Early this morning the last group made it in from Miami.  Some of us received the first stamp on our passports. Everyone was a bit bleary eyed, but we managed to make it through customs safe and declaration free.  We left customs for the baggage claim area, and found all of our bags neatly stored in a corner (many thanks to the group who stayed late at the airport the night before arranging bags for us). 

We put our bags on huge buggies (it looked like baggage bumper cars) and went through the last part of airport security.  Once everyone made it through the red light green light “push the button” test (each person had to push this button to see if they were randomly selected for an airport exit baggage check) we made our way to the hotel´s van.  We reached hotel colon about 6 a.m.  People settled in, and then tried to catch up on sleep.

Well who knew the hotel alarm clocks were on military time…so if your´re a bit sleep deprived and not paying attention, setting your clock for what looks like 10 a.m.  might not quite get you up on time.  However, by 11:30 most people had eaten the hotel´s buffet breakfast and were ready for Buckner Orientation.   Some of the people who got in at 6:30 a.m. were even up for this.

During orientation we met our translators for the week.  By the end of the week we´ll be able to spout off their names by heart, but for now there´s a whole lot of polite taps on the shoulder and remembering people by what they have on.  We´ll do better! 

We also met our two fearless transportation facilitators today.  One of these men drives the van while the other gentleman helps the driver navigate the streets of Peru by scouting out traffic on hairpin curves, warning him of impending walls and basically being his second pair of eyes and literal right hand man on the road.  We´ll know their names by week´s end too.

Once we made it to the orphanage we met the director, some of the caregivers, and the children who were not in school.  Public school here is from about 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.  So we had a chance to get to know some of the children with special needs.  F.Y.I. every child has special needs for love, attention, stickers and balls!

After the orphanage we made two stops–one to a hypermart that someone described as a “Home Depot, Walmart, Mattress Giant and Pizza Hut all rolled into one.  Our other stop was the gas station–about 14 soles a gallon (nearly $5 a gallon)–and you thought prices were bad at home.

Back at Hotel Colon, we collected our entire group and headed for a Dim Sum restuarant (i.e. family or platter sharing style dining). On the walk to the Chinese restaurant we passed the Pacific Ocean.  We also passed people bundled in their winter coats, but it felt like a cool spring night in Texas.

We have found out that there is a heating problem on two of the floors, so most of us will have to repack our things and have them in the lobby by 7 a.m.  We´ll then have three folks to a room.  So we have an early day tomorrow, and we all need to get some rest, because it will be the first day of Vacation Bible School and painting at the orphanage.

The day started with some of us signing off at customs that indeed we were not bringing in any funny business.  Then we got the seal of Peru stamped in our passports.   And even though it was late, well really early in the morning, the hotel van finally delivered us to Hotel Colon so that we could start the first full day of our adventure in Peru! 

¡Dios nos bendiga!—God bless yall! and…

‘night ‘night!

We had some fun passing the time as we waited for a plane to take us to Lima.  Check out these videos to get a taste of what we experienced.  We have two videos available now…we are working on getting the others posted, so check back soon for those! 

Well, it is currently 10:45 a.m.  The 29 of us met at Dallas Fort/Worth International Airport on Saturday morning at 8:00 a.m.  Nearly 48 hours later, we all FINALLY arrived in Lima.  Here’s how it happened…

The 1:35 a.m. flight that we thought we were booked on was a hoax.  Apparently the ticket agent printed 30 fake tickets to appease us.  So when we tried to check in at the gate, we learned that the flight was full.  We were not going to Peru.  Then they decided that 10 of us could go after all – but when those 10 went to check in, they said that we had not arrived early enough, so they would not let them on the plane.  Ironically, we had been sitting at the gate for over three hours!

After much consternation and prayer, we finally headed to the Hilton Miami Airport, where we spent the rest of the night (we arrived there after 2:30 a.m.).  The next morning, we were back to the airport to start all over.  Nine people in our group were confirmed on the 11:55 p.m. flight to Lima last night, and the rest of us were confirmed on the 5:30 p.m. and 11:55 p.m. flights today.

To make a long story short, we were all able to get to Lima last night by flying standby.  God was definitely in charge here – one of the travelers at the 5:30 gate flies the Miami-Lima route frequently, and he mentioned that those flights were typically full.  Standby passengers don’t usually get on.  But we did!

When the first group arrived in Lima, we had the daunting task of locating all of the luggage for our group – which had arrived 24 hours earlier on our original flight.  The luggage process took THREE HOURS…but thankfully, ALL of our luggage had arrived, and they had kept it in a safe place until we arrived.  Needless to say, we all breathed a huge sigh of relief.

The first group arrived at the Miraflores Colon Hotel in Lima at about 2:00 a.m., and the second group arrived at about 6:30 a.m.  So…

WE ARE ALL HERE!  We are planning to take it relatively easy today – we are having an orientation meeting and then we are heading to the orphanage to play with the kids for the afternoon.  We will start our VBS and construction projects tomorrow.

Thank you SO MUCH to all of those of you who have been praying for us for the past two days.  God has been good.  There are so many ways in which our experience could have been so much worse, but at every turn God was providing and helping us to maintain good attitudes.

I really believe that God wanted to help us to bond together as a team and to cause us to let go of ourselves before we got here.  We are all excited and ready to go.  We will update more tonight after we have time to go to the orphanage!

 

Being from Dallas, we have all learned the true meaning of the old adage of late.  We have seen literally feet of rain in the past two months, and quite frankly, sometimes it seems overwhelming!  I think we were all glad to leave our virtual swampland and head for some drier climate today.  In some ways, God had different plans…

 The anticipation was high this morning when we met at 8:00 a.m. at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to depart for Peru.  We have been planning for the trip for nearly a year, and we were all very excited to see how all of the things we have prayed for would come to fruition.

By the time we all arrived at the airport, our flight had already been delayed 40 minutes because of a problem getting the aircraft to DFW (due to inclement weather).  So we were not really that surprised when the flight got bumped back another half hour just minutes before boarding was to begin.  We finally boarded the aircraft at about 12:30 p.m. today, and we got settled into our seats, excitedly chatting about how anxious we were to get there.  Minutes later, the pilot announced that the left engine of our aircraft was not working (literally, he said that trying to fly without it would be like trying to drive a car without a carburetor).  So we deplaned and waited for further instructions.  The metaphorical showers had begun.

We soon learned that we would have to change terminals to board our new plane, which would depart in 45 minutes.  We hurriedly ran to the Skylink, and within fifteen minutes we were entering Terminal A, where we sat for at least another hour to get on our flight.  I wish I could describe to you the melee there as others on our flight tried to push and shove their way onto the aircraft prematurely.  One old saying notes, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”  Whoever said that had evidently met the gate agent at Gate A18 at DFW.

We finally got on our flight and lifted off (after waiting “in line” on the tarmac) at about 3:00 p.m…a little AFTER we were supposed to have landed in Miami.  Our flight was fine – we enjoyed hanging out, praying that we would make our connection to Lima in Miami before it departed.

At about 6:15 p.m. EST, we learned from our pilot that the Miami International Airport had been shut down due to inclement weather.  Evidently other areas of the country are experiencing torrential downpours, too.  As frustrating as this might sound, it was a glimmer of hope for us – perhaps our Lima flight had been delayed.  We circled Miami for about half an hour before we were cleared to land, which we did at about 7:00 p.m.  When we landed, several of us made prompt phone calls to the American Airlines automated service, only to learn that our Lima flight had departed twenty minutes prior….and that’s when the downpour really began.

After landing, we had to wait for about thirty minutes on the tarmac because of lightning.  It was not safe for airline personnel to guide us into the gate, and the ramp had been closed.  When we were cleared to start up, the plane lost all power.  When we regained power, we went about six feet before we were stopped again.  We waited another hour or so before we were cleared to approach the gate…then we had to stop because of “ground gridlock” on the tarmac and again because of construction at the gate.  We literally had to have a tow truck drag us into the gate.

All that said, it is currently 11:40 p.m. EST, and we are waiting – patiently – in the Miami International Airport for our 1:35 a.m. flight into Lima on LAN Peru Airlines (has anyone ever HEARD of that?!?).  Spirits are still very high…we all realize that things could have been MUCH worse, and we wonder what God has protected us from that we will never know.  We know that our adventures today will mean flexibility with our schedule tomorrow (we won’t arrive in Lima until 6:05 a.m. tomorrow) – but we also know that flexibility – and prayer – is the key to our journey.

Truly, when it rains, it pours.  Thanks for reading and sharing our adventure with us….and check back tomorrow night when we will give you the update.  In the meantime, enjoy the pictures of today’s adventures!

On Monday night, our team converged on the ninth floor of the Spurgeon-Harris building to pack our BUM bags for the trip.  These large duffle bags contain the humanitarian aid that we will be taking to the orphanages with which we will be working in Peru.  Most of our team members were there, and we worked diligently for about three hours preparing all of the resources that we will use in our VBS sessions and getting them packed in the bags.  Click on some of the pictures to see our team in action!

Welcome to our Blog!  Thank you for partnering with us in prayer as we prepare for our journey to Peru and as we are there later this summer.  We are anxiously anticipating all that God is going to do at the San Antonio Orphanage and at the other sites that we visit during our stay.  Feel free to check back periodically, as we will update the blog as frequently as possible with new information.  While we are in Peru (June 30-July 10), we will try to post at least every other day (depending on internet capabilities) so that our friends and family at home can share in the experience with us!  Also, be sure to check the prayer log as we update specific prayer requests for the trip and for those of us going.  Enjoy!