How to help. . .Cayo Cardenas run the seminary

CAYO CARDENAS is Academic Director and in charge of the seminary while we are gone.  He needs a little more support and a lot of prayer as he is also serving as Vice President of the synod of Apurimac in the Peruvian Evangelical church.
Please pray for wisdom with all of his responsibilities.
To support click here or mail to World Outreach Ministries.

Alert for supporters of Cayo, Miguel, and Walter

We've noticed that there has been a drop-off in support for Peruvian missionaries
Cayo, Miguel, and Walter.  Several people have asked where to send their support now. The answer is to send it just like our support (designate Riggs, Mike & Tammy #400), but email us one time to let us know that you are sending it for Cayo, Miguel, or Walter.

Don't send it to Believers Bridge, which is currently only handling donations for their Brazil missionaries. Send it to World Outreach Ministries, P. O. Box B, Marietta GA 30061 or donate online.  Either way, designate it Mike & Tammy Riggs, #400.  Just make sure that you notify us that your support or a portion of your support is for them.

7 Surprising Reasons to Pay Peruvian Teachers

One of our ministry's greatest needs right now is money to pay our Peruvian teachers, who are doing it all while we are in the US. 
We get some questions about this. 
Why can't the teacher just volunteer?
Why not just use gringo missionaries?
Some Peruvians even say that the teachers are "bloodsuckers."
We decided to go over our reasons. We found that Some of them may surprise you.

1. Empowering Peruvians to teach is what our ministry is all about.

This actually was a surprise to us. When we started thinking about it, we realized this:

Our teachers are not just a step on the way to getting Peruvians who are reliable men competent to teach others.
They ARE reliable Peruvians competent to teach others. 

They are the example, the first wave.
What we are doing  is empowering them to use their gifts and schooling so that others look at them and say, "That's how I wanna be."

They send the message to the notoriously  low self-esteemed Peruvians that YES YOU CAN DO THIS in a way that we never can.

Peruvians have a legendary and stubborn low self-esteem. Journalist Abelardo Sanchez Leon puts it like this:

It’s commonplace to say that Peruvians lack self-esteem. In my time, they called this feeling an inferiority complex. It seems to have recently turned into a stubborn mark of our identity. (1)

They don't believe that Peruvians have what it takes to succeed at anything. Most of them start seminary with the dismal expectation that they are too stupid to finish the program, let alone teach.

Peruvians look at us teaching and say, "Sure, a gringo can do that." But when they see Zosimo or Walter teaching, they say, "Yeah, I can do that too, and maybe even better."

As one put it, "Cayo can be the academic director now, but when we have our degrees he'll have some competition."

So an essential part of our ministry is encouraging these men to use their gifts and training.

2. They have to live in the city.

Many times people take away from our presentations in churches the idea that $80 is the average income in the Apurimac area of Peru without understanding that this is not a living wage even in Peru.

The people with this income usually are living exclusively by what they can grow and trade; even weaving their own cloth. They get along as long as they don't need to buy anything from the outside world.

Our teachers have got to live in the city.  If they lived in the country they would not be able to prepare classes and would not be accessible for planning and teaching opportunities.

And life in the city carries higher costs.  An average income in Peru in the city is $379.  Average rent is $300 for an apartment with two bedrooms, so you can see why many families are squeezing into one room apartments. (2)

Food costs money, unlike in the country. This is a fact many country people don't understand. We have lived in Andahuaylas during some major paros, or paralizations, where a mob shuts down all of the businesses until their demands for fairer prices or a change in the laws is met.

The country people never understand why the city people, mainly mom-and-pop business owners who are living day to day, don't support the paro, even when they agree with its demands. They don't understand that the city people can't eat if they don't have money.

Teachers need money to meet these higher costs.

3. They are putting in more time than you think.

Our seminary classes are typically block classes that run a month at a time for five hours on Saturdays.

That is to say that if a teacher was teaching say, New Testament Survey, he would teach every Saturday for five hours.

If his preparation and grading only take him two hours for every hour of class (an extremely conservative estimate) he is spending 15 hours a week to teach one class.

If he teaches two classes,that's a minimum of 30 hours a week, making it hard for him to work another full-time job.  This would create a significant financial hardship if he received no pay from the seminary.

4. They could be making more money.

These are men with degrees. They are qualified to teach classes in secular universities, where they would be paid more than the $100 per class that we're paying at the seminary.

A grade school or high school teacher in a state school receives $500 per month. (3) These men are qualified to teach in those positions.

Those that are pastors are usually farming on weekends to eke out their low salaries.  Teaching makes that impossible.

Those that own businesses are losing business or having to take on help. One of our teachers, Zosimo, has an oil change business. Saturdays are his biggest day, but he has decided to keep teaching because he feels God is calling him to teach.

Teaching at the seminary is no gravy train.  These men are doing it for the love of God and his church.

5. American teachers really cost more.

At first it doesn't seem that way, because an American missionary doesn't usually cost the seminary a dime.

But when you consider that many missions require $10K support per month for a family of four and compare that to the $400 we'd pay for four classes, the real cost of using American missionaries becomes apparent.

It also cost in terms of Peruvian ownership.  The missionaries of the 1950s established great works in the area, but during the time of terrorism there were not sufficient Peruvian leaders to carry these works forward.  They were too used to missionaries doing it all.

And there is the cost in morale. It has the opposite effect from reason #1.  It shows that you may study away, but you'll never know as much as those gringos. Just the opposite of what we're trying to say.

6. Our students need good teachers.

Our students come from an inadequate educational background. They haven't been to Sunday school. They don't know who Julius Caesar was or when he lived. They need good teachers who can bring them up the level they need to be.

In the four years that the seminary has been functioning, only one entering student was able to name all of the books of the Bible, and that one was a graduate of Mobile Bible Institutes.

The Peruvian Law of Religious Equality stipulates that for a pastor to have the same rights as a Catholic priest he has to have an equivalent amount of education.

These students don't need adult Sunday school. They need innovative educational approaches that will bring them up to Bible college level.

7. If the teacher isn't paid, his family suffers.

You live and learn.  We used to have volunteer teachers. They were willing to teach and lose the income.

But with the low incomes they were already receiving the loss caused the family to suffer. The kids outgrew their shoes and couldn't get new ones. Someone got sick and couldn't go to the Doctor.

Even now, one of our teachers is facing the possible loss of his home if he teaches instead of taking another job.

What can you do?

We're looking for individuals or small groups that could commit to giving $100 per month for teacher support.

Just think, for $100 a month you can inspire and educate church leaders in Peru by giving them an inspired, educated teacher.

The easiest way to do this is to click on the donation button on this page. Send us an email letting us know your donation is for teacher support.

Or send your donation to :
World Outreach Ministries
P. O. Box B
Marietta, Georgia 30061.   Be sure to mark it #400 MIKE & TAMMY RIGGS- TEACHERS

Sources:
(1) Sanchez Leon, Abelardo. "Paolo Guerrero and Peruvian Self-Esteem." Peru this Week. 13 June 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2015.

(2) np. "Cost of Living in Peru." Numbeo.com. Apr. 2015. Web. 25 Apr. 2015.

(3) Rodriguez, Sabrina. "Sabes como es trabajar de profesor en el Peru?" Publimetro.pe. 3 July 2014. Web. 25 apr. 2015.

Couples Ministry - A need that hasn't gone away

I posted this story several years ago.
I'm reposting because the need hasn't gone away, and we've recently talked to several people interested in this.
One of the needs here is a ministry here to couples. (So anyone who is looking for a ministry to couples...here's a call....)
This past weekend shows the urgency of the need.
On Friday night Sister Tila from the church came to visit us. She is a lovely older lady who has a ministry of visiting the sick and praying for them. She is illiterate and takes a box of Bible promises to share. The person draws a promise from the box and reads it aloud. This is how she shares Scripture with them. She came to visit us to ask us to set up a time of counseling with a troubled couple.
She also shared some of her testimony. She and her husband had a bad, but typical marriage for this culture. They were in a remote village working their fields and tending their cattle, and she decided that she could not stand the physical abuse any longer. (Domestic violence is so common in the mountains that in Lima if you hit a coke machine or something out of frustration it is called "mountain love.") While she was looking for an opportunity to run away with their daughter, an evangelical christian came to the village. One day she was with her husband and they saw the evangelical christian family together. They were seated on a bench. The woman was asleep, holding the baby and leaning on her husband. It was a sweet family picture.
Tila said to her husband, "Look at this, everyone in this family trusts each other. The woman is leaning on her husband because she trusts him to care for her. I wish you were like this evangelical. Instead you beat me so much that I am ready to leave you! Why can´t we be like this family?"
Sometime later she had her opportunity. She put on all the clothes that she could, took the daughter, and started to make her escape. She came down a narrow path and there was her husband. There was no way around him without falling off the mountain.
"Where are you going?" he shouted, while still at a distance.
"I am leaving you. I am going to work like a man and care for my daughter. I don't want to be beaten anymore. "
"Don't leave me!" He took up two sticks from the ground and made a cross. "I swear to you by this cross that I will be an evangelical from now on!" So she accepted his promise and they looked for an evangelical church to find out how.
The next day we already had an appointment to do premarital counseling with a couple. (At the moment we are the only ones doing this. (We will be conducting a workshop for pastors sometime on this subject.) In the morning the girl called to ask if we could make time for a troubled couple right after their appointment.
It turned out to be the same couple that Sister Tila was asking about. They are not believers, and although they have been married three years, they work in different towns and are only together on the weekends. (A common situation for teachers here, as the department of education assigns them to whatever district out in the country and they consider themselves fortunate just to have a job.) It is a situation that begs for trouble and the woman was desperate for help. She is sure that her spouse is unfaithful .
We are doing all we can, but we have only a little time that we can dedicate to this ministry. Please join us in praying that God will raise up couples for this much-needed ministry, Americans and/or Peruvians.

US TRIP SCHEDULE: We can visit you!

When we are not scheduled in another location, we will be at home in DeRidder, Louisiana.

Dates	Area	Churches  Scheduled
March 1-8	Central & South Alabama	March 1 - Heritage Baptist, March 8 - Salem Presbyterian
March 11-15	Creston , Iowa	Crest Baptist
March 16-19	Omaha, Nebraska
March 21-22	Henderson, Louisiana	Henderson Bible Church
April  10-12	Baytown, Texas	Baytown Community Church
April 19		Elk Ridge Baptist
April 26	Beaumont, Texas	Beaumont Bible Church
May 14-21	Trip to Peru for Seminary Graduation
May 24	Kinder, Louisiana	Kinder Bible Church
June 8-14	Samson, Alabama	Camp Victory
June 22-28	Reeves, Louisiana	Camp Pearl, Reeves Bible Church
July 12	Leesville, Louisiana	Grace Bible Church
July 26	Moss Bluff, Louisiana	Moss Bluff Bible Church
July 26 - August 3	Peru regional IEP Youth Conference and lead Mission Trip from Lima to the Andes.
August 4-31	Reserved for family events & vacation

 We will be here through February of 2016, so there is still time to schedule a visit.

2 IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS PART 2

2 Important Announcements (Part 2)

Second Announcement:

As the SEA becomes independent, we are also changing our Mission Board. Believers Bridge is a Mission that provides a bridge for crossing from a need to a solution. That work in regards to the SEA is done, we will not be working here as part of a “foreign” board, we will be working with the SEA.

It is like a church planting a daughter church. There comes a time when the new church becomes independent. There is still a very special relationship between the two churches and there always will be. But the new church is a real stand-alone church. In much the same way, Believers Bridge has planted, nurtured, cared and provided for the SEA, but now the SEA is stepping out into the world. It is a proud moment for all of the parties.

As far as our relationship with Believers Bridge, it is coming to an end this month. Although in some point in time we may work with them again in starting a new work. We are burning no “Bridges”.

We are happy to announce that we have a new Missionary Agency assisting us, with administration and office work in the US! World Outreach Ministries, Inc. will serve as our home office. They will send Tax Deductible receipts to our supporters and facilitate Online donations from anywhere in the world

2 WAYS TO DONATE

1. Online Donations 

www.WorldOutreach.org/donations

Select Mike & Tammy Riggs #400

(USA & International Cards accepted)

2. Mail Checks to 

World Outreach Ministries

P.O. Box B

Marietta, GA 30061

(designate for Mike & Tammy Riggs #400)

We want to make it clear that we are continuing and even EXPANDING our ministry in Peru.  This

is just an administrative step that will help us in many ways.

WE THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR LOYAL PRAYERS AND SUPPORT AND THANK GOD FOR YOU ALL ALWAYS!

   

2 Important Announcements! (Part 1)

First Announcement:

 In 2007 we began to work with Believers Bridge, Our one over-riding goal  was to do whatever God would lead us into in such a way that the work would be able to be a Peruvian ministry.

 That was behind all we did as the Lord led us to found the Evangelical Seminary of Apurimac (Seminario Evangélico de Apurímac or SEA) in 2011.

We are proud to say that the first big step into this independence has been taken! In December of 2014, the staff, faculty and students of SEA voted to elect their first Board of Directors.

• Mike will remain for at least two more years as the General Director 
• The SEA has yet to become fully self-supporting 
• (like all colleges will always need donations, but the goal is for the funds to come from Peruvian sources in the future).
•  The new Board is in the process of putting the SEA in line with other Peruvian Institutions, so: 
• The SEA will be formally recognized as a degree granting college, and will be able to get State benefits (access to statewide education funds for improvements, for example).
•  The SEA will also be able to receive items from abroad without paying exorbitant taxes or risking the impounding of said items.

It is as if our child has gotten her first job and we are so proud of the leadership of the new Board. Step one has been taken.

Christmas time...with llamas.

The USA has no monopoly on crazy Christmas stunts.   These llamas are out by the sidewalk selling stereos and motorcycles.

Hope you enjoy your Christmas celebration!  Remember the reason for the season!

John 3:16New International Version (NIV)

16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

SEA’s first-ever Reformation Conference

We had a great time October 31 and November 1 with SEA’s first-ever Reformation Conference.  Although everyone here knows that the Protestant church left the Roman Catholic Church centuries ago, almost no one has known why, when or how. It isn’t taught as part of history and most pastors haven’t been taught anything about it. They are used to hearing how Protestants just left to allow pastors to marry or for Henry the 8th to get a divorce or even so that Northern Europeans could get control and money. So, the Reformation has been ignored when it hasn’t been misrepresented.

On Thursday, the 31st   at about 7:15, while kids trick or treated on the dark streets (yes, we had a 90 minute power outage right at sunset on Halloween!) we walked in faith to the Talavera church sanctuary. I say in faith because we had no idea if the power would come back on (and the presentation was all in PowerPoint) or if anybody would risk the dark streets to come to the conference. So we were pleasantly surprised as we neared the church to see and hear a large crowd. I was wondering how this was going to work - PowerPoint, no power - when the lights came on! It turns out that several folk had gotten to the church early and had been praying 
We got started just a few minutes late and I managed to end nearly on time. My presentation was simply the doctrinal issues and a brief history of Wickliffe, Hus and Luther and their parts in the Reformation. Everyone had been taking notes and was asking for a copy of the PowerPoint. Church anniversaries are a big deal here and they saw that for us as Evangelicals this is the biggest anniversary.

The next night, Tammy presented a history of music and worship before, during and after the Reformation. It was all new to the people. She focused on the Geneva liturgy and showed how the people had become involved in the worship - from singing hymns and Psalms to praying and to reciting creeds. Tammy emphasized how the Reformation brought the Church to the people in worship and what a big deal that was for them and should be to us.

Next year, we will be promoting the conference a bit more and we plan on reaching out to the community more and more. Next year we will talk about History after Luther and in Latin America. We hope to expand the conference to a Regional event by 2017 when we can all celebrate the 500th anniversary of a free church in the West.

Fany & Daira

We enjoyed a lunch with Pastor Willy of the Andahuaylas church and his wife and dughter.

1:30 in the morning.  It is wet and cold.  I am standing in mud halfway to my knees working with many other bus passengers trying to dig a semi out of the mud so that we can get home to Andahuaylas.  This is the last stretch of journey that started a week ago, and I am tired.

It all started Monday, Feb. 18.  It is never a good idea to travel during the rainy season of January & February, but we didn't have a choice.  The changes in the immigration laws and the ones that have come from the religious freedom law have made it necessary to try to get an extension (which we hoped to do in Cuzco) or to cross the border by the 23rd.  The new laws, supposedly written to make things easier for  Evangelicals here in Peru, have actually made life more difficult.  We have been doing like many missionaries and keeping ourselves legal here by doing a border crossing every 6 months.  But now they can only give a 6 month visa once per year, the others can only be 3 months long.  Due to ...complications, we have to do everything over again to get the resident religious worker visa again.  The costs are staggering and with the falling dollar quite frankly out of reach at this time.

So, hoping to avoid the long lines, bureaucracy and corruption of the immigrations office in Lima, we decided to try in Cuzco.  If we couldn't renew our visas there, then we have to go to Chile from Cuzco and cross the border.

Our trip to Cuzco on Monday night was perfect, with no problems, giving us great hopes for the immigration office.  We spent Tuesday with the family of my secretary, Aydee, and got to sleep in beds Tuesday night.  Wedmesday morning we went to the immigration office with Miguel to see what our options could be.  There we got the bad news/good news answer from the director.  To renew our Religious worker visas we have to do the entire process all over again, that means several trips to Lima - immigrations, Interpol, embassy  and pay several thousand dollars.  Ouch!  But, the director was very helpful and told us about another option that we have, one that is usually not mentioned.  Becky can apply and get Peruvian citizenship on top of her American citizenship.  There are no obstacles, it just requires 4 stages of paperwork that will take about a year.  Then when she has her citizenship, she can ask Peru to give dual citizenship to her blood relations and it is again, merely a question of time and about $220 (if she gave us all the costs) per person and we will never need to do anymore paperwork or border crossings!  That sounds like a deal!

But, we have to make a border crossing by the 23rd.  So, we buy the bus tickets and leave that evening for Tacna and the Peru/Chile border.  The bus trip was very pleasant, it was on a bus line we have only used once before and we were a little nervous about how it might be.  Becky and Abby come with us to see Tacna and to spend some family time with us.

We arrive in Tacna about 5:30 in the morning, go to our usual hotel.  But there are no vacancies.  We go to every hotel we know of - no vacancies.  It is the last week of summer vacation and everyone who can is visiting family and friends, and Chileans are visiting Peru.  It began to seem like we would have to run to Chile and get back to take the bus back to Cuzco the same night--not a pleasant prospect.  But, we found a taxi driver who new of a couple of nice hotels off of the beaten path and we found a nice room at a decent price.

Tammy, Chris and I check in and leave Becky and Abby to have a nap while we cross the border.  No problems with the crossing, except the prices for the taxis have gone up.  We even got a 6 month visa coming back into Peru; the immigrations lady asked us how long we wanted and why.  When we told her we are working up in the Andes, she gave us 6 months!

We spent the rest of the day and the next one touring Tacna, a beautiful city in the Atacama desert.  It was a nice time with the family.  We had bought our return tickets on the same bus line that we came to Tacna on - San Martin.  We were anticipating another easy and comfy trip.  Boy! were we ever wrong about that.
We boarded at 7:30 at night and right away we saw that the bus was older than the hills and hadn't been cleaned for a long time.  There were bags of vomit beside the seats, the bus reeked of urine and the seats were small and uncomfortable.  But we hoped to just take a Dramamine and sleep through the trip - no big problem, we thought.  It is only a 14 hour trip.

It ended up taking us 20 hours to get to Cuzco.  The driver, who was drinking chicha, a homemade corn beer the whole night, also stopped in every little burg and picked up passengers.  A little extra for his pocket, but quite against the law and dangerous, that is how kidnappers and robbers get on buses.  He also flattened 2 tires on the back left rear so the bus had an awful list to port and he drove on the flat tires until he had gotten well out of town. Then the next afternoon, going up a mountain about 15 miles outside of Cuzco, the bus coasted to a halt.  He had burnt up the clutch.  The bus line said that they were sending out another bus to pick up the passengers, but it never showed and we had to flag another bus, pay another fare and ride in the aisles to Cuzco.  We arrived just after the last seats for buses to Andahuaylas had been sold.  So we had to spend the night in Cuzco - with our money running out and waiting until the next night (Sunday) to get our ride home.

The bus pulled out of Cuzco about 8 and we were making good time until we got to the still unpaved stretch of road at about 1 in the morning. There--stuck fast, buried up to the axles in a hairpin turn blocking the whole road-- was our stuck semi.  We finally got the truck out of the mud.  Chris did a good job of getting the driver to understand about rocking the truck to get it going and by 3 am we were back on the road.  About 6 am we pulled into town, exhausted and broke, but home at last.

A Week to Remember!

Most of the Greek students - happy and eager on day 1!

I slept in the last room on the right and taught in the 1st.

Sunrise over Ayacucho

2nd and 3rd year students and faculty.

"Brother Mike, where are you.  The bus is going to leave Uripa soon".  I was sitting in the taxi from Andahuaylas to Uripa, about an hour from both towns, watching the driver repair his overheated engine.  The bus from Uripa - a minivan, or combi, actually - was going to take me to the middle of the next State, Ayacucho, where I was going to spend the week teaching Greek 2 in a seminary.  The driver got the engine cooled down and filled the radiator with water and I made it to Uripa, just in time to catch the bus, which had been waiting for me to start the 4-7 hour (depending upon the rain and road construction) trip to the city of Ayacucho.
January and February here are the rainy season, and we get TORRENTIAL rains that cause mudslides that can wash away or block roads, destroy villages and isolate towns.  As we crossed the river Pampas, which is low ground and jungle-like, the rain began to fall as we began the ascent up to the mountains of Ayacucho.  about 3 hours into the trip, just as my legs were beginning to cramp up, we came to a huayco, a fresh mudslide, that had blocked the road.  We just turned a corner and were in 2-3 feet of mud.  The driver managed to back us out of the mud - with help from another combi and some rope. I began preparing myself to spend the night in the altitude, around 15,000', with no blanket or food.  I did have a warm winter coat and a bottle of water at least. But, it was Sunday afternoon and classes were to begin the next morning, and the combi was half full of students and faculty of the seminary, so the driver decided to try another route.  We backed down the road for a couple of miles and we came to a turn off with a sign that said, "historic Inca road".  Oh goody!  A 700 year old road not made for vehicles with wheels (the Inca never invented the wheel).
We slithered and wobbled our way for about and hour and a half and finally hit the new road again and Praise God! it was clear.  We got to the seminary in time for supper.  The seminary was held in a school, with classrooms serving for bedrooms, kitchen and dining rooms and of course, classrooms.  The school was closed for summer vacation, so it was good use of a facility.  I slept in a classroom on a thin little mattress on the floor, in the same room as another teacher and his wife (from Mexico), her mother and brother, the other profs younger sister and brother who were students.  The food was typical "Andina cuisine" - potatoes, little breads, thin gruel and soup (which was mainly miscellaneous organ meat - not my favorite!).  The Mexican mother-in-law of my fellow teacher got very tired of the food and one day, I was told to eat very little supper, and after 10 pm curfew I was invited to a Mexican feast - home-made chicken tacos with home-made Pico de Gallo.  Yum!
Monday started classes.  Greek 2 turned out in reality to be Greek 1.  This seminary only functions in vacations, January and February, and they had forgotten what little they had learned last year.  It was large class - 23 students - and all but a handful were Spanish second language.  They had grown up speaking, reading and writing Quechua.  So, the majority of the students didn't even know or understand Spanish grammar terms.  But with classes from 8 am until 10 pm, we had plenty of time to work.  Eventually, all but 3 students passed the final exam and we have made arrangements for them to continue to study via email and their textbooks and I have agreed to come back next year and teach Greek 1 & 2.
On the way back, we encountered a blizzard in the altitude - snow, ice, hail, freezing rain - not falling on us but rather swirling around us.  The clouds came in from below us and were pushed up by the mountains.  The combi had no heat and I was so happy for my heavy winter coat that I bought in Ohio last year.  As we drove on we began to descend and the snow and ice turned to heavy rain.  Suddenly there was a loud roaring sound and a large chunk of mountain began sliding down to the road, with trees and boulders dislodged by the mud.  The driver stomped on the gas and we just made it, a large boulder hit the back left side of the combi and shoved us almost into the abyss on our right.  Everyone was wide awake for the rest of the trip.  We avoided one other mudslide by a few feet.  Then we had to drive through another 3 small slides, but after an exciting (I am personally a little tired of excitement!) trip I made it home safe and sound.

TOP TEN UNEXPECTED THINGS ON OUR TRIP

1.       Visas are calculated in calendar days, not business days, as we had been told. Thank you, God, that we decided to go early.

2.       A bus from a respected company can run out of gas before it reaches its destination, even in the middle of the Atacama Desert at noon.

3.       If you chomp on a dead bee in your dessert on the bus, you are just supposed to consider it proof that it was made with real honey.

4.       "Ladies of the evening" sometimes travel . . . and work . . . on buses.

5.       Even though you have relied on a bus company for years, it might turn out to be incredibly, incredibly bad.

6.       Celebrating Thanksgiving with other missionaries can be a wonderful experience, even if it wasn't what you had planned.

7.       Thunderstorms look awesome from above.

8.       The dish called Picante Tacneña is more or less chitlins in hot sauce.

9.       Two cats can completely cover a corduroy sofa cushion with cat hair in about a week if no one is there to clean up.

Coming home is probably the best part of traveling.