Our Team Leader- John Bock

Each of hearts reach out to pray for John's repaired heart . Our Team was a better team with you leading us, John. Your patience and direction was what got us through . My wife had an Uncle Earl that you remind me of. He was a Bomber Pilot in WW Two. He became the Department Head of Ag Ed @ A &M for more than 30 yrs. He was a very kind and gentle man - but he was strong and a great leader. He had a sense of humor that you mirror. 

  This was God's Trip- God could have picked no one better to Lead His People than you. We are better for this trip and I know the people of Juliaca are better. Once again God has put us in touch with New Family- more Brothers and Sisters in Christ.

       His Kingdom will have no end - not only in the depth and width - but the Depth inside All of us who listen quietly for Him to show us how to make His Light shine brighter!

     God Bless you , John Bock. You are my brother and God smiles ......

Adios

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26)

Dear mission partners,

Thank you for your outpouring of prayers and financial generosity that made my participation in this unique mission to the Anglican Mission Church of St.. Mary Magdalene in Juliaca, Peru, possible.  

Mission Church of St. Mary Magdalene

I don't know what, if any, good I've done in Juliaca, except that we are leaving the mission church and its property in better shape than we found it. Your generosity not only got me here but also helped to supply the mission church with hundreds of gallons of paint that we put on the walls, inside and out; tiles for the courtyard that were placed by a local artisan; and masonry repairs, also by a local artisan.

Whether or not I changed anything, I was changed, most especially by meeting Padre Luis. He is a young priest whom Paul might have had in mind when he wrote to the Corinthians about Timothy, saying: 

Padre Luis

My beloved and faithful child in the Lord, [whom I sent] to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. ... he is doing the work of the Lord, as I am.

And Navi, his mother, who served the team from the mission kitchen and kept our morale up with her patience and good humor when she tried to teach even the most basic phrases of survival Spanish. She is embodied in Proverbs 31:

Navi

She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. … She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. 

 I'll be on the big silver bird headed for Lima in some number of hours — time is flexible in Peru — then turn right and seven or eight hours later I'll back in the home of the free because of the brave.

And I don't know if I'll be back to Peru. There's a lot of moving parts on that one. 

Blessings,

Bob

Day Five

(Editor's note: If you are using an Apple product, please read the Ed's note on previous posts.)

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

It's hard not to be a little anxious about tomorrow after today's events.

The general strike that has shut down Juliaca and its outlying slums was supposed to have ended last night, but it carried over into today.

That conflicted with the team's mandatory fun day in Puno, a seaside tourist town on the banks of Lake Titicaca. But we were going, the angry Peruvians, glass-strewn streets and burning tires notwithstanding.



It started out like a great adventure. Padre Luis talked a service-car driver to haul six of us to the bus station south of Juliaca proper. After 30 minutes of bouncing around on the back streets and dirt allies, and drawing hoots of derision from strike sympathizers, the fun came to a tense end when a woman came out from behind a house and began smashing bottles on the ground in front of our transport.

We dismounted and walked for another 30 minutes back toward the main highway. Padre Luis told us to wait while he walked to see if buses were running. He was gone for more than an hour, and the answer was, no, they weren't.

That meant an hour walk back to Juliaca. At one point, strikers manning burning-tire barricades demanded we pay a toll to pass and a few bottles crashed near us when we kept walking.

So, yes, today's troubles were more than sufficient for today. Tomorrow is getaway day and we have to get to the airport. Even if we have to walk, pulling two suitcases and wearing a backpack, it can't take more than an hour because that's what it says on Google maps. Uh-huh.

UPDATE: I just learned that the strike has been settled and we will be able to hire cabs to take us to the airport on Saturday morning. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow. Amen.

Day Four

(Editor's note: If you are using an Apple product, you cannot view the slideshow on this post. It's an Apple vs. Google thing. There is Day Four Photos page on this blog and on that page you will find a link to the complete Picasa album, complete with witty commentary)

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" (Luke 10:29)

The construction team grew by two (unofficial) members on Thursday.

A pair of German tourists and all their fellow passengers got put off their bus Wednesday afternoon when the driver decided to honor the general strike that has shut down the area this week. The Germans, Ilke (I think) and Nadine (I'm sure), made their way to the hotel where we are staying.

They don't speak Spanish but know a little English, so the desk clerk called Kym McDaniel, Christ Church Plano's missionary to the Anglican Diocese of Peru, to come down and translate.

One thing led to another, and Ilke and Nadine spent today working with us at the mission, breaking bread with us at lunch and dinner, and signing their names to the memory wall that will recall the time people of three nations — Texas, Germany and Peru — worked together for one afternoon to glorify God.

Day Three

(Editor's note: If you are using an Apple product, you cannot view the slideshow on this post. It's an Apple vs. Google thing. All mission photos are being posted on separate page on this blog.)

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. (Col. 3:17)

This mission trip is not what a friend in another fellowship once called a "glory gig."

We are not teaching orphans how to swim or inoculating them against infectious diseases. We are not teaching adults how to read the bible.

What we have been doing sounds pretty mundane: clearing away debris from the mission courtyard, moving things around, and sanding and painting its walls inside and out.

And, according to Padre Luis, we are God's answers to four year's of prayers.

So my friend, it turns out, was wrong. The chores we've been doing, we've been doing in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God to Father for this opportunity to glorify Him.

Day Two

(Editor's note: If you use an Apple product, you cannot view the slideshow on this page. It's an Apple vs. Google thing. All photos from the mission are being published on a separate page.)

What's all this talk I hear about ...

1. What's all this talk about thin air. While I was laying on a bench trying to catch my breath and looking up into the sky for what I thought might be the last time, it occurred to me: This so-called thin air looks exactly the same as regular air.
2. The water swirling around in the opposite direction when you flush the toilet is not nearly as exciting as I'd thought it would be.
3. The first couple of mornings I woke up with a low-grade headache and rubbery legs. Somebody said I had a mild case of altitude sickness. I think it was because I am in the southern hemisphere so the blood was pooling in my head and now I am acclimated to that.