Bushmead Team Week 2: Jungle Part 1

I love my mummy!

Week 2 began with the Sunday services, Spanish, as usual, in the morning and English in the evening for the visit of the team.

Monday started with last preparations for our jungle trip. We arrived in Pucallpa with our team of 14, including Daniel and Joel, and we spent our first day in the jungle relaxing, the boys enjoying it in the pool, and we all got an early night ready for the boat trip on Tuesday.

Jude and Elizabeth at our impromptu toilet stop in the 'back garden' of an unsuspecting landowner

Tuesday was a dawn start, getting to the boat and travelling down a tributary of the Amazon, the river Ucayali (the name of the province as well) and we arrived in a small river port about three and half hours later. Hey what's happening?

We arrived to a bustling port filled with moto-taxis waiting to take us the ‘twenty Shipibo minutes’ to the church awaiting us. After a forty-five minute journey we arrived to the amazing Shipibo welcome, this again blew me away.

Nuevo (New) Ceylan was a place that will stay with me for many years as we were received as family and treated as that. Huts in Nuevo Ceylan

These people had had no white visitors in 36 years and felt very honoured for us to be there. This gave a real openness to a message of covenant and kingdom that Dan and I shared, which was illustrated by using two triangles of the Father and the King, using branches from the Amazon jungle, when in Rome!!

The beautiful Shipibo children.

Following ministry we donated the suitcase of clothes that we had gathered from various people, and this was received with the most grateful tears I have ever seen. To me it was a old battered suitcase full of used donated clothes. To them it was love from foreigners, and clothes that are so desperately needed.

Preaching in the Amazon Jungle

Following prayers of thanksgiving, they gave us lots of gifts to say how much they appreciated us being here.

They have so little but they give from their hearts. Do we do this in the West?

Bushmead Team Week 1 Part 2

Well the frantic pace of the first week continued into the second half of the week. On Wednesday we did our first session of painting over the graffiti in our street. This was an amazing time when we really impacted our community, and people started to ask who is the ‘Gringo’ that is getting these people to paint all these walls. We were even asked what we charged to paint walls. I can see business ideas!!

Thursday was a well deserved day off as we went into the centre, saw the sights of Lima, which isn’t many, and also ate new Peruvian food, and bought a few souvenirs.

Dale and Stuart, Dale and Peck, Peck and Stuart, we will never know!

Friday was our first day working on Walter’s house, and we managed to lay a cement floor, certainly a first for me (Mark). I felt we had done a good job. However no professional firm will be hiring us just yet. Most people would require a floor to be flat and not to have a table that wobbles when you are trying to drink your juice!

Nearly finished juice bar floor. All looked good at this point.

Peck also had to destroy the current wall that had been laid for the bathroom, before starting on the process of building a wall to UK standards with Peruvian materials.

Saturday was the highlight of the week as we ended our Alpha course with the mums, which for the majority was their first retreat ever, for some, their first time out of Lima. We had an amazing time, and every single person really enjoyed their time, and was asking when the next one will be. It was a great day emotionally, spiritually, and physically for all involved.

2 of our very cute toddlers

Bushmead Team Week 1 Part 1

Well we had 3 amazing weeks with the 5 young guys from Christchurch, Bushmead, Luton. Dale (the leader), Peck, Colin, Stuart and Vicky were all amazing, and have really left an impact here in Peru. In addition to this we had the incredible Dan and Jude who helped us so much and massively impacted our lives here in Peru.The team arrived on Friday 18^th June and left us on the 12^th July to go on holiday. Dan and Jude arrived the 11^th May and left us on the 9^th July. Please come back soon!!!Dan and Jude watching the England USA game

The team outside the Presidential Palace

The first day (Saturday) was a light day acclimatising and getting to know our neighbourhood and a brief talk on what we were doing, and what was expected of them. Sunday we introduced them to the Oikos Sunday service and also went for lunch at Pardo’s chicken, the most exclusive rotisserie chicken restaurant near us, which was a definite highlight to the junk food loving guys from Luton.

Jaime and Belen with the team, outside their shanty town house.

We finished the day by having a small service in the evening in English, after the team visiting Pacifico de Villa for the first time, and meeting the wonderful family of Belen and Jaime.

The kids lining up to sing to us in Ventanilla.

Monday was a hard day in Ventanilla where Alfredo asked us if we could move the sand that is falling down and damaging the border fence behind the school. We spent a good few hours doing this and must have moved over 30 tonnes according to Peck our resident builder.

The highlight of Tuesday must have been the visit to the chickens in the market (Peck having a strong adverse reaction to them, although he was fine with the pig’s head!) and our weekly mums and tots group, which was our last session before the retreat on the Saturday.Not quite KFC!

Bushmead Team Week 3

We will be updating stories on our time with the team very soon.Meanwhile please enjoy our week 3 video of the Bushmead team.





If you are reading this in facebook please go to our blog: www.theburgessfamilyblog.blogspot.com to view the video.

What the Bushmead team have been up to...

The last couple of weeks have been very busy with a team of 5 young adults from Christchurch, Bushmead, Luton, staying with us, as well as Dan and Jude. Here are a couple of videos of what they have been up to...
WEEK 1:


WEEK 2:

Daniel sings in Shibipo

*to see this video on facebook you have to follow the link* www.theburgessfamilyblog.blogspot.com

We have just got back from the jungle. Will post some more photos in a bit, but here is a taster video from visiting one of the Shipibo communities on Wednesday. The children are singing 'Jesus loves each one of us' in their native Shipibo language. Daniel and Joel both loved playing with the children there.