Peru Day 6

Finally, I have returned to the blog to post the rest of the videos from my recent trip to Peru.  Including today’s post, there are four more videos to go!  In case you missed the first five videos, you can click on the links below:

• Peru Day 1
• Peru Day 2
• Peru Day 3
• Peru Day 4
• Peru Day 5

Peru Day 6: Today, we left the village of Florida and headed down river to a village called San Jorge.  We had been told two nights ago that this village was having a big party tonight, so our plan was to show up and see if we could share with everyone there.

I’ll let the video show you the rest…enjoy!

Peru Day 6 Coming Soon…

Thanks to all of you who have been following the Peru video posts the past few days!  I will be in New Orleans the next couple of days and will have limited internet access, so I will continue posting Peru updates once I get back to Lubbock.  I haven’t forgotten!  Peru Day 6 is coming soon…

Peace Love…and Cajun Food,

Austin W.

Peru Day 5

Day 5: We finally had a considerable amount of time today to spend hanging out with the people and building relationships.  We spent time in both Betania and Florida where we showed videos, told stories, acted out stories, played in the river with the kids, and worked in a garden.  While working in the garden, I helped clear the ground (by using a machete) so that they could plant more sugar cane.  During this time, I got laughed at and made fun of by the kids because this tiny little school girl totally showed me up with her machete skills.  I was also reprimanded by the school teacher (imagine that) because I accidently chooped up one of their sugar cane plants…I thought it was a really big weed so I chopped it up and through it at one of the kids (oops).

Anyway, it was a great day.  There were so many opportunities to engage with the people.  I also had the chance to call my momma for her birthday.

I was not able to get a whole lot of footage from the day, but here is what was able to get.  Enjoy!

Peru Day 4

Day 4: Day four began in the village of Betania.  The plan was to go from there to Madre De Dios and set up camp.  We had no idea the adventures that awaited us.  I’ll let the video tell the rest.

Check back tomorrow.  Day 5, I call my momma with a “Saved By The Bell” looking satellite phone to wish her happy birthday!

Peru Day 3

Peru Day 3: Last night we stayed at a “hotel” in a small town called Puerto Bermudez.  Puerto Bermudez is located along the Peches River which feeds into the Ucayali River which is one of the two rivers that forms the Amazon River.  I use the term “hotel” very loosely in this situation.  Mom, you would never stay at a place like this.  There is no hot water, there is no a/c, the mattresses are not really mattresses, the electricity is known to go out for days, and there are bugs everywhere.

After eating breakfast (freshly scrambled eggs with fresh squeezed pineapple juice), we hit the river.  The journey ahead looked something like this: 17 miles down the Peches River and 30 miles up the Anacayali River, deep water, shallow water (in which we’d have to get out and push the boat), snakes and waterfalls.  It has taken us two days to get to this point and as soon as we hit the river, we were finally in Asheninka territory.  The entire boat ride was filled with beautiful views of Asheninka villages overlooking cliffs/hills above the river.  From this point on, there is no more electricty (minus a generator in one village).  If there was any question before, it cannot be disputed now.  The adventure has officially begun!

At the end of the day, when it was all said and done, we had traveled almost 7 hours by boat, over 40 miles, and arrived at our first Asheninka village, Betania.  The goal was to make it all the way to our final destination, Madre De Dios, but that didn’t happen.  We’ll have to undertake that challenge on Day 4 (which would bring about a whole set of challenges none of us saw coming, including an epic battle with a deadly snake!).

Enjoy the footage from Day 3, and don’t forget to check back tomorrow for Day 4!

Peru Day 2

Day 2: After spending the night in a hotel in Lima, we left early in the morning to go back to the airport.  From Lima, we flew to a city of about 350,000 people called Pucallpa.  Pucallpa is about a 1 hour flight over the Andes Mountains and into the jungle close to the border of Brazil.  As soon as we arrived in Pucallpa, we all hopped into 2 four-wheel drive trucks and began an 11 hour drive south through the jungle to a small town called Puerto Bermudez.  Along the way, we stopped in a couple small towns for lunch and dinner, as well as a couple of other times due to one of the trucks breaking down and having to take small detours.

The drive, though extremely long and bumpy (not a good combo for people who get motion sickness), was very valuable to our team.  It gave us all an opportunity to begin getting acclimated to slowly being more and more out in the middle of “nowhere.”  There’s not a whole lot to do during an 11 hour drive, except look at the scenery and sleep.  Considering the conditions of the “roads” we were driving on, sleeping was kind of hard to do.  It’s a pretty surreal experience to be in the middle of the Amazon rain forest.

At this point in the trip, there are a whole lot of uncertainties of what will happen in the next few days.  We got word this morning that the mayor of Puerto Bermudez was arrested yesterday.  The mayor happens to be Asheninka (that is the people group we will be working with all week).  So, the rumor is that all of the Asheninkas from the villages in the area will be making their way to Puerto Bermudez to dispute the arrest. Will it be a peaceful dispute?  Better yet, will the people from the village we are planning on going to (Madre De Dios) even be there when we get to their village, or will they have left to come to Puerto Bermudez as well?  As a team, we are trusting that God will show us the way, protect us, and give us the perfect opportunities to share with just the right people.

Peru Day 1

For the next few days, I will be posting video blogs/footage from Peru.  Last Monday (May 11), I, along with 5 of my stud students from FBClubbock, went on a mission trip to Peru.  The plan: travel 3 days into the Amazon Rainforest to work with the Asheninka in a village called Madre De Dios.  As you will see, plans changed.

Beginning tonight, I will be posting footage from each day of the trip.

Day 1: We leave Lubbock, TX around 10:40am and arrive in Lima, Peru around 11:00pm.  I didn’t get a whole lot of good footage from the first night in Lima (I had to be selective on what I filmed because of the lack of size in my camera’s memory card).  Compared to last year, the first night was a pretty uneventful night (last year we lost 4 bags and had one team member’s flights cancelled).

I hope you enjoy the footage.  Check back tomorrow for Day 2!

The Mouse Files Re-Opened…

The Mouse Files have officially been re-opened.

This morning at approximately 10:21am CST a domestic North American office mouse (pictured below)

rudely barged into my office without asking. What followed next was one of the most intense stare downs between a mouse and a human being I have ever seen. It didn’t last long however. From the following photos, you will see that my intense glare was simply too much for the mouse. He literally fell over dead right there before my very eyes!

Do I have supernatural powers? No. I actually trapped the mouse with my foot up against the baseboard along the wall and suffocated him to death. It took about 5 minutes until he stopped struggling. I held him there for another minute or so after that just to make sure he was dead.

Time of death, approximately 10:35am CST. The mouse files have been officially re-closed (unless, this little mouse had friends).

PS. Ok, I’ll be honest, I felt a little bad for the little guy after it was all over.

Resurrection

Today is Good Friday.  I know, I know, every Friday is a good Friday (especially back in the day when Family Matters, Boy Meets World, Full House, and Step by Step were all part of the Friday TGIF television line-up).  Today, however is Good Friday (capital G).  Today is the day that I celebrate the most significant event of my life…though it happened long before I was ever born.

It is on this day about 2000 years ago that Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, was arrested for something He did not do, put on trial for something He did not do, found guilty for something He did not do, and sentenced to be brutally beaten and crucified (aka. put to death) for something He did not do.  He was arrested, tried, convicted, sentenced, beaten, and killed for something I did.

I’m guessing though, that you already know that’s not how the story ends.  In fact, the story isn’t anywhere close to being over.  In about another 30 hours or so, Jesus is going to come bustin’ up out of the grave.  That will be on Sunday….also known as the Resurrection Day.

Happy Easter!

Austin W.

PS. Since the resurrection is coming up, I thought it would only be appropriate to throw out the fact that I’m considering “resurrecting” what has been a lifeless blog for about 3 months now.  Hmmmm….I’m still thinking about it.

Paradigm begins this Thursday!

Paradigm starts back up this semester beginning with a series entitled “Lost” by Michael Kelley.  Bruce and I met Michael this summer in Glorietta, NM where he co-led Collegiate Week with David Platt.  Michael wrote the Bible study series “Tough Sayings of Jesus” which is being used by some of our LIFE group classes on Sunday mornings.  He is an avid blogger, so I encourage you to check out his blog (click here) and come to Paradigm this week!  Thursday at 8pm at First Baptist Church!