Happy Christmas

Amongst other things, this Christmas involved...

...Putting up the Christmas tree...

...Putting up the nativity as Peruvians do in their homes,(ours with Peruvian characters) and explaining the Christmas story to Daniel... ...Acting in the nativity (a reluctant angel).......Joel in his first theatre production...
...eating traditional Peruvian Paneton cake for breakfast Christmas morning...
'Happy Birthday Jesus' Daniel said!

...smiles...

...laughter...

...and new clothes!

Ventanilla Kids Christmas Event

Yesterday was the Christmas event for the kids from Alfredo's school in Ventanilla and kids from the surrounding area. Unlike last week's monstrosity, only (!) 80 kids turned up today as Alan García, the president of Peru and the mayor of Callao were both visiting nearby communities to hand out fish and potatoes (as incentives to get people there so they can all celebrate how great Alan García is for getting water to the community!)
A friend of Alfredo offered their show for the kids which was really excellent (so good that they are booked up every weekend until July 09), and then the kids received paneton, hot chocolate and bags of sweets.
Teachers preparing the hot chocolateSome of the kids sat down to watch the show in the school playgroundThe showKids watching the clowns - definitely the highlight!
Kids from the school at the endKids receiving goodie bags, hot chocolate and paneton

Feeding the 600!

Two weeks ago Mark was at the leadership meeting of our church and they were discussing the Christmas kids event that was to be held in a shanty town in South Lima in an area called Pacifico de Villa in Chorillos. 600 kids were expected but no money had been found by that time and so they were thinking about cancelling the event. Mark felt that the event shouldn't be cancelled and that we would be able to do something, so we sent out an email asking for prayer / help and many of you answered.

Thank you!

Not only were we able to buy hot chocolate and paneton (italian sweet bread cake) for all the kids, we were also able to get them all a present. In the end over 600 kids turned up!

Views of Pacifico de Villa Outside the hall half an hour before the event started (and that is a miracle in itself! Timekeeping is relative here!)

A child enjoying his hot chocolate and paneton Cecilia, our church leader (with her husband Eduardo), and a little boy who just wanted to be hugged!

Tigger and Superman entertain the kids with the dancing queens!

The entertainment team, friends from La Tablada church - they did a great job!

SOME of the balls!

Kids receiving balls & party bags with sweets

What has really hit me about this event was just how much God loves children. The way that all the money came in to pay for this event so easily - an event which was just about loving the kids and sharing God's love with them - just shows to me how much God just loves giving good gifts to his children.

Joel aged 2 months

Ventanilla Zoo trip and Daniel's 2nd birthday

Yes, amazingly, Daniel is now 2! We decided not to have a party (they really are often extravagances here!!) as we knew he would enjoy the trip we were planning that day to the city zoo with the kids from Alfredo's school in Ventanilla but we did get a cake to share with the kids and the teachers.

We took 11 of the 12 students to the zoo which was a real privilege as only 3 of them had ever been to the zoo before. The kids were so grateful for the food we provided that they were fighting over the left over apples! Here are some photos of the day:

The kids filling in their worksheets Anna and Joel at lunch Some of the children at lunchtime (above and below) Mayhem on the roundabout at the zoo park!

Daniel opening and enjoying his presents:

Business and the Kingdom

One of the things I (Anna) have been thinking about quite a bit in the last few months is how to make our ministry sustainable and how God can use businesses to support and maintain other mission projects. Not only that, but also we work with many people who are very poor and do not have enough money or know how of to set up businesses, but some of them do have some good ideas which would work with some financial help and business support. With a little bit of help these people could work their way out of poverty (the Oxfam idea of: give an man a fish and he can feed his family for a day, give him a rod and he can feed them for a life time). We would love to be able to help people here who have some good ideas to get them off the ground. And so when we heard Anna's Dad, Julian, a businessman who has computer software companies in 3 countries was coming to Peru, we felt it was a great opportunity to get him to talk to Christians in business or people who are considering being in business.

Julian gave 2 talks on two evenings. The first one was about the calling to be in business, centring on Godly values in business and integrity (important everywhere but even more so in the South-American short-cut, short-term mentality). The second talk focused more on business practicalities and actually running a business, emphasising the need to start small and take it one step at a time, giving some advice on things such as managing funds and hiring and firing people (when to, when not to, etc.) Both of the talks were very well received, especially as there are quite a few people in the church who are running businesses or thinking about starting ones.

We think Julian will be involved a lot more in the future here in Peru. It is great that he is able to use his business skills to bless and encourage the people here. Peru is an up and coming economic world player and so wisdom is really needed for those wanting to be on the playing field!