Christmas Time Approaches

Whats up everyone?!  Well tomorrow will be one month since I have arrived in Peru and so much has happened.  Its amazing to just sit back and watch how things unfold every day.  Nothing is like you expect and then what comes is so much cooler than you could have planned it to be.  We have been making a lot of progress on our house building.  Everything is almost in place to pour the concrete for the floor and we will begin construction on the walls sometime late tomorrow or Wednesday.  The 2 Swedish guys, Brent and I will have PLENTY of room in this place and I think I mentioned that we have this HUGE pole that will stick out about 10 feet above our house that we are going to place a flag at the top of for Andres' restaurant.  We are also going to build a crows nest to be able to see all of Chorrillos from... and the surf of course!!! haha.  Andres' is so excited.  He and his family will be able to use this place for a lot.  He and his family of about 10 live live here and share the space of a house and the restaurant for their living quarters.  It can be a bit hectic when everyone is around but they have been so welcoming to us and make us food all the time so it has been a great experience so far. 

As Christmas time is right around the corner we have all been trying to think of things to do for the kids but were unsure of what we could do for 60 to 70 kids that we could all afford and couldnt really come up with anything other than buying a bunch of skateboards and giving it to them.  We were out yesterday after church and were just walking around one of the local places in a market and Andres gets a call from a friend that says hey come back to the restaurant... there was a local toy drive today that we had people donate to and we had a bit too much and we want you to have what is left over...  We jumped in the car and drove back to the restaurant expecting a pickup with a bed half full of toys and left over goodie bags and to our surprise we found a big u-haul sized truck with about 6 guys unloading HUGE plastic bags full of toys and clothes into the front door of the restaurant.  We were all so excited to see this amazing surprise.  We jumped out to help and continued to unload these bags along with water, juice, chocolate milk, cokes, bread, and sandwiches.  It was amazing.  Just really makes stop and think... how could there not be a God.  We didnt "need" to give the kids or the families anything and yet now we have something to give everyone.  It blows my mind.

So Christmas Eve is Friday and I couldnt be more excited.  They call Santa here... Papa Noel.  So cool!  The kids along with everyone else will stay up until 12 midnight on Friday night and its a huge celebration much like our New Years Eve with fireworks and everything... except they get to open presents and everything that night.  Then Christmas Day is an extended celebration that lasts all day.  I am really starting to miss the family time that I have back home for the holidays but I am excited to see how another country celebrates such a special time of year. 

I hope that this post finds everyone back in the states or wherever you are in an awesome Christmas spirit!  If there is snow where you are... eat some for me! 

Love you all and will post again soon!
Chris