and a feliz Navidad it was

Aqui hay muchas fotos de la fiesta de navidad con los niños de San Marcos...

Enjoy!

Alvaro and Jairo...

More photos coming soon....

preparing for the fiesta

ho ho ho

These kids are gonna have a blast at the party! We are so excited to have gotten all the gifts. We had a wrapping party the other day, and got all the gifts wrapped. There are over 100 gifts in total. The soccer balls are for the older boys. For the younger boys we got action figures, trucks and army guys. For the older girls we got cute diaries (that come with lock and key). For the younger girls we got dolls that are just like the Bratz collection, which I guess is really popular around here. For the little ones and babies we got really nice stuffed dolls/animals.

We also have boxes full of snacks and party favors, candies, cookies, juice boxes, etc. We have ordered 120 pastries that are a personal sized version of the Christmas bread, called Paneton, that is very special during the Christmas season.

This past Saturday there were more than 60 kids in attendance. Thankfully our friend, Milton, from Tacna, came to stay with us for the next week to help us out. He took time away from work as an architect to come serve God alongside us. He came at the perfect time, to help with the children and the upcoming Christmas party.

We received just over $1,000 toward the Christmas project. It will be just enough to cover the costs of the gifts, wrapping supplies, decorations, and food. We are so grateful to everyone who has donated toward this project. I am positive that the children of San Marcos (and the surrounding communities) are going to be so blessed. I can't wait! We will take tons of pictures so stay tuned!

I made Ricky get a santa hat... isn't he cute? hehe

Team Skippy, as was written on my fridge...

We received a team of 11 from the US and Canada to come visit Cusco, see the work God is doing here, and experience the beautiful mountains and ruins of Machu Picchu.

Vito Giulianno, El Cazador

Here's Vito, terribly happy after capturing his prey....

...the prey...

Look at that crazed look in his eyes...and a creepy smile on his face.

let it rain

...this was taken in February, during the rainy season...



...this is at the same location, taken in August, the dry season...

Ollantaytambo

...one of my favorite places...

stairs anyone?

Welcome to our climb to San Marcos... it's actually about twice as bad as what you see here... this is when we are already half way up.

some stuff

Saturday Oct 28th... during welcome time this day I was explaining the craft that the kids would do. I need to frame this picture because I think it's the first time I've ever seen little Manuel (in the front with the green shirt) sitting down and listening!





Karina is always bringing something to distract the kids... lately it's been this little puppy









Saturday November 4th.... it rained today but we stayed dry inside. Many came late, but even with the rain there were more than 35 children!

Amy left this morning...

Last night we had a despedida for Amy, with Julia, Jossy, Cesar and Jose, some friends from our home fellowship.
This picture shows a gift that we put together for Amy; it was from an activity that the kids did on her last saturday in San Marcos. The kids traced their hand print and then colored it. The older kids wrote her notes. All of them spelled her name wrong, which was pretty funny; like Ini, Enmi, Eimi, Eymi. Since in Spanish everything is spelled like how it sounds, they just wrote her name how it sounds in Spanish. They do the same thing with my name. It gets pretty butchered, but it's funny.
So in this little book, we put all the hands and their notes and pictures. It's so Amy can remember to pray for the kids of San Marcos in the same way that Jesus called the little children to him to put his hands over them and pray.

Children's Room in San Marcos

Each day work began around 7:30 AM... Ricky had to leave our house even earlier because it's a hike just to get there

(above: the room before)

(left: ceiling is done, walls are fixed, and gravel is down.. now ready for the cement.)

Tuesday & Wedneday, Days 1-2 of cement project:
The adobe walls were patched and plastered. Then they tore up the dirt floor using some tools which really aren't for the job, but were something like pick-axes.

(Above Right: Victor's father, owner of the space we are renting)

Interesting story from day 1:
While tearing apart the dirt, Ricky came across something that turned out to be a little ceramic tea cup and plate. Victor's dad saw what he had found, took it and reburied it, saying that the dishes were given as "pago a la tierra madre" (payment to mother earth) when the house was originally build some 40-50 years ago. The "pago a la tierra" is an Incan tradition that is still practiced today. He said it would be really bad luck if the dishes were removed... so they were reburied and are now underneath our cement floor... somewhere.

(Left: break time)

Thursday, Day 3 of cement project:
the sand, rock and cement bags were delivered. They were dropped off (more like dumped off) in two truck loads to the road, which has no name, that enters San Marcos. The only thing is that the road is above on the hill, much further above the place where we actually needed the stuff. So this day was spent shoveling the materials into bags and carrying them down several stairs and over to the room.
(Left: hanging out with Rosa, the mom of some of the kids who come to the kids service.)

Friday, Day 4 of cement project:
the guys laid the gravel, then began mixing the cement with the sand and rock mixture. There was no official "place" to mix, nor were there really any tools even, just a few shovels and buckets. The mixture was made on the sidewalk outside the room...and mixed by hand (see pics above). In the early morning, Amy and I hiked up and brought sandwiches and soda to the workers this day. It was a good time to take pictures and for fellowship!

(Right: Jim, a 3 year old from our children's ministry, looking on as the men work.)





(Below Right: Jim and Erik; Erik showing me his lion face)

Some of the kids asked me if I worked too. I just chuckled because I doubt I have the strength to do what the guys did. "No..." i told them, "i just kept busy praying that it wouldn't rain!"

(Left: the cement has been dyed red)

Saturday, Day 5 of cement project:
we dropped off 3 kilos of red powder, which is used to color the floor, instead of leaving it cement grey. The powder, mixed with sand and cement, was added as the top layer, leaving a nice red floor.

Tuesday, Day 6: The following week we returned to paint the walls yellow...

While painting, several people stopped in to check on the progress (and to see , and each time they would ask the most obvious question, "hmmm...yellow huh?" Apparently some people didn't care for the color. But we agreed that it is a good color for a kid's room...

We have been blessed with 50+ kids each Saturday . We are glad to have a place indoors for when it rains... and the rainy season has just begun. We are just praying that we can fit all our kids inside. Soon, we will need another place, even bigger, but we are trusting God to provide it in his timing.

Saturday, October 28th will be our first official day.