Is it God or madness?

Our friend Alfredo, who we are mentoring, (strange but true) is at the moment starting on one of the most ambitious projects I have come across. His vision is to reach people who are in the poorest parts of Peru, planting churches and starting schools in areas that are new and so currently have no churches or schools. Often in these areas the children are left alone in the house during the day whilst their parents work in Lima's centre, 2 hours by bus away. Alfredo by his office (!) on the new plot of land in Nuevo Pachacutec

Alfredo has recently been given money to buy to plots of land in the areas he is currently working in. One area is called Oasis which is about 2 years old, and some houses have electricty, but no running water, and the other Nuevo Pachacutec (New Pachacutec) which is only a year old, and has no running water or electricity. (Pachacutec was the name of the last Inca Leader, of the 14 leaders, before they were defeated by the Spanish Conquisators in the 1500s).

Julio (a new Christian) and Geane outside their house in Nuevo Pachacutec

I (Mark) went to see these plots (both about the size of a football pitch each) in Ventanilla on Wednesday after my Spanish class. (It's the same place that we went to in the previous post) The 2 areas are about 2 hours away from us, and was a challenge to get there on the dust tracks, but well worth when I got there.

Plot of land in Nuevo Pachacutec and the view out to the sea

In March 2008 Alfredo's vision is to open 2 schools, one on each site alongside two churches. This time was very inspiring because currently both of these plots are just sand! This is absolutle madness in normal terms, but Anna and I feel that this is not madness. Miraculously (especially in Peru!!) everything seems to be coming together, and he has managed to acquire the land at a reduced price. He has also found an experienced headteacher who is prepared to oversee the two schools and prepare all the syllabuses just for a financial gift each month. (Normally headteachers would receive 3000 soles a month (£500 a month)) All the money he has received for the plots of land has been by faith and he and his family also live by faith, receiving only a small gift from his covering church in Lima.

Alfredo now needs to build 2 schools, find the money to do this, find teachers, and sort out all the legal documents, before March. (the legal things need to be done before the end of October, so finding a headmaster so quickly has been a real miracle)

If you want to help in anyway, please let us know. Anyone fancy coming out to do a building project before March?!!

A traditionally-dressed lady walking down the path in Nuevo Pachacutec, which is soon going to become a road, as the community are coming together to build it on Sunday so that the church can be built. At the moment trucks can only come so far down the road, so the water truck will also be able to come down to the houses and fill up the large tubs (see below). This is their only water source.