¡Perú!

Hola from Peru. We are here and having a GREAT time! We all have a bit of a headache trying to keep up with the Spanish, but we are having a blast! Tonight I will have more time, and will bring you up to date on the trip as of now. Adiós, Miguel

Prof G writes the following about our packing list: "Packing List -- Peru Trip 2012

As I was putting together the packing list for the Peru trip, I was reminded of the packing list that Jesus gave His disciples when He sent them out two-by-two to teach from village to village (in Mark 6:6-12). It was actually a list of what NOT to take though. They weren’t allowed to take money, food, a bag, or extra clothes! They were only allowed to take a staff and their partner. Why was that? Perhaps it was a reminded to rely completely on God to take care of them. Perhaps it was also a reminder of how Jesus was their Good Shepherd in Psalm 23, “Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”

Of course, I’m not going to suggest we don’t take money, food, bags, or clothes on our Peru trip! However, it’s a great reminder for us to rely completely on our Good Shepherd, who provides for all our needs, whether we are here in the U.S. or traveling to Peru!

Baggage:  United Airlines offers the first checked bag (up to 50 pounds) for FREE  on flights to South America and the second checked bag for $70. I suggest weighing your bag before you leave for the airport. In addition, you are allowed one carry-on item and one personal item.

1.      Apparel

a.    It looks like it will be in the lower 70’s during the day and drop down to the lower 60’s at night.

b.    Keep in mind Dimas’ house doesn’t have heat or air conditioning, so I suggest being prepared for both cooler and warmer weather.

c.     It doesn’t rain much there. Instead it mists. Keep in mind this is the winter season where they do get more moisture. So a light water-proof jacket might come in handy.

d.    Something dressy/nice for social event. They just now started having weekly church services on Sunday.

e.    Good walking shoes.

f.      Sunglasses/hat

g.    I’m not yet sure what they do for washing clothes. I’ll get back to you on that.

2.      Documents

a.    PASSPORT!

b.    Copy of passport to carry with you on day trips

c.     I also highly recommend scanning your passport and e-mailing it to yourself. That way if you lose your passport, you have a copy of it on the web to access.

d.    Gov issued photo ID probably isn’t necessary, but might be handy to have with you for some form of ID.

f.      Minors need notarized permission to travel and medical release form. Give to Prof. Gullerud to carry with him.

g.    Medical insurance card and/or travel insurance information

h.    Dimas's contact information. This is included on the permission slip.

i.      Spending money (These are just rough estimates.)

                                                    i.            Food = $270

                                                  ii.            Transportation $200

                                                iii.            Other = $100

                                                 iv.            All U.S. bills must be almost new, no tears or wrinkles. Otherwise they will not exchange the money.

                                                   v.            Optional: Credit Card

                                                 vi.            Dimas is looking into the possibility of going to Machu Picchu. I’ll have to let you know the extra cost on that. It might be around $300 extra.

                                               vii.            We plan to use some of the fund-raising fund to pay Dimas for housing us.

3.      Sleeping

 .      Since Dimas doesn’t have enough bed for everyone you should bring a mattress pad/bed roll/air mattress, along with bedding or sleeping bag & pillow.

4.      Toiletries/Personal Items

a.    at least a half-roll of TP; most restrooms don’t have TP, so you’ll want to carry some with you at all times

b.    hygiene items

c.     bath, hand, wash towel

d.    sunscreen

e.    medicine = pain reliever, cold/alergy

f.      hand sanitizer

5.      Media/Technology

a.    cameras & batteries or charger

b.    phone (unless special plan is purchased, you’ll only want to use your cell phone in the U.S. of course)

c.     Wi-Fi is available at the house

d.    I will be taking my laptop with web-cam, so video Skype conversations will be possible. If you don’t already have a Skype account, I suggest doing so. It’s free and easy to use.

6.      Teaching & Writing Material

a.    paper & pens

b.    journal

c.     craft and puppet show materials

d.    lesson plans

e.    Bibles

f.      music

g.    Spanish dictionary

7.      Transportation/Map Information

a.    city/area maps

b.    tourist attraction information

8.      Travel Items (all of this is optional, so just consider what you might need/want)

a.    water/drinks

b.    snacks

c.     book

d.    music

e.    cards/games

f.      extra sweatshirt (last time I went the plane was very cold)

g.    backpack for day/overnight trips

9.      Gifts/Donation Ideas

a.    money donation for housing us (I will take care of this from the fund-raising fund)

b.    candy

c.     crayons

d.    books

e.    toys/balls

f.      hacky-sac

10.  Other

a.    personal snacks for when we're there"

PERU MISSION TRIP UPDATE 4-3-12 

            Notes from Meeting

Documentation- does everyone have a passport? YES! It is a little important. . .

Make a photocopy of passport, or two. Prof will do this for us.

Plane Ticket- Gamble, Emily, Micah, and Prof G have tickets, Barthels will get one through American Airlines. Elijah is working on getting one/ has one and will fly out of Milwaukee.

Notarized consent/ permission form and medical consent release forms needed for all students exept Micah (I am 18).

Medical insurance coverage Check it out! Gamble, Emily, and Prof are covered- the rest of us need to get that figured out. Here is a suggestion from Peter- allianztravelinsurance.com

Bible Lesson:

Jesus Camina sobre el agua puppet show (walking on the water)

Divide the parts (4 speaking, several puppet-tiring)

Gamble- Pedro

Elijah- Jesus and puppet-tiring

Micah- Narrador uno

Dalton- Narrador dos (Derek is back-up)

Emily- Puppet-tiring

Prof G and Peter- set up and watch/ help with questions/ responses.

Went over words/translations

Visual Aids-- Colouring assignment

Emily is on the JOB! Then Prof G will laminate and Popsicle stick them

Sermons4kids.com activities and colouring sheets

Bring supplies so that they can make their own puppets.

Weather-

Low 70s and 60's

Packing list

First bag free on United Airlines (50 Lbs) second $70

We might invest in one additional “group bag” for supplies

Laptops for some of them, one for village and one for Demas' son.

I hope to post a "packing list" soon. . .

UPDATE

2 church services in Spanish -Daniel Pfeiffer

several baptisms

Itinerary

Dimas is working on it

That's all for now, sorry about the format, I wanted to get it up today, and ran out of time to type it up in a nice paragraph, so I left it in note style from the meeting.

Hi, sorry for the delay in posts and updates, its been pretty busy here lately, but as far as Peru goes, Pastor Nolting is down there right now, and will update us on the situation when he gets back. So at our last meeting yesterday, we talked about a packing list, somethings we need. we also talked about using a puppet show with narrative to help teach one of the stories, Jesus walking on the water.
Got to go to class, I'll keep you updated.

Hey!
Today we discussed a couple of things, we talked about the possibility of taking a couple of days in Cuzco, possibly doing some whitewater rafting, and other activities/tours. As far as the Bible stories go, we want to teach them in pairs, and we are thinking about a general theme of "Pointing to Christ." This would be a selection of Old and New Testament stories that Point to Christ, finishing with the birth, death, resurrection, and Pentecost. This series would focus on the Love and Mercy that God has shown us through His Plan of Salvation.

Itinerary planning meeting

We started out by discussing how we wanted to plan, and we decided that we should plan our itinerary every Monday, and on Thursdays, we would plan our lessons, and improve our teaching skills. For our first meeting, we basically just discussed some activities that we want to do. We want to do some of the following:
Go to the ocean/coast, go to the plaza de armas (possibly at night to see the lights), spend a day downtown (possibly take a bus tour), visit the presidential palace and see some cathedrals. We also want to visit the Mega Plaza and the fruit market, as well as the zoo. We also want to travel to Ancon, Chancay, Huaral, Huancayo. We want to see their cemeteries, visit meil de abejas, el circuito magico del agua (a cool fountain park), and las brisas de titicaca (traditional dance theater). These were just some ideas that we had, we also want to do some more google searching, and if you have any ideas, please let us know, either comment on the blog, or contact me directly micah.reim@yahoo.ca.

Hi Readers!
               Just a quick update, we are working on letters for the spokesman, branches, and clergytalk, so look for them in the up and coming issues. We have set up regular meeting times, {finally!} on Mondays and Thursdays. On Mondays, we plan on planning and making lesson plans for our teaching days. We are thinking about having a 5 - 7 story series on the major stories of the Bible. (Creation, Flood, Abraham, Joseph, Nativity, a Miracle by Jesus, The Death of Jesus and Resurrection, Pentecost. We are going to make our own mini series following a common theme through these stories. (If you have any suggestions, please do let us know!) We are also going to discuss and practice English teaching stills. On Thursdays, we are going to plan the general trip Itinerary. As far as fundraising goes, we are planning on having posters made and posted, especially for Grade School Basketball Tournaments.
                                                                  That's all for now, I'll keep you updated