Welcome to Camps

Welcome

After all the cleaning and preparation camps begin this week. Family camp starts tomorrow (Sunday) and we expect to have 50 people staying at the camp all week, leaving on Saturday. While the grown ups are meeting and studying God´s word together the mision rescate team will be looking after the children. We´re organising a program of games, songs, memory verses and bible lessons and appreciate your prayers as we finalise the program. I´ll be teaching memory verses, so pray i can manage the Spanish. The team have been working really hard and as i write its 12 oclock and we´re painting and cutting metal posts, so pray that we would find strength in God and that he would sustain us through the week.

For many families, family camp provides an opportunity for parents and children to be together. Many parents work long hours to support their children and dont get to see their children through the day. It will be a time when families can relax and enjoy spending time with each other, pray that families wold feel refreshed and encouraged. Some of the family members who will come to camp are not Christians and dont follow Jesus, and for some this will be the first time that they have heard the message of the gospel. Pray that the seed would be planted and especially for the children that they would understand and accept the wonderful gift of salvation.

^{Matthew 11:28-29}

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

Meet the Team

This the team (plus two Baptist Missions workers and minus David and Judith). From the left round, Vanessa, Jorge, Elizabeth (married to Raul), Raul (Radio el Sembrador) Guido, Luz (BM worker and camp coordinator) Me, Marisol

It´s now day 6, and 6 packed days they have been. I think i can say that i have settled into life in Peru. Below is the campsite, where i am saying, the team have their own accomodation in the campsite. I received a great welcome from the team, i´ve even had a few rounds of the song ´hey jude´!

It is great getting to who the other team members. Here´s a bit of info about the team:

Marisol worked in a clothes shop in Tacna, she´s 19 and the baby of the team. Vanessa is the eldest and she´s a primary teacher in Tacna. They both work with kids in their churches in Tacna and have been so patient with my spanish. We´ve having language lessons tonight, i´m teaching english (which will be interesting considering how bad my spelling is).

Guido is the team leader, and has been brilliant at managing the team, keeping us focused on what we´re doing and helping us bond as a team. It´s easy to get distracted with all the work we have to do and the tiredness that comes from working in the sun, but he reminded us this morning that our relationship with God comes first, and like Mary we should choice what is better, and spend time with Christ our Saviour (luke 10).

Then we have Jorge, a mechanic from tacna. He the singer of the team and unfortunately the snorer. David, is a dental assistant and is great with impressions and finally for the boys Daniel who is my second translator and who has just finishing a degree in computer science and led the Christian union in his university in Tacna.

We are getting on well together and each person brings a different element and different gifts to the team. We expected to have another girl on the team, another judith but unfortunately due to difficulties at home she hasn´t yet been able to join us, so pray that she will be able to join us and complete the team.

this week our days consist of getting the campsite ready for camps. We have painted the shop in the campsite, cleared and cleaned the games room and kitchen and this afternoon we will build the obstacle course. The work is mixed with plenty of food (some of which definately doesn´t exist at home) , games and the occasional siesta. There´s also three crazy dogs to keep us entertained, one who likes to lick knees, one who drools and paddington who needs to be loved and petted.

While things have been going well, please continue to pray for me. I´m learning spanish and the team have been patient but its frustrating not being able to join in during the bible study and i want to be able to talk to people about their faith. Its easy to let frustrations turn into negativity so pray that i would keep the right attitude and be constant in prayer. Pray that we as a team would be focused on the work that we have to do and that we would rely on God for all things and show unity as a team.

A New Year in Peru

Happy New Year to all!

After 18 hours of travel I have arrived in Peru! I managed to make all my connections and get through immigration and customs without any intergoations or bag checks, praise the Lord! I had time to enjoy a last starbucks in Miami. only for Christine Morrow to me for a coffee in Starbucks in Lima airport. Travelling to Miami I was sitting beside a comedian heading to a weeks shows on a cruise ship and had a great chat about the differences between world religions, he had been a Budist for a time but had started reading the Bible. Chatting about what we hoped for the new year we were both resolving to read and study more.

I got into Lima about tenpm and Trevor was waiting at the airport! It was so lovely to meet the Morrows at the hotel and Lima was celebrating my arrival with an hour long fireworks display which filled the sky! It was an amazing way to mark the new year and a new adventure for me in Peru. On Saturday we returned to the airport for our flight down to Tacna and I enjoyed the sunshine and 28oC very much!

We have now arrived in Ilo and Andrew and Rebecca have been been keeping me right! We´re leaving for the campsite shortly where I will meet the rest of the mision rescate team and get settled into the campsite for the next few months. We´re also heading up to church in Ete where the team are taking sunday school and Trevor will be preaching.

Please pray
- for the team as we are finally all together
- for all those who will meet together to plan for the camps in the coming week
- for my spanish this week as i have to actually start talking in Spanish!

Thanks you for all your prayers as i have travelled, i still cant believe how smoothly everything has gone, that i havn´t lost anything and have been on time for everything! It exciting thinking what the new year will bring in Peru and I have great anticipation for how the Lord will lead. I pray that you all will look to the Lord for his leading in the year to come and seek Him in all your plans for the year. As God calls in Genesis 17

"I am God almighty, walk before me faithfullly and be blameless"

Mission Rescate IV

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.

This is the first blog post of Mision Rescate 4 and I write to you from a cosy living room, in front of the fire as the snow melts in Northern Ireland. My case is almost packed and there's just the essentials to take care of .... getting a hair cut, picking sweets for the plane, oh yes, and saying goodbye to the family for a while.

It's great to be able to continue this blog from last year and my prayer is that Mision Rescate 4 can continue on the work of the great teams that have worked in Peru in previous years. As I leave on Thursday, I will be spending January helping in camps at the camp centre in Ete. In February the team will travel around the churches supporting their summer outreach programs, working with children and young people and getting involved in anything needed. Its an exciting time as I think that in 3 days i'll be meeting the Morrows (the missionary family i'll be working with) in Lima, joining the rest of the team and getting settled into the work to come. I've been told that its so warm in Peru at the minute that people dont go out in the afternoons, thinking the heat is going to be a shock to the system considering that its been subzero temperatures keeping us inside in Ireland.

We've had a lovely christmas in our house and now that the festivities are over, I'm ready for the next adventure. This team has came together in its own way and in its own time, and its great to know that God has brought things together according to his perfect purposes. Thinking of the Christmas story, I was reading in Galatians 4
"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit if his Son into our hearts, crying "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God."

God has brought the team for Mision Rescate 4 together in His own time and with the purpose of sharing the news of his Son, whose birth we remember at christmas and whose life brings us hope. The time has come for the team to start work and we trust that God will help us in all that we will do, in the difficulties we will face and teach us as we serve him together.

Please pray for us
- For safety as I travel
- For the team as we meet and get to know each other
- For the missionaries and team as we plan for camps
- For the people we meet, that we will share Christ faithfully
- That God would be glorified in all that we do

Thank you so much for you support and prayers! Please keep in touch over the next months with whats happening in your lives and stories from home.

God bless
Jud