2016 (Aug-Oct) 2nd Mission Trip (7 of 7) – Anniversary, Winding down & Departure
16 October, Sunday – This was one big day.Might take me awhile to tell it all, and definitely I can’t show all the pictures here in the blog, so if you want to see many more from this day (and there will be many more), please click on any photo that I do show here and simply select next or previous.Today was a culmination of a few things. The mission youth have been practicing a correographed dance routine to go with a Christian song, and today we get to bus them into Ica to perform it. Exciting stuff for us here at the mission.
lso, today is our own celebration of three years being opened as a Mission. We made the decision way back in late 2013 to finish the first floor rather than do what construction projects of this magnitude would normally do and continue to build up and finish down. This caused some challenges through the years but we were ever so wise (or just responding to God’s plan) to do so. We have so many memories, lives touched, friends made, families related, services given, lessons taught and learned. It’s been a great three years and many more are planned.
Before and between these two major events (busing to Ica to perform and anniversary celebration at the mission) we had our 3rd floor ‘soft roof’ crew show up and work to complete the fabric portion of the installation. We left the crew working on it
Had a lot of fun on the bus ride to Ica which is only 15 kilometers from the mission, but going to El Shaddai church on the west side of Ica makes that distance about 17 to 18 kilometers. Half the distance is by gravel / dirt road, since the bus driver chose to angle the route west toward the Pan American Highway and then south to the west side of Ica to the church. (One of these days, I will try to map all these dirt road routes from the Mission.)
We arrived and enjoyed a very spiritual worship time, getting there before the bulk of the church showed up. At the conclusion of the worship, the youth were taken next door to the school for youth service, to rejoin the main church body after the sermon. Pastor Martin was not here today as he is traveling in the United States, so there was a guest pastora in his place. After the collection, the youth were brought back in and the performance began. I was especially impressed how first Marianna did an announcement, then Rosycela seemed to be the main leader of the dance group. It’s like watching your own children when you see these kids perform who you know so well. We had a great time, took a group picture afterwards, missing strategically one of our missionaries, Yareni, who was taking the picture.
After the performance, El Shaddai treated the kids to a sandwich and punch before we boarded the bus to return to the Mission. We had a chance for many different photos, a few shown here. One is with Elvia Pow Sang, who was with the kids on stage performing the choreography with them. Elvia is a very spirited OANSA volunteer from El Shaddai and the kids love her immensely. She even has a fairly good grasp of English as she attempts to communicate with me! God bless her servants heart. But our day was far from over. After a very ‘spirited’ bus ride home from Ica to the mission (see short video), we arrived and saw a whole new finished soft roof on the mission. Was great look to see the roof finally done after more than a year of having it framed but not finished. Loved it!!! Lots of ideas going through all of our heads as to how to make the most out of it. “Teen center” keeps coming to mind, rec area, ping pong, air hockey, concerts, etc. Something for the 13-19 year olds since they are beyond OANSA age. Exciting times ahead.
Evening came and we had about 60 people for the 3rd anniversary worship and service. We also had about 8 of the 15 Oansa kids who performed in Ica, repeat their performance at the Mission. Another treat was a good number of them memorized Psalm 23, which is Lily’s favorite.
I made a video on the life of the mission with many of the people over the years, prepared for the celebration, everyone applauded to it. Later we had a cake and took a lot of pictures. I will encourage you to click on the one photo of the Sanchez’s & Silverthorns and then visit next or previous to review them all, instead of posting thumbnails here. Also, we made an album on facebook that you can click here. Anyway, this was one full day, that we will cherish forever.
17 October, Monday – With the mission being closed on Mondays, giving the Sanchez’s their only day off, we actually had a light day.
We went into town to do some shopping at Maestro to mainly pick up some supplies for Abel who is finishing Maria’s house with water hookup, tiling bathroom and installing two sinks, a commode and a shower head. After we got to town we called Abel to meet us as he was going to give us our transportation back with the supplies. While there I insisted that we also get the electrical tubing to add two lights on the 3rd floor where we just got a soft roof installed.
While there, we experienced my personal fourth (4th) earthquake down here in the three months of this trip. It was great enough, striking twice, for the store personal to ask everyone to move to the parking lot. They recognized my wife and asked her where her American husband was (I was in electrical while she was in plumbing). You know you are shopping too much at the same place, when they know you and your partner that well!
With all of those supplies, we also picked up another mattress at a store next door. Loaded up, we headed back to the mission. Abel not having any ropes to tie the mattress down, we just shoved it in the back and he put a box of tile on it … wrong move. We bounced that box out of the truck about a third of the ride home, loosing quite a few tile. Oh well, we picked up the pieces. Abel didn’t get much done, just delivering the material for tomorrows work.
Took a few pictures of the photo wall that was made for the anniversary celebration yesterday. We have been adding more photos to it. It is a great delineation of many of the things going on at the mission. Excuse the bad panoramic shot, as it is not a warped wall at all
18 October, Tuesday – With our time at the mission running out, Julio and I wanted to tackle the wiring work we needed to do on the 3rd floor so we got to work installing all the tubing Lily and I bought yesterday. Not sure if we will have time to actually run the wires, in fact we will need to buy some additional wire to do so, as well as the actual light fixtures. At this point we are thinking that will be done by Julio after we are gone.
Before the day was done, we had our youth knitting day for the week as well. Interest continues strong in knitting and crocheting learning and creating with both the youth and adults.
Later this evening we had weekly bible study at the mission where Julio had me teach tne 2nd chapter of John. We had a good showing. We have so many chores and final items to work out, didn’t know if I would have a translator in Lily to do this. But we made a showing and it turned out well. We definitely need to send down some additional gospels of John when we come back.
After the bible study, we made a delivery to Estrella’s grandmothers home in Invacion. She was the home made of a lot of plastic, which needed replacement, that I wrote about awhile back (last blog on October 12). We made a purchase of plastic, about $8 worth, and also had a few old doors that she could use as well. So, in the dark of night from the back of the mission we made a late delivery of these materials to a very appreciative household. Estrella, who is a regular at our mission, lives there with her parents and grandmother. So many homes that we would love to help improve. We are talking to YWAM in the USA to see if we can come up with a team effort on this need.
19 October, Wednesday – Winding down, as we were planning to return to Lima tomorrow, but delays at completing Maria’s house by Abel has us postponing till Friday. Today, we had a regular choir practice, run by Yareni. We did take a few pictures of Maria’s house, which also confirmed the addition of windows and doors by Miguel. Looks like Abel will do the bathroom tile work tomorrow.
20 October, Thursday – We are committed to leave for Lima tomorrow on a 2pm bus, so we are hustling to see what else we can complete. Antonio Wong had built himself a small kitchen in the back of the mission and it was too large for our new building that is going up, and being that it was not made very professionally, we set on replacing it with parts from the casita that we dismantled. Turned out pretty good actually.
Although these pictures don’t show a door, Julio even added that. The exterior wall needed us to cut in a window since it was a bit dark inside without doing it. But overall turned out good.
We finished this project with enough time to actually get to work on the electrical wiring on the third floor. Julio had made a run to town to get the mission wire and a few other items, so we had everything we needed to do it. We quickly got ready to go to Altura with a lot of clothes and sandals to give away. We have a bible study up there weekly, but this time it was supposed to be a outreach to give away a lot of clothing, and hopefully have a broader study with more people. Net result was that the Outreach took up all the time as a surprising number of people showed up.
We were sure to remind all the people of how close the Mission was, and Julio gave out a flyer he had made that detailed what we are doing there which now includes knitting/crochet schedule, as well as OANSA, church services, bible studies. I told Julio to add ‘Cine night’ as we are the closest theatre around! Also we will soon add a teen schedule hopefully, with the new 3rd floor, we hope to furnish it with teen attractive things (pingpong, air hockey, music, tables and chairs and more). We certainly can use more clothing, shoes, spanish books, and more donations as we can’t bring down enough items to meet the demand.
We had a wonderful outreach overall. Afterwhich we returned to the mission for our last night. Shortly afterwards, Maria and her two children (Luciana & Jose) showed up to give us a goodbye. We shared a lot of hugs and love with this family that spends so much time at the mission. Luciana & Jose took turns seeing who could fit in one of our suitcases to come to San Diego.
21 October, Friday – We had a busy morning preparing to leave the Mission. We finalize our packing, our discussions with Sanchez’s, our chore list. Lots of internet problems to be worked out at the mission with our provider. Abel is finishing up the tile and plumbing over at Maria’s home, but said he’s bringing us lunch with some home cooking. Since our bus leaves at 2pm we need to get on the road no later than 1:30p if not sooner. We are running to get to the door when they show up with some great cooking. Loved it. Pork, corn, potatoes and beans and great companionship.
After the lunch we got on the road but made one stop at Maria’s to take a few photos of the nearly finished new kitchen and bathroom. Tile is done, as well as installation of indoor toilet, shower and two sinks, kitchen & bath! Hallelueh! What a great accomplishment that took two trips to accomplish. We thank all those that contributed to this effort.
We left Maria’s and Abel and Edwin gave us a ride to town as well to catch our bus, and we barely made it in time but we did. We had a good bus ride to Lima, couple of unfinished movies, and got to the Miraflores LAMA apartment around 7:30pm. Refreshing to get caught up on the blogging on the internet, with the good connection.
22 October, Saturday – Hoping for a relaxed day to catch up on this blog here in Lima, while Lily has a 50th reunion with many of her high school friends this afternoon. We have a lot of chores to do here in Lima for a few days, before we return to USA the middle of the week.