Happy New Year to you all.   We had a nice little barbeque with Ricky (our host) and a father and son, Rick & Matt, here from Wisconsin to lead a short term mission trip for their church (the rest…

Peru has a high rate of people below the poverty range: 52% (under $58/month) and extreme poverty of 19% (under $32/month).   One-fourth of children under five are malnourished.   Many who live in the Andes Mountains come down the…

Our daughters wanted us to have a few small things from them for our first Christmas away from home, so they each sent us a package.   We told them not to send checks or anything valuable and that UPS…

Elsa is twelve.   She hasn’t seen her mother for 1 ½ years.   Her 19 year old sister works as a maid in a home in Lima and her 16 year old brother is away from home going to…

Childhood was delayed for a Peruvian boy named Jesus.   His mother worked all the time and left him to fend for himself on the streets.   A gang of boys would taunt him and began to abuse him.  …

Yesterday the ChildReach Ministry mission group and the 3 Cooleys put on a Christmas fiesta for them.   We came around lunch time to just hang out with them.   Then around 3:00 we started cooking a special meal for…

We joined Terri and his wife Brenda as they prepared for their mission trip group to come.   We took a taxi to their hotel and called a man who was coming with his VW van for them to use…

Poverty is common in Peru.   Many people come from the highlands to the cities along the desert coast to find work.   They live in shanty towns–some with no electricity or running water.   As we walk to our…

Today Ricky brought us to the American Embassy and we had to go through a metal detector and show our passports twice to be able to speak to an American administrator.   The embassy was large and beautiful and had…