Hola amigos!  Como estas?  I am writing to you from the comfort of my deck chair, conveniently located in the office here at ATEK.  Kyle, in his usual way, volun-told Alissa that she was to write on the blog tonight, but I traded her a guitar for the computer and she is now serenading the team.  This is really quite interesting as she is creating her own chords.  The current one has been dubbed "H".  I have just been corrected: H, is not a chord, but is rather a new note.  Anyways, on to more interesting topics, Pastor Bill has been teaching all day and after dinner, told us that Adam did not have a bellybutton, and that this could be verified in Hezekiah (thanks to Alissa for spelling that for me) chapter 4:12.  Check it out for yourself; we did. 

Today has been a rather eventful day!  The pastors arrived all through the night and were up with us at 6am to begin singing worship songs and learning about the Bible.  Our team was very, very excited to be awake and singing at 6am.  After our morning worship/devotional, we proceeded by serving all 40 pastors breakfast.  We have spent much time in the kitchen both preparing food with our Peruvian sisters and have been on kitchen duty for every meal since. 

At around noon, half of our team left for the village, (10am Peruvian time), and without an interpreter.  We said our goodbyes and are excited to hear about their experiences when they return to ATEK on Thursday. 

As for our music update, Alissa has just mastered some interesting slide technique; I thought you'd be interested to know...

Between our kitchen adventures, we found a project to keep us busy: sanding and re-staining some benches.  The only problem with this project idea is that we did not have any stain and were running low on sand paper.  Kyle proposed a trip to the local "Maestro" (Home Depot equivelant), and this meant that I was driving.  If you have never driven in Peru, let me tell you: it is an experience.  They have speed bumps on their roads...  and our Land Cruiser has pretty stiff suspension... and I may owe Reyna an appologie for a small bumb she found on her head after we hit a speed bump a little too fast.  (She is laughing at this, so I think she has forgiven me).  This is just the beginning of our re-finishing adventure.  Once back at "the ranch", we began sanding benches and realized we were going to be at it for a very long time with our 120 grit sand paper.  One member, who shall remain nameless, jokingly mentioned that a belt sander would really help our situation.  Turns out, ATEK owns a belt sander.  After sanding our benches, Rebecca, Danielle, Alissa, Reyna began to stain the benches, and their hands.  Oil based stain does not come off skin easily, and I think they have used every cleaning product we could think of in effort to remove said stain.  They still have sticky fingers, and Alissa is playing the guitar, which may now have a sticky neck?

Another skill that we have aquired here at ATEK today, is shaving legs.  Not those kind of legs... chicken legs, and about a hundred of them.  We got a crash course in how to make sure there are no feathers left on the drumsticks and then how to cut away and tough skin with our extremely dull kitchen knives.  I ended up with raw chicken all over me and had to wash some clothes.

Well friends, I hope you have enjoyed this quick little look into our adventure here in Peru; I have been reading this out loud and the others have been laughing and mentioning many more stories that you may have to hear another time.  Thank you all so much for your prayer; we need it!  We have been having loads of fun, but it has also been very challenging and we know that there are spiritual battles going on around us as we proclaim the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Carson

PS.  Just thought I would give you one last guitar update: Alissa is still holding the guitar but is no longer playing it. 

PPS.  Danielle just took the guitar from Alissa and is now singing an original piece dedicated to John. 

Alright, Im seriously leaving now, Goodnight!!