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Amanda and I were enjoying the McOferta (a special deal that McDonald’s has on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays) yesterday in the McDonald’s parking lot, when all of a sudden we saw, across the street, a taxi back into a lady and knock her to the ground. Her things went flying everywhere. There were a group of money-changers near by and ran to see if she was ok. But even closer to her than they were was a policeman and an ambulance driver. They didn’t do a thing! In fact, they kind of slunk back behind the ambulance so they wouldn’t be seen! The lady was ok . . . but that’s crazy! So much for serve and protect!

Amanda gave the policeman a “I can’t believe you did that!” look as we drove past him.

We’ve been in Lima a little over six months now. Here’s a quick update on things in general:

- Beleive it or not we are still learning Spanish! New words, phrases, slang, ways to say things everyday. But we are doing well. We both feel like we can communicate fairly effectively.
- Wilson (our first child) is doing well. We got him fixed. He was a little upset about that. Otherwise, he’s just eating, sleeping, and watching old reruns of the Cosby Show.

- We’ve been on several small trips and one big one. Our favorite was our first solo trip to Cuzco and Puno.

- We experienced our first earthquake.

- The folks that God has put in our lives here in Lima: Leighton, Maria, Norka, Odila have been an incredible blessing to us. God has given us different ‘assignments’ with each of them. God has taught us a lot through ministering to them.

- We have grown a lot in our relationship with God. We are seeing new things about him and are being forced to lean on him more than we probably ever have due to our ignorance and inability! We often find ourselves in a very stressful situation or decision . . . and the only thing we can do is ask God.

- So far the hardest thing about being in a different country is not being able to spend time with friends and family. We miss a lot of things about the U.S. (sane traffic; wal-mart; dixie cafe), but what makes us homesick is missing our families and friends.

We just experienced our first earthquake here in Lima!

Apparently they are fairly common. It kind of freaked us out. The windows started rattling and the floor felt like it was shifting a bit under my feet!

The Whites spent this past week with us here in Lima. They live in San Marcos, near Huaraz. They come to Lima every 6 months or so for doctors appointments, paperwork, etc.

The Whites are some of our best friends. We met them at MLC, where we lived in the same quad. Now, we’re about 8 hours apart here in Peru.

They’re heading back up the mountain today.

Here’s a picture of all of us at the zoo last week.

Yesterday, I was helping Dylan and Sherry find a new sleeping bag in Lima. At one redlight I made a U turn, which was illegal at that particular intersection. There was a policeman waiting and he waved me over.

He took my liscense and registration. He said this was going to be a big infraction. He asked me if I’d like to pay it there or at the comisaria (police station). I told him I’d rather pay at the comisaria.

I realized when he asked me ‘where’ I wanted to pay it that this guy probably wasn’t going to write me a ticket . . . and that he was going to see if he could get anything for himself out of me.

He hopped in my truck and started pointing where to go. He led us all over the place . . .up one street and then back down the same street . . . through neighborhoods looking for the phantom police station.

Finally, he said that maybe we wouldn’t have to pay the fine if we just paid him part of it. Sherry, who speaks Spanish, was in the back seat with him and told him that we are followers of Jesus and were not going to give a bribe. That we would pay the fine because we deserved it, but we weren’t going to bribe him.

We invited him to lunch with us but declined. “Let me out of here.” he said, at some random corner. So I did. He shook our hands and told us to be careful not to do it again.

A few months back I told you about Dylan and Sherry Harris riding their bikes from San Diego, CA to to the tip of South America. Well, they’ve made it to Lima!

They’re spending a few days with us here in the apartment to rest up a bit.

In Colombia, they picked up a kitten, “Bandito”. Wilson’s had a bit of a time adjusting, but he’s coming around!

They plan to make it to their destination by February.

One of our highlights each week is the translator Bible Study. Amanda leads the study and I bring my guitar and shakers to lead worship.

We are ‘storying’ through the old and new testaments.

We just finished Abraham and are moving to Joseph next, I think.

The White family (our friends since MLC) are back in Lima! They will be staying with us this week. They are here for doctors appointments and such.

The Whites work in the Department of Ancash, not to far from Huaraz among the Conchucos.

A few weeks ago in English class we talked about how to save money. Here are a few ideas that our translators gave:

- Ride a bike.
- If you TV or radio breaks, have it fixed instead of buy a new one.
- Make a birthday cake, instead of buy it.
- Instead of eating at a restaurant, cook.
- You could paint your own room, instead of calling the painter.
- Photocopy a book instead of buying it.
- Cut pants to make shorts instead of buying shorts.
- Talk to people in the U.S. using messanger instead of a phone.
- Bargain.
- Buy in bulk.