Leader's Retreat June 2012

Nancy and Karina

A few weeks ago we had our latest Leaders retreat, which took place at our good friends Wes and Stacy’s house. We had a mixture of fun reflection, teaching, and food, as well as times listening to God. The main focus of our retreat waswas to listen to God for ourselves (we are in a pruning back season), and to be reminded of who we are in Christ, the vision of the church, and the vision for 2012. We were also asking God how we needed to respond in this season until August, as a church, individuals, and as a leadership team.

Amanda and Kaleb

The retreat started on Friday night at our house where I shared the vision again, in order that Saturday we could respond to this vision and God’s promptings.

Saturday began with breakfast pancakes made wonderfully by Stacy, thanks again, and we then moved to team building and divided into three groups to see who could build the best spaghetti bridge to support the most number of cars. Because we used to much sellotape all the bridges were very strong and all supported the whole box of cars.  Well we had fun, even though there was no winner from the three teams.  Every team then claimed they had won for one reason or another!

Personal listening time was followed by Chifa, Peruvian Chinese, which came with far too much rice, which was still be eaten on Saturday night and Sunday lunch and evening.

Angela spends some personal listening time in the plants...

After lunch we spent some time listening to God for the church and it was wonderful to hear some of the testimonies of how God is working in the lives of our leaders and what plans he has for the church. Angela commented that she really wanted to learn to be a better disciple and be faithful even when it is hard and especially in the times when there seems to be no way out.  

We finished the day with our leadership’s favourite game Mafia. As usual there were many mistakes made and Rosa was the nurse at least once. (Rosa is training to be a nurse and the first time she played this game with us she was the nurse 5 times. It makes you wonder if AnnaLou being the murderer five times in one night has any significance)!!!

Accusations flying!

Silvana murdering Karina

We love our leadership and are so grateful to God for bringing all of them, he has heard our prayer. Amazingly, in March last year Lili was the only one of our leadership with us. 

Whole Church retreat, June 2012

  

Last weekend was our first whole church retreat. Regular attendees from Pacifico and Los Cedros came and we had over 30 adults and as many children.  We went to a lovely retreat house in the foothills north east of Lima, where there was loads of space for the children to run around safely and lots of green grass and trees to lay under!

Exploring the grounds

Quiz in groups

Keeping the toddlers entertained!

Mark gave two talks during the day – one on the Father’s heart and the second on the importance of forgiveness.  Both talks led on to ministry times where many gave testimony afterwards to God speaking to them and forgiving others – some taking the opportunity to ask forgiveness from others present in the room – a uniting and humbling time.  Many people began the forgiveness process for the first time – including forgiving their spouses and children for offenses caused.

Jesus said we should forgive 70 x 7 

Meanwhile the children learned about how much the Father loves them and the importance of forgiveness too. 

We also had some games – including the much loved bubble making and racing contest! (I think this game may turn into an Oikos tradition!!)  Each team had a list of ingredients and had to make up a bubble mix and then make bubbles with shoelaces tied together.  The teams had 30 minutes to get as many bubbles as possible across the line (which was about 15m away).  It is actually much more challenging than you would think and the winning team got 8 bubbles across in 30 minutes.   The spectators enjoyed seeing the different ways the teams worked together to try and move the bubble – contorting their bodies to get under them to blow them upwards, and flapping hats furiously to move them along! The losing team was at a situational disadvantage as the wind kept taking their bubbles off course!

In all it was a very encouraging and relaxing time.  It felt like a good mix of spiritual focus and family time together and for many who never get out of their shanty town aside for work reasons, it will be the highlight of the year for many!

We are hoping to do another full church retreat in February….

Click here to see more photos

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!!!

Retreat

Welcome Coffee

Last Thursday we had the priviledge to have a retreat for the people who work in Ventanilla in our house. We had an amazing time, with food, fun, teaching, worship,

Daniel leading worship?!

and times of just hanging out together. It was a real blessing to be able to serve them, and to be able to pray and share with them. Everyone enjoyed the food, beautifully prepared by Joey (who was staying with us) and Anna. In addition everyone felt they benefitted from my teaching on 'Leadership, who I am in Christ, and the Holy Spirit'.

Teaching times and praying for the teachers.

Joey, Tassanda and her daughter, and Alfredo.

We also this week went to Ventanilla to show it to Joey. As the kids were on holiday we visited the school, before visiting 3 families, and taking them a love offering of food. The woman in the picture above can hardly walk, and has a crooked hand. She was nearly dying a few years ago but she asked God to heal her for the sake of her daughter. When she got the illness several years ago her husband abandoned her, and left her with nothing, but her 2 daughters. She tries to make ends meat by making Picarones (like Peruvian doughnuts, well sort of), but her oven has died. This is another of the people we would love to help with our social action projects. She was so blessed by having foreigners in her 'humble' as she calls it house. They have 1 bed for them both, a toilet next to the bed, and a kitchen. The thirteen year old daughter wishes to work, but we are persuading her to stay until she at least finishes school. This is unfortuantely just one example of many similar situations for the poor in Peru.