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he library is open, and we are excited. God has already been doing some
p amazing things, and it is both fun and scary to watch the possibilities that
may happen and the relationships that are being built in the process not
only with the children and youth coming in, but also with their families. I was
going to write about it, but realized, I already did. Here are the blogs from the
past few weeks that tries to capture some of the excitement we are feeling.

V
 
 We officially opened the library for the first time
yesterday. We didn´t make a big show of it. There were no balloons. No clowns.
We just opened the doors. People were interested. Okay, maybe I should say they
were more curious than anything. They didn´t know what to think. The first
person to come in was a student heading to school. ͞Do you sell notebooks,͟ he asked.
͞Nope, sorry. This is a library.͟
He didn´t really understand the concept. A lot of people were a bit confused. They don´t have places here for people to
come in and just sit and read. Some parents came in and asked what was happening. When they found out what it was they said
they´d bring their kids back. Some of them did. One man came and read with his son for more than an hour. Another mom came in
with her two children. They sat at the table and read. When they got comfortable with me, they came over and we read books
together.
Tonight, I stopped and talked with a man and a woman who were on the sidewalk reading our banner.
͞It´s a library for kids,͟ I said, explaining the philosophy.
͞¡Que chevere!͟ the young man said. ͞How cool is that!͟
Yeah, I think this is something good͙
-   


 
ʹ Words cannot
 Interviews on TV because of the
express the excitement we have now that the
library
very first children´s library has opened in the  Peruvian volunteers helping out
Mantaro Valley of Peru. The library is called
] Schools affected directly by the
Ñ


 

 (͞Reading is Growing͟ or ͞To library
read is to grow͟) and is on a fairly busy corner  Days open as of the end of
near the house. We chose this place because November
 Highest number of people at one
there are three large schools nearby (not to
time in the small space
mention a number of smaller private schools)
V People with library cards and able
whose students walk by on their way to and to check out books
from class. One of the schools has 5000 V Books for children and youth
students alone who have a reputation for
 of hugs, handshakes, and kisses
being troublemakers. on the cheek.
 þ    
1. We want to stay here to help the library grow.
Although we have a number of very faithful
supporters, our financial situation is not as good as it
should be. Please prayerfully consider partnering
with us on a regular basis so that the kids of the valley
can have a library of their own. Go to the webpage at
the bottom of this box to find the link to donate
online or send in the form at the end of this
newsletter. Every little bit helps.

2. Books! We need books. Right now we have

around 500 books. Our goal is to eventually have
20,000 books in a central library location so that we
can loan the books to small libraries (not yet, but with
the help of God, soon to be) located in every
community in the valley. You can send us books
As I write this, I am sitting at the library. On the table in front of me there directly at the address at the end of the newsletter, or
(better yet to save on postageͶwhich is expensive),
are five boys. Two are playing chess. Two are playing checkers. One is
you can make a gift to the Leer es Crecer fund at The
giving advice. Three other boys are in the corner of the room reading Mission Society. This can be accessed via the link at
books. They all just came from school and came right in. They did it the bottom of this box.
yesterday, too. And the day before. And the day before that. They feel
comfortable here. As they were leaving last night, I asked them how far 3. Books (or funds for books) are a great Christmas
they lived from here. ͞A long way,͟ they said. I believe it. One told me gift that keeps on giving. Just tell us who to send the
card to, and we´ll send them one from some of the
he rides the combi for forty minutes to get home. But he´s here every
kids in the Library.
day before heading to the bus. Sometimes twice (once before school and
once after). Remember: All financial gifts given through The
Many of the kids who come are nervous at first. They haven´t Mission Society office are tax deductable.
seen anything like this. But they come in. Look around. One came in and
looked. Then he said, ͞You mean, I can just pick any book?͟ http://opencircleperu.weebly.com
͞Yeah,͟ I said. ͞Pick a book and read.͟
A lot of times they come back later. They tell their friends. They bring their friends. They talk to their teachers about it.
They bring their parents.
Yesterday, a man walked by, looking in the door as people generally do. Then he backed up and looked again.
͞Interesting,͟ he said. ͞Have you ever considered going out to the communities outside the city?͟
͞Yes,͟ I told him. ͞In fact we have a mobile library we carry to some schools in a backpack.͟
͞I´m one of the town leaders in such-a-such town,͟ he continued. ͞Let´s talk about coming out there next year.͟ He´s going
to call (and I really think he will).
We´ve already been interviewed twice on TV. Two different channels. One might even get some national coverage. It´s
amazing. It´s frightening. I´m sure glad that God is in control!
This morning we had two school classes stop in. They didn´t
call first. They just showed up. Thirty kids excited about books.
Someone told their teachers about us, because we´d never seen
them before.
We don´t hide the fact that we are missionaries. We tell
people that we are offing all this free of charge because of the love
that Christ has for us. It is free and available to all of us. The library
is helping us to build relationships with all sorts of people. Young
and old.
The boys that are here. They all came in carrying boards
with lights and circuits on them. It was their homework. They just asked me if they
could keep them here overnight and pick them up tomorrow before class starts (they
start at 12.45). I said sure. They trust us. It´s pretty cool. And it´s only been a week.


 
 !" # ʹ It´s just a library. That´s what I
tell myself. But something else is happening. I´m not sure what.
This afternoon a dad we´d never met before came in with his daughter. She
was about seven years old and we´d never met her either. ͞I´ll be back at 5.45 to pick
her up,͟ he said. He left. She stayed. At 5.45 he picked her up. It was fine, but I´m still
trying to figure out the trust he put in us strangers. It´s not like libraries like this are
common. We are the only thing like this in the city.
About the time he picked her up, one of our regular boys came running in from school. Smiling his sweet smile, he saidͶ
out of breathͶ, ͞I invited some friends and I wanted to be here first.͟ I thought five or six friends. He´d invited twenty and they all
came. Apparently he wasn´t the only one to invite friends. Within about five minutes the place was packed. We had probably 50 kids
come in, and the space is rather small. Three of our regular boys jumped in and started helping out. They weren´t experts, but it
helped a lot. It was too many people, really. It feels as though the snowball has started rolling and we´ve got to do something before
tomorrow so that it doesn´t get out of control.
It´s a library! It wasn´t a run on the bank. A famous soccer player wasn´t visiting. It wasn´t a day after Thanksgiving sale. It is
a library. All we have are books, a few games, and our love for the kids and the future of Peru.
What do I make of this? There is a hunger͙ a desire͙ for this kind of thing. We are the only thing like this in the city. It´s
new. It´s different. I know that some of this is just cultural. They want a piece of the pie, so to speak. But there is also something
deeper that I can´t quite put my finger on. We are trusting them and they are coming through. So far. I pray that continues.


 
  # ʹ Todd and I headed up to Tinyari
(pronounced more or less like tin JAW dee). We carry books up there every
Wednesday and have a great relationship with the kids and staff in the school
(there are about 50 students and four teachers). We were going to be a bit late,
so we sent the books up with a teammate who also goes up on Wednesdays. We
got there before he did, so we went into the school to apologize for the delay.
When we entered the courtyard, the teachers had their children reading the few
books they had. They were in
small reading groups of four or -  $  % 
five students, reading the
stories out loud. They didn´t do that before (as far as I know). ͙watching the kids racing each other from
When the books arrived, we put them on the table and the kids came school to be the first ones to the library.
running. I was sitting and watching the kids read when a woman came and sat
͙the kids finding us to say hello before
down next to me. She asked about Audra and the kids and we chatted a bit. Then
they look at the books, and then finding us
she said, ͞I want to tell you about something special that has happened in my again to be sure to tell us goodbye.
life.͟
͞Great,͟ I said. ͙the kids checking out books and
͞Since you´ve come here,͟ she said (her ͞you͟ refers to the whole team returning them because they want to
of missionaries here), ͞I´ve really seen God in different ways. I live in the same check another one out.
house with my daughter, my sister, and my brother and his wife. Before my sister-
͙the huge learning curve in how to use a
in-law and I didn´t get along. Since y´all have been coming here, it´s changed. We
library. (They͛ve never had one before so
share things. We talk more. It´s the power of God! God is great!͟ how would they know?)
͞Yeah,͟ I said, ͞Everything is possible.͟
͞It certainly is. God is amazing,͟ she said. ͙the love the kids have for reading.
She´s starting to give some bibles out to members of the community.
͞This is not just a book,͟ she tells them. ͞I´m not going to give it to you unless you ͙the fact that this is the very first
promise to put in to practice what you read.͟ children͛s library in the valley.
þ
  
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Photos (in order from the front): A drawing done by one of the kids who comes into the library. His name is Angelo Elias Toribio
Osorio and he is 12 years old (and he gave us his permission to print his picture in this newsletter). The remaining pictures are kids
enjoying books. Some of them are in the library. The others are in the community of Tinyari. The pictures were taken by Theresa
Anderson, another Mission Society cross cultural witness serving here with us this year in Huancayo.