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2017-Aug-Nov 2nd trip of year to Peru Mission (part 3 of 4)

1 Oct – Sunday – Last day before we head north to Lima for a week.   no construction today but made a small supply run into Ica to get some electrical and audio wiring items.  We had a major issue with our main breaker last night and had to get a new one.  Was keeping any showering from happening so I got a hot water from the stove shower … thank you Lily.   But fixed the breaker as well as our emergency light whose battery died.  Picked up 130 meters of audio cable as well so I can start pulling that when I get back … projecto, projecto, projecto …  Did get a great Peruvian meal at Totos, where we bought a few groceries.  A ham&cheese lasagna dish with my favorite ricoto relleno stuffed pepper!!   Mmmm

OK, back to the mission.  Did a few needed repairs quickly.  Put a replacement battery in the emergency light and replaced the primary breaker in the mission.   Will have to save the rest of my chores for another day, probably another week since we leave tomorrow.  But youth started showing up for some activities before church.  The youth center has proved to be a very wise investment for use for multiple activities.

2 – 6 Oct, Mon-Fri – No Construction today, off day for the missionaries.  Irma goes to Ica to see her friends, I get to catch up on the blog a bit, and later today Lily and i will catch a bus for Lima.  We headed up to meet with our daughter and grandson who were flying in for  a Taikwondo competition.  We wanted to do a few things at the apartment we maintain in Lima for arriving missionaries as well.  Basically a family time off to watch and cheer on our grandson.  We changed internet service providers and added television service to the location for future arriving missionaries.

7 Oct, Sat – On our last full day in Lima, we got out a bit to enjoy Miraflores.   Spent some time walking about Kennedy Park, watched some older folks enjoying dancing in the open while about 300 younger people circled them to be entertained by watching and learning.   Enjoyed some Peruvian Picarones (donuts and syrup) while struggling to decide among other treats (Lily wanted Picarones so that did it ..   Anyway, a little time off before we took an early morning bus back to the Mission, with our daughter and grandson in tow.

Later on in evening we arranged to meet with Carlos Jesus Rodriguez and his family.  Carlos was the taxi driver who has turned into Lima’s ‘good samaritan’ due to his helping Lily last time we were down here earlier this year and she left a large wallet in his cab. (click for initial news coverage).  He has been on the news due to this ‘good deed’ and the amount of work that his wife and him put into find us, as well as the example that he has set for other taxi drivers, strong tourist message about the morals of Peru, etc. 

We invited all of them to come to the Mission next week to stay with us for a night or two and to give his testimony.  We gave him an amount to cover the bus expenses and they don’t travel at all so they are looking forward to it.  Next weekend we will also celebrate our 4th anniversary of the mission being open.

8 Oct, Sun – Early morning bus ride back to the mission.  Later, we had a very busy evening at the mission with youth and adults as well.

9 Oct, Mon –  A usual quiet monday when the resident missionaries take  the day off.  We did some resting ourselves.  But I pressed forward om some minor left over projects.

10 Oct, Tues – Semi quiet day, with a small youth session study group in the afternoon.   Got door glass installed, put up a few drapes in the new bedrooms, fixtures in the bathrooms.  Our last day with our visiting daughter and grandson at the mission.

11 Oct, Wed – Lily left in afternoon for Lima to take our family (daughter and grandson) back north.  I stayed behind at the mission.   Julio had a dicipleship training group he ran for adults.

12 Oct, Thur – Worked on some furniture assembly with Julio … choir practice in afternoon at the mission.

13 Oct, Fri –

14 Oct, Sat – took a few updated photos of mission with new building profile in rear.  3rd Birthday party for little ‘Ruby’.  Many young children with good fellowship.

 

Had a church group come by a few days earlier and check out our mission with hope of using if for their own 2nd anniversary.  Was excited to meet them and hope to gain more info on them, but they are very conservative pentacostal and apparently have a small group of about 40 people that meet in El Olivos 2 kilometers to our north.

Today, they came and had a ‘mini-parade’ from El Carmen to El Olivos in honor of their 2nd anniversary.  It was apparent that all the people in the parade were ‘imported’ for effect, but that’s ok .. We need to support our local churches.   We would love to build a relationship with them but even if we were not using our own facility for our own anniversary celebration this weekend, opening it up for another church to do one might confuse those that attend services here.  But the missionary in me, wants to know more of what they are about and how we might work together for God’s kingdom.

We attended a 3rd birthday party for ‘Ruby’ who has known the mission her whole life! 😉  Lots of smiling faces to tickle and enjoy treats with.

Had an evening small choir practice at the mission, headed by Angie.

15 Oct, Sun – Worship services at the mission, Pastoral Cotty Laos gave a sermon. Good to have her visit with son Josuea from El Shaddai Communidad Christian Iglesia in Ica.  We also had our “Good Samaritan” Taxi driver from Lima, Carlos Jesus Rodriquez, visit with family and got his testimony.  Will have to translate it for close captioning later.   Wonderful family that we invited to the mission and due to work and school, they had to day trip it, needing to get back immediately after services.  We hope they visit again soon.

Children met in the new childrens service during regular church services in the mission. Afterwards, we opened up the center for a 4th anniversary celebration. Actually tried facebook live for the event … need to learn to move the camera slower in future!!  Even had some fireworks for the event!  Hope someone got a better video of them than me!! 

16 Oct, Mon – quiet day at the mission.

17 Oct, Tues – We had a cell site bible study in Invacion.  Later in afternoon, Julio and Yareni had a one-on-one study with Estrella, who is taking a strong interest in Gods Word of late.

 

18 Oct, Wed – Charlie spent time today mending the fabric on the 3rd floor.  Our cloth stitches have been gradually givingn way needing to be replaced with nylon.  Hope this does it, as this is the 2nd major stitch job.

Julio held dicipleship training group.

19 Oct, Thurs – We cleared out the old kitchen of everything and moved to the new kitchen in the new building on the 2nd floor.  We were going to remodel this old kitchen but at Julio’s request, he would like to make it into a ‘music’ room for the church services, getting a needed set of drums and putting it in there perhaps with the keyboard and any guitars that play.  Different idea, we can definitely see how it works out .. let’s give it a try.More choir practice in evening.

20 Oct, Fri – San Juan Bautista classes, primarily with painting exercises for the children this time.  Marilu taught knitting & crochet work with the adults in a separate room.

21 Oct, Sat – Went out to San Pedro for some time with the village children.  Had a lively soccer game and some time on the swings and see-saw. Special time with the local little children, and especial good time with the older youth that came with us as volunteers from El Carmen.

22 Oct, Sun – Census day throughout Peru, no one is supposed to move until they are counted.  Churches are closed, taxi’s and collectivos are not running, restaurant and shopping areas are closed, all from 8-5, while a large army of volunteers scoured the country counting heads, something they do every 10 years.  We found out a little later that many folks that are just south of the village, a few kilometers walk, didn’t get counted .. so I am wondering how effective this system is.  I assume they had some follow-up with the rural areas  .. fascinating experience of a different countries census.  We are counted, USA, Peru and Mexico, all accounted for at the mission!Church services went on as usual that evening.  Walked Marilu home afterwards with Lily and Irma.

23 Oct, Mon – off day at the mission – messed up our website pretty bad … in recovery mode … groan.  Working on a way to get wireless up temporarily in the new building, while we are waiting for our San Diego crew to bring down a few items we are expecting to get it done permanently.  Looks like a spare modem we had did the trick.

4 Oct, Tues – Water heater installed in the new building .. we now finally have hot water AND wireless … so what else is there to live for?  Just kidding … good to have hot showers and more.

25 Oct, Wed – what happened on this day ????   hmmm

26 Oct, Thurs –  Marilu came by and headed up a restart of the knitting and crochet practice at the mission.  We took a month break here, while we were continuing to have training in San Juan but need to resume here.  We are blessed to have Marilu to head it up as she is very talented.  We need to broaden the volunteer staff here and let it run on it’s own.

Had a visit from the local school principal who gave Julio 21 teachers shoe sizes … apparently this was from some earlier conversation, as Julio then prepared to take a number of sandals for the teachers, as well as an extra supply for the school to use for gifts for excelliing students.  We delivered a total of 50 pairs.

Later, back at the mission, youth bible teaching was held.  I volunteered to walk a brother and sister home to San Pedro after youth services, and got accompanied by Luz and her sidekick Jasmine, a couple of silly ninas that I always enjoy the company of.

Jasmine made a video of the walk home if you have the patience for a 7 minute nina spanish tour of our geography.

Later at mission regular adult services were held.  We held communion for the first time, hoping for more baptisms prior.  However, Julio went out of his way to point out the specialness of Communion.  Hopefully we can have baptisms early next year as the river is flowing.  At the end of the service we also talked about our soon to be 15 year old member who is about to have her special recognition party this weekend at the mission.

We offered hamburguesa’s afterwards, using our new ‘sachi-poppa’ cooking station we got on this trip.  The station is designed to deep fry chicken (or the like), as well as ‘poppas’ (french fries?) and offer a 3rd cooking area, a griddle, for doing hamburgers, dogs, etc.   A popular offering is ‘sachi-poppa’s y sachi-polla’, if I am even spelling it right.  Which basically is sliced hot dogs and fries for S/.3 or chicken and fries for S.5!   We hope the mission has some enjoyment with this ‘station’ raising some funds during service with some of the skilled ‘polla chef’ volunteers we have.

After service, we had an informal planning meeting with the missionaries and some key volunteers (Marilu, Nellie & Angie) to just talk about the upcoming Festival that was planned as an alternative to ‘Halloween’ for the children as well as other events coming up.

30 Oct, Mon – Off day at the mission but a lot of preparation for tomorrow’s festival.  Had visitors Luciana and Estrella come by the new mission residence and I had Luciana do a sweeping of the well covering so we could see ‘Jesus Salva’ again … apparently it had been completely covered with sand by I assume nature.   I paid her a ‘sole’ for the task! 😉  It was good to have them both visit, although playing on the tablets (for free) and a little internet time (for a fee) was their primary goal.

31 Oct, Tues – Festival de la Luz!!  See video!!   The Sanchez’s and Irma heldPicorones in Kennedy Park, Miraflores, a fantastic festival as an alternative to Halloween, stressing life and not death.

Far too many accolades are due to these missionaries in this effort and the photos would be many.  I made a short (and long) video of the event for your viewing pleasure.

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