R.I.P. Teddy Grahams!

Hello everyone back home! I write this post as everyone else loudly plays cheat. I am hearing many sounds of frustration as their cheats get called! I managed to escape by winning (I suppose it means I'm a good liar). This morning started off much more quietly, as we were all very tired from playing cards well into the previous night. Our usual morning routine started off rather sluggishly until it came time for the regular morning devotion time with all the women. This morning was particularly touching because the topic of the devotion was "rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep." A few women shared praise items but many more shared prayer items. It was extremely touching to be able to pray for the women and to hear them all praying in their own language. The compassion they all showed for each other was something that words can not describe! The rest of the day was spent playing with the children. There are seven team members (not including Pastor Bill because he is busy preaching) currently at ATEK to entertain only fourteen children and somehow they still manage to tire us out! We took them to the park this morning because that is their favourite thing. They are always asking "el parko" from the first thing in the morning until we finally take them. At the park there are little ladies who walk around with large buckets that are filled with individual cups of jello; I personally have never noticed them until today. The reason I noticed them was because a mother with her child kindly purchased a cup of jello for all the children with us! It was completely unexpected but definitely appreciated by all the children. The rest of the day was spent playing at the ATEK compound. The boys (Lucas and Seth) might not so easily define it as playing because while Heidi, Kaitlyn and I took a nap a few of the more rambunctious children broke into the boys room and stole their beloved Teddy Grahams. The endless energy is testing at times but the smiles, laughs and snotty hugs make it all worth it. The answer to yesterday's "Guess Who" game is... Mirriah! All the Quechan people get a good laugh whenever I am introduced. Please remember to keep us in your prayers as a few of us (mostly Bailee and I) are still feeling under the weather. Today was Pastor Bill's first day of many eight hour days of preaching so pray for his voice to continue to be strong. A praise item is that the women are understanding what they are being told and coming out with many difficult questions. Please also pray for wisdom for Pastor Bill. Tomorrow we are expecting team one to return from the village in the afternoon and I am sure many more interesting stories will be coming your way. Thank you for your prayers, they are very valued! Buenos Noches. -Mirriah (a.k.a. Dry Potato) P.s. We utilized a catch phrase today- "say it, don't spray it"- due to a few misfortunate incidents of food coming out while laughing too hard. Guess who!

Dry Potato

As many mornings at ATEK begin, ours commenced with a tired attempt to assemble at 6:50 in the team room. We began our day with our best breakfast yet- fresh, warm buns, topped with butter or jam, hard-boiled eggs and a mix of fresh fruit including bananas, papaya and cantaloupe. Immediately following the meal, I shared my testimony with the group and then we prayed together. As three volunteers from group two went to wash the dishes in the kitchen, group one rushed about, gathering last minute items in preparation for their imminent expedition to the village. As a part of this, Seth and I went across the street to the small store that supplies the whole team with snacks and water to bring back dous grande aguas (two large waters). As we entered the small shop, the kindly elder woman who ran the shop greeted us with a warm buenos dias (good morning)! After we collected our goods and waved farewell to the departing village team, we joined the daily devotion time with the Quechan women, where Pastor Bill was sharing about making disciples. After the message, Pastor Bill hosted a question and answer session during which, the women began to open up and confront some of the more difficult questions that the people commonly face. It was impactful for the women and good discussions were held via two translators (one from English to Spanish, one from Spanish to Quechan). During the devotion time, we learned (much to our humor) that a certain team member’s name means ‘dry potato’ in Quechan. Any guesses who that is? The name has stuck amongst the team; we’re considering changing their passport! :)  After the group diverged, several members of group two spent a good deal in the team room drawing simple pictures in sharpie for the kids to colour. One of their favorite things to color is sea creatures so we pumped out a good deal of crude octopi, fish in various shapes and sizes and whales. One of the things Heidi pointed out was that no matter how much they liked the picture they coloured, they would always give it to us. As we tried to keep up with their lightning-quick colouring, Jennifer prepared the ‘Seven Days of Creation Craft’. This craft kept them occupied as lunch was being prepared by the amazing staff here at ATEK. After a later lunch and a short recuperation period, Kaitlyn, Heidi, Seth, Jennifer, Yiannis (a staff member at ATEK) and I walked twelve of the kids to a park that is a few blocks away. There, we spent our time pushing kids on the swings as they shouted mas alto (higher), catching them at the end of the slide and playing with them on the teeter-totter. We headed back to ATEK, all feeling a little tired, but upon arrival, some of the older boys (ages seven to nine) wanted to play football, a very regular activity. This time, we went out to the street in front of the compound, where there was more space. Although I am getting better at dribbling the ball, and Seth is a master at juggling, dodging and deking everyone out, our Canadian lungs could not keep up and we were often left panting and wheezing in their wake. Not to say they lacked skill, because they are very good with their feet! As the sun sank low in the sky and the shadows grew long, Seth, Jennifer and I climbed to the roof of ATEK where our laundry hung drying and to our dismay, we found that it had fallen off the wires we hung it on and it sat in the dust, as dirty as before we washed it! Next time, we are remembering clothes pins.  As the day came to a close, and after we had supper and spent some time praying, we were invited back up to the devotion room where the Quechan women were gathered for the final time that day, and we all sang a Spanish-English Happy Birthday to a staff member here at ATEK. After that, the women requested we sing a few more songs, so we taught them the actions and meaning to ‘Our God is an Awesome God’, and sang ‘Amazing Grace’ as best as we could. As we headed to our rooms, the children caught us for a few final rounds of’ London Bridge is Falling Down’ and ‘Duck Duck Goose’ (pato pato ganso). Once the children left, the team ended the day with a few giddy rounds of cheat and President! Hope everyone back home is well, if you could keep our team in your prayers, as well the village group one and Pastor Bill (that his voice stays strong teaching day after day) in your prayers, we would be very thankful! Cheers Lucas Dunbar P.S. The answer to yesterday's guess who (the person who took so many showers leaving us without hot water) is... Heidi! The answer for today's guess who will appear tomorrow!

Hey everybody! For day four we started our day off with breakfast and a quick team meeting. Then we bathed the children which was new experience for many of us, needless to say many of the children were crying the whole time. After we bathed them we played with the kids till lunch time. We gave them many piggy back rides, played soccer (which the kids beat us every time), and Bailee, Lucas, Seth, Heidi and I drew some pictures for the kids to colour. The children also enjoyed putting us into a cardboard box and knocking us over and doggie piling on us till we can not breathe. We showed the kids how to play duck duck goose, ring around the rosy, and London bridge, we all had a lot of fun during these games and had a lot of laughs. After we had lunch we all went out to the market at 2:00 till 4:45. The market was a sensory overload, lots of colours, smells, and workers trying to convince you to buy their products. We all bought a lot (probably way too much stuff), and Lindsey picked out a very nice alpaca sweater for Lucas and Seth bought only four llamas. Bartering was difficult for many of us because of the language barriers but Sammi was very useful for us all because of her six years of Spanish classes. Once we got back from the market a bunch of us walked down to the grocery store. During the walk to the store we all saw our personal record for the largest pack of stray dogs, which was over twenty-five dogs walking across the street. Once we got to the store we all bought ice cream and stocked up on chocolate and wafers. When we got back we played soccer with the kids on the streets before we had to help serve supper to the women and then we ate supper. Then team one prepared to go to their village trip from Thursday to Saturday, and team two cleaned up and washed dishes. To end the night we played some card games. P.S Thanks to a certain someone who is taking more showers than days we have been here, we are constantly lacking hot water and taking glacier cold showers (guess who). -Kaitlyn

Huanca Huanca

Hey Everyone! So for Day 2 we headed to Huanca Huanca (Wanka Wanka)and if I am completely honest it wasn't a super pleasant trip for everyone. It is only about 70 miles away but with the extremely windy roads it took over 3 hours. So we needed to take a few stops for those who got motion sick. But we eventually made it! Our evening consisted of touring around the village and learning about the agriculture they have been working hard to develop. They showed us the plants that they make jam out of and we even got to try it on our bread in the morning and it was soooo good! I wanted to take some home! After we got to hang out and play with some of the kids. Lucas and Jeff both ended up on the bottom of a giant doggy pile of kids! (I'm thankful it wasn't me!) The kids loved it but I think Jeff and Lucas might say otherwise ;) Some of the older boys from the village came and thought that taking picture of us "Gringas" (white girls) was super funny haha We played soccer with them and again the laughed at us because we were horrible compared to them (except for Seth, they were pretty impressed by him!)They also had a church service in the evening and I ended up sharing my testimony kinda on the fly which was a little nerve wracking but when I was up there the words just kinda came to my mouth and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I talked about how God has better plans for your life than you could ever imagine. So I can definitely thank God for that! They also had us sing some songs for us which was uh interesting... We sang how great is our God and Amazing Grace as best we could on the fly and with no instruments. Honestly I thought that it sounded pretty awful but they didn't seem to care! Our travels made us pretty tired so we went to bed right after that but unfortunately we had a few more "incidents" during the night. We are guessing this time it was from dehydration but don't know for sure so we would definitely appreciate lots of prayer for health! Personally for me it was really cool to see all the agriculture and work that is happening through our churches support in Peru. It is one thing to hear about it but a whole different thing to get to see it first hand! Day 3 started off with going to another village and we took a "little" hike which we soon realized was extremely difficult with the high altitude (about 12 000 ft)I think the people probably thought we were pathetic! haha But the hike was worth it as we got to see another plant that they use for making a different kind of jam and it was also incredibly tasty! Thankfully our ride home was uneventful and no one got sick, praise the Lord!! Tomorrow we will preparing for the first group to go to the village so if you could pray that would go smoothly that would be much appreciated! We are a little low on sleep but are having a blast! -Sammi

Day One in Peru

Well we made it here safely and had no problems with peanut allergies or anything else! They served us peanuts on the LAN flight to Cusco but everyone was either sleeping at that point or very aware to be careful :). A prayer point before I go over our day, 1 thing; the importance of unity (Corinthians) which is so important for our team of 16, 10 having never been here before, so that is the main thing to pray for. So to start out we boarded in Edmonton with ten minutes remaining to check-in, so that was exciting. Made it through security and had time to get some breakfast before boarding our flight to Toronto. There was some nervousness, excitement and questions asked about what to expect. The differences in personality really do come out in travel and among us was a first time flier (hasn't flown since he was six), many seasoned travelers, as well as those who have never been on a missions trip before. The flights went well and the lay overs really didn't give us much time other than to eat and get to our next flight which is pretty positive. 24 hours of traveling could have ended with grouchiness but everyone is in good spirits and the 55 min flight from Lima to Cusco was filled with snoring. So far no one has altitude sickness and the ride to ATEK was relatively safe despite the difference in driving methods here. Definitely no right of way for pedestrians. Aggressive driving is what gets you places! Today was our day of rest literally and biblically speaking, we had lunch and supper together as a team, explored 'Lemony Fresh' and slept the day away. It's nice having a new team in Peru as their observations give a new perspective to the city. The women are still arriving for the conference and their children are already working their way into our hearts. Some of the team members are more diligent in their learning of spanish but those who are end up passing it onto the others. Dish duty has been the only chore so far which everyone is very willing to volunteer for. Just proves that God has been at work preparing our hearts to serve and will continue to do so. Tomorrow we start off the conference before heading to Wonka Wonka to see the work that the agriculturalist has been doing. Their goal is to be involved with a village for five years, teaching the people and equipping them to grow other crops than potatoes and then pulling out leaving it self sustaining. This is part of what ATEK is involved in so we will head there tomorrow afternoon (3-4 hr bus ride)after devotions with the women. After spending the night there we will be heading back to ATEk to be involved with the conference again as well as get ready for the first village camp. Prayer Points: Pastor Bills' voice as he is in charge of the majority of speaking; Energy for the team and continued willingness to serve; love for the people of Peru and safety in travel. We will write more updates soon. Blessings~! B

Well we made it! Our team arrived at ATEk early this morning and we are all healthy and safe. All of our flights and costumes went vary well, praise be to God. The team is all having a much needed nap, as our ministry starts tonight We will have many more updates to come. Pray that our team adjust well to the altitude and all the travel. Blessings

Our first team picture

On our way. 

Only five more days until we leave for Peru, countdown is on.