Ryan + Amanda + Sophia + Samuel = Bush
In case you’ve been wondering who the King of Breastfeeding is and where he lives:
[the caption reads:]
After winning the King of Breastfeeding contest, 4-month-old Raul Montoya wears a crown, sash and scepter in Lima, Peru on Tuesday, August 26. Peru’s health minister celebrates breastfeeding week August 25-29.
He certainly does look healthy. I just regret never having met his majesty while I lived there.
Oh wait, he wasn’t born yet. Nevermind.
Inspired by this frighteningly funny video (ht:Matt), I decided to go on a google maps “This is Your Life” tour.
From 1999 to 2004 I lived in Arkadelphia, Arkansas on the campus of Ouachita Baptist University. I met my wife there. I met my best friends in the whole world there. I lived with an African there. I saw the Gurdon Light there. I got a B.A. there.
Then, we moved to the Rock while I worked at Geyer Springs. We lived in what is commonly referred to as ‘The Hood’. It was awesome.
Next, we moved to Peru. Yeah, Google has it’s all seeing eye on Peru as well. That big tree area is the park that our apartment overlooked.
Here is a shot of the Promise House (from street view) where we’ve been the last year and a half, and where we’ll be for just 3 more weeks.
And, now, where we are going. Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary is located just outside of Memphis in Cordova, TN.
Surfing is easy. Just ask this cat.
Here’s a shot from way back in January 2007. This was during our going away (from Peru) shin-dig in Lima. That hand belongs to Bernie Tate.
Kevin Shearer is a missionary for the IMB in Lima, Peru. I had the chance to get to know him during our two years there. Here’s an excerpt from his blog . . .
Then I wandered down a narrow alley till I found Judith. Judith is a beautiful 18-year-old (approximately) who just gave birth to an even more beautiful baby girl. “Come see my baby,” she said, excitedly. I stooped and went into the small straw mat hut with dirt floors. Theirs is better than some; they have three rooms. It was warm enough inside (thankfully). There, in the middle of the only bed they own, lay that precious baby. Judith looked up with proud, but pleading eyes. “Please pray for Chris; she has a lung infection and a blood infection.” I did. Chris cried all the way through, sneezing from time to time. I told Judith I would be back. Judith has her own health needs. I know some doctors who plan to help meet them . . .
You can read the whole post here. Kevin plants churches in the ever-expanding city of Lima.
Marty, Dave, and I arrived back in Lima this afternoon.
The six main villages that Geyer Springs has adopted are in pretty good shape. There is a lot of structural damage, but no one was hurt during the earthquake (except for one boy who broke his arm while running out of his house).
Many of the houses, however, are now uninhabitable according to the government engineers that have made there way through these villages. We came across one village that had a long homemade tent in the plaza where almost a hundred villagers were living.
Downtown Ica was in pretty good shape. We were surprised to find that life seemed to be going on as normal. However, when we went to the neighborhoods of Ica we found street after street of rubble where there once were houses.
On our way back to Lima today we drove into Pisco to check on some friends of Marty. Nothing could have prepared us for what we saw there.
Pisco was the closest major city to the epicenter. It was complete and utter devastation and destruction. I can´t even describe it. It was like a war zone.
I´ll put some pictures up and post more about the week in the next few days.
We fly back to the U.S. tomorrow night.
We made it into Lima last night. Now, we´re getting stuff together and will start heading south in an hour or so.
It´s crazy being here. Lots of emotions.
And I have that butterfly feeling in my stomach. I am so excited. And I’m kind of scared. I’m not sure why. I just feel nervous about what it is going to feel like.
We’ll arrive in Lima late tomorrow night. Sunday morning we will begin our journey south on the PanAmerican. I have been communicating with some of the missionaries there and it looks like we might be carrying a load to them at base camp in Ica.
Several of the missionaries are basically living in Ica while they help rebuild and they are in constant need of supplies.
To me, this all feels like a very worshipful experience. Like I’m about to tread on holy ground. These butterflies in my stomach keep turning my heart towards Jesus. I guess because he is who I have to lean on.
The IMB investigation team has returned to Lima after spending several days in the most affected areas. Here is Debbie Brinkley’s report:
God is always faithful but there are occasions when His faithfulness slips over into miraculous. These last 48 hours have been one of those times.
The amazing interventions began shortly after the 7.9 Richter scale earthquake that occurred on Wednesday evening, August, 15, 2007. On Thursday morning, we made plans to travel to the area of southern Peru that was hardest hit by the earthquake in order to do an evaluation of the needs and how we could be most effective in providing disaster relief. We didn’t want to show up empty handed when we knew people would have desperate needs so . . . click here to keep reading.
The death toll is over 500 and is expected to rise substantially as workers begin to clear out the rubble in Peru. The earthquake which measured 7.9 took place 25 miles under ground causing widespread destruction and a tsunami warning. A state of emergency has been declared in the most affected areas as people are currently without shelter, water, food, or electricity.
All IMB missionaries are accounted for. The IMB is sending six missionaries into the hardest hit areas tomorrow to assess the damage and find out how they can help. Please pray for them. One of the missionaries that will be going is Arnold Austin of the REAPSouth team. You can see his blog here.
Peru registered 4 major earthquakes last night, the biggest measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale. There are over 400 dead and counting. Thousands of houses collapsed. Please pray for those who lost family, friends, and homes.
Thankfully, all IMB personnel are fine. Many of our national friends, however, live in much more precarious situations. We hope to find that they are safe as well.
Here is a map of the epicenters put out by El Comercio the main newspaper of Peru. Cañete, Ica, and Chincha were the three largest cities closest to the epicenters.
One more week under our belt. No spanish class in the morning! Phew! It gets tough thinking so much!!
It looks like we’ll be moving into our more permanent abode in about a week. Also, we take our next advancement exam this Tuesday. We’ll be testing to advance to Basic Level 4. Next stop, Intermediate! I never thought I’d be so excited to say I’m intermediate.
Potatoes! For more than just eating. 
Check out this resourcefulness! The stove’s lowest burner setting is too hot to simmer.
Where we live.
Today we saw a lot of the city. We started the day at the mission office. There we met Therese, an extreme teamer to go with Ada de Paz to INTERPOL and Immigration. INTERPOL is a network of international police basically. If you ever watch the Discovery channel there is a show about it.
At INTERPOL we did a bunch of paperwork (most of which Ada de Paz took care of) and gave a lot of fingerprints.
Then to Immigration. There we waited in lines to get stamps on papers . . . none of which I knew what for. Ada did though, and that’s the important thing.
Then back to our apartment where we met Debbie Brinkley. We ate lunch at McDonald’s (yes, McDonald’s). I got a McPollo. Ha! Seriously.
Then off to the La Molina side of town. Debbie showed us where to shop for clothes, etc. She showed us the Wal-Mart of Lima (Plaza Vea). Then, we went with her to pick up her children from school. Phew!
Now, it’s time for dinner. Amanda is getting the roast out of the crock pot as I type. Smells yummy. We are going to the airport at 11:30 tonite to welcome Brad and Cassie White to Peru.
Hasta Luego!
Where do you live?
Right now we are living in the mission house. this house is owned by the IMB. At the end of April we will move into an apartment about 6 blocks from the mission house.
The mission house is a house that has been converted into a hostal. There are about 7 or 8 little apartments in this house. Amanda and I occupy a larger one since we our here for a relatively long time. Most people are staying here one or two nights maximum.
We have a bedroom, living/dining area, two closets, kitchen, and bathroom. It’s really nice and comfortable.
One thing I like about Lima is that windows are kept open. All the windows, all the time. At least for now anyway. There is no A/C in most residences (including ours) so most people leave windows open to catch the cool breeze off the Pacific.
Raquel is 23 years old. She works full-time at TGIFridays (yes, there is one in Lima). At the same time she is attending an institute so that she can someday be a flight attendant. She has several siblings. I think they all live at home with the mother. The oldest, she told us last night, is very sick. I don’t know what all is wrong exactly but she became jaundis and had to go to the hospital. The doctor won’t release her until the bile clears out of her gall bladder.
Raquel is a new believer. She helped as a translator for one of the REAP teams and, in the process of translating the gospel, had an encuatra con Cristo (encounter with Christ). People at her work noticed something different and now they’re asking questions.
Mostly, Amanda and I are excited to make a Peruvian friend. It was kind of funny….last night, after dinner, we were trying to tell her it would be fun to “hang out” sometime. Well, hang out is an expression that doesn’t even make sense in English, much less Spanish. But we couldn’t think of other ways to put it. We tried “spend time” together, but that too is a confusing expression. You don’t “spend” time, you “spend” money. So finally, we said “Comamos!” Let’s eat together sometime! Leave it to Baptists.
Today Ryan and I went exploring! We started with the familiar Indian market. It is the market we went to when we came with Geyer Springs. Before too long, I was ready to see something new. We walked down to the beach. It was beautiful. We watched people surfing. We then walked to a mall that overlooks the ocean. While we were walking around, we saw Mike Grober from The Church at Rock Creek and Angie Kirksey.
Ryan and Angie graduated from OBU together, and we are good friends with her. Angie has recently moved to Lima and is in language school here. After a couple of months in language school, she is going to move to the mountains to live among the villages that Rock Creek has adopted. She is going to work with the people there.
We must have walked miles and miles today. We walked and walked and walked. What we didn’t realize is that we were also sunburning! We are cooked! Our day of exploring was lots of fun. We got to do a lot of listening to Spanish, and we even spoke some! I am sure we’ll sleep well tonight!
Amanda
Peruvian Spaghetti
It’s hard to believe, but we are officially in Peru! Our flight left yesterday morning out of Little Rock at 11:13am . . . but it was delayed a bit, but that was ok because our connection out of Atlanta was delayed as well . . . really delayed.
We finally boarded the big Delta jet at about 6:30 (two and half hours later than scheduled). Neither one of us slept much on the 7 hour flight. We played Snood on the laptop until the battery died. We had our choice of beef or chicken for dinner. I ate the chicken, Amanda decided against both.
We arrived in Lima at about 1:30ish. We had no trouble getting through customs or immigration. Green light! Woohoo. We made it to bed by about 4:00am.
Today, we ate lunch at San Antonio’s with the Weavers. Bought groceries. Visited the mission office. Visited Ada de Paz, immigration guru. And tried to get our 12 bags unpacked.
It’s 9:00pm now. For some unknown reason my laptop is detecting a wireless signal and we have internet right here in our little room. Amanda made spaghetti peruvian style tonite (peruvian style simply means spaghetti made in the country of peru). Now we’re winding down.
We are really excited. Everything is new.
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