Fun on the Fourth

Well, I'm just now blogging about the 4th of July...but better late than never, right?

There's only been one other time when I've been out of the country on Independence Day. When you're not bombarded with tons of fireworks and Lee Greenwood singing "Proud to Be an American", you really have to make an effort to appreciate the freedoms that we are privileged to have. Thanks to Elizabeth and Jen, we had a 4th of July celebration to rival all others.

All totaled, there were about seventeen volunteers at the albergue that day. Joel and Doug grilled hamburgers and barbecue chicken for us. (Of course, first we had to buy the grill first and then found that Peruvian charcoal is quite different from briquets we have in the states.)

Elizabeth made potato salad and Jen made fresh guacamole as well as "grilled asparagus". Everything was so delicious...even though the hamburger patties had a little "different" texture to them.

A 4th of July celebration just wouldn't be complete without sparklers.

We learned the coolest trick~if you put your camera on the "fireworks" setting and then make letters backwards with sparklers, it will spell out a word! Joel, HanK and I attempted to write USA. (It looks a little more like JSA, but you get the point.)

The long-term volunteers spelled out PERU. By that time, we had the technique perfected, so it turned out really cool-looking.

So even though we were in a foreign country, it was such a special celebration honoring the freedoms that are ours not only with fellow Americans, but precious fellow Believers. We are so very blessed.

Saved--Finally

So I knew I wouldn't make the NaBloPoMo goal. It was harder than I thought since I didn't have much time to think about things. Plus every time I sit down at the computer, there are tons of people around. Added to that, the internet is off/on. Anyway, I'm sort of relieved that the pressure is off....

We have been having a great time. Poor Joel has scraped and scraped and then scraped some more. Today, they were finally able to begin painting. The paint sure goes on a lot easier than it comes off. One thing's for sure, there's always plenty of help around here.

And of course, there's always an audience =)

Saved--Day 3

Ok, so I know I'm not going to be able to stick with the theme this month without really, really stretching. So I SAVED some pictures from our trip to Huanchaco today.

A rogue wave came up and got my feet wet. Brrrr...it was cold!

Saved--Day 2

Today, the children did a program over the first half of Genesis. They sang songs and re-enacted the story of Noah. Adorable. Then Manuel shared about Abraham. He talked about how God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. But when Abraham obeyed, God SAVED the boy. When Abraham pleaded for the righteous people of Sodom and Gomorrah, God SAVED Lot and his family (with the exception of the wife who couldn't keep from looking back). I'll SAVE the rest for later.

Saved--Day 1

So I just found out that NaBloPoMo's theme for July is "Saved". While I realize it will be pretty much impossible for me to accomplish thirty-one posts in thirty-one days, this topic intrigued me.

When we got to DFW airport on Monday evening, it began to rain...for the first time in I don't know when. Really? It could not have waited just two more hours? Anyway. Because of the rain and lightening, our flight to Miami was delayed. It appeared for a while as if we might not make the connection, in which case we would not have been able to get another flight to Lima until at least Wednesday or Thursday.

So I began to pray. I sent texts to some of my prayer warrior friends as well. And Big Joel set out to work his magic with the airlines. It all paid off. Another flight for Miami was about to depart and would arrive just in time for us to make our Lima flight.

The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful~Three flights through the night in exceptionally crowded conditions. We arrived in Trujillo exactly on time early Tuesday morning and were met by Lee and Elizabeth. But of course, no luggage. Because we had switched flights in Dallas at the last minute, our bags did not make it onto our flight.

At this point we began the long process of trying to recover our bags. Let me just say, four trips and multiple, multiple phone calls later our luggage was SAVED! We were reunited with our suitcases late last night. Hooray for the baggage claim system!

We've had a wonderful experience so far here in Peru, but it got even better once we had clean underwear.