Sunday July 1, 2007

We arrived in Atlanta, Georgia about 8:45 AM, in time to pass through Immigration Control/Customs, to reclaim then recheck all our luggage, and take the train to the proper terminal. Our flight to Indy was delayed, but we still landed in Indy pretty close to noon.

We are grateful to our drivers—Clay DeYoung with Megan, Bob Hanstra, Curt Vanderkleed Sr, and Lorraine Reeder.

We are tired, but happy. Grateful to God for calling each one of us to go to Peru, floored by His work already in progress and continuing after we left, grateful to have been used by God in ways more amazing than we had even dared to hope. We showed up…and God did all the work, even ahead of our arrival. Now we leave the results in His hands, while asking Him how He might like to use each one of us in the future.

Thanks to each one of you reading this for your prayers, and love, and monetary support, and more prayers! To God be all the glory.
With love, your Sunrise Peru Mission ‘07 Team

Saturday June 30, 2007

With Mark still feverish, the rest of the team headed to Jesus Mi Luz boys’ home for a morning with boys from 6 to 15 years old. They put on a very nice program for us, featuring folk dances and songs. After the director gave us a tour of the facility, we split the boys into two groups for the Bible story and play time. How they love soccer! During the Bible story the boys were attentive, even mesmerized to hear about Jesus as their Good Shepherd, and many prayed to receive Christ as Savior!! Please pray that God will grow each one to be a vibrant Christ-follower, even with seemingly little opportunity for godly instruction.

Before we left this orphanage, we were pleased to be able to buy the rug/wall hangings that the boys had personally made on the looms in their little workshops. The director was thrilled that we bought all the wall hangings that were available (about 7 or 8). The money from these sales will be used to take the children on a field trip. Our group also donated money for the children to be allowed to play in the city park that borders the orphanage. Previously they had not been able to enjoy the 2 story slide or the rest of the playground in the park as there is an admission fee.

We stopped by the hotel briefly to pick up Mark, who is now feeling quite a bit better, and to load the last of our luggage into the big bus. On the way to the Cusco airport, we had a city tour. Our flight out of Cusco was delayed by more than an hour, but we are grateful for more safe travel.

Once we arrived in Lima, we were taken back to our original Colon hotel—felt like coming home! Here we had another answer to prayer! Bob had lost his eye glasses in Lima, we thought at the hotel. But when Buckner staff had called this hotel, they were not able to find any glasses. Now, just hours before leaving Peru, Buckner had arranged for each family to use a hotel room for a half hour or so, to prepare for the long overnight flight to the USA. Amazingly, the Lyzengas were assigned to the exact same room that they had stayed in earlier this week….and found Bob’s glasses (on the floor, under a bed near the night stand). God continues to be so gracious to us all.

Our last evening in Peru was spent reuniting with our wonderful translators who helped us shop for one hour in the local Indian market place. That was an interesting experience. We were very grateful for our translators who helped us find quality goods at reasonable prices.

Fond farewells to most of the translators, then on to Bembo’s for burgers with the last two of our translators. We were brave and tried some interesting combinations. Then farewell to our faithful bus driver Benito who had kept us safe through some wild Lima driving. A few minutes at the hotel to reload luggage and check Evan’s tired laptop computer which is currently not working—hence the delay in posting this blog.

From there the large bus took us back to the Lima airport. Our group made it through check-in procedures much faster that Jeremy, our Buckner Dallas representative. He missed his flight, but was able to catch another just a couple of hours later.

We passed the hours of waiting in the airport with a bit of shopping and resting. Then on through tax area (Jeremy had already paid our tax required to leave the country), through Immigration Control, and through Security, to our gate where we finished the wait, as our flight was delayed for an hour or so.
We flew out at about 1:30 AM (that is 2:30 AM Indiana time), grateful for the time God gave us in Peru.

Friday June 29, 2007

The day began very early with a 4:30 AM wake-up call. Many of us were not feeling very well, probably related to this high altitude. By God’s grace we all made the 6 AM train for the trip to Machu Picchu to see the ancient Inca ruins. By the end of our 4 hour train trip, most of us were feeling better, and could endure the steep climbing needed to see these beautiful ruins.

The climbing combined with the altitude slowed us all down somewhat. Occasionally, as we sought to catch our breath, we took turns suggesting that we all rest, “for Kay’s sake”. Some could be heard muttering: “If Kay can do this, I can do this” and “I’m not about to let a 70 year old great-grandma show me up in public” as we walked and climbed steps for our 3 hour tour. (It should be noted that Kay did have Evan’s assistance for every steep step). We were grateful for the sunny day and that we all endured the tour in good shape—no twisted ankles, no bad sunburn.

With narrow roads and many switchbacks, we were all grateful for safe travel as a large bus took us back down the mountain to the town of Machu Picchu! Thank you all so much for your prayers for our safety! At the bottom of the mountain, we made the most of a quick shopping opportunity at the market there, before boarding our clean and pleasant train for the nearly 4 hour trip back up to Cusco.

We had a quiet dinner in the hotel that night, followed by team devotions and prayer—always a highlight of the day. Unfortunately, Mark was ill with a significant fever that night. We are grateful to God for showing us that, because of his other symptoms, Mark should start taking the Cipro antibiotic that we had been advised to pack with us on this trip.
The night ended with everyone packing for the next day’s travels.