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!!!

A place of belonging

Well following our period of observation, and reflection, (and lots of time spent at the white board and chatting to different people, as well as praying!) we have felt it is right to put our roots down in a church called Viviendo en Gracia (Living in Grace) which is in San Gabriel, a slightly more advanced shanty town. This is on a regular bus route from our new house, which we will move into in January, when we get back from visiting Anna's family in Sydney over Christmas and New Year.

A view of the local area

We initially plan to work with their young adults and teenagers, as their is a great number in the young church, and will help us to connect with Peruvians of this age, before we start our discipleship/leadership school in 2009. Therefore this year will be a pilot year for the school next year. We don't know how this will look yet. We plan to take all the young people (about 25 of them) from the church on a retreat at the end February, at the end of their summer holidays.

Edgar and Cesar 2 of the key young people.

This will be our main place of belonging, and will be our main work base. We will continue to work with Alfredo and others, but we will concentrate on helping these guys to be better leaders, and ones who will make a difference here in Peru. We will also be doing training and supporting the leadership of San Gabriel and other churches in the area, and other parts of Lima.

One of the Sunday morning services in full swing

The church was started by our friends Humberto and Esther in 2003, and has now grown to at least 70 people, who mostly come from the local area. The church is now led by Esther's parents Santiago (James), and Margarita (Margaret).

Santiago and Margarita (Santiago doing his Doctor Evil Impression!!)

The church meets in a small upper room, however at the moment there is no room for kids work in the building, but they are hoping to rent the 3rd floor room (they currently rent the 2nd floor).
There is a great need for this space as there was 13 children there yesterday, and as new people are joining the church all the time, before we know it, we could be at 25 kids.

The current state of the room needed for kids work

We're off to Oz tonight, so we will post soon from there!