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Christmas in the Sacred Valley

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Happy New Year! We trust that you all had a wonderful Christmas season, and we pray that the Lord would bless each of you as we enter into 2015.

Thank you so much for your constant prayers and support for our ministry and for the children in each of our homes. Below is an account from Hector, our Sacred Valley house director, explaining how he and his family spent Christmas together with the boys at the home. We are so proud of the staff at each of the homes who spent their Christmas with these children who are in so much need. They are a wonderful living testimony of Christ’s love.

– Billy & Kate

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Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

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Christmas is always a special time with family, and we enjoy sharing this time with our Girasoles boys and staff.

During the first week in December we started to decorate our house for Christmas. Our dining room has many large windows, and the boys helped by painting them with Christmas scenes. This activity required a lot of patience and took almost two weeks to complete. The house looked more beautiful that it ever had before.

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A few days before Christmas we gathered moss, plants and the pieces necessary to build our own nativity at the home. It was quite an adventure as we gathered the moss and plants from the nearby mountains. It rained while we were out, so we returned to the house soaking wet!

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To do something different, this year we divided the house into three teams. Each team (comprised of young boys, teenagers and staff) was given a couple weeks to learn a Christmas carol that they would perform during our Christmas Eve celebration. On the morning of the celebration the boys busily rushed around the house looking for similar shirts, pants and scarves so they could all dress alike in their respective groups and have the best presentation.

We celebrated Christmas Eve at our church. Since there wasn’t an evening service on Christmas Eve, I asked if we could use the space for our celebration. Marisela, the boys’ tutor, was the master of ceremonies and my wife, Maritza, led us in prayer. Their words were followed by each group singing their respective carol and then a skit performed by the staff. The presentations were great! I concluded the time with a short message about the meaning of Christmas and two more songs before we revealed the winning group.

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We returned to the home for our traditional Christmas dinner. The staff had prepared a delicious buffet with many dishes like ají de gallina, papa a la huancaína, different cakes, apple pie, jello puddings, etc. After we blessed the bountiful buffet, each boy received a plate and served himself what he wanted – true buffet style.

It truly felt like Christmas with the house decorated, delicious food and the family around to share in fellowship.

After we had eaten all that we possibly could, we put mattresses on the floor, grabbed blankets and pillows and watched a movie projected on the wall. At midnight, we greeted each other with a hug and “Merry Christmas!” as we went outside to watch the fireworks being set off in town.

On Christmas morning while everybody was still sleeping, Maritza and I rushed to put the presents out around the nativity. As we were doing this, the youngest boys (whose energy never seems to fail) found some of the left over firecrackers and set them off in the yard out front of the house. It didn’t take long before everybody was awake and we had a traditional hot chocolate and panetón cake breakfast.

The youngest boys, who had already scouted out the names on each present, assisted in distributing the gifts to each of their brothers. I am sure you can imagine the joy and surprise the came with opening presents.

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In the afternoon we had another delicious Christmas dinner of chancho a la parrilla (grilled pork) and enjoyed the rest of the day as a family.

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I want to thank God first for everything He has given us. I thank him for my life, this ministry, for my family and all of the Girasoles boys at our home.

We want to wish all of our friends, prayer warriors, volunteers and faithful supporters a blessed year shared with family and full of peace and joy through the unconditional love that God so freely gives us. May you have a wonderful 2015. Thank you for being a part of our family here in the Sacred Valley.

Greetings,

Hector and Maritza
Directors – Girasoles Sacred Valley

A Change in Scenery

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Michigan: where God painted the lakes and carved the land to remind us we’re always in the palm of his hand.

Earlier this week Billy and I arrived to Metro Detroit for our first furlough/home ministry assignment since we moved to Peru. As always, the week prior to traveling was hectic. A few days after returning from installing a clean water system in Kusi with a team from Living Waters for the World, Billy had the Girasoles house directors come to Lima for a 3-day training and planning for 2015. In addition to helping with the training, I spent quite a bit of time at immigration to renew my residency for another year before we left (sounds ironic, I know) since it would expire soon. We also spent a day at Hope House where we helped them inaugurate a new classroom at the home where the girls can study.

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We’re finally taking that “longer trip to the States” that we have told many of you about and was also postponed a few times in the past. Unfortunately this doesn’t mean that Billy’s application for Peruvian citizenship has been approved, we’re still waiting for that to finish…

We will be in the States until the beginning of February. During this time, we are raising support for the Girasoles boys ministry in addition to spending time with friends and family. Scripture Union is still facing a deficit for the future and we are working to grow our supporter base to be able to further the ministry.

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Summer season, Part 2

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We have officially closed the books on the summer volunteer season.

Both July and August were filled with trips to the different homes. We headed to Kusi, Puerto Alegría and Ica to spend time with the Girasoles at each home and assist with the volunteer groups and plus we were able to travel together on many of our trips which always is nice.

This summer we took part in leading Vacation Bible School programs, shared the mission and vision of the Girasoles program with volunteers, mentored the older Girasoles boys as they look towards the future and assisted with general maintenance and some new construction at our different boys homes. Instead of writing much more, we’ll share our most recent travels through photographs:

Luis, one of the boys in Puerto Alegría that I first met in 2008 when he was 4 years old
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Jacobo & Romario – Puerto Alegría and Iquitos
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Ticket from one of many trips to Kusi this season.
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José and Andres – Kusi
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Summer season, Part 1

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We are about halfway through the busy summer season of short term teams. So far, I have been to Kusi three times, Ica three times, Kawai, Cusco and Puerto Alegría in the span of about 6 weeks. Billy has been to Kusi twice, Ica three times, Cusco three times and Kimo. Needless to say, it has been a lot of traveling.

Despite the many hours on buses and planes, the destination is always worth it. At each destination we find familiar faces, friendly hugs and smiles and we pick right up on where we left the conversation the last time we were there.

I’ve had two really great groups in June. The first was a team of 8 women from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. We started their 2 week Peruvian journey in Kawai working on painting the playground and also visited a school in nearby Cañete with Scripture Union’s schools ministry. It was an all-girls elementary school so the team shared about the importance of friendships and what it means to be a good friend.

Making friendship bracelets at an all-girls school in Cañete
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From Kawai, we headed south to Ica where we spent 4 days playing with the Girasoles at the home. We went on a caminata (walk) with the older boys to the Bosque de Piedras, a “stone forest” not so nearby the home, explored the tall sand dunes at the nearby Huacachina oasis, had a movie night with the kids on the patio under the stars and delivered free water like we do with most groups to a poorer area of the city.

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Changed Plans & Unexpected Opportunities – Part 2

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This is a continuation of the first post, Changed Plans & Unexpected Opportunities – Part 1

Also thanks to Billy’s delayed naturalization to become a Peruvian citizen (missed that story?), we were able to travel to Kimo and Ica with a small group from Scotland and England for two weeks.

In the 12 years that I have volunteered/worked with Scripture Union, I have only been to Kimo four times. I can’t tell you how many times I have been to Kusi or Puerto Alegria, but I’ve only been to Kimo four times – in 2001, 2008, 2011 and this trip. Billy has been many, many times through trips with Ward Church and then while working here, but for some reason it just wasn’t on my itinerary very often.

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