08 de deciembre 2008
Hola Everyone,
It is now December already and I am back in Lima for a rest after completing my last medical ministry mission with Medical Ministry International here in Peru.
Our last mission was in the beautiful Cusco area about one hours flying time southeast of Lima. We spent one week serving the poor in the Cusco area and one week further up in the mountains in more remote areas.
A wonderful experience with a terrific bunch of folks who came down from the USA and Canada to serve here. Some of these folks come to Peru regularly to serve with MMI here in Cusco and other areas of Peru. Some of you who will be receiving this letter were here and I want to take a moment to say hola and I truly enjoyed all of you and spending this time here with you and the special people of Peru we served with.
I stayed one more week in Cusco after the completion of the mission so I could travel 4 hours south to Ayaviri to join up with another MMI team doing a physical therapy mission for the poor. This was an incredible experience for me too as it was my first physical therapy mission. To serve the poor with special handicaps was very special. Especially for me were the children. The poor have very little resources to deal with their handicaps and especially to deal with the needs of their special children. It was a small team of 5 people who were involved in this mission and they did an awesome job. I was very blessed to be a part of it for a couple of days.
I want to jump back in time a bit to the missions before the Cusco mission. I was involved in two missions actually in October. One week in Ayaviri and then two weeks on our MMI extreme mission to some very remote villages on the far side of the Valle del Colca in Arequipa.
Both outstanding missions again with two great teams of volunteers in very different settings.
I am enclosing some notes from my extreme mission here that I had written previously. This was a tough mission as we had to hike for just about the whole two weeks at high altitudes to reach some pretty remote areas with our medical team. Again some of those people will be reading this letter so a special hola to you too.
I want to state first that this story is also about the wonderful people who live up in these remote areas. It is amazing to witness and experience life as these people are living it. They are a wonderful people and I am so blessed to know them and to be a part of their life’s experience. I look forward to going back there next year.
Previous notes: Some have read these notes before so I hope you will understand and be patient with me.
Hi everyone,
I hope you are all well today.
I have just completed another two week mission yesterday. My second in three weeks.
I am now back in “civilization” in Arequipa now resting and recuperating from my extreme mission up in the Valle del Colca.
An awesome adventure in very remote and high villages. It will take me some time to absorb everything and to tell the story well.
Mostly I enjoyed the people up there and of course the kids.
I had some trials of my own too. On our way to our second village we had to hike 8 hours up over a mountain pass. We topped out walking at about 15,o00 feet. Awesome.
Then on our way down to Tocallo I hurt my knee. I guess I strained it and then it got worse. So my friend Tania provided her scarf and mi amigo Vincente tied up my knee so I could keep going down. No other options as the trail was too steep to ride the mules. About anther two or more hours of going down to the village. The last bit was in the dark which was even more interesting. Tocallo was our most remote place and is very beautiful. I believe this place and about 25 kids will be another nutritional program for me in 09. With my products going there on burros in April or so. So I will be going back there again over the years as I build my site coordinator program.
Then on Tuesday last as we were going from Tapay to our last village of Llatica I had another experience. I was riding a mule on another 8 hour hike as my knee was still a problem. But as I was descending on a steep part next to the edge of about a 1000 foot drop my mule decided to start bucking and running. Not a good thing. I was trying to get him either rode out or stop him but he threw me. I went down and hit my head and my upper left side on some rocks next to the edge. And my right foot was still hung up in the stirrup when he stopped. So I just laid there for a bit while my friends got me untangled. I got a cut on my head and a bit of bruising. But I was very fortunate it was not a worse situation. My nurse friend, Karen, who had also injured a knee and strained her ankle, who was riding a mule behind me got me cleaned up and bandaged. She said I had an 8 second ride so I guess I won ????. So the mule and I had a talk and I got back on him to finish the journey to the next village. At least until I had to walk again when the trail got too steep to ride the mule.
After our last clinic day in Llatica we had a 5 hour hike out to the bottom of the deepest canyon in the world where we crossed the Colca River on a footbridge and met our ride out back to Cabanaconde, Chivay and back to Arequipa.
A lot more to tell but for a later time. I am staying in beautiful, sunny Arequipa for one more week before I go back to Lima. I will be traveling with an MMI project director, Lilia, down to ilo to visit one of my “patients” and mid week to Ayaviri to help Lilia prepare for another mission there in 09.
Tonight I will treat myself to a great hot chocolate in my favorite place here in Arequipa with some friends.
So I hope you guys are all doing well.
I will try to be in phone contact with everyone soon as I work out my calling opportunities here in Arequipa.
In His service I am,
Taylor
End of note:
I will touch on just a couple more things and I will close.
On my return visit to the states last August I went to St Louis to attend the 20th Anniversary conference of Reliv International, Inc., the wonderful company that through it’s Reliv Kalogris Foundation is providing my Potter’s Hand Foundation with their nutritional products for children that I am bringing here to Peru.
At this conference I was humbled and blessed to be named as an area coordinator for Peru for the Kalogris Foundation. With the support of the Kalogris Foundation in supplying my foundation with their children’s nutritional products I have been doing 4 pilot programs with impoverished and special needs children. These include 32 orphan children with HIV Aids and other children with illnesses such as Cerebral Palsy, mental retardation, paralysis and other special needs. These types of children are typically abandoned here at birth if their parents are just too poor to be able to support them. Also other children who are very malnourished in their formative years. And I am happy to report that these children are responding very well to this nutritional care and this is a hope for them that they would not have if it were not for the heart of the Reliv Kalogris Foundation and all the Reliv distributors involved who make all this possible to over 43,000 children daily around the world.
I am blessed also to be striving to expand this ministry to 250 children receiving daily nutritional care for a full year in 2009 again with the product support from The Reliv Kalogris Foundation. This is an amazing journey as well for me here in Peru and I am happy to be a part of this wonderful ministry of Love and caring.
I will close for now as I have been trying to catch up on a few months worth of stories. So thanks to all of you who are praying for me and this ministry I have been called to and also thanks to those who have helped and are financially helping the Potter’s Hand Foundation be the hands and feet in feeding these lambs of God. I can’t do this alone and I am blessed with those who understand this calling and are a part of it.
One more note, please. I want to recognize some local Peruvian’s here who have also been a huge help to me in getting this ministry off the ground and without whom I can not succeed. My special thanks to Diana Rivera, my friend, interpreter and assistant who has taken this ministry on as her own. And also a special thanks to Monica G, who has been a great friend and is supporting this ministry with a portion of her church tithe every month now. I wish to mention my friends from my Cusco MMI mission, Carol and Roger Hall who are interested in helping also. And I must mention all my friends back in my home church in Florida and especially to the men of my church who have been such a spiritual, prayerful and financial help to me.
And to my son, Taylor Scott I wish to say I love you son and I hope to see you again soon.
And last I will mention the One who is always first. I am so very thankful to God my Father for loving me and helping me understand that my life has such value that I am called to feed His children. God bless you all.
Merry Christmas to all and a very Blessed new year in 2009.
En El Nombre de Cristo with love,
Taylor
“Little children, let us stop saying we love people; let us really love them, and show it by our actions.”
1 John 3:18 (LB)
Hello everyone,
24 de deciembre 2008