- Alex

- We’ve had the great privilege here to get to know the Nazarene 40/40 missionaries. If you aren’t familiar with the program, the 40/40s are the last phase of the “Extreme Nazarene” project here in Peru. They are church planters, forty college age kids from the U.S. and forty from Peru. There are three teams in Cusco. One of the missionaries, a girl named Caiylin, lost her Peruvian partner because of some health issues, so we’ve had the opportunity to accompany Caiylin into her mission area: a few small towns in the Valle Sagrado “Sacred Valley.” If you remember way back towards the beginning of our trip, when Alex told about our Carnevales adventure in the mountains, that was with Caiylin in the Sacred Valley. Over the past few months, I’ve been going with Caiylin more and more to a small town called Coya. It’s been a really great time, a few weeks ago a lady made me a cup of hot-coco (with coco that her husband had grown on their farm) along with fried-bananas, and it was possibly the best snack I’ve ever had. But the best part of my time with Caiylin has been getting to know a middle-aged hippie called Taray Loco.

Taray Loco lives in this big compound sort of place that has a huge painting of Bob Marley on the side. He makes jambe drums and didgeridoos. He has a guest house where hippies from all over the world come and stay. He runs an after school program for a group of kids who live in a pueblo high above Coya, and who have to walk up and down a steep mountain every day. And he has been hosting a Friday-night church group lead by Caiylin. I met him because Caiylin asked me to play guitar for the group. It was a really amazing experience. There are about ten to twelve regular members, some of whom speak very little spanish (in the Sacred Valley there are many people who only speak the indigenous language called “Quechua”). Cailyn had brought a Quechuan Bible, and was able to share verses from the Gospel in the group’s first language. Soon after that, Taray invited some of us to go up with him to the pueblo above Coya to deliver some school supplies the 40/40s had bought. It was a pretty tough hike but we received amazing hospitality. We were fed (almost too much) and shared tea and coca leaves after dinner (instead of having desert many Quechua people chew coca leaves, honestly it’s not that great). We slept in a rat infested potato cellar (rats literally ran over my feet). But it was a great time, and I hope to go back at least once more before we leave.

I really like Taray. He does a lot of good work and he is really kind and generous. Unfortunately, because of my position in the cafe (where different travelers are constantly coming through) I’ve learned some not so great things about Taray. The main reason hippies come and stay with him is that he leads different shamanic ceremonies. I know Caiylin has talked to him about it, and he’s expressed an openness to listen to God’s leading in the issue, but I went to visit him last week by myself, and his wife told me that he was out gathering ingredients for one of these ceremonies.

- One of my favorite things about working at the meeting place is getting to meet different travelers. We have heard so many neat stories about the world and seen life from so many different perspectives. One of our regulars is a girl named Amanda. She is a spiritual seeker who has been spending a lot of time in the Sacred Valley with different shamans. Amanda became sort of a fixture in the cafe on the weekends, when she would come in to Cusco to do some computer design work and visit friends. She was famous with our group for doing impromptu hiphop performances in the cafe. A few weeks ago she came in on a rainy weekday, carrying all her things in a big backpack, which was unusual because normally she spent her week days in the Sacred Valley. I asked her how her day was going and she said “not good.” I got her some tea and she sat down and shared with me her experience over the past two weeks.

Amanda had been living with a shaman and participating in “ayahuasca” ceremonies, which basically involve drinking a mixture of different jungle plants that bring about a psychedelic experience. She had been doing these ceremonies several times a week for quite a while. But the last time she did the ceremony she had what could be describe as a “bad trip.” Typically the experience only lasts four or five hours, but this bad experience lasted ten. She didn’t go into too much detail, only to say that it was like being submerged in her own personal hell. She was really shaken up from the experience and disturbed the by the reaction of the shaman she was staying with. She felt trapped and scared and snuck out with all her things when the shaman was out. Her plan was to spend some time in Cusco and then go to Lima with friends. She told me that she would be around, but that was three weeks ago, and we haven’t heard from her since. I’m hoping and praying that she is ok.

- A friend of a volunteer here in the cafe came to visit last week. Her name was Kaitlin, and her visit wouldn’t merit much of a story if it wasn’t for one night we were hanging out, and the conversation turned to the subject of faith. Gradually I began to share my beliefs and eventually I began to really witness to someone for the first time. It wasn’t just a dialogue about where we come from, I was preaching. There were some tears and I think it got too intense because the conversation was cut short and we really didn’t have much of a chance to talk about it again. So I’m not too sure how much of an affect my words had, but I am trusting that the LORD will bring other people into her life that can share a similar story.

I know that many of you are keeping our trip in your prayers. If you would, keep these people in your prayers as well. Pray for Taray Loco, who has so much potential as a leader in the Kingdom, that he would hear the leading of the LORD and give up his shamanistic practices. Pray for Amanda, who is a truly earnest seeker of light, that God would use her bad experiences with shamanism to help her find truth. And pray for Kaitlin, that words spoken to her by believers would impact her heart, and that the Spirit would pour out upon her.

Thank you all for your continued support in prayer, and your continued interest in our time here. It has been a great blessing. Our time here is nearly over (one and a half months left!), so I’ll be seeing many of you soon.

- Ian Wayne Bauder

After a week of being back, Joey and I came down with giardia from the water we had in Lauca National Park. That is the 2nd worst sickness I’ve gotten (swine flu being 1st). After a week of severe stomach cramps, fevers, chills, vomiting, and 10-15 bathroom visits a day we got medicine and are feeling much better these days. Lots of good stuff happening at the cafe these days, we have a good work schedule set up so we are maximizing our volunteers and their hours, set up a good bell system to know when food is ready, and I finally put up my pictures in the cafe. We just broke our record of best day this past week with a $800 day! We’re trying to setup being open during Friday and Saturday evenings and I believe there is an art/music show planned on taking place sometime in June. We’ve been having great weather which is wonderful and I’ve had the chance to talk with some pretty cool people in the cafe. Can’t ask for anything better.

Thanks to all who’ve been praying for us and sorry for the gap in updates. Enjoy some pictures too of our time in Chile.

This week marks the end of our Spanish lessons and we’re feeling pretty good about the language. Needing more practice time but every day brings new ways to use our Spanish. This week is also when we are taking off for Chile to get out for visa reasons as well as get some traveling in. We leave this Thursday to head down to Arica, Chile (the beach) then visit a national park as well as the Atacama Desert. Will update with some pics and stories of our trip.

So what does the next 3 months look like for us you may ask? Since we’ll be done with Spanish classes completely we will be working more in the cafe as well as getting to the other ministries a lot more often. Going to extend the hours of the cafe into the evenings for a few days out of the week and we are going to kick off our first evening with an art/music show displaying art from Phil and myself as well as having one of our regular customers hopefully playing his beautiful cello. Eventually we will be visiting Machu Picchu and having some visitors like Dani (Nate’s wonderful girlfriend) as well as Matt (Nate’s brother).

Thank you once again for the continual prayers and encouragement. We are truly blessed.

Cello in the Cafe from Alex Hackett on Vimeo.

There is another video that I made one night while I was wandering around Cusco. It’s such a pretty city and more unique than other Peruvian towns. Enjoy.

Cusco at Night from Alex Hackett on Vimeo.

The cafe was a bit slow at one point during the day so I took some pics just to show you where we spend a good chunk of our time.

The Meeting Place's First Hamburger!

Our Friend and Neighbor, Unu Mayo (not pictured due to Shaman beliefs)

Art Piece Sold

Just wanted to leave a short and sweet update. Thank you again for all of your prayers and support!

Filipe

Alex and I were working in the cafe getting ready to close one afternoon when 3 gentlemen entered with great big smiles.  David Knowlton, originally from Salt Lake City, was with his two younger peruvian friends Walter and Eduardo. Dave seemed to take a special interest in our shop and our reasons for being in Cusco, so quickly we got into a conversation about service and our paths that lead to the Meeting Place. After what seemed like an interview, Dave let me know that he was here in exploration for his website that focuses on the details and stories behind Cusco Cuisine. Thankfully Dave loved the story of the Meeting Place and the reality behind the volunteers, so we have been blessed enough to have a story and a recommendation written for his website. At this point we proofread the article and are waiting for it to be published online.

The most beautiful part of the entire interaction is solely the kindness and the relationships that so naturally created. Dave, Walter, and Eduardo are another blessing in our lives here in Cusco. We enjoyed a great game of futbol with Walter and Eduardo, turns out they are much better than us, but that was no surprise, and we continue to enjoy the company of Dave around town and here in the cafe.

If you get the chance to observe the Cusco cuisine web site, take the time to read a few of the articles, Dave is an excellent writer and he choses to focus on important and exciting topics regarding the history of the cuisine and Cusco in general.

www.cuszcoeats.com

-Phillip Westlund