Monday 31 January 2011

Toronto School of Ministry visit Part 5

Sunday was another day of ministering in friend’s churches before we had an amazing time with the Shipibo church we are involved with overseeing in the jungle. Six of the leaders came over for a day where God impacted their lives in a way which to uninformed onlookers would seem as little or not all. However having come to know the Shipibos realtively well I knew that the small shows of emotion and obvious work of the Holy Spirit were incredible, and certianly the most I have seen in my 3 years of working with this amazing tribal people.

Tuesday was chill out day and Daniel and I went to the water park, along with a few of the guys. The highlight (for us) had to be Andy, one of the team leaders, horrible sun burn. He did the traditional English thing and forgot about the hot sun that shines in the Summer in a country just south of the Equator! Factor 4 is not sun block!! Daniel loved the slide.

Wednesday we again ministered in Pacifico, as we did on Thursday and Friday, but we also received ministry ourselves, something that is a real lifeline for us here on the frontline. We also got to minister to 2 churches of friends of ours, Humberto and Esther, and my friend Carlos, which were very different from each other, but were really amazing times of God’s presence and love. One moment that has to be mentioned is when I was translating Kohki, our wonderful Japanese team member’s sermon on Thursday I didn’t understand what he said and I translated what I thought was luggage into spanish, and Andrea, the Peruvian-Canadian on the team corrected me saying 'he had said the 2 things he needed faith for were not finance and luggage, but finance and language’. Language is defineltly the biggest challenge of being in a different country, even more so than the culture difference.

After a feedback Saturday, and Starbucks (a great highlight for the team) I had an epic 4.5 hours translating due to many unforseen circumstances on Sunday morning, but God is good, and I managed to get through it, without too many problems, the grace (and language ability) seemed to grow and extend. Following the service we were treated to an amazing Barbecue meal cooked by leaders of Humberto and Esther's church. Some commented it was their best meal in Peru!! The highlight had to be how everyone wanted to take pictures with Kohki after due to him being Japanese. This was not because he is Japanese but because all Asians are called Chinese in Peru, and the family hosting are of direct descent from the Chinese, and for them this was the funniest thing in the world as they could all be from the same family. Irrelevant that there are a few miles in between the countries. Anyway I have included a few of the 15-20 pictures below to amuse you.



A picture of all of us who had lunch. Team, church and myself.
Marlene, Cesar and their new adopted Japanese, Chinese son!!
Miguel, Cesar, Baruj , and Carlos (AKA Chino (Chinese guy!!! No really)) with their new Chinese, Japenese brother!!

The final 4 days of the teams’s time ended with a retreat for missionaries in Kawai, a Scripture Union camp. A great time was had by all. People all felt really blessed by all that went on and it was great to see so much unity between missionaries from all over Lima, and a place called Paramonga, 5 hours north of Lima. I am looking forward to the next one. Pictures to follow.

Following all of this we went on a well deserved holiday, which is a different post!!!

Saturday 29 January 2011

Toronto School of Ministry visit Part 4

Saturday was another long day as we were ministering at a conference in an area near Lima Airport. This was a real stretch for me as I had to translate 3 sermons and 1 hour of prophetic presbertry. Daniel Munoz,(centre left) the pastor of Filadelphia and some of the young adults in their church

Safe to say that some of the messages were not translated that well!Again the church was really blessed and it felt like a good job done well. We got home about 6 o clock and the boys went straight into the shower and would be an early night for all intended. However as happens too often here in Peru, the course of a day can dramatically change.

Mark translating the prophetic presbertry for the pastoral family.

Joel left the shower and fell over his feet, and fell headlong into the bed leg. Blood began to pour out of his mouth and we couldn’t see his teeth. Becky, (who is amazing by the way), a member of the team, and a doctor in her spare time, did her best to examine a very distressed 2 year old. She felt we should go to a dentist, for many reasons, firstly the bleeding was quite bad, his teeth were lodged in his lip, and also it appeared he had bitten through this lip and there was a big hole in his chin. Apologies if you are squeamish.Anyway the dentist around the corner opened up for us and a screaming Joel was held down by me as he had anesthetic injected into his lips so his teeth could be removed from his lip. We were told after that we would need to go to a doctor as the dentist couldn’t put external stitches in. When we arrived we were told that shallow stitches were 400 soles each, and deep ones 1000 soles, so when Joel was going to need 3 to 4, at least we were looking up to 1000 pounds or 4000 soles. We don’t have that type of money, we’re poor missionaries!!!

The wonderful Becky, thanks for your help

Anyway the specialist wasn’t available he was a Peruvian 30 minutes away, so we knew we were potentially in for a very long night. Joel was pretty much screaming the place down and no one liked this, not surprisingly, and eventually the pediatrician took the plunge and had a look. When he looked he said he saw no need for any stitching and we could go home. God had healed him miraculously, as Anna and are untrained eyes could see and Becky’s trained eye also confirmed. You may see the small scar which is still healing on Joel's chin.

Joel is still healing today, but he has had no need for any stitches. All we needed was some preventative medicine, the good old banana medicine, amoxicillin!!





Friday 28 January 2011

Toronto School of Ministry visit Part 3

On the Tuesday (Day 5) we began to visit some of the members of the church and to minister to them, and in the evening the team had the opportunity to do the same to our leadership team, and also our non Christian neighbours who are becoming people who are really open to us, and what we believe.

Jose and Joana in their house

Ines being ministered to.

On Wednesday we went to do the normal tourist “thing” of visiting the centre. A fun day was had by all as we saw the central square, the traditional Peruvian arts and crafts wholesale market, and ending the day in the “world renowned” fountains park. (even in the Guiness book of records as the biggest private fountain park in the World)!

Pictures from the fountain park.

The guys waiting in the wholesale tourist markets.

Friday was the beginning of our mad weekend, which involved going out to see Alfredo in Ventanilla, as well as preaching at my friend Abner’s church. The everchanging and developing view of Ventanilla.

Alfredo as always was an amazing inspiration, and the testimonies of God’s faithfulness continue. The most recent being that he recieved a phone call from the Australian embassy and has 'won' their social outreach project ‘competition’. This means the Australian tax payers will be paying for the school to be built using proper built materials. Nice one mate, fair dinkum!!

Thursday 27 January 2011

Toronto School of Ministry Part 2

Day 3 was the team’ s first visit to Pacifico and Leah shared a great word on the love of our Father, which was well recieved by all the people who eventually got to the service at 11.30, just in time for the 10.00 start!

Leah playing with 2 rogues in our garden.

We met in Jaime and Belen's house as normal, but due to the large numbers of people Belentook the initiave and took her wall down to make more space for us, who ever said the Peruvians were not inventive.

Some of the guys outside and inside Jaime and Belen's house where we currently do Sunday meetings.

Day 4 was a prayer day as we set off early to go to the centre of Lima and go up Mount Cristobal, which on a good day gives views of most of Lima. The weather was slightly hazy, but still gave a very good perspective of Lima.

Becky and Miraim overlooking part of the centre of Lima.

Following lunch we started the second of many journeys on a small combi (small minibus) to Pacifico. I normally have a problem trying to stop these combis as they do not believe a white European (Gringo) would want to get on a bus to a shanty town, so you cacn imagine how difficult it was with 14 of us!! We climbed up to the highest point in Pacifco so we could pray. We certainly made an impression as 15 Gringos walked through a cacaphony of dogs barking, people shouting and kids saying “ello”. Chorrillos by night.

The view was spectacular and a real surprise to me as on the other sideof the hill which is Pacifico is built on is a beautiful beach cove.

This dog adopted Daniel when we were overlooking Pacifico.



Wednesday 26 January 2011

Toronto School of Ministry Part 1: Welcome to 2011 (a little belately)

The last 3 weeks have been very busy with a team from the Catch the Fire School of Ministry in Toronto, Canada. www.catchthefire.com . We were very excited about God would do through these 15 young adults. The team arrived on the 31st December and we left the airport just before 2010 became 2011. The night was alive with the sound of celebration as people welcomed the new year in.
Laura one of the team leaders at the airport. (couldn't turn the photo round for some unknown reason)!
Fireworks in Peru do not have the same regulations as the UK do and people set off rockets off in their hands, throw cheap fireworks that make a lot of noise and nothing else, in the street, and have small random fires at the side of the road. This causes the streets to sound, look and smell as though we are in a war torn zone. The 14 of us (One of the team lost their passport and so was not able to travel)arrived just after 1 in the morning and the 9 girls were allocated their rooms and the boys slept on mattresses next door.
Day 2, New Years Day involved a short session of orientation and a tour around our
local neighbourhood, with the highlight being the beach, which is only 5 blocks away. The beach was frequented on a regular basis by many members of the team and was a good getaway for a team full of introverts in a relatively small house full of 18 people!!!
Miraim releasing some steam!!
Even though it is summer here this was still madness!
New Years day in Peru is the biggest Public Holiday in the Peruvian calendar as the shops are all open all other public holidays to a lesser or greater extent, therefore the team were struggling to eat on the first day, but one bought loaf and a leftover panetone kept them going until the Sunday, when the shops were back to normal.

Taken on our tour round the neighbourhood.