Catacombs

Today we took Ian to the centre of town to show him the tourist highlights (there are not many!!) We had some traditional Peruvian food by the main square (which bizarrely had squad police guarding every entrance and a armed tank nearby because of an impending demonstration) and then went off to see the catacombs.

The catacombs are based in a Franciscan monastry and are weird to say the least - lots of piles of bones all organised in pretty patterns by the excavators a few decades ago when the decided to count how many people were buried in the city's main cemetry. (apparently over 25,000). I found them a bit weird and eerie to be honest and the boiled cabbage smell wasn't particularly welcoming either.

Anyway, which I did find fascinating about the trip was an original rendition of The Last Supper done in the Peruvian Inca Capital of Cuzco by a Belgian painter. Not only is it represented on a round table (which I thought was a very interesting idea) but it also contains the traditional incan foods of guinea-pig, chilli, papaya and yucca, washed down with Chicha morada, an Incan drink! Apparently it was an attempt by the early catholics to get the Incan people to identify with the Catholic religion!

Exciting things coming up

Just a quick note to say that we have 3 major things coming up soon. Firstly, we have our 1st visitor to Peru arriving today, my (Mark) friend Ian, from Bible college, who is staying with us for a month, and is on a round the world trip.

He will be helping us with our work (as much as he can considering he doesn't speak Spanish), which will include a retreat for the young adults we are leading from the 28th February to the 1st March.

Following the camp, I (Mark) will also be going with Ian to Pucallpa, a town in the jungle for 4 days. We are going to visit the work of one of the brother of Richar, who we are good friends with. (See earlier postings of him with his wife Marinela and daughters, Angie and Ana). We hope to visit some of the work he is involved. The church he is part of has 22 church plants and other projects, in various different areas, including contacts with some indigenous tribes, so we may well get the opportunity to go and meet with some of them too.

15th Birthdays

I (Mark) went to my first 15th birthday on Tuesday. The 15th birthday for girls is the biggest birthday of their life, so I went as Fiorella, whose birthday it was. Fiorella is one of the young people we are working with at the moment.

A 15th birthday is a very strange event to English eyes.


It was strange to me for several reasons. Firstly, the party started (on a Tuesday when most of the guests were working or studying early the next day) at 9pm. (Traditionally it is supposed to start at 12 midnight). We are of course however in Latin America, which like Africa is more relaxed in terms with time than Europe and America. Therefore I arrived fashionably late at 9.15 in a strange part of San Gabriel. (the main shanty town we are working in) However 9.15 may be fashionably late in England, but it's very early in Peru. I am aware of this however and took my book. At 10.00 other people arrived, and the party started at 10.30ish, when Fiorella arrived in her elegant, but in my thinking, over the top, ballgown.

The second cultural shock was the first official part of the party. The girl celebrating their birthday starts by dancing with her dad. Then all male members of her family, then her male friends, which I was told included me. At this point i'm thinking, I have danced publicly less than 5 times in my life, (even on my wedding day I danced about 5 steps before shrinking away off the dance floor) all of these men have probably done this at least 10 times, are more than likely trained for these 15th birthdays, and are Latin, hence have natural rhythm. I on the other hand have no rhythm, have always hated dancing, and have no ideas where to put my feet, so was dreading my inevitable turn at dancing.

Anyway, the dreaded moment arrived and I was summoned up, and starting dancing in the wrong direction, nearly tripping over Fiorella's dress, and caused much laughter. (I did get the second biggest clap of the night after Fiorella's arrival, for going ahead with it). Following my diastrous start, Fiorella leaned over and whispered in my ear 'just follow me'.

Following the endless dancing, which involves the expectation that those attending have to clap in time the whole time the music is going (up to 30 mins to an hour). Well i cannot clap in time, but I'm pretty sure I was more in time than most of the other people there.

After the dancing, I thought we can move onto the speeches, then bring out the food, and I can disappear, but no. First every single person has to be photographed several times with the birthday girl. Therefore at 11.30 or later, the food comes out and the party starts, after the speeches, that is. Which normally take a long time: an hour sometimes, because Peruvians are very emotional, and worse at birthdays. However Fiorella's family are not big on words, so it seems, and the speeches, were 3 lines long, at best. It was quite an experience, but due to tradition it started very late, and I was ready to go home to bed before it started, but I'll be ready for my next experience.


Unfortunatley I have no photos of the event as it was unwise for a Gringo (white European or American) to take a camera to that part of town. So instead I have a picture of our first young adult meeting. Fiorella is the girl in the far corner wearing blue and white.

Daniel update

Daniel started walking a few days after his first birthday, and is now in full swing, so thought it was time to have a video for you all to see...





He is also loves going to the swimming pool and Mark loves to make the Peruvians squeal as Daniel climbs up the stairs to the slide on his own and then heads down head first! (with Daddy catching him at the bottom of course! )

With Daddy in the local pool

Showing the pool and the slide

Mark in Ventanilla

Last Thursday I (Mark) went to Ventanilla again to see the progress and support Alfredo and his wife Rosa. It was a humbling time as always, but worth the 2 and a bit hours to get there. (Ventanilla is north of Lima and we live in the south of Lima – it’s like travelling from London to Leicester an back on a dirt track!)
The foundations for the building of the classroom have been done and the land flattened, and the original shack has been pulled down to make way for the new wooden structure which is due to be finished this week. There is just over a month before the school is due to open and the inside of the classrooms are due to be done next week, then teachers need to be employed! Excluding furniture, the remaining building costs are around s/6000 (£1000). You can see progress so far in the photo above (and Mark pretending to be helpful in the photo below!)Whilst I was there I got to see the water truck arrive. Each house has to pay 1 sole 50 cents (about 20p) for each container of water. The truck comes every day and the water will last for 2 days if clothes do not need washing, or just 1 day if they do.

One of the things that I found particularly interesting / bizarre was that one house I went to, the lady of the house had plastered the wooden walls with wrapping paper and adverts for the Peruvian equivalent of Sunny Delight as wallpaper. What I found even more strange was that no-one thought that this was at all weird, in fact, Alfredo and Rosa were impressed with her ingenuity and might have even been secretly thinking about this for the school!

Our day off last Friday

Last Friday was one of those days!!!

6.30am We wake up with Daniel crying to find the bathroom and half of Daniel’s room flooded as a pipe has burst because the hot water tank had over heated.

6.45am After phoning the previous tenant to get the number for the trustworthy plumber, he arrives promptly and spends the morning on the wooden roof re-fitting a pipe.

10am Next we were having Humberto and Esther over for dinner so Mark starts to make Naan breads to go with the curry, Jono comes and goes, the curtain fitters come and go and then Mark phones up a friend whose doing a crusade tonight in Lima to find out about it. The friend is potentially lacking an interpreter so we recommended the services of a friend, Zandra.

11.15am Mark calls up Zandra who happens to be just 200m away in a nearby house so he askes her if we could talk face to face at our house, forgetting to mention that we have now moved. I go out to meet her and see her heading off in the opposite direction towards our old flat. I run half a mile to try and catch her, but I lose sight of her and assume she has got on the bus, so I start walking back to the house (it is now 10 minutes before Humberto and Esther are due), exhausted and hot and praying that God would intercede in this day! Suddenly Zandra appears next to me and we walk back to the house, where Humberto and Esther have now arrived and Mark’s naan breads have turned into scones.

4.50pm Mark has left to go to the crusade 2 hours away north and so have Humberto and Esther, leaving a huge pile of washing up and clearing up from yesterday and today (especially as Mark was cooking!), which I make a start on whilst Daniel is watching Cbeebies and eating his tea.

5.35pm Daniel is fed up with kids TV and moaning at my heels so I decide to stop the washing up and give him a bath just the doorbell rings. It’s the plumber with the receipt for his work and a quote for some other work. He leaves and I go upstairs to start the bath and find the bathroom and Daniel’s bedroom are once again flooded. I quickly call the plumber who comes back immediately and then goes to get his tools.

5.55pm I am at a loss what to do as Daniel is fed up and so won’t let me put him down, but the water is still leaking and spreading and Mark is gone so there is no one to clear it up. I call Mark and he calls Jono who fortunately is able to come round.

6.35pm Jono arrives and starts to mop up the water. Daniel is still moaning and tired. I call the landlady and with exhaustion I am unable to explain the situation without cracking up, so just mention a flood and ask her if she can come over, which she happily agrees to.

7pm Landlady arrives.
7.05pm Plumber arrives.
7.15pm Daniel goes to bed, finally!

8pm We move the sofas away from the drips that are coming through the ceiling in our lounge and have a cup of tea (I don’t drink tea, but it’s the English thing to do in a crisis, so must adhere! 2 sugars because I feel that they’re justified.)

8.15pm Crisis number 2 seems to be temporarily averted until morning, when the plumber will come back. I go upstairs to find my fairly-new frameless glasses on the bed in two pieces, the glass on one side split down the middle. I laugh.

8.30pm I phone my family in Sydney, Australia to tell them about my day and find that only my brother is there because my Grandad has fallen off a cliff onto his head and is in hospital in Melbourne and they have gone to see him. (Apparently he has broken a few ribs, but is OK.)

The washing-up, cleaning and Daniel’s bath can all wait until tomorrow. Hopefully I will get a shower then too! We rescheduled our day-off for Monday!

The plumber with the hole that was made in the ceiling of our living room to drain all the water that had collected. There was so much water, it filled the baby bath and we thought he had hit another pipe!

Heaven on Earth?

Since arriving back in Peru, life has been non- stop. One of the highlights without doubt has been the time I (Mark) have spent with our friend Bob, and his team. We met Bob in Toronto, Canada, in 2004 at a church conference. He is here in Peru as he felt a call to preach in big campaigns on the street here in Peru, as well as Uruguay, Bolivia and Colombia. He has seen hundreds of people become Christians, seen many miracles, including sight to the blind and people walking, who were in wheelchairs, amongst others. We estimated there were over a thousand people at the campaign
I went to help Bob and his team on his ministry team Friday and Saturday night, and Anna interpreted for one of his team at a church in Comas, in the north, on Sunday. This was an amazing experience, and a great privilege to be involved. I saw the power of God in a way I have not seen very often. On the Friday night I was helping to translate for Berthard, a German ex-pilot, and praying with him. We prayed for 20-30 people, (the numbers become cloudy when you pray for that many people one after another) and each person said they were either completely healed, or something was healed. For example a woman with a hernia was completely healed and a man who couldn’t move his neck, was released from this, and then felt he should become a Christian.

Our friend Bob preaching, with his intepreter Jonathan.
The main highlight however was a woman who brought up her young daughter, and said she had a cold, and was I told that she had fallen and hurt her knee when she was 6 months old. (I found out later, she hadn’t been able to walk because this accident). Anyway we prayed for her knees and we moved her leg to test if any healing had happened. She cried, before suddenly calming down. We asked her mum if there was a difference, and her mum started to cry joyfully uncontrollably as she had felt the bad of the knee and something had grown: a creative miracle, praise God. I saw her on Saturday and her legs were completely straight. The young girl healed with her mother, completely overcome with emotion

On Saturday I was praying with my friend Jono. We began to pray for the hundreds of people who had come forward for prayer.Some of those who came forward to become Christians

We prayed for a man with crutches, who 30 minutes later had walked up the steps to the stage unaided for the 1st time following more prayer. In addition a man who was blind, gained his sight for the 1st time.

Another person testified in the middle of the ministry time that he had been walking past the square where the crusade was, with the plan to rob someone or something, and he had a gun in his pocket. The man however stopped to listen to Bob’s message and heard him talking about God’s love, no matter what you had done. He realised he had to get right with God, and went to the front of the square gave his life to Christ and felt peace. He threw his gun away and is now in contact with some of the pastors who are involved with prison work. (He is known by name by the police).

God also healed a woman with arthritis and rheumatic joints (thankfully very similar words in Spanish as English!),

The young woman healed of arthritis and very happy

a woman who had bad joints and bones, as well as a man who couldn’t move his head, as we prayed for them, amongst many others. The Lady healed of aching bones and aching joints
On Sunday we also saw a young man healed of a broken spine who was supported by support harness under his clothes, as well as a woman who lacked vision in her left eye, who no longer has this problem.

Bob and his team said they had never seen anything like it, and the pastors here agreed.

How good is God?!

Back in Peru

Just to say a belated Happy New Year. We are now back in Peru, and have moved into our new house. More photos to follow. We are trying to sort out the house this week before starting work on Thursday. Next week we start working with the young people we are leading, so watch this space..

Happy New Year!

A view from the Mirage Hotel where we had breakfast for Anna's Mum's birthday on Saturday

Well this is the final post for 2007 and what a long year its been, but so quick at the same time! It amazing how much we have done and we praise God for His faithfulness to us. Today we took a trip into the centre of Sydney to visit the Chinese Gardens. My mum and Grandad and Daniel all dressed up (Mark and I didn't as we did it when we were last in Australia - see posts from April 2007 to see photos!) It was very hot today - too hot to be in the sun and even so, Daniel didn't seem to mind being dressed up. I think he found it all rather funny.

Doesn't he look cute?! (check out the fake pony tail that is just visible on the left of him!)

Anna's Mum and Grandad all dressed up

A big Happy New Year to you all - looking forward to hearing about what's in store for 2008...

Christmas and Boxing Day

A selection of photos...

Santa?!

Anna's Mum and Dad

Anna's sister Chloe

Daniel playing with one of his presents from Grandma Jean

Opening present with Uncle BenChristmas lunch
Boxing Day...

Ride on bike from Grandad and Grandma Sue

Grandad and Daniel

Mummy and Daniel

A few photos of nature

I (Anna) went on a walk with my Mum the other day and took along the camera - I took pictures of lots of different interesting colours and shapes that I saw in nature and it made me realise how many different species of plants and flowers there were that I normally miss and how many natural colours and shades there are in nature. I made a couple of collages from some of the photos I took...

Visas

Yesterday I (Mark) picked up our resident visas from the Peruvian consulate in Sydney. This has been a really easy process considering how difficult it could have been, and has been for others in Peru, and also friends, going to other countries from the UK. Thank to all of you have prayed for this.
We now need to apply for Daniel's visa (which is dependent on ours) and apply for our ID card, which everyone has in Peru.

Arrival in Oz

We arrived in Oz on Thursday morning after 2 very long flights (8 hours to LA and then 14 hours to Sydney) which went as well as can be expected. We left Lima on Monday night and then we never saw Wednesday as it got lost over the international date line!

It's great to see Anna's family again and we have had mixed weather - gorgeous sunshine yesterday but rain and a dramatic thunderstorm today. Daniel has been very tired and jetlagged and today he has been particularly grumpy with a throat infection, which Mark has also had. (I'm just trying to see how many countries health systems I can try out - maybe I'll write a book?!)

Daniel and Mark had been enjoying the heated pool though for the last few days before they got ill and here are a few photos...

A place of belonging

Well following our period of observation, and reflection, (and lots of time spent at the white board and chatting to different people, as well as praying!) we have felt it is right to put our roots down in a church called Viviendo en Gracia (Living in Grace) which is in San Gabriel, a slightly more advanced shanty town. This is on a regular bus route from our new house, which we will move into in January, when we get back from visiting Anna's family in Sydney over Christmas and New Year.

A view of the local area

We initially plan to work with their young adults and teenagers, as their is a great number in the young church, and will help us to connect with Peruvians of this age, before we start our discipleship/leadership school in 2009. Therefore this year will be a pilot year for the school next year. We don't know how this will look yet. We plan to take all the young people (about 25 of them) from the church on a retreat at the end February, at the end of their summer holidays.

Edgar and Cesar 2 of the key young people.

This will be our main place of belonging, and will be our main work base. We will continue to work with Alfredo and others, but we will concentrate on helping these guys to be better leaders, and ones who will make a difference here in Peru. We will also be doing training and supporting the leadership of San Gabriel and other churches in the area, and other parts of Lima.

One of the Sunday morning services in full swing

The church was started by our friends Humberto and Esther in 2003, and has now grown to at least 70 people, who mostly come from the local area. The church is now led by Esther's parents Santiago (James), and Margarita (Margaret).

Santiago and Margarita (Santiago doing his Doctor Evil Impression!!)

The church meets in a small upper room, however at the moment there is no room for kids work in the building, but they are hoping to rent the 3rd floor room (they currently rent the 2nd floor).
There is a great need for this space as there was 13 children there yesterday, and as new people are joining the church all the time, before we know it, we could be at 25 kids.

The current state of the room needed for kids work

We're off to Oz tonight, so we will post soon from there!

Update on Alfredo and His Work

Last Thursday I (Mark) went to Ventanilla again, to be the official photographer for Alfredo's building project, as well as catching up with him, and see how the work is progressing on the school, still due to open in March 2008.

The school as it currently is, in its rudimentary state in Oasis.

In a previous post I mentioned Alfredo was working on 2 projects in similar areas, one called Oasis, and one Nuevo Pachacutec. The 2nd project in Nuevo Pachacutec has been delayed until 2009, as this is overseen by a Baptist Church who feel 2008 is too soon to build a school.

The view of the local community, desperate for a school, from the plot where the school will be.

The work in Nuevo Pachacutec is being supported by a US church, yet is not being built, while Oasis, being supported by a few friends and contacts of Alfredo is progressing.

Alfredo by some of the construction materials for the Oasis school.

This visit opened my eyes in a several ways. It introduced me to the high level of poverty in that particular area and the seemly injust higher costs for building a rudimentary school just because of the remote location of Oasis. It also made me realise how needed this school is, as I found out that most children who can afford to go to school have to travel for up to an hour or more.

Alfredo with his team

While I was there I spent some time speaking to some of Alfredo's co-workers, Carmen (who arrived about 5 months ago from the Provinces to look for work, which she hasn't found yet), and especially Gladys, the (local representative for this area). Gladys was telling me that her husband works from 5am till 9pm 6 days a week and recieves 20 cents (3p) for every crate of bottles he makes up. He works for Kola Real a cheap coke firm, here in Peru. This means he earns 50 soles (£7.50)a day at best, normally less. This is before he pays for his journeys to work and back, and his lunch (which will cost him at least a fifth of his daily salary) This is to support a family of 5, as well as to help their wider family (blood and those in the community).

Gladys with her family and other children she looks after (for free) during the day while their parents are at work

I also saw the real favour Alfredo has in this area, as many people have talked about building a school, but Alfredo is the 1st to actually start this process. This process is a bureacratic nightmare, with hundreds of pages of documents to be present to the authorities, and materials to build the school have to be carried from the nearest road over 100 metres away after they have been bought several miles away and carried in expensive taxis.



My respect for Alfredo continues to increase as he and his family live by faith, as well as praying for the money for this building project. (I don't believe he could have picked a more difficult location in Lima.) He thinks he'll need 5000 soles ( £800 pounds) to build the school, which needs to be found ASAP. This is not including his living costs.