Check out our latest family newsletter! January has been a great month, with a lot going on. Thank you for your constant support and encouragement!

Bagels!

Trujillo is unique in the fact that it does sell imported American things, but only selected items in selected stores. One of the wonderful finds here is Philadelphia Cream Cheese, a great favorite of mine growing up. They sell the regular flavor, salmon flavored, and other kinds. In blocks or spreadable! The only problem is that I grew up eating it primarily on bagels. And those don’t exist here in Trujillo. So, we have this wonderful assortment of creamy goodness and not a beautiful bagel on which to eat it.

So I decided to put an end to this nonsense. With Sarah’s help, we made four batches of homemade bagels over the course of 2 weeks and enjoyed them immensely! I am learning as I go (as I did not ever make my own bagels before) but enjoying each batch immensely! So far, we have made plain, blueberry, cinnamon-raisin, and chocolate nut. The chocolate nut ones were originally going to be chocolate chip….until I added the chips and watch them melt away into nothingness as the mixer kneaded them into the warm dough. Oh well. They were delicious all the same! 🙂

I will definitely be making many more in the future! Come and share a few with me!

Shaping them

Boiling them before baking them

The finished product

Back in Town…Take four!

First off, I apologize for the lateness in posting this past month. There has been some glitches in our program and I have had trouble uploading posts. Hopefully though, it is over with and we will be up and running once more!

January in Peru is a beautiful time. Summer is in full swing with blooming flowers, bright, warm sun, singing birds, and clear blue skies. It has been such an enjoyable few weeks back here.

Here are some snippets from these past weeks:

We had a wonderful time at Christmas visiting with our families and feel very blessed to have been able to go back to the States and spend such precious time with them!

Since being back, we have been able to participate in a number of momentous and fun events. One was the initiation of Sunday morning services at the church plant in Parque Industrial. Here is a part of what Caleb wrote about it: “Christ the Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Parque Industrial celebrated its inaugural Sunday morning service. Making the occasion even more precious was the baptism of Cristel Elisabet Padilla Magán, daughter of Pastor Percy and his wife Julie. The congregation observed the Lord’s Supper for the very first time. Many neighbors from the community attended, as did several young people from the nearby Manuel Arévalo Presbyterian Church, which has truly come behind Christ the Redeemer Church to support and help the fledgling congregation. Praise the Lord!” It was a joy to be a part of the congregation that morning and get to celebrate with them!

The RUF VA Tech team came for a week to work on the clinic located right next to that church. They did some amazing construction work and electrical wiring. We really enjoyed having them over to our home one evening for dinner and getting to hear about their adventures. Thank you, Team!!

Sarah, my sister, came back with us after Christmas and has been spending this month helping me out around the house. It has been SO MUCH fun to have her here to talk with, play with, and share life with. Thank you, Sarah, for coming! and Thank you, Dad and Mom, for funding her!

We are so thankful that the Davenport family is here in Trujillo, and are really enjoying our time with them. They will be such a blessing to this team!

Thank you to each of you for your support, thoughts, prayers, and notes over this Christmas/New Year’s season. We are deeply grateful to you and would covet your prayers as we start a new season of work here in Trujillo.