Our toaster broke. In America I would just throw it away, but in Peru, they fix everything. So for about $3.50 the 'electrocista' took our toaster apart, soldered a loose wire back in place and reassembled it in about 30 minutes while I looked for a school book for Ben and bought groceries. So, I saved a few bucks and kept one more toaster out of the landfill.
The activities surrounding the World Day of Prayer brought together 3 of Lamastre's churches: the Catholic Church, the Reformed Church, which is now called the United Protestant Church (Eglise protestante unie- a combination of Reformed and Lutheran French churches) and our Free Evangelical Church. We had our struggles and our differences, but our de-briefing meeting this morning was positive and an acknowledgement of the blessing received by being a part of this effort.
We started in February with a typical Ardéchois meal: caillettes, tome de fromage frais, red wine, mandarines.
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The Wednesday kids' activities attracted 31 children and a number of carers stayed on to observe and accompany. My workshop went well, with interesting contributions from Vito (30ish Italian immigrant), Marie (30ish Belgian immigrant) and my 2 Franco-Australian teens! So proud of the way they helped.
During the afternoon service, 38 people attended. For the evening service we counted 56 with only 3 children attending. This was disappointing because we had hoped to attract more families.
However, we are encouraged, and know that all over the world people were praying for France. This, along with a 21 day prayer effort called 'Pray for France' and we are expecting things to move in France.
I was interrupted in this blog by a phone call which encouraged me a lot. One of our church families went to visit another more isolated family on Sunday and there was a good deal of sharing. The upshot is that hopefully for tomorrow morning's prayer and share time we will have 'a full house' followed by a meal together. Obviously this is unusual because people are not working 'normal' jobs, but it facilitates organising times together.
Please pray for these get -togethers. It's a sure way of building up relationships within our church and for opening up to new people. Our biggest need at present.
Last night, I was called by one of our missionaries that lives in a remote area about 7 hours from Arequipa. He had a kidney stone and was in the 'hospital'. I use the word 'hospital' loosely. They only had one tramadol pain pill in the hospital. None of the pharmacies had anything stronger than ibuprofen (which is actually not a bad choice), so I went to a pharmacy here in Arequpa, bought some more tablets and sent them on the bus. Thankfully, when I talked to him today it appears to have passed. They say that kidney stones can hurt as much as childbirth. I'll have to let someone else comment on that. I think I'll go drink another glass of water.
It's been great to visit churches and share what God is doing in Peru. It's also been great to hear what God is doing right here in Australia. Recently we visited a church where we saw 4 baptisms. Three of those baptised were from a Middle Eastern country that is hostile to Christians and is closed to missionaries. Praise God that here in Australia it's possible to reach many people who would be incredibly difficult to reach in their home country.
Photo taken a day earlier with the usually happy Samuel
Our little 2 year old Samuel said "I'm thirsty" and then reached and grabbed a water-bottle from his mum. Rather than getting a proper hold on the bottle, it fell. The metal water-bottle was full of water and fell from above Samuel's head onto his big toe. He cried and he cried! There was a bit of blood and almost immediate bruising. Feeling the weight of the water bottle I was sure Samuel had broken something. Forty minutes later he was still crying unconsolably till Christine realised that he wanted water. He was better after drinking some water and a milkshake.
That evening, still in a bit of pain, Samuel and I headed to the hospital. He had an X-ray and fortunately he had no damaged bones. He was just given some antibiotics to prevent infection under his toe-nail.
With curious little kids there are so many things that can go wrong. It is the grace of God that they survive to our adulthood. Can you share a story from your childhood or of your own kids?
This morning I went running with Roberto. I first met him in Abancay about 10 years ago when a Dutch friend and I organized the race, "Race to the Cross", an 8K race with 1K of vertical ascent up the mountain outside of Abancay. Roberto had a print shop and offered to make certificates for all of the finishers. Peruvians love certificates. He also has moved to Arequipa and I ran into him on a city bus a couple of months ago. He's become a rather accomplished runner since then, running a half-marathon in 1 hour 20 minutes at age 52! We met at 6:30 sharp (runners are good about punctuality!) about a mile from my house and we ran about 5 miles together. Luckily, he hasn't run much during the last month so I could keep up with him! We ran about 8-minute miles. I think he was being very kind to me. I'm training for the Lima Marathon May 19th, so this should be a good boost to my workouts.
QUOTE:
This week (March 10-16) we are praising "The God of Inheritances" as we celebrate how God has used his people in France and how He is still blessing them and making them a blessing today!
Below you will find the major themes for each day (as translated from Objectif France's prayer guide)!
Prayer Topics
Sunday, March 10: Martyrs - Witnesses
Monday, March 11: Martin de Tours - Intimacy
Tuesday, March 12: The Huguenots - Prophecy
Wednesday, March 13: Destined to be a voice
Thursday, March 14: Hesitant destiny
Friday, March 15: Human and humanitarian rights
Saturday, March 16: Love and relationships
Virtually praying
This past Sunday, we tried something new to bring our community together in a way we'd never tried before with a virtual prayer group. Please "like" us on Facebook to see how to join us for the next two Sundays of the campaign at 7:00 PM Eastern here in the United States. There may be other "spontaneous" times of prayer that will be announced on our Facebook page during these next few weeks, so don't miss out!
May you be blessed again this week as you go forth in prayer and intercession for France!
In Christ,
David Broussard
President, Impact France
Just heard yet another news item on what's happening at the Vatican on French National radio.
Ever since Benedict announced his resignation, the French press, TV, radios and newspapers have been reporting on what's happening.
For a country which has wanted to ignore religious beliefs in the public domain for so long, this is getting a bit ridiculous. Only 8% of the population consider themselves to be practising Catholics, although nearly 60% would say they are Catholic because they were baptized as babies in the Catholic church.
It's also interesting to see what and how the press are reporting on events. A few weeks ago (only!) they were full on about the the legislation on "Marriage for All" (the right for homosexual couples to get married and the question of adoption in homosexual couples) and very strongly supporting the bill being debated in Parliament. They minimized all opposition and tried to ridiculize those who spoke out against homosexual marriage especially in the huge demonstrations organised by religious groups - the main work and support base was done by Catholics and the Catholic Church tried to make its voice heard in a serious, valid manner.
Now, we have daily snippets of information which don't tell us anything major: apart from the main news about the resignation and the information that it's the first since 1400s; the Cardinals all arrived the other day: they will soon lock them in; the fire has been lit. This mornings news was about the crowds in the Vatican square coming to see, wanting to be part of the action.
It's significant the way they talk about religious facts: the crowds were multinational and the cacophony of different languages spoken compared to those in the TOWER OF BABEL! What's the implication ? That these people are all waiting for the judgement of God and for the Tower (The Vatican) to be knocked down? What's the attitude of the reporter in this? Is he just trying to show off a minimal knowledge of Biblical history? Is he anti-Catholic (hoping they will be judged???) Why didn't he at least give them credit for being believers and use the image of Pentecost??? That would at least have been a proper Christian image and relevant to the beginnings of the Christian church.
Even if the Catholic Church has deviated from the vision God first had of building up His people, there are real believers in their midst. Many in those crowds are there to pray and not just to all the Saints and Mary Mother of God, but to their Creator God who made it possible for all of us to enter His Kingdom through the faithful actions of His Son Jesus Christ.
This morning I went for a run with Paul Turner, the Peru director for Latin Link. We run together every 4-6 weeks, usually a longer run. My foot has been hurting since the end of January, but finally seems to be healing up. I ran 3.5 km on Thursday and it felt good, so we ran 10 km today. We are both signed up for the Lima marathon on May 19th. Our runs are a great time of fellowship and a time to share ideas. This picture was taken after last year's marathon in Lima.
Ask Amy, "What is the best thing about being a missionary?" and depending on how spiritual she needs to sound, she might answer, "Having a maid!" Naty is our maid and she comes in once or twice a week to clean and teach us how to make rice better than we've ever made before. Last week she called in sick on Thursday and on Friday we found out she was getting her ruptured appendix out! She was having abdominal pain and went to get an ultrasound and they guy doing the ultrasound told her, "You have to go to the hospital right now." "I don't have any money." "Here's 200 soles (about $70), pay me back later. If you die, have your family pay me back!" Luckily, she was able to pay it back without it being her last living request.
