17Apr 2012
One of the things that inspired me to do university ministry in Perú is the possibility of getting students excited about God's mission. Students in Arequipa come from diverse backgrounds - imagine if they were inspired to take the gospel to unreached parts of Perú and beyond! I've just been part of a training course where Pioneers is working towards this goal, not just with University students, but with the larger church community. The aim is to give people an understanding (and experience) of missions and then give them the opportunity to take on further study. Christine is actually doing the in-depth three-month course at the moment.
Experiencing food from a different culture
So in just three jam-packed days (9am-7pm) we looked at how missions was part of God's plan from the start: the history of missions, cross-cultural ministry and mission strategy, just to name a few aspects
Learning about cross-cultural communication through a game
Allen George from our mission presented a training guide for potential Latino missionaries. This is an amazing resource and has been over a year in the making, thanks to Chris Conti and her team in Lima.
At the end I found out that several people had a strong desire to take the gospel to the Quechua people who live in the Peruvian highlands where there are still many unreached communities. They connected up with people who were fluent in Quechua and are making plans. There was also one person who was willing to go to a strategic nation that is generally closed to western people. Thanks Pioneers team. What an exciting and inspiring conference!
09Apr 2012
It never rains here in Arequipa. We're living in a desert. Well, that's true except in the wet season - late December, January, February and a little in March.
We've just been through the most severe wet season in 30 years. This meant lots of broken pipes, flooding in the streets and frequent water cuts.
Christine with the many containers we use to store water
We had one really difficult day without water. I made the assumption that if the water stopped, we still had 120 litters of water in the hot water system. I was wrong! When the water stopped, so did the hot water. Someone explained that when the water is cut, there is no pressure to drive the water through the hot water system. It was a frustrating day not being able to flush toilets or wash dishes and fortunately it only lasted a day.
I went out and bought several large containers to hold our water backup. So when the later water cuts came we were fine.
Christine is under our make-shift rain water catcher. We purchased this to protect the washing machine from the sun but accidentally discovered that in heavy rain the water funnels to one point where we can catch it in a barrel. It's ironic that the water cuts are during times of heavy rain so it's great to be able to catch the precious rain water.
All the containers you can see (above) were used for storing (a ridiculous amount of) drinking water.
Water purification technology has come a long way. Previously missionaries had to import an expensive water filtration systems from Europe. The local people boil their water, which in the long run is also expensive. Now it's easy to purchase here these inexpensive two phase filter system. The first (black) unit is a paper filter that removes all the particles. The second (white) unit is a carbon filter that kills the bacteria.
We've learnt a few simple lessons that have made life so much easier. I think that both in Australia and here in Peru we are very aware of how precious water is.
02Apr 2012
Here are a few photos of our home plus the kids. We live on the second floor of a Peruvian family's home.
Kids bedroom
Annabelle posing - who does she get that from? Styrofoam can be a lot of fun. This is our little balcony where we have our washing machine and we dry our clothes.
When taking photos I sometimes ask them not to smile and this is what happens.
Annabelle enjoying dancing! This is our study and possibly where we can have students stay.
Living and dining area
Ours and Samuel's room
The view of El Misti (the volcano) from the study window
Thank God for our home. We love the place - it's close to markets, shops and the university where David hopes to work. It's also convenient because there are lots of buses from here into the city.
In our next post we'll share what it's like when it rains in the desert - water shortages and flooding at the same time.
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