riding a pekepeke...
Future home of the Masisea SDA Church
Kaitlin really likes to color!!:-)
Kaitlin coloring with kids at Masisea for SS
pretty much the cutest couple ever
Check out them roots
Fun Sabbath afternoon ride...
The back view of our house..isn't it cute??
The boys like to cook breakfast:-)
The guys harvested over 250 pineapples from our field. yummy
A beautiful rainbow after a downpour

Donate to Emancipate

A.M.O.R. Projects’ “Donate to Emancipate” Fundraising Campaign

The Current Situation
Could somebody please free us? We are stuck in a hostel room, which we have affectionately named, “The Cage.” Spending almost all sleeping and waking hours in the same 8’x12’ room, you can see the appropriateness of the name. The problem is we can’t leave, at least not now because we have responsibilities and tasks to complete, but it sure would be nice. You see, we are trapped by the necessity of electricity, but unable to leave because we lack electricity back home at km. 38 where the rest of our family lives. Emancipate us!

Machete. Machete grass. Machete vines. I wish I had my lawn mower from home because I am feeling like one. Machete some more. I wish we had a tractor. Ouch! Got stung by a wasp. Again. Now out to the chacra to machete trees. Of course, once we cut them down we have to haul them…on our backs. We don’t have a chain. Could they be any heavier? Oh yeah, we could use a cart, which we pull by hand. I wish we had a tractor. Machete some more. If we had a tractor, we could bushog the back acres, mow the lawn, haul logs for the carpentry shop, and pull the chicken poop in a cart, all in a day’s work, not a month’s. Emancipate me!

Emancipate. What does it really mean? Freedom. Independence. Liberty from something or someone. Absence of obligation. Over the centuries, the word has been used by various religious, political, or minority groups to represent their desire for freedom from a particular cause. What if ‘emancipate’ was used to describe those who are poverty stricken, those with physical illness, or those who are struggling spiritually, but want to change and break free from the bondage of life they are currently under?

The Plan
A.M.O.R. Projects has a plan to emancipate the people in the Amazon Basin of Peru. Poverty, lack of education, health problems, and unemployment plague the jungle villagers. A.M.O.R. Projects’ purpose is to found a surgical-medical clinic and trade school to serve the villagers’ need for health care, health education and trade development. Through the clinic, health issues can be addressed and treated. With the trade school, useful skills such as carpentry, mechanics, bakery, dairy, and fish farming can be taught. The people can then use their newly learned skills to make a living, thus reducing poverty and unemployment.

In order to continue moving towards building the clinic and trade school, we have two big needs: electricity and a tractor. Electricity is vital for the development of industries, on-site administration work, use of quality power tools, project site security, and much more. Right now our volunteer team enjoys a simple lifestyle of candlelit evenings, but electricity is very important for project advancement. Below is a breakdown of the costs for electricity:
$10,450-poles, hardward, equipment, and wires
$9,000-transformer & meter
$1,700- equipment installation
$3, 850- wiring buildings/other expenses
$25,000USD
This is a lot of money to raise, but God is good and anything can happen with His leading. We are setting a goal to raise this money for electricity by Christmas Day! With God’s help and yours, we can reach this goal!!

A tractor is essential for the development and maintance of our 249 acres of land. Hauling logs, cultivating, upkeep of dirt roads/driveways, and pulling out stumps are just some of the many jobs around the property that would be made a lot easier if there was a tractor. Below is a breakdown of the costs for a tractor:
$28,500-John Deere 5403 tractor
$5,000-attachments (bushog, boxblade, cart, etc.)
$1,500-transport from Lima to Pucallpa
$35,000USD
A huge project, yes, but definitely possible. Goal is to raise the money by New Year’s Day 2008!

You can help
Each and every donation, small or large is very much appreciated. To help with electricity or tractor, there are two ways to donate (all donations are tax-deductible):

1. Send donation by mail (please make checks payable to A.M.O.R. Projects and mark electricity or tractor) to the following address:
A.M.O.R. Projects
P.O. Box 212
Loma Linda, CA 92354
2. Online donations possible mid-November at: touchofloveperu.org

Thank you so much for your prayers and support. Please share this with a friend, family member, or someone else who has the same vision of helping others. We are so excited to see how God will lead in this fundraising campaign. Please continue to pray for God’s guidance as we work towards emancipating the people of Peru!

In His Service,



The A.M.O.R. Projects Team
(Dr. Richard Mathews, Jenni Goodwin, Laura Clark, Kaitlin Elloway, Kristin Goodin, Emily Moore, Brent Sherwin, David Skau, and Tara Weeks)

a little trip to the post office

I just got back from the weekly trip to the post office. Visits to the post office are always exciting for each of us, wondering who got something (and in Tara's case, how many boxes did she get this time:-)??)? Thanks everyone for the steady stream of letters and packages. There always seems to be something in the box for me whenever I visit the post office, which just makes my day!! Thank you soo much:-)



The deal with packages is that when one arrives at the post office, the workers somehow decide whether it should be sent to customs or not. I really don't understand how they make that decision, but I'm pretty sure it's random. I have gotten all of my packages, except for one, stuck in customs. The thing with customs is that if your package is stuck in customs, you can only pick it up on Mondays and Thursdays between 10am-12p. Not too much time to pick from and much of the time, the lines for the customs official are quite long, so being there at or before 10am is optimal. The fait of your package and it’s contents lies in the hands of the customs official. There is one guy who works there that is really nice. He barely opens the box, takes a couple things out, looks at them with a quizzical look on his face as to what most of the stuff in the box is, then puts them back. I find it quite amusing to watch the different expressions on various customs officials’ faces as each item is examined. Then there is the other customs official. He is a lot more picky, wanting my original passport to look at, examining each of my documents with a careful eye. Not only that, but he has a little helper, who opens the boxes and tells him each and every item in the package. He carefully examines everything. Sometimes I have to try explain in my broken Spanish what something is. They are usually satisfied and quite amused by my explanations. This second official also the one that told me last time I visited, that in order to pick up packages for other people, I not only needed a signed letter explaining why the other person couldn’t make it, but also it needed to be notarized.

So today I go to the post office, with a signed paper to pick up Kaitlin’s package, but without it notarized, because it’s expense, quite a hassle, and I was already running late. I found out I also had a couple packages to pick up, which was super exciting!! My camera lens came!! Quick tangent, my camera lens broke a couple months ago, so Kaitlin has been kind enough to let me use her camera. Well, my family decided to send down a old cheap lens to hold me over until someone was coming down who could bring a nicer one. Knowing that the package should be coming soon, I was praying hard that the customs guy wouldn’t charge me for the cheap lens because if they think an item holds any great amount of worth (at least in their eyes), they can charge you. Well, I walk into the room where the customs guy is and low and behold it was the tough, stern, picky guy who looks through the whole package. “Great!” I said to myself, “how am I gonna explain this camera lens to this guy?” Well, I sent another quick prayer to God, and walked calmly into the room. He went through my first package. No problem. Food. Second package. The camera lens was right there, plain as day. I had mentally prepared a little speech about the lens not being worth that much, but the guy didn’t even really listen. He simply put it back in the case and continued on to the next item. I was amazed!! God is so awesome! I was so estatic I didn’t have to pay anything!!

Well, I was able to both of my packages with no problem. Now for Kaitlin’s package. I prayed again, knowing this was gonna be pretty much impossible. As I started to ask about getting my friend’s package (for which I didn’t have a notarized paper), the guy was already shaking his head, NO!! This was the same guy on Thursday who specifically told me I needed to get a notarized, signed paper before I try to get someone else’s box for them next time. Well, here I am facing the same guy a couple days later with a non-notarized paper. No wonder he’s saying no!! I pleaded with him, saying Kaitlin works all day long teaching at the school and doesn’t have time to come in. Besides, I told him, the box is very important because it has a dictionary for her to use at school. Therefore very very important. As I tried to explain this to the man, I could see he was softening up, hinting at the slight possibility of being able to get the package. Then he asked why couldn’t she come in on Saturday. Well, I then explained that as Adventists we don’t come visit the post office on Sabbath, because it is our day of rest. So, somehow, I know it was all God, he gave me Kaitlin’s package!! I couldn’t help but shed a tear as I watched the official fill out the customs form, knowing that God totally softened this man’s heart, just for me I was so shocked! God totally answered my prayers right in front of my eyes! It was soo cool!

I couldn’t help but smile at everyone I passed as I walked down the street proudly carrying my packages, knowing I just witnessed a miracle. It may not seem like such a huge answer to prayer, but to me, it’s the coolest to see God caring for the little things in our day-to-day lives.

“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.” –Matthew 10:29

I'm a Hostage

Right now, I'm feeling a little claustrophobic. I haven't left the small hostel room for about 2 days, except to visit the bathroom down the hall. I look out the window and can only see rooftops and gray skies, but I can hear shouting and police sirens. There is a demonstration march in progress. I walk down the hall and look out another window, which has a view over the main plaza. I watch the people march by, shouting words I don't understand and blowing whistles so loud it hurts my ears. It's a strike.

Pucallpa and surrounding regions are on strike for 48hours for various political reasons. Jenni and I are staying in a hostel, staring at our computers all day, trying to work, without going insane. While on strike, the city shuts down. Shops are closed, taxis don't drive their routes. Everything is closed down. People still walk around and a few motocars and motos drive around, but Jenni and I have stayed inside the hostel the whole time because we aren't sure how safe it is to be outside during this time. We had been in Pucallpa for a couple days already, but when we found out about the strike (the afternoon before it was to start), we drove back to km 38 gathered up some food and headed back to the city. Because this strike is only for 48hours, it is not deemed really dangerous to be in the city. However, if it was a full-blown strike, we would definitely be back at km. 38. There is a good chance that a big strike will hit our region in a few weeks, and if that is the case, Jenni and I wanted to get as much done now as we could. So here we are, staring at the same four walls for the past couple days, finishing up the last of our food from the house. It's kinda fun actually!

Please keep this whole situation in your prayers, as an exteneded strike would create many challenges for our team and the progress of A.M.O.R. Projects!!!

that's where we camped for the week!

that's the dental team: Me, David, and Brent

that's me...

the line forming outside the clinic

our team

The evening evangelistic meetings

Our adorable little cook ladies

such tiny fingers...

You don't see this everyday...

Check out those papayas!!

Celebrating Brent's birthday with hats and brownies

That's what happens to your feet when you work in the jungle all day...or don't

Cuidad Constitucion Campaign: Medical Clinic

Well, our second campaign of the year is already underway. We just got back from a week of clinic at Constitucion. I was really touched by the overwhelming kindness and generousity shown to our team in this town. It was such a blessing!! Arriving early Sunday morning, still groggy and sore from an overnight 8hr. truck ride, we were greeted with open arms from the Adventist church members. We were quickly taken to one lady’s house for breakfast, which was absolutely delicious, then to the church for another breakfast provided by the church. The whole week I was completely taken aback by how warm and inviting everyone was, it was really amazing!! They were the sweetest people ever, always so concerned with caring for our every need and making sure we had plenty of food! Wowzers! Ok, so the food was pretty much amazing!! Lots of food too! I definitely got my fill of yuca! Every meal had either platano or yuca with it. Good thing I like them!!

So this town is about 7hrs by truck. It is only accessible by 4-wheel drive and traveling on the road at night could be quite dangerous. Around 12:30am Saturday night-early Sunday morning, 11 of us all piled into two pick-up trucks with all our stuff and medical supplies for the clinic. Tara, Kaitlin, and I crammed into the extended cab of a pick up truck, along with two Bible workers and the hired driver. For the next few hours, we kinda slept, kinda watched the road, kinda slept a little more.

This was the most layed back clinic ever. No rush or line of people at 6 o’clock in the morning, most didn’t start arriving until 9 or so. Dental was much busier this clinic, which is great because it gave Brent and me lots more practice. Thankfully, Manuel was there to handle the hard cases and help teach David about extracting teeth. Each day we pulled between 50-70 teeth. I’ll highlight some of our more memorable patients:
- 9yr-old boy came in to have his teeth pulled, except he didn’t didn’t want to. He was pretty much forced by his mother. He cried, kicked and screamed the whole time. Manuel, who has seen thousands of patients, said this was his hardest patient ever! I felt so bad for the kid, but it was really hard explaining to the poor boy that he wouldn’t be in so much pain anymore if we were just able to get a couple of the teeth out. With me holding the boy’s hands down, Manuel was able to inject some anesthesia into the kid’s mouth. Between the kicking and screaming (despite being numb), Manuel was able to expertly extract the boy’s tooth. By this time, 45 minutes had passed and there was no way to get the second tooth out, so that was it for the day. The boy and his mother came back on Friday and we tried to get the other tooth out, but we didn’t get too far. Spent 30 minutes trying to calm the poor boy down, but he was just too much to handle a second time.
- I had a young patient who came in with a tooth quite far into the hard palate. I had never seen something like that before, but with God’s help and guidance, it turned out to be quite easy to get out and the boy felt much better afterwards. I saved the tooth! J
- I worked on a patient’s tooth for about an hour, trying to get the roots out. I finally asked Dr. Mathews to come help (Manuel was gone for the afternnon). He spent a good amount of time on it as well. I felt bad for the girl. I’m pretty sure her jaw was quite sore for a while after that experience, but thankfully we got it out and she was ok!!

So, we have this cute little monkey, Frankie, as our pet. However the same affection for him is not shared by all of our team members. Case in point: On Wednesday of clinic, about mid-morning Kailtin noticed that the monkey was unusually tired, slow reaction time, and loss of grib strengh, among other things. She freaks out, knowing that some of our beloved team members (mostly Manuel and Dr. Mathews) have a strong dislike for the little thing, she asks around, trying to figure out if anyone had done anything to the monkey. Of course, it didn’t really help the situation knowing that the monkey had been tethered to a table leg in the pharmacy area, and the possibility of him finding a random pill or liquid on the ground could be pretty good, considering the little creature loves to eat almost everything (at least it seems like it).
Well, as time passes it quickly becomes apparant that the monkey is acting quite drunk and cannot for the life of him walk, much less in a straight line! It’s really funny, though sad/scary not knoing exactly why he is suddenly acting this way. Kaitlin is still probing Manuel and Dr. Mathews trying to find out if either one of them did it, but of course they’re not going to admit anything (at least not right away). With pressue building against the guild-ridden face of Dr. Mathews (Manuel had been busy with dental the whole morning so he couldn’t have done anything), the pieces to the mystery puzzle of what happened to Frankie slowly are put together.

Despite Dr. Mathews proclaiming his innocence, he is in deed quite guilty. Somehow, in the course of the morning, he found the time to sneak over to pharmacy, pop a Diazepam (Valium) pill from the container and try to feed it to the monkey. The monkey for some reason wasn’t too excited about eating the pill straight so…the doctor calculates the “correct” dosage a monkey should receive of the stuff, dilutes it in Amoxicilian/water solution, puts it into a little water bottle cap and gives it to the monkey. Of course, being that this monkey is willing to try anything and with his love for sweet things, quickly downs the whole solution! Somehow, Dr. Mathews is able to do this whole operation without anyone seeing him. Crazy!
So for the next 36hrs. The monkey came in and out of conscienceness, sleeping lots and not being able to do anything else. Though whenever a platano was shoved in his mouth, he would suddenly come alive and eat like mad! Finally after acting drunk and just completely out of it for over a day, the monkey finally came out of his hazy state, much to the relief of everyone, including doctor!!

An outline of a campaign

During the time us student missionaries are down here in Peru, A.M.O.R. Projects has divided up the time into about 5-6 major campaigns. A major campaign lasts for six weeks, the first week being the medical clinic and the last five weeks being a public health program called Familias Saludables aka Healthy Families. Throughout the entire six weeks is the evangelistic meetings, with a children’s program each night before the main program. Communities of around 1000-3000 residents are usually good places for the campaigns.

The medical clinics consist of seeing patients for 5-6 days with medical and dental needs, performing basic/simple surgeries when needed. The Familias Saludables program is run by our two lovely nurses, Kristin and Emily. They live in the community for five weeks working with about 20-30 families to educate them about ways to improve basic hygiene/sanitation, nutrition, home environment, and help with family planning (financial, goals, etc.). In the evenings the girls run the children’s program which consist of lots of singing, a Bible story, and a craft or coloring (which the kids LOVE). Peruvian Bible workers run the evangelistic meetings in the evenings, but have Bible studies with contacts and make home visitations during the day.