Suckers for the sick!

We have all had the flu this week :( However, four happy children attest to the fact that the treat their loving Papa brought them was enough to make even the sickest smile! :) I think we are all mostly over the worst of it by now. PTL! (These four suckers cost a total of .60 cents US, .15 cents US each! Some smiles are cheap!)

Hello there to you all! it is a beautiful Spring day here in Velille. The rains have begun, and things are turning green again. I really have a hard time believing the calander when it says the end of October, as it feels like May! Well, just wanted to let you know we finally got around to putting captions on the pictures from our time in Cusco, as well as the most recent house pictures, so you can go back and look at them if you want! Samuel says some funny things these days as he is learning to think and speak for himself! Yesterday Susanna brought a big black beetle upstairs to show us, and Samuel, with a big smile and sparkling eyes, said, "Mama! May-I-hold-that-nasty-thing?" I laughed! Then today he was whining, "Mama-Maama-Mama!" I whined back "What?" With a glare he said, "I - don't want you talk to me in that cry voice!" When he kept on whining, Gordon asked, "What do you want Samuel?" Apparently he thought it was an open ended offer - after a thoughtful pause he proclaimed his wants loudly: "Candy!" :)

more house building photos

Talk about doing things by hand (and foot), I will probably take my cordless drill out for one small part of the roofing, but other than that, everything is done by manpower. Here we are trying to keep the corners straight. You can see the windows and door being framed up.

In the dry season, the houses blend in with the mountians, but soon, things should be greening up.

Here we are getting a few layers above the door and window beams. About 3000 of these adobes should be enough for the whole house. We are planning a small loft on one end, to have a bedroom upstairs and one downstairs, the rest will be open up about 12ft. The folks here have one certian way to do everything, with little room for inovation. While we want to make it simply, and fit in with the rest of the houses, I still have some ideas about doing things differently, but get into trouble, as anything different here is seen as "wrong!"

You can see a few new roofs of our neibors in the background. The roofing is a big cultural event here. Many friends, neibors and relatives come to help, and to eat a big meal. It is normal to kill 2 sheep or a cow for a roofing day. I am trying to get 2 alpacas for ours, which, by the way, is set for Nov 14th. We hope to have many of our friends attend, help, and get to hear the gospel, instead of the normal drunken party that normaly lasts most of the night. Please pray that this event would be a light in the darkness. I have tried to go to most of the roofings around, and help in the day, if I can, but then escape fairly early in the evening (6 to 9PM), before the alcohol starts taking much effect. They have so many customs steeped in darkness, but when confronted with the Truth, dismiss them as customs that are more inportant than the Bible. Such as pouring drink and blood offerings on the walls and floor, trying to remove the sheep's heart still beating, and many other similar things, just to get a little more luck for the house and family. We are inviting some of the believers from some of the areas near by, as well as many of our friends from Velille and Tacllapampa.

Anyone want to come for a workday and some alpaca ribs?

Little nooks and holes are included to make built-in shelves.

Isaiah's Walker. . . and more!

Happy Isaiah! At 8 months old, he really enjoys his walker, and I enjoy having somewhere to put him during part of school time to keep him busy and happy. Thanks Grandma/Great-Grandma Howe! (I've wanted to take a picture of him in his walker for a while so you could see him - yesterday I finally got around to it!) Love you Grandma!

Samuel has taken a real liking to the kitten and the chicken lately! He is trying to help out on what I consider the "lost cause" of taming this wild little kitten of ours before we give it away. Samuel hugs and squashes and crunches this kitten more faithfully than any of his other siblings, but for all of that, it still runs when it sees him, or anyone, coming. The chicken is a lot tamer - she lets him pick her right up. A Few of the 101 Expressions of Isaiah: "Calm and Happy"

"Grinning"

"Dismayed"

We just started Sunday Services out in Tachllapampa yesterday. We have been moving to that goal for a while, and continue to make more contacts as we build the house out there. Pray for these to be a blessing and used of the Lord to build His Kingdom! Four year old Susanna was so pleased to be chosen to accompany Papa this Sunday.

"All Boy" Samuel really enjoyed observing this big black beetle that wandered all over his sleeve! (He wasn't quite so happy when it fell down the back of his collar!) We are so glad to have our Samuel - our sonshine boy!

So, how do you make a house out of dirt?

The community of Tacllapampa gave us a lot to build a house on. This village is in the center of the area that most of the believers and interested folks live in. It is about a 30 min drive or 2 hour walk from Velille. It seems likely to me that there will be stable church there before there is here in Velille. So we want to be more involved in the area. We are not planning to live there on a regular basis at this point, but we do have a few hopes for this house. We would like to see a couple, family, or several young men teaching English and Bible in the school of Tacllapampa, and this would be their house. We would like to be able to spend time in this area as a family, and be able to spend the night sometimes. We hope to "get away" from normal life here as a family once in a while, and camp out in our "cabin." In itself, building a house seemed like a good way to conect more with this community, and indeed it has already been opening up doors with folks out there, that we haven't had contact with before. Lord willing, we hope to start having regular services in the area soon.

Here we are, digging out for our house, then you make mud out of the dirt and make your adobes from that. How's that for resourceful?

They always said I wouldn't get anywhere in life by playing in the mud, but they were wrong!

You need to scatter straw on top of the mud, then get in and stomp around a while to mix it well. In the background here, you can see the main part of the town of Tacllapampa.

After mixing the mud well, you carry it to where you are making the adobes, make a big round ball of it, squish it into the mold and then slide the mold off. A week later, you stand them up on their side to dry better, and a week later, you carry them a little way and stack them up. Each one weighs about 40 lb. Brother Daniel has the lot right next to mine, here we made made adobes on his lot, as it is flatter than mine.

I needed to get my trici-cart out to our little town of Tacllapampa to haul adobes and water for building. I tried several days to get it taken out by a truck, but it didn't work out, so I improvised. I hooked it up to the motorbike. It only flipped once on the 14 K (9m) trip.

No one else strings lines, but I thought it would be worth it to have straight walls and a square house.

My construction instructer from college should be impresed. To level for the foundation and walls, we use a clear garden hose, filled with water. Both ends must stay open, and the water level is the same at both ends.

Here I am laying the first block.

I wanted to take my time to get the corners up correctly, before others help me raise the walls next week.

Lots of good community interaction at the worksight. We do work days here using the traditional "Ayni" concept. Different ones help me one day, and then I help them another day.

Here we got to see one of the most brilliant rainbows we have ever seen, as we waited in hope for a vehicle to take us home. Some times there are, and sometimes they are late, and sometimes there aren't. On the left of the pole on the left, halfway up the hill, you can see the dirt dug up on our lot.

Pics from our time in Cusco!

Well, here you have it - I finally got around to putting captions on the pictures. They somehow got uploaded in opposite order, so if you want to look at them cronologically, you can start at the bottom and work your way up. . . sorry about that. Sweet Susanna, always an animal lover, really enjoyed the 4 day old calf at the Martins. I think that it enjoyed her, too!

The children had fun playing with so many others at our Missionary retreats. Elisabeth and Susanna are in the middle in this game.

Here are Pravitha and Esther, Jon and Charlotte Kropfs two little girls. Our children have become good friends with them over the last couple of years. . .

Judy Martin

She so kindly hosted all 8 or 9 families that came to the meetings - and did it all with a smile!

Yes, it was a full house all right!

We had many, many children - I think about 20 of the children were 6 yrs. old or younger!

Isaiah - all tangled up :)

Dear Sister Charlotte - Carrying Esther on her back.

Pravitha, who plans on being a big sister the end of November, really enjoyed a chance to "practice" on Isaiah. He was pretty pleased with the attention.

Samuel, our happy young man.

Elisabeth - enjoying the warmer climate that we went to for a few days of family time.

"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." We often call Susanna Papa's little "Apple" - she is so much like him in her high energy, excited, enthusiastic outlook on life. Here the two of them were racing top speed across a fallen log.

Thanks Anna and Serenity for the sweet little hat - Isaiah uses it all the time!

Sitten' on a log. . .

A picnic with the Martin children - what fun!

Velille has so few trees, that out children had lots and lots of fun climbing trees near the Martin's home!

Susanna, always a climber, was in her element!

Off to a picnic with the Martins!

Family Photos plus some. . .

We recently decided that it was time to take a new family photo! With Helena as the photographer, and a set of matching outfits that Dad and Mom Howe gave us last year, we transformed a very busy Monday Market morning into a family photo session! This first one is what we chose to go on our new prayer card, and the rest. . . well, we liked them so much we though that we would just share them with you all too!

The Wengers

Gordon and Betsie,

Elisabeth 6, Susanna 4, Samuel 2, and Isaiah 6 months

Samuel LOVES his little brother - and happily, Isaiah is such a happy, sociable little fellow that he returns his brothers love right back again!

Helena busily sweeping our dirt floor while carrying Isaiah. He loves to be where the action is!

Becka diligently washing laundry - a task she spent a couple hours on for us every day! "Whistle while you work" was an unspoken motto of hers. We are going to really miss these two cheerful, hardworking sisters that have blessed our home for nearly half a year! They leave on Thursday, the 27th.

This is a nearly daily picture at our home, as Gordon loads op the motorcycle and heads out in many different directions to preach the Word of God. The pick handle that you see sticking out of the back of the motorcycle tells the story, that to get an audience among the hardworking Quechuas here, one often works alongside his listener for a few hours before bringing out the Bible.

Susanna, our animal lover, recently made a pet out of one of the baby guinea pigs that we raise to sell. (People here raise guinea pigs to eat them, but we find that it suits all of us just fine to sell them rather than eat them ourselves!) Susanna named this gp "Blackie-whitey" but calls it "Blackie" for short. Here she is explaining that her pet likes to eat the Alfalfa she is holding.

Here is a sweet picture of all three of the children enjoying some of our most recent litters of guinea pigs. Samuel has to be watched closely - he squeezed this little one hard enough to make it go limp, then handed it to me saying, "All done hold guinea pig!" I was horrified, and laid it in my lap, and we prayed that God would "fix" the guinea pig if it was His will. God did revive it - it looked miraculous to me! Then Samuel went around saying, "God can fix mine guinea pig!!" I said, "You are right Samuel, only God can fix a guinea pig like that!" Samuel studied me, then said, "God did fix mine guinea pig. But Papa can fix guinea pigs too!" :) He sure looks up to his Papa!

My girls surprised me one day by, "making me lunch!" They made fruit salad by themselves, then picked flowers to adorn my salad! What a special treat! (I asked if they minded if I added some potatoes and cheese to the "lunch" they had made - and they didn't mind!) Sweet sisters!