Pucallpa Nov 09 Part 5

The final day was a very different day in format as we started the day by doing evangelism, after our team time and devotional. I encouraged the team, from my limited experience on how easy evangelism is when we let God lead us. People went out in a group of at least 2 and I hovered between groups trying to encourage them. I started off with Virna and Mechita. Mechita is a born evangelist and she started talking about Jesus to the first man we met. I then prayed for him for his knees and he was instantly healed. He then accepted Christ as his Saviour there and then, as did his wife.
I then went on and found Eduardo and Ceci, and Eduardo and I spoke to some mototaxi drivers, who were greatly encouraged. Following this I stopped to buy a drink, and asked the lady how she was. She then told me how bad her life was and I ended up praying for her son.
I then returned to find Holly, Ronald and Naomi who were talking to a man who had a hernia. We prayed for him and his hernia disappeared in front of our eyes. He said he had this hernia for 40 years and was thanking God, as this was the third miracle of healing that he received in his life.
It is interesting how God seems to heal more easily when the people do not have the money for health care. However why does this stop us believing that God heals today?
Nearly all the teams came back with great stories and also testimonies for healings and conversions. The most important thing was that our team was encouraged, and we know plan to start to do this in La Victoria around our church. Bring it on.

We went to the Laguna Yarinacocha in the afternoon, and had fun hanging out as a team.

Lagoon Yarinacocha and Daniel and Joel enjoying the lagoon and the water.

We returned to the church and ate a traditional dinner of fried fish and bananas. This was after our mototaxi driver got a flat tyre and caused two other drivers to crash and giving Chloe her first experience of using her first aid training on one of the drivers, who had potentially broken his foot, but was certainly was suffering from severe shock. Chloe did an amazing job and we packed him off to the hospital with a friend who he phoned.
This made me think. Do we stop for the one, when we have plans, and things we need to do. Did Jesus stop for the one. The answer is yes. Therefore what should our response be. Stop for the one and change our plan or keep to the plan because it is important because it will affect other people. I don't have an obvious answer, but I do think about the parable of the Good Samaritan, and I don't want to be the priest or the levi.

All the team except Daniel and Joel (who were sleeping)

After dinner we had a debrief and got the plane back without any problems, and with all our luggage. We arrived back in the house after 1 in the morning, very tired but very satisfied.
The week was very hard and very demanding for both Anna and I in different ways, but sacrifice for God always brings fruit, and we certainly saw a lot of fruit on the week, and I am not thinking of mangoes, bananas or even some of the more obscure jungle fruits!

Daniel's 3rd Birthday!

Daniel is now 3!

(Despite frequently telling me that he is still 2. Or that he is 4. I think he thinks he can choose.) When asked what he wanted for his birthday, he said he wanted a cake with candles and a bike with pedals, so that is what he got! (Thank you Grandma Jean & Grandad Robin for your contribution!) Here is Daniel talking about his birthday... (facebook friends go to our blog www.theburgessfamilyblog.blogspot.com to see video)



He was very happy to have a small party with his playgroup friends on Friday.


And then on Saturday (his actual birthday) we went out to his favourite restaurant for breakfast with Jono.

Afterwards he tried out his new bike.

Pucallpa Nov 09 Part 4

Day four and day five were quite similar in format. We started with a devotional, that our friend Naomi led, and then had a short team meeting. We then did workshops in the morning, followed by lunch, and then rested in the afternoon before having an evening celebration in the church. Wild animals in the jungle!! (Killed before we started day 4)

The workshops again were excellent Lili sharing on both days about how to do kids work, and Joanpoul and Joseph shared to an all female group on communications, after Mechita and Edith had shared on being good hosts/welcome team. Joseph and Joanpoul share to their 100% female congregation

Anita was also a star sharing about leadership to a some of the up and coming leaders, as most of the leaders were in the seminar on the love languages with Eduardo and Ceci, who are the leaders of our church.

Daniel with his new 'amigos'

The main highlights of the days were probably found in the evening sessions however. In the first church I spoke on Spiritual fathers again, and spoke on how God calls us to understand our identity as loved children, we then need to ask to be filled with this love, and we then need to show and share this love with others. One way we can do this is by spiritual parenting people. The response to this word was tremendous and many people received powerful words of prayer from the team, and God was healing hurts from the past. We also witnessed a wonderful moment when nearly all the members of the church in Luz y Paz Church (Light and Peace) gave a hug to the pastor to show him their support and love.

Chloe, Ceci, and Virna singing at Luz Divina (Divine Light)Church.

On the fifth night Eduardo shared on inner healing, which was not in our program but we felt it was how the Lord was leading us, and we felt that peace when we offered prayer, and many were healed of many hurts and issues they had in their lives. We also saw many physical healings in the two days, one being a woman who was healed from problems with her kidneys.

People receiving ministry at Luz Divina

Joel leading from the front!!

Filmed during the opening ceremony of our time in the Shibipo village of Santa Isabel.



(If you looking at this video in facebook you need to enter our blog at www.theburgessfamilyblog.blogspot.com or on you tube under the videos of personanna).

Pucallpa Nov 09 Part 3

Day 3 was probably the most striking day of our time in Pucallpa as we had to get up at half past four to get a boat at 6 in the morning to take us to a Shibipo settlement 3 or so hours down the river. The Burgess' on a boat on the Amazon.

Travelling in boat was another first for many of the team, and was an amazing experience. The Amazon!!!

We arrived however at about 11 o clock as we got grounded at one place, and we ended up leaving late of course. Watch out for the crocodiles and piranhas Andy!!

When we arrived we got greeted by a tribe of dancers who had been waiting for us, and took us by the arms and led us dancing and singing into the centre of the village, they were singing 'welcome to our village, you are welcome here'. I was very overwhelmed as I have seen this sort of thing many times on films, and documentaries, but never in real life.

The ladies welcoming us to the village.

The women dancing to welcome us to the village

We then had a 30 minute opening ceremony to welcome us to the village, and I spoke on spiritual fathers again, and we handed out gifts of clothes and food that we had brought.

The ladies waiting in line for their donations.

Joel was also entertaining the kids as he clapped and toddled around. Daniel and Joel really showed the gift of leadership that God has put in them.

Daniel and his new friends (human and terrapin)

Later on Daniel was entertaining another group of Shibipo kids when drawing water from the well, and Joel was washing himself, as well as leading about fifty of them in running games.

Not the quickest person to draw water from the well!!

It is wonderful to see how they were thriving in a culture so different from the one Anna and I have come from, and the one they are living in, and growing up in at the moment.
After my talk we broke into 2 groups Juan Carlos with the men and Virna with the women. Following the talk by Juan Carlos, brilliantly delivered 4 times over the four days, his team was praying with some of the men, and this gave me another of my highlights as Joanderlin (JanderLin) the youngest on the team (apart from our boys) was praying and counselling a man probably in his 60s or 70s. This was wonderful when you think that God has no interest in age, only in maturity, and Joanderlin was showing his.

Joanderlin ministering to a Shibipo man

Lili teaching the Sunday school teachers.

We had a second session of talks, followed by lunch, which many of the team struggled with, but for me was fine,I have eaten a lot worse in my time. (Frog porridge in Singapore for example) and we then made tracks back to the boat. The trip back was a lot quicker due to the current, and we got back in time to get showered, changed, and then went out for a night out, and to celebrate my birthday in La Rueda (the wheel) a typically jungle type restaurant. People ate cecina (wild jungle boar) tacacho (banana cooked with chicken, pork, egg, and other things inside), juani (rice in banana) friedfish (with eye, head and tail). We drank camu camu (a jungle fruit), cocona (another jungle fruit), and coca cola!! (Yes I know we went all that way and people still drink that horrible black liquid). Everyone had a good night and went to bed satisfied ready for day 4.

Pucallpa Nov 09 Part 2.

Day 2 was the hottest of the 6 days and people really struggled as we went to a Shibipo church that was supposedly 20 minutes away from our host church Luz Divina. After waiting for about an hour, we went in search of more than half the team who had been dropped off at a different church. The road had been changed about 2 weeks before so the mototaxi drivers were getting lost. This meant we started late, but as usual God was there and we had shared some excellent workshops with the Shibpo leaders and congreagation. It was quite amusing to see Virna speaking in Spanish and being translated to a different language.

Virna preaching on the power of your words to the Shibpo women

Daniel playing with 2 puppies

Following a meal of chicken and rice we did a kids club for the kids, which went well, especially when the kids got over their nerves of speaking Spanish (which they speak fluently, even though it is there second language) and really joined in, and got a lot out of the story of the lost sheep and how God loves us all. We finished by asking the kids to put on their name stickers on a heart we had cut out and we have donated that to the people there.

Juan Carlos sharing about the lost sheep with the Shibpo Kids.

We finished the teaching of that day as I shared my talk on spiritual parenting to the 50% of people that were still awake when I had finished (due to heat and exhaustion I’d like to say), and then had a meal of chicken and chips (a traditional Peruvian meal!), as we celebrated Joseph’s birthday.

Pucallpa Nov 09 Part 1.

Shibpo kids playing on a mototaxi

Well my 4^th visit to Pucallpa has been and gone. However this time I (Mark) didn’t go alone, or just with 1 or 3 other people. This time I went with 20 other adults as well as Daniel and Joel. This was the 1^st Vision Vida mission trip, and overall went really well. Yes there was the normal hiccups, and errors, but there was no major stomach upsets, no great falling outs or major incidents, and no one resigned to bed on day 3.
We went on Sunday 8^th November in the evening and arrived at about 21.30. We left on the Friday 13^th at 22.15, and arrived back in Lima very happy, but very tired.

Daniel decides how he is going to get to Pucallpa

I have led a few shorty term mission teams before, and I have been a member of 2 large short term mission teams, but I have never led a team of 21 before so this was a challenge, and it certainly turned out to be so, especially in the area of coordination and details, as neither of them are strengths of mine!

The team minus Daniel and Joel

Day 1 started well at the airport, although a few of the team arrived late, arriving in Peruvian timing and not English timing! We managed to get everyone on the plane and to Pucallpa safely, although Ronald one of the first time flyers had his bag sent to Tarapoto, another jungle town instead of Pucallpa. He did get it back 24 hours later.

The first thing many people noticed when we arrived was the heat, which was a running theme throughout our time there, and a classic quote was made by Lili, when she said, it’s not that hot, it’s just the heat from the engines of the plane. It wasn’t just the engines, it really was that hot!

Dolly affected by the heat.

Kidz Klub Christmas Event

As pastors of mission in our church we have been doing many things to try and encourage our church to look outside the four walls. We now have an amazing and growing team which help us to do this. The church is steadily growing in its understanding of what mission is. To help this continue we are doing our main outreach event this year and asking for the church members to be involved, on the day and also financially. Please watch, and enjoy how we are publicising the event. (It has been translated!!)

Pachacamac and update.

We realised it has been a very long time since we lasted posted anything on our blog, Apologies to those of you who read regularly. We have been busy in the last month, and blog posting time has just not been available, along with emailing, and other such things.

Jobs on our current to do list include; a huge amount of planning to do before we go back to the UK. In addition we have had to organise, and do last minute organisation for the jungle trip (posts to follow) and also organisation for the end of year kid’s Christmas do (12 December posts to follow). We also had the visit of Holly’s parents and sister, Les, Heather and Robyn.

We are currently on retreat in Cienaguilla at the moment and therefore have a little time to catch up on the blog, and other things.

Last week partly due to the visit of our friend Naomi Hill,

who is also part of our missionary family TOM (see http://www.missionorder.org/) we went to a pre Incan ruin called Pachacamac. (The photo above shows Naomi, NOT at Pachacamac, but in the jungle! - posts to follow!) On the forbidden staircase - the security guard with a gun took us on a special trip to this staircase, as a treat, but wouldn't let us go up any further unless we were seen!

This ruin is about 45 minutes out of the centre of Lima and very interesting, especially comparing with Inca ruins and especially those buildings found in Cusco and obviously with Peru’s number one tourist destination, Macchu Picchu.
One interesting comparison between the two building forms is the difference between the landscapes of Macchu Picchu, which is situated in a green well irrigated mountain valley, compared with Pachacamac which is situated in the desert at sea level. This however is just a climatic comparison, but not where the comparisons end. For example the people who built Pachacamac built their buildings using adobe (a mud like substance) and mud as mortar. The architecture as well was very rounded in form. This is compared to the very angular form of Macchu Picchu and Cusco which uses no mortar to hold them together, but instead mathematical shapes which interlock. The other thing that also struck me when at Pachacamac was the way there is a great similarity between the way the people were treated in the time that this establishment was active and today. For example the lords and leaders treated their servants and the women as second class citizens and beneath them. The old adage ‘jump servant’, and the servant’s response should be ‘how high’. This is still reflected today as some of the middle and upper class treat those from the working class and below as there for their convenience at best, and as bad as dirt. In the time of Pachacamac you had little or no rights. This also happens today with the private beaches, which aren’t private unless you don’t look as though you can afford to be there, and the lack of courtesy when ordering in restaurants.
This as a Christian is not what I see the Bible saying, and something which shocks me culturally, and makes me ask the question, what is my response, what is my role?

daniel

Can you save a starfish?

Last Friday I (Mark) went to Ventanilla for my monthly visit. It is a great time to encourage the staff and children there and also to spend some time sharing what is on my heart with the teachers. It is such a priviledge to be able to be involved in such a work and to be able to help disciple Alfredo, a man who reallys wants to serve in every way possible, living on the breadline, by faith, for the love of God and those he serves.

The kids were in their final class of the week, which was free drawing with the title 'Spring' or 'Primavera' in Spanish. It is lovely to see children who have so little and are disadvantaged in so many ways enjoying learning, and producing good quality work to boot.

As I've got to know this kids their stories have touched my heart. One such story is Sofia (see below) who has no dad and whose mum works from dawn to after dusk to provide food for Sofia to live. Last month when I went to Ventanilla she was just wandering around and had no place to go, until her mum arrived home late at night. What sort of life is this fof Sofia? (She is one example of so many here). Most of the kids have similar stories, with generally 1 parent available to them, when not working, or sometimes they have no-one, technical orphans who live with a family member as both parents have disappeared for one of so many reasons.

This situation really reminded me of a story I heard some years ago about starfishes on the beach. The story goes like this:

'A man was walking on the beach, a beach covered in starfish, thousands if not hundreds of thousands. As he was walking he saw his friend tossing some of the starfish into the water. The man asked his friend 'what are you doing you cannot save all of these starfish'? His friend replied 'you're right, but I can save this one, and this one, and this one'.

I feel this is why I am here in Peru, I cannot save and alter all the lives of the people here in Peru, (although I want to)or even those I meet, or even work with, but I can help one here, one there. I can train and inspire leaders so they in turn can do the same job. Jesus Christ walked the planet 2000 years ago and has altered the face of human history, and he told us to remember the poor. To look after the widows and orphans. I want to do the same. I want to be able to save hundreds of starfishes, as many as possible. My question is how can I do more? I am affecting the lives of many people here, young and old alike, but I want to do more. Can you help us? Can you be a hero of the poor? Can you defend the defenceless? Can you help us save more starfish? Can you help Sofia?

Happy First Birthday Joel!

Yes, amazingly, Joel is 1 today! Happy Birthday Joel!



Here is the first year of his life in just under 4 minutes...