Kim, Shavonne and Debby's Visit - PHOTOS

August 13th, Kim, Shavonne and Debby, who just happened to be in the area, decided to drop in and visit for about 10 days... More truthfully said, they kinda went out of their way to come visit me (4361.1 miles out of the way). I hope they didn't come planning on having a time of rest and relaxation. I don't think they did. But, if that did happen to be the case, they were definitely greeted with reality once they stepped off the plane at the Jorge Chávez International Airport. Everyone knows vacations aren't supposed to be relaxing.

We sure didn't waste much time with such frivolous things as sleep... not when you've got a whole country to see in ten days. (Okay, so that's a slight exaggeration.) Nevertheless, we did take them to a lot of places, giving them a partially expedited tour of some of our most interesting sites here in Peru, including but not limited to, a visit to the Presidential Palace, the Congressional Museum of the Inquisition, Indian markets, city of Cuzco, the Cuzco Cathedral, the Inca fortress "Saqsayhuaman", Q'enqo, Pukapukara, Tambomachay, Qorikancha, MachuPicchu, and a walk on the moon. Okay, maybe not that last one. Notwithstanding, we were, indeed, able to do/go/see/experience quite a bit during the extent of their stay.

... Oh, and we took a lot of pictures. (Over 2,200 en totale.)

The girls also learned some phrases in Quechua while in Cuzco, which, in case you were wondering, was the language spoken by the ancient Inca Indians, and is still spoken as one of the official languages of Peru.
Rayquihuasamy (pronounced "rye-key-wha-sommy") = I'm hungry.
Ch'aquihuasamy (pronounced "ch|ockey-wha-sommy") = I'm thirsty.
Ospagarsunki = Thank you.
Yachayta munani runasimita = I want to learn more Quechua. :)

We spent four days in Cuzco - well, three days in the city and almost one full day (our return date to Lima) in the Cuzco airport as Peruvian Airlines had shut down all their flights for the whole day. We waited in the check-in line for close to five hours until PA bought us last minute tickets to Lima flying with LAN Peru. We lived in the airport for about 7 hours that day. If you would like to know more about that, talk to any one of the girls, Shavonne, preferably. You'll soon find out how much we love the Cuzco airport. :)

Cuzco, as a whole, was an incredible experience. Witnessing, first hand, the ingenuity of the Incan architecture was altogether astounding! Once again, ask Shavonne about it; she's an engineer. We got to spend Bro. Jaime's birthday at MachuPicchu, which was incredible, to say the least. It was a city cut out of the mountain. I find it difficult to try to describe. Suffice it to say, I completely understand why it is referred to as one of the seven wonders of the world today.

The tourism was great, but the best part (I think we can all agree on this) was the coca tea. :) I think Debby, myself, and Bro. Jaime enjoyed this part more so than Kim and Shavonne. We also got to enjoy bargaining with local shopkeepers over clothes, hats, knick-knacks, and such. (Well, I enjoyed it; Kim, not so much.) I bought, as gifts for my family, three hats, one from each type of alpaca wool: adult alpaca, baby alpaca, and "maybe" alpaca, :) as well as a lovely baby alpaca scarf for my dear sweet mother, whom I miss and love with all my heart and can't wait to see again!

One of my favorite things we did during their stay, truly, was playing board games together. I don't know how much they enjoyed it, but they were kind enough to humor me at least. J/k. :) I sure do miss playing family games. Masterpiece was a favorite with them, as was Clue. However, I think we all had the most fun playing Bible Pictionary on one of their last nights here. I've never before seen Bible phrases, themes and stories drawn in such strange methods as I did that night. We sure had a good time playing board games, even though Kim did whip us all almost every time... :) especially at Masterpiece, wow! She's a good gamer.

The girls also got to enjoy a small taste of what foreign missions is like. The day after they arrived, Sunday morning, we attended our home church (which is also the headquarters church for ICAP) located in San Felipe, Jesús María. That night, Bro. Jose Sotomayor took us to one of our annexes (daughter work) in Los Artesanos, another part of Lima. We had a great service; and as you will see in the slideshow below, the girls got to sing as a trio. They also got to sing in San Felipe the following Sunday... for both services. As you can imagine, they were pretty excited about doing that. Haha, J/k! I, in all honesty, had nothing to do with them singing, that was Bro. Nix all the way. :)

They really did seem to enjoy the songs that we sing here in Peru, however, as they copied down several to learn, for example, "Todo lo puedo en Cristo," "Yo me alegré con los que me decían a la casa de Jehova iremos" as well as several others. I, personally, can't wait to teach them to our own Spanish congregation when I return home.

The final service that they were with us, Sunday night, Aug 21st, was one of the most powerful and exciting services I have ever been in. Bro. Nix took his text from Mark 16:17-18 and preached about God's healing power. Once he had relayed the story of Peter and John at the temple, he made an invitation for any one sick person to come forward and receive their healing. Sitting on the second row on the left hand side from the pulpit, was an elderly woman, who happened to be in service with us for the very first time. When Bro. Nix made the invitation, she stood up very crouched-over like (she couldn't stand upright) and hobbled feebly up to the front, where met her "Peter" (Bro. Martín Reyes) and "John" (the rest of the 20 some-odd preachers together). She was dying from cancer. As they laid hands on her and began to pray, an extraordinary thing took place. After a couple minutes of prayer, the woman suddenly stood up straight, threw her arms high into the air and began to dance all over the front of the church. The Lord had, in a moment's time, done what trained doctors could not do, heal her completely from her cancer. To God be the Glory!

I took pictures of her rejoicing. You'll recognize it when you see it.

After the Lord had healed that first woman, several more miracles took place. I will briefly tell of one more such occurrence that took place that night. Enrique Tenorio, who had been seeking for the Holy Ghost for several years to no avail, had begun to suffer from heart problems. However, that night, when he was brought forward for prayer, began to speak in tongues as the Lord filled him with the Holy Ghost. He testified thereafter how he felt that the Lord had healed him at that same instant. Praise the Lord!

I also got a picture of him speaking in tongues as Bro. Nix held the microphone to his lips. :)

The girls left the following afternoon, August 22. I really enjoyed their visit, as we shared some great memories together.

Thank you so much girls for coming! It really meant a lot to me; and I sure do count it an honor that you'd spend your hard-earned vacation days with me here in Peru. I pray the Lord will bless you all very much for your blessing me, the Nixes, and the saints of Lima, Peru. I'm sure looking forward to seeing you all again at WCC in Fresno where we can reminisce about all the good times we had in Peru! :)

Please enjoy the following slide show of just a few (421) pictures taken from my camera of the girls' visit here: