Yes, it has been an eternity since I last blogged! Many apologies!!!
What has been happening since then? Well, Christmas was a big part of the last 3 months. There are lots of activities on around Christmas as it is also the end of the school year. So every program at the church had an end-of-year get together, most of them involving hot chocolate and panetone (sweet bread with bits of dried fruit in it). You may think hot chocolate is a nice idea at Christmas, but not so much when it's 30 C. The finale of the ladies meeting was made fun by having a 'make-your-own-hat competition. The lady who won crocheted her own specially for hte occasion. For the youth group, we had t-shirts made with the group logo on them. See photos page for pics of these events. Richard's sister came to visit for almost a month over Christmas and New Year, so that was a nice change having family around. We celebrated Christmas with some friends on the 24th, then had leftovers on the 25th. It's actually a really good way of doing it because you don't have to get up really early to put the turkey on. Most Peruvians have their turkey dinner at midnight on the 24th and set off fireworks. Some of the neighbours were throwing fire crackers off the balcony onto the grass. Didn't seem like the smartest thing to do, but there were no fires. Loads of people have fireworks at New Year, which we were able to see from a friend's roof.
In February, we had a team of 4 from England come work with us. We were able to get involved in a few different things with them, including a 4-day children's camp. Rich very kindly let me go with the team and stayed home with Lucas so one of us could concentrate on translating and not have to worry about what trouble Lucas was getting into. He also figured it was easier being with 1 child then 50. ;) Thirteen of the children accepted the Lord as their Saviour during the camp. The team was involved with the campfires and helping with crafts, also doing lots of dishes and helping out where ever they could. Also while they were here we found an office to rent for the institute classes. We had been using the library at church for night school, but it is quite small for 20 people. Also for the full-time modules, we were using a place on the other side of town which was a pain for getting the students there and back. The office we now have is just around the corner from the church, so the students can sleep at the church but don't have far to go for the classes. The team helped get it ready, painting and cleaning. They also had the opportunity to go to the women's prison. This was the thing that impacted them the most. One of the ladies there also gave her life to the Lord after they shared. We pray that these new Christians would grow strong in their relationship with the Lord and really learn to lean on Him.
Also the latest news is Lucas is going to be a big brother in September. That's right, bambino number 2 is on the way. The pregnancy is going well, pretty much symptom free for now, which I am very thankful for!! We'll be going back to UK for the birth, so will hopefully see many of you on our travels.
Will close for now, and hopefully keep this more up to date. But not promising anything ;)
What has been happening since then? Well, Christmas was a big part of the last 3 months. There are lots of activities on around Christmas as it is also the end of the school year. So every program at the church had an end-of-year get together, most of them involving hot chocolate and panetone (sweet bread with bits of dried fruit in it). You may think hot chocolate is a nice idea at Christmas, but not so much when it's 30 C. The finale of the ladies meeting was made fun by having a 'make-your-own-hat competition. The lady who won crocheted her own specially for hte occasion. For the youth group, we had t-shirts made with the group logo on them. See photos page for pics of these events. Richard's sister came to visit for almost a month over Christmas and New Year, so that was a nice change having family around. We celebrated Christmas with some friends on the 24th, then had leftovers on the 25th. It's actually a really good way of doing it because you don't have to get up really early to put the turkey on. Most Peruvians have their turkey dinner at midnight on the 24th and set off fireworks. Some of the neighbours were throwing fire crackers off the balcony onto the grass. Didn't seem like the smartest thing to do, but there were no fires. Loads of people have fireworks at New Year, which we were able to see from a friend's roof.
In February, we had a team of 4 from England come work with us. We were able to get involved in a few different things with them, including a 4-day children's camp. Rich very kindly let me go with the team and stayed home with Lucas so one of us could concentrate on translating and not have to worry about what trouble Lucas was getting into. He also figured it was easier being with 1 child then 50. ;) Thirteen of the children accepted the Lord as their Saviour during the camp. The team was involved with the campfires and helping with crafts, also doing lots of dishes and helping out where ever they could. Also while they were here we found an office to rent for the institute classes. We had been using the library at church for night school, but it is quite small for 20 people. Also for the full-time modules, we were using a place on the other side of town which was a pain for getting the students there and back. The office we now have is just around the corner from the church, so the students can sleep at the church but don't have far to go for the classes. The team helped get it ready, painting and cleaning. They also had the opportunity to go to the women's prison. This was the thing that impacted them the most. One of the ladies there also gave her life to the Lord after they shared. We pray that these new Christians would grow strong in their relationship with the Lord and really learn to lean on Him.
Also the latest news is Lucas is going to be a big brother in September. That's right, bambino number 2 is on the way. The pregnancy is going well, pretty much symptom free for now, which I am very thankful for!! We'll be going back to UK for the birth, so will hopefully see many of you on our travels.
Will close for now, and hopefully keep this more up to date. But not promising anything ;)