Friday 18 January 2008

Mark in Ventanilla

Last Thursday I (Mark) went to Ventanilla again to see the progress and support Alfredo and his wife Rosa. It was a humbling time as always, but worth the 2 and a bit hours to get there. (Ventanilla is north of Lima and we live in the south of Lima – it’s like travelling from London to Leicester an back on a dirt track!)
The foundations for the building of the classroom have been done and the land flattened, and the original shack has been pulled down to make way for the new wooden structure which is due to be finished this week. There is just over a month before the school is due to open and the inside of the classrooms are due to be done next week, then teachers need to be employed! Excluding furniture, the remaining building costs are around s/6000 (£1000). You can see progress so far in the photo above (and Mark pretending to be helpful in the photo below!)Whilst I was there I got to see the water truck arrive. Each house has to pay 1 sole 50 cents (about 20p) for each container of water. The truck comes every day and the water will last for 2 days if clothes do not need washing, or just 1 day if they do.



One of the things that I found particularly interesting / bizarre was that one house I went to, the lady of the house had plastered the wooden walls with wrapping paper and adverts for the Peruvian equivalent of Sunny Delight as wallpaper. What I found even more strange was that no-one thought that this was at all weird, in fact, Alfredo and Rosa were impressed with her ingenuity and might have even been secretly thinking about this for the school!

Our day off last Friday

Last Friday was one of those days!!!

6.30am We wake up with Daniel crying to find the bathroom and half of Daniel’s room flooded as a pipe has burst because the hot water tank had over heated.

6.45am After phoning the previous tenant to get the number for the trustworthy plumber, he arrives promptly and spends the morning on the wooden roof re-fitting a pipe.

10am Next we were having Humberto and Esther over for dinner so Mark starts to make Naan breads to go with the curry, Jono comes and goes, the curtain fitters come and go and then Mark phones up a friend whose doing a crusade tonight in Lima to find out about it. The friend is potentially lacking an interpreter so we recommended the services of a friend, Zandra.

11.15am Mark calls up Zandra who happens to be just 200m away in a nearby house so he askes her if we could talk face to face at our house, forgetting to mention that we have now moved. I go out to meet her and see her heading off in the opposite direction towards our old flat. I run half a mile to try and catch her, but I lose sight of her and assume she has got on the bus, so I start walking back to the house (it is now 10 minutes before Humberto and Esther are due), exhausted and hot and praying that God would intercede in this day! Suddenly Zandra appears next to me and we walk back to the house, where Humberto and Esther have now arrived and Mark’s naan breads have turned into scones.

4.50pm Mark has left to go to the crusade 2 hours away north and so have Humberto and Esther, leaving a huge pile of washing up and clearing up from yesterday and today (especially as Mark was cooking!), which I make a start on whilst Daniel is watching Cbeebies and eating his tea.

5.35pm Daniel is fed up with kids TV and moaning at my heels so I decide to stop the washing up and give him a bath just the doorbell rings. It’s the plumber with the receipt for his work and a quote for some other work. He leaves and I go upstairs to start the bath and find the bathroom and Daniel’s bedroom are once again flooded. I quickly call the plumber who comes back immediately and then goes to get his tools.

5.55pm I am at a loss what to do as Daniel is fed up and so won’t let me put him down, but the water is still leaking and spreading and Mark is gone so there is no one to clear it up. I call Mark and he calls Jono who fortunately is able to come round.

6.35pm Jono arrives and starts to mop up the water. Daniel is still moaning and tired. I call the landlady and with exhaustion I am unable to explain the situation without cracking up, so just mention a flood and ask her if she can come over, which she happily agrees to.

7pm Landlady arrives.
7.05pm Plumber arrives.
7.15pm Daniel goes to bed, finally!

8pm We move the sofas away from the drips that are coming through the ceiling in our lounge and have a cup of tea (I don’t drink tea, but it’s the English thing to do in a crisis, so must adhere! 2 sugars because I feel that they’re justified.)

8.15pm Crisis number 2 seems to be temporarily averted until morning, when the plumber will come back. I go upstairs to find my fairly-new frameless glasses on the bed in two pieces, the glass on one side split down the middle. I laugh.

8.30pm I phone my family in Sydney, Australia to tell them about my day and find that only my brother is there because my Grandad has fallen off a cliff onto his head and is in hospital in Melbourne and they have gone to see him. (Apparently he has broken a few ribs, but is OK.)

The washing-up, cleaning and Daniel’s bath can all wait until tomorrow. Hopefully I will get a shower then too! We rescheduled our day-off for Monday!


The plumber with the hole that was made in the ceiling of our living room to drain all the water that had collected. There was so much water, it filled the baby bath and we thought he had hit another pipe!

Monday 14 January 2008

Heaven on Earth?

Since arriving back in Peru, life has been non- stop. One of the highlights without doubt has been the time I (Mark) have spent with our friend Bob, and his team. We met Bob in Toronto, Canada, in 2004 at a church conference. He is here in Peru as he felt a call to preach in big campaigns on the street here in Peru, as well as Uruguay, Bolivia and Colombia. He has seen hundreds of people become Christians, seen many miracles, including sight to the blind and people walking, who were in wheelchairs, amongst others. We estimated there were over a thousand people at the campaign
I went to help Bob and his team on his ministry team Friday and Saturday night, and Anna interpreted for one of his team at a church in Comas, in the north, on Sunday. This was an amazing experience, and a great privilege to be involved. I saw the power of God in a way I have not seen very often. On the Friday night I was helping to translate for Berthard, a German ex-pilot, and praying with him. We prayed for 20-30 people, (the numbers become cloudy when you pray for that many people one after another) and each person said they were either completely healed, or something was healed. For example a woman with a hernia was completely healed and a man who couldn’t move his neck, was released from this, and then felt he should become a Christian.

Our friend Bob preaching, with his intepreter Jonathan.
The main highlight however was a woman who brought up her young daughter, and said she had a cold, and was I told that she had fallen and hurt her knee when she was 6 months old. (I found out later, she hadn’t been able to walk because this accident). Anyway we prayed for her knees and we moved her leg to test if any healing had happened. She cried, before suddenly calming down. We asked her mum if there was a difference, and her mum started to cry joyfully uncontrollably as she had felt the bad of the knee and something had grown: a creative miracle, praise God. I saw her on Saturday and her legs were completely straight. The young girl healed with her mother, completely overcome with emotion

On Saturday I was praying with my friend Jono. We began to pray for the hundreds of people who had come forward for prayer.Some of those who came forward to become Christians

We prayed for a man with crutches, who 30 minutes later had walked up the steps to the stage unaided for the 1st time following more prayer. In addition a man who was blind, gained his sight for the 1st time.

Another person testified in the middle of the ministry time that he had been walking past the square where the crusade was, with the plan to rob someone or something, and he had a gun in his pocket. The man however stopped to listen to Bob’s message and heard him talking about God’s love, no matter what you had done. He realised he had to get right with God, and went to the front of the square gave his life to Christ and felt peace. He threw his gun away and is now in contact with some of the pastors who are involved with prison work. (He is known by name by the police).

God also healed a woman with arthritis and rheumatic joints (thankfully very similar words in Spanish as English!),

The young woman healed of arthritis and very happy

a woman who had bad joints and bones, as well as a man who couldn’t move his head, as we prayed for them, amongst many others. The Lady healed of aching bones and aching joints
On Sunday we also saw a young man healed of a broken spine who was supported by support harness under his clothes, as well as a woman who lacked vision in her left eye, who no longer has this problem.

Bob and his team said they had never seen anything like it, and the pastors here agreed.

How good is God?!

Wednesday 9 January 2008

Back in Peru

Just to say a belated Happy New Year. We are now back in Peru, and have moved into our new house. More photos to follow. We are trying to sort out the house this week before starting work on Thursday. Next week we start working with the young people we are leading, so watch this space..