Tuesday 27 October 2009

The Miraculous Vending Machine

In the last month we have seen many people here in Arequipa dressed in purple dresses or purple shirts, with a white rope as a belt or tie. In class it was explained that people dess this way for the entire month of October because they believe it´s the month of the "Lord of the Miracles." So, if they need a miracle they´ll say to God "I will wear purple for the entire month of October for 5 years so that you can give me..." It seems really bizarre but that is how some people think here.

Lynne just stood in front of this woman and non-discreetly took her photo!!


Two weeks ago we decided to go and see a bit more of Arrequipa. We ended up looking around a huge catholic church. There were a lot of statues behind glass, but one in particular stood out. It was a small child with a lot of plastic toy cars piled up to its knees. In school one of our teachers said that many believe that the child Jesus is a miraculous child who grants many miracles. People come to his statue, give it a plastic toy, and expect to recieve a miracle.

It is incredibly sad the mentality that many have. They want to use God as a miracle vending machine. They want the blessings of God but care nothing about having a relationship with the God of blessings.

Please pray that many would have this superstitious hold broken. Pray that God would reach into the lives of many here, that they´d be able to know and love Him, that they would know what it is to believe in Jesus, have their sins forgiven and be eternally secure. Pray that God would change them.

From One Primary School to Another!

Lynne taught for 2 years in Cookstown Primary and just can´t seem to give it a rest!!! In Cayma Baptist, the church were we stay, there´s a small primary school which runs during the mornings. Lynne has been asked to help out every Tuesday morning from 9.00 until 10.00 which is brilliant! She´ll be teaching some music and maybe a bit of English.

Please pray for her with the language barrier and also that the children would be impacted by the difference that Jesus has made in her life.

Sunday 25 October 2009

Thankyou!!!!

This is a blog post to say thankyou very much for your prayers this last week. We were very grateful for God´s help.

On Monday morning Simon met with Nelson for the discipleship class. They looked at how a Christian should face the daily battle with temptation. Nelson is very keen to learn and just wants to follow God. They´re meeting again on Wednesday morning in Nelson´s home which is about an hour away from the church. He´s getting lunch there with the family so he can´t complain! Please keep praying for Nelson.

Shirley and Lynne were roped into helping organise the women´s meeting on Friday night because the Pastor´s wife hasn´t been too well. So a few of the women in church are now professionals in making 15s! Someone from church led the Bible Study and the night seemed to go well.

The Saturday night we went to the youth meeting. Only 8 were there in total which was less than the last one but still very worth wild. Simon had the chance to share a short message with the young people which hopefully they understood!

Thanks especially for praying for the Sunday School during the church service. We had 8 lively children for ... an hour and a half!!! But we really enjoyed it. We got to teach them the next lesson in the life of David, which was David and Absalom and talked about how we can think that there is no way we´d ever be as rebellious as Absalom and do the things he did, but in reality all of us have rebelled against God and need His forgiveness. We had a quiz too which was great fun and reinforced the story before they got stuck into their worksheets and played games. Please keep praying that something said might stick with them and be used by God, if not now in the future, to bring them to Himself.

Thanks again for all your thoughts and prayers. With little language and with being in a new culture it does make it more difficult so your prayers are really appreciated!

Sunday 18 October 2009

Busy Week Ahead!

Hello everyone! This is just a a quick note to ask for your prayers this week. Things are going to be hectic! As well as all our regular church meetings and hours of homework everyday, we´ve been asked to take the Sunday School this week which happens during the main church meeting. Please pray for us as we prepare and get ready.

As well there is a discipleship programme beginning this week, which Simon is able to be involved in. Please pray for Nelson and Rezar who are both in their 20s and want to learn more about the Bible through this course.

Please pray that we´d continue to learn and understand more of the language. It can be very frustrating and tiring at times. This week our classes have changed again - Shirley is in school 8.30-12.00, Lynne 10.30-2.00 and Simon 2.30-6.00. Please pray that we´d be able to communicate well with others.

Also please pray that we´d get to know the young people in the church more and more. This week we´ve been able to get to know Abel who has been teaching Simon how to cook...he needs it! He has been here most mornings cooking lunch for us. It turns out Abel is a chef in a 3-star restaurant so we´ve been getting meals which normally cost up to $30...which has been great!

Thankyou for all your prayers. It´s really encouraging to hear that people are praying for us and we hope that with all we have to do this week that God would use us.

Thursday 15 October 2009

A day in the life of Simon, Shirley and Lynne

Hello again and welcome to the blog.......

We thought it was time to fill you in on what a typical day is like here in Arequipa

7.00am- A time of prayer and devotions as a team

7.30am- Breakfast

8.00am- Shirley and Lynne leave for school

8.30am- School begins with Grammar class

10.00am- break time

10.30am- One-to-one conversation class

12.00am- School ends...walk home

1.00pm- Lunch

2.00pm- Simon leaves for school

2.30pm-School begins for Simon with grammer class

4.00pm-Break

4.30pm- Conversation class

6.00pm- School finishes


Any free time during the day is usually spent doing homeworks, emails, updating blogs, washing etc etc

Every evening we have something to keep ourselves occupied too.....

Monday- Church cell group

This is a small Bible study group which meets every Monday at Paul and Ruth Turners. Last Monday there were around 5 Peruvian young people. Everyone shared a little about a verse from the Bible that meant something to them. Paul did a great job translating so we all gained something from it.

Tuesday- Latin Link Prayer group/meeting with Latin Link Striders

Wednesday- Free until we are given something to do!!

Thursday- Church prayer meeting

Friday- Church Ladies meeting (for Shirley and Lynne......Simon watches a film at Paul´s house!)Last Friday Shirley and Lynne has their first experience of a Peruvian Ladies meeting, where sewing skills were tested when they had to make flower badges to be sewn onto a t-shirt! It was a good opportunity to meet with the ladies from the church though!

Saturday- Simon plays football in the morning with others from the Language School. He leaves at a quarter to eight in the morning and comes back wrecked! Last week he went for the first time and came back scunnered after trying to play in the altitude!

Saturday evening - Youth meeting (alternate weeks)
Last Saturday we were able to go to the church youth meeting. We got to play football with our ankles stuck together with sellotape...no need for insurance policies here!! The losers got to do a forfeit. We also played a form of tug of war which ended in a number of people getting rope burns, but it was great banter!

We had a church fellowship lunch on Sunday afternoon, which allowed us to try out some Peruvian dishes again.

Life goes on and many things that were strange a few weeks ago are now normal!! Thanks for taking the time to read our blog.

Thursday 8 October 2009

Week One Completed in Arequipa

So we have survived our first week here in Arequipa.

On Sunday morning we bid farewell to Gordon and Tom and the fun
begins.......We experienced our first of many Peruvian Sunday schools and
church services. This was somewhat different from services back at home, the
service lasted around 2 hours which was quite intense with the lack of
Spanish on Shirley and Lynnes part!! However it was a great opportunity to
meet some of the people we will be spending the next 2 months with.

On Monday we had our first day of language school. We have 2 classes every day, an hour and a half of grammar and then an hour an a half of one-to-one conversation class, so there is no place to hide!!!! We didn´t quite realise the intensity of the classes and the homework that follows. However, the teachers are great craic and we are enjoying meeting lots of other foreign students. Shirley and Lynne got a special welcome with another cake and happy birthday being sung in 5 different languages.

In the afternoon we had a birthday lunch and then visited the Juanita the Ice Princess after the recommendation of Gordon. She was an Inca sacrifice who was found frozen at the top of a mountain a number of years ago.

Monday evening was our first Church cell group at Paul and Ruths home. Here we received MORE birthday cake and got a chance to get to know some of the young people from the church.

Tuesday evening was an opportunity to meet the Latin Link Team who are situated in Arequipa. There were 4 generations of Latin Link missionaries present at the meeting and it was great to join with them for a time of prayer and fellowship.

Wednesday was a day full of learning, we attended the Spanish class in the morning and then came home for a special class on 'washing our clothes'. There are apparently a variety of ways to wash your clothes by hand. Simon kindly took time out to show us his very special technique where you fill a sink, put in detergent, wash, rinse, shake then hang on a washing line- all very technical......Thank-you Simon!!

Thursday was a national holiday so no school...yeahhhhh!! We made the most of a free day and headed out to the country with the other Latin Link short termers and Ruth Turner. We visited some sort of mill, it was lovely to get our of the city for a while. We finished up the afternoon with a BBQ.

Thanks again for following our blog.

Friday 2 October 2009

Busy Times!

We have just had our first full day in Arequipa!!!! A lot was packed in! We started off by having breakfast with the Turners who literally live a stone´s throw away from the church. Paul and Ruth have been very good to us and are helping us to settle in very quickly.

After breakfast and a quick wash-up we found ourselves standing outside the Turner´s house waiting for a taxi. No taxi was ever able to take all of us so we quickly decided to all hop into a combi. These tend to be battered mini-buses, crammed full of compressed people, which ferry people from place to place around the city. This was another first "Peruvian Experience" for Lynne and Shirely!We jumped out of the combi and walked around a few corners until we found ourselves outside a small building. A plaque on the front read 'ABC Language Learning Centre.' We had a quick tour of the building in where we will be spending a lot of time. Monday sees the start of our language training beginning at 8.30 am. The teachers have a brilliant reputation and a brilliant sense of humour!!
After the quick tour we met up with the Roycroft´s in a cafeteria. Andrew was experiencing more matress problems (see their blog for more!...) while the rest of us chatted over an Inca Cola (our new favourite drink) with Carolyn and Grace. Ruth then brought us to the local supermarket for our groceries. Unlike supermarkets at home there are very few convienience foods so we will be busy cooking most things from scratch (we miss Uncle Ben but Simon is excited about develping his cooking skills!)
The theme of this blog, thus far, seems to be food and the next event was no exception! Paul and Ruth once again put on another huge spread (for 17 people) which included lasagne, breads and a mountain of salad. This was all washed down with maracuya (passion fruit juice). This gave us an opportunity to meet the Pastor and some locals from the church we are staying at. Andrew, Carolyn and Grace also joined us for the occasion.
Another surprise was in store for Lynne and Shirley as a cake was produced to celebrate their birthday (3 days early!). We think this was only an excuse for Gordon and Tom to get some birthday cake before bidding farewell to Arequipa.

In the evening we headed into Arequipa centre with Ruth as our tour guide, showing us some of the sights and how not to get lost. The night was ended by visiting a church cafe where we chatted and played games (Haly Galy) with some of those from the church.


Work beings properly on Monday when not only will we be attending language school but also getting involved with the different ministries within the church.

Thursday 1 October 2009

We´re Alive!!!!

After 20 hours of travelling and forcing down plane food we arrived in the capital of Peru! You have never felt the need to wear your seatbelt more, than when seated in a taxi driving through Lima...they are crazy! After arriving at our hotel we went out to grab something to eat, and got our first taste of Peruvian cuisine; emapanadas (like cornish pasties except nice!) and Inca Kola (Irn Brew with more sweeteners and colourings!)
The next day we flew to Tacna where we were able to use the Brew´s house as our base. It was brilliant to see John and Lourdes along with their Son-In-Law,daughter and two grandchildren. Stephanie, who was the grandchild of 8, thought it would be hilarious to turn Simon into a Pirate. Gordon, the director of Baptist Missions, was next in line to be attacked by the face painter but carefully evaded the situation by threatening to fire her grandad!!! (Only joking!)

On Wednesday we were sent in different directions to spend 6 hours with 3 separate families. We woke up to find the table spread for breakfast before going to the seminary. There we met 3 of the pastors who took us to different homes. Simon and Shirley were treated to a second breakfast when they arrived! It was a good start to the day. Simon then went with Pastor Abram who took him to do chruch visits. A starter and main cousre was produced for them at the third home before they headed to see Wilmar from church who made a Peruvian dish called ceviche (a dish of raw fish covered in lemon...delicious!) So he didn´t do too badly having 2 breakfasts and 2 lunches! He´ll be massive by the time he gets home!
After breakfast Shirley headed into Tacna Centre with 2 young people from the Luz de Vida Church, while Lynne went with Pastor Quintin to a family where she visited the dentist and peeled potatoes. It was difficult to make conversation but the Peruvians were patient and the dictionaries came in very handy!

This morning we left Tacna after our "whistle stop tour" and travelled to Ite where we had a 15 minute tour of the campsite. Ilo was our next port of call where we had lunch with Christine Morrow. It was great to see Christine although we only had an hour with her before we had to catch the bus for our 5 hour journey to Arequipa.


In Arequipa we met Ruth and Paul Turner from Latin Link. They´re helping us get settled in to life here. We are really glad to be here and can´t wait to get stuck into the language school and the church where we are staying. Tomorrow morning we´re heading to the market to buy the two main essentials ... food and bog roll!


Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers.
We´ll hopefully keep you updated as much as possible!