Christmas Greetings

I hope you all had a great Christmas. We had a brilliant time with the Morrow family over Christmas week. The hospitality was amazing and the Christmas dinner was something else....we can't complain about not being well fed!

Boxing day was spent in Tacna in the Brew household along with the Morrows, Williamsons and Allister Creelman. We had yet another delicious Christmas dinner and it was great to have a time of fellowship with the other missionaries.

We are heading off today to Ite (the campsite) where we will be based for the rest of our time in Peru. Tomorrow sees the commencement of 'Mision Rescate' where we will be joined with a Peruvian boy and girl and a boy from Argentina.

Pray for us as we begin our work with 'Mision Rescate'
-for team unity
-that God would be glorified
-that we would settle in quickly

Also as we prepare for the 3 Summer camps which begin on the 9th January
-that the children, young people and families would be reached with the Gospel
-that God would be at the centre of everything

Once again thank you for your continued support. Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Report from the Jungle

What a journey!! On the Friday morning we got onto a bus headed for Puerto Maldanado. We were promised a journey of 18 hours...which was a bit of an "under-exaggeration!!" Due to strikes, 2 breakdowns and alternative routes we arrived in Puerto Maldanado 28 hours later! It wasn´t quite up to the Ulsterbus Goldliner standard...but it was all worth it!

We made the most of the local cuisine, eating fruits that we had never seen before. We were also given monkey to try, which tastes nothing like chicken but is still very nice all the same! On the whole the food was awesome and the fruits were full of flavour.

We went to Puerto Maldanado with 3 other members of the church who had worked there for a period of 3 months. The purpose in being there was to have a baptismal service and to encourage the new believers in the area. There is no local pastor or missionary so the believers need a lot of prayer and encouragement. Fortunately there is a missions team who will be working there to establish a church and to discilple the young believers.

During the week we were also able to have an event for the children in the area. We had games, choruses, Bible lesson and quiz which the children really enjoyed. About 30 children came altogether which was brilliant. We also held a football tournament for the guys from the town in order to build up contacts with them. It was a good opportunity to get to know them better.
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A lot of the week was spent building up relationships and sharing with others from the town. A number of people have drug related problems and it was encouraging to find that two boys from the town came back to Arequipa with us because they wanted to enter the rehabilitation programme run by the church there.
Please continue to pray for the Christians there that they would grow and mature. Please pray that God would look after them and protect them and that the Missions Team who are to begin in January would be used by God to build up a church there in Puerto Maldanado.

¡La Selva!

We have just been told that we are heading to the jungle on Friday! We will be jumping onto a bus in the morning to travel over 18 hours to a small town in the jungle. We have no idea what the acommodation is like but we have been told that we´ll be "roughing it."

Two young people from the church here in Arequipa worked there for a period of 5 months as part of a missions team. There are a handful of Christians there who don´t have a church. They really need teaching and discipleship. The 3 of us along with Marcos, Marilyn and Bernardo will be leaving on Friday morning and we´ll be back on the 18th just before travelling down to Ilo the next day.

Please pray for us as we travel that´d we´d be kept safe and that God would use us to help encourage and teach the young believers there.

Thankyou for all your prayers. We really appreciate them and need them.

There ain´t no mountian high enough....

Last Thursday we took the 6 hour bus trip higher into the Andes. Puno is 3,800 metres above sea level, on the edge of Lake Titicaca, and, as we soon discovered - a totally different world. The purpose of this expedition was to help Lourdes Brew with what is known as "The Sunday School Project". The Sunday School´s back home raise money to buy a Christmas gift for the children of the Sunday Schools high in the Andes.

During out time we stayed with Lourdes´ family in Yunguyo - a small village 2 hours from Puno. We had a great time with them and were continually told to "serve ourselves" at meal times. We definitely ate more than our share of food!

On Friday we sorted, named and packed 467 t-shirts for children, from the ages of 4-15, that belong to 14 different churches. On Saturday and Sunday we visited the Churches to distribute the gifts. Each Sunday School recited different verses they had learnt or sang songs. We also gave out sweet bread to the children and had hot chocolate.

One of the Churches we visited on Saturday afternoon was in the country side near Huapaca. We stopped at a small house on the edge of the road. The next thing we knew about 20 children had climbed into the combi all excited and ready to go. We drove further down the road and onto a track, at the end of which was a small building. These people were so welcoming and so grateful for every little thing. Simon had the oppurtunity to share a childrens story at this church and also preach twice on Sunday. After visiting the first church on Sunday morning we were presented with dinner - rice, chuno (freeze dried potato) and fried cheese. The second church once again saw us being presented with dinner - rice, chuno amd fried cheese... Thankfully we had some spare plastic bags and were able to discretely bring our second dinner away with us for consumption later on....

It was a great weekend and we really gained a understanding of how difficult life can be here. It was very interesting to see where the work of Irish Baptist Foreign Missions began all those years ago in 1927.

Schools out for Summer!!!

Last Friday saw the 3 of us bidding farewell to the Language school. (It´s hard to believe that 2 months have gone by so quickly!!) Each time a student leaves, the school has a 'Dispedida' (farewell), where we eat empanadas, share 'thank-you' gifts and listen to a farewell speech in Spanish. We were no exception, the 3 of us gave our speechs and told the teachers how great they were...we also made some 15's which seemed to go down pretty well with both the teachers and other students.



With a bit of extra time over the past few days, we have been able to use it to help with the various projects in both the church (Pepe and Jardin- schools belonging to the church) and Latin Link (Shalom- Latin Link school)



We head to Puno tomorrow for 5 days to help out with the Christmas Project. Each year churches back home send money to be used in the Sunday schools in Puno. Lourdes Brew heads up and brings clothes for the kids, kind of like a reward at the end of the year and as a special Christmas treat. Its also a time that is used to encourage the Sunday school teachers in the great work they do.



Pray for us

- as we adapt to the change in situation

- as we get more involved in the various projects with the church and Latin Link

- for safely in travelling to Puno

- God might use us in assising Lourdes Brew



Thanks once again for your continued support in prayer, it is greatly appreciated!!