Holiday in Ica

Last week we spent 4 days/3nights in Ica with Anna's parents. We stayed at a lovely hotel resort which was great as they were all equipped for kids and Daniel had loads to do. So we loved the warm swimming pools (there were 3!), and Daniel got worn out every day swimming! It was also really fascinating seeing Daniel change over the time we were there. First day he did not want to go anywhere near the slide. The second day, he half way up the steps. Third day he went down a couple of times with Mark and by the fourth day it was 'again, again!'. Daniel was also very scared about going in the little aeroplane (rerun of bike seat episode! See earlier posting!) Anyway, we had paid, so he had to go, and after a few minutes he loved it - he loved being in the sky and finding all the different Nazca lines. (The Nazca Lines are mysterious images in the desert that are about 500 years old which can only be seen from above and no one knows why or how they got there- although there are various theories, including aliens!) Listening to the pilot and finding the lines with our map: Joel was quite happy to be in the plane and after a while went to sleep!

Here were a couple of the images we saw. They are many metres long, each one. I think we would have enjoyed it more if they hadn't tipped the aeroplane to the left and then the right for each of the 14 images they showed up - it made a very queasy ride and that's all I'm saying!

The Astronaut:The monkey: Ever since, Daniel has been pretending to be the pilot of one of his little planes! Some other photos:

Joel off to visit the horses:

Pucallpa Feb 09- Part 3- Days 2 & 3

Day 2: View of the church outside
We started our 2nd day late, leaving about 8.30. We travelled in taxis for about 2 hours, on good roads, and jungle tracks. When we arrived no one had arrived. The other churches eventually arrived and said they had had to walk the 14km journey because no transport was available. We had ‘fresh’, very fresh chicken soup for breakfast, while waiting for the other churches who eventually arrived an hour later and we got started. As this was a church plant of the main church, we had a lot more freedom than the day before and this really helped us help the pastors and leaders that had walked to get there for the conference.

Eduardo and Cecilia leading worship

It really felt that we were really doing what God has called us to do here in Peru, as we ministered to the people there.

Cecilia's womens workshop

It was great to be able to minister to the leaders and pastors there, who often give out and rarely receive. Cecilia also did a superb job ministering to some of the women who were really struggling in their Christian walk.One of the daughters of the atendees in the jungle church
The 2 main changes to the schedule was firstly the always awesome jungle road. This was the first time Cecilia had seen rain like this in her life (Lima is a desert, literally!). So the joy of seeing her in the rain like a little kid was amazing. Not very British!Ceci enjoying her 1st taste of real rain
The second was that as it was mainly pastors and their wives at this conference there were just children for Eduardo’s worship workshop. This therefore turned into a music class, which went really well, flexibility to the max.
We left at 18.30 as the aim was to get back early to rest, for the final conference. Only 1 taxi turned up and so all 8 of us had to pack into one taxi with all the equipment. Eduardo and Cecilia cuddled up in the front with the driver next to them, Mercedes, Jen, Julian and myself in the back, with the keyboard, and all our stuff, William (one of the pastors) and his son Isaac in the boot with all the other music equipment, and the giant speaker on the roof. This was one thing, the other was after the rain the mud jungle track had become like ice in terms of grip, and we slid back to the main road, with increased faith and a thankful heart!
The final day we were doing the conference in the main church, and 5 churches were present, including the Shipibo church of Judith, (who we met in November last year ‘randomly’) who now is learning English. These guys had borrowed money to come to this conference as they couldn’t make the 1st day because of cost. We helped them to get back, paid their debts, and they all had a good lunch as well. It was great to have them there, and I feel we will be having an ongoing relationship with them in the future.Some of the Shipibo women singing in full costume.

As tends to happen the final day was the highlight as following Eduardo’s 1st talk, the entire conference responded to the call for ministry, and God moved powerfully upon the people. It felt a bit like the Acts 2 when the Holy Spirit touched Jesus’ disciples. God was ministering to the people in a very powerful way and people were being healed of many hurts. There was also near the end of God’s joy as he continued to minister. The Holy Spirit did in one hour, what takes hours and hours in counselling. How good is God?
This continued during the whole day and into the

Ministry in full swing

evening session, when we left to get our plane back to Lima. Wow 3 days of power, intimacy, lots of work, but a lot more blessing.
We now start the process of planning a trip in November, and to take a team from our church, and elsewhere if anyone fancies coming!

Pucallpa Feb 09- Part 2- Arrival and Day 1

So the plan was set, Monday arrived and Julian and I left with good time to spare. We went to Eduardo and Cecilia’s house to pick them up, and only waited 25 minutes for them, not bad for them!
We arrived at the airport with no problems, as I had already checked us in online. Therefore we had time to have a coffee. No problem as we had plenty of time. This is of course before you send your coffee back because it is lukewarm and have to add so much sugar to make the coffee taste like honey. (Peruvians generally have coffee with their sugar, and not the other way round). Anyway we arrived back with the coffees after an age and then realised we need to board, but couldn’t with more than 100ml of liquid. Drinking piping hot coffee is no problem for Eduardo and Cecilia, and it went in 2 minutes. For me I had a choice leave it or burn my mouth, I went for the latter!
Anyway we landed in Pucallpa without any problems, and went out for dinner with the senior leaders of the main church.

Julian sharing a word, translated by Jen
Jen was our main guide and she took us to the Shipibo church the next morning, to start at 8am. We arrived only 40 minutes late and many people had not arrived at the church. It was a great to be a part of something so unique, for a long time the Shipibos have not wanted to associate with the Spanish speaking Christian church, so this was a great honour. So straight away our plans went up the wall when the pastor introduced us and then passed to his worship leader, and Eduardo had to follow on the keyboard, a lesser man would have really struggled. Eduardo accompaning the enthuastic Shipibo worship leader.

This was followed by one of 3 dances by the Shipibo teenage girls. These girls are amazing examples of Christians as they are persecuted for their faith, as their parents are not Christians and make it very difficult for these girls to follow their faith in Jesus. When we were returning to shower and have dinner before the evening session Jen told me that these girls would have been very happy with lunch, as may have not eaten for 2-3 days. Also I was told by Cecilia it would be great to do a medical campaign with these girls and others like them as they are very affected by parasites, and probably malnourished. How I count my blessings. The Shipibo girls dancing and singing for us
All the sessions went really well, although massively extended due to the pastor summing up each session in Shipibo for some time. Also endless songs and offerings in between each thing we did. The time with these people was a real inspiration, people with nothing, wanting to come and share the little we had to offer. It is amazing how God uses us.

Eduardo leading his worship workshopJulian leading his workshop
The evening session went well, although we arrived more than a hour late, as we stopped at the hospital to pray for someone, had a sleep to recover, and had a wonderful jungle dinner. The hope was that we would miss some of their special bits, and just preach and minister. God has a sense of humour. We still had all of the ‘special bits’ and finished at 10.30 ready for our pick up at 6.45 the next morning. The plan was to continue till midnight, but Jen had a word!
Great start to our 3 days.

Pucallpa Feb 09- Intro- Part 1

I had the privilege to go to Pucallpa for the 3rd time last week, but this time not just with my Father in Law, Julian, but also our senior leaders Eduardo and Cecilia.

Julian, Eduardo and Cecilia on the plane to Pucallpa. (Julian is the white one!)

Again I’m sure I learned more than I taught the people there. I really enjoyed our previous visit there in November last year, and we saw many amazing things happen, and felt we helped many people, and had been a real blessing.

I had suggested to Jen Harris (our contact there, an American missionary) that we could do 3 mini conferences on Praise and Worship and the Holy Spirit, 2 areas I felt that could be helped easily by ourselves.
The plan was that Eduardo and Cecilia would talk on Praise and Worship, as this is a real gifting of theirs, and Julian and I would speak on the Holy Spirit.
The plan was that we would arrive Monday night at 21.40 more or less. The first day we would start by doing a conference at a Shipibo church, and invite several different communities of Shipibo people from around Pucallpa and the surrounding areas.

Some of the Shipibo teenagers in national dress

Day 2 we would travel for about 2 hours to one of the satellite churches of the main Luz Divina (Divine Light) church, in the middle of the jungle and invite several other churches that were surrounding it. The final day we planned to have the conference in the main church of Luz Divina, before leaving to get a plane at 22.15.

Eduardo and I outside the Shipibo church

Each conference would start by Eduardo and Cecilia leading worship, and then Eduardo talking about the heart of worship. Following a break I was due to talk about who is the Holy Spirit and what he does, followed by lunch. After lunch the plan was for the pastors and leaders to go to a workshop with Julian on living and serving in the power of the Holy Spirit, worship leaders and worship band members to go to a workshop by Eduardo on how to lead worship, and the women to go to a workshop about being a woman with Cecilia.
The plan was that we would finish with a final session at 7pm in the evening about the power of the Holy Spirit, followed by a ministry session.
This was the plan, and we kept to it more than has happened with previous agendas on previous visits, however when in the jungle you live with jungle time, organisation and you are flexible!!!

Cool nail painting/varnish of one of the Shipibo girls

Prayer Walk

About 2 weeks ago I started what I hope will be the beginning of a new work in Pacifico de Villa (The community where we did the kids event before Christmas). It was a really great time as I was really humbled by the ladies who came with me on the prayer walk to 'prepare the ground' for what we hope will be a community changing event. The ladies praying
We prayed for the area of Pacifico de Villa, for the people, the businesses, the families, the children and many other things. In the next week or so we plan to go out and ask the people how we can serve them. More Views of Pacifico de Villa
As mentioned in the previous post we plan to be one of the churches that are doing ‘Servolution’ (see www.servolution.org/7days) which involves serving people with the love of Jesus, the week before Easter. We as leaders of the mission ministry in our church are trying to encourage and inspire the people in our church to be people who serve others as a normal everyday thing. We plan to start this with a big event, probably in Pacifico de Villa, as well as helping all the cell groups doing their own form of service.
We are considering cleaning the streets, providing food, doing some kids work, painting houses. Watch this space!!

Conferencia Corazon

Last week I had the privilege to go, as well as serve at the conference ‘Corazon atrevido, atreverte para servir’ or a heart that dares to serve. I am generally not a fan of conferences where I am just there to listen to teaching, but as normally happens God really blessed me, and I feel I have much to put into action from this conference.
I had the privilege to be looking after the pastors that came in from around Peru as well as abroad. I know have been invited to Cusco, Arequipa, Urubamba, and a place I’d never heard of in Ecuador. Watch this space. The most exciting is Urubamba as they have a conference every year, with many overseas speakers, and the pastors have a similar spirit to ourselves, and are friends with our senior pastors, Eduardo y Cecilia.

The conference was in the National Stadium
All the main sessions really blessed me and I know need to put these things into practice. I was also really touched by the extra visitors that were invited. The mayor of Lima thanked the church hosting the event ‘Camino de Vida’ or ‘Way of Life’. Also the Chancellor of the Exchequer was invited and thanked the church for the way they were involved in the earthquake of 2007, and how the work of helping continues.

Robert Barringer and The Peruvian Chancellor.
John Verrecken an American missionary in Mexico was one of the main speakers and translators and was an inspiration as he is man who preaches honestly and in a straight forward way, but only things that he has lived or is living. This is a way I try to live, and serve, and it is always an inspiration to hear someone who is ahead of me in their work, and show me how to advance.
Maria Durso from New York spoke on the fire of the Holy Spirit and how we are refined, and have power. This as something I needed to be reminded of as well. I will be listening to this again on CD.

Maria Durso translated by John Vereckken.
The speaker who most impacted me however was Dino Rizzo, a leader of a big church in the USA called ‘The Healing Place’. The reason I was impacted because he has a very similar heart to me, but again he is ahead of me in his journey and especially in his ministry.

Dino Rizzo speaking about 'Servolution' translated by Robert Barringer, the leader of Camino de Vida.

He really understands the heart of God, the heart to serve the one, in love. His church is one of serving, which then opens the doors to the church.
One of their ventures is called ‘Servolution’ which is open to any church in the world and includes serving the people of your area, wherever this may be. I plan to do this event in our church to help aid the mission focus of the church. I plan to lead the church in 2 events and am asking every cell leader to do 1 event in this week. This means as a church we are serving in over 20 events.

Sami and Mayra two of the members of Vision Vida
The very exciting thing is that the teenagers have taken this servant attitude on, and are now starting to do events every Saturday, starting by giving out water to those in their cars, and one of the cell groups that I spoke to on Friday are doing an event this week. They either misunderstood me because of my Spanish or because they didn’t understand me. Anyway they are going to a very poor area of Lima to fix the house of a single mum, who has many problems and is the neighbour of one of the members of the cell group.
I’m so encouraged. Our church is starting to become focused outside its 4 walls.

Update (not a very exciting title I know)

January is generally a month of planning here in the Peruvian churches hence the lack of postings. Planning is not that interesting to write about. After carefully consideration we felt that we were being led to put our ministry under the authority of our local church ‘Vision Vida’.
This has meant we have had a slight change of direction. We are still working with Alfredo and in Pucallpa, which is now under the mission ministry of our church and labelled as support of different ministries.

Our main focus now is increasing the amount of mission being done in the church. We are doing this in several ways; firstly, we are starting a new work in a shanty town called Pacifico de Villa in an area called Chorillos.

Some of the mums and children that we hope to work with.

This is the area where we did the kids event in December. Secondly we are visiting the cell groups of our church, and encouraging them to do more mission related things, as well as supporting them. A view of Pacifico de Villa.

Also we are planning to support those doing mission, in whatever form and help those who have ideas on what they want to do in mission but don’t have the next steps.
We are very excited about all this. More to follow in the next few days and weeks.

A few pics of my boys...

Picnic time.

Caught in the act!

Daniel & Manuel

Liliana brought her 2 year old nephew, Manuel, around to play with Daniel on Friday - they had so much fun together - dancing, playing the keyboard, racing around on the bike and pushing the buggy! Their favorite game was Manuel pushing Daniel around on the bike and them bumping into things and me saying 'stop!' - they both found this hilarious!!