Here in Peru the weather is much different than that of my good old homeland in the marvelous Pacific Northwest. I still am not accustomed to the fact that I break a sweat just sitting on a log in the shade.

                For the past 6 months I have been living here in the jungles of Peru. I have come to accept the fact that each and every day I will walk around followed by a trail of my own sweat. But now all of that has changed. The rainy season, which was supposed to start back in October or November, has finally arrived. We still have many hot days, but they are dispersed in the midst of hours and days of rain – tropical rain. Some people are depressed and walk around in soggy clouds of gloom, but the neat thing is that with all the rain, nobody wants to be outside.  This means that people just like to chill inside and visit.

                On one of my last house visits, after finishing my health class, I got up to leave. The lady looked at me in horror. “You want to go out in that rain?”

                I told her I didn’t really mind the rain at all and once again moved towards the door. But my reply didn’t satisfy her.

                “No,no,no. You must stay inside my house where you will be warm and dry. The rain will pass.” Not wanting to be rude, I consented and we had a lovely chat.

                The rain never did stop, so I eventually just braved the storm and dried out when I got back to my house. In my house I found the same cheery attitude. Everyone was chatting and laughing despite the gloominess attempting to penetrate our walls. That’s kind of how life is. We are constantly surrounded by problems threatening to penetrate a good day. But the good thing is we can choose whether to have a good attitude or a bad; whether to sit and enjoy each other’s company or complain about the rain.

Mindy Schreven

Project Nurse

The start of a new year

 

Many people put lots of emphasis on thebeginning of a new year. Many people make New Year’s resolutions, new goals,new diets, new friends, and try to start a new life. For me, this is a goodopportunity to take time to reflect on the past life and to dream about theupcoming year.

                Thispast year brought many unexpected changes in my life. God brought me down toPeru. The student missionaries and the people down here have changed my life aswell. They all have taught me so very much. I hope and pray that my life willnever be the same. This year, 2010, will bring lots of changes for me as well.I’ll be moving back to the States. First of all, my close friend is gettingmarried this summer. Secondly, I will be leaving a lot of friends to attend anew university to further my education. They are many changes to look forwardto or to dread and worry about.

                WhenI start to worry about what is going to take place in the future I try to stopmyself and remember the Bible verse found in Matthew 6:34. It tells us not toworry about tomorrow, but to focus on today. Tomorrow will come whether we likeit or not.

                Ibelieve as Christians it’s important for us to focus on the moment, to live ineach moment, and to be content where we are in life.  If we always focus on the future we will neverbe content with the present, always thinking that “the grass is greener on theother side”.  We will never be contentand happy if we think that way.

 

A letter to the church in Philip

 

In the letter Paul sent to the church inPhilip he told them that he has learned to be content in every situation.(Phil. 4:11-13). No matter how rough life is or how much he’s looking forwardto change and the future, he is content with the now.

                Oneof my families has twin daughters, 6-years-old. They are some of the happiestgirls that I have ever met. They are always smiling and laughing…always! Eventhough they live a hard life at home without a father, no running water,sharing a bed at night, and not having lots of clothes to choose from, they arehappy and content. Yes, it could be because they don’t know of another life butthey are happy just the same.

                Wecan learn a lot from these two little girls. No matter the circumstances thatwe find ourselves in, what conditions we live in, we can do our best to behappy and content and to live in the moment. As the year is beginning we havenew opportunities to start to live in the moment. Cherish the people around us,spend time with these we love, make new friends, strengthen our relationshipwith Jesus, and learn to be content and happy no matter what this year maybring us.

Lauren Kelley

Project Nurse

 

I was in my scrubs again, light blue, shirt a slightly different shade than the pants, but who really cares when you’re out to change the world? Walking through the breezy roads of “17 de Septiembre” (17^th of September), which were covered in an inch of powdery dust, I felt the excitement of the medical clinic begin to well up inside. This clinic was especially exciting to me because of two remarkable people who had come, two people who I have loved my entire life, my parents. My father, Dr. Edred Vizcarra practices medicine in our small town of Ronan, Montana and my mother was a nurse and sometime later the owner of a beautiful Christmas/art gallery where I spent many great years of my childhood. I couldn’t wait to see them in action. I continued my walk through the village, stopping at every home to invite the residents to stop by the little house that would serve as our clinic site for the week. We had 15-to-16 of our workers squeezed in a tiny two-room home performing blood tests, triage, registrations, and examinations. And in the midst of all the chaos I was proud to see my parents holding their own and examining patients thoroughly but quickly.  Seeing them work reminded me once again of why I am here. I came to work hard and be a part of a project that changes lives physically and spiritually. That first day we saw 160 patients and helped at least that many every day for the next 4 days, a great start for the campaign that will continue until late March. After an extremely successful clinic I’d like to say thank you to my mom and dad. Thank you for giving the best of yourselves to the underclass of Peru, the people I’ve come to love and care for. Thank you for spending time in the world that I live in and adapting so well to bird-like mosquitoes, beds made out of wooden planks, and skin that never gets clean from the dirt. Thank you for teaching me that the most I can do in life is give it to others and for giving your talents, time, and money to serve in Peru.

 

I love you and I’ll see you soon,

 

Andrew

It was almost eerie for Eduard Mercado to listen to the man speak. He wondered whether to believe him, and then decided he should. The man was the father of 4 children who lived in a small tin-roofed home with his wife. The two nights before, he claimed he had a vision. “A young man named Eduard will come to your home,” God had said in the dream. “Please listen to him.” The next night the man again had a dream. “The seventh day is the Sabbath. Guard it.” The following day there he was, a young Peruvian Bible worker making his way towards the family’s house. He introduced himself as a friend and as a Seventh - day Adventist. The man was astonished and immediately told Eduard of the dreams he witnessed. This Sabbath the entire family will be baptized as they start a new life, regarding the Saturday as God’s Sabbath.

Eduard Mercado
Bible Worker

    Their paddles brushed through the water, tickling the surface and making small ripples that bounced off the edges of the river bank. Mindy Schreven, Martin Corona, and Kevin House with their new Peruvian friends Joel and Mario crept down the waters on a clear but very relaxed mission. They were going to go fishing. Equipped with a spear, a net, and a few antique fishing poles the five of them searched out the scaly creatures. But of course, as they shouted and laughed the fish swam away and by the end of the day they had captured only 4 fish. But the trip was less about the fish and more about building relationships. They docked the boat near an old deserted home and searched out a new prey, fruit. They ate around 30 guavas, a long slender fruit with a juicy-white flesh covering its dark-purple seeds.     Towards the end of the day, when their stomachs were full with jungle fruit, the passengers climbed aboard and Martin reluctantly accepted his elected position as captain. They snaked all the way home, laughing hysterically each time they were forced to push off the river bank before becoming stuck. For Mindy, it is these moments that make her excited to serve in Peru.
    “I feel like I have two Peruvian brothers,” says Mindy. “I absolutely love Tupac; I could live here for the rest of my time.”
    Mindy is currently teaching various public health topics to about 20 students. The number is smaller because of Tupac’s size but is allows her to teach more in-depth about subjects such as nutrition. She extended the previous 1 nutrition lesson into 4 separate lessons that dig deeper into health issues. Other improved topics include vitamins, water, snacking, healthy weight, massages, vegetable washing, teeth brushing, hand washing, etc. Though it is hard to tell them to eat more vegetables, which are hard to come by in Tupac Amaru, her students seem be responding well.
    “They ask questions and are excited,” says Mindy. “People are understanding the importance.”
    At first, these same excited students were somewhat stand-offish. You had to “dig into their little lives” according to Mindy. She noticed an incredible change when mothers and children began to complain to her.
    “You didn’t visit me!” they’d say.
    “But, I visited you in the morning and we already had your lesson.”
    “Yes, but then you walk past my house again in the afternoon and didn’t visit me!”
    Now Mindy is finding more time to stay and talk to the people who enjoy her visits. One woman enjoys the visits so much that both Mindy and Brittany Gimbel, the nurse assigned to her home, come to teach and talk with her.
    “With these people, if you don’t build up relationship they won’t pay attention to you,” says Mindy.
    This week she is finishing her lessons on nutrition and will begin discussing vitamins and water next week.

Mindy Schreven
Nursing/Public Health Team

    Hannah Rodriguez and Deborah Roquiz walked along the sloping road, returning back from a long morning of classes in the town of Yerbas Buenas. Hearing the distant hum of an approaching vehicle, they didn’t think anything of it until it slowed next to them. It was a man, a taxi driver from Campo Verde traveling back home with his wife and son. He offered them a ride which they gladly accepted. As they continued down the road, now at a much quicker pace than before, the family began to talk to them. In broken Spanish, the two explained their jobs as missionaries and volunteer teachers at the local schools. The man was completely surprised.
    “Why would you volunteer to do that?” he asked.
    As they drew closer to Campo Verde the family expressed their appreciation for the two missionaries. It was wonderful, they believed, that they would volunteer to teach and influence the people in Peru. As the small family drove away, the two were left with a gratitude for a free ride into town and the assurance that they were doing something good.
    Hannah describes this week of teaching as “sporadic”. In Los Pinos they are preparing for standardized tests and therefore are not having usual classes. In Campo Verde the electricity went out, making the night classes for adults impossible. In Yerbas Buenas the school had invited a different school to enjoy a day of games and sports, thus canceling all classes for that day. All of this in addition to the usual problem of absent teachers and students made for a week of hit and miss teaching.
    Hannah made do, though, with her class consisting of two children (all the others were sick), by playing red light, green light in English and practicing verbs like “to see”. The classroom atmosphere seems like it changes every day according to Hannah.
“Sometimes they’re rowdy, sometimes they’re calm,” she says.
    But with all the changes and inconsistencies of class, the community ambassadors at Km. 38 continue to make lesson plans and visit with members of the community. They, on occasion, meet people who have never heard of AMOR Projects and the work being done for the people of Peru.
    “I hope they’re seeing Jesus in me and in my actions,” says Hannah.

Hannah Rodriguez
Community Ambassador Km 38

The trees were absolutely covered with ants.
    “That made it all the merrier,” says Kevin House, an ecological worker at Km. 38.
    He and Hector Leon slowly approached the two large fichus trees that stood cautiously on the other side of the road. The ants began to scatter in fear as they started to rip long branches from the trees. When planting new fichus trees, one must not cut off the branches with a machete or the branch will dry up. You must rip off the branch for it to be useable. The week before, Kevin had picked up a machete to clear the tall grass away from the fence that runs along the front of AMOR’s property. Later, he and Hector dug a long series of holes to plant the young branches. The two returned to the trees three times in order to fill every hole that skimmed along the property line.
    Much of Kevin’s work follows this same pattern. This week, his partner Andrew Whitlow left with the dental team to document a campaign they are holding in a village over 15 hours away by boat. Kevin stayed busy, planting 42 noni trees, a tree that produces medicinal fruits. Last week, more vegetables were planted in the large garden that has recently been established.
    When asked if his week had gone by fast Kevin said, “They always go the same speed. You can say they go fast or they go slow. But the only thing that changes is the acknowledgement of each moment.”

Kevin House
Ecological Worker

To YOU,

Have you ever met the “in-a-pinch God?”  Have you ever been part of a miracle?  Have you ever seen God do something that seemed impossible?  We ran out of black ink in our office printer out in the Peru jungle.  Tara removed the cartridge to try and refill it, but somehow it didn’t seem to work right.  The printer, as you may imagine, is a vital part of project administration...and a printer with no ink is fairly worthless.  Or so you might think.  The crazy thing is that even without a black cartridge installed, our printer kept printing important papers with black ink.  Coincidence or miracle?  You tell me.

AMOR Projects has a huge dream, big plans.  We have many ministries reaching out to touch others and meet needs on varying levels including those of health, education, friendship, and spirituality.  Progress towards our ministry goals is slow and tedious.  This school year we are enormously blessed with 20+ volunteers on our team, working alongside 9 dedicated local Peruvians.  With this motivated workforce, there are many goals that can be accomplished, pending the funding to allow them to happen.

Unfortunately, our donation base has been slowing.  Although funds are decreasing, needs are growing.  As a natural result, we have found ourselves in a tight pinch, unsure of where funding will come for next month’s operations.  God has miraculously provided the needed funds to meet our expenses for this month, but we aren’t sure how we will be able to meet the upcoming needs in December and beyond.  I know this project is God’s, not ours.  I know that you have been and are a vital part of making our ministry a reality, be it through your prayers, time, or resources.

Today, I want to invite you to make a special financial gift to AMOR Projects if you are able-and to seriously consider becoming a regular or monthly donor.  God can make the impossible happen.  If He can make a printer run without ink, he can provide the desperately needed funds to make ends meet.  We invite you to be a part of making this miracle happen.

Yesterday was the Sabbath and I guess I didn’t have time to write in my journal. The baptisms were today. There were 32 people who got baptized. It was an all day event. There must have been close to 150 people there to watch. I was on crowd control with the niños, children. It was done inside the church with a big kiddy pool as the baptism tank. I love hanging around the little kids and quite enjoy playing the games were they say something (or point somewhere) and say it in Spanish, then ask “como se dice?”,”How do you say that?”, and I’m able to say the word in English. That game could go on for hours. By the time church was done, it was around 3:30 p.m.  We made hay stacks for lunch, keeping the Adventist tradition alive.  At night we had game time when all the children and some parents came to play games, all the games consisted of music and motions of sorts.  Every game we made a huge circle and would stand. There were about 70 people and 20 would go in the middle. When the music started, they would run in circles like sardines in the middle. When the music would reach a certain part, you would stop too and pick a person to do a little jig, or the “quack quack” dance, etc. The person in the middle would switch places with the person chosen and the whole process would start over again.  It was fun; I burnt a lot of calories because I was always chosen.  It was a good day.

Lindsey Hawkins

Nursing Team

There is an ever-present need for doctors. I want to be the one to fill that need. I am continually drawn to the field of medicine for many reasons. Firstly, it provides a means for my continued professional growth within a sphere that is devoted to accurately meeting the physical needs of humanity. Secondly, it is a profession that lends versatility, flexibility, and specialized knowledge as means for greater service—all valuable and essential qualities in my personal mission to be able to restore wholeness and peace in whatever place or capacity I may need to be. In today’s global stage, I want to be able to provide a valuable service that is unrestricted in its ethnic, socioeconomic, or political scope. Furthermore, it meets my desire for a lasting purpose in the continued pursuit of knowledge and understanding, and provides a platform for education and advocacy, all vital elements of treating illnesses on the individual and communal levels.

Since August, I have been pursuing this life of service by living in the surrounding jungle region of Pucallpa, Peru, as a community ambassador for Touch of Love, Ambassadors Medical Outreach and Relief Projects. My main responsibility has been to teach English and music at four neighboring villages to students in grades kindergarten to secondary school. This has provided meaningful first encounters with the field of education as well as a ready vehicle for improving my fluency in Spanish. With language as an essential tool of information gathering, I have been immersing myself in order to better understand Spanish-speakers and how in turn to be understood. Also, this has already begun my own education in learning how to survey and identify real needs as I go about visiting the home situations of my students. 

While I may not yet have the mental resources of a doctor, I am learning to use what I already have to improve the lives of those around me. Whether that be through teaching English as a second language, or teaching kids how to read music, playing an instrument, singing a new song, or enriching their lives with role models from the Bible. I am also learning that serving others often requires hard work and a forward-outlook on life.  In order to continue serving with all my heart, I have to believe that what I am doing matters and is making small positive changes each day.

  Supplementing this work, I have also had the occasion to be involved in providing care at free medical, dental, and eye clinics campaigns in the more congested areas closer to the city of Pucallpa, Peru. One such area, called “Invasion,” is literally just that: an organized invasion of thousands of people moving in from other areas around Peru to stake land. It is about two years old and rapidly growing. Every week there is a new house being built as the news of free land spreads.

My first medical clinic involved scrubbing down to take blood pressure of adults, and measuring the weights and heights of kids. This allowed me to witness the overwhelming amount of people eager to see a doctor. Every morning, people would be lining up as early as three o’clock in the morning to be first in line, and by the end of a long day, after having seen 150 or so patients; we would still have a line of people remaining to be seen. With only one doctor in the morning and two in the afternoon, the wait was long and intensified by the hot, crowded room full of crying kids and people anxiously sitting together like canned sardines. It was one of those times when I would have taken out my violin to alleviate the burdensome atmosphere. But since I did not bring my violin, I decided to gather the kids around for a game. This brought laughter in the place, and relieved the parents of their crying kids. I also noticed that some kids were extremely dirty from the dusty roads and the unavailability of water. Hence, I organized a hand and face-washing health lesson to the delight of all.

During the eye clinic campaign a couple weeks later, I assisted with examining eyes and fitting people with eyeglasses. While we did not have the means to correct the predominating occurrence of cataracts, it allowed me to see what a common occurrence it was for people as young as their thirties in this area. We gave them the best help we could, whether that was corrective eyeglasses or information on their eyes. Nevertheless, helping to provide clearer vision was a memorable opportunity for me. Communicating the whole while in Spanish, I learned to find out what prescription they needed as well as answer any questions they may have about their eyesight. Meanwhile, these one-on-one brief encounters gave me a first-hand account of the literacy rate (about every eighth person did not know how to read well), and general information about their living situation, such as where they worked and how many children they supported. We saw about 120 patients each day for three days from early morning to late afternoon.

Medicine's most appealing quality is its ennobling culture of service. While other professions provide services, medicine provides the mental tools for how to specifically assess and treat problems that hinder human growth and prosperity. What other profession fosters the heightened mental acuity necessary for addressing the needs of your neighbor? What other profession necessarily transcends cross-cultural and socioeconomic barriers? Amidst the field of medicine, I find my niche as one who is passionate about caring for the physical needs of others in the work of restoring peace in the world. For those who love to care will look out for people in need of care, and steadily work towards improving the well-being of the world around them.

Deborah Roquiz
Community Ambassador