A Morning at the River

Thursday is our normal family day. Unless there is some major event, we use this day to be together, do some house projects, some necessary shopping, or just to do nothing. This Thursday, we went to the river. During the dry season in the mountains, the river downstream has just a little bit of water and is a lot of fun for us. It is about a 20 minute drive from our house. Close enough to get to, but away from the noise of the city.


Luke and Mark are the only brave ones to actually get in to swim.


Jon and the boys make a bridge in the river with the rocks.


The bridge continues.


We have to park our pick-up on the river bank then walk though some sugar cane plants to get to the river. This picture was taken from there.

CSI Trujillo, Season 1

During the early hours of September 18th, some robbers entered our church and stole all of the plastic chairs, the portable organ, a guitar, the entire sound system, and a wood door which was to be put into the parsonage. Replacement value was about $1000.


According to CSI Nico and CSI Jon, the robbers entered a second floor window which was open. They used our new protection bars to hoist themselves up. Weren't they there to protect us?? Once inside they were able to open the big double front door, even with a deadbolt.


Since the police weren't too concerned with the petty theft, our CSI agents were hard at work. This is Nico measing the width of the tires.


The guilty footprint. Now which type of tenner is this?

Annual Youth Spring Banquet, Sept. 20th

The areal view of the banquet site.


The table setting.


Hannah dressed up as a Grecian. Her friends are Ruth and Irene.


Antonio Banderas joined us as well. Also present was Don Rafael.


A real Arab? No, it is just Enrique, the youth group president.


I helped with two quizzes with Nimia.


The theme was "A Trip to the Mediterranean." The decorations, food, quizzes and costumes wrapped about the theme.


One of the three games involved shaving cream. Poor guy!


One of the foods they ate was the Falafel, which is a common sandwich type food sold on the streets of Egypt. From the website where I found the recipe, it said that the McDonald's in Egypt has a sandwich called the McFalafel. The other foods were a chicken mushroom meal from Spain and a dessert from Greece.


The youth enjoying their meal.

Annual August 30th Sports Fellowship Day

Every year, our fellowship of churches gathers together at our camp to have a day of sports and fellowship. This is also the day of the soccer tournament finals. Our church had the 11-14 boys team playing for 3rd or 4th place. The other team didn't show so our church won 3rd place. There were about 800 people there this year, down slightly from last year. The following pictures show a little of what we do during that day.


The senior class at the Bible college prepares food to sell. This is a fund raiser for their senior class trip which will take place in December. Many people plan to buy their food each year.


Some prefer to sit around the tables and talk.


Others prefer to take large unbrellas and picnic lunches and just relax the day away.


One of the events each year is the running races. There are many categories from the small children to the 45+ ages. Sarah, Luke, Hannah and Jon all participated in this and won either 2nd or 3rd. Luke was suppose to win first, but there was some error in the judging and he was given 2nd. I didn't have to run this year since a new lady joined our church and she wanted to run. She placed first. I haven't placed first in years. Luke is ahead in the picture.


One of the big highlights of this year was the return of Jon's parents back to Trujillo. They arrived the day before from their time in Lima. Dad is recuperating little by little. He looks good, but his energy is low. Thanks for praying for them.


Another event was the high jump. Sarah, Luke and Hannah participated in this event as well. Only Luke placed but I don't remember which place, somewhere between 3rd and 5th. I participated for the pastors wives category. I was the only one willing to do it; I earned first place, but didn't get any points for my team. At least I didn't hurt myself in the process.


Soccer is the favorite sport among the men. The teams battle out for first place. This is the youth team playing. Our church's youth team didn't make it this year. It was still a very exciting game. They ended in a tie, then they had the penalty shots and the green team won (Esperanza vs. Filadelfia) I mention the teams for our co-workers who are in the States and missed this event.


To our surprise, our church team won first place again. It doesn't make sense since we didn't win any of the first or second places in the soccer or volleyball events. But, several of our church people participated in the track and field events. Our church is Getsemani. You can clic on the photo to enlarge it. Again, I thought my co-workers would like to see how their churches did this year.


The bus our church rented to get out to camp for the day.


A view of the inside of the bus.

A New School Year

Michael is in first grade.


Mark is in third grade.


Luke is in 5th grade.


Sarah is in 7th grade.


Hannah is in 12th grade.

Family Time

We found this dead sea lion on our lastest trip to the beach.


The boys love to play in the sand and water.


The boys wanted to play their own version of the Olympics. They had fun!


Michael flipping out.

Church and ARRIBA kids

Our almost finished church building.


The 2008-2009 ARRIBA KIDS. They visited Trujillo from August 16th through the 25th. They loved Trujillo and the people here loved them.


The three ARRIBA girls all had birthdays while we were here, so we ordered pizza and had cake and ice cream. They enjoyed the American tradition.