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We enjoyed celebrating Thanksgiving in Arequipa with several other missionary families: Holder, Maritinez, Shearer, and Jackson family were all there.

Arequipa is a city of about a million in the southern part of Peru. It sits in the shade of Misti, the volcano.

We ate a lot of good food (unfortunately there was no turkey and dressing to be found), played games, and enjoyed Arequipa.

We took a tour of Arequipa’s convent, Santa Catalina. That was very interesting.

The first night we had a bit of a scare. After dinner, we all got in taxis to go back to the hostel. There were 20 of us, so we were split up into about 5 different taxis. One taxi never made it. We waited and waited. Katie Holder and her two cousins were missing. Boots (Katie’s husband), Rick Martinez, and myself started making our way to the different hospitals and police stations to see if they had heard anything. Amanda and Kellee Martinez waited at the hostel in case they came back. It was after midnight, more than two hours since we had left the restaurant.

No one knew anything. Finally, we decided to go back to the hostel. They had made it back. Then, we heard the story. The taxi driver, with the help of some friends had put bags over their heads and took them to an ATM, where they forced them to give up their cards and pin numbers. They were scuffed up pretty good.

God took care of them, they lost some cash and a few possessions . . . . that’s it. We circled up in the lobby and gave thanks. It was early Thanksgiving Day by that time.