This year's destination...Peru!

Our Austin based multidisciplinary team will be serving the impoverished people in Callao, Peru. We will be there from September 26 to October 6th.

Though I've participated in roughly thirty medical missions, I'm just as excited about this one as I was my first.

I look forward to catching up with my Peruvian friend, Ruth, who lives in Lima and works as a translator. She is going to join us and bless us with her translation skills.

We may also have help from the sister of Winston. (I told you he is going to walk 5,000 miles across South East Asia.  Check out http://smiletrek.org) She is currently attending school in Lima.  It's miraculous how people's lives cross and connect when giving and serving others in need.

While in Peru, I hope to keep you updated with photos and...if I can figure it out...a video posted to YouTube.

I know many people like to donate clothing, and medical supplies like crutches and wheelchairs. Unfortunately, it's difficult to travel that far with those types of supplies.

You can send me monetary donations if you like or donate at http://www.austincatholicmedicalmission.org. Any other donations, I can give to my other team traveling to Eagle Pass on the Mexican border in November.

As always, any donations are appreciated but please keep our entire team and our work in your prayers. I'll communicate more later.

Thanks and Dios Le Bendiga! (God Bless You!)

Navajo Serenade

Monument Valley, Utah is a place of haunting other worldly landscapes.  It's staggering lithic monuments rise above the desert floor to kiss the sky.  I fell in love with this magical place some twenty-five years ago, though I'd seen it many times before in movies.  Of course, it's very recognizable.  It's been the backdrop for many John Wayne movies. 

This trip Mary and I were fortunate to get a special tour from a Navajo brother and sister team, Jessica and Quanah.  They showed us places I had never been before.  Places where they played as children and are very special to the Navajo.  They shared stories of their culture and about the land the ancient ones, the Anasazi, once called home.

Touring us through the beautiful desert amongst majestic rock formations, our young guides showed us pictographs and petroglyphs and then took us to a rock formation they say represents a Hogan.

There Jessica instructed us to rest and lie down on the cool, smooth sloped rock base of a formation that made up a natural amphitheater.  I wasn't quite prepared for what came next.

Quanah began to play a Navajo flute whose sound was amplified and enriched by the rock formations.  I wasn't, as I said, prepared.  I hurriedly took out my video camera to capture part of that unique moment.  Then Jessica serenaded us with a touching Navajo song.  It was a beautiful gift, befitting the surroundings and adding to the treasured experience in this magnificent Valley of Monuments.

I'd like to share a piece of what we experienced.  I encourage everyone to visit this Natural Wonder of the World that the Navajo people graciously allow us to be a part of.  If you go, look up Quanah and Jessica.  They work for their parents at Majestic Monument Valley Touring Company.  Check them out...you'll be glad you did!  They will tell you "ya'at'eeh" (hello), welcome to Monument Valley, Tse'Bii'Ndzisgaii, (Valley of the Rocks)!