A Love Story

Over a year ago, a young man began pursuing me, and to be honest, I was a little freaked out.  I had a job to do and rules to obey and a plane to catch back to the United States in just a few months.  In all honesty, I was overwhealmed with this young man's sudden display of...maybe not love at this point, but...interest in me.  Yet at the same time, I couldn't find it in my heart to reject him.  Something kept telling me to give him a chance.  And to be honest, I made the conscious decision to do so before I even felt ready.  But something pushed (or maybe pulled) me.  And it didn't take long before I figured out why I was so involuntarily magnatized to this man--his love reminded me so much of the love of Christ.  It was so pure and persistent.  He spoke to me in so many ways.  When he couldn't reach me with words, he showered me gifts.  When I became hesitant to accept gifts, he spoke with his actions.  One time when I was sick, he even spent 8 hours of a sunny Sunday afternoon sitting next to me on the couch stroking my hair while I did nothing but sleep.  Eight Hours!!!  And after I made that decision, I found that it took no time at all to fall in love.  And then I realized, that thing that was pushing me and pulling me at the same time, was the Lord.  He was pushing me from behind and pulling me from within that sweet, godly man, Walter, my now husband.

And I am happy to say that a year later, after over three months of marriage, I am not at all disappointed with the outcome of the choices that were made and the turn of events that God blessed us to be a part of.  I am blessed to have a husband who encourages and corrects me, who makes me laugh and who dries my tears.  The only person in the world who truly knows me with all my quirks and issues, and loves me despite and because of them.  On the other hemisphere of the world from where I grew up, he makes me feel like I'm at home. 

Things have been going very well for us since we got married.  We've been very blessed to be able to stay in a room behind Walter's dad's house until we can save enough to build our own house.  I've also been blessed that some of the ministry opportunities I was pursuing fell through because, although I am restless and love to work, I think God knew that a little break to just enjoy each other and go through the initial adjustments of marriage was what we really needed.  So since January, our marriage has been our main ministry, as we have been ministering to each other and seeking direction from the Lord as a couple as to near future plans.

We've also been doing a lot of paperwork.  I finally got my residence visa and Walter has applied for his visa to the United States and will have an interview at the U.S. Embassy at the end of April.  Please pray that all of this will go smoothly so that we can come to the states at the end of the summer.  I say it every time, but I truly mean it: thank you all so much for you love, encouragement, and support.  God bless!

Pucallpa Quiz

Sometimes life just seems so normal for me now here in Pucallpa that I forget that you guys back home don't know what it's like.  Forgive me for not being too descriptive in the past, but let me help give you a glimpse by presenting you with a quiz: How Familiar are You with Pucallpa?

1.  Please match the following sounds with the business/service they are associated with:
    
     A) Garbage truck                         a. man screeming into megaphone at 6:00am
     B) Ice cream man                        b. loud, obnoxious birdcall-like whistle
     C) Moto-taxi                                c.  children's music (similar to jack-in-the-box tune)
     D) Fruit vendor                            d.  cat-call whistle from vendor/driver to pretty ladies on street

(The correct answers would be A-c, B-b, C-d, D-a)

2. Which of the following paint colors is most popular for home and business decor?
     A) Hot pink
     B) Neon green
     C) Baby Blue
     D) Blood Red

(The correct answer is B, neon green!!!  Sometimes when I'm bored on the back of the motocycle I count the houses we pass that have neon green interior walls.)

3.  What months of the year mark summer in Peru?
     A) December-March
     B) March-June
     C) June-September
     D) September-December

(The correct answer is A, December-March, the months which, in Pucallpa, are known collectively as "the rainy season")

4.  Which of the following types of foods can you find in restaurants in Pucallpa? (select all that apply)

     A) Tacos                                 E) Fried Chicken
     B) Sushi                                  F) Lasagna
     C) Chinese food                     G) Hamburgers
     D) Pizza                                  H) Pulled Pork

(If you selected all answers, you're correct!  We actually have all of those things here in Pucallpa!  Granted, everything's just slightly different than we know it in the U.S., but it's still pretty tasty :) )

Well, that's all I can think of for now, but I will hopefully post some more later on.  I hope you all feel a little more acquainted with my home-town.  Keep an eye out this week for an actual update with pictures!  Take care and God bless!
    

Flash Mob Evangelism

On Friday, January 4, Walter and I were blessed to be able to share our wedding day with lots of friends and family.  Since my family and friends from the United States were unable to make it on such short notice and around the holiday season, my Peruvian family and friends stepped in to represent those who couldn't be there.  Below are some pictures (click them to view larger), but if you'd like to see more, you can check out my album "My Peruvian Wedding" on my Facebook account. 

Jimmy Sisley represented my Dad and walked me down the aisle

Tiffany, Celeste, Karina and Luz were my bridesmaids

Jean Franco, Salomon, Caleb and Dick were the groomsmen

Ethan Brock was the ring bearer, Melanie Sisley and Corynn Brock were the flower girls, and Clara Brock presented the Bible at the beginning of the service

Raquel and Jimmy Sisley were our "padrinos", kind of like matron of honor and best man

Walter's parents are Eduardo Tello and Gloria Tito

 

Me and my hubby :)

Vann Brock stepped in last minute to work the sound system and Vanessa

came early to help me with my hair and make-up

One crazy group of SAM Academy kids who made my wedding a blast 

More SAM Academy kids who graced the event with their presence

I'm still getting used to getting elbowed in the face every night while I'm trying to sleep but other than that married life is pretty good so far.  It's been an interesting first couple of weeks, though, as I was recovering from a pretty horrible sunburn on my legs that I got tubing down a river on January 1 and then later battling a stomach sickness.  But I'm doing okay now and after a month of holidays and wedding planning am ready to get back to work.  Monday was my first day back working with the Brocks in weeks and it was great!  Walter and I plan to continue going out to their farm to help out three days a week.  After talking we decided that it would be best if this year I don't teach in the Peruvian school (it's very stressful!), so I have already resigned from that position.  But my pastor asked if I would be interested in...get this...FLASH MOB MINISTRY!  How cool is that?!  For those of you who don't know what a flash mob is, it's basically when a large group of people (who have previously rehearsed a song or a dance) infiltrate a public place and spontaneously start performing.  Here's a video if you want to see an example.  Basically, the objective is to do a flash mob dance in the town square or somewhere where there are a lot of people, get their attention, and clear the way for Pastor Julio to preach to a brand new, non-church-going audience.  We call it "Flash Mob Evangelism".  Pretty cool, huh?  We probably won't be ready to try it out until May or so because the pastor is currently traveling for missions until the beginning of April, but I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.  Please pray that it turns out to be as effective as we hope and that we will be able to find enough dancers to make it all worthwhile. 

I'm also hoping to start up dance classes with the MK girls next month.  In all honesty, I have not actually gotten the go-ahead for that, but you can all be praying for me as I approach SAM with the idea.  I'm hoping to use the devotional book that my sister Alyssa wrote for dancers.  It contains 52 devotionals intended for dance instructors to open up their weekly dance classes with.  Each devotion is related to dance as worship or ministry and is supposed to encourage the dancers to use their gifts for the Lord. 

In other news, a small group from my church, Glenrock Baptist Church in Fort Mill, SC, will be coming down the end of May to work with the Brocks and get the grand tour of Peruvian culture.  I'm so excited and encouraged by this trip and can't wait to see them and show them all around my new home-town.  My mom and cousin will also be coming down to visit and travel with me in the end of April.  Please pray for smooth travel planning for all.  If anyone else ever wants to come visit, just let me know!  It'd be an honor to host you.  Thank you all for your prayers and for your interest in my life and ministry here in Peru.  God bless! 



 

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!