The time has come again for my “weekly” update so I’ll see if I can fit everything in that has happened since the last one.
The end of 2022 was very busy. We had a number of visitors from the States. Some of them were only around for a weekend and others were around for 2 weeks or so. A couple of them were my parents. They were able to come in for 2 weeks and it was so much fun having them around! I think they enjoyed themselves for the most part. The biggest thing for them to get used to ended up not being the altitude but the food. I had pretty well forgotten how different food here is from the States’ food. They were brave enough to try some of the Peruvian dishes. Sadly we weren’t able to get to a restaurant so they could try guinea pig but I think they were ok with that. We were sad to see them leave once their time was up here, but we had a little secret that they did not know.
I had bought tickets to the States before Dads had even visited. Our plans were to visit the States the end of November to the beginning January so we could take care of some things there and reenter Peru with a fresh visa and start our residency process over. (We have been fighting with our residency ever since we moved down. Hopefully we’ll be able to get it done this time round.) We weren’t able to keep our visit a surprise from everyone but my parents and Belinda’s Mom stayed in the dark the whole time.
I won’t put the video of our arrival on here so that I’m not disowned, but suffice it to say there were some very surprised people. It was fun to be able to fly in from so far away and just walk in on them.
We first went to Tennessee where my folks were and we were with them for Thanksgiving. We then traveled down to Georgia to where Belinda’s folks live the Sunday after Thanksgiving to surprise her family. My mother-in-law was happy to see us but I don’t think she was very impressed that we had lead her on for so many months saying we may not make it up to visit for another year. She forgave us for that though (I think).
Time in the States went by very quickly and we did quite a bit of traveling. We were in Tennessee twice, North Carolina once, and between Georgia and Florida a number of times. Belinda’s sister let us use her car any time we wanted it and so we got around without any issues. We’ll definitely try to keep her around for a while.
I was able to work with my dad again doing some construction work. I really enjoyed that. I miss that type of work sometimes and I have a lot of fun working with dad. We work good together when things are done how I think they should be. Lol 🙂 I was also able to do some semi driving again for the company I am partnered in with my in-laws. It was nice to be able to run with different people and see how the pros do it. On one of our runs there were 3 of us going up to Pennsylvania. (2 of my brother-in-laws and me) That was probably the most eventful trip I’ve ever been on. I forget now how many times we broke down on the way up but I believe it was around 5 or 6. It was just one thing after the other. But we were able to deliver the load and pick up another and get home safe and sound only a day later than we had planned.
The whole trip was filled with great times like that which made for never a dull moment. While we were there Shawn’s were back here in Peru dealing with all the curve balls life was throwing at them. The country was in an uproar. The president declared state of emergency, implemented curfew, and disbanded Congress. From what I gather he was taking steps to make Peru into a Communist country. Within hours of seizing control he was arrested and taken to jail. That did not sit well with rural Peru and they started to try to make their voices be heard through protests. If I understand correctly the president that was removed from office (President Castillo) was from lowly birth. He grew up in the mountain region of Peru and was the first president to bridge the gap between the high class and low class of Peru. So naturally the low class people were upset about his being removed. They began closing down roads and and inciting riots all the while blaming the “gringos” for polluting their government. I guess someone needed to be blamed, why not white people?
All of this made for an unsure arrival from the States back into Peru for us. We didn’t feel God had changed our calling yet so we decided to give it a shot and see how He worked everything out. So we were dropped off at the airport in Atlanta, GA the 5th to start our trip back home. Our first plane was delayed a number of times which caused us to get in late to Toronto, Canada and miss our flight to Lima, Peru. The next available flight was 24 hours later. The airlines gave us food vouchers and a free hotel and all considered took very good care of us. We were able to rest up and be back at the airport in plenty of time the next day.
Flights from then on went well but immigrations gave us a little bit of a hard time. The agent was not happy that we had over stayed our visa last year (even though I explained that we were trying to get our residency and it had been rejected a number of times) so she only gave us a 30 day visa. The process for getting the background checks we need was going to take 40-60 days. Just long enough that we would once again be illegal. We thought that maybe we could get the paperwork started and then apply for an extension, then I received an email saying that Belinda’s fingerprint card was rejected and we needed to submit a new one, in the US.
I’m honestly not sure yet how things will work out but it seems like we may have found another way to start the process and get the extension filed. All we can do now is trust that God will intervene and our paperwork will be accepted. We very much envy your prayers on this matter.
Rafael’s picked us up from the airport in Cusco and that’s when we learned that if we had indeed arrived when we had been scheduled to they would not have been able to pick us up. Due to the protests the roads were all closed and had opened back up the day we arrived. Praise the Lord! Our missed flight allowed a nice warm bed for our wait instead of a cold airport floor. It wasn’t very hard at all to be thankful for that missed flight in hindsight. But I should have trusted God more in the moment and been thankful then. “Live and learn”, as they say.
We arrived home from Cusco without any incidents and have been getting back into the swing of things since then. There are still protests with the roads opening up every few days so we are able to get into town and stock back up on groceries. We have heard rumors that this is the last week of protests and I am very much in favor of that. We will see what happens. Until it all smooths over we are happy where God has us and will continue to live out our testimony here in the community. They need peace that is unspeakable, and maybe this time of upheaval will open more opportunity for us to share where it is found.
We ask that you keep each of us in our prayer with the work here. Especially China. She is in the States for a short visit and is planning to return to gather her things, say her goodbyes (for now), and move back to the States. She has a lot of traveling and decisions awaiting, I’m positive she would ask to be remembered in prayer.
P.S. We are expecting a girl.
Benji AKA Me 