Peru update 2

Oct. 11-16, 2009

Planting Seeds

40-years-old but bed ridden for 15 of those years, Flor is one the happiest people that Deborah Roquiz has ever met.
“It’s so refreshing,” says Deborah. “You can see that overall she is happy.”
Deborah visits Flor for at least one hour each time she arrives at her home. One hour is enough time though, to fit in readings from Ellen G. White, readings from the Holy Bible, singing, pronunciation practice and so much more.
“With Flor I can do whatever,” says Deborah. “She’s like my own practice audience.”
Being an Andrew’s University graduate with a major in music, Deborah feels quite at home with a practice audience. As a Community Ambassador, a job that includes house visiting as well as teaching, Deborah is using her talents to give her students the gift of music.
“I feel like I’m starting from scratch,” says Deborah. “I really feel for my band teacher now!”
Music isn’t the only thing that Deborah hopes to teach her students this year. She recognizes that there is a strong reverence for the Bible at schools here in Peru. In fact, many times it is expected for a teacher to have prayer before they begin class. As a United States citizen it shocked Deborah to have people give evangelistic campaign announcements during her night class in Campo Verde.
“For me, the potential to plant seeds is really open,” says Deborah. “It provides a challenge to think about how I would go about spreading the knowledge of the Bible.”
This week will be a somewhat normal routine for Deborah and her co-Community Ambassador Hannah Rodriguez. They teach every morning alternating between the three schools in Los Pinos, Yerbas Buenas, and Santa Elvita. Tuesdays and Thursdays they both leave for Campo Verde at 6:30 pm to teach an intermediate Spanish class. Deborah also attends prayer meeting in Santa Elvita every Wednesday as the church leader there.

The Blessings of Service

There are countless times when those being served are an enormous blessing to those serving. Melanie Gallewski found this to be true when she met 53-year-old Elba in her home near Km. 8.
“She’s a woman that I’ve loved since the first day we met” says Melanie. “I will miss her.”
Our team of nurses moved back to Km. 38 after finishing their Health Classes last week. In total, the team visited over one-hundred families, teaching them for almost two months. Subjects included nutrition, water cleanliness, home and bathroom sanitation, easy treatments for house hold illnesses, and proper care of animals in the home. An average of 40 children came to Bible programs held by our nursing team throughout the each week.
After all the success of a three month campaign, Melanie said good-bye to Elba. But there are always those parts we carry with us from the people we meet. For Melanie, Elba was a woman she could learn a lot from.
“She thinks really deeply” says Melanie. “It made me feel like I needed to prepare before my classes with her. I really appreciate that she is honest and that she thinks deep. I always enjoy my time with her.”
Elba and her daughter are thinking seriously about baptism. Currently Eduard Guevara, one of the Bible workers, is trying to do Bible studies with them for the next two weeks so they can be ready for the baptism on October 24. Melanie says that though there is a side of Elba that doesn’t make the effort to go to church, there is also a side that feels the need for God. She remembers Elba telling her that she really needed a change and the only way to change was to be baptized and accept Christ.
Melanie is looking forward to seeing Elba again after a week of organizing and pricing. The team moved back to Km. 38 to organize the pharmacy which is equipped with new shelving units. They’ve also spent time pricing medications for our upcoming medical campaign which will begin Oct. 25.

A Different and Special Work

“It wasn’t funny at the moment,” said Ever Salcedo as he reflected on one of his favorite memories.
Jenni Goodwin and he had taken two motorcycles 11 kilometer into a dirt road near Campo Verde. Jenni rode on her black Lifan motorcycle while Ever decided to try the old rusty-blue Suzuki. Just as they had reached the 11th kilometer in the old Suzuki began to spurt and leak out gas. He tried leaning to one side hoping that the gasoline would stay in and keep flowing to the engine. His efforts were in vain and the motorcycle sighed and stopped. The two were left standing on the dirt road without any tools and without much hope of finding a motokar that far in.
“Thanks to God we found a motokar,” said Ever. “Now looking back, it was really funny.”
Ever Salcedo came to work at AMOR Projects for two reasons, to be a part of a special work and to be closer to God.
“This is an organization where people come because they are called,” says Ever. “I knew it would be a different and special work.”
Ever worked as a colporteur, a job that he describes as hard mentally and sometimes very discouraging. Here his only challenges have been learning to cook and conquering his emotions when he feels like someone’s work is better than his.
Every week Ever works with the manual labor team, building, doing carpentry, cultivating the land, and using a machete. This week he made shelving units for the Hanger and helped finish the walls. He also worked in the lemon fields cleaning out the over growth. His work has provided many opportunities to make great friendships, particularly with Colt Sicher and Daniel Pua.
“Daniel and I joke a lot,” says Ever. “Colt is a very persistent and hard worker.”
Being at Km. 38 has loosed Ever’s personality. He feels like it is easier for him to express his appreciation to others through a friendly hug, a smile or a pat on the back.
“I’ve learned that every opportunity that is presented in your life isn’t just random, it’s because God plans it,” says Ever. “God planned that I’m here. I believe that because of the work I do here, God might have me work in difficult or dangerous jobs in the future.”

The Perfect Place

In Pachitea, the first location idea for our next campaign, the chairs are nailed to the floor in the Adventist church.
“You can’t move those chairs,” said a local elder to Josh Kim. “They’re bolted down because we’ve been robbed three times already.”
Josh already had preconceived ideas that Pachitea was a dangerous place to be. As he looked around he saw run down houses on stilts, the soon to come rainy season would quickly flood the entire town. Surprisingly, the community had a strong Adventist presence with a membership of 30-50 people. The team of administrators, Dr. Richard Mathews, Aletha Pineda, Tara Weeks and Josh Kim, prayed for guidance and drove to another town.
The town of Mareopeza seemed like the right place for a campaign. The medical, dental, and spiritual need was there. An Adventist presence had not yet been established and the team found several locations to build a church. Again problems arouse and the administrators felt discouraged.
“The first thing Doctor said was to pray,” says Josh.
The four drove to some smaller villages, not feeling any call to stay. Finally Dr. Mathews decided to drive to Km. 15, a place he had heard of from a pastor. They rumbled down the rough road for 8 kilometers until they reached the village of Tupac Amaru.
“It was the perfect place,” says Josh.
Tupac Amaru is a village with 450-500 residence, enough to make a large impact on the community. The people there are receptive and friendly. They found a secure place for the nursing team to live and leave their things but most importantly they found no Adventist presence there.
“At the end of the day we all broke into smiles,” says Josh. “We thought, ‘This is the place!’”.
For Josh, the village of Tupac Amaru was a blessing and a welcomed success in his new job as an Assitant Administrator.
“Throughout the entire day Doctor was teaching me lessons,” says Josh. “One being, ‘There is always another way.’”
This Friday the four administrators and the nursing team will travel back to Tupac Amaru to finalize and confirm plans.

Success

Andrew Whitlow could faintly hear voices on the other side of the jungle. A good sign, they were getting close. Andrew and his co-Ecological worker Kevin House began slashing at the jungle making a 3 meter wide trail through the trees. The rain started to fall again and the two decided to call it a morning and head back to the house, a 35 minute trek. Later that afternoon Andrew and Lucho Leon, one of our Peruvian workers, drove a motorcycle to the other side of the jungle near Yerbas Buenas. They parked the motorcycle and walked towards the clearing that Lucho and Jose Duran had cut that morning. After crossing some small creeks and walking up a hill Andrew discovered why he had been able to hear their voices. Lucho and Jose had worked hard trying to connect the two sides of a 3 kilometer long border through the jungle. Andrew and Kevin began this project 7 weeks ago. Andrew gripped his machete excitedly with the thought of finishing. Lucho and he began cutting away the foliage and after a few minutes Andrew spotted some tall dead trees, a landmark he had remembered to keep track of his progress.
“Poca distancia!” shouted Andrew trying to explain to Lucho that they were almost there.
Soon he was able to see a gap at the tops of the trees on the other side of the jungle. He worked until he could finally see all the way through the trees to the spot he had stopped working earlier.
“We made it through to the other line,” says Andrew. “I felt accomplished and really good.”
Andrew enjoys his work as an Ecological worker. He believes that that God brought him to the right place, giving him only one co-worker and the freedom to have some say over how projects were to be done. His job requires him to be outside which he really enjoys.
“I love being out in nature with the cool bugs, birds, owls, and seeing God’s handy work,” says Andrew.
This week Kevin and he worked on the border until Wednesday when it was completed. Thursday and Friday they began fixing a nursery where they will be able to plant trees and watch over the beginning stages of growth. They both are excited to work on a different project and to eventually work on a nature reserve.


Oct. 18-23, 2009

Peace That Comes from Nowhere Else

Martin Corona stared at the swollen upper lip of the 1-year and 10-month-old boy.
“I thought to myself, ‘There’s a task and it has to be done’,” says Martin.
Only a few hours earlier, the boy had fallen, smashing his four already-rotted-front teeth on the cement. Martin was left with the daunting task of pulling all four teeth from a squirming infant who was already in pain. He prayed a lot, remembering that God gives us peace that can come from nowhere else. So as his partner, Dane Harning, held the head, the mom held the legs, and a family friend held the arms, Martin entered in with his first tool. After pulling the first three teeth he found the last tooth on the right to be particularly stubborn. The tooth would wiggle but would not come out. A long while after, the tooth came out and Martin could leave the weekend clinic at Km. 30 feeling accomplished.
Martin Corona is from Hemet, CA and attends La Sierra University as religious studies major when he is not pulling teeth in Peru. At AMOR Projects he works with the dental team and helps with manual labor. After a long week of cultivating, making holes for fence posts, and cleaning the hanger it will be nice for him, as well as the rest of the dental team, to begin a dental clinic Sunday, Oct. 25 in Tupac Amaru.
Martin’s work during dental clinics is unique, especially to those patients who are children.
“I enjoy explaining what we’re going to do,” says Martin. “I tell them a story.”
He tells his patients that they will first put an “ampollito”, little shot, which will feel like a small pinch. Taking their finger, he pulls out dental forceps and demonstrates how the tool works by grabbing the tip of the finger and wiggling back and forth.
“At first they come in scared,” says Martin. “But I feel like I gain their trust.”
During the first dental clinic at Tupac Amaru only approximately 9 people showed up out of the 18 who registered that day. The team is excited to go back and use the entire week to see patients.

Finishing Touches at Km. 8

Perhaps it is Rosa, a woman who has a house with plastic walls but seems to always be smiling; or maybe Dora, who has built a friendship with the nurses, never treating them as Americans; there is 18-year-old Francia and her 20-year-old husband Jon who stay late after night programs just to be with the AMOR team at Km. 8 and build a stronger friendship; but lastly there is the tiny lady also named Rosa who showed her appreciation by donating watermelon, beans, and papaya to the team. With so many great options, a favorite family is a hard choice for Mindy Schreven.
This week she visited each of her families one last time, taking photos and giving out certificates for completing health classes. Many people gave bags of fruit, said “We’ll never forget you”, and two asked her to be their witness during the marriage ceremony this Thursday.
11 couples were present at the church on Thursday to be married along with hundreds of others from the district. Everyone was cheerful and could not wait to officially join their lives together. The event was sponsored both by AMOR Projects as well as the Misión del Oriente Peruana, Peruvian Mission of the East. Each couple paid only 10 out of the 80 soles required to be married.
“It is cool to see how the whole group functioned together to build a church,” says Mindy.
The group will begin their next campaign this Sunday. New elements are in the making such as kids programs that will last for the entire campaign and Bible studies with teenagers 3 nights a week given by Mindy and Melanie Gallewski.
“I’m excited about being more involved with the Bible workers,” says Mindy. “It’ll be hard but I’m looking forward to it.”

Coming Back

July 2007 to May 2008, the month of Aug. 2008, July 2, 2009 to Aug. 24, 2009 and Sept. 23, 2009 until this summer; Tara Weeks will complete almost two and a half years in Peru after this year.
“What if you’re the one I’m sending?” she heard God ask earlier this summer.
She had already noticed that this year’s group could probably use extra hands.
“I can’t take every other year off of school,” was her reply.
One week after leaving Peru she dropped all of her classes and arrived in Pucallpa airport two weeks later.
Tara describes her job here as administration, Peru side volunteer coordinator, space filler, project mom, and office clerk. She admits she doesn’t feel like a student missionary, she feels like it is just part of her life.
“I get to make the lives of others easier by making things flow,” says Tara. “I’m excited that I am able to answer peoples questions and that my job directly relates to the experience of volunteers.”
With new responsibilities and new roles Tara has found a deep admiration for all that Jenni Goodwin and Dr. Mathews are doing for AMOR Projects.
“Jenni has so much knowledge about the project, knows what’s going on, and can explain it in a way that is useful,” says Tara. “She pours her heart and so much of who she is into the Project. Dr. Mathews dedicates so much to make this Project work. They both never see anything as impossible and always find a solution.”
On occasion, Tara is able to step away from her administrative duties and directly serve the people here in Peru. Last Saturday night team provided a special dinner for the Santa Elvita church. Everyone cooked together, ate together, and later played games in the soccer field until after dark.
“It was great to build relationships and give a more family atmosphere to that church,” says Tara.
This week she helped finalize plans for our upcoming clinic in Tupac Amaru and purchased all the medicine needed for the opening medical clinic. Clinic begins early on Sunday morning.

Opportunities from a Rainbow

“Do you know what that means?” asked Matt Hartman, pointing out the window to the bright rainbow outside.
That day a teacher had not shown up for the upper grade class so Matt decided to take over. After teaching some English and a little bit of music he saw the rainbow outside. He told them the story of Noah and the Ark, a story most of them had never heard before.
“Why was everyone bad before the flood?” asked the students.
Matt explained that before the flood, people in the world no longer obeyed God and did not keep the Ten Commandments.
“Do you know what the Ten Commandments are?” he asked.
“No,” they replied.
Matt explained each commandment as he scribbled all ten across the chalk board. He explained how severe it was to break these commandments as well as the process of forgiveness if one has broken them.
“Would you like to practice?” Matt asked his students.
Following his example they folded their hands, closed their eyes and listened to Matt pray for them and ask for forgiveness on their part. After prayer he told them how much easier it was to not break these commandments if Christ is a part of your life. He then asked the class if they would be willing to let Christ in their life. They agreed and Matt bowed his head and prayed that Christ might enter into each student’s life.
“Maybe, for the first time, some of those kids gave their life to Christ,” says Matt.
Matt is starting to build stronger relationships with his students, especially those in the older grades. Every time class begins he talks with his students for at least 15 minutes about life, boyfriends and girlfriends, cooking etc. It is because of this stronger connection that Matt believes he was given the opportunity to talk more about the Lord.
Classes have been going well according to Matt. All of his classes just completed a large test which went far better than their first attempt. The older grades are excelling well and have learned to conjugate some verbs and speak with basic vocabulary. Attendance is a problem with the adult classes. What once was an attendance of 12 people has reduced to a core group of 3-4. The advanced adult English classes are anxious to learn more and now meet three times a week.
Matt has also begun home visitations. He enjoys walking about the town without an agenda, visiting whatever student calls out his name. He discusses the importance of education to those parents who do not send their children to school.
“I like to put the dream in them,” says Matt. “I ask them what they want to be when they grow up; I tell them to go to university and not to settle for being a motorcar driver.”
Because all the team, except for Matt, is moving to the next clinic site, he will take a larger leadership role in the new church at Km. 8.
“The main goal is to find and develop leaders,” says Matt. “Without leaders the church will just fall apart when we leave.”
Matt continued laboratory classes this week and can now take blood cell counts, recognize different white blood cells, draw blood, and do parasite testing.

Oct. 25-30, 2009

The Spirit of Peru

“I was in a bad mood,” says Keith Ybanez, a communications theory, pre-law major and marketing, political science minor from La Sierra University.
5 minutes before, Keith was riding on an emotional high. After a long week of back-breaking machete work, trudging slowly down the rows of yucca, the team had finally finished. It was 3 p.m. and Keith was starting to make plans for his early day off when he heard, “So, now we’re going to the jungle to help cut the border with Kevin and Andrew.” Eric Salcedo, a Peruvian worker and the manual labor team leader, had spoken and the group looked towards the jungle. “What?!” shouted Keith thoughts. “I’m definitely not down with this.” He angrily tromped through the trees, tripping over logs and cutting his ankles. Later that afternoon, after having the chance to blow off some steam hacking at the jungle, Keith thought about his internal fit.
“This is what being a missionary and having a Christian life is all about,” says Keith. “We go where we don’t think we can go and do what we don’t think we can do. I learned to suck it up and forge a new path.”
Keith had never worked much with his hands back home in Chicago.
“It’s the hardest work I’ve done in my life but I love it,” says Keith. “I love working with the Peruvians.”
Keith describes his new friends as “machines”, working extremely hard and beyond his belief. With the small understanding he has of Spanish, he knows and enjoys how funny each one of them is. He noticed that each of his Peruvian friends has their own specialty, Hector and Lucho Leon are good with cement, Eric and Ever Salcedo are masters with a machete and Daniel Pua is great with wood working and construction.
“Seeing their work ethic makes me want to work harder,” says Keith. “It’s tough work and they don’t ever complain, which is something you don’t find a lot in the States.”
Being outside of the U.S., Keith has noticed a difference in the spiritual environment as well. He finds the different perspective on nature and the quiet peace of Peru very refreshing to the soul.
“Every night I look at the sky and I’m in awe of God,” says Keith. “This place forces me to grow instead of being content.”

Always Learning

It had been raining all day long. Their boots were caked with mud and their shirts were soaking wet but it wasn’t important because they wanted to finish. It was 2008, Hector Leon and William Mielmann tenaciously and diligently continued to plant yucca, row-by-row. Finally, despite the cruel weather, they finished what they had set out to do.
“We were very happy,” says Hector. “Because we could then wait to watch to yucca grow.”
Hector has now worked a year-and-a-half for AMOR Projects as a manual labor worker. He and his family moved here when he has hired.
“Many people talked about this project,” says Hector. “It has a beautiful name in the community.”
Before working at AMOR, Hector worked in the fields. He was ready to learn different types of work from the missionaries that came to the project. William was the first missionary that Hector worked with. According to Hector, William taught him and his brother Lucho a lot about their work as manual laborers.
“I learned to do many things when foreigners came,” says Hector. “They became very good friends.”
He thanks God for the people who taught him the most valuable thing, something he had not known before, the love the Christ.
“There were the girls, Katie, Tara, Jenni and then Dr. Mathews who helped me move forward,” says Hector. “They always gave me help and taught me about the Bible.”
Hector still lives in the little house next to a now completely finished hanger. This week, he cut wood, built shelves, and cleaned the hanger, making it ready to use for any other project in the future. He and the manual labor team continued construction on the front house, making a new office and turning the old office into three new rooms.
“I hope to continue learning things and work more with the project,” says Hector.

“Epiphinal Moments”

It was an “epiphinal moment in work life” according to Kevin House. He squatted down on his knees and gently laid the hair-like roots of a young tree in a small whole dug by his partner in front of him. Deciding to really focus himself on work, he took a deep breath and felt the course earth sift through his rough and worked fingers. If all goes well the tree will grow as fast as a baby, using its roots to probe through and collect nutrients from the soil around it. Hopefully, in a few years, it will be a giant.
“I just got stoked about the miracle of life,” says Kevin.
The job of an ecological worker fits him exceedingly well.
He enjoys biology and this week had the opportunity to experience a new and interesting side science as a lab assistant. Together with Matt Hartman he takes blood, stool and urine samples from prescribed patients during the medical clinic at Km. 15. He then examines them on a stained slide under a microscope.
“In the spirit of foot washing,” says Kevin. “This is humbling job.”
Kevin takes a unique stand on his work as an ecological worker as well as a lab assistant.
“I feel like I’m down here to help people and to learn from people,” says Kevin. “We Americans don’t have a monopoly on wisdom and knowledge and Peruvians are just as capable to have it.”
Since being in Peru, he has learned a lot about cultural sensitivity and even more about having compassion, a trait that he regards as most important. This week he will learn more at about parasite testing and what he calls “one of God’s greatest works” – mankind.
His co-ecological worker Andrew Whitlow is also spending the week at Km. 15. With a keen eye for photography he is enjoying documenting the week of medical clinic.

Dr. Kelley

An empty cardboard box served as the perfect desktop Tuesday morning as Lauren Kelley began consulting her first patient. She was intimidated at first with the thought of examining patients and prescribing medicines. But as Dr. Mathews sent patient after patient her way, she began to gain confidence.
“I gave all kinds of medicines, all kinds of antibiotics, and all kinds of lab tests,” says Lauren. “It was good to work in clinic again and see the visual change in people.”
That day the clinic saw over 80 patients. The first day of clinic, Sunday, 63 patients were seen, 73 on Monday, 80 algo on Thursday and something or other on Friday.
Lauren is excited about the new experience that Tupac Amaru brings. She describes the people as “child” and “tranquilo”, not getting worked up, complaining, or cutting in line. In 9 years the local nurse has never had problems with stolen medicines or equipment, so the team as a whole feels safe.
The town is spread out, most people have yard around their house and don’t spend much time walking around. Because of this, the nursing team will have to make some small changes to their tactics, going door to door and knocking rather than just finding people outside of their homes.
“It’ll be intimidating going house to house,” says Lauren. “But I feel like I can converse with them more.”
Living dynamics have also changed for this medical clinic. The nursing team, the dental team, the evangelistic team, and the laboratory team are all living at Km. 15 for the week. Not only was the road to Tupac Amaru a trench of mud stretching 11 Km. wide, making the trek back and forth to Km. 38 impossible, but they also had town hall suited with electricity and large enough to host our entire team.
“It’s fun to all come together at the end of the day,” says Lauren. “I’ve missed my other family, my extended family.”

The Privilege of Community

The people at Los Pinos passed bowls of cookies and fried yucca rings to Hannah Rodriguez and Deborah Roquiz. It was nice to be together with students and friends celebrating at the end of the week. Traditional Peruvian music blared from the speakers of a parked car outside of the town hall. The theme of the celebration brought the community to their roots, sharing in music and in dance. 4-5 people lined up and held hands, walking in step to the music until the edge of the table and returning to let the following line through. As community ambassadors, the team here at Km. 38 feels privileged to be invited to such events.
Hannah is comfortable is all the communities she visits and teaches in. Most nights she will hitch a ride back to base with a local friend or a co-teacher. In Yerbas Buenas and Santa Elvita, she teaches grades 1-3. The class has now covered many different subjects such as, colors, body parts, the ABCs, numbers, family members etc. As one would imagine, these little ones have an extremely small attention span and can sometimes be tough to teach. But Hannah is striving to find new forms of class control and spends a lot of time asking advice from her new friend, a 26-year-old co-teacher from Pucallpa named Carla. In a place where education is sometimes not considered at high value, Carla has proven herself different.
“I don’t think she’s ever missed a class period,” says Hannah.
This week Hannah once again asked advice from Carla, who promptly sat down and helped her write a list. The list consisted of many typical classroom “commands” such as “sit down” or “please be quiet”. Hannah is finding her list extremely useful to her during those moments when students are being particularly rambunctious. Advanced English in Campo Verde is improving as well. A class of around 20 people, ages 15-25, comes to learn about pronouns, vowels, verb conjugation and more. The students have asked to learn the Lord’s Prayer in English and will begin next week.