I just realized how long it’s been since I wrote the last update. Sorry to leave you
all hanging.

It seems that life is one adventure after another. Some we enjoy and others we’d rather not experience! Before I get into too much detail of what has happened since Dec. I want to thank those of you who sent mail with the last group who was here to visit. It was so good to hear from you all. It is a rather lonely life being the only Americans here but God has been so good and has always given us strength for the journey. Your letters certainly helped!! 🙂

A piece of good news is that now all three of our washing machines in town are working again. Also the 1⁄4 mile long bridge we have to cross to get to it has recently been opened to pedestrians. Now we can drive to the bridge and carry everything across without trying to find another way. This means I am no longer doing all the laundry by hand. I do a little now and then but not much. 🙂 What a blessing!!

January 15 we had three people from the church of Summerton visit the home here, Troy and Shannon Allen and their pastor Billy Carlisle. They helped with some maintenance work here at the home and had fun with the kids. Since we are still living in the guest house we had the privilege of spending more time with them. Billy preached Sunday morning about following Christ with ALL our hearts. It was so refreshing to hear a sermon in our own language as well as witness a young girl giving her heart to the Lord.

On January 22 some of us from the home took our visitors to Iquitos to catch their evening flight to go home. Israel, Stan and I stayed in Iquitos for the night and then caught an early flight to Lima the next morning. Stan and I had to go to Interpol to have background checks done to get our religious visas so we can stay in Peru. Israel went along to translate.

We were in Lima three days. It is certainly a different world compared to the jungle. There are people everywhere and the traffic is crazy! It is definitely more cultured. They have some very nice markets and a really nice mall. We enjoyed some good eating there as well. They have better access to fruits from the outside world there than we do here. Since the prices are good as well, we loaded up on fruit for the home here.

I also want to say Israel was a real blessing in Lima. Since he’d been there before and knew a bit what to expect he was a great guide!! I hate to think what we would have done without him.

We received more guests right after our return from Lima. Jason and Trina Corbit,
their son Benjamin and his friend Bobby are also from the church at Summerton.
Stan had met them when he first visited Peru last January. We also stayed at their house when we visited Summerton in July.

They hung out here and played with the kids. Not sure who had the most fun, they or the kids.

I know the kids loved every single minute of it. Their stay was short but we are so grateful they came anyway! It was also good for the boys to have teenagers they could converse with freely again.

There have been 6 new children added to the home here from 2 different families. Margolit (12) and Jovana (10) are sisters and arrived several weeks ago. Their mother abandoned them years ago so they were living with their father who was an abuser and a drunkard. The other 4 are Cesar (12), Keko (6), Maria, (4) and Secundo (2). They were obviously neglected and malnourished! Little Segundo, the 2 year old, couldn’t walk or anything. After receiving care and love as well as plenty of food, he is already beginning to fill out and it doesn’t look like it will be long until he’s walking.

I know some of you are wondering about our house. It is nearing completion but you know how long those last details can take. Hopefully by the time you hear from us again we’ll be in or at least have a ‘move’ date.

God bless you all.

Ruth