These are pictures from the latest Global Encounters mission trip to Peru. I love that country!



We worked with about 220 kids in Callao, a poor area near Lima.


We put on a week-long kids' program with songs, stories, games, and crafts to teach the kids about the Bible and how to apply God's principles to their lives in practical ways. This is a group of us leading a song. I had laryngitis that week (bad illness for the song leader to get), so Amy helped me out with a voice. Good thing she already knew the songs!


Some of the cute kids. We used different colored bandannas to separate the kids into teams. It worked great and looked fun and colorful at the same time.


These girls helped the team with a bunch of projects! We became good friends in spite of the language barrier.


Singing the Armor of God song with Daniel as a live illustration. No wonder the kids loved him!


Large groups were outdoors. It was a good thing most of our teaching time was after the sun had gone down or we all would have been burnt to a crisp. It was summer time south of the equator.



During the day we put on a kids' program for about 500-600 kids in the shantytown of Ventanilla. It was a kind of wild and crazy, but I love those kids out there and hope we communicated something of Jesus' love to them. This picture is from the lunch line where we handed out sandwiches and soda to the kids. On the last day we had more kids than expected. I was praying the Lord would multiply the food like loaves and fishes because it didn't look like we had nearly enough. I ended up handing the very last roll to the very last child in line! God was so good to take care of little details like stretching the sandwiches to feed all the kids!


Some of the team members organized donations of toothbrushes, wash cloths, hair brushes, etc. for the kids. Here's a picture of trying to teach them how to brush their teeth. I love the looks of concentration!


I wasn't sure how it was going to work to wash their hair, but they loved it! (And none of us got lice, thank goodness!)


So sometimes we felt a bit mobbed...


Friends who helped us with organizing the lunches.


Handing out tracts from the bus.


Some really cool fountains in Lima.


The whole team plus friends packed into one little fishing boat for a tour of the bay.


After a week in Lima we flew out to Cusco, a city 11,000 ft above sea level in the Andes Mountains. It used to be the capital of the Inca Empire.


You can often find people still dressed in native costume.


With Christie in the downtown square of Cusco.


This is really a beautiful city, though the spiritual darkness is intense.


Well, not everything was beautiful!


The children were definitely beautiful, though!


A chalk talk for a group of teens. Some of them were in tears by the end!


Telling a story to the kids.


More crazy moments of story telling.


We had about 70 kids at this week-long kids' program.


I love this place!


After four trips to Peru, I finally made it out to Machu Picchu!


It was definitely the most impressive sightseeing trip I have ever made!


Very cool ruins and absolutely amazing scenery in the surrounding mountains.


It was amazing how they built the city right into the rocks of the mountain.


Good friends to travel with!


I'm grateful for each person God brought to be a part of this team. They worked hard and gave of themselves to show God's love and truth to the people of Peru.

There are two more upcoming trips to Peru! Take a look at the destinations page of the Global Encounters website (www.globalencounter.net) for the details. (Note: the CollegePlus trip is not limited to CollegePlus students. Others are welcome. Application deadline: Sept. 20.) Also, some preliminary details about the Chiapas and Argentina trips are posted.

In case anyone is wondering about me personally, I'm living in California again. (Hooray!) Running Global Encounters takes up most of my time, but I'm enjoying being back with my family.

The Peru trip this summer was incredible - great team, good ministry. You can read all the details on our blog, including about the night that 8.0 earthquake hit Peru. Yes, we were there for it! The ground was moving so much it kind of felt like surfing... on land. Damage was minimal in Lima (which was 90 miles north of the epicenter) and we were all unhurt (praise the Lord). Although we weren't able to go to the earthquake-damaged areas ourselves, we were able to help with some of the disaster relief efforts by packing up supplies in Lima for transport to the destroyed villages.

Here are a couple of my personal favorite pictures from the trip:



My sister Ruth went with me this time. I loved having her on the team!



A sister moment at the Chan-Chan ruins.



This was an exercise in "let's see how many people we can cram into one picture!" The team was putting on a children's program in a slum area outside Trujillo, the largest city in northern Peru.



Dancing with one of the little girls in the slums. They loved it when we would dance with them to Dena's fiddle music.



Yep, that's me with the pigtails! Andy and I were doing the skydiving skit. It's amazing how much those rickety ladders can wobble by the time you get to the top rungs!



Shopping in Peru - if you like bargaining and an absolutely overwhelming array of stuff, this is the place to shop!




Packing up disaster supplies with Dena.



The team leaders for this year's team - Andy Warner, Dena Conzatti, and me. We had a blast working together and both Andy and Dena did such a good job!



The team! They were an incredible group!