Today we named and buried our little boy in our back garden. We included the boys and had a short time where we announced the name to Lili who lives with us and Mark said a short prayer to thank God for his life. The boys helped fill in the hole and Daniel said 'This is a happy day!' when he had finished organizing the soil. When asked why he said 'Because we have buried Solomon Paul. We are not sad any more.' It is true that there is a sense of finishing all the details of the last few days - we certainly understood what he was trying to say even if it is not true that we are not sad anymore! Later on today we planted some flowers of top of where he was buried.
We have named him Solomon Paul. Solomon because it means 'Peace, wholeness, completeness (shalom)' and because we know that he is at peace with Jesus in heaven now and because of the peace we have felt over the last few days.
Paul because a friend of ours had a dream the day I found out I was pregnant (before I had told anyone!) and she said that he was a little boy called Paul. Paul means 'little man' and that seems appropriate.
Little Solomon we never got to see you grow up but we know we will meet you again one day and that you are in the best hands!
Week 3 was again a real blessing, which was also really packed. The final week of the team had several highlights, and lowlights. The highlights were the arrival of Charley on Monday night, Charley outside Walter and Judy's house.
more painting over graffiti, birthdays of Artu and Jose Manuel ,(children in our church and children of single mum Llida (pronounced Gilda) who works with us) Colin and Peck with Llida, her son Artu (10), daughter Joana (6), and son Jose Manuel (1)
and the on the Tuesday the birthday of my beautiful wife Anna, and building and virtually finishing Judy’s juice bar at Judy and Walter’s house. The lowlights were the departures of Dan and Jude on Friday (come back soon) and the team leaving on the Sunday and going on holiday.
Jude with Shirley 13, and her nephew Julio Cesar.
The painting was amazing time as we saw a shift in how the neighbourhood looked upon us. The people were asking who I was, the one had organised such an event, and was in charge. I noticed from this point how the neighbours have greeted me so much since this time. Also these walls have still remained clean as well.
Before and after!
Anna’s birthday was celebrated with over 22 mums, all the team, Dan and Jude, Charley, and all the children as well.Getting all the toys from the pinata a Peruvian tradition. Much more aggresive than the first day of sales!
It was a really fun event and everyone seemed to really enjoy the time together.
Singing A pea bird day toooo youuuuuuu to Anna. (read it phonetically)
Wednesday to Friday involved us getting into the Burgess van (which continues to run when it is not in the workshop)and driving the 25 minutes to Villa Salvador, a 25 year old shanty town, to the house of Walter and Judy. Floor built, but everything else to be done.
Peck had to rebuild the wall, as it had been damaged. With the help of Giancarlo they managed to build the English style wall, using Peruvian materials. Peck really grew as a leader as he did something relatively simple (for him) as building a wall, but was growing as he led Giancarlo who struggled with building a wall in a different way from he had always done before.
Peck building the toilet wall.
While Peck was building inside the rest of us were building the juice bar
outside. Daniel making sure no-one steals the sand.
This meant many of the guys learning to do carpentry, Dangerous Colin with his new toy!
more painting, and my highlight putting up a metal calamine roof. The team all raised to the challenge and we managed get so much done, and the juice bar was opened on the Sunday the week after the team had gone. It was great to see a completed job. Mission accomplished. We look forward to our next short term team, presumably next year. All offers welcome!
Wednesday was a very similar day to Tuesday as we went to another Shipibo community called San Francisco. Arriving there was done by very beaten up taxis which could crash at any point, as I have witnessed. We shared the same messages in covenant and kingdom, identity and obedience to our Father, and the authority and power of the King.The Shipibo ladies singing and dancing for us.
To an untrained eye the Shipibos didn’t seem to be connecting with the message as they were not reacting in any way, and appeared to be unemotional. However we were again showered with gifts, their livelihood, as a way of thanking us. Another message I am learning about different cultures, and their reactions. Lili with one of the Shipibo girls in their stall of Shipibo crafts.
Again we seemed to offer so little to them but we were received with an amazing welcome and thanked for being there.
Daniel and the Shipibo children in San Fransisco
Thursday was more of the same but in the wonderful church where we had been sleeping and eating, Luz Divina, and again we had the chance of sharing and then ministered, which was wonderful as we saw God showing his people how he loved them, and wants to heal them.
Anna translating for Dan on covenant, and Peck, Dale and Stuart making a human 'triangle'.
We finished our time in Pucallpa on Friday which involved a trip to the Lagoon Yarinacoha and the Jungla Zoo, which was a wonderful time to relax and meditate on our jungle trip. The two highlights for me were firstlywere the big cat who decided Peck was on his territory and took matters into his own hands and let him know who was boss by marking his territory in the feline way!! Peck's best friend!!
The second highlight was taking a walk with Dan and Daniel in the jungle and seeing the trees, the butterflies, experiencing the smells and the sounds that you see on David Attenborough’s films.
The afternoon was spent treasure hunting. In treasure hunting you pray for clues about people and places and then in teams you find these clues. Well my team was myself, Jude, Peck and Colin. We had many strange clues including market, centre of town, Pocahontas, blue tree, blue door, rudder on a ship, mermaid, and many others. Well we set off for the central square, but when we arrived after passing the markets nearby, we found that the central square was closed for renovation. Well we looked around for a cafe to stop and reanalyse where we supposed to go next. The cafe we found was called centre of town, round the corner from the market. We thought ‘we’re in the right place’. Well we sat down and ordered drinks and saw the massive life-size wooden carving next to the table which was a jungle lady in tribal costume!! We then saw a picture on the wall with a house with a blue door, next to the wooden ship next to the mermaid. I then saw the man on the table next to us with is blue t-shirt with a tree on it. Who says God doesn’t speak today?
Week 2 began with the Sunday services, Spanish, as usual, in the morning and English in the evening for the visit of the team.
Monday started with last preparations for our jungle trip. We arrived in Pucallpa with our team of 14, including Daniel and Joel, and we spent our first day in the jungle relaxing, the boys enjoying it in the pool, and we all got an early night ready for the boat trip on Tuesday.
Jude and Elizabeth at our impromptu toilet stop in the 'back garden' of an unsuspecting landowner
Tuesday was a dawn start, getting to the boat and travelling down a tributary of the Amazon, the river Ucayali (the name of the province as well) and we arrived in a small river port about three and half hours later. Hey what's happening?
We arrived to a bustling port filled with moto-taxis waiting to take us the ‘twenty Shipibo minutes’ to the church awaiting us. After a forty-five minute journey we arrived to the amazing Shipibo welcome, this again blew me away.
Nuevo (New) Ceylan was a place that will stay with me for many years as we were received as family and treated as that. Huts in Nuevo Ceylan
These people had had no white visitors in 36 years and felt very honoured for us to be there. This gave a real openness to a message of covenant and kingdom that Dan and I shared, which was illustrated by using two triangles of the Father and the King, using branches from the Amazon jungle, when in Rome!!
The beautiful Shipibo children.
Following ministry we donated the suitcase of clothes that we had gathered from various people, and this was received with the most grateful tears I have ever seen. To me it was a old battered suitcase full of used donated clothes. To them it was love from foreigners, and clothes that are so desperately needed.
Preaching in the Amazon Jungle
Following prayers of thanksgiving, they gave us lots of gifts to say how much they appreciated us being here.
They have so little but they give from their hearts. Do we do this in the West?
Well the frantic pace of the first week continued into the second half of the week. On Wednesday we did our first session of painting over the graffiti in our street. This was an amazing time when we really impacted our community, and people started to ask who is the ‘Gringo’ that is getting these people to paint all these walls. We were even asked what we charged to paint walls. I can see business ideas!!
Thursday was a well deserved day off as we went into the centre, saw the sights of Lima, which isn’t many, and also ate new Peruvian food, and bought a few souvenirs.
Dale and Stuart, Dale and Peck, Peck and Stuart, we will never know!
Friday was our first day working on Walter’s house, and we managed to lay a cement floor, certainly a first for me (Mark). I felt we had done a good job. However no professional firm will be hiring us just yet. Most people would require a floor to be flat and not to have a table that wobbles when you are trying to drink your juice!
Nearly finished juice bar floor. All looked good at this point.
Peck also had to destroy the current wall that had been laid for the bathroom, before starting on the process of building a wall to UK standards with Peruvian materials.
Saturday was the highlight of the week as we ended our Alpha course with the mums, which for the majority was their first retreat ever, for some, their first time out of Lima. We had an amazing time, and every single person really enjoyed their time, and was asking when the next one will be. It was a great day emotionally, spiritually, and physically for all involved.
