Alis (Eastern Yauyos)

There´s one word that comes to mind to describe Alis and the Eastern Yauyos area. Beautiful. The scenery here is gorgeous as you will see in the pics at the end. We arrived in a town called Alis late Monday night (June 8) after leaving Matucana at about 8am. We took a bus from Matucana to Chosica, a taxi from Chosica to Lima, a bus from Lima to Cañete, and another bus from Cañete to Alis. Travel was no small task since our Barnabas team was still travelling with the soccer team (16 people in all) for the trip to Alis. Ryan Northup - world´s best on-the-fly travel agent - did an awesome job of herding us through every step. The final bus ride lasted about 5 hours at top speed on a gravel road going up the mountain in the dark - at least the driver had no fear! Despite looking out the window straight down about 1000 feet on some of the steep mountain turns, the scenery was gorgeous. Even though it was at night, a bright full moon lit up all the canyons and river rapids below us. It was incredible. We experienced scene after scene like this during our stay in Alis. The mountains here have so much character and the landscape so very diverse, the eye never gets bored.


After arriving in Alis in the middle of the night, we all woke up to the sound of a beautiful mountain river that runs beside the hotel. That river turned out to be a great laundromat - see pic with Janelle (from my Barnabas team) washing her clothes.



The local Summer Mission Team (SMT) in Alis is an impressive and dedicated group of young folks. They have been ministering to the locals in this village and surrounding villages through Bible study/house church and they just started teaching English in one of the schools. I got a chance to go to one of their bible study meetings in a nearby village (2 hour walk..gorgeous). The meeting had a warm and sincere atmosphere of praise as the believers present were clearly being fed spiritually by the story and message shared by the Alis team. It is such a priviledge for me to witness how the Lord uses such simple circumstances to grant such incredible blessings among a group of believers.. that´s a church! Please continue to pray for each member of the Alis mission team as they continue to reflect His glory into the Eastern Yauyos area throughout the summer.


Alis (Eastern Yauyos) Team- (back) Colby Wilkins, Nick Thornton, (front) Melva Rivera Acaro, Kelly Lockhart
Hike to village of Tomas

With the arrival of the REAPsouth soccer team, Alis became a little less peaceful, but a little more blessed. They played the local Alis soccer team (apparently a pretty good team in these parts) and won, 2-1 (go USA). The Alis SMT guys had done a great job of getting the word out about the event, so over half the village turned out! There were well over 100 folks watching the game, eating fresh grilled trout, making pankekes.. it was like a small festival. Afterward the soccer team presented the town with a new soccer ball and shared the story of Nicodemus. The whole event will undoubtedly have a positive impact on the village in the future, but more importantly it will surely open doors to the local mission team to share the gospel and make an eternal impact on many of the souls in Alis. Please pray for the soccer team as they travel extensively this summer all over southern Peru to bring the same goodwill and message of Jesus to other villages.

Our soccer team (red) with the Alis team (green)

Sharing the Word and presentation of the soccer ball.

I was able to whip up a batch of tollhouse cookies for the whole gang.. that´s part of my ministry to the mission teams serving around Peru. A little taste of home and a reminder of the love and prayer support they are getting from the states. In Matucana I was able to use Salvador´s bakery oven, but in Alis I had to improvise with a portable electric oven (see pic) with two temperature settings.. on and off! All turned out pretty tasty and I was able to leave behind a bag of cookies for the Alis team to enjoy.



The night before we left Alis (Thursday night) I got my first ( and hopefully only) bout of sickness (not from the cookies!).. it was a pretty intense but luckily only lasted through the night .. in the morning I was worn out, but felling much better. Yesterday afternoon (Friday) we caught a bus out of Alis and proceeded up (and up and up) into the mountains toward Huancayo. I can´t even describe to you the incredible beauty of this land. No picture can do it justice. I "oo´d and ah´d" for about 3 hours straight, just trying to soak it all in. I know Ryan and Janelle got sick of me saying "look at that!" every 5 seconds, but I could not help it. Seeing what God has created for us on earth in such splendor and witnessing His work among believers to reach the lost is such a priviledge.. I can´t even describe.

We stopped in Huancayo, had a good dinner, and hopped the night bus (8 hours) to Ayacucho city, where I am writing this blog. Ayacucho is a very large, historical city in a beautiful setting (imagine that!) with fast internet access (thank the Lord). Tomorrow we leave for Vicashuamán, a village with another summer mission team serving. I have been told that the scenery is even more beautiful than that seen so far. We will see!

Here are a few landscape shots, but they don't nearly depict the beauty I wish a camera could capture.





Pray for Ryan, Janelle, and me (Greg) as we travel and minister. Also pray for the Vilcashuamán team we will be visiting tomorrow. Thank you all so much for your prayers thus far.. your support is critical to the success of all the different teams serving here this summer.

In Christ-

Greg