!!! Many have been praying for our house to sell. Now we have a contract on it. The closing date is set for July 18, exactly one month after we leave to go to Peru. Pray with us that it all goes smoothly.

On Saturday night, we had a small worship night with some of our close friends at Pastor George's house. It was nice and intimate.


Tim Bartlett. He exposed us to missions, and taught us how to worship. And he's older than me!!!

tuning up...

Kelly brought a stand up bass! That was awesome. He's renting it right now. It sounds so cool.

It was a nice time of worship with some old friends (and some young ones, too!!)

Jamie Bartlett, Tim's other half. She's my best friend, even though we don't really see each other that much any more. But, our friendship never changes. You don't come by friends like that too often. She's due in about 2 weeks. She came to the birth of both of my kids. I was at the birth of her daughter. I'm hoping that her baby comes before we leave so I can be there. That would be a blessing.

Erin. She is going to be helping us out with newsletter stuff and so on and so forth. A very sweet friend.

This is Billy and Stormy. Billy's been living in a tent in the back of the church for a month or so. He recently came back to the Lord after a long season of straying. He was doing really awesome, helping around the church, coming to the Bible studies, things like that. He would eat leftovers from the church and really had nothing else. It was really good. Pray for him if you think of it. He is leaving the church to go back to living on the streets. Pastor George asked him to stay living there for a year and then to decide what to do. But he seems determined to leave all of a sudden. It wouldn't take much for him to fall right back into the old life again. I think this is a crucial time in his life.

On Sunday we went to Brian Vander Kodde's church, Calvary Chapel Miami Beach.

We got to share the slideshow there and talk briefly about Peru. We really wanted to get to know Brian's church a little bit. We figured they would be coming to Peru often and we would like to build relationships with the leaders beforehand, so we know them a little bit when they visit Brian and Betty. It was nice. We had a nice time. It was our last church to visit, too. Now we are just at our home church for the next 2 weeks. Yay!

This morning I had the opportunity to teach a Bible study to a mom's group that meets once a month. I was studying the other day, and Liam came in and said he was studying, too. I pray that my good habits impact the life of my children more than my bad habits. It was nice to teach. I was starting to feel a little lost and without purpose. That will probably continue to be a struggle until I get used to things in Peru.

Last week Kilaine sort of spranged her ankle. It was swolen and she couldn't walk on it for a couple of days. Some of you were praying for her. She is better now, and running around as usual. (Although I won't let her back on the trampoline just yet!) Thank you for your prayers.

Here are the kids in the midst of ultimate silliness. Greg, Ann Marie, & I turned around in the kitchen and saw the kids posing as superheros. It was awesome. Sometimes I wish I could bottle those moments up, and pour them out when I'm having a funky day.

How on earth could they get any cuter? I honestly didn't stage this. My kids really are this wacky!

So, we have 2 more weeks until the big day. We are counting the days.