News About Noise

Hey everyone!

This week has gone by fast. We're getting into our routine now that we've been here for 4 weeks. Our activities are going well, although there's not really anything huge to report on that front.

Things got a little less routine towards the end of the week, though. About midweek we had some municipal police knock on the door to tell us that we have been making too much noise on Sunday mornings, according to some of our neighbours. While I don't understand how half an hour of worship is more disruptive than the Saturday night parties that go to 4am, we have to deal with local law enforcement now. We had to take down all our speakers and all our instruments except for a single unamplified guitar. We aren't allowed to amplify our voices to speak either. We are also under threat to be kicked out of this building at an uncertain time. We are hoping to be able to stay here until the rental contract expires in July, but we are still waiting for confirmation. In the mean time, we need some major prayer that God will provide a new place of worship for us. Unfortunately, due to the laws of the city, the location must satisfy some strict regulations that guarantee we will have to pay far more than we can presently afford. We are praying and reminding ourselves that the church is the people, not the building, and that God is a faithful provider to give us what we need. I would ask that you join us in prayer to find a new home for the church here.

Saturday morning we also found out that the MB church in Trujillo was robbed. In a way that I'm loath to call coincidence, they had all their musical instuments stolen on Friday night. Someone smashed a hole in the rear wall of the church and carried off every instrument in the building, including a brand new drum set and a brand new computer system that had been purchased on Friday. Please pray for them as they go through this difficult time. We will be visiting this same church on our roadtrip in a month. Pray that we can be an encouragement.

Saturday morning was also notable in that we had an earthquake of magnitude 5.3 on the Richter scale. Apparently we had one pre-quake at about 1:40am, but I slept right through it. Then at about 7:50am, I had just woken up and was thinking about the day in my bed. All of a sudden, my windows started rattling really loudly and my bed started shaking. I was a little scared at first because I realized that it was an earthquake but didn't really know what to do. So I jumped out of bed and walked to my window, seeing birds from across the entire city taking off at the same time. I thought to myself, "Wow, I guess this is an earthquake. Maybe I should get down off the third floor. Hmmmm I'm still kind of tired. Maybe I'll go down in a minute." Then it ended. The whole thing only lasted about 10-15 seconds. I realized afterward that going to the window was pretty stupid, and that I should probably stop sleeping under a floor-to-ceiling wall of stored luggage. Just in case. Apparently there are a few earthquakes here every year, especially in the next 2 months. I wonder if we'll get another one!

Thanks so much for praying for us! I love getting messages from you guys just to say you're praying. Thanks for upholding us in more than just words.

Happy Easter!

Hello everyone! I hope you had a great Easter holiday! The holidays run from Thursday to Sunday in Peru, unlike our Friday to Monday holidays in Canada. So Easter break is already over for most of the city. It was pretty great here! The first few days of the holiday were spent with the youth for the retreat, and then we had a more relaxing day today.

The retreat was very fun! We played some fun games! We played human tick-tack-toe and connect 4, a trivia game that involved racing to the chair corresponding with the correct answer, some waterballoon tossing with sheets, and a game of waterballoon volleyball! I led the Bible study on Thursday morning, Jano led a longer session Thursday night, and Jackie led the Bible study on Friday morning. Then we all went to the beach for the day! I had a lot of fun playing in the waves, jumping over them and bodysurfing. Otto and I also climbed up a big peninsula nearby that´s tall enough for an amazing view, but a little steep at the base!

Our more routine activities are still going well. We had to cancel Thursday´s English classes because of the retreat, but it was the holidays anyway so I don´t think anyone minded. We still ran youth games Saturday night, which worked out well. Roxy planned some games that we didn´t get to play during the retreat, so we played them on Saturday instead! She did very well organizing them all!

There are a few prayer items about future ministries. First, our discussions with the school for handicapped children aren´t going as well as planned. I don´t think anyone knows exactly why our reception has cooled, but prayer for God´s will in the matter would be greatly appreciated. Second, we are thinking of helping out at a small school right in our neighbourhood. I think it runs classes for elementary and high school, and we are still in the beginning stages of planning. Third, we have received confirmation to help at a local hospital in April. Please pray that we will be effective and loving to the people in the hospital that day. Finally, we are still planning our road trip to Trujillo and the surrounding area in early May. We would ask for prayer as we visit many churches and meet many new people when we go north for those two weeks.

Thanks for praying and supporting me! I love hearing from you as well, so feel free to email anytime! Talk to you later.

Unfinished Business

Hey everyone!

I got some time to finish my update! It'll only take a few minutes.

We visiting the home for HIV infected mothers and children on Wednesday. It was cool because some of the women who usually don't participate very much were able to open up more. Sarah was in here element with the pregnant women, since she can speak more Spanish than most of us and she works in the William's Lake maternity ward back home. I was very happy to learn that the virus is dormant in the pregnant women, so that their children have a good chance of being HIV free if they are delivered by C-section.

I had a bit of a harder time since I was the only guy over the age of 8, and I couldn't really communicate in any meaningful ways. But I guess I stood out when we sang a few songs, so maybe that meant something encouraging!

Jano, Otto, and I also went to a local school for mentally challenged children to arrange for us to help out there. It was a very encouraging meeting and the staff seems very supportive not only of having us come in to help, but also to share our faith with the students and staff! There are about 40 staff and 117 students from 3 to 25. They do classes all the way from introductory reading, crafts and woodworking, and an impressive physical education program. Apparently, they've sent teams to the special Olympics for basketball!

Tonight we formed a welcoming committee and served at a dinner here at the church for married couples. We got a good taste of Peruvian culture when more than half of the attendees showed up about an hour late! But we had a good little visit at the front door in the mean time, so I count it as time well spent.

Tomorrow we're going to hand out invitations around the neighborhood for our English classes, and then we get to play games with the youth in the evening again! We had lots of fun last week, so I'm excited to see them all again.

Only a week until Easter! I can hardly believe it! I'm not sure what we'll do to celebrate, but I know we'll be helping out with the youth retreat on Good Friday, and with the church service on Easter Sunday. I hope you guys have a great Passion Week! Talk to you later.

More Than a Week

Hello everyone!

I can hardly believe that I've been here for over a week already! Time doesn't seem to pass any faster than usual until you look back! We've been going to different places in the neighbourhood, and solidifying our knowledge of this area of Lima. We take walks, or go hang out in the nearby parks.

On Saturday night we helped out with the youth group here at the church! Jano gave a message, and then we were in charge of the games. We played "4 on the couch" first, despite the lack of couches. We ended up using 4 blue chairs to be the couch, while the rest were white. It was a pretty close game, but in the end the girls won. We were gentlemen about it - after all, they did have an advantage in numbers from the start! After that we played "fruit basket" with Spanish names, but also with a few English ones thrown in for good measure. Things got a little crazy, especially if someone yelled "ensalada fruita!" and we all had to switch seats! At one point, my chair decided it didn't like me and shot out from underneath. It went right across the courtyard and I had to chase after it! In the end, things weren't violent enough so we started some games of Dutch Blitz and Spoons.

At the end of next week, we are going to be helping out with their youth retreat for a few days! They will be living in the church with us from Wednesday night until Friday morning, while we will be participating in sessions and playing games. Then on Friday afternoon we are going to walk down to a clean beach and go swimming in the ocean! It's going to be quite the event, so please pray with us that God will touch the lives of these young Peruvians.

This Sunday we attended our first service at Comunidad RETO Internacional Lima. Roughly translated it means, international community for total reconciliation in Lima. The name shows the congregation's commitment to be reconciled with God, each other, and their neighbours. The service was entirely in Spanish, so I only got bits and pieces, but I was excited that Carlos came to join us! He's the one on the far right in the picture in my last post. He'd never been to church before, so it was awesome to have him participating with us!

Mondays will probably be our days of rest, since the weekends at the church can get so busy. I signed up on Facebook (yes, finally) this Monday, and haven't been online since! Once I get a picture up it will be easier to identify my account, but feel free to search me out.

That's all the time I've got tonight, sorry to cut you off but I've got an early morning tomorrow! Talk to you again later.

Wandering Around Lima

Hello everyone!

Team Peru has been having a great week! We've been travelling to markets, museums, and cool places all over Lima. I've got a few pictures to show you a little taste of what's going on.

In behind the church where we are helping, there's a small 3-story home where we all live. The girls are all in one room on the bottom floor, across the hall from Jackie, a woman who helps with many things around the church. The second floor is where the pastor's family lives, and Gustavo and I have a room together on the third floor. There is a nice sized balcony outside my room where we sometimes do team activities, and the above picture is the view from that balcony.
Here is our team in downtown Lima, outside the federal government buildings for Peru! The new additions to the group in this picture are two girls from the English classes we are teaching. On the far left is Leslie, and in the middle is Marina.
The Pacific Ocean is separated from Lima by a tall cliff, which we are standing on in this picture.

This is me with my "Moses staff" trying to part the Pacific. Somehow, it turned out to be a little more stubborn than the Red Sea. That stick was the perfect height for me, though, so I took it with me for the rest of the day!Here are two guys from the English class who came with us to the ocean. In order there's Roxy, me, Martin, and Carlos. They're great guys and speak English very well already, but are very excited to practice whenever they can.

This week we also visited a variety of markets around Lima, a Museum on the Inquisition, and a Franciscan Monastery which had some pretty creepy catacombs beneath it with all these actual human bones piled up or laid out in intricate designs. Pretty crazy stuff!

Anyways, time for some supper and our second English class to teach! I hope you're all having fun at home in all the snow (I've recieved some reports from St. Catharines). Let's just say I'm glad it's been in the high 20's C all week. Talk to you later!

Dropping a Line from Lima!

Hello everyone!

We made it to Lima! The pastor here, Alejandro (we call him Jono [j sounds like h] for short), is letting me use his computer. It´s a little difficult to get used to this Spanish keyboard, but I´m doing my very best!

The trip went quite well for the most part. We made our connections, all our luggage arrived with us, and no problems occured with immigration. The only thing that really went wrong with the trip is that our plane from Houston was delayed when it was deiced in Denver before coming to pick us up. So, unfortunately, we left late and only arrived in Lima by 1am.

Thankfully we had a Peruvian welcome party waiting for us when we finally arrived! After hugs all around, we drove back to the church for a quick tour. I was able to speak with Otto and Kevin (the MBMSI missionary and his son), Alejandro, Gustavo, and Carlos (the pastor, his son, and his cousin) for the first time, as well as several other people from the church. You may notice from the short list, I´m glad that there are lots of guys around again! I´m sharing a room with Gustavo, and while he claims to not know any English, he knows enough to have a beginning conversation at 3am! This is going to be quite the adventure.

We were very grateful to be able to sleep late into the morning (I was too awake to stay in bed longer than 9am, but that was just me). I had breakfast with the family which was pretty fun! They were worried that the bed was too short (Gustavo saw my feet sticking over), and I told them that the problem is just as apparent in Canada, so they don´t have to worry!

We visited throughout the day, went to the market with Otto in the afternoon, and had a meeting in the evening to set out our schedules. I think we´re going to be not so busy this week, but things are going to pick right up on the weekend! I think we´re going to have a lot more fun and be able to relate much better once we get a handle on speaking Spanish. We´re going to have lots of intentional opportunities to learn by doing, and I´m excited to get going!

So far we know that we´ll be teaching English at 7pm (wooo! yay for being in the same timezone as you guys!) every Tuesday and Thursday, visiting a home for AIDS infected mothers and children on Wednesday afternoons, running a games night at the church every Saturday night, and helping out with the Sunday morning services in a variety of ways.

Japan team is on their way still, so we´re praying for them! I hope they´re trip goes even better than ours. It looked like it had the potential to become far more hectic.

Thanks so much for your prayers for my health this weekend! My fever left me on Saturday morning, but I was still pretty stuffed up on the plane. It wasn´t more than a major annoyance, except on landing. I couldn´t equalize the pressure in my ears! That was a little scary, but I made it out OK with both eardrums intact. I´m slowly getting better, though, so I hope to be up to 100% in a few days!

Thanks again for all your prayers! I´m doing well, settling in. I´ll try to get some pictures of the church and the house inside tomorrow so you can see what it´s like. Talk to you then!