Merry Christmas

chao abuelo

edgardo left yesterday to return to chile. we enjoyed having him live as a part of our family and team for over a year. he will be missed. i think isabella will miss him a lot cause he was always good at making her laugh. he'll be missed by the kids and people of the church.

yes, we call him abuelo. don't ask

out to dinner

Feliz Navidad from Cusco 2008

Merry Christmas!
Love,
Ricky, Tracie and Isabella

Our church family

Celebrating juntos

Sharing in the Word together

Christmas Party San Marcos, Saturday Dec 13th

We had over 130 children who are a part of our ministry. We also had somewhere near 20 children come who don't participate, but got lucky and partied with us. We served christmas sweet bread, hot chocolate, snacks, candies and party favors.. and gifts for the kids

Serving hot chocolate

dancing...

eating and obviously enjoying themselves

the girls who teach the 3-5 year olds (and a few helpers of the other classes)

waiting to open their gifts all together

finally!

our silly girl

(make sure your volume is turned up)

an encounter with grass

we're growing...

this is our Sunday church service in San Marcos. I didn't realize it until after I looked at this picture, that we are really growing! It's exciting for us to have services in san marcos now. and to have new people coming each week. Ricky rocks (as he pretty much does everything on Sundays).

teaching the word

Visiting afterward

Isa is our little celebrity. Everyone wants to hold her

its about time... more pics from the clinic

Say Ahhh

This guy looks a little nervous

Chris teaching boxing to the kids. It was a total hit. Brian the boy in the photo looks forward to boxing time (Chris left his gear with us! thanks Chris!!)

Dr. Matt and a few of the Red Cross girls

Don in the pharmacy filling prescriptions

Medical Clinic

We, the church in Cusco, received a team from Willamette Medical teams , and partnered with the Red Cross to make this clinic happen. Everything went better than planned. The Red Cross helped the team bring the medicines into the country, and provided a few volunteers as well. The team came prepared, set up an entire pharmacy and ran everything really smoothly. Our friends from Tacna, Alfredo and Karla, came to help as well.

We were able to see nearly 1,100 people in our small church location in San Marcos. The first day there were only maybe 20 people waiting outside the front door in the morning, but by the last day there was a line of people that went way up the stairs. Many came from very far away, taking transportation for over an hour and many walking for a few hours just to get there and arrived as early as 4AM to get in when the clinic opened at 9.

Here are some photos. I have SO many and will try and add more as I have time. Until then, enjoy the pictures...

waiting to receive a number

Claudia checking blood pressure

in the triage

more pics coming...

don't touch the trout

taken November 9th, a day before Isa turned 10 months. We took a nice Sunday drive up to the trout farm and had some lunch. Isa tried trout for the first time and (surprise) she loved it. Just kidding, she loves almost everything.

clap your hands, everyone, with a shout of joy praise God. hosana, hosana, with a shout of joy praise God!

October photos

coloring...

Elian showing her excitement about the prize she won for memorizing a Bible verse!
singing on saturday at the beginning of class
new youth group in san marcos
San Marcos, at the church. Yes, those stairs keep going up
Brothers Dany and Alber... i can't believe how big they are getting. we've known them since we got to Cusco.
Marco trying to look cute and innocent! haha

Edgardo and Isabella in San Marcos

At the Plaza Tupac Amaru (Tupac is the guy on the horse in background - he was a pretty popular warrior during the times of the Incas)
Sheep skins for sale in the plaza...

Walking around the Saturday feria. I love the plant section. I would bring all these plants home if Ricky would let me!!
On Oct 31st, the Day of the Dead, the plaza was full of pan de guagua (baby bread)
Here's the biggest baby bread we've ever seen. You can see the head on the far end.

Lechon... baby pig. Love the presentation of this one, makes me hungry.. Not really!

growing up....

Isa is getting bigger by the day.... why do they have to grow so fast??