Fall 2016: School is back!!

Back to School As a teacher's family, the start of the school year is how we measure our days. This fall we looked forward to having two highschoolers (William a sophmore and Cullen a freshman) and one elementary student (Camilla is in fourth grade) in our family. Bill's teaching assignment this year includes 3 grades of junior high math, Algebra 2, AP Calculus, and Business Math, as well as being the acting Principal and in charge of Monday chapels. We were excited by having a larger staff at the school this year. Besides the 5 full time teachers, we are counting on 9 parents and volunteers some teaching as many as 3 days a week. This week we mark the end of the first quarter with an Open House. The elementary has been preparing a play for this event which has our daughter excited beyond words. (Youtube video is available here.) We are looking forward to another "fall" season in Peru. Our weather does not change except to become a bit more rainy. There are no fall colors or cooler days, however we were excited about that we found real pumpkins for sale at the local store. As our kids grow older, we are struck with more decisions regarding our future. Please pray for us as we try to discern God's leading in our lives. If you are looking for an opportunity to serve, we are praying about asking for a few work teams to help us move into a different teacher housing option. Please contact us if you have interest in coming for a visit. We couldn't be here without you! Thanks for your prayers and support. In Christ, Bill and Joy Carrera

Praise the Lord for a SAFE and fun vacation. Although school is not in session over the summer, for a missionary teacher, the work is never done. The summer projects included painting classrooms, cleaning out storage rooms, rearranging and fixing up the library and computer center, ordering materials for next year, and prepping for the upcoming year. Two weeks before school started, we needed to take a break and so we caravaned with two other families to a vacation town in the mountains of Peru. The town of Oxapampa was colonized by German immigrants and still shows a European influence. The time there was spent visiting local attractions like cheese factory, town square, taking a half day bike ride, and visiting a beautiful waterfall. We also just spent a lot of time drinking hot chocolate and coffee while enjoying the cool weather (a change for us jungle acclimated folk) and playing games with our friends who joined us on the vacation. The most memorable part however of the vacation was the actual journey there and back. After only an hour on a paved two lane highway, we traveled the rest of the 12 hours there (14 hours back) over dirt roads that twisted along the mountain side with perilous drop-offs on one side, fording streams that crossed our paths, and eating the dust of the car in front of us. There was even road construction that halted our travel for up to an hour at a time. Some of the views were spectacular and some of the time we just wanted to NOT feel the bumps any longer. We praise God for the truck that the Lord provided earlier in the summer that made the trip possible! Hard work, but someone has to do it. Joy continues to enjoy working at SAMAIR. One of the new aspects her job in Peru is working with a flight department that has a float plane. This airplane is an amazing tool for missionary work in the river context of the Amazon jungle. Although she does not have her float rating, she coordinates all of the plane's flights by scheduling the requests and calculating load and fuel requirements. She often helps the pilot dock and bring the plane up to the float hangar. This past month, Joy was asked to help with an inspection on this airplane and was struck by what a privilege it is to assist doing maintenance looking out at the beautiful lake with the light breeze blowing through the hangar. Some days you just have to pinch yourself and say "yes, this is real."

MORE INVOLVEMENT IN THE LOCAL CHURCH This summer William and Cullen attended youth camp from our local church. This camp's theme was "survival" and the kids lived in tents, did morning calesthenics, learned to start fires, played team building games, and ran a mud-packed obstacle course each afternoon. At the end of the week, they jointly received the good character award for campers. This week gave them a boost of Spanish learning and drew them closer to other youth and the leaders of our church. Each week, they now attend the youth program. While they are at the church on Saturday night, Bill and I are hosting a small group in our home. This weekly event has been an opportunity for us to grow in our language skills and to be mentors to some new believers who are still in their initial walk with the Lord. PRAISE AND PRAYER REQUESTS 1. Praise the Lord for a good start to the school year. 2. Praise the Lord for safety and good weather even as we have started transitioning into rainy season. 3. Pray for continued protection as Joy flies. 4. Pray for the sale of our older vehicle since we had counted on that income with the purchase of the newer truck. 5. Pray for our testimony and influence in the small group at church.