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Jackie 

Jackie Bustin’ a Cuzque?an Move. 

Flying home. That’s Misti, the volcano, in the background. 

They said you look like an angel when you stand here. What do you think? 

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.

Amanda’s main responsibility is ministering to our translators. She gets them connected with teams, provides opportunities for discipleship, and makes sure that each one has a chance to respond to the gospel.

We teach 6 classes a week for them. I teach three and amanda teaches three. You can read more about them @ www.englishfellowship.net

Now we sense God wanting us to expand this ministry beyond our translators to their friends and family. We’re really excited about this! We are starting three new Bible studies. These will be held on the same nights as the English Fellowship classes, but be an hour before. These will be completely in Spanish. We’ll see what God does. I put together a website for it here: www.englishfellowship.net/contracorriente

We would love for some folks to come down and help us with this ministry. No Spanish is necessary. Let us know if you are interested!

I had a great birthday last week. Amanda cooked me pancakes. As gifts, I recieved coffee, a cd, books, and several other things.

One of the coolest gifts was from Amanda. A grill! It’s a little portable one . . . so we can take it to the park and beach and wherever else. We’ve already tried it out twice . . . . it works great!

This morning we decided we were going to grill some fish. Amanda got some Salmon filets to try. I got this big ole’ fish. I decided I was going to cook it John Carr style.

I had them take out the innards and that’s it. I wrapped it up in foil, along with some onions and lots of spices. It was a little big for the grill, but turned out great! Come one down and I’ll cook one up for you.

Singing! 

Amanda has just rearranged her ministry. She’s in charge of English Fellowship. The main purpose of English Fellowship is to maintain contact with translators and recruit them to travel with our partner churches when they come to Peru. The second purpose (and not too far behind the first) is to provide Peruvians with a chance to respond to the gospel and be discipled.

The biggest change made is that all classes (6 per week) are now biblically based. I’m teaching three classes and Amanda is teaching three. I put together a website to tie it all together. Check it out: www.englishfellowship.net.