Happy Birthday Lucre Church!!!

In October the Mennonite church in Lucre celebrated its 17th Anniversary!!! That makes it the oldest Mennonite church in Peru. I had the privilige of joining in with their Sunday morning service. The service started with ponché for all who arrived early enough. Ponche is a breakfast drink made from haba beans. I know it sounds strange to drink beans but it really just tasted like watery oatmeal and I liked it.




Several members of the church got together to create a special worship team for the event. They really did a great job singing the typical Quechua type of worship songs! At one point Pastor Alloy got up and talked about how a church anniversary really was a great time to celebrate and that we should celebrate just like at a wedding or birthday. Then everyone from the worship team can down and went to the congregation to give hugs, say "happy anniversary" and put confetti on their heads. There was so much confetti all over the place!! What fun! Part of the morning as well was that John Kreider (who was there in the very beginning of the church) preached a short sermon. Four of the missionary daughters: Hannah, Destiny, Oriana and Bethany did a special dance that they had come up with themselves. It was a wonderful morning!




After the service the men started a line and brought in: FOOD!!! The first part of our special meal was a soup with all sorts of things (not to mention chuño-freeze dried potato and sheep guts). It really tasted quite good considering the contents. The main dish was sheep meat, a spaghetti noodle salad and two potatos. The meal was complete with a cup of chicha morada (a drink made from purple corn - yes, drinking corn! It's true and it really is not so bad). Let me tell you I was SO FULL by the end of this meal!! What a great way to celebrate a CHURCH'S BIRTHDAY!!!

Yummy Sheep Gut Soup!
Notice the sheep guts and the black chuño (freeze dried potatoes)!!
Our lunch - our very big plate of lunch.
Who knew that a drink from boiled corn could be good??!!

Knitting Emergency!!!!

Okay so maybe it's not exactly an emergency. I just started knitting a fun combo scarf using plain black scarf intermingled with some fancy fur. The current problem is that I only have one skein of my fancy fur and I've realized that I don't have enough. I can't buy fancy fur here in Peru. Perhaps it exists in Lima but I'm in Cusco and not Lima. So, I'm wondering if someone could buy some for me and mail it to me in an envelope? My address is: Carrie Kleinschmidt, Apartado 708, Cusco, PERU

If someone is going to do that, could you please let me know. Otherwise I may have to take another scarf apart and think of some other creative idea. :0) thanks!

Here's a picture of the yarn. It's Fancy Fur, Color Number #254 Stained Glass!!

PROMESA Paseo

As a school we celebrated Columbus Day with a field day! It was a day where students, parents and teachers participated in many different kinds of games and enjoyed a picnic lunch together. There were 4 teams made up of a mix of kids and parents from different grades and teachers. I was a part of the green team and we had a grandmother and little baby as a part of our team. Unfortunately the red team beat our socks off but we had a fun time with the different relays: broom and ball, transfer the water, transfer the child and transfer the water balloon. We also played a game of futbol (soccer) with a huge ball and a water balloon toss game. There was also a few rounds of Shark & Guppies were there were two or three kids who were it (sharks) and the rest of the kids (the guppies) running across the field trying to escape. The best part was when the parents played this game...they were pretty competitive.

Despite the fact that the day was overcast, we didn't have any rain. Here the sun is so strong that sometimes you are very grateful for the cloud cover!!! After our morning of games, we handed out prizes (lollipops for first place and candies for the other teams) and sat down for lunch. Some of the moms had prepared a meal that was available for a fee. The meal was bbq chicken, a potato, a sweet potato, a sweet plantain and salad. It was very yummy!!

Overall it was a very fun day spent with the kids and parents and quite a break from our normal routine.

Broom and Ball Relay




Transfer the Child Relay


Sharks & Guppies
A tired shark...
Run Guppies Run!!
The parents have their turn at Sharks & Guppies!

Water Balloon Toss



Futbol!!


My 4 yr. old student, Suney with her mom, Nilda.

Profesora Ruth is ready with her water balloon! Watch out!

Miss Carrie and two of her 4 yr. olds: Flor & Lizet.

Camioneta? Cambimeta? Caminame?

On Saturday the 6th of October a fun outing was planned for the youth of the San Jeronimo church. There isn't what you would consider a youth group in the Mennonite church any longer. Now the youth meet in separate youth cells and only are all together in once-in-a-while occasions like the event of October 6. Since I'm an unmarried person I'm still considered a JOVEN (youth) here. I'm not sure what I think about that since I'm no longer in my twenties but I guess I'll let it make me feel YOUNG!!!

So ever since the talk about this event which happened to be a hike started I've had trouble pronouncing the Spanish word for hike which is caminata. Many times "camioneta" would come out of my mouth which means van, light truck or station wagon. Can you imagine trying to say "hike" and saying "station wagon" instead?? I don't know what my problem was with the word but it was so bad that I just tried to avoid saying it altogether. Thankfully our camioneta is over and I can now breathe easy until the next hike (which may be a sketching hike with some artist friends...doesn't that sound like fun??).

We had about 20 youth come out for the hike that bright Saturday morning when we took the bus from Cusco to Chinchero. We hiked from Chinchero to Huayllabamba on an ancient Incan trail. No, it wasn't THE famous INCA TRAIL but it was an ancient path that we followed. Doesn't it sound nifty to say "we walked an ancient path"??? Anywhoo, we passed by ruins and rivers and streams and mountains. At one point I felt like I was Much-Afraid from "Hinds Feet on High Places" trying to find her way on rocky precipes. Well, it wasn't that high or rough terrain. In fact we were going downwards for most of the hike. What gorgeous mountain views!!! I don't know if I'll ever get tired of the scenery around here. We had quite a dispersal of different age people in our group but I hiked mostly with Alicia and Marisol some older gals who are more along my "wavelength." It was a very nice day and we ended it by taking public transportation to Urubamba and eating lunch in the park there.

Enjoy the pictures!!

Wendy, Uri, Alicia and Marisol are ready to start our hike in Chinchero!

The whole group!!!

The ancient path we traveled.



Part of the Sacred River (of course, we were in the Sacred Valley you know....)

Q is for Queen

Disclaimer: this post does not have any silly stories, intelligent words or spiritually uplifting content - just cute pictures

A couple of weeks ago we worked on the letter Q and one of our WORDS OF THE WEEK was QUEEN!! Here are some pictures of the kids from my 5 yr old class with the cute crowns they made. Thanks to Jenny V for sending this project in one of her graciously huge packages!


King Fabricio, Queen Canela and King Alex


Queen Acsa


King Carlos and King Edwin


Queen Alisson and Queen Ivanna

Adventures in High Altitude Cooking: Bagels!

I don't know who invented bagels but they were pretty creative. Think about it... why would create a bread with a hole in the middle? Maybe to make you think you were eating a donut except without all the calories? I'm not sure but when I first heard about how to make bagels I was pretty intrigued and ever since then I've had the urge to try my hand at bagel boiling.

So, here I am in Cusco, Peru where bagels do not really exist. Sure there is a little bagel shop (owned by an Israeli man)downtown on "Gringo Alley" but it's expensive and not conveniently located near to me. There are plenty of different types of fresh breads available at the local bread shops: wheat braided bread, cornmeal bread, cibiatta bread, lengua de suerga (mother-in-law's tongue), french bread, quinoa bread and baguette bread but NO BAGELS.

Thankfully, I'm a brave type who likes baking adventures. The first time I got my recipe online for bagels. They turned out a little flat but made okay bagel pizzas (my original plan for those holey bagels). There is a Wycliffe missionary in town who is a fantastic baker and cooker and I found out that bagels are a regular occurance at her house. Well, I got my next recipe for bagels in an email from her. These turned out much better but I was still confused about how long the had to stay in the boiling water. Well, I think they are getting better everytime. So far I've tried: plain, oatmeal, cinnamon raisin and wheat bagels. I think the plain and raisin have turned out the best. YUMMMM!!!! Here are the step by step pics and instructions.

Making Bagels!!


Step 1: Mix together 1 Tbl. Yeast, 3 Tbl. Sugar, 1 tsp. Salt & 1 cup of warm water. Add 2 1/2 cups of flour to this and knead it for 8-10 min. Leave your ball of dough in warm place to rise for 30-40 min.


Step 2: Form dough into 8 peices and form balls. Stick your thumb in the middle to form holes and let these babies rise for 20 more minutes.


Step 3: Boil water with 1 Tbl. of oil and add 2 or 3 bagels at a time to the water for a few seconds. Next take the sopping wet bagels out carefully and drain them on paper towels (this is the messiest part of the whole process).


Step 4: Bake the bagels on greased and floured cookie sheets at 400 F for 30-35 minutes and the bottoms are nicely browned.


Step 5: Slice and enjoy with some expensive cream cheese or make a delicious egg sandwich!!! yum!!!

Enter into My Rest

I'm HAPPY!

Everyday I go around and ask each of my students: "How are you?" The answers can be: Happy, Sad, Angry, Tired, Sick or Excited. I draw faces for each of the responses and we count "how many happy?" "how many sick?" and etc. It's very fun but each of the classes has taken on their own niche. The four year olds have recently all been ANGRY and they are very good at coming up with their reasons "why" such as "Miguel hit me" or "my mom made me cry." The five year olds on the other hand don't seem to be quite creative with explanations and just stare at you when you ask "why?" They like to collaborate as a table and have the same answer and try to win with the most of a certain face. Recently everyone in the five year old class has been HAPPY (even Alex who has been angry for most of the year). How can a teacher complain when her students are HAPPY??

Now they all are excited to have the chance to ask me: "how are you, Miss Carrie?"

My answer today friends is: I'm Happy!!

I'm happy because I have a weekend without plans. I'm happy because I have time to rest and relax and enjoy time alone!!! I'm excited because the government is having a census tomorrow and we all have to stay in our houses and not go out. Yay!!!! Last night I had such a fun time working on my school stuff, making an elaborate sandwich with chicken and guacamole and watching "Sense and Sensibility." AHHHHHHHHHHHHH....... BIG SIGH....

Sometimes you don't realize that you are emotionally stressed or drained until you stop for a moment. This morning I realized that I have been stressed by some hard things recently and that I REALLY needed to stop and have some time to myself. I think that's why God gives us a Sabbath rest...it's a time to stop and reflect and find new strength in the Lord. Thank you Lord for weekend REST!!!

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11: 28-30

The Calling of the Missionary (and average Christian)

I have been thinking recently about my calling as a missionary here in Peru. Here I have left behind many things in my culture to come live and serve in this place. I am committed to living, working and serving with the people here. I didn't come to Cusco first, check it out and then decide that it was the best place to serve. I just came because I knew that God was calling me to come. There's a lot of trust in that and also the possibility of your commitment crashing with the reality of the situation.

We are always going to face problems and encounter immature and imperfect people in our path. The problem with being a Christian is that we cannot just write those people off. The even more complicated problem for a missionary is the commitment to serving the church and the people and the culture. What if the person who is in authority over you makes unwise decisions that don't seem to be led by the Spirit? As missionaries here we work with and under the authority of the local church. We live a delicate balance as people who are from the outside but working under the national church. We have an outside perspective and can sometimes see the problems for what they are but we also are not the ultimate authority. The purpose of missions is to raise up a national church that can function and flourish on its own. That's the point and that's what we are trying to get to in Cusco.

So, like all things that are in transitions there's such a thing as growing pains. I've recently had one of those type of growing pain situations - where I clashed with my authority and found him to be an imperfect human functioning in a leader role. What will my response be? I cannot give up on the Mennonite church here because of a bad situation or because people have let me down. I must seek restoration, I must seek redemption and I must press forward in the work with optimism. I am committed to the work and I am sent to serve here.

That seems like a very self-sacrificing missionary minded thing to say but I think it's actually closer to what God calls the "average" Christian to as well. God does not call us as Christians to work under spotlessly perfect situations or authority figures. Sometimes we face situations and people in the church that could discourage us from continuing to work and serve in the body. Those with the character of Christ will continue to press on and love those who've hurt of disappoint them. That is the calling of everyone who calls himself a "Christian" - to look like Christ and to love like Christ.

So my prayer in this situation is to respond in love and humility. I cannot do it in my own strength but with the strength of Christ I can do all things! AMEN!!!

Peruvian Birthday Celebrations

I'm another year older and I've spent my first birthday in Peru! Yay!

Birthday celebrations started on Thursday when the PROMESA teachers got together to celebrate the September birthdays. We had lunch together at the Shultz's and my wonderful cook made a yummy meal of Peruvian chicken and rice and fruit pizza. There were three of us that had September bdays: Me, Ruth & Illari!! As a birthday gift I recieved my very first Peruvian hat!!!



The birthday gals: Me, Illari & Ruth

Another special part of my birthday was a bicycle trip to Ollantaytambo with my friend, Juan Miguel. We rode our bikes from Urubamba (about an hour outside of Cusco in the Sacred Valley) to Ollantaytambo. The Sacred Valley is so beautiful with the river and hills and mountains!!! We took some dirt paths and although our bikes were made for such paths, my body was not. I was so sore and tired by the end. I don't think it's a good idea to take a 3 hr bike ride after not riding one for over a year. By the time we got to Ollantaytambo we were walking our bikes around on the cobblestone roads. The town is so cool with its original stone walls and streets and water system! We also hiked up to view some ruins and enjoyed a yummy lunch. Don't worry, we took the public transportation back instead of riding our bikes. I had a really great day but I can't imagine being able to make it back alive on bike.

Who are these crazy people?

The long and beautiful bike ride.

The beautiful Sacred River in the Sacred Valley!

Me and Juan enjoying a yummy lunch in Ollantaytambo. Either the food was really good or we were _really_ hungry!!

We passed a little girl crying in the street and we cheered her up by taking this photo.

Ollantaytambo and its stones and water system and me!

On Sunday (the actual day of my birthday) we had a small party in my house with friends from church and school. Dawn made an Oreo cheesecake that was delicious and we had all kinds of goodies thanks to my friend's package (ie swedish fish and reeses peices - thanks Jen!!). We played Dutch Blitz and people were in my house from 3 until 8:30pm!! It was a very nice way to celebrate my birthday!!! Yay! thanks to all my new friends who made my birthday special this year!

Integrity Restored

When I first got to Peru I was a little shocked at the abundance of pirated materials. In Cusco there are no Blockbusters or movie theaters but there are plenty of pirated dvds. There are dvds for movies that have not ever been released to disc (true they were copied from the movie theater). I'm not even sure where you can buy the original dvds here in Cusco.

The same is true with music and books. On street corners and in shopping areas are every kind of music and recording that you might be looking for. And copying entire books is a normal thing around here. I remember the first time I received a copy of a photocopied book and thought: how can this be legal?

The sad thing is that these things are even accepted as normal for the Christians here in Cusco. If you are doing a study of a book, then you naturally make copies of the book because it's much cheaper. The Christians buy pirated movies and even pirated Christian music without batting an eyelash.

Enter Carrie into the world of pirated materials.... When I first arrived I was saddened but it didn't take too long to make up excuses and say: "well, that's the culture here..." I didn't want to go out and copy books or buy pirated music but the movies were a different thing. I went out and bought some dvds because I figured that the piraters weren't making too much money and decided that it was more like renting a movie anyway. I wasn't quite sure that I liked the idea but wasn't sure where I could buy "real" movies anyway.

In any case it was all excuses for something that in reality is not pleasing to God. Is it pleasing to God that I become a participant in something that is illegal? Is it right for Christians to join in with what the world does just because it is a cheaper option? If you really sit down and think about it, buying pirated materials is stealing. How can a Christian be blessed by music or books that have been stolen from the original owners? How can we justify things like this? Are we operating with seared consciences just because we don't want to stand for what is right?

Today I was convicted by my sin of giving in to something I knew was wrong all along. I was convicted that God has called me to be a woman of integrity and not give in to the things of the world. I realized that I had been too easily swayed and had allowed excuses to blur something that really was sin.

So, I destroyed all the pirated dvds that I bought.

I didn't really want to do it but the conviction of the Holy Spirit convinced me that it was what I needed to do. I may be living in a culture where pirated things are an every day occasion but I choose from this day forward to stand firm and not give in. What will I do when someone wants me to watch a pirated movie with them or participate in a Bible study with a copied book? I'm not quite sure but I know that I will not willingly buy pirated materials or make complete book copies. God wants me to walk with an integrity of heart where there is nothing keeping me from Him - no sin of any kind that will damage our relationship. I want open lines of communication with my Savior and it's not worth it to make up excuses for sin. May the Lord give me sensitivity to make the right choices that please Him alone!

Baby Shower

You would think that baby showers were a truly North American tradition. After all, no on registers here in Peru and why would you include a tradition of buying gifts in these supposedly "poorer" countries? Surprisingly baby showers do exist in Peru and they are called just the same "baby shower." I don't know why there isn't a Spanish name for this event but there you have it.

I was able to experience my first cross-cultural baby shower last week. This baby shower was for a couple from the San Jeronimo church who are having their first child in a couple of months. It was at their house which was not so easy to find. About five of us got in a taxi with an address and an idea. Unfortunately it was not a very clear idea and we drove to about 3 different places before we found the 3 story house with the balloons. The taxi driver was very patient and we even tried to follow some helpful people's (on the side of the street) suggestions. (side note about asking for directions in Peru: most people will want to be helpful whether they really know the answer or not. You never know if you are getting correct directions.)

The shower followed some standard North American patterns: games, gifts & food. Our game was to do things that a baby would do (some people were better at this than others!). The gifts were not the registered type and there were a lot of blankets with bears. The missionary ladies went in together to buy a walker which looked strangely like a body bag when I tried to wrap it up! The food was snackey stuff like cookies, cheese curls and soda but we also had cake and aji de gallina (a typical dish made with yellow peppers and chicken that is eaten over potatoes, hard boiled eggs and lettuce). The aji was a definite Peruvian touch to the baby shower.

Here are some pictures from the event:

When God Plans Your Friday Night (ie better than karaoke)

I was out for a night on the town with a friend last night when God did something unexpected and amazing! We were walking along the main street downtown (Avenida Sol) and joking around about finding a karaoke place when suddenly we heard a bunch of commotion up ahead. My friend asked a passerby what was going on and we were informed that some drunk lady was making a scene. My friend surprised me by turning to me and saying: "Let's go see if we can help. Usually people in these situations need a lot of prayer."

Now, I may claim to want to be used by God in whatever situation but I normally avoid drunk people. So, with lots of questions I followed my friend to where the woman was standing in the street. She was yelling: "I just want to die!! I just want to die!!!" She had been trying to throw herself in front of oncoming taxis. My friend pulled her from the street and made her sit down. He took a hold of her arms and kept telling her to calm down and that she did not need to end her life. Her husband and small child were there too. It was a great fight to break through this woman's drunk yelling but my friend patiently talked to her and then prayed with her. I just crouched there and started to sing a song of peace over this woman because you could tell that this desire to die was a spiritual oppression. Finally the woman stopped yelling and prayed a prayer with my friend giving Jesus control over her death and life. Afterwards she just kept going on about how she had wanted to die. The husband shared about their sorrows - how close people around them were dying, their close neighbors and family and you could just see the grief as he sat there and cried. I cried with them and we prayed for both of them and they repeated a prayer with my friend surrendering their lives to God!!! What touched me most was that the woman took my hand as we prayed and I could just feel their pain!!

Today we are planning on visiting this couple in their home. My prayer is that God will use the seeds that were planted last night. That He will completely free them from the oppression of death and that from this point onward they will have NEW LIFE!!! Death is swallowed up in victory!!!! AMEN

So the Lord taught me an important lesson last night and I saw Jesus in my friend. He was not afraid to face a difficult situation because he knew that what these people really needed was God's presence. God really used this unexpected event to shake some things up in my heart and make me see my fear. Why should I be afraid when He really wants to use my life to touch others?? Why should I let fear block the work of the Spirit?? Oh Lord, break open my heart that I would love others not just with an idea but practically with tears, prayers and in the middle of where they are at!!!