On the ground in ATL.

in the airport in Lima

In the Lima airport! We found out today that our flight from trujillo to Lima was cancelled. What that meant was we would be in Peru for 3 to 5 more days and have to pay 1500.00 dollars to change tix. So, we called a bus company. They said they would hold a bus for us. We had 30 min to get packed and to the bus station. We paid for half of the tix for all the people who were waiting for us to get there. So we took an 8 hour ride through the Andes. It was a great experience and once again the team rose to the occasion. We are now waiting are check our bags for ATL. Ready to come home; excited to come back.

Last Day in Peru

Vote is 90% want to stay and 10% are ready to come home (but just so they can get some more money and come back) - sorry. the trip has been unbelievable in so many ways. Last night we were able to debrief for a while after dinner. God is doing amazing things in the lives of this team. It is great to see God planting the desire to continue to be a part of expanding the Kingdom in their community and the world. Most will probably not come home and start doing dishes or making up beds, they will probably still want later curfews and think that their parents are strict - but their hearts and minds are changing. They are beginning to hear with new ears and see with new eyes. thank you so much for your prayers - please continue as we wind up here and head for home. Today we are visiting the wood shop where they are teaching people a skill and how to run a business. We are also visiting 2 churches aroung the city - at some point we are hanging out with some kids. I am sure it will be another great day. Around 3 we will head for the airport. then home. See you all soon!

GARCAS

well HOLA! so sorry yesterday we were going to post but we decided to go get some ice cream at that moment. BUT anyways yesterday was the sabbath so we went to church and listened to Allen preach an ALL spanish sermon which was vuury neat. and then we went and ate the most amazing lunch ever. we really did cry. yes garcas shed some tears at the sight and taste of the beautifulñ spagetti meal. with buttered bread. mmmm and then we went to a mall and the BEACH! which was rockin because the water was muy frio and the sand was dark oh yeah so today we worked some more and brought up this HUGE boulder which we had no idea was that big but it took a good 2 hours- after that we went and saw some ruins that were NOT restored .. definitely not restored or thats what our tour guide Rosemary said and she knew her stuff. also we went and played SOCCER and the professional player known as OSCAR was not on our team... but dont worry.. we still played our little GARCAS hearts out and me cassidy pulled some muscles while garland just dripped her elbow grease allll over that field it was so inconvenient. So we hung back with the big dogs known as bill and tracey and they bought us some sweet treats at the local pasteleria that was muy bien. lets just say memphis is not going to be as awesome without our bell boy TONY and our peruvian hombres all over trujillo.


SHOUT OUT TO SAM TARRAS OUR HOME DOG and looking forward to another chat as well as taking lucy to the local dog park with you and sheley as one happy family.


welp gotta shower before we head to our last missionary home (Allen Smith) for barbeque! yyaaaayyyyy and its TIE DYE NIGHT

hasta manana! - GARCAS

S-squared (steph and sheley)

Buenos noches!!! What a fun day/week! Yesterday was one of the best days thus far... Church was AMAZING... it is so cool to be able to worship in a different country yet the same God! They totally do it right over here... i have never sung so many songs in one service... it was incredible! the whole service was in spanish, we even did communion!! we then had the best lunch in the world at one of the missionaries homes... it was deifnitly Steph´s high for the trip.. she was in heaven! then we went to the beach.. its totally cold but really cool... we bought some nice swag at the market there... and took MANY PICTURES! it was a great way to spend our day of rest!

today we had our last day of work =( We have some awesome new peruvian friends...Oscar, Ivan, Brigith, TOny, Juan, Ruben , and Bruno... they are part of the church we have been helping with and they are mucho awesome at soccer! we went to some ruins after we ate lunch and then went to play soccer with the peruvian friends... they kicked our butts... especially oscar, but we hung in there!! We are about to go shower to get ready for dinner at Alan smiths house.. we are having BBQ!!! who would have thought they eat BBQ in peru? we are all very fat after this trip because the food here is just amazing! but we are really looking for ward to tomoroow when we get to go to the woodshop which is part of the peru mission here and then to a small village outside of trujillo...we may even hike a small mountain...We are totally sad about having to leave tomorrow, but God has been very good to us on this trip... He is greatly at work over here...and we have been blessed to be a part of his work here in trujillo... thanks for all your prayers... we will be home before you know it!

Adios!! Steph and Sheley

p.s. HELLO LEIGH AND O!! Thanks for following the blog (:
p.s.s. hey Sam, mom and dad... mom and dad- sorry i havent talked to yall since i have been down here... they do not know what calling cards are here... and sam cant wait to see you!! MISS YALL!! LOVE YALL!!

A Really Great Day

so, you are geting the gist of things from Garcas (Garland & Cassidy). As you can tell God is doing some amazing things here. You would be very poud of this team. We are building relatinships and already looking forward to the next times we are able to be here with our friends. The students on this team are doing an amazing job of loving and encouraging people. Today we were able to spend a lot of time with the missionary families. our students split in to groups of 3 and 4 and tye dyed with them then played a bunch of tag games. our students took the initiative to get involved to learn names and play with them. One of the wives told me that teams never really make an effort to spend time with their children - it was a great time for the families. I say all this because I want you to know God is using these students because they really are trying to love others the way Christ loved especially by pursuing relationships. We thank you for your prayers and will count on them until we are home. God Bless.

GARCAS

WOW are we SORE. I (cassidy) can honestly say that my legs and arms have never hurt this badly. anyways sorry that we could not post yesterday, that wont happen again. anywyas.. yesterday we played some more soccer and RULED. it was absolutely wicked because the Peruvian named Oscar was on our team and he scored a million goals. Also we have been hanging out with some of the members of the youth group which is not like a youth group in america because the people in peru are considered youth basically until they are married. its pretty awesome because these new amigos really know how to have fun with a pick axe. the lunches that the peruvian women make us everyday at the worksite is like BALLIN'because here they eat a light breakfast and dinner then a really heavy lunch so we have been served rice and chicken or a stir fry type meal and then follwed up with a delicious shortbread cookie with ducle de leche and coconut OR a nice tuyo bar. for those of you americans, tuyo bars are a little piece of heaven aka a chocolate covered wafer with some sort of creme in the middle...delicioso. oh so today we tiedyed with all the missionary kids today. and all the tiedye got onto our hands and therefor we had to put some nice bleach on our hands. oh and how could we forget, we participated in 3 different sets of peruvian nascar races aka our cabs to and from dinner, work, tiedyeing, etc... honking is essential at these races. theres some yogurt at our hotel thats real nice and good. oh so also theres a bell boy at our hotel (hotel paraiso) that never stops smiling and his name is tony. he is cool. until next time....
stay sweet, stay followin'

GARCAS:) (garland and cassidy)

Sheley Taras

Hola from Trujillo!
It had been a more than wonderful trip! We are very thankful for all the prayers! The trip has been thrilling so far! And the meals have been WONDERFUL!! Who would have thought? Our Peruvian friends really know how to cook up a feast! I have been so encouraged by the ways God is at work here in Trujillo- it is so amazing to be able to worship in another country with our friends here! Everyone is having a blast so far--especially on the football (soccer) field... our peruvian friends put us Americans to shame...but we put up a good fight on the field... I had no clue Mary Mitchum and Stephanie were such soccer stars! We are still looking for the tennis courts for Neely and Maggie! Garland is teaching us a thing or two about style... I think she bought half the market in Lima! Anyway... we are all thankfully HEALTHY!! and now we are off to dinner!! ADIOS!!

Drayton again

today was yet another long day of work. It was alot better then yesterday. Yesterday it was tough because we had to start on the dirt but today we had already started so it didnt require as much energy as yesterday. We also played soccer with some of the local peruvians. The peruvians are better then any of us. pizza tonight after some delicious homemade noodle stuff with cheese last night.

DABNEY BEN S. AND STEPHANIE

¡Today we moved a WHOLE lotta rocks and a WHOLE lotta dirt! The ground is lookin pretty level. We Americanized our work today and listened to some classics like Aerosmith and Bon Jovi and Billy Joel. It was great. The day went by really fast and the food was good of course. The meal was arroz and pollo with tuyo bars for desert. Black coffe was also served, but none of us got it but Ben S. We played some soccer today and everyone participated. We looked really stupid next to the rockin Peruvians. They laughed at us a lot.
We are about to eat some Peruvian Pizza from New York ¨Pizza?? We are sure that it is going to be bueno. Buenos noches! Adioss!

DABNEY AND BEN SHULL AND STEPHANIE

Dray can Stay

Ok so today was another really good day. The work was the same but went by quickly thanks to Bon Jovi and Aerosmith. We moved a lot of dirt and leveled alot of land. We had another great lunch prepared by the women of the Larco Church - chicken and rice. The team is doing a great job working and getting to know some of the people here - especially though soccer. Tonight we are going to dinner - >Peruvian Pizza! Last night we at at the Ellison´s. They have 5 children and Dale is the Medical Director of Peru Mission. The food and fellowship was good. They were gracious hosts - I am pretty sure they have never had 14 high school students in their home - our folks were gracious guests. Before we left we prayed for their family and after that we were told by their 3 year old daughter we all had to leave, but Drayton can stay - thus the title of the post. Tomorrow we will work until 3:00 and then go to a park and Tye-Dye with the children of the missionaries - we are excited and we have they are excited as well. Thank you so much for your prayers.

GARLAND AND CASSIDY

HOLA AMIGOS. lets just say that today has been a great day. we did a lot of pick axing and played in an outdoor mini-field (pds style). we ate a hearty homecooked meal for lunch which consisted of rice, bif, tomatoes, fries, and onions. basically an american sturfry but muy delicioso. we listened to some of the peruvians sing psalms in spanish while acompanied by andiginous flutes, drums, and shells. they´re working on a record deal which they should definatley get because then ryan seacrest would talk about them. we even got to dance. goodtimes. so yesterday was the best market experience we´ve had in our lives. they had everything from miniature alpaca figurines (made from genuine alpaca fur) to great hats. oh and we ate at a missionarys house and their daughter told garland she had to go home during the prayer. cool.

hasta manana,
GARCAS

Will Scott

Peru has been a very good trip. I met Diego my Compassion child today. He really liked his gift . We had a great time together. He gave me a cool ornament that he made himself. He is really nice and funny. I also got gifts my family: jackets for me and brothers, slippers for mom and a blanket for dad.

Ben Shull

Peru has been an incredible trip so far. The people here are extremely nice. The work day was an eye-opener. We had lots of digging and carrying and sledgehammering, but that´s all expected. It´s kind of challenge trying to mix our English with their Spanish but it´s all working out. Superman, the bus driver, and Tony the Hotel Guy are my new best friends. If you plan on flying to Atlanta anytime soon...don´t. The pilots are still working on their landings. Maybe on the way back they´ll realize that 100 feet isn´t a good height to drop a plane on the runway from.

Drayton Carlisle

List of things done so far:
- first plane ride to atlanta from memphis was terrible
- second plane ride from atlanta to lima was not so bad
- bought some pretty cool stuff in lima
- plane ride from lima to trujillo was not bad at all and lasted a very small amount of time.
- since being in trujillo:
- we have dug alot
- we have ate alot of delicious food
Peru has been an experience as it has been a first out of country experience and I already know that i would love to come back even though it has onlybeen 2 days into the trip...
Sincerely,
Drayton Carlisle

JP WRITES TO EARTH....

This has been quite the trip!
I have enjoyed getting to know people whom before I knew not!
That which I have to say unto you cannot yet be said, for others are waiting to have a turn to blog.
Peru is mmm good. The people are fantastico!
Good day to you, ma´am. And to you, sir.
In the greatest love you could ever imagine, John Peter.

STEPHANIES POST

HOLA HOLA!
The trip has been fantastico so far!
Lima was a lot of fun, but I was excited to finally get to Trujillo to do some real work. Wake up call was around 6.45AM and was rough after going to bed at 12AM. I thought I was going to be tired, but the day turned out to be amazing. We worked on leveling some land for a long time. Alan, our guide master, led us through a traditiol market. We were only allowed to buy bananas and oranges, but they were amazingg.
Before lunch, we heard some of the workers play in their band. They were really amazing. Then we ate lunch, which was muy bien. Then we played soccer. fun.

1st Work Day

Everyone slept well last night. After breakfast we headed to Larco Church where we cleard land for the new sanctuary. It was a day of shovels. pick axes, sledge hammers, buckets, dirt, rock, wheel barrows. The team did very well. We had a massive lunch and then went back to work for about an hour. This afternoon we played soccer with a medical team and some of the Larco youth group. Relationally speaking we are on our way - learning names, working and playing with some of the church members. So, the beginning of the trip has been great. Please continue to pray for us - that we would remember names and look for ways to serve.

The team has connected very well with each other and everyone is doing very well.

We are in trujillo

CASSIDY AND GARLAND

HOLA AMIGAS!!! this has been GREAT! the flight to atlanta was real nice until the pilot decided we were close enough to the ground to land. we were not. lets just say those wheels are tough and have some real nice brake pads. on the flight to Lima however, we were served chicken, pasta, brownies, drinks, sandwiches and coffee. It seemed like the majority of the plane was either missionaries or natives. many of the people on our team made new friends. we are excited for our tour of lima today and love this cool weather!

GARLAND AND CASSIDY

Ben Olson

On the trip to Lima, we each had our own awesome touch screen mini-computers running Linux, on which we could play 2D videogames, watch pre-recorded TV shows, watch movies, and listen to select music. Near the end of the flight, however, mine crashed and had to reboot, which was awesome, since I then found out what the computers were running. Hahahahaha. The hotel was awesome, though.

Ben Olson

Neely´s Post

WE MADE IT!! The flight from Atlanta to Lima was six hours. Everyone had their own entertainment system. Majority of the people on the plane were coming to Peru on mission trips. We got to the hotel at one in the morning. The hotel is awesome! We are about to go on a tour of Lima!

Neely Leavell

Wednesday, July 22

This morning we had breakfast at the hotel and are heading out for a tour of Lima. After lunch we will go to the Indian Market to buy all sorts of things we can`t live without. Then, we will head to the airport and fly to Trujillo. This is a great team and I cannot wait to see what God has in store for us. Today, would you pray that we would remember and rely on God´s faithfulness. Also, pray that we would continue to become a team as we work our way to Trujillo.

We are in the Lima airport. Great flight!

travelling

Great flight to Atlanta. On the plane getting ready to take off. Everyone is doing very well.

IPC Peru Team

Mary Mitchum
Dabney Powell
Cassidy Conway
Garland Kruse
Neely Leavell
Maggie Leavell
Stephanie Atkins
Sheley Taras
Katherine Allen
Tracey Clairmont
Drayton Carlisle
Ben Shull
Ben Olson
Will Scott
Will Ray
JP Hansen
Bill Johns