Feliz Navidad

Today starts the beginning of the Christmas Season.We have been reminded of the coming seasons as we have visited areas of Lima. We have seen Christmas decorations displayed and bought by shoppers.
When we visited Plaza Vea our groceries were placed in red Christmas bags for the Christmas Season. The bags said," Esta Navidad que el amor y la paz brillen mas! (This Christmas that the love and peace shine more). This is our prayer that the people of Peru will come to know Jesus Christ the one who gives love and peace.
As we enter this Christmas Season we pray that you will pray,give,and go.That you pray for our ministry in Peru. That you would give to the Lottie Moon offering for the support of the 5,300+ missionaries the International Mission Board sends around the world. That you would go to the Ends of the Earth by partnering alongside the missionaries that are serving all over the globe.

Alan's Wanderings

Hello everyone,
Just wanted to bring you up to date what is going on with us. Her are some pictures Alan took on his 2 trips he just finished. He left Sat., Oct.4th for Mantucana with a group from Fl. They visited many villages in the area and even hiked to 12,000 ft. He left the team on Wed. and came back home by bus. When he arrived home we started washing clothes and re-packing. On Thursday night a team arrived from Ga. He met them at 3:00 a.m. in the airport because they were to have a5:45 flight to Cuzco. The flight was canceled for poor visibility. They got a latter flight and arrived in Cuzco safely. They stayed over night and left the next morning. They drove for 11 hours before reaching their village of Tambobamba. The picture I am enclosing shows the roads they were driving on. As always the roads were challenging an don top of that they were muddy. It is the beginning of the rainy season. They stayed for 3 days before traveling back to Cuzco. Luckily they found another road back and it only took them 8 hours. They returned to Lima on WEd in time to do some shopping in the Inca Market and dinner at TGIFriday's before boarding their plane back to Atlanta.

September 7, 2008

Greetings to all of our friends from chilly Lima, Peru. It was gloomy and overcast today until about 4:00 P.M. then the sun decided to come out. We just said thank you because it was almost dark by then.
A bit of good news Alan took his language evaluation over and received an intermediate mid on his Spanish. He was very happy to have advanced to that level from where his Spanish was in January.
Two weeks ago we had an interesting trip to Ace Hardware to buy paint for our apartment. We had gone a couple of days before to pick out colors. We had some color ideas so we wanted to see some paint charts. Well these paint charts were very old and used by many people so they were a little dirty. You don't just stop by the paint section and get paint charts they stay at the desk with the workers. We went back on Saturday to get the paint and supplies we needed. Alan tells the lady what paint we want she goes to the shelf and gets it for us and comes back and adds water to the paint. Only in Peru! Oh yeah their paint here is in plastic buckets not in aluminum cans. Alan leaves while I am waiting on the paint to get our other supplies. She asks me for our nombre (name). I tell her she is going to enter it in the computer so we will know what color we used and for what room. So after picking up everything we need we head to the check-out the girl totals and it comes to 290 soles (about $100). Alan hands her our credit card and she calls the manager the limit is to high she has got to verify the card. Remember it is only $100.00.
Yesterday we got up and went to the grocery store in the truck. We usually walk to Plaza Vea but we knew we were going to be buying groceries for the week and not what we needed for the next couple of days. The traffic is much lighter on Saturday morning . After we finshied buying groceries we came home and put them away. We walked to a little outdoor market about 6 blocks from our apartment. They have fruit, vegetables, meat, plastic ware and other items you might need. We wanted some fruit for a fruit salad. We bought cantaloupe, strawberries, tangerines and avocados. The price for all of this was only 13 soles (about $4.00). The fruit was very good and fresh too.
The apartment does look very good in the new colors. There was one technical problem we had bought a tarp to cover everything with so we wouldn't get paint on anything in the living room. We opened the tarp up and it was a long tube. Not sure why so we had to cut it open to fold it out. It worked perfectly for what we needed it to do.
Did I mention it is only 15 weeks until we arrive in Birmingham.

Today we leave for our end of the summer debriefing of the student summer missionaries. It has been a fast eight weeks. We will be returning to the camp in Chosica will be back home on Friday afternoon. It will be exciting to see all of the students again and hear their testimonies of what God has done this summer in their villages. Pray for the safety of our students as they travel to Lima and the camp, and also as they will be returning home to the United States this weekend.

Well, I pride myself on being a very good test taker, but I blew my language evaluation this past Saturday. I let the test giver fluster me in the first minute and it was downhill after that. I reverted back to present and past tense and just didn't give a good representation of what I knew. This is my third language evaluation and I am so tired of being put on a stage and being told to perform. I want this part of my life to be over. What's the point anyway, I have had all of the language study they will allow. I don't think I will even read the report when it comes in. This is a very depressing time.

Went to the English service on Sunday and it was so nice to understand the message. It was great, and a young man came up to me and wanted to know more about my class on Wednesday nights. So I spent some time with him after the service and I believe he will come to the class. He lives not far from our area and hopefully we can develop a good friendship.

Time to get the truck packed. Que tenga un buen dia. The pics are from my recent trip to Yauyos.

Language school is over and now the work begins

What a week. I have just returned from a week in Yauyos. Kristen Seay and I led a team from Hickory Grove Baptist Church on a vision trip. It was a week of firsts. My first time to help lead a team, first time to drive South on the Pan American Highway, and my first time to drive in the mountains. I did ok in the mountains as I only went airborne once. It is not my fault, who expected to find a speed bump in the middle of nowhere. We had a great week. God was with us as we accomplished everything we needed to do in the short amount of time we had available. On our last day Richard was able to lead the lady who owned our hostel to the Lord. That alone made the whole trip worth it.

What a privilege it was to work this past week with Kristen Seay of Crosspoint Baptist Church in Argo. She is a most precious young lady, and the Lord just shines in her. At just 23 God has blessed her with wisdom way beyond her years. I learned a lot from her this week. What a blessing she is to our team. She has been such a blessing to Sandy and me.

School is over for us, and all that is left now is our language evaluation this week. I have posted pictures of Sandy and myself in class. The classroom is our dinning room table, and Norka was our teacher. She is a wonderful lady but not a believer. She is a great teacher, able to put you at ease. I have been able to communicate some, but my problem is understanding Spanish spoken to me. I have been told that it will take time and to be patient. That is not one of my strong points.

Next week our team will be working on the Atlanta Training materials and I will be back in my Bible Study. We have our end of the summer debriefing for our summer missionaries in two weeks. This summer has gone so fast. It will be great to hear the testimonies of what God has done in the villages this summer through those students.

The work never ends in Peru. There is so much to be done. A special thank you to our friends at Ridgecrest Baptist Church for the heater. I am able to sit here and type without having to wear my jacket. That you so much, you are such a blessing to us.

Until next week, may the Lord bless each of you.

July 4th in Peru

Sandy and I have just returned from Nasca this past Tuesday. We spent five days there for the mid-summer debriefing of our sixty-five summer missionaries. It was a time or reporting of what God is doing in the villages they are serving in, and also in their lives. There was time for worship and prayer, skits, and a time for them to relax and fellowship with the other students. It was a great time. The worship was wonderful. Such great music and singing.

Sandy and I got to see the famous Nasca lines. This was the first time Sandy had been down the Pan-American Highway, so everything was new to her. She had a great time. We stayed at the Alegria Hotel in Nasca and it is a beautiful hotel. Plenty of hot water. The days are were warm and the nights were cool at times on the cold side. But the sun came out everyday and that is something we do not see in Lima right now. It felt so good on our bodies.

Well next week is our last week of language study. I finish on Thursday and on Monday I leave with a team from a church in North Carolina for a vision trip to Yauyos. Language is over and the work begins. I am really going to miss our tutor. She is such a marvelous lady and a great teacher.

A special thanks to our friends at Ridgecrest Baptist for our heater. It has been so cold in our apartment. We pretty much lived in our study where we have a small electric heater. Couldn't afford to run it to much though. This new gas heater is such a blessing. Thank you so much.

We found a new market today. In the area of the market is also stores where they make and sell baskets. Sandy had a great time today looking at all of the baskets and even bought a couple of Christmas presents while we were there. I love Lima with all of the markets and neighborhoods.
Next week we are going to explore another part of the city.

We love each of you and continue to pray for us. Our Bible Study is going great and we are beginning to see fruit from this. God is so good and ever faithful.
Alan

Not a good day

I was sitting in church enjoying the pastor's sermon when i see my truck's tag number , along with a few more, projected on the screen. I knew that was not good, especially with the words muy mal next to it. Well it seems my truck extended to far onto the sidewalk. You have a choice to pull up on the sidewalk or hang off in the street. Either way it is a possible ticket. Well this time we got tickets. I had to come all the way to Peru to get the first ticket of my life. Tomorrow I get walk to the bank and pay the fine. The ticket gives no prices, but Mike says it will be about ten dollars. I will have to find somewhere else to park or find a new church. That is just part of life in Peru.

Last Saturday evening we had a great time. Kathy prepared a great Mexican meal, oh it was so good, and we played cards until late. It was such fun for all of us.

Last Friday we went to Polvos Rosados, the pink market, and then on to visit the mall at Larco Mar. It is a mall built on the side of the hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It is in a very upscale area and on our salary all we could do was look, but we still had fun. It is beautiful looking over the ocean watching the small fishing boats and the surfers.

Wednesday evening was an excellent class and I had probably 15 students there. We finished our study of John 9, and this week begin a new study. They are good students and ask lots of very good questions.

The end of next week we travel to Nasca for several days of midsummer debriefing of our student missionaries. Then the second week in July I leave for a week long vision trip with Kristen to Yauyos. It will be a great trip and a time of watching and observing for me.

Language study is going good and I am a bit encouraged right now. Pray for us that God gives us wisdom and boldness in being daily witnesses for Him.

Weekend in the country.

What a great time we had last weekend in Chosica. We met 60 students and adults there for our summer missions orientation. It was a great time of fellowship, prayer, worship, and information on ministering and living in an Andean village. The orientation was at our Baptist Camp in Chosica which is outside of Lima. It is in a beautiful setting with rocky mountains a river. I got off to a ruff start as I missed my turn in very heavy traffic off of Javier Prado. I had to go a little out of the way to turn back, but we made it. I am getting better at negotiating the Lima traffic.

Rick Shepard taught a study on the Tabernacle and our team led in worship and other presentations. I was responsible for introductions and going over the schedule and Sandy helped present a segment on culture shock.

On Friday the team helped prepare a thanksgiving feast for the students and it took us all day, but it was worth it. Baked three turkeys, pans of dressing, cranberry fluff and sauce, homemade rolls, green beans, sweet potato casserol, and many deserts. Everyone had plenty to eat. It was also good Sunday evening for supper.

We are still in language study and it is progressing well, finally. It has been tough but seems to finally coming together. I found out today that I will begin traveling a lot beginning in July, and will be very busy. We had a small tremor on Saturday, shook the windows but that was about all.

I had to wire a light over our table the other day. That was an interesting experience. The wiring here is not like the wiring at home. Of course it is 240 and they don't use wire nuts, just tape hot wires off. You have no idea what feeds what, and I don't have my meter with me, so it was trial and error. Wow errors create a lot of sparks when you cross two hot 240 wires. But I finally figured it out, and the light works great. We can actually see what we are eating now.

Got to finish some Spanish studying. Miss everyone and look forward to seeing you again.

Another month and another birthday. We celebrated Sandy's birthday two Sunday's ago with a big meal at Mike and Kathy's apartment. It was a great day. I made Sandy a peanut butter cake, and Kathy made a chocolate cake. All of the team was there and a special thank you to Arnold for smoking the ham. Great job.

Last Sunday we were able to celebrate Santa Cena or the Lord's Supper at church. Also 14 people were baptized and the Sanctuary was full. The music was great and uplifting. We sang celebrative songs during the baptisms and it created a wonderful atmosphere. It was a great service. After the service we all went (Reapsouth Team) to La Granja de Abuelo for pollo a la brasa. It is a wonderful place to eat. The food is excellent and fairly reasonable.

Sunday evening was our monthly English Fellowship fellowship time. We had popcorn, chips, drinks and a movie, (in English). It was a great time with about 50 students attending. They really enjoyed the snacks and listening, and practicing their English. I have included a picture of some of the students. The office was packed.

Tomorrow we will travel to a camp outside of Lima for a time or orientation for our summer mission students. We will have about 60 students and adults there. We will enjoy times of prayer, worship, testimonies, Bible study, and lots of pertinent information about living in the mountain villages. The students will go out in teams of three to villages all over Southern Peru. Please pray for them as they travel and minister in the mountain villages.

Almost forgot to share an interesting story. The mission purchased us a box spring and mattress a couple of weeks ago. Well, we live on the fourth floor of our apartment building, and they couldn't come up the elevator or the stairs. They had to use ropes and haul the mattress and box spring up through our window. It was an interesting experience. Will try to post a pic.

Last Saturday we went to the Museo De Arte De Lima in downtown Lima. It was very interesting with many wonderful exhibits of art and pottery. The Silver exhibition was beautiful and the museum is housed in a huge Colonial Period mansion. It is well worth the trip and only cost us 6 soles to get in. It was a 2 for one day. What luck.

Alan and Sandy in Peru

What a wonderful time celebrating my 55th birthday with the REAPSouth team. We gathered at Mike and Kathy's apartment for a birthday lunch. The picture is of me with the birthday cake that Kristen baked and decorated for me. It was so good. A big thank you to everyone for such a wonderful birthday.

We have completed language school, but after a short break we are studying again with a tutor. She is a wonderful Peruvian lady and has such a good spirit about her. Today we went on a field trip to the grocery store and made purchases and used our Spanish with her. She rides three different buses for a total of 11/2 hours to get to our apartment for class. Sandy and I met separately for class because we are at different levels.

It was an interesting day. We have been having problems with our telephone and internet service. They called from the mission office yesterday and reported the problem. Well, the service tech showed up this morning and of course he speaks no English. Our housekeeper was here this morning and she speaks no English. Our tutor speaks very little English, so communication was interesting. We finally had to call a young Peruvian lady on our team to translate for us. He could not understand the vonage phone that it wasn't for local calls. He thought we were using two phones and only paying for one. So he diagnosed the problem and then we had to call the phone company again and schedule another service call to fix the problem. Same language problem again but anyway it is fixed and cost us nothing, and that was the best news. Even small jobs become large and complicated when you only speak a little of the language.

Our English fellowship and Bible study is going great. We still have about 18 to 20 students and each week we see one or two new faces. We continue to build relationships with them and they are so eager to learn. They are such a blessing to us and minister to us every week.

We went to the ruins of Huaca Pucllana Saturday which is about a mile from our house, and we saw this Peruvian dog. This is an ancient breed from Peru. It was an interesting tour and some other pics can be seen on yahoo flickr by doing a people search of alan_sandyinperu.

This weekend has found both of us sick. Saturday afternoon I came down with stomach problems and Sandy followed today. Right now we both seem to have fully recovered and am ready for a good day tomorrow in language school.

This has been a weekend to catch up on reports, the IMB believes in paperwork, prepare for our Bible studies, Spanish homework. Got to study more of my verbs after I finish typing this. We are studying direct and indirect objects and I sure wish I had studied my English a little more.

I had about twenty in my Bible study last Wednesday night with three new faces. I had a chance to talk and share with a young lady after class. Her English was very poor so another class member translated for me. I was able to catch some of her conversation, and that was good. We are studying how to have a quiet time with a little English lesson at the beginning.

We have friends from Chavin coming into Lima tomorrow and we are looking forward to seeing them. It is two journeygirls that was in our quad during orientation. They will be here for a few days. They are precious young ladies and a true joy to be around.

It was so wonderful today. The sun was shinning and there was a cool breeze blowing. Fall is in the air. It is getting cooler and less humid. Well, guess I need to work on a few more verbs so I will go.

Earthquakes and more

Well, we survived our first two earthquakes in peru this past Saturday. The first one woke me up at about 1:40 in the morning and at first I didn't realize what was happening. It was over before I realized it was an earthquake. The second was about 7:30 in the morning and it was a bit stronger. We could feel the walls and floors vibrating in our apartment. It also didn't last very long, but it made for an eventful wake up call.

We had a great time for the beginning of our Bible study last Wednesday. There were about 20 people there and we had a great time opening the scriptures. We are studying how to have a quiet time for the next few weeks.

This has been a very hard week, following such a great Easter Sunday. I have been so down this week. This has been my lowest point so far. School is progressing but not at the pace I feel some people would like it to, and you know I put a lot of pressure on myself to fulfill other's expectations. The time crunch of preparing two Bible studies, homework from school, team meetings, and other responsibilities really at times seem overwhelming. Also at home our daughter is causing very difficult problems for our family and being three thousand miles away makes me feel so helpless. This is weighing very heavily on my mind this week. Please pray that God will deal with her and return her to a relationship with Him and with her family. How appropriate that on my computer I Surrender All is playing while I am writing this. All I can do is surrender all to Christ at this point and turn it over to Him.

Saturday night we had our dear missionary friends Arnold, Susie, and their son Patrick, over for dinner with Kathy Weaver. It was a great evening of fellowship over plates of spaghetti, and a home made chocolate cake, my first attempt in Peru. They are such a blessing and source of strength in our lives.

God Bless everyone and thank you so much for your emails and calls.

Your servants in Peru
Alan and Sandy

The picture is of the entire REAPSouth Team

What a schedule

We are very busy in Lima, Peru these days. Here is our schedule this week. Sunday morning church at Flamingo Road. Sunday afternoon at the office by 3:30 for a meeting. At 5:00 in the office Sandy and I teach a Bible Study. Home by 7:30 to prepare for school Monday morning. 8:30 Monday morning our taxi driver (Raul, a wonderful Christian brother) waits for us at the corner of our calle. School is from 9 to 1. Raul picks us up in front of the school and we head for our apartmento for lunch, and homework. We have to be at the office by 6:30 for a Bible Study we teach on Monday night. Home by 9 to finish homework and study verbs. Tuesday school and home for homework. Actually had time for Sandy and I to take a walk. Wednesday school until 1 with a 3:00 meeting at the office until 6. At 7 we teach another Bible Study until 8:30. Back home around 9 for homework and more español. Thursday school again and another team meeting at the office at 2:30 until 5. Home for supper and and evening of studying. Friday back to school until 1, but right now we don't have anything else on Friday. Next week we have a team retreat and the schedule gets even more jammed. That is the life of a missionary.

We have moved into our new apartment and it is so nice to be in our own place. I will get pictures posted hopefully by this weekend. They have done some remodeling and it really is a very nice apartment overlooking a large park. It is on a quiet street. The only problem is with the one way streets in Lima you can get here you just can't get out. It is interesting finding a route to take with all of the one way streets. You have to go around the world to get anywhere.

Forgot to tell you we had our first test in español and I made muy bueno, and Sandy did bueno.

The picture is of Sandy at the Annual General Conference in Chile.

It's Been a Great Week

We had a wonderful time last Sunday with Debbie Brinkley and Tommy Smith at a small church on the East side of Lima. There were probably 30 people there and they baptized two ladies during the service. This was a very crude church building but it served its purpose well. God was there and that is all that counts. They set up a 4 X 8 plastic pool with about 2 feet of water in it. They were so proud of their new pool. We are so spoiled in the United States with all of our stuff. We hung around and visited with the people after the service and shared in some refreshments.

We had some excitement on Thursday afternoon. Sandy was walking Kathy Weaver's dog in the park and was attacked by a large dog that was not on a leash. They were both ok, but I drove the dog to the vet and had her checked out just in case. Sandy was shaken up a bit but suffered no cuts or bites. They were both very blessed to get out of the attack with no damage.
Our apartment is getting close to completion. But I said that last week also. Peruvians work on their own time schedule. I could probable finish everything else in one day, but they will be lucky to finish it in one more week. There is an inch of dust everywhere because of the renovations. It is going to take lot of cleaning to get it ready to move into.

We went to Ace Hardware the other day to purchase a water filter for our apartment. It is a large Ace. Looks like lowes or Home Depot. It was fun to get in there and ramble. Our taxi driver Raul, who is a believer, went in with us to help interpret. He was a blessing, or rather he is a blessing. A little more expensive but very reliable and safe. He is going to the Bible Society on Tuesday afternoon to purchase some tracts.

We went to Starbucks on the Ovalo this morning to meet the extreme team girls that was at orientation with us. There were in from the jungle and it was great to visit with them and catch up. They were traveling back today via bus. It is a very long trip.

Spanish class is tough. So many new words and so many different ways to use them. So many grammer rules. This is tough, but God will see us through. Pray for us. Our friend Solomon is coming over Monday evening for supper and to help us with homework.

Tomorrow we are going to another small church with the Roberts. I first met them nine years ago on my first trip to Peru with RBC. It is going to be fun. Life is good in Lima.

Got my Peruvian driver's license.

What a great day last Sunday was. We went with Jim and Sherry Neal to Monautial de Vida (Well Spring of Life) Church on the outskirts of Lima. It is on a brand new road that has more holes than asphalt. The building was full with maybe sixty to seventy people there. It was a great service with two new members introduced. This is an established church with their own building. Tomorrow we are going to church with Debbie Brinkley. They are having a Baptism service so this will be a great service. Sandy and I are looking forward to it very much.

Great news. This week I got my Peruvian driver's license. First you have to get your health certificate. That was interesting. They check your eyes, record any diseases, arm movement, and yes a psychological exam. Believe it or not I passed the last one. Actually I don't think they even looked at my psychological exam. Pay your money and get your certificate then wait in another line to have your records entered in a computer. After this to the next room to take your written exam. Actually they allow you to take it in English if you don't speak any Spanish. You can miss nine or ten, and I missed seven. Doesn't matter I passed and got my papers stamped. Now wait three days return and pay my fee and wait in another line to actually pick up the the license.

God is blessing with new friends and language helpers. God is so good to us. Language classes are getting difficult. There is so much to remember. So many ways to say the same thing. But with God's help and guidance we will prevail and get through this.

Church on Sunday

The next four weeks we will be attending church with different missionary couples in Lima. This past Sunday we attended Iglesia Evangelica Bautista Calvario near downtown Lima, with Truman and Carol Chatman. It is a new church plant and we had a fabulous time. Sandy gave her testimony, I spoke, and Tommy Smith (missionary with REAPNorth who attends language school with us) delivered a short message. There were probably fifteen people there, but in the block that the church is in there are 5,000 people living in apartments. The fields are ripe for harvest, we just pray for workers. Right outside the door of the apartment the church sits in someone filled up a plastic swimming pool and the children were playing. It got very noisy during the service. We found out some of the children playing in the pool sometimes attend the church. They skipped church to play in the pool. It was a very simple service, but very moving. This Sunday we will attend church with Wayne and Debbie Brinkley.

Yesterday I got the call that we had been assigned a truck. It is one that Arnold and Susie Austin (precious friends and fellow teammates) had. They got a new one. I had to go and get it from the mission office and drive it home. What an experience, first time driving by myself in Lima's traffic. It was very interesting. Being the new kid, I sure didn't want anything to happen on the way home. I was driving like a little old lady. Very slow and very careful. I didn't care how many horns were blowing at me. I will put a picture on the blog very soon.

Spanish classes are going very well. Sandy is struggling with her phonics a little bit, but that is to be expected. We are working on ser and estar this week. Lots of memory work right now.

I am taking Sandy out to TGI Fridays tonight for an early valentines dinner, so I need to go and finish homework. Love everyone. Susie we are praying for your recovery.

First week of language school behind us.

Well, one week down and eleven weeks to go. It has been a very busy week, but one I feel was very profitable. We are in school from 9 to 1 every day and by the end of the week both Sandy and I were brain dead. We were suffering from serious information overload. This week was all about alphabet, vocabulary, and ser. We studied how to form questions, and negative sentences. Also, days of the week, months, numbers, and fruits. We were very busy. Also, every evening we had homework and memory work to do. But I do find myself picking up a few words now in conversation and that is encouraging.

We went to our apartment today to check on the progress in the kitchen. The old cabinets are down and they are supposed to install the new ones this week. Hopefully they will start on the bathroom in the next week or so. Sandy and I will be painting the apartment as we have time.

The next four weeks we will be attending church with a different missionary couple every week. This week we will be joining Truman and Carol Chatman, and our friend Tommy Smith, another new missionary working with REAPNorth.

We will let you know how our second week goes.

Language School Begins

Yesterday we toured our language institute, paid our fees, and received our book. It is in downtown Miraflores which is a short taxi ride away. We will be attending with another new missionary we have met and become friends with. Tommy is a member of the REAPNorth teamand has been here since October. Arnold and Susie, dear members of our team helped us contract our taxi driver to take us to school and pick us up afterwards. Five soles per trip, about $1.75. We will be attending five days a week from 9:00 until 1:00 for three months. Time to get serious with my Spanish.

Today we walked over to our apartment to pick out the colors for the cabinets, counter tops, and to discuss the work in the master bath. Work is set to begin on Monday, we shall see. I am going to be painting the apartment myself. We did get the keys today, so we will be able to go over and check on the progress.

After supper this evening Sandy and I walked down to the a little sandwich shop in our area and purchased a few deserts and brought them home. Four beautiful and delicious deserts for $13.50 soles. About $4.50 U.S.

I will be taking my drivers test in a few weeks. I asked about the book to study, but they didn't have any more. Didn't matter anyway, they are in Spanish. The test will be in English though. They say the laws are the same, but I took my test over thirty years ago. We shall see.

I have been fighting a sinus infection I picked up in Chile. I can't seem to shake it and in this heat and humidity it tends to make things miserable. Pray that I can shake this very soon.

I will let you know how things go Monday morning.

Olmue, Chile

Its hard to believe our time here in Olmue, Chile, is almost over. What a wonderful time it has been. Worship time has been awesome. The singing, well, what a choir 110 missionaries make. The messages were both challenging and refreshing, taking us back to the fundamentals of the Bible and our calling. Training sessions ever afternoon were insightful and very profitable to our ministry. The breakout sessions with our Strategy Associate was a meaningful time. It was a time to listen to other missionaries tell their stories and concerns. Prayer was a major part of the entire week.

The weather here has been cool, but very nice and comfortable. Mike and I are fixing to walk to a national park in the area. I have no idea where it is, and I don't think he does either. Sandy is going to lay by the pool with the other ladies on our team.

Be praying for us as our language study begins February 4th. We are ready to get started as we must be able to communicate to herald the gospel in the heart language of our people. We leave tomorrow and return home to Lima. Yes Lima is beginning to feel like home. Last week I was in Caraveli with the vision team and we were all introducing ourselves to the mayor, and when it got to me I had to stop and think for a second. It is hard to believe I am really a missionary from Lima now and not one of the volunteers.

Well, lets go walking.

Alan and Sandy Stone

We are actually here.

It is hard to believe we have been in Peru for two weeks. Our time has been filled with meetings, working on our country papers, and office work. We walk everywhere so hopefully I will be losing some weight. We have already moved once and will move again in a month or so to our apartment.

I just returned yesterday from a week long vision trip with Valleydale Baptist Church of Hoover, Alabama. We went to Caraveli which is south of Nasca, and it was a wonderful and very productive week. God blessed our time and provided several divine appointments. The weather was great with just a little rain a couple of evenings.

Today we went downtown Lima to the Immigration Offices to get our carnet. We are official residents of Peru now. It was an interesting experience and went so smoothly. Monday we are flying to Santiago, Chile, for our annual general meeting. We will be there all of next week for worship, and training sessions. As soon as we return from Chile we begin our language training at an institute in our area.

We have the most wonderful team members, and they are our new family here in Peru. We are blessed to on the REAPSouth team. Please pray for our team as we continue to work with our partners to reach Southern Peru. Also pray for us as it is time to get serious with language study so we can communicate the gospel clearly.

Tomorrow is another busy day in the REAP office.

Blessings
Alan and Sandy