Go somewhere in life!

A day may come when you realize your life is gone and you don’t know where, so now, while you can, 
Go somewhere in life!

My brother took this picture of me jogging in a small mining town in Chile.

After being in Peru for the last month and a half, we were all very eager to get back on the road. It’s funny that no matter how bad the roads are and no matter what we face on the journey, we are all excited to hit the road. Our Master commanded, “Go therefore into all the world!”…. 

We really have no idea what we will face each day here. We have to plan it out so we don’t pass a town when we’re not going to reach another till after dark, and make sure to get gas when it’s available. There are no signs here that inform you like, “Last group of little huts know as civilization for the next 500 or so miles”.  (A city is usually like two or three buildings.)

This was the stunning view out the window.

There were towns built in the middle of all sand. 

All the way through Peru it was a vast span of massive desert. Absolutely nothing as far the eye can see in every direction. I have never seen anything like it, kind of scary when it hits you that if something went wrong you would be in big trouble, I mean hardly any other cars are even on the road. One leg of the drive the fog from the ocean was so thick that you could not see more than perhaps ten feet in front of the car and there was no shoulder and no where to pull over and wait for it to pass. At one point a truck passing from the other lane came head on and all you saw was its headlights as it swerved back over. Angels are real!

There were signs along the way, the first said, “Zone of fog”, right got it we just spent an hour passing through it. The next, “Zone of sandstorms”, and we notice the strong wind pushing the sand all over the road and pelting it across the windshield. The next sign said, “Zone of land slides” followed by “Zone of falling rocks” and then “Zone of dangerous curves and declines” and then “Zone of narrow tunnels”. I am not exaggerating; all these were within maybe a ten to twenty mile stretch! But it was this sign that was especially alarming, “Zone of Military- Danger of Explosions”. After so much stress, we couldn't help but crack up at this one, until we actually heard loud explosions behind us, then we floored it. 

These are the "Zone"signs. 

Strong winds drove sand across the road. 

Obviously watch out for dangerous explosions as you drive.

Here are a few other interesting things along the way:

We got to a bridge where these guys were stopping all the traffic so their heavy truck could cross. This guy then gets out a measuring stick and measures how much the bridge sags as the truck slowly creeps by. Neat! I just wonder if it suddenly sagged a lot, what would the do?

Then we saw four huge semi trucks, each pulling another huge semi truck which was towing a huge load of mining equipment. One semi was not capable of pulling so much weight up the pass, so they needed two semi trucks. What concerned me was the fact the two trucks were connected by one cable. I don’t know if this is something normal in the trucking world but I sure have never seen anything like it.

Then we get to a place where more construction workers stopped us and said we had to wait for an oversized load to pass. We were getting quit annoyed with all the stops and were considering just going anyway when we saw the truck. It literally took up the whole road. 

One place the road was completely gone, just piles of dirt and all the guys standing around watching one guy with shovel with a guy directing traffic half asleep. Oh yeah, looking good.

Here you can see the semi pulling the semi.

A long stretch of damaged road made for a bumpy ride. I think the guys standing there watching are trying to just will the road to finish itself. 

Notice how massive the load that truck is carrying. 

Have you ever heard of the “Nazca Lines”? They are lines of shapes and figures in the desert supposedly that have been there for hundreds of years. They are pretty famous and a tourist attraction. Well if any of you are all excited thinking about planning a vacation to go there and see them, from someone who drove right by them, let me give you the real picture. After hundreds of miles through endless desert, we got to a sign informing us they were ahead. Then we got to the destination which was a two story stair case in the middle of nowhere with a picnic table under it. True story. Nothing around, one guy selling little souvenirs and charging a dollar to climb the stairs and kind of see something…maybe…sort of. Past this was more endless desert and then a little unfriendly town which is where tourist fly to, to take a tour to see the Nazca Lines. The tourists that were wandering around the town had a look on their face of complete disappointment and disillusionment. They got some broucher or went to some travel agency and saw some deceptive photos, flew to middle of no where Peru and are now deciding if they should insist it is a great awesome vacation, or face reality and go back and kill their travel agent. So anyway, if you have a choice between going to see the Nazca lines of Peru, or say Nebraska, I’d go for Nebraska. 

Does this look like a dream vacation or what?

Crossing the Chilean border was pretty smooth and the border guards were kind and efficient. Right away you realize you are in a completely different country than Peru, with completely different people.  As happy as I was to enter Peru, I am ready to move on and glad to touch foot in a new country. We had to unload a lot of our gear and put it through scanners and get searched by a few dogs, but the paper work went quick for a change and now, we are in Chile!!! For so long I have thought about being here and tried to imagine what it would be like. Remember the miners that were trapped here? We will drive right through that town. The Chileans have been through a lot, one of the worst earthquakes ever, a horrible fire in one of there prisons (perhaps if God wills we will visit this one) and many other things. 

Our first night in Chile was in a small mining town. It looked like something out of an old western movie, like a ghost town until six when the miners came back in their vests and hats all with smiles on their faces. It was a really cool town, the temperature dropped a lot at night so it was cold and the sunset was gorgeous. My brother and I went for a nice run down a back road and were just so happy to be where we are. We didn't sleep a wink because this guys car alarm went off every two seconds and he couldn't shut it off, which then awoke a pack of roaming dogs (because of course, they were dogs), but hey, like I said, sleep is overrated. 

From here we dropped down to anther highway which would take us through the town where the 8.2 earthquake had just hit. We wanted to visit in order to bring encouragement to the victims and perform for the city. They said because of the quake, half the road was out so only one lane was passable, meaning cars coming and leaving had to take turns, 30 cars at a time. They said it took about 3 hours to go 30 miles to the town. We thought is over and decided to go. 

Parts of the road were gone and the center was cracked. 

Only one lane could be used at a time due to the earthquake damage. 

It was amazing to see parts of the road gone and a huge crack down the center. There were tents all over the city because some people had no home to go to and some were to afraid to go back indoors. Every day there has been an after shake, this morning there was a 4.2 and the people live in great fear. They said the 8.2 lasted for three minutes, then there was a one minute break followed by another huge quake. One guy told us that when it hit he was driving with his family up the hill when the car started rolling from side to side and rocks poured down the side of the mountain. Him, his wife and kids got out and hid behind the car so they didn't get hit with boulders. When it stopped he got back in and floored until the next one hit and rocks smashed the windshield. His wife had a heart attack from fear and he managed to get her to the hospital so she survived. A police officer told us his wife is in a wheel chair and it was very hard to evacuate trying to push her. Story after story of people who had lost everything, it’s one thing to hear stories on the news, sometimes it just doesn't really register, but to be here, to see the damage and see these people, it really hits you.  

Tents and temporary shelters were all around the city.

Many people lost everything and had no where to go.

This is a shot of the city as we were descending the mountain.

We were able to perform right down town by the area that was hit the worst. It was really busy and a large crowd stopped and listened. Most people come here in the day to shop and work, and then at night go back up the hill to spend the night in a tent. It made me so happy to see families laugh and thank us for bringing them joy and hope. We told them how much they can draw from an experience like this, to have a bigger perspective on life and to realize they got a second chance. We are so fragile. One second something can happen that alters our lives forever. We don’t know if we even have tomorrow so we have to seize today. We can change. We can be new. 

After performing down town we then went back up the hill to the largest tent village and performed for the families as they came home. The whole wall to the stadium had collapsed; there were helicopters landing and taking off and Red Cross, military and social workers all around. The parents explained how terrified their children were and that they saw the fear lift from their eyes through our presentation. That night there was a 6.2  after shock. After all the stories my heart really jumped. 

A group of children who were very afraid after what they had been through.
We were able to help them get beyond it and bring them laughter. 

A large tent city. 

The whole wall around the tent city which is a soccer field, was destroyed .

A lot of the Pan-American Highway goes right along the ocean and is quit beautiful. It was a welcome sight after long stretches of desert. The color of the ocean was so gorgeous, like blue and green at the same time. (I put some pictures of it on the "Photo Gallery"page.) There was one place we pulled over to watch literally tens of thousands of birds diving in the waves off an island. It was incredibly beautiful. Another place close to where we stayed there was a board walk going along the coast where my brothers and sisters and I got in a nice long run. They had a cut out behind a wall that filled with water and caused the waves to crash over it. Even though the water was freezing (winter is coming here) my sisters and I jumped in and let the waves crash over us and it felt so wonderful.  

It was so awesome, in a little middle of no where town in Chile, in a little motel room, my genius brother was actually able to tap into some signal and get the Notre Dame Fighting Irish blue and gold spring football game! All though the signal froze often it was awesome to see the beautiful gold helmets and watch our two quarterbacks play. Malik Zaier looked great and we are all hoping he starts but I think Kelly is going to start Golsen. 

Go Irish!

We had an incredible experience while driving through the desert in Chile. We found out that this is one of top places in the world for star gazing and that the exact night of the day we were passing through there was to be a lunar eclipse, or blood eclipse, since the moon turns a red color. We stayed in our tent way in the middle of no where up on a hill and stayed up all night watching the eclipse. Did any of you get to see it? There was no light pollution here and it felt like you could touch the moon. When it was completely covered it was so dark that you could see endless stars. It took our breath away, the milky way was brilliant. This is the first time I have seen the stars in the Southern hemisphere and it is very different then the Northern. I saw a number of shooting stars and a bright comet with a long tail. To think years ago God told Abraham to look at the stars, and there, in that moment, faith was born.

Camping in the desert under the stars.

These are a series of photos I took of the eclipse. Bad quality but you get the picture. 

Me and my best friends on the coast in Chile. 

Things are much more expensive here and we are figuring out how to live and eat cheaply. We caught some kind of lung virus with a deep cough, I think mostly due to exhaustion and I pray some rest and antibiotics will clear it up. My dad has developed a severe pain in his stomach, and I am really worried about him. We will try to find a place to get it looked at when we get somewhere.
The one reason that we do what we, the purpose of my life, is because a man, who had been dead, walked out of a grave and is alive today. To live with purpose, is to live for Jesus. Happy Easter everyone!