Baptisms and Dedications

Today was our baptism and dedication service. We borrowed a pool from some friends and set it up on our patio in our house.
Lots of people came - probably the most people we have had in our house. Most of them are contacts through the Mums and Tots group we have been running.

The children and adults had a time separately to explain baptism and dedications and then we all came together after the adults who were being baptised gave their testimonies. Mark then dedicated 13 children.
We then got all the children and an accompanying adult up onto the balcony (out of the way of splashing hands!!) and the baptisms started below. 4 ladies - Melisa, Yayaira, Belen and Jesse were baptised. They are all mothers from the Mums and Tots group.
Belen being baptised.
Melisa before her dunk.
We made baptism and dedication certificates for them all which they were very proud of. Above is Melisa with her mother Inés and son Thiago.
Jesse (purple and grey stripped jumper) with her family and son (and Mark!)
Yayaira and her brother and son with Mark
We had a scrummy chicken and chips lunch and spent time together. José Manuel is in the photo above with Llida.
Yayaira and Julio Cesar.
Towards the end, Daniel suddenly stripped off and jumped into the pool, much to everyone's amusement. Fortunately, he knows how to swim so we weren't too worried!! He did not seem to mind the cold!
All in all, it was a great day! We are so thankful to God in how He is working in the lives of these people, and it is great to hear people's testimonies and confessions of faith! We pray that it will be the first of many events like this!

Family time

Okay, so we felt it is time to update the blog with a few family photos to prove that we do have fun too!! This last month, as you are probably aware by now was obviously a memorable one, but it has been a really special one too.

Mark got the opportunity to go to Toronto, Canada for 5 days for a 'Father Heart' school, which he really enjoyed and really benefited from. It was through a series of miraculous circumstances that he got there in the first place, after Anna hearing God telling her that Mark should go to a Father Heart conference there in August not even knowing if there was one on. God also told her the money would come in in parts and bit by bit, various unexpected gifts began arriving from the very next day, the final amount coming in just a week before the conference!

Two days after returning we found out that our beautiful baby, who we found out a couple of days later was a little boy, had died several days earlier. It seems that it was due to a detached placenta. We called him Solomon because of the peace that surrounded us during those days, and since as well. Perhaps if you spent a day with us this week you would not think we were still affected by what has happened - normal life has resumed and we are joyful, hopeful and excited about the next steps God has for us. At the same time, we remember Solomon and face frequent (not always painful) reminders of him, and of loss in general as we work with people who have very broken backgrounds. We do not avoid mentioning him or what has happened. For us, it is important to just be honest and open about it all. His life still goes on in heaven and our lives go on without him a physical part of them. But the thing about losing someone, especially one who was so young when lost and there are few shared memories, the life of the person is lived out in the imagination instead.
Thank you to those who sent kind messages - we really appreciated your prayers and thoughts and felt upheld by them over the last few weeks.

We have had some precious memories in the last few weeks with Daniel and Joel. Daniel flew his first kite on Monday. He was so chuffed to be holding onto it as it flew. What is it about kites, however, that you never want them to come down and when they do, you just have to get them back up again?! It makes going home very difficult, but the wind was cold and we were shivering, so that was a good persuasion!
We also visited Huachipa zoo on Monday, a zoo 45-minutes out of Lima into the hills. The boys were really excited at finding the animals, and loving the full-size pirate ship they could climb all over. We enjoyed the chance to get some sunshine out of the Lima winter fog - both Mark and I getting sunburned!


Here are some other pictures from this month from a children's play place called City Toys. Really an ingenious idea - a mini city built for kids, with different houses in different themes. Here is my little soldier and policeman enjoying a quiet read in the town library...
Joel loved the baby dolls until he found Barney...
A soldier-policeman on a horse with Barney. Only in a child's imagination!