Don't Fall!

Well, we left Tapacocha in Tommy's truck, about noon, on Monday, taking with us a construction worker, two Quechua women, a bundle of wood, a dog, and a cat. Thankfully the two women and their pets only needed to go about half an hour down the road, cause we were packed in so tight that Zeke had to ride on top of the truck! We made it to Huaraz about two hours later, where we are spending the next couple days grocery shopping, catching up on emails and Facebook, exchanging translators, and going out for pizza. (Oh, yeah!)


In the past two weeks we've taught English in the school (grammar, ahhh!), played volleyball with the kids and teachers, and made lots of new friends. We had our first Bible Study last week with the village nurse, Jessica and one of the teachers, Rosie. (Her name is actually something a lot longer, but I can never remember it.) We hope to have a few more people the next time we meet.


We are also in the process of starting a Kids Club/Youth Group. The kids are definitely the most interested in us, and like home, there are always two or more of them hanging around all the time.


We had the priviledge of meeting Pastor Jose' from the village of Cotaparaco, as well as his wife Gladys and three boys from their youth group. Cotaparaco is about an hour down the mountain from Tapacocha, (or half an hour for the locals!). Their church is new and small, and we hope to partner with them in reaching our villages.


Please pray that we will continue to have favor with the people of Tapacocha, that they will see the love of God in us, and their eyes will be opened to the truth of God's Word. Thank you for all your prayers.


Joy and Zeke

Tommy's House - Our home away from home...away from home

Some of you were wanting to see what Tommy Smith's house looks like, where we stay when we're in Huaraz. So here it is!

The shower has hot water! This is what we dream of for 2 weeks.

Our bedrooms.

The living and dining rooms.

Our God is able!!!

Thursday, two days ago, Shane gave me an update on Joy and Zeke - they are to call him on Mondays and Thursdays. They are teaching in the school not just two, but three days a week - Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the Religion and English classes. They are using Bible-based teaching materials and each class is one hour long, so that means that the children are being exposed to the truths of the Gospel for six hours every week!!! Also, Joy is leading two of the ladies in a Bible study - pray for the Holy Spirit to give them understanding!!! And pray for the men of the village to have their hearts softened and their eyes opened and that the Lord would give them a desire to know Him.

Our God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we could ever ask or imagine - so please keep asking and imaging that the precious people of Tapacocha would come to Jesus and that He would advance His Kingdom right there in the High Andes of Peru!!!!!!

Joanna

Funny side note!

After Zeke had 2 doses of NyQuil and LOTS of sleep, he got up Saturday afternoon, took a shower and ate pizza!!! Typical. Pray for Joy as she attempts to handle Zeke and J.B. - who she says acts just like Zeke!

Joanna

Here We Go!

Thanks for all the prayers everyone. Zeke and I are much better and will be leaving for Tapacocha in about an hour. We have an amazing God!

Another amazing thing is that Shane already set up for us to teach in the school twice a week. Once in the religion class and once in the English class. It should be fun. :)

Well, we've got to load up the truck and get on the road. Please continue to pray for me, Zeke, and our translator, J.B.

Love you all,
Joy :)

PLEASE PRAY!

We're still at Tommy's house in Huaraz. We should be leaving tomorrow for Tapacocha, but Zeke has come down with a fever tonight. Both of us feel a little queasy/dizzy. I don't know if it's from something we ate, or the altitude, or what. So, please pray for both of us, that we get over whatever it is quickly, so we can finally be in Tapacocha.

We were able to get all our shopping done today, for the next 16 days. That's how long it will be before we can get back to Huaraz to shop again. Shopping for 3 people for 16 days was very similar to shopping for 10 people for a week, so we had no problem. :)

Thank you, everyone who wrote cards with notes of encouragement for Zeke and I. We were very surprised and excited about them. We plan to tape them up in our room.

We'll keep you posted. Thanks again for the prayers!

Currently

Well guys, we met the rest of the team in Tapacocha yesterday, about noon. We were really happy to see them all.

The one day that we spent in Tapacocha was very positive. We renewed a couple of friendships that we had made on our previous trip last May, and already have some ideas for efficiently tackling our prime objective. (Which is teaching the people of Tapacocha the Word of God and training them to be disciples of Christ.)

This morning we left Tapacocha about 9:00 am and we are already back in Huaraz - chillin. The rest of the team left at the same time we did, going the opposite way down the mountain, to Lima and then back home. Today is just kinda a day to take stock of what we'll need for the next sixteen days stay in Tapacocha, until we can make another trip to Huaraz. Tomorrow we're planning on getting the shopping done and then Saturday afternoon we'll be back in Tapacocha.

I know a lot of you have been praying and it is much appreciated. I got to open some cards that some of you sent from home, and they were very encouraging.

Hey, I guess I'll catch you around,

Zeke

Hello, hello! Joy are you there?

by Joanna Lackey

They made it!!!!!! Tommy Smith, Joy, Zeke and the translator started from Huaraz this morning and arrived in Tapacocha around 1pm our time - Peru does not observe Daylight Savings Time, so they are one hour behind us right now. Joy emailed before they left Tommy's place. She said that the bus ride from Lima to Huaraz on Tuesday took 9 hours, but it was actually a nice, air-conditioned bus and they even showed a movie!!! She also told us that Huaraz is beautiful with snow-capped mountains all around. Then she called from the pay phone in Tapacocha this afternoon. We only talked for a minute or maybe two and the silly thing cut us off. Then she called back and it cut us off again. I guess that unlike pay phones here it doesn't give an option of inserting more coins - when your time's up it just disconnects!

We learned just yesterday that when the team arrived in Tapacocha on Sunday they found out that the school had been closed as a precaution for Swine Flu - although there were no cases in or around Tapacocha. I have no other details on that until the team gets back or maybe Joy or Zeke will report what they know tomorrow. However, I'm sure that development changed Shane's strategy for the team, as the children of the village have been quite open to the gospel being shared by our other teams.

Also, we were made aware today that Nathan Shireman, LifePoint's Connections Director, who was part of the team, became violently ill with motion sickness on the flight from Columbus to Chicago on Saturday. He was not able to continue the trip and rode a bus back to Columbus - so sorry for Nathan!

The team is to leave Tapacocha for Lima in the morning, spend the night in Lima and do the touristy thing - shopping - Friday. They leave Lima very early - 1:20am - Saturday morning and finally get in to Columbus Saturday afternoon. Joy, Zeke and the translator will drive back to Huaraz with Tommy. They'll have to let us all know when they are to return to Tapacocha for their first 2 weeks of ministry. Please continue to pray for the team, Joy and Zeke, the translator and Tommy as they travel. And pray that the kids will be able to indentify God's activity in Tapacocha and work with Him there!

Finally here! Well - almost

After a very long day riding on a bus, we are now in Huaraz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tomorrow we will be driving out to Tapacocha, and we'll be there for Wed and Thurs morning. Right now Joy and I are currently residing at Tommy Smith's house ( the koolest old guy on planet earth, besides oh dad). Tommy is a fulltime missionary here in Huaraz. He has a very nice house here, and every other week Joy and I will be coming back to Huaraz to stay at Tommy's and do stuff like shop for food for the next two weeks stay back in Tapacocha. This Thurs morning we will come back from Tapacocha to Huaraz to go ahead and do some shopping. Sooooooo... I'm getting ready for bed now. You should too.

Good bye for now,
Zeke

PS - And as always, same time, same channel people. We'll keep ya posted.

And They're Off...Finally!

written by Joanna Lackey - Mom of the Super Twin Team

We took Joy and Zeke back to the Columbus Airport this morning and this time we 1) gave them a cell phone - which they'll send back with one of the other team members - it won't work in Peru and 2) stayed at the airport until their plane left Columbus! We did neither of those things on Saturday. There have never been any "hiccups" with past trips and we assumed everything would go as scheduled this time as well. Little did we know that LaGuardia Airport in New York would have a bomb threat and as a result flights all over the country would be delayed and canceled. Joy went through about $10 using the pay phone to call us, Shane Tucker and Mackenzie Taylor from LifePoint Church, trying to find out how to handle the situation. Our family was already in West Virginia when we learned that the kids could not get a flight out of Columbus that would arrive in Atlanta in time to connect with the rest of the team and in fact they would be bumped until today. So Mark and I drove 2+ hours back to Columbus to get our extremely frazzled 22 year-olds. As it turned out Joy, Zeke and Grace were able to sing at my brother Todd and sister-in-law Leah's church yesterday morning and then we all attended their baptism last evening - that was a very happy time!!!

Today their flight left Columbus right on time and arrived in Atlanta right on time. They found the gate to their connecting flight to Lima just like old pros and that flight left as scheduled and arrived in Peru about 10 minutes ahead of schedule. When Shane Tucker - bless his heart...he'll need to sleep for a week when he gets home - and the team arrived in Lima Saturday night, he scrambled to make arrangements for Joy and Zeke to be taken care of by our IMB (International Mission Board) missionaries of the REAP North Team. They have been absolutely wonderful! Members of their team have talked to both Joy and I today and they certainly made both the kids and the rest of the family feel much more at ease about the whole traveling to a foreign-speaking country alone thing!!! Shane pre-arranged for a taxi to take them to their hotel and one of the REAP North missionaries will be there to see that they are checked in properly. He also arranged for a Peruvian translator to meet them at the hotel in the morning and ride the bus with them to Tapacocha - can't wait to hear the stories about that trip. They will call me from the pay phone in Tapacocha tomorrow evening - we hope!

We are so thankful to the Lord for giving Joy and Zeke the opportunity to serve Him in Tapacocha. It's obvious to us that Satan is trying to stop them from reaching their destination. The events of Saturday were only the climax of a huge barrage of attacks on our family in direct opposition to this trip. But our God is faithful and we wait in great anticipation of what He's going to do to glorify Himself in Tapacocha, in Joy and Zeke, in our family and in our church.

This traveling thing really makes you tired. Oh wait. We're still in Ohio.

Well, yesterday Zeke and I spent more than 12 hours sitting in the Columbus airport, having delay after delay, changing plane schedules and airlines until it was too late to fly out. Now the earliest flight they have to Lima Peru is Monday, August 3rd @ 12:20pm.

We will arrive in Lima Peru late Monday night and stay in a hotel. The next morning we will meet up with a translator and take a bus to Tapacocha.

Even though we're both very disappointed that we're missing so much time with the team from our church, that's in Peru, we were able to go down to West Virgina to visit our grandma, and witness our uncle and aunt being baptized.

Thank you everyone for your continued prayers. This whole traveling alone thing is new to us, so pray that we actually get a flight to Lima tomorrow, and that we make it safely by bus to Tapacocha on Tuesday.