Lots of craziness this past week. We are in the heat of our Evangelistic campaign and many have already decided to be baptized. It is so amazing to think that just 8 weeks ago my team was a complete group of strangers to the invasion, but then over though a few weeks of studying the Bible with people, visiting them in their homes for health lessons and just being their friends and now we have a booming church of about 100 (50 adults and 50 kids). It has been a pretty cool transformation. We have two more nights of the evangelistic campaign and then just next week of teaching health classes, then that is it for our mission here at Km 8 and we will be off to a new location.
Last Sunday, Lauren and I were invited by a lady to learn how to make yucca empanadas (yucca relleno) in her house. We willingly abliged. The first task was to peel the yucca. So we grabbed some big knives, kinda like small machetes, and started literally hacking away at the outer peeling of the yucca. They taught us that if you hack at it just right the peel quickly slips off rather that slowly peeling it around and around like you would a cucumber. Then we boiled the yucca until it was squishy. Over the next hour and a half, we joked around as we make our little yucca pockets and filled them with purple olives, garlic, little peppers and a few other native vegetables. After sealing up this little pocket of yumminess we fried them in a little pan over a fire. Then came the best part - we actually got to eat warm-freshly-made-Peruvian-yucca-empanadas! I must say they are quite delicous. We also learned how to make Chichimorada (a purple corn drink, that is very typical of this region of Peru) and Cocona Juice (a drink of a yet another wierd orange-tomatoe looking fruit) It was a crazy cool experience to be in a little house, with our Peruvian friends, learning how to make Peruvian food, joking around and also cooking over a little fire. An even better part is that she invited us back next week to learn how to make potatoe empanadas! Mmmm....Our chef, Dora, has become a great friend of Lauren and I. She always greats of with a big hug and a kiss on the cheek, we visit her often becuase she owns a little store where we like to buy our food from. Eduardo has also been studying the Bible with her and she has decided to get baptised this Saturday! Yet again it is amazing to see how God as worked in this community over the past 8 weeks.