Jackie Beth Shilcutt's Visit #2

Jackie Beth and the kiddos

The kids dancing for the camera (and Jackie Beth)

Jackie Beth painted the "growing up with the Lord" and then we put up measuring people to measure the kids heights

This is in the playroom

This is in our living room and it says in Spanish "And these three remain..."

I have a TON of catching up to do, so.... my entries are going to have to all be nice and short and full of pictures! I'm also trying to distract myself that Natalie and Jimmy are leaving in about an hour so I thought I would post a ton.

We had the blessing of having Jackie Beth Shilcutt come back to Peru for the second time. She came to just hang out after a trip to Brazil, paint some cool things in our home and teach yoga out in the park. We loved having her here and just be a part of our daily routine. She was such a help with kiddos and of course the kids LOVED having her around. She did an amazing job painting our walls! She finally started making our walls look a little homey.

The week was just filled with FUN which would be one of the words I would describe Jackie Beth. Along with fun she is probably one of the most self-less, Godly, relational, real women I know. The last she was here in April I asked her to write a little "guest post" about her experience was like so I'm going to include it this time around. I asked her to elaborate on this WEIRDO circus we went to when she was here and she did a great job describing it. If any of you want to come to Peru, I can take you! Here is what she wrote:

"Man, what a great week we got to spend in Peru! Field day at Sofia's school, surviving an earthquake, eating GREAT food, and enjoying meeting the Fletcher's new friends kept us busy throughout the week. I'm supposed to tell a little about the circus that we visited... Well, since Stephanie knew I love dance, she had saved some fliers for different dance productions that would be taking place while we were there. Without going into too much detail, these were professional quality shows with professional quality performers… When we went to purchase tickets for one of them, we saw that the circus was in town. On the flier we saw aerial artists and were thinking that sounded pretty cool- plus we could take the kids!

We bought the tickets, and anxiously awaited the day. When we arrived at the big top, we bought cotton candy (which soon melted in the humidity-kinda cool) and watched these strange two-faced clowns walking around entertaining people, and then the lights finally went down and the show began. As a performer myself, I try to give other artists the benefit of the doubt and look for the positive, and I really stretched my imagination in this vein as this circus entered bizzaro land as we watched deadpan jugglers and hula hoopers execute their craft with little to no expression- it was almost like modern dance meets circus arts. We also learned our lesson about getting kids excited about things without knowing about what to expect- let me clarify, there were no elephants, no aerial dancers, no funny stuff… Oops. We definitely made a memory that night- it was perhaps the most fun I’ve had in a long time not having fun… On a side note, I gave Sofia enough things to keep her attention during the show that she really enjoyed it, and when Stephanie told her I was coming back to Peru, her response was: “YES! Maybe we could go back to the circus!" Love it.
The last day, Lee took us to the catacombs in downtown Lima. Seeing all the art and history in the church was
fabulous (especially the picture of Jesus at the Last Supper with his disciples eating guinea pig...). I also found it meaningful as I thought about the work of God that began this church several hundred years ago and its impact in juxtaposition to the work of God starting the house churches that the Fletchers and their team are beginning to meet with. What will the impact of these people be in several hundred years?

After spending a little over a week in Peru with the Fletchers, I realized some truths that seem to prevail in any language:
*playgrounds have fun for everyone
*smiles go a long way
*if you don't know the words sing along and sing loud
*baby ballerinas will run around the open dance studio until the teacher comes in
* meals are more than just food
*God is God

It was a great week!"