Nomads

We had a wondrous time in Marcabamba. We did leave Incuyo at about 4am on a bus and we got to Marcabamba around 10:30am. We met up with Jacob and Derek, the village team. We set up times in the schools for the next day. We got there on Wed and Thurs started a nation-wide, indefinite teacher's strike. We did our skits for the high schoolers on Thurs morning, even though they weren't having school. The teachers had them come to school just to watch us preach the Gospel, pretty much. It was sweet. As soon as that was over, we went to the elementary school, which also had kids there even though there was no school happening. Some of the teachers tried to keep us from doing our puppets and songs, but we were still able to do it. And, those kids were the best-behaved and most responsive kids we've ever had. It was awesome. Fri morning at 7am, we hiked up a mountain to a waterfall. The two levels combined reached about 80-90 feet. It was so stinking sweet. We sat at the bottom only for a moment before climbing up a little rock face to the second level. It was probably my most favorite place I've been while in Peru. I love waterfalls and sweet scenery like that. From the second level, we could see all of the surrounding mountains and valleys, and the mountains around Marcabamba are the prettiest ones we've seen yet. After the hike, the girls had a Bible study with about 7 girls. We found them with all of the girls after the Bible study, and all but one of the girls had accepted Christ. That was pretty sweet. Later that night, we did skits, puppets, and songs in a big hall in the middle of town. We weren't sure if anyone was going to show up (we had announced it), but there were tons of kids waiting before it started. A lot of adults stopped in and watched it too. God gave us about 75 people. We, Jacob and Solomon, presented the Gospel hardcore at the end for all of the people present. It was an awesome time that we totally didn't expect. Because the schools are all closed, we are going to have to rely on God to give us opportunities to perform elsewhere. We are confident that this will happen.
On Sat morn at 5am, we went to some hot springs with a Peruvian guy named James. The springs were super-sweet. There were four pools: 32, 35, 45, and 60 degrees celsius. The 32 and 35 degree pools were about like regular pools. The 45 degree pool was like a normal hot tub, which felt really good in the cold Andes mountains. The 60 degree pool was scalding, though. It was sooo stinking hot! We only got in it for a couple of mins just to display our manliness, and that was torture. 60 degrees Celsius is 140 degrees Farenheit! The pools we were actually in were man-made swimming pools, constantly warmed by hot water flowing from pipes. So, naturally, I followed the pipes up the nearby river to see where the hot water is coming from. I skipped around on rocks, in a riverbed, for quite a while before finding a small stream of hot water flowing from the mountain. According to the writing on the rock, the temp of the water there is 69 C, or 156 F. Sat at the hot springs was just about as much fun as much fun at the waterfall on Fri. On the way back to Marcabamba, we stopped in Colcabamba to meet all of James' family. Jacob and Derek have really been working on James and trying to get him to accept Christ. He hasn't yet made the decision, but he got us to share the entire story of Jesus with his family. So, Solomon, Derek, Jacob, and I talked to 6 of his family members for about 1.5 hrs and shared Christ with them. It was sweet as sugar. At the end, 2 of them prayed to accept Christ (Guillermo and his daughter). We were pumped about that as we walked back to Marcabamba. Our time in and around Marcabamba was absolutely remarkable.
We left Sun morn at about 6am, hoping to make it to Puquio. The best we could do was get to Pausa, which is far from Puquio. We were trying to get to Puquio by Sun night, Cusco by Mon afternoon, and Pomacanchi by Mon night (our next site). We got stuck in Pausa for the rest of the day on Sun. Cindy, a long-term missionary, lives in Pausa and took us in. She fixed us pancakes and banana nut muffins and let us stay in her little apartment. Her pancakes are fantastic! We tried to find a bus to Puquio for Sun or Mon, and could find neither. So, we were basically stuck in Pausa with no way out. We slept on Cindy's floor Sun night and then chilled ALL DAY Mon. We were happy to be in the company of a fellow American and a wonderfully hospitable cook, but we really needed to get out of there. She even fixed us pot roast and mashed potatoes! Holy crap, it was good! We felt absolutely useless though, stranded somewhere while we needed to be somewhere else.
We finally got a bus to Puquio on Tues morning at 9am. So, we thanked Cindy to death and peaced out. The ride to Puquio took us back through Incuyo, where we stopped for a little while and said hey to Brandy, Ivan, and another team that was there visiting. We made it to Puquio at 8pm and met up with two other missionary teams that had been stuck in Puquio. That was last night. We ate supper with them and they helped us find a hostel. I slept on the floor in the hostel last night, making three nights in a row. We got up early this morning for no reason at all. Our original plan was to be in Pomacanchi from Mon-Thurs. Pomacanchi is on the other side of Cusco. Right now, the country of Peru is in a minor state of turmoil. The teacher strike has encouraged multiple other groups to strike, and there have been riots and crap in a few major cities. Cusco is one of those. So, it was impossible for us to get to Cusco due to tranportation strikes. So, our only option was to head west, back to Nazca. This morning at 10:30, we secured a taxi driver that would take us to Nazca, because there were no buses going. We fit all of our crap and 6 bodies into a taxi for a 3 hour ride. Well, we made it to Nazca safe and sound about 3 hours ago. We've decided to skip Pomacanchi and head down to our next site, which is in the southern region of Puno, close to Juliaca. We tried to get a bus to Juliaca from here, but there are none because of the chaos. So, now we're stuck in Nazca! We're kind of wondering if we're ever gonna make it to our next site... and alive. For now, we're staying with some of Solomon's family (probably gonna sleep on the floor) until we can get to Juliaca. We may try to get a bus to Arequipa, which will get us a lot closer to Juliaca from here. Who knows? This post is rediculously lengthy, so I'll quit now.

Amos 2:16