On Tuesday we went to visit Ventanilla school all together as a family - now we have our car (a ford 7-seater van) we can get to Ventanilla in just over an hour from our house (it took 2 1/2 hours before!)

It is the second week of school and we went to see how they are all getting on. So far there are around 10 children enrolled (more than this time last year - schools are slow getting started at the beginning of the school year in Peru!). I (Anna) taught the kids an English lesson - teaching them 'Head Shoulders Knees and Toes' (Daniel helped with the actions) and '1-2-3-4-5, Once I caught a fish alive' because the teacher wanted me to use a song to teach the numbers 1 to 10 and it was the only song I could think of in the moment! The kids in one of the classrooms Daniel and I leading them in 'Head, shoulders, knees and toes'!

End of school and the kids stay around to play.

One of the children was very caring with Daniel and Joel.

Currently there are hundreds and hundreds of flies in the classrooms because, rumour has it, one of the neighbours does not dispose of her rubbish properly. They are hoping to fumigate and put up fly screens next week.

One of the first-year students

Our day off and a new tooth

A few recent pics...

Joel is now happier sitting in a high chair than on our laps at meal time because he just wants to grab all our food!

On friday, we went to Lima's top tourist attraction (there isn't much to do in Lima in comparison to other cities!) which is the Parque de Exposition - the fountain park. Lima has actually got into the Guinness book of Records for being the park with the most fountains, and it is actually very impressive - some of the fountains set to music and some which you can walk in / through. At night they are all lit up too.

"Look, Joel, water - fountains!" Daniel decided that Joel wanted to go in the fountains
Walking around the fountain park


Daniel was apprehensive at first, but soon loved the fountain and got many spectators wet!

Daniel after his shower!

Joel loving some attention from Daddy, with the fountain that soaked Daniel in the background


The Central fountain, set to classical music

Joel now has his first tooth - you can hardly see it yet, but it has broken through at the bottom. He is very chilled out about it, but he has been sucking lots of things and putting his finger over the tooth. So yesterday we went out and got him his own toothbrush...

Holiday in Ica

Last week we spent 4 days/3nights in Ica with Anna's parents. We stayed at a lovely hotel resort which was great as they were all equipped for kids and Daniel had loads to do. So we loved the warm swimming pools (there were 3!), and Daniel got worn out every day swimming! It was also really fascinating seeing Daniel change over the time we were there. First day he did not want to go anywhere near the slide. The second day, he half way up the steps. Third day he went down a couple of times with Mark and by the fourth day it was 'again, again!'. Daniel was also very scared about going in the little aeroplane (rerun of bike seat episode! See earlier posting!) Anyway, we had paid, so he had to go, and after a few minutes he loved it - he loved being in the sky and finding all the different Nazca lines. (The Nazca Lines are mysterious images in the desert that are about 500 years old which can only be seen from above and no one knows why or how they got there- although there are various theories, including aliens!) Listening to the pilot and finding the lines with our map: Joel was quite happy to be in the plane and after a while went to sleep!

Here were a couple of the images we saw. They are many metres long, each one. I think we would have enjoyed it more if they hadn't tipped the aeroplane to the left and then the right for each of the 14 images they showed up - it made a very queasy ride and that's all I'm saying!

The Astronaut:The monkey: Ever since, Daniel has been pretending to be the pilot of one of his little planes! Some other photos:

Joel off to visit the horses:

Pucallpa Feb 09- Part 3- Days 2 & 3

Day 2: View of the church outside
We started our 2nd day late, leaving about 8.30. We travelled in taxis for about 2 hours, on good roads, and jungle tracks. When we arrived no one had arrived. The other churches eventually arrived and said they had had to walk the 14km journey because no transport was available. We had ‘fresh’, very fresh chicken soup for breakfast, while waiting for the other churches who eventually arrived an hour later and we got started. As this was a church plant of the main church, we had a lot more freedom than the day before and this really helped us help the pastors and leaders that had walked to get there for the conference.

Eduardo and Cecilia leading worship

It really felt that we were really doing what God has called us to do here in Peru, as we ministered to the people there.

Cecilia's womens workshop

It was great to be able to minister to the leaders and pastors there, who often give out and rarely receive. Cecilia also did a superb job ministering to some of the women who were really struggling in their Christian walk.One of the daughters of the atendees in the jungle church
The 2 main changes to the schedule was firstly the always awesome jungle road. This was the first time Cecilia had seen rain like this in her life (Lima is a desert, literally!). So the joy of seeing her in the rain like a little kid was amazing. Not very British!Ceci enjoying her 1st taste of real rain
The second was that as it was mainly pastors and their wives at this conference there were just children for Eduardo’s worship workshop. This therefore turned into a music class, which went really well, flexibility to the max.
We left at 18.30 as the aim was to get back early to rest, for the final conference. Only 1 taxi turned up and so all 8 of us had to pack into one taxi with all the equipment. Eduardo and Cecilia cuddled up in the front with the driver next to them, Mercedes, Jen, Julian and myself in the back, with the keyboard, and all our stuff, William (one of the pastors) and his son Isaac in the boot with all the other music equipment, and the giant speaker on the roof. This was one thing, the other was after the rain the mud jungle track had become like ice in terms of grip, and we slid back to the main road, with increased faith and a thankful heart!
The final day we were doing the conference in the main church, and 5 churches were present, including the Shipibo church of Judith, (who we met in November last year ‘randomly’) who now is learning English. These guys had borrowed money to come to this conference as they couldn’t make the 1st day because of cost. We helped them to get back, paid their debts, and they all had a good lunch as well. It was great to have them there, and I feel we will be having an ongoing relationship with them in the future.Some of the Shipibo women singing in full costume.

As tends to happen the final day was the highlight as following Eduardo’s 1st talk, the entire conference responded to the call for ministry, and God moved powerfully upon the people. It felt a bit like the Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit touched Jesus’ disciples. God was ministering to the people in a very powerful way and people were being healed of many hurts. There was also near the end of God’s joy as he continued to minister. The Holy Spirit did in one hour, what takes hours and hours in counselling. How good is God?
This continued during the whole day and into the

Ministry in full swing

evening session, when we left to get our plane back to Lima. Wow 3 days of power, intimacy, lots of work, but a lot more blessing.
We now start the process of planning a trip in November, and to take a team from our church, and elsewhere if anyone fancies coming!

Pucallpa Feb 09- Part 2- Arrival and Day 1

So the plan was set, Monday arrived and Julian and I left with good time to spare. We went to Eduardo and Cecilia’s house to pick them up, and only waited 25 minutes for them, not bad for them!
We arrived at the airport with no problems, as I had already checked us in online. Therefore we had time to have a coffee. No problem as we had plenty of time. This is of course before you send your coffee back because it is lukewarm and have to add so much sugar to make the coffee taste like honey. (Peruvians generally have coffee with their sugar, and not the other way round). Anyway we arrived back with the coffees after an age and then realised we need to board, but couldn’t with more than 100ml of liquid. Drinking piping hot coffee is no problem for Eduardo and Cecilia, and it went in 2 minutes. For me I had a choice leave it or burn my mouth, I went for the latter!
Anyway we landed in Pucallpa without any problems, and went out for dinner with the senior leaders of the main church.

Julian sharing a word, translated by Jen
Jen was our main guide and she took us to the Shipibo church the next morning, to start at 8am. We arrived only 40 minutes late and many people had not arrived at the church. It was a great to be a part of something so unique, for a long time the Shipibos have not wanted to associate with the Spanish speaking Christian church, so this was a great honour. So straight away our plans went up the wall when the pastor introduced us and then passed to his worship leader, and Eduardo had to follow on the keyboard, a lesser man would have really struggled. Eduardo accompaning the enthuastic Shipibo worship leader.

This was followed by one of 3 dances by the Shipibo teenage girls. These girls are amazing examples of Christians as they are persecuted for their faith, as their parents are not Christians and make it very difficult for these girls to follow their faith in Jesus. When we were returning to shower and have dinner before the evening session Jen told me that these girls would have been very happy with lunch, as may have not eaten for 2-3 days. Also I was told by Cecilia it would be great to do a medical campaign with these girls and others like them as they are very affected by parasites, and probably malnourished. How I count my blessings. The Shipibo girls dancing and singing for us
All the sessions went really well, although massively extended due to the pastor summing up each session in Shipibo for some time. Also endless songs and offerings in between each thing we did. The time with these people was a real inspiration, people with nothing, wanting to come and share the little we had to offer. It is amazing how God uses us.

Eduardo leading his worship workshopJulian leading his workshop
The evening session went well, although we arrived more than a hour late, as we stopped at the hospital to pray for someone, had a sleep to recover, and had a wonderful jungle dinner. The hope was that we would miss some of their special bits, and just preach and minister. God has a sense of humour. We still had all of the ‘special bits’ and finished at 10.30 ready for our pick up at 6.45 the next morning. The plan was to continue till midnight, but Jen had a word!
Great start to our 3 days.

Pucallpa Feb 09- Intro- Part 1

I had the privilege to go to Pucallpa for the 3rd time last week, but this time not just with my Father in Law, Julian, but also our senior leaders Eduardo and Cecilia.

Julian, Eduardo and Cecilia on the plane to Pucallpa. (Julian is the white one!)

Again I’m sure I learned more than I taught the people there. I really enjoyed our previous visit there in November last year, and we saw many amazing things happen, and felt we helped many people, and had been a real blessing.

I had suggested to Jen Harris (our contact there, an American missionary) that we could do 3 mini conferences on Praise and Worship and the Holy Spirit, 2 areas I felt that could be helped easily by ourselves.
The plan was that Eduardo and Cecilia would talk on Praise and Worship, as this is a real gifting of theirs, and Julian and I would speak on the Holy Spirit.
The plan was that we would arrive Monday night at 21.40 more or less. The first day we would start by doing a conference at a Shipibo church, and invite several different communities of Shipibo people from around Pucallpa and the surrounding areas.

Some of the Shipibo teenagers in national dress

Day 2 we would travel for about 2 hours to one of the satellite churches of the main Luz Divina (Divine Light) church, in the middle of the jungle and invite several other churches that were surrounding it. The final day we planned to have the conference in the main church of Luz Divina, before leaving to get a plane at 22.15.

Eduardo and I outside the Shipibo church

Each conference would start by Eduardo and Cecilia leading worship, and then Eduardo talking about the heart of worship. Following a break I was due to talk about who is the Holy Spirit and what he does, followed by lunch. After lunch the plan was for the pastors and leaders to go to a workshop with Julian on living and serving in the power of the Holy Spirit, worship leaders and worship band members to go to a workshop by Eduardo on how to lead worship, and the women to go to a workshop about being a woman with Cecilia.
The plan was that we would finish with a final session at 7pm in the evening about the power of the Holy Spirit, followed by a ministry session.
This was the plan, and we kept to it more than has happened with previous agendas on previous visits, however when in the jungle you live with jungle time, organisation and you are flexible!!!

Cool nail painting/varnish of one of the Shipibo girls