Whole Church retreat, June 2012

  

Last weekend was our first whole church retreat. Regular attendees from Pacifico and Los Cedros came and we had over 30 adults and as many children.  We went to a lovely retreat house in the foothills north east of Lima, where there was loads of space for the children to run around safely and lots of green grass and trees to lay under!

Exploring the grounds

Quiz in groups

Keeping the toddlers entertained!

Mark gave two talks during the day – one on the Father’s heart and the second on the importance of forgiveness.  Both talks led on to ministry times where many gave testimony afterwards to God speaking to them and forgiving others – some taking the opportunity to ask forgiveness from others present in the room – a uniting and humbling time.  Many people began the forgiveness process for the first time – including forgiving their spouses and children for offenses caused.

Jesus said we should forgive 70 x 7 

Meanwhile the children learned about how much the Father loves them and the importance of forgiveness too. 

We also had some games – including the much loved bubble making and racing contest! (I think this game may turn into an Oikos tradition!!)  Each team had a list of ingredients and had to make up a bubble mix and then make bubbles with shoelaces tied together.  The teams had 30 minutes to get as many bubbles as possible across the line (which was about 15m away).  It is actually much more challenging than you would think and the winning team got 8 bubbles across in 30 minutes.   The spectators enjoyed seeing the different ways the teams worked together to try and move the bubble – contorting their bodies to get under them to blow them upwards, and flapping hats furiously to move them along! The losing team was at a situational disadvantage as the wind kept taking their bubbles off course!

In all it was a very encouraging and relaxing time.  It felt like a good mix of spiritual focus and family time together and for many who never get out of their shanty town aside for work reasons, it will be the highlight of the year for many!

We are hoping to do another full church retreat in February….

Click here to see more photos

Kids Party

The conga line.

Every 3rd Sunday in August we have ´el dia del niño´or child day. This is a day when the Peruvians celebrate children.

Nicole as sweet as ever

Sharro our god-daughter painting Karina´s face.

We therefore decided to have a party for the kids and celbrated in style, and without their parents. No child cried the whole time!!

The old favourite!!

Angela won, and her sister Karina cried foull. Sibling rivalry!!

Daniel, Priscilla with Jefferson, and Rosa with Tiago.

Sebastian with adopted uncle Oscar

Haseena, our intern doing ring a ring a roses.

We had fun, played games, filled them with lots of sweets and other junk, and let kids do what they do best, be kids and have fun.

Jefferson seemed to enjoy the chocolate.

Wedding!!!

A month ago I was given the chance to take my second wedding here in Peru. (The first was in the jungle) Both of them have been very different to my normal experience of weddings in the UK. Jaime and Belen who are both part of our church in Pacifico have lived together for 13 years but felt that it was the right time to get married. I had a dual role at the wedding as the official chauffeur and the presiding minister.

The happy couple who were acting as if in love which was great to see.

I arrived at 8.40pm to pick them up. It was supposed to be 8.00pm. When I arrived Jaime was still in his dressing gown. We left at 9.00 and then proceeded to drive around several attractive spots in Chorrillos, the area where we all live. Meanwhile Jaime and Belen were constantly on the phone trying to sort out the P.A for the wedding which hadn´t arrived, the food that hadn´t been sorted 100% and also checking about the DJ who was at that point presiding over a babyshower. I would have been stressed if it had been my wedding but they seemed to be very relaxed about the whole situation. Anyway 10 0 clock arrivedand we hadn´t arrived.We then hit major traffic as it was the anniversary of Chorrillos, and got delayed another 40 minutes. After that I thought it was just plain sailing and we could start the wedding!

Jaime repeating his vows after me.

The guys from the church who made the journey to the wedding.

How wrong I was. We then arrived 1 block from the wedding venue, we stopped at a very dodgy and dirty looking chinese restaurant and waited for the all clear that the DJ and the sound had arrived. Meanwhile Belen in her wedding dress went to the bathroom and bought some food. I was completely thrown by the whole event, but throughly enjoyed the whole event, even though it started at 11pm and when we left at 1.15 am we felt like the party poopers!!!!

The happy couple below!!! Jaime seems to have the Chandler curse and can´t seem to smile even though he is generally a happy guy!!

Baptisms and update

Last Sunday we had our 3rd baptism service in the last year, another great day of celebration. We were able to baptise 10 people a real honour and privilege. Many of these people were new time believers having been Christians less than 3 months, or those who had grown up as Christians and had begun again to follow JesusThe great thing is that many of these people are already involved in the church life. We are steadily, yet solidly growing as a church. Eating together

The church in Los cedros that meets in our house is also growing and the fruit is very obvious to see. I do love our work here although at times, not quite daily, we are tried and tested in new and original ways. It keeps your feet firmly on the ground, and solidly searching God, a good place to be.

See below for some of the baptisms.