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.

Halfway Through the Summer....

With the summer break passing quickly, we realized it has been a few months since we checked in with our friends and family. (While looking through some old pictures we found two taken 3 years apart but at the same waterfall. Good thing no one has changed that much.) We have had a few adventures this summer and finally bought a car. But lets go back to the beginning of June.

School ended the first week of June with a graduation. Our son Cullen was one of two graduates this year, one from high school and Cullen from 8th grade. The missionary community gathered in celebration of this important milestone in the lives of these two young men. William and Camilla had great years as well, each of them doing well on their report cards. Bill was able to finish on a high note as well, serving as the master of ceremonies for the graduation and being able to hand Cullen his diploma as Cullen crossed the stage. We were finally able to purchase a new vehicle. With Joy having to drive 4 days a week to the airstrip, we needed something reliable and with four-wheel drive. This added up to a used truck! Of course the favorite thing for Camilla to do now is ride in the back whenever possible. For the first time we own a diesel vehicle and are loving the gas mileage (or is that diesel mileage?) A great thanks to everyone who gave extra last fall so that we can have the peace of mind that comes with a reliable car.

What adventures you ask? Well, we were going to have to spend a week in Lima doing paperwork for the kids' Brazilian passports and decided to tack on a short family vacation. After doing some looking around we chose to spend two days at the sand dunes of Ica. We were able to climb the sand dunes, ride in a dune buggy (where Bill lost at least two years off his life when we drove off a cliff everyone except for him was anticipating. To quote Camilla-”Dad...why were you screaming so loud?”) Our son Cullen made a great video about our trip and its posted here.      Between flights, working at the school, spending time with the friends and Spanish lessons, the summer is passing quickly. There are less than four weeks left before school kicks off again. We now have two in high school, and a fourth grader. Bill be teaching mostly math classes this year, but everything is subject to last minute change. Joy renewed her flight medical in June, then recently got checked out at a new and challenging airstrip where some of our Wycliffe colleagues are still working on a Bible translation, and continues to coordinate all the flights for SAMAIR.       Prayer Requests 1. Continued safety for us as we work in Peru. 2. Continued spiritual growth for our entire family. 3. For a buyer for our old truck. 4. For the upcoming school year: that students, teachers and parents would work together for God's glory. Wycliffe Bible Translators PO BOX 628200 Orlando FL 32862 link to our Wycliffe Ministry page here.

Sunday Morning Traditions

One of the pleasures of Sunday morning is the understanding that it is special day. Its not a weekday where my morning is dictated by responsibilities that I have to fulfill. Regardless of the fact that they are related to my teaching, I'm still bound by a house filling with sleepy-eyed children and a wife waiting for her coffee all who need to be fed and out the door by 7:30 at the earliest and 7:50 at the latest. Saturday has its own issues. Activities, projects, and little things I have put off all week now come knocking,demanding my attention.

But Sunday, Sunday is special. Usually I'm up first, the house is still quiet, if I'm lucky (or blessed) there is a soft breeze flowing through the house. Our cat Braveheart runs ahead of me either to his bowl or to the door, wanting a few seconds of my time to help him out. There may or may not be a reminder of prep work I need to do for lunch.(Today I went to cut banana leaves to wrap some Yucatan pork). The twist of a knob, and the Moka Coffee pot is percolating on the stove-top. The house is still quiet. I have the family room all to myself most Sundays for almost an hour, perfect for Bible reading or catching up on a book.

Eventually I return to the kitchen and melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a cup of milk, adding a cup of flour when the milk is hot. Letting it cool I beat 3 eggs into the batter until it is thick and fairly stiff. At some point the kids and then the wife make their way into the living world. Using a cookie gun with a large star form I cut churros right into hot oil. Cullen makes a chocolate sauce and everyone rushes to eat.

Tradition.

Dec 18..Christmas Cookies Day 7..Cherry Winks and a story of family traditions

Making (and eating ) Cherry Winks is a tradition in the Rast family. We had other Christmas food traditions straight from some 70's cook books for which I have been mocked by my current in law family. (Don't go looking for a decorative salad that resembles a candle. Just don't.) But I digress...

The cherry winks were a recipe I believe was passed down from my Grandmother Rast to my Mother a Northerner. This was seen as a great act of trust by this amazing Southern cook. A few years ago, after my Mom had been diagnosed with Alzheimers, I was at my parent's home for Christmas and decided to make cherry winks. My mother was excited every time I told her we were going to make these, but then assured me she no longer remembered how. I told her not to worry because she had taught me and we would do them together. So as we chopped the dates and nuts together, I reminded her over and over, just keep chopping (as she would start to wonder off mid process) because we were making her favorite cookies. She would get excited all over again and remind me she didn't remember how, and we'd start the conversation over. When they were all done, she didn't really know what she was eating, but I remembered for her.

Note the headphones, its a teenager
in his natural state

Growing up overseas in Brazil, we thought of desserts as a luxury and especially around Christmas time, we knew the cost of dates, nuts, and other ingredients that were so special to us in those days. Unfortunately, this hearty cookie, covered in corn flake cereal and topped with a quarter of a cherry (because we were too poor to use half a cherry) was a classic. We looked forward to them, until we learned how much work went in to all the chopping of the nuts and dates. Our taste buds also began to realize that the heavy cookies weren't quite as sweet or light as some of the other Christmas cookies and lacked the key ingredient of chocolate. Now a days, no one in my family makes cherry winks any more. We talk about them fondly, but no one dares serve them. Bill found a recipe that did not call for dates and nuts and is a much lighter cookies although they look much the same. I must also be getting older because these are a nice break from the over sweet cookies and fudge at this time of year. You might want to try these. Enjoy!

(I lost the recipe I used, but just google it.)

Dec 15..Christmas Cookies Day 6..Wedding Cakes and Scones

Yesterday, since we were falling behind and since none of our faithful readers were picking up the slack, we had to double up. Wedding Cakes and Cranberry Scones!!!

While my family calls these Mexican Wedding Cakes, these cookies have many names. Check out this article in the latimes. Wikipedia, the go to website of choice for rock solid information, offers this:

"A reason for the common name "Russian Tea Cake" or any connection to Russian cuisine is unknown. Some have speculated the recipes either derived from other Eastern European shortbread cookies, may have migrated to Mexico with European nuns, or may have been associated with cookies served beside Russian samovars  (tea urns). By the 20th century, they were a part of wedding and Christmas traditions in the U.S., known by their popular "Russian tea cake" or "Mexican wedding cake" name."

What does your family call them? This is the recipe we used for the wedding cakes, The scones were just a basic scone recipe with cranberries added in and then drizzled with white chocolate.

Dec 12..Christmas Cookies Day 5..Pinwheels

This cookie was a little harder than it looked. Thanks to my wife and my mother who saved the day with little tips and lots of help, the pinwheels got done. Apparently these are the favorite cookies of my Uncle Bob. I was not aware that they came in so many variations. Just google "pinwheel cookie recipes" or type it into the search box on pinterest.

I finally found a simple vanilla and chocolate pinwheel cookie recipe. The recipe by joy-inthekitchen (no, not my wife Joy, but someone else named Joy) was exactly what I was looking for.

I would like to make two comments however:

(1) My mother showed me how to roll the dough out on wax paper, which made both the rolling out and the rolling up much easier.

(2) The half of the dough that was chocolate flavored was a little dry, we had to add a little milk to get it to match the consistency of the vanilla dough.

Other than that, it was a easy recipe to make.

December Update

" Suddenly, its December. It has been a good furlough. It just seems like every furlough the days creep by until suddenly, it is time to return to the field. Yesterday, it was September, and we were dropping off the kids for the first day of school. Now, we have 7 days of school left before they say goodbye to their friends. We were reminded recently that our God is a God who hears prayers and answers them for his children. Last letter we smilingly asked for some snow so that our three kids could experience a few of the normal snow activities. That prayer was answered when more than 8 inches of snow was dumped on Chicago in the weekend before Thanksgiving. Camilla was so excited she was running, yelling, and rolling in it all. The boys (with their mom's help) built a snow man, and we even had a little snowball fight. God has also been faithful in giving us new support partners as well as increased support from other individuals and churches. We are still lacking about $250 a month, and Wycliffe would like us to get as close to 100% as possible before we return to Peru. That means there is still time for you to join our monthly support team. We hope you have a blessed Christmas season and a great start to another new year. Bill and Joy and family PS CHECK OUT OUR NEW BLOG: Carreraliving.blogspot.com   Prayer requests 1. For packing and last minute details.. 2. For a safe trip December 30. 3. For re-adaptation to Peruvian culture. 4. Good transition for the kids back to SAM Academy 5. That God would lead us to the right used 4 wheel drive vehicle.