Having fun in San Marcos...

Holly is here from Washington. Here she is on Mother's Day, getting ready to eat a big plate of Milanesa de Pollo, which is chicken, rice and french fries (of course... everyone eats french fries here!!)














The kids did a really cute craft for Mother's Day. We have been collecting pictures of all the kids over the last several weeks...and had them printed out. It took us seemingly forever to get the crafts ready! Every day for a week we were cutting pictures, painting the "stem" skewers green, cutting serrated cardboard into the shape of a tulip, cutting out "leaves" and the little "Feliz Dia Mama" messages... But, it was totally worth it because the kids loved the craft...and especially loved giving their mom a present with their own photo on it! It was extra special because most of these kids don't ever have any pictures at home of them or their family members. What wonderful memories, no?














Sorry this one is a bit blurry.. These are the kids who were recognized for Best Attendance between January and April.

More pictures coming soon... Our camera has been acting up lately, not holding a charge in the battery...


Oh and I'm so sorry I haven't been very good at keeping up with posting. So, as you probably know from our newsletter, I'm pregnant! We are extremely grateful to God... and excited. What a tremendous blessing. I'm 8 weeks along, not showing yet... although I do feel pregnant already! I have a terrible time sleeping and getting comfortable at night. I wake up in the morning with an empty, rumbling hunger that is SO unlike me! It was so embarrassing on Sunday morning in church my stomach started growling like i hadn't eaten in hours! but i had just recently had breakfast. You could hear my stomach from across the room! It was hilarious...

More to come soon.... Chao for now

we just got back from Arica, Chile

we had to renew our visas.... again.. which meant an 18 hr bus ride. It was terribly uncomfortable,

but the good news is that our residency applications are in process and we should have residency sometime in the next several months!
















we also were able to spend a few hours at the beach in Arica, which was so nice! It has been 8 months since the last time we've seen the ocean!

























Ricky has some extended family that lives in Arica. They invited us for lunch on Tuesday. We met some of his family that Ricky has never met before! The funny thing is that Ricky wasn't even sure as to how he was related to them at first!!! Those Latinos have so much family, it's ridiculous!!

recent pics of vito giulianno

Here's our little Vito.




He looks so cute and innocent, doesn't he?





He's not.

are we already in may?

how quickly time has passed. We've seen the kids group grow to 80 children on average each week. As I've shared before, it's insanity!!! But we have fun with them, and it makes me so proud to see them growing in their knowledge of Jesus. We are about to begin a church meeting in San Marcos for the adults, which technically will be the 2nd Iberoamericana church in Cusco! We will be meeting on Friday evenings. The children who wanted to invite their mom or dad took home an invitation. We are looking forward to growing the church to include the adults of san marcos and parents of the kids with whom we've been working for over a year!

In April we celebrated the 1 year anniversary of the church in Cusco. We had a big lunch with everyone in attendance. We are encouraged that all that God has done among us. We are still praying for consistency and commitment to the Lord by the members because they are still making space for God in their lives, which means giving up some other things and means placing God first.

This month we are expecting to be very busy with some new changes, like the church group in San Marcos and a girls club (ages 12-15), as well as new arrivals from the US! Holly, a young lady from the US, is committed to the Lord and in serving Him. She has decided to come to Cusco, will live with us and serve alongside us in ministry until October. Michelle, another young lady from the US, is arriving this month also and will spend 2 months with us, serving and learning all that God has for her! We are looking forward to these additions to our "family"!