Tuesday, December 4, 2007
My Little Friend
Since August, I have been working with a 3 year old little boy named Efrain. He was born with dystonia and basically has no control over the lower part of his body. He continues to remain moble, crawling around the house, and is super independent never wanting his mom to carry him anywhere. He has been super motivated to walk and continues telling me that he will walk someday , and he has already made great strides in achieving this goal of his. His main limitation is the strength of his muscles (flaccidity) and ligaments in his legs, which do not provide much stability when he is standing. He continues to lack some control over the movements in his legs, but the muscles are beginning to respond. Although he has a long road ahead of him, he is full of faith that the Lord will one day give him the opportunity to walk on his own two legs. I have really enjoyed my time with him and his family, they are truly a joy to be around. They continually talk about the blessings that the Lord has given them over the years. Efrain has 2 other brothers and a sister and they live in about a 5oo square ft. house that is attached to the church his father pastors. I have been challenged and encouraged in my faith working with this family and wanted to share their story with all of you. Please pray for Efrain and his family.
Also as a side note, through this relationship Paul has been invited to teach in Efrain's father's church. He will be starting a small savings group and teaching biblical principles concerning business in the church. So please pray for this partnership and for the Lord to use Paul and be glorified in the process.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Baby McCann
Next week I will enter into the 5th month of pregnancy. It is hard to believe that it has already been that long. We have our next doctors appointment this Friday in Lima and if all goes well we should be able to find out if we are having a little boy or a little girl. Then the name game can start!
As for our plans in finishing out the year 2007, Paul is continuing to teach business classes at the school, Refuge of Hope, one afternoon during the week, he is also looking at starting a couple small groups that study biblical principles on savings and family finance with local churches in the communities, as well as a couple other small projects in the office. As for me, the school year at Refuge of Hope is coming to a close and I will be finished with classes in December. I continue to make visits to Maricruz (a 13 year old girl in La Perla with Muscular Dystrophy) and Efrain (a 3 year old boy with dystonia in his legs) throughout the week in the afternoons. I have also been doing some translation projects in the office.
We are also looking forward to being able to finish the year with our families as we will be spending Christmas and New Years back in Indiana. We will be headed to the states the 15th of December for a short 3 week visit. At this point I should be almost 7 months along and we will begin making preparations to go to Lima to spend the remaining month to month and a half there as we wait on the little one to make his or her debut at the end of March or first of April.
So there are plenty of things happening here in the southern hemisphere and we love being able to share some of it with all of you at home. Enjoy!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Work Group from the States
This past week a group from
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Mango Season
The mango season is in full swing here in the jungle and the trees are actually bending due to the weight of all the fruit hanging from the branches. In fact it can be dangerous to walk under a mango tree because you never know when one is going to fall and hit you in the head. Several of the houses have mango trees right outside and when the mangos fall you can hear them landing on the tin roofs...which makes quite a noise.
Here are a few pictures of some of our co-workers trying to cut off a few of the mangos before they fall, hit the ground, and bruise the fruit. I don't think I could participate in this activity due to the extreme heights and unstable surfaces. Just after this picture was taken, one of the other guys climbed 40 ft. or so up in the tree with his machete to cut off some of the mangos. The rest of the guys were down below with a tarp ready to catch the falling fruit. The last picture is of one of the trees, but I'm not sure if you can see all the mangos on the branches. This type of mango is called the apple mango and it is riquisimo!
Monday, October 22, 2007
Our Stalker
Our neighbor Rachel was given a cat, which has in some ways become the neighborhood cat. So when Rachel isn't home or when she is over visiting at our house, Percy usually finds her way over, hops up on our window sills or climbs our screens, and cries until you can no longer ignore her.
Here are a couple of pictures of the cat on our front window sill and on our bathroom window sill.
National Census
We continue to wait for news concerning another strike that could occur within the next couple of weeks for the Pucallpa area. The local government in now in Lima discussing possible options, so hopefully a compromise can be met. We spent Wednesday and Thursday last week in our house due to a temporary strike. There were no classes in the schools and no public transportation. If there is another strike it will probably last much longer and be more disruptive.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Rabbit Ears
So Saturday night Paul and I get home and prepare to watch the game, but when we turned on the TV our reception was terrible. So Paul gets out the aluminum foil and we go to work trying to fix our signal. We were laughing trying to remember the last time we had to use rabbit ears and foil to watch a show on TV. Anyway, we were able to fix the signal enough to follow the game and in the end Peru tied Paraguay 0 to 0. It was not too exciting to watch, but at least Peru didn't lose!
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Managing the Heat!
We are now entering the raining season here in Pucallpa. What a blessing! We are looking forward to cloudy, windy, rainy days. However, the downside to these wonderful cloudy, windy, rainy days is the amazingly intense sun that follows!
Paul and I arrived back in Pucallpa Sunday evening, and Monday we had the first rainy day since August. Since then the days have been extremely hot and humid. I was completely drenched by the time I reached our house this afternoon, walking only a 1/2 mile of so.
So how do we deal with the heat? We come home and go directly to our one and only air conditioned room! So as the Peruvians would say, "Gracias a Dios" (Thanks to God) for this one luxury here in the Jungle! It is wonderful to have a room to relax in and retreat from the heat and the stress that go along with living in a new culture.
Enjoy the picture above. This is the main road here in Pucallpa and those moto-taxis are the main form of transportation. Oh, and the dust you see at the side of the road typically ends up in your eyes, ears, mouth, and most of the other creases on your body...good hygiene is a must here in the jungle!
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Back in Pucallpa
There are currently 17 hunger core serving here in Peru at this time. 14 of us are from the States, two are from Korea (with a little baby girl - cute as a button!), and one is from Japan. 16 of us were able to participate in this quarterly retreat.
We had a wonderful, relaxing time and were able to have fellowship, have devotionals, share testimonies, and worship the Lord in English.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Trying Something New
We are currently in Lima after finishing a "Hunger Core" retreat with other co-workers from the states and from Korea. It was a great time to relax and talk in English. We head back to Pucallpa this weekend.