Interns and Apprentices (2009-2014)

There are many parts to our ministry here: church planting, discipleship, CUDA. A big part of the ministry that Team Arequipa 1.0 dreamed about before reaching the field was an internship program. We have all been influenced by short-term missions. We were all greatly enriched by the opportunities that our universities offered to study abroad or travel to other countries in the summer. We wanted to offer that opportunity to others through our work here. September 1 is Team Arequipa’s six year anniversary. We have hosted six groups of interns in our time here. It is exciting to see Team Arequipa 2.0 come in with the same desire to build on the internship program. There will be many more Arequipa interns in years to come.

The family of God is big, and one of the neatest parts of working as a foreign missionary is that you connect to so many Christians from various parts of the world. We have been greatly blessed by the summer interns and 2-year apprentices that have joined our work throughout the year. We learned new things every single summer. Since we just finished hosting our last group of interns in our time here, I thought it would be appropriate to post pictures of all the groups of interns and apprentices that have come through. This doesn’t count the groups that Bill Richardson brought through (3 different times). Connections are wonderful, and many of these guys are still in contact with us. It is our prayer that God impacts their lives through their experience here in AQP, and they carry his mission to wherever they go from here. All of our interns, apprentices and visitors are part of very special memories and times here in Arequipa for us.

Our first intern was Aaron in June/July 2009. Larissa’s sister, Briana, and our friend Kristen came to learn Spanish that summer.

Our first apprentice, Rachel Steele, arrived in February of 2010. She stayed two years.

Internship June/July of 2010: Whitney, Bob, and David

Internship June/July 2011: April, Hope, Stephanie, and Manet

Internship June/July 2012: (the biggest group ever) Ann, Katie, Emily, Rebecca, Jordan, Taylor, and Sean

Internship June/July 2013: Parker, Kayla, Lisette, and Gerina AND Aaron returned with his wife, Arielle, for a summer

August-December 2013: Catherine came to live with us for a fall semester to learn Spanish in preparation for her future job.

 Apprentices October 2013-2015: Andrew and Bethany Grey

Internship June/July 2014: Kayla, Christy, Lexi, Fiama, and Mat

We love each and every one of you. Thank you for enriching our journey while here in Peru!

Whirlwind 2014

It’s that time of year again, when the whirlwind is about to arrive and tomorrow turns into 4 months later.

Greg’s travels

First of all, Greg has been gone all this week.

right before taking off to the airport

He went to the Pepperdine Bible Lectureship in Malibu, CA, and then he skipped over to Pasadena to Fuller Seminary for a campus tour and NT Wright conference on his new book Paul and the Faithfulness of God.  Greg is hoping to start his doctorate in the fall of 2015.  We hope to know toward the latter part of this year where he is accepted.  We sure have been missing him, but we have survived.  He is enjoying his visit and hanging out with Dad.  Two of my most favorite men in the world hanging out in CA together… presh.

Mother’s Day program

Greg will arrive late Sunday evening, and the kids will have one week of school before their fall break.  I am looking forward to their Mother’s Day performance.  All three of them are learning different dances, and I have already paid the money for the costumes.  That will be on Friday.  It cracks me up that I have paid money for a craft and a costume for all THREE kids.  They will only go to school for the time of their program (a short day).  What an honor!  Expensive and losing my time they are in school.  I know that sounds selfish, but it is kind of ironic considering who they are celebrating, right? 😉

Thompson fun and Mission Teams Retreat

We are looking forward to the Thompson family coming to visit from Lima the next week.  They are coming in a couple of days early before our annual Peru retreat with the Lima and Cusco teams.  We are hosting this year in AQP, and it is always so much fun to see everyone, catch-up, and share stories from the field.  Our retreat will be Wednesday through Saturday out at El Lago.  It is the first retreat where we will not have a child to lie down for a nap… yes!

Pat and Caleb–woohoo!

The following week it will be back to school, but we are looking forward to my older brother, Pat, and his son, Caleb, flying in to AQP to spend a week with us.  It is always so much fun to have family come to visit.  Also, David Fann, one of our CUDA board members, is flying in for a quick visit to check out the new medical program.

Interns

The day after Pat and Caleb depart, the real whirlwind arrives… interns.  Greg and I have chatted with each of the five girls coming in this summer.  I am very excited to meet them all in person.  It is looking like it will be a great summer internship with them.  It is sad that it will be our last internship to host in our time here.

Mid-year break

The internship will swallow 2 months, and then it will be the mid-year break to celebrate the Peru National Independence Day and Arequipa Day in August.

The whole “moving back to the USA thing” gets real

Then we will find ourselves in September with only four months left in this chapter of our AQP life.  Crazy.  The whirlwind is almost here.  I want to savor every single moment.

Making Empanadas

left to right: Ann, Katie, Ibon, Emily, Rebecca, Jordan, Taylor, Sean

Today the interns came to the house in order to learn how to make empanadas.  Every Tuesday I go to Paty’s house and study the Book of Mark with her and her sister-in-law, Ibon.  I love Ibon.  She is such a sweet woman who loves to giggle and tell stories.  What I really love about Ibon is her love for cooking and trying new recipes.  She bakes for Cafe Connection, and we decided to take a Tuesday while the interns are here to learn her recipe.  So she arrived to my house this morning around 10:30 and by 12:45 we were eating fresh hot empanadas from my oven.  It was so much fun, and I thought I would share the experience with you all…

Ibon’s Empanadas

Ingredients (for the pastry):

• 250 g crisco (soften if really hard about 30 seconds in microwave)
• 225 g margarine
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 K flour (about 6 cups)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 Tbs powdered sugar
• water to wet dough

 

1. First, place all the crisco into a bowl and microwave until it is softened. (about 30 seconds; our crisco can be rock hard here in Peru)
2. Add all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
3. Add crisco and margarine to the dry mixture, and knead the dough with pastry blender until all of the dough resembles tiny pebbles.
4. Add the water and egg yolk and mix with hand.
5. Allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes (or if you are using later, place in a ziplock bag to keep in fridge until next day)

Ingredients for filling:

anything you want!  I can’t wait to try my own combinations.  We used what I had on hand which ended up being ham, cheese, and mayo.  But also, you will need:

• one egg separated
• 1 Tbs of powdered sugar

We started off with a dough ball that Ibon had already prepared.

Taylor is admiring my gigantoid rolling pin to roll out the dough.

Ibon cutting the dough into quarters.

 

and those quarters into quarters, and those quarters into quarters. Until we had about 20 little dough balls.

 

roll out the dough ball until it is this sizef

Place the filling in the middle of the dough.

brushing egg white around the edges of the inside of the pastry before folding up

 

fold over and cut off any major excess for smooth looking edges

 

flute the edges with a fork

 

Sean getting in on the action. Look at that face. 🙂

sift about a Tbs of powdered sugar into an egg yolk

brush the mixture onto all of the empanadas (oh, and the oven has preheated to 350 degrees)

aren't they beautiful?! We put 2 pans in and they took around 45 minutes to bake.

and Nadia, Ibon, and me finished them up...

 

and Jordan finished the last one for us. Single ladies, this man can make fresh, hot empanadas! 😉

We had fun learning.  Can I just say that I love this group of interns.