Bolivia 0 - Ecuador 1

Last week we got a call from our team member, Ben Haley, asking if we wanted to use a ticket for the friendly match between Ecuador and Bolivia. We took it and bought two more and Thomas, Matt and I went to our first international soccer game. It may seem strange after 7 years in Latin America, but honestly, the big games were not usually helf in Trujillo or Tumbes! Both teams are getting ready for the World Cup Qualifiers that start in October.

1-0 is pretty much a barnburner in soccer, so it was a good game. Thomas, especially, had a blast. We sat in the $5 endzone seats with the Hooligans and it was great. Thomas particularly enjoyed the " Wave." He put everything into it. Matt was great to have along for his encyclopedic knowledge of the game. He gets upset with me when I shout " Hey that's icing!" as opposed to " offsides!" but it amounts to the same thing. Once I figured out that soccer is slow, not-as-violent hockey played on grass, it all made so much more sense!

Get A Job!

Hey, Bryan got in to Arizona this morning at about 1 AM. This afternoon he got a job at the Diablo Fitness Center on campus! He had a similar job last semester at Glendale Community College. Guess all those push ups and pull ups paid off!

Family Pics for the First Time in a Long Time

A standing joke for our family is "Hey Dad, when are we getting prayer cards out?" Prayer Cards, so my response goes, are a 19th century way of people to remember their missionaries. They they remind me that on our 21st century website, we have no family portrait. So, here is an August 2007 photo of our family. Please feel free to print the pictures off and tape them to your computer or refrigerator and remember to pray for us often. Frank

Monday and Tuesday Trujillo, PE to Quito, EC

Our last day in Trujillo was spent shopping. Matt took his 50 soles and bought at cajon and case for 59. So, he paid $2.50 of his money and $17.50 of some unknown drunks' to get the cajon. I guess I should say what a cajon is. It is a box. like a guitar, it has a hole on one side and you play it like a bongo drum, but it has a bass sound and a snare drum sound. In Quito they cost $220! He was pretty happy about this.

We bought things for Julie and Katie and Thomas and Bryan and our last stop was to a supermarket for Peruvian foods that we could take back. A stock boy passed us and I think Matt and I realized at the same time. The man who worked a the hamburger stand and knew all about us? He was not a taxi driver after all. He was Moises (in picture). Moises was a stockboy at the Merpisa supermarket near our house in Trujillo. He went with me to buy our Christmas tree, he was at our house. It has been at least 5 years since I saw him and instead of an 18 year old boy, he is a grown (fat) man!

Matt and I left the store and walked across the street to where I PRAYED he was working. I said, "Man, I am so sorry. I did not know it was you." He laughed and said, "yeah, I got pretty fat!" I was so glad to realize it when I could.

That has kind of been the story of our trip. We saw so many people and instead of missing them by 5 minutes, we caught them by 5. We left that night with Tito who was heading to Guayaquil to pick up volunteers. At Tumbes, I saw Mauricio who was a major help in Tumbes and also Jose Olaya and Eliana de Chavez. We rode on to Guayaquil and caught a plane home to Quito. Hey, even got the Father's month discount becuase I was travelling with Matt!

Sunday Trujillo, PE

We got off the bus on Sunday morning and headed by taxi to the Santos. Matt and I got showers and that helped alot. I even shaved! We had cup of tea and went to Café Oviedo so we could finish putting the message together.

Just had coffee/chocolate and worked. At 9.15 headed to Iglesia Evangelica Bautista Central. I was just absolutely flooded with emotion when I went in. Began to cry, seeing former seminary students and church planters. I knew I was in trouble. When called upon to preach, Matthew and I both went up. I asked the song leader, Hermano Freddi to have another song ready in 5 minutes so I could pull my self together. I told them, I would help dispel prejudice that gringos were cold and without emotion. I talked about how Central was the first church we had visited and we did not speak enough Castellano to know the word Castellano. I also said how the first well project in Cerro Bolongo, Matt had been roughed up playing futbol and pastor José Colchado took him aside like an uncle and talked to him with his Tarzan English and how that touched us.

Matt and I saw Segunda after church. Segunda was the tiny lady who cooked for most of our volunteer groups. Her son Lucho passed away 6 months ago and her daughter Lilly is back in Cajamarca working as a math teacher. Lilly was Jewels Spanish teacher.

Went with Colchado family for chifa which was delicious. On the way back from lunch, Matt looked down and found 50 soles ($17.50) on the ground! Some drunk must have lost it the night before. While Matt feels terrible for the drunk…well, he was glad to use the money.

We went back to the Santos apartment and slept from 1 to 5. We had some supper and did some walking around.

Saturday Huaraz, PE

We got in to Huaraz around 7ish and walked around till we found a cafe. Had greasy scrambled eggs that neither of us finished. Went to a tour company (though about 10 different ones offered). Tour company had good bus and said they would leave at 9.30. It was like 10 but así es el Perú. Matt and I slept most of the way. Road is now paved and much better than last time. At some point, I began having sinus problems like Matt has been having. We passed over 4500 meters elevation and at Chavin I was feeling lousy and my heart racing. We had Burro Saltado for lunch and it was terrible. I guess most people don’t feel the need to add that the donkey meat was bad, but it was. Ruins were very cool and we both slept the whole way going back, or at least as much is possible bouncing over roads.

Arrived about 6 in Huaraz and absolutely freezing. We went to Pizzaria BB where the mud oven keeps you warm. I was in such bad shape. Thought that I was sunburned and high bp. Found out later that I was running a fever. Asked waitress if she saw the Johnsons who are missionaries 8 hours from Huaraz. A vez en cuando she said, when they are in town. As we paid, she ran over and said the Johnson´s truck is parked outside. I left Matt while I went for meds and when I got back, they were parked next to the oven. Had a great time with them. They dropped us off at Linea and we got the sofa cama back to Tru.

I do not remember the bus moving. I awoke at 2 or 3 in the morning and it was like someone had dumped a bucket of water on me. I was drenched from Tumbes to Tacna (Peruvian phrase that means from head to toe). Evidently my fever had broken. I took off my shirt and wiped down with a pillowcase and redressed in the same shirt after I had rung it out. My other shirt was at the Santos being washed for Sunday.

Got to Tru at 7 or so.

Friday Trujillo, PE

Well we did not wake anyone up at 5 this morning. In fact, we slept until 7:45 at the home of José and Maria Elena Santos who run the Baptist Bookstore in Trujillo. They live just 4 blocks from my ¨office¨ at Café Oviedo. Tito and Pavel were waiting for us there. I told Matt never to stand up a fat preacher or a lawyer. One will get hungry and leave and the other will sue you! We had a great time with them. Tito was taking a group to the airport and had to leave around 10 (2 hour breakfast is short, gotta love Café Oviedo). Matt went on to Elliot and that left Pavel and I. It is so great to see friends after a couple of years and you just pick up where you left off.

I eventually left and went to a cabina and then on to Elliot. I saw Bert and Colleen and Victor, but Maria was in a meeting and did not know we were there.

We then went to the Huacas and it was really great

Matt got with Gabriel, Viviana and Scarlett from Elliot School that afternoon. As we left for the bus station to travel to Huaraz, we went to Inkafarma in centro. I heard, ¨Oye Gordo!¨ It was David and Palmera Trigoso from Horeb Baptist Church. David and I had worked together closely for a long time. We left at 9 on Linea and it was awful. Whole trip, neither of us slept.