The Future

I might of caused some stir at the Gateway business meeting this morning, so I figured that I would post this for anyone who was there or was not there and is interested in the idea I shared.

What you're looking at could very well be the future. This is a house that is possibly being donated for 5 years for the use of an orphan care facility. What I proposed this morning is that Gateway church sponsor the monthly support for the care of 15 kids that would live in this house while we simultaneously build our own orphanage on our own piece of land for the care of 30 orphan children down the road. More details to come, get excited!

Goodbyes

Well last Tuesday was my final day at the orphanage Casa de Paz. It was extremely hard saying goodbye to all the kids and people who work and live there. I am missing them very much right now and hoping that I can one day return for a visit. But for right now life must go on. It's been a little bit of a hard transition these first couple of days. I came back and my mom had fallen on her bike and broker her shoulder the day before so she couldn't come to the airport to meet me, then Friday we had to put down my old dog Cole who I got on my 12th birthday.

For some going away festivities the kids threw a "surprise" going away party for me. All the older kids went to Maribel's house and lured me up there so when I walked through the door they all jumped out screaming surprise! The party included a lot of dancing (there are videos of me dancing with kids and house moms but you will never see them...ever.) as well as eating some good food and cake. The after the cake they had what Joey B would call "Barnabas time" where they went around a circle and told me all sorts of heart touching things. Afterwards I could only manage to get out a few words to everyone but they knew how much I loved them all.

On my final day there a team from an organization called "Inca Link" came with a bunch of volunteers to throw the kids a party. It was the Dia de San Pedro so all the kids had the day off school. It ended up working out really well because I was able to spend the early morning with the kids all to myself and then hang out and play some games with them and the big team of 40 people who came around 10:00 am. The big team served as a pretty good distraction to keep me and the kids from completely losing it when I left. Yes there were still plenty of tears but they had something they could jump into and try and take their mind off of it.

So anyway, I will go ahead and sum up my time there. It was an amazing learning experience. What I have learned in this past year will benefit me and others who I come in contact with for the rest of my life. I learned about a lot about business and management, Peruvian government, politics: but the most important things I learned were relationships, parenting, love, sorrow, patience, and myself. I would say that Ecclesiastes 3 would be a pretty good summation. There were good times, and there were definitely bad times. But this year I spent living with these kids and all the experiences good and bad that came along with it I would not trade for anything in the world.

I would like to go ahead and use this entry to say that as one chapter ends another begins. I am very certain that in the future (~6 months - 1 year) I will be starting work on a new project in Peru. The project right now as it is shaping up is looking to be an organization that does youth development programs in the area of Trujillo Peru. Our first, and maybe our largest scale project will be an orphanage. I am still ironing out some details and as soon as I have everything ready to go I will disclose everything.

The kids and I

Surprise!

The people at my "surprise" going away party

The big team who came on my last day

Giving some lessons

Updates

I've been wanting to write a blog post for awhile now but every time I have sat down to do it the internet seems to crap out on me. This last Friday was the kids Father's day presentation at the school. It was great, they did a bunch of little skits and songs with their fellow classmates. It was going smoothly until all the power went out. Everything went pitch black except for our emergency lights that came on, and of course all the kids starting doing the whole screaming because its dark thing. So when the lights went out I brought the little kids that were from the orphanage but not old enough to be in the school back to the house with a house mom so we wouldn't have to deal with them with no lights. Then walked back to the school just in time for the power to come back on and the kids to finish their Father's day presentation. I got a couple gifts from the kids, a couple of picture frames with a picture of them and I in it all decorated.

About 2 weeks ago there was a team from Colorado here. They came and painted all the outside walls of the orphanage. It was something that has been needed for a long time now. All there work looks great. Before they go here our workers painted the swing set and we hired a local to paint some murals on the outside of the orphanage gate. Everything looks so much more alive now with all the new paint it really helps a lot with the atmosphere.

I only have 6 days left here now. I return to the states Wednesday the 30th at around 6:30 pm. Everyday the past week I've had the same two thoughts in my head, "I wish this last week would just hurry up and get over so I can be home" and "I wish this last week would never end because I'm dreading leaving all the kids."

Below are a couple pictures of the new paint jobs.

One of the paintings Steve and I painted in the kids rooms

Outside gate painted by local Peruvian

Mural by Colorado team

Swing set painted by Carlos Augusto

Mural by the Colorado team

Updates

I've been wanting to write a blog post for awhile now but every time I have sat down to do it the internet seems to crap out on me. This last Friday was the kids Father's day presentation at the school. It was great, they did a bunch of little skits and songs with their fellow classmates. It was going smoothly until all the power went out. Everything went pitch black except for our emergency lights that came on, and of course all the kids starting doing the whole screaming because its dark thing. So when the lights went out I brought the little kids that were from the orphanage but not old enough to be in the school back to the house with a house mom so we wouldn't have to deal with them with no lights. Then walked back to the school just in time for the power to come back on and the kids to finish their Father's day presentation. I got a couple gifts from the kids, a couple of picture frames with a picture of them and I in it all decorated.

About 2 weeks ago there was a team from Colorado here. They came and painted all the outside walls of the orphanage. It was something that has been needed for a long time now. All there work looks great. Before they go here our workers painted the swing set and we hired a local to paint some murals on the outside of the orphanage gate. Everything looks so much more alive now with all the new paint it really helps a lot with the atmosphere.

I only have 6 days left here now. I return to the states Wednesday the 30th at around 6:30 pm. Everyday the past week I've had the same two thoughts in my head, "I wish this last week would just hurry up and get over so I can be home" and "I wish this last week would never end because I'm dreading leaving all the kids."

Below are a couple pictures of the new paint jobs.

One of the paintings Steve and I painted in the kids rooms

Outside gate painted by local Peruvian

Mural by Colorado team

Swing set painted by Carlos Augusto

Mural by the Colorado team