A Peruvian Adventure

Ecclesiastes is one of my favoutire books, it gives us a picture of what life is like without God and tells us without God,

"Meaningless, Meaningless, utterly meaningless, everything is meaningless"

Wisdom, relationships, money, entertainment , nothing can fill the God shaped hole we have in our lives. Soloman´s advice to us therefore is to seek God, to remember our creator in the days of our youth, to fear Him and keep his commands. This has been true for me in this past week.

We can run lots of programs for kids, have fun as a team and camp out in churches but unless we do it for God´s glory, in his strength and in his will, it is meaningless. We praise God for the blessings that he has given the team, he continues to take us forward and teach us new things every week.

The past week in Ilo we enjoyed the opportunity of sharing the gospel with two groups of kids in the holiday bible clubs and spending time with the young people in La Pampa. We had up to 100 kids between the two clubs and it tested our abilities but God was faithful and we leave the kids in His hands trusting that He will continue to work in their lives and use the teaching they have heard this week, please pray for this. We finished the week with a night for the young people, and we had a few new young people come to the church for this so pray for them also that they would have felt welcomed and would come back again. For me it was lovely to spend time with some ex-mision Rescate people. Freddy is from Mision Rescate 1 and a friend from my first time in Peru and it was lovely to catch up and see he´s as crazy as usual. I got to spend some time with Fanny also MR1, who recently married her fellow MR team member Riachard and they send their grettings to all the Irish MR1s and to the churches in Ireland who support the work in Peru. It was encouraging for me to see so many MrR team members active and encouraging their home churches and who can testify to how much MR taught them. Richard and Fanny are working tin 24, the rough area i mentionned we were doing the kids club in, and are leading the youth in the church. They choose to live in 24 so they could get to know families there and be a light in the community. So be encouraged that the support that you give to Mision Rescate now has a lasting impact and in ways that we cant see and be encouraged that your prayers are making an impact here in Peru, praise be to God. Pray for the members of next years team, from both here in Peru and in Ireland, that God would appoint new people to continue the work!

(kids club in Ilo) (me helping with the quiz) (kids loving MR getting water poured in their face)

Ecclesiatses tells us there is a time for everything

¹ There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens:

² a time to be born and a time to die,

⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

For me, Peru has been a time to learn and to grow in my faith. I have had to depend on God because for language and for strength. But it has also been a time for fun and to try a lot of new things so i want to give you a bit of a taster of life in Peru for me...

New things.... food......i ate my first chicken feet last week. In Peru you are privelged to get the chicken foot in your soup and they eat the meat, skin, whatever it is off the foot and suck the bones. I on the other hand nibbled a bit of the foot and thought that was enough!

Post.... i received a few parcels from home this week, and actually ran across the campsite to open them, not just because i suspected they contained chocolate but because it was exciting to have a little taste of home. I sat drinking my startbucks coffee this afternoon, translating my devotional, thinking, life is good! Praise God that the parcels arrived safe and sound. The Morrows are still waiting on post sent before Christmas, and a few christmas cards, just one of the difficulties of missionary life, keeping track of your post!

injuries....I received my first electric shock plugging in my straighteners, my foot got stood on by a slightly large child at the HB in Ite, I fell into the rubbish bags outside our bedroom, impailed my foot on a piece of stick, and fell while running with paddington the spaniel in my arms... dont panic the dog was all right but my bruise is still there.

jokes...i may have painted the boys toes scarlet red in the first couple of weeks and a couple of times since then, the girls may have threw some water baloons and pink dye in the general area of the boys, so i continue to live in fear of whatever revenge is coming my way!

(mugged while out on a walk/ hike) (we walked past the film crew working on the Peruvian version of Titanic) (Peru is rather pretty, and the top left photo is the path down to the beach) (delivering some baby clothes for Sally, mum to be in Ite)

skills.....íve been getting a bit of grief from the boys becuase i cant roll my r´s which is important in spanish. For example ´caro´ means car and ´carro´ (with a nice long r) means expensive. They try to make me practice and laugh when my rrrr souns like i´m choking. one night i was feeling a bit out of sorts, i may have been missing my family but i´m not sure, that doesn´t happen often. but anyway i was talking to guido and in a particularly wingy voice said, ´í just feel grumpy´only to discover that i can roll my r´s and can say grrrrumpy. God uses all our emotions!

I also had to wash my clothes by hand! the campsite has run out of water and for the past three days we´ve been filling buckets for water for toilets and showers and washing clothes. i was washing my clothes remembering the days when i put my washing in a basket in my room and it magically returned on hangers on my bedroom door! dont think my clothes washing abilities are quite at the same level as the rest of the team but its good fun sitting with my feet int he sink scrubbing the dirt out of my socks!

people....i had some time one afternoon in Ilo to head down into the centre to buy a frappuccino (amazing). true i got one the bus in the wrong direction and the journey took 20 minutes longer than expected. I got chatting to a gentleman who is married to a french lady and who used to go to church. i was able to share why i´m in Peru and a little of the work the team does with the churches here, it was nice to be able to talk about my faith with someone outside the church.

prayer....i have prayed my first prayers in spanish! prayer meetings are difficult for me, because its a lot of spanish words and words in tenses i dont know...yet. i have missed praying out load in meetings but God again is good and has given me opportunities to pray one to one with people and yesterday i managed to pray a whole prayer in spanish with Vanessa. small victories!

so what´s next....

Today is our final day of prep for the next two church visits. On thursday we head to Tacna to work with Luz de Vida another chruch associated with Baptist Misions working in the community in tacna. On Saturday we return to the Campsite, we have church in Ite on Sunday and then off to Moquegua to work with the church in San Antonio. So i wont be at the computer for the next week and a half but really appreciate your prayers for the work we´ll be involved in, again working in kids clubs and children´s meetings and being involved in the life of the church.

Prayer Points

- that God would lead us and keep us close to his word and we would serve him faithfully in all that we do

- for the children and young people we will work with in Tacna and Moquegua and that we would encourage the churches

- for Pan de Vida church and for San Antonio

- for mision rescate for old and new members in the team

- for me, for greater courage in using my spanish and talking in the churches and in sharing my faith at every opportunity

^{Joshua 1:9} Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.

moving to pastures new

Thank you for all your prayers for Ite. The week has finished well with over 40 kids and a few parents enjoying a fiesta in the church, with songs and games and lots of lovely cake. The kids have enjoyed their week and everytime we finished another part of the story of Ruth they were shouting that they wanted to hear more! We trust and pray that God will have used the holiday bible club this week, that the kids will have enjoyed all the memory verses and quizes and lessons but more than that that they would have heard and understand the message of salvation.

Today is one more day of preparations before we head to Ilo. Ilo is a larger town than Ite, and where the Morrows live. We will be working with the La Pampa church and they have plenty for us to do! The team will be dividing their talents between two kids clubs, one in La Pampa and another in 24, and taking part in youth meetings, women´s and prayer meetings inthe evenings. La Pampa is the more underprivileged area of Ilo and we will again be working with kids from difficult backgrounds and family situations, especially in 24. There´s the potential for a few difficulties with the team being divided between the two clubs, keeping track of all the kids and especially during the games, so we appreciate your prayers. With having the two clubs there is also the potential to tell so many more kids about Jesus Christ! We are excited to meet a new bunch of kids and to work in a new area and pray that this will be a beautiful week in Ilo, and that we would know God´s help and guidance in all that we do, for it is for His glory and in His strength that we work.

A New Work

Once again thank you for all your prayers, i´ve heard missionaries say before that they can feel when people are praying and i always thought to my self ´how would they know?´. Being here in Peru I can see the difference that prayer makes and see the impact of prayer so clearly.

(H´day bible club in Luz de Vida) (Young people in Luz de Vida)

We have had so many answers to prayer.

- the Mision Rescate team are working well together and learning from eachother

- the team enjoyed their time in Tacna and spending time with their families and havn´t been too homesick since returning to the campsite

- we had around 50 kids at the holiday bible club in Luz de Vida Church in Tacna

- the kids enjoyed themselves at the club and learned so much from the memory verses and from the story of Ruth and Boaz

- we had the opportunity to work with Pastor Fredy and the young people in Luz de Vida and help them in their ministry and we too were blessed by the relationships with the church

Please continue to pray for the children and young people we met in Luz de Vida, that what they have learned with excite their hearts and that God would continue to work in the lives. Luz de Vida is a small church in Tacna reaching a difficult area so pray that Pastor Freedy and his wife, Epifania, would remain strong and encouraged in the Lord.

^{Ephesians 1:18} I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, ¹⁹ and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength ²⁰ he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, ²¹ far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

So what happening at the minute?

We have just started our second holiday bible club in Ite. The campsite that we are staying in is situated beside the small town of Ite and for the past 10 years Trevor and Christine Morrow, and others, have been planting a church there. There have been many blessings and difficulties in this work over the years, for example since i was last in Peru (2007) there was a fire in the building and the church has since been rebuilt. A church is much more than a building, however, and while people have come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour in Ite the number of people attending the chrurch at times is small and there is still a need for men and women in the church who can help lead and devolop the work in Ite. We praise God for the Sunday school and women´s meeting which has continued over the summer and for the young peoples meeting and men´s bible study and ask that God would bless those who attend.

(kids club in Ite)

Its exciting to be part of the work in Ite this week, and to see the 40 kids arriving for Holiday Bible Club yesterday. the kids were so excited to see us and were waiting at the door 40 minutes before club started shouting ´Mision Rescate, mision rescate´when we arrived.

Prayer points

- we telling the story of ruth and boaz so pray that we would faithfully explain the story and that the kids would know that they can have Redeemer and friend in Christ

- the the kids that come to club, many are from difficult homes and difficult family situations so pray that they would enjoy the club and the games and the songs and the quiz and time with the team

- many of the team havn´t worked with children before so pray that we would continue to learn and develop our gifts in children´s work

- that the team would continue to serve God with joy, place him first in our lives and be faithful to His word

And me, i love being here, i love Peru and the work that we´re involved in and spending time with the missionaries and national workers. Yet the more time i spend here the more i see the need for God to

So many of the stories i have heard this week break my heart. Stories of abusive homes, domestic violence, teenage pregnancy and families who are survivng on very little. One girl that i meet in 2007, in the sunday school is now 15 and 8 months pregnant and has a difficult family situation. Some of the ladies from Ite had a baby shower for her last week but before that she had nothing for the baby. Trevor and Christine work so hard in the campsite and in keeping the church in Ite going and trying to help in these situations but there is so much more that we could do. Continue to pray for the work here in peru, for the church in ite and that God would send new people to serve in Peru. Please continue to support and pray for our missionaries and for the many gifted and faithful peruvian workers associated with the mission here in Peru and if you would like more information contact Baptist Missions c/o the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland.

Prayer points for me

- for for love for the people of peru

- for faithfulness in studying God´s word and my personall devotions. I miss sermons and prayer meetings and devotionals where i understand all the words!

- for my spanish, trying to tackle past tense this week, so prayer is needed

- for more opportunities to talk about the bible and faith with the people i meet

^{Luke 10 : 9}“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.