When skin is so dirty it looks like you have a suntan

Alfredo, one of the ex-pastors in one of the churches we worked with previously in La Tablada, invited us to spend today with him and his family. He said they were part of a new church plant and would like us to come as he was preaching. We assumed it was nearby where he lived, which is about 40mins from us.

2 hours later we were in Ventanilla. A new shanty town on the north coast of Lima, with reed-mat and thin-wooden shacks built on the sand (or rather the dirt -we got filthy!!). 2 years ago only 2 or 3 houses were scattered on the hill overlooking the sea, now...

Alfredo chose this place to plant a church because it is now highly populated, there is great need and there are no churches there. Along with the church, Alfredo hopes to also set up a school, not only to teach the children, but also to give care to many of the little ones who are left at home alone during the day whilst their parents work long hours in low-paid domestic jobs in the nicer parts of Lima.

Alfredo gave a brief evangelistic message and many responded. Mark and I spent some of our time talking to and interpreting for a group of Southern Baptist Americans who have been helping to support the new church. Even though we are taking things slowly in Peru and not committing to anything at the moment, no matter how hard we try, we always end up getting involved with something - so great is the need. Today we ended up interpreting for the American street evangelists; Thursday evening Mark ended up preaching off the cuff at a meeting he was invited to 2 hours before it started (which nearly ended up being outside without lighting!); and Wednesday I was asked to do a Bible Study and share with a leader from La Tablada church when she came for lunch which turned into an inner-healing session! And all we think we have been agreeing to is spending time with friends!

Mark starts language study tomorrow to help perfect his Spanish, but thankfully he is doing really well with it and even seems to have improved since we were last here.

A Birthday party in La Roca and a few other photos

Yesterday we went back to La Roca, a church in the shanty town which we helped plant two years ago and which was a shack when we first arrived in Peru in January 2005. Now it has 2 floors completed and the family are living on the bottom floor. We got a taxi half way up the hill to La Roca, as far as the road went and then had to climb up the steps to the top of the hill where the church is. We used to go up 4 or 5 times a week so the steps weren't so bad, but yesterday we both arrived out of breath. It's strange being back in Peru, because things we had temporarily forgotten come back, like the dogs that bark loudly at you as you pass the houses and the flies that fill the house because keeping things clean without running water is difficult. La Roca as it is now with the second floor built. Outside La Roca with Carlos (far right) and his friend. It felt very cold because La Roca is at the top of a hill, (with no road access) and the wind comes up the hill from about 4pm.
Angie (11), the birthday girl, and her sister Ana (3) (who both live in the bottom floor of the church in La Roca) with Daniel.
Daniel with Esther yesterday evening.

Baruj, Humberto & Esther's son, with Daniel. Baruj loves 'Naniel' and likes to play with him.

Love it or hate it?

Finally, we have found something that Daniel won't eat...

End of week 1

We've completed our first week in the land of Paddington and it's been a productive week, not that it's felt like that to me (Mark). I keep forgetting we are called here indefintely and this means good strong foundations need to be built. We are starting to formulate ideas that we have had before we came, and also meet up with friends as our last post said. People are very excited in the possibilty of us setting up a discipleship year, what this will look like remains to be seen.

As we settle in we have started to notice the Peruvian quirks, and the differences with the UK.

My favourite so far has been whilst we have been looking for houses to rent. In Peru people advertise their house/flat for rent in 3 ways,

1. in the paper,

2. by hanging up a poster outside the house, or in a local shop,

or 3 through an estate agent.

No real difference here, so it seems. Well we found a flat we were potentially going to rent through a estate agent, more or less. (We decided in the end it was too small) This estate agent however was nothing like the western equivalant. We found him not in the yellow pages, not in his shop, but from a billboard on a random street, manned by a man who was also selling a rug, at the side of the road. The sign said flats for rent, but no contact number. Logically, we asked the rug seller about the sign he was standing next to. He said,' are you interested?' we replied 'yes'. He then ran halfway down the street and to a nearby fruit and veg seller. The seller then came out and said 'yes I know flats for rent, what are you interested in?' We told him, paid him his comission (£3)and then drove to see this flat about 3 miles away.

Another thing to get used to has been the traffic which has completely different rules from the UK. I am not known for my amazing driving in the UK, but I would probably be rated as the best driver in Peru. It is normal to pull out in front of someone, to drive 3cms away from someone else and to indicate that you are pulling over by sticking your hand out of the window (even though they have indicators).

Also the alert ones of you out there may have noticed we are not writing from Arequipa, but Lima, as about a week before we left the UK, our friends Humberto and Esther had to leave Arequipa at short notice and returned to Lima. We are therefore in Lima for the forseeable future.

Finally we have not been hit by an asteroid as i've been asked more than once, as this happened in Puno, about as far away from ourselves as is possible!

Meeting friends again

This last week has been taken up with exploring shops to compare prices of household goods, deliberating over what size house/apartment we should get and catching up with old friends. Of course, last time we were in Peru Daniel wasn't yet born, so the Peruvians are meeting him for the first time.



Today we were having a civil lunch with our friends Esther and Humberto and their son Baruj, who's 3 and loves Daniel (or Naniel as he calls him!)- he kept wanting to kiss Daniel on the cheek, which Daniel loved to start off with but after the 20th or so time he made his objections very clear with a clear grunt and push away! Mark tried a new recipe which went ok considering he had to adapt most of the ingredients to what was available - it just needs a few further adaptations! Then Jono, (who we're staying with) pulled me aside to warn me that 9 teenage girls from one of the shanty town churches were about to descend on the house, and now was our chance to escape!!



We decided to stay and so once again, exaggerated cries of "Ahhhh, tu bebito! Que lindo es!" (Ahhh, your baby! He's so cute!) could be heard by all the neighbours. Of course, Daniel was whisked off by the girls and entertained for a couple of hours on and off, having to be rescued now and again when things got just a bit too crazy! Mostly though, he loved the attention!

We're here - and we believe in miracles.

All our luggage

Well finally we are in Peru!

We arrived yesterday morning very early and we are staying with Jono, an English friend in Lima. It is very cold here - only 14'C or so, but no heating so we are well wrapped up. I am SO glad I packed my slippers!

Anyway, onto the miracles...
1) After months of trying to add Mark onto my nationwide account (with it we can get money out for free here) and failed credit checks because of a mistake O2 made years ago, we went to add him again last Monday. We were told the credit card would take 7-10 working days (and we had 4 left) and so it would take a miracle to get it before we left. 'That's ok,' I told the lady. 'We believe in miracles'. The card arrived in the last post before we left.

2) I tried and tried to get everything we wanted to take with us into 4 large suitcases, but to no avail. So in the end we decided to take more and pray (and pay if necessary!). In the end we ended up taking 8 pieces to check in, plus the carseat and buggy (stroller) and BA charged us nothing! Amazing. (it could have been over £400) We had to pay from LA to Lima, but it wasn't too much (and I was expecting to have to pay something anyway.)

God is gracious!

Today Mark is meeting someone about some potential language tuition and we are hoping to view a couple more flats/ houses. We saw 2 yesterday, but they were too small.

Leaving Picnic

Last Saturday we had our leaving picnic in the botanical gardens. 1pm start time, so Mark was keen to get there for 1 for all the keenies (of which there were none.) So we ate our picnic on our own until the reliables turned up at 1.30pm.

Eating can wait. Smiling at the camera is much more important!

But we were not to worry, about 40 people came and went over the afternoon and we all had fun chatting. Even Daniel managed some babbling with the other babies.

We're having a competition to see who can fit the biggest object in our mouths. Think Callum's winning.

Come on Dan! I'm only 9 months and I've got this smiling at the camera thing worked out already!
The weather looked tempremental to start off with, but we had some beautiful sunshine to relax in as the afternoon went on. It was great to be able to see so many people before we left and to feel like we will missed.

Now where is Mummy? Oh, there she is!

Leaving Sheffield

We have now left Sheffield to spend a week with my parents (Mark) in Leeds, before flying to L.A on Saturday 15th September. We're certainly ready to go. We'll have more info about leaving this week.

Update on Peruvian Earthquake - life in Peru

Well the World may have forgotten the earthquake but it is still affecting the lives of many Peruvians.

Here is a translation of a part of an email from Richar and his family, who live in a poor shantytown in the south of Lima:

Richar, Marinela, Angie and Anita
“The earthquake was terrible – it shocked us and Mari and the girls were crying…the neighbours went out into the streets all shocked. Some of them were knelt down in the street, others praying and others prayer-chanting. But in Ica, Chincha and Cañete (towns south of Lima) many more people were affected. The news was terrible last night – a baby died because of the cold, because they didn’t have a house or food and so many things are going on. It is by the grace of God that we are fine.”

Our friend Humberto in Arequipa informed us that the main road between Lima and the towns in the south has been destroyed so to get to Arequipa from Lima you now have to fly.

Photo from the BBC

The media has been threatened for criticising the governments handling of the crisis and there have been reports of 5 officials in the province of La Victoria taking money intended for the relief fund. (See http://www.livinginperu.com for more information)

On a more positive note, people in general are rallying together to help those in need. One of our missionary friends is taking some guys from the Shanty town church he works with down to Cañete this week. They will be taking 4,000 bread rolls as well as clothes, blankets, basic foods and toiletry kits donated by the local communities to help those in need. It is humbling when the reality is that many from those communities barely live above the breadline themselves.

Shaken up - earthquake in Peru

(Photos from BBC news)

As many of you have probably heard, there was a large earthquake in Peru this week measuring up to 8.0 on the richter scale. The epicentre was just off the coast of Peru and has mainly affected the towns of Cañete, Ica and Pisco. 500 people have died and an estimated 80,000 people have been directly affected in the towns mentioned. Lima, the capital, where 12 million of the 20 million population live also felt the aftershocks and many people there have been without electricity and water.

Showing the range of the earthquake

The earthquake won't affect us going to Peru and we have been in contact with our friends there. In the shantytowns, one family we know now have a large crack in their house and people have been without water and electricity for a while – the electricity is back on in most areas but lots are still without running water. The country has declared 3 days of mourning (finishing today) and some of the churches we worked with before are collecting things together, like blankets and clothes, to help the victims in the worst hit areas. It’s amazing that these people who have hardly anything themselves are rallying together to help others in an even worse situation.

For those of you who do, please pray for the country at this time – knowing the Peruvians they will be rather shaken up by the events and some of them fearful (especially as accurate information from the media is difficult to find at times).
For more information on the earthquake take a look at www.bbc.co.uk/news or www.livinginperu.com (where money can also be given through the Red Cross)

Sunshine, sea, sand and a little bit of rain...

(Anna) We have just returned from a week's holiday in the New Forest where my Grandad lives. Daniel on the Horse that my Grandad made to raise money for charity

We got to go to the seaside - yippee! Daniel, of course, enjoyed eating the sand and sand toys.

One day Mark decided he wanted to go on a bike-ride, and coming from hilly Sheffield we assumed that the New Forest was flat. After 15 miles of the 20 mile bike ride I would have given up, but of course, you can't. Daniel was happy though in his chariot!

Lunch break on the bike ride

It stayed nice for most of the week, but Mark and Daniel got stuck in a downpour on Tuesday - Daniel didn't mind - he was curious about the water!

But Daniel's favourite bit of the holiday was being spoilt by Great-Grandad and getting to try ice-cream which he loved. So much so, that Mark bought him his own the second time because he kept trying to steal Mark's!

Before...

...after!

Oh, and Daniel is walking now holding onto our hands...

Leaving, sunshine and cute smiles

Well we're not the only people leaving Sheffield this summer and there have been a spate of leaving parties, picnics and goodbyes recently. It certainly reminds us that life is constantly changing and you can't go back, just keep moving on. Everything changes and even if we decided in 2 years to come back to Sheffield, everyone will have moved on and we would find it strange to adapt back. Equally for those left behind, change is difficult and strange but it does force us to remember that our stay on this earth is only temporary and we are citizens of a different place!

Daniel with Rachel and Charlotte at Di Hooley's leaving picnic
Charlotte, Rosie and Trefor at the picnic
Joyful smiles at the picnic - all those new people to smile at!
Seeing Daniel changing week by week is another reminder of how quickly time goes by! People frequently ask us now if we are looking forward to going to Peru, and yes we are, but at the same time, I know that this time here in the UK is really precious and we will potentially never truly be at home here again. I also don't want to wish Daniel's baby days away too quickly - I'm loving his joyful smiles and giggles and all the things he's learning day by day. Sunday he started making 'da da' sounds for the first time and it was lovely to hear his little voice for the first time.

Lots of Greats

(Anna) My parents and sister have been back in the UK for a few weeks so we have travelled around the UK a bit to meet up with them. Daniel got to meet his Great Grandad number 2 (My Dad’s Dad) this last weekend for the first time. We went down to Long Melford in East Anglia and met up with my Dad’s side of the family. As usual meeting up involved eating, chatting, wine and lots of family members. Daniel’s Great Great Uncle Tony and Great Great Auntie Joan were also present so we had 4 over-80s!

A week ago I also travelled down to the New Forest on my own with Daniel on the train. I’m all for public transport in theory but I would definitely chosen to drive if I’d have had access to a car because taking Daniel on a train with a large bag with clothes for the week and enough toys and food to keep Daniel happy for the week was no easy task. After getting on the train the only carriage with free space both ways was the quiet coach! So it was slightly stressful trying to keep Daniel quiet, especially seeing as he started the shrieking phase the week before!

We spent some time in the New Forest visiting Great Grandad number 1 and then a couple of days in Woking seeing my sister and my Mum and Dad before getting the train back.

So many Greats that we couldn't help but have a great time! And as you can see from the pics, Daniel was very cute and smiley - I think he's learning what a camera is!

Leaving and other odds and ends

Was it Shakespeare who wrote parting is such sweet sorrow? As the Summer approaches we have so many leaving parties to attend. One of these was last week on 4th July (Ironically American Independence day) when I (Mark) finished my college course that i've been studying for the last 2 years, 1 day a week. I've studied a variety of Biblical, theological and practical theological subjects at St John's Anglican College, and really enjoyed most of it. Below is a picture of all the guys doing my course.

On another leaving matter, we've booked our flights from L.A to Peru and now just need to book our flights from Lima to Arequipa. 15th September is nearer and nearer. I finish work next week as well.

We continue to do talks on Peru, which is such a priviledge. Really enjoying it. Our next is on Wednesday.

Daniel's dedication

Yesterday was Daniel's dedication - an opportunity for us to thank God for Daniel's life and to promise before God that we will teach him about Jesus as he grows up. It was a lovely if not a very chaotic service with 5 dedications, 4 infant baptisms and 6 adult baptisms!

Daniel looked very smart in his special outfit and enjoyed having lots of attention, but was also very tired by the end of the day.

Afterwards we had a meal at Caffe Uno with a few close friends and family which was also lovely but chaotic with lots of children in the restaurant!

TOM weekend

(Mark) Well the rundown of busy and exciting weekends until we get to Peru started last weekend. We were at the UK annual gathering of TOM (the Order of Mission) http://www.missionorder.org
the religious order we are part of. TOM is an organisation which helps missional leaders to connect with each other, as well as support them to do what God has called them to. It was a significant time for Anna, and I, as we took our permenant vows, and God was speaking to me about the large scale of what we are called to do in Peru, and how we need him to complete this calling. Just after this a friend, John Mansergh gave me a word of encouragement and said look at Psalm 62. Verses 1 and 2 set the scene:

My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him.
He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

This was a real comfort as I felt the presence of the Lord greatly upon me. The Hebrew word for glory as found in Exodus 33 is kavod, the heaviness of God., and I certainly felt this weight and responsibility from God, so John's word was timely to say the least.

Also as we took our permenant vows of accountability, purity, and simplicity, commiting ourselves to God, mission and TOM for life, I realised how important this relationship we have with TOM actually is.

It was also a great weekend for many other reasons. Firstly the teaching from Mike Breen was excellent, useful and thought provoking. Secondly, we had a meal with other guys in TOM on the Friday night, which was just like having dinner with family. Finally, we had a family service on the Sunday morning which was great fun, felt like family, and took parts in prayer stations (different ways of praying for people designed by the kiuds of TOM). This was again a real sign of family, especially as guys we didn't know that well prayed for us, as we prepare for Peru. I feel very honoured to be part of such a family, who will be supporting us in Peru.

Thoroughly modern medicine

Yesterday evening we found ourselves in hospital with Daniel again, checking up on his fever and vomiting (he's a lot better now) and as I sat next to the cot with my head on the bed I thought how familiar all the medicial surroundings were. Mark found the trip annoying and a waste of time but I was grateful for the knowledge I've acquired over the past year.

I knew that contact with medical personal increased when you start having kids, but I really think that the number of separate trips regarding Daniel for check-ups and treatment is slightly excessive. I mean, the year before I got pregnant, I visited the doctor's once. Let me give you a run down on the past year...

10 visits to Jessops Hospital (4 antenatal visits, 1 seven-week hospital stay, 5 neonatal follow-ups)

2 visits to Children’s hospital (one minor accident involving a mug and Daniel’s head, one check-up for Daniel with a fever)

1 visit to Hallamshire hospital (out of hours GP)

2 visits to see the Health Visitor (check-ups)

5 visits to see the nurse (jabs and travel jabs)

3 visits to see the GP (1x check-up, 1x illness, 1x travel jabs)

Total: 22 visits in just over 1 year.

And that does not include the weekly visits from the neonatal follow-up community nurse who visited us weekly for the first 6 weeks Daniel was at home, and the usual appointments with the community midwife before Daniel was born.

Although I do feel like I could find my way to the hospitals blind-folded, I do see how blessed we are to live in a country where it is all free and so many facilities are available, especially when we are moving to Peru in September. I also feel grateful for all the knowledge I've gained about pregnancy, babies, sickness in children which I know will come in very handy in the future.

The other amazing thing is that all treatments and check-ups have either been at home or less than 5 minutes drive from our house!

Spiritual & Blood Families

Yesterday I (Mark) was watching the second of the 2 parts of the Return of the King, the third part of the extended DVDs of Lord of the Rings (LOTR), kindly lent to me by Rich Atkinson.

I was watching it yesterday morning while babysitting Daniel at 7.30ish. (The joys of parenthood - on holiday and up at that time!) and felt God speak to me very powerfully about who I am. I was watching the crowning scene, when Aragon truly realises who he is called to be. Aragon has respect for the hobbits, a supposed lesser people, whilst they salute him as king, the ultimate authority in middle earth. I was very touched by this, basically to tears.

The same reaction occurred later when I was watching Neighbours (of all things!) and Stingrey had died, and his family was watching his video of his thoughts on the family, for his niece Kerry. Both incidents clearly showed a strong bond, one with a blood family, and one a spiritual family. The thing I realised God was saying to me through it, was that spiritual and blood family are both so important and generally taken far too much for granted. Also how we need to honour others within our families. It made me think how about how well, or not, I do it, and work out what changes need to be made in my life.

In addition the film obviously has a lot of fighting and goodies defeating baddies, the good guys dispelling the darkness out of middle earth. Again I was conscious of the whole spirit of adventure that as a man I am called to, and how I need passion in all things, even when the going is tough.

There also was a real sense of perseverance when things got difficult, to learn from, especially for good old Sam and Frodo. Sam never gave up, even when Frodo felt he needed to, due to the weight of the ring, and how he was such a hero, even though he would be considered the most unlikely to be. I felt God was affirming my need to be a hero, but a hidden and unlikely one. Unlikely comes easily to me, but to be hidden is still an area under construction!

Not like me to introvertly process but felt I wanted to blog this.