Faena!

03 May 2018

'Faena' in Spanish means 'church work day'.  Well, actually it means any work day where a group of people get together to do some large task for the general good.  We've participated in faenas in the past to dig water canals in villages and to do repairs at our children's schools.  On Sunday's faena, we expanded our roof to cover our newly-enlarged sanctuary.  We recently increased the number of walls in our church 50%!  (from two to three) and by doing so, widened our sanctuary, so we extended the tin roof to cover the new gap.  

If you don't have a step ladder, you can just pile up chairs to the height you want!

Carlos Saves the Day

02 Apr 2018

On Monday mornings, Mary Beth goes out to SIM's camp to play horse wrangler in the morning and kid wrangler in the afternoon.  (Neighbor kids visit her apartment in the parsonage to play games and learn how to apply to the Bible to their lives.)  It takes about two hours to get there if the buses go well.  Today they didn't go so well.  A little over halfway to camp her bus stopped and sat hardly moving for an hour.  It turns out there were strikers protesting (we don't know what they were protesting against, so clearly not a helpful strike to convey their dissatisfaction) and blocking the road.  After her patience ran out, Mary Beth got off the bus and started looking for a vehicle heading back to Arequipa with an available seat.  Thankfully, her prayers were answered by a taxi being driven by Carlos, the man who does maintenance work at the camp, who also felt waiting for the road to open would be futile.  On the way back they came across a truck that had just recently tipped over on a curve, blocking the road again.  Carlos and his brother saved the day by helping a group of men tip it back up onto its wheels so everyone could continue on their way!

Kids Prices for Horror Show

02 Apr 2018
Our daughter Annabelle, when she was just 7 years old when she came home upset really wanting to change her name. I was surprised because “Annabelle" is such a beautiful name and everyone seems to like the name. I asked her to tell me more and soon enough she told me that kids at school were teasing her. There was a movie called “Annabelle” and kids were often quoting lines from the movie to her. I looked up the movie and it’s a horror movie about a doll called Annabelle. “Seriously!” I thought, "how many parents would let their 7 year kid watch a horror movie". Here in Peru, sadly it’s not that uncommon.
 
Annabelle Movie Poster
 
Just today I came across a flier for a horror show called the “House of the Demon". I wasn't surprised, given that here in Arequipa the horror genre is extremely popular. What surprised me was that there were kids prices for the horror show.
 
Kids prices for Horror Show
 
We can’t control society and its values. Please pray that we can raise resilient kids that will fill their minds with the right things and stand strong in the face of peer pressure and teasing.
 

The Continuing Tree Saga

19 Mar 2018

This afternoon I looked down the street to see how the tree I had transplanted was doing and saw a ton of bricks (okay, probably a lot more than a ton) piled up where the tree had been.  Clearly they had decided not to let this little tree obstruct their task at hand.

 

It wasn't until I went up to take a closer look that I saw that they had spared the tree!  It likes like it will be hard to water it now, but it made me smile to see they had stacked the bricks around it without crushing it!

Plant

16 Mar 2018

Last Friday, Mary Beth biked while I ran a long run in training for the Lima Marathon in May.  It was long enough of a run that when we returned, someone from the municipality had planted a tree in our front yard!  We've had bushes there before, but tore them out because they make it hard to get in and out of the truck.  I applaud their efforts to make the dessert we live in greener, but there are less inconvenient ways. 

Four houses down, they are building what looks like a new apartment building.  They need a tree.  So in the night, I dug up the tree in front of our house and planted it in front of theirs!  I think the construction workers felt like Wall-E in the movie of the same name and took a liking to it.  This morning I noticed that someone had even watered it!  

Horse Camp

03 Mar 2018

Nehemiah, one of the counsellors (you can tell Mary Beth is writing this post as she uses the Canadian-preferred double 'l'!) at Equestrian Camp this year, regaled his campers with stories of how he had grown up without parents, started working at 6 years old and joined the gangs in Lima.  He told how he then committed his life 100% to the Lord because of a brain operation he had that was supposed to leave him paralyzed and with limited mental capacity.  Now he dreams of returning to university and becoming a missionary.  During one of our Bible Study lessons I asked the campers to give an example of someone who had learned perseverance, character and hope through suffering (Rom. 5:2-5), one of them said ‘Nehemiah’.  I asked, ‘Nehemiah from the Bible?’  ‘No,’ she replied, ‘Nehemiah the counsellor’.   I thought she had given a very good example.

The campers, counsellors and their horses (Mary Beth in orange)

Nehemiah also encouraged his campers to learn the art of fire-making from scratch by hacking up a big old tree and using it to cook a 'Huatia', a traditional Peruvian highland dish where food (generally meat and potatoes) is laid over very hot coals and covered in a pile of dirt.  It is left to cook for an hour (in our case half an hour because we had less meat and more veggies) and then unburied and eaten for supper.  Ours was delicious and devoured very quickly. 

We just came for a haircut and my kids vanished!

16 Feb 2018

Today was the fourth day of our VBS.  When it was done, I went to the doorway to hand out fliers inviting the parents to come tomorrow for the finale.  A mom was waiting at the door wondering if her son was there and I had to coax her to go into the church and look.  She found her son, but he was having such a good time he didn't want to leave so she stayed a bit and Mary Beth started talking to her.  The mom explained that she had been in the neighborhood to get a haircut and the next thing she knew, her son was gone, attracted to the music and kids at our church!  But she seemed happy that he was there and indicated they'd return tomorrow.

Each child gets to have his picture taken in our rocket and take home a printed copy on the last day.

Today we had 40 kids for the 3rd day in a row.  I had 14 in my class of 10-14 year-olds.  They have been really well behaved and attentive in my classes each day.  

 

How many kids?

13 Feb 2018

We asked people to pray for 40 kids to come to our church's VBS that started today.  I had 10 in my class, Mariela had 12 in her class and Elizabeth had 13 in her class.  That's 35.  Julio announced in our meeting that there were 5 toddlers present too, to put us at 40, but I think that would be cheating!  Elizabeth remarked, "Allen said he had asked people to pray for 40 kids to come.  Let's pray for 60 now!"  "No!  We can't handle that many!" I half-joked. 

Praise God for the great first day of VBS and that we can handle however many show up tomorrow!

VBS starts tomorrow

12 Feb 2018

Tomorrow, Vacation Bible School (VBS) begins at our little church.  Our theme is 'Galactic Observers' and the church members have worked hard decorating the church for the event as you can see in the picture.  I think everyone is pretty excited about the event and last night we had the largest attendance without free food that we've seen since we started attending here.  45 people!  We had to scramble to bring out more chairs during the middle of the service. 

Pray that we have a lot of children attend this week.  I have been praying for 40+ kids to attend, which would be a huge number of kids.  We walked through the neighborhood handing out invitations today.  Pray that the teachers prepare well.  I (Allen) have been assigned the 11-13 year-olds and Mary Beth is in charge of telling the story of Amy Carmichael, missionary to India.  VBS is each day from 3 to 5 pm until Saturday.

Ladies Conference and Ministry Update

18 Jan 2018

The ladies conference went very well and we had about 45 people attend which is a big jump from the 15 who attend the weekly meetings. The theme was “Loved by God” and we certainly think they got the message. We also found they loved the ‘Pineapple story’ which is a challenging story and they could relate to it. A picture tells a thousand stories so below are some photos. 

Group

I made a silly face to make them smile and they did.

We still have a slight generational difference, especially in terms of education but God is slowly breaking down barriers. At the last meeting I asked everyone to comment about what they were learning from God and 95% were confident enough to respond which is a big step forward and an encouragement. Some of the ladies went up to the kids club (at church plant) yesterday to serve Christmas treats and give a small gift. How wonderful is that? They’re serving others.

This is where the seed was first planted in my heart last Mother’s day-  the idea of teaching women about God’s love and empowering them to serve. It is almost full circle… So join me in praying that by Mother’s day 2018 (May) we can see the women’s group leaders teaching the kids club mothers. Now that is my dream… Let us see what God has planned.

Many ladies are from the Quechua speaking highlands. Very different to student ministry with modern youth.

Janet spoke about liberating your soul from past hurts and Nica helped organise the conference.

We presented each lady with a rose to bless them and help them feel loved. Gift giving is not as common as in the west.

We provided lunch and a craft for the ladies.

Ana is a faithful servant with good questions and willingness to learn. Rosa is a great spiritual leader who is now using her own examples in teaching the ladies. Pray for them.

Amanda - a beloved friend, talked about God's love for us and how we can love our spouses and families.

 

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