sorry these are small, but this is some of the girls on the creative ministry team washing dishes at our sink

The last night we were there we threw a party for the little girls in the village and gave them hand massages, painted their nails, gave them lots of food and danced.

Me and Leslie took Drew's camera and played a game where you make weird faces and take pictures but you don't know when they are going to be taken.

Me and Yesabel

They roasted a pig and we got to watch them shave it and stuff...interesting

Drew tried to teach Leoncio how to play guitar

Me and Yesabel again.

Hiking

and again

Drew "eating" chicken foot soup

Our favorite little boy, Omar

Drew cooking, which the kids thought was really funny

The Group, Nestor, Leslie, me, Amy, Drew

Our nightly game of Skip-Bo

Drew being crazy

Leoncio, Lucy, their daughter Yesabel, and son Aisten

Some prayer requests:

1. Leoncio and his family to continuing studying the Bible
2. That the other believers would start wanting to attend the study also
3. That the believers would feel an urgency for sharing the gospel with those in the village

Quito Arma~the door on the far right is where we ate dinner every night.

The boys room

The "bathroom"

Leslie and one of the believers (Leoncio's mom) Yolanda

Leslie, the second from the right, became the godmother of the Huaytara Torros (bulls) soccer team

Quito Arma square

The daily past time for the kids after school, watching the gringos do nothing interesting at all!

This was our "kitchen"on the other side of the room.

This was our bed and where we slept for a month and a half.

This is the church in Quito Arma

I'm home!

One last story I wanted to share with you was once we got back from our mid summer debriefing we ended up staying in Huaytara for several days waiting on the church team to come and Leslie became very very sick. She had bronchitis with fevers over a hundred for about a week. We ended up having to leave her there and go on to the village with out her and we were there almost 2 weeks with out her. The Lord used us while we were there and kept us busy. We were able to teach in the high school. We would talk about something and then play a game that enforced what we talked about that day. It was a lot of fun. We were also able to continue our study with Leoncio and his family. Needless to say we kept pretty busy for those few weeks. Well, busy according to Peruvian mountain standards. I'm going to end this post now and then post some pictures in my last post. Thanks so much for reading and praying for me and everyone else!

Natalie

Continuation

Sorry it's taken so long for me to get back on...the last week here has been really busy.

More about Leancio, we also feel like he has had a struggle with feeling comfortable and capable to lead a Bible study or church. Whenever we would ask him to pray or read, it would take him a little while sometimes to agree to it. Please pray for strength from the Lord to fill him!

I wanted to tell you guys a little about some of my experiences while here. As you may have read earlier in my blogs, at the beginning of the summer there were 5 people on my team, Leslie Bass, Drew Jackson, Amy Long, Nestor Trinidad (our translator), and me. It was a great group, but unfortunately Amy had a heart condition and one day had an attack. We told her that if she had another one we were going to send her back to the States because it wouldn't be healthy for her to stay. Unfortunately the next day she had another one. Immediately, Leslie and Nestor went looking for a way to get Amy out of the village and at least to a bigger village. This happened only 4 days after being in the village. So, that day Leslie took Amy to meet up with the Barnabas team (encouragement team) that was in the next village. They ended up sending her home. This caused Leslie to have to be gone for about four days and me to be alone in a room for four days. Unfortunately I'm one of those people who freaks themselves out, and so sometimes it's really hard for me to stay somewhere I don't know very well by myself and it's also hard when it's a foreign country and you are sleeping on a floor with mice running around the room. God deffinately used this situation to stretch me and grow me way beyond what I could have imagined. Looking back, even though it was not a fun situation, but it was a good one.

During our mid-summer break we were in Huaytara and we found out the news about Greg Gomez, one of the Research team memebers, passing away in a vehicle accident. They were traveling on a mountain road, with more than one lane, and the driver or the vehicle fell asleep. They ran across the road and ran into the side of the mountain. They hit it hard and bounced against it several times and also ended up driving along it for a while. Greg was sitting on the side of the vehicle that hit the mountain and it made him unconscious. Once they stopped the vehicle, they got Greg and another lady in the back of a taxi and drove them to the hospital. By the time they got there, Greg was already gone. Please pray for the Gomez family and Lydia Schiver and Claudia Puente as they were his other teammates and had to deal with his death very closely.

That's all I have for right now, I will update more when I get back with pictures and more stories! I will be arriving in Little Rock National Airport at 7:13 p.m.! I look forward to seeing everyone and talking to all of you again!

Love,
Natalie

Thank you so much!

Wow, Im so thankful for you guys and your constant support through this roller coaster or a summer. I can honestly say that this summer has been the hardest summer of my life. The Lord has stretched me and grown me in ways that were deffinately not comfortable or fun, but that I needed. I have definately learned to rely on the Lord and He has given me a new appreciation for how much I need him on a daily basis. I have definately learned to place my trust in the Lord, a lot more than I did before.

The Lord has done some great things through this summer in our village with the family (Leoncio and Lucy and kids). I really feel like after spending a month in Quito Arma that They are growing faster and more every time they read the Bible. One of the things on the heart of Leoncio a lot is persecution. Hes one of the very few Christians in the town and his friends that he used to drink with (before becoming a believer) always make fun of him. He struggles with knowing what to do in situations like that. We have tried to instruct him as much as we could on that it just depends on the situation sometimes it is appropriate to stand up for yourself and your beliefs, and sometimes you just have to pray for them and leave them in Gods hands.

This is all I have time for today. I will try to update again tomorrow but deffinately before I leave the country.

Getting ready to head down the mountain

Natalie, Drew, Leslie and Nestor will be leaving Quito Arma and going to Lima on Sunday July 27. They will then go to a Baptist Camp for a couple of days for their end of summer debrief with all of the other REAP teams. They will go back to Lima on July 31 or August 1. Natalie hopes to get to spend some time with Peruvian friends that she has met on previous trips before heading back home on August 4.

Please pray for these last few days in the mountains with the friends they have made in Quito Arma. Pray especially for Leoncio and his wife as they begin the adventure of following God in leading a house church.

Also, as I mentioned in the last post, please pray for travel safety and good health for the team these last few days.

It is hard to believe that her days in Peru are coming to a close. Thank you so much for partnering with Natalie as she has followed God in this venture by your love, prayers and support.

Jeanie

PS Natalie is scheduled to arrive back in Little Rock Monday August 4 at 6:40 PM. We would be delighted for any of you who are able to join us at the airport to welcome her back. Feel free to just show up or call or email us if you want any more details.

Seventeen Days and Counting!

We are counting the days around here until Natalie gets back to Little Rock. We sure miss her. We are, however so glad that she is following the Lord and doing what she feels called to do. We are excited to think about the Peruvian brothers and sisters (maybe even generations of them) that we will meet in heaven because of her obedience.

The team is still in Quito Arma and will likely be there until time to head back to Lima. Please continue to pray for Leoncio and his wife. They will need great faith and encouragement from the Holy Spirit to continue the work after the "gringos" are gone.

Tonight the team (Natalie, Drew and Nestor) were going back to Huyatara to get to sleep in real beds and to get a shower and most importantly to get Leslie, their team leader! She has really had a difficult time. They deicided that she probably had bronchitious. Please pray that she will continue to get stronger and stay healthy and that the others will also stay healthy.

We would ask especially for prayers for the team's saftey these last three weeks. We knew from having been in the Andes Mountains in Peru, just how dangerous the roads (and the drivers) can be, but we are even more aware of it recently. On July 5th, one of the young men who came to Peru to work with the same program that Natalie's team is working with, was killed in a bus accident in the mountains.

His name was Greg Gomez and Natalie had just met him for the first time at the mid-summer debrief. Obviously this really shook all of the missionaries up and gave them much to process. I think that the translator for their team was also killed and that a girl from their team was also on the bus but not seriously injured. Please pray for Greg's family and friends and for all of the REAP missionaries, both the permanent ones and the summer ones.


The next to the last time we were in Peru with a group from Markham Street Bapt. Natalie and some others in our group rode on one of those buses down the mountains. There was a very close call that could easily have sent the bus over the edge. All of this has caused us all to remember anew that our life and times are in God's hands. That seems a trite thing to say at a time like this, but it is so true.

We are all humbled by and grateful for your prayers.