Graduation!!!

Graduation!!! We made it back to Iquitos, Peru and tonight is graduation. It is bitter sweet beause now it is all over. I will be leaving the 10th and arriving home the 11th. I cant wait to see everyone back at home but i will really miss the team. We have done some really awsome things and i am going to miss everyone on the team so much. I want to thank everyone for there support and prayers. Love Christopher.

La Paz, Bolivia to Cusco, Peru

Once again i am in Peru!!! Right now it is one week untill we graduate. Last week we were in La Paz, Bolivia. The church that we stayed with was great. I stayed with a family in a house which was a wonderful experience. They really made me feel at home and they spoke English which made it easier. The church was very modern and they really encouraged us. They really had a heart for missions, which is something that you dont always see in churches. Now we are in Cusco, Peru. For the first night both teams, red and white, stayed in one and it was a little tight, but i enjoyed spending the time together. Now we are living in an orphanage and working with the church that runs it. I will try to update my blog later this week when i have more time. Thank you, love Christopher.

Finally in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

I just wanted to update people on our travel in Bolivia. I asked for prayer for that and for prayer for the sick people on our team. Emanuel is better but most of us have colds of some sort so pray for our health. So we started out in Sunday by traveling from our church to the other teams church because it was about forty five minutes closer to the bus station. We slept at their church and then got up early in the moring to catch a bus to a Argentinan, Bolivian border town where we could cross. We were sort of nervous about crossing because we herd they were strick if people were sick. Americans had to pay $135 vengance tax to enter Bolivia, beacuse that is what the US chrages for them to get in. After we go the finances worked and and applied for our visas we were waiting in line and one of our girls passed out. It was high altitude so they said that that kind of thing happens so they still let us into Bolivia. We could not but the bus tickets in advance because you have to be in the country to buy them, so all the buses were full. So we had no place to stay in this little border town. So some of the leaders started looking for churches and we found one that said we could sleep there. The people who were really sick stayed in a hostel because it is cold and they do not heat their churches. Then we got up early again to catch a bus and it was an hour and a half late. We started driving and it was a really rough dirt road through the desert. People we getting motion sick and all that good stuff. It was about a ten hour bus trip. Then we made it to where the other team is staying at about nine oclock at night and we had to hurry to catch another bus. We road on that bus untill three in the morining and then we go on another bus and we arrived here in Cochabamba, Bolivia at about eight thirty in the morning. All of us are pretty tired but the church seems like it is going to be good to work with. I just wanted to share that travel experience we had. We arrived safely which is all that really matters. I would appreciate your continual prayers, we only have three weeks of outreach left and i am sure that they will go very fast. Thank you, Christopher.

Jujuy Argentina

Hey, i just wanted to give an update on how things are going. Sorry that i did not get to update last week. I will try to cover last week and part of this week. Things have been difficult to do outreach for the past two weeks in Argentina. Right now there is a federal ban on meeting in public places such as the plazas. This is due to the swine flu, there is a really big fear of it here. I am not sure how it is back home. Because we cant do outreach on the street we have been working with the churches more, doing services in the church. Last week we painted the outside of the church and did one street outreach before the ban was put in place. Schools have been cancelled so we get to spend a lot of time with the youth from the churches. This week we have a service every night, during the day we go door to door and invite people to the services. This culture is different from many that we have experience already. They like to stay up late, last week it was common to not go to bed untill two or later, this week it is not so bad ushually we get to go to bed by one or so. But they dont get up early in the morning so we get plenty of sleep. Onother cultural thing here is when you greet you kiss on each cheak and also they drink mate here. Mate is a strong tea and it is a social thing that they pass around and everyone drinks, i like it. I think i am preaching tonight. I have some prayer request, that i would appreciate if you pray for. The first request is that we might have trouble crossing into Bolivia on Tuesday so, just pray for that. There are a lot of rumors that the borders are closed and so on. The second request is for a girl on the other team, she is twenty-three and has the chicken pox for the first time. I guess it is pretty bad so just pray for her. The last request is, there is a family on my team and they have for children. The youngest one is three and he is really sick right now. They took him to the hospital at least two times for i.v.s and it does not seem like he is getting any better. They did blood test and hopefully we will get the results back tonight. His name is Emanuel. Thank you for all your prayer support. Love Christopher.

Now in Argentina

Right now we just arrived in Mendoza, Argentina and we are on a lay over waiting for a bus. We were supposed to be here last week but our contact fell through and that is why we stayed in Los Andes another week. Our travel plans were delayed a day because the road through the Andes mountains was snowed shut. This week was a really good one. I would say that our team unity is getting better. We went to a few schools to do outreaches this week, which was a first. It was really cool, the one day we did not have anything planned for the morning because none of the schools got back to us. Then biggest school in Los Andes called the pastor and asked if we can be there immediately. A few of the teachers were sick so some of the students were free for a time. So we quickly went over to the school and did an hour long presentation for about onehundred fifty students. Then they told us that we can have fifteen minutes with the whole school. That was eighteen hundred high school students. So we did a presentation but we did not get to talk to them because they went back to class. It was a great opportunity and hopefully the seed was planted. That is one thing you can pray for is that school. Thank you for all of your prayer support. Love Christopher

Los Andes, Chile

Hi everyone, i just wanted to give a quick update. On Tuesdays ushually we are traveling and we were supposed to today but things did not work out. We have not be able to get a hold of our contact in the next town of Mendoza, Argentina so we are staying in the town that we have already spent a week in. The town is Los Andes, Chile. Right now I can see the Andes mountains and they have snow on them. They are beautiful. Last week it was a more relaxed week because we had rain some days and we could not do the street ministries that were planned. The one day that we got rained out we just walked around the city praying for it. The place we are staying is a house church that just got started up and there is three missionaries slash pastors who live in the house. They are really nice guys and they really have a heart for the Lord. The congregation is small, but strong. We are going to do some door to door ministries today and tommorrow we will be going to schools to put on some programs. Once again, thank you for all of your prayer support. I would appreciate if you prayed for the team and for the people that we will be ministering to. Thank you, love Christopher.

Arica, Chile

Hey everyone, this was our first week in Chile and it went really well. The church here recieved us with amazing hospitality and the youth and we really bonded with the youth. The connection with the youth was so good. They are all in the university and are about our ages. They said if we ever come bak that to remeber that we have friends here. As far as the outreach goes, it was a little tougher than in Peru. The town we are staying in is Arica, Chile. It has world famous surfing here and is a lot more modern then most of the towns in Peru. The people just did not want to listen to what we had to say in general, but some people still came to God. The pastor here is very optomistic and has great faith that the church will grow through the work we have done. Keep praying for our safety in travel, this afternoon we have a twenty-eight hour bus ride to Los Andes, it is going to be a lot colder there. Also, since the people are not so open her, pray that God will prepare their hearts to hear the good news we bring. Thank you for everything. Love Christopher