Finally, a word from Justin

I know that Gillian is usually the one who writes on the blog, but tonight I thought I should add something. This week has been a tremendous week for the Brickey family. Where do I begin?

Monday-- Gillian and Nathan came to the Food for the Hungry office. This is the first time that either of them had been to or even seen the office where I have gone nearly evrey day since mid-November. Gillian felt really out of the loop as far as being a missionary serving in Peru for over 6 months with an organization and having never even seen or been invited to see the office. It took me until February to feel comfortable with the idea of bringing her and the boys to Puente Nuevo, the door of San Juan de Lurigancho. San Juan de Lurigancho is the poorest district of Lima, is the home to over 1 million people and is also the fastest growing district. To enter this district from the central and southern part of Lima there are but two entrances to San Juan de Lurigancho, one is Puente Nuevo. Needless to say, it is a very busy area. I showed Gillian and Nathan around the office and introduced them to everyone. Nathan was very curious to see my current office. When I worked at First Pres, Gillian would frequently come eat lunch with me and the boys were no strangers to my office. We all have many fond memories of my office in the US. Nathan was a bit disappointed to see my current office. I share a room as big as my old office in the States with two other men and I work on a 7 year old computer. Nathan came in and looked around for about five seconds and said, "Can we go back downstairs?" After that, we were able to attend Monday morning devotions with the Food for the Hungry staff. After devotions and a special presentation by another missionary who teaches Christian financial concepts in the jungle of Peru I took them home for lunch and went back to work.

Tuesday-- Tuesday was great! Gillian and I kept Alex out of school and we ALL went to the office. Our insurance expired on our car so we had to take a taxi to the office. We got to the office and I showed Alex around. He also wanted to see my office. As soon as he walked in my co-worker, Atilio, grabbed Alex and gave him a big hug. Alex had enough of that and asked the same thing as Nathan, "Can we go back downstairs now? I don't want to meet any more people". After the hugging incident I had to explain to Alex that people in Peru are a lot more touchy-feely than people in the US. This is something I am still getting used to, I haven't fully embraced the touchy-feely, kiss when you meet, customs of my new home. Apparently, neither has Alex. We went back downstairs. I wanted to bring the family out to the office Tuesday because Food for the Hungry was beginning their annual distribution of school packets to children enrolled in their sponsorship program. FH gives notebooks, folders, pens, pencils, erasers, and other school supplies to their sponsored children. Our country director, Rosaura, thought this would be a good way for Gillian to see a glimpse of the communities where I work. After we returned downstairs I began to help load the trucks with the school supplies. Once loaded we headed out to the community. The place we went is a relatively new community called Rinconada del Sol. It is on a very steep incline on one of the desert hills. The community just below Rinconada del Sol (that you must pass through to reach Rinconada) had placed a roadblock at the very entrance to the community as some sort of punishment towards Rinconada. This meant that the truck couldn't carry the supplies to a convenient place to unload. We all got out of the truck and started loading our arms and shoulders with school supplies. Luke (another missionary from Minnesota)and I got to carry the heaviest things of the bunch (big boxes filled with reams of bond paper) all the way up the hill. I hadn't realized how out of shape I really was until after we completed this task. This community is in the process of having water and sewage installed. This is no trivial task as the community is located on a steep incline on a very rocky hill. I dare say hill of pure rock. There are the sounds of men working, jack hammers and occasionally DYNAMITE. That's right, dynamite. This concept should be a little unnerving. If you see how this community is built with rocks stacked on rocks and houses and buildings on top of these stacked rocks you would see why this concept is frightening. Back to the theme... we got all of the school supplies to the community center and the FH Child Development Promoter, Michel - pronounced ME-Shell (a man), began to organize the mother leaders of the community into their groups so they could distribute the school packets. During this time Alex and Nathan began to play with the other kids around the community center. Nathan loved playing in the dirt with his new friends and his new Hot Wheels cars that my Mom and Dad sent him. Alex loved playing with the little kids there as well. Gillian and I began counting paper so that each school packet would have 100 sheets of bond paper. The mother leaders were bagging up the rest of the school supplies for the kids in their groups. The bond paper came in reams of 500 and the numbers had to be divided evenly or some child would be short-changed on his packet. We were talking to the mothers and kids, watching our own kids, and counting paper for the whole morning. For lunch we went to a restaurant near the community with other workers from Food for the Hungry. It was good to be able to share my family with them. I love the family that God has given me. I love my two well behaved, kind, intelligent little boys and I love my wife that is afraid of nothing and who will accomplish whatever she sets her mind to. I really enjoyed watching them interact with my co-workers. After lunch we went back to the Rinconada del Sol to watch how the school packets were to be distributed. Gillian and I, along with the rest of the mothers finished counting the bond paper and once we did, the distribution began. Parents and children appeared out of nowhere and began to claim their school packets. The distribution went quickly and relatively smoothly. During this time we really had a chance to talk to Alex and Nathan about the community we were in. We had the chance to explain to them the reason why God called us to serve in such a place. Alex, kept looking at the community and saying, "This is a terrible place to live." We had to explain to him that the reason we were there was to help the people improve their way of life so that it would be a better place to live. At the end of the day we all went back down the hill, met up with the truck and headed back to the office. At the end of the day we went down to Puente Nuevo and caught a combi back to the house. For those of you who don't know what a combi is picture this, an old style Toyota mini-van packed with sometimes over 20 people. This is travel by combi in Lima. Luckily for us our combi was not packed, but it was tight. The ride home was great, we talked with Mesha (another missionary from New Mexico)and she took our family picture. What a way to end a productive day of helping school kids get their much needed school supplies. I truly had a great day and enjoyed sharing the previously unknown aspects of my life with my wife and kids. Later that night Gillian and I were talking about how great it was to be working side by side in ministry again. It has been so long since we have really had an opportunity to serve others together. I feel like I can accomplish anything when she is at my side. It reminded us both of our wedding vows, "...to have an enduring ministry marriage." I thank God that this is what we have.

Wednesday-- Well, today Gillian and the boys didn't come to the office, but it was a tremendous day as well. I went to help distribute school packets with the other Child Development Program (CDP) promoters that work in the communities I am working in. I went to four different communities today: Cerrito Rico, Nueva Jerusalen, Ampliacion de 1 de Mayo and Hacia El Desarrollo. It was awesome to get to work with the promoters and meet the mother leaders that do an unimagineable amount of work in the communities. This was really the first opportunity I had to visit three of the four places we were at today. At each stop we did basically the same thing as the day before, but it really helped me to see the communities that I am working with and meet some of the people that live there.

Apart from my news is even bigger news. GILLIAN BEGAN WORKING AT ALEX'S SCHOOL TODAY!!! Of course, she isn't working for money, that would put us in violation of the restrictions of our visa that allows us to be here. She is going to be teaching English literature to 10th graders that don't speak English very well. I think this will be a huge challenge for her, BUT I know she can make it happen. After graduating college with a degree in English with an emphasis in secondary education she has longed to get into a classroom. Unfortunately, raising two wonderful little boys like we wanted didn't allow her to fulfill this longing...UNTIL TODAY. This week she is just observing the class, but next week (I think) she will begin teaching. For me this would be very overwhelming, but she seems to be taking it in stride. I pray that she would be encouraged and disciplined as she begins this new adventure.

I initially started writing tonight's blog simply to say how much I miss SC. Tonight, I put on a t-shirt tonight that is probably 15 or 16 years old. It is the Royal Rangers t-shirt that Commander Gene Henderson had made for our outpost the first year we went to Pow Wow with Royal Rangers (and whipped up on everyone, we won everything in every category - and they told us it would be good for us to come and not expect to win anything). The shirt is still in remarkably good condition. The shirt is solid black and on the left part of my chest it simply has an image of the state of SC with the word EBENEZER over the state and ROYAL RANGERS below the state. On the right sleeve it reads OUTPOST 44. After I put the shirt on tonight, I looked down at the shirt and told Gillian and told her this shirt has three things I love - my church, my state, and Royal Rangers. When I think back at how my church and Royal Rangers has impacted my life to this point I stand amazed. These two tools of God have had a powerful role in making me the man I am today. Some of the tenets of Royal Rangers are what we are using in our ministry here. Food for the Hungry works to meet the four needs of a person - physical, spiritual, mental and social. This is in accordance with the ways that Jesus grew in Luke 2:52. This is something that has been drilled into my head and lovingly placed in my heart since I was 9 years old. The four gold points are the four ways a boy grows - physically, mentally, spiritually and socially. The impact that my church and Royal Rangers has had on me has been and continues to be profound. As far as the state goes, I do miss it dearly. Not so much the land and places(although I do miss the beach, the mountains, the forests, the driving, Shealy's BBQ, Moe's, Chick-fil-A, Arby's, Denny's, IHOP, Ryans, Waffle House, Lizard's Thicket...) but the people who have made me who I am today. There are too many to list and if I did I am sure I would accidentally leave someone out so suffice to say, there are MANY people that I think about on a regular basis that have made a lasting impact on how I think and who I am. THAT was the reason I began this entry two hours ago.

Until I write again...

Justin