Kiss the Cook

While I was in the United States with Rebekah, the other members of the family here in Peru pitched in and did some cooking. Yesterday Benjamin offered to make his famous chicken nuggets. The girls are cooking tonight. It is great having them help out with the meals. I did make the BBQ sauce and honey mustard dips for the nuggets. I told Ben that I would have to buy him a masculing apron, maybe one that said, "Kiss the Cook." He wasn't too sure he wanted one of those!

Promised Caraz Pictures Warning...It's Long

Here are just a few of the pictures we took in Caraz. All together we took over 300 of them!

The missionary family we went to serve. We did VBS and David preached each night on the family. I enjoyed time talking with Evangelina, the wife, while we worked in the kitchen. The group included our family and 12 people for our church. Our church has the privilege of supporting this missionary family. Jose and Evangelina Cabeza with their 3 children; Priscila, Elias and Evelyn.

The view of the white mountain range was spectacular. It got quite cold at night but was sunny and warm during the day. David and the children climbed up quite a ways on this mountain. We were already at a high altitude so the climbing wasn't so easy. This is the famous Huascaran Mountain. Awesome, God is so awesome!

Rebekah and Abigail while climbing the mountain enjoyed this field of wild flowers.

This is pretty much the way they felt after climbing for a while. Benjamin was able to trek farther along although he too had to turn back due to a pounding headache and fatigue. Too much altitude and sun. Maybe too little water.

Our last day of VBS we had over 80 children! We were very pleased. The class with the oldest children (9-11 year olds) had over 40 students. The children loved VBS.

The younger class was taught by David's sister Martha.

Benjamin led the sing time each day for VBS. Lenin played the guitar for us.

David preaching on the family.
Each day we prepared a small snack for each student.

For the Sunday night service, Benjamin had the privilege of leading the singing. His first time ever, he did a fine job.

While we eat fresh fish a lot here in Trujillo, it is always salt water fish. Up in the mountains we get to enjoy eating trout. Here is the trout before being fried over a wood fire.

And the trout after...

Isn't he cute!! Like I said, it got cold. Jacob even found out how warm long johns are. This is a typical mountain hat. At least your ears stay warm!

And yes...school did go on. We took it with us.

Caraz

Greetings from the mountain city of Caraz. It is a quaint little town with lots of mountain women in their typical dress, beautiful I might add. This valley city is surrounded by mountains, some snow capped.

We arrived on Monday afternoon after a bumpy and hot trip. Lots of pretty things to see along the way, waterfalls, etc.

Monday night David preached, Tuesday through Friday nights he preached on the family. Each afternoon we have a Vacation Bible School with a fairly good attendance. It is great serving together as a family. Benjamin is leading the singing with the children´s program, Rebekah helps out with the babies that come or anywhere else she is needed. Abigail and Jacob are students and help out where they can also. Everyone helps get supper on the table and clean up.

We will return to Trujillo on Monday next week and then back to the usual daily routine and also packing our belongings to store for furlough.

Tomorrow we will head farther up the mountains to the town of Cajapampa which is at the foot of the famous Huascaran mountain. Some of the braver or crazier people will take a 4 hour hike up the mountain so they can touch the snow. I am not one of those people. Most of the roads in this town are uphill and that is enough to wind me in this altitude. David may preach up there tomorrow night, we aren´t sure of that yet.

We are enjoying our break from the normal routine and being together as a family. We did bring school along so we have been doing that each morning. Aunt Martha is here too so she also continued school with Abi and Jacob. When we arrive home I will post some pictures.

Hawaii Queen

Here is a recent shot of Abigail dressed as a Hawaiian Queen

Hands Up

Rebekah has been faithfully doing her exercises each day. Usually she gets them done 3 times a day but some days only twice. At times she get discouraged that it isn't improving as quickly as she would like. Other days she is jumping up and down because she can bend her index finger, even if only a little bit. She is becoming less self conscious about her wounds and now goes around in short sleeves without a second thought. She always puts sunscreen on her grafts so as not to sunburn. You can see she still has some puffiness on the back of her hand.

Index finger straightened as much as she can actively, I can straighten it a bit more passively.

Index finger flexed as much as she can actively, I can bend it a bit more passively.

Middle finger bends quite well. The tip of the finger still droops a bit.

Pacasmayo

Friday, Saturday and Sunday David preached a family conference in the port town of Pacasmayo, about 1 1/2 hours north of Trujillo. On Saturday we enjoyed some family time on the beach. It was great being together.

Fun at the beach.

Nice hotel in the background, we didn't stay there :)

Happy Birthday, Benjamin!!

On Monday May 5, Benjamin turned 15! It is hard to believe that our first born is 15 and almost as tall as his dad. He enjoyed his favorite lunch and then after our monthly pastor's meeting all the Stilwells headed to McDonalds for supper. After supper there we headed back to Grandpa and Grandma's house for cake and ice cream. Aunt Martha made him the cake from her selection of cake pans. We are thankful for Aunt Martha who has done so much to help us out these past 2 months and for her enjoying making cakes. He had a good day. Happy Birthday Benj.

Benjamin and Hannah enjoy their McDonalds sandwiches.

Benjamin turns 15

Benjamin and Claudia always celebrate their May birthdays together.

We're Home!

I know it has been 4 days since we left but we really have been on the go since arriving home. We flew home without any problems. Rebekah was so anxious to get home that the flight from Miami to Lima was exceptionally long for her. David was at the Lima airport waiting for us. That was a surprise, a great one! On Wednesday morning we flew the one hour flight from Lima to Trujillo where we were welcomed by Benjamin, Abigail and Jacob along with Martha. It was SO WONDERFUL. Okay, yes, I cried. It was so good to hold my children again. It is fantastic to be back together. Wednesday night at church we really surprised a bunch of people by showing up unexpectedly. It was fun! On Thursday we had a city wide churches activity here at the seminary so I got to see al my friends at once! Friday after lunch we headed out to camp as a family and spent the night. That was fun and refreshing. It was sad passing the accident scene and reliving those memories. So, we are back to our busy life in Peru. Rebekah is staying busy and is sore from being so active yesterday, she is obviously out of shape! Her hand is doing okay although we are having some problems with swelling.

Saying good bye to Grandpa and Grandma in Indianapolis.

Arriving in Trujillo

Aunt Martha with Rebekah, Abigail and Jacob.

Mom and Jacob overlooking the lower peer area where Benjamin was fishing.