What does a 'normal' week look like: Monday

I have felt led to do a small series on what a typical day looks like in our ministry. Before starting I wish to make a disclaimer, there is no such thing.

When I say there is no such what I mean is that there are regular activities we do, huddles (explained later on), visiting, leadership meetings, admin times. counselling, prayer, and many other things, but no day looks the same.

So join with me on this journey through the life of the Burgess Family in Peru in a ‘typical’ week.

Day 1 Monday 7^th January 2013.

Sleeping peacefully

Sunday night had been a bad night for Kaleb which means there is a knock on effect for Anna and I. Lack of sleep is no longer an event that needs me to tell myself I am fasting sleep, it is a spirtual activity. I have died to the fact that at times I will be tired and just have to get through the day.

Following the ceremonial dragging myself out of bed and trying to think of happy thoughts, a working hot shower is always a blessing to try and shake out the sleep dust.

The daily event which is breakfast follows and the hour that Anna is having her quiet time is pretty much always a juggling act with juice to make, cereal to be covered with yoghurt, honey to put into juice, porridge to make, Kaleb to help feed, boys to stop from fighting over which colour vitamin they will get etc… 

Following breakfast the 3 boys then play or terrorise our pet rabbit Timmy, or try and find the most boring pet on record, our pet tortoise Shelly. She is normally seen moving about once every 2 weeks for about 20 minutes before returning to her dark home with under Timmy's cage. 

Shelly

8am on Monday morning is our extended prayer time as a team. This week I felt God was talking to me about war and David and Goliath and how we are called to seek first God, but also choose the right armour to advance. I also was looking at how we all have a role in the war in extending the kingdom of God, our role just differs.

To respond to the word we prayed as a group for ourselves, each other, as well as the people who are part of our church, whether that be in Pacifico, Los Cedros, San Genaro 2, or the jungle.

Rosa and Kaleb

Following Monday morning is a day I dedicate to work outside of Lima. At the moment I am preparing for several workshops we are doing this year with 3DM. We plan to do them in the jungle in April, in Venezuela in May, and Brazil in July. 

While I am working on this Anna is homeschooling Joel and Daniel. Rosa looks after Kaleb so Anna can be released to do this. 

Lunch is a community affair, and numbers vary from 6 to 12 on anyone one day, averaging around 10.  

Monday afternoon is a family affair until 5pm as I have a huddle with my Brazilian friends and pastors Rogerio and Estela, based in Sao Paulo. 

This Monday we went to one of our favourite places the local Cremolada shop. Cremoladas are a drink made from pure fruit and sugar, liquidised down and then frozen. We are far too well known in this shop as we are, firstly, Gringos (white people) with cute boys who talk to the staff. Secondly we frequent there far too often. This is mainly due to a lack of options within walking distance with three boys. (And in order to get them out of the house and to do some exercise, we need an incentive at the end!)  Daniel likes to have the Lucuma (a jungle fruit) cremolada, whilst Mark always has Coconut.  Anna often goes for a mix of mango and passionfruit and Joel sticks to Strawberry.  The staff know our 'usuals'! Thanks to Blake Goodfellow who first introduced me to this wonderful place. 

As I mentioned 5pm is time for my huddle with two amazing Brazilians Rogerio and Estela, who are working full time jobs, pastoring a church, overseeing an expanding network and had little or no support before being connected through 3DM. It is such a blessing to spend time with such people and I am really encouraged every week. 

Monday is finished with bath time (usually a time we and the floor all end up wet) and then I get to relax and Anna has her mentoring, accountability time with Nancy. 



PS:  Huddle is a group for leaders where we try to help our disciples grow in their character and competency to be more like Jesus.
PPS: 3DM is a ministry based in the US, UK, Europe and now in South America which is trying to help churches become more discipleship minded. See www.weare3dm.com for more info. 

Outreach in Pacifico

Since making the changes to Sundays and meeting in our house instead of Pacifico, we decided we still wanted to be in Pacifico regularly, and so one of the ways we are doing this (aside from the large small group meeting on a Wednesday) is having a mission Sunday every four to six weeks in Pacifico. 

The first time we did this was mid November when we met in the lower bus stop, prayed together and then split into 3 groups. We visited those people who have not been around church very much in the last few months, as well as seeing which other people God had us to meet.

Joel, Valeria, Karen, Ronald, Rosa, and Arthur

Our teams set off together into three different areas of Pacifico, and I felt that God was telling our group to do the forgotten area, those people up furthest on the hills of Pacifico. (You have to scramble, literally, up rubble to get to their houses so it is hard to 'drop -in' easily on these people).  Our team was made up of some of our young adults, who all found the time really inspiring, fulfilling, as well as seeing God work in many amazing ways.

Lili and Sheyla praying for 2 different women from Pacifico

We were greeted by everyone with open arms, and invited into every house we went to. (This is not the norm here in Lima, where distrust is high, and it is not unusual to have a thirty-minute conversation on the doorstep).

It was a real honour to lead the team that I did, as well as seeing some of the young guys praying for other people for the first time. 

Angela with her daughter Zoe

Four weeks later we did our Christmas outreach in Pacifico. Our plan was to provide the traditional Peruvian hot chocolate and Paneton with a catch.

The Panetone and Chocolate team

The catch was that we were planning to pray for each person before they received their paneton and chocolate. Everything was planned well, we had Steve in charge of the queue to begin the process, Nancy and her team ready to pray, and Rosa and Llilda ready to serve the paneton and the hot chocolate they had risen early to prepare.

Zoe and Daphne

Well His plans are not ours, and his thoughts are not our thoughts. None of the fighting to be served happened, none of the panicking, ‘what do we do with all these people’. Instead we found that people were at first a little suspicious to receive the paneton for free, but generally were very blessed with the prayer.

Daniel makes a friend

The main highlight has to be however our assault evangelism as we stopped every bus passing, asked them if they wanted free paneton and hot chocolate, and then being able to pray for them, and bless them. 

It was a really wonderful time to see people in our church serving others, especially those from Pacifico, serving their own people. Missionaries in their own back yard you could say.