The Frouds' Furlough
With 2 kids, 5 checked bags, 4 carry-ons, and a stroller we made our maiden voyage back the States for our furlough. It was very daunting making our first trip as a family of four, but the kids did great, sleeping 90% of the Lima to Miami leg of our itinerary. Speaking of itineraries our furlough looked like this:
Cultural Learning: Celebrate Good Times, Come On!
Kool & the Gang would have loved Arequipa. Almost every week of the year here we could sing: “There’s a party going on right here, a celebration, to last throughout the year”. There are tons of celebrations here. Some are characterized by traditional rituals, but many share common features: music (religious, local, traditional, mariachi-type, and pop), cohetes (what my husband calls “fire crackers on steroids”), cakes, sodas, and beer, and the hora loca, the ‘crazy hour’, a time to dance, make noise and wear funny hats, masks and ties that signals the ‘nearing’ of the end of the party.
The Interns Are Here
The interns are here, the interns are here! Every summer starting in the summer of 2009 Team Arequipa 1.0 hosted interns from various universities. We decided as Team Arequipa 3.0 to continue this work. This year we are hosting 4 interns for 8 weeks. We have 2 interns from Harding University, Lizzie Tripp and Paola Quijano, 1 intern from Oklahoma Christian University, Hannah Henley, and 1 from Abilene Christian University, Sam Jones. We are excited to be working and learning with these students for the 8 weeks they are here!
McKinzie Family Update
any of you have followed our journey since returning to the states. My last blog post is found here. Since moving to California, I haven’t blogged much. We have almost been in CA for an entire year. That is unbelievable to me. Our 2015-2016 year has been overwhelmingly full, and I would love to share more of our story.
Sharing Bible Reading
ast year the small house-church network we share life, faith, and service with set three goals for the year. Among those was the goal of being more dedicated to reading scripture in small groups. We formed two groups, one to read through the New Testament and another through the whole Bible in a year starting last March (the beginning of the school year here in the southern Hemisphere). Here's how it went, and how it's helping us grow the second time around.
Sharing Faith - Part I
ast year the church proposed three simple goals: read the Bible, serve the community, and meet together more often. This year, we added a goal: be more evangelistic. This fits with our overall mission to be servants, students, and messengers. The church expressed wishes to first of all be equipped to share the gospel, as it can be a daunting task. We’re in the process of equipping ourselves and will eventually launch out into the unknown to share the good news with family, friends, and even strangers. We ask for your continued prayers. And we would ask that all of the readership join us in this process of learning, praying, and sharing faith.
Friday Night Pizza Night
CUDA Updates - 1st Quarter of 2016
The year is off to a great start! The new Living Library at an elementary school in the district of Miraflores has been inaugurated and is under way, and we continue working with three other schools. This year we’re working with 38 teachers and 694 kids and their families in four under-resourced schools across the city. Last year, our health team saw 1,000 patients, more than 100 of which were diabetics and 300+ who had a high risk of diabetes. We’re focusing this year on serving those who have joined our care and education for diabetics program—ProCED—as we continue to partner with the Hunter health center. We’re excited to share more developments throughout the year as together we plant kingdom seeds of justice, wellbeing, and joy in the city.
Relational Evangelism
What picture pops into your head when you hear the word “evangelism”? Someone shouting through a bullhorn downtown? Door knocking and handing out religious tracts? Arguments about evolution and radiocarbon dating with non-believers? For those of you who also may cringe at the aforementioned methods, you’ll be happy, like I was, to hear that this is not the only way to evangelize.