Back in Juliaca, til Thursday.

Well, we are basically done for the summer. The plans for the rest of my time in Peru is hopefully set. We fly out of here on Thursday afternoon and will then spend a couple of days near Lima before I fly back to the States. I am really excited about getting home, but I am enjoying my last couple of days here in Peru.

I don't have too much to say right now...other than I was very sick yesterday, but I am better now. I will post one more before coming home, it will be the ten things I learned about myself this summer, I hope it is enlightening to you all.

I WILL GO
Chase Culbertson

In Juliaca

We decided to leave a day early from Orurillo, so our time there is over. I have way too much packed and I am wondering how I will keep up with it for the next week!

Today, we handed out around 45 blankets to families in extremely rural areas of Southern Peru. We traveled wayyyyyyyy off the beating path to meet some shepherds and give them some blankets. In the mountains, it is even colder that in the villages, so these people deal with freezing weather even more than a villager. We did see snow again today, which was awesome! To give you an idea of how remote it was, it took us an hour to get there, from our village of 3000, which is still fairly small. I would tell you where these people lived, but I have no idea where we were, other than not in any village. It was a great ending to our time in orurillo and I will never forget our last day there.

Tomorrow, we will travel to Chupa, with 50 blankets...somehow.

Here are the plans

July 26th-28th: Chupa
July 28th-30th: Juliaca
July 30th: Fly to Lima
July 31st-August 1st: Final Debriefing
August 1st: To da airport.

I WILL GO
Chase Culbertson

Let it snow...

Not a whole bunch going on, we are basically wrapping up our time here. But, this morning...IT SNOWED. It snowed for about 15 minutes, but none stuck. It was really pretty though and I tried to get it on camera, but not sure if I had any luck! It was the first time Claudia had been in snow, so that was exciting! Also, since I am a geography teacher, I feel I should explain how unique this was! Ok...the Southern Peru mountains have a wet season and a dry season, which is different from the U.S. The wet season is during their summer and the dry season is during their winter. It is almost always cold enough to snow at night in the winter, but the air is too dry for such. There have been many days that it has been cloudy and it will look like it is gonna snow or rain, but it never does, because the air is so dry. But, this morning...I heard something hitting my roof and it was sleet, the sleet quickly changed to snow and I knew that I was seeing a very special thing.
I still can't believe it...

Wow...ok, with that said, it is so cold here today! The sun is still behind the clouds and although its nearly noon here, it feels like its in the low 30's outside and windy. Maybe we will see some more snow, but I would be ultra shocked if that happened! I am cleaning up my room and packing to leave Orurillo for good and getting really excited about seeing everyone and giving my family presents! I am gonna have to pay for excessive baggage on my flights but its totally worth it!

Let me leave you with a verse from Judges, the book I am reading currently...

When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he cried out "Oh, Sovereign Lord, I'm doomed! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face." "It is all right," the Lord replied. Do not be afraid. You will not die.
-Judges 6:22-23

We must fear the Lord if we are to do amazing things for Him. Later in the book of Judges we will find out that Gideon is an amazing judge and man of God. Let's be more like Gideon today!

I WILL GO
Chase Culbertson

Back in Orurillo...at least for now.

We (the Ayaviri Team and myself) left at 7 this morning from Puno, to meet Claudia and Kelly in Juliaca to pick up 200 blankets that a church had donated money for. This operation was very frustrating, but we managed to get all the blankets to their respective villages. We will be here in Orurillo until Sunday morning and plan on handing out 50 blankets soon, with the help of the doctor. We will do our final things here and try to encourage these people to do bible studies!! Here is the schedule for the rest of the summer.

July 23rd-26th: Orurillo
July 26th-28th: Chupa via Juliaca
July 28th-30th: Juliaca
July 30th: Fly out of Juliaca at 2:40 Arrive in Lima at 5:25
July 30th-August 1st: Final Debriefing
August 2nd: FLY HOME.

I am so amazed and excited that I will be flying to Lima a week from today and flying home in a week and a half! Continue to remember us in your prayers because we will be traveling quite a bit over the next week or so. Thanks.

I WILL GO
Chase Culbertson

Another Day in Puno...

Quick Update on Kelly...Kelly is doing much better. Her and Claudia actually went to Juliaca yesterday to buy some blankets for the people of the village. Claudia e-mailed me letting me know about the blankets and kelly's condition.

We will be staying in Puno for another day. I am DONE spending money, so I don't know what we are going to do. At least we are staying at a nice hotel and we can always walk around Lake Titicaca...and eat a bunch!

I will try to get some pictures up on Facebook of Lake Titicaca and some floating islands from a boat tour we took a couple of days ago.

Continue to remember us in your prayers, there is a strike today, but tomorrow morning we will leave to head back to Ayaviri. Then, I will leave for Orurillo, if we get back in time for that. If not, I will return to Orurillo on Friday.

On another note...I am ready to go home! This is the longest I have been away from home, by far. I will miss the people I have met and a couple parts of Peru...but, I can't wait for real pizza! Which we will be having on Sunday, August 2nd at 8:00 at Pizza Buffet in Anderson! Come on out...its gonna be awesome, well...decent pizza. :) Also, I MISS MY CHURCH AND FAMILY SO MUCH!!

Well, not much going on here...just a bunch of Americans wishing to be in the South!

BYE YA'LL

I WILL GO
Chase Culbertson

Why do we even make plans?

So...we found out late yesterday that Puno would be striking for two days, the 21st and 22nd. Therefore, no buses are traveling to anywhere for several days. We are going to try this morning to find a bus to Juliaca, but from there it will be nearly impossible to get to Ayaviri. We thought about leaving last night, but we would have arrived in Juliaca late, with no way of getting to Ayaviri at that time. Therefore, since Juliaca is a sketchy town, I thought it would be better to stay here. Anyway, we are going to get back to Ayaviri on either Wednesday or Thursday, depending on transportation, then I will go back to Orurillo that day, probably.

I was reading in Judges this morning and saw interesting and very blunt verses. I really liked it and thought I would share it with all of you.

Then the Lord raised up judges to rescue the Israelites from their attackers. Yet Israel did not listen to the judges but prostituted themselves by worshiping other gods. How quickly they turned away from the path of their ancestors, who had walked in obedience to the Lord's commands.
-Judges 2:16-17 (NLT)

What have we been prostituting ourselves for...money, lust, greed...what are we truly worshiping...our job, family, children, success, fishing, golf...

Let's re-focus our eyes our Jesus Christ today.

Less than two weeks remaining.

Here is a quick update. I am in Puno, going to Lake Titicaca today. The rest of my team (Kelly and Claudia) are in Orurillo as Kelly recovers from a parasite. I will be back there on Wednesday and will give a more detailed update then. Also, NewSprings' youth group left for The Gauntlet this morning! I wish I was there but instead I guess I will just have to pray for them...may God move like never before!!

I WILL GO
Chase Culbertson