Hannah turns 18 and the youth group throws her a party.

Hannah at her 18th party.


Some youth stayed at the church to "delay" Hannah....


While others were at our house getting ready to surprise her. She wasn't surprised, but at least they had fun trying to surprise her.


Here are a few youth who were present.


Hannah's cake. I didn't know if I was suppose to make her a cake or not, but I figured that I could have one ready just in case. Well, the youth didn't have enough money to buy her a cake, so I put some manjar blanco (like caramel) on the cake. The first candle I saw was this soccer player which I bought for a Father's Day event two years ago. It was perfect because one of the youth greatly dislikes this team. They are rivals with his favorite team (La U). Later he told me that it was a good joke and that he almost burned the head off in revenge.


One custom they have for the birthday person is to get their face pushed into the frosting of the cake. At least she didn't get an egg cracked on her head!

Getse's New Pastor

Miguel Rojas is the new pastor of our church. He comes with 8 years of pastoral experience. His wife, Ester, had a brain tumor five years ago. Their two children are Misael (age 6) and Benjamin (age 4).




I had to put both pictures in because they are normal children....not always looking at the camera. They are as sweet as they are cute.

Birthdays, Flowers, Boys and a Dog.

On June 1st, we celebrated the birthdays of the Junebug Stilwell. They were Grandpa, Hannah and Sarah. We were missing a few who are currently living in the States.





Luke is playing soccer with some other boys while the adults are in a pastor's meeting.


Mark is playing on a pile of stuff while we were in a meeting.


On this day, we said goodbye to our dog, Lexy. A lady from our church took him in. She has a female cocker spaniel.

Regional Ladies Meeting, May 29th

Our fellowship of more than 30 churches has two regional ladies meetings per year. Our church hosted one two years ago. It was a lot of work (with many blessings) so I appreciate so much more the work that goes into one of these. The pastors, who plan where the meetings will be held, try to vary which church has it. This month, it was at Filadelfia Baptist Church. The money to build their church and school building came from funds mostly from the United States. God has blessed this work and it continues to grow.


This is their beautiful church building. It was hard to get a nice picture of the whole thing, but you get an idea of what it looks like. There is still quite a bit of work to do on the inside, but the people work on that as they can.


Their church ladies sang a special.


The current president of the pastors' wives' group asked me to prepare two choir specials using the pastors wives and the theme, which is Faithful Servants. This is not the best picture of me, but of the three that were taken by my friend, this one was the best of the ladies choir. Just ignore me and enjoy seeing the faces of the ladies. You might even recognize some of them.


There were about 210 ladies in attendance. This is great. Two years ago, we had about 180 ladies, so that means that our fellowship continues to grow. The church was comforable, neither too hot nor too cold. There was room to move around. I sat in the front pew so I had plenty of leg room. My mother-in-law drove and we wanted to leave enough time to get there just in case we got lost. We didn't get lost and we got there 30 minutes early. Since we got there early, I was able to pick my spot so I could take pictures, too.


The hosting church always serves some kind of snack. This time is was a tamal with a little bit of shredded cabbage with lemon and salt. This was served with a cup of hot barley coffee. This barley coffee tastes similar to coffee, maybe a little smoother, but it has no caffeine. In the picture are three of our pastors wives (right to left), Flor, Judith, and Liz. They are three ladies full of energy and so fun to be around.

Bible College, May 2009

This semester at the Bible College, they tried something new. Instead of 15 weeks of many classes, they broke it down into one 8 week module, two two-week modules and one three-week module. It is a new system here. Some like it, some don't. Jon is currently teaching a module on missions. He has taught this course many times, but this is his first time as a module.


The first floor of this building is the kitchen and diningroom area. The second floor has four classrooms and a library. The third floor is the chapel area.


The students enjoy a break during the morning of classes.




A view of the campus facing the boys dorm. The soccer slab is in the foreground.


The kitchen. Wilson (on the left) studied to be a chef. He is an excellent cook. With the limited funds that the students can pay, he can't always show off his cooking talent. He has cooked for special occasions, such as banquets, and the food was excellent.

Champions League Soccer Game

Peruvians love soccer, even European soccer. The youth of our church like to get together to watch the game. This time, Hannah invited them over to our house. Since it was starting just after the lunch hour, so we offered a meal, then watch the game. We had 11 youth come.


We ate chicken, rice, mashed potatoes, salad and passionfruit juice. They ate cake during half-time.


My view of the game. I sat in the back so I could get up when needed.


The game. Look at that concentration.


The game.

A Houseful of Boys

A houseful of boys make a lot of noise! But they have fun!