Mes de Estrés

***MINISTRY DONATIONAS ANNOUNCEMENT***

 

AS OF TODAY, IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO MAKE TAX-DEDUCTABLE DONATIONS TOWARD MY MINISTRY HERE IN PUCALLPA, PERU, PLEASE WRITE CHECKS TO GLENROCK BAPTIST CHURCH, WITH ASHLEY WALDMEYER OR PERU MISSIONS IN THE MEMO.  PLEASE MAIL TO:

 

GLENROCK BAPTIST CHURCH

1815 DOBY'S BRIDGE RD.

FORT MILL, SC 29715

Wedding Planning

Walter has officially deemed December "el mes de estrés", which means "the month of stress" (sounds cooler in Spanish).  On top of the usual Christmas chaos, we, as you probably already know, have chosen January 4 as our wedding date, which means this whole month we have been wedding planning.  But of course, never settling for the simple life, on top of all that I have to deal with the complications of extra paperwork being a foreigner.  So far things are going okay as far as paperwork is concerned.  Walter and I just returned to Pucallpa yesterday from a trip to Lima to the U.S. Embassy to get my "negative marriage certificate" proving that I, in fact, do not have a husband hidden away somewhere in the U.S.  Now, the only thing that is missing is my brith certificate.  Please pray for this if you think of it.  In order to marry Walter I need a certified copy of my birth certificate issued within 90 days of the wedding.  My mom got that for me with no problem, but she mailed it over two weeks ago with a 10 day guarantee and it still hasn't arrived.  Please pray that my birth certificate does arrive, and that no on has stolen my identity in the meantime. 

Other wedding plans are coming along well. Raquel Sisley has been working diligently on my wedding dress (picture below) and I bought some rockin' shoes in Lima to wear with it (yes, they are blue...I did not accidentally put the wrong picture up). 

Ministry Planning

Here in Peru, we are now entering the summer months, which means no school.  This week my school, Ricardo Palma, is having its closing ceremonies and graduations.  Below is a picture of the nativity the school set up as a background for the kindergarten graduation pictures. 

The new school-year won't begin until March, so now is a great time for Walter and I to decide how we want to start off 2013 together.  Walter has recently joined the praise and worship band at church playing the drums.  We continue to visit the Brock family and help with schooling and errand-running and anything else that will help them progress more rapidly in their plans for building a camp and, of course, their house.  Beginning in March I will be teaching 5 high school English classes at Ricardo Palma.  It sounds like a lot, but it really doesn't take up as much time as you'd think (each class is only an hour and a half once a week).  So Walter and I are strongly considering joining the adolescent youth ministry team at church.  There are about 60 kids and right now only one couple in charge of them all, begging for some extra help.  Walter used to be the Sisleys' assistant youth director when the youth program was run solely by volunteers, before the official youth pastor came.  Then the youth group grew big enough that they had to split it into two age groups.  The youth pastor is still working with the 16-19 year olds, but they need help with the 12-15 year olds.  We don't want to overload ourselves, but we also both feel very strongly about getting involved in youth ministry.  Please pray that we will be wise in our decision making for this coming year and that we won't overfill our plates. 

That's about all the news I have for now.  Tonight I'll be enjoying the SAM Academy school play, "Christmas in Neverland" (a Peter Pan Christmas story) and tomorrow aftertoon there is a Christmas  gathering for independent missionaries that Walter and I have been invited to.  I hope you all are having as wonderful a Christmas season as I am.  Even though it's a stressful month, try not to get too caught up in all of the hassle and relax a little.  Love you guys!  God bless!

I'm Engaged!

Dear Everyone,

I’ve been back in Peru for almost two months already and, as usual, time is flying by!  Here’s a brief update on all that’s been going on…

MINISTRY

I guess you would say that my job titles here in Pucallpa are MK (Missionary Kid) discipleship and camp ministry.  I’ve been working mainly with the Brock family who are independent missionaries that have lived in Pucallpa for eight years.  They are working on developing a camp that they will call PETRA (I can’t remember what each letter stands for, but it’s a really cool acronym, I promise!).  Since they live so from town, they home-school their kids; but, unfortunately, since Vanessa (the wife/mom) has Fibromyalgia and is not always in the best of health, that becomes a little difficult.  That’s where I come in.  Walter’s been driving me to their house four days a week to home-school their two oldest kids Corynn (9) and Ethan (8) who are both in the 4^th grade (Vanessa home-schools Clara, the 6 year-old).  Below is a picture of Corynn and Ethan doing school-work.  Usually Walter sticks around to work on building or other projects with Vann (the husband/father).  After I’m done teaching I sometimes help out Vann and Walter, but usually I go with Corynn to work with the three horses they are trying to break to use for future camp activities. 

 

I still see the other MK girls that I fell in love with while teaching at SAM Academy last year.  I get to see them at church and playing Frisbee on Sundays as well as at prayer meeting at the SAM base on Wednesday nights.  For now I have too much going on to teach dance classes, but they still want to do things with me.  This Sunday they just asked if we could do a camp-out soon and I was invited to one of the girls' 13^th birthday party.  I also go to some of the events the school puts on like bon fires, movie nights and plays.  Even though I am not with SAM anymore I was told to keep my key to the gate and that I was welcome anytime J     

I’ve also landed a job in a Peruvian Catholic school teaching English to 4^th, 5^th and 6^th graders.  I go for an hour and a half three days a week.  Sometimes it’s tricky commanding a classroom in another language, but I’m finding that with prayer and guidance from the Lord, it can be done.  When the administrator, who is an evangelical Christian who attends my church, hired me, she made it clear that she would like to hire more evangelical Christians to infiltrate the school specifically for the purpose of incorporating biblical truths into the lessons…”stealth evangelism”, I like to call it J  I’ve attempted to do this so far by having a bible verse each week that we discuss and I give them the opportunity to memorize it in English for extra credit.  This week’s verse is Psalm 119:11.  Below is a candid shot of my 4^th grade class…they were too fascinated by a man fixing the leaky roof in the classroom to look at the camera.

 

PERSONAL

If you haven’t heard it yet, I’m telling you now: Walter and I are engaged!!!

There’s still a lot of logistics to figure out before we can set with certainty a date for the wedding, but it will at least be several months if not a year away.  We are actually in the process right now of buying a piece of property to build a house.  We talked with the current owner and then went to some official looking place to pay to research the property to see if it was “clean”.  Here in Peru, there’s actually a law that protects people who invade private property that is vacant.  The irony is, the Peruvian army has a large property in Pucallpa that was vacant and it just got invaded by hundreds of people who, with legal representation, split it up into lots of 10 meters by 30 meters to build homes.  The government is protecting these people from paying penalties for stealing government land.  Oh Peru!  You make no sense sometimes!  But if it is invaded land, the new inhabitants do not have the title to the land, which might cause problems for them in the future.  That’s why it’s important here to really investigate before purchasing land.  Below is a picture of the land invasion of the army’s property.

 It turns out that the property we want has a title and is debt-free to the bank.  Once we purchase it, we’ll have to work on tearing down an old small wooden house that is currently there and after rainy season is over in March we can begin building our small three-bedroom home we designed.  I think Walter intentionally designed a small home to ensure that I don’t really have the seven kids I always talk about having.  I tell him I’m joking but I think there’s still a very scared part of him that is just a little unsure, haha. 

 Even though I’ve been super busy since I’ve gotten here, I’ve still had plenty of time to have fun.  Below are some pictures from Walter’s 25^th birthday on October 12 and of us and some friends at karaoke night at our friend Caleb’s house. 

 

Thanks for reading this novel, haha.  I hope you enjoyed.  God bless!

The Snowball Reaches the Bottom of the Hill

Hello everyone!  I hope you're having a lovely summer!  Mine has been somewhat relaxing so far as I've now been home in SC for almost 3 weeks already.  This week, however, I'll be leaving to begin my travels to visit family and some supporting churches, making my way through Pennsylvania and all over the Northeast. 
But to update you on the anything-but-slow-motion last month and a half, I have some pictures to share.  I hope you enjoy them!  (Don't forget that you can click on the picture to see it bigger.)

First of all, being a group of the most fun and amazing teachers in the world, we often do special fun events for the school.  We did a "Christmas Extravaganza" in December and this April we did a school Luau!  In addition to great food and music, there were several games and competitions including hula-hoop and limbo competitions.  As you'll see in the third picture down, 10th grader Andrew surprised us all by winning the limbo competition! 



In late May we also had a Field Day for the kids.  (Here's a picture of me with my group of girls I worked with for the day.)



Beyond the usual mile run, long-jump, shot-put, etc., Micah planned a huge relay race at the end that included things like...

...spinning around in circles with your head on a bat... 

...finding a gumball in the bottom of a bowl of powdered sugar using only your tongue...

...and racing against the other team to run to the gate and back with a "human baton".

Sure there were first and last places, but everyone worked hard and were all winners in the end!

And then, of course we had our end of year Fine Arts Recital.  Some of the kids had been taking piano lessons from Miss Stephanie and dance lessons from me as well as learning monologues in drama class, so we decided to give them a goal to work for in each of these extracurricular studies and set a date for the recital.  In the end, every single one of our 21 students performed in some way.  Almost every single elementary and middle school girl was in one of the two hip-hop jazz dance classes I taught.  Below is a picture of the middle school girls posing after their performance and then a picture of me with all of the girls in my dance classes. 

I think one of the greatest things about teaching these girls dance is not only that they enjoy it and are learning about discipline and working toward goals, but that they are teaching me that you don't have to be perfect at something to use it for ministry.  God is concerned with a moldable heart more than flawless skills, and he has certainly used my limited knowledge and ability in dance to bless these girls and their families, giving me the confidence, not in myself, but in Him, to use me however he wills.  I fully intend to teach dance again next year and am even thinking about making this more of a ministry in Pucallpa sometime in the not-so-near but not-so-distant future.  We'll see what God has in store in his perfect timing. 

Thanks so much for reading, everyone!  I'll be sure to write again after I've done some traveling this summer.  I'm sure I will have a lot to say (as usual).  Thanks again and God bless!







A Quarter of a Century Old

5th Grade Student: Miss Ashley, how old will you be on your birthday?
Me: 25
Student: Oh...so you should be getting married soon, then, right?

I should really keep a record of those priceless quotes...there are so many!  But as I said in my quote above, I finally hit the mark: a quarter of a century!  Aaahhh!  I had an awesome birthday on April 30 and the whole weekend surrounding it.  It just so happened that May 1 is a Peruvian holiday so I had a 5 day weekend for my birthday. 

First I got to celebrate with my Peruvian family and friends.  We made pizza, ate "cake" (which was actually a lemon merengue pie, per my request), and played Pictionary (in Spanish, of course).  In Peru the tradition is that the birthday person's face gets smashed into their cake, and that's exactly what happened.  But here's the thing about merengue...it gets hard.  So even after smashing my face into the sugary-sweet whipped egg pie, there was not so much as a dent in the merengue nor a speck of food particle on my face.  My face just bounced right out!  And yes, then we did proceed to eat it...haha!  I don't have any good pictures of the face-smashing (it happened so quickly, they're all too blurry), but here are some other pictures of the evening.  (You can click on the photos to view them larger.)

This is me with Jimmy and Raquel Sisley, the couple from my church who has taken me in and who I visit in their home usually 2 or 3 times a week. They're such a blessing!

These are my awesome Peruvian friends that I spend most of my time with.  The back row, starting from the left: Caleb, Walter, Melanie (Sisleys' daughter), and Dick.  In the front: Carina, me, Luz, Guillermo (Sisleys' son).

Cutting my "cake".  Mmmmmm.... We had to make fun of Dick for this, because he is very much a Pucallpan, jungle guy.  He didn't like the pie because it was too sweet, but yet he eats worms!  You can't eat pie, but you can eat worms?!?!

 

On my actual birthday, the other teachers and I had planned to go with a missionary family on a river trip by boat down to one of the indigenous jungle villages for the day, since none of us had had the opportunity to do that yet.  But then we decided to change our plans when we learned that a man in a boat near that village had been assaulted and killed a few days before we planned to go.  So instead we boated through the Canyo, which goes from one lake (Cashibo) to another (Yarina) and then out to the Ucayali River, which is one of the three rivers that joins to form the Amazon.  It kind of reminded me of a small hiking trail cut out in the woods, except our trail was made of water and in certain places only wide enough for the boat to just fit through.  The vegetation you see coming up out of the water is called wama.  It's an annoyingly fast growing plant that grows so thick in rainy season (which we have just come out of) that you would think there is solid land underneath it, but there's not.  That's how boats are able to "cut trails" through it, simply by paddling through.  Below are some pictures I took from the boat.  In the last picture, the small structure you'll see is actually a shelter for crops when they're harvested.  Right now the water is still so high from rainy season, everything is flooded.  I would have more amazing pictures if my camera battery hadn't died 30 minutes into the trip...I'll try to plan a little better next time. 

Then, to top of the awesome birthday weekend, I came home to this:

"What exactly is that?" you might be wondering.  Why, it's a "laser" (a.k.a. yarn) maze preventing me from getting to my bedroom, of course!  A birthday gift from Reef, one of the 1st grade students who lives on the base.  Miss Stephanie (my roommate and fellow teacher) suggested decorating the hall with streamers, but Reef decided this would be cooler...he was so right!

And this lovely picture below, is another special something I came home to: home-made chocolate peanutbutter cups, compliments of Stephanie!  Such a good roommate and friend :)  They treat me well around here, for sure.

Well, thanks for checking out my blog!  I'll be sure to keep you updated on anything else that's going on.  May is going to be a very busy month with the winding down and wrapping up of the school-year and preparing to head home for the summer.  At least one more blog to come before I can hopefully see you in person.  Love you all!  God bless!

Changing the World and Flying in Planes

So a lot's happened in the last 2 months here...I'll try to recap as simply as I'm capable:
South America Mission had their annual Peru field conference in Lima (the capital of Peru) for a week in the beginning of March.  It was a great time for all the missionaries to get away from the work, relax, fellowship and get refreshed in the Lord.  The speaker was Mark Upton, the pastor of Hope Community Church in south Charlotte, NC.  The message that stood out most to me was that society changes from top down, not the bottom up.  Yes, it is important that we as missionaries pour into the lives of individuals, discipling them helping them meet their needs, but if we really want to see a societal and generational change, we need to seek out those individuals who have the potential to become leaders in society and disciple them.  Poor people will always show up at your door because they are aware they need help.  But the ones who will one day lead the poor need to be sought out.  With the U.S. presidential elections coming up this year, renewing my interest in politics and increasing my concern for, not only my nation, but for the world, this message really spoke to me and has been stirring my heart.  Peru needs to see some change, and I want to have a hand in that. 

The week after conference was a week of spring break vacation for SAM Academy.  I had originally planned to travel during this time and see more of Peru, but because of lack of extra cash and the need to relax a little bit and take it easy, I opted to come back to Pucallpa and hang out here instead.  We had a short term mission team from Alabama here that week, so I helped prepare and clean up for all the meals (so much for relaxing, getting up at 6:00 every morning).  But it was nice to be "home" without having to worry about "work".  During this week I got the opportunity to go out to the air base 15 km down the road and fly in a float plane (one that takes off from the water) over the jungle.  Below are some pictures. (Click on the pictures if you'd like to see them larger)

Me with retired pilot and SAM Peru field director Dave Simmons (left),

and the director of the SAM Air base and my pilot for the day, Jonathan Schmidt (right)

in front of the plane I got to fly in.

I got to fly with a fellow teacher at SAM Academy, Halie (left) and a Peruvian friend

who's been a part of the missions community for years, Walter (center).

Here's an overhead view of a village in the jungle that's been flooded during rainy season (November-March).  It's a pretty normal yearly occurance, but this year and last year the water levels have been record-breaking.  The people don't mind sleeping in hammocks hung over the lakes in their living rooms, but what gets to them is when their crops have been flooded and destroyed leaving them income-less for 2 years in a row. 

 People (not to mention all the other creeping, crawling creatures) live among those trees. 

Pretty crazy, huh?  Also pretty beautiful, though.

 Just before landing, I snapped a shot of the SAM Air base from the air.  This little peninsula is where over 50% of our SAM missionaries in Peru live...I am not one them, unfortunately. 

In other news, I have recently completely my 8 hour training course to be an official volunteer at Latidos de Esperanza (Heartbeats of Hope) Crisis Pregnancy Center!  I learned not only how to answer the phone and do the necessary paperwork with our clients, but was instructed on how to counsel a woman in crisis whether she has already made a decision she regrets or is trying to decide the next step.  I was especially given lots of material on abortion to share with the clients as it's such a common occurance in Peru.  I think the statistic was that there are 1000 abortions a day in Peru, even though it is technically illegal.  Seventeen percent of these abortions result in the death of the mother as well as child and even more result in permanent infertility for the mother.  The women whose fertility is not affected by the abortions often have up to 3 abortions before seeking couseling.  Wow!  A couple weeks ago a client came in while I was on duty.  She just turned 16 and was about to have a baby.  She had already had 5 sexual partners and even had an abortion at age 13!  This is shocking to me and to probably everyone reading this, but this is normal in Pucallpa.  Praise God that there are now 10 more volunteers who just completed training with me so we will have more workers to keep the pregnancy center open more hours.  And praise God for the existing volunteers who spent an entire day training to go to the public schools to give seminars in abstinence--something that has never really been taught in Pucallpa before. 

The uniform shirt I was issued to wear while working at the pregnancy center along with my certificate of completion of the training.  The tiny silver pin on the right collar (left side of picture) is to scale baby feet at 10 weeks gestation.  The baby is already a tiny little person.

That's all I've got for you this month.  I'll probably write one more blog (maybe two) before I'm home for the summer.  Currently, I'm scheduled to be home June 12.  I hope to see many of you for the few weeks I'm in the States before coming back to Peru for a second year.  I love you all!  God bless!

Thirsty, anyone?

Wow!  This last month has flown by (I think I say that every month!)  Time seems to never slow down here since I stay so busy with school Monday-Friday and then an afternoon activity every day, whether it be doing "Girls' Nights" with the middle school-aged missionary girls, working at Latidos de Esperanza (the crisis pregnancy center), teaching jazz/ballet dance classes to the missionary girls (I teach 3 classes a week now!),  the weekly SAM prayer meeting, or leading youth group for the missionary kids.  And if that's not enough, I've added something else to the week: Peruvian Bible study! 

That's right, after five and a half months of living in Peru, I have finally started up a Bible study with my Peruvian friends.  Last Friday was our first meeting and we sat and talked about what God has taught us through the lives of various Old Testament Bible figures for 2 and a half hours!!!  (Well, we also threw in lessons on Spanish slang words and Bible jokes in Spanish, but you get the point...it was great!).  We're planning to make it an every Friday night thing.  I'm so excited!  More speaking Spanish and growing in a deeper relationship with the Lord and with my Peruvian brothers and sisters are always a plus! I also get some good Spanish practice when I play ultimate frisbee on Sundays and volleyball on Tuesdays with Peruvian friends.  I know it sounds like a lot, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

Now, since you can rest assured that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, let me tell you a little bit about the side of the earth in which I am currently residing...

PERUVIAN CULTURE CORNER
Here are some fun facts about popular Peruvian drinks:

1) Inca Kola:  tastes kind of like liquified, carbonated banana Laffy Taffy.  Years ago, Peru was the only country that didn't vote Coca-Cola as the #1 drink of choice...Inca Kola won that vote!  Coca-Cola's solution: buy out Inca Kola! 

2) Pisco:  Peru's national drink, is a clear brandy distilled from fermented grape juice.  It's often used to make the popular mixed drink pisco sour, which consists of pisco, lemon juice, sugar, egg white (!), and bitters.  In recent years, Peru and Chile argued over which country pisco originated, but it was finally declared to be the drink of Peru!

3) Camu Camu: the juice of camu camu berries is bright pink and contains 40 times the amount of vitamin C you will find in a kiwifruit, which has 4 times more than you'd find in an orange!  This drink is very popular in Peru, where camu camu is a native fruit, and is now making it's way around the world (I hear it's becoming pretty popular in Japan).

 
4) Chica Morada: the purple corn drink.  This drink is a Peruvian classic, purple (or blue) corn ground up and boiled along with cloves, cinnamon, sugar, lime juice and fruits such as apple or pineapple.  It's actually been proven to be a natural energy booster as well as a good source of antioxidants!

5) Mazato:  yuca (a root native to Peru) and...are you ready for this?...human saliva!!!  That's right!  The indigenous people of the jungle make this "alcoholic" drink by fermenting yuca or corn with their own saliva.  Pretty disgusting, right?  What if I told you that one of the jungle missionaries in a village outside of Pucallpa has recently made a break-through with an indigenous group by joining them in a fellowship circle to drink this mazato with them...something no other missionary around here has dared to do before!  No?  Still disgusting?  Oh well...here's a short video clip of mazato being made, for your viewing pleasure (and in case you're wondering, yes, the people in Pucallpa do live in houses like the ones you see in this video).

Congratulations, you are officially even more cultured than you already were!  Until next time...God bless!

12 Grapes, Flaming Dolls and Driving in Circles

Happy New Year everyone!

It was so good to see many of you over the Christmas break for the nine days I was home!  I wish I could have gotten to see more of you, but my plans changed a bit after my car broke down only two days after I arrived back in SC.  Also, my computer got a virus while I was home so I was unable to bring it back to Peru with me, so my computer time is much more limited now as I'm borrowing my roommate, Stephanie's, computer or using the one in the library.  But even with those not so Christmas-y "gifts", I still was able to have an awesome time catching up with friends and family.  I got to meet my new nephew, Caleb, play with my niece, Megan, and see my not-so-little sister 5 and a half months along with her first baby, the soon to be Leyla Elizabeth :) 

Unfortunately, however, I had to fly back to Peru on New Year's Eve, but it was actually a pretty cool experience.  I was in Lima (the capital of Peru) when it hit midnight.  Even though I was in the airport, I was able to talk with some Peruvians in the customs line with me and later in my taxi about Peruvian New Year traditions.  This is what I learned:

1. It is important to eat 12 green grapes (I think someone told me you're supposed to sit under a table while you eat them, though I'm not sure the significance of that).  The twelve green grapes stand for 12 months of good luck in the coming year.

2. If you will be traveling a lot in new year, grab a suit case, throw it in your car and drive in 12 circles, and you'll be granted 12 months of safe travels. 

3. An interesting tradition is that they take their old clothes and put them on a life-sized doll, kind of like a scare crow, and set them on fire.  It's supposed to symbolize getting rid of the old to allow room for the new.  It was interesting to drive through the streets of Lima at 12:30 am on January 1 and have to dodge all the random flames in the streets left over from the lighting of the dolls at exactly midnight.  Apparently they have certain laws that prohibit where you can burn your dolls, but it didn't seem to me like anyone really acknowledges them. 

4. FIREWORKS!!!  Peruvian people LOVE fireworks!  You can't go anywhere on New Year's (or Christmas) without a spectacular fireworks display.  Even all the way until 3:00 in the afteroon on January 1, I was hearing fireworks in the distance.  They start at midnight and don't stop until there are no fireworks left to be found. 

So that's how I brought in the New Year.  Even though I was alone in an airport, it was pretty cool.  My taxi driver in Lima, Ricardo (I use the same one every time), asked about New Year traditions in the U.S.  Have you ever tried to explain the Times Square ball dropping event in another language to someone who's never heard of that before?  Well, this was the first time for me and I felt so lame!!!  We seriously sit around at home and watch a huge ball drop down to the ground and call that a celebration?  I kept saying, "I promise it's cooler than it sounds," but then wondered if it really is, haha!  I also explained that for some people it's important to have someone to kiss at midnight and that we typically make New Year's resolutions.  I don't think he was impressed, but I didn't feel bad.  I mean, eating grapes under a table? 

Anyway, just thought you might be interested to know how they celebrate here.  Below are some pictures of the last month (none from home since I don't have a computer to upload my pictures to yet).  The first one is of the SAM Academy students putting on the play "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever".  The second is of the SAM Academy teachers, my second family, having our first Saturday brunch of the New Year together. 

I hope you all had a Happy New Year and are continuing to do so.  God bless!