The Kitrons: May 2012

The Bridge In Peru!

The Bridge Church of Snohomish, Washington has sent two of their elders, Troy and Jake to check out our ministry here in Peru. (We made these plans before we decided to spend extra time in language school...so unfortunately we aren't there in Pucallpa, in a home, and they couldn't stay in the guest room that doesn't exist yet!)

The Bridge is a supporting church of ours and we've been blown away by their love and involvement in our lives since we met them last September. They have shown us such love, not only does the church itself support us, but many families in the church do as well. We have been so blessed by their prayers and encouragement! They gave us a huge financial gift to help us greatly in our start-up costs that we are completely humbled by! A few members sent us Spanish books and materials and a care-package of highly treasured items (peanut butter, brown sugar, chocolate chips, poptarts, and more!).

They arrived early Saturday morning, slept some, and then went to lunch with us and Julio and Olga Chiang (our church planting pastor/boss). We talked about various possibilities for them if The Bridge brought a team down. Marshall took them to Pucallpa yesterday (I stayed in Lima) and from what I understand are getting a good dose of the jungle heat! =)

Please continue to pray for us as we all work together to see God's kingdom grow!!

A Weekend Pucallpa Visit....goodbye Schmidts!

Last weekend (the weekend after Mother's Day), Marshall and I took a quick trip up to Pucallpa. We wanted to check out our future home (Thanks again Fosses for letting us see it!), go to appliance and mattress stores to compare prices in Lima, and spend time with our sweet friends Jon and Karen Schmidt who are leaving Peru after 22+ years of service here.

They invited us to stay with them which was great to spend every possible minute with them! (They actually just left this morning on their flight back to the US.) =`( Jon has been a pilot for SAMAIR and we were able to see his final take-off. There was a surprise party waiting for him when he arrived back at the hangar after his flight. We all got to see a fun fly-by of his by the hangar!! The Schmidts made a hard decision in leaving their roles and lives here in Peru to follow the Lord's leading for him to teach at Moody Aviation in Spokane, Washington. They have touched so many lives here in Peru over the past 22 years and they will be truly missed!

Final check before the final flight.

I had to make this picture larger!!! =) Jon's fly-by, and his wife caught a picture of him....she's underneath the plane!! =)

A sweet banner made for them.

With Craig Gahagan, another SAMAIR pilot. These guys have worked together for a long time!

Limbo in Lima

We finished language school and arrived in Lima Mother's Day weekend. We took advantage of some of the Mother's Day sales some of the department stores had to offer and early Monday morning went to Interpol and ran other errands to continue the process for our Peruvian residential visas. Now its a waiting game. We have a house to rent in Pucallpa, but can't move in until June 1st, otherwise we'd probably be setting up home while we wait.

We've purchased several things that aren't available in Pucallpa for the home, and we've priced checked appliances in about every store in Lima with the stores in Pucallpa. After about a week and a half of shopping and price checking, we're "retail-stored-out"!

Once we get our carnets (resident visa ID cards) we'll be able to get our driver's license. That process can take several days....blood work, a psychological exam, a driving theory computerized exam, and an actual driving exam....plus the fees. Rules change very often here in Peru, and though we have our driving records from the US so we would be able to not take the driving exam, its possible we'll have to do that anyway.

Our complicated and tricky situation is that we don't know when our carnets will be ready. Could be tomorrow, next week, or a few weeks from now. We are paying for rent as of June 1st, but don't want to be flying back and forth from Lima and Pucallpa paying for those flights or paying for food and lodging here in Lima while in limbo. I (Becca) am in a wedding mid-June in the US, and need to have my carnet by then because it'll be even more paperwork/red tape/circus hoops if I leave Peru before its completely processed. We're also running out of reserved days at the SAM guest house because June is pretty full of mission teams coming in and staying...so if we stay in Lima, we need to find another place to stay.....*sigh*.....like I said....its complicated.

We're praying for God's wisdom in what we need to do, and that both the carnets and licenses we'd have in hand soon! Please pray with us!

Adios Arequipa

"Goodbye" is never easy, and its quite normal in the missionary life. 2 weeks ago we left Arequipa after a little more than 3 months there for our language refresher course. We had several despedidas (which are going away parties or get togethers): the church leadership took us out for dinner, the language school, several meals out with friends, the girl's bible study Becca participated in, and the grand finale at our host family's house the night before we left. It was a busy and fast week, but rich with love! We'll miss our friends there, but rich relationships await us in Pucallpa.

Here are just a few pictures from that week.......