So here’s an update…
I graduated a week ago from UNT and had a wonderful weekend with my family. We threw away, gave away, and packed up most everything I owned and then I waved goodbye to them on Tuesday as they took my car back home to California. I leave tomorrow for 5 days in Nebraska (Christmas with Nels’ family), and then head back for a few hectic days of last minute packing and trip prep. On January 3rd, Nels and I fly to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and then on the 5th, my team (Gretch, Robby, Eli, and Magen) and I will be flying from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to Lima, Peru, and upon arrival, racing to Chincha, Peru. We’ll be ministering in and around Chincha, as well as doing a lot of tear down/clean up as a result of the earthquake. AIM mission base director, Bob Cooley, writes the following about the WR launch in the earthquake zone of Chincha, Peru:
“I have a site ready to
go at Iglesia Emanuel in Chincha. It is a church in one of the three
worst-hit cities that sits inside a large, walled compound. This is an
area where tents can be set up for the racers, and that accomodate our
training needs (they have a temporary sanctuary set up and also some
temporary tent classrooms that they use for a Compassion kids’
program). It has bathroom facilities, and shower stalls, but all
bathroom-related water comes from a storage tank. Buckets of water
drawn from the storage tank are used in order to flush toilets and take
showers. Obviously, this means that the showers are not hot. This is
the base from which the racers will operate.
The
church has several classrooms (all destroyed) and an area for goats.
This is in addition to the church itself which is presently serving as
the home for the pastors family and a few other families also. The
congregation meets in a makeshift tent that can house perhaps 60
persons comfortably. They also are using other tents as temporary
classrooms for their compassion kids. The compound is surrounded by a
10 foot high fence.This would mean that the racers would stay in
tents. There are no hot showers, but there are a couple of bathrooms
where one can “shower.” The weather in January will be hot days and
cool to cold nights.”
So that’s about as much as I know so far… living in the tent, making friends with goats, and engaging in contests to see who can take the best watter-bottle showers! Hopefully we will soon find out the general route for the rest of the year.. I will post that as soon as I get that information!
-Teagan
