I love seeing English translations here…and I think it is ok to laugh because people like to chuckle at my spanish translations as well. The church on our base had a Valentine event for their teens and decorated with these words…love and friendly…and I love it. We need more love right now…and definitely more friendly–just being kind and encouraging, to everyone, not just our inner circle amigos.
Our month of school after Christmas break has swirled by in a whirlwind of adjustment, but maybe a little normal too. Our first few weeks were spent rearranging classes to account for some of our loss of staff. One of our wonderful teachers, Cristina, stepped out of the roll of part-time middle school teacher and into the roll of full-time fifth grade teacher. We are so thankful for her willingness to do this, especially as she also does other ministry in addition to teaching. Mike and Bill added her middle school classes to their load and we added on one other addition to our “teaching” staff: one of our seniors, a very talented artist, volunteered to teach art to the little kids during her break time.
Student Council hosted a Spirit Week in January to add some fun to our school year. Students dressed up for Disney Day, Decade Day, Face Paint Day, Career Day and Book Character Day. Pictures are better than words so check out the creativeness of our students (and teachers)!
Our church, Iglesia Evangelica Misonera de Pucallpa, hosted a teen retreat this past weekend for 40 youth. Several of our SAM Academy students attended and had a blast doing wild competitions and participating in Bible lessons with the other Peruvian teens.
Though not too much exciting, I hope these picture make you smile. We are so blessed to work with such a “friendly,” wonderful group of kids and we pray each day we can be their stability…their encouragement…and the light that points them toward Jesus.
We are beginning to make plans for our HMA (furlough) that will be happening this summer. We have plans to be in the US from June to early September and look forward to spending time with you! Please keep us in prayer as we begin to make plans.
As I type this, the song “I Need Christmas” is playing. I don’t know about you, but I really need Christmas this year! It has been a heavy season of adjustments and transitions and the thought of celebrating love, hope, and peace come into the world gives me a joy that is greatly needed right now.
Our festive high schoolers
Life on the mission field comes with an expectation of the unexpected. Our unexpected this month was the back-to-back loss of three families, all moving from the area for different reasons. As two of these families were greatly involved in our school, our days have been filled with holding mourning kids and reassuring them that God is always up to good things despite the sadness we feel.
So as we pulled out and dusted off our advent tree, I determined we were going to dust off our spirits a bit too. One of the best things about the Christmas season is the opportunities to share Christ’s love and light and boy did our students embrace the opportunity!
Our Christmas Outreach was a super special event this year. Instead of going out and doing a program for children in the community, we invited in a large group of “Senior Saints” from a local church to celebrate Christmas with us. The group and our students spent the morning playing games, sharing hot chocolate and paneton, and performing several theatrical and musical numbers…for each other! While our girls’ dance class and spanish classes led most of the performances, the older people also got in on the fun and performed a small number for us. There were so many smiles and tons of laughter as our young ones connected with these wonderful individuals, many of whom have little to look forward to this Christmas. Of all our Christmas Outreaches, many said this was our most meaningful.
Our crazy 3rd, 4th and 5th graders
Ella and her friend Camilla also participated in a community outreach with several young adults from our church. Going out several times, they put on a Christmas program that brought laughs and a special message to the kids while another group partnered with them to give gifts. I am so proud of Ella stepping out in faith and in new tests of her language skills. Being in these communities was a big eye opener for her.
I won’t lie to you dear friends…as for many of you…this has been a very heavy season for us. In addition to the normal transitions that happen in a mission community, new mandates concerning the vaccine have us looking ahead to what this means for our school, student and personnel-wise. I could get into all the nitty details and hash out all our worries on paper for you to see, but all of us have our own concerns during these crazy times and airing our grievances only gives our worries unnecessary power. What I do ask is that you pray.
Will you pray for wisdom for our school to do what is right and godly, and respectful of our Peruvian government and brothers and sisters….
Will you pray God’s provision, that we can continue to fully serve our missionary families and their children with a well-staffed school….
And will you pray with us for peace….peace that transcends all chaos and envelopes God’s people, that we might be a source of hope and encouragement, not division.
In my “Read Through the Bible in a Year,” (which always takes me two years…anybody else?) my morning reading found me in Daniel. Oh can we relate to Daniel! As God showed him visions of the future, Daniel lay sick with worry and fear. Yet as John Piper tells us, Daniel was appalled but productive. Though sickened by the world, our work is still before us. We must keep working, because God is still working. Working and in control. The Anointed is coming! Then and now…he is coming! May the sweet message spoken so long ago in Daniel of our Savior coming, and coming again, fill us with hope!
This Christmas, let’s embrace all that is good. And when we can’t see it, let’s make it.
May the love, peace, hope and joy of Christ find you this special season and may you spread it to all those around you!
We couldn’t have asked for a calmer or more smooth transition back to school. Everyone was so excited to get back into the school year in person and our happiness wasn’t quenched! School started in August and continued throughout the quarter operating with no sicknesses or changes in restrictions. Though a little out of practice, the kids are adapting to being back in a school setting. They actually have gone above and beyond with keeping the school looking nice and interacting well as a group. A new group of Student Council representatives have been making plans and keeping the students engaged with some fun projects. Our teachers are encouraged and working hard. All has been “muy tranquilo.”
Our class guacs!
So of course we had to throw in some excitement…
Almost three weeks ago now, we were all headed out to our morning break when suddenly loud BANGS began rocking the whole campus. Sending my students with another teacher, I ran towards the front of the base to see a gigantic billow of smoke and flames across the street from our property. Even now, thinking of the explosive pops going off, I feel my body tensing up. The Lama Gas plant where we get our bottles of propane refilled across the street had caught fire and propane tanks were exploding one by one sending debris flying in the air. We quickly moved the students to Refugio de Esperanza, the school behind us where one of our SAM missionaries teaches. It was an intense afternoon of sorting through misinformation and working through details to be sure our students were all safe as firefighters rushed in to contain the fire at the plant and deal with gas explosions.
During and after
After navigating road closures and crazier than normal traffic, parents were able to get to Refugio to evacuate their children. We then closed up the school and houses on base and evacuated ourselves as they declared a safety radius beyond the SAM Center and Refugio. I don’t know that I have ever been so shaken in my life. The sounds of those tanks exploding for over a half-an-hour was overwhelming. When we were finally able to process all that had happened, I didn’t know how to ask others to pray, or how to really report what we had gone through. It was such a surreal thing.
Waiting a a neighboring school
The next day school was cancelled and the following weeks saw more road closures and a few tense situations as the city dealt with possible gas leaks and the removal of the remaining tanks. Our kids took a little time to recover, jumping at the sound of a motorcar backfiring and even the common sight of smoke in the air. But as always, God redeemed crazy for good.
One of the beautiful things that came out of this incident was a unique appreciation for our firefighters. The bomberos here in Ucayali Region are totally volunteer, without any significant support from the local government. All of their equipment is secondhand and many went into that fire lacking proper equipment. They had no gas masks or proper flashlights and even the chief firefighter was shown with holes in his boots. There has been a huge cry for support for these men and women, and I am proud to say our kids stepped up and answered in a huge way. In just a week, our students raised 2,900 soles for our local firemen! We were able to present them with this money and a special, heartfelt thank-you during our chapel the week after the incident.
In addition, I am super, super thankful for the safety God granted us. Not only did he see that only 3 people total were injured (Only 3, despite the plant full of workers and a neighboring warehouse catching on fire!), He graciously kept all of us safe throughout. (I learned later that Mike had taken a quick walk to the store to pick up a few things and was leaving the store as the fire started. He was forced to stop in the intersection and watched as a propane tank flew through the air and landed ahead on the sidewalk that leads to our base. Not sure how that prayer request would have gone over…please pray for Mike Brown who was hit by a flying propane tank.) So thankful for the safety God granted all of us!
Camilla, our temporary “daughter” and housemate
So, prayerfully, we are back to calm. All of our 35 students who are coming this semester are here. We just welcomed three new girls (Grades 8,9 and 10) who are part of a Pioneer family new to the field. Our own family is temporarily a family of 5. Camilla Carrera is staying with us for a month or so while her mom is in the US for cancer treatment. Say a little prayer for them when you think of it, please, friends. It is hard to be a family apart from each other. Camilla’s moving-in also increased our pet count to 3 birds, 2 dogs and 2 cats, one of whom is pregnant. To say we are a zoo is an understatement! Thank the Lord though we are a healthy, happy zoo!
Can this really be happening?! Happy birthday to my 14 year old!
So despite a temporary “moment” of chaos, we continue on. We have now added “explosion day” to our list of crazy reasons the school has been forced to close. (And you thought snow days were wild!)
We love you dear friends! As you enter into the fall season, enjoy the chill in the air and drink something pumpkin spice for us! You are in our hearts as always!
I am so over the moon to be in my classroom with my kiddos! Thank all of you who prayed for us during our week of prayer…your prayers were felt and needed as the weeks leading up to school proved to be full of the chaotic twists and turns we have come to expect but never fully prepare for. Despite all of that, your prayers ushered us into an amazing first week back with 37 ecstatic students. We’ll see how long their happiness at being back lasts, but for now school is running smoothly.
Our elementary…grades 1st-5th
We would be thrilled if you would continue to cover us in prayer this year as so many unknowns still loom. Some ways you can pray:
-Pray for continued health and moderate restrictions as Peru is predicting another wave of Covid cases in the next few months. Praise God with us that we have remained at the level Moderate which allows us to continue at school and that Peru has continued on a steady path of handling the virus well.
-We would appreciate prayers for the Carrera family, missionaries on the field here with us. Joy’s cancer has returned and though the prognosis is good enough that she is hoping to travel back and forth between the US and Peru for treatment, we still pray that this plan will be effective and she can soon be in complete remission. Her husband Bill is a vital part of our school and we will be scrambling a bit to cover his classes while they travel.
-Last but not least, please pray for a break in the heat! This has been an oppressive dry season with classrooms getting in the high 90’s by late morning. It makes for a weary school day but our kids (and teachers!) are keeping at it. Dry season continues through September so we have a long few weeks ahead.
Dear friends, thank you for carrying us along in your thoughts and prayers. This update is short and sweet but there will be more to come! 2021-2022 school year: here we are, ready to go!
High School Spanish…in the newly constructed science lab!
It is here everyone!! Join us this week lifting up the amazing kids and families that are served through SAM Academy! We are asking God to just engulf us this year in His love and blessing, so that we can be absolutely focused and devoted in our work with the missionary kids of Pucallpa. We thank you for joining us in this prayer and ask you to share with us how we can be praying for you as well.
The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:5-7
We mentioned in our last newsletter that we would like to devote the week before school starts, August 8th-14th, as a week of prayer for SAM Academy. We would love for you to join us in wrapping our school year in the Father´s embrace through intentional prayer. So how do you take part? Easy!
1.Download and print or save the below prayer guide
2. PRAY!
Oh! And very important to us…
3. Share with us how we can be praying for you during that same week.
So let´s do this! August 8th-14th: A week of intentional prayer for SAM Academy.
What a wild and crazy year! When school ended at the end of May, I didn’t want to even think about school, let alone write about it. I was done! All the uncertainty with Covid made teaching week to week exhausting and I´m sure we are not the only instructors who ended the year physically, mentally, and emotionally depleted. So when my normally task-oriented-administrator-husband suggested a road trip at the end of school to decompress as a family, I was all onboard! Old Betsy, aka our worn out SUV, drove us through the most amazing Peruvian mountains and allowed us the most wonderful time together as a family–time to just “be.”
Somewhere during the hours in the car, between Mike walking bow-legged for two days after riding a horse for the first time, and playing card games for a few hours while waiting for a landslide to be cleared, we found our reset and were able to look back on the past year with joy and gratitude. Maybe more importantly, we found ourselves suddenly eager for the coming year and again energized to immerse ourselves in our ministry.
Our school year ended in celebration of our resilient students and their triumph over craziness to finish out well. We held not one, but TWO graduation ceremonies this year. Our first promoted our large eighth grade class on to high school. This is a super special group to me because this was the first class I taught when we arrived in Peru. It is also my baby girl’s class.
*insert emotional sobs here*
We are all excited to see this amazing group of kids enter into the world of high school. You can pray for these eight special teenagers as they continue to grow and mature in the Lord and in life. Check out the awesome families each of these kids represents.
Our second and most important graduation was that of our five seniors. These kids have worked very hard to reach this point, in spite of the pandemic, and we are excited to see what God has in store for them. Two are Swiss nationals and have returned to Switzerland to begin an apprentice program. Two others are heading to Germany to attend the Torchbearers program which provides students Bible study and discipleship opportunities. Our final graduate is attending college in the US to study nursing. Please pray for their next steps, as they follow God’s leading in their lives and set foot on the path He has laid out for them.
Things in Peru have been in a weird state of continued tension. Peru still has not declared an official presidential winner, with the difference in votes between the two candidates being less than %1. In regards to the virus, while things in the US are loosening up and maybe returning to more of a state of normal, Peru is still several steps behind. We were able to finally return to our home church in once-a-month meetings. (It was so good to worship with our Peruvian family again!) Double masks are still required to enter public places, however, and the vaccines are slow to be distributed. Due to our region’s move to “moderate,” there is talk of schools beginning in-person classes in August. We are praying fervently that this will give us the go ahead to meet as an entire school together in-person on the SAM base. Please join us in this prayer!
With this hope in our minds, we are diving into school projects over the summer, “reclaiming” buildings that have sat empty for over a year and a half. The men (Mike and our principal, Bill) have been hard at work making updates to our elementary teacher Olivia’s house. We are so excited to have her return to a bathroom floor that isn’t falling in! Bill also tackled the second site of devastation in the library and repaired the damage done by termites while our “summer work crew,” aka Ella and her friend, painted so our library can soon be termite-free and usable again! In the meantime, I have been sprucing up classrooms and getting them cleaned up and ready to go.
Telling you all about our day-to-day sometimes seems to overshadow our greatest mission and the real reason we are here. So our final prayer is for the families that we are serving, including three families new to our school this year! One of these families has lived out in an Ashenika indigenous community, discipling and working on literacy projects for many, many years. Their dedication in the face of many obstacles has been such a witness to us! With their son entering 7th grade, they made the decision to move back to Pucallpa for his upper-level schooling, but are continuing in their work from here while also overseeing two young families who are currently training to move out to the community as a team in ministry to the Ashenika people group. One of these families has three young girls, two of which will be in our elementary while their parents prep for this important work. How thankful we are for more workers for the harvest! We are so thankful to be even just a small part of this work.
So as we paint, scrape, tile, clean, organize…as we polish and prep for the new year, we also pray deeply for the beautiful community of God’s people that we are part of. We ask you to join us in this prayer in a special way. Mark your calendars for the week of August 8th-14th as we dedicate this time to a Week of Prayer on behalf of SAM Academy. We want to cover this school year in the protection and blessing of God, and we hope you will take part in this with us. Please share this with your churches and watch for more details to be sent to you soon!
We love you dear friends! May “the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.”
As I am typing this, our Liam’s new little furball, and hopefully a solution to a mouse problem we have had since Christmas, is curled up in my lap. Mike is also curled up, on the couch, finally more of himself again but wearing out quickly after a bout with COVID. It happened so crazily, he was over the worst of it before we confirmed it was the virus. Over spring break, he was working with another teacher to scrub black mold out of one of our classrooms and came down with a fever and headache. With a negative COVID test result, we moved from a reaction to the mold to a possible case of dengue and Mike spent a miserable week worn down but seeming ok. When he finally started having less of a chest cold and no fever last week, we began to dismiss it and move on….until he lost his sense of taste. A second COVID test confirmed he had the virus and we all began isolation while the elementary moved back to virtual school. Though feeling well again, all of you who know Mike can understand his annoyance at not having his energy back yet. But as we say here, poco a poco, little by little.
We are so thankful that Mike´s case wasn´t more serious, and that the kids and I stayed healthy. Pucallpa’s second wave has been, as one reporter put it, more of a tsunami with hospitals again at critical levels and the vaccine not yet available among the general population. Pucallpa and its surrounding region made the jump to Extremo (Extreme), the highest alert level here in Peru. It has been a bit surreal to find ourselves almost exactly where we were a year ago in this pandemic. Our middle and high school have returned to virtual learning through the end of the school year to comply with government law and take precautions against spreading the virus. Our small elementary is hoping to finish out the few weeks we have left off-site with precautions in place. Our school year looks to end much like it started with modified attempts at normal, and all the emotions that occur when that normal can’t happen.
It can be easy to get lost in all this worry and frustration. Ironically, although is anything ironic with God, my class is studying prayer right now, a section of our Bible curriculum that I love. I love it so intensely because I get to watch my kids slowly grow from “Thank you for this day. Please help us have a good day. Amen.” pray-ers, to prayer warriors who drop their scripted statements and have real, personal conversations with their Father. It is a joyful transformation that I love watching, and a blessed reminder to me that my Father can “take whatever I throw at Him” in the way of prayer.
One of my students being baptized! Love how she has her arms out!
So pray with us! Please pray for the continued protection and safety of our dear school community, our missionary families, and especially our home Pucallpa and its people. Let’s pray for the eradication of this virus and not just a return to normal, but a “return” to better…that through these challenges, we will all emerge stronger in our faith and dependence of God. Please pray especially for our five graduating seniors along with their families as they prepare for their new paths ahead and that we might celebrate them in a special way before they leave us.
And, if you don’t mind, pray this cute, cuddly kitten is a mouse terrorizer:)
Hello friends! This is our official public service announcement that we HAVEN’T fallen into a black hole or been eaten by renegade iguanas.
So then why haven’t we written since *cough* November? (Oi…that is a long time.) Well, for one, we have been very busy being back in school!
December and January were sadly sluggish months for us. February however brought the exciting decision from our board that we could begin meeting in person again with precautions in place. The middle school joined the high school at SAM center but it was decided it would be wiser to have the elementary meet off base at another location to keep the number of students together at one time smaller . Olivia and I, the two elementary teachers, frantically put together a “school” on a base around twenty minutes away during the last weeks of January.
And then we started…
I can’t tell you the difference being in person has made for our students! This quarantine with its restrictions and constant uncertainties has taken a huge toll on our kids. Being back virtually helped keep them on track academically, but there was just a general depressed feeling that could be felt throughout our MK community. Being back just a week saw the biggest change in the attitudes and demeanors of our student body! Let me show you…
The situation here in Peru is much the same unfortunately. Vaccines have been purchased and there is a hope of distributing them among every resident by June. In the meantime, we continue with group restrictions, masks in public and curfews. The President has designated different restrictions based on the level of cases in your region. We are very thankful that Ucayali has remained in the second tier of four and not increased in COVID numbers as others have. Our prayer is for the region to soon be COVID free.
Our school was very blessed to participate in a small Christmas Outreach in December. I know I mentioned this in our last email but I want to share with you pictures of the actual event. The students made wreaths for elderly Peruvians in the community who have been unable to leave their homes due to the restrictions. The high schoolers delivered these wreaths and baskets of food while brightening spirits with some Christmas carols and special words. In the midst of COVID chaos, these smiles were a welcome sight!
Though our physical bodies have been busy, know that our hearts and minds turn to you often. We are thankful when churches and friends share with us prayer needs so that we may be in prayer for you as you have us! Please share with us any way we can lift you up.
On our end, we appreciate prayer for continued health for our school community and for protection in travel, especially as Marcy masters her Pucallpa highway driving skills (always an adventure). Also we ask prayer for the SAM Air ministry. Many of you are aware of the float plane that was demolished when a storm brought the plane’s hangar down on top of it and the fundraising goal that was miraculously met in just one month to purchase a new plane and rebuild the hanger. A new plane is in the pipeline and everyday we watch trucks go by our “new” classroom carting building materials for the new hangar. Please pray for all those at SAM Air as they work on this project while also handling a large amount of emergency flights that come in each week.
We love you dear friends, and thank you for being part of our precious ministry.
Oh dear friends. How sorry I am. We have not written you since August and I admit the culprit has mostly been a glumpy mood (Is that a word in your household??). What do you you write when you don’t feel like writing? I know others have felt it…it has been months of blah. We have heard it and felt it from our friends and family. More mask wearing…blah…more virtual school…blah…limited gatherings…blah, blah, blah.
It is so easy to be in a funk when so much of the world around us is blah. To try and get out of my horrible mood, I forced myself to do a Thanksgiving devotion during the month of November. I cringe as I write that, but it is the truth. Have you ever trudged into the Word? Can I tell you one of my most thankful blessings this year is that we have a God that opens His arms to us no matter how we tumble back to Him, and beyond that, a God that WAITS patiently for us to do so.
One of the beautiful gems I stumbled on during this devotion time was a quote from Ann Voskamp.
We give thanks to God not because of how we feel, but because of who He is. God calls us not to only give thanks, but to do thanks. To *give thanks away* that our Thanks-giving might literally become Thanks-living.
How beautiful would it be for us all to DO thanks…to literally live in a position of constant thanks for WHO GOD IS? Because if we wade through all the muck the world has thrown at us lately, and dig really deep, we can truly see that GOD IS GOOD. Not because He always rescues us from these blah circumstances, but because He is bigger than our circumstances and is working all of out to the good of those who love Him.
I may not see it everyday, but as we enter into the precious Christmas season I am choosing to believe it and I hope you will too.
So what are we thankful for right now…what blessings can I dig from the yuck to share with you…
Our high schoolers are back in school!! Yay! Though the elementary and middle schoolers are not yet old enough to meet the government regulations, we rejoice that we have been able to have the high schoolers come in for small, limited classes. Gatherings, including church and school, are still not legal, but because of our super, small size we have been able to allow the kids to come and have socially distanced class together. This has boosted their moral SOO much! It has been wonderful to see the change in some kids´ personas just being able to do school with friends and teachers again. Continue to pray with us for the health of our kids and that the rest of the school would be permitted to join them soon.
We have a GORGEOUS new science lab. I can´t believe the before and after! Check out this beautiful room that emerged from a dump of a storage room after lots and lots of hard work and dedicated volunteers. Having more space for classes is a huge blessing!
The After!
Working on a nearby room’s rotting floor
Getting the outside patched and spruced
The before…a total mess.
…And we continue to be thankful for those same volunteers as several of the dads jumped in to help us rescue our library. A large termite nest was found above the library and with less activity at the school, I guess they found it safe to invade. My heart hurt as we threw out so many of our precious books. But the nest has been eradicated and superboard put over the wood to keep a future invasion from happening. Now we have to paint and reorganize the shelves. Mike reminds me that we are foreigners in their territory. *sigh* Such is school in the jungle!
The middle school has started a youth group which meets separately from school. Two of our single teachers have been instrumental in this and it has been so uplifting to see the ways the kids have opened their hearts to them. I thank God for godly examples here on the field that are investing and pouring into the lives of these wonderful kids. 2020 has taken such a toll on our kids. Pray with us for this “safe place” where they can open up and come close to God through the leadership of these wonderful teachers and parents.
September brought a teenager to the family! We love this girl so much!
In a couple of weeks, our high schoolers who meet the age requirement to be out, will join with the teachers to deliver wreaths and Christmas baskets to elderly Peruvians in our area. Though it won’t be the same as our normal Christmas outreach, we are so glad to be able to spread some Christmas cheer. Older people here (And I know in the States as well) have been heavily affected by this time of quarantine and isolation so we hope to brighten their spirits with a visit and gifts. Each student hand-made a wreath to send so we could all take part in some way. Pray for this special time of encouragement!
The middle schoolers prepping their wreaths.
We ask for your prayers as Peru sees political turmoil just as the States has. If you follow the news at all you may have seen that we had three different presidents in the course of two weeks. We pray that President Sagasti will be wise in handling Peru’s COVID restrictions as our State of Emergency has been extended into March 2021…a full year from when it started. We keep the faith that things will continue to get better and we cling to the positives we find each day.
We also ask for prayers against Dengue and Typhoid. COVID is not our only health concern in Pucallpa and many have fallen sick to these other diseases recently. We pray God’s protection on our area.
Dear friends, as we enter Christmas, may we be challenged to embrace Thanks-living and spreading joy through our thankfulness in all circumstances. We are working on it here this side of the equator poco-a-poco, little by little, and we hope you will too. We love you dearly. Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Family of 4 Serving 1 