Baptisms and update

Last Sunday we had our 3rd baptism service in the last year, another great day of celebration. We were able to baptise 10 people a real honour and privilege. Many of these people were new time believers having been Christians less than 3 months, or those who had grown up as Christians and had begun again to follow JesusThe great thing is that many of these people are already involved in the church life. We are steadily, yet solidly growing as a church. Eating together

The church in Los cedros that meets in our house is also growing and the fruit is very obvious to see. I do love our work here although at times, not quite daily, we are tried and tested in new and original ways. It keeps your feet firmly on the ground, and solidly searching God, a good place to be.

See below for some of the baptisms.

New Floor

Oikos church continues to grow and this has presented a good problem, that of lack of space at our Sunday gatherings.

Belen, her sister Sara, and her sister in law Miriam

Since September we have been meeting in Jaime and Belen's house and their 22 metres squared front room has been great until recently as there has been no room at the inn.

The floor before we started the destruction!!

Ronald looking on at the end of Monday after we had levelled the floor.

Therefore we asked if we could bless the family and the church and extend the room in some way. Belen and Jaime have sacrificed bedroom and kitchen space and we have gone from 22 metres squared to 35 metres squared. (Apologies to our American readers, but I have no idea what this is in feet) We managed to destroy the false floor, level the floor (more or less) and also lay a concrete floor in 3 days. On Monday we destroyed the floor.

On Tuesday we levelled the floor and started to mix concrete and we laid about a sixth of the floor.

All the sand had to be carried down from the top of the hill.

On Wednesday we had an amazing blessing of a team from the USA who helped us do most of the back breaking work.

Thanks to Justin and Mark (part of the American missionary team whom we are friends with) who brought their 4 interns, and the 9 university students to help us completely lay the floor.

Belen and Jaime ran out of water so we had to get water from the local stream.
In addition to the American contingent we had Stuart an expat friend helping us, and varying amounts of Peruvians at different times

We also brightened up the front of their house with a nice blue paint.

We now have an extended area to meet and are starting the process to find a permanent building or plot of land where we can build a resource centre and have a meeting place on the second floor.

Happy Fathers' Day, Daddy!

Happy Fathers' Day Daddy,

We love you!
Love Daniel and Joel

Message from Daniel:

Daddy, you are the best, because I love you.
Thank you for tickling me with your nose!

Goodbye to one Loca, hello to another...

Allison with Adela and family
It has gone quickly, and we still can't quite believe she is no longer here, but Allison has left our Oikos community after 10 months. The last couple of weeks of her stay she managed to have at least 4 goodbye parties (a very reasonable number for Peru!) and one of those we held in our house. Allison with some of the young people

Allison is really missed here in our community - her smiles and enthusiasm, her cheekiness, dancing and singing, her obsession with creams and potions (and homemade avocado and egg-white conditioner), her refusal to drink water out of a plastic cup and most of all her warm and friendly spirit. She did a great job starting up the young people's group whilst she was here and she is already sorely missed by her two small groups which she discipled faithfully and cared for pastorally in many a crisis during her stay.

Allison and Rosa

We have also welcomed a new housemate into the Big Burgess House. Rosa, an 18-year old girl from the Shipibo tribe church we have connections with in Pucallpa, has come to Lima to study nursing. She is going to be living with us and joining in the community craziness for the foreseeable future. She and Allison got on very well and we nicknamed them the 'dos locas' ('the two crazies') as Allison met her partner in craziness in Rosa. Rosa's goodbye speech

Rosa showed her artistic talents writing a hilarious poem in honour of her 2-week roommate, which included lines like 'Even though you shout so loud that I pick my nose, I will still miss you.'(!)
Rosa is definitely missing her partner in crime, and still put her in the lunch count for today (don't worry, the young adults fought over the extra plate of food, so it didn't go wasted!)

So, Allison - the only thing we don't miss is your rotting hair conditioner filling up the fridge. You are missed. Very missed. Thank you for all your hard work here in Lima - come back soon!